What is 'Open Cloud'?

I've read a bit of angst about cloud lock-in, a lot of weed pulling in the form of interoperability standards for the cloud, and a manifesto or two about 'Open Cloud'. And in between, I've seen lots of interesting new tools for cloud computing, and lots of narratives about how the tools, combined with the formalization of use cases, pave the way for open clouds.

But what, exactly, does "Open Cloud" mean? And what role does open source play? Jim Zemlin, Executive Director of the Linux Foundation, likes to say that open source and the cloud go together like peanut butter and chocolate. But does open source necessarily mean open cloud, and vice-versa?

Read the complete article on OStatic.

Schneier Makes Uncorroborated Claims About Google Hack

Bruce Schneier has built a successful career as a computer security guru – one who gets it right most of the time and has a wonderful ability to translate security concerns to the layman. But sometimes an author's great reputation makes him less likely to criticize his own work, and the editorial staff of whatever media organization he happens to be writing for, in this case CNN, lazy.

So when Bruce Schneier asserts that Chinese hackers exploited a government-mandated backdoor to abscond with information on human rights activists, you kind of take it for granted that there is, in fact, a back door that they exploited. Except when there's not. Or there might be, but Schneier unfortunately offers few facts and cites no sources, and I haven't found any other report to corroborate his assertion.

Read the article:

in reference to:

"Schneier Makes Uncorroborated Claims About Google Hack"
- Schneier Makes Uncorroborated Claims About Google Hack (view on Google Sidewiki)

So VMware bought Zimbra: now what?

Many of you no doubt already know about VMware's snagging of Zimbra away from the clutches of Yahoo! If I'm a Zimbra employee or executive, I might be breathing a sigh or relief, or I might be disappointed. But one thing's for sure – I'm definitely wondering what's next. Stand back, for I, John Mark Walker, have dared to gaze in the crystal ball. Zowie!

The one great unknown has to do with developer communities and the open source projects that VMware currently stewards. How will VMware build an open source ecosystem and create a community environment necessary for future success?

Click the link below to read the article:

http://ostatic.com/blog/so-vmware-bought-zimbra-now-what (view on Google Sidewiki)

Law Firm's IT Director Discovers Open Source

If you've ever wondered how IT departments come across and adopt open source software, consider Lance Rae. Lance is an IT Director for a mid-sized law firm in New York City. We were chatting about his firm's use of open source, and we decided it was worth recording our Q & A for posterity - and posting on OStatic.

In this conversation, we discussed Nagios, the process of evaluating software, MonitoringForge, and how utilizing one open source tool can lead to a cascade effect, with others surely to follow.

Click below for the full article:

in reference to: Law Firm IT Director Discovers Open Source (view on Google Sidewiki)

Linux and Your iPhone / iPod Touch

Not content with the roadblocks Apple had erected for users who wanted to connect to their digital devices (that they had paid for, natch), Apple decided to up the ante with its iPod Touch and iPhone series. This meant that a whole new round of reverse engineering was necessary just so that, and this bears repeating a thousand times, users could connect to a device that they paid for and actually access content they legally possess. Does that make sense to you? Me neither. Welcome to the 21st century.

First the good news - with recent developments in the libgpod library, as well as ifuse and iphone libraries, it's relatively simple to enable your Linux box for iPhone content syncing with gtkpod. The bad news is that things are still a bit rough around the edges, but I'll demonstrate the workarounds.

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in reference to: Linux and Your iPhone / iPod Touch (view on Google Sidewiki)