Cloud News: Microsoft, HP, Savvis, Nimsoft

Here’s a roundup of some of this week’s headlines from the cloud computing sector:

Microsoft and Movideo form cloud alliance.  Microsoft (MSFT) and Movideo Pty announced a four-year strategic agreement in which Movideo will migrate its integrated online video platform to Windows Azure to drive business growth across Asia Pacific (APAC) and beyond. Forecasts from AccuStream Research project that the global online video market will grow to more than $10 bilion by the end of 2014 and Movideo is taking advantage of this chance to be a dominant force in the digital media environment. Movideo is undertaking a large project to transition out of a Java environment into Windows Azure. "The global alliance with Microsoft is first a technical alliance whereby Windows Azure becomes the infrastructure platform for our cloud software as a service product, Movideo," said Tony McGinn, Movideo CEO and MEG founder. "The strong road map for Windows Azure resources the scalable infrastructure that underpins the Movideo offering, allowing us to get on with our role of optimizing the management and delivery of our customers’ great content. Second, the alliance is about sales and marketing support and coordination to drive growth for Movideo and Windows Azure. We can leverage tremendous advantages working beside such an experienced and far-reaching software partner."

HP selected by CenterBeam to support cloud offering.  HP (HPQ) announced that cloud services provider CenterBeam has selected HP Converged Infrastructure to support the increased capacity demands of its cloud service offerings and joined the HP CloudAgile Program. CenterBeam provides midsize businesses with enterprise-class cloud computing services and elected to replace its EMC-based infrastructure with HP to support significant customer data growth. CenterBeam will deploy HP VirtualSystem, with 3PAR F400 Storage, 3PAR Adaptive Optimization software, and HP ProLiant BL460c G7 server blades. "Exploding data growth is forcing our customers to find cost-effective options that increase capacity while maintaining performance levels of mission-critical applications," said Shahin Pirooz, executive vice president and chief technology officer, CenterBeam. "The functionality and scalability of HP 3PAR systems enable us to offer affordable, flexible cloud storage services to our customers, while creating a unique competitive advantage for CenterBeam in the market."

Savvis launches private cloud, managed services in Hong Kong.  Savvis, a CenturyLink company (CTL) announced the availability of its private cloud solution and managed services offerings through Savvis' existing data center in Hong Kong. Symphony Dedicated, Savvis' private cloud solution, is designed to meet a broad range of global computing needs and its managed services include Infrastructure-as-a-Service, managed applications, storage and backup. "Having considered other major cloud providers in Asia, Savvis was the best choice to deliver the capabilities and support that our customers have come to expect," said Abhay Goyal, general manager, consumer product and manufacturing industry group, at MindTree Limited, a global IT and product engineering services company. "Savvis provides us with industry-leading cloud and managed hosting solutions that meets our business requirements not only in Hong Kong, but also in Singapore where our services are currently deployed. We believe Savvis' presence within Asia will further drive our efficiencies across the region."

Nimsoft monitors VMware vClouds. Nimsoft announced Nimsoft Monitor for vCloud, an advanced solution for monitoring and optimizing the performance of VMware vCloud environments. The dynamic nature of vCloud environments presents a substantial challenge to conventional IT monitoring tools, since resources are constantly being added, deleted and moved across both the on-premise data center and remote IaaS or PaaS clouds. Nimsoft Monitor for vClouds features automated discovery, deployment, configuration, and data aggregation, templates for policies, correlated monitoring of resources and intuitive multi-tenant view of performance, availability, utilization, and other key monitoring data. “To safeguard the performance of critical applications running in vCloud environments, customers need unified, uninterrupted visibility into the entire infrastructure stack—regardless of what just moved where,” said Chris O’Malley, Nimsoft CEO. “Nimsoft Monitor automatically and cost-effectively provides this continuous visibility, so technical staffs can remain in control of even the most dynamic hybrid clouds.”