Cloud Architect Anyone?

I thought this was interesting – why you need a cloud architect. “It’s orchestral.”  Go Arthur!

I then took a look at Indeed.com’s trending of cloud architect vs. cloud integration. Looks like cloud integration is in even higher demand…

cloud architect, cloud integration Job Trends

Cloud Architect jobs – Cloud Integration jobs

Speaking of cloud integration jobs, did I mention I’m hiring?

Related articles

• Considering the Cloud Architects (chucksblog.emc.com)
• Split enterprise architecture into five or more specialities: proposal (zdnet.com)

Top Cloud Computing Blogs

I’m saw a post today listing the top cloud computing blogs and, much to my surprise, In(tegrate) the Clouds was included! Very cool. Thank you Kristen and my new BFF’s at Backupify. Here’s the list:

1. CloudAve
2. TechCrunch IT
3. Digitizd (I hadn’t heard of this one)
4. Thinking Out Cloud (love the name and occassionally read)
5. On Cloud Computing (I hadn’t heard of this one)
6. In(tegrate) the Clouds
7. Perspectives on Cloud Computing
8. Wisdom of the Clouds
9. Cloud Computing Journal
10. Cloud Computing Blogs RSS

It’s a great list. Thanks for the inclusion. Lots of other great cloud computing blogs aggregated on Alltop.

Cloud, SaaS Fueling IT Spending Growth

On the one hand, there has never been more hype around cloud computing. On the other hand, according to recent forecasts released by Gartner:

“Cloud computing and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) technologies, along with unseasonably strong hardware sales in the first quarter, will give global IT spending a 5.3 percent bump for the year.”

Here’s today’s Gartner press release: Gartner Says Worldwide IT Spending to Grow 5.3 Percent in 2010. It contains fairly bad news for hardware vendors and good news for infrastructure solution providers:

“The infrastructure market, which includes all the software to build, run and manage an enterprise, is the largest segment in terms of revenue and the fastest-growing through the 2014. The hottest software segments through 2014 include virtualization, security, data integration/data quality and business intelligence.”

Do You Use (or Plan to Use) a Cloud Integration Service?

Bloor Research is running an interesting survey that specifically asks about cloud data integration. The survey covers six data integration scenarios and according to the overview, “the results will be useful to IT professionals and executives with responsibility for specifying, designing and implementing data integration projects.” It is “intentionally short” and respondents can choose to participate in a draw to win lot of good stuff from Amazon.com.

I’m particularly interested in how people will respond to this question:  

“Please select the option which best represents the way your company currently uses, or plans to use, a cloud based or SaaS data integration solution:

• We currently use a cloud-based/ SaaS solution in conjunction with an internal platform
• We plan to implement a cloud-based/SaaS data integration solution within six months
• We plan to implement a cloud-based/SaaS data integration solution within 6-12 months
• We plan to implement a cloud-based/SaaS data integration solution within 12-24 months
• We have no plans for a cloud-based/SaaS data integration solution
• Don’t know”

Here’s the link to the survey.  It should only take 5-10 minutes to complete.

Salesforce Integration with Navision

Here’s a common use case for Salesforce CRM integration: opportunity-to-order synchronization with Microsoft Dynamics Navision.