Bharti, VMware partner

India's Bharti Airtel has partnered with VMware to focus on the cloud-based managed computer services market, reports Reuters.

Cloud computing is a fast-growing way of selling services via the Web without physical software.

VMware's technology lets companies boost the efficiency of computer servers, saving money on hardware and maintenance.

Two House lawmakers said on Wednesday that the federal government's push to move agencies to cloud computing suffers from a lack of clear standards and uncertain costs, writes Next Gov.

"While there are compelling arguments for the federal government to utilise cloud computing, the technology is still a relatively new concept," wrote Edolphus Towns, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, and Watson, chairwoman of the Government Management, Organisation and Procurement Subcommittee. "As such, there are a number of questions and concerns about the federal government's use of cloud computing."

In September 2009, the Obama administration introduced the Federal Cloud Computing Initiative, including Apps.gov, an online storefront for agencies to browse and purchase cloud-based IT services, in an effort to cut IT costs, speed the adoption of new systems and increase government-wide adoption of cloud technologies.

Integration services provider Jitterbit is taking its technology to the cloud, states Network World.

The company on Wednesday announced Jitterbit Enterprise Cloud Edition, a cloud-based version of Jitterbit's integration platform that runs on the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud.

"What Jitterbit provides is we focus on simplifying common integration processes, specifically data and application integration," says Ilan Sehayek, CTO of Jitterbit. With the cloud offering, customers can provision Jitterbit via the cloud.