HP wins supply chain cloud deal

HP's 500-strong Galway operation has won a second major cloud computing deal with GS1, writes Silicon Republic.

The deal will see HP deploying a cloud-based product recall system that tracks, traces and recalls potentially harmful food, healthcare and other products from the supply chain.

The deal comes a year after HP's Galway operations revealed it began work with the Canadian arm of GS1 - a global non-profit organisation - to deploy a similar service.o

Private cloud computing solutions are starting to adapt to the challenges posed by public cloud applications, it has been suggested, according to Experian QAS.

David Bradshaw, a software-as-a-service and cloud services research manager at IDC, predicts that private cloud vendors are going to have to move towards creating applications that are easier and simpler to deploy because of competition with the public cloud.

"Private cloud has a transformation to go through in terms of the way software, particularly applications software, is being built," he says.

Microsoft is gearing up to officially commence its cloud computing services in Qatar in January 2011, reports Gulf Times.

“We are now in discussions with certain customers and doing trials,” Microsoft country manager Mohamed Hammoudi said at the IT giant's local base at Qatar Science and Technology Park.

Under the cloud computing concept, customers can entrust the management of their IT needs to Microsoft and its partners and focus on their core business.