This week in BPOS news is a recurring segment on the Microsoft Online Services Team Blog that covers news from all sectors of Cloud Computing and the Microsoft Online Services business suite known as the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS). You can read all past This Week in BPOS News segments here.

This week in BPOS news we cover two stories including a cloud overview and the Microsoft Government Cloud Applications Center.

1. Introducing Cloud Computing: A Gentle Overview

Business Productivity Online Suite runs in the cloud. But what exactly is the cloud? We’ll ease into this Week’s BPOS news with “A Gentle Overview” of what the cloud is. Jon Shende from Cloud Computing Journal introduces cloud computing by starting with the history of the term and its services.

The National Institute for Science and Technology (NIST) defines cloud computing as “a pay-per-use model for enabling available, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.”

Cloud Computing has recently been a huge buzz word in the IT community, but cloud services were being used since the 90’s. The article outlines the vast variety of Cloud Computing Models and Delivery Methods which include the following:

• Cloud Computing Models:
  • Infrastructure as a Service (Iaas)
  • Platform as a Service (PaaS)
  • Software as a Service (SaaS)
• Delivery Methods:
  • Private Cloud
  • Public Cloud
  • Hybrid Cloud
  • Managed Cloud

There is a large in the cloud computing sphere which leads to the next section of the article, “Some Deployment Concerns.” This section of Jon’s piece details in the length several security concerns that users have expressed with cloud computing. The next segment describes Service Level Agreements, SLAs. SLAs are an essential term that coincides with cloud computing and Jon does a great job outlining the main points.

This is a great article for any user interested in the cloud, from beginner to pro.

2. Government Cloud Applications Center Brings Together Technology, Partners

In some news that flew under the radar for many, Microsoft launched the Microsoft Government Cloud Applications Center. Earlier this year Microsoft Government wrote about how Texas cities are turning to Microsoft’s BPOS and as each month passes more and more local states and governments are turning to the cloud. Due to the increased demand of the cloud in the government sector, Microsoft released the Government Cloud Applications Center.

The Government Cloud Applications Center is tool is designed for both customers and partners to utilize. “Customers to quickly find partner cloud applications that fit their business needs, determine compatibility with existing IT infrastructure, contact information, and links to relevant product websites.” Customers can also find and review partners and solutions.

Partners can use this tool to showcase their solutions and cloud based services. The article also states that “Partners will also benefit from further exposure of their services by linking existing profiles to this central site.

The government is “All in” with the help of the new Government Cloud Applications Center.

You can view the snapshot of the Microsoft Cloud for State & Local Government here.

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