Amazon EC2 suffers significant outage on April 21
Amazon’s challenges with getting all services back online following an outage in its US-East  region  is already becoming a hot topic for debate in the Cloud Computing Industry.

Key differences between Social Business and Social Media
Social Media Club readers have posted compelling feedback on Chris Heuer’s framework that outlines the differences between Social Business and Social Media.

New Enterprise 2.0 survey needs participants
Jacob Morgan is looking for reader participation in an interesting Enterprise 2.o Survey.

Dell makes 1 Billion investment in Data Centers
Dell continues its transformation into a full services IT firm with 1 Billion investment in data centers. This investment in comes on the heels of recent major acquistions by Dell.

Is the timing ripe for Cloud Computing Capacity Marketplaces?
The beta launch this week of SpotCloud; from Reuven Cohen’s firm Enomaly, is a first in terms of a company focusing on the trading of compute capacity. Although SpotCloud is first to market, I would expect many players in this space in the near future as smaller cloud providers will have to soon start maximizing utilzation and profitability to stay viable.

Social Business Vs Enterprise 2.0
Peter Modigliani’s recent article really keys into the latest trending of the dualing terms Social Business vs Enterprise 2.0.

Cloud Computing Stocks Outperform General Market
While I don’t agree with the inclusion of Qwest Communications as a pure Cloud computing company, the charts do bear out that Cloud computing companies are doing quite well on Nasdaq since 2009.

Applications Made for the Cloud
James Urquhart reviews the 3 application types that are currently thriving or posed to do well in the coming years in the Cloud.

Enterprise 2.0 Software Patents

In a sign that Social Computing in the Enterprise is now going mainstream, Alexander Wolfe reviews 13 recent Enterprise 2.0 patent applications.

CA Acquires Cloud Consulting Firm

CA continues its acquisition strategy with the purchase of Silicon Valley based 4Base; one of the more established Cloud Consulting firms in the industry

Is the Cloud Ready For Open Source?

Ashlee Vance comments on how RackSpace OpenStack might finally open the gates for Open Source Cloud Computing solutions.

Will China Become The Leader In The Semantic Web

Do current events point to a future where China will be the de facto Semantic Web Leader?

China Is World’s Fastest Growing Software Market
Gartner Report that outlines how China will remain the worlds fastest growing Enterprise Software Market through 2013. Areas of high growth will include On Demand ERP and data integration soltions

Is SAP a leader in Web 2.0?
SAP’s Timo Elliott details how SAP is leading other vendors in terms of adoption, rollout and usage of Web 2.0 tools and technology

US Air Force will further validate Cloud Computing
How the IBM/Air Force Cyber Security Cloud will help remove lingering thoughts about Cloud security.

Virtualization and Cloud Jobs on the Rise
Great article from Steve Jin that reviews what Virtualization and Cloud Jobs are hot at at the moment and the projected demand for Cloud related jobs in the future.

SAP Launches 12Sprints Beta
SAP launches its Cloud Based Collaboration tool, months (and in some cases years) behind similar tools by IBM , 37 Signals and  a host of other cloud providers

Cloud Computing Revenue Predictions
Interesting article from Linda Leung that estimates revenue from Cloud Computing operations for a few major cloud providers

The IPad and Desktop Virtualization
How the IPad could become the must have thin client for Desktop Virtualization in 2010.

Private Cloud Adoption Models
EMC Global Marketing CTO Chuck Hollis describes the 3 primary adoption models he has seen companies adopt with private clouds.

E-Books in the Cloud
Will the use of the cloud for storage of E-Books  lead to even greater adoption of cloud storage in the coming years?

Enterprise 2.0 year in Review
Dion Hincliffe posts an insightful review of Enterprise 2.0 in 2009.

Practical SOA Applications
Joe McKendrick has compiled 17 examples of SOA being put to real world use with fairly good results.

Oracle’s Enterprise 2.0 Assessment Tool
Oracle has created a useful (if not somewhat irritating at times) Enterprise 2.0 assessment tool.

Amazon Launches Relational Database Service
Amazon this week launched its Relational Database Service.(RDS) Amazon RDS is a MYSQL 5.1 database offering that will compete directly with Joyent’s recently announced MySQL Accelerator and indirectly (but not at an enterprise level) with Microsoft SQL Azure.

Cloud Wars Begin
Amazon also announced a 15% drop in pricing for all EC2 instance families and sizes. This is significant due to the fact that one can expect EC2 competitors like GoGrid and Softlayer to follow suit and lower pricing as well.

Stephen Baker Researches Enterprise 2.0 Consulting
Over on BusinessWeek; Stephen Baker is creating a few articles on Enterprise 2.0 Consulting. Will be interesting to see whether his research indicates that Enterprise 2.0 consulting is a viable industry or more of the sometimes dubious Social Media consulting with an Enterprise twist.

W3C announces OWL2
The Semantic Web group within W3C released the OWL2 recommendation. OWL2 is part of the W3C’s Semantic Web Toolkit and is a standard for representing knowledge on the Web.

GSA launches Apps.Gov
The General Services Administration has launched the long awaited Apps.Gov site. Intended as a one stop shop for US government agencies keen on getting into the cloud, the site lists vendor provided Social Media, Business, Productivity and IT Services applications.

Are Washington Post’s Policies A Sign of The Future?
The Washington Post’s draconian Social Media Policy for its staffers has raised the question of whether strict Social Media Guidelines will become the norm in corporate America.

Practical Web 3.0 Applications
An interesting listing of 13 useful Semantic Web application over on ThoughtPick

Is this the Best Enterprise 2.0 Definition?
Bill Ives has posted what is probably the best Enterprise 2.0 definition I have seen to date. Now it will be up to a vendor to actually sell Enterprise 2.0 solutions to a customer with this definition.

Amazon Rolls Out Virtual Private Cloud
Amazon today introduced its Virtual Private Cloud Service. This service allows customers to connect resources within the AWS Cloud, to resources within their own your own datacenter using encrypted IPsec VPN connections

Help Shape Enterprise 2.0 San Francisco
The Enterprise 2.0 San Francisco Conference Organizers have set up a survey for the Enterprise 2.0 community to vote for sessions they would like to see at its inaugural west coast conference

VARS To Get a Slice of Cloud Computing Pie
Anthony Ha discusses Salesforce.com’s recently announced program for VARS to build applications on its Force.com platform

Cloud Computing Budgets Approved at Most Large Firms (pdf)
F5 recently released a survey of 250 large enterprises that indicates that funding for Cloud Computing projects and trials is in place at over 85% of the surveyed firms.

Is VMWare Making a Move into SAAS market
Interesting article from Sam Dean that delves into the real reasons behind VMware’s recent acqusition of SpringSource

Panelists on Federal IT Panel Think Fed Cloud Is Inevitable
Casey Coleman and other Federal Panelists at the Association for Federal Information Resources Mgt Conference make case that next big push for Cloud Services will come from federal sector.

Cloud Computing For K-12
Pete Reilly thinks that Private Clouds are a perfect match for the K-12 community.

Enterprise 2.0 Still Confusing 3 Years After McAfee
Fast Forward Contributor Yuri Alkin examines why the term Enterprise 2.0 is still so confusing in the year 3AM (After McAfee)

Case Studies May Help End Enterprise 2.0 Confusion
Oliver Marks and Stowe Boyd are seeking Enterprise 2.0 adoption case studies to determine uptake of E20 and will choose one case history for presentation at the upcoming E20 conference.