Roundup: SOASTA, EMC, CiRBA, Skydera

Here’s a roundup of some of this week’s headlines from the cloud computing sector:

SOASTA launches CloudTest Lite.  Cloud-based performance testing company SOASTA launched CloudTest Lite, a free enterprise-class performance testing solution. The solution gives developers and testing professionals the flexibility to performance test applications from the beginning, reducing the risk of damaged brand image or lost revenue resulting from poor application performance. CloudTest Lite will allow customers to test web and mobile applications, quickly build tests, integrate application, system and network monitoring data and analyze results in real-time through an interactive, integrated dashboard. “When it comes to performance testing, too many organizations report not testing regularly or well, and some report not testing at all.  The commercial tools they need are too expensive and open source options lack sufficient features, training, and support,” states Scott Barber, founder and CTO of PerfTestPlus.  “With SOASTA’s CloudTest Lite, now every web performance tester can design, implement, execute, and analyze performance tests every day with a product that is easy to learn, yet has the capability to cover complex testing requirements.  CloudTest Lite is a game changer.”

EMC selected for private cloud at Lone Star College System.  EMC announced that Lone Star College System has selected EMC and VMware (VMW) to build and deploy a private cloud computing infrastructure to deliver IT-as-a-Service to over 90,000 faculty, staff and students at more than a dozen locations. "The tight integration of VMware and EMC technologies combined with the expertise and support we get from EMC and VMware professional services have been critical to our adoption of cloud. We are now able to deliver new IT services to our students, faculty and staff in less than a week compared to three to four months as a result of our cloud transformation,"  said Link Alander, Lone Star's Associate Vice Chancellor of Technology Services. Migrating off of a system that was no longer sustainable the new private cloud is more than 90 percent virtualized, reduced energy usage by 66 percent and saved more than $600,000 in capital expenditures.

CiRBA selected to migrate 100,000 workloads to the cloud.  CiRBA announced the general availability of CiRBA 6.2, which offers new cloud planning analytics that streamline and improve decision-making processes around cloud migration. Additionally the company announced that they have signed an enterprise license deal with a leading financial services organization to implement CiRBA to migrate over 100,000 workloads to the cloud. "We are very excited about CiRBA’s latest analytics package for cloud migration, and to kick off the GA release with such a major endorsement of our product,” said Chuck Tatham, senior vice-president of operations and business development at CiRBA.  “Most organizations now know that merely moving workloads to the cloud does not mean an automatic cost savings. CiRBA’s analytics enable organizations to determine how to set up internal cloud environments, as well as qualify candidates for the cloud, determine the optimal environment, placement, instance size and software stack for individual workloads, and deal with workloads that aren’t suitable for migration.”

Skydera launches C3 Developer Edition.  Skydera announced the market availability of Skydera C3 Developer Edition, bringing IT innovators and cloud early adopters one step closer to secure cloud enterprise management and true developer self-service. C3 is offered as SaaS and interoperates with Infrastructure-as-a-Service capabilities from Amazon, Rackspace, GoGrid, SliceHost and others. "With the announcement of Skydera C3, we have reached a tipping point in the industry’s evolution from public cloud experimentation to true cross-cloud IT," said Lecole Cole, founder and CEO of Skydera. "IT innovators and cloud early adopters are committed to pay-as-you-grow cloud computing and want to execute around the compelling vision of an end-to-end cloud enterprise.