Cloud News: Eucalyptus, Fujitsu, Netflix, Oracle

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

Fujitsu and Eucalyptus partner for private clouds. Eucalyptus Systems announced that Fujitsu Frontech North America has selected Eucalyptus to power the NuVola Private Cloud Platform offering. The partnership pairs Eucalyptus' on-premise Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) software with Fujitsu's server and storage appliances and virtualization software to provide a purpose-built, prepackaged on-premise cloud offering. "Our partnership with Eucalyptus furthers our vision of delivering integrated IT-based solutions, while reinforcing our longstanding reputation for quality and performance," said Vic Herring, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Cloud Infrastructure Solutions Group at Fujitsu Frontech North America. "Eucalyptus is the most widely deployed on-premise IaaS solution on the market based on its open approach to cloud computing and highly scalable architecture. This unmatched level of industry leadership, coupled with seamless integration and compatibility with AWS, makes Eucalyptus a powerful partner in helping our customers realize the benefits of the cloud." The NuVola Private Cloud Platform solution is available immediately.

Netflix releases Asgard to open source. In a recent blog post Netflix describes one of its cloud management tools, Asgard and the announcement that it has been released to open source on github.  Asgard is named for the home of the Norse god of thunder and lightning, because Asgard is where Netflix developers go to control the clouds. Asgard is available for download and requires only an Amazon Web Services account and the need to manage cloud deployments. Built for the large scale cloud needs that Netflix has, Asgard was built to fit its needs beyond the Amazon console, such as hiding Amazon keys, support for auto-scaling groups (ASG), enforcing conventions, logging user actions, automating workflow and publishing a REST API to hide some of the complex steps from the user. A detailed presentation of Asgard was given by Netflix project lead Joe Sondow at the GR8Conf conference earlier this month in Copenhagen.

Oracle unveils Health Sciences Network. Oracle (ORCL) announced availability of Oracle Health Sciences Network, a portfolio of integrated, cloud-based applications that enable healthcare providers and research institutions to collaborate more efficiently with life sciences organizations using de-identified healthcare information. Protocol Validator and Patient Recruiter are the first two applications, and will enable clinical investigators to rapidly identify patient cohorts, determine protocol feasibility and recruit consented patients for clinical studies based on clinical and genomic characteristics. The new network is built on a secure, HIPAA-certified cloud, and enables healthcare systems to actively participate in clinical research and development with life sciences companies. As the first healthcare system to work with Oracle on this initiative, Aurora Health Care played a particularly significant role in the creation of Oracle Health Sciences Network. In addition to contributing considerable expertise and resources, the organization provided consented, de-identified electronic medical records throughout the development cycle. “To accelerate delivery of safer, more effective and personalized treatments, organizations across the healthcare value chain are increasingly seeking new ways to work together,” said Neil de Crescenzo, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Health Sciences. “Oracle Health Sciences Network creates a secure bridge that helps all stakeholders, including bio-pharma companies, health systems, and regulators, collaborate securely to raise the effectiveness and efficiency of our health system.”