Cloud News: Hostway, Citrix, Fujitsu, Nimsoft

Here’s a roundup of some of this week’s headlines for cloud computing:

Hostway expands Tampa facility with FlexCloud.  Hostway Corporation announced an expansion of its 18,000 square foot Tampa, Florida-based data center to include FlexCloud Server services. With FlexCloud in Austin also the Tampa facility will offer a disaster recovery and redundancy option for clients who desire to protect data and applications from single location failures.  Hostway has setup identical cloud infrastructures in both locations allowing the company to offer an array of services at the same price points. Customers can manage the two data center regions with a single control panel, providing ease of use and continuity. "Our Tampa data center provides our clients with the ability to easily provision secure cloud services in multiple locations for disaster recovery and redundancy," said Todd Benjamin, vice president of enterprise hosting for Hostway. "This expansion is a part of our goal to introduce our secure and reliable FlexCloud Servers throughout North America and to further build our global presence."

Citrix invests in Core Mobile Networks. Citrix Systems (CTXS) announced an investment in Core Mobile Networks, Inc., marking the third funding commitment for the Citrix Startup Accelerator, its Silicon Valley-based seed investment initiative.  Santa Clara-based Core Mobile Networks 'mobilizes the cloud' by correlating information from enterprise IT systems with content in the cloud, and delivering to mobile devices in real time with far more contextual relevance. “The popularity of the cloud and rapid growth in smartphone and tablet adoption by business users is creating the need for enterprise IT to make cloud-based services more easily accessible from mobile devices.  The Citrix vision for enabling anyone to work and play anywhere on any device really resonated with our business goals, making it a natural next step to join the Citrix Startup Accelerator Program to help us propel our momentum," said Chandra Tekwani, CEO and founder of Core Mobile Networks. The Citrix Statup Accelerator expects to announce more new investments in July as a result of the recent Citrix Startup Accelerator Global Challenge.

Fujitsu announces Engineering Cloud. Fujitsu announced its "Engineering Cloud" concept, a next-generation manufacturing environment offered in the form of cloud-based services from Fujitsu"s data centers. Beginning in October 2011 Fujitsu expects to roll out a new Engineering cloud that will combine their own engineering-support software, CAD and analytic software, as well as parts database software, with a suite of new services to transform the manufacturing process. The Engineering Cloud will feature the ability to access it from any computer, reduction in manufacturing costs and development times, and will tie together multiple locations. It will be comprised of a service for Engineering Cloud/SaaS and a service for Engineering Cloud/PaaS, which provides a high-speed thin client environment.

Nimsoft selected by Denovo. Nimsoft announced that Denovo Ventures will be deploying Nimsoft Monitor and Nimsoft Service Desk. Denovo is a full-service Enterprise Hosting/Cloud Computing and Professional Services firm and will use Nimsoft Monitor to proactively monitor disparate cloud environments, including both private and external/public clouds, and to help ensure SLA performance across its client base. "To provide the quality of service our clients expect, we need service desk and monitoring solutions that support multiple clients and a flexible licensing model that enables economies of scale," said Bill Hylton, executive vice president, Denovo Enterprise Hosting and Cloud Computing. "Nimsoft Unified Manager allows us to securely and efficiently segregate data in a shared environment to reduce costs."