5 Worst Cloud Washers Of 2011

InformationWeek

...That means that "cloud computing" is a new way of doing things that hasn't shaken down into a strict definition--it's still a moving target. At the same time, it's only fair to say that some vendors are exploiting that opening and cloud washing their products.

On Wednesday, Dec. 14, cloud consulting company Appirio will host the Cloudwashies—an "awards" event similar to the Razzies awards for bad movies. I've got my own list of nominees for top cloud washers--those parties who have done the most to try to make a previous generation product look and sound like cloud...

Appirio Storms European Cloud Market With Saaspoint Buy

CRN

Cloud provider Appirio extended its reach into Europe on Friday with the acquisition of Saaspoint, a cloud consulting services provider that gives Appirio a stronger arsenal of cloud consultants and a new physical presence in the U.K. and Ireland.

The financial terms of the acquisition were not divulged. The Saaspoint buy marks San Mateo, Calif.-based Appirio's fourth acquisition this year and beefs up its global presence with a foundation in Europe in addition to the U.S., Japan and India....

Red Robot Labs acquires Supermono, Appirio buys Saaspoint to expand to the UK

TechCrunch

...Cloud solutions company Appirio, which just raised funding from Salesforce.com and other strategic backers, has acquired Saaspoint, a provider of cloud consulting services.

Saaspoint brings Appirio experienced cloud consultants, as well as a physical presence in the UK and Ireland, in an effort to aggressively expand across Europe.

Founded in 2005 by early Salesforce.com employees, Saaspoint boasts offices in the UK and Ireland, and has served more than 100 global customers including companies such as British Gas, Dell, eBay, Paypal, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble and UBM...

San Mateo's Appirio to buy Saaspoint

Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal

...San Mateo-based Appirio says it is a "technology-enabled services provider that helps enterprises power their businesses with the cloud." London-based Saaspoint provides cloud consulting services and gives Appirio a physical presence in the UK and Ireland.

The deal marks Appirio's fourth acquisition in 2011 and adds to the company's plans to expand further into Europe. It has an existing footprint in the United States and Japan...

Appirio enters UK market with Saaspoint buy

CloudPro

Appirio today revealed it has bought Irish firm Saaspoint for an undisclosed sum.

The US cloud services company announced back in September it wanted to grow its base across Europe and now hopes picking up the cloud consultancy will make the transition an easy one.

“With the acquisition of Saaspoint today, [we] are one step further in our quest to be THE pure-play global cloud integrator,” wrote Chris Barbin, chief executive (CEO) of Appirio, on the company’s blog...

Appirio acquires Saaspoint for push into Europe

ZDNet

In its fourth acquisition of the past 12 months, cloud integrator Appirio has announced it is buying long-established European pureplay Salesforce.com integrator Saaspoint. The acquisition is Appirio’s first significant foray into the European theater, delivering on the international expansion promised after GGV Capital and Salesforce.com invested in the company in August.

Saaspoint was founded in 2005 by the founders of salesforce.com’s European operations and has its corporate administration in rural offices near Dublin, Ireland, with headquarters in London. It is regarded as one of Europe’s leading Salesforce.com integrators (see previous coverage), although its activities are mainly limited to Ireland and the UK, where customers include well-known names such as British Gas, CitiLink and Rentokil...

Shining the harsh light on Cloudwashing

Forrester blog
...Appirio, a cloud integration and customization solution provider has created the cloud computing equivalent of the Razzie Awards to recognize and call out those vendors it and its clients see as the most aggregious cloudwashing offenders. The first annual Washies will be announced next Wednesday night at The Cigar Bar in San Francisco and in true Razzie tradition, the nominees are invited to attend and pick up their dubious honors in person. I'm betting that Larry Ellison will be otherwise engaged.

While some will be offended to be nominated, the recognition here is meant to be a bit of a roast to those marketing ahead of their capabilities as well as a fun way to help spread market education about what truly is (and is not) cloud computing. It's understandable why the vendors who cloudwash their solutions do it, as the word can get you a meeting with a key customer and that customer at the end of the day may turn out not to need cloud at all and thus end up buying that vendor's traditional IT solution. Same with I&O pros. If calling your virtualized server environment cloud gets executive pressure off so you can better plan a real cloud strategy, mission accomplished. But this practice creates market confusion and can ultimately hurt the offender as their credibility takes a hit in comparison to true cloud efforts. I&O teams that claim private cloud for their VMware environment and aren't delivering self-service, cloud economics or automation, risk losing the trust with their developers who may just turn up their noses at IT and go straight to the public cloud. Try selling them on your true private cloud after that...

Google Wraps Internet Explorer in Chrome Clothing

WIRED

...Google declined to provide statistics on the adoption of Chrome and Chrome Frame inside businesses, but Russell says he had seen companies officially make the move to Chrome Frame, and others outside of Google are saying much the same. Appirio — an outfit that helps companies adopt new-age cloud computing services from the likes of Google and Salesforce.com — tells Wired that it too is working to move businesses, including Morgan Stanley, onto Google’s IE plug-in.

“We’re not surprised anymore when when see [IE7],” says Appirio chief technology officer Glenn Weinstein. “It’s dismaying to see how many large enterprises are still clinging to IE-only browser policies. You’d think that companies would have come around by now. But they haven’t.”...

Cloud integrators offer assessment, integration and ongoing support

SearchNetworkingChannel

...Cloud integrators that get into a client's business early enough have the ability to plan both current integration and further expansion into the cloud.

Appirio, for example, works at all stages of cloud development – strategy, rollout of SaaS apps, migration of customer business processes to the cloud, and cloud management. The company focuses on selling salesforce.com, Google and Workday.

While Appirio's services aim to assess the current integration landscape, the company also looks to identify future integration of architecture, as well as integration for cloud-to-cloud or cloud-to-on-premise. The company sells this cloud integration management as part of a monthly contract...

Cloud Providers Locked And Loaded For Social Revolution

CRN

...By many accounts, the social revolution is already happening. But for solution providers, it's appears to be just the beginning.

"This has hit a nerve for companies that they were seeing but couldn't articulate," said Narinder Singh, co-founder and chief strategy officer for San Mateo, Calif.-based cloud provider Appirio, which just recently launched a social toolkit of apps to help bridge the divide between social platforms and add more functionality to customer social infrastructures.

Singh said the idea of a social enterprise has sparked customers' interest -- more so than with cloud computing. Singh said with cloud computing, there was always an "if," with social it's "when and how." And that has opened doors for Appirio to come in and ask, "How do we make you a social enterprise?"...

Appirio Launches Cloud Social Networking Connector Toolkit

Talkin' Cloud

Cloud integrator Appirio has announced a new Social Enterprise Toolkit designed to help customers connect new applications with existing social networks. In plainer terms, Appirio has released a set of 20-plus tools to help bring its customers closer with Salesforce Chatter, Facebook, Twitter and the rest of the social web while still meeting their specific regulatory or feature needs.

Here are some examples of social media features and integrations the toolkit brings, as per Appirio’s press release...

Appirio ‘Honoring’ the Best of the Worst in the Cloud

Talkin' Cloud

Following in the footsteps of the infamous Razzie awards given to the people responsible for the worst movies of the year, cloud integrator Appirio has invited me to the inaugural Washies: an awards ceremony designed to publicly shame those vendors who claim a solution is “cloud” when it’s really just a fresh coat of paint on an aging legacy solution.

The idea, according to Appirio’s blog entry, is to have a little fun at the expense of those companies who are dead-set on capitalizing on cloud hype without taking the time or effort to really understand what that means. And thus far response from the cloud services channel and other IT pros has already been outstanding, the company noted, with early votes and nominees flooding in...

Appirio Digs Deeper Into Social Enterprise With Toolkit

CRN

Cloud provider Appirio has taken Salesforce.com's social enterprise vision to heart and at Cloudforce New York this week launched a social enterprise toolkit the company says breaks down social silos, boosts collaboration and spurs greater adoption of social enterprise tools.

Comprising nearly 20 social assets, some of which were built through Appirio's CloudSpokes crowdsourcing development community, the toolkit targets a trio of challenges inherent in any social-focused enterprise rollout: integration between new and existing applications and social networks, making new social applications engaging for users and ensuring compliance with company policies, said Appirio co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer Narinder Singh...