Oracle agrees to buy SuccessFactors rival Taleo for $1.9B

February 9, 2012 7:48 AM Sean Ludwig

Software titan and now cloud services provider Oracle has agreed to acquire talent management cloud company Taleo for $1.9 billion, the companies announced today.

The deal greatly mirrors the $3.4 billion acquisition of employee performance management software provider SuccessFactors by …

Nivio pulls in $21M to make cloud computing cheaper and more student-friendly

February 9, 2012 4:00 AM Sarah Mitroff

Sarah Mitroff

Cloud computing and desktop virtualization are rapidly growing trends in the tech world, and one company has spent a considerable amount of time developing this technology. Nivio, which started as an idea in 2004, announced today it has received $21 …

Review: The futuristic OnLive Desktop runs Windows apps on the iPad

January 25, 2012 7:00 AM James Pikover

James Pikover

The current state of computing is always under scrutiny and speculation. For years laptop and desktop computers have been proclaimed dead, most recently in the face of smartphones and tablet computers. OnLive Desktop may be the first sign of an …

Skyfire gets $8M to stream mobile videos without any wait

January 25, 2012 6:00 AM Sarah Mitroff

Sarah Mitroff

Mobile browsing and video optimization company Skyfire announced today it has raised $8 million in its third round of funding. The round was facilitated by Verizon Investments, Matrix Partners, Trinity Ventures, and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Skyfire gained popularity as an …

Joyent grabs $85M from Weather Investment II, Telefonica to take on Amazon in cloud computing

January 23, 2012 4:30 AM Sean Ludwig

Sean Ludwig

Cloud computing startup Joyent has raised a humongous $85 million round of funding, which will help the company with its plan of out-innovating Amazon in cloud computing technology.

Joyent provides infrastructure cloud computing services for customers like LinkedIn, THQ, Gilt …

Former White House CIO Vivek Kundra joins Salesforce as emerging markets EVP

January 16, 2012 9:53 AM Sean Ludwig

Sean Ludwig

Cloud services leader Salesforce has hired former U.S. chief information officer Vivek Kundra as its executive vice president of emerging markets, the company announced today.

Kundra made headlines as the federal government’s first-ever CIO when he was hired by the …

The top 5 CES trends that will matter in 2012

January 6, 2012 7:00 AM Devindra Hardawar and Sean Ludwig

Cloudability raises $1M, helps keep your cloud spending in check

December 22, 2011 5:00 AM Sarah Mitroff

Sarah Mitroff

Cloudability, a company that helps people manage cloud services spending, has secured $1 million in its latest investment round. This seed investment round was led by Trinity Ventures and Walden Venture Capital, including $250,000 in funding from Portland-based angel investors.…

One company calls out cloudwashing’s worst offenders

December 16, 2011 5:36 AM Narinder Singh

Guest Post

Cloud computing. What once was a controversial, cutting-edge term is now part of seemingly everyone’s vocabulary.

From ads in last year’s Super Bowl to billboards in airports across the world, “the cloud” is everywhere. Many of today’s solutions do offer …

Dylan’s Desk: Pick up the phone now! Supercomputers are standing by

December 7, 2011 7:15 AM Dylan Tweney

Dylan Tweney

If anyone doubted the potential of the cloud, SAP‘s $3.4 billion acquisition of employee performance management company SuccessFactors makes it clear that there’s some hard economic reality to all this fluffy, jargony cloud business.

It could be overhyped — and …

Kleiner Perkins picks up Twitter’s former VP of engineering

December 1, 2011 11:00 AM Jennifer Van Grove

Jennifer Van Grove

Mike Abbott, the former vice president of engineering who flew the Twitter coop in mid October, has joined Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers as a partner and is now a part of the illustrious venture capital firm’s digital team.

The …

Microsoft “not even relevant,” says Box CEO Aaron Levie

November 30, 2011 4:03 PM Meghan Kelly

Meghan Kelly

Aaron Levie, the dynamic co-founder and chief executive of cloud-based file sharing company Box (until recently known as Box.net) doesn’t hold back when it comes to his competitors.

“If [Microsoft] Sharepoint happened to work, that’s what we kind of do,” …

10 disruptive cloud companies we’re excited about

November 28, 2011 12:22 PM Sean Ludwig

Sean Ludwig

Cloud 101: What the heck do IaaS, PaaS and SaaS companies do?

November 14, 2011 8:01 AM Sean Ludwig

Sean Ludwig

SolidFire raises $25M to boost cloud provider agility and performance

October 31, 2011 12:02 PM Sean Ludwig

Sean Ludwig

SolidFire, a solid-state storage provider for cloud services, has raised a new $25 million round of funding to help improve performance and reliability for emerging cloud providers, the company revealed Monday.

SolidFire sells powerful solid-state hard drives to cloud service …

Box.net closes extension round worth $81M

October 11, 2011 6:02 PM Matthew Lynley

Matthew Lynley

Cloud storage provider Box.net today announced it has closed an $81 million extension to its fourth round of funding, which includes new investors New Enterprise Associates and Bessemer Venture Partners.

The new round gives Box.net, which has evolved into a …

Oracle’s Larry Ellison finally puts his head in the cloud

October 6, 2011 8:31 AM Sean Ludwig

Sean Ludwig

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison on Wednesday finally announced that his company would take the plunge into public cloud computing with Oracle Public Cloud. He made the announcement on stage at Oracle’s OpenWorld conference.

Oracle’s emphasis for several years has been …