Cloud news – 30 January 2012

Amazon launch enterprise cloud service

Last week, Amazon announced a major extension to their Amazon Web Services provision in the hope of attracting enterprise customers. Their new AWS Storage Gateway backs up snapshots of customer data over SSL and is designed as a failover system for large corporations. A local backup is held at the client’s data centre, while a second copy is made to one or more EC2 instances.

Amazon are keen to point out that data is replicated using S3, meaning there’s less likelihood of downtime. But after the prolonged Web Services outage in April last year, it could be some time before corporations are ready to trust Amazon with critical backups.

Docebo release trilogy of teaser videos

Cloud e-learning provider Docebo are gearing up for a big announcement next week. A series of video teasers suggest a move towards mobile apps and quicker delivery of e-learning material, but the videos reveal little about the new product. Docebo are due to announce their revised service, dubbed ‘Click, Deploy, Learn’, on February 1^st - or 1.2.12, if you prefer.

Xero announces massive expansion

Xero, one of the most highly-regarded cloud accounting providers, have announced major expansion on the brink of better-than-expected turnover figures. The company has announced a doubling of their operating revenue over the last twelve months and are hiring 400 bookkeepers and accountants. Most are expected to join Xero in the first quarter of 2012 at their Auckland office.

Xero are nearing a quarter of a million user accounts, handling the affairs of 60,000 paying customers and assisting 3,300 accountancy firms. The six-year-old company now employs 170 people in offices in New Zealand, Australia, the US and the UK.

Tags: Amazon EC2, Amazon S3, Amazon Storage Gateway, cloud accounting, cloud computing, cloud storage, docebo, e-learning, xero

Category: News & announcements