News from The Cloud: NetSuite and that vision thing

A regular round-up of stories about web-based applications from our new sister site, BusinessCloud9.com. This month the following has happened: 31 July - NetSuite CEO Zach Nelson says its service resource planning (SRP) strategy will change the industry just like ERP did in the 1990s. 23 July - NetSuite offers $20m to acquire QuickArrow, a US-based developer of Cloud Computing software for professional firms. 21 July - HP announces it will buy IBrix, a maker of file-serving software, to boost its Cloud Computing infrastructure offerings. 14 July - Microsoft elaborated on the role The Cloud will play in its strategic direction and lifted the lid on pricing for its Windows Azure Cloud Computing platform at the recent Worldwide Partners Conference. 8 July - A Gartner survey confirmed that Cloud Computing is entering the mainstream, but also found that many users feel that the software as a service (SaaS) promise has not been realised. Nearly one in six US and UK organisations surveyed last December are not planning to increase their commitment to SaaS over the next two years. 6 July - Cisco Systems put the case for its role as the ideal partner for Cloud Computing vendors at its Cisco Live conference in San Francisco. It is positioning its Unified Computing Systems (UCS) networking, storage, and processing architecture as the foundation for private Clouds. 2 July - Rackspace’s Dallas-Fort Worth server facility was struck by a series of crashes on Monday afternoon. “These power interruptions were the result of a range of power infrastructure issues,” it explained. 1 July - CODA teams up with financial outsourcer Corfino to provide a Cloud-based service called Corefino 2go that combines CODA’s online accounting system with California-based Corefino’s financial outsourcing services.