CSC has named Google as a key partner in its cloud computing strategy.

CSC is building on its relationship with Google which began last December when the systems inntegator rolled out Google Apps together with CSC's secure cloud services to a US government department.

Under the partnership CSC will offer Google's SaaS applications including Gmail, Google Calender and Google Docs.

CSC's cloud service will integrate and manage the overall solution for clients, and provide first line support.

Seemingly at odds with Larry Ellison's protestations, Oracle have launched a series of 1 day seminars offering to teach organisations how to take advantage of cloud computing.

Inviting IT professionals to "..break through the haze around cloud computing" the events are being staged around the world.

Unisys is helping the Nationwide Building Society to virtualise 500 servers as part of Nationwide’s Data Centre Transformation Programme. The programme will rollout over several years and will reduce operational and energy costs, with anticipated savings of £8m.

So far Nationwide has achieved a 12-1 reduction in the number of physical servers, deceasing their carbon footprint through a reduction in power and air-conditioning usage.

LV=, the UK financial services compay, has extended its IT services contract with Atos Origin by four years.

Atos provide midrange and mainframe hosting services. The original contract was signed in 2008.

CODA Group announces that it has completed a successful beta programme for CODA 2go, and is offering a free 30 day online trial and demo at http://www.coda2go.com/freetrial

CODA 2go is the first international SaaS accounting system developed on salesforce.com’s Force.com platform. The service is integrated with Salesforce CRM applications and runs on salesforce.com’s global service infrastructure.

According to CIO magazine the Telegraph Media Group is moving the accounting for its media sales group to FinancialForce.com, a cloud based accounting service.

This is the Telegraph's second foray into the cloud. They moved from Microsoft Office and Exchange to Google Apps in 2008.

Invoices for the media sales group will be created by FinancialForce.com which will then update the Telegraph Group's main ERP systems, Agresso.

There are also plans to integrate FinancialForce.com with the Salesforce.com cloud platform used by the media sales department.

A recent survey of 110 IT executives from large companies indicates virtualisation projects top the corporate priority lists for 2010.

This is supported by a recent Gartner report that shows the number 1 technology priority is virtualisation, with cloud computing in second place.

This is predicted to drive demand for contractors and permanent staff with virtualisation skills.

Research from Sterling Commerce suggests that over 75% of major European organisations are planning some form of cloud based B2B integration in 2010.

The research is based on interviews with 300 senior IT executives in France Germany and the UK.

Over 50% of respondents stated that cost reduction and predictability are the main drivers. However, they continue to be concerned with security issues around cloud computing.

Since Christmas an increase in response times have been detected from Amazon's EC2 service by Cloudkick, a cloud performance monitoring company.

An average ping latency of 50ms is relatively low and normal. However, Cloudkick has been measuring latencies of up to 1000ms since the 22nd December.

Global IT spending by financial services firms is set to reach $357.4 billion in 2010, an increase of 2.9% over 2009, according to research from Celent.

Firms in Europe account for 36% of the overall figure.

Maintenance continues to be the largest area of expenditure, accounting for a massive 72.7% of total IT spend in 2008 although this figure is predicted to fall to 70% in 2012.