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The popular eBook by Dan Blacharski and Cary Landis for the cloud-impaired.Everything you wanted to know, but were afraid to ask: What is cloud computing… really? What’s the least I need to know? How will it affect me?
DOWNLOAD FREE HERE, or Kindle/Paperback…
Emerging Platform as a Service tools are accelerating the rate of innovation by orders-of-magnitude
Feb. 13, 2013 – New PaaS development tools, like Virtual Global’s SaaS Maker, lower the cost of building your own dotcom to zero. “The cloud has changed the game,” said Cary Landis, Virtual Global CEO and one of the creators of the NIST reference architecture for cloud computing. “Cloud is the final ingredient to the dotcom era, and with these tools, we can look forward to a new wave of innovation with real lasting power.” SaaS Maker includes free developer accounts, and allows developers to publish scalable SaaS solutions for subscription-based revenues. These same systems may have required millions of dollars twelve years ago. This begs several questions: What would happen to Facebook if all of a sudden, millions of software developers could build and launch their own social network in just a few weeks? What would happen to big system integrators if small software businesses could build the same systems at a fraction of the time and costs? “This is real, not pie in the sky. It’s the ‘printing press’ for software developers,” says Landis. “These PaaS tools are changing the industry.”
Apigee Mixes Big Data & Broad Data Analytics - Sat, 16 Feb 2013
Big Data analytics doesn’t go far enough according to Anant Jhingran, who was the brains behind IBM’s cunningly clever Watson computer as CTO of IBM’s lab in Silicon Valley. “The information an enterprise typically collects – point of sales, procurement, even web site data – is not enough anymore,” he says. “In the new world of apps and APIs, the real value of data – the interaction with customers – has moved one or two tiers away from the enterprise and the more you know about the data in your app ecosystem, your ‘broad’ data, the better you’ll understand your business.” This thinking has been distilled in Apigee Insights, the latest product from the increasingly promising Apigee, where Jhingran is now product chief. Apigee Insights is supposed to leverage Big Data in a new way so a computer can draw sophisticated conclusions from weak unstructured data and produce business insights beyond what is currently possible.
Cloud Expo New York: Requirements of a Cloud Database - Sat, 16 Feb 2013
The traditional databases of the 20th century were never designed to scale to meet 21st century data demands. Google alone processes about 24 petabytes of data/day. With the added complexity of heavily virtualized hardware and storage plus apps being moved in and out of private, hybrid and public clouds, application developers, SaaS vendors, ISVs and enterprise IT all need a better answer. In his session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Barry Morris, CEO & Co-Founder of NuoDB, Inc., will through customer examples and performance benchmarks explore the new rules for a 21st century Cloud Data Management System and discuss the critical new roles databases play in customers’ strategies and how to resolve today’s web-scale challenges.
Data Optimization in Cloud Storage - Sat, 16 Feb 2013
The promise of “the cloud” is that cloud storage delivers users seamless “just in time” storage scalability to handle growth and quickly respond to peak loads. The economics and business impact of cloud storage also delivers a compelling financial proposition in today’s budget constrained IT environments. To the IT consumer shifting what was a capital expense and a fixed cost to a variable cost operating expense is financially compelling. Additionally, the ability to function in a “just in time” mode versus a “predictive” model for consumable storage also changes the CAPEX impact further assisting in justifying an already strong value proposition for adopting cloud storage. IDC forecasts that cloud-based storage will represent a $15.6B market by 2015 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 32%. They also predict 10,000 service providers will focus on cloud storage with a data protection emphasis. The economics of this market transition will continue to evolve and accelerate as costs of delivering cloud services are optimized by service providers that become more efficient – ever mindful of the cost of their plant/facility, operating expenses and business margins.
Cloud Expo New York: Cloud Is Changing the Economics of Business - Sat, 16 Feb 2013
The economics of business are radically changing due to the way in which software and services are being delivered thanks to cloud computing. In his upcoming session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Mike Kavis, Chief Technologist at Kavis Technology Consulting, will cover the following six reasons for the disruption: Cloud Culture Investing in Reality Changing Labor Pool New business models Founder’s dilemma PaaS is the game changer
Development Testing for Agile Environments - Fri, 15 Feb 2013
The Coverity Development Testing Platform enables developers to test early and often so they can assure code quality at each development sprint. By finding and addressing the most critical issues early, defects are cheaper and faster to fix. In addition, seamless integration with existing Agile development methodologies and tools helps maximize development productivity.
Mezeo Software Quietly Racks up Contracts - Fri, 15 Feb 2013
Box, Dropbox, Citrix’ ShareFile and whatever other consumer file storing-and-sharing point solutions are selling these days, however successfully, are threatened by next-generation cloud-scale middleware developments focused on unstructured data that can promise the enterprise IT department at least some semblance of the real security it’s currently looking for. One of those developments comes from a five-year-old Texas company called Mezeo Software that’s effectively been in stealth mode for a long time and is quietly racking up contracts with a fistful of big Asian and European telecoms to supply customized cloud-based files, sync and sharing widgetry to their hoards of consumers.
Don’t Deploy Your Cloud Application Without Reading This | Part 1- Fri, 15 Feb 2013
Public cloud, private cloud, hybrid cloud, cloud bursting, cloud storming, elastic compute, IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, the list of terms goes on and on ad-nauseam. Like it or not, cloud computing has taken hold as an important design consideration in companies ranging from small startups to large established enterprises. The concepts and technologies behind cloud computing have been around for quite a long time now so why is it taking so long for so many companies to move their applications and realize the benefits that cloud computing offers? Getting beyond the ridiculous fear of the unknown, security concerns are a major inhibitor to cloud adoption but between private cloud and a slew of security technologies and methods that should only impact a small portion of applications. The real problem, in my opinion, is that nobody wants to fail and suffer damage to their personal and/or corporate brands. I’ve seen so many companies make a poor transition to cloud computing and it impacts their revenue and customer retention.
We Should Sell “Cloud” Better - Fri, 15 Feb 2013
Everyone in the IT industry knows how amazing cloud computing is – it can cut overheads, introduce flexibility and make previously unobtainable services affordable for even the smallest of businesses. But with 60 per cent of the American public claiming to have no clue at all about cloud services, it seems that the sector’s enthusiasm is yet to turn into mainstream awareness. It’s tempting to dismiss such findings out of hand – after all does it really matter if people don’t know how iTunes, Gmail and other products work as long as they actually do what customers want? The answer is a resounding yes, it does matter. Too many small business owners don’t understand the benefits of cloud computing and they’re missing out.
Five Ways Cloud Can Improve Your Business’s Top Line Growth - Fri, 15 Feb 2013
While IT vendors typically lead a product pitch with cost benefits, it should be no surprise that cost savings alone don’t always drive IT purchases. For many organizations, revenue growth may represent an even more compelling driver. Cloud compute and cloud storage have in many circles become synonymous with cost savings and improving an organization’s bottom line. Perhaps a lesser known aspect of the cloud is the ability to help organizations increase their top line revenues.
Mellanox Technologies to Exhibit at Cloud Expo New York - Fri, 15 Feb 2013
SYS-CON Events announced today that Mellanox Technologies, a leading supplier of high-performance, end-to-end interconnect solutions for data center servers and storage systems, will exhibit at SYS-CON’s 12th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 10–13, 2013, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York. Mellanox Technologies is a leading supplier of end-to-end InfiniBand and Ethernet interconnect solutions and services for servers and storage. Mellanox interconnect solutions increase data center efficiency by providing the highest throughput and lowest latency, delivering data faster to applications and unlocking system performance capability. Mellanox offers a choice of fast interconnect products: adapters, switches, software and silicon that accelerate application runtime and maximize business results for a wide range of markets including high performance computing, enterprise data centers, Web 2.0, cloud, storage and financial services.
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Facebook Hit By Malware Exploit, But No User Data Affected - Fri, 15 Feb 2013
This latest attack occurred when a handful of the social network’s employees visited a mobile developer website that was compromised, the company reported.
Google Apps Engine Research Awards Go to 7 Innovative Projects - Wed, 13 Feb 2013
Google is starting the new program to encourage use of the Google App Engine platform for research experiments and analysis.
Google+ Hangouts to Host Events With Obama, Space Station Crew- Tue, 12 Feb 2013
Google+ Hangouts will be used by the president and by the International Space Station crew in separate events to take questions from citizens.
Mobile Devices, Applications Spur Cloud Adoption: CDW - Tue, 12 Feb 2013
Survey results indicated current-year savings from cloud adoption increased to 13 percent of current IT budgets in 2012 from 10 percent in 2011.
Google Maps Helps Track Snowstorm Nemo, and More Weekend Maps Fun - Sun, 10 Feb 2013
As New York City, Boston and the rest of the Northeast prepare for a blizzard, a Google Maps app springs into action.
eWEEK Tweetchat Discusses Cloud-Based Collaboration Feb. 13 - Fri, 08 Feb 2013
On Feb. 13 at 11 a.m. PST/2 p.m. EST, eWEEKnews will host its second Tweetchat on “Collaboration in the Cloud: Empowering Employees.”
Cubby Cloud-Sharing Service From LogMeIn Graduates Past Beta - Wed, 06 Feb 2013
Cloud-based collaboration tool Cubby, which had the most successful beta in LogMeIn history, is now available in Basic (free) and Pro versions.
Salesforce.com Apps Unify JDRF Diabetes Fund-Raising Records - Tue, 05 Feb 2013
JDRF has turned to cloud platforms from Salesforce.com and Appirio to organize millions of fund-raising records in one location.
Firefox, Chrome Browsers Can Now ‘Talk’ Without a Plug-In - Tue, 05 Feb 2013
Using WebRTC, users of Chrome or Firefox will soon be able to have video chats with friends using either browser without having to install plug-ins.
Rackspace Launches New Private-Cloud Reference Architectures - Sun, 03 Feb 2013
The new blueprints primarily are directed at big data-type private cloud projects, which are ramping up in many different verticals.
Windows Server 2012 makes storage cool again - Wed, 13 Feb 2013
Storage is an area that’s often ignored by outside specialists. That’s too bad, because Windows Server 2012 makes a major push to improve its storage management and virtualization technologies.
VMware buys virtual storage company Virsto - Tue, 12 Feb 2013
VMware is rounding out its new “software-defined data center” strategy with the acquisition of virtual storage company Virsto Software.
Ravello Systems raises $26M to build a cloud hypervisor for developers - Mon, 11 Feb 2013
In September 2008, Red Hat acquired the KVM hypervisor virtualization startup Qumranet for $107 million.
Review: The best network monitoring system on earth - Wed, 06 Feb 2013
The trouble with network monitoring is that the more you know, the more you find you need to do.
Oracle VM 3.2 now discovers and manages Sparc servers - Mon, 04 Feb 2013
VMware may be boasting that its software is used by all of the Fortune 100 companies and 96 percent of the Fortune 1000, but the virtualization team at Oracle is either not listening or simply doesn’t care.
Teradici releases preview of delayed PCoIP platform for VMware and Microsoft - Wed, 30 Jan 2013
Teradici has been forced to delay the release of Arch, which combines VMware and Microsoft server-based desktops using its PCoIP protocol, due to a scalability issue. But a new tech preview will still allow enterprises to familiarize themselves with the product.
Today, PC-over-IP (PCoIP) is used to improve the performance of multimedia and other graphics-heavy applications on VMware’s Virtual Desktop Infrastructure.
VMware to cut 900 jobs in ‘realignment’ as growth slows - Tue, 29 Jan 2013
VMware said Monday it will cut 900 jobs in a move to focus more on high potential businesses, as profits remained strong but growth slowed.
The company said the job cuts, revealed as part of its earnings release for last year, will come in areas such as SlideRocket, its online presentation software. VMware emphasized that it was still expanding, and said it planned to add a net 1,000 jobs in 2013.
Cisco’s stake in Parallels ramps up rivalry with VMware - Mon, 28 Jan 2013
Cisco recently announced it has purchased a 1 percent stake inParallels, a NEC rolls out OpenFlow for Microsoft Hyper-V - Thu, 24 Jan 2013
NEC this week unveiled a virtual switch for Microsoft‘s Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V hypervisor which is designed to bring OpenFlow-based software-defined networking and network virtualization to those Microsoft
Vert.x’s journey teaches invaluable governance lessons - Fri, 18 Jan 2013
The community discussion of the Vert.x open source project was just starting when I wrote about it last week. Conducted entirely on the mailing list as a result of all the press the Vert.x dustup received, this group conversation has launched an educational parade of governance solutions.
Amazon Web Services opens up Redshift, lands partners - Fri, 15 Feb 2013
Redshift aims to capture some of the data warehousing market via managed services, lower costs and automated tasks such as provisioning and configuring.
20 of the world’s top selling phones - Fri, 15 Feb 2013
Samsung and Apple phones may today rule the roost at the top of the smartphone market share today, but the most popular phones and smartphones were in fact sold almost a decade ago. Here are some of the top selling mobile phones since the the start of the new millennium.
Analyst: Microsoft losing $2.5B a year on Office for iOS delay - Fri, 15 Feb 2013
In a case of “not if, but when,” Microsoft may be losing out on about $2.5 billion a year by failing to expand its Office offering to iPhones and iPads, according to one analyst.
Worst pitch of the month: Plantronics and the mass employee wedding - Fri, 15 Feb 2013
What does a mass wedding involving hundreds of employees during the week of Valentine’s Day have to do with enterprise technology? Just about nothing.
AT&T wins ruling in price-fixing lawsuit against LCD panel makers- Fri, 15 Feb 2013
AT&T has won partial reinstatement of a price-fixing lawsuit against firms including AU Optronics and Samsung Display Co.
Apple, Samsung asked to temporarily freeze patent dispute - Fri, 15 Feb 2013
Will Apple and Samsung agree to delay their smartphone patent battle?
Report: Dropbox prepping for IPO later this year - Fri, 15 Feb 2013
Dropbox could be filing an initial public offering this year, but will it follow in the beleaguered path of consumer tech brands such as Zynga or enterprise wins like Workday?
Brocade’s fiscal Q1 revenue soars despite net loss - Fri, 15 Feb 2013
Brocade’s new CEO singled out the storage and IP networking units as major revenue contributors last quarter.
Oracle pans Forrester Fusion report, launches rebuttal - Fri, 15 Feb 2013
Oracle says that Forrester’s sample size was small and questions were skewed to the negative when asking customers about the company’s Fusion application strategy.
Nvidia CEO: Windows RT is a keeper - Fri, 15 Feb 2013
“If you extrapolate it forward by a few years, it’s hard to imagine how Win RT can’t possibly, won’t possibly be a wonderful PC,” says Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang. Do you agree?