Grazed from GigaOM. Author: Derrick Harris.

Obama for America CTO Harper Reed had helped build Threadless, a site for selling hip t-shirts, but he had never done anything like this. Here’s how he and his team built a tech platform that might forever change how presidential campaigns are built.

When it comes to presidential elections, it helps to know your way around some disruptive technologies. The team of technologists that helped re-elect Barack Obama – led by Obama for America CTO Harper Reed and comprised largely of other political novices and accomplished hackers — certainly had that going for them. However, when the prize is the highest office in the land — and possibly the fate of the free world — it also helps to know your role…

Grazed from Web Host Industry Review. Author: Liam Eagle.

Hosting and network solutions provider XBT Holding Ltd. announced this week that it had acquired 1-800-HOSTING, a US-based hosting provider focused on fully managed hosting, dedicated servers and cloud hosting services.

XBT did not reveal the price paid, or any other terms of the acquisition deal, but it emphasized the importance of 1-800-HOSTING’s cloud computing offering in adding to its own portfolio of services. XBT owns a small stable of hosting brands from around the world, including Webzilla and Fozzy in the US, and 8 to Infinity in Singapore and Server.lu in Luxembourg (which XBT also acquired this year)…

Grazed from ITBusinessEdge. Author: Michael Vizard.

The dawn of a new era of cloud computing is upon us, and one that will be defined by more granular application workloads that are seamlessly integrated across an open and secure ecosystem. According to Dave Elliott, Symantec senior product marketing manager for global cloud marketing, the first step toward turning this vision of applications being developed and deployed with the cloud in mind is making sure that a cloud 3.0 ecosystem that will start to emerge in 2013 is secure.

To that end, Symantec is promising to provide that security via Symantec O3, a suite of cloud access control offerings, and new Symantec File Share Encryption software due in 2013 that is based on a new iteration of the company’s PGP encryption software. Symantec also plans to deliver a new Symantec Protection Engine for Cloud Service provider offering along with new features in Veritas Cluster Server software that are designed to make it easier to build and secure cloud applications that span multiple tiers…

Grazed from Trefis. Author: Editorial Staff.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) which experienced a slow quarter last time around is set to announce its Q2 results on November 14. Cautious IT spending and the slowdown in Europe weighed on the storage products maker in Q1 as net revenue for the first quarter was $1.44 billion, down 15% q-o-q and 1% y-o-y. Product revenue took a hit as it declined 23% sequentially and 7% annually at $898 million. Service revenue however showed robust y-o-y growth of 11% to $328 million.

For the upcoming quarter, the company has guided for revenues in the range of $1.5-$1.6 billion and EPS of $0.45-$0.5. NetApp is involved in designing solutions for storing, managing and protecting business data through enterprise storage and data management software as well as hardware products and services…

Grazed from Engadget. Author: Steve Dent.

NEC has launched a $880 per month service in Japan that lets merchants profile customers using just a PC and video camera. The system uses facial recognition powered by the company’s cloud computing service to estimate the gender and age of clients, along with the frequency of their shopping expeditions across multiple locations.

The firm developed the "NeoFace" tracking software in-house, claiming it was the highest ranked facial recognition system in NIST and that it plans to use it for other services like "intruder surveillance" in the future. NEC added that face data is encrypted so it can’t be "inadvertently disclosed," and is strictly to help retailers fine-tune their marketing strategies. After watching the system pick off face after face in the video after the break, we just hope it doesn’t go rogue…

Read more and view video from source @ http://www.engadget.com/2012/11/12/nec-outs-880-facial-recognition-system/

Grazed from Acer. Author: PR Announcement.

Acer America today debuts its new Acer C7 Chromebook, its next-generation mobile computer that runs Google’s Chrome operating system and is priced at a low $199.
The new Acer C7 Chromebook is the ideal additional laptop for families, students and business people that need a fast, easy and secure way to get online to do their computing in the cloud, such as using Gmail, keeping up on social networks, shopping, and paying bills.

"Today’s computer users are doing more online heightening the need for enhanced security, quicker online access and an easy-to-use interface," Jim Wong, corporate president, Acer Inc. "The Acer C7 Chromebook provides all this at an affordable price, making it the right choice for families and students on a budget as well as anyone who wants a new or second mobile PC for web-based computing."…

Grazed from UKAuthority. Author: Dan Jellinek.

The online government "Cloudstore" allowing public bodies to buy cloud services may be tranformed into a generic "Govstore" for all kinds of IT products and services, a senior civil servant has revealed. The idea emerged in a panel debate on the second phase of the government’s cloud computing framework, G-Cloud ii, broadcast today on UKAuthority TV.

Panellist Denise McDonagh, G-Cloud programme director in the Cabinet Office’s Government Digital Service and ICT director at the Home Office, said: "What we want to do in the centre is do things well and do things once. So if have we have a mechanism for buying cloud services, why not use it for other services?"…

Grazed from Gov.Aol. Author: Wyatt Kash.

The power of big data – like cloud computing and mobility – has emerged as a transformational technology force, but one that poses a host of planning questions for senior government agency officials. Peter Mell, a senior computer scientist for the National Institute of Standards and Technology, devoted many months assessing the potential and the pitfalls of big data for NIST. He recently shared what he learned and what executives need to understand about big data in an interview with AOL Government’s Wyatt Kash.

Mell outlined some of the misunderstandings and tradeoffs associated with large scale data sets agencies are likely to encounter as they move beyond classic relational databases. He also talked about the importance cloud computing plays in facilitating big data analytics…

Grazed from BusinessWire. Author: PR Announcement.

Vitesse Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ: VTSS) and Avago Technologies (NASDAQ: AVGO) announced availability of the industry’s first CXP host joint reference design delivering 100G/120G connectivity for high-speed routers, Enterprise data centers and high-performance cloud computing applications. Based on Vitesse’s VSC7227 12-channel signal conditioner and Avago’s AFBR-83PDZ 100G CXP, this joint reference design enables customers to leverage Vitesse and Avago interoperability and expedite time-to-market with solutions for 100G/120G connectivity. It will be highlighted at SC12 at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Sustained growth in cloud computing, mobile networking and video, remote storage and other bandwidth-intensive services drives demand for high density 100G/120G connectivity. Recent surveys show that network bandwidth demand is one of the most critical issues facing data centers, driven by increases in virtualization, cloud computing, big data, and convergence…

Grazed from TechTarget. Author: Shamus McGillicuddy.

With the Folsom release of OpenStack, networking pros now have OpenStack Quantum, an industry-standard, open application programming interface for cloud networking orchestration. Using the OpenStack Quantum API, software and hardware companies can create solutions to solve the problems of network operations in cloud computing and highly virtualized data centers. In this Q&A, Martin Casado, Nicira co-founder and influential OpenStack figure, discusses the impact Quantum will have on cloud networking and network orchestration.

What is the significance of Quantum in the Folsom release?

Martin Casado: Quantum is really just a vendor-neutral, industry-standard interface. The implications are significant, because if you build the cloud and you use Quantum, you’ve decoupled the operations and orchestration from the actual mechanics of the networking side…