Cloud News, Resources and Information
For years, I’ve used and recommended Microsoft’s Live Mesh service as the ideal way for Windows users to sync folders between PCs and the cloud. But with Microsoft deeply integrating SkyDrive into Windows 8, Windows Phone, and, eventually, the Xbox, I’ve begun transitioning from Live Mesh to SkyDrive. Here’s what you gain—and what you lose—by doing so, and some tips for making the transition.
The path that Microsoft took to its current vision for consumer-oriented cloud computing services is almost too convoluted to describe. The short version is that under Ray Ozzie’s unsteady hand (2005-2010), Microsoft offered a bizarre collection of ever-changing and often competing services that included (but probably isn’t limited to) Live Mesh, Windows Live FolderShare, SyncToy, and Windows Live Sync. But emerging on the other side of this nonsense, Microsoft finally decided that Windows Live Sync was the winner and would continue forward. So it promptly killed off the other tools … and then renamed Live Sync to Windows Live Mesh just to make things even more confusing…
Grazed from PRWeb. Author: PR Announcement.
Curaçao Technology Exchange (CTEX), in collaboration with VCE and Zuora, have established a strategic alliance. Targeted for September 2012, CTEX, which is building the region’s most advanced Tier-IV designed data centers, will launch a unique portfolio of ‘infrastructure as a service’ (IAAS), ‘backup as a service’ (BAAS) and ‘software as a service’ (SAAS) offerings to the Caribbean and Latin America markets. HyperCloud_Express(sm) and HyperCloud_Enterprise(sm) will be the first advanced cloud computing offerings launched in the intended market.
VCE’s Vblock™ platform leverages best-in-class technology and integrates computing, network, storage, virtualization, and management components from trusted, industry-leading vendors (Cisco, EMC, and VMware) to deliver a world-class unified computing infrastructure. CTEX’s HyperCloud(sm) services will be further powered by Zuora’s subscription commerce platform to manage real-time billing and settlement of global transactions…
Grazed from Management Today. Author: Editorial Staff.
Since the term ‘cloud computing’ was first introduced in 2006, it’s become (albeit rather reluctantly) one of the buzzwords in technology.
For the consumer, the idea is that documents and photo albums can be stored online, or ‘in the cloud’, making them accessible from any machine or mobile. And anyone who accesses their work emails from home are regular users of the ‘cloud’, as they log into a web mail account remotely instead of having the email programme installed on the computer.
Google and Amazon were the two biggest companies behind the vision that computing will increasingly be delivered as a service over the internet, taking away the need for installing large amounts of software. The concept grew out of the idea of renting spare server capacity – which the the two internet giant’s have in spades – and thus providing a useful service and generating some handy extra revenue…
Grazed from ZDNet. Author: Ellen Phneah.
Cloud contracts significantly differ from the past, which used to ensure customer stickiness for a pre-defined period of time, Mayank Kapoor, data center and cloud computing industry analyst of Frost & Sullivan’s ICT practice observed.
Cloud contracts are still gaining maturity, with the main change around service delivery, or the "relationship" between the customer and the cloud service provider, she explained. However, the main themes still are security, privacy, service level, scalability, data retirement and compliance with regulations, she noted.
For one, cloud service provider Avaya, told ZDNet Asia that it now works with customers in defining and fully understanding their business needs in order to offer an appropriate solution…
Over the years, businesses have grown comfortable with their bandwidth, turning the other way as employees stream internet radio services like Pandora while hard at work. As workplaces have advanced to large servers and fast internet connections, small business owners haven’t seen a need to lock down internet use. But thanks to Cloud computing, that may soon change.
“Back in April Proctor and Gamble announced that they have banned their employees from using Pandora and Netflix, precisely because they utilize Cloud technology and they needed to free up more bandwidth,” James McNeil of Walker Sands Communications says. “As implementation of Cloud technology continues to grow so will this issue.”…
Vendors can lock businesses into lengthy contracts to move to the cloud and the move itself could be more expensive than deploying on-premise tools, warns George Teixeira, CEO of storage virtualisation software vendor DataCore.
In an interview with Computing, Teixeira acknowledged Computing‘s research*, which found that 38 per cent of IT decision-makers said that vendor lock-in was one of their biggest security concerns about the use of the cloud.
However, he stated that DataCore was trying to differentiate itself from rivals to minimise this risk…
Take what you know and have fun with it
Business has locked down the idea of cloud computing. Cloud computing has taken the business world by storm, for sure. Think about it: endless open-ended space, applications, data storage and just about anything else a company could want.
But now something a bit more user friendly has come into play – cloud gaming. This now gives a new meaning to how a gamer can game and how information and saved data can be moved and used – cloud computing just got a little brother…
Talk to any CIO of a good company about cloud computing and related terminology, and you will notice that words such as automation, security, management come up as if they were regulars like Coke and Pepsi. There has been a lot of clutter around the very basic definition of cloud computing. Not only do people have a lot of preconceived notions about the technology, but also fixed ideas about its deployment. However, what is rare is a discussion about the best practices to migrate your current applications from the present platform to the cloud computing platform they are intended for.
Very clearly, migration of your applications actually requires a business–service kind of approach. Cutting through the usual cloud computing clutter and identifying key insights, prescriptive guidance and trends is equally important for the successful migration of applications to a cloud services platform. However, this in itself is a job that needs to be managed, and a few basic principles need to be understood in order to efficiently carry out the task…
Global entertainment giant Live Nation Entertainment, which operates online ticket sales site Ticketmaster and three other entertainment-related businesses, is putting its Ticketmaster and Live Nation Concert and Network operations into a private cloud.
It is a sizable undertaking. Live Nation has 7,000 employees in 153 offices spread across 18 countries. Its revenue in 2011 was $5.4 billion, of which Ticketmaster accounted for $1.56 billion and other Live Nation operations $3.8 billion.
The entertainment conglomerate conducts 22,000 concerts globally for 2,300 artists, operates recording studios at 80 venues — which include the House of Blues chain in North America — and interfaces with 200 million customers and potential customers…
There are many things people think about when it comes to the film industry: glamour, money, success, movies stars; but IT is probably low on the list. However, it is cloud computing that is causing a revolution in the film industry.
The film industry has decided to fully embrace cloud computing. This makes sense: the film industry is vast and sprawling, it is not just based in Hollywood, but all over the world. The film industry is more like a global village. Someone in London can share files with someone in Los Angeles at the drop of a hat. You can stream, you can talk to people, you can save vast amounts of money. I asked some of my friends who work in the industry how cloud computing helped them…