To SQL or to NoSQL: the database dilemma
Grazed from GigaOM. Author: Tom Krazit.
Everybody likes a good technology debate: Mac vs. PC, Android vs. iOS, Larry Ellison vs. the world. On Thursday panelists at GigaOM Structure turned their attention to the world of databases: SQL or NoSQL?
The question revolves around the decision whether or not to embrace SQL databases — the traditional approach — or NoSQL databases favored by those embracing the cloud. Different companies require different approaches depending on their needs, but at least one panelist wasn’t shy about sharing his views…
Will using Dropbox put your CEO in jail?
Grazed from GigaOM. Author: Janko Roettgers.
With everything moving to the cloud, companies suddenly find themselves confronted with a whole new set of challenges. For example: Is all that stuff even legal? “There is a good chance that almost every organization that is out there that is using Dropbox or that is using Box is breaking the law,” proclaimed Puppet Labs CEO Luke Kanies (see disclosure) during the last panel of the day at GigaOM’s Structure conference Thursday.
Kanies wasn’t out to scare people, but he had a point: Most companies don’t even have internal rules for the use of data with cloud services, save for a clear understanding of the law. Fellow panelist and enStratus VP of Product Strategy James Urquhart agreed, pointing out that courts have yet to device whether Fourth Amendment rights apply to documents saved in the cloud…
The future of cloud computing: 9 trends for 2012
The view of cloud computing remains mixed as the technology brings benefits and risks in equal measures. Here’s what 39 major tech firms said about it.
We’re all about seeing around corners here at ZDNet, frequently taking the pulse of the technology industry to determine where it’s headed next.
Venture capital firms are interested in the same thing — for them, the difference between right and wrong is measured in (millions of) dollars.
North Bridge Venture Partners, which is split between Boston and San Mateo, released a survey this morning on the future of cloud computing. The firm polled 785 people at 39 high-profile enterprise technology companies — Akamai, AWS, Citrix, Microsoft, Red Hat, SAP and VMware among them — to see where their respective heads are at with regard to cloud computing…
IBM Smartcloud Infrastructure – Build your private and hybrid cloud computing environment
Microsoft’s Nadella: We will democratize big data
Microsoft plans to bring big data to the little guy, said Satya Nadella, president of the Microsoft Server and Tools group and the executive directing the company’s gigantic Windows Azure cloud effort.
The company’s decision to make Hadoop a first-class citizen of Azure is a huge piece of the puzzle, but linking that technology to mere mortal end users with Excel is what will make big data broadly applicable, he said…
Where in the world is my data center?
In a world where data centers can be built on massive sites in rural North Carolina, in modular pods dropped down in Las Vegas, or in renewable energy-powered countries like Iceland, data center operators have a lot of options. Many are looking to differentiate themselves on efficiency and geography, says Kevin Timmons, the CTO of co-location data center operator CyrusOne, at GigaOM’s Structure event on Thursday.
Energy efficiency might not have been so important in the past, said Timmons, but that’s increasingly changing as the customer sees they can write a smaller check for using less power. Tate Cantrell, CTO of Verne Global, which built a data center in Iceland that runs completely on the country’s hydro and geothermal power, says renewable energy is also becoming an increasingly important factor in deciding where to build data centers…
Cloud Computing: Is OpenFlow an answer looking for a problem?
OpenFlow and software-defined networking may be hot topics in the infrastructure industry right now — but not everyone believes they are up to scratch.
At a panel discussing internet bypass and new data center fabrics at GigaOM’s Structure 2012 in San Francisco on Thursday, two senior industry figures said that the standard was still too immature to be useable.
Kenneth Duda, CTO and founder of cloud networking provider Arista Networks, launched a stinging criticism of OpenFlow — which he said was unable to do many of the jobs currently being ascribed to it…
Digital media experts tout AWS as best cloud starting point
Executives from Dropbox, Netflix and Evernote discuss the challenges for controlling huge infrastructure costs.
At GigaOm Structure 2011, the big theme was just getting businesses to consider adopting cloud computing. This year, it’s clear that the cloud has been accepted (for the most part) as the future of computing.
Now the debate is about which cloud vendors and strategies you should choose, whether you build something in-house, go with a major vendor like Amazon Web Services, develop a mixture of the two, and much more. Honestly, the choices can be overwhelming for both small businesses and large businesses stuck on old infrastructures with tight IT budgets…
Standardized Cloud APIs Aren’t Possible
Rackspace President Lew Moorman drew a line in the sand for cloud standards: On one side, he put those companies and commenters that think cloning Amazon’s APIs is the way forward. On the other side are those that think standards need to be open and developed independently of any particular vendor. I’m definitely in the latter camp, so I’m keeping good company, but the real question is: What, exactly, needs to be standardized?
The discussion seems to be around cloud APIs. Many want to standardize the semantics, headers, method calls, etc. That would make integrators’ jobs easier because they could create a single API, write to it and have it work anywhere. You don’t have to peek too far under the covers to see that isn’t possible or even desirable…
Vubiz launches premier Online Cloud Computing Course
The word "Cloud" no longer refers only to white puffy formations in the sky; technology has transformed the word "cloud" into today’s hottest buzzword. It starts with the word cloud as a metaphor for the Internet: derived from the cloud symbols that often represent the internet on diagrams. Cloud Computing gets a little more hazy, but generally describes a type of internet computing or utility computing and refers to the delivery of computing and storage capacity as a service to a community of recipients.
Vubiz Elearning has launched one of the first online learning courses to explain this important new service and learn how businesses can benefit from cloud computing…