Cloud Computing’s Hidden ‘Green’ Benefits
Cloud computing energy consumption is a source of much debate. On one side, some see a massive new form of industrialization gobbling up resources; with large cloud and social networking sites consuming megawatts of power to feed insatiable computing needs.
Greenpeace called attention to the growing, power-hungry data center footprint, citing estimates that cloud computer sites could consume up to 622.6 billion kWh (kilowatts per hour) of power. Jonathan Koomey, Ph.D., consulting professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University, estimates that the cloud is already responsible for 1-2% of the world’s electricity use…
The Cloud Imperative
Before Facebook and Google—even before the Internet—scientists at MIT had a radical vision they called the computer utility.
"Computing may someday be organized as a public utility just as the telephone system is a public utility," Professor John McCarthy said at MIT’s centennial celebration in 1961. "Each subscriber needs to pay only for the capacity he actually uses, but he has access to all programming languages characteristic of a very large system … Certain subscribers might offer service to other subscribers … The computer utility could become the basis of a new and important industry."…
Top Cloud Computing Enablers Gaining Mind Share in 3Q 2011
Are you wondering who is gaining mind share in the 3rd quarter of 2011? Well wonder no more. Lets take a look at the Top Cloud Enablers Gaining Mind Share, and The Leaderboard (Up and Coming Cloud Innovators, Movers and Shakers). As you know, Cloud computing has gone mainstream, and large enterprise information technology companies must continue their rapid restructuring to an on-demand model enhancing their portfolios largely through acquisitions. So lets see how they’re doing…
Blah Blah Blah Cloud
There are many reasons to move toward cloud computing in one of its forms. In fact, with so many current forms, it’s difficult not to move toward cloud computing in some manner.
It’s easy enough to become cynical about, and even resistant to, all cloud computing pitches and conversations, now that all vendors are defining the cloud on their own terms…
Cashing in on the cloud
Grazed from Dynamic Business. Author: Clive Gold.
Cloud computing is catching on more and more in the small business world as people increasingly get a better understanding of what it is. The benefits for those that embrace it are potentially enormous, with the opportunities to be exploited by harnessing cloud technology not reserved for larger businesses only, as once thought. What needs to be understood is that the cloud can add a lot of value to small businesses due to its simplicity, accessibility and flexibility – as long as you are able to stay clear of some mistakes that businesses commonly make during their journey to the cloud…
Is “the Cloud” overrated?
With so much hype around how great cloud computing is, it’s hard to imagine it any way other than good. The news is full of stories about what the cloud can do, the increased adoption rate of the cloud, and how more and more businesses are developing cloud applications. As a result, it would be really easy for businesses that are not on board with cloud computing to think that they’re way behind the times…
Inside the Cloud
You could call me an observer of technology more than an expert. I have been involved in computing since 1967 and have seen a variety of techniques and ideas come and go. The cloud is the "next big thing," though it has been around for a long time…
Amazon Silk is the First Step in Giving Mobiles Unlimited Computing Power
What’s missing from the story of Amazon’s new cloud-turbocharged Silk browser, presently available only on its Fire tablet but probably coming to other devices, is the larger context of this technology. What would happen, for example, if Amazon used its massive cloud computing infrastructure not merely to pre-process the user’s browsing experience, but also to offload much of the processing powering of the rest of a device’s apps and OS?…
NASA Vets Lead Rival Cloud Startups
Two veterans of NASA’s Nebula cloud computing project, former NASA CTO for IT Chris Kemp, and former NASA technical lead and cloud architect Joshua McKenty, are squaring off in competing cloud computing ventures, less than a year after each left the space agency.
The duo’s companies both build on the free, open source OpenStack infrastructure-as-a-service project sponsored by NASA and Rackspace with participation from dozens of companies, including Citrix, Dell, Intel, and Cisco, among others. OpenStack itself grew directly out of NASA’s Nebula project, famous for its use of shipping containers to house computing equipment….
Citrix Optimizes XenServer for the Cloud Era
Citrix Systems today announced the availability of XenServer(R) 6, the most recent edition of its server virtualization product line. As a key component of the Citrix cloud computing and virtualization strategy, XenServer 6 brings new optimizations and improved scalability and performance for cloud infrastructure, desktop virtualization and networking. XenServer continues to grow market presence and adoption, fueled by the strong leadership of the underlying open source Xen(R) technology, the virtualization platform of choice in a majority of the public cloud today. XenServer was recently positioned by Gartner, Inc. in the leaders quadrant of the "2011 Magic Quadrant for x86 Server Virtualization Infrastructure, and was listed as a "Champion" in Info-Tech Research Group’s Vendor Landscape report on server virtualization…