Grazed from TGDaily. Author: Lexie Lu.

Cloud computing is defined as using remote servers to store your data outside of a local physical hard drive. You’re basically storing all of your information in a digital “cloud” that can be accessed by you from anywhere in the world, as long as you have a computer and a decent internet connection. How has cloud computing already changed the way we store data — and how is it continuing to shape the business world?

1. Increased Flexibility

Traditional data storage techniques are rigid and require constant hardware updates to keep up with a growing or changing business. If you utilize in-house servers, a bandwidth or storage upgrade requires a large-scale overhaul which could potentially take your entire system offline while it’s being completed…

Aparna Systems today announced the Orca µCloud and Orca µServer-the industry’s first open software Cloud-in-a-Box solution to converge compute, storage and networking resources in a compact, energy-efficient system. In addition to offering industry-leading high density and scalability, with support for up to 10,000 cores per rack, the µCloud systems deliver the high performance and high availability needed in distributed, edge, aggregation and core environments. The system-level architecture provides an optimal configuration without the need for "rack and stack" engineering, while the use of merchant silicon and open software enables the Cloud-in-a-Box to be used in bare metal, containerized and virtualized applications. Aparna Systems will unveil and demonstrate the Orca µCloud and Orca µServer this week in Booth 41 at NFV World Congress May 3 – 5 at the San Jose Double Tree Hilton.

"Aparna’s Cloud-in-a-Box has the potential to be a real game-changer in a variety of applications," according to Michael Howard, senior research director and advisor for Carrier Networks at IHS Markit. "This is particularly true at the edge of the network, including in central offices, where carriers have struggled to find a practical and affordable way to deploy adequate compute and storage resources. The system’s high density and design innovations combine to also drastically improve scalability and energy efficiency compared to blade servers."

Grazed from WION. Author: Editorial Staff.

Microsoft on Thursday reported a strong jump in profits in the just-ended quarter but revenue fell short of expectations in the tech giant’s first earnings report incorporating social network LinkedIn. Net profit rose 28 per cent to $4.8 billion while revenues edged up eight per cent to $22.1 billion in the quarter ending March 31, Microsoft said.

Shares in Microsoft fell 1.8 per cent in after-hours trade on the results. The earnings for Microsoft’s fiscal third quarter come as chief executive Satya Nadella seeks to reduce the tech giant’s focus on software, shifting to cloud computing and business services. "Our results this quarter reflect the trust customers are placing in the Microsoft cloud," Nadella said in a statement…

Grazed from CloudTech. Author: James Bourne

Analysis April 27 saw Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft release its most recent financial results, with cloud at the heart of their success. But this doesn’t quite tell the full story. Amazon reported net sales for Amazon Web Services (AWS) hit $3.66 billion (£2.83bn), up 42% from a year before, but up only 3.5% from the previous quarter’s $3.54bn.

Amazon’s cloud computing arm secured 12 bullet points of its own in the 32-point strong ‘highlights’ of the quarter, with particular reference to the general availability of Amazon Lex, the technology which powers Alexa, as well as Connect, the company’s cloud-based contact centre service. AWS also said that customers had migrated more than 23,000 databases using its database migration service since it had become available in 2016…

In recent years, education is a field that has been increasingly benefiting from using the cloud as part of its workflows. Universities across the country are taking more of their operations to the cloud. There are different ways cloud computing is pushing the education landscape forward.

Better Research Programs

The switch to collective resources and cloud computing in education started with various research programs conducted by universities. There are plenty of research programs in fields like medicine and applied physics that require a large amount of computing power to crunch numbers and do simulations. It would be too expensive for individual universities to invest in such a large supercomputer, which is why cloud computing becomes an essential part of these programs.

Nerdio, a pioneer in ITaaS technology, announced today it is integrating Kaseya’s remote management and monitoring (RMM) solution, VSA.

Nerdio’s platform fully automates the provisioning and management of entire virtual desktop-centric IT environments — all from a single admin portal. Nerdio’s three-click approach takes previously cumbersome and time-consuming IT tasks and makes them virtually effortless.

Kaseya also utilizes a single, centralized management console to offer proactive, user-defined monitoring of servers, workstations, remote computers, Windows Event Logs, and applications. It enables instant notifications about problems or changes system-wide, so that IT professionals can minimize disruptions and keep their organizations running efficiently.

Rackspace today announced the expansion of its managed service offerings for the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud to include a portfolio of Professional Services. The Fanatical Support for AWS Professional Services are tailored to support customers who are new to, or growing on, AWS and need deep, customized expertise to help enable their AWS Cloud journey in key areas such as architectural design, migrations, cloud automation and DevOps. This new offering aligns with Rackspace’s broader efforts to develop professional services that deliver end-to-end support and expertise to help customers move workloads out of their data centers and onto the world’s leading cloud platforms.

The addition of Fanatical Support for AWS Professional Services to the Rackspace suite of managed services for AWS reflects a continued commitment to help customers take full advantage of AWS. AWS-certified architects and engineers will work with customers to enable their journey to AWS, helping to ensure they achieve maximum performance, agility and cost-efficiency.

"Rackspace is famous for its support, and we use it a lot," said Paul Keen, CTO of Airtasker, a Fanatical Support for AWS customer. "We work with the Rackspace Professional Services team for any projects we can’t do in-house, as well as using security services to tighten up our systems, and we iterate monthly to improve our services. Rackspace really cares about its customers. We expected that level of care during the sales cycle, but it has continued throughout our engagement with them. That’s what really sets them apart."