Grazed from Forbes. Author: Robert X. Cringely.

In my last two columns here I explained why iPads last longer than expected (very few mechanical parts to go bad) but that the longevity of almost any modern device is finite because of those darned mechanical parts and eventual failure of lead-free solder joints. This final column in the series is the good news: even solder failures won’t matter soon because computing hardware will shortly become irrelevant.

It not only won’t matter what kind of computer or operating system you have, it also won’t matter whether what you have is a PC, a tablet, or a phone because you’ll be able to do the same work — exactly the same work — on any of them. Personal computing has come to be about ecosystems — primarily Windows, Macintosh, and many flavors of Linux…

Grazed from StorageAcceleration. Author: Bill Kleyman.

Storage is always an interesting topic when it comes to the idea of the cloud. How do we replicate the information? How do we ensure data integrity? How do we optimally utilize storage space within our cloud model? When we take a look at the modern datacenter we see that there are already many different kinds of storage efficiencies built in. Things like data deduplication, thin provisioning, and even data tiers can be applied to vast arrays and multiple controllers.

The challenge has been to take a lot of this technology and span into the cloud. With that in mind, I had a chat with a senior storage architect — Jeff Arkin of MTM Technologies — who argues that cloud computing helps introduce a whole new tier when it comes to data control. He points out, "Cloud introduces another storage tier which, for example, allows for moving data to an off-premises location for archival, backups, or the elimination of off-site infrastructure for disaster recovery…

Grazed from RISCNetworks. Author: Jesse Frye.

Cloud computing is the foundation of many operations, including Web-scale IT. Cameron Haight, research vice president at Gartner, recently explained the term was founded by the likes of Amazon, Google, Facebook, Netflix and Rackspace. The tech model improves service delivery capabilities, enabling smaller businesses to directly compete with larger enterprises.

"Gartner has identified six elements to Web-scale IT: industrially-designed data centers, Web-oriented (or microservices) architectures, programmable management, velocity-focused processes, a collaborative organization style, and an innovation-centric and learning culture," Haight said…

Grazed from Forbes. Author: Louis Columbus.

Demand for Computer Systems Analysts with big data expertise increased 89.9% in the last twelve months , and 85.40% for Computer and Information Research Scientists. Demand for Python programming expertise increased 96.9% in big-data related positions in the last twelve months.

These and other key insights are from a recent analysis completed of big data hiring trends using WANTED Analytics, the leading provider of data analytics on the workplace. For purposes of this analysis, the term “big data” is comprised of the four skill sets of data analysis, data acquisition, data mining and data structures. The WANTED Analytics taxonomy references these skill sets when queries are made on the term “big data”…

Grazed from DataCenterKnowledge. Author: Bill Kleyman.

The idea is to build a cloud platform as efficiently as possible. That means having hardware components in place capable of handling high user demand, great levels of multi-tenancy, and advanced resource controls. So, is this why so many companies are starting to look more at converged infrastructures for their cloud and virtualization platform?

There are some new players on the market. Numerous vendors are creating powerful node-based server platforms capable of great amounts of scale. Nutanix, for example, says that their platform is already adopted by the likes of Google, Facebook and Amazon. It does make sense though. Your organization can quickly build a “cloud-in-a-box” platform with everything you need…

Grazed from TechTarget. Author: Dan Ring.

The cloud, mobile and analytics were the major technology trends having an impact on software for financials and human resources in 2014. Cloud computing advantages have been a focus for at least five years, but in 2014, more and more companies stopped using software on-premises and shifted to software as a service (SaaS).

Companies discovered cloud computing advantages in managing and improving business processes, customer relations and employees. Paul Hamerman, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research, based in Cambridge, Mass., said he is seeing a pickup in adoption of software categories that had been laggards in the past…

Grazed from Wired. Author: Hugh Goldstein.

Communication is a critical function for any business. Listening to customers. Negotiating with suppliers. Collaborating with teams and partners. Without it, no business can thrive or survive. In the past, businesses of all sizes were dependent on carriers for all of these services. According to Standard & Poor’s 2013 Global Sales Report, 46 percent of the S&P 500 business occurs outside of the United States, which is up from 42 percent ten years earlier.

Accordingly, telecommunications requirements are more global than ever before. Connecting these international and disparate company footholds has required a complicated and often expensive combination of voice and data carrier expertise. But the long promised convergence of voice and data networks has enabled savings as IT and Telecom requirements and functions merged into an increasingly common set of products, services and skills…

Grazed from CIO. Author: Diane Bryant.

I had the pleasure of joining Tom Krazit on stage at the Gigaom Structure’14 conference to share Intel’s vision of the data center in support of the growth of the digital services economy. We are in the midst of a bold industry transformation as IT evolves from supporting the business to being the business. This transformation and the move to cloud computing calls into question many of the fundamental principles of data center architecture.

Two significant changes are the move to software defined infrastructure (SDI) and the move to scale-out, distributed applications. The speed of application development and deployment of new services is rapid. The infrastructure must keep pace. It must move from statically configured to dynamic, from manually operated to fully automated, and from fixed function to open standard. As we have many times in our history, Intel is embracing this transformation and driving technology innovation to re-architect today’s data centers for the future…

Grazed from TalkinCloud. Author: Terry Hedden.

It’s no secret that the "cloud" is the buzz word of the day. It means different things to different people, but everyone is talking about it. I am often asked what the key components to have in your cloud offering. And here’s how I respond …

Backup and Disaster Recovery — This is the most common form of cloud computing our industry has. Tape backup has gone the way of the dodo bird and electronic offsite backup has taken over. The reason is simple. Cheap bandwidth has made almost every backup size possible and cost effective. It is important to offer two types of backup, one for files and folders and one for images that can be brought up in the cloud…

Grazed from TheConversation. Author: Yijun Yu.

While the full picture has yet to emerge, it appears that the reason for the loss of Air Asia flight QZ8501 is different from the losses of MH370 and MH17 earlier this year. MH17 was clearly a man-made disaster, QZ8501 appears to be weather-related. MH370 remains a mystery.

Even though cloud-computing could help advance the status of the black box in terms of the investigation after such incidents, as we are only too aware, nature – in the form of bad weather – often plays a significant role in airline disasters. Is there anything we can do, on the ground, to lower the risk of these weather-related incidents?…