Author: David

Grazed from Sys Con Media.  Author: Srinivasan Sundara Rajan.

Information Delivery Needs in Academics
Analyzing massive amounts of unstructured content and extracting information out of them is necessary for many industry verticals and particularly important for academics. The following points highlight the growing needs for information delivery in the field of education and research:

• (Higher) Education Going Virtual: With the increased costs of higher education and other federal-related restrictions on travel from other countries, higher education is turning more toward the virtual class room and this trend will increase in the future. This means that there are an increasing number of students who will look for information over the virtual classrooms and by other means such as social media, access through smart devices, etc. The more unstructured the data, the greater the need to process them toward meaningful content for students…

Grazed from Forbes.  Author: Ricardo Geromel.

Grazed from Sys Con Media.  Author: Maureen O’Gara.

According to Alpine Data Labs, the two-year-old Big Data start-up incubated inside Greenplum, all that stuff bulging out of your storage is useless.  Unless it’s susceptible to predictive analytics, but finding those nuggets of insight can be a pretty pricey exercise.

Alpine set out to take the sticker shock out of the equation with its initial product, Alpine Miner, which simplifies the process of building predictive models for massive datasets without using a single line of code…

Grazed from Sys Con Media.  Author: PR Announcement.

If you’re not familiar with cloud computing or Software as a Service, you’re not alone. Silicon Valley-based, SaaS Markets has launched an easy to use and powerful business tool for enterprises of any size. Appmerica (www.appmerica.com) and Appclick (www.appclick.co.uk) feature over 1,100 cloud-based software solutions that make streamlining the operation of your business fast and simple. With just a few clicks, you can simplify any organization with business solutions ranging from accounting to customer relationship management (CRM).

Need to set up a custom billing plan for your business? Cheddar Getter™ provides a full-featured, easy-to-use billing and recurring subscription management system so you can accept and track one-time charges and recurring payments. Aside from having a fun name, Cheddar Getter™ has three monthly billing plans ranging from free to $79 per month…

Grazed from BBC.  Author: Editorial Staff.

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have access to greater computing power than ever before thanks to cloud computing.

This remote computing power – provided by a third party, usually over the internet using a web browser, and often without a contract – is transforming the way SMEs use IT and even do business.  Cloud computing is lowering the barrier to entry into business for some SMEs, and helping speed up exploitation of new opportunities for others.

It is democratising IT and enabling many SMEs to act like, and appear to be, organisations of much greater size and scope. In these ways, with SMEs the growth engine for many countries, cloud computing has the potential to have a positive impact on industries and economies alike…

Grazed from SMEStorage.  Author: PR Announcement.

SMEStorage today announced it has integrated Eucalyptus Walrus into its Cloud File Server, enabling organisations to use the solution as a hybrid Cloud File Server. Walrus provides a highly scalable redundant unstructured data store that is compatible with the Amazon S3 Storage API. SMEStorage provides a Cloud File Server appliance that enables companies to rapidly implement a hybrid on-premise Cloud File Server that provides support for all desktop and mobile devices. Together, the solution enables fast, ready-to-use cloud storage and can evolve into a complete cloud Infrastructure as a Service on-premise solution.

"We have seen increasing demand for Eucalyptus Walrus from small businesses who wish to leverage Walrus as a private cloud storage solution, to start ups, larger businesses, and ISP’s who wish to use Walrus AWS compatible S3 storage as a non-proprietary storage platform," said SMEStorage CEO Ian Osborne. "Customers can now use SMEStorage with Walrus to rapidly deploy a full data center solution, which includes native desktop drives with sophisticated synchronisation solutions for Windows, Mac and Linux. Businesses can also leverage the rapid growth in mobility to offer sophisticated mobile clients for iPhone/iPad, Android, BlackBerry, and Windows Mobile 7."

Grazed from CloudZoom.  Author: PR Announcement.

CloudZoom, Inc. announces the official release of it’s website today. The New Hampshire based startup has a vision of the future, and the future contains simple, fast, and convenient virtual appliance services. A multiyear plan for rolling out products and services is in the works.

Grazed from TelecomCloudServices.com.  Author: Hoofer

 You may have seen that there are quite a few events, conferences and exhibitions on Cloud Computing taking place around the globe. But this is a cloud computing event with a difference – this is the only Cloud Computing Summit dedicated to telco professionals!

Grazed from CNet.  Author: Ralph Needleman.

Zynga was once a big buyer of cloud computing services. Today, it’s becoming a seller.

In 2009, when FarmVille started taking off–it grew to 10 million daily active users in six weeks, 25 million in five months–the company began to lean heavily on rented resources to handle the load. Zynga used Amazon Web Services, and over time, shunted more and more of the day-to-day load of running its games to AWS. By January 2011, AWS was handling 80 percent of Zynga’s load. Only 20 percent was on servers that Zynga owned.

But at Zynga scale, using that infrastructure became inefficient, according to Zynga’s CTO of infrastructure, Allan Leinwand, who I spoke with earlier in February. And by inefficient, he means expensive..

Grazed from CloudTweaks.  Author: Casper Mains.

Considering a move to the cloud for one or several of your key services? If so, you are not alone. Cloud computing is growing exponentially as more and more vendors are starting to offer services, and as more businesses are beginning to see the potential for cost savings as well as the ability to offer new services that were beyond their capacity. When moving services to the cloud, you are moving critical parts of your IT infrastructure and corporate information assets to systems that you will not have direct administrative access to. You will be relying on your vendor to provide security, auditing, and change management for these components, and will be relying upon them to secure your data.

Security in the cloud is very good, and in many cases the economies of scale vendors have at their disposal along with the specialized staffing means it will be better than what you could reasonably accomplish on your own, but you do want to make sure you understand all aspects of security in the cloud…