December 2011: GovCloud Moves From Policy to Law
Over the past years, government cloud computing has steadily moved forward from it’s early beginnings as an interesting curiosity:
December 23, 2008 – Now really. Should the Obama administration use cloud computing?
Since Sunday’s broadcast, I’ve been asked numerous times about my real answer to the question “Will ‘Cloud Computing’ Work In White House“. Although I would never assume to be in a position to advise the President-elect, I’m more than happy, however, to add my voice to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the distinguished list of contributors that recently released the CSIS Commission on Cybersecurity for the 44th Presidency…
OpenLogic’s CloudSwing Ties Into the Rackspace Cloud and Announces Entry Into the Rackspace Cloud Tools Program
OpenLogic, Inc., provider of enterprise open source solutions for the cloud and the data center, today announced that CloudSwing can now deploy to the Rackspace Cloud and that they have entered into the Cloud Tools program with Rackspace(R) Hosting, RAX +1.39% , the world’s leading specialist in the hosting and cloud computing industry. Rackspace Cloud Tools is a showcase site for leading technologies that work with the Rackspace Cloud.
OpenLogic CloudSwing is a fully flexible Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) cloud solution offering cost-tracking and complete customization of technology stacks. CloudSwing users can also leverage OpenLogic’s support of over 600 different open source packages…
Amazon Builds 42nd Fastest Supercomputer, but it’s on the Cloud
When we think of supercomputers, the image that generally comes to mind is one of racks and racks of specially built machinery kept in super-clean fluorescent rooms. While that may be true for the most powerful computers in the world, Amazon may be changing things. The online bookseller has apparently harnessed the power of its massive cloud computing platform called Elastic Cloud Computer (EC2) to create the 42nd fastest supercomputer in the world, which — strictly speaking — doesn’t exist here in meatspace.
Amazon’s virtual super computer is capable of running 240 trillion calculations per second, or 240 teraflops. That’s a far cry from the world’s fastest computer, Japan’s K Computer, which last we heard was humming along at around 10 petaflops. It’s even short of Intel’s crazy fast Knights Corner chip, which has fifty cores and one petaflop performance on a single chip…
Cloud Crime Mapping: Top 3 Crime Mapping Startups to Watch in 2012
Crime Mapping is basically visualizing where crime happens on a map so that people can either avoid it or factor it in when calculating risk management. With big data such as crime and mapping predicted to be a major focus for Cloud computing in 2012, it offers great promise for many a startup in 2012. As such we have listed three of the more promising Crime Mapping Startups to watch for in 2012 which includes Crimedar, Mapacrime and Sgo (SureteGlobale.Org).
The Scalable, Available Cloud
With the evolution and proliferation of cloud computing, as more and more applications are being migrated to the cloud, many organizations are considering moving their database to the cloud as well.
Two main concerns on users’ minds are database scalability and availability. How scalable/elastic is a database in the cloud, and will the data be highly available?
Scalability in the Cloud
In terms of scalability, there are several things users need to think about when choosing the right solution, most importantly questions and priorities around capacity and throughput…
Texas Company Sues Cloud Computing Biggies For Patent Infringement
There’s an old Texas saying – “Everything’s bigger in Texas”; now, it seems that Texan firm PersonalWeb (www.personalweb.com) has taken it to heart considering its suing the biggest names in the cloud computing business – Google, Amazon, VMware, EMC, NetApp and NEC. Additionally, there are some smaller players named as respondents as well, such as Dropbox and Caringo. They have been accused of using Tyler-based PersonalWeb’s patented technology as part of their distributed computing products or systems, including content addressable storage and/or distributed search engine technologies.
“PersonalWeb protects its proprietary business applications and operations through a portfolio of patents that it owns, and we are actively pursuing licensing and participation in the operation of businesses that use these patents,” states Michael Weiss, CEO and President of PersonalWeb. The lawsuits were filed in the United States District Court, Eastern District of Texas…
Cloud computing creates new problem for Microsoft
Microsoft’s current thrust in the cloud computing sector is believed to have helped Microsoft compete better with market leaders Apple and Google. However, it is speculated that a dipping profit margin will act as a deterrent and restrict this expansion. Microsoft’s cloud computing services lets corporates manage spread sheets and websites stored on Microsoft’s server in return for a subscription payment. Recently expanding its offerings, the services now allow customers to edit photos online and stream TV shows.
Though highly customer friendly, the cost of maintaining the software in its own data centre and server costs along with other expenses have resulted in the company missing its profits estimate for 2012, warns Goldman Sachs’ analysts Heather Bellini. Jason Maynard from Wells Fargo Securities said that Microsoft may not be able to produce outsized margins like before. This change in the profit scenarios arises from CEO Steve Ballmer’s decision to capitalize new investments like increasing Xbox features and most recently, acquiring Skype for over $8 billion…
6 Ways Cloud Computing Will Evolve In 2012
Cloud computing has become so broadly accepted that it won’t rank as an exciting development for 2012. Instead, you will see a more organized, concerted application of resources to further the cloud’s use in conjunction with central IT. Let’s take a look at the top things we can expect from the cloud over the next year.
1. 2012: Year Of The Hybrid Cloud
The most obvious expression of the trend is the serious interest in private cloud computing, where more of the enterprise data center is given over to virtualized and automated operations, including end-user self service. Why? Because the public cloud, if still not fully trusted, is understood to be a long-term player on the landscape. The movement to internal cloud computing isn’t in opposition to the public cloud. Rather, it reflects the growing sense within IT that its own environment will need to be as efficient and compatible as possible…
Let the Cloudwashing Continue… …And Other Big Themes for 2012
"Cloud computing is expected to mature and become a mainstream technology for businesses in Asia-Pacific by 2015," according to a new forecast from Frost & Sullivan.
Meanwhile, Joe McKendrick writes in Forbes that "’cloud’ will begin to fade as a differentiating term – because it will just be the way we do things."
I believe that 2011 will be viewed in retrospect as Year Zero of cloud computing, with 2012 seen as Year One. Yet I also agree with the opinions above, primarily because they relate to my first theme of 2012…
Salesforce VP: Social enterprise revolutionizing focus of cloud computing
Talking about the social enterprise is changing the entire focus of cloud computing from just reorganizing IT to revolutionizing businesses, according to Peter Coffee, vice president and head of platform research at Salesforce.com.
Coffee recently spoke candidly with me about his predictions for what will be the major trends in enterprise technology in 2012 and how they will pan out.
Like many other companies, Coffee’s remarks pointed toward the “SoCoMo” trifecta: social, cloud, and mobile. But it’s not as simple as tossing these three categories out as examples — it’s about making sure that these three trends work together seamlessly while standing strong as their own pillars as well…