Category: News

Grazed from Hydrapinion.  Author: Ian Grayson.

We all know cloud computing is changing the data centres of many organisations, but its impact on the corporate desktop is also increasing by the day.  Rather than shelling out for expensive office productivity packages, growing numbers of businesses are opting to provide their employees with cloud-based variants.

The trend first emerged among small and mid-sized businesses where the lower cost and reduced complexity of such an approach is particularly attractive. Now, however, the shift is becoming more prevalent inside larger outfits too…

Grazed from GigaOM.  Author: Amy Armitage.

For the early history of computing, data tended to be kept locked down within isolated, local systems for security reasons. With the advent of the cloud however, the idea of accessing data from anywhere, using cost-effective on-demand services is now thoroughly mainstream. Indeed, the future of IT is the cloud.  As cloud computing continues its triumphant spread, one issue that has continued to get undeservedly little attention, though, is the geographical location of data. The ongoing NSA scandal is finally bringing to light just one aspect of how critically important the physical location of digital data has become.

Distance can increase risk

On the most basic level, choosing a cloud provider whose data centers are located on a distant continent will obviously increase latency and so adversely affect performance. For businesses where performance and speed are relevant that’s a major concern. But it’s also worth considering that submarine communication cables, despite all their protective layers, are regularly broken by fishing trawlers, anchors and natural events such as earthquakes and turbidity currents – more than 50 cable breakdowns a year are repaired in the Atlantic alone. So relying on distant cloud providers can add a layer of risk of service dropouts that isn’t tenable for many businesses…

Grazed from iProgrammer.  Author: Harry Fairhead.

A video from a team at ETH Zurich shows full 3D mapping in real time being performed by an inexpensive, lightweight Turtlebot. Instead of the computation being done locally it is offloading it using Rapyuta, the RoboEarth Cloud Engine.

 As depicted in the diagram below, the  robot is equipped with an RGBD sensor (ASUS Xtion PRO), an ARM-based single board computer (Odriod-U2), and an off-the-shelf wireless dongle. The robot transmits RGB images (QVGA resolution) and depth images (QVGA resolution) at 30 FPS to Rapyuta with a frame by frame compression (JPEG for RGB, and PNG for depth images). The single board computer is therefore only used for compression, communication, and low-level control of the robot.  The computation is performed in Ireland, courtesy of Amazon Web Services…

Grazed from GAO.  Author: Editorial Staff.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office confirmed the selection of Amazon Web Services as prime contractor for cloud computing services on behalf of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).  The award was confirmed over the protests of IBM.

The contract calls for a 270-day period to achieve initial operating capability, a 4-year base ordering period, a 3-year option, and a 2-year option, with a maximum value of $600 million over the base period. The contractor is to provide its existing public cloud (modified where necessary) to be installed on government premises and operated by the provider…

Grazed from The Web Host Industry Review.  Author: Justin Lee.

Web hosting and cloud hosting provider Vault Networks announced on Friday it has launched its new cloud servers product, vnCloud, which marks its first major move into the cloud computing space.  The move comes a few months after Vault Networks doubled the raised floor space it occupies in ColoHouse’s Miami data center, making it the facility’s biggest customer.

“We noticed that the hourly-based pricing structure most of the bigger players were using was, at the end of the day, adding up to a very expensive solution,” said Brian Jankovich, VN’s founder and president. “We knew our clients wanted to start leveraging the power and flexibility of cloud servers, but didn’t want to break the bank to get there. Our model fills that gap.”…

Grazed from ITWorld.  Author: Tom Spring.

Google is bringing new meaning to the word "cloud computing." No Google is not rolling out a new SaaS solution. Instead Google is launching Project Loon that aims to bring Internet access to every corner of the globe via high-altitude balloons. Yes, that’s right it’s called Project Loon, as in "a crazy person" as Merriam-Webster defines the word. But it’s June and this is not an elaborate April Fool’s joke.  

Google’s Project Loon is an ambitious experiment to use a network of high-altitude balloons to bring Internet access to parts of New Zealand that would otherwise not have Web access. It’s a test of Google’s larger ambitions to pioneer efforts to bring the Internet to other parts of the world including Africa where millions do not have access to the Internet…

Grazed from PandoDaily.  Author: Ben Sesser.

Life would be much easier if a great product was the only requirement for a great business. Of course, talk to any vineyard owner or long-time New York Times shareholder and they can attest that this is not the case.  Software as a service companies are no different. As challenging as it is to build great software someone is willing to buy, other pieces must fall into place for success.

In SaaS, three critical pieces that must fall in place to create long-term value are price, customer acquisition cost, and churn. You need a sustainable mix of what customers will pay for your product, how much it costs to acquire customers, and how long you can keep them…

Grazed from Network World.  Author: Linda Musthaler.

When cloud computing was in its infancy, proponents raised interest in the technology by telling companies they could save money by running their applications on infrastructure they didn’t own or operate. In fact, some companies wouldn’t even need their own data center anymore! Amazon, or Rackspace or some other service provider, could provide all the computing capacity a company could ever want. And SaaS providers could deliver ready-to-use enterprise applications that companies could rent by the month.

With a value proposition like that, some companies started to jump on the bandwagon, using cloud computing in all its forms. Software, security, infrastructure, platforms — all delivered as a convenient service.  But the downside involved losing visibility and control over computing. Now, departments and even individuals can engage a cloud service without the approval or even the knowledge of the IT department…

Grazed from V3.co.uk. Author: Daniel Robinson.

Microsoft has added much-needed multi-factor authentication to its Windows Azure cloud computing platform, enabling organisations to secure access to any Azure services used by workers, partners and customers.  Available now, Active Authentication enables multi-factor authentication for Windows Azure Active Directory identities, the cloud-based service that provides identity and access capabilities for applications and other resources on Windows Azure itself.

Active Authentication requires users to authenticate themselves at sign in using an app on their mobile device or via an automated phone call or text message. This extra step helps prevent unauthorised access to data and applications in the cloud, Microsoft said…

Grazed from PR NewsWire. Author: PR Announcement.

You might think that in cyberspace, the servers might as well be anywhere. But even in the era of cloud computing, physical location matters. So where are your IT services truly safe? Cloud computing has taken the world by storm in recent years. More and more companies are transferring their data and applications to external providers, saving infrastructure costs and freeing up IT staff for strategic tasks. And the Internet is making geographical distances irrelevant – opening up a global market for cloud solutions. So as long as the service is attractively priced and available when required, does it really matter where the servers are located?

Offshore can be unsure

Well, yes, it does. There’s a firm consensus among experts that mission-critical enterprise data needs to be stored in a secure data centre, where it is safe from cybercrime and industrial espionage. But the site of the data centre is important too. When it comes to weighing up the risks, the old real-estate adage – location, location, location – is a good rule of thumb…