Smart meter cloud announced by IBM and Cable & Wireless
IBM and Cable & Wireless are set to collaborate to offer a ‘smart energy cloud’ to support the UK’s new energy meter rollout.
Some 50 million smart meters are being rolled out to UK homes and businesses, with the aim of better regulating energy distribution and helping users to control their energy usage.
The collaboration between IBM and Cable & Wireless is intended to take on other vendors in the market, including a BT-Arqiva partnership, and a British Gas-O2 offering.
Virtualization: The Next Generation
Every now and again, a vendor comes up with a good idea that is much bigger than itself. Such is the case with vApps from VMware, applications that behave as one logical entity even though they span multiple virtual machine environments.
Cloud computing ‘to help free up data centre space’
Space in data centres can be freed up through the use of cloud computing solutions.
According to a new report from IT analyst Gartner, many data centre managers are beginning to consider moving non-essential workloads to the cloud.
This can help to reduce the amount of floor space, power and cooling being used, allowing companies to focus on production workloads that are of a higher priority to their operations.
Could Google’s CEO take over as Secretary of Commerce?
Is Google CEO Eric Schmidt in line to become the next commerce secretary?
According to Hayley Tsukayama, writing in the Washington Post’s Post Tech blog, he may well be.
Cloud vs. Data Center: Can’t Decide Which Is Best for Your Exchange Install?
RIM and Microsoft deliver Office 365 service
Blackberry maker, Research In Motion (RIM), has joined forces with Microsoft to create a RIM-hosted BlackBerry enterprise service for Office 365.
RIM announced the news on its Inside BlackBerry for Business blog.
The service, which is expected to be available in closed beta mid-2011, will have similar features to that of BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express, according to RIM, and will initially be available for Exchange Online for Office 365 on a subscription basis.
How security can rescue cloud computing
Whenever the topic of security is mentioned in the context of cloud computing, it is usually discussed as the "big barrier" to adoption. The perceived or actual lack of security in the cloud makes it impossible for businesses to make the leap into this new computing paradigm. I propose a different perspective: Security will rescue cloud computing.
The way we were: Cloud’s roots in the ’60s
Let’s peer into the past for a minute. Time sharing as we knew it began in the early 1960s. In Phoenix, Ariz., General Electric had a Central Processing Unit (CPU) named the GE 225, and a control or switching unit named the Datanet 30. Each unit had 16K core memory (yes, 16). When strapped together, up to 40 simultaneous users could use the system.
Don’t count on recycling to maintain IPv4 address pool
The American Registry for Internet Numbers, the regional registry that oversees address allocation for North America, has established an online listing service to help bring together organizations that have IPv4 addresses to spare and those that are looking for a few more addresses. But don’t expect this marketplace to delay the transition to the next generation of Internet protocols, according to the registry.
Can HP’s Cloud Float?
Hewlett-Packard (HP) chief executive officer Léo Apotheker has announced plans for HP to take a leading role in defining the future of information technology. Cliff Saran and Warwick Ashford report on how HP is changing.