Category: News

Grazed from NetworkAsia.  Author: Editorial Staff.

Cloud service providers (CSPs) serving a growing a customer base must be prepared to tackle challenges that are inherent in widespread cloud adoption and optimize their service performance. One key success factor is interconnection – the ability to connect to customers, networks and each other in an instant.

This year, tactical cloud computing benefits, such as elastic capacity, utility pricing and deferred capital investments, are no longer enough, according to Frost & Sullivan’s Stratecast practice. Enterprises will seek out providers that support greater end-to-end performance, visibility, and accountability to help drive their strategic goals…

Grazed from ComputerWorld.  Author: James Henderson.

Are Microsoft, VMware and Red Hat better value than OpenStack distributions for total cost of ownership?  That’s the key question circulating the cloud market following the launch of 451 Research’s latest Cloud Price Index, billed as one of the most rigorous and comprehensive analysis of the cost of cloud computing.

According to findings, the typical cost of small-scale enterprise private clouds powered by VMware, Red Hat and Microsoft are all within half a cent of each other at about US$0.10 per virtual-machine hour while OpenStack distributions cost, on average, $0.08 per VM hour, a 20 percent saving…

Grazed from SysCon Media.  Author: Editorial Staff.

Everyone’s talking about the Internet of Things recently, but one topic I don’t see addressed much is the difference between Service-Focused IoT and Device-Focused IoT. The concept of “The Internet of Things” has always been about vast, heterogeneous networks of small, limited-purpose devices. However, there is a growing need to further differentiate IoT into the two delivery models.

In my previous blog, I discussed how hardware manufacturers are able to leverage IoT and recurring revenue to further lock in customers, increase lifetime value, and raise exit barriers around their services. However, these examples all require the service provider to also be some sort of hardware manufacturer. Nest (the popular smart thermostat company) is fantastic, but you must buy a Nest-branded device in order to leverage Nest cloud services…

Grazed from TechTarget.  Author: Jessica Scarpati.

Networks have developed a middle-child syndrome over the years.  Ever since the first server virtualization platforms allowed systems administrators to easily spin up or decommission virtual machines (VMs) within minutes, the data center solidified its place as the golden child, representing agility and efficiency in infrastructure. It paved the way for cloud computing, putting more pressure on IT to be responsive to dynamic environments.

While virtualization soon seeped into other parts of IT like storage and desktops, the network was largely ignored. Although Layer 4-7 appliance vendors released virtualized versions of their products — virtual firewalls, virtual load balancers, virtual WAN optimization controllers and so forth — their primary focus was on reducing expenses, not improving agility. Networking as a whole remained frozen in hardware governed by static architectures, and most attempts to innovate focused on moving bits faster…

Grazed from CFO.  Author: David M. Katz.

In a February editorial about the buildup of cyber attacks between the United States and Iran, The New York Times quoted President Obama’s observation that, compared with conventional weaponry, cyberweapons provide “no clear line between offense and defense.” For example, getting into the enemy’s networks to exploit its weakness and disable its ability to attack you is both offense and defense.

Citing “major banks, Sony Pictures Entertainment, [and] an electrical utility,” the newspaper observed that such recent examples reveal that even corporate computer systems once considered impregnable are vulnerable to attack.  In the borderless world of information technology, in fact, computer-security specialists and corporate risk managers have begun working on the assumption that it’s impossible for companies to keep their networks completely free from penetration…

Grazed from Wired.  Author: Jessi Hempel.

On a recent morning in downtown Manhattan, IBM’s Virginia Rometty and Apple’s Tim Cook sit on a small riser, each leaning back slightly with legs crossed. Between them sits Taizo Nishimuro, an older Japanese man with heavy black orthopedic shoes and an elegant cane. Nishimuro helms the Japan Post, a company that owns the country’s postal service, a bank, and its largest life insurer.

We are gathering to hear the trio make an announcement that, just by virtue of their attendance, must be important.  But it also feels a bit curious: what could be this important?  The venue is IBM’s new global headquarters, a 12-story glass tower designed by the Pritzker-Prize winning architect Fumihiko Maki. It sits just across the way from Facebook’s Silicon Alley outpost in Astor Place, eight blocks south of Google’s New York offices…

Grazed from FineChannel. Author: Editorial Staff.

HP on April 30 announced it has made multiple contributions to the OpenStack Kilo release, including new converged storage management automation and new flash storage technologies to support flexible, enterprise-class clouds. Drivers such as data growth, software-defined data center technologies, and the Internet of Things continue to fuel cloud adoption.

Enterprises are deploying OpenStack technology to overcome private and public cloud challenges, including costly vendor lock-in, lack of control or customizability, and inability to scale applications for the cloud, according to HP. As a testament to the company’s ongoing commitment to open source cloud technology, HP is a Platinum Founding member of the OpenStack Foundation and a key contributor to multiple OpenStack projects, including funding, code, reviews, testing, and training…

Grazed Forbes. Author: Jason Bloomberg.

In the days since a Bloomberg article let slip that Salesforce.com CRM +0.47% might be on the block, there has been no end of punditry regarding potential suitors. Oracle is the most likely – except it’s not. Salesforce’s Benioff had lunch with Microsoft’s Nadella – only perhaps it was dinner. IBM IBM +0.88%, Amazon.com, or perhaps even SAP are in the mix. Only it’s not SAP. Apple anyone?

The more interesting question, however, isn’t who, it’s why. Oracle ORCL +0.96% and Microsoft MSFT +0.06% are looking to beef up cloud computing operations, according to a Reuters article. It certainly couldn’t be because Salesforce has a booming business, as it lost $263 million in 2014, with no turnaround in sight…

Grazed from ComputerWorld. Author: Stanton Jones.

What does a typical enterprise cloud services buyer look like? It’s a tricky question to answer. Cloud services are everywhere: in the data center, in development teams, in shared services organizations on manufacturing floors. It’s also delivered in many different ways: as software, as infrastructure that behaves like software and as business processes supported by cloud software. Complicating matters further, what one buyer may call cloud another may call a rack of dedicated, virtualized servers, making the line of demarcation between “cloud” and “traditional” very blurry.

Regardless how one chooses to define this boundary, cloud is permeating just about every corner of the enterprise, and the buyers that are driving this transformation are as varied as the functions they represent. However, buying “archetypes” are starting to emerge. Here are six of the most common:…

Grazed from Phys.org. Author: Yijun Yu.

The recent earthquake in Nepal demonstrated yet again how difficult it is to reliably predict natural disasters. While we have a good knowledge of the various earthquakes zones on the planet, we have no way of knowing exactly when a big quake like the 7.8-magnitude event in Nepal will happen.

But we know that many animals seem able to sense the onset of such events. We could use powerful computers to monitor herds of animals and make use of their natural instincts to provide forewarning of natural disasters. Immediately before an earthquake, herds of animals often start to behave strangely – for example suddenly leaving their homes to seek shelter. This could be because they detect small, fast-travelling waves or because they sense chemical changes in ground water from an impending earthquake…