Category: News

Grazed from TheConversation.  Author: David Glance.

The Parliament of the European Union last week voted to call on member states and the European Commission to investigate the operation of search engines in Europe to ensure “a balanced, fair and open internet search structure”.

Although the official text of the resolution doesn’t mention Google specifically by name, the message was clearly aimed at the company that claims 93% of the European search market. The Parliament called on the EC to “consider proposals aimed at unbundling search engines from other commercial services”…

Grazed from ZDNet.  Author: Joe McKendrick.

As mentioned in previous posts, certifications and accreditations are huge pluses for careers. They offer highly focused, lower-cost alternatives to formal continuing education from universities and colleges, and help resumes stand out. Plus, surveys show credentialed professionals often draw higher incomes than their non-credentialed counterparts. For managers and professionals in the fast-changing digital and tech economy, certifications may be the only way to keep skills current and relevant.

That’s why it’s interesting to see there have been efforts underway to organize and offer certifications in the emerging field of cloud computing. The programs now offered cover a range of roles — from developers to administrators to architects to security specialists…

Grazed from ITBusinessEdge.  Author: Aurthur Cole.

I’ve pointed out many times over the years that everyone has their own perception of green. To a coal plant operator, a 20 percent reduction in emissions is cause for celebration, while the environmentalist still frets over the 80 percent still coming out of the stack.

So it is understandable that the data center industry – arguably the top energy consumer on the planet – is both the hero and the villain when it comes to greening up the world’s digital infrastructure. And in time-honored tradition, the biggest targets are always first on the hit list, which in this case would be the hyperscale providers like Google, Facebook and Amazon…

Grazed from TheWhir.  Author: David Hamilton.

I was sent a few infographics over the past few days regarding Amazon Web Services that provide some insight into how organizations are using AWS, as well as how it compares with other IT infrastructure options.  The first was from workload management provider 2nd Watch, which provides a look at what its customers typically used for their cloud services based on anonymized data from its thousands of customers over the four months from July to October.

Organizations using EC2 typically used Small instances (38 percent), followed by Medium (19 percent) and XLarge (15 percent). The very large (2XLarge, 4XLarge and 8XLarge) and very small (Micro) made up only 27 percent collectively…

Grazed from VentureBeat.  Author: Dean Takahashi.

Otoy makes tools that artists can use to create stunning 3D art that looks as real as anything captured on film. The company recently launched its X.IO App Streaming service so that developers can create cloud graphic services such as next-generation cloud games, streaming virtual reality media, and workstation applications that can run on low-end devices.

The service is the latest cloud-based innovation from Los Angeles-based Otoy, which has also created cloud-based tools for filmmakers via OctaneRender and for game makers with its Brigade tools. Those tools enable artists to create photorealistic images for games or movies using cloud-based computing resources, said Jules Urbach, chief executive of Los Angeles-based Otoy, in an interview with GamesBeat…

Grazed from CloudTech.  Author: James Bourne.

Docker, the Linux container for run-anywhere apps, has a major vulnerability in all but the latest version of its software which can enable malicious code to extract hosted files.

The vuln, described as ‘critical’ in severity, was first spotted by Red Hat’s security researcher Florian Weimer and independent researcher Taunis Tiigi, with Docker crediting them in a security advisory…

Grazed from HuffingtonPost. Author: Doug Clark.

The cloud isn’t just for techies anymore. Understanding what’s next for cloud computing is crucial for businesses at all levels. Managers are responding to the real opportunities that the cloud offers to develop new business models, forge closer ties with customers and tap into the expertise of employees and partners. From a technology that was initially adopted for efficiency and cost savings, the cloud has emerged into an innovation powerhouse.

So what is next for cloud?

The next generation of cloud computing will deliver value to businesses faster by automating everything from request to deployment and configuration–and it will do so up and down the stack and across the entire infrastructure. Here are five of the biggest things we see happening in cloud:…

Grazed from GeekWire. Author: Blair Hanley Frank.

It’s the Murphy’s Law corollary for cloud computing: anything that can go wrong will go wrong on the eve of a major holiday. Amazon’s CloudFront content delivery network is suffering from DNS problems worldwide, which means some users are having a hard time connecting to web services that count on CloudFront to deliver their content.

According to reports on Twitter, people are having problems with sites like Medium and Instagram, though it’s hard to tell just how widespread the issues are. According to the AWS service status page, Amazon is looking into the problems and is working on a fix as of 5 p.m. PST tonight. The outage began around 4:15…

Read more from the source @ http://www.geekwire.com/2014/amazons-cloudfront-hits-snag-causing-problems-across-web/

Grazed from NetworkWorld. Author: Adam Stewart.

Who would you trust more to fix your car, a licensed mechanic or a guy who once saw someone do an oil change? The choice should be simple. But surprisingly, the debate over trusting an expert versus someone who claims to be an expert happens every day across all industries, so it shouldn’t be shocking that the debate rages in the cloud, too.

Cloud computing enables people and companies to access applications from any computer. But the cloud has created a new group of cloud posers — inexperienced software developers who make bold (and often untrue) claims about the performance of the cloud-based applications they manage…

Grazed from eWeek. Author: Sean Michael Kerner.

Cisco first got involved with the open-source OpenStack cloud platform in 2011 with the Bexar release and initially was focused mostly on networking. Over the last several years, Cisco’s OpenStack involvement and product portfolio have grown beyond just networking.

In a video interview with eWEEK, Lew Tucker, vice president and CTO of Cloud Computing at Cisco, detailed his firm’s OpenStack platform efforts. Tucker commented that Cisco has been expanding its OpenStack efforts a lot more outside of networking as the adoption of OpenStack within Cisco has grown…