Recent commentaries by cloud industry luminaries Reuven Cohen & Krishnan Subramanian address key issues related to relative importance and potential longevity of an independent Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS). In his commentary, Reuven poses, “Do consumers really care about the difference between IaaS and PaaS?” The answer to this question is most likely, no, but that doesn’t eliminate the need for distinction, it merely is a matter of how best to deliver the value of cloud computing to users.
In his commentary, Krishnan does an excellent job of exploring one way to classify PaaS as either service or container orchestration. However, in some ways, the distinction introduces more confusion. For example, his use of Docker illustrates how convergence of IaaS and PaaS actually makes sense for the industry and, thus, diminishes his key point that there’s value in the cloud application layer existing as a distinct layer within the cloud stack.

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Self-service is a traditional element for humans. A typical and successful example of self-service is vendor machines that dispenses drinks. Coca-Cola (among others) operates a large number of self-service machines all over the world, in public places such as universities, museums, and sport arenas. People are used to dealing with the machines as they are simple to use and easy to find. In today’s world, there is a huge variety of self-service machines that are not limited to soft drinks. There are self-service machines for snacks, chewing gum and you can even buy pizzas from self-service machines.

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Self-service is a traditional element for humans. A typical and successful example of self-service is vendor machines that dispenses drinks. Coca-Cola (among others) operates a large number of self-service machines all over the world, in public places such as universities, museums, and sport arenas. People are used to dealing with the machines as they are simple to use and easy to find. In today’s world, there is a huge variety of self-service machines that are not limited to soft drinks. There are self-service machines for snacks, chewing gum and you can even buy pizzas from self-service machines.

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Logentries announces that it is adding machine-to-machine communication to its free service for collecting and analyzing machine-generated log data. The new features have implication for both Internet-of-Things and mobile developers. It adds tagging and alerting capabilities to highlight, quickly identify and report on important events.
Now generally available for use, the new event tagging and alerting capabilities provide users of the Logentries service with a simple, yet powerful way for machine-generated log events to be filtered in real-time to identify critical information. In addition, it’s possible for information alerts to be sent automatically to other systems using standardized WebHooks.

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Logentries announces that it is adding machine-to-machine communication to its free service for collecting and analyzing machine-generated log data. The new features have implication for both Internet-of-Things and mobile developers. It adds tagging and alerting capabilities to highlight, quickly identify and report on important events.
Now generally available for use, the new event tagging and alerting capabilities provide users of the Logentries service with a simple, yet powerful way for machine-generated log events to be filtered in real-time to identify critical information. In addition, it’s possible for information alerts to be sent automatically to other systems using standardized WebHooks.

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Ukraine sits on the precipice of civil war. Beneath the ostensible storyline of protests against the government of Viktor Yanukovych and recent laws it’s enacted lies what is likely an insuperable rift between the eastern and western regions of the country.

The east, archetyped by Sovietized industrial places such as Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk, leans toward Russia. This is Yanokovych country. Russia’s supreme leader Vladimir Putin lurks in the background of any discussion here.

The west, personified by the tech-savvy city of Lviv and seaport of Odessa, feels close to is Western European neighbors and the United States. This is the realm of Viktor Yusschenko, the former president known for being poisoned, disfigured, and almost killed by his political opponents. It’s also the side that the intellectual heavyweight boxing champions Vitali (and to a lesser extent, Vladimir) Klitschko have chosen.

Kiev, the nation’s capital and site of the most visible current protests, sits in the middle. It straddles the powerful Dnieper River, which runs the course of the country and serves as a general divider between the east and west and their respective points of view.

This fight does not involve Marquess of Queensberry rules, however. It’s loud, chaotic, violent, and becoming lethal. Soon it may become tragic.

We are apolitical at the Tau Institute and in the research we conduct. Our belief is that technology is a rising tide that lifts all boats, and that the countries with the most dedicated commitment to ICT will be those improve their socio-economic conditions and the lives of their people most dramatically over the long haul.

Ukraine scores very well in our research. Although it finishes only 39th overall among the 102 nations we survey, It’s among the world leaders overall, Ukraine is a clear leader within its income tier, and scores among the highest when it comes to raw potential.

(For those uninitiated with our research, we integrate several technology and socio-economic factors into unique algorithms that are adjusted for income levels and cost of living. The result are relative, “pound-for-pound” rankings that give developing nations a playing field that’s more equal when being compared to the highly developed nations of the world.)

We also understand that technology can be disruptive. It is glib to characterize any of the civial disturbances and outright revolutions of recent years as being caused by Twitter, Facebook, and other social media. However, ubiquitous smartphones, wireless connections, and the swiftness of social media clearly play a role in most of these struggles.

We’ve created a “Goldilocks” definition in our raw potential rankings. Ukraine, by finishing near the top of them, is one of the countries that seems to be “too hot.” (Other countries fitting this description include Bulgaria, Romania, swathes of Eastern Africa, and Vietnam.)

By counter-example, the USA, Italy, and South Africa are just three countries that seem to running “too cold.” Goldilocks Nations include Latvia, Poland, Slovakia, Thailand, Malaysia, Ecuador, and a few others.

So here we are. Ukraine is being riven by conflict and violence, with the threat of all-out war looming. Its capital city sits at the inflection point of all conflict, reminding one of Bruseels and its eternal balance between Flemish and French. But Ukraine’s conflict is not linguistic or particularly ethnic. It doesn’t have the well-defined tribal fault line that allowed the Czech Republic and Slovakia to separate peacefully (and to a lesser extent, that allowed Slovenia to slip away from Yugoslavia),

Russia’s Putin seems to become more imperial by the hour, doing nothing to earn Russia love or respect. The United States’ most recent statement on the matter threatened sanctions and contributed nothing positive to the discussion.

The USA-Russia relationship is highly reminiscent of the USA-Soviet days that we had hoped were in the past. Both countries have seemingly done their best to exacerbate the situation in recent years, the US by being too aggressive in courting Ukraine as a NATO partner, and Putin by just being Putin.

Our research shows Ukraine’s potential. Our contacts there have provided us with valuable information in the past about tech development in several regions of the country. People at organizations such as the Ukrainian High-Tech Initiatve are doing great work in working to develop Ukraine as a country with a strong ICT infrastructure, and ultimately, strong society.

We don’t make specific, yes-or-no recommendations. But we do see Ukraine’s potential, particularly in the West. We hope that the nation can keep itself together in coming days. But if not, we encourage a clear-eyed viewing of the writing on the wall and a national partition that is peaceful and practical.

read more

Ukraine sits on the precipice of civil war. Beneath the ostensible storyline of protests against the government of Viktor Yanukovych and recent laws it’s enacted lies what is likely an insuperable rift between the eastern and western regions of the country.

The east, archetyped by Sovietized industrial places such as Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk, leans toward Russia. This is Yanokovych country. Russia’s supreme leader Vladimir Putin lurks in the background of any discussion here.

The west, personified by the tech-savvy city of Lviv and seaport of Odessa, feels close to is Western European neighbors and the United States. This is the realm of Viktor Yusschenko, the former president known for being poisoned, disfigured, and almost killed by his political opponents. It’s also the side that the intellectual heavyweight boxing champions Vitali (and to a lesser extent, Vladimir) Klitschko have chosen.

Kiev, the nation’s capital and site of the most visible current protests, sits in the middle. It straddles the powerful Dnieper River, which runs the course of the country and serves as a general divider between the east and west and their respective points of view.

This fight does not involve Marquess of Queensberry rules, however. It’s loud, chaotic, violent, and becoming lethal. Soon it may become tragic.

We are apolitical at the Tau Institute and in the research we conduct. Our belief is that technology is a rising tide that lifts all boats, and that the countries with the most dedicated commitment to ICT will be those improve their socio-economic conditions and the lives of their people most dramatically over the long haul.

Ukraine scores very well in our research. Although it finishes only 39th overall among the 102 nations we survey, It’s among the world leaders overall, Ukraine is a clear leader within its income tier, and scores among the highest when it comes to raw potential.

(For those uninitiated with our research, we integrate several technology and socio-economic factors into unique algorithms that are adjusted for income levels and cost of living. The result are relative, “pound-for-pound” rankings that give developing nations a playing field that’s more equal when being compared to the highly developed nations of the world.)

We also understand that technology can be disruptive. It is glib to characterize any of the civial disturbances and outright revolutions of recent years as being caused by Twitter, Facebook, and other social media. However, ubiquitous smartphones, wireless connections, and the swiftness of social media clearly play a role in most of these struggles.

We’ve created a “Goldilocks” definition in our raw potential rankings. Ukraine, by finishing near the top of them, is one of the countries that seems to be “too hot.” (Other countries fitting this description include Bulgaria, Romania, swathes of Eastern Africa, and Vietnam.)

By counter-example, the USA, Italy, and South Africa are just three countries that seem to running “too cold.” Goldilocks Nations include Latvia, Poland, Slovakia, Thailand, Malaysia, Ecuador, and a few others.

So here we are. Ukraine is being riven by conflict and violence, with the threat of all-out war looming. Its capital city sits at the inflection point of all conflict, reminding one of Bruseels and its eternal balance between Flemish and French. But Ukraine’s conflict is not linguistic or particularly ethnic. It doesn’t have the well-defined tribal fault line that allowed the Czech Republic and Slovakia to separate peacefully (and to a lesser extent, that allowed Slovenia to slip away from Yugoslavia),

Russia’s Putin seems to become more imperial by the hour, doing nothing to earn Russia love or respect. The United States’ most recent statement on the matter threatened sanctions and contributed nothing positive to the discussion.

The USA-Russia relationship is highly reminiscent of the USA-Soviet days that we had hoped were in the past. Both countries have seemingly done their best to exacerbate the situation in recent years, the US by being too aggressive in courting Ukraine as a NATO partner, and Putin by just being Putin.

Our research shows Ukraine’s potential. Our contacts there have provided us with valuable information in the past about tech development in several regions of the country. People at organizations such as the Ukrainian High-Tech Initiatve are doing great work in working to develop Ukraine as a country with a strong ICT infrastructure, and ultimately, strong society.

We don’t make specific, yes-or-no recommendations. But we do see Ukraine’s potential, particularly in the West. We hope that the nation can keep itself together in coming days. But if not, we encourage a clear-eyed viewing of the writing on the wall and a national partition that is peaceful and practical.

read more

The benefits of public and private clouds based on virtualization are varied and well known. In 2013, more than 40 percent of enterprises have or are adopting virtualized private clouds in the data center, and another 40 percent are evaluating virtualization solutions. Nevertheless, less than 10 years ago, the number of enterprises doing any kind of private cloud virtualization was almost nonexistent.
Some of the benefits driving this rapid adoption in the enterprise, apply equally well for small-to-medium businesses (SMBs) and the edge.

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The benefits of public and private clouds based on virtualization are varied and well known. In 2013, more than 40 percent of enterprises have or are adopting virtualized private clouds in the data center, and another 40 percent are evaluating virtualization solutions. Nevertheless, less than 10 years ago, the number of enterprises doing any kind of private cloud virtualization was almost nonexistent.
Some of the benefits driving this rapid adoption in the enterprise, apply equally well for small-to-medium businesses (SMBs) and the edge.

read more