The complexity of Smart Grid and Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) implementations present a challenge for most of the nation’s electric utilities. From skilled resource availability to the operational complexities of installing and maintaining these systems, utilities have often struggled with achieving success. SAIC’s cloud-based Smart Grid as a Service (SGS) solution was developed to address these complexities and ease the implementation of Smart Grid technology.
In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Tim Crowell, Assistant Vice President and Chief Architect for SAIC’s Smart Grid division, will present SAIC’s SGS solution with specific focus given to how SAIC addressed the challenges of utility integration into their cloud-based infrastructure.
SoftLayer Technologies and RightScale have partnered to provide unmatched scalability and automation solutions that allow Internet-centric companies to speed their time-to-market. Companies such as social gaming developer Broken Bulb Game Studios are able to use SoftLayer’s public and private cloud infrastructure with RightScale cloud management to easily deploy, automate and manage their computing workloads across the globe.
“Customers, such as Broken Bulb, are now experiencing the advantages of working with two leading cloud solutions providers,” said Duke Skarda, Chief Technology Officer of SoftLayer. The partnership between RightScale and SoftLayer offers a solution that is ideal for all types of web savvy companies that need to easily scale IT resources to meet the toughest workloads or steepest Internet traffic demands. This helps enable users to rapidly rollout new web-based services, applications and games through a flexible consumptive monthly billing cycle.
Adobe launched Creative Suite 6 Monday, the latest version of its flagship software kit for designers and web developers, and made it subscription-based, part of the company’s Creative Cloud.
Pricing starts at $50 a month for a year’s commitment or $75 a month with no contract. Existing users may qualify for a $30-a-month promotion for the first year and there’s a version for business teams that’ll cost $70 a month that won’t be out for a while.
Users can download Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, After Effects, InDesign and any of the also separately priced other programs in the bundle to a PC or Mac, share files and store work online in a 20GB locker.
With Cloud Expo 2012 New York (10th Cloud Expo) now just seven weeks away, what better time to introduce you in greater detail to the distinguished individuals in our incredible Speaker Faculty for the technical and strategy sessions at the conference…
In its recent «Sizing the Cloud» report Forrester Research said it expects the global cloud computing market to reach $240 billion in 2020, up from $40 billion in 2010. Companies worldwide are keen to purchase solutions enabling enterprise class cloud computing control, performance, availability, and scalability. But these companies need to see demos and speak with Cloud vendors and providers face-to-face.
The $5 billion Big Data market is on the verge of a rapid growth spurt that will see it top the $50 billion mark worldwide within the next five years. The US Dept. of Defense for example is placing a big bet on big data, investing over $200M annually.
Cloud computing is really coming into its own. After several years of predictions, we’ve finally seen adoption of some cloud technologies at the consumer level. Cloud storage, for example, has taken the marketplace by storm as companies like Dropbox get into the public cloud provider routine.
Meanwhile, companies continue to explore just how cloud computing solutions can meet their needs. Just because something is billed as a cloud solution, however, doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.
Here are five principles your company needs to follow if it’s going to have successful cloud computing deployments:
There is no longer any question that the cloud computing model will be the prevailing style of delivery for computing over the coming decades; Forrester Research predicts that the global market for cloud computing will grow from $40.7 billion in 2011 to more than $241 billion in 2020. Greenfield application development projects can be designed from the outset to benefit from cloud computing features such as elastic scalability, automated provisioning, infrastructure level APIs, object storage services and middleware services such as message queues and key/value stores. However, for existing legacy applications the journey to cloud is not quite so straightforward.
Understanding the impact of factors such as security/compliance, application architecture, integration, the pattern of demand and operational maturity is crucial when performing a cloud feasibility assessment. Additionally, many organizations perceive cost-reduction as one of the primary benefits of adopting a cloud hosting model. In practice however, this is not always an accurate assumption. There are nuances to the financial analysis: public cloud computing is not necessarily cheaper than traditional dedicated hosting. Furthermore, there are considerations around the impact on Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), transformation/migration costs and the position of an organization with the IT life cycle.
By generating massive amounts of new data that in turn require more and more bandwidth, Big Data is stretching an already-congested enterprise WAN to the breaking point. Many companies have made sizable investments in Big Data technologies, and are now looking to emerging cloud technologies to reduce costs and improve performance.
In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Raj Kanaya, CEO & Co-Founder of Infineta Systems, will discuss how, as private cloud build-out intersects with Big Data adoption, the WAN links gluing it all together must deliver enough performance and reliability to make the transformation worthwhile and ensure that the private cloud sustains its cost and performance advantages.
“Big data represents a sea change of capabilities in IT” notes Matt McLarty, Vice President, Client Solutions at Layer 7, in this exclusive Q&A with Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan. McLarty continued: “In conjunction with mobile and cloud, I think Big Data will provide a technological makeover to the typical enterprise infrastructure, drawing a hard API border in front of core business services while blurring the line between logic and data services.”
Cloud Computing Journal: Agree or disagree? – «While the IT savings aspect is compelling, the strongest benefit of cloud computing is how it enhances business agility.»
Matt McLarty: Agree. We have a number of customers who are able to use Layer 7 Gateways to protect their cloud deployments, and leverage the elastic scaling model of the cloud to handle seasonal or sporadic bursts of traffic dynamically. Historically, these companies would have to try and forecast this and risk over-buying infrastructure. So there is a big cost savings, but dynamic scaling is a new capability that only comes with the cloud model.
With Big Data Expo 2012 New York (www.BigDataExpo.net), co-located with 10th Cloud Expo, now only seven weeks away, what better time to introduce you in greater detail to the distinguished individuals in our incredible Speaker Faculty for the technical and strategy sessions at the conference…
We have technical and strategy sessions for you every day at the combined event from June 11 through June 14 dealing with every nook and cranny of Cloud Computing and Big Data, but what of those who are presenting? Who are they, where do they work, what else have they written and/or said about the Cloud that is transforming the world of Enterprise IT, side by side with the exploding use of enterprise Big Data – processed in the Cloud – to drive value for businesses…?
Cloud computing is really coming into its own. After several years of predictions, we’ve finally seen adoption of some cloud technologies at the consumer level. Cloud storage, for example, has taken the marketplace by storm as companies like Dropbox get into the public cloud provider routine.