Cloud computing has given birth to a broad range of online services. To maintain a competitive edge, service providers are taking a closer look at their Big Data storage infrastructure in an earnest attempt to improve performance and reduce costs.
Large enterprises hosting their own cloud servers are seeking ways to scale and improve performance while maintaining or lowering expenditures. If the status quo of scaling users and storage infrastructure is upheld, it will become increasingly difficult to maintain low cost cloud services, such as online account management or data storage. Service providers will face higher energy consumption in their data centers overall, and many are loath to begin charging for online account access.
Monthly Archives: December 2012
Understanding Cloud Vulnerabilities
It isn’t so much that cloud computing solutions are more vulnerable than traditional solutions; rather, cloud vulnerabilities take a much different form (and can occur on a much wider scale) than traditional security vulnerabilities.
Up to this point, most of the major issues with cloud providers have had more to do with outages rather than data breaches. That doesn’t mean there are no risks in the cloud, but that the form of cloud attacks may be different than traditional attacks.
SYS-CON.tv Interview: The Moving Company for the Cloud
“Racemi is like a moving company – once someone has decided they are going to a private cloud, or a public cloud, we’re the company they call,” stated Lawrence Guillory, CEO of Racemi, in this SYS-CON.tv interview with Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan at the 11th International Cloud Expo, held November 5-8, 2012, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Cloud Expo 2013 New York, June 10–13, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York, will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading Cloud industry players in the world.
Neelie Kroes, VP of European Commission, on Open Source Cloud & OpenNebula
Neelie Kroes, European Commissioner for Digital Agenda, presented today at the Open Source Conference 2012 the three ways the European Union (EU) is supporting Open ICT systems, namely open-source, open-procurement, and open-data. Mrs. Kroes outlines the huge benefits of open-source and open-standards, the several hundred-million-euro benefits per year of Open ICT systems for the public sector alone, and how the EU is using open source solutions itself.
RES.NET Platform Now Supports Traditional Real Estate Market
RES.NET, a provider of software applications connecting real estate professionals and consumers, today announced that its platform now supports the traditional real estate market. Originally introduced in 2004 as a technology solution for the default space, RES.NET has evolved its platform to now enhance retail, or traditional real estate transactions. By enabling agents to perform tasks and communicate with other real estate agents, companies and consumers, they can better meet the demands of today’s tech-savvy consumers while gaining the accessibility and accountability to operate more productively and improve their businesses.
RES.NET’s Agent Portal, one of the platform’s six cloud-based portals, connects agents to other real estate professionals, buyers and sellers and allows them to handle every aspect of the sale through one, centralized system – and even on-the-go through a mobile application. Agents can define their unique task workflow and input all details on their properties including photos and videos. The portal facilitates transparency among agents and other participants, who can easily send and sign documents online using e-signature technology.
“Our network has grown to include more than 200,000 users, some of which are Fortune 500 companies with very complex workflows and stringent requirements,” said Todd Mobraten, COO and president of RES.NET. “With our experience in the default space and as a response to the real estate market’s evolution, we elected to expand our platform’s capabilities to support the traditional market. With more than 80 percent of consumers now beginning their home search online, it is important for agents to leverage technology that meets their expectations. With the platform agents can eliminate communication gaps and securely share information in an automated, paperless environment or even from a mobile device, which minimizes their time in front of the computer and lets them focus on serving homebuyers, cultivating relationships and increasing their business opportunities.”
Within the portal, Agents can also access RES.NET’s offer submission link tool, which enables them to submit offers to listing agents directly through the platform, instead of mailing or faxing paper documents. Through the system agents have ultimate control to manage offers, negotiations and counter offers, resulting in faster closings.
Mobraten continued, ”One of the portal’s most valuable features for agents is the ability to add and invite contacts to their network. Not only does this contribute to more efficient communications and accelerates transactions, but the technology also empowers them to increase their professional networks and improve their businesses.”
Bitcasa Releases Infinite Drive Apps for Android, Windows 8/RT
Bitcasa announced today the release of its Android and Windows 8/RT apps. The new mobile apps allow instant streaming of music, photos, videos, and documents from the Bitcasa Infinite Drive™. The Android and Windows 8/RT apps are available today for new and existing Bitcasa users on Google Play, Windows Store, and at www.bitcasa.com/download. Mac and iOS apps will be available in January.
With Bitcasa, users can backup and consolidate all of their files and media into one Infinite Drive. The Bitcasa Infinite Drive acts like an external drive that users are already familiar with, except that it never runs out of space and is accessible from anywhere and any device. With the new Infinite Drive and mobile apps, Bitcasa users get immediate benefits:
- Instant Streaming, Access Anywhere: With Bitcasa, users can
play whole music albums, watch videos in various formats, view and
share photo albums, and read documents from anywhere. Instant
streaming from the Bitcasa Infinite Drive allows users to stream their
personal jukebox of music, videos, and photos to mobile and desktop
devices without having to sync or store files locally on each of your
devices. - Infinite Storage: The Infinite Drive acts as a virtual external
drive that expands with the user’s growing storage needs without ever
worrying about running out of space again. - Safe Backup: Continuous and automatic backup gives peace of
mind. Users can mirror their content from all their computers to
Bitcasa, and access it anywhere. All files and backups are protected
with client-side encryption, which means that only users can see and
access their data. Users can easily retrieve files with time-capsule
versioning by date. - Share Content: With one click, users can share any file or
folder with their friends and family – Bitcasa or non-Bitcasa users –
regardless of file size. For sharing on mobile devices, users can also
set up alerts to protect against large downloads that might affect
their mobile bandwidth charges. - Get Organized: Bitcasa automatically categorizes users’ data
into Music, Photos, Videos, and Documents.
Users no longer have to worry about managing and organizing their
files – the same way they do not have to worry about
storage capacity limits.
“With our mobile app releases, we are now making all of your data easily available from mobile and PC/Mac clients while taking the security of that data very seriously,” said Tony Gauda, co-founder and CEO of Bitcasa. “By announcing our cross-platform support today, we are offering our global users secure access on all computers, mobile devices, or Web browsers by streaming from the cloud while allowing them to keep the data they access more often localized on their hard drive. With an Infinite Drive, mobile users can automatically store and access their photos from any device. It also means that they can send large videos and albums to friends and family, as well as watch videos in multiple formats. It’s an infinite, organized drive in the cloud. Users don’t have to manage it and it’s much safer than their desktop or laptop.”
VCE Accelerates Private Cloud Deployments from Months to Weeks
One of the major criticisms of private clouds is that the end user still has to build, manage and maintain the infrastructure to the extent that they are continuing the ‘keeping the lights on’ approach of IT. Ultimately this lacks the economic benefit that makes cloud computing such an intriguing concept. Hence what we and our customers quickly realized is that a private cloud’s success ultimately depends on the stability, reliability, scalability and performance of its infrastructure. By going the Vblock route our customers immediately attain that stability, reliability, scalability and performance and consequently accelerate their private cloud initiatives.
SYS-CON.tv Interview: Data Connectivity in the Cloud
“DataDirect is focused solely on data connectivity. We will be launching the DataDirect cloud – a one-stop shop for your data connectivity needs,” noted Jesse Davis, Director, DataDirect Research & Development at Progress Software, in this SYS-CON.tv interview with Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan at the 11th International Cloud Expo, held November 5-8, 2012, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Cloud Expo 2013 New York, June 10–13, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York, will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading Cloud industry players in the world.
REACT to the Cloud: A Tale of Horror and Unified Security
Introducing a new security paradigm that leverages the cooperative functionality of various security tools. However, the key is still monitoring the results in real time; and the best case scenario (most efficient/effective means) for most companies to achieve this is via the cloud.
Today’s is a cautionary tale. One that you’ve probably heard before, but I promise a new spin on making sure it won’t happen again.
It’s a true story. It recently happened to a colleague’s friend’s business. But it is not an isolated incident. Because the information is sensitive and the wounds still raw, I have changed the names to protect the innocent and the not-so-innocent.
It was a dark and stormy night…
Dan is the CEO and CTO of a privately-owned business that develops software tools to manage lease lifecycles and other financial information. His primary customer is commercial real estate agencies across the country. For the past 12 years, it has been highly successful despite some of the economic battering the housing market took over the past several years. The company clears somewhere in the neighborhood of 30-50 million per year. He employs about 150 people. And it is the story of one of those employees where the story takes a dark turn.
Big Switch Pries Open Software Defined Networking
There’s a new wannabe disruptive initiative abroad in networking land that’s
promising to run roughshod over laggards and standoffish old stalwarts like
Cisco that may find it threatening.
The push is gathering behind a deceptively named two-year-old start-up
called Big Switch Networks and its notion of software-defined networking
(SDN).