Impact of the Allegations Surrounding the NSA Spying on Cloud Privacy

The latest headlines in the ongoing surveillance soap opera focus on the revelation that the U.S. has been eavesdropping directly on German Prime Minister Angela Merkel. The reaction in Germany has been strong with many officials publically condemning the surveillance.
After the NSA’s activity first came to light, many in Europe called for stricter protection of EU data and privacy rights. But now, Merkel is calling for stronger Internet technology in Germany, specifically to address the fact all major data centers are in the U.S. and China.
It isn’t clear exactly how these latest developments will further impact German and other EU countries’ usage of U.S. cloud service providers. Germany already has some of the strictest data privacy regulations in the world. Known as BDSG, German regulations include restrictions on how personal information is collected, requiring explicit permission from individuals. BDSG also requires a more formalized structure for data transfers across the German border.

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Impact of the Allegations Surrounding the NSA Spying on Cloud Privacy

The latest headlines in the ongoing surveillance soap opera focus on the revelation that the U.S. has been eavesdropping directly on German Prime Minister Angela Merkel. The reaction in Germany has been strong with many officials publically condemning the surveillance.
After the NSA’s activity first came to light, many in Europe called for stricter protection of EU data and privacy rights. But now, Merkel is calling for stronger Internet technology in Germany, specifically to address the fact all major data centers are in the U.S. and China.
It isn’t clear exactly how these latest developments will further impact German and other EU countries’ usage of U.S. cloud service providers. Germany already has some of the strictest data privacy regulations in the world. Known as BDSG, German regulations include restrictions on how personal information is collected, requiring explicit permission from individuals. BDSG also requires a more formalized structure for data transfers across the German border.

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Big Data Expo 2014 New York Call for Papers Now Open

There is little doubt that Big Data solutions will have an increasing role in the Enterprise IT mainstream over time. Get a jump on that rapidly evolving trend at Big Data Expo 2014 New York, co-located with 14th Cloud Expo – being held June 10 – 12, 2014, at the Javits Center in New York, NY.
As advanced data storage, access and analytics technologies aimed at handling high-volume and/or fast moving data all move center stage, aided by the cloud computing boom, Big Data Expo is the single most effective event for you to learn how to use you own enterprise data – processed in the cloud – most effectively to drive value for your business.
A recent Gartner report predicts that the volume of enterprise data overall will increase by a phenomenal 650% over the next five years. Help plant your flag in the fast-expanding business opportunity that is Big Data: submit your speaking proposal today!

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Big Data Expo 2014 New York Call for Papers Now Open

There is little doubt that Big Data solutions will have an increasing role in the Enterprise IT mainstream over time. Get a jump on that rapidly evolving trend at Big Data Expo 2014 New York, co-located with 14th Cloud Expo – being held June 10 – 12, 2014, at the Javits Center in New York, NY.
As advanced data storage, access and analytics technologies aimed at handling high-volume and/or fast moving data all move center stage, aided by the cloud computing boom, Big Data Expo is the single most effective event for you to learn how to use you own enterprise data – processed in the cloud – most effectively to drive value for your business.
A recent Gartner report predicts that the volume of enterprise data overall will increase by a phenomenal 650% over the next five years. Help plant your flag in the fast-expanding business opportunity that is Big Data: submit your speaking proposal today!

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How Startups Can Benefit from Cloud Technology

With a wealth of technology and online resources, many people are ditching the traditional 9-to-5 lifestyle and opting to become entrepreneurs. Unlike businesses of the past, where a large financial investment was required to get off the ground, today’s startups can get the ball rolling with limited funding.
They can also operate with a high level of efficiency and often compete with much large larger companies. One of the top resources that is fueling startups is cloud technology. Below are some ways that entrepreneurs can benefit and why this technology is so advantageous.

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Ten Myths of Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is transforming the way businesses think about and leverage technology. As a result, the general understanding of cloud computing has come a long way in a short time. However, there are still many misconceptions about what cloud computing is and what it can do for businesses that adopt this game-changing computing model. In this exclusive Q&A with Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan, Rex Wang, Vice President of Product Marketing at Oracle, discusses and dispels some of the common myths about cloud computing that still exist today.

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The Time Is Now for 21st Century Leadership

I’ve just had the opportunity to preview my good friend Melvin Greer’s newest effort, “21st Century Leadership: Harnessing Innovation, Accelerating Business Success”. Now in pre-release, this book highlights the compelling linkage between internet scale technology, advance business models and the need for forward thinking leadership.
From the vantage of hindsight, I can see how my own professional career has been molded by the global changes Gartner describes as the Digital Industrial Revolution. In my consulting engagements, I’ve characterized this environment as the confluence of four major transitions:

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Can We Finally Find the Database Holy Grail? | Part 2

In the first post of this three part series I talked about distributed transactional databases being the Holy Grail of database systems. Among other things the promise of such systems is to provide on-demand capacity, continuous availability and geographically distributed operation. But the historical approaches to building distributed transactional databases have involved unacceptable trade-offs, and as a result general purpose databases systems predicated on a single-server architecture have dominated the industry for decades.
In our quest for the Holy Grail of databases we acknowledge that there are folks who have given up on the highly desirable characteristic of transactional consistency in favor of a distributed operation. That is a trade-off that may be attractive if you can’t find a way to scale-out transactions, but it is a drastic choice that moves a lot of complexity and cost up the application stack. If there is a way to scale out transactional databases then that is clearly a much better outcome. Our Holy Grail discussion is specifically about distributed transactional databases because if such a thing can be built without a substantial downside then no one would want any other distributed data store.

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Building Your Hybrid Cloud

Back for Part 3 of the “Building a Hybrid Cloud” series, Keith Mayer and myself chat about and demo the latest networking enhancements made in Windows Server 2012 R2. Keith really shows you how Windows Server 2012 R2 offers networks for your virtualization hosts but also your virtual guests. One of the things that amazed me, is that the configuration steps for the host and guests are nearly identical.

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How to Select a Cloud Provider Effectively

Moving your data storage to the cloud is a smart move as there is an explosion of data day by day and systems are struggling to store all that data effectively and securely. Cloud computing has proven not only to be cost effective but also frees the businesses to concentrate on the daily workings while the cloud takes care of details such as security, support, maintenance and the ever-so-important backup. Therefore, the demand for cloud computing is also growing and there are many companies sprouting up by the minute. So the consumer ends up in a dilemma of how to choose the right one.

To select the right type of cloud for you, analyze what type of data you are basically dealing with. For example, videos, photos and online documents will require software based cloud services. Other type of cloud services include Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) where the customer can transfer his data with virtually no changes made. All that the customer needs to manage is the operating system and its applications. When the customer wants to use the cloud or offer it as a service to others, then the Platform-as-a-service (PaaS) is the right choice.

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