Pokeman Go has been a raging success. But its launch was marred by frequent downtimes and dropped connections. In a recent chat at the Google Cloud Platform Next Conference, Niantic CTO Phil Keslin talked about the “hair on fire” experience where the team had to firefight and upgrade key components on the live production system in order to handle the unexpected surge in new users joining in. Among the various upgrades made to the system, Niantic had to replace the network load balancer with a much more sophisticated HTTP/S load balancing system that could handle a larger overall throughput and offer faster connections. Keslin says that this timely upgrade made it possible for his team to launch in Japan without an incident although the number of new user signups at this point was triple what it was during their earlier US launch.
Monthly Archives: December 2016
[slides] Regulatory Compliance | @CloudExpo @EmeSec #IoT #DevOps #InfoSec
Effectively SMBs and government programs must address compounded regulatory compliance requirements. The most recent are Controlled Unclassified Information and the EU’s GDPR have Board Level implications. Managing sensitive data protection will likely result in acquisition criteria, demonstration requests and new requirements. Developers, as part of the pre-planning process and the associated supply chain, could benefit from updating their code libraries and design by incorporating changes.
In her session at 19th Cloud Expo, Maria C. Horton, Founder and CEO of EmeSec Incorporated, discussed how addressing the new liabilities of Sensitive Data Tracking for GDPR and CUI via code design can reap huge benefits for organizations and for developers that do just that whether in cloud, IoT or traditional environments.
[video] Power Panel: Where Is All the Private Cloud? | @CloudExpo #IoT #PaaS #BigData #DataCenter
Enterprise IT has been in the era of Hybrid Cloud for some time now. But it seems most conversations about Hybrid are focused on integrating AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google ECM into existing on-premises systems. Where is all the Private Cloud? What do technology providers need to do to make their offerings more compelling? How should enterprise IT executives and buyers define their focus, needs, and roadmap, and communicate that clearly to the providers?
[video] Mobile App Development with @ImpigerTech | @CloudExpo #Cloud #Mobile #Security
“We are a custom software development, engineering firm. We specialize in cloud applications from helping customers that have on-premise applications migrating to the cloud, to helping customers design brand new apps in the cloud. And we specialize in mobile apps,” explained Peter Di Stefano, Vice President of Marketing at Impiger Technologies, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at 19th Cloud Expo, held November 1-3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
[slides] Passwords Are Dead | @CloudExpo @Centrify #API #Cloud #Security
President Obama recently announced the launch of a new national awareness campaign to “encourage more Americans to move beyond passwords – adding an extra layer of security like a fingerprint or codes sent to your cellphone.” The shift from single passwords to multi-factor authentication couldn’t be timelier or more strategic. This session will focus on why passwords alone are no longer effective, and why the time to act is now.
In his session at 19th Cloud Expo, Chris Webber, security strategist at Centrify, discussed how we can move away from passwords towards better, more secure methods of identity verification.
[video] ROHA #AI Messaging | @CloudExpo #ML #IoT #M2M #RTC #WebRTC
“At ROHA we develop an app called Catcha. It was developed after we spent a year meeting with, talking to, interacting with senior citizens watching them use their smartphones and talking to them about how they use their smartphones so we could get to know their smartphone behavior,” explained Dave Woods, Chief Innovation Officer at ROHA, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at 19th Cloud Expo, held November 1-3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
[video] #WebRTC with @ReadyTalk | @WebRTCSummit #IoT #RTC #UCaaS
“ReadyTalk is an audio and web video conferencing provider. We’ve really come to embrace WebRTC as the platform for our future of technology,” explained Dan Cunningham, CTO of ReadyTalk, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at WebRTC Summit at 19th Cloud Expo, held November 1-3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Announcing @FusionConnectSM to Exhibit @CloudExpo NY | #Cloud #Security
SYS-CON Events announced today that Fusion, a leading provider of cloud services, will exhibit at SYS-CON’s 20th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY.
Fusion, a leading provider of integrated cloud solutions to small, medium and large businesses, is the industry’s single source for the cloud. Fusion’s advanced, proprietary cloud service platform enables the integration of leading edge solutions in the cloud, including cloud communications, cloud connectivity, and cloud computing. Fusion’s innovative, yet proven cloud solutions lower our customers’ cost of ownership, and deliver new levels of security, flexibility, scalability, and speed of deployment.
A Look into the Announcements at AWS’ re:Invent
It’s been the trend for every major company to make significant announcements during their annual conference, and AWS is no different. It’s annual conference called “re:Invent” took place this year from November 27 to December 1 at Las Vegas. Here’s a look into some of the major announcements made by the company over these five days.
Athena
Athena is a SQL-supported query language from Amazon, designed to manage its Simple Storage Service, popularly known as S3. This is an important tool as it makes it easy for users to use standard SQL queries on S3. The cost of this service is $5 per TB of data that is scanned each time.
Aurora
Aurora is another in-house service from Amazon. This cloud-based relational database is already compatible with many open source platforms such as MySQL. Soon, the popular PostgreSQL will also be supported by Athena, according to the announcement made at re:Invent. This announcement brought much applause from attendees.
AWS Batch
This new tool is likely to coordinate all the resources needed to run batch jobs on Amazon’s cloud. This tool will be ideal for institutions or projects that want to run large-scale computing tests that would entail the setting up of several virtual machines. With this tool, organizations won’t have to worry about the setup, as it will be handled by Batch.
CodeBuild
CodeBuild, as the name suggests, can automatically deploy and test code. This can be particularly important for developers who are iteratively building apps over AWS, as it can ensure that the changes are implemented as intended by developers. As you may have guessed, it is a new addition to the family of existing development tools, namely, Code Commit, Code Deploy, and Code Pipeline.
GPUs
Amazon introduced the idea of Elastic Graphical processing Units (GPUs), that can be added to any EC2 instance when needed. This is sure to give gaming enthusiasts and CAD customers much to rejoice. Currently, this product is in private preview, and more details about its pricing and availability will be disclosed over the next few months.
Greengrass
Amazon gave a big fillip to its IoT arm as well, with the announcement of AWS Greengrass. This product will provide the necessary software components needed to manage local computing and caching for connected devices. It can be particularly useful for IoT devices that have intermittent Internet connection. In addition, it will also help the device to upload data to the cloud, when Internet connection becomes available.
Glue
AWS Glue is business intelligence software that will assist advanced analytics on information stored in Amazon’s cloud. Primarily, it will identify the location of a particular data, extract it, convert it into a specified format and prepare it for analysis, and will move it to the platform where it will be analyzed.
Lex
Lex is a machine language product that will allow programmers to create interactive and conversational applications. In fact, this technology is at the heart of its Alexa platform, and is now available separately for developers to build applications on AWS cloud.
These announcements mark the beginning of exciting times for both AWS and its customers.
The post A Look into the Announcements at AWS’ re:Invent appeared first on Cloud News Daily.
Equinix buys 29 data centres from Verizon for $3.6 billion
(c)iStock.com/4x-image
Data centre firm Equinix has announced its intention to purchase 24 data centre sites, consisting of 29 data centre buildings, from Verizon for $3.6 billion (£2.85bn).
The portfolio includes approximately 900 customers and are based exclusively in the US and Latin America. Equinix will open three new markets, in Culpeper in Virginia, Houston, and Bogota, and will add almost 2.5 million gross square feet to the company’s overall footprint.
“This unique opportunity complements and extends Equinix’s strategy to expand our global platform,” said Steve Smith, Equinix president and CEO in a statement. “It enables us to enhance cloud and network density to continue to attract enterprises, while expanding our presence in the Americas.”
According to the most recent industry figures from Synergy Research, Equinix leads the way in colocation, being the only vendor with more than a 10% market share. The company is ahead of Digital Realty – whose Paris operations Equinix announced it was to acquire in August for $211m – and NTT. To put this in perspective, CenturyLink, who announced in the same November week it was to acquire Level 3 Communications for $34bn and sell 57 of its data centres to a consortium, is one of the seven other players in the top 10, whose market share at the time between them was 15%.
Approximately 250 Verizon employees will switch over to Equinix as part of the move. “This deal is a significant win for our existing customers, who will gain access to new locations, ecosystems and partners,” said Karl Strohmeyer, Equinix Americas president. “It is also a win for the new companies joining Equinix, as they will be able to leverage Equinix’s global footprint and unique interconnection services.”
The full list of metro areas included in the deal is Atlanta, Bogota, Boston, Chicago, Culpeper, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Sao Paulo, Seattle, Silicon Valley, and Washington D.C, while the transaction is expected to close by mid-2017.