Category Archives: Free

Portland Netherlands Free Online Training, by Parallels

Parallels and Portland Netherlands are offering a Free Collaborative Online Training Session! Parallels Remote Application Server is the easiest application and desktop delivery server solution of its kind to use, and we are pleased to offer training that is designed to provide customers a competitive edge when using the solution. We are particularly excited about the […]

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Google Adds Docker Image Support to App Engine, Announces Kubernetes Container Manager

Google continues to up the cloud ante by adding a set of extensions that allow Google App Engine developers to build and deploy Docker images in Managed VMs. Developers can use these extensions to easily access the large and growing library of Docker images, and the Docker community can easily deploy containers into a completely managed environment with access to services such as Cloud Datastore.

From the Google Cloud Platform Blog:

“Based on our experience running Linux containers within Google, we know how important it is to be able to efficiently schedule containers at Internet scale. To that end, we’re announcing Kubernetes, a lean yet powerful open-source container manager that deploys containers into a fleet of machines, provides health management and replication capabilities, and makes it easy for containers to connect to one another and the outside world. We’ll continue to build out the feature set, while collaborating with the Docker community to incorporate the best ideas from Kubernetes into Docker.”

 

Full details here.

Google Adds Docker Image Support to App Engine, Announces Kubernetes Container Manager

Google continues to up the cloud ante by adding a set of extensions that allow Google App Engine developers to build and deploy Docker images in Managed VMs. Developers can use these extensions to easily access the large and growing library of Docker images, and the Docker community can easily deploy containers into a completely managed environment with access to services such as Cloud Datastore.

From the Google Cloud Platform Blog:

“Based on our experience running Linux containers within Google, we know how important it is to be able to efficiently schedule containers at Internet scale. To that end, we’re announcing Kubernetes, a lean yet powerful open-source container manager that deploys containers into a fleet of machines, provides health management and replication capabilities, and makes it easy for containers to connect to one another and the outside world. We’ll continue to build out the feature set, while collaborating with the Docker community to incorporate the best ideas from Kubernetes into Docker.”

 

Full details here.

Stackdriver Launches Intelligent Monitoring Service Public Beta

Stackdriver has launched the public beta  of Stackdriver Intelligent Monitoring, a flexible and intuitive SaaS offering that provides rich insight into the health of cloud-powered systems, infrastructure, and applications.  The service features seamless integration with Amazon Web Services and Rackspace Cloud and is optimized for teams that manage complex distributed applications.  Customers can access the service immediately via the company’s website at www.stackdriver.com.

Stackdriver’s engineers set out to build a solution that:

  • Monitors applications, systems, and infrastructure components,
  • Identifies anomalies using modern analytics and machine learning, and
  • Drives remediation and automation using a proprietary policy framework.

Edmodo, a leading social learning platform that runs on AWS, has relied on Stackdriver for several months.  “The technology stack that powers Edmodo’s online learning platform is very sophisticated. We use a variety of application building blocks, including AWS services and open source server software,” noted Kimo Rosenbaum, Infrastructure Architect.  “Before Stackdriver, we monitored our stack with many disparate tools, often designed without the dynamic nature of the cloud in mind.  With Stackdriver, we can monitor our systems, AWS services, and applications with one simple interface built for cloud-based services.”

Stackdriver Intelligent Monitoring is available free of charge for companies using Amazon Web Services and Rackspace Cloud.  Today, Stackdriver manages nearly 100,000 cloud resources and processes over 125 million measurements per day.  Nearly 100 customers, paid and non-paid, use the service, including Edmodo, Yellowhammer Media, Exablox, Atomwise, Qthru, and Webkite.

Want 100 GB of Free Cloud Storage For Life?

Zoolz is promoting their cloud backup service with an offer to give the first million users 100 GB for free. For life. The catch? It uses AWS Glacier, Amazon’s cheaper alternative to S3. Glacier of course enforces a delay of 3 to 5 hours to retrieve files, and there are limits to monthly retrieval. But for the right purposes (like, “Store & Ignore”) it might be a real deal if you act soon enough. Their intro video explains:

AWS Unveils OpsWorks Cloud DevOps Solution

Amazon AWS just announced DevOps (beta) a no-charge solution for managing applications in the AWS cloud using Chef recipes, built on technology developed by Peritor, the creators of Scalarium, which was acquired by AWS in 2012:

AWS OpsWorks is a DevOps solution for managing applications of any scale or complexity on the AWS cloud. AWS OpsWorks features an integrated experience for managing the complete application lifecycle, including resource provisioning, configuration management, application deployment, software updates, monitoring, and access control. 

AWS OpsWorks lets you model and visualize your application with layers that define how to configure a set of resources that are managed together. You can also define the software configuration for each layer, including installation scripts and initialization tasks. When an instance is added to a layer, all the configuration steps are applied for you. AWS OpsWorks promotes conventions but is flexible enough to let you customize any aspect of your environment. Since AWS OpsWorks uses Chef recipes, you can leverage hundreds of community-built configurations such as PostgreSQL, Nginx, and Solr.

Read details.

 

Cubby cloud sync, storage service From LogMeInOut of Beta

LogMeIn Inc.  announced the general availability of its new cloud sync and storage service, Cubby. An easy-to-use, secure cloud service for sharing files across devices and with other people, Cubby offers the flexibility to turn any number of PC or Mac folders into ‘cubbies’ that can be accessed from Android phones and tablets, iPads and iPhones, as well other PCs and Macs from virtually anywhere in the world.

People can quickly share individual files or entire folders with others via a simple one-click link, or can choose to invite friends, colleagues, clients, and business partners into their ‘cubbies’ to collaborate across shared files and projects. The free version, Cubby Basic, includes Cubby’s signature sync-in-place flexibility (any folder can be a ‘cubby’), free desktop and mobile apps, 5GB of cloud storage, and the ability to share files via the cloud.

A premium version, Cubby Pro, builds on this by offering the flexibility to share content across computers with or without the cloud (via Cubby’s distinct DirectSync™ mode), additional controls for sharing your most sensitive content, multi-user accounts, and 100GB or more of cloud storage.

CloudBerry Introduces Smart Restore for Amazon Glacier

CloudBerry Lab today released CloudBerry Explorer v. 3.7.2 an application that allows users to manage files in Amazon S3 and Amazon Glacier just as if they were on their local computers.

In the new release CloudBerry Explorer allows users controlling the restore cost in Amazon Glacier that is charged based on the peak usage per hour in a given month. Smart Restore functionality enables users to specify peak retrieval rate to keep the cost on the required level and to run the restore process in the background.

The new version also comes with the ability to display Amazon Glacier storage using the Folder View to make it easier for PC users to work with the storage.

Smart Restore and Folder View features are available in both versions of CloudBerry Explorer: Freeware and PRO.

Freeware version offers basic storage management capabilities such as browsing, creating, and deleting files, folders, buckets and vaults and uploading content from your PC to Amazon S3 and Amazon Glacier storage and vice versa. CloudBerry Explorer Freeware is available for download at http://www.cloudberrylab.com/free

PRO version offers some advanced features over Freeware version. It costs $39.99 per license.

FileZoomer for Amazon S3 Adds Glacier, Life Cycle, Versioning, Batch Options

A new release of FileZoomer, a cross-platform client for Amazon’s S3 has been released,  adding support for new S3 features including Versioning and Object Life Cycle. Object Life Cycle for S3 includes the option to migrate files to the lower-cost AWS Glacier storage option, and includes a facility to retrieve archived files so they can be downloaded from S3.

The Glacier support in S3, as featured in FileZoomer, does not require a separate AWS Glacier account. Instead it is handled transparently by S3 and FileZoomer.

Versioning allows the option of keeping previous versions of files as they are updated.

Unique to FileZoomer is the Batch Processing option, which allows the interactive creation of configuration files that control batch uploads, downloads, and syncing files between a local machine and S3. Once configured, the pre-defined actions can be invoked from within the FileZoomer client, of from batch processes in Windows, Mac OS X, or linux.

FileZoomer is a free java client that runs on Windows, Mac OS X, and linux, and it can be downloaded from FileZoomer.com

Hanu Software Offers Cloud Application Assessment Tool

Hanu Software has launched the “Cloud Application Assessment” Portal as a free service to help Enterprises, Small/Medium Businesses (SMBs) and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) chart a cloud strategy. The online service delivers a recommendation report based on the answers to a series of twenty-four diagnostic questions developed through Hanu’s work with clients who have successfully adopted cloud.

As consumers and businesses demand cloud-based applications, developers must re-write the underlying code to make legacy applications cloud ready. In addition, they must select the best cloud deployment model for their application, which depends on many factors, including application data, usage patterns, compliance and security. Hanu created the Cloud Application Assessment Portal to simplify the initial decision process for application developers.

“We want to demystify the cloud and make it extremely easy for Clients to assess whether their application is a good fit for the Cloud in 10 minutes or less,” said Anil Singh, founder and CEO of Hanu Software. “It’s the first step in a systematic process. Based on the results from the online assessment, Enterprises, SMBs and ISVs can determine their best course of action.” As a Microsoft Azure Circle partner, Hanu works closely with the Microsoft Azure team to develop best practice recommendations for cloud deployment of applications. The Cloud Assessment is an outgrowth of that work, resulting in a decision tree based on application characteristics, current infrastructure, data foundation, integration and security requirements.

Through the Hanu Cloud Assessment, business or technical users answer the series of twenty-four questions based on their application’s unique characteristics. Results are tabulated and a report presented with recommendations that include:

  • Whether or not the application is a good fit for the cloud.
  • Which deployment model — Public, Private or Hybrid — is most appropriate.
  • Whether IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) or PaaS (Platform as a Service) should be considered.

“We are pleased that we’ve been able to fill a void for Clients looking for a straightforward way to get started with the cloud,” added Anil.

“It is a daunting prospect for Clients to choose the best path to the cloud because there are so many factors playing into the decision. By applying the lessons we’ve learned, we hope to make the journey a bit easier for CIOs/CTOs just getting started with cloud deployment.” In response to the growing cloud development needs of Microsoft’s extensive partner network, Hanu helps Clients with Cloud Awareness, Cloud Assessment and Cloud Adoption. Our network of Microsoft Cloud Architects brings Clients the Azure expertise they need for net new Cloud application development as well as for migrating existing applications to the Cloud. After taking the online assessment, users can sign up for the one day, onsite comprehensive Cloud Strategy Assessment followed by Architecture Design Session and Proof-of-Concept programs. For more information on the Hanu Cloud Services, visit: www.hanusoftware.com/services/cloud-services/.