Category Archives: Google

Alcatel-Lucent, Content & Applications, Content delivery network, Google, News & Analysis

Google and Alcatel announce content delivery network upgrades to cloud services

contentTwo major content delivery network (CDN) technology announcements have highlighted the strategic importance of CDN in delivering content without lag and latency.

Google’s Cloud Platform is to be sped up by the addition of four new content delivery networks, it has announced. The addition of CloudFlare, Fastly, Highwinds Network and Level 3 Communications to Google’s network of 70 points of presence in 33 countries forms part of Google’s new CDN Interconnect programme, which falls within the Google Cloud Interconnect line.

The plan is to cut prices for joint customers of the CDN providers and Google Cloud Platform when the customer’s traffic moves from the Google cloud to the CDN, it said. Google’s Cloud Platform product manager Ofir Roval said the additions are needed to speed delivery of rich media payloads from the Google Cloud Platform to end-user devices. Emerging web and mobile apps ‘carry hefty media assets’ which, he blogged, explains the need for new CDN additions, according to a report in The Light Reading. In time dependent enterprise business systems, users are unlikely to tolerate ‘laggy’ unresponsive applications, said Roval.

In November the cloud vendor launched Google Carrier Interconnect, to help link enterprise customers to the Google cloud. Partners in the initiative included Verizon, Equinix, Level 3 and Tata Communications.

Meanwhile, Alcatel-Lucent has moved to bolster it cloud-based IP video storage and content delivery technologies with a new Cloud DVR platform and a new Elastic content delivery network. The plan allows service providers to manage network capacity more dynamically as they deal with growing customer demand, according to Alcatel-Lucent.

The Cloud DVR platform incorporates a number of advances in storage resulting from Alcatel-Lucent’s collaboration with Intel and uses the Intel Intelligent Storage Acceleration Library.

With functions moved to the cloud, the Elastic CDN allows resources to be allocated more flexibly, said Paul Larbey, head of Alcatel-Lucent’s IP Video business. “Our IP Video portfolio helps customers better manage the changes in traffic that they are seeing. We can help providers deliver video content more intelligently and efficiently to dramatically improve the end-user experience, in line with demand but without increasing costs.”

Telco TalkTalk has tested components of the enhanced Cloud DVR in a live network environment.

Elastic CDN will be made commercially available in 2016.

Google, News, Services

Lightning Strikes Disrupt Google Data Center

Recently, Google data centers in Belgium have been hit by a series of lightning strikes, which not only took some of its cloud storage systems offline briefly, but caused errors in some customers cloud infrastructure. It was initially reported that lightning had struck electrical systems in one of its three data centers in a small town about fifty miles southwest of Brussels called St. Ghislain. It was later relayed that lightning had not struck the data center, but had hit the local utility grid. This had caused the data center’s power to be interrupted.

Failover systems may switch to an auxiliary power if the primary source goes offline while servers in the data centers have batteries for extra backup. The servers supporting Persistent Disk, cloud storage that acts independently of compute, were backed up with such batteries. However, some servers stilled failed because extended use of the batteries caused them to drain. The incident report stated “In almost all cases the data was successfully committed to stable storage, although manual intervention was required in order to restore the systems to their normal serving state.”

Google data center campus in St. Ghislain

Over the five days that problems had appeared with the cloud storage systems, Google engineers had estimated that around five percent of the persistent disks in the Belgium zone had at least one I/O read or a write failure. A miniscule fraction of all the persistent disks were permanently deleted from servers, roughly 0.000001 percent according to the Google incident report.

Google’s infrastructure teams are swiftly working to replace storage systems with hardware that is more resilient against power failure in case of another emergency such as this one, so that data may be backed up. According to Google, most of the Persistent Disk Storage has already begun running on this stronger hardware.

Following this outage, Google has reminded customers that it has a multitude of cloud computing regions throughout the globe and within these regions are multiple isolated zones so users may set up resilient infrastructure that may fail over from a different zone in case of a single zone outage, like what occurred in Belgium. Google Compute Engine has three different regions: Central US in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Western Europe in St. Ghislain, and East Asia in Changhua County, Taiwan. In the Central United States region, there are four different zones while in Western Europe and East Asia there are three zones each. Because of the different zones, customers may successfully prepare for situations like the one that occurred in Belgium.

The post Lightning Strikes Disrupt Google Data Center appeared first on Cloud News Daily.

Google, News, Services

Googles Cloud Services

In order to compete with Cloud giants such as Amazon, IBM, and Microsoft, Google has created two new cloud services, Cloud Dataflow and Cloud Pub/Sub, to handle Big Data necessities. Cloud Dataflow will perform very complex computations on large amounts of data in either batches or streaming mode. Cloud Pub/Sub may send and receive data from applications in a message form.
google dataflow
Cloud Dataflow product manager Eric Schmidt and Cloud Pub/Sub product manager Rohit Khare have written in a blog post, “These fully-managed services remove the operational burden found in traditional data processing system. They enable you to build applications on a platform that can scale with the growth of your business and drive down data processing latency, all while processing your data efficiently and reliably. Every day, customers use Google Cloud Platform to execute business-critical big data processing workloads, including: financial fraud detection, genomics analysis, inventory management, click-stream analysis, A/B user interaction testing and cloud-scale ETL.”
The authors have described Cloud Dataflow as “specifically designed to remove the complexity of developing separate systems for batch and streaming data sources by providing a unified programming model.” This program was based on previous Google innovations such as MapReduce, FlumeJava, and Millwheel.
Cloud Pub/Sub “addresses a broad range of scenarios with a single API, a managed service that eliminates those tradeoffs, and remains cost-effective as you grow, with pricing as low as 5¢ per million message operations for sustained usage.”

The post Googles Cloud Services appeared first on Cloud News Daily.

Azure Data Factory, Big Data, Cloud Dataflow, Database, Google, Microsoft, News & Analysis

Google, Microsoft punt big data integration services into GA

Big cloud incumbents are doubling down on data integration

Big cloud incumbents are doubling down on data integration

Google and Microsoft have both announced the general release of Cloud Dataflow and Azure Data Factory, their respective cloud-based data integration services.

Google’s Cloud Dataflow is designed to integrate separate databases and data systems – both streaming and batch – in one programming model while giving apps full access to, and the ability to customise, that data; it is essentially a way to reduce operational overhead when doing big data analysis in the cloud.

Microsoft’s Azure Data Factory is a slightly different offering. It’s a data integration and automation service that regulates the data pipelines connecting a range of databases and data systems with applications. The pipelines can be scheduled to ingest, prep, transform, analyse and publish that data – with ADF automating and orchestration more complex transactions.

ADF is actually one of the core components of Microsoft’s Cortana analytics offering, and is deployed to automate the movement and transformation of data from disparate sources.

The maturation and commoditisation of data integration and automation is a positive sign for an industry that has for a very long while leaned heavily on expensive bespoke data integration. As more cloud incumbents bring their own integration offerings to the table it will be interesting to see how some of the bigger players in data integration and automation, like Informatica or Teradata, respond.

Alphabet, Google, Larry Page, M&A, News & Analysis, Sergey Brin, Vendor

Google creates Alphabet to address bloat, heterogeneity

Google's holding company is intended to help it more effectively manage a growing and increasingly broad set of businesses

Google’s holding company is intended to help it more effectively manage a growing and increasingly broad set of businesses

Google has taken the decision to form a new holding company, Alphabet, of which its biggest component will be Google with its internet and cloud services. The move is likely to appeal to investors who don’t want expensive experiments and general sprawl bringing down its share price.

The company’s chief executive Larry Page revealed the news in a blog post this week.

“We’ve long believed that over time companies tend to get comfortable doing the same thing, just making incremental changes. But in the technology industry, where revolutionary ideas drive the next big growth areas, you need to be a bit uncomfortable to stay relevant.”

“Our company is operating well today, but we think we can make it cleaner and more accountable. So we are creating a new company, called Alphabet. I am really excited to be running Alphabet as CEO with help from my capable partner, Sergey, as President.”

Alphabet is a holding company that will include Google, the largest of its components, which will retain the internet-centric services it provides (including YouTube, Search, Maps, and its cloud services). But its other projects and divisions including Nest, Google X, Research, Fibre, and it venture capital arms (Ventures and Capital) will be spun out and operate under the broader Alphabet umbrella.

Page will serve as chief executive of Alphabet and Sergey Brin as its president. Sundar Pichai, who has led product development and engineering efforts for its internet businesses, will be bumped up to lead Google as chief executive.

“This newer Google is a bit slimmed down, with the companies that are pretty far afield of our main Internet products contained in Alphabet instead.”

“Fundamentally, we believe this allows us more management scale, as we can run things independently that aren’t very related. Alphabet is about businesses prospering through strong leaders and independence. In general, our model is to have a strong CEO who runs each business, with Sergey and me in service to them as needed. We will rigorously handle capital allocation and work to make sure each business is executing well.”

Alex Polvi, Boris Renski, CoreOS, Docker, Google, Kubernetes, Linux containers, News & Analysis, Open Source, OpenStack, Vendor

Mirantis, CoreOS deliver Kubernetes on OpenStack

Mirantis and CoreOS are partnering on Kubernetes integration with OpenStack

Mirantis and CoreOS are partnering on Kubernetes integration with OpenStack

Pure-play OpenStack vendor Mirantis has teamed with CoreOS to integrate its distribution of the open source cloud software with Tectonic, CoreOS’ commercial Kubernetes distribution.

Tectonic blends Kubernetes, an open source container deployment management service, and the CoreOS software portfolio in an integrated package, including a management console for workflows and dashboards, an integrated registry to build and share Linux containers, and additional tools to automate deployment and customize rolling updates. It runs on-premises or in public and private clouds.

The two companies said the move would improve support and manageability of containers running on OpenStack and bolster their mutual hybrid cloud capabilities.

“Mirantis and CoreOS share a vision of helping DevOps teams create better software faster. Putting Kubernetes on top of OpenStack gives them flexibility in how they build their applications, letting them innovate quickly,” said Mirantis chief marketing officer and co-founder Boris Renski.

“We are thrilled to be working with Google and CoreOS, and look forward to hearing more from them about how enterprises can leverage containers with OpenStack at OpenStack Silicon Valley.”

The move comes nearly half a year after Mirantis announced it would partner with Google to get vanilla Kubernetes integrated with its OpenStack distribution and double down on support for containers more broadly, efforts that have seemingly accelerated since Google announced the official 1.0 launch of Kubernetes last month.

“Now that Kubernetes is production-ready, companies using Tectonic and Mirantis OpenStack can have a Google-like infrastructure at their fingertips,” said Alex Polvi, chief executive of CoreOS. “Mirantis possesses a deep understanding of open source software and their commitment to the open source ecosystem around OpenStack is second to none. It was natural to work with Mirantis to help customers see the benefits of Kubernetes on OpenStack.”

Alibaba, Aliyun, AWS, Daniel Zhang, Datacentre, Equinix, Google, IBM, Infrastructure as a Service, Intel, Meeras, News & Analysis, PCCW, Singtel

Alibaba takes aim at AWS, Google, Microsoft, pours $1bn into global cloud rollout

Alibaba is pouring $1bn into its cloud division to support global expansion

Alibaba is pouring $1bn into its cloud division to support global expansion

Alibaba announced plans this week to plough $1bn into its cloud computing division, Aliyun, in a bid to expand the company’s presence and establish new datacentres internationally. The move may give it the scale it needs to compete more effectively with the likes of Amazon and Google.

The company currently operates five datacentre in China and Hong Kong, and earlier this year set up a datacentre in Silicon Valley aimed at local startups and Chinese multinational corporations.

The $1bn in additional investment will go towards setting up new cloud datacentres in the Middle East, Singapore, Japan and in various countries across Europe.

“Aliyun has become a world-class cloud computing service platform that is the market leader in China, bearing the fruits of our investment over the past six years. As the physical and digital are becoming increasingly integrated, Aliyun will serve as an essential engine in this new economy,” said Daniel Zhang, chief executive officer of Alibaba Group.

“This additional US$ 1 billion investment is just the beginning; our hope is for Aliyun to continually empower customers and partners with new capabilities, and help companies upgrade their basic infrastructure. We want to enable businesses to connect directly with consumers and drive productivity using data. Ultimately, our goal is to help businesses successfully transition from an era of information technology to data technology,” Zhang said.

The company said it also plans to use the funds to expand its partnerships through its recently announced Marketplace Alliance Program, a move that sees it partnering with large tech and datacentre operators, initially including Intel, Singtel, Meeras, Equinix and PCCW among others to help localise its cloud computing services and grow its ecosystem.

The investment if anything confirms Alibaba’s intent to grow well beyond Asia and displace other large public cloud providers like AWS, IBM and Google, which already boast significant global scale.

Elastica, Google, Hacking, News & Analysis

Google Drive vulnerable to undetectable phishing campaign, experts claim

Hackers used Google Drive to mount a barely detectable phishing attack

Hackers used Google Drive to mount a barely detectable phishing attack

Google Drive has been subject to a phishing attack that used JavaScript code obfuscation and compromised websites in order to steal end-user account credentials using Google services.

Elastica researchers explained attackers deployed a JavaScript encoding mechanism to obfuscate web page code that could not be easily read, and used fake SSL credentials to gain entry to Google’s services. Attackers were able to reach a wide network of end-users by exploiting Google Drive to host malicious Web pages, where attack victims were directed.

The hackers used Gmail to distribute emails containing links to unauthorized web pages hosted on Google Drive, and then stored stolen credentials through a third-party domain.

Although the malicious pages were reported to Google, Elastica said they have yet to be removed.

“In this particular incident, attackers were able to circumvent tight security controls and target Google users specifically to gain access to a multitude of services associated with Google accounts,” said Aditya K Sood, architect of Elastica Cloud Threat Labs.

“While the cloud offers unprecedented benefits to its users, it is challenging the traditional security model and necessitating a modern, flexible security stack designed to provide protection in a perimeterless world.”

Because the pages were hosted on Google Drive, which uses SSL to encryption, standard security methods like IP blacklisting and intrusion detection weren’t effective.

Rehan Jalil, chief executive of Elastica said these issues will likely keep cropping up as cloud usage grows.

“Security and risk professionals are quickly learning that legacy security solutions are no longer effective for cloud applications,” Jalil said.

AWS, Financial Results, Google, IBM, Microsoft, News & Analysis

AWS rakes in $1.8bn in Q2 as ‘big four’ corner half the cloud services market

AWS is bringing in nearly $2bn in quarterly revenues

AWS is bringing in nearly $2bn in quarterly revenues

AWS revenue for the second quarter of this year topped $1.82bn, an increase of about 81 per cent year on year. The results come as other major IT service providers revealed strong cloud growth for the quarter.

Last quarter, the first time it pulled the curtain back on its cloud business, Amazon revealed AWS raked in $1.57bn in revenue. Operating income for Q2 increased 407 per cent to $391m.

Commenting on the results Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos said “[we] continued to double down on our fastest growing geography — India, launched 350 significant AWS features and services so far this year, ahead of last year’s pace, introduced AWS Educate, and entered into agreements for new solar and wind farms — enough to exceed our 2016 goal of 40 per cent renewable energy.”

Speaking to analysts this week Amazon’s chief financial officer Brian Olsavsky said the company is also getting more competitive on cost as it continues to optimise its services.

“We had over 350 significant new features and services and we believe that’s what resonates with customers. While pricing is certainly a factor we don’t believe it’s always the primary factor; in fact what we hear from our customers is that the ability to move faster and more agility is what they value,” he explained.

But he deflected questions about the capital intensity of the AWS business – which represent about 80 per cent of its overall capex.

Synergy Research Q2 Cloud Market Estimates“We do realise it’s a capital-intensive business and we have modelling that shows it’s going to be a very good business for us and that’s what we aim for as long-term return on invested capital and free cash flow. So, we’re certainly cognizant of the capital part of the calculation,” he said.

Amazon revealed the results as other large incumbents pulled back the curtain on their cloud performance. The second quarter saw Microsoft grow its cloud revenues 88 per cent and IBM 60 per cent.

But the results suggest some of the smaller cloud providers are being left in the dust. According to John Dinsdale, chief analyst and research director at Synergy Research Group, quarterly cloud infrastructure service revenues (including IaaS, PaaS and private & hybrid cloud) are now approaching the $6bn, while trailing twelve-month revenues hitting close to $20bn. Synergy estimates AWS, Microsoft, IBM and Google (the ‘big four’) control well over half of the worldwide cloud infrastructure service market.

“The cloud infrastructure services market is quite clearly bifurcating with a widening gap between the big four cloud providers and the rest of the service provider community,” Dinsdale explained. “Developing the necessary global hyperscale datacentre infrastructure along with the required marketing and operations support is simply beyond the reach of all but a very small number of players. This is not going to change.”

The good news for smaller and medium-sized cloud providers, he said, is that there does remain a wealth of opportunity for them to specialise in a particular niche industry or geography. At the moment the firm reckons North America accounts for over half of the worldwide cloud services market, followed by the EMEA and APAC regions.

Android, app development, Content & Applications, Google, News & Analysis, Paul Colton, Pixate, prototype

Google buys Pixate to strengthen mobile app prototyping, design

Google acquired mobile design and prototyping firm Pixate this week

Google acquired mobile design and prototyping firm Pixate this week

Google quietly acquired Pixate for an undisclosed sum this week. The company, which offers a platform that helps developers and design and prototype mobile apps, may help Google bolster the UX of its own apps while helping it expand the range of services already offered to developers.

A post on the Pixate blog written by chief executive Paul Colton confirmed the acquisition.

“Our small team at Pixate has some really big ideas, and with the help of Google we’ll be able to bring those ideas to the design community at scale. We’ve become an essential part of the workflow for tens of thousands of designers, and are excited about expanding our mission at Google to reach millions of product teams worldwide,” Colton explained.

“Starting today we’re making Pixate Studio free and dramatically reducing the cost of the Pixate cloud service,” he added.

Google said “Pixate adds to our ongoing effort to develop new design and prototyping tools.”

Pixate said it counts companies like Apple, Disney and Amazon as past customers. The company’s services will no doubt complement the cloud-based testing service for Android apps unveiled earlier this year at the I/O conference. The service, based on Appurify’s technology – an acquisition it announced at the conference last year, allows developers to run their applications on simulated versions of thousands of different Android devices.