C12G recently released a Sandbox Appliance for VMware and now they are doing the same for KVM. The appliance image is already in its OpenNebula marketplace but hold your horses and don’t download it just yet. Head to the documentation and download the script that will be used to configure your machines, download the image and start it up.
The requirements now are at least a couple of machines with Ubuntu Server 12.04 64 bit. The CPU should support hardware virtualization as we are using KVM here. It is based on the VMware appliance so you’ll be able to develop in it if you need as all the libraries needed for compilation are already there.
Cloud Computing: Nine Ways the Cloud Changes Users’ Lives at Cloud Expo NY
Today’s end users are always connected, and mobile and social apps have given them the expectation of immediate gratification. Why should enterprise apps be any different? What good is Big Data and real-time computing if you can’t broadcast data to all your end users in milliseconds?
In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Todd Greene, CEO and co-founder of PubNub, will discuss how companies are using real-time cloud infrastructure to deliver new kinds of killer apps to users. This broad reaching topic will illustrate how the cloud is powering real-time apps across a wide range of industries, including real-time analytics, advertising, massive scale audience participation, linking commerce with presence, and business collaboration that enables live participation and the ability for instant decision-making. Whether you build or support b2b or b2c apps, it’s likely that your users are expecting their apps and websites to connect users to real-time data, collaboration, and immediate gratification. Explore how you can use cloud services like PubNub to deliver “human-perceptive” real-time experiences that scale to millions of users worldwide.
Research and Markets: United States Information Technology Report Q2 2012
Research and Markets has announced the addition of the “United States Information Technology Report Q2 2012″ report to their offering.
Business Monitor International’s United States Information Technology Report provides industry professionals and strategists, corporate analysts, information technology associations, government departments and regulatory bodies with independent forecasts and competitive intelligence on United States’s information technology industry.
USA IT spending is expected to reach US$558bn in 2012, up 5.5%, with BMI upwardly revising its forecast due to macroeconomic factors. Overall moderate growth in budgets is expected in 2012, but much depends on the economic situation. Despite a drive to cut expenses across government, many public sector organisations have appeared willing to continue to spend on IT. US businesses remain cautious, but there is pent-up demand from projects delayed as a result of the economic situation and cloud computing is expected to be increasingly important.
IT vendors will be concerned when it comes to the effect of the ongoing US federal deficit issue and the failure of politicians to agree a deficit reduction programme.The November 2012 elections will also create uncertainty about the trajectory of future government IT spending.
In 2012 there are expected to be many more contracts for provision of cloud services, following contracts awarded in 2011 by the cities of New York and Los Angeles, and the General Services Administration (GSA) of the federal government. The recession may have had a lasting effect on the IT market by encouraging consideration of cloud computing models such as SaaS.
US PC sales are forecast to report single-digit growth in 2012, after an annualised contraction in Q411, closing off a difficult year. The market slowdown was due in part to base effects, but a contributory factor was disappointing sales in the consumer segment, particularly notebooks. Meanwhile, a shortage of harddisk drives resulting from floods in Thailand is forecast to restrain market growth in H112, with faster growth likely in H212.
Oracle Cloud is finally brought out but is the criticism fair?
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison has been on the warpath for most of this week after announcing the data giant’s move to the cloud, in what was modestly described in the press releases as “the most comprehensive cloud on the planet Earth”.
Oracle Cloud had according to Ellison been seven years in the making, which perhaps explains its comprehensive nature, but the credentials sound pretty good at face value.
Delivering software as a service (SaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS), Oracle Cloud’s main strength is what they call “functionally rich, integrated, secure, enterprise cloud services” – in other words, a fully-fledged cloud system which incorporates 100 self-service applications and platform services.
The announcement also explained the cloud’s various facets, such as allowing users to schedule their own upgrades as and when, and claiming to be the only cloud which avoided business process fragmentation.
The numbers were impressive too …
Autodesk Acquires Vela Systems for Construction Management
Autodesk, Inc. has acquired Vela Systems, a provider of cloud and mobile field management software for the construction industry. The addition of Vela Systems field management products to Autodesk’s growing portfolio of cloud and mobile products is helping to extend the value of Building Information Modeling (BIM) and project data to construction customers in the field. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
“BIM has tremendous value in the planning and design aspects of construction projects, but if you can’t get that rich data into the field, at the point of construction, you are leaving out the critical ‘last 100 yards’ in the process. Integrating Vela Systems and its cloud and mobile products with the Autodesk BIM portfolio transforms the business of construction, delivering valuable information to job sites anywhere in the world,” said Amar Hanspal, Senior Vice President, Information Modeling and Platform Products Group.
Based in Burlington, Massachusetts, Vela Systems extends the power of BIM with cloud and mobile technologies that enable project and company-wide programs for streamlined management of quality, safety, commissioning and field construction. The powerful reporting tools provide immediate visibility into issues in the field, allowing for proactive management and resolution, rather than time consuming and expensive overruns caused by a reactive approach. Vela Systems software and services are integrated with current Autodesk integrated project management software including Autodesk Navisworks, the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry’s standard comprehensive set of integration, analysis, and communication tools for project review.
“Vela Systems has been a longstanding partner of Autodesk, and has been leading the charge in the field. The confluence of cloud computing, iOS mobile devices like the iPad and BIM has enabled a new way to deliver and manage construction projects of all types. With the acquisition, we will accelerate this revolution in field management through a broader solution and greatly enhanced distribution,” said Josh Kanner, co-founder, of Vela Systems.
Combined with the Autodesk BIM portfolio, the Vela Systems software has already helped contractors, owners, architects and engineers accelerate project schedules, reduce project risk, and improve the flow of information, including key data and project photos, between project stakeholders. Autodesk users can now reduce reliance on manual processes to track progress, document work activities and resolve issues. With the Vela Systems integration, users can also visualize the as-designed building in the field to improve quality and fidelity to design intent; streamline reviews; save money with more efficient workflows by linking physical tasks to a virtual model; and capture critical data on materials, systems, and equipment.
Cloud Computing: FortressITX CEO to Present at Cloud Expo
On June 12, 2012, between 6:20 – 7:05 pm, FortressITX CEO Jason Silverglate will host a technical presentation entitled “Leverage Cloud Technology to Power Your Office,” at the 10th International Cloud Expo in New York City. Consider this presentation your personal “how to” break down of what cloud computing can do for an office environment of any kind.
The presentation will cover the benefits of cloud computing for small business, cloud computing action points, best practices and examples of case studies proving the overall benefits of cloud computing in a corporate setting of any size. Silverglate will show business owners how incorporate hosted PBX, hosted exchange and hosted desktop (virtual desktop integration) technologies into everyday business practices to maximize company efficiency and minimize cost.
Major Trends Drive Call for Change in Data Strategies
The current landscape for data management, backup, and disaster recovery, too often ignores the transition from physical to virtualized environments, and sidesteps the heightened real-time role that data now plays in enterprise.
Businesses clearly need a better approach to their data recovery capabilities — across both their physical and virtualized environments. The current landscape for data management, backup, and disaster recovery (DR), too often ignores the transition from physical to virtualized environments, and sidesteps the heightened real-time role that data now plays in enterprise.
Easy Install of Cloudstack on Defunct Hardware for a Home Lab
To learn more about Cloud IaaS offerings, I painlessly setup Cloudstack, from Citrix, on two (outdated and defunct) DELL Optiplex 740 desktop computers.
Each desktop is configured with 8GB of memory and the processors are VT compatible (meaning they can run virtualization technology software – a hypervisor).
At first attempt, the Cloudstack software would not recognize the internal disk drives. Thinking that my old hardware would not run cloudstack, I researched the non-descript error and decided that the installer was not able to detect the disks because of the pre-existing software installed.
Windows Azure Offerings Are Expanded with New IaaS Offerings
Microsoft announced on June 7th that Windows Azure will be enhanced to include several infrastructure-as-a-service offerings including Windows Azure Virtual Machines, Virtual Networks, Web Sites and Media Services. These new offerings provide increased flexibility when planning your Private Cloud infrastructure through the introduction of Hybrid scenarios.
Windows Azure Virtual Machines provide the flexibility to inexpensively run Windows and Linux workloads with a variety of resource sizes (ie., Small, Medium, Large, XLarge VMs). In addition, the new Windows Azure Virtual Networking capabilities permit IT professionals to create secure site-to-site VPNs from their datacenters to the VMs they are running in the Azure cloud with no changes to underlying IP addressing. The resulting benefits provide the ability to quickly and securely extend your on-premises datacenter with elastic cloud resources while maintaining a single management toolset, Microsoft System Center, for managing both on-premises and cloud-based VM workloads. This flexibility is ideal for hybrid scenarios that involve the need for some application components to burst temporarily with additional compute resources or involve Internet-facing components that would otherwise be expensive and difficult for a business organization to host in-house.
Cloud Computing: Egenera Makes the Leap to Cloud Management
The way blade pioneer Egenera remembers things it invented converged infrastructure before it had to abandon its x86 BladeFrame servers, switches and storage for software based on its trusty Processor Area Network (PAN) Manager.
It is now making the obligatory move from other people’s virtualized blade servers to the private cloud still focused on blades.
Egenera has yet to make the great leap to rack servers. Blades, according to CEO Peter Manca, are more uniform and – although racks dominate – blades are faster growing.