Archivo de la categoría: Cloud computing

Cloud computing, Cloud Services, News

Chicago Cloud Tax

Tech entrepreneurs took to city hall in Chicago to complain about the tax ruling put in effect last week. They claimed the tax, which extended a nine percent lease tax to cloud-based technology services, would hurt business and discourage startups in Chicago.

Spokeswoman for Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in statement, “Based on feedback we have received from Chicago’s vibrant start-up community, the administration will be taking measures to provide relief to small businesses so as not to put them at a competitive disadvantage. Proposals are being discussed with stakeholders, and we will release further guidance later this month.”

Relief may include exempting small businesses based on income.

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Harper Reed, founder of Modest, a mobile-commerce technology provider to small and mid-sized businesses, said, “My initial concern was that I might have to charge our Chicago customers more, which is kind of a bummer. Then there was the other part of it . . . where all cloud services would be taxed. This is a big thing.”

This would affect startups that run their business from the cloud, using big businesses such as Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure or IBM Cloud Services, that have been switching to the cloud.

City Hall has not provided a clear interpretation of the law, worrying tech entrepreneurs.  J.B. Pritzker, a venture capitalist who is one of the most prominent leaders of the tech community, has commented, “If they don’t want to lose momentum in the startup community, it has to be more narrowly applied. Most startups are not particularly well-funded or making money. To the extent there’s an interpretation hat would bear down on those companies and take capital out of their nascent, small treasure chests, it’s the wrong place to look.”

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Cloud computing, cloud security, News

Open API Efforts Begin

Ciphercloud and the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) have been working to fill a gap in the cloud access security broker market. It is a new working group for defining a uniform Open API. The group is led by CipherCloud and also includes from Deloitte, Infosys, Intel Security and SAP. The Open API looks to define a standard for the emerging cloud access security broker (CASB) space. CASB will cover four categories: data protection, threat prevention, visibility and compliance.

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Cloud identity is mainly handled by Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) assertions, which can enable federated identity across cloud vendors. Chenxi Wang, vice president of Cloud Security & Strategy at CipherCloud, explains that identity management is only part of the battle in cloud security, and that the API will cover not only identity management but also data classification, data protection and access management.

Wang describes, “We will not propose new protocols to replace SAML, but instead, we will fill gaps where existing standards are lacking. For instance, how does the enterprise specify to the cloud service that a particular piece of data and content can only be stored in a particular geography? You can’t do that today automatically.

“This Open API effort will standardize the specification, control and assessment across the tiers of the cloud infrastructure, which will in turn significantly lessen the work on the developers’ part and hence expedite time to market for cloud adoption. The immediate goals of this effort are to issue specifications for the API framework, reference architecture documents, as well as a few whitepapers. After that, we may propose to incorporate that as part of the CSA STAR, if the industry embraces the API standards.”

The group is focused on its immediate goals first and foremost. While the groups formation was announced in late June, it is expected to begin operations in July.

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Cloud computing, Cloud Services, Google, News

Google Pairs Up with Broad Institute

Google has paired up with high profile Broad Institute at MIT to develop its cloud genomics platform. The scientific community has needed new technologies to deal with the scale of genomic information and Google and the Broad Institute are looking to provide that.

This technology will process store, process and share genomic information as well as making it useful and accessible. The institute released a statement saying: “The goal is to enable any genomic researcher to upload, store, and analyze data in a cloud-based environment that combines the Broad Institute’s best-in-class genomic analysis tools with the scale and computing power of Google.”

Broad Institute will make its Genome Analysis Toolkit, or GATK, available as a service on the Google Cloud Platform. Initial access to the GATK will be limited, but eventually the service will be made more widely available. Any user will be able to upload their data to the cloud and GATK will analyze it using Google’s computing capacity.

 

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Product manager at Google Genomics, Jonathan Bingham, wrote in a blog post: “In order to scale up by the next order of magnitude, Broad and Google will work together to explore how to build new tools and find new insights to propel bio-medical research, using deep bioinformatics expertise, powerful analytics, and massive computing infrastructure.”

This partnership allows researchers to outsource the configuration of technical specifications and maintenance of computing capacity to Google.

GATK could give Google an edge over other cloud computing companies such as Amazon Web Services in the genomic field; however, Google partnership with Broad is not exclusive.

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Cloud computing, cloud security, News, Partnerships

North State Communications to Acquire Stalwart

North State Communications, a leading fiber optic network, data center and cloud services provider, has announced its plans to purchase Stalwart, an IT security integration firm. The purchase will complement DataChambers, North State Communication’s data center and cloud computing subsidiary. While North State Communications said that it expects to close the deal in the third quarter, no details pertaining to the deal were disclosed.

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Royster Tucker III, CEO of North State describes, “North State is extremely pleased to be gaining such a highly qualified and well-rounded IT security firm as Stalwart. Their professional integrity and mastery of advanced threat protection are ideal counterparts for DataChambers’ data center and cloud offerings. Bringing Stalwart onboard further fuels our strategic growth and helps round out our ability to effectively address some of the greatest IT challenges facing businesses today.” Tucker also said that the deal originated from North State Communication’s search for ways to add value for business customers.

Tucker also said, “As businesses begin to move into the cloud and IT infrastructure becomes distributed and moves into the cloud, we wanted to build that business and Stalwart has real expertise in IT infrastructure and security. Today more than ever, you have to wrap that in an envelope of security, and that’s what Stalwart brings to the table.”

Bill Cooper, CEO of Stalwart, also shared his opinion of the deal:  “North State is a strategic acquirer who shares our core virtues and beliefs. This, more than anything, will continue to make Stalwart unique and better. It is exciting to think of the myriad ways our team will now be able to create additional value for our coveted and growing customer base.” Bill Cooper will continue to lead Stalwart as it joins North State.

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Amazon AWS, Cloud computing, News

Oracle Looks to Compete With Companies Like Amazon

Oracle has been working to establish itself as a major player in the cloud computing industry and is preparing to take on Amazon Web Services.  Oracle Executive Chairman Larry Ellison has said the company will offer online storage and customers will be able to have their applications run entirely on Oracle’s cloud network.

The new cloud service, called Oracle Cloud Platform, will be a lower cost alternative to Amazon Web Services and will contain automation to improve cost efficiency and faster processing. In addition, there will be 24 new cloud services such as Oracle Database, Oracle Integration and Oracle Process Cloud to increase Oracles presence in SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS. These programs are designed to give users a better experience while increasing productivity, allowing Oracle to compete with the big names in cloud computing like Amazon. As an example of the cost differences between Oracle and Amazon, Ellison has said “Our new archive storage service goes head-to-head with Amazon Glacier and it’s one-tenth their price.”

 

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Also, Oracle Cloud Services has been growing rapidly. Ellison notes, “Oracle is growing really fast. We sold $426M worth of business in SaaS and PaaS last quarter, a 200 percent increase over the same quarter last year. That’s an industry record; no company has ever sold that much in just one quarter… Oracle is the only company on the planet that can deliver a complete, integrated, standards-based suite of services at every layer of the cloud. Those technology advantages enable us to be much more cost-effective than our competitors.”

So, while Amazon Web services may be the big name in cloud computing for now, Oracle is on the rise in the rapidly expanding industry.

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Cloud computing, cloud security, Cloud Services

Elastica Partners with Telstra to Expand into Australian Cloud Security Market

Recently, cloud security firm Elastica has partnered with Cisco and Telstra to expand into the New Zealand-Australia region in response to the growing threat of “Shadow IT” that has stemmed from increased cloud use.

Elastica’s APAC managing director John Cunningham describes that problems may arise from the struggle to monitor activities of the many apps operating on their network as well as the data that is left unmonitored in the system. This may pose a threat to the system. Elastica is a company whose aim is to secure the cloud.

 

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Because of Australia’s demand for cloud based solutions, it is the perfect market for companies like Elastica, for when cloud networks are needed, cloud security is necessary as well.  Cunningham describes, “Typically with technology, it starts in the US and then it would expand globally, maybe to Japan, maybe to Europe, and then Australia. But this time, it’s a little bit different. Cloud is going out simultaneously around the world, so our investment in Australia is going to be there to support that rapid adoption of cloud applications within Australia.” He then pronounces the importance of cloud security, “For every use of a cloud application, there are millions of events being generated … that becomes a data science problem. As humans, and with the scale of activities happening on cloud application, data science is required to help organizations get visibility of what is important.”

Telstra director of security practice John Ieraci said that Telstra was very impressed by Elasticas ability to handle issues that came from ‘Shadow IT.” “When Elastica appeared in mid-2014, we were impressed with the ability to monitor, track, and block sensitive data in real time and quickly identify shadow IT and shadow data for cloud applications, both SaaS and IaaS, using a data science approach and with zero deployment.”

 

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Cloud computing, Cloud Services

Alibaba’s Cloud Computing Market Strategy

Alibaba Group may be the underdog of the global cloud computing industry when compared to cloud giants like Amazon Web Services and Google, but it may have an advantage. It’s Chinese.

 

Earlier this week, Alibaba acquired a deal with the city of Dalian to build a cloud-computing center and provide online government services. This deal joins many between Alibaba and the Chinese government and has arisen through the Chinese fear of foreign technology.

 

Due to this fear, Alibaba’s cloud unit, Aliyun, has been able to gain experience in the Chinese market before challenging leaders like Amazon, Google, or Microsoft on a global scale.

 

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James McGregor, at US communications consultancy Apco Worldwide, said, “Basically, they are following the political trends and they’re grabbing the business opportunities that result. China wants control of its information, of its data, of its news, of its technology food chain, and so there are huge opportunities.”

 

The cloud-computing sector has boomed largely because it has become cheaper for companies to store data in the cloud rather than maintaining servers in-house.

 

While Aliyun is still relatively small, China has the largest market share in cloud computing so it has plenty of room for growth. Acquiring enough expertise to become a major global player will take some time, so for the time being Aliyun is taking advantage of China’s unwelcoming environment for foreign providers. It has made cloud arrangements with other Chinese cities and provinces like Shanghai and Guangdong.

 

 

Cheng Jing, an Aliyun director, has stated his main priority: “First, we have to be sure our services can make money. If these services can also promote Ali’s relationship with the government then that’s a good thing.”

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Amazon AWS, Cloud computing, Cloud Services

Google Discloses Cloud Information

Recently, google has been talking more about companies that utilize its cloud business as well as revealing information about its computing resources, which may be the largest on the planet, beating Amazon Web Services. This information includes Google’s ultra-fast fiber network, its big data resources, and the computers and software it has built for itself.

 

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The aim of these disclosures is to present Google as more fit to handle the biggest computational exercises as opposed to a company such as Amazon Web Services. This follows earlier moves by Google Cloud Platform to show off its data analysis capabilities.

Details like the ability to pass information between Europe and the United States in less than 100 milliseconds, and a practice of fully backing up user data in nine different locations, make google seem innovative and cutting-edge.

At an event on Tuesday, Google Cloud Platform will announce HTC as a customer. The company has utilized Google’s services to construct computing architecture that enables smartphone apps to update data fast and reliably to many devices at once, and appear efficient even when the phones are in areas of poor reception.

On Wednesday, it is expected that a Google executive will present a look at the overall network design. This includes key tools that enable large-scale management of computing devices around the globe. As the  senior director of engineering at HTC, John Song, claims, “We are managing two million to three million smartphones in this network. Google is the only player in cloud that owns lots of fiber-optic cable worldwide, and it replicates its users’ data in nine different places at all times.”

While Song did consider other companies lime Amazon and Microsoft, Google’s technical dedication made them stand out. Google crunches large amounts of data and has already begun to branch out specialties in areas such as genomics.  Google Cloud Platform currently has 90 points of presence, where a company’s computers get direct access to the Internet and a local telecommunications service provider, throughout the world compared to Amazons 53.
 

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Cloud computing, Cloud Services, Cloud Technology

Jaguar Land Rover Applies Cloud Computing to Vehicle Technology

Jaguar Land Rover is currently developing technology that will utilize cloud computing to push data from vehicles to not only other connected vehicles but municipal authorities. This technology takes its MagneRide platform a step forward. In-vehicle sensors record the location and severity of road hazards such as pot holes or manhole covers.  This data is then pushed from the vehicle from which it was obtained onto a cloud computing platform where it is then available to other connected cars within the system as well as municipal authorities.

This information will help other connected drivers avoid the same hazards as well as giving local repair authorities vital information as to which areas of roads need priority maintenance.

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Mike Bell, global connected car director for Jaguar Land Rover, said these developments will “allow the vehicle to profile the road surface under the wheels and identify potholes, raised manholes and broken drain covers. By monitoring the motion of the vehicle and changes in the height of the suspension, the car is able to continuously adjust the vehicle’s suspension characteristics, giving passengers a more comfortable ride over uneven and damaged road surfaces.”

While communication with street authorities is still being designed,  MagneRide technology is currently available in both the Range Rover Evoque and Discovery Sport vehicles.

This technology exemplifies a practical application of cloud technology, which is often viewed on a large scale perspective without practical use being considered.   This technology will not only help drivers as they drive through more hazardous roads, but will help repair the roads as well.

Bell also noted that this technology could also be another step toward driver-less cars, which Google has seen great success with.

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Amazon AWS, Cloud computing, Cloud Services, Cloud Technology, hybrid cloud

Cisco Systems Inc. Announces Plans for Intercloud

A year ago, Cisco Systems Inc. announced its plans to invest one billion dollars in a cloud computing company to compete with six billion dollar Amazon Web Services. This plan was christened with the name Intercloud.

At the Cisco Live annual conference, the company revealed its plans to take the Intercloud a step forward. The Intercloud will not offer this cloud itself from its own data centers but will instead unify smaller cloud service providers onto a large platform of products that will be compatible with each other.  The Intercloud will prevent the smaller providers from losing customers to Amazon while allowing Cisco to continue to sell these providers hardware as they grow and develop. So, the aim of Intercloud is to enable these smaller providers and Cisco to unify and compete with Amazon.

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In addition, Cisco is opening the Intercloud marketplace, an app store that gives customers the tools, software, and technology they need to quickly and efficiently use their cloud. Cisco is partnering up with many tech companies like Hortonworks and Docker for this marketplace, which will 35 apps.

Cisco also announced the development of the Intercloud Fabric, which will allow customers to manage and control their data centers and Intercloud at the same time. The Inter cloud Fabric makes it easier for customers to manage what can be a very tough technology. Cloud service providers like Datalink, Peak 10, and Sungard Availability Services have already backed Cisco’s plan to develop the Intercloud Fabric.

Cisco insists that while Amazon Web Services may have a head start in the cloud computing market, cloud computing still has much room to grow, making it anyone’s game.

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