From Staff.com, an infographic comparing revenue, profit, and market cap for Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Facebook:
Category Archives: Google
AppGlu Out to Change Mobile Application Lifecycle
AppGlu has launched and hopes to change the way the mobile application lifecycle is managed by giving business people more control of their mobile apps after launch. AppGlu competes in the Mobile Enterprise Application Platform (MEAP) space and is ideal for companies creating apps for employees (B2E), apps for business partners (B2B) and apps for their consumer customers (B2C). They have a intro video that tells more:
Riverbed’s Whitewater Adds AWS Glacier, Google Storage Support
Riverbed Technology today announced Whitewater Operating System (WWOS) version 2.1 with support for Amazon Glacier storage and Google Cloud storage. WWOS 2.1 increases operational cost savings and high data durability from cloud storage services, improving disaster recovery readiness. In addition, Riverbed introduced larger virtual Whitewater appliances that allow customers to support larger data sets, improve disaster recovery capabilities, and manage multiple Whitewater appliances from a single window with a management console. These enhancements to the Whitewater cloud storage product family help enterprises use cloud storage to meet critical backup requirements, modernize data management strategies, and overcome challenges created by data growth.
“Once created, most unstructured data is rarely accessed after 30-90 days. Leveraging the cloud for storing these data sets makes a lot of sense, particularly given the attractive prices of storage services designed for long-term such as Amazon Glacier,” said Dan Iacono, research director from IDC’s storage practice. “The ability of cloud storage devices to cache locally and provide access to recent data provides real benefits from an operational cost perspective to avoid unnecessary transfer costs from the cloud.”
Cloud Storage Ecosystem Expansion Riverbed is offering customers choice and flexibility for data protection by adding Amazon Glacier and Google Cloud storage to its Whitewater cloud storage ecosystem. Now, Whitewater customers using Amazon Glacier cloud storage have immediate access to recent backup data while enjoying pricing from Amazon as low as one cent per gigabyte per month — approximately eight times cheaper than other currently available cloud storage offerings.
In addition, the extremely high data durability offered by Amazon cloud storage services and the ability to access the data from any location with an Internet connection greatly improves an organization’s disaster recovery (DR) readiness.
Larger Virtual Whitewater Appliances With the introduction of the larger virtual Whitewater appliances, Riverbed allows customers preferring virtual appliances to protect larger data sets as well as simplify disaster recovery. The new virtual Whitewater appliances support local cache sizes of four or eight terabytes and integrate seamlessly with leading data protection applications as well as all popular cloud storage services. To streamline management for enterprise wide deployments, WWOS 2.1 includes new management capabilities that enable monitoring and administration of all Whitewater devices from a single console with one-click drill down into any appliance.
“We have been successfully using Riverbed Whitewater appliances for backup with Amazon S3 in our facilities in Germany, Switzerland, and the U.S. since June 2012,” said Drew Bartow, senior information technology engineer at Tipper Tie. “We were eager to test the Whitewater 3010 appliance with Amazon Glacier and the total time to configure and start moving data to Glacier was just 24 minutes. With Glacier and Whitewater we could potentially save considerably on backup storage costs.”
“The features in WWOS 2.1 and the larger virtual appliances drastically change the economics of data protection,” said Ray Villeneuve, vice president corporate development, at Riverbed. “With our advanced, in-line deduplication and optimization technologies, Whitewater shrinks data stored in the cloud by up to 30 times on average — for example, Whitewater customers can now store up to 100 terabytes of backup data that is not regularly accessed in Amazon Glacier for as little as $2,500.00 per year. The operational cost savings and high data durability from cloud storage services improve disaster recovery readiness and will continue to rapidly accelerate the movement from tape-based and replicated disk systems to cloud storage.”
The Fracturing of the Enterprise Brain
Never mind BYOD (bring your own device), employee use of non-corporate online storage solutions could lead to the weakening of enterprise ability to access company data and intellectual property. In the worst case scenario, companies could lose information forever.
A post by Brian Proffitt at ReadWrite Enterprise explains:
Employees are the keepers of knowledge within a company. Want to run the monthly payroll? The 20-year-veteran in accounting knows how to manage that. Building the new company logo? The superstar designer down in the art department is your gal. When such employees leave the company, it can be a bumpy transition, but usually not impossible, because the data they’ve been using lies on the corporate file server and can be used to piece together the work that’s been done.
Of course, that’s based on the premise that, for the past couple of decades or so, data has essentially been stored in one of two places: on the file servers or the employee’s local computer.
Today, though, people store data in a variety of places, not all of it under the direct control of IT. Gmail, Dropbox, Google Drive or a company’s cloud on Amazon Web Services…
Read the article.
Online Shopping in Real Life (Video)
If you enjoyed yesterday’s tongue-in-cheek video showing what online checkout might be like if we encountered it in real life, you’ll like this companion video from the same crew:
To Cloud, or Not: Getting Started
Guest Post by Gina Smith
Many small business owners are still apprehensive about utilizing cloud options. While it can be a big step, there are significant long-term benefits to utilizing this expanding innovation, including:
- Enhanced Security – Cloud providers go to great lengths to protect client data, often implementing security protocols which are much more advanced than those on most “hard” networks.
- Emergency Backup – No need to worry in the event of a fire, earthquake, flood, storm or other natural disaster. Your data and files are safe and being backed up in the “cloud”.
- Remote Access – You and your employees can gain access to company data at anytime from anywhere in the world.
- Easily Upgrade or Replace Computers – Quickly and painlessly replace obsolete or faulty computers by connecting the new machine(s) and remotely accessing and/or transferring any data needed directly from the cloud!
Once a business decides to take that step into the “cloud”, many get “stuck” trying to figure out which options will work best for their needs. Amazon is considered by many to be a pioneer in the world of so-called “remote computing” services. And now, Internet giant Google has thrown its hat into the game, launching their “Google Cloud” platform earlier this year.
Amazon AWS (Advanced Web Services)
Amazon was one of the first companies to develop a remote access/cloud computing product catered to the general public. They still offer the most extensive options for both users and developers. The Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) is attractive to many companies because they offer “pay-as-you-go” programs with no upfront expenses or long-term commitments required. Amazon Simple Storage (S3) is also very flexible, offering storage options in different regions around the world. Some companies choose to store their data in a lower priced region to reduce storage costs or in a region different from where their company is located for disaster recovery purposes. Amazon still offers the most versatile services and options. Some claim their system can be difficult to learn initially, but fairly easy to get around once you get the hang of it.
Google Cloud Services
There is no doubt that Google has made a permanent mark in history. The Internet giant has revolutionized our lives and made a significant impact on modern society. The company’s launch of their Google Cloud Platform got people who had previously discounted the cloud to seriously begin considering it again. Why? Well, it’s simple. Google has already developed applications which people are comfortable with and familiar. This, of course, makes the entire thought of cloud conversion and eventual emersion much less intimidating. Google’s cloud platform is still in its early stages and does not offer quite the flexibility and options as Amazon AWS – yet. Their data centers are secure and well managed, and their interface and applications are fairly easy to learn and navigate.
While this article offers a good general overview of each system, it is always advisable to conduct your own research to determine which provider will best suit your needs. Both Amazon AWS and Google Cloud provide reliable, secure, dependable, cost-saving options for businesses. Also consider utilizing companies specializing in cloud management and backup, such as www.spanning.com. And, as your business grows and your cloud use increases, don’t forget that Cloudyn can use their Cloud Intelligence and other advanced tools to analyze your usage. They can be a tremendous asset in helping manage and optimizing your data costs.
Gina Smith writes freelance articles for magazines, online outlets and publications.Smith covers the latest topics in the business, golf, tourism, technology and entertainment industries.
Most Popular: App Status Dashboard of Dashboards
Since we introduced our App Status Dashboards page, it has proven to be our most popular offering. As most of what we offer is news that quickly gets stale that’s not surprising, though it is sort of heartening that something with serious rather than humorous intent is finally edging out our most popular post ever.
How can we make it better? Send any ideas to richard at cloud news daily dot com.
Photo Evidence From Google: Apparently the Internet Actually IS a Series of Tubes
The late Senator Ted Stevens famously claimed the Internet was “A series of tubes” when speechifying on Network Neutrality. His maladroit metaphor immediately became a meme. Now, from a first-ever tour of a Google data center comes this photo, which appears to show he was right all along:
Inside Google Data Center. It’s full of tubes!
[Image: Connie Zhou / Google]
Introducing Cloud Service Dashboard of Dashboards
We’ve added a one-stop “dashboard of dashboards” that displays all the major cloud service dashboards on one page.
The page contains a “window” for each service status page or dashboard, with live, up-to-date info at a glance. Scroll for specific applications or locations, or click the link to jump to the full status page itself.
We included these services initially:
- Amazon AWS
- Google Apps
- AppSpot
- Microsoft Azure
- RackSpace
- Apple iCloud
- Salesforce.com
- Joyent
- internet Pulse
Have we missed any? If we have leave a comment with the URL and we’ll try to add it.
Cloud Data Centers in Rural Locations — Gobbling Electricity, Throwing Their Weight Around
Very interesting in-depth article in the New York Times today on the sprawling, electricity-hungry data centers spawned by cloud computing.
Internet-based industries have honed a reputation for sleek, clean convenience based on the magic they deliver to screens everywhere. At the heart of every Internet enterprise are data centers, which have become more sprawling and ubiquitous as the amount of stored information explodes, sprouting in community after community.
the gee-whiz factor of such a prominent high-tech neighbor wore off quickly. First, a citizens group initiated a legal challenge over pollution from some of nearly 40 giant diesel generators that Microsoft’s facility — near an elementary school — is allowed to use for backup power.
Then came a showdown late last year between the utility and Microsoft, whose hardball tactics shocked some local officials.
These data centers are apparently not always good neighbors, and of course as they are there to serve our cloud needs we’re all complicity to some degree.
