It’s almost a strange sounding phrase isn’t it? The rise of the term “Big Data” has been popularized to describe those data sets we now juggle with in the new world of cloud computing and massively distributed databases, fueled as they are by the multiplicity of desktop and mobile devices that now interconnect with our global data mountain.
The question now is whether companies are having Big Data problems… or whether they are perhaps having Big Data problems, with Big Data.
It is widely agreed that the secret to coping with Big Data is analytics. Without analytics, Big Data is just lots of data. With analytics we can bring contextualized qualitative and quantitative meaning to our data and this means we can start to extract value from it.
Cloud Expo New York: Cloudbursting…A Game Changer for the Little Guy
There’s been much hype over benefits of the “Cloud” but it’s now becoming a game changer for smaller businesses. Previously, rendering movies, developing new drugs, or prototyping new designs required a large data center, buying numerous servers, storage/switches, and hiring an army of IT “ants” to manage the environment – reserved for larger/wealthier companies.
In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Scott Houston, Founder and CEO of GreenButton, will show how Cloudbursting helps smaller companies avoid expensive capital infrastructure purchases, rent infrastructure, acquire software licenses, etc., to offset costs.
Safe Driving in the Cloud: A "Black Box" for Cars
When an aircraft crashes, investigators are able to retrieve useful information about what went wrong from the flight data recorder, more commonly known as the black box. (The data recorder itself is actually not black, not until it’s retrieved from charred remains.) Statistically speaking, plane crashes are rare occurrences compared to car crashes, so why not install a black box for cars?
That’s exactly what Japanese telemetrics company Crew Systems developed: a driving data recorder for cars and trucks. A big market exists for these in Japan, since businesses with more than five vehicles are required by law to produce daily reports on the driving habits of their drivers.
Cloud Expo New York Speaker Profile: Treb Ryan – OpSource
With Cloud Expo 2012 New York (10th Cloud Expo) now just eight bweeks away, what better time to start introducing you in greater detail to the distinguished individuals in our incredible Speaker Faculty for the technical and strategy sessions at the conference…
Cloud Expo New York Speaker Profile: Greg O’Connor – AppZero
With Cloud Expo 2012 New York (10th Cloud Expo) now just eight weeks away, what better time to introduce you in greater detail to the distinguished individuals in our incredible Speaker Faculty for the technical and strategy sessions at the conference…
We have technical and strategy sessions for you every day from June 11 through June 14 dealing with every nook and cranny of Cloud Computing and Big Data, but what of those who are presenting? Who are they, where do they work, what else have they written and/or said about the Cloud that is transforming the world of Enterprise IT, side by side with the exploding use of enterprise Big Data – processed in the Cloud – to drive value for businesses…?
Leveraging the Cloud for Spatial Analytics at Cloud Expo New York
We all know that cloud computing can save time, money, and apparently all but does your laundry for you, but what are its real-use applications?
In her session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Victoria Kouyoumjian, Senior Business and Technology Strategist at Esri, will showcase multiple use cases of geospatial solutions that leverage the cloud computing deployment models to provide better government transparency, stakeholder engagement, and save lives … (really). Based on professional experiences, she will also address the top issues to consider when navigating business in the cloud.
How Green is Your Cloud Provider?
Watch CloudViews Unplugged
Watch the latest edition of CloudViews Unplugged – a monthly video blog analyzing the top cloud news stories.
Cloud News
- Rackspace will offer a production version of their OpenStack open-source cloud platform beginning on May 1st, according to this GigaOM blog. Rackspace and NASA launched the OpenStack cloud project in 2010 and since then, HP, Cisco, Dell, IBM, Red Hat and others have contributed to the project.
- Is the cloud really green? A recent report by Greenpeace suggests that it depends on who your cloud provider is and the way in which they are consuming electricity. According to this NPR blog, Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon Web Services all rely heavily on coal, while Google, Yahoo, and Facebook continue to move toward renewable resources for their clouds.
- Microsoft announced its largest cloud deal to date with the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), according to this InformationWeek article. Microsoft will provide online service and software to 7.5 million students and professors maintained by the AICTE.
- As an alternative to Vblock, EMC announced an all-in-one private cloud system this week, according to this PCWorld article. The VSPEX platform gives channel partners the ability to offer enterprises custom systems with applications that meet their customer’s needs.
- The media and entertainment industry has taken the bull by the horns when it comes to cloud computing. At the conference for the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) in Las Vegas, technology vendors are showcasing their cloud-based solutions that radically change the delivery and sharing of video content. Read more about what Forrester Research reported on the demand for cloud services in the media industry in this ZDNet article.
Featured Content on Cloud Commons
Gartner Report: Top Five Trends for Private Cloud
Through year-end 2012, a significant number of pilot and production deployments of private cloud services will emerge, and hybrid cloud capability will become a major requirement. The market for cloud management platforms will expand greatly, but a number of vendors will be acquired or will exit the market. Outsourcing will become a mainstream alternative to internally deployed private clouds. This report by Gartner (compliments of Cloud Commons), examines the top five trends for private cloud and offers recommendations for your business based on those trends.
Feature article
Private Cloud ROI – More Examples Wanted
By George Hulme, Independent Writer
We’ve discussed the potential benefits of private cloud a number of times. Organizations have talked about the ability to maintain full control and transparency over their systems that they believe is necessary to attain the level of security that they want.
Sometimes, as was the case with game maker Zynga, their private cloud helps them to reach the level of business agility that they need. However, we’re also starting to hear more about how private clouds can also be more cost effective, especially when done by organizations that have the people with the right skills and experience in place. Read the full article.
Cloud Views
- Is the future of cloud open-source? In this PCWorld blog, Thor Olavsrud details observations from Red Hat’s Bryan Che on why many companies are choosing open-source cloud.
- The war wages on between open-source and proprietary cloud. In this ITWorld blog, Brandon Butler comments on a recent blog post by VMWare that defends the benefits of their private cloud and takes a jab at the open-source solutions available in the market.
- Want to learn how the Cloud Commons® Ecosystem can help build your business? This white paper on Cloud Commons outlines how solution providers leverage the ecosystem to engage prospects, create compelling cloud services offerings, and bring them to market.
MSP Corner
- Are MSPs becoming a little too comfortable with cloud? In this MSPmentor blog, Joe Panettieri suggests that while MSPs are enjoying huge growth from cloud, they should be keeping their eyes open for new cloud opportunities.
- PEER 1 Hosting announced the deployment of Nimsoft Unified Manager this week in order to provide its customers with monitoring capabilities, according to this article at the WHIR.
- Will price competition from large companies lead to the extinction of lifestyle MSPs? In this MSPmentor article, Jessica Davis examines the current MSP market and the impact that cloud is having on the industry.
Upcoming Cloud Events
- Closer 2012: 2nd International Conference on Cloud: April 18 – 21, Porto, Portugal
- TMForum Management World: May 21 – 24, Dublin, Ireland
- The Business of Cloud Computing: May 21 – 22, Dallas, Texas
- Microsoft TechEd: June 11 – 14, Orlando, FL
- Cloud Computing World Forum, June 12 – 13, London, UK
Orange Launches Cloud-based Telepresence Service
Orange Business Services is enhancing its video services portfolio with Telepresence Pass, a new cloud-based offer that delivers a financially attractive, flexible and scalable solution for its enterprise customers.
Telepresence Pass is an easy-to-adopt and future-proof solution that allows companies to benefit from:
- a Telepresence infrastructure in the cloud
- a fully managed service with end-to-end quality guarantees
- a monthly subscription fee
Telepresence Pass is a simple way for enterprises to harness the benefits of immersive videoconferencing across their companies and with their business ecosystems. Because Telepresence Pass is available as a service, customers do not need significant investments in equipment or in the management of their solution.
“Our ambition is to make video available to enterprises wherever they are, with no limitations,” said Vivek Badrinath, CEO, Orange Business Services. “The key is to offer customers many video collaboration options so that they can choose the solution that best suits their business needs.”
Telepresence Pass joins a wide-ranging portfolio of video services offered by Orange Business Services and is backed by a supportive network environment, extensive conferencing experience, and an overall strategy that enables enterprises to get the most out of their video investments.
“Of all applications, video is probably the most unforgiving,” said Nicolas Roy, head of Network Solutions Business Unit, Orange Business Services. “The Group continues to invest approximately €750 million per year for international network backbone and related IT infrastructure to ensure the coverage, bandwidth and quality required for an excellent video experience.”
F5 Showcases its BIG-IP Solutions for System Center 2012 and Private Cloud
F5 Networks, Inc is demonstrating its F5 BIG-IP solutions for Microsoft private cloud deployments at the Microsoft Management Summit 2012, held this week in Las Vegas. During the event, F5 is emphasizing BIG-IP compatibility with System Center 2012 to help organizations maximize cloud benefits and productivity.
“F5 cloud computing solutions provide customers with a flexible foundation to dynamically provision services and tap the full value of cloud deployments,” says Calvin Rowland, VP, Technology and ISV Alliances at F5. “We’re excited to connect with customers at this event and share our cloud vision and products, which are key building blocks for private cloud environments. For over a decade, F5 and Microsoft have worked together to bring superior IT solutions to our customers. And with our close collaboration on Microsoft private cloud solutions, we’ve extended the value of this relationship.”
Using the BIG-IP system, customers can build dynamic data centers that eliminate deployment barriers and lay the framework for long-term, sustained efficiencies. For the Microsoft private cloud, F5 solutions help organizations unify their network architectures and consolidate their management environments. Together, BIG-IP products and System Center 2012 provide a clear view into how applications are performing over the network. This gives customers the ability to update and optimize configurations to increase performance, scale, automation, flexibility, and security.
Further, the updated F5® Monitoring Pack for System Center helps customers optimize resource utilization by discovering available BIG-IP devices and surfacing health statistics within System Center 2012. As administrators shift the allocation of resources, the BIG-IP system is automatically updated to ensure that the network is in sync with changes to computing and storage resources.
“System Center 2012 enables the private cloud, and the F5 Monitoring Pack for System Center gives customers the added strengths of F5’s BIG-IP solutions,” said Mike Schutz, General Manager, Product Marketing, Windows Server and Management at Microsoft. “Customers need the key components of their private cloud infrastructure to work well with each other, and the deep compatibility of System Center 2012 with F5’s BIG-IP platform can help increase efficiency and reliability while helping reduce operational expenses.”
Cost Effective, Automated, Flexible Cloud Control
BIG-IP solutions for Microsoft private cloud take advantage of key features and technologies in BIG-IP version 11.1, including F5’s virtual Clustered MultiprocessingTM (vCMP™) technology, iControl®, F5’s web services-enabled open application programming interface (API), administrative partitioning and server name indication (SNI). Together, these features help reduce the cost and complexity of managing cloud infrastructures in multi-tenant environments. With BIG-IP v11.1, organizations reap the maximum benefits of conducting IT operations and application delivery services in the private cloud.
BIG-IP solutions for Microsoft private cloud also include:
- F5 Monitoring Pack for System Center, which provides two-way
communication between BIG-IP devices and the System Center management
console. Health monitoring, failover, and configuration
synchronization of BIG-IP devices, along with customized alerting,
Maintenance Mode, and Live Migration, occur within the Operations
Manager component of System Center. - The F5 Load Balancing Provider for System Center, which enables
one-step, automated deployment of load balancing services through
direct interoperability between the Virtual Machine Manager component
of System Center 2012 and BIG-IP devices. BIG-IP devices are managed
through the System Center user interface, and administrators can
custom-define load balancing services. - The Orchestrator component of System Center 2012, which provides
F5 traffic management capabilities, takes advantage of workflows
designed using the Orchestrator Runbook Designer. These custom
workflows can then be published directly into System Center 2012
service catalogs and presented as a standard offering to the
organization. This is made possible using the F5 iControl SDK, which
gives customers the flexibility to choose a familiar development
environment such as the Microsoft .NET Framework programming model or
Windows PowerShell scripting.
Availability
The F5 Monitoring Pack for System Center and the F5 PRO-enabled Monitoring Pack for System Center are now available. The F5 Load Balancing Provider for System Center is available as a free download from the F5 DevCentral website. The Orchestrator component of System Center 2012 is based on F5 iControl and Windows PowerShell, and is also free.
Alert Logic Threat Manager for Amazon EC2 Now Available on AWS Marketplace
Alert Logic, a provider of Security-as-a-Service for the cloud, has announced that Alert Logic Threat Manager for Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) is among the first security solutions available directly through Amazon Web Services (AWS) Marketplace. Participation in AWS Marketplace represents a major change in how customers acquire Alert Logic’s network security services. Customers seeking vulnerability assessment and intrusion detection can quickly provision Alert Logic Threat Manager for Amazon EC2 and immediately and cost-effectively start protecting their infrastructure running on the AWS platform.
Alert Logic Threat Manager for EC2 is available as a utility service and billed on an hourly basis. It is a Security-as-a-Service solution that provides subscribers the ability to automatically aggregate and correlate anomalous behavior patterns to quickly identify threats and attacks to their network by leveraging Alert Logic’s patented expert system, which includes 7-Factor Threat Scenario Modeling used to identify incidents. As described in the recent Alert Logic State of Cloud Security Report, Spring 2012, this system is used to observe billions of security events annually and verify the tens of thousands of security threats that require a response.