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Mitchell Ashley
3 Most Important Announcements about Microsoft's Azure Cloud
Written on Wed, 11/18/09 - 9:36am
Microsoft's Ray Ozzie significantly blew past the basic Exchange, SharePoint and SQL database hosting services with the Azure announcements at PDC 2009 yesterday.
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If The Cloud Were Really The Cloud Then Outages Would Be Rare
Written on Wed, 10/14/09 - 2:01am
Do we really have a cloud or just offsite Microsoft, Cisco and Linux hosting centers? I'm struck by what seems like a near constant barrage of news about cloud outages and service downtime.
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Will The Cloud Manage To Persist? Lessons From Operating In The Cloud
Written on Thu, 06/04/09 - 1:31pm
It's been an interesting learning experience using Amazon's EC2 computing cloud. I was showing a friend who I frequently seek technical council how EC2 resources are managed using the ElasticFox and S3 Organizer FireFox plugins. He was quite shocked at the granular, low level you're dealing...
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Ozzie, Services and Virtualization Will Get The Cloud Started Too
Written on Fri, 05/22/09 - 11:07am
In an interview Ray Ozzie indicated that email and collaboration, a.k.a. Exchange, SharePoint and online Outlook, is what enterprises will turn to first as apps are put in the cloud. I don't disagree, and I think that's probably true as far as enterprises go. Enterprises are generally the toughest...
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Sorry…The EC2 Cloud Is Full, Come Back Later
Written on Mon, 05/04/09 - 2:52am
We all envision the cloud to be an on demand resource where at anytime we can add computing and storage capacity at the drop of the hat. Simply bring on as many virtual servers or as much disk storage as needed, when needed. That’s one of the most important value propositions of cloud computing and...
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5 Tactics Microsoft Is Using To Battle Linux for Cloud Dominance
Written on Fri, 04/03/09 - 3:02am
Can Microsoft really battle Linux for dominance of the cloud? It's a one versus many proposition. Sides have been chosen and the battle lines are clear. The Cloud Manifesto developed by Sun, IBM, RedHat, Amazon and Google, didn't include participation by Microsoft.
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Podcast: It takes a village in the cloud
Written on Wed, 10/22/08 - 8:54am
Not to be undone by others in the industry, Savvis announced its SaaS Platform initiative at the end of September. Because Savvis is one of the first top-tier companies to put such a comprehensive program together, I asked Bryan Doerr to join me on the Converging On Microsoft podcast. Savvis has taken...
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Office Cloud Breaks Through Headwind
Written on Fri, 10/03/08 - 8:30am
Windows Cloud OS and Office Live Lite Office apps. Well, Ballmer is turning out to be quite the hype machine himself, releasing the industry buzzhounds with his Windows Cloud pre-announcement this week. Finally, something juicy to speculate and write about. The shine wore off Google Chrome long ago,...
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New SaaS platform embraces ISVs
Written on Tue, 09/30/08 - 9:31am
Savvis announced Monday its new SaaS Hosting Platform initiative directed at attracting independent software vendors moving to the SaaS model. While the Savvis announcement isn't entirely new territory, it is one of the first pure-play hosting companies to make a major move to wrap a complete program...
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Podcast: Using SQL Server Data Services for cloud storage
Written on Wed, 09/03/08 - 2:48pm
Cloud computing, cloud storage, Software+Service, software-as-a-service -- they all present a compelling case for moving more and more of our applications into the cloud. Rather than building out your own computing or storage infrastructure in a third-party data center, why not just pay for what you...
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Do You Trust The Cloud?
Written on Thu, 07/31/08 - 11:20am
SaaS, PaaS, Software+Services, and now Microsoft's Midori (next gen OS) all spark the debate of whether our data is secure in the cloud. In a Slashdot discussion, debate quickly switched from discussing Midori into the distrust of storing personal data in the cloud. A Business Week article sited...
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Google One Ups Microsoft Again-Google App Engine
Written on Tue, 04/08/08 - 3:17am
Did Microsoft and Ray Ozzie's Mesh strategy see this one coming? Amazon EC2 and S3?
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Podcast: Cisco VFrame, Wake Up Microsoft!
Written on Wed, 02/27/08 - 11:41am
Cisco isn't handing over the virtualization keys without a fight. VFrame is Cisco's first serious Data Center 3.0 volley into the virtualization market place.
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About Converging on Microsoft
Mitchell Ashley has a diverse background in software development, network engineering, information security, mobility, collaborative technologies, and IT management and operations. An early adopter of social media in business, he began blogging about security and information technologies in 2006 at theconvergingnetwork.com. Mitchell is VP of Information Technology at CableLabs in Louisville, CO, and previously held positions as CIO, CTO and VP Engineering at prior companies.
 

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