Amazon

Is cloud storage ready for the enterprise?

Jon Brodkin — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 20:06:22 +0000

The “cloud” may be the future of enterprise storage, but can it lay claim to the present as well? At Storage Networking World in Phoenix, Ariz. this week, I wanted to find out if IT executives are excited about cloud storage, or more accurately, hosted data storage services accessible from a remote location over the Internet.While services like Amazon S3 must be attracting enough customers to stay...

What kind of cloud computing project would you build with $32 million?

Layer 8 — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:32:03 +0000

The US Department of Energy said today it will spend $32 million on a project that will deploy a large cloud computing test bed with thousands of Intel Nehalem CPU cores and explore commercial offerings from Amazon, Microsoft and Google. Read more

DDoS attack against Bitbucket darkens Amazon cloud

Paul McNamara — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 12:53:58 +0000

A crippling DDoS attack over the weekend against open-source hosting service Bitbucket and Amazon's EC2 service has questions being raised about the speed and effectiveness of Amazon's response to the emergency, as well as the general reliability of cloud services. Read more

In the cloud, watch out for deceptive service-level agreements

Jon Brodkin — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:39:37 +0000

There are many things to consider before moving a business application to the cloud, and the service-level agreement offered by the vendor is among the most important. A vendor might promise five nines of availability – but that’s no consolation if there are no meaningful service credits or an easy way to collect them. Read more

ANXeBusiness Plans Private Networking for Cloud Computing

michaeljmorris — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 12:41:23 +0000

A few weeks ago I concluded a short series on cloud computing and networking with a blog about building a private extranet for cloud computing. A private extranet service that would link existing enterprise IP VPNs (MPLS-based) into a cloud provider's service would ensure optimal routing, guaranteed bandwidth, QoS, and better security. Read more

Welcome to Hadoop World

joltsik — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 14:57:39 +0000

Okay, I am as sick of the hype around cloud computing as anyone else but I also belive that cloud computing architecture is a very exciting future technology with a few existing proofpoints like Amazon, Google, DISA, Microsoft, IBM System z, etc. One of the underpinnings of cloud computing is a technology called Apache Hadoop. The Apache Hadoop website describes the technology as follows: "The...

Amazon's latest competition offers secure enterprise cloud

Jon Brodkin — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 20:38:57 +0000

Meet the newest player in cloud computing: OpSource. Read more

Google Books deal gains more official foes: Microsoft, Yahoo, Amazon

Google Subnet — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 18:31:29 +0000

The Google Books deal has gained a new, powerful group of enemies, the competitors that would be most hurt if the deal were to proceed: Microsoft, Yahoo, Amazon. Read more

Cloud hype is deafening – and will only get worse

Jon Brodkin — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 18:06:08 +0000

Cloud computing, according to Gartner, has reached the top of the hype cycle. But does anyone in their right minds think cloud hype will become anything other than louder and more deafening? Seemingly every IT vendor, even ones that have nothing to do with the cloud, is using the satisfyingly vague word to describe every product they have ever released. Gartner recognized that in a new report...

Amazon fires back against Google with free Android app

Google Subnet — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 00:15:06 +0000

Amazon has introduced a free Android application that makes it easier for Android users to shop online at Amazon. The app, already available for iPhone and iTouch users, has an extra cool feature dubbed Amazon Remembers. This lets you use the phone's camera to snap a photo of an item's bar code and, in that way, add it to the your online Wish List. Read more

Four tech spats that could be settled over a beer with Obama

Layer 8 — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 16:56:33 +0000

If sitting down with the President of the United States and quaffing a few brewskis can really help tamp down controversy over a highly-charged race issue then perhaps the President could pull up a bar stool and settle some far less vital disagreements plaguing the tech industry. Here we go: Read more

Google targets Kindle market with plans for competitive e-books

Google Subnet — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 03:12:46 +0000

Google, a corporate name synonymous with open source and free, is planning an old-fashioned standards war with online retailer Amazon. Amazon would like to lock people into its e-reader and its selection of e-books. Currently a reader of Amazon's e-books can only do so on Amazon's Kindle or the Kindle iPhone app. But that may soon change. Read more

Microsoft promises to reduce prices for cloud WS2008 licenses

Microsoft Subnet — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 22:17:19 +0000

Is Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) a competitor to Amazon or a vendor? The answer is both and that means that Microsoft (the vendor) will be bowing to pressure from Amazon and offering a simpler, cheaper Windows cloud hosting licensing deal to Amazon and others, according to an interview published in InformationWeek. So says Microsoft server and tools division president Bob Muglia. Read more

Tiered pricing on iTunes, and why people need to stop complaining

Yoni Heisler — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 07:29:13 +0000

As expected, Apple on Tuesday began rolling out tiered pricing on the iTunes Music Store. Gone are the days of ubiquitous 99 cent songs, and in its place are songs that range in price from 69 cents to $1.29. Record Executives are ecstatic while music lovers are cringing. The reality, however, is that the price hike is the target of a lot more criticism than it actually deserves, especially if you...

Manifesto pits cloud haves vs. have-nots

Google Subnet — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 13:49:43 +0000

When is a call to open cloud computing not so open? When the biggest cloud OS players--Google, Amazon, Salesforce.com and Microsoft--aren't a key part of the process. And that's just what happened when IBM and its partners published their Open Cloud Manifesto. Read more

Turn your iPhone into a Kindle

Keith Shaw — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 04:00:00 +0000

The scoop: Kindle application for the iPhone, by Amazon, free download.

What it is: Amazon's application for the iPhone gives users access to its Kindle store of electronic books without the need to purchase a Kindle or Kindle 2 electronic book reader. The e-books are formatted to the iPhone's smaller display, and pages can be "turned" with a finger flick to the left or right.

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Nice play by Amazon with Kindle iPhone app

Jason Meserve — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 22:10:38 +0000

I was on a plane heading home from DEMO 09 when the Amazon Kindle iPhone App news broke and, after a week of seeing new gadgets and software, didn't fully digest the news until this week. But, we just posted a video of the Kindle App and I have to say the release is a very nice move by Amazon: Read more

Amazon EC2: Self-Hosting for VoIP Systems

Matthew Nickasch — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 14:33:01 +0000

Cloud computing is not a new topic, by any means. While the technology is still growing in popularity, cloud computing has led to an exciting and revolutionary means of hosting for the Voice Over IP and telephony markets. We've discussed "cloud telephony" several times on Considering Convergence, but now that the foundational elements of the technology are tried and tested, it's ready for prime time. ...

Ubuntu Gets the Cloud too

dhan — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 05:12:37 +0000

Canonical Software, which administers the popular Ubuntu distribution of Linux (and my personal favorite), recently announced improved support for Cloud computing in the upcoming release 9.10 , named Karmic Koala.

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A $99,999 keyboard is the best bargain I’ve seen yet.

tyson.kopczynski — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 03:53:42 +0000

Boy, times are tough when people start selling electronics at extreme prices. Just look at how much this keyboard is on Amazon: Read more