Filed in Management | Politics | Responsibility | Science | Technology | Transparency
A straight forward view of analyzing data and making your findings visual.
They didn’t mention the part about choosing only the statistics which support your position. Or the section on how to make the data look better or worse. Perhaps it would be a good idea for folks to stop doing that.
Visualize This: The FlowingData Guide to Design, Visualization, and Statistics.
Filed in Education | Responsibility | Technology
Melissa Jun Rowley describes how five industry giants are supporting education around the world.
To make digital more accessible, and to enable people to stay competitive in the global economy, a number of tech and media companies are working to level the online playing field all around the world. Here are five of them.
Article source: http://mashable.com/2011/11/04/tech-philanthropy-education/
Filed in Cloud computing | Technology
According to Bruce Hoard more and more x86 workloads are returning to the big box. And with good reason. In his Mainframe Clouds Roll In article, Hoard talks about the factors that make mainframes great hardware for the cloud. From their time-sharing beginnings, mainframes were built from the ground up to perform work for different groups and purposes.
Article source: http://virtualizationreview.com/articles/2011/11/01/mainframe-clouds-roll-in.aspx
Filed in Cloud computing | Technology
As storage customers look for a way off the spinning disk merry-go-round, SSDs have become the hottest gadgets in the enterprise. But a team of computer scientists at Stanford University think they can do even better. The researchers have come up with a scalable, high performance storage approach dubbed RAMCloud — RAM because it stores all the data in DRAM, and cloud because it can aggregate the memory resources of a whole datacenter.
Article source: http://www.hpcwire.com/hpcwire/2011-10-20/ramcloud:_when_disks_and_flash_memory_are_just_too_slow.html
Filed in Cloud computing | Technology
When carriers and Internet companies go looking for business partners, sometimes they need look no further than the cabinets sitting beside them in the data center. This potential is seen in the Internet itself, which is made possible by physical linkages between networks. But it’s hard to form a business relationships in a neighborhood where the other residents may be anonymous to you.
Article source: http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2011/10/24/equinix-marketplace-seeks-to-connect-customers/
Filed in Cloud computing | Technology
NYSE Technologies has launched a cloud. And it looks nothing like this (Photo: karindalziel/Flickr)
“We created a hybrid,” says NYSE Technologies CEO Stanley Young. “It’s a cross between the public cloud and the private cloud.”
Article source: http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2011/10/vmware_cloud/
Filed in Technology
While the world’s media was saying goodbye to Steve Jobs, another industry giant, Dennis Ritchie, passed away with barely a mention outside the technical community. Finally, people are beginning to take note and remember a man who gave us much of the foundation which makes our computing infrastructure possible and hopefully taught us a thing or two along the way. Here are a few notable obituaries:
Obituary: printf(“goodbye, Dennis”);.
Dennis Ritchie obituary – The Guardian
Dennis Ritchie, Trailblazer in Digital Era, Dies at 70 – NYTimes
Dennis Ritchie, Encyclopedia of World Biography
Filed in Cloud computing | Education | Technology
[Summary of tips] Singapore Polytechnic (SP) has introduced the Singapore Polytechnic Electrical and Electronic Engineering Cloud Computing Center (SPE3C3) that will deliver modern cloud computing education and training in an operational data center environment. SP has worked with Cisco Systems Inc., Citrix Systems Inc. and NetApp Inc. to offer ……
1 • 2 
Article source: http://www.eetasia.com/ART_8800653350_499486_NT_ac439944.HTM?partnerref=nav_box
Filed in Cloud computing | Technology
(Source: Datamonitor)
The Silk browser software resides both on Kindle Fire and on the server fleet that comprises the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2). With each page request, Silk determines a division of labor between the mobile hardware and Amazon EC2 (i.e. which browser sub-components run where) that takes into consideration factors like network conditions, page complexity and the location of any cached content. The result is a web browsing experience, and it’s available on Kindle Fire, Amazon’s new Kindle for movies, music, books, magazines, apps, games, and web browsing.
Article source: http://www.istockanalyst.com/finance/story/5448460/amazon-introduces-split-browser-architecture
Filed in Cloud computing | Government | Technology
Cities see loss of sales taxes as companies subscribe to cloud computing services and begin asking states to change tax rules.
Cloud computing is one of those disruptive shifts in technology that has Silicon Valley giddy with excitement. Just don’t expect to find local governments among those cheering this revolution.
Thanks to California’s hopelessly outdated sales tax rules, the move to delivering technology through the Web — the essence of cloud computing — is eroding the sales taxes that towns depend on to fund everything from police to parks. And as cloud computing extends its reach, it promises to further squeeze the budgets of towns that have already been pinching pennies for years.
Article source: http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/business/ci_18905836
Filed in Cloud computing | Economy | Technology
With all the words written about cloud computing this year, one wonders why Rob Livingstone wrote a book on the topic, with the title Navigating through the cloud.
Essentially, Livingstone says it’s because he could not buy a book that allows individuals and organisations alike to make an objective and well-informed assessment of the value of the cloud. The book is a plain English guide to surviving the risks, costs and governance pitfalls of cloud computing.
Article source: http://www.voiceanddata.com.au/articles/49195-Small-business-latches-onto-cloud-computing
Filed in Cloud computing | Technology
Cloud computing technology will be the main driver of manufacturing IT
productivity in the coming decade, a new report from IDC Manufacturing Insights claims. And
manufacturers appear to be well on their way, adopting cloud computing technology slightly faster
than other industries: 23% are already running cloud technology and another 44% are implementing it or have firm plans.
Article source: http://searchmanufacturingerp.techtarget.com/news/2240082920/Study-shows-major-shift-to-cloud-computing-in-manufacturing
Filed in Cloud computing | Technology
(click image for larger view)
Amazon on Tuesday announced the release of cloud services aimed specifically at U.S. government users and contractors, joining a growing list of cloud service providers including Microsoft and Google that also have modified their cloud services to meet the unique needs of government.
According to Amazon, the new offering, Amazon Web Services GovCloud, will meet a host of strict regulatory requirements specific to government. It’s designed to meet moderate security control levels under the Federal Information Security Management Act and to meet FIPS 140-2, a federal cryptography standard.
In addition, Amazon says that GovCloud supports processing and storage of export-controlled, often defense-related, data and applications governed by the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), as it limits both logical and physical access to U.S. citizens and permanent residents. The servers powering Amazon Web Services GovCloud will be physically located on the West Coast of the United States, giving customers further assurance that their data will stay in this country.
Clouds like Amazon’s GovCloud that meet government requirements will likely increase government adoption. “As we move workloads into the cloud, we look forward to leveraging ITAR-compliant clouds such as the new AWS GovCloud for our compliance-dependent projects so we can continue to look to the cloud first for even more missions,” NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory CTO Tomas Soderstrom said in a statement.
“Our government customers sometimes have an additional layer of regulatory requirements given that they at times deal with highly sensitive information, such as defense-related data,” Amazon CTO Werner Vogels said in a blog post. “GovCloud helps U.S. government agencies and contractors move more of their workloads to the cloud by implementing a number of government-specific regulatory requirements.”
While a number of AWS services will be available at launch in GovCloud, a few will not. Those available at launch include Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) infrastructure-as-a-service, Simple Storage Service (S3) storage-as-a-service, Elastic Block Store, Amazon Virtual Private Cloud, Identity and Access Management, and CloudWatch monitoring service. Amazon is offering GovCloud through either a pay-as-you-go pricing scheme or on a year or multi-year term.
Amazon’s announcement dovetails with two government-wide strategies currently being pushed by the Obama administration’s tech team: the Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative, which aims to close 800 federal data centers by 2015; and the Cloud First policy, which requires that agencies analyze the possibility of using cloud computing as an alternative when justifying new IT investments.
Some government customers have been using Amazon Web Services even before the release of GovCloud. According to Amazon, more than 100 state, local, and federal agencies in the United States alone are using Amazon Web Services. Among those users are the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, which powers the Recovery.gov stimulus-tracking website with AWS, and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which uses AWS to process high-resolution imagery.
Over time, according to Amazon’s Vogels, the GovCloud concept will likely expand beyond the U.S. government and its contractors, as Vogels said Amazon is interested in determining whether similar offerings could meet other countries’ needs.
Join us for GovCloud 2011, a day-long event where IT professionals in federal, state, and local government will develop a deeper understanding of cloud options. Register now.
Article source: http://informationweek.com/news/government/cloud-saas/231500093
Filed in Cloud computing | Technology
IBM has unveiled new pricing structures and licensing options as it looks to encourage more businesses to take advantage of cloud computing technology.
The firm will allow independent software vendors to rent its products with zero per cent financing and deferred payments, aimed at enticing more companies into the world of cloud.
According to channelbuzz.ca, IBM believes that there is $7 billion (£4.28 billion) worth of potential in cloud hosting services in the next four years and is doing all it can to take advantage.
Dave Mitchell, director of strategy for independent software vendors developer relations at IBM, told the news provider that cost is the key to whether businesses sign up.
“For anyone looking at the characteristics of cloud computing, this pay-as-you-go or subscription type of pricing is a key part,” he said.
“Our application developers delivering SaaS solutions tend to offer via the subscription model, and in response to that, we’re aligning our middleware pricing with how they charge.”
Last month, IBM opened a new cloud services centre in Singapore to help local companies with cloud adoption.
Posted by Judy Gifford
Let Hostway help you create your own Private Cloud using VMware vSphere4™ technology
Categories: | Partner News |
24-03-2011: Microsoft launches cloud-based product Windows InTune
02-03-2011: IBM introduces new technology to improve cloud hosting services
08-02-2011: IBM provides managed hosting for Scottish council in new data centre
07-02-2011: Microsoft’s newest launch will ‘increase the portability of communication tools’
01-02-2011: IBM launches cloud computing centre in Canada
12-04-2011: Twitter introduces new dashboard feature to further aid marketers
12-04-2011: Tesco launches ecommerce site for second-hand cars
12-04-2011: SMEs could turn to managed hosting as companies ‘overwhelmed’ in battle to be sustainable
12-04-2011: Cloud computing a top priority for CIOs in Australia and New Zealand, Gartner finds
11-04-2011: Augmented reality technology will ‘definitely grow’ in the future
Article source: http://www.hostway.co.uk/news/partner-news/ibm-announces-new-measures-to-help-boost-cloud-adoption-800496700.html
Filed in Cloud computing | Technology
By: Quocirca
Published: April 2011
“Cloud”computing is a term being used in many different ways, many of them seeming to offer the ultimate silver bullet in providing an IT platform. However, many issues currently remain, and it is likely that cloud computing will be many years in maturation and acceptance in the mainstream business and public sector communities.
Governments around the world have been looking at how best to reduce functional redundancy through the concept of “shared services” where different departments share a single source of function. For example, in the UK, a concept for a government cloud (“G-Cloud”) has been proposed to provide the shared services described by Sit Peter Gershon in his 2004 report – but this may have to be revisited under the current government spend reviews.
Planning for best practices in next generation IT platforms:
The public sector is under increasing pressure to ensure that IT investments both provide flexible support for a rapidly changing world and also do not overly replicate functionality that may be used across central and local departments and groups. Cloud computing looks like it may provide a solution here – but this will only be the case if a measured and realistic approach to implementation and usage is taken.
Article source: http://www.it-director.com/enterprise/public_sector/paper.php?paper=923
Filed in Cloud computing | Technology
The Cloud has inspired a new way of thinking about ERP software deployments. Companies have the option to purchase a license or purchase a SaaS solution. When purchasing a license you own the software and have the ability to deploy it in your datacenter (on-premise) or outsource operations to an external provider (hosting). When you purchase a SaaS solution (sometimes called an on-demand solution), you rent a complete turnkey package that includes software and the entire delivery mechanism.
This article will examine the financial ramifications of these three models on your business. Continue Reading
Article source: http://erpcloudnews.com/2011/03/erp-software-cost-comparison-on-premise-saas-and-hosted/
Filed in Technology
Computer networking equipment giant Cisco Systems Inc. on Tuesday announced the intent to buy privately-held software company newScale Inc., in a move to complement and expand its offerings in cloud computing.
Based in San Mateo, California, newScale provides software that delivers a service catalog and self-service portal for information technology (IT) organizations to select and quickly deploy cloud services within their businesses. Continue Reading
Article source: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/sci/2011-03/30/c_13804472.htm
Filed in Technology
In a belated move that should surprise no one, Amazon made its foray into the personal cloud computing space with the launch of its Amazon Cloud Drive service that allows users to store documents, photos, pictures and videos on the cloud.
With the success of Amazon Web Services (AWS) that offers on-demand computing power and online storage to mostly businesses and software developers, it was just a matter of time before Amazon taps on its cloud infrastructure to break into the personal cloud. Continue Reading
Article source: http://www.techgoondu.com/2011/03/29/amazon-makes-belated-foray-into-the-personal-cloud/comment-page-1/
Filed in Technology
Introduction: The reality of cloud services
Thirty-five percent. By 2014, analysts believe that thirty-five percent, or over one-third, of global enterprise IT budgets will be spent on cloud services. While today the percentage of organizations investing in these types of offerings is small, the implication is clear: “the cloud” is not another industry buzz word, but a broad category which will drive the next phase of IT projects. For IT and business managers already inundated with information about the promise of a cloud centric infrastructure the question is not whether or not to use the cloud, but how. Fortunately, the virtualization and consolidation projects that ignited this renewed interest in centralized computing also provide a guide for how to best realize the full potential of the cloud by establishing the criteria that any project should try to address: How does IT more effectively understand, optimize, and consolidate resources to deliver the highest use and highest ROI for the business? Continue Reading
Article source: http://www.cloudtweaks.com/2011/03/unleashing-cloud-performance-making-the-promise-of-cloud-a-reality/
Filed in Technology
The President of San Rafael, California-based CRM Software, Gregory T. Friedman, has announced that its CRM software, Junxure, will now have a cloud-based version, available in January.
Brooke Southall wrote in Forbes last week that Friedman made this announcement at this particular time due to the huge hype that is currently surrounding the cloud, and the lack of participation from CRM Software put the company’s leadership position in the CRM software market in question. Continue Reading
Article source: http://www.tmcnet.com/channels/crm-software/articles/159045-early-announcement-brings-new-player-cloud-based-crm.htm
Filed in Technology
Amazon ‘plans online cloud storage service’
The Seattle, Washington-based Amazon may announce the project as early as Tuesday, said the financial daily, citing sources close to the matter.
However the company is still ironing out key legal issues related to the service, the sources said, including being yet to secure content licenses from some major record labels and movie studios.
“We are disappointed that the locker service that Amazon is proposing is unlicensed by Sony Music,” a spokeswoman for Sony Corp.’s Sony Music Entertainment told the Journal.
The online store appears to be jumping into an online field where rivals Apple and Google are already working on similar “cloud” computing projects for online file collections a user could access from a variety of computers or other devices.
Article source: http://news.ph.msn.com/sci-tech/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4744673
Filed in Technology
People solely relying on patching and upgrades are leading themselves into a false sense of security and individual protection is no longer sufficient in the age of multi-vector attacks, according to the president of the Australian Internet Industry Association.
Most people rely on operating system and software updates – including security patches – to gain a perception of security, but with increasing sophistication of cyber attacks this single-minded approach is no longer sufficient, according to AIIA chief executive Peter Coroneos. Continue Reading
Article source: http://www.cio.com.au/article/381359/days_individual_security_over_says_aiia_chief/
Filed in Economy | Efficiency | Energy | Healthcare | International Politics | Kids | Politics | Science | Social | Sustainability | Technology
National Geographic’s most typical person
National Geographic’s year long series on world population highlights the differences and similarities of the Earth’s population as we reach 7 billion people in 2011.
