In the run-up to the next Cloud Expo, 7th Cloud Expo (November 1–4, 2010) being held at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Silicon Valley, it's time to give my earlier list a complete overhaul. Here, accordingly, is an expanded list of the most active players in the Cloud Ecosystem. I have increased it from the 'mere' 150 I identified back in January of this year, to 250, testimony – as if any were needed! – to the fierce and continuing growth of the "Elastic IT" paradigm throughout the world of enterprise computing. Editorial note: The words in quotation marks used to describe the various services and solutions in this round-up are in every case taken from the Web sites of the companies themselves. Omissions to this Top 250 list should be sent to me via Twitter (twitter.com/jg21) and I will endeavor to include them in any future revision of this newly expanded rou... (more)

Google's Economic Report Is Self-Serving Hype -Consumer Watchdog

Google, the self-proclaimed "don't-be-evil" company, is following the classic corporate evil-doer's playbook as it attempts to quell worldwide outrage over the WiSpy scandal, Consumer Watchdog said today. The Internet giant's new report claiming that it generated $54 billion in economic activity last year in the United States, is an an example of classic corporate PR spin to divert justified criticism, Consumer Watchdog said.   "This is what every big corporation does when they are under fire," said John M. Simpson, consumer advocate with the nonpartisan, nonprofit group. "They div... (more)

Yahoo! Advances Apache Hadoop

Yahoo! Inc., a developer of Apache Hadoop, on Tuesday announced significant enhancements to the open source software, accelerating the potential for enterprise-wide adoption by mainstream businesses. Hadoop is the open source technology at the epicenter of big data and cloud computing, helping companies get value from their data and better manage their businesses. As Internet usage continues to grow, data proliferates, making it challenging for businesses of all sizes to manage data in secure and useful ways. Yahoo!, one of the largest online companies in the world, initially used... (more)

FalconStor Announces HyperFS™ File System for Media and Entertainment Market

Delivers High-Performance, Massively Scalable File System - Early Partners Include SeaChange and Rorke Data MELVILLE, N.Y. -- FalconStor Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: FALC), the provider of TOTALLY Open™ data protection solutions, today announced the FalconStor® HyperFS™ file system, a high-performance, massively scalable solution for data-intensive applications that generate very large numbers of files. The HyperFS solution is an innovative file system that simplifies the management of large files, providing high-speed, low-latency file access to heterogeneous clients across a global... (more)

[Updated] Supremes Defang Bilski; Software Patents Safe

The Supreme Court of the United States finally handed down its long-awaited decision in the Bilski case Monday. That's the one the FOSS movement hoped would throw a monkey wrench into software patents. Well, the FOSS folks are going to be sorely disappointed. The Supremes in their infinite wisdom shot the pins out from under Bilski and said his method for hedging risk in commodities trading couldn't be patented but did so in such a way that Bilski is basically treated in glorious isolation, setting no precedent for software patents, even business method software patents. As the ... (more)