Cloud Computing on Ulitzer Back in June, we released the very first security hardened virtual machine images for the Amazon Web Services Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) environment. These original images were based upon the OpenSolaris 2008.11 release and were configured in accordance with the guidelines published by Sun the Center for Internet Security. Since its initial release, we have provided an update to offer this image in the European Region. In August, we took another step forward with the release of a security-enhanced image based upon the OpenSolaris 2009.06 release. This image went beyond just the simple hardening of its predecessor to add functionality such as encrypted swap, non-executable stacks and auditing that was enabled by default. With such a strong foundation, it should have been no surprise that it was likely to be used as a foundation for layere... (more)

In 2014 Big Data Investments Will Account for Nearly $30 Billion - Eventually Accounting for $76 Billion by 2020 End

DALLAS, Aug. 21, 2014 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- Amid the proliferation of real time data from sources such as mobile devices, web, social media, sensors, log files and transactional applications, Big Data has found a host of vertical market applications, ranging from fraud detection to R&D.; Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140821/138541 "Big Data Market: 2014 – 2020 – Opportunities, Challenges, Strategies, Industry Verticals & Forecasts" Key Findings: In 2014 Big Data vendors will pocket nearly $30 Billion from hardware, software and professional services revenues Big Data investments are further expected to grow at a CAGR of nearly 17% over the next 6 years, eventually accounting for $76 Billion by the end of 2020 The market is ripe for acquisitions of pure-play Big Data startups, as competition heats up between IT incumbents Nearly every large scale IT ven... (more)

Gmail Inches Toward Offline Support

Eighteen months or so after Google Gears debuted, a period of time scarred by several major Gmail outages, Google’s cloud-accessible-only e-mail is finally getting invested with offline support. English-speaking US and UK Gmail users who want to test the new skill can now catch up with the rest of the world. Google calls the feature “early experimental,” but then Gmail is still in beta two years after its general release. Although Google has been using the widgetry internally “for quite a while,” it warns that there still may be “some kinks that haven’t been completely ironed out yet.” It’s looking for feedback. Once the feature is turned on, Gmail uses Gears to download a local cache of the user’s mail. As long as a connection to the network is maintained, that cache is synchronized with Gmail’s servers. When Internet connection is lost, Gmail automatically switche... (more)

Social Computing Will Turn the Web World Upside Down

Since most any two words can and will be put together in this world, what with us being Homo Loquens and all, it is easy just to shrug when you hear new colloquies like 'social software,' 'social networking' or 'social computing' and dismiss them as just three more inevitable permutations in a world of whirling words and phrases. But this time, trust me, things are different. I would go so far as to say that "social computing," far from being just a random word-combo along the lines of wannabe duos like "air walking," "base jumping," "text messaging" and suchlike, is that fabled "New New Thing" (a reference to Michael Lewis's invaluable book of that name, documenting Netscape's Jim Clark's serial webpreneurship in the heady days of the Internet Boom 1.0). In other words, Social Computing is about to turn the Web world upside down. Before I explain how and why, let us ju... (more)

Recession of 2008 Makes Cloud Computing the Biggest New IT Topic

Greg Ness's Blog Cloud computing has replaced virtualization as the new hot topic of 2008. Yet underneath the headlines a very basic shift is taking place in the network that promises even more conversations in the very near future. Let’s call this shift the rise of Infrastructure 2.0 or the result of escalating pressures on an already tired network infrastructure. Over the last three decades we’ve watched a meteoric rise in processing power and intelligence in network endpoints and systems drive an incredible series of network innovations; and those innovations have led to the creation of multi-billion dollar network hardware markets. As we watch the global economy shiver and shake we now see signs of the next technology boom: Infrastructure2.0. Infrastructure 1.0 - The Multi-billion Dollar Static Network From the expansion of TCP/IP in the 80s/90s, the emergence of... (more)

Who Has the Industry Lead in Cloud Computing?

Stephen E. Arnold's Blog Google has shifted from solving problems in distributed, massively parallel computing to developing next-generation cloud-centric applications. Google can, with the deployment of software, deliver global services that other companies cannot match in terms of speed of deployment, operation, and enhancement. Cloud computing has become commonplace. Amazon has pumped steroids into the Amazon Web Services product line. Microsoft executives have been providing forecasts of a bold new service offering. Other vendors blasting off from mother earth to loftier realms include IBM, Intel, Rackspace, and other big name firms. One of the most interesting documents I have read in months is a forthcoming technical paper from Microsoft’s Albert Greenberg, Paranta Lahiri, David Maltz, Parveen Patel, and Sudipta Sengupta. The paper is available from the ACM as... (more)

Cloud Computing Giant and Facebook Collaborate: Force.com for Facebook Is Born

"This is the premier social graph fully integrating with the premier enterprise cloud computing company - this is the true power of Internet," gushed Marc Benioff, Chairman and CEO of Salesforce.com, as he today launched a new offering called Force.com for Facebook – designed to foster a global development community for Facebook’s 120 million users and Salesforce.com’s 100,000 developers. "We are seeing social meet CRM and the enterprise for the first time," Benioff added. "Facebook users are always eager to try new applications that can improve their ability to connect and share in a trusted environment," commented Sheryl Sandberg, COO, Facebook. "Our work with salesforce.com will give developers the tools to create and deliver a new class of business applications for Facebook’s 120 million active users," she continued. With Force.com for Facebook, the companies expl... (more)

New Relic Named “Bronze Sponsor” of 4th Cloud Computing Expo

SYS-CON Events announced today that New Relic, the leading software-as-a-service provider of application performance management solutions, was named "Bronze Sponsor" of SYS-CON's 4th International Cloud Computing Conference & Expo (www.CloudComputingExpo.com), which will take place on November 2 - 4, 2009, Santa Clara Convention Center, in Santa Clara, California. The event is expected to attract over 1,500 developers, engineers, architects, IT managers, and hardware and software professionals of every stripe. New Relic is a leading provider of application performance management solutions that enable developers and operations teams to quickly and cost effectively monitor, troubleshoot, and tune web application performance in real time. More than 2,000 organizations use New Relic RPM to monitor and optimize more than 20,000 production application instances deployed... (more)

CCT CEO Jonathan Rosenberg Drives Revenue Through CRM in the Philippines

Cyber City Teleservices (www.cctll.com) is the most venerable of the CRM call-center firms in the Philippines. Dating back to 1999, it was co-founded by longtime industry executive Jonathan Rosenberg, who spent two decades in the US in the direct response industry. "The first thing I want to be clear about is that we don't view ourselves as a solution for companies to reduce costs," he told me in a recent interview at CCT's headquarters in the Clark Special Economic Zone, a couple hours north of Manila in the state of Pampanga. "The most important issue for business executives is driving topline revenue, and we help our clients do that." I met Jonathan during an event called Convergence 2009, part of a convention at Clark that was sponsored by the Philippine government. The event attracted local business leaders and foreign executives, as well as students eager to ... (more)

Cloud Balancing, Reverse Cloud Bursting, and Staying PCI-Compliant

One of the concerns with cloud bursting specifically for the use of addressing seasonal scaling needs is that cloud computing environments are not necessarily PCI-friendly. But there may be a solution that allows the application to maintain its PCI-compliance and still make use of cloud computing environments for seasonal scaling efficiency. Cloud bursting, a.k.a. overdraft protection, is a great concept but in some situations, such as those involving PCI-compliance, it can be difficult if not impossible to actually implement. The financial advantages to cloud bursting for organizations requiring additional capacity on only a seasonal basis are well understood, but the regulatory issues that surround such implementations hinder adoption of this method to address cost-effective capacity increases when necessarily only for short periods of time. But what if we archit... (more)

Ex-IBM Big Shot Pleads Guilty in Insider Trading Case

Robert Moffat, who headed both IBM’s server unit and IBM Microelectronics until he was arrested last October, pleaded guilty to twin counts of securities fraud and conspiracy Monday morning in a Manhattan courtroom. He was one of the highest-ranking industry executives that the Galleon Group and its playmates used to get inside information from. Another is ex-AMD CEO Hector Ruiz who has not been charged. The authorities, who taped thousands of hours of telephone calls between the various culprits, say the ring realized $50 million on such tips. It is supposed to be the biggest hedge fund insider trading case ever in America. According to most accounts, Moffat, 53, admitted in court to giving ex-beauty queen-turned-trader Danielle Chiesi confidential information about AMD’s restructuring, Lenovo’s weak earnings and IBM’s troubled server sales. Apparently no mention was... (more)