Category Archives: Cloud Computing
Data Center | Cloud Computing | Colocation
The Meriplex data centers in Houston, Austin, Chicago and Las Vegas offer a suite of complete solutions for colocation and disaster recovery for businesses seeking to locate vital infrastructure within a secure data center. Our state-of-the-art proven technologies, extend our customers a high level of comfort knowing their equipment is stored in the best possible environment.
To provide business enterprises with a professional, reliable and safe environment, our colocations are efficient and acutely technologically advanced. With a demonstrated record for providing the highest quality of housing for IT equipment to its customers, the data centers are SSAE 16 Audited.
Meriplex understands that housing critical infrastructure in a tough, durable, robust, secure environment is an absolute must in todays business climate. Our data centers are located in carrier buildings with physically diverse dual power grid feeds paired with dual generator backups and redundant air conditioning. The Meriplex data centers in Houston, Austin, Chicago and Las Vegas are the market leaders in collocation, with state-of-the art raised floors, FM-200/dry-pipe pre-action water based fire protection with a redundant water supply, and SSAE 16 audited certification. With 24/7 staff ready to provide service to any customer needing remote assistance and additional security, Meriplex provides a 99.999% uptime SLA ensuring our customers peace of mind that their data is secure.
Our wide-ranging colocation services 24/7/365 offerings include:
When customers couple Meriplex colocation services with our MCS Mission Critical Surveillance Support System they are provided with network monitoring and computer network support from our Houston network operations center while their entire voice, data, internet and networking operations are being managed and monitored 24/7/365.
[slides] OpenStack Trove and DBaaS API | @CloudExpo #Cloud …
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[slides] OpenStack Trove and DBaaS API | @CloudExpo #Cloud
The OpenStack cloud operating system includes Trove, a database abstraction layer
Aug. 3, 2015 03:45 PM
OpenStack Trove and DBaaS API: Impedance Match?
The OpenStack cloud operating system includes Trove, a database abstraction layer. Rather than applications connecting directly to a specific type of database, they connect to Trove, which in turn connects to one or more specific databases. One target database is Postgres Plus Cloud Database, which includes its own RESTful API. Trove was originally developed around MySQL, whose interfaces are significantly less complicated than those of the Postgres cloud database.
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In their session at 16th Cloud Expo, Fred Dalrymple, product manager for EnterpriseDB's Postgres Plus Cloud Database, and Amrith Kumar, Founder and CTO of Tesora, addressed the issues encountered in using Trove to abstract a complicated cloud database, including gaining access to database functionality not native in the standard abstraction, providing portability for the database interface into non-OpenStack contexts, and preventing the database from being commoditized by abstraction.
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[slides] OpenStack Trove and DBaaS API | @CloudExpo #Cloud ...
What is Cloud Computing Technology?: Cloud Definition …
Everyone is talking about the cloud. But what does it mean?
Business applications are moving to the cloud. Its not just a fadthe shift from traditional software models to the Internet has steadily gained momentum over the last 10 years. Looking ahead, the next decade of cloud computing promises new ways to collaborate everywhere, through mobile devices.
Traditional business applications have always been very complicated and expensive. The amount and variety of hardware and software required to run them are daunting. You need a whole team of experts to install, configure, test, run, secure, and update them.
When you multiply this effort across dozens or hundreds of apps, its easy to see why the biggest companies with the best IT departments arent getting the apps they need. Small and mid-sized businesses dont stand a chance.
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With cloud computing, you eliminate those headaches because youre not managing hardware and softwarethats the responsibility of an experienced vendor like salesforce.com. The shared infrastructure means it works like a utility: You only pay for what you need, upgrades are automatic, and scaling up or down is easy.
Cloud-based apps can be up and running in days or weeks, and they cost less. With a cloud app, you just open a browser, log in, customize the app, and start using it.
Businesses are running all kinds of apps in the cloud, like customer relationship management (CRM), HR, accounting, and much more. Some of the worlds largest companies moved their applications to the cloud with salesforce.com after rigorously testing the security and reliability of our infrastructure.
As cloud computing grows in popularity, thousands of companies are simply rebranding their non-cloud products and services as cloud computing. Always dig deeper when evaluating cloud offerings and keep in mind that if you have to buy and manage hardware and software, what youre looking at isnt really cloud computing but a false cloud.
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What is Cloud Computing Technology?: Cloud Definition ...
Cloud computing Wikipdia
Un article de Wikipdia, l'encyclopdie libre.
Le cloud computing[1], ou linformatique en nuage ou nuagique ou encore linfonuagique (au Qubec), est l'exploitation de la puissance de calcul ou de stockage de serveurs informatiques distants par l'intermdiaire d'un rseau, gnralement Internet.Ces serveurs sont lous la demande, le plus souvent par tranche d'utilisation selon des critres techniques (puissance, bande passante, etc.) mais galement au forfait. Le cloud computing se caractrise par sa grande souplesse: selon le niveau de comptence de l'utilisateur client, il est possible de grer soi-mme son serveur ou de se contenter d'utiliser des applicatifs distants en mode SaaS[2],[3],[4]. Selon la dfinition du National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), le cloud computing est l'accs via un rseau de tlcommunications, la demande et en libre-service, des ressources informatiques partages configurables[5]. Il s'agit donc d'une dlocalisation de l'infrastructure informatique.
Les grandes entreprises du secteur informatique comme IBM, Microsoft, Google, Dell, Amazon et Oracle, Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Thales Services ou Orange Business Services font la promotion du cloud computing[6], qui constitue un important changement de paradigme des systmes informatiques, jusque-l constitus de serveurs situs au sein mme de l'entreprise.
En France, la Commission gnrale de terminologie et de nologie prcise qu'il s'agit d'une forme particulire de grance de l'informatique, dans laquelle l'emplacement et le fonctionnement dans le nuage ne sont pas ports la connaissance des clients[7]. L'anglicisme cloud computing[8] est largement utilis en France.
Les francisations informatique en nuage[7], informatique dmatrialise[9], ou plus rarement infonuagique[10] sont galement utilises.
Le nuage (anglais cloud) est un ensemble de matriel, de raccordements rseau et de logiciels[4] qui fournit des services sophistiqus que les individus et les collectivits peuvent exploiter volont depuis n'importe o dans le monde[2]. Le cloud computing est un basculement de tendance: au lieu d'obtenir de la puissance de calcul par acquisition de matriel et de logiciel, le consommateur se sert de puissance mise sa disposition par un fournisseur via Internet[2].
Les caractristiques essentielles d'un nuage sont la disponibilit mondiale en libre-service, l'lasticit, l'ouverture, la mutualisation et le paiement l'usage:
Les nuages utilisent des technologies telles que la virtualisation du matriel informatique, les grilles, l'architecture oriente services et les services web[2]. Un nuage peut tre public, priv ou communautaire. Un nuage public est mis disposition du grand public. Les services sont typiquement mis disposition par une entreprise, qui manipule une infrastructure qui lui appartient[11]. Un nuage priv est destin exclusivement une organisation, qui peut le manipuler elle-mme, ou faire appel services fournis par des tiers[11]. Dans un nuage communautaire l'infrastructure provient d'un ensemble de membres qui partagent un intrt commun. Ce type de nuage est semblable ceux monts par les milieux acadmiques pour des tudes de grande envergure[11].
Un exemple de service grand-public fourni en cloud computing, est le jeu la demande (aussi appel jeu sur demande, et, en anglais, gaming on demand (GoD) ou cloud gaming). Il permet de jouer normalement des jeux vido sur son cran dordinateur, alors que le ou les logiciels de jeu tournent sur des serveurs distance, qui renvoient la vido de ce qui a t jou en lecture en continu (ce qui est communment appel streaming). Le jeu est hberg et stock sur des serveurs, dont l'utilisateur ne connait pas la localisation ni les caractristiques. Il ne ncessite plus de supports comme les CD, ou de matriel comme les consoles de jeux. Les joueurs doivent seulement possder un ordinateur reli l'Internet, et le cas chant une manette de jeu.
Le nom cloud computing est n des professionnels de l'informatique qui recherchaient une dsignation pour les nouveaux systmes informatiques fonctionnant par l'action conjointe d'lments disparates runis indiffremment de leur localisation gographique et de l'infrastructure sous-jacente. Le nom vient du nuage (en anglais cloud) qui est le symbole utilis pour reprsenter l'Internet dans les diagrammes des rseaux informatiques[11].
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Cloud computing Wikipdia
Cloud computing changes IT job roles – Thoughts On Cloud
IT job roles and responsibilities have changed as a cloud-based delivery model has become the norm for IT infrastructure. For the majority of IT jobs, cloud proficiency has become standard, a pre-requisite key word for every resume.
A quick search for cloud skills on job sites like Monster.com or Dice.com reveal more than 800 jobs hits. These numbers have grown exponentially in the last few years.
CIOs are increasingly implementing cloud in their IT environments. Finding the right individuals or educating current employee base is key to their cloud strategys success or failure.
The vice president of IT for a goods distribution company told me few weeks ago that his board told him, Our company is not in business of infrastructure management. This illustrates where the future of hosted IT infrastructure is going. His biggest challenge was not only to find a hosting partner but also to educate his team on cloud services and benefits. He had to hire new employees with a cloud computing background.
He found that along with a move to cloud, he had to rethink some of the roles and responsibilities within his organization. Here are few examples of job roles with additional responsibilities that cloud brings:
1. Vice President of IT/Chief Information Officer
IT executives are now tasked with making the decision on going to cloud versus keeping processes in-house. The VP of IT or CIO is also in charge of outsourcing strategies and choosing between IaaS/PaaS/SaaS cloud models along with public, private or hybrid cloud strategies. And they have to manage budget, IT manpower limits and business requirements. VPs of IT and CIOs will need to assess CAPEX spending versus a monthly recurring cost model in cloud. They have to evaluate cloud providers cost models, services offered and experience in the field.
2. IT Managers/IT Directors
In a cloud environment, IT directors and managers decide on automation needs and standards for cloud services. They work with cloud vendors to assess workloads and governance models.
3. Security Architect
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Cloud computing changes IT job roles - Thoughts On Cloud
Forbes – Cloud Computing – Forbes.com
Chicago wants to tax the sky - or at least the cloud. A recent move by the Chicago to clarify that the city's Amusement Tax also includes subscription based services like Netflix and LexisNexis has many wondering what's next. read
Sales organizations plan to increase their use of sales analytics 58% from 2015 to 2016. Smart selling fueled by predictive analytics will jump 77% among high performing sales organizations in the next 12 18 months. 60% of high-performing sales teams already use or are planning to use a mobile sales apps. read
IBM Research announced that it built a microprocessor on the 7 nanometer process earlier this week, another notable sign that Moores Law, the driving force of the technology industry, is far from over. read
Pattern of Life analytics (POL) is a new predictive data analytical method that is similar to profiling. The implications of POL in the context of the Internet of Things (IoT) are far-reaching for both governments and business. With the recent estimates of IoT financial impact being in the trillions of dollars, Big Data is getting exponentially bigger and data analytics is becoming increasingly important and complex. Security, privacy and data protection legal compliance are paramount; the laws and[...] read
It must be tough to be an analyst estimating the size of the cloud market. Where do you draw the line between a "cloud" system and a "non-cloud" system? It's a fuzzy line at best, if there even is a line any more. read
In a colossal training initiative, Indias largest IT services firm, the Mumbai-based Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), will train 100,000 employees this year in digital technologies such as automation and artificial intelligence. The humongous training program has been necessitated by a strong demand for new technologies from customers in key verticals like retail, financial services and life sciences. About 12.5% of TCS revenues already accrue from digital technologies and the company[...] read
A few months ago, Microsoft launched a preview of Office 2016 for Mac and now it has officially launched to the public today. The last major Office release for Mac was Office 2011. Office 2016 -- which includes a new version of Word, Excel and PowerPoint -- is available in 139 countries and 16 languages. The new version of Office for Mac includes support for Retina displays,the signature ribbon interface, task panes, cloud integration, Multi-Touch gestures and a Full Screen view mode. read
Rolling out so many exciting new products at once shows why AWS is, and will remain, the cloud leader for the foreseeable future. read
Oracle is trying its best to catch up with the cloud world. Last month at a marathon five-hour online event, Oracle Executive Chairman of the Board and CTO, Larry Ellison and Thomas Kurian, President, Product Development announced 24 cloud services (phew!) cutting across IaaS, PaaS, SaaS segments. Six platform services including RDBMS, NoSQL, MBaaS, Big Data, process, and integration services are available today. While the market leaders are moving in a direction that blurs the line between infrastructure,[...] read
Corporate IT spending is on the move. Obviously the CEO is not dead, nor is the chief financial offer (CFO) or the chief information officer (CIO) for that matter but changes are afoot. The current renaissance witnessed in information technology sees multifactorial but essentially decoupled service-based chunks of IT (you can just say cloud computing and virtualization if you prefer) now impacting the way technology itself is procured. read
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Cloud computing security – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cloud computing security or, more simply, cloud security is an evolving sub-domain of computer security, network security, and, more broadly, information security. It refers to a broad set of policies, technologies, and controls deployed to protect data, applications, and the associated infrastructure of cloud computing.
Organizations use the Cloud in a variety of different service models (SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS) and deployment models (Private, Public, Hybrid, and Community).[1] There are a number of security issues/concerns associated with cloud computing but these issues fall into two broad categories: security issues faced by cloud providers (organizations providing software-, platform-, or infrastructure-as-a-service via the cloud) and security issues faced by their customers (companies or organizations who host applications or store data on the cloud).[2] The responsibility goes both ways, however: the provider must ensure that their infrastructure is secure and that their clients data and applications are protected while the user must take measures to fortify their application and use strong passwords and authentication measures.
When an organization elects to store data or host applications on the public cloud, it loses its ability to have physical access to the servers hosting its information. As a result, potentially business sensitive and confidential data is at risk from insider attacks. According to a recent Cloud Security Alliance Report, insider attacks are the third biggest threat in cloud computing.[3] Therefore, Cloud Service providers must ensure that thorough background checks are conducted for employees who have physical access to the servers in the data center. Additionally, data centers must be frequently monitored for suspicious activity.
In order to conserve resources, cut costs, and maintain efficiency, Cloud Service Providers often store more than one customer's data on the same server. As a result, there is a chance that one user's private data can be viewed by other users (possibly even competitors). To handle such sensitive situations, cloud service providers should ensure proper data isolation and logical storage segregation.[1]
The extensive use of virtualization in implementing cloud infrastructure brings unique security concerns for customers or tenants of a public cloud service.[4] Virtualization alters the relationship between the OS and underlying hardware - be it computing, storage or even networking. This introduces an additional layer - virtualization - that itself must be properly configured, managed and secured.[5] Specific concerns include the potential to compromise the virtualization software, or "hypervisor". While these concerns are largely theoretical, they do exist.[6] For example, a breach in the administrator workstation with the management software of the virtualization software can cause the whole datacenter to go down or be reconfigured to an attacker's liking.
Cloud security architecture is effective only if the correct defensive implementations are in place. An efficient cloud security architecture should recognize the issues that will arise with security management.[7] The security management addresses these issues with security controls. These controls are put in place to safeguard any weaknesses in the system and reduce the effect of an attack. While there are many types of controls behind a cloud security architecture, they can usually be found in one of the following categories:[7]
It is generally recommended that information security controls be selected and implemented according and in proportion to the risks, typically by assessing the threats, vulnerabilities and impacts. While cloud security concerns can be grouped into any number of dimensions (e.g. Gartner named seven[8] while the Cloud Security Alliance identified fourteen areas of concern[9]), three are outlined below.[10]
Numerous laws and regulations pertain to the storage and use of data. In the US these include privacy or data protection laws, Payment Card Industry - Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 (FISMA), and Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998, among others.
Similar laws may apply in different legal jurisdictions and may differ quite markedly from those enforced in the US. Cloud service users may often need to be aware of the legal and regulatory differences between the jurisdictions. For example data stored by a Cloud Service Provider may be located in, say, Singapore and mirrored in the US.[12]
Many of these regulations mandate particular controls (such as strong access controls and audit trails) and require regular reporting. Cloud customers must ensure that their cloud providers adequately fulfil such requirements as appropriate, enabling them to comply with their obligations since, to a large extent, they remain accountable.
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Cloud computing security - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
SungardASVoice: 6 Private Cloud Computing Questions You …
What do you mean you arent using private cloud computing? Everybody is migrating to the cloud these days. Questions like that can make you cringe, especially if you have questions about what is private cloud computing but are afraid to ask them for fear of looking stupid.
But there really is no such thing as a dumb question and asking questions about private cloud computing before deciding whether or not to dive in is just good business! So here are the 6 things you always wanted to know about private cloud computing but were afraid to ask.
#1. Why would I choose private cloud computing over the public cloud, anyway?
There are a lot of long-winded, complex answers out there about the differences between the private and public cloud. But unless your applications have technical business requirements that a public cloud cannot accommodate, theres an easier way of thinking about it: private cloud computing is perfect for businesses who want to leverage the agility and efficiency that the cloud can bring, but who also want the creature comfort of having dedicated hardware. That is, you dont want to share your cloud with anybody else.
#2. Where should my private cloud sit?
Lets stay on that hardware question for a minute: if you want a private cloud with its own dedicated hardware, where do you want the hardware to live? You have two choices. You can have your hardware on premise (a private cloud), or you can have it hosted somewhere off site (a hosted private cloud). Either one is perfectly acceptable depending on your needs and desires. For instance, if you want to build your cloud yourself and have control over every aspect of it, then put it on premise in your data center. If you would prefer to buy the cloud capabilities you need and let someone else handle all the design, maintenance, and upkeep, then a hosted environment is probably ideal.
Have you been too embarrassed to ask about these or other private cloud computing questions?
#3. Whats the deal with open source cloud technologies? Open source technology is free to all. And there is plenty of open source cloud software out there. This can be very helpful for smaller organizations who cant afford to pay for a whole packaged software platform to run their cloud. The downside, of course, is that open source code has no formal support system you have to be willing to rely on user networks and forums for troubleshooting and such. There will also likely be some gaps, because nobody is engaged in perfecting the code 100%. Oftentimes, a business may start with open source cloud coding, but move to a fully-supported package as they mature.
#4. What do I need to budget for with private cloud computing?
This answer to this hinges on whether you want an on premise private cloud or a hosted private cloud. With an on premise private cloud, you will have capital expenses (capex). These could include data center space, power, hardware, software, and human assets. You will also need to plan for your capacity needs today, tomorrow, and down the road. Remember to take periods of high utilization into account if they exist in your business. This could mean thinking about seasonal workloads, or even end-of-month processes if they put additional demands on your infrastructure. With a hosted private cloud, your budgeting falls predominantly into the operational expense (opex) category: you can pay for the storage, compute, bandwidth, etc. that you need as you need it. You still need to account for periods of peak utilization, but operationalizing the expenses will help to ease the burden.
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SungardASVoice: 6 Private Cloud Computing Questions You ...
Cloud Computing Wikipedia
Kurzfilm ber die Mglichkeiten und Nutzung der Cloud Animationsfilm: Was passiert in einer Cloud?
Unter Cloud Computing (deutsch etwa Rechnen in der Wolke) versteht man das Speichern von Daten in einem entfernten Rechenzentrum, aber auch die Ausfhrung von Programmen, die nicht auf dem lokalen Arbeitsplatzcomputer oder Server installiert sind, sondern eben entfernt in der (metaphorischen) Wolke (englisch cloud). [1]
Technischer formuliert umschreibt das Cloud Computing den Ansatz, abstrahierte IT-Infrastrukturen (z.B. Rechenkapazitt, Datenspeicher, Netzwerkkapazitten oder auch fertige Software) dynamisch an den Bedarf angepasst ber ein Netzwerk zur Verfgung zu stellen. Aus Nutzersicht scheint die zur Verfgung gestellte abstrahierte IT-Infrastruktur fern und undurchsichtig, wie von einer Wolke verhllt. Angebot und Nutzung dieser Dienstleistungen erfolgen dabei ausschlielich ber definierte technische Schnittstellen und Protokolle sowie ber lokale Browserfunktionen. Die Spannweite der im Rahmen des Cloud Computings angebotenen Dienstleistungen umfasst das gesamte Spektrum der Informationstechnik und beinhaltet unter anderem Infrastruktur (z.B. Rechenleistung, Speicherplatz), Plattformen und Software.[2]
Der Zugriff auf die entfernten Systeme erfolgt ber ein Netzwerk, beispielsweise das des Internets. Es gibt aber im Kontext von Firmen auch sogenannte Private Clouds, bei denen die Bereitstellung ber ein firmeninternes Intranet erfolgt. Die meisten Anbieter von Cloudlsungen nutzen die Pooling-Effekte, die aus der gemeinsamen Nutzung von Ressourcen entstehen, fr ihr Geschftsmodell.
2009 verffentlichte das National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) eine Definition,[3] die auf weitgehende Akzeptanz stie und unterschiedliche Definitionsanstze bndelt:
Cloud Computing enthlt die drei verschiedenen Servicemodelle:
Zudem enthlt die Definition des National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) vier Liefermodelle[5]:
Das NIST listet fnf essenzielle Charakteristika fr Cloud Computing:
Demzufolge geht Cloud Computing ber andere gegenwrtig diskutierte Anstze (Organic Computing) (Virtualisierung) hinaus. Unter der Bedingung einer ffentlichen Verfgbarkeit, hnlich beispielsweise dem ffentlichen Telefonnetz, kann man Cloud Computing je nach Architektur auch als Summe von SaaS und Utility Computing ansehen.[6]
Die Cloud ist eines der ltesten Sinnbilder der Informationstechnik und steht als solches fr Rechnernetze, deren Inneres unbedeutend oder unbekannt ist.[7]
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Cloud Computing Wikipedia
PENGUICON2015 806 – Cloud + Open Source + Microsoft = Azure – Video
PENGUICON2015 806 - Cloud + Open Source + Microsoft = Azure
Cloud + Open Source + Microsoft = Azure Microsoft does open source? Yes! Microsoft Azure is a cloud computing platform with support for Linux virtual machines, node.js, PHP, Python, Android,...
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PENGUICON2015 806 - Cloud + Open Source + Microsoft = Azure - Video