PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

OVH and Accelize today announced that they have entered into a partnership to better enable OVHs cloud customers to leverage the processing capabilities of FPGAs in the form of FPGA Acceleration-as-a-Service.

OVH first launched its FPGA server offering in summer 2016 as part of the RunAbove Lab, enabling users to evaluate FPGA capabilities by renting a dedicated FPGA Server where they can program and test their own FPGA designs. The partnership with Accelize now enables OVH users to operate pre-built FPGA accelerators on the RunAbove FPGA servers. These users can also customize these accelerators or create new ones, using the QuickPlay/QuickStore solution from Accelize, regardless of their FPGA expertise.

We see 2017 as the year of the FPGA in data centers, and we know that many of our customers are interested in these devices and the acceleration capability they bring, said Germain Masse, technical director for OVH. However, we also know from experience that developing FPGA accelerators is a challenging task for many who would like to use them. Accelizes offering addresses this perfectly with a complete, high-level tool flow for development plus an ecosystem of experienced developers who can offer pre-built accelerators to our customers.

Accelize provides the pre-built accelerators for the RunAbove cloud server in cooperation with its QuickAlliance ecosystem partners. The current partnersCAST Inc., Barco Silex, and Logic Fruitprovide the hardware libraries (IP blocks) needed to create these ready-to-use accelerators that are ideal for data centers, including GZIP Compression, GUNZIP decompression, and AES Encryption. RunAbove users can easily launch these FPGA accelerators to immediately evaluate the benefits of FPGA Acceleration. Additional accelerators developed by new QuickAlliance partners will be available shortly.

Developers who have the application knowledge but not necessarily the FPGA expertise can now create efficient and tailored FPGA Accelerators by seamlessly combining proven design library functions (IP blocks) from a growing catalog of third party providers with their own specific logic functions defined using C/C++ code. They can in turn offer their newly developed accelerators for sale on the QuickStore marketplace with a business model that matches the Cloud computing as-a-Service model.

This exciting joint offering goes beyond FPGA evaluation to actually put custom FPGA development within reach of many more OVH customers, said Jean-Yves Brena, COO at Accelize. It also paves the way for how FPGAs will be used effectively in the Cloud, with a pool of FPGA accelerator developers creating and maintaining a large selection of ready-to-use accelerators that Cloud Service providers such as OVH can sell as a service.

Cloud users seeking to evaluate FPGA acceleration can rent a so-equipped FPGA Server from OVH RunAbove and immediately evaluate the pre-built accelerators loaded on that server. They can then implement and test their own FPGA accelerator ideas by getting a QuickPlay subscription and using its complete, end-to-end, software defined tool flow to target the FPGA server, all without having any prior FPGA design expertise.

IP providers and accelerator developers looking to make their products available in a Cloud computing environment should contact Accelize and join the QuickAlliance program.

For more information about the joint OVH-Accelize offering please go to: https://www.accelize.com/ovh-runabove

For more information about the FPGA Server accessible through RunAbove go to: https://www.runabove.com/labs/FPGAAccelize

About OVH

Founded in 1999, the OVH group innovates at the heart of the Internet, data centers (260,000 physical servers) and network (more than 10 Gbps bandwith capacity). As a result, today it is a major player in the European cloud market. Through its brands, OVH.com, So you start, RunAbove, and hubiC, the OVH group offers tools and solutions that are simple yet powerful, revolutionizing the way its 1,000,0000 worldwide customers work. Its credo is technology must serve business. Respect for the individual, freedom, and equal opportunity to access new technologies have always been and will be strong commitments of the company.

Read More

About Accelize

Spinoff of 20-year-old PLDA Group, Accelize aims to accelerate the adoption of FPGA-based reconfigurable hardware in IT infrastructures by streamlining the development and sale of FPGA accelerators with a unique, intuitive FPGA development flow and a business model that aligns with Could / data center needs. Its primary offerings, QuickPlay and QuickStore, are the result of years of research in the field of High-Level Design (HLD) and High-Level Synthesis (HLS) combined with the strong expertise in FPGA hardware and IP design. See http://www.accelize.com and follow @accelize on Twitter for more information.

Accelize, QuickPlay, and QuickStore are trademarks of PLDA Group.

RunAbove is a trademark of OVH.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170314006040/en/

The rest is here:
OVH and Accelize Partner to Deliver FPGA Acceleration-as-a-Service through OVH RunAbove Lab - Yahoo Finance

I have been a happy Plex user for a few months now.I love being able to store my high-quality Blu-ray rips (from movies I own) locally, since I unfortunately have to deal with Comcast's 1TB bandwidth cap.But not everyone has an always-on PC that can transcode video fast enough for streaming at higher resolutions, and most of Plex's approved devices are pricey. Now Plex has announced Plex Cloud, a way to keep your media collection without the need for a local server.

Plex Cloud is a new feature for Plex Pass subscribers, which allows users to store media content in cloud storage instead of a local server. All you have to do is connect your Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive accountand Plex will do the rest. This has the obvious advantage of relying on established cloud providers to host all your content, and you don't have to worry about your home's internet connection while streaming outside your network.

I don't think many people already using Plex Media Server will switch to Plex Cloud, but it's a great option for someone just starting their own media collection. You can find Plex's blog post about the feature at the source link below.

Read the original here:
Plex Cloud moves your media collection to Dropbox, OneDrive, and Google Drive - Android Police

Since the dawn of cloud computing, one theme has been a constant: the idea that demand can be dynamic and elastic, that you pay only for the resources you use, and that the service is delivered on demand. But does cloud computing today live up to that promise? Recent developments show that there may be a different way to satisfy that expectation.

Serverless computing exposed

Going back to basics, unless you are buying off-the-shelf commercial software services, cloud computing has always required the buyer to size and specify a server - CPU, RAM, storage, and so on. But there are times when this is not appropriate, with some observers going as far as describing the idea of having to think in terms of servers - even if they are virtual - as a left-over artifact of traditional datacentres.

Serverless cloud computing is, of course, not serverless at all. But from the enterprise point of view, it removes the need to specify servers before developing and posting code into the cloud. Instead, you can write a function directly into a cloud provider's portal, while provider's back end systems deal with managing resources needed by the function: this is not your concern from an operational perspective.

This then allows the developer to concentrate on the delivering the service, rather than on the delivery mechanism. You can create units of code - functions - which can be scheduled or triggered by external events, used together with code to provide microservices as part of a web application, or completely standalone - serverless.

Billing

Typically, this model allows you to scale based on demand, so you pay only for the resources your function consumes, usually an abstract measure of the resources required to satisfy the request rather than per virtual machine, per hour, regardless of how much actual work the VM is performing.

For example, one cloud provider charges for resource consumption in gigabyte-seconds, computed as a combination of memory size and execution time.

Pros and cons

The issue with renting a cloud server as a VM is that it will normally need to be configured for a particular task, which in turn requires a degree of certainty about the type and volume of work it will asked to perform. If there is less work to do than expected, you still need to pay the rent. Serverless computing avoids all that, and there is no need you to consider issues such as scaling in the event of peaks and troughs or multi-threading. You never have to pay for an idle VM.

That said, this model is not suited to all - maybe most - loads. Serverless functions, especially large ones, may be more sensitive to timeouts as a result of dependencies on external events, resulting in higher latency and poor performance from an end user perspective. Resources may also not be limitless, as they are often assumed to be in a more traditional cloud model. It may also be more difficult to debug such functions due to more limited visibility.

Quocirca analyst Clive Longbottom points out that "attempting to run a full-function application in this manner would not work well. The live time and amount of base resource required would be too high, and the costs involved would be horrendous and unpredictable."[1]

On the other hand, an event-driven application may be more suitable, an example being a surveillance system that detects movement from a networked camera could be set to upload a video to a cloud storage system. According to Longbottom: "The act of transferring that video from the camera to the cloud could trigger an analysis algorithm [running in a function] within a serverless environment."[2]

Summary

Serverless computing is still in its infancy, and can be expected to develop over time. All the major cloud providers offer serverless cloud computing, with some still expanding their basic services, such as debugging. And new applications will doubtless be imagined for this new environment.

Could 2017 be the year of serverless computing? Let's find out!

[1] Clive Longbottom, Quocirca, in Computing: How serverless computing could help enterprises cut cloud complexity. http://www.computerweekly.com/opinion/How-serverless-computing-could-help-enterprises-cut-cloud-complexity

[2] ibid.

Read the rest here:
Will the cloud go serverless? - ZDNet

PLEX HAS announced the full launch of its Cloud Server offering.

The popular multi-platform streaming server, which is used to send content from computers and NAS drives in a Netflix-style joined up library is baked in to several popular devices including WD's MyPassport Wireless range and NVIDIA's Shield TV console. It also has clients and players for everything from Blackberry to Chromecast.

The new edition which has been beta testing for some time allows users to add a server of content from Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive and Amazon storage, meaning that users no longer have to have a direct connection to their home to get the benefits.

Plex said, "The amount of technology behind this launch is quite awesome. It's definitely not a trivial thing to take the best media server on the planet and make it work seamlessly as a scalable cloud service, load-balanced and clustered across multiple geographic regions."

"It's been an incredible ride these last few months, with the Cloud team working across four continents to get things finalised for our public launch. Plex Cloud is the easiest way to get started with your own Plex server in seconds, and given the response we've seen (and the massive pool of people requesting invites to our beta program), we're thrilled to announce that all Plex Pass users can now take advantage of this amazing service."

PlexPass is the premium version of Plex, which offers enhanced features including streaming channels and a recently launched PVR (think Sky+) using HDHomerun, a popular DVB to IP tuner. It also acts as an optional beta programme for the adventurous. Although it is available as a subscription, it can also be bought on a lifetime licence for a very reasonable (we think) price. A free, more limited version is also available.

Some might see the addition of cloud to the Plex server as a slight contradiction, given that a lot of users choose it as a way of avoiding streaming services and centralised cloud storage, but for others who prefer to "own" their digital content, this could prove the missing link between on-premise and streaming they've been waiting for.

Continue reading here:
Plex launches Cloud-based media servers for your mp3 and video collection - The INQUIRER

Autoplay

Show Thumbnails

Show Captions

Jacob Ackerman, chief technology officer of SkyLink Data Centers, stands surrounded by the company's main data center Thursday, March 2, 2017, in Naples. SkyLink offers storage, maintenance and security for its clients' networking equipment.(Photo: Luke Franke/Naples Daily News)Buy Photo

When SkyLink Data Centers offered a tour of its Naples headquarters to members of a Southwest Florida technology trade group, Jacob Ackerman the company's chief technology officer didn't expect much of a turnout.

Ackerman thought a fewpeople would show up and that there would be "a bunch of crickets in the background" at the nighttime event,organized by the nonprofit Southwest Florida Regional Technology Partnership last month.

He was surprised to see dozens of IT workersand other professionalswalkthrough the doors to find out more about the company and to get a close-uplook at its state-of-the-art data center onOrchid Drive, off U.S. 41 near Coastland Center mall.

"We wouldhave been happy to have 15 or 20 people show up. It was over 50," Ackerman said.

The data center, opened a little overtwo years ago, offers leased storage to other companies needing a safe spot to house their data and data equipment (think servers and networking devices).

"Think of it like leasing a car," Ackerman said. "In this instance they are leasing server space for a set amount of time, then they can continue the lease or give it back."

The buildingis highly secured. Getting to thesecond floor, where data and equipment is stored, requires entering a pass code andswiping an employee badge near the elevator door.

"Only four employees in our company can come up here unescorted," Ackerman said. "We take security very, very seriously."

All of the IT systems Skylink manages also require a second level of authentication to gain access.

Cameras are everywhere, monitoring what's going on 24/7. Sophisticated detection systemsare designed to alert employees as soon as possible about hazards,such as smoke or water, before they become majorproblems.

"There's very little we don't know about," Ackerman said. "We can detect fire before there's an open flame."

He pointed to the windows, saying they can handle winds of more than 200 mph.

"Themajority of buildings here in Collierand Lee countiescan't survive a Category 5 storm," Ackerman said. "This facility can survive that and be operational during the event."

The data center is a "building within a building," with a roof that's 18 inches thick and walls that are solid concretereinforced with steel.

A glimpse into SkyLink's main data center Thursday, March 2, 2017, in Naples. SkyLink offers storage, maintenance and security for its clients' networking equipment.(Photo: Luke Franke/Naples Daily News)

One man onthe tour joked the center had a "force field" to protect it from danger. Not quite, but Ackerman boasted: "It's the safestplace in the county. So safe FPL keeps some of its gear here."

The data center sits on anatural ridge and is outside a flood zone. It has backup power, a generator designed to keep the buildingand its equipment operating without fail through storms big and small.The generator iscapable of producing up to 1 megawatt.

"This is Florida," Ackerman said. "We get a lot of lightning."

During the tour Ackerman showed off the backup generator, in a building outside, saying there'senough fuel on site to run it for14 days. SkyLinkhas contracts to top off the fuel as needed in emergencies.

The temperature in the data center is kept at 72, although it feels even more frigid because of thelowhumidity.

It's so cold itcan give visitors, who aren't used to it,goosebumps, andthe breezeinsome spots is so strong Ackerman hadto warn anyone with skirts or dresses to be prepared to hold them down on the upstairs tour.

All of the cabling is labeled,making it a snap tosee their origin and destination. Most of the cabling is alsocolor-coded, making problems with equipment easier to find and resolve.

There are 29 cabinets for storage. The center can house up to65 so there's room to more than double the storage.

Some clients lease multiple cabinets. Depending on a customer'sneeds, monthly costs can range from $49 tomore than $5,000.

SkyLink's local customers include commercial construction firm DeAngelis Diamond, land developersCollier Enterprisesand nonprofit health care provider Avow Hospice.

"The single biggest customeris the U.S. military, by far," Ackerman said. "We have more resourcesdedicated to them than we do anybody else."

SkyLink has clients from as far away as Okinawa, Japan, and Beijing. "International-wise we have the most customers in Australia," Ackerman said.

SkyLink provides state-of-the-art infrastructure, facilities management and security for companies searching for a home for their networking equipment.(Photo: Luke Franke/Naples Daily News)

The data center doesn't just offer storage. Clients can use its network switches, internet, firewalls, and other computing equipment and its software and desktop services, paying additional feesfor whatever they need.

Marc Farron, president of the Southwest Regional Technology Partnership, described SkyLink as the only hardened data center of its kindin the five-county region. That's why, he said, the offer for a tour generated so much interest amongthe partnership'smembers.

"No questionit definitelystands out," Farron said. "Idon't know of any other data center that offers such complete data center services, infrastructure as a service, with the professionalism that SkyLink does."

Since opening the data center, SkyLink has added more than 10 employees.The company isrunning out of parking for more employees.

"We started to look at adding remote workers just because we have grown tremendously," Ackerman said.

To keep up with its growth, SkyLinkhas hired software developers, sales and technical support staff, network operators and administrative personnel.

SkyLink isn't growing justin Naples. It has locations in Orlando and Ashburn, Virginia. Another one planned in Tampa is expected to open later this year. More data centers are expected to sprout up as the company continues to look for opportunities to fill demand around the country.

SkyLink is an outgrowth of Naples-based Horizon Business Services Inc., the developer of custom catering and event management software called Caterease.

The data center also hosts Horizon'scloud-based product, which is one of the reasons Horizon launched SkyLink (because it was struggling to find a safe storage spot big enough for its data and equipment).

At last count Skyline had more than 30,000clients, including the ones usingCaterease.

Skylink and Horizon share key employees, including upper level management. The companies are both owned by Greg Kopriva.

"I've been with this company since '99, so if they have an issue on the Catereaseside, it's all hands ondeck, and vice versa," Ackerman said.

SkyLink doesn't have a dedicated sales staff. Instead, its technicians design and sell its products and services.

Customer service isn't the job of just a few employees, either.

"We're all engineers, from myself all the way down," Ackerman said. "We all talk to customers. I still answer the phone, and all of our other employees do, too. That's how we ensure we are providingthat high level of service."

Read or Share this story: http://nplsne.ws/2mH58ws

Read this article:
SkyLink protects servers and cloud and web presences for businesses - Naples Daily News