Category Archives: Cloud Servers
Google promotes energy savings with Apps
Companies that turn off their local servers for e-mail, productivity and collaboration applications and switch to the cloud-hosted Google Apps suite can save significant amounts of money in energy costs, Google said on Monday.
The savings typically range between 65 percent and 85 percent, and involve reductions in consumption of energy for powering and cooling the local servers, Google said, citing results of an internal study.
Google offered as an example the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), which signed up for Google Apps for Government this year and moved about 17,000 employees to it from on-premise systems. The GSA cut energy consumption by servers related to email and collaboration applications by almost 90 percent, which will allow it to save about $285,000 per year on energy costs in that area, a reduction of 93 percent, according to Google.
When it takes on customers' workloads, Google spends much less energy than they do because servers in its data center make more efficient use of their computing and storage capacities, and its maintenance and administration costs are less, Google said.
"A typical organization has a lot more servers than it needs--for backup, failures and spikes in demand for computing. Cloud-based service providers like Google aggregate demand across thousands of people, substantially increasing how much servers are utilized. And our data centers use equipment and software specially designed to minimize energy use. The cloud can do the same work much more efficiently than locally hosted servers," wrote Urs Hoelzle, Google's Senior Vice President for Technical Infrastructure, in the blog post.
Google has been promoting the benefits of using Google Apps and cloud-hosted software for years, as acceptance of this model has been steadily increasing. Google and other cloud computing proponents constantly highlight that by using cloud-hosted applications, companies can save on hardware sales and software maintenance, while improving and simplifying the way users can collaborate on server-based documents.
However, the benefits of cloud-based software still have to be weighed against potential pitfalls, like application outages and latency, lack of compliance with data protection regulations in certain industries and countries, and software subscription models that may be economically inconvenient for certain companies and in certain scenarios.
Juan Carlos Perez covers enterprise communication/collaboration suites, operating systems, browsers and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Juan on Twitter at @JuanCPerezIDG.
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Google promotes energy savings with Apps
Security of personal data in the cloud more important than where it is stored, EU official says
Megan Richards, acting deputy director-general of the Information Society and Media Directorate-General at the European Commission, said that personal data should not have to be located within the EU in order for EU rules governing its processing and storage to apply.
The cloud does not stop at national boundaries," Richards said at a cloud computing conference in London last week, according to a report by Techworld.
"You shouldnt care where the data is as long as it is secure and meets regulatory requirements, so now the question is how to ensure that how to make sure that when we use cloud resources, personal data does meet those requirements, Richards said.
Cloud computing refers to the use of computers and software on an internet-based network to do information processing rather than the use of local computing resources. It allows internet users to access or store information without owning the software to do it and many online companies, such as Google, operate huge servers that store the data and deliver it to users.
In January the European Commission published draft legislation aimed at reforming the EU data protection framework. Its proposed General Data Protection Regulation would introduce a single data protection law across all 27 EU member states which companies based outside the EU borders would be subject to if they process personal data of EU citizens.
Richards said that the European Parliament is currently assessing the plans and that "it usually takes a year" for legislation to be passed by the Parliament, according to a report by The Register news website.
However, the current data protection framework in Europe is creating problems for researchers who store information in the cloud, an IT expert at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) has said.
CERN's openlab project sees private sector firms invest in research by scientists working on the Large Hadron Collider. The physics experiments produce a mass of data that CERN shares with its private sector investors.
Bob Jones, head of openlab at CERN, said though that capacity issues were a problem. He said that the body is to conduct a pilot scheme that would see cloud computing utilised to move data produced from the experiments between CERN's own systems and 'data centres' in the cloud operated by its commercial partners.
However, current EU data protection laws are a hindrance to CERN's collaboration plans, Jones said.
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Security of personal data in the cloud more important than where it is stored, EU official says
Alpha Networks to offer switches matched with data center servers
Alpha Networks to offer switches matched with data center servers
Irene Chen, Taipei; Adam Hwang, DIGITIMES[Monday 18 June 2012]
Alpha Networks, a Taiwan-based maker of networking/communication devices, will cooperate with suppliers of servers used in cloud computing data centers to offer switches for being integrated with such servers and related solutions in the second half of 2012, according to the company.
Alpha Networks currently ships switches used in cloud computing data centers to international vendors of servers on an OEM basis, with such switches accounting for 20-30% of shipments of all switches. Viewing that there have been operators of cloud computing data centers procuring servers and solutions directly from makers instead of via vendors, Alpha Networks has decided to adjust its operational model, the company indicated.
In view of increasing competition for OTT (over-the-top) STBs (set-top boxes) in the retail market, Alpha Networks will offer dual-mode OTT STBs, models integrating OTT with terrestrial TV, and begin shipments in the third quarter of 2012, the company pointed out. The company has finished development of Smart TV Box equipped with an open platform to enable clients to build up application services based on their needs.
In addition, Alpha Networks has been in cooperation with telecom carriers and operators of pay TV service to develop STBs integrating OTT and DVB-S satellite TV and IP STBs, with shipments to begin at the end of the third quarter of 2012, the company indicated.
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Alpha Networks to offer switches matched with data center servers
Can your cloud balance supply and demand?
Private cloud involves a multi-layered approach to architecting IT systems and delivering services to the business, making the most of virtualisation to provide a separation between the two.
There is no clever magic involved, nor does there have to be anything particularly special about the servers, storage and networking equipment used. Rather, it is a question of arranging resources in the right way and using management software to make the most of them.
To understand how things need to look, we can consider private cloud in terms of supply-side capabilities that consider physical assets and demand-side capabilities that focus on how services are delivered.
The trick, if there is one, is to ensure that supply-side capabilities are adequate, and to use software automation to enable these to be provisioned and managed in the most efficient way.
Underlying both supply and demand is the requirement for resilience to be built into the infrastructure.
Private cloud adoption involves consolidating multiple applications onto a reduced hardware footprint, which therefore increases the risk of failure.
If power goes down to a single server running a single application, for example, only one application is lost. But if a server is running multiple virtual machines, the damage could be far greater.
So it is important to ensure adequate provision is made for redundancy and failover across the architecture.
Operational management of supply-side capabilities requires a clear understanding of the server, storage and networking infrastructure and how it is packaged into logical units.
To an extent this equates to good, honest, traditional IT operations configuration management of equipment, components and firmware versions, patching status and so on.
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Can your cloud balance supply and demand?
Application Hosting
16-06-2012 17:51 - Cloud9 Real Time Small Business and Professional Practice Cloud Solutions offer application hosting to fit your needs! With over 250 applications currently on the systems and growing daily, the possibilities are endless. Outsource your server and get all of your apps in the Cloud in one central location for singular login. http Hosting the full suite of products from popular manufacturers such as Thomson Reuters, Intuit, Microsoft, CCH, and Sage as well as small industry specific or proprietary software. Application hosting is open because Cloud9 Real Time builds customized servers for your business.
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Application Hosting
Teradata offers new private cloud service
Published : Monday, June 18, 2012 00:00 Article Views : 119 Written by : TECH TIMES
Singapore: Analytic data solutions provider Teradata recently announced the availability of Teradata Active Data Warehouse (ADW) Private Cloud, which is poised to arm companies with the tools in developing more informed decisions and establishing competitive advantages in their respective markets.
Unveiled during Teradata Universe 2012 in the island city-state, Teradata Active Data Warehouse (ADW) Private Cloud enables a more fully utilized data management proves by consolidating data warehouse servers on it.
Furthermore, aside from reducing the number of servers and storage, this private cloud can also deliver both capital and operating expense savings, including labor, data center space, power and cooling.
Leading companies have consolidated under-utilized servers and storage onto a Teradata ADW Private Cloud, reducing costs while increasing utilization of their IT resources, explained Scott Gnau, president at Teradata Labs.
By eliminating data marts, many with only 10-20 percent utilization, companies can consolidate onto a Teradata ADW Private Cloud running at 90 to 100 percent utilization, Gnau added.
Through this, business users can benefit from this private cloud by having better control of their computing resources with self-service capabilities.
Users can also demand for analytics processing by a completely functioning data lab to provision and manage data needed in less than five minutes.
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Teradata offers new private cloud service
Cloud computing has pros and cons – mostly pros
Cloud computing is a broad term that covers any type of computing or storage service that's delivered to users from remote servers. This type of service has technically been in place for years, with online email services being one common example.
As technology has advanced, more and more types of services can now be provided from the cloud, such as file storage and the ability to run entire programs without having them installed on your computer. This article is focusing on emerging cloud storage services. Some typical questions:
Why would I want to use cloud storage?
Convenience. Moving files to the cloud can allow you to easily transfer files between PCs, tablets, smartphones and other devices, as well as share files with other people.
It's also a good way to have backup copies of your most important data - even the most reliable hard drives can unexpectedly crash and wipe out everything you have stored.
Is cloud storage safe?
So far, yes. Services typically encrypt the data, and you can choose which files to share and which you'd rather keep private. Additionally, modern hackers are more likely to try to find ways to steal money than to mess with photos of your children.
What are my choices for cloud storage?
There are a lot of different services out there, but here are four of the biggest ones. For all of these, getting your data online is typically as easy as creating login information and moving your files.
Storage/price: 5GB free, each additional 20GB is $5 per year.
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Cloud computing has pros and cons - mostly pros
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Protected by Double-Take Availability 6.0 – Video
14-06-2012 18:09 Double-Take Availability 6.0 has Evolved. One of the key updated features of v6.0 is the consolidation of all protection workflows into a single Double-Take Console. The old "Double-Take Application Manager Console" for protection SQL, Exchange and File Servers has been removed, replaced by a slick new workflow from within the single unified Double-Take Console. This video demo shows the installation, configuration of protection, Test Failover, Live Failover (after pulling the power on a running SQL Server), restore and Failback.. The whole process is incredibly simple and easy to follow. This particular video is approximately 15 minutes long. Shorter videos featuring sections such as "Test Failover", "Live Failover" and "Restore & Failback" will be available shortly after this initial release. These shorter videos should be in the 2-4 minute range.
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Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Protected by Double-Take Availability 6.0 - Video
Explanation On Building of Cloud Content Delivery Network – Video
15-06-2012 04:36 The Cloud Content Delivery Network is critical to the success of our business on a global scale, I'm outlining some critical functionality we can now begin to serve.
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Explanation On Building of Cloud Content Delivery Network - Video
Leading Hong Kong Solutions Provider Selects IBM PureSystems for Cloud Services
ARMONK, N.Y., June 15, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced today that PCCW Solutions, one of the leading IT services providers in Hong Kong, has selected IBM PureSystems as the foundation for its new Enterprise Solutions Superstore an online environment for Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) to offer highly flexible and proven applications to customers on the cloud using a Software-as-a-Service model.
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20090416/IBMLOGO )
PCCW Solutions offers enterprise customers with a full spectrum of cloud computing services, supporting large enterprises with cloud services tailored to their needs, as well as serving small and medium sized enterprises with public cloud services. The company will use an IBM PureFlex, a member of the PureSystems series, to launch the new Enterprise Solutions Superstore as well as to serve enterprise customers for cloud services tailored to their needs.
"We are seeing a very strong market demand with customers looking for simpler, easy-to-implement solutions that will quickly return their investment," said George Fok, Managing Director, PCCW Solutions. "IBM PureFlex addresses our need for a fully integrated and optimized infrastructure that radically simplifies computing to ensure high quality services and an enhanced customer experience. We are delighted to work with IBM to propel our cloud services to the next level."
The IBM PureSystems series of expert integrated systems, released in April, are designed to help organizations reduce IT costs and complexity and put more resources towards innovation and growth. With the PureSystems family, IBM has completely integrated all of the technology components compute, virtualized servers, storage, networking, and cloud management software to enable customers to turn on private cloud systems within minutes.
The IBM PureSystems adoption is part of PCCW Solutions' plans to capture the burgeoning public cloud services market in Hong Kong, which researches say is growing at a compound annual growth rate of 40 percent.
PCCW Solutions' new Enterprise Solutions Superstore Alliance will bring together ISVs to offer customers highly flexible and proven applications over the cloud. Through this Software-as-a-Service model, PCCW Solutions will be able to help clients of all sizes improve their time-to-market with new offerings that help maximize their operational efficiency and drive business transformation.
With IBM PureFlex, PCCW Solutions will be able to maximize existing server capacity, while allowing for a more flexible allocation of IT resources that can respond to fluctuating workloads. In addition, customers can combine web development tools in a more secure way, speeding up the design and simplifying the testing and usage of new applications and services. For example, with the IBM PureFlex system, servers can be provisioned in minutes, rather than days or weeks and developers will be able to set new test environments in hours instead of days.
"Enabling business transformation is the cornerstone of IBM's smarter computing approach and the IBM PureSystems family is a major step in that direction," said Tony Tai, General Manager, IBM China/Hong Kong Limited. "With PureSystems, we have reduced the cost and complexity of IT management, essentially changing the economics of IT and have delivered on the true promise of the cloud."
PCCW Solutions is the IT and business process outsourcing flagship of PCCW Limited, which also holds interests in telecommunications, media, property development and investment, and other businesses.
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Leading Hong Kong Solutions Provider Selects IBM PureSystems for Cloud Services