Microsoft unleashed a raft of features for its Azure cloud service this week, bringing it several degrees closer to a true cloud infrastructure service. New features, announced in beta, include remote desktop viewing for Azure “roles” (or virtual machines), full support for Internet Information Services (IIS) roles, the ability to create and maintain customized virtual machines (VMs) in Azure and a host of other services.
“We’ll see if it works,” said Chris Bardon, chief software architect at Toronto-based ComputerTalk, a unified communications and automated voice interaction software maker. Bardon said he thought Microsoft was walking a tightrope between letting users mess around on their own versus delivering a headache-free service people would actually pay for.
Cloud server storage and sharing application Box.net is changing the rules with an upgrade to its free and paid plans today. They are increasing the data storage limits for its personal, business, and enterprise plans.
Box’s current subscription plan come with 5GB of free web storage. Box’s business plan is being changed so that companies don’t pay by the individual user (businesses were given 15GB per users previously). Now businesses will automatically receive 500GB of data storage, tripling the amount of storage the average business subscriber has access to. Enterprise customers will have access to an unlimited amount of data storage,, says Box.net’s CEO Aaron Levie, allowing companies to manage terabytes of data in the cloud (Box charges enterprise customers $35 per user per month).
Virtual Private servers (VPS) are a wonderful innovation in the internet service world. It allows persons to economize on costs while not cutting back on the service that they receive. What happens is that a single server is divided into many virtual servers and still is able to provide all the resources of a dedicated server. It is the midpoint between dedicated and shared hosting.
Some of the best thing about VPS is that it is very easy to use so that applications and software can run with ease. It offers the option to add more resources if necessary which make sit the perfect solution for many businesses. It is also able to host a number of unique websites. Virtual private servers are ultimately cheaper than the other hosting services.
Unlike cloud hosting the virtual private server is your responsibility. You have to do all the initial legwork, sort out security, get updates and perform maintenance. Performance may also be an issue as you have to share resources on the same server.
Cloud hosting, on the other hand is a service which offers power and resources from a network of servers. The cloud as it is often called is the provision of computing resources that have been grouped together and delivered via the internet. This allows for the limitations on resources to be virtually non existent. It optimizes on bandwidth with the use of major connectivity providers and fully redundant networks.
The customer is able to have access to as much or as little resources as they need without restriction. It is an extremely cost effective and ultimately reliable service. Companies will also be pleased to know that will not incur any additional overhead or need to purchase any additional inventory to utilize the service. Another great benefit is that it bills the customer on what they use only. Its billing process is much like a utility bill. This is a relief to many as they will have the added security of knowing that they will not incur any charges for services that they did not use at all during the billing period.
I like TED, it’s a pretty cool little place to find interesting things. Today I watched a video from back in 2007 of Anand Agarawala presenting BumpTop, a user interface that takes the usual desktop metaphor to a glorious, 3-D extreme, transforming file navigation into a freewheeling playground of crumpled documents and clipping-covered “walls.
Hope you enjoy it:
I thought it was a pretty funny idea and got a chuckle out of the idea. I think this is a start to a great idea that will change the future. Hopefully it will be the start of cloud hosting desktops.
What is going to happen with Microsoft cloud servers with the recent loss of Ray Ozzie leaving? So Motley Fool looked up all the numbers and did a lot of this article so I really have to give them credit. I still put up my own spin on the article thought! I think it’s a very fair question to put up. What will happen with Microsoft with him gone? He headed up the cloud server dept and this will surly hurt Microsoft.
Business Segment
Fiscal 2010 Revenue*
Fiscal 2009 Revenue*
Fiscal 2008 Revenue*
Windows & Windows Live Division
$17,800
$14,690
$16,815
Server and Tools Division
$14,878
$14,276
$13,217
Online Services
$2,198
$2,110
$2,164
Microsoft Business
$18,909
$18,864
$18,904
Entertainment and Devices
$8,114
$8,035
$8,502
Corporate and Other
$597
$462
$818
TOTAL
$62,484
$58,437
$60,420
Source: Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor’s.
* Numbers in millions.
The only consistentgrowth part of this by revenue is cloud server and cloud hosting tools, which includes Windows Server and Microsoft’s cloud server program, Windows Azure.
The numbers don’t change much when you head further down the income statement:
Business Segment
Fiscal 2010 Operating Income*
Fiscal 2009 Operating Income*
Fiscal 2008 Operating Income*
Windows & Windows Live Division
$12,089
$9,569
$11,876
Server and Tools Division
$4,990
$4,638
$3,845
Online Services
($2,436)
($1,760)
($619)
Microsoft Business
$11,664
$11,454
$11,681
Entertainment and Devices
$589
($3)
$314
Corporate and Other
($2,798)
($3,535)
($4,826)
TOTAL
$24,098
$20,363
$22,271
Source: Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor’s.
* Numbers in millions.
What does this mean for Microsoft? Well, the cloud server division, the one that is earning the most money and potential to deliver the huge growth in the coming months for Microsoft is the group Ray Ozzie has been most closely associated with. I don’t know a ton about stocks but I would say that this is a huge blow for Microsoft and all investors.
Posted on 22nd October 2010 by cloudhostingguy in Cloud Hosting
The GSA has awarded eleven vendor spots in the first Federal cloud infrastructure-as-a-service award.
The winners are:
Apptis Inc. partnered with Amazon Web Services
AT&T
Autonomic Resources partnered with Carpathia, Enomaly and Dell
CGI Federal
Computer Literacy World partnered with Electrosoft, XO Communications and Secure Networks
Computer Technology Consultants partnered with Softlayer, Inc.
Eyak Tech LLC
General Dynamics Information Technology partnered with Carpathia
Insight Public Sector partnered with Microsoft
Savvis Federal Systems
Verizon Federal Inc.
Under the BPA, each of the vendors will have to go through the certification and accreditation (C&A) process at the moderate level under the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA). GSA will run the C&A process through the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP)
One need not look further than Google, the search engine giant, to understand the ratifications cloud hosting has on the environment. Financial considerations apart, by using ordinary machines for building their cloud infrastructure, they are also saving the environment from unnecessary pollution. Only 15-20% of the e-waste generated by dumped computers can be recycled. The remainder, consisting mostly of electronic components, release toxic chemicals that leech into the land, or into the atmosphere, causing immense dangers to the environment.
This problem can be easily resolved by reusing those computers in a proper cloud-hosting environment. One can easily create powerful computing resources through old and used servers. We can reduce failure risks, associated with employing old machines, by spreading the computing over a number of machines. Many EU states do not permit plastic from e-wastes to be recycled because of the harmful dioxins and brominated furans released into the atmosphere during the recycling process. There are two solutions to this problem… store those plastic wastes in such a manner so that they cannot pollute the atmosphere.
The other option is to re-use those machines in a cloud-computing environment instead of discarding them. Webhosts generally pull off servers off the shelf after their customers have left them. After a period, these unused servers find their way into the dumping ground, paving way for further pollution in the future. The cloud-computing environment permits those webhosts to reuse those servers. Various factors like virtualization have helped conserve power in the cloud-computing environment. This decrease in the use of energy indirectly reduces the carbon footprint on the environment.
On a smaller level, one can network the unused computer, lying around in their home, with millions of similar computers throughout the world. Just try to think of the positive difference this can make to the environment.
CollabNet acquired Codesion, a recent player in the cloud hosting area. Codesion’s technology delivers Subversion and other applications as a Software as a Service (SaaS) which both help developers code, connect, and deploy in the Cloud.
“Development and Test Cloud services are disrupting historical software development practices,” says CollabNet’s Bill Portelli. “Our acquisition of Codesion builds on a ten-year history of offering developer services in the Cloud and extends our leadership in this critical area. We now offer instant-on hosting for Subversion, with an open architecture and partner ecosystem that enables workgroups to get started quickly with basic code hosting, with a seamless path to scalable Agile software development for the enterprise.”
Blueworks, a cloud service with the ability to structure and automate ad hoc processes in 90 seconds that businesses currently run over e-mail and attachments. The solution combines and delivers these in one cloud offering starting at $10 per user per month.
With Blueworks Live, employees can start to streamline processes such as new marketing promotional campaigns, employee on-boarding, and sales quote approvals. Business users can also interact with their departmental colleagues and can collaborate through a private and secure company work stream, choosing to follow any updates to roles, processes and more, which are updated in this Facebook-like stream view. Managers and team members can see the status of work in progress via built-in dashboards and reports.
“A vital part of the Patient Tracking System is the business process management platform that provides real-time tracking, enables parameters to be set and creates the notifications and alerts allowing us to know what stage the patient is in their pathway and how long they have been at that stage,” said James Thomas, IT director of UCLH.
Juniper Networks announced that PEER 1 Hosting has selected Juniper’s “3-2-1″ architecture for a comprehensive upgrade of its data centers and core network infrastructure that is designed to cost-effectively increase traffic capacity and scalability. The proven scale and reliability of the Junos operating system and a simplified architecture will enable Vancouver-based PEER 1 Hosting to meet its guarantee of 100 percent network availability and ultra-low latency to its customers worldwide for all services, including their flagship Cloud Hosting Services.
“Upgrading our core network was a necessity to improving our business, but a major overhaul of network infrastructure can be challenging,” said Ted Smith, senior vice president of operations, PEER 1 Hosting. “Juniper’s solutions provided the unprecedented scalability, performance and reliability we needed for our network in order to meet our current and future requirements. As we continue to evolve our network and data centers to next-generation technologies, we see Juniper as a partner in this effort and more than just a vendor.”
