Microsoft Azure: 10K Customers and Counting | InternetNews.com 06/09/2010
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Not bad for something just outta beta:
“Microsoft’s Azure just came out of beta testing a few months ago, but the company has already signed up 10,000 paying customers to run their applications in the company’s Azure cloud, a company executive said.”
via Microsoft Azure: 10K Customers and Counting – InternetNews.com
Clash of the clouds | The Economist 11/02/2009
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Cloud computing generates a lot of heated discussion, and through all the technical arguments, issues of security and trust, and battles over control, one topic keeps getting overlooked: cost.
Reducing business cost is what’s really driving us toward cloud computing.
We will all eventually adopt cloud computing, simply because the current model of scaling servers up and down is very expensive. IT departments try to buy as many servers as they think they’ll need for computing power during estimated peak capacity. But we don’t need that capacity most of the time– so lots of servers sit idle.
Cloud computing can reduce costs, becauses it provides more capacity during the peak times, so we simply pay for it on-demand. When the peaks are over and less capacity is needed, the cost then goes down. From a business perspective, this allows a company to move much of its infrastructure costs from being a capital expenditure (CAPEX) to an operating expenditure (OPEX).
The Economist published an excellent overview of how industry giants are reacting to this massive trend:
Clash of the Titans
“The rise of cloud computing is not just shifting Microsoft’s centre of gravity. It is changing the nature of competition within the computer industry. Technological developments have hitherto pushed computing power away from central hubs: first from mainframes to minicomputers, and then to PCs. Now a combination of ever cheaper and more powerful processors, and ever faster and more ubiquitous networks, is pushing power back to the centre in some respects, and even further away in others. The cloud’s data centres are, in effect, outsize public mainframes. At the same time, the PC is being pushed aside by a host of smaller, often wireless devices, such as smart-phones, netbooks (small laptops) and, perhaps soon, tablets (touch-screen computers the size of books).
Although Windows still runs 90% of PCs, the fading importance of the PC means that Microsoft is no longer an all-powerful monopolist. Others are also building big clouds, including Google, a giant of the internet, and Apple, renowned as a maker of hardware, with a market capitalisation that now exceeds those of both Google and IBM, its original arch-rival (see chart above).
Granted, there are hundreds if not thousands of firms offering cloud services—web-based applications living in data centres, such as music sites or social networks. But Microsoft, Google and Apple play in a different league. Each has its own global network of data centres. They intend to offer not just one or two services, but whole suites of them, with services including e-mail, address books, storage, collaboration tools and business applications. They are also vying to dominate the periphery, either by developing software for smart-phones and other small devices or by making such devices themselves.”
Read the whole thing, of course… Cloud computing: Clash of the clouds | The Economist.
Andy Kaiser gives two thumbs up to new Motorola Droid | Digital Bits 10/31/2009
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Andy Kaiser and I and a few more of us at i3 Business Solutions have been patiently waiting for the first smartphone based on the Google “Android” platform to hit the streets, and compete head-on with Apple’s excellent iPhone.
Andy likes the iPhone. Andy really likes the new Droid from Motorola.
Read his excellent review written at his Digital Bits technology column. Here’s an excerpt:
“The Droid is an excellent phone. Google, Motorola and Verizon really knocked this one out of the park. I don’t even like baseball, and I’m using a baseball euphemism. That’s how impressed I am.
As of this writing, you can visit “DroidDoes”, Verizon’s promotional site for the Droid. The site starts you off with a few blurbs about all the things the Droid does that the iPhone can’t do or doesn’t have like having a removable battery, physical keyboard, multitasking, and open app store, etc. To my knowledge, this is the first cellphone that has had the guts to directly criticize the mighty Apple iPhone.
It can criticize Apple all it wants. The Droid holds its own. Easily.”
Find out why Andy likes this phone so much, as he fully describes its features and capabilities at his website AndyBrain.com.
Reshaping Cisco: The world according to Chambers | The Economist 09/08/2009
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In case you missed this article on Cisco before you headed out for your Labor Day weekend, There’s a wealth of information on where Cisco’s been and where John Chambers intends to take them. Of particular interest is their foucs on virtualization:
“In the case of servers, souped-up computers that dish up data, the market shift Cisco intends to ride is virtualisation. In essence this means that the servers in a data centre are turned into a pool of computing power to be tapped into as needed rather than being used individually. Virtualisation creates a lot of complexity, to which Cisco has found an answer, says Robert Lloyd, who heads the group that has developed what Cisco calls the “unified computing system”. Its parts—servers, storage disks, memory—are held together and managed by a powerful switch running Nx-OS, one of Cisco’s operating systems.”
As a Cisco Select Partner here at i3 Business Solutions, we see their products as essential to “making things really work.” As more and more of our business systems– and personal networks of devices– get interwoven and integrated, I can only think that Cisco ultimately will be in the middle of it, making them all work together.
via Reshaping Cisco: The world according to Chambers | The Economist.
Palmisano: ‘Stimulate’ with Broadband and the Power Grid – WSJ.com 01/23/2009
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“Smarter infrastructure is by far our best path to creating new jobs and stimulating growth. We at IBM were asked to map this out by President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team, and our research shows that a $30 billion stimulus investment in just three areas — smart grids, health-care IT and broadband — could yield almost one million new jobs within one year. That’s possible because these kinds of infrastructure have significantly greater economic and societal multiplier effects than traditional infrastructure like bridges and highways.”
via Samuel J. Palmisano: Let’s Spend on Broadband and the Power Grid – WSJ.com.
Technology is the cure for healthcare system | Healthcare Daily News 06/24/2008
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Harvard professor sees technology as cure for ailing, costly healthcare system
Clayton Christensen, who also authored The Innovator’s Dilemma, said that technology is the disruptive innovation that can help fix the broken healthcare system:
“Three specific technologies will bring about improved ability to diagnose precisely and enable disruption in healthcare business models, he said: molecular diagnostics to understand genetic structure, imaging technologies to look inside the body and high-bandwidth telecommunications to bring expertise to offices with limited healthcare resources.”
Smarter electric grid key to saving power | Fox News 05/04/2008
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“
These little tweaks add up nicely for another person testing the Milton system, Marian Rakusan. He’s saved at least $300 on utility bills since the program began in September. Tsapoitis and his wife, Lisa, aren’t certain of their savings but say their 2,400-square-foot home has lower energy bills than a friend’s 1,800-square-footer.
This alone is not revolutionary, because programmable thermostats and other “smart home” controls let people craft similar resource-saving plans. The big change here is the combination of these controls with that blinking amber light on the switch _ where the grid talks back.
Milton’s local gas and electricity retailer, Direct Energy, will set those amber dots blinking in an emergency. It might happen a few times in a summer month. Maybe there will be congestion in Ontario’s overtaxed transmission network. Perhaps a power plant will be down for maintenance. Or rapacious air conditioners will overwhelm electric capacity.
Whatever the cause, at that moment, this section of the grid needs a reduction in demand, fast, or else outages loom.”
A revolution is taking shape | FT.com 04/03/2008
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FT.com – A revolution is taking shape | Financial Times
Nicholas Carr’s latest book ‘The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google,’ has some great insights into the shift toward a utility IT model, aka cloud computing. For those not inclined to plough through the whole book, this short adaptation on the Finanical Times site gives anyone involved in the IT industry plenty of material to discuss and debate. Here’s a sample:
“By supplying business computing as a set of simple services, Google, and other utility providers such as Salesforce.com and Amazon Web Services, threaten to render large parts of the IT industry obsolete.
No corporate computing system, not even those operated by big companies, can match the efficiency, speed, and flexibility of plants such as Google’s. One analyst estimates that Google can carry out a computing task for one-tenth of what it costs a typical company.”
FORTUNE Techland | Battle over next-generation cellular networks 12/19/2007
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FORTUNE: Techland The battle over next-generation cellular networks «
Faster, Sprint, faster! I’d put down money today to be the first on my block with WiMAX, if it’d help.
“Half the world doesn’t even own a mobile phone but wireless carriers are already fighting over the next-generation cellular network.
Consumers may care less about whether they’ll be using WiMAX, LTE or UMB to download video to their phones or browse the Web faster than ever before. But one by one, mobile operators are aligning themselves with one of these competing next-generation, or 4G, technologies, placing billion-dollar bets on the horse they hope will win the race.”
Amazon SimpleDB 101 & Why It Matters | GigaOM 12/15/2007
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Amazon SimpleDB 101 & Why It Matters – GigaOM
“If you are in the business of managing massive amounts of distributed data, you cannot gloss over the Amazon WS trifecta — data-in-the-cloud is the future and with WS, Amazon is way ahead of the pack. What about the offerings of other vendors?”
Japan’s Warp-Speed Ride to Internet Future – washingtonpost.com 08/29/2007
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Japan’s Warp-Speed Ride to Internet Future : washingtonpost.com
My recent vacation in Tokyo gave me a pleasant if unsettling surprise: I logged on to check email and news from the laptop I was using, and the throughput was at 100Mbps– in an average, normal residential home and neighborhood! Turns out Japan has fiber to the home widely available, and available cheaply at about $25 a month.
Makes my Comcast cable modem connection at twice the price in Michigan seem pretty lame. Time for the US to play catch-up:
“The speed advantage allows the Japanese to watch broadcast-quality, full-screen television over the Internet, an experience that mocks the grainy, wallet-size images Americans endure.
Ultra-high-speed applications are being rolled out for low-cost, high-definition teleconferencing, for telemedicine — which allows urban doctors to diagnose diseases from a distance — and for advanced telecommuting to help Japan meet its goal of doubling the number of people who work from home by 2010.”
Sprint Takes Broadband Data Service Nationwide 12/18/2006
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Sprint Takes Broadband Data Service Nationwide: “Sprint Nextel announced Dec. 12 that it has launched 10 new markets for its high-speed EVDO Rev. A broadband data service.
Previously, the Sprint Power Vision service had been available in 10 markets; however, the added markets are the largest in the United States and include New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Washington. Previous markets included Milwaukee, San Diego, Las Vegas and Boston. “
Standards and specs | UWB | A house divided 01/27/2005
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Standards and specs | UWB | A house divided: “The work on ultrawideband, or UWB, standards has been going on for a while. The technology has been in use for decades. It was considered a military secret early on, because it has applications such as ‘spotting stealth planes’ and ‘looking through walls.’ However, the broader demands of commerce are coming into play. Discussions of UWB as a consumer technology don’t go back as far, but there are IEEE meetings on the topic going back at least to 1998. The 802.15.3a working group, specifically working on an ultrawideband standard, was authorized in 2002. “
Wired 13.01: The BitTorrent Effect: "Paradoxically… 01/16/2005
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Wired 13.01: The BitTorrent Effect: “Paradoxically, BitTorrent’s architecture means that the more popular the file is the faster it downloads – because more people are pitching in. Better yet, it’s a virtuous cycle. Users download and share at the same time; as soon as someone receives even a single piece of Fokkers, his computer immediately begins offering it to others. The more files you’re willing to share, the faster any individual torrent downloads to your computer. This prevents people from leeching, a classic P2P problem in which too many people download files and refuse to upload, creating a drain on the system. ‘Give and ye shall receive’ became Cohen’s motto, which he printed on T-shirts and sold to supporters.”
Economist.com | Spectrum policy 08/13/2004
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Economist.com Spectrum policy: “The sweet and low down : …[This] is promising because broadcasters inhabit the best kind of spectrum, the equivalent of beachfront property. The lower an electromagnetic wave’s frequency the better it is at penetrating rain, trees and walls, which is why television and FM radio tend to work in the basement, but why Wi-Fi signals have trouble with walls. According to the New America Foundation, the 1% of frequencies below 3GHz are worth more than the other 99% of spectrum between 3GHz and 300GHz.
Even a sliver of new unlicensed spectrum in the very low frequencies could therefore make an enormous difference. It could, for example, make possible a cheap alternative to cable and digital-subscriber line modems (for which roads have to be dug up and trees uprooted) in delivering high-speed internet access across –the last mile– to the consumer. “
Wi-Fi phones make a splash | CNET News.com 08/05/2004
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Wi-Fi phones make a splash | CNET News.com: “Cell phone makers plan to release so-called Wi-Fi phones ahead of schedule, bringing new threats and opportunities to wireless carriers and traditional phone service providers.
The highly anticipated hybrid phones let people make connections using a local wireless Internet access point and seamlessly switch over to a cell phone network whenever necessary. The net result is greater flexibility in mobile communications as well as potential cost savings gained by shifting call minutes that would otherwise count against a cell phone plan onto the Internet.
New phones and handsets that promise to accomplish this feat are due later this year from Motorola, Hewlett-Packard and NEC. Each is different, but all combine into a single device three hot technologies that are transforming the telecommunications industry: high-speed Wi-Fi wireless networks, voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and wireless broadband.”
South Korea’s digital dynasty | CNET News.com: "On… 06/23/2004
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South Korea’s digital dynasty | CNET News.com: “On the brink of financial collapse only a few years ago, the Seoul government and national conglomerates have battled back to become a major force in the global technology economy.”
Nokia releases ‘moblog’ camera phone | CNET News 06/03/2004
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Nokia releases ‘moblog’ camera phone | CNET News.com:
“Nokia has begun shipping a camera phone with video-editing and mobile-blogging features in Europe, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region.
The phone maker said its 7610 phone can capture, edit, store, print and send pictures and videos. The handset comes with a Kodak application designed to let users upload pictures to a virtual photo album on the Web. Images can be printed using a Bluetooth connection to a compatible printer or at kiosks at Nokia stores and other photo shops.”
NTT DoCoMo’s 4G Test Results in 300Mbps Data Rate 06/01/2004
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NTT DoCoMo’s 4G Test Results in 300Mbps Data Rate in Moving Car: “The company said that the test achieved a maximum downstream data rate of 300Mbps with an average rate of 135Mbps in a car running at the speed of 30 kilometers per hour in areas 800m to 1km away from the 4G wireless base stations.
NTT DoCoMo aims to realize much faster communication speeds by adding the multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) technology, which uses multiple antennas, to the current wireless system. The goal of the wireless data rate is as high as 1Gbps when not moving. The experiment will continue until July.”
