A cloud service in Windows Azure will typically have multiple concurrent instances. Each instance may be running all or a part of the service’s codebase. As a developer, you control the number and type of roles that you want running your service.
Windows Azure roles are comparable to...Aug. 28, 2010 10:00 AM EDT Reads: 1,205
Ever since I first published here my tentative list of Top Players in the Cloud Computing Ecosystem there have been suggestions that another prism through which to view cloud computing might be that of people rather than companies. Now Michael Sheehan has encouraged me to Just Do It, s...
An Enterprise Cloud-oriented datacenter is a top-down, demand driven datacenter design that maximizes
efficiency and minimizes traditional IT waste of power, cooling, space, and capacity under-utilization while
providing enhanced levels of service and control. The following design pr...
The Windows Azure platform is an Internet-scale cloud computing services platform hosted in Microsoft data centers. Windows tools provide functionality to build solutions that include a cloud services operating system and a set of developer services. The key parts of the Windows Azure ...
Microsoft’s Software-plus-Services strategy represents a view of the world where the growing feature-set of devices and the increasing ubiquity of the Web are combined to deliver more compelling solutions. Software-plus-Services represents an evolutionary step that is based on existing...
It would be an understatement to say that this past decade belongs to the Internet. Starting primarily as a research tool, the Internet has now infiltrated every aspect of life – there is very little today that users do not, or cannot, do online. Moreover, new ways to leverage the Inte...
Need a pair of shoes, an airline ticket, or a book? Looking for 100 servers to get you through an online sales rush? No problem. Go online and your needs are (nearly) instantaneously fulfilled. Instant gratification may be the single greatest driver in the revolution that is fueled by ...
Few would disagree that the Cloud computing frenzy of the last year has put more, not less, pressure on the IT organization. Much of this focus has been on the Public vs. Private Cloud debate, but what we are really witnessing here is the dawn of a new era in IT management.
For th...
Cloud computing is immensely popular with companies and government agencies in search of revolutionary cost savings and operational flexibility. According to industry research firm IDC, cloud computing’s growth trajectory is, at 27% CAGR, more than five times the growth rate of the tra...
A seeming paradox exists today in most software vendors. It goes something like this:
Our product is hard to explain, demonstrate, and sell. So we need to hire more salespeople to help sell it. But salespeople are expensive, so we don’t want them to spend too much time with each custo...
There are hundreds of life science labs in the U.S. using next-generation sequencing, bioinformatics, proteomics, and molecular modeling to identify the genes behind, and potential drug targets to cure, many diseases including diabetes, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.
With increasing ...
Here’s a question: Which IT sector accounts for 25% of the industry’s year-over-year growth and, if the same growth trajectories continue, will generate about one-third of the IT industry’s net new growth by 2013? The answer is cloud services, according to research firm IDC. Cloud comp...
Undoubtedly, cloud computing is a hot technology topic that holds benefits for businesses across a variety of industries, including manufacturing, distribution, retail and service companies. Harnessing the power of the cloud to implement cost-effective information technology (IT) solut...
I have been working on this concept of Modern Mobile Architectures for about two years now. Modern Mobile Architectures are architectures that support mobile device applications connected to decentralized infrastructure. Modern Mobile Architectures combine mobile technology and cloud c...
As one of the hottest trends going in the information/computing world, how do the requirements for cloud security relate to the security concerns that enterprises have been addressing prior to the uptick in cloud computing? While the cloud is a relatively new area for concern, improved...
As the hot, new “trend of the moment” in technology, cloud computing is touted to be a transformative way to provide computing resources faster and more efficiently through shared infrastructures. Due to the considerable hype surrounding the Cloud, organizations considering cloud as an...
"Cloud can be as useful for mid-sized firms as for large ones. Mid-sized firms can actually use Cloud to quickly and cost-effectively grow and join the big league of larger firms. So while larger ones can sustain their growth rates, mid-sized firms actually get the option to grow rapid...
This article discusses the need for multi-tenancy in SaaS or PaaS solutions and the challenges involved in this. It also discusses a number of options for implementing multi-tenancy and the details of each option.
Why is Software as a service (SaaS) gaining such momentum? What makes...
The benefits of doing things “as-a-Service” (aaS) and leveraging cloud-based technologies are well-known and documented, such as a low barrier to entry, reduced capital outlay and infrastructure, easy scalability, and device/location independence. Many companies also appreciate the rel...
Cloud Expo General Session Speaker Marty Gauvin believes that 3G-SaaS – the combined effect of Cloud Computing and outsourcing with application management – will drive the use of IT for a significant period of time. By leveraging existing Cloud service providers, the pay-as-you-go mode...
Last time we saw the difficulty in Predictive Rightsizing, a frustrating exercise based on "guesstimation" aimed at predicting future SLA in an ever changing business environment...
So what's the answer?
The solution is a truly dynamic, elastic, real-time on-demand SLA with a pro...
Dear Cloud:
Hello! Can you hear me? I know you can. Yes, yes…no one likes an auditor and I am even worse. I am that CPA who spent the last decade working in information security, both as a security consultant and as someone who managed the product lines of a global managed services ...
Intel's co-founder, Gordon Moore, famously predicted [PDF file link] way back in 1965 that transistors on a chip will double every 2 years. And so they have ever since (therefore, Moore's Law). With increased processing power, computers are increasingly able to process more data in les...
Safeguarding a cloud infrastructure from unmonitored access, malware and intruder attacks grows more challenging for service providers as their operations evolve. And as a cloud infrastructure grows, so too does the presence of unsecured privileged identities – those so-called super-us...
For companies considering a transition to cloud computing (CC), one of the major concerns is (or should be) security. If addressed properly while selecting a cloud computing provider or cloud provider (CP), security can actually improve for many companies. For many firms, a cloud compu...
Data is growing exponentially everywhere - in business, web, finance, government, science, and in the world of sensors and smart grids.
Speaking earlier this week at OSBC, Tim O'Reilly said "The future will be all about who has most data, and who is able to extract meaning from it ...
Virtualization is the topic du jour in IT today. The technology is cool, the attributes are slick and now the stock market even is tracking it. The adoption problem that is facing virtualization strategies stems from a bottom up IT driven approach versus a top down business aligned app...
In part I of this series, we began our journey towards next generation enterprise transformation. In part II, we will discuss some of the initiatives to abstract the enterprise, and create a virtual enterprise presence in the cloud.
Last time, we spoke of undertaking initiatives, but...
Logicworks is a provider of highly reliable cloud hosting solutions. The company offers its clients managed cloud services with high service levels in the areas of high availability and increased transaction throughput.
Logicworks’ cloud data center infrastructure is required to deliv...
If you’ve investigated cloud computing even a little bit, you’ve encountered story after story about how security is slowing adoption. There is some truth beneath all of the hand wringing, but not nearly as much as you’d think.
When deployed correctly, security should drive cloud ado...
In the 1990s and early 2000s, web hosting was just that, web hosting. Web hosting services were extremely simple or extremely complex. There wasn't much in-between for the average end user. Modern web hosting providers, like DreamHost, have been offering Cloud-like services for some ti...
CA and 3Tera have announced CA’s acquisition of the innovative cloud computing Infrastructure as a Service vendor. This is a great thing for Computer Associates, and perhaps a bit sad for the cloud community in general. Why? It is hard to fit the energy and enthusiasm felt when walkin...
Cloud computing is a big economic, green and scalable gift to organizations around the globe. The New Year offers a great opportunity to re-think your IT strategy and see how the cloud can benefit your organization.
The day when IT leaders no longer have to worry about expensive int...
I had a great conversation with a well-respected colleague of mine today. We discussed what it will take to deliver on the promise of hybrid clouds. We both agreed that a significant amount of intelligence needs to be added to the current architecture of Cloud Computing in order to eve...
Cloud computing continues to gain steam, and it has been some time since we first asked, who is gaining your mind share?
As previously noted in the 4Q09 article, this list is a subjective impression of Cloud Service Providers (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS) on the cloud computing radar.
As us...
Computational science is the field of study concerned with constructing mathematical models and numerical techniques that represent scientific, social scientific or engineering problems and employing these models on computers, or clusters of computers, to analyze, explore or solve thes...
Businesses today face a tsunami of challenges unlike it has ever faced in history: globalization, geo-political, rise of the Internet consumer, customer mind-share dynamics, proliferation of information and content to manage and maintain (with regulatory & security concerns).
This r...
This article looks at the basic interoperability requirements when communicating with the Cloud, and in particular at techniques and standards used to express and enforce wire-level contracts between communicating parties, as these parties are increasingly also contracting parties in a...
Virtualization is the key technology for the cloud. Its ability to separate the OS and application from the hardware enable it to best deliver on-demand cloud services. Charles King, Principal Analyst at Pund-IT, said it best: "Without virtualization there is no cloud – that's what ena...
