Flash memory is much faster than hard disks, but too expensive for most enterprises to place onboard servers. Startup FlashSoft on Tuesday announced software that aims to solve this problem by caching data in flash memory onboard servers, a technique that it claims can dramatically boost the performance of storage networks at little additional cost. The company is also launching itself, announcing a $3 million funding round and plans for future expansion. “We give you […]
Cloud Computing
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I think a lot of people confuse these two virtualization technologies and maybe you’re one of them. The distinction is not apparent from the names given to them but rather in the scale of the technologies behind them. Desktop virtualization means that you run a virtual machine on your desktop computer. Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) is a data center technology that supplies hosted desktop images to remote users. There is, as you can see, a […]
I can’t help but take notice of the recent string of cloud failures we’ve been hearing about this year. Blogger went down for about 20 hours last month and Microsoft’s BPOS hosted bundle also reported a significant amount of downtime. Perhaps the most notable was when Amazon’s cloud was overloaded with Lady Gaga fans clamoring to get her album for 99 cents. All of this talk of cloud failure has once again called into question […]
The rush toward virtualisation of internal enterprise computing resources and cloud computing can have many advantages, such as server consolidation, but it’s largely outracing traditional security and identity management practices. That’s leaving huge gaps, a sense of chaos and questions about where security products and services should be applied in the world of multi-vendor virtual-machine (VM) hypervisors. “Virtualisation will radically change how you secure and manage your computing environment,” Gartner analyst Neil MacDonald said this […]
Tis the season to fix your virtual environment and there’s no better way to start that process than with a “to do” list. And, you know you need one. So, here’s your list for those dog days of summer, when you want to heat things up even more. You won’t solve all ten of these items in a day or in a week. It’s an ongoing process but you need to get started now, so […]
Unified communications is entering its own hype cycle, like that of cloud computing, virtualization, and color TV before it, as vendors tout their “me-too” solutions in a familiar history repeating itself pattern. UC brings together such capabilities as voice, videoconferencing, instant messaging, email, document sharing, and more into one user interface so employees of one company, their partners, and even customers can collaborate with each other across the corporate campus or across oceans. A recently […]
Today’s Cloud Computing marketplace exhibits a surprising bifurcation. Public Cloud providers like Amazon.com are all the rage among small companies, startups, and individual developers. Enterprises, however, are largely investing in Private Clouds. Public Clouds are too risky, so the story goes, or perhaps enterprise decision makers are only willing to dip their toe in the Public Cloud water. We find this trend surprising, because in many ways the Public Cloud value proposition is stronger than […]
Offloading your software and data to a cloud computing service has never been easier. Apple last week became the latest tech company – after Google and Amazon – to offer cheap online storage, with its new iCloud service allowing users to access music, documents and other files from any Apple device. But cloud services could also be used to launch attacks, send spam and commit fraud. “Right now it’s just a few attacks, most aren’t […]
The advent of the Internet afforded a number of different companies options when it came to extending their offerings around the world. eCommerce presented a whole range of new opportunities and now, cloud computing is gaining in importance in this space. Entire networks are being moved to the cloud to enable streamlined operations, greater capability and lower costs. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is getting a whole new makeover in cloud computing and both companies and […]
Rather than working with applications installed on servers at various office and site locations, the new cloud computing model promises to allow oil and gas companies to centralize increasing numbers of applications within the cloud, drawing on them as required and even paying for them as they are used. This new model is set to reduce costs drastically and improve the flexibility of moving to new software models. Today, CIOs want to benefit from these […]