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Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Eight Leaders In Cloud Computing

8 Leaders In Cloud Computing


Author: Robert Win



Cloud computing today is popularly accepted worldwide. Tech venture capitalists are building cloud computing businesses one after another. Tech companies that could possibly lead the market in 2011 are shown below.

Google
Google greatly improved the way we search and analyze information. The search leader once again changed how we use our office software with their Google Apps that provide cloud-based email, calendar and documents for small and medium sized firms to large enterprises. Are you looking for a web-based music storage service that allows immediate access and streaming to your home desktops and mobile devices? Then you should check the freshly announced Google Music Beta. As cloud storage internet businesses become popularly accepted, a new rumor appeared all over blogosphere is that Google may rejuvenate their G-Drive project.

Amazon
Amazon is the earth's most well known online retailer. We thought it can also be the most impressive cloud computing providers on Earth. Cloud computing, cloud storage, cloud data bank, content delivery, payment, monitoring are some examples of their services. Should you wants a decent cloud service provider with competitive price, you can’t afford not to have a look at Amazon.com’s AWS.

Apple
The enthusiastically awaited iCloud is Apple's answer to cloud computing. By using iCloud, users can sync a variety of contents for example pictures, songs, movies, documents etc. to cloud, and open or play it from any Mac, PC, iPhone & iPad. I will not be surprised if iCloud becomes very popular service. Apple without a doubt has millions of fans for iServices and iDevices.

Microsoft
Can cloud computing make Microsoft obsolete? Absolutely not. The tech -giant has already claimed its prime status in the industry with Windows Azure. Microsoft's Windows Azure is now very popular among their loyal customers.

Salesforce.com
Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) is one of the leading cloud computing companies, and it offers organization products on a subscription basis.

Dropbox
Dropbox is probably one of the most successful cloud storage providers. One can find a number of user clients such as PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android etc to easily access Dropbox. By using Dropbox, users can quickly save and distribute files to others through the net. A big plus is from the mobile clients, users can enjoy their audio files and watch movie clips saved in their account. Free accounts can enjoy 2GB of storage. These people can get up to 8 Gigabytes of free online storage by recommending other people to join Dropbox. If you purchase $9.99 per month subscription, you could get 50 Gigabytes of storage space.Dropbox also offers 100 Gigabytes subscription and large storage subscription.

SugarSync
Another well acknowledged enterprise that provides web storage for documents, pictures and other media is SugarSync. Instant retrieval and synchronization via Windows PC, Mac and mobile tablets are easy and conveniently. Free users are provided with full 5 GB of web storage space.

Box.net
Box.net is known as a cloud storage box and content management business. While the competitor Dropbox gives you only 2 GB, Box.net now provides 5 Gigabytes to free user. However Dropbox's users can get as much as 8 GB absolutely free should they recommend others to sign up Dropbox. Box.net charges $15/month to get 500 Gigabytes online storage space when Dropbox will cost you $9.99 to get 50 GB. That's a huge difference. On the other hand, you can access Dropbox via different clients - Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone etc.

Robert Steel is addicted to technological innovations, and he usually spends most of his time on the internet. You can take a look at his latest article What is cloud computing? and his list of cloud computing companies at YesCloudComputing.com



Monday, November 28, 2011

The Future of Cloud Computing

The Future of Cloud Computing


By Claire M Jefferies


If up till recently cloud computing was considered the future, now that it is here, what would be the future of cloud computing?

Years ago, when dial-up internet connections were the most spread solution worldwide, the concept of software clearly implied a hard copy, CD or DVD that was meant to be installed on the PC and use the computers' resources to provide that particular service or role. As the average internet connection speed started to grow, broadband solutions expanded and costing decreased, utilizing a resource or service over the World Wide Web developed into complex business models. Citrix was one of the first developers to come with complete and viable solutions for sharing services and solutions via internet, regardless of the hardware utilized by the end-user.

Microsoft recently launched their Office 365 solution based on cloud computing. Also Google is offering more and more services directly via the web browser that uses cloud computing infrastructures. The direct results of this trend is the increase in popularity of tablet PCs. What this model proves is that cloud computing services require little to minimal hardware resources to run applications what otherwise needed a powerful PC.

Probably in the following years, more and more applications will be oriented towards cloud computing. The one that came forth with a major push in this direction is Google. Their OS proved that a PC can be very useful even when the entire computer only has a browser installed and actually works like one. To put the idea in a more simple manner, what Google proved is that with the help of cloud computing, you only need a browser on your PC and you can perform all the tasks you usually do like watching a movie, reading an email, playing games, editing documents, socialize etc.

On the other end of this model, we will find the cloud or the place where everything is getting computed for the end-user. Because of this efficient model, serve loads and user capacity increased to very high numbers. Up till now, if the server experienced down time, the resource became unavailable. In the cloud, if one server goes down, the others will distribute the load equally. Also when you have more servers dedicated for the same activity, the number of users that can access the resource increased.

The impact of cloud computing has determined very many important changes across many businesses. Even the federal government of United States had to reorganize its entire IT infrastructure for cloud computing due because it is cheaper, easier to maintain and much more stable while providing at the same time, very high uptimes.

Claire Jefferies is writing on behalf of Millrace IT, who collect and process redundant IT and telecoms equipment that still has economic value. They also offer sell laptops and sell laptop

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Claire_M_Jefferies
http://EzineArticles.com/?The-Future-of-Cloud-Computing&id=6712732

Monday, November 21, 2011

What Is Cloud Computing? - 12 Facts

What Is Cloud Computing? - 12 Facts Every Small to Medium Sized Business Owner Should Know


By Nick Graham



Background


In the last 3 years dramatic changes have been taking place in how business computing happens, especially in larger companies. Traditionally companies build their own IT infrastructure, buy expensive equipment and servers and install everything locally. They need to keep hardware running, software compliant while making sure that the information input and output actually meets company needs.

Things have changed. With the advent of Cloud Computing a company can have reliable and safe business computing delivered like a utility service. Today we no longer dig wells for water, or run our own generator for electricity. These services are available as a utility service. So too with IT, you can "buy" IT infrastructure as a service, pay for what you need, and focus on the business not the technology.

1.What is Cloud Computing?


Computing delivered over the internet like a utility service that can be accessed by any device that has internet connection. Computing horsepower is located and happens outside the company on external servers, so no computing hardware needs to be owned and operated by the company. In fact, a well-known market research company, Gartner, has estimated that by the end of 2012, 20% of all companies will own no IT assets! The move to the cloud is underway.

2.What would full Cloud Computing look like in my office?


Imagine your server room or server area gone, no more major capital expenditures on equipment and facilities. Imagine desktops that don't crash and hard drives that don't fail, but with the same user experience. Imagine a secure safe environment for your systems and data taken care of by experts not on your direct payroll for a flat monthly fee that covers everything at a lower cost than you currently pay. This is what Cloud Computing can look like NOW.

3.Why isn't everybody doing it?


Big companies have commonly been using Cloud Computing technology for a while now. Now smaller companies are increasingly changing to this way of running IT. Specialized managed IT companies are helping these smaller companies move their IT to the cloud and then run their IT efficiently - and this is accelerating the trend.

4.With Cloud Computing do you have to buy servers?


No. There is no cost burden of server ownership and therefore no expensive capital expenditure. You buy "server use" from a virtual server created for you in an external data center and pay for it by means of a simple monthly fee.

5.Company specific software


In a Cloud Computing setup, a company's current servers, with their existing enterprise software, is transitioned over to newly created virtual servers which are theirs only. The company accesses everything as before as normal, with the exception that it is now communicated over the internet not the company's local area network.

6.How Cloud Computing can get rid of PCs


With a full Cloud Computing implementation there are no servers or PCs at the business locations. Data is securely protected and continuously monitored on servers in a safe local physical environment and backed up behind a firewall. All PCs are changed to "Virtualized Desktops". Employees will have a Thin Client, mouse, keyboard and screen but nothing will change in their computing experience. They will be looking at their screens with all their familiar programs such as Office, Outlook, etc.. They will be able to save to "My Docs" and other drives as normal.

The cloud management company will take care of equipment, Microsoft software licensing, antivirus, Spam Filtering, Security, secure backup, server and virtual desktop monitoring, and all the other IT headaches that you would rather not worry about. It's easy to add desktops as you grow, or take them away just as easily if you need to downsize, paying for what you need.

7.Cloud Computing and the IT person /department


The typical IT person working in or for a company is spending up to 80% of their time keeping stuff up-and-running - PCs, hard drives, updates to office software, virus spam protection issues. It's "busy work" which does nothing to improve the company's performance. With a Cloud Computing solution a company does not have to spend time on these activities. More time can be spent on activities that support the business; or, if appropriate, staff can be cut or redeployed.

8.Can Cloud Computing save money?


It is easy to forget how much Information Technology is costing. As well as the "Hard Costs" like cost of hardware, infrastructure, software licenses, there are the more intangible "Soft Costs" such as IT staffing, troubleshooting, energy costs to run the servers and desktops and cool the server room and building. Typically you should be looking for fully costed savings in the area of 30-50% a year. With these levels of savings a business owner should, at the very least, be looking at Cloud Computing in their organization.

9.IT people often say Cloud Computing is less secure than in-house infrastructure. Is this true?


Typically because of the physical security and data security used, cloud security protection is almost always much better than most local company networks. Security over the internet is extremely high with firewalls that form barriers and which are monitored continually. Advanced backup and data recovery mean even a catastrophe can be quickly recovered from. And because all the company data is held on the company's remote servers and is not being held all over the place (such as on local hard drives, thumb drives etc.) the likelihood of software and data contamination and theft is reduced.

10. What happens if a cloud server goes down or there is a catastrophic loss of data?


This is a very important topic. Companies frequently think that their own server rooms are somehow immune from catastrophe and they are also very often woefully under-prepared for a disaster. Simply doing tape backups, putting tapes in fireproof boxes and other methods can give a false sense of security. The reality is if disaster strikes, you need the very latest backup data recovery technology so that you can be up and running in minutes or hours not days or weeks or never! Cloud computing solutions typically take incremental snapshots backed up to multiple locations physically elsewhere to ensure you will be up and running again very quickly.

11.Moving Offices if you are using Cloud Computing


Moving offices or facilities is trivial when a company has a Cloud Computing setup. Because the infrastructure is in place (separate from the old and new company facilities) data can be accessed from anywhere. In theory once the internet connection to the new location is up and running the whole company can be up and running and back to normal as fast as thin clients can be hooked up to the internet!

12.Mobile Computing


With Cloud Computing, your Virtual Desktop can be accessed anywhere and anytime. Other solutions require your office PC to be turned on, and your office Internet connection to be live. Most Internet connected devices, such as laptops, tablets, smart-phones, can be used to connect to your desktop. Imagine being able to run Excel, PowerPoint or any of your business specific software from an iPad or a smart-phone! And security remains at a high level for remote access since only keystroke and screen refresh is sent between the data center and your smart device, but no actual data.

In summary, the benefits of moving to the cloud are great. Cloud computing already is increasingly the way IT is being handled, and owners would therefore be wise to take a look at and embrace the technology now.

Nick Graham is VP at Consilien LLC, a company that has been delivering Information Technology Services since 2001, in the LA, Riverside and Orange County area.
Having run a number of small and medium businesses his mission now is to expose as many business owners as possible to the huge benefits of installing 21st century cloud computing into their companies.
Nick invites you to take a closer look at how to do this easily by going to:- http://www.consilien.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nick_Graham
http://EzineArticles.com/?What-Is-Cloud-Computing?---12-Facts-Every-Small-to-Medium-Sized-Business-Owner-Should-Know&id=6657234

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Amazon Cloud Drive

Amazon Cloud Drive Review



By Travis Van Slooten


The world apparently needs another online backup storage solution and Amazon is the latest one to throw its hat into the fray. Named as the Amazon Cloud Drive, this no-frills online backup and storage service offers a simple way to store your important files and get access to them when needed.

But other than having the inimitable Amazon brand behind it, what else does Cloud Drive really bring to the table? For one, it's being marketed as a music locker more than anything else. With the convenience of being able to download purchased mp3 albums and tracks to almost any device these days, not many people can boast of having their music files organized in just one location.

With the Cloud Drive, users can easily upload their files to the cloud and stream the music online whenever they feel like it. The process is simplified further and made more convenient with the introduction of the Amazon Cloud Player, a music player app that does the streaming of MP3 or video files from the Cloud Drive straight to your web-enabled computer or Android device.

The first 5GB of storage is free and the paid plans - 20GB, 50GB, 100GB, 200GB, 500GB, 1000GB - cost about $1 per GB per year. If you purchase an MP3 album from Amazon, you get an upgrade to 20GB free for the first year. To make the deal even more enticing, any albums bought from Amazon (after you subscribe to Cloud Drive) will be stored in your account but will not be counted towards your paid storage quota.

But while the Amazon Cloud Drive may sound like the best thing that's ever happened to music storage, not all users - yes, even music fans - are that enthusiastic about it. First is the issue of bandwidth. To be able to play music continuously, you would have to be always connected and have a decent web connection at that. Not all enjoy that luxury. It would probably be a more practical idea to download some files while you have internet access and then play the music offline.

Second is the cost. With Amazon's current storage prices, there are many more online backup services that are cheaper. Plus, in its Terms of Use, Amazon states that they do not guarantee security or privacy while data is stored in their servers. This is contrary to what other backup service providers offer who swear by their security features.

At the end of the day, users will go for the backup solution that offers the features they can make most use of, and the service that will give them the best bang for their buck. Amazon Cloud Drive is indeed a novel service that attempts to target a specific group of backup users - the music lovers. The question now is whether these individuals will be able to justify the cost of subscribing for a separate music storage that lacks standard backup features, just to be able to organize their music collection efficiently.

If you're not convinced that this solution is the right one for you, then be sure to read the detailed Amazon Cloud Drive review here. You can also find online backup reviews of other popular services to help you choose the one that best fits your needs and budget.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Travis_Van_Slooten
http://EzineArticles.com/?Amazon-Cloud-Drive-Review&id=6181471

Thursday, November 10, 2011

What is Windows Azure?

What is Windows Azure?


Author:dwspriya


Windows Azure is a Microsoft cloud service operating system involved in service hosting, service management, and development for the platform of Windows Azure. It enables clients to develop, manage, and host web applications online with the help of Microsoft\'s data centers.

Windows Azure is able to support several languages and can integrate with the environment of your existing premises. At present, it is sold commercially in 41 countries including United States, Canada, UK, and Australia.

There are three main components in Windows Azure. These are compute, storage, and fabric. Compute provides an environment for computation while storage deals mainly on providing storage for large-scale data. Fabric refers to the physical make up of the platform as it is composed of a network of servers and switches. A content delivery (CDN) service is also offered along with Windows Azure to allow content delivery from Azure storage to end users.

With the use of Windows Azure, developers can run applications and even store data on servers that are owned and operated by Microsoft. Such cloud applications can be valuable for both consumers and businesses.

There are several benefits associated with the use of Windows Azure. For one thing, it helps improve efficiency. It does not only improve productivity of a business but it can also reduce up-front costs. In fact, Windows Azure can help reduce the total cost of operations by as much as 40within a period of three years.

Since Windows Azure supports common languages, protocols, and standards, it is easy to operate and you can still make use of you skills in .NET, PHP, and Java in creating and managing applications on the web.

Another advantage of using Windows Azure is that you can get to focus more on giving quality services to your clients instead of worrying about technological and operational obstacles. You can also make the most out of the development tools provided as well as the automated service management to meet the needs of your customers at a faster rate. Of course, Windows has always provided reliable services and you can be sure of first rate experience by using Windows Azure.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/web-hosting-articles/what-is-windows-azure-4208092.html

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