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Xbox One & Azure cloud computing: A match made in heaven – VentureBeat

Cloud Guru — Thu, 23 May 2013 05:08:30 +0000

With the debut of the new Xbox One gaming system, we could focus on many things: hardware, flashy games, and entertainment options. But one aspect really gets me fired up: Developers should now be able to use Microsoft Azure’s cloud computing platform to make games more powerful than ever.
Wired reports that the game developers and studios can tap Azure for all kinds of things. Microsoft isn’t going to force developers to use the cloud platform, but it will certainly push them to do so.
The Xbox One will not have to be always connected to the Internet to play games, but it does generally require an online connection. And if developers do decide to tap Azure’s cloud computing platform to boost a game’s power, a web connection will be necessary to play that game.
Why Azure?
Microsoft has been building Azure’s cloud computing capabilities for a long while. Azure has been mostly known as a platform-as-a-service that (primarily .NET) developers use to make the process of app development easier.
Microsoft opened up Azure for pure cloud infrastructure use in June. It now competes with top dogs like Amazon Web Services, Rackspace, and Google Compute Engine.
Steven Martin, the general manager of Azure’s operations team, told us this past October that Azure users are consuming more compute capacity than the entire world used in 1998. As of December, Azure’s cloud storage holds more than 4 trillion objects. It also handles an average of 270,000 requests processed per second, with a peak of 880,000 requests per second.
Azure applications in gaming
Now, let’s see what you could do with all that power.
The first and most obvious application of Azure on Xbox One is making Xbox Live more powerful and useful. All your downloaded games and achievements would be synced and available wherever you are. You would also have dedicated servers for every multiplayer game you participate in. Multiplayer matches would be able to host up to 128 gamers in a single session.
Xbox Live currently runs on 15,000 servers, but it will soon move to a stunning 300,000 servers later this year for the Xbox One launch. That’s a lot of power dedicated to making Xbox Live better.
Second (and this is a bit more crazy), developers…

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Dell Launches New Cloud Products For Citrix Users – InformationWeek

Cloud Guru — Thu, 23 May 2013 01:07:50 +0000

Two very large clouds have been hanging over Dell for most of the year: the flailing PC market, and CEO Michael Dell’s ongoing attempt to take the company private. Despite these distractions, Dell itself has spent 2013 doing exactly what it did at the end of 2012: launching new enterprise products and declaring that its transition from PC maker to end-to-end solution provider has concluded.
That trend continued Wednesday at the Citrix Synergy conference in Anaheim, where Dell announced a range of cloud computing products for Citrix-based environments, including options that support Citrix XenDesktop 7, also unveiled on Wednesday. Dell hopes the moves will diversify its revenue streams, which are currently reliant on its low-margin PC business.

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The announcements include a version of Dell’s Active System 800 converged infrastructure line optimized for Citrix XenDesktop. The product is a pre-integrated system that fits server, storage and networking into a modest footprint. It includes Active System Manager, which facilitates single pane management of both physical and virtual assets.
Dell is also offering two reference architectures that add additional features to the Active System 800 configuration. One supports NVIDIA’s GRID and targets users whose virtualized graphics needs are particularly demanding, and the other includes a local storage option that Dell says will drive down costs by eliminating the need for SAN.
[ Will Dell's enterprise business pick up momentum? Read Dell Posts Weak Earnings: Services Growth Slow Going. ]
Since debuting Active System last fall, Dell has touted the product for its simple management and automation capabilities. It has also pointed out that the system, because it is composed entirely of Dell IP, reduces customer service calls to a single point of contact.
The product line has achieved a competitive feature set quickly, but only time will tell how it evolves against competing products from Cisco and others. On that front, Dell representatives often note that Dell, unlike its competitors, has no legacy networking businesses to protect from cannibalization, a status that allegedly allows the company to…

See more here: Dell Launches New Cloud Products For Citrix Users – InformationWeek

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If Cloud Computing Is Here, Then Where Is My Jet Pack? – Forbes

Cloud Guru — Wed, 22 May 2013 21:05:33 +0000

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VMware’s Hybrid Cloud: Not Amazon’s Model – InformationWeek

Cloud Guru — Wed, 22 May 2013 17:05:19 +0000

VMware will establish four data centers from which it will offer its competition to Amazon Web Services (AWS) infrastructure-as-a-service, the company announced Tuesday. But there are big differences between what VMware is doing and what an AWS, Google or Rackspace does.
Not one existing Amazon customer is likely to abandon EC2 to take up residence in a soon-to-be-launched VMware facility. But many existing VMware customers are likely to remain comfortably in the VMware fold because of those four centers, if they work out as planned.

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VMware wants partners to supply compatible public cloud facilities, but has been frustrated at the lack of sophistication and willingness to adopt full-scale VMware implementations. Bill Fathers, VMware’s new senior VP and general manager of its Hybrid Cloud Services unit, acknowledged in an interview he was hired to build up the capabilities of the VMware ecosystem, and that includes training and equipping more hybrid cloud providers. He was recruited for the task in March from a seasoned cloud supplier, Savvis, now a unit of CenturyLink.
While it looks like VMware wants to take hybrid cloud business away from partners, it literally can’t provide an Amazon-scale alternative to the public cloud and must rely on partners to fill in many gaps. That makes establishing four VMware data centers something of a balancing act.
[ Want to see how one VMware partner maintained an arm's length from its cloud software, even though its hosts many VMware-based customers? See Terremark's VMware Cloud Software Story: It's Complicated. ]
VMware is also in a poor position to compete by building ultra-modern data centers, as Facebook did in Prineville, Ore., and Forest City, N.C., and then offering low-cost compute cycles out of such infrastructure. On the contrary, VMware won’t build anything. It will lease space from wholesale data center builders. It will then wheel in racks of servers, most likely from its Virtual Computing Environment (VCE) subsidiary, based on partner Cisco’s converged compute and networking infrastructure, and throw on the switch.
One such data center will be located in Santa Clara, Calif., a leading site…

See original here: VMware’s Hybrid Cloud: Not Amazon’s Model – InformationWeek

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Facebook gets support in Taiwan for cloud computing project – Focus Taiwan News Channel

Cloud Guru — Wed, 22 May 2013 13:01:39 +0000

Taipei, May 22 (CNA) Facebook Inc. is planning to incorporate more Taiwanese suppliers into its Open Compute Project as part of its efforts to set up open standards for data centers through a collaborative dialogue.The Cloud Computing Association in Taiwan will hold an inauguration ceremony for the Open Compute Project Taiwan on Thursday, which will be attended by a senior executive from Facebook and representatives from nine local organizations, the association said in an e-mail to the media.Expected to attend are the government-funded Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), Wiwynn Corp., Inventec Corp., Asustek Computer Inc., Delta Electronics Inc., Gigabyte Technology Co., Chunghwa Telecom Co., Taiwan Mobile Co. and Far EasTone Telecommunications Co.The Open Compute Project Taiwan is expected to help more Taiwanese firms tap into the global supply chain of data centers that will adopt the open standards promoted by Facebook, the association said.In January this year, four Japanese organizations jointly launched the Open Compute Project Japan to help introduce open cloud technologies to data center suppliers there in order to save design costs and develop more efficient solutions.Launched in April 2011 by a small team of Facebook engineers, the Open Compute Project aims to spark a collaborative dialogue among partners to develop the most efficient computing infrastructure.(By Jeffrey Wu)ENDITEM/ls

The rest is here: Facebook gets support in Taiwan for cloud computing project – Focus Taiwan News Channel

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Microsoft confirms Azure cloud computing services launching in China on June 6 – The Next Web

Cloud Guru — Wed, 22 May 2013 09:00:21 +0000

In November, Microsoft and 21Vianet announced that they were working together to bring Azure, a infrastructure-as-a-service and platform-as-a-service product, to China. Today the firms stated that the service will go live on June 6th.
21Vianet, a Chinese company, claims that it is the “largest carrier-neutral Internet data center services provider” in the country, making it a sensical fit for Microsoft.
21Vianet has 81 data centers in 42 cities in China, meaning that it can serve Azure effectively in the country. Microsoft previously estimated that the number of firms that could use Azure in China is in the “millions.”
And, a key point: It is something of an early mover in the country. Amazon’s AWS suite of cloud products that compete with Azure have a data center in Singapore, and has a minor presence in Hong Kong.
The Azure-21Vianet has a hardware and scale advantage. It’s worth nothing, of course, that Amazon’s AWS services enjoy more market and mind share in most of the world, most notably in the United States. Still, China is a massive market, which could help Microsoft untip the current market facts.
Azure recently announced that its revenues had reached a run rate of $1 billion per year. Azure also recently announced that it is heading to Australia.
A short take on how seriously Microsoft takes Azure’s move to China: They sent Steve Ballmer, and the US Ambassador to China, Gary Locke, was on hand at the launch event. This is a big-dollar deal.
Final caveat: Given the public issues regarding cybersecurtiy and hacking, Azure in China could be a sensitive affair; if there is even a whiff of government interference, Microsoft could lose brand equity in other regions; the Chinese Internet market is in some ways unique, both positive and negative. Let’s hope that when it comes to data security, and government non-intervention, Microsoft has its path straight.
Top Image Credit: futureatlas.com

Here is the original post: Microsoft confirms Azure cloud computing services launching in China on June 6 – The Next Web

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Cybercriminals, BYOD, cloud computing: Trend Micro’s 2013 data security … – Toronto Star

Cloud Guru — Wed, 22 May 2013 04:58:01 +0000

Organizations are no longer limited to using PCs or even laptops. Mobile devices,such as smartphones and tablets, are fast becoming part of the SMB workplace. With the increased availability of cloud services, business applications no longer need to be on-site to address various business needs. The variety of available technology allows SMBs to cherry-pick solutions that best fit their working environment.

However, the expansion of operating systems (OSs), platforms, services,

and devices also means employees are going to have a harder time managing security in the workplace. Take a look at the five things that businesses should look out for in 2013 and the years to come:

Prediction 1: Multiple computing platforms and devices in the workplace will lead to multiple “working environments”. Securing these devices will be more complex and difficult than most users think.

Work used to be done on one device—usually, a PC running on Windows. The advent of mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, means that people can easily work from a multitude of devices, often their own. Based on a Trend Micro-sponsored Forrester study, 60% of businesses employ bring-your-own-device (BYOD) programs for smartphones and 47% for tablets and laptops.

Using multiple devices for work requires additional security measures. Each platform requires different steps to secure it. Businesses that allow BYOD may find it challenging to create a comprehensive set of security guidelines, especially if employees have free reign over selecting their devices. And as online activity now occurs in apps, it is also harder to give accurate advice on security issues; with each app having its own distinct look and feel.

Prediction 2: Data breaches will remain a threat whether or not data is stored in the cloud

Data infrastructures — in the cloud or not — will be targeted by attacks as a means for threat actors to gather sensitive data. This merely continues the trend of data breaches, with more than 81% of organizations having suffered at least one data breach over the past two years.

Data security is major concern for SMBs. But as they move their sensitive data to the cloud, an on-premise security solution might be…

View original post here: Cybercriminals, BYOD, cloud computing: Trend Micro’s 2013 data security … – Toronto Star

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Manufacturers Find Lower Costs, Greater Capabilities in Cloud Computing – ThomasNet Industrial News Room

Cloud Guru — Wed, 22 May 2013 00:57:32 +0000

Cloud-based computing (or software-as-a-service, SaaS) solutions have continued to grow in functionality, robustness, and reliability. As a result, these innovative systems have become more attractive to manufacturers and industrial firms, even for critical applications like enterprise resource planning (ERP).

Research by Mint Jutras, an enterprise-computing consulting firm based in Windham, N.H., finds that SaaS-based applications today represent 22 percent of software installations in manufacturing and distribution companies. That penetration is expected to grow to 45 percent within 10 years. Survey respondents said that the most important characteristics they look for in a SaaS solution are having control over upgrades, consistent support for global operations, allowance for rapid and frequent upgrades, and the ability to migrate easily from on-premises to SaaS.
Louis Columbus, senior manager for Microsoft Enterprise Systems at software provider Cincom, writes in Forbes that cloud-based systems are attractive to manufacturers because they allow for quick rollout and easy customization. In his work, Columbus has visited many manufacturers in the high-tech, industrial, aerospace, and defense industries and found that their businesses are driven by pressure to increase accuracy and speed up processes.
To meet those challenges, cloud-based platforms are helping companies capture and apply knowledge and intelligence through advanced analytics, business intelligence (BI), and rules engines. Cloud services are allowing fast deployment of supplier and reseller portals, collaboration environments, marketing automation, human resources, and customer service and support. Cloud providers are doing a good job of seamlessly integrating such services into their offerings and providing management tools like dashboards.
Matt Haller, principal at Chicago-based professional-services firm Baker Tilly Virchow Krause, writes that cloud-based ERP can provide an effective alternative to in-house systems that “have been cumbersome, required expensive on-site specialized IT resources to run and maintain the system, and have not provided quick access to the necessary information to inform decision making.”
Haller cited the…

Continued here: Manufacturers Find Lower Costs, Greater Capabilities in Cloud Computing – ThomasNet Industrial News Room

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VMware Reveals Hybrid Cloud Details – InformationWeek

Cloud Guru — Wed, 22 May 2013 00:57:26 +0000

VMware will establish four data centers in the U.S. in which it will host a cloud environment that’s highly compatible to the one that its customers use in the VMware-virtualized portion of their on-premises data centers.
The new facilities will be “a seamless extension” of customer facilities where they will be able to shift workloads at will with a few virtualization management console commands. VMware is building commands into its vCloud Director product and the modules in its vCloud Suite to automatically provision a designated virtual machine with networking that connects between the customer’s premises and a remote Hybrid Cloud Service data center.

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VMware is not about to build a global chain of cloud data centers on the scale of a Facebook or Google. It’s more likely to lease space in existing third-party facilities, equip them with its own hardware and software, and operate them as public cloud facilities. CEO Pat Gelsinger said VMware, in making such a move, is not backing away from continued use of channel partners and existing data center partners, which include Bluelock, CSC and AT&T in the U.S. That list formerly included Dell as well, but Dell announced Monday it would no longer try to provide public cloud services.
[ If VMware is such "a great partner," why isn't Terremark using its cloud provisioning software? Read Terremark's VMware Cloud Software Story: It's Complicated. ]
In an interview after the announcement Tuesday of Hybrid Cloud Service, Gelsinger said that VMware was creating model VMware public clouds in the four data centers — locations unspecified — that its many regional service providers could emulate.
By building new capabilities into its vCloud Automation Center product and its vSphere Management Console, the “network stretch and deploy” feature will become something customers can invoke from within a familiar management setting and use to move workloads out to a VMware Hybrid Cloud facility. VMware is also integrating Hybrid Cloud Service with other VMware products, including vCenter Operations, used for capacity and virtual system management, and VMware View, its desktop virtualization product.
One of the…

More: VMware Reveals Hybrid Cloud Details – InformationWeek

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Xbox One to Become More Powerful Over Time via Cloud Computing – IGN

Cloud Guru — Tue, 21 May 2013 20:54:37 +0000

Today at Microsoft’s smaller, lower-key Xbox One architecture and hardware panel, Microsoft technical executives elaborated and expanded on how the new console will interact with and be improved by cloud computing.
The Xbox One is a powerful piece of hardware with 8GB RAM, 64-bit processors and plenty more muscle. But as time passes this hardware will age. As Xbox One Director of development Boyd Multerer pointed out, “You’ll still have a limited number of transistors in your house; in your box.”
But the Xbox One is built to communicate with servers in the cloud to increase the computational potential of the system. Boyd continued “[As a developer] I can start doing things like shifting latency insensitive things to the cloud. You may have a limited number of transistors in your house, but you have an unlimited number of transistors in the cloud”

As bandwidth improves, there is potential for actual game computations to be off-loaded to servers in the cloud, essentially allowing the Xbox One to become more powerful over time as more and more transistors are connected to Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure.
“We have an ever-evolving, powerful world [in the cloud] that we can tap into.”
“This is not going to be as static a console as we’ve seen in the past,” Multerer enthused.
Given that the Xbox One doesn’t require an online connection, it’s unknown specifically how game developers will be able to take advantage of cloud computation. One potential possibility is that only gamers connected to the internet with a fast enough connection will be able to take advantage of the computational power of servers in the cloud and experience an increasingly powerful-feeling gaming box. IGN expects to learn more specifics on the Xbox One’s innovations at E3 2013.

Justin is Editor of IGN Wireless. He has been reviewing mobile games since the dark days of Java flip phones. You can follow him on Twitter at @ErrorJustin and on IGN.

Read the original post: Xbox One to Become More Powerful Over Time via Cloud Computing – IGN

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