Google’s Compute Engine comes out of preview, with Google touting lower pricing and “transparent maintenance.” 8 Great Cloud Storage Services (click image for larger view and for slideshow) Google has entered the highly competitive cloud services marketplace, where it’s going to face off against major tech vendors like Amazon and Microsoft. Google first unveiled its Compute Engine June 2012 as a beta service and Tuesday announced its infrastructure-as-a-service is now generally available. Google also lowered prices on some compute instances 10% and on disk storage by 60%. Google’s IaaS will entice those that want infrastructure geared to a high level of performance. The company’s emphasis on high-performance infrastructure is obvious from the rate of its famous Google Search engine. Compute Engine public cloud infrastructure relies at the same architecture. Jointly, it’s offering a service level agreement that provides 99.95% uptime. That’s a match for Amazon Web Services, which changed its SLA on June 1 to 99.95% from its previous 99.9% uptime. Google will charge by... Read More »

8 Great Cloud Storage Services (click image for larger view and for slideshow) I was in Frankfurt, Germany, last week speaking on cloud security. In keeping with the attendance on the sessions, the ecu IT community is simply as inquisitive about security as American IT. My talk had two parts: one on securing the storage itself through encryption, especially flash storage, and another on securing the users. Interestingly, user security, notably their use of consumer file syncing and sharing programs, drew the foremost interest. The issue with file syncing and sharing is that users have a taste for it. It solves a true problem they’re suffering from: the right way to make certain all their data is on all their devices and the way to share large files with colleagues with no need to email it to them. In other words, the “cat is out of the bag.” Webcasts More >> White Papers More >> Reports More >> Although the meaning of that phrase got... Read More »

Emerging specs for hybrid clouds and converged datacenters promise to interrupt vendors’ proprietary hold. The word “standards” evokes images of combative committees taking six months to choose where to carry a gathering after which letting dominant industry players hold down superior technology. Vendors blamed delays with the 802.11n spec for his or her going rogue with proprietary implementations that always didn’t interact; eventually the Wi-Fi Alliance needed to expend money and energy on a certification program. And while the Open Networking Foundation begs to vary, Cisco CEO John Chambers recently asserted that advanced networking “cannot be done in software.” His unstated pitch: “Why anticipate messy SDN standards to gel? Just cut a check for Cisco ONE.” Going with proprietary technology is tempting. But standards remain important, especially within the era of convergence and cloud, with its “just make it work” culture. Particularly, standards are critical for shuttling workloads between on-premises and multitenant systems. A well-considered design that uses stock components, protocols, and interfaces wherever possible... Read More »