Amazon.com and its Web Services unit grew inside the fourth quarter of 2013 but not enough to thrill investors — Amazon stock dropped 9.5%. Deadly Downtime: The Worst Network Outages Of 2013 (Click image for larger view and for slideshow.) Amazon reported its fourth-quarter results Thursday. Although revenue grew 20% from a year earlier to $25.59 billion, its stock slumped in trading after the announcement. Net income greater than doubled to $239 million, or 51 cents per share, throughout the key holiday shopping quarter of October-December. The Wall Street analyst consensus earlier than the report had pegged earnings 74 cents per share on revenue of $26.05 billion. The results seemed to trigger disappointment in Amazon investors, even if full-year revenue grew 22% to $74.45 billion. Operating costs grew at a slower rate of 10%, but Amazon’s spending on its business went from $676 million in 2012 to $745 million in 2013. Amazon stock fell 9.5% within the aftermath of the announcement from its close of... Read More »

DigitalGlobe’s soon-to-be six satellites gather data at a freakish pace — capturing images of everything from natural disasters to shipping containers in ports. DigitalGlobe’s soon-to-be six satellites orbiting the globe are amassing image data at a freakish pace. Its archive could be in a position to offer new services with that data, provided it’ll maintain the gathering, storage, indexing, and repair-delivery infrastructure had to support it. DigitalGlobe offers image services to forestry agencies, mining companies, government crop-estimating experts, and other organizations seeking information on everything from the choice of cars in a competitor’s car parking zone to the variety of shipping containers in port. The Longmont, Colo., firm has forms of satellites in orbit, some collecting color images, some black and white. It applies different software to the resulting data — as an example, stretching upward when it’s viewing the Himalayas and other mountain ranges, and chopping the shadows off tall buildings lest the picture misrepresent their true height. But certainly one of its biggest... Read More »

$129 Cloud Connect, a wireless network card, turns any modern display right into a computer; use with Android apps, virtualized PC desktops, and Dell cloud services. Android Security: 8 Signs Hackers Own Your Smartphone (Click image for larger view.) Dell on Wednesday said it has begun shipping Dell Wyse Cloud Connect, a small wireless network card that may make Android apps, virtualized PC desktops, and Dell cloud services available on any HDMI- or MHL-capable display. Initially referred to as Project Ophelia — what better symbol for the health of the computer market than the young noblewoman from Shakespeare’s Hamlet who goes mad and drowns? — the Cloud Connect device is ready the scale of a candy bar. First shown at CES 2013, it really is designed to present IT organizations with how to offer familiar applications in a fashion that’s more cost-effective, manageable, and secure than equipping employees with laptops that may be lost or stolen. The device provides Dell with how... Read More »

Google Drive blows past other online storage services by tripling free space to fifteen GB and cutting prices around the board. 10 Great Google Apps Tips (Click image for larger view.) Google, like other companies offering online storage, still faces doubts in regards to the security of cloud computing following last summer’s revelations concerning the reach of the National Security Agency. But it’s doing its best to reassure customers and to draw new ones. Following a declaration this month by Eran Feigenbaum, director of security for Google Apps, that “the cloud might be as safe as — or in lots of cases, safer than — storing data on-premise,” Google is creating a financial case for the cloud. The corporate lowered the price of Google Drive storage substantially Thursday. “Today, way to quite a few recent infrastructure improvements, we’re ready to make it more cost-effective with a purpose to keep everything safe and straightforward to arrive on any device, from anywhere,” Google product management director Scott... Read More »

Get ready for more shifts to hybrid clouds, new the way to ensure regulatory compliance, and software-defined everything. As we wrap up 2013, it is time we took a glance at most of the biggest cloud technologies that made an impact over the process the year. First things first, I likely won’t list all the technologies that were big parts of the year. So, in the event you feel I missed something, be at liberty to feature it within the comments section. That said, the concentration round the user and the info delivery model has allowed the fashionable datacenter and the cloud infrastructure generally to essentially evolve. We’re seeing new methods of optimization and cloud control, and fully new ways of controlling the user experience. So, what were a few of the big technologies that impacted the cloud? APIs (cloud apps). This was a major one. Platforms from VMware, OpenStack, CloudStack, Eucalyptus, and Amazon are creating easier the way to connect via the cloud. APIs... Read More »