Amazon Web Services follows Rackspace, Colt, and Digital Ocean in ramping up high I/O servers with solid state disks. Top 10 Cloud Fiascos (click image for larger view) Amazon Web Services introduced I2, its second generation of high I/O instance types, Monday, after the primary generation, H1, proved too bulky for some users seeking a server optimized for random I/Os. Not every data-capture or demand stored data amounts to a sequential read or write, something that spinning disks are good at. In reality, many are for random reads or writes, something that solid state disks (SSDs) are good at. Spinning hard drives, then again, can prove slow at random data retrieval because the head moves mechanically to the correct area of the spinning plate. The four new I2 instances are equipped with SSDs to eliminate that latency. Amazon is somewhat late in coming to the cast state party. In Europe, Colt implemented extensive SSD-based services earlier, as did Rackspace and startup DigitalOcean within the US.... Read More »

The disruptive power of Microsoft’s Open Compute Group move has spurred debate. Let’s talk image versus cold hard revenues. Microsoft In 2013: 7 Lessons Learned (click image for larger view and for slideshow) Microsoft surprised the tech industry Tuesday when it joined the open-source hardware movement, announcing on the Open Compute Summit in San Jose that it is going to offer the Open Compute Project (OCP) specifications utilized in Microsoft datacenters in addition to code for server management software. Microsoft’s participation speaks to the changing trajectory of the datacenter. In a report released last week called “Predictions for 2014: Private Cloud Management and Infrastructure,” the research firm Forrester forecast the proliferation of OCP-compliant and other low-cost, open-source commodity servers. At least one expert, however, isn’t convinced Microsoft’s participation is a transparent game-changer. “It’s interesting,” said Gartner VP Jeffrey Hewitt in a phone interview. “However probably won’t be a tremendous thing.” [For more on Microsoft’s move to open source, see Microsoft... Read More »

‘Tis the season when temperatures tumble, shoppers stumble, and prognosticators fumble, often. Will these big data prophecies come true? How will big data evolve in 2014? The long run is anyone’s guess, needless to say, but we thought we’d compile a delectable holiday assortment of prognostications from executives working within the big data trenches. So without further delay, here they’re — six big data predictions for next year: 1. “More Hadoop projects will fail than succeed.”That scary assessment is from Gary Nakamura, CEO of Concurrent, an incredible data application platform company. In a December 12 blog post, Nakamura made a number of 2014 forecasts, including this not-so-rosy assessment of Hadoop: “More Hadoop projects might be swept under the rug as businesses devote major resources to their big data projects before doing their due diligence, which ends up in a costly, disillusioning project failure. We would possibly not hear about some of the failures, obviously, however the successes will clearly demonstrate the significance of using the... Read More »

Each of those innovative data centers represents the appropriate in school for a design or operational factor. Google’s employee sauna? That’s only a bonus. Companies like Google, Apple, and Facebook don’t just innovate with products: Just examine their data centers. The designs and operations playbooks of those new centers aim to lower costs, increase reliability and maintainability, and improve agility, while reducing energy use and carbon footprint. As big data and cloud computing push the boundaries of traditional data centers, new trends in data center innovation have followed. Google started the ball rolling when it scaled up its search operations starting within the late 1990s. By 2001, Google, still three years far from its IPO, was building its own servers from piece-parts, seeking not just economy but additionally reliability and straightforwardness of maintenance. Previous to 2003, Google was investigating putting large numbers of servers in a shipping container. That year it applied for a patent at the idea of the modular, drop-in-place data center. Back... Read More »

Google’s new Apps Referral Program pays you $15 for every new Google Apps business account you refer. Tech’s Rich And Famous: Who’s Most Charitable? (Click image for larger view and slideshow.) Google wants you to enroll new customers, and it’s offering cash incentives. The corporate has launched the Google Apps Referral Program, which pays you $15 for each user who signs up for a business account in response to your recommendation. “A few of the millions of Google Apps customers learned about tools like Hangouts, Drive, and Gmail for business from their customers, friends, and networks,” Prajesh Parekh of the Google Apps marketing division wrote in a blog post Monday. “The referral program makes it easy to share Google Apps together with your network and show them how they can also use these tools at work.” Google’s referral program is obtainable only to users within the US and Canada. To fulfill eligibility, you should check in and submit a legitimate taxpayer ID number and checking... Read More »