December 20, 2010
Volume XXXIII, Issue 5
GenosTV to Demo Cyclops at CES
GenosTV, the innovative IPTV start-up whose CEO Rob Shambro will keynote at the CONTENT IN THE CLOUD Conference at CES, will also preview working prototypes of its Cyclops Universal Controller at the show.
The Cyclops development team is already working with a major international television manufacturer to integrate its requirements and control codes into the Cyclops firmware. And GenosTV will meet with other leading TV manufacturers during CES.
"We see escalating interest in our Cyclops Controller from consumer electronics (CE) manufacturers, as well as a flood of excitement from early-adopter TV viewers, due to its unique design and multifunction capability," said GenosTV Co-Founder Mike West. "Cyclops is the perfect complement to next generation services that deliver TV programming to television sets using Internet protocols."
Rob Shambro's keynote address is entitled "Benefits of Cloud-Delivered Content for Consumers: Ubiquity, Cost, Portability Improvements" and will take place in Room N260 of the Las Vegas Convention Center's North Hall at 2:00 PM on Friday January 7th.
His presentation will include the first public exhibition of GenosTV's flagship service in advance of its launch. GenosTV is the first television service designed to integrate directly into next generation Internet-connected televisions.
GenosTV is a subsidiary of the ShambroWest Corporation, with offices in Las Vegas and Amsterdam. The company was founded in 2009 by Rob Shambro, co-founder of SAVVIS Communications, StreamSearch, and Infinium Labs; Kevin Bachus, co-creator of the XBOX; and Mike West, subject matter expert in CE and a former technical leader at IBM.
Octoshape Delivers Music Awards, Speaks at CITC
Octoshape and Jcube Interactive partnered to live stream The 2010 Golden Disk Awards (GDA) to an online audience for the very first time. Held December 9th, Octoshape and Jcube delivered over 76,000 hours of content to music fans throughout Asia. The vast majority of viewers were able to watch the live event in high-definition (HD), and average viewing time exceeded an hour.
In addition, Scott Brown, GM US, VP of Strategic Technology Partnerships, Octoshape, has been confirmed as a speaker at CONTENT IN THE CLOUD at CES. His session, entitled "The Impact on Consumers of Implementing Cloud Computing for Media Storage" is scheduled for 1:15 PM on Friday January 7th in Room N260 of the Las Vegas Convention Center's North Hall. Discover how cloud storage affects users' ability to access entertainment content and to own copies of music, games, movies and other media.
GDA, the most prestigious music awards competition in Korea, presents its annual music awards program to recognize outstanding achievements in the Korean pop music industry. It contributes to significant growth of the music industry by stimulating creative impulses of artists and fostering new talents.
GDA is akin to the MTV Music Awards. However, GDA spans a far larger geographic audience including Japan, Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Thailand.
"We at Jcube are thrilled to deliver The Golden Disk Awards in HD quality," said Sang-Soon Park, CEO of Jcube. "High quality streaming engages and entertains users thanks to Octoshape."
Octoshape was selected as the technology partner for the far-reaching online event thanks to its reliable HD-quality streaming capabilities. Leveraging its unique throughput optimization technology and global cloud computing competence, Octoshape provided a high-quality viewing experience to viewers throughout Asia.
"The Award producers were seeking a proven means to extend their event to the Internet masses in a manner that guaranteed the highest quality and performance to a huge, wide-spread audience," explained Stephen Alstrup, CEO of Octoshape. "We're excited they selected us and that the Jcube Interactive partnership completed the robust package."
CITC at CES Registration Deadline Approaches
Register by December 31st for the 2011 International CES - the world's largest consumer technology trade show - and save $100 or more.
Attend the first-ever CONTENT IN THE CLOUD Conference within CES to start the new decade with a valuable and stimulating gift to yourself. CONTENT IN THE CLOUD, focused on the many ways that cloud computing will dramatically impact the entertainment sector, will take place on January 7th at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
For more details about CONTENT IN THE CLOUD, please scroll down to this week's Report from the CEO.
Please click here to register.
Report from CEO Marty Lafferty
 The Distributed Computing Industry Association (DCIA) this week announced additional speakers for its first ever CONTENT IN THE CLOUD Conference at CES, including keynote John Griffin, Director of Connected Electronics at Dolby Laboratories, who will speak on "Benefits of Cloud-Delivered Content to Consumer Electronics Manufacturers: Advanced Capabilities, New Features, Cost Advantages."
This fourth annual DCIA "Conference within CES" is scheduled for Friday January 7th in Las Vegas, NV in conjunction with the 2011 CES International trade show. The DCIA is an allied association of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA).
For more information or to register before December 31st and save $100 or more, please click here.
Explore this cutting-edge technology that promises to revolutionize entertainment delivery. If the cloud touches your business, you won't want to miss these eight keynotes and three panel discussions focused on cloud-managed content and its impact on consumers, the media, telecom industries, and consumer electronics (CE) manufacturers.
The Opening Keynote - Vision for Content in the Cloud - will be presented by Geng Lin, Chief Technology Officer, IBM - Cisco Systems Alliance. Cloud computing can dramatically impact many aspects of entertainment delivery from transcoding to storage to distribution to payment collection to performance measurement. Step into the dynamic world of the cloud.
The second CITC Keynote - Cloud Vision vs. Technical Reality - will be presented by David Rips, President, Verizon Digital Media Services. Is the cloud up to the challenge of consumer content demand that is stretching the bounds of today's infrastructure? Hear a different perspective, focusing on massively scalable network capacity, advanced technology capability, and significant capital investment - the building blocks of the digital media future.
Panel Discussion 1 - The Impact on Consumers of Implementing Cloud Computing for Media Storage - will feature Todd Weaver, CEO, ivi TV; Mike Lewis, Founder, Kapost; Christopher Allen, General Manager, Napster; Scott Brown, GM US, VP of Strategic Technology Partnerships, Octoshape; Guillermo Chialvo, Gerente de Tecnologia, Radio Mitre; Jonathan Sasse, SVP of Sales & Marketing, Slacker; Louisa Shipnuck, Director, Marketing & Strategy, Verizon Digital Media Services; and Anne-Carole Nourisson, VP Licensing, Vivendi Mobile Entertainment. Discover how cloud storage affects users' ability to access entertainment content and to own copies of music, games, movies, and other media.
The third CITC Keynote - Benefits of Cloud-Delivered Content for Consumers: Ubiquity, Cost, Portability Improvements - will be presented by Rob Shambro, Chairman & CEO, GenosTV. Cloud-based solutions offer consumers a number of clear advantages over older methods of online content distribution. Hear them all in this important address.
The fourth CITC Keynote - Drawbacks of Cloud-Delivered Content for Consumers: Privacy, Reliability, Security Issues - will be presented by Jim Burger, Member, Dow Lohnes. What have various industries experienced with inadvertent leaks or intentional hacking of confidential data? When users go offline, how can they mitigate inaccessibility to their applications or losing data accidentally? And what happens if a cloud provider goes out of business?
Panel Discussion 2 - The Impact of Cloud Computing on the Entertainment and Telecommunications Industries - will feature Stephen Condon, Director of Market Development, AT&T; Sean Barger, CEO, Equilibrium; Alex Limberis, VP Business Development, Next Issue Media; Doug Heise, VP of Marketing & Strategy, Panvidea; Ian Donahue, Co-Founder, RedThorne Media; Mark Friedlander, National Director, New Media, Screen Actors Guild (SAG); Mark Vrieling, CEO, ScreenPlay; and Kurt Smith, VP, Sales, Verizon Digital Media Services. Content rights holders and broadband network operators are concerned that cloud storage could affect the way they manage their intellectual property (IP) and utilize network resources. Gain valuable insights on this critical issue for both industries.
The fifth CITC Keynote - Benefits of Cloud-Delivered Content to the Entertainment and Telecommunications Industries: Efficiency, Control, Flexibility Improvements - will address cloud-based solutions provide a number of clear advantages for content rights-holders and broadband network operators over older methods of online content distribution. Explore these benefits in this strategic overview.
The sixth CITC Keynote - Drawbacks of Cloud-Delivered Content for the Entertainment and Telecommunications Industries: Infrastructure, Disruption, Accountability Issues - will be Claude Tolbert, VP, Business Development, BitTorrent. What problems do rights-holders face in adopting their internal content management processes to cloud-based media storage? What does the on-demand always-accessible nature of cloud-based entertainment delivery mean to conventional distribution systems? What new kinds of liabilities does the cloud present to participants in the distribution chain?
Panel Discussion 3 - The Impact on Consumer Electronics Manufacturers of Cloud Computing Deployment - will feature Mick Bass, VP, Strategic Alliances, Ascent Media; Les Ottolenghi, CEO & Founder, Fuzebox; Alexander Marquez, Director, Intel Capital; Mark Taylor, SVP, Content & Media, Level 3 Communications; Guy de Beer, CEO, Playcast; Michael Papish, Product Development Director, Rovi Corporation; AJ McGowan, CTO, Unicorn Media; and Stuart Elby, CTO, Verizon Digital Media Services. Our expert panel examines the implications of remotely accessing applications and data that must be integrated into networked end-user devices. A look at servers and other edge storage hardware products rounds out the discussion.
The seventh CITC Keynote - Benefits of Cloud-Delivered Content to Consumer Electronics Manufacturers: Advanced Capabilities, New Features, Cost Advantages - will be John Griffin, Director of Connected Electronics, Dolby Laboratories. Cloud-based solutions open up many possibilities for CE manufacturers. Learn more about how cloud computing is being adopted now.
The Closing Keynote - The Years Ahead for Cloud Computing - will be presented by Mark Teitell, Executive Director, Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE). End the day with a comprehensive overview of the benefits and drawbacks of cloud-delivered content for CE manufacturers: expanded opportunities for new products and features at various price points; challenges for interoperability and data security; and advantages of cloud-based solutions for popular entertainment.
Registration can be done online at here or by calling 410-476-7965. Share wisely, and take care.
Net Neutrality Proposal on FCC Agenda Tuesday
Excerpted from Online Examiner Report by Wendy Davis
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has placed a controversial net neutrality proposal on the agenda for its meeting next Tuesday.
The proposal, put forward by Chairman Julius Genachowski, faces opposition from consumer advocates who criticize it as weak, as well as from some Republican lawmakers, who condemn it as unnecessary.
Genachowski's plan would prohibit wireline Internet service providers from blocking traffic or from unreasonable discrimination, while also requiring them to inform consumers about traffic management practices. But Genachowski is not recommending that the same mandates apply to broadband providers.
In addition, Genachowski isn't proposing reclassifying broadband access as a Title II telecommunications service. Absent such a move, however, the FCC's authority to impose any neutrality rules is in doubt. Earlier this year, an appellate court vacated the FCC's decision to sanction Comcast for throttling peer-to-peer traffic, ruling that the agency can't enforce neutrality principles as long as broadband is considered a Title I information service.
Advocacy groups like Free Press and Public Knowledge are pushing the FCC to impose neutrality regulations on mobile broadband providers. Some GOP lawmakers, however, have said they oppose any neutrality rules, including Genachowski's recent proposal.
Earlier on Tuesday, Genachowski signaled his intention to bring the proposal to a vote. "It's essential that we move forward next week to adopt the first enforceable rules of the road to protect Internet freedom," he said in an address at McKinley Technology High School in Washington, DC.
He held up Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google co-founder Sergey Brin as entrepreneurs who benefited from neutrality principles. "Neither of them had to ask permission to launch their websites, and if any of you want to follow your dreams online, you shouldn't have to either," he said.
Zuckerberg and Brin both launched their companies prior to 2005, when Internet service providers (ISPs) followed the same common carrier rules as telephone companies. That year the US Supreme Court approved an FCC decision to deregulate broadband, which arguably paved the way for ISPs to block content.
Cloud computing Can Reduce Piracy
Excerpted from Jordan Times Report by Mohammed Ghazal
Cloud computing can play a large role in protecting intellectual property rights (IPR) and combating piracy, a Microsoft expert said Thursday.
Ihsan Anabtawi, information worker business group lead at Microsoft North Africa, Eastern Mediterranean and Pakistan, who said that cloud computing enjoys "huge" potential in the future in light of increased connectivity, emphasized that it can help reduce Jordan's "high" software piracy that stands at about 58% currently.
"People in Jordan are used to paying for services they use such as mobile and Internet subscriptions. When businesses use cloud computing, they demand a service and pay for it and thus they have no reason to resort to cheaper pirated software as the cloud services are more secure, on-demand, cheaper and faster," he said in an interview with The Jordan Times Thursday on the sidelines of the Microsoft Open Door 2010,which concluded yesterday.
Noting that businesses in Jordan are on the right track towards using cloud computing, Anabtawi said it enables small businesses to get the latest technologies that were only obtained by mega-companies in the past.
Experts attending the event, which brought together over 1,000 local IT professionals and experts, were briefed on the latest Microsoft technologies and looked into the future of cloud computing, which is Internet-based computing whereby shared resources are provided on-demand that entail having lower technology-based capital expenditures.
Anabtawi, who said security remains an issue in using cloud computing, stressed that there are applications and solutions in place to ensure security.
According to recent figures by Gartner, 20& of businesses around the world will have no IT assets by the year 2012.
In a survey by Gartner earlier this year, cloud computing was ranked number 2 as the top technology priority immediately after virtualization. In 2009, cloud computing ranked 16th, according to Gartner, which is a US-based information technology research and advisory company created in 1979.
The Microsoft Open Door 2010 provided participants with an opportunity to experience some of the more fun technologies that the software giant has developed including the much talked about Kinect for Xbox 360, as well as the slick, streamlined, and recently launched Windows Phone 7, which has been positively received by consumers throughout the world and is being recognized as the Windows mobile for the next generation, according to Microsoft.
Cloud Computing Trends to Watch
Excerpted from Processor Report by Chris MacKinnon
Cloud computing may seem overhyped, but there's a good reason: it represents a new way to run information technology (IT), and that new way is very enticing. The new computing paradigm shifts IT costs from capital expenses to operational expenses, which rise and fall with usage. That shift enables a new type of flexibility, and the time it takes for a business idea to be delivered by IT drops dramatically. We've already witnessed cloud computing moving in a general direction, but what can we expect in the year ahead? Here are some of the upcoming cloud computing trends and technologies that are likely to shape the data center in the next 12 months.
Tim Lozier, Marketing Manager with EtQ Management Consultants, believes cloud computing is gathering so much attention for good reason. "I think that, given how much hardware environments cost to maintain, the ability to put your solution in the cloud eliminates the headache of maintaining, upgrading, and monitoring an environment," Lozier says. "There are no concerns about hitting bandwidth or memory limits, and the cloud is able to fluctuate along with the amount of data that is hitting it. Plus, with the relatively low costs associated with cloud environments, solution providers can offer more features and functionality without worrying about backing up against the servers' capabilities."
While cloud computing represents a shift in technology, it does the same for the IT mindset. Michael Sheehan, technology evangelist for GoGrid, says that because IT services are delivered as operating expenditures, they are delivered on demand and in real time or near real time. "This allows for complex infrastructures to be created quickly and easily and be scaled up or down based on demand, usage, or other controls," he says. "The realized cost and technology efficiencies that the cloud provides are making it a more viable alternative to self-hosting, company-owned data centers with racking and stacking servers that may sit around with minimal usage." He says companies are able to save money on their IT spend, deploying only what they need, when they need it.
A key trend to follow is the evolution of the role of the IT department into an orchestrator of services, evaluator of choices, and optimizer of how business services are being delivered.
IT departments are being told to integrate and consolidate systems to streamline processes within the organization and will likely seek cloud solutions that will perform a number of duties.
Enterprise departments will adopt more cloud computing technologies as they respond to cloud efficiencies. Expect to see more private clouds, virtual private clouds, and hybrid solutions coming to market.
According to Jay Fry, Vice President of Marketing for cloud computing at CA Technologies, the concept that will likely have the greatest impact on the data center over the next few years is the shift from thinking of IT as a factory to a supply chain. "A myriad of cloud services are becoming available," Fry says. "At the same time, IT is working to make its own internal systems more responsive and competitive. But business users have realized they can get a lot of their IT needs taken care of by going around IT completely and buying these outside services." However, that's a short-term fix, Fry says. That's because the rigor around security, management, compliance, and other topics that IT tries to maintain are still needed.
"So, the key trend is the evolution of the role of IT," Fry continues. "For smaller companies, it could shrink quite a bit. But in all cases, the role needs to morph into an orchestrator of services, evaluator of choices, and someone who has the capability to optimize how the business services are being delivered. That's a big job, obviously, and a big shift." He says as a result, it's also likely that IT pros will depend more and more on communities of cloud computing experts as trusted advisors and sources of the most useful information.
Many IT departments are being told to integrate and consolidate systems to streamline processes within the organization. Lozier says as this integration and consolidation trend grows, IT professionals are looking for options that will consolidate multiple systems. He explains, "Whether it is operating in the cloud or solutions that can consolidate key business functions, IT professionals are using more virtual environments to reduce their IT infrastructure overhead, looking for systems capable of executing multiple business functions, and systems that can integrate with their [existing systems from big-name vendors]."
Although the past few years were focused on simply defining what cloud computing is, Sheehan says now there are companies that are providing proven and true benefits from a technology and IT perspective. "There is still confusion by the general public as to what 'the cloud' is, and mainstream media is not helping with this, lumping anything that is stored on a server somewhere as 'in the cloud,' for example," Sheehan says. "However, technical media and press now better understand the distinction between 'cloud' and 'cloud computing,' and the resulting services coming out and businesses serving these solutions are much more fine-tuned than in the past."
Sheehan says he believes there will be more adoption by the enterprise from a cloud computing perspective as departments and business units within these organizations move toward this newly realized efficiency. "We should see more private clouds, virtual private clouds, and hybrid solutions coming to market, as well as a few strategic acquisitions in the marketplace," he says.
Lozier says that at the end of the day, one of the key things that is more attractive about the cloud is that where once SaaS offerings were multitenant, the cloud now offers a single-tenant instance of the solution for the same cost. "So, rather than sharing an environment with multiple companies, cloud computing has enabled vendors to offer a single, personal enterprise environment for about the same cost," he says, adding that this eliminates any bandwidth, security, or data retrieval concerns for the customer and has been a huge selling point for enterprise software.
But change doesn't come without worries, says Fry, who explains that standard concerns such as security, compliance, and even organizational issues must be dealt with in new ways. "Large IT departments can become orchestrators of a supply chain of IT services, some services coming from inside their data centers and some coming from outside the company's four walls," Fry says. "Smaller companies may choose to forgo big investments in IT resources (infrastructure and expertise) or a data center altogether."
mSpot Puts iTunes Music in the Cloud for iPhone Users
Popular cloud entertainment provider mSpot this week went live with the iPhone version of its popular cloud music service that offers users fast, easy access to their music collections via smart-phones, PCs/Macs and Internet TV.
The service enables users to quickly upload their music to the mSpot Cloud and then immediately start listening from both desktop browsers and iPhones for free. It is currently available for PC and Mac, and in the Apple App Store. A version of the service was launched for Android in June of this year and now has over 1 million downloads.
"We're giving you the 'next generation' iTunes experience. By putting your music in the cloud, you can access it anytime and anywhere you go, and on different devices, such as your iPhone, iPad, Mac/PC or Internet TV," said mSpot CEO Daren Tsui. "Listening to your music on multiple devices is now truly easy; it doesn't require manual syncing and troublesome cords." How does it work?
First, go to www.mSpot.com and put your iTunes collection from your PC/Mac into your own personal music locker on the Internet. Once you've uploaded your music "into the Cloud", you can access it anytime, anywhere from your iPhone or any PC/Mac.
Secondl, go to The Apple App Store and download the mSpot Music app for your iPhone. All your online music will automatically be accessible on your phone. mSpot offers free cloud storage for the first 2 gigabytes (approximately 1600 songs): Additional storage is available for purchase; 40 gigabytes for $3.99 per month.
The leading cloud entertainment provider, mSpot, delivers music, movie and radio content instantly to users - bringing effortless, cloud-based syncing across all devices.
The company offers three innovative entertainment services: mSpot - the flagship music service, enabling music lovers to upload their entire music collections to the cloud and listen wherever they are; mSpot Movies - a premium Video On Demand (VoD) movie service; and mSpot Radio- an all-format radio service that includes over 400 channels of music, talk, local, and customizable stations for a more personalized radio experience.
mSpot cloud entertainment services reach more than six million customers.
OnLive Awarded Patent for Cloud-Based Gaming
Excerpted from Industry Gamers Report by Ben Strauss
In what could be considered a major score, OnLive has secured a patent for an "apparatus and method for wireless videogaming." The patent gives substantial leverage for OnLive over competing brands in the cloud-based gaming market.
OnLive CEO Steve Perlman commented on the patent, saying that it describes the actual method by which games are rendered remotely and then transmitted to a receiver that is capable of displaying visuals.
"Hundreds of people have worked incredibly hard for more than eight years to bring OnLive technology from the lab to the mass market, not just overcoming technical and business challenges, but overcoming immense skepticism," says Perlman. "It is gratifying to not only see people throughout the world enjoying OnLive technology in the wake of so many doubters, but also receive recognition for such a key invention."
OnLive is in the midst of acquiring multiple patents at this time relating to tech gains, and the company has stated that they expect to receive the patents soon.
OnLive is currently available to play on PC and Mac devices at this time, and OnLive also recently launched the MicroConsole for HDTVs. A viewer app for the iPad was launched shortly thereafter. Android owners fear not though - a viewer app is currently in beta.
New BitTorrent Client Offers Truly Decentralized P2P
Excerpted from TechSpot Report by Emil Protalinski
While BitTorrent is the most popular P2P protocol, it still relies on several centralized points for users to find the files they are looking. There have been several attempts at making BitTorrent more decentralized, and the latest Tribler 5.3 client is the first to offer the BitTorrent experience without requiring central trackers or search engines, according to TorrentFreak.
Tribler offers some very interesting technologies; the latest version enables users to search and download files from inside the client. Plenty of other clients offer search features, including the ever-popular uTorrent, but Tribler's results come from other peers rather than from a dedicated search engine. Users can search and download content without a server ever getting involved; everything is done among peers, without the need of a BitTorrent tracker or search indexer.
This is a little ironic because it means that the actual torrent file aspect of BitTorrent is no longer necessary. Normally, users have to find the torrent file corresponding to the content they want to download. The torrent file contains the BitTorrent tracker URL which, as its name implies, keeps track of everyone downloading and uploading the content in question. More recently, the need for a tracker has been replaced by technologies like peer exchange (PXE) and distributed hash tables (DHT). A replacement for BitTorrent search engines and indexers had yet to appear, until Tribler 5.3.
Since Tribler is still a rather new BitTorrent client, there are significantly fewer torrents to search from compared to popular BitTorrent search engines, but as it gains more traction, that number should grow exponentially. Furthermore, if competitors like uTorrent jump on board, we may have yet another P2P revolution on our hands.
A Call for a Federal Office to Guide Online Privacy
Excerpted from NY Times Report by Tanzina Vega
A Commerce Department task force called for the creation of a "Privacy Bill of Rights" for online consumers and the establishment of an office within the department that would work to strengthen privacy policies in the United States and coordinate initiatives with other countries.
Gary Locke, the Commerce Secretary, called a new report a roadmap on online privacy.
The department's Internet Policy Task Force, in a report released on Thursday, said the "Privacy Bill of Rights" would increase transparency on how user information was collected online, place limits on the use of consumer data by companies and promote the use of audits and other forms of enforcement to increase accountability.
The new protections would expand on the framework of Fair Information Practice Principles that address data security, notice and choice - or the privacy policies many users agree to on Web sites - and rights to obtaining information on the Internet.
"The simple concept of notice and choice is not adequate as a basis for privacy protections," said Daniel Weitzner, the Associate Administrator for the Office of Policy Analysis and Development at the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).
Consumer and privacy advocates said they were encouraged by the idea to expand on the fair practice principles. The report comes at a time when Internet privacy is a big priority in Washington with the release of a similar report by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) this month, the establishment of a White House subcommittee on privacy and Internet policy and the pending revision of the privacy directive of the European Union.
The FTC, in its report on online privacy this month, also called for improvements to the practice principles, but focused on installing a "do not track" mechanism that would allow computer users to opt out of having their information collected surreptitiously by third-party companies.
That recommendation caused concern in the online advertising industry, which has said that such a mechanism would hamper the industry's growth and could potentially limit users' access to free content online.
The task force report made little mention of a "do not track" option, but its members did recommend the creation of voluntary codes of conduct that would address emerging technologies and issues not covered by an expanded set of practice principles. The codes would be created by technology companies in the industry and would be approved by the Federal Trade Commission.
The new Privacy Policy Office proposed by the task force would work with the administration, the FTC and other agencies on issues surrounding international and commercial data privacy issues. The office would not have enforcement authority.
"America needs a robust privacy framework that preserves consumer trust in the evolving Internet economy while ensuring the Web remains a platform for innovation, jobs and economic growth," the Commerce Secretary, Gary Locke, said . "Self-regulation without stronger enforcement is not enough. Consumers must trust the Internet in order for businesses to succeed online."
During a conference call after the announcement, however, representatives from the World Privacy Forum, the Consumer Federation of America, and other organizations said they were concerned that a privacy policy office would be part of the Commerce Department and not an independent agency.
The report recommends that the FTC remain the lead enforcement agency for consumer privacy issues. It also recommends that the United States continue to discuss privacy frameworks with other countries.
"Today's report is a road map for considering a new framework that is good for consumers and businesses," Mr. Locke said. "And while our primary goal is to update the domestic approach to online privacy, we are optimistic that we can take steps to bridge the different privacy approaches among countries, which can help us increase the export of U.S. services and strengthen the American economy."
Mike Zaneis, the Senior Vice President and General Counsel at the Interactive Advertising Bureau, said he was encouraged by the report. "It gives us an opportunity as an industry to prove that we can continue to move the ball forward on consumer privacy," Mr. Zaneis said.
According to a statement issued by the department, global online transactions are estimated at $10 trillion a year. Data from a 2009 study commissioned by the Interactive Advertising Bureau reported that interactive ads were responsible for $300 billion of economic activity in the United States annually.
The department will seek comment on the report through Jan. 28 and will publish questions from the report next week. No date has been set for the publication of final recommendations.
Top 10 Cloud Computing Services for 2010
Excerpted from ReadWriteWeb Report by Alex Williams
We chose our top 10 services based upon what trends bubbled in 2010 and the companies and organizations that responded or even set the tone for the overall market.
We looked at the entire landscape but with a particular focus on platforms.
Platforms provide infrastructure and serve as developer ecosystems. Platforms are where apps are created and served.
The platform ecosystem is a lot like a coral reef, an analogy we borrow from Dave Winer on occasion. Platforms attract services that cater to developers, enterprise managers and business users. These services include cloud management technologies, code repositories and identity systems.
It's through that lens that we picked our top 10.
The github services is a code repository that has skyrocketed in popularity. It's a fountain of code, bringing life to websites and snippets of wonder that people spread all over the Web. It's for professional developers and programming hobbyists. A new generation of developers are represented on github. They are there to stay. What they give to the community is of rich value to the entire cloud ecosystem.
This year's new wonder of the open-source community originates from the folks at Rackspace and NASA who teamed up to build an open-source cloud development platform. Launched in July, OpenStack is available under an Apache 2.0 license. It is growing faster than most platforms do in the first year. This has to be in part due to the star power of NASA and the Rackspace presence in the cloud computing community. It has also been a masterful community development effort as illustrated by the number of developers participating. With the backing of dozens of vendors, the service will play a defining role in the evolution of open, cloud service architectures.
OpenStack has awesome potential but the pressure is on to attract more partners and further grow the community. It is in the best interest of the cloud community to see this succeed. We need true, open platforms. It's not enough to solely support open APIs.
VMware defines a trend in the market for virtualized infrastructures as a standard way to access the cloud. These virtualized infrastructures require more than the data center to realize the potential of what cloud computing provides.
For example, VMware's Spring platform is proving to be a valuable way for enterprise developers to build applications based on Java code. It is serving as an app development gateway for enterprise developers who have traditionally built on a Java platform. It is helping lead the way for platforms such as Google App Engine, which has seen a marked increase in activity.
Google and VMware formed an alliance earlier this year. VMware also teamed up with Salesforce.com, which in turn has created a way for developers to better launch apps off the Salesforce.com app exchange.
VMware's next quest is to become a hybrid platform that provides web services by offering lightweight technologies that work across multiple programming languages and platforms. VFabric is one of six new products that VMware announced at the end of August. VFabric is a set of integrated application services that include a lightweight application server, global data management, cloud-ready messaging, dynamic load balancing and application performance management.
It's a cloud platform that fits into other efforts to work with third-party service providers that offer extensions into VMware environments. These extensions means VMware can market itself as a hybrid cloud provider. That's a good bet; it's one of the smartest strategies we have seen from any cloud computing company this year.
Heroku is the end-of-year darling of the cloud world after its neat acquisition by Salesforce.com. Neat meaning that Heroku is expected to receive $212 million in cash for its Ruby on Rails platform. The acquisition awaits approval by regulators.
That's a sweet deal for Heroku and Salesforce.com. The value is there. Heroku grew at a fast pace this past year. It is now delivering 105,000 apps from its platform. In November of last year it hosted 40,000 apps. That's a marked increase and a bottom-line testament to Heroku's success. It has an app ecosystem that extends through Apigee to the social powerhouses such as Twitter. It is built on the Amazon Web Services platform. Ruby developers are using it for powerful purposes.
For example, Flightcaster is a service that checks your flight to see if it is on time. It can predict up to six hours in advance if your flight will be late. The app is on Heroku but uses the AWS Hadoop infrastructure to provide its optimization.
Heroku's future looks bright. Its acquisition by Salesforce.com extends the reach for Ruby on Rail applications. Heroku has and will continue to play a significant role in validating the use of Ruby in the enterprise. It's now a question of how it extends and works with back end systems.
Salesforce.com is now a platform company. This past week is testament to the role Chatter has played in the development of its strategy. Salesforce.com opened itself to a larger developer community by offering Chatter. It's just a year old but its significance cannot be questioned. That became apparent earlier this year when it formed its alliance with VMware. VMforce is a java platform that integrates with Force.com.
That set the company on a trajectory to adopt a platform strategy. Last week, in addition to its announcement about its acquisition of Heroku, Salesforce.com launched Database.com, a database environment for app developers. It's an affordable environment. The developer does not need to invest in database technology. It is a stand-alone service available via its SOAP and REST APIs to any language on any platform or device - not just Force.com developers.
This new service brings Salesforce.com into competition with Oracle not just in CRM but in Oracle's oldest turf: databases. And it gives Salesforce.com a greater chance at extending deeper into the Microsoft installed base. A cloud service provides agility and speed for an enterprise. CEO Marc Benioff is the master in communicating the cloud's value. Luckily for Benioff, Salesforce.com also has a team of smart developers. That gives Benioff a better opportunity to tell the company story. Look out - 2011 is going to be a big year for Salesforce.com
Success Factors uses activity streams as a universal notifier and contact environment for employee productivity. It's a different strategy than Chatter, which uses activity streams to enhance its customer relationship platform. Instead, it's more about establishing a presence for every employee in the enterprise by offering a dashboard view. In October, the company made a big play into the business intelligence market with its acquisition of YouCalc, a SaaS service out of Denmark that does analytics across multiple applications, including Google Analytics, Mailchimp and Salesforce.com.
Sucess Factors is a publicly traded company. It has a market share of about $2.5 billion and $200 million in annual revenues. It's an application provider that provides third-party integrations. That's not such a bad place to be when the market is turning as it is. Companies are using services to empower their employees. It represents a shift in spending that Success Factors seems primed to exploit.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the barometer for all cloud service providers. It's the pioneer in the cloud computing market but also the leader. By constantly optimizing, AWS is able to drop prices and add instances. The Cluster GPU instance, for example, allows companies to do operations for displaying complex graphics at high speed. This past week, AWS followed up on that news by offering more storage capacity for customers:
A number of our customers want to store very large files in Amazon S3 -- scientific or medical data, high resolution video content, backup files, and so forth. Until now, they have had to store and reference the files as separate chunks of 5 gigabytes (GB) or less. So, when a customer wanted to access a large file or share it with others, they would either have to use several URIs in Amazon S3 or stitch the file back together using an intermediate server or within an application.
No more. We've raised the limit by three orders of magnitude. Individual Amazon S3 objects can now range in size from 1 byte all the way to 5 terabytes (TB). Now customers can store extremely large files as single objects, which greatly simplifies their storage experience.
AWS has more competition than it ever has before but it still remains out front and shows no sign of giving up its leadership spot.
Windows Azure represents Microsoft's deep investment in the cloud. It showed this year with Steve Ballmer's proclamation that the cloud represents Microsoft's future. It is perhaps the most massive undertaking of any company cloud initiative. It is host to Office applications with Docs.com. It has the compute capabilities to be used for scientific research. It's an app platform that is language independent. It looks like they got it right. It has an apps marketplace for data that developers can use to build apps. It's a powerful combination and deserves inclusion in our top 10 list.
Google is achieving something significant with its Google Apps Marketplace. It is serving as an ecosystem for third party SaaS providers. Its success shows in its numbers. It has more than 200 apps and about four million users with access to the service. Services like SherpaTools strengthen the platform:
Google Apps Marketplace provides another example for how marketplaces can help create services that extend what a SaaS can offer. It also shows the strength of the Google apps suite. Cloud app marketplaces are fast emerging. Google Apps Marketplace is helping set the standard by embracing the open Web, OpenID and REST-based APIs. This gives customers ease of use and flexibility. That's a critical combination that provides companies a level of agility that has in the past been rare to come by.
Twilio is intriguing. It's an energetic group of people who have embraced telephony in the cloud with more youthful energy compared to most companies we follow. This is a company that has a bounty of case studies for how the platform is applied. We think of it as an idea engine that demonstrates how messaging is becoming a new communications system for people. Messaging can be done through SMS or through apps that trigger information that needs to be presented in a specific context. Twilio also makes money. Its API provides ways for developers to create services that can be charged to the end user. That's a huge market opportunity. Twilio is right there to take advantage of it.
Coming Events of Interest
International CES - January 6th-9th in Las Vegas, NV. With more than four decades of success, the International CES reaches across global markets, connects the industry, and enables consumer electronics (CE) innovations to grow and thrive. The International CES is the world's largest consumer technology tradeshow featuring 2,700 exhibitors.
CONTENT IN THE CLOUD - January 7th in Las Vegas, NV. The DCIA's Conference within CES explores this cutting-edge technology that promises to revolutionize entertainment delivery. Six keynotes and three panel discussions focus on cloud-delivered content and its impact on consumers, the media, telecom industries, and consumer electronics (CE) manufacturers.
Gamification Summit 2011 - January 20th-21st in San Francisco, CA. The Gamification Summit brings together top thought leaders in game mechanics and engagement science for the first time. Hear what works and what doesn't in this dynamic and fast-moving field through case studies, workshops, keynotes and panels delivered by experts such as Gabe Zichermann, Amy Jo Kim, and Jane McGonigal.
Global Services Conference 2011 - January 27th in New York, NY. Cloud computing has implications not only for IT services but also for business processing; cloud-based delivery models present a discontinuous and disruptive shift that will redefine how IT and BPO services are delivered. The conference will present actionable propositions to leverage cloud-based models.
Cloud Connect Conference - March 8th-10th in Santa Clara. CA. Learn about all the latest cloud computing innovations in the Cloud Connect Conference -- designed to serve the needs of cloud customers and operators - where you will see the latest cloud technologies and platforms and identify opportunities in the cloud.
Media Summit New York- March 9th-10th in New York, NY. This event is the premier international conference on media, broadband, advertising, television, publishing, cable, mobile, radio, magazines, news & print media, and marketing.
1st International Conference on Cloud Computing - May 7th-9th in Noordwijkerhout, Netherlands. This first-ever event focuses on the emerging area of cloud computing, inspired by some latest advances that concern the infrastructure, operations, and available services through the global network.
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