May 2, 2011
Volume XXXIV, Issue 12
Amazon Apologizes For Cloud Outage, Offers Credit
Excerpted from Wall St. Journal Report by Steven Russolillo
Amazon disclosed Friday a detailed mea culpa on last week's web services outage in which it apologized for the shutdown, offered a service credit to customers who were affected by the glitch and promised improved communication in the future.
Amazon, which rents web services and storage to companies, provided a nearly 5,700-word account on its website describing the causes of last week's glitch that took down a slew of websites. The company explained a network configuration change caused the shutdown and described what it is planning to do to prevent similar technical problems from happening again.
Amazon said it will provide a 10-day service credit to customers who were affected by the outage that will be automatically applied to their accounts. Amazon spokeswoman Kay Kinton declined to say how much the credit will cost the company.
"We want to apologize," Amazon said on its website. "We know how critical our services are to our customers' businesses and we will do everything we can to learn from this event and use it to drive improvement across our services."
The company was widely scrutinized for last week's outage, which began April 21st and lingered for several days. High-profile start-ups such as foursquare, Quora, and Reddit, cited service problems related to the outage.
Amazon said the primary outage occurred in a data center in northern Virginia when a configuration change to shift traffic was performed incorrectly. The network change was part of a normal upgrade and was intended to increase capacity of the primary network in the data center.
"Unlike a normal network interruption, this change disconnected both the primary and secondary network simultaneously, leaving the affected nodes completely isolated from one another," Amazon said.
Simon Buckingham, chief executive of New York-based Appitalism, an apps marketplace that was affected by Amazon's outage, described Amazon's post mortem as a "mixed bag." He said he was pleased Amazon acknowledged and apologized for its mistakes.
"I like to see the word 'sorry,'" Buckingham said.
He said he was disappointed that the credit was valued only at 10 days, however. Buckingham said the revenue his company lost based on Amazon's outage is "several multiples" of the credit that Amazon is offering.
Buckingham said he expected that Amazon would offer a credit for at least a month's worth of service. "It's nice to get an explanation," he said. "On the other hand, the level of compensation is definitely disappointing."
Other Amazon customers were pleased with the extensive level of detail Amazon released in its mea culpa.
"It's a change of pace for Amazon Web Services (AWS) to reveal as much as they did," said Ed Laczynski, Vice President of Cloud Strategy at Datapipe, a New Jersey-based provider of managed information-technology and hosting services which uses Amazon's technology. "This is a step in the right direction."
Amazon's web-based services are often listed as a model for other cloud-computing offerings. The services allow users to run programs and store information remotely in the so-called "cloud." Users can access applications over the Internet, which eliminates the cost of operating servers and other equipment themselves.
Amazon, which provided more than 20 updates on its status website last week detailing the outage, said it identified improvements that need to be made in how it communicates with its customers.
The company said it understands that during an outage customers want as many details as possible regarding what caused the problems and how long it will take to fix. Amazon felt it updated customers with accurate information and refrained from speculating.
"That said, we think we can improve in this area," Amazon said. "We switched to more regular updates part of the way through this event and plan to continue with similar frequency of updates in the future."
Amazon promised it will learn from last week's glitch and do whatever it takes to prevent a similar event happening again in the future.
"As with any significant operational issue, we will spend many hours over the coming days and weeks improving our understanding of the details of the various parts of this event and determining how to make changes to improve our services and processes," Amazon said.
In recent trading, shares of Amazon inched up 2 cents to $109.09.
Report from CEO Marty Lafferty
 We commented early this year on Cloud Security Predictions for 2011. This week, we are more inclined to recommend that industry participants learn about Disaster Recovery on a Budget.
Last Thursday, Amazon's widely reported service degradation affected popular websites Quora, foursquare, and Reddit, due to server problems in the data-center that handles the company's AWS web hosting services.
From the DCIA's perspective, the incident represents a predictable growing pain for this new class of services, which has expanded at blazing speed, while also underscoring the importance of having back-up plans for data and applications.
The fact remains, however, that without the cost-savings afforded by cloud computing services, the affected customers would not have been able to grow as quickly as they have, and in some cases even to launch commercially.
"What this episode demonstrates is that cloud computing does not absolve those responsible for designing and deploying applications from understanding how the dependencies of the underlying platforms impact the availability, resiliency, and survivability of their architecture - regardless of how opaque it may be," said Chris Hoff, Director, Cloud & Virtualization Solutions, at Cisco Systems.
"As distasteful as the phrase 'plan for failure' is to some people, the lesson here is not an unfamiliar one: hope is not a strategy and putting all your eggs in one basket means you may end-up with a well-contained omelet. This failure could happen to anyone, using any service deployment or delivery model, internal or external, cloud or otherwise."
For the most part, services were restored by 4:00 PM ET.
The occurrence "underscores the importance of taking a broad risk management approach to adopting cloud computing, and the shared responsibility that exists between customer and provider in infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS)," said Jim Reavis, Executive Director of the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA).
"Customers with high availability requirements for their cloud application need to consider a basic virtual machine instance as a single point of failure, the same way one would view a single hard drive."
"It is important to explore the additional redundancy services you can get from your chosen provider or develop a systems architecture that can tolerate failure of a single cloud component. You can even build applications to fail over to a second or third cloud provider," Reavis added.
CSA uses several cloud providers, including Amazon. "We did not experience downtime in our Amazon Web Services usage because of the redundancy we built into the application architecture," he said.
According to web performance management company AlertSite, between 6:00 AM and 1:00 PM ET on Thursday, one portion of the Reddit site took more than 60 seconds to load and returned an error message. Foursquare's homepage had 84.44% availability between 8:15 AM and noon, also returning error messages explaining the downtime and slowness. And Quora had similar problems and was restored in a matter of hours.
According to Robert Mahowald, an analyst with IDC, "Amazon is held as a paradigm of operational uptime. When this kind of thing happens, it definitely sends a chill through the whole cloud and hosted services industry." But Mahowald was also quick to point out that, "This kind of outage happens. It doesn't point to a specific operational problem at Amazon."
"This shouldn't give Amazon a bad reputation," he said. "I don't think it will turn people's heads away from using Amazon, but it will live on-and-on on the web."
Rob Enderle, an analyst with the Enderle Group added, "This provides a showcase of the risk associated with these kinds of services, which are sold like utilities - but don't yet have the reliability we expect of most utilities." And in that last comment in an important industry lesson.
Are you ready for next-generation back-up and recovery? The DCIA recommends this white paper, Cloud-Connected Back-up and Recovery Delivers a Command Performance, and this video, Getting the Most From Cloud-Based Backup and Recovery, to learn about how cloud solutions are changing the back-up and recovery landscape and how you can participate quickly and easily with a proven solution designed for value-added resellers (VARs) and service providers.
What distinguishes the most innovative, dynamic back-up and recovery solutions from the rest of the pack? Is it the benefits that come with transitioning from tape to disk? Is it shorter back-up windows and faster recovery times? Is it the confidence that no matter where data is stored, it is totally secure and can be recovered when you need it?
Yes. It's all of these.
But a more elemental, evolutionary lead is underway. It's the cloud, connected to your organization.
While the cloud may not be the ideal foundation for every organization's data protection needs, it undeniably offers virtually every company many clear and compelling data storage advantages. Share wisely, and take care.
Rackspace: Amazon Outage Won't Slow Cloud Adoption
Excerpted from Forbes Magazine Report by Eric Savitz
The recent Amazon EC2 outage, which took down many websites for hours or days, triggered an outpouring of speculation on how the event might impact the adoption of cloud computing.
And indeed, you'd think the event might have triggered some investor concern about the web hosting business, but it didn't, really. That's thanks in no small measure to the announcement earlier this week that CenturyLink has agreed to buy Savvis for $2.5 billion, a combination that follows the recent acquisitions of Terremark by Verizon and Navisite by Time Warner Cable.
Lew Moorman, Chief Strategy Officer at Rackspace, sees nothing more than a blip - and in fact argues that the event actually might have some beneficial effects, by raising the profile of cloud computing. When it comes to the cloud, apparently, there is no such thing as bad publicity.
Moorman, who among other things runs the hosting company's cloud business, stopped by the Forbes office in San Francisco earlier this week to chat about his company, the cloud, and that nasty business with Amazon.
Moorman contends that Rackspace is "in the right thing at the right time," with a continued trend toward outsourced data centers and cloud computing. While he doesn't see large companies outsourcing core functions like SAP implementations to Rackspace, he does think that a lot of "new, incremental" business applications will be offered via cloud providers.
Moorman notes that his cloud business is north of $100 million, smaller than Amazon's business - Amazon doesn't say, but Moorman thinks theirs is north of $500 million. He adds that he doesn't think the two compete directly. Rackspace's approach is "higher touch," with a great service orientation; Amazon tends to be more do-it-yourself, with a tilt towards start-ups.
As for the Amazon outage, he says it was "a blip, something that makes people more curious, more inquisitive about what a cloud service is and how it works, and what you are actually getting."
He says customers are likely to pay more attention to the fact that even with cloud computing, your bits are in a physical place - and that you have to determine what level of redundancy you have.
Moorman thinks the widespread outage has tarnished the idea that "the cloud is magic," but doesn't change the fact that it allows companies to get more agile, cheaper infrastructure than owning and operating their own servers.
One lesson from the Amazon situation, he says, is that cloud operators need to be more transparent on how the services work.
"You have to be communicating like crazy," he says. "A lot of people felt in the dark and out of control. You need to feel that we are there and accountable." He contends Amazon has yet to give a full explanation for what transpired, but says they no doubt will end up giving a good explanation. "They need to be very straightforward."
He also thinks the environment for cloud users should get better from here - like air travel after a plane crash. "Planes rarely crash, but when they do, they have a big impact," he says. "This was a plane crash, a big incident, but one that is extremely rare. Amazon will have 50 people trying to understand every detail of this thing. To me, the cloud just got safer because of this incident."
Meanwhile, as for the recent consolidation in the industry, Moorman notes that the recent buyers are "a bunch of companies with core businesses threatened by this€¦They have to figure out how to play in it." He notes that many carriers made big investments in web hosting ten years ago, and didn't do very well.
But he adds that there could be more deals to come. And Rackspace? "We don't think we need a big brother," he says. "We think it will be a huge stand-alone business. And we are very committed to that. We're just getting started."
The $2.5 Billion Cloud Computing Deal
Excerpted from NY Times Report
CenturyLink, the nation's third largest telecommunications company, announced on Wednesday that it would buy the information technology firm Savvis for $2.5 billion, in a play on so-called cloud computing.
Under the terms of the deal, CenturyLink will pay $40 a share for Savvis, 11% above the stock's closing price on Tuesday. CenturyLink will also assume $700 million in debt.
Cloud computing has been an active space for deal-making. Hewlett-Packard, EMC and Dell have been scrambling to buy storage makers. In January, Verizon Communications said it would acquire Terremark Worldwide for $1.4 billion.
By adding Savvis, CenturyLink will expand its data storage services for global companies. The combined company will have 48 data centers around the world, with 1.9 million square feet of floor space.
"The transaction creates a premier managed hosting and co-location provider with global scale in a high-growth sector, and is expected to be accretive to revenue growth and cash flow per share," Glen F. Post III, CenturyLink's chief executive, said in a statement.
"Today, businesses are shifting the way they manage their information technology services and infrastructure," he said, "and this transaction helps us meet these needs by offering Savvis' leading products and services coupled with CenturyLink's network."
Earlier this month, CenturyLink completed its acquisition of Qwest Communications, a $10.6 billion deal in the rapidly consolidating telecommunications sector. The combined company had revenue of $18.7 billion and earnings of $8.1 billion for 2010.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Barclays Bank have agreed to provide up to $2 billion of bridge loans to help finance the acquisition and refinance some of Savvis's debt.
Barclays Capital and Bank of America Merrill Lynch served as financial advisers for CenturyLink, while Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and Jones, Walker, Waechter, Poitevent, Carrere & Denegre provided legal services. Savvis's advisers were Morgan Stanley and the law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.
Dell to Invest $1 Billion to Expand Cloud Computing Capabilities
Excerpted from ITChannelPlanet Report by D. H. Kass
Dell said that it will invest some $1 billion in its current fiscal year into building new cloud computing data centers in multiple locations globally, construct 12 solutions centers this year and another 10 such facilities in the following 18 months, and launch new technology solutions and services to drive virtual computing business.
"Technology advances, delivery methods and the move to disruptive IT models like cloud are changing the fundamental way businesses operate," said Steve Schuckenbrock, Dell Services President.
"With this transformational shift, businesses are gaining benefits in terms of speed to market and organizational and compute flexibility," he said. "Dell is mobilizing to help customers capture these benefits and with today's announcement is making the power of the cloud accessible to more organizations and users."
Dell also disclosed a new, three-year strategic initiative with Microsoft aimed at help customers to deploy and manage virtualization and private cloud technologies.
The vendor said that over the next two years it will expand its cloud computing capabilities by building some 24 data centers globally to offer customers access to public and private cloud technologies, IT outsourcing, and infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and virtual desktop-as-a-service (VDaaS) offerings.
Dell also said that it will open 12 Global Solution Centers this year and another 10 in the coming 18 months to educate customers about its solutions and domain expertise. The company said it will use the facilities to help customers spend less on infrastructure management and more on technology innovation to grow their businesses.
In addition to its cloud computing facility plans, Dell also added new solutions for the data center, end-user computing and email archiving.
The Dell vStart virtual infrastructure solution will run up to 200 virtual machines from one management environment, including its Xeon-based PowerEdge servers, EqualLogic storage, PowerConnect switches, deployment services, hypervisors and virtual management extensions.
Dell said that the infrastructure is delivered pre-assembled to the customer's site as a single unit, racked and cabled, including initial deployment services.
With its new Microsoft partnership, Dell said that it will offer virtualization management solutions based on its Virtual Integrated System, Advanced Infrastructure Manager and Microsoft's System Center. Virtualization solutions will be founded on Microsoft Windows Server Hyper-V.
The companies said that future joint solutions based on Dell's hardware and virtualization management solutions and Microsoft's hypervisor and system management technologies will be geared toward simplifying virtualization management, lowering costs and easing barriers to cloud adoption.
In addition, Dell unveiled a new email and file archive solution to help customers manage information, and a desktop virtualization solution that leverages pre-packaged services with configured and tested hardware and software.
The vStart solution is available now in the US and will be offered in EMEA in the second quarter. The Dell and Microsoft virtualization is currently available worldwide. Dell's e-mail and file archiving is available now in the US and will be available in the UK, France, Germany, and the Netherlands in Q2. Dell's desktop virtualization solution is offered now in the US and will expand to other geographies later in the year.
IP Video Gear Vendor Envivio Files For $69 Million IPO
Excerpted from Multichannel News Report byTodd Spangler
Envivio, which sells IP video encoding and processing equipment to cable and telecommunications operators and content providers worldwide, filed to raise up to $69 million in an initial public offering (IPO).
South San Francisco, CA based Envivio has more than 220 end customers in more than 50 countries, the company said in an S-1 registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 15th.
"We enable service providers and content providers to deliver linear broadcast and on-demand video services to their customers via multiple screens, such as tablets, smart-phones, netbooks, laptops, PCs and TVs," Envivio said in the filing.
The company warned prospective investors that it has incurred significant losses since its inception, including a net loss of $2.5 million on revenue of $30.0 million for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2011. As of then, Envivio had an accumulated deficit of $79 million, losses the company attributed to costs incurred for R&D and sales and marketing.
Competitors cited by Envivio were Harmonic, Inlet Technologies (recently acquired by Cisco Systems) and RGB Networks (which bought RipCode in 2010). "Due to the evolving competitive landscape and growing market opportunity, we expect to encounter direct competition in the future from one or more larger traditional network infrastructure providers that may currently be one of our systems integrators," Envivio said in the filing.
Envivio was founded in 2000 by a group of engineers from France Telecom, including current President and CEO Julien Signes, 41.
As of January, it had 117 full-time employees, including 56 in research and development, 41 in sales and marketing and 20 in general administrative and HR. Envivio's R&D activities are exclusively conducted in the metropolitan area of Rennes, France, "which we believe provides us access to highly qualified engineers on a cost-effective basis located in what has traditionally been viewed as a top broadcast center of Europe," the company said.
In fiscal 2011, three customers - unidentified channel partners of Envivio - directly accounted for 11%, 12% and 12%, respectively, of total revenue. For the year, 23.3% of Envivio's revenue was from sales to customers in the US, with 24.1% from the Asia Pacific region and 43.6% from Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Envivio also said it currently has eight issued US patents and five issued European patents, plus four patent applications pending in the US and one patent application pending in Europe. In addition, the company has rights to rights to 12 patents licensed by France Telecom.
The IPO's lead underwriters are Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. and Piper Jaffray & Co.
Netflix: Too Big for the Internet?
Excerpted from ZDNet Report by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
According to the DVD and online video rental king Netflix's last quarterly report, Netflix now has more subscribers than Comcast, the largest US cable TV operator. 7% of all US citizens now subscribe to Netflix. That's great for Netflix but what about the Internet, on which it increasingly relies for its video transport?
Back in October, Netflix, and other video content were already taking up more bandwidth than any other single Internet service. Gaming, peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing, and web surfing were all falling behind. It's only gotten worse since then. When I recently looked at how much traffic IPv6 was transporting on the Internet, I found that Netflix, all by itself, was taking up 20% - the largest single share-of all Internet traffic.
There's nothing wrong with that, but is there enough bandwidth on the Internet to support this if this video trend continues?
Internet service providers (ISPs) are capping their monthly services. ISPs, like Comcast, are also trying to charge content delivery networks (CDNs), the high-speed Internet traffic backbones used by video services, such as Level 3 extra charges for their traffic.
The cable companies are in the odd place of having their comparatively low-revenue ISP services starting to eat their far more profitable cable TV services. On top of that, to supply the need for more and faster bandwidth, they need to upgrade their backbones to IEEE 802.3ba, the standard for 40 Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) and 100GigE Ethernet.
100GiigE may sound fast - and it is - but it's not fast enough. Some people are already demanding, not mere Terabit networking, but 1.4Terabit networks. In the meantime, ISPs are still struggling to get 802.3ba up and running. And, let's not even talk about how much trouble it is to get decent broadband in the last mile from the ISP to your home or office.
So what does all that mean for you? Well, it means you can expect to pay more for broadband and get less of it thanks to bandwidth caps. Someone is going to need to make up the revenue cable companies are starting to lose to Internet video and that someone will be you and me.
On top of that, someone is going to need to pay for the network infrastructure and that means, again, we're going to get stuck with the bill. Adding insult to injury, I expect we're also going to need less reliable service as the existing Internet bends under the ever heavier demands of video watchers and mobile users.
If we're lucky the Internet won't break. But, I can certainly see Internet "brownouts" as a real possibility in 2012.
Convenience Trumps Social Features for Online Video Viewers
Excerpted from eMarketer Report
Online video viewing is on the rise around the world. In the US, eMarketer estimates 158.1 million Internet users will watch video online at least monthly in 2011, up from 145.6 million last year. And at least one in five web users across the US, UK, Australia, Brazil, Germany, Italy, and Spain told Accenture in March 2011 they were watching more video on desktop and laptop computers than a year earlier.
The survey found that convenience is the key to online video viewing around the globe. Two in five Internet users surveyed said the ability to catch up with episodes by pausing and watching at their leisure was the most important feature of online video. Another 24% said being able to use online video like a personal video recorder was the top feature.
Interactivity and social features were the least popular choice, cited by only 11% of Internet users.
Video viewers also indicated their priorities when asked about the frustrations that remain with online video. Buffering and poor video quality were two of the top three problems. Advertising was also an annoyance.
At least in the US, some television watchers do want to interact socially. According to a March 2011 survey by Harris Interactive and 24/7 Wall St., 17% of US web users use the Internet or social media during a TV show to post or read about the show. About twice as many web users interact online after watching, however.
As online TV services, from subscriptions like Netflix to network websites to joint ventures like Hulu, look to improve and update their offerings, they should keep the basics in mind before hoping to increase engagement with services most viewers still consider just a "nice to have."
Connected TV Nears 20% of TV Sales
Excerpted from Twice Report by Greg Tarr
Nearly 20% of all TVs shipped in 2010 featured connected TV capabilities, according to new research released Monday by DisplaySearch.
The DisplaySearch Q1 2011 Quarterly TV Design and Features Report, predicts the connected TV category to grow to over 123 million shipments in 2014 (at a 30% compound annual growth rate).
Emerging markets will play a major role in this growth, the firm said, with Eastern Europe forecast to grow from 2.5 million connected TVs shipped in 2010 to over 10 million in 2014.
In addition, DisplaySearch findings indicate that 33% of flat panel TVs sold in China in 2013 will have Internet capability. "The connected TV market is developing beyond mature regions like Western Europe and Japan," said Paul Gray, DisplaySearch TV Electronics director.
"With some emerging countries having excellent broadband infrastructure, the adoption of connected TV capabilities is a natural next step in TV feature innovation."
In developed regions, connected TV is a second wave following on the heels of digital broadcasting. In China, however, the adoption of connectivity is occurring in advance of digital terrestrial television (DTT) adoption.
As a result, TVs shipped into this region can decode video from the Internet, but not from terrestrial broadcast. DisplaySearch said it is expecting a surge in China driven by decoder chip costs reaching a tipping point, with current low cost for such capability.
The connected TV market, DisplaySearch said, will become fragmented and increase in complexity. "Basic connected sets carrying enhanced broadcast services such as Hbb.TV or basic video on demand (such as Netflix, Maxdome, Acetrax or VUDU) will appeal to consumers who expect TV to remain a passive experience," the report said.
"For more adventurous consumers, the smart TV segment will enjoy configurable apps, sophisticated search and navigation engines, and advanced user interfaces."
DisplaySearch defines a smart TV as a TV that can retrieve content from the Internet without the restrictions of a portal, has intelligent search and recommendations, is upgradeable by its owner, and is able to network seamlessly with other devices in the home.
Gray added, "Smart TVs are adding to what is already a fast-moving and fiercely competitive battleground, with competition appearing in all directions, including mobile PC devices such as tablets and increasingly powerful set top boxes with services accessible anytime, anywhere."
The report compares the connected TV strategies major TV brands. For example, Panasonic is opting to locate intelligence in the cloud, while Samsung is building the capability into the device. Other new capabilities reviewed in the report include the RVU standard that allows connected TVs and set-top boxes to share pay TV content, and low-power sets that can operate with no power cord using only an Ethernet cable.
The DisplaySearch Quarterly TV Design and Features Report is a quarterly update of the issues and rapid shifts in feature development in TV sets.
BitTorrent-Distributed Book "Captive" Exceeds 420,000 Downloads
Excerpted from Zeropaid Report by Jared Moya
Author Megan Lisa Jones proves that new media distribution models like BitTorrent are democratizing distribution channels and decreasing the influence of traditional gatekeepers like book publishers.
A few weeks ago I mentioned how author Megan Lisa Jones took a leap of faith with BitTorrent and released her novel "Captive" to its 100 million users to help "demonstrate a new media model that benefits all." It appears the effort has paid off with 423,630 downloads and counting.
"I was able to build a global audience in two weeks," said Jones. "We reached across borders and traditional media boundaries and were rewarded with an engaged audience. People told me about passing the word on to their friends who in turn downloaded and read the book. And, yes, the sequel is coming in 2012."
Even though the copies of the e-book sell for $9.99 on Amazon, Jones decided to tap into BitTorrent's more than 100 million users.
"Captive's numbers illustrates the demand for all types of digital content in the BitTorrent ecosystem," said Shahi Ghanem, chief strategist at BitTorrent. "Progressive authors like Ms. Jones are leading the way for a new form of reader engagement, and we're very pleased with her success."
The download consists of a free Captive app, which includes the full downloadable novel, in both .pdf and .epub formats, plus a video introduction providing an overview of the author, story line, and writing process.
"BitTorrent was a wonderful partner and is very attuned to their audience needs; the community truly embraces the technology and artists who use it," said Jones of BitTorrent.
The news is a reminder that new online media distribution models like BitTorrent are democratizing distribution channels and decreasing the influence of traditional gatekeepers like book publishers. It's the same thing that we saw transpire with the music industry, and likely to see in the future with the movie industry.
Stay tuned.
Apple P2P Sharing Technology for Mobile Devices Surfaces in Patent App
Excerpted from SlashGear Report by Shane McGlaun
Apple is one of the more innovative tech firms around. Love the company or hate it I don't think anyone will argue with the fact that the gang in Cupertino is an innovative lot.
We see more than a few patents surface with tech that sounds out there at times. I never doubt that Steve and co won't cram that tech into some future smart-phone or other device though.
A new patent app has turned up that outlines an interesting new peer-to-peer (P2P) sharing technology that may one day find its way into our iPhones and iPads.
Thanks to the RIAA, P2P has a bit of a negative connotation to it. This isn't tech to allow two iPhone users to share much without having to pay. Exactly what it would be used for or when we will see it is unknown.
I can see this being a great way to share photos and video files between users. The patent gives up some details on how the service would work. It will use a unique magnetic compass and encoded supersonic tone method to transfer files.
The tech will also allow users to quickly and wirelessly transfer their files and data to their computers or other devices, too.
I have to think this could very well be the tech that brings wireless sync to iTunes. The feature will use NFC tech making for fast set-ups that need no configuration.
Am I the only one that finds it curious that the line-art drawing Apple choose in the patent filing looks sort of like an iPhone, but has a keypad?
Coming Events of Interest
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.
Cloud Computing Asia - May 30th - June 2nd in Singapore. Cloud services are gaining popularity among information IT users, allowing them to access applications, platforms, storage and whole segments of infrastructure over a public or private network.CCA showcases cloud-computing products and services. Learn from top industry analysts, successful cloud customers, and cloud computing experts.
Cloud Expo 2011 - June 6th-9th in New York, NY. Cloud Expo is returning to New York with more than 7,000 delegates and over 200 sponsors and exhibitors. "Cloud" has become synonymous with "computing" and "software" in two short years. Cloud Expo is the new PC Expo, Comdex, and InternetWorld of our decade.
The Business of Cloud Computing - June 13th-15th in San Diego, CA. Cloud Computing is the latest disruptive technology. Enterprises, large and small, are looking to cloud computing providers for savings, flexibility, and scalability. However, potential adopters of all sizes are concerned about security, data management, privacy, performance and control.
CIO Cloud Summit - June 14th-16th in Scottsdale, AZ. The summit will bring together CIOs from Fortune 1000 organizations, leading IT analysts, and innovative solution providers to network and discuss the latest cloud computing topics and trends in a relaxed, yet focused business setting.
Cloud Leadership Forum - June 20th-21st in Santa Clara, CA. This conference's enterprise-focused agenda, prepared with the help of nearly a dozen IT executives, will bring you case studies and peer insights on how leading organizations are approaching the cloud opportunity – plus much more.
Cloud Computing World Forum - June 21st-22nd in London, England. This third annual event is free to attend and will will feature all of the key players within the cloud computing and software-as-a-service (SaaS) market providing an introduction, discussion and look into the future for the ICT industry.
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