June 6, 2011
Volume XXXV, Issue 5
Steve Case to Keynote at Digital Media Conference
Steve Case, Co-Founder of AOL and more recently Chairman of Revolution LLC, The Case Foundation, and Startup America will join fellow keynote speakers Gracia Martore, President & Chief Operating Officer, Gannett; John Trimble, Chief Revenue Officer, Pandora; and Matthew Diamond, CEO & Founder, Alloy Media & Marketing at the 8th Annual Digital Media Conference (DMC).
On Friday June 17th, more than 500 of the most influential decision-makers in the media, entertainment, and technology industries will gather at the brand new Renaissance Arlington Capital View Hotel near Washington, DC for this seminal event.
The DCIA is honored to be working with event organizer Digital Media Wire to present a very special CONTENT IN THE CLOUD session at DMC.
Featured speakers will include Stefan Bewley, Director at Altman Vilandrie & Company; David Dudas, Vice President of Product Management at Sorenson Media; Sean Jennings, Vice President of Solutions Architecture at Virtustream; Jonathan King, Senior Vice President of Business Development at Joyent; Kshitij Kumar, Senior Vice President of Mobile Video at Concurrent; Kurt Smith, Group Vice President of Sales for Verizon Digital Media Services (VDMS); David Steinberg, CEO of SnappCloud; and Mike West, Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder of GenosTV and the Genos Corporation.
Apple's Cloud Product Officially Official and It's Called iCloud
Excerpted from Washington Post Report by John Biggs
Pop over to iCloud.com today and you'll see a doomed web page. The domain, which redirects to Xcerion's CloudMe software, is sitting on some prime real estate, namely Apple's new iCloud service.
In a short release, Apple confirmed the existence and name:
"Apple CEO Steve Jobs and a team of Apple executives will kick off the company's annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address on Monday, June 6 at 10:00 a.m. At the keynote, Apple will unveil its next generation software - Lion, the eighth major release of Mac OSX; iOS 5, the next version of Apple's advanced mobile operating system which powers iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch; and iCloud, Apple's upcoming cloud services offering."
We've been hearing about the potential cloud services for months now and it seems the stars have finally aligned. The MobileMe service recently received some considerable upgrades to improve performance and stability and there has been oodles of talk about a potential music service in the cloud similar to Rdio or Spotify. That we now know it's called iCloud, officially, is just icing on the cake.
What will iCloud include? It will probably be a considerable revamp of the Me.com services including calendar and email syncing. As TUAW notes, many parts of MobileMe will probably be available for free leaving us to wonder what the rest of the service will include.
We've also discovered that Apple is signing partners to offer what amounts to a mirrored version of your iTunes database, a service that will be considerably improved over current "locker" models used by Amazon and Google. However, there are currently plenty of those cloud-based sharing services on offer, which suggests Apple may have a trick or two up its sleeve.
This would probably also replace the nearly useless iDisk offering currently available with MobileMe. With competitors like Dropbox, the old ways just won't cut it.
We'll be there live on Monday June 6th, but, until then, get out your prophesying hats and start prophesying in comments!
Report from CEO Marty Lafferty
 Cloud computing continues to be one of the hottest technology trends of 2011, impacting many business sectors, and cloud-based digital music storage represents one of its more glamorous and high-profile implementations.
The distributed computing industry joins music interests in cheering the launch of Apple's long-awaited iCloud, to be unveiled personally by chief executive Steve Jobs at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2011 on Monday June 6th.
Apple reportedly purchased "iCloud.com" for $4.5 million in April to secure the name for the web domain with the name that matches its latest "i-offering."
CNET's Greg Sandoval reports that the company has finally signed a deal with Universal Music to license songs for this new cloud-based storage and streaming service, meaning that it will be able to launch with support from all four major record labels.
The LA Times' Alex Pham says that Apple will "eventually" charge subscribers $25 a year for iCloud and sell advertising around the service.
With respect to revenue sharing, CNET says the agreements call for the record labels to take 58% of iCloud revenue, while publishers will get 12%, and Apple will retain 30%.
The NY Times' Ben Sisario says that half of the four major music publishers have also reached agreements with Apple for iCloud.
Meanwhile, the New York Post's Claire Atkinson is reporting that Apple will pay each major label between $25 million and $50 million for a total of $100-to-150 million in up-front royalty payments - a sum comparable to what LimeWire recently paid to settle a copyright infringement suit with the labels.
The Post says it was such up-front payments that stalled negotiations between Google and the labels, but that the parties are still in talks, and Google may close deals for a more advanced cloud service by September. Google Music launched earlier this year without licensing from the major record labels, and now offers free storage capacity for 20,000 music tracks per user.
Amazon was actually first-to-market with a cloud music entry, offering 5GB of free "Cloud Drive" space (approximately 2,000 songs) with the option of a 20GB (8,000 tracks) paid upgrade. Users can upload music from their PCs and Macs along with Amazon MP3 purchases to be played on Android devices via the cloud.
Steve Gordon's Future of the Music Business offers his take on each of the new cloud-based music services offered by Apple, Amazon, and Google, asking the question, "Will they save the music business?"
There's also Sony's Music Unlimited, with two levels of monthly subscriptions, which has been the most successful cloud-based music service year-to-date, despite being affected by Sony's PlayStation Network outage in April and May.
Subs can sync their personal libraries and playlists with Music Unlimited via PC for playback on Sony's Internet-connected devices, with mobile devices coming later in the year.
Revenue projections for Apple's share of iCloud revenue run like this: half of Apple's 184 million iPhone units in calendar 2011 ($690 million), 75 million iPad units ($281 million), and one-third of 81 million iPod units ($200 million) for a total of $1.2 billion in annual revenue for the company - and slightly more than iTunes generates.
Fast Company calls Apple's iCloud initiative "key to defining how Apple evolves into providing content as a service as well as being a code maker, hardware manufacturer, and front-end store for apps and video content."
Overall, Apple is expected to report revenue of $103 billion in revenue for its fiscal year ending September 30th.
Industry observers have speculated on what Apple needs to do to beat its competition. Ideas range from more flexible pricing, including a free service, to greater storage capacity at each level; more ubiquitous device coverage from the outset, including mobile devices; seamless integration with iTunes; and automatic network accessing with whatever iCloud device a subscriber may be using.
Others believe that the technology aspects will pose a greater challenge - and opportunity for differentiation - to Apple, such as relative uptime, plus responsiveness to outages and how well Apple handles service level agreement (SLA) terms and conditions. It will be very important for iCloud to scale, as the likelihood of quickly adding millions of users to a highly publicized Apple-backed digital entertainment service is high. Presumably, the company's enormous new data center in North Carolina will play a key role.
Apple will probably be forced to be more transparent than it typically has been, particularly when glitches occur, as they inevitably will. And issues like redundancy, back-up and recovery, and fail-over planning will be important. The objective here should be for Apple to make these IT issues invisible by ensuring that everything works and continues working.
In many ways, iCloud's success will rest with cloud-computing implementation basics like the above; and skeptics point to the shortcomings of MobileMe, upon which iCloud in part is based, and the unproven LaLa service that Apple acquired and then shuttered nearly two years ago. Some, like Carl Brooks, even deny that iCloud is a cloud-computing service at all: "You know what iCloud is? Streaming media. In other words, it's a web service. Not relevant to cloud; not even in the ballpark."
But even with naysayers given their due, iCloud could transform iTunes into a much more valuable and versatile service than it currently is by enabling access to music from any device, anywhere.
And when TV programs, e-books, and movies are added to iCloud - as with iTunes - its utility will further increase, driving more hardware sales for Apple's core product lines that represent literally two orders of magnitude more revenue for the company, but are directly impacted by its digital entertainment services. We believe Apple's iCloud has enormous potential. Share wisely, and take care.
In Unusual Move, Apple Previews New Software Plans
Excerpted from NY Times Report by Nick Bolton
Apple said on Tuesday that it would announce new versions of the software that powers its computers and cell-phones, as well as a new Internet service that could connect these devices.
The company gave few details about the service, which it calls iCloud, but analysts think it would allow people to gain access to music, photos, and videos over the Internet on multiple Apple devices, without needing to sync those devices. An Internet-based version of iTunes with those features has long been expected, and iCloud comes on the heels of deals between Apple and major recording labels that would allow such a service to go forward.
The announcement is to be made next week by Steven P. Jobs, the chief executive, at Apple's annual developers conference in San Francisco. Mr. Jobs has been on medical leave since January, though he made a surprise appearance in March to introduce a new iPad.
Apple's preview, posted on a company website, was unusual because it generally takes pains to keep any announcements or details about new products secret until they are formally unveiled.
Some commentators on technology blogs were surprised that Apple was apparently not planning to announce a new version of the iPhone. Traditionally, Apple announces new products on a yearly cycle; the iPhone 4 was introduced in June of last year.
"It feels like the first time in quite a while that there hasn't been any hardware associated with an upcoming Apple announcement," said Charles S. Golvin, an analyst with Forrester Research.
"It's all software related." Hinting at next week's software could help the company lower expectations of a new mobile phone release, he said.
Mr. Golvin and other analysts say the next version of the iPhone will probably be released in September or October. The next iPhone is expected to use a chip from Qualcomm that will allow it to work on almost any cellular carrier.
In 2007, Apple released MobileMe, its previous effort at so-called cloud computing, which allows people to share contacts, calendars and e-mail among devices. But MobileMe did not work well, and it is considered a rare failure for Apple. MobileMe has also struggled to gain customers because of its high price of $100 a year; competing products from Google are available free.
The new iCloud service is expected to include revamped features of MobileMe but go further by including music - becoming a so-called cloud-based iTunes.
Apple has signed contracts with Sony Music Entertainment, EMI, and the Warner Music Group to license those labels' recordings, but it is still negotiating with the Universal Music Group, the largest of the four major labels, according to a person briefed on the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity because the deals were private.
While Amazon and Google recently released similar cloud music services, Apple's is expected to be superior. Google and Amazon have not obtained rights for their services from labels, so they require users to upload their music collections to the cloud. In contrast, Apple's service is said to scan people's iTunes libraries and then make the songs in them available on any device.
Prices would be critical in any cloud music service.
"The key question here is pricing, with the only sensible model for a cloud-based service from Apple being subscription-based," said Mr. Golvin. He also said a cloud-based music service would raise additional questions. "What is the specific benefit Apple is bringing to customers and how will people listen to their music on an airplane or other non-Internet connected space?"
An Apple cloud-based music service has been anticipated since at least 2009, when Apple bought LaLa, a start-up company that allowed users to play music they already owned from the web. Shortly after the deal closed, Apple shut LaLa.
Apple has a billion-dollar data center in North Carolina that it has said will handle services like music. It is expected to discuss this at next week's conference.
Cloud in 2011: A Bright New Dawn
Excerpted from The Register Report by Lucy Sherriff
An awful lot has been written about cloud computing in recent months. Big vendors are climbing over each other to claim an understanding of cloud, and 2011 is the year it is supposed to go mainstream.
Cloud computing will save us money, it will simplify our IT systems, it will transform the way we interact with government, it will lift Europe out of the shadows of recession. It has been described as the third industrial revolution. Perhaps it will even bring us breakfast in bed.
In a report commissioned by EMC, the Center for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) estimates that cloud computing could be worth 763 billion euros to the top five European economies over the next five years and will see the creation of 2.4 million jobs.
Can this possibly be true? David Bradshaw, a cloud computing specialist at the analyst firm IDC, thinks it can.
"This is a big shift in the way things are done in the IT domain. It might be slow at the start but in ten years' time, we'll look back and see that it has transformed everything. It is at least as big a shift as the switch to client/server computing," he says.
Cloud shifts companies from capital expenditure to operating expenses. Only buying what you need when you need it, rather than spending huge sums on systems that might be out of date by the time they are up and running, will make a massive difference, Bradshaw says.
Oliver Hogan, managing economist at the CEBR, agrees that the numbers look good but urges caution in heralding the dawn of a new era.
"IT spend is usually no more than five per cent of a firm's turnover. Cloud is important, but it is not quite another industrial revolution," he says.
When businesses talk about saving money they all too often mean reducing headcount, and shifting IT offsite will certainly reduce the need for internal support.
Reg reader "Tezfair" sums up concerns of many IT pros:
"I see the cloud as the start of the end for IT professionals. Once businesses start putting their systems onto the cloud there's going to be next to no support needed. It will all be done at the host. I can see a lot of people out of a job within ten years once this becomes mainstream. And no, I'm not going to spend thousands of pounds on a certificate that will ultimately make me redundant."
Should he be so pessimistic? In a companion piece to this one, Reg columnist Trevor Pott explores the opportunities for in-house IT pros in a cloud-driven world.
He is upbeat about future prospects, as is Hogan, who says the implicit assumption in the CEBR analysis is that staff would be redeployed in other IT departments or elsewhere in the economy.
"It is not an unrealistic assumption for this kind of highly skilled labor," he argues.
"Like any other sector, IT service providers will benefit from the cost savings, business development and business creation benefits of cloud adoption, which will result in new job creation."
Conor Callanan, Managing Director of Core, a Microsoft Sharepoint reseller, notes that financial directors and chief executives are much quicker to sign up to doing projects in the cloud than their IT colleagues. The usual IT objections are about security issues, rather than the likely impact on staff.
New firms can be more competitive right away
Hogan believes the business benefits will be significant. There will be big savings on infrastructure, and businesses will be able to scale up or down quickly to meet demand and get new products to market faster.
"The reduction in fixed costs also means a lower barrier to market entry," he adds. "New firms can be more competitive right away."
Billing and customer relationship management systems are natural candidates for the cloud model, so it is no surprise that customer-heavy sectors - financial services, utilities, governments, leisure and retail - are expected to buy into the concept fastest.
In five years, between 60 and 80% of all financial and business services firms are expected to be running their IT in the cloud, in part driven by moves towards joint accountability for Europe's financial stability and cross-border data sharing.
The CEBR's research concludes that the UK will receive a smaller share of those benefits relative to GDP than Italy, France, Germany, or Spain.
"In general, small firms in the UK are smaller than those in France and Germany, and therefore less efficient and less able to make economies of scale work for them," says Hogan.
"But the firms adopting cloud technology will probably have a better chance of catching up with their European counterparts."
Bradshaw too thinks cloud will have an immediate impact in the UK. "It is anecdotally accepted that for most enterprises, capital expenditure on IT is higher than that on core business," he notes. "Why do that if you don't have to?"
He says current adoption splits three ways: companies seriously using cloud technologies in one area, companies using some cloud and companies not using any cloud at all. But more and more companies are finding themselves in one of the first two categories.
And for once the UK is ahead of the curve, largely because people are comfortable with the concept and familiar with many of the applications.
"You will be hard pressed to find many organizations not using the cloud," Bradshaw observes. "You might not think so, but if you use Gmail, or spam filtering from Message Labs, or e-mail from Postini, then you are using the cloud. Why have malware on your server if you can do it in the cloud?"
He reckons five years from now most European organizations will have signed up.
"When it comes to software renewal, it will be standard to say 'Can we do this in the cloud?'" he says.
Google Music Beta: Cloud Music Done Right
Excerpted from ZDNet Report by Scott Raymond
Recently I had the pleasure of receiving an invite to the Google Music Beta program. Initial reviews of the product were less than favorable. However, very soon afterward, Google released an update to the software that seems to have improved things substantially.
If your Android device doesn't have the new music app, it's a simple matter of downloading it from the Android Market. Google provides and impressive amount of storage for the beta: users can currently upload up to 20,000 songs.
Getting set up is fairly straightforward. Using your existing Google account, you download and install the desktop application. You can configure it to pull your music from Windows Media Player, iTunes, or simply define a directory full of music files. Your system then uploads your music in the background-and you can even limit the upload speed so it doesn't throttle your Internet connection.
Once you have music files stored online, you can start listening to them right away. You can play them over the Internet through the Android app, and you can also play through the web-based app. You also have the option of configuring the player to download music from your account as it plays so it can be cached for offline usage.
Admittedly, when playing music over a smart-phone connection, your available bandwidth is going to affect the quality of the playback. If you have 4G connectivity, or even 3G, there should be no problem. I would not recommend trying to play music over a lower speed connection. Also, keep in mind that this will count towards your data usage if you do not have an unlimited data plan.
There is no facility for purchasing music through the service yet. It is primarily a type of store and forward cloud service for your existing music. I have several thousand songs from my CD collection online with the Google Music service now, and I find it to be a simple, elegant music storage system.
This is the kind of service where the cloud really shines, providing immediate access to data - in this case, music - to any location where you have Internet access. All you need is a web browser or the Android app installed on your smart-phone or tablet, and you're good to go.
SoundCloud Integrates Music Sharing via Tumblr Blogs
Excerpted from Digital Media Wire Report by Mark Hefflinger Mark Hefflinger
Music-sharing platform SoundCloud announced on Wednesday that it has partnered with blogging platform Tumblr, to allow users to share audio files uploaded via SoundCloud on their Tumblr blogs.
SoundCloud's mobile iPhone and Android apps offer audio capture on-the-fly, and files created can now be shared directly to a Tumblr blog.
SoundCloud users can also now automatically push any songs they like on the service to Tumblr.
Pandora Raises IPO Target to $140 Million
Excerpted from Digital Media Wire Report by Mark Hefflinger
Personalized streaming music service Pandora this week filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to raise nearly $142 million in an initial public offering (IPO) of shares, which is now expected to take place very soon.
The company said it plans to sell 13.7 million shares at a target price of between $7 and $9 - up 40% on the $100 million Pandora had targeted in a previous filing made in February.
The new filing would value the company at between $1 billion and $1.4 billion.
Pandora's shares will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol, "P."
Tennis Channel Selects Octoshape to Stream 2011 French Open
Octoshape and B2 Broadcasting today announced they have been chosen by Tennis Channel as the exclusive provider of video streaming services for the prestigious multi-venue and multi-week 110th French Open.
"We partnered with B2 Broadcasting and Octoshape to achieve this, and are very pleased with the result."
B2 Broadcasting is providing the onsite encoding services, as well as the enhanced multi court video player experience. The encoded video signals are acquired using the Octoshape Infinite Uplink technologies and streaming to the audience is delivered through the Octoshape Infinite Edge technology suite. Fans have access to live coverage of 165 matches from Paris beginning May 22 and concluding on June 5.
The live and on demand stream coverage includes unique Octoshape features such as instant-on, DVR functionality and picture-in-picture viewing options. The player experience also includes bonus features developed by B2 Broadcasting, such as live chat and event stats.
"It's important to Tennis Channel that our viewers are able to enjoy the French Open online with the highest quality video services available," said Robyn Miller, senior vice president, Tennis Channel. "We partnered with B2 Broadcasting and Octoshape to achieve this, and are very pleased with the result."
Tennis Channel has more hours of live French Open coverage than any U.S. television network, approximately 75 overall. The network is available in more than 55 million homes during the tournament, the most prestigious annual clay-court event in tennis. However, for those who do not currently receive Tennis Channel, Tennischannel.com provides a live online stream that allows you to watch all the normal coverage for free.
"We are delighted that Tennis Channel has chosen us to live stream the landmark sporting event - further proof that event webcasters are drawn to the proposition of providing viewers a higher quality viewing experience that's more affordable than previously possible," said Scott Brown, US General Manager and Vice President for Strategic Relations for Octoshape.
"The French Open is a fantastic event for B2 to leverage our Octoshape partnership and our core broadcasting competencies in providing a robust broadband player for Tennis Channel," said Paul Dingwitz, CTO B2 Broadcasting.
The tournament consists of both men and women's singles and doubles, and draws a mixed doubles event. There are also singles and doubles events for both boys and girls (players under 18) which are part of the Grade A category of tournaments.
Groupon Finally Files IPO
Excerpted from Online Media Daily Report by Laurie Sullivan
Daily deals site Groupon filed for an IPO Thursday with the intention of raising an estimated $750 million. Although still struggling to turn a profit, the company reported revenue of $644.7 million in Q1 2011, with 83 million subscribers across 43 countries, according to reports.
Groupon hired Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, and Goldman Sachs as lead underwriters for the offering. It will trade under the ticker "GRPN." The daily deal site had an interesting start.
The company turned down a reported $6 billion bid from Google in December. Shortly afterward, it accepted a cash infusion from venture capitalists of around $1 billion from Fidelity Investments and T. Rowe Price.
Groupon.com, by market share of US visits was the 64th-most visited site, with 14 million visits in the US, for the week end May 28, according to Experian Hitwise. The research firm estimates for that week Groupon.com captured 76% of visits among a category of 81 group buying sites.
Searches for "groupon" in the US rose 462% for the week, compared with the year-ago week.
World IPv6 Day on June 8th
Excerpted from Digitizor Report
This coming Wednesday (June 8, 2011), around 300 websites - including Google, Facebook, Yahoo!, Bing - are testing the IPv6 readiness of the Internet.
For a 24-hour "test flight," these participating websites will offer their content over IPv6. The test will consist of the participating websites publishing their DNS AAAA record and connecting IPv6 capable users through IPv6.
According to the Internet Society, which is organizing the test, the goal of the Test Flight Day is to motivate organizations across the industry - Internet service providers (ISPs), hardware makers, operating system vendors and web companies - to prepare their services for IPv6 to ensure a successful transition as IPv4 addresses run out.
In preparation for the event, Google is already preparing users by notifying them of the upcoming test and suggesting that they test if they are IPv6 ready.
Clicking on the Try It Now link in the notification will take users to a page which tests if they are ready for IPv6 or not.
What to do if you are not IPv6 ready?
Most of the modern Operating Systems already support IPv6. So, there should be no problem from the software. However, users might not be IPv6 ready because of their network infrastructure.
Even if the test shows that you are not IPv6 ready, there is no reason for you to worry. The participating websites will use IPv6 only for the users who are IPv6 ready. Those who are not ready will continue to get content through IPv4.
What Does IPv6 Mean to Broadcasters?
Excerpted from TV Technology Report by Wes Simpson
While there aren't any reports of companies giving their employees the day off on June 8th to celebrate World IPv6 Day, it does mark an industry milestone along the path of migration of the Internet from Internet Protocol version four (IPv4) to Internet Protocol version six (IPv6).
During World IPv6 Day, many large website providers such as Google, Facebook and Yahoo! are enabling IPv6 capabilities on their main websites for a 24-hour period. This will be the first time that a large group of major websites have jointly enabled IPv6, and this test should produce some useful data about how well networks operate at scale using this new technology.
The migration from IPv4 to IPv6 will take years (it has already been underway for over a decade), but Internet users and content providers such as broadcasters may want to assess the impact of this change on their current ways of doing business. In general, this transition is expected to be gradual, with minimal impact on most users.
"Both short term and long term the typical home/corporate user should see no impact, said Mark Taylor, vice president of content and Media at Level 3 Communications, a Broomfield, CO based provider of fiber backhaul.
"It's up to service providers and technology providers to make IPv6 transparent to users." IPv6 is a new version of the familiar IPv4 protocol that has been used for Internet addressing since its inception.
The current system, which uses 32 bit IP addresses (normally represented in the familiar dotted decimal form of 192.168.1.1, for example), is being replaced with a system that uses 128 bit IP addresses.
IPv6 also uses a completely different packet header than IPv4. These differences mean that IPv4 devices cannot communicate with IPv6 websites and vice-versa. Fortunately, both protocols can work over existing Ethernet and other low-level networking technologies, so there is no need to replace the physical infrastructure of LANs or carrier networks.
One of the main drivers that is forcing the adoption of IPv6 is the coming exhaustion of the IPv4 address space. With 32 bits, the total possible universe of IPv4 addresses is 232, or just under 4.3 billion possible addresses.
As you might guess, most of these addresses have already been assigned to websites, companies and users, so the supply of vacant blocks of IP addresses will likely run out sometime during 2011.
It is hard to imagine ever running out of IPv6 addresses, with more than 4 billion times as many addresses available. This change will also simplify some of the functions of routers, because many of the special function bits present in the IPv4 header have been eliminated in IPv6. Content providers (such as broadcasters who operate websites) may, at some point in the future, need to deal with users who only have IPv6 addresses.
These users won't be able to access websites that only support IPv4 connections. To support these users, many websites are employing a "dual-stack" approach, where web servers are configured to have interfaces for both IPv4 and IPv6 traffic.
This method allows both current IPv4 and future IPv6 users to access the websites. Fortunately, all of the major computer operating systems have already been updated to work with IPv6.
Microsoft Windows XP was upgraded in service Pack 1, and Apple Mac OS X v10.3 "Panther" supported it as well. Current versions of Linux and Solaris also support IPv6. One barrier that could stand in the way of potential IPv6 users is outdated networking equipment, including wireless routers and other network access devices.
This can sometimes be overcome with a firmware upgrade to the affected equipment. Another potential barrier is the user's local Internet service provider, which may or may not support IPv6 traffic through their network.
Correcting this could require either patience or a change of carrier. Some challenges may occur when using IPv6 within LANs, particularly those used in broadcaster facilities. One challenge is the added overhead of the larger IP packet headers, which can increase the network overheads when moving large video files.
Another challenge is the cost in both time and support fees that could be required to update and verify all of the specialized equipment used inside a broadcast facility, including video file servers and editing workstations. For now, there is no significant benefit to migrating from IPv4 to IPv6 within broadcaster LANs.
"While it makes prudent sense to ensure that new equipment being purchased is IPv6 compatible, there is no "big event" to prepare for, per se," said Derek Anderson, Senior Director, Product Management at Level 3.
"IPv4 isn't going to suddenly be switched off, so existing equipment will still continue to work." Users who want to experiment with IPv6 can begin by testing their Internet connection by visiting the IPv6 Test Website, located at http://test-ipv6.com/.
This handy site provides a report on the mechanism that a user's particular browser/network combination can use to access IPv6 websites. For more information on World IPv6 day, visit isoc.org/wp/worldipv6day.
Does Video Quality Affect Usage?
Excerpted from Vid Blog Report by Steve Smith
How many users does a publisher lose every time the viewer has to endure a delayed start of video content or multiple buffering pauses? And who does that user blame? Hulu or Netflix? CNN? Or Comcast and Cablevision? Surely Akamai and Level3, generally unknown to most onliners, will not take the heat.
It is hard to say who pays what sort of price for poor video performance on the web, but Alcatel-Lucent introduces this morning a video analytics product for top level service providers that is designed to ferret out where and when quality of experience problems exist in the system and help determine if it leads to frustrated customers.
"The goal is to reduce churn," Alcatel-Lucent Ventures' Mark "Buck" Peterson says. "A lot of these online subscribers when they buy Internet service have a big loyalty to over-the-top content." Netflix or Hulu are now the streaming media that people are following across tablets and TVs in their homes, and consistent performance is becoming their priority, he contends. "If they get bad experiences with that they tend to move to other service providers. They blame the service provider."
Well, we probably don't know that for sure yet, but Alcatel-Lucent Ventures, a strategic investment group within Bell Labs, is betting on the growing paranoia among MSOs and other service providers who now have competitors breathing down their necks.
The AppGlide Video Analytics managed service tries to look at the video experience from the end user's point of view. It uses player plug-ins to measure Quality of Experience (QoE) across the network and determine when things like delayed starts and buffering cause people to bail in different regions. It also offers tools for measuring content delivery network devices as well as analyze content usage.
Peterson says that while other products measure various pieces of the QoE equation, the AppGlide product stands out for its cross-correlation of data. He says customers have been asking for analytics that show whether their churn is attributable to bad product or to bad delivery. When the service providers try to secure new and better content from publishers, the media brands want evidence that the network will deliver good experiences. Whether the service providers will agree is anyone's guess. Peterson says the service is cloud-based and priced on a per-subscriber basis at pennies per user.
One can imagine how a broad view of QoE can inform a number of business decisions and even help imagine new product offerings. For instance, do we know whether it is worthwhile for publishers and service providers to focus energy on hi-res iterations of their video online? I for one gave up on ticking the 1080p option on YouTube long ago, even though I have enhanced Comcast broadband. The delivery is halting, whether it is made so by Comcast, YouTube or just Google Chrome's persistently weird interaction with Flash players. Who do I blame? I don't know for sure. Does it keep me from watching videos? No. Does the Hi-Def option add or retain users? Who knows? Peterson says that they do know that users are more irritated by changes in video quality in adaptive streams. Apparently it is better to start and stick with a modest bit rate than to kick resolution up and down in the middle of an experience.
On the other hand one can imagine cross-correlated data on QoE also being used to segment high-usage audiences like me and target them for higher tiers of service. Sometime soon I may be getting a note from Comcast pointing out that my drop-offs during that botched iPad viewing of Parks & Recreation could have been prevented with a 50MB/s super-fat pipe upgrade.
Alcatel-Lucent Pitches Tool for Measuring Online Video Quality
Excerpted from Multichannel News Report by Todd Spangler
Alcatel-Lucent has developed a hosted video analytics service - AppGlide - designed to give service providers video quality metrics about over-the-top video traversing their networks so they can sell enhanced content distribution services to the likes of Netflix or YouTube.
The AppGlide service measures "quality of experience" of free or paid online video, using multiple cross-correlated metrics. The solution combines data from video player plug-ins, user agents, content-delivery network devices and routers.
The resulting data shows the volume and quality of video being delivered and helps service providers monitor, and isolate CDN performance, according to AppGlide general manager Mark "Buck" Peterson.
"It's absolutely a sales tool for service providers," he said.
Service providers want to be able to show third-party providers, "'your current quality of experience is X, and if you are on our network it would be Y,' but they don't have the metrics," Peterson said.
The AppGlide service is available for trial now, Peterson said.
The ability to correlate data lets AppGlide determine, for example, that viewers stopped watching a video after only 10 minutes and that it coincided with poor quality-of-experience, Peterson said. That information will then let the service provider "take very specific remedial steps."
AppGlide was incubated startup-style under Alcatel-Lucent's Ventures group, which is part of the Bell Labs R&D division, while the telecom equipment company's worldwide sales force will be pitching the product.
About 30 employees work on the AppGlide team. Peterson is based in Dallas with a few others, working with a team of engineers in Antwerp, Belgium, where the idea for the product originated.
More information on AppGlide is available at www.alcatel-lucent.com/appglide.
Verizon Sees Its Future in the Cloud
Excerpted from Washington Technology Report
Verizon Communications is preparing to ride a government wave to cloud computing. "I think we will see every federal agency this year do something with a cloud opportunity, and our sights will be targeted right at those," said Susan Zeleniak, group president of Verizon Federal.
Verizon enhanced significantly its cloud capabilities with the recent $1.4 billion acquisition of Terremark Worldwide Inc., a provider of managed IT services and cloud services. Verizon officials said the acquisition would strengthen its commercial and federal business by adding Terremark's portfolio of cloud solutions, business and government customers, and network of global data centers. "This is one acquisition where our federal clients called us to find out what was going on because they are very familiar with Terremark and could see the value of Verizon and Terremark being together," Zeleniak said.
Verizon is offering federal customers a variety of contract vehicles for cloud services. The company won a blanket purchasing agreement last year from the General Services Administration for cloud services, and it is also putting those services on the GSA schedule, Washington Interagency Telecommunications System 3 contract and other vehicles. Zeleniak said Verizon is actively discussing initiatives with at least eight major federal agencies for migrating a broad range of applications and services to the cloud.
Growing its cloud business will be key to helping Verizon maintain its status as one of government's top providers of telecommunications, IT and professional services. The New York-based telecommunications company is ranked No. 18 on Washington Technology's 2011 Top 100 list with $1.8 billion in prime contracts.
The company also expects to continue winning large awards through GSA's Networx government-wide acquisition contract for telecommunications services. Among Verizon's large Networx awards during the past year were: a $187 million contract with the Health and Human Services Department to provide an integrated customer contact solution to route 1 million customer calls each week; a $169 million contract to manage and secure HHS' IP and data networks, including a virtual private network and an array of security capabilities, such as managed firewalls and intrusion detection; and a contract to manage and secure all aspects of the Army Reserve Command's IP network in the continental United States.
Contracts, not yet publicly announced, to provide private IP networks for the Defense Department and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Zeleniak said she expects agencies to increase their demand for mobile services through Networx and other contract vehicles during the coming year. Last year, Verizon launched the Mobility Management for Government solution to help agencies manage and secure the wireless devices of their mobile employees. This solution is now coupled with Verizon's 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) network, which gives agencies the needed downloading speeds for audio and video conferencing, e-mail, and other applications on mobile devices.
Security is an important element for both cloud and mobile computing, and so Verizon expects security services to remain a strong component of its business. "The drive for security services never ends, because the challenge never ends," Zeleniak said. "We are constantly engaged with customers in providing managed security service to make sure their networks are not vulnerable to outside attacks."
Because of advancements in cyber-security services and solutions, security no longer presents a major roadblock to either cloud or mobile computing. Previously, federal leaders resisted cloud and mobile computing, saying, "'I can't do that, because it's not secure,'" Zeleniak said. "But now their attitude is, 'We have to do that, so how can we secure it.' We are seeing a big mind shift by our government customers."
Another area of strong growth for Verizon will be in the delivery of professional services, she said. During the past few years, Verizon has hired leading experts from industry in security, mobility, cloud computing, and other areas to provide consulting services to agencies implementing new technologies.
Given current budget constraints, winning new business can be challenging, and so to compete effectively and assist its federal customers, Verizon tries to help agencies find ways to cut their budgets, Zeleniak said. "We make sure that whatever we propose to a customer, we can show a positive return on investment - how the service or solution can save dollars, save time, and support their business."
Comcast Teams with Ascent Data on Cloud Services
Excerpted from CED Magazine Report by Mike Robuck
Comcast Business Services has paired up with Ascent Data's data center in Pittsburgh, PA to deliver services to small- and medium-size businesses in the area.
The goal of the partnership is to put enterprise-grade cloud computing and data center offerings, including colocation, managed hosting, virtualization, and disaster recovery and business continuity, within reach of area businesses.
The partnership joined Comcast's fiber-optic network with Ascent's Pittsburgh-based SAS 70 Type II data center.
"Pairing Comcast's Ethernet Private Line and metro Ethernet high-speed connectivity with our IT infrastructure brings a compelling response to the growing demand for cloud computing services in our market," said Steve Shangold, President and CEO at Ascent Data.
Comcast launched metro Ethernet services in more than 20 markets last month as it makes its move into serving medium-size businesses.
The agreement between Comcast Business Services and Ascent provides a means for small- to medium-size businesses to enhance data security and IT staff resources through a point-to-point connection that may have been unattainable in the past due to cost and physical location .
"We are pleased to collaborate with Ascent Data to help drive its continued success by providing dedicated, symmetrical metro Ethernet bandwidth that delivers a scalable, secure solution to help meet customers' escalating bandwidth requirements," said Glenn Lytle, vice president of Comcast Business Services for the Keystone Region. "This brings Comcast's industry-leading fiber-based network together with Ascent Data's secure SAS 70 Type II data center to give customers exceptional value, superior performance and robust solutions to meet their every need."
Comcast's metro Ethernet product features a 40-gigabit fiber backbone that is capable of delivering services with bandwidth ranging from 1 megabit to 10 gigabits per second over the last mile.
"I think our last mile is an incredible, unique asset, and the more ways that we can come up with to take advantage of that to meet the needs of small- and medium-size businesses, the better off we'll be," said Kevin O'Toole, senior vice president of product management and strategy for Comcast Business Services. "That is where you'll see us continue to focus a lot of energy. We think there's a lot of additional upside to be had in the metro Ethernet space as we go forward."
Small and medium-size businesses have been migrating to cloud-based offerings, which allow them to save on IT resources and pay for services that cost less than similar telco offerings. According to Forrester Research, the global cloud computing market will reach $241 billion in 2020, compared to $40.7 billion in 2010.
Trust in Cloud Computing Grows
Excerpted from Channel Insider Report by Nathan Eddy
Nearly one in 10 organizations in the US estimate they store more than $10 million worth of data in the cloud.
Semi-conductor manufacturer Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) announced the results of a global research study on adoption, attitudes and approaches to cloud computing, surveying IT decision-makers in public and private sector organizations across the United States, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. The findings revealed global and regional trends in cloud computing adoption and usage, highlighting the importance of both infrastructure and workloads in considering a cloud computing model.
The survey found cloud computing is maturing rapidly, with 70% of respondents indicating they are either using or currently investigating cloud computing for remotely hosted applications or to store data. Of those organizations that have deployed cloud solutions, 60% reported that they are already seeing business value. Among current cloud users, 92% stated that infrastructure was an important part of their decision to move to a cloud computing model. As cloud adoption continues to increase, so does the value of the data that lives in the cloud.
Sixty-three percent of those using the cloud to host data estimated they store more than $250,000 worth of data in the cloud, and by evaluating this survey field alone as a sample of the industry at large, it can be estimated that billions of dollars in active data currently live in the cloud.
"Based on the findings of this global study, AMD believes it is time for the industry to reshape the way we think about cloud technology," said Patrick Patla, General Manager and Vice President of AMD's server and embedded divisions. "The findings point to the fact that while the era of cloud computing has arrived, there are radically different attitudes, approaches, concerns and levels of maturity depending on business environment."
Ninety-two percent of respondents currently using the cloud stated that infrastructure was important in their decision to adopt cloud computing. Global private sector respondents also identified the workloads they believe most suited potentially for cloud computing as email, finance/accounting and Web serving, in that order. Nearly one in 10 organizations in the United States estimated they store more than $10 million worth of data in the cloud. However, 63% of global respondents still view security as one of the greatest risks associated with the model.
For those currently using the cloud, 75% had the necessary IT skills to implement the solution, versus only 39 percent of those who are currently investigating cloud today. Cloud users are able to access their services primarily via a PC (90%), followed by smart-phone (56%), tablet (37%) and thin client (32%).
"As an industry, we must provide clear guidance about how to optimize hardware and software for all types of clouds, focusing on custom parts for specific workloads that are prevalent in the cloud and the appropriate balance of performance, power and cost efficiency they require," Patla said.
Coming Events of Interest
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.
Digital Media Conference - June 17th in Washington, DC. The DCIA presents CONTENT IN THE CLOUD as part of the digital media business issues and law & policy tracks at this eighth annual gathering of over 500 of the most influential decision-makers in the media, entertainment, and technology industries.
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.
TransmitCHINA Talks - September 14th-16th at the Great Wall of China. International leaders, thinkers, innovators, and creators will have an exclusive opportunity to hear a cross-section of preeminent thought leaders from some of the world's most innovative organizations in the digital and creative content ecosystem.
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