July 22, 2013
Volume XLIV, Issue 8
Cloud Computing Services Get Popular
Excerpted from China Economic Net Report by Xu Hong
The presentation of the upcoming "Quintana: Box Story," a 3D animated movie, lasting for dozens of seconds, tempts the appetite of the audience with its gorgeous and magnificent animation. According to reports, this is the first time a 3D animated movie in China made use of cloud computing for visual rendering effects.
More and more e-mails, web search, e-commence, instant messaging (IM), and location-based service (LBS) are applying cloud computing.
Ever since 2012, the domestic cloud computing industry in China has transformed from the cultivation period to the quasi-mature period, and cloud computing is marching into ordinary people's lives.
"We spent merely three months in fulfilling the complicated rendering of 'Quintana: Box Story,' which benefits from the application of 6,700 sets of AliCloud distributed high-performance computer clusters,", said Wang Jian, President of Alibaba Cloud Computing, who added that the application of cloud rendering has completely smashed the bottleneck encountered by domestic 3D animated movies and dramatically enhanced the benefits and efficiency.
It is reported that more and more enterprises are engaged in cloud computing's R&D, manufacturing, integration, and services; as a result, an industrial chain of cloud computing is gradually taking shape.
On the other hand, its technical reserve is continuously making breakthroughs and cloud applications are stepping into the period of being adopted on a large scale.
"Cloud" has not only altered traditional production modes, but also brought new industrial opportunities.
Wang Jian once said that "the accumulated calculation amount of 'Quintana: Box Story' has exceeded 10 million CPU core hours. If, in accordance with past practice, animation producers had to purchase servers and build rendering platforms by themselves, it would have taken at least three years for completion. However, by using of cloud rendering, more than 90 percent of the cost was eliminated."
Thanks to cloud computing, rendering of more movies like "Quintana: Box Story" will be possible.
Cloud computing motivates the reform of the production mode, brings chances for the development of numerous small and mid-sized information service enterprises, and amplifies business opportunities for more individual and enterprise developers.
Cloud computing services, which can be utilized the same way as electricity, along with its convenient access, turn many prior "impossibilities" into "possibilities." It can be concluded that the industry has poured more expectations into cloud clouding.
Cloud computing is entering the phase of blooming everywhere. During the Fifth China Cloud Computing Conference (CCCC), the reporter discovered a brand-new IT service. By connecting a box as big as palm into any terminal, users are able to intelligently interact with all data centers at the cloud terminal. There is no need to carry heavy computers wherever you travel, and what users need is only this "cloud box" so as to remotely login the office systems and conduct telecommuting.
Please click here for the full report.
Octoshape on TV for Broadband Connected Devices
Cloud-based streaming technology leader Octoshape and Juniper Networks have collaborated on a white paper detailing disruptive new ways to achieve the scale, quality, and economics of satellite and IPTV distribution systems, now via over-the-top (OTT) unmanaged broadband infrastructures to connected devices.
"It's Time to Rethink What You Know About Multicast" explains how Octoshape brings multicast capabilities to the unmanaged broadband network. Octoshape accelerates video distribution over the Internet by optimizing traditional streaming technologies into a high performance UDP flow via IETF standard multicast protocols over the public Internet.
It also provides multipath capabilities that dynamically route traffic around congestion. That, in turn, facilitates TV quality video and uptime to broadband connected devices all leveraging the power of the cloud.
Service providers have long seen the ability of multicast to scale privately managed IPTV networks easily, leveraging the efficient usage of bandwidth as a tool that will help control traffic loads, offer new services, generate additional revenues, and strengthen long-term profitability.
This has met significant challenges over unmanaged broadband networks, forcing them to use less efficient and more expensive unicast technologies.
The white paper looks at new, innovative technologies that overcome traditional multicast issues, like the need to deploy multicast protocols on every router in the path between sources and receivers, the difficulty of delivering multicast service reliably over the Internet's best-effort environment and the lack of adaptive bit rate streaming with multicast.
Equipped with these new tools, operators can turn the promise of broadband multicast into a reality, achieving all the scale, quality and economic aspects of traditional TV delivery, now over broadband.
Please click here to download the new white paper for free.
Report from CEO Marty Lafferty
 The second wave of keynote speakers, panelists, and moderators for CLOUD COMPUTING WEST 2013 (CCW:2013) will be announced this week featuring service providers Dell SecureWorks, IBM, and Rackspace, enterprise end-users GenosTV, Rafelson Media, Las Vegas Sands Corporation, and more.
CCW:2013 is the Cloud Computing Association's (CCA) and Distributed Computing Industry Association's (DCIA) business strategy summit taking place October 27th-29th at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, NV.
Our first wave of speakers included industry leaders AT&T Mobility, Comcast, Dell, Microsoft, Netflix, and Sprint Nextel.
This year's themes are "Revolutionizing Entertainment & Media" and "The Impact of Mobile Cloud Computing & Big Data."
Rackspace's Cloud Products Program Manager Tom Hopkins will keynote on "Strawberry Coconut Cloud — You Choose the Flavor."
IBM Cloud Architecture Executive Mark Sorency will explain "How to Build Your Cloud Strategy."
And Dell SecureWorks Director of Product Management, Cloud Security, Mark Wood will offer guidance on "Selecting Technologies to Secure Your Cloud."
Featured media and entertainment speakers will include GenosTV Co-Founder & CTO Mike West, Rafelson Media CEO Peter Rafelson, and Las Vegas Sands CIO Les Ottolenghi.
Microsoft's Platform Technology Evangelist Yung Chou, Trend Micro Director Dan Reis, and Sprint Nextel's Chief Cloud Strategist Jay Gleason will also have prominent roles.
ABI Research's Practice Director Sam Rosen will speak on "Consumer Transition to the Cloud: Service Provider & OTT Video, Gaming, and Music Services."
AT&T Mobility's Enterprise Architecture Manager Melody Yuhn will address "Mobile Storage Considerations."
Dell's Enterprise Cloud Evangelist Michael Elliott will discuss "Hybrid Clouds — The End State."
And Netflix's Architect and Principal Engineer Mikey Cohen will examine "Cloud Migration Considerations."
There's no question that advances in cloud computing are having enormous effects on the creation, storage, distribution, and consumption of diverse genres of content.
And most profound among these effects are those involving the increased proliferation of portable playback systems and the accompanying generation of unprecedented amounts of viewership, listenership, and usage information from audiences globally.
The ubiquity and widespread acceptance of user interfaces that reflect the dynamic interactivity exemplified by smart-phone applications is rapidly replacing the flat linearity of traditional TV channel line-ups and changing expectations for a new generation of consumers.
Cloud-based information and entertainment-of-all-kinds accessible everywhere always on each connected device will become the new norm.
And perfect data related to consumer behaviors associated with discovering and consuming this content will displace metering and ratings technologies based solely on statistical sampling.
Two CCW:2013 conference tracks will zero in on the latest advances in applying cloud-based solutions to all aspects of high-value entertainment production and storage, as well as media delivery and analysis options; along with the growing impact of mobile cloud computing on this sector, and the related expansion of big data challenges and opportunities.
DCINFO readers are encouraged to get involved in CCA's and DCIA's CCW:2013 as exhibitors, sponsors, and speakers.
The CCA is handling exhibits and sponsorships. Please click here for more information.
The DCIA's role is to provide keynotes, panelists, and case-study presenters to participate in our comprehensive agenda of sessions in ENTERTAINMENT & MEDIA and MOBILE CLOUD & BIG DATA.
Please click here to apply to speak at CCW:2013.
We will also be pleased to entertain proposals for additional session or workshop topics. Please click here to make your suggestion. Share wisely, and take care.
Google Pitches Online TV Service to Media Companies
Excerpted from Wall St. Journal Report by Christopher Stewart and Shalini Ramachandran
Google is joining several other technology companies in the race to launch an online version of pay television.
Google has recently approached media companies about licensing their content for an Internet TV service that would stream traditional TV programming, people familiar with the matter say.
If the web giant goes ahead with the idea, it would join several other companies planning to offer services that deliver cable TV-style packages of channels over broadband connections.
Intel and Sony are both working on similar offerings, while Apple has pitched various TV licensing ideas to media companies in the past couple of years.
Google has made overtures to some programmers in recent months about the initiative, people familiar with the situation said. In at least one case, Google has provided a demonstration of the product, according to a person who saw the demonstration. Google didn't immediately have a comment.
If launched, the Internet-TV services could have major implications for the traditional TV ecosystem, creating new competition for pay-TV operators that are already struggling to retain video subscribers.
Existing online-video players like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon offer on-demand TV, but the latest efforts are aimed at offering conventional channels, allowing consumers to flip through channels just as they would on cable, as well as on-demand programming.
There is no guarantee Google, or any of the technology companies, will be able to strike licensing deals.
Media companies are nervous about undermining their lucrative arrangements with existing distributors by licensing to new online pay services.
The media companies are more focused on expanding online and on-demand availability of their programming through current distributors, say media executives.
While they are open to licensing their content, they generally give the best prices to the biggest distributors.
To get decent rates for so-called over-the-top (OTT) TV services, Google and other companies will almost certainly have to accept the standard programming bundles that cable and satellite operators pay for — packages that include highly popular and less popular channels.
This is the second time Google has gone down this path. About two years ago Google had conversations with media companies about a similar service, the people said. But those discussions didn't get very far, one of the people said.
Still, the environment has changed since then: not only are several other technology companies actively working on similar services but pay-TV providers are also asking entertainment companies for nation-wide streaming rights.
While none of those other discussions has yet resulted in any new services, that could soon change. Intel, which plans to launch its service by year-end, has had discussions with several media companies to acquire broadband-service rights for more than a year.
It is unclear whether the company has yet struck any major programming deals. But it may at least have a name. Documents disclosed last week indicate that the company may call the service OnCue. An Intel spokesman declined to comment Tuesday.
The status of Sony's plans aren't clear, although one media executive said Tuesday Sony could launch its service before Intel. As previously reported, Sony plans to beam its service over broadband connections to Sony-made devices, which include PlayStation gaming consoles, TV sets, and Blu-ray players. A Sony spokesman declined to comment.
Apple has met with resistance from media companies throughout negotiations to license content, said people familiar with the situation.
All tech companies looking to launch a video service face a fundamental challenge: If they can't beat cable or satellite TV on pricing and offer the same lineup of channels, it isn't clear why consumers would switch.
One answer, backers say, is that the technology companies can develop far better interfaces to watch television than the clunky programming guides pay-TV operators offer now.
Indeed, many media executives said they are impressed at the slickness of slick Intel's set-top box (STB) and guide.
Google has taken several other steps to expand in television and online video in recent years, including financing original programming for its online video site YouTube, launching regular cable service on its Google Fiber network in Kansas City, and developing a Google TV software to be installed on cable TV set top boxes.
Will Netflix Subscribers Keep Their Pay TV Services?
Excerpted from eMarketer Report
Nearly three-quarters of Netflix subscribers in the US still kept their cable, satellite, or telecom pay TV subscriptions, according to a June 2013 study from Cowen and Company. But another 20% reported having gotten rid of their pay TV subscription, raising questions about whether more Netflix subscribers could soon become cord-cutters.
Cord-cutting is typically associated with those in the youngest age bracket, and the survey found this to hold somewhat true. However, there was also a notable propensity to cut the cord among Netflix subscribers between 30 to 44 years old, with 41% having cut pay TV. Overall, this age group was more likely to subscribe to Netflix than 18- to 29-year-old respondents.
Those between 45 and 60 years old actually were the most likely to be Netflix streaming customers, at 33%. But only 17% of this group had cut the cord.
The majority of Netflix streamers reported watching the service on their PC, followed by streaming via a video game console connected to the TV, at 38%. Tablets, used by 37% of respondents, were actually almost as popular a method, and indicative of tablets' growing role in digital video viewing.
In total, the study found that more than four in 10 US consumers subscribed to Netflix or used a Netflix account. Cord-cutters reported watching an average 8.1 hours of Netflix content per week, while total Netflix subscribers watched 6.7 hours on average. Harris Interactive reported somewhat lower figures for total Netflix subscribers, estimated to reach 28% of US web users in April 2013.
Creating Training Videos Gives More Employees Access
Excerpted from Kontiki Video News Report
There are some parts of the world where remote employees or diversified workforces may make it hard for organizations to reach all of their personnel. In these instances, getting the right training and information to every employee is critical, yet the methods by which firms are able to transfer these ideas are limited.
In many cases, this could cause a significant lack of engagement or risk the relationships companies need to foster among all of their employees in order to maintain a reliable, functional staff. Overcoming these difficulties requires employing new and innovative services like enterprise video services.
Creating training materials for sharing amongst personnel in different parts of the organization is often easy compared to the methods needed to disseminate these pieces of instruction.
Formulating a written outline and sharing among training staff may not be as effective as other means, as this procedure requires first training the teacher and then retaining that individual for all future hires, presenting an ongoing expense that may not realize high enough returns to make it worthwhile.
Businesses can avoid these obstacles by creating written materials only and sharing these among workers in a typed format, yet these long-form training resources lack the interpretive and hands-on experiences that employees need in order to get the full benefit of training.
This may leave some firms in a quandary, however. How can they deliver in-depth education to employees without risking the expense of a full-time trainer and yet still expect to get the kind of enriching training the interpersonal coaching sessions offer? In order to bridge this gap, enterprise video portals have stepped up to give companies a third option.
Especially in parts of the world where it may be hard to reach all employees within a vast organization, having access to recorded training information is crucial. As the Daily Business Buzz wrote, one entity in the Canadian province is making use of these recordings in order to provide uniform training to staff members throughout this geographic area.
The source wrote that the Construction Association of Nova Scotia will soon be using funds from the provincial government to back its endeavors as it moves toward creating a series of education video communication tools for workers all across the region.
These recordings will assist personnel already employed in construction work as well as those looking to get involved in the industry with gaining insight about specific job duties, hardware resources and tool functions. With such a broad and sweeping area to cover, as well as a lack of centralized training centers, deploying video resources that teach employees how to properly build structures and perform repairs allows new and established personnel to hone their skills without having to spend a lot of money on travel, training or testing their abilities.
"Continuous learning and improving skills are essential to the success of our businesses and our workers," said Labor and Advanced Education Minister Becky Kent. "Providing accessible training, particularly for small businesses in rural areas, will help to make businesses more productive and make sure that workers have the skills they need for the job."
Providing recorded material for training purposes is the ideal solution for firms that need to work with a wide range of different personnel, both numerically and geographically.
Handling diverse talent pools in remote offices and those who don't hold standard office positions requires deploying educational resources that all staff members can use, no matter where or when they have to access them.
These video communication tools are highly useful and very effective, as evidenced by their adoption by the CIA. CBS News wrote that the federal American intelligence agency recently launched a new enterprise video resource for CIA employees around the world, educating them on how to detect national security threats and identify problems with data security even among their own ranks.
This message helps personnel understand when to start asking questions about the state of other employees and being aware of potential issues that can arise when working with counterintelligence resources, creating better informed staff members that are looking out for the interests of the organization.
Without a video communication resource, there's no way to ensure that all personnel know what to look for or how to handle these issues should they encounter them.
Sharing corporate ideas is becoming easier as technology channels continue to expand. With more abilities to interact with people, there are enhanced opportunities for personnel to learn about the different elements of their jobs, interact with essential information and increase their total skill sets without having to travel or spend time away from work in order to gain these improvements.
Adding video communication tools to corporate offerings has therefore become a popular resource for public and private entities alike.
Merkel Urges Europe to Tighten Internet Safeguards
Excerpted from NY Times Report by Melissa Eddy and James Kanter
Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany is calling for the European Union to adopt legislation requiring Internet companies to disclose what information about users they store and to whom they provide it.
Ms. Merkel's remarks, in a television interview on Sunday night, reflected the anger throughout much of Europe, including Germany, over recent accounts of government surveillance by the United States National Security Agency (NSA). Those accounts, in government documents leaked by Edward J. Snowden, a former NSA contractor, included the agency's compilation of logs of virtually all telephone calls in the United States and its collection of e-mails of foreigners from the major American Internet companies, including Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Microsoft, Apple, and Skype.
Those companies have already begun aggressive lobbying campaigns to stop or dilute tighter privacy rules, which they say would interfere with their business models and decrease profits and growth. The companies' efforts are, in turn, supported by countries like England and Ireland that fear that such restrictions would hamper economic recovery.
Unlike many citizens in the United States, whose desire to prevent the kind of widespread terrorist attacks like those of September 11, 2001 often trumps their concerns about privacy rights and government surveillance, Germans have experienced the corruption of those rights under the Nazis and later the Communist government of East Germany, making them far more sensitive to the issue. Until now, though, Germany has been slow to back an aggressive privacy initiative across Europe partly because the country's laws are among the tightest in the bloc.
Ms. Merkel said she now believed that only a broader pact could be effective. "That has to be part of such a data privacy agreement because we have great regulation for Germany, but if Facebook is registered in Ireland, then it falls under Irish jurisdiction," she said. "Consequently we need a common European agreement."
Human rights groups in Germany and Austria, which has similarly strict rules guarding private information, have taken on the Internet giants over Facebook's default settings on sharing personal data and Google's scooping up of private information while mapping out German cities for its Street View service.
"What actually happens with data when they leave Germany to servers outside of the country, or Europe, where they fall under the jurisdiction of completely different regulations?" Ms. Merkel asked in the interview on Sunday with the public broadcast network ARD.
She pointed out that existing international accords on privacy protection were drawn up decades before the digital era, and she said she would meet in the coming days with her interior and justice ministers to draw up proposed regulations on data privacy that could apply across the entire 28-nation bloc.
Companies contacted by e-mail, including Google and Microsoft, did not immediately respond to requests for comment about Ms. Merkel's remarks.
The European Union's Justice Commissioner, Viviane Reding, who originally proposed rules overhauling and updating the bloc's privacy standards in early 2012, praised "this commitment of Chancellor Merkel to strong and uniform EU data protection rules" in a statement on Monday in Brussels.
The NSA revelations have placed an added political strain on Ms. Merkel, who polls suggest remains in a strong position before German elections in September but who is under increasing attack from opposition parties trying to use the matter to undercut her popularity.
"The question is whether this is part of election campaign tactics or something with real substance," Jan Philipp Albrecht, a German member of the European Parliament who is the main sponsor of the legislation, said in a telephone interview on Monday. The legislation needs the Parliament's approval to take effect.
Opposition parties have accused Ms. Merkel's government of being too deferential to the United States over the issues of data privacy and government surveillance, and of allowing German intelligence agencies to be complicit in the American programs.
Peer Steinbruck, the chancellor's main rival in the elections, said in an interview published Sunday in the newspaper Bild am Sonntag that she had broken her oath of office by failing in her duties to protect the German people, including their personal data.
"As Chancellor, Ms. Merkel swore to prevent harm to the German people," Mr. Steinbruck said.
In Brussels, Ms. Reding, the bloc's justice commissioner, suggested that the first real opportunity for countries like Germany to push forward on any proposed legislation would be in October, at a summit meeting in Brussels, where the bloc's leaders should "address this matter and speed up the work."
Ms. Reding said the goal should be to reach an agreement at the European Union level by next spring, before elections for the European Parliament.
But Peter Hustinx, the European data protection supervisor, warned last month that the bloc's efforts could be stalled by "exceptional" lobbying by Internet companies and by countries opposed to stronger data privacy rules. At their meeting last month, ministers began introducing more business-friendly elements into the proposals, including allowing regulators to scrutinize how companies use personal data only in cases of risks to individuals, including identity theft or discrimination.
The ministers debated a proposal that would allow companies to obtain "unambiguous" consent, which is considered a lower legal threshold than the "explicit" consent now required from users whose personal data they collect and process. Mr. Albrecht, the German European Parliament member, said the public outcry over surveillance by government and major Internet companies had already made lobbying in Europe harder for the technology industry.
"Companies cannot just say, 'We don't have anything to do with surveillance or misuse of data,' because in fact they are at the core of it," Mr. Albrecht said. "So if they engage in calling for less strict standards, they will lose trust in their services."
EU Healthcare Cloud Streamlines Operations
Excerpted from CenterBeam Report
Cloud based services are becoming key assets for European healthcare providers, as they attempt to increase revenue, improve service delivery, and unify their applications.
According to a press release from analytics firm Frost & Sullivan, cloud solutions enable providers to deliver care at lower costs and across a wider geographic ranges. Specific tasks suited to cloud delivery may include recordkeeping, efficient data storage and consolidation of medical images and other patient data.
"The advantages of cloud computing in terms of storage size and storage efficiency, data loss prevention and facilitating synchronized and authorized sharing of data can change the dynamics of the European healthcare informatics industry in the course of time," argued Frost & Sullivan analyst Raghuraman Madanagopal.
The release identified poor broadband penetration in Europe and concerns about security as potential limiting factors for cloud adoption, but remained optimistic about compliance and security improvements in the heavily regulated healthcare field.
The cloud remains an area of keen interest outside of Europe and in other industries, too. Writing for Forbes, Joe McKendrick cited a Research in Action survey stating that two-thirds of CIOs said cloud technologies would be their main investment area in 2013, indicating its appeal to a broader range of IT professionals.
Cloud Computing & The Internet of Things
Excerpted from Silicon Angle Report by Mike Wheatley
There's no holding back the Internet of Things (IoT) — this is where the world's heading, and we're already seeing it in concepts ranging from smart electricity meters to IBM's rather more ambitious Smart Cities initiatives. The basic fundamental holding IoT together is connectivity, a world in which machines with intelligent sensors are hooked up to the web, and able to deliver a stream of constant data. But in order to do this most effectively, proper utilization of cloud computing will become a vital component.
Ten years from now, things will be different. These days we wake up in the morning, jump in the shower, reach for the shower gel and only then do we realize the bottle's empty. "Dammit", you'll curse to yourself before making a mental note to buy some more and hoping that you don't forget.
In the future, we won't have to rely on ourselves to remember such trivial (but annoying) things, because everything will be automated. Your shower will already know about your washing habits, and most likely it'll be able to tell you when the shower gel's about to run out. There'll be a sensor that can recognize the sounds you make when desperately squeezing the remaining dregs out of the bottle, and most likely that same sensor will pick up on your frustration too.
But your shower will do more than just make a mental note for you. It'll let you know exactly where to buy that shower gel by checking local store inventories for your favorite brand's availability.
It'll also cross-reference your list of appointments that day to identify which is the most convenient store to drop by during the day. This "task" will automatically be filed, and synced with your laptop, smart-phone, iPad or smart car to ensure you don't forget.
This is the future of the Internet of Things, but it won't be made possible by a jumble of wires. What makes it possible is cloud computing, combined with the glut of sensors and applications all around you that collect, monitor and transfer data to where it's needed. All of this information can be sent out or streamed to any number of devices and services, all update before you've even finished drying yourself off with the towel.
Of course, this means that there's going to be an awful lot of data flying around out there, data that needs to be processed quickly so that manufacturers, suppliers and everyone else in your shower gel's supply chain can ensure that you never run out.
The problem is exacerbated somewhat by the fact that you're not the only out there taking a shower — think about, between 6 AM and 8 AM, how many millions of people are going through exactly the same routine as you are? Millions of them are busy scrubbing themselves clean, which means gigabytes of data streaming in from showers up and down the country.
This is why the cloud is so important. The cloud can easily get a handle on the speed and volume of the data that's being received. It possesses the ability to ebb and flow according to demand, all the while remaining accessible anywhere from any device.
But it's not just you who needs this cloud. Manufacturers do too. In the shower gel example, there are lots of insights that can be gleaned from this, for example how long does it take the average person to get through a bottle of the stuff, will that person buy the same brand again, the same bottle size again, or does he or she prefer something different?
Using these insights, retailers and manufacturers will come up with customized special offers for certain types of people, and deliver these to their smartphone in time for when they go shopping later that afternoon.
Such insights can only be extracted using Big Data technologies, and cloud solutions will be an essential partner to this. Cloud software is the only technology capable of handling this data and delivering it where it needs to be in real time.
The Internet of Things still has some way to go before we reach this point, but it's getting there and cloud computing will be driving it every step of the way.
BitTorrent Sync Is Cloud without Risk
Excerpted from VentureBeat Report by John Koetsier
In these days of NSA snooping and built-in backdoors, do you really want your entire digital life in the cloud?
That's one of the key reasons that BitTorrent has launched BitTorrent Sync, a way to help you manage your personal files in a cloud-like Dropbox-ish way, without the threat of government surveillance.
"BitTorrent Sync is a syncing product (we are literalists here) to help manage personal files between multiple devices," BitTorrent's Director of Communications Christian Averill told VentureBeat. "It offers unlimited, secure file-syncing at no cost. With concerns about data privacy and security are currently at a peak, BitTorrent Sync has proven to be a timely technology and has been quite popular with our Alpha users."
The product works pretty much exactly like Dropbox.
Set up BitTorrent Sync on your computer, select a folder to sync, generate a unique password, and then duplicate the procedure on any other device you want to set up syncing. All data transfers are encrypted, and no data is ever stored in the cloud. In addition — and a new twist for a peer-to-peer application — no files every pass through someone else's computers.
"It's simple. It's free. It's the awesome power of P2P, applied to file-syncing," BitTorrent says.
BitTorrent launched in alpha in April, and nearly eight petabytes has already been synced with the product — almost as much data as exists in the entire Internet Archive. In one innovative use, a BitTorrent employee turned a Raspberry Pi into a personal cloud, and design teams have used BitTorrent Sync for file sharing purposes between teams.
BitTorrent Sync is free, works with large files "of any size," and very secure — your password or "secret" is 32 characters long, and the app uses 256-bit security — and supports one-way sync as well.
An Android app is already available for mobile use, and an iOS app is coming soon.
Altair Releases Compute Manager 12.0
Altair today released Compute Manager 12.0, an even faster version of its popular software for running, monitoring, and managing workloads and results on distributed resources in high-performance computing environments.
Compute Manager is a Web-based job portal that serves as a simple but powerful interface for submitting and monitoring jobs in PBS Professional complexes.
Compute Manager automates job submission tasks, bridging the gaps between users and their distributed applications, so users only need to focus on the data and applications they wish to run without concern for any of the associated technical complexities.
It further allows users to browse and modify remote files while minimizing the necessity to write, modify and test complex application scripts.
Compute Manager 12.0 runs one-and-a-half times faster than previous versions. A single instance of the software can handle over 100 concurrent users and up to 500,000 jobs. It is capable of scaling beyond 500 concurrent users through new load-balancing support that enables a highly redundant and highly scalable configuration.
The latest version of Compute Manager also incorporates a new version of the popular Access Management Service, an easy-to-use graphical interface that allows specification of which individuals and/or groups can access various applications and which users may share application profiles.
"Compute Manager is a perfect solution for users who want to consolidate their hardware and software resources," said Altair PBS Works CTO Bill Nitzberg. "Its intuitive drag and drop interface, its ability to monitor jobs with filter capabilities and its 3D and 2D plots for visualizing results on the server allow users to simplify the management of their HPC jobs. It also serves as a gateway into HyperWorks On-Demand, Altair's HPC public cloud offering."
Compute Manager 12.0 simplifies the management of HPC jobs, letting users view data and results remotely. Users are able to access distributed resources securely and immediately from virtually any Web-enabled device.
Compute Manager 12.0 is enterprise-hardened, protected from a range of potential security vulnerabilities; and, with the new Display Manager, it provides a tightly integrated results visualization service that enables exploration of huge datasets directly on the server side.
With Display Manager 12.0, an equally powerful web-based interface for visualizing large data sets is built into the same framework as Compute Manager, allowing users to choose between them for viewing remote results. Requiring no client-side software installation, Display Manager operates with no movement of data-only pixels thereby eliminating lengthy data transfer times.
"After implementing PBS Works' HPC solutions, our overall hardware utilization and production have dramatically improved. Compute Manager's easy-to-use interface and open architecture allow us to prioritize workloads; it is a one-stop solution for submitting, monitoring and visualizing all of our FE jobs," said Dirk Junglas of Kirchhoff Gruppe.
Altair has scheduled a hands-on workshop for Compute Manager for October 1st, immediately before the opening activities of the 2013 Americas Altair Technology Conference in Garden Grove, CA, as part of its two-day PBS Works User Group event.
The "Introduction to Integrating Applications within Compute Manager" workshop is scheduled for 9 AM to 4 PM and is open to HPC users. To register for the PBS Works User Group and the workshop, visit www.altair.com/pbsworksug13.
Cloud Security Corporation Tests Software
Cloud Security Corporation, a Nevada corporation specializing in security technology for cloud computing, today announced a successful test of version 3 of MyComputerKey. The test focused on expanded security for IP to IP connections between computers in the Cloud.
Safa Movassaghi, President and CEO of Cloud Security Corporation, stated, "The development of Version 3 of MyComputerKey has exceeded our expectations. We expect to be moving beyond our Beta into a Full Product Demo Version in early Q3. We continue to add technologies and products that increase security for accessing the Cloud."
MyComputerKey is a unique technology that creates a secure remote access connection for a user between any connected computer in the world and that users home computer. The technology is stored between a simple USB key that can fit in a pocket and a Cloud interface. Cloud Security Corporation has filed several patents protecting technology related to this product.
Cloud Security Corporation is an innovative cloud computing company that creates security, technology, and products. The Company develops products in the remote-access computing sector including enhanced security connections. Cloud Security Corporation has developed patent-protected remote access security devices such as MyComputerKey.
The Company also develops online application security products and is expanding into other verticals.
TCV Invests $66 Million in TOA Technologies
Excerpted from Broadcasting & Cable Report by George Winslow
Venture capital firm Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV) has invested $66 million in TOA Technologies, a provider of cloud-based software for improving productivity and managing mobile work forces.
The infusion of capital comes at a time when cable operators and other business with large numbers of employees based in the field are looking for better technologies for those employees.
To help with that, TOA Technologies offers the ETA direct field service management solution suite.
The suite is used to manage mobile work forces for major companies in the satellite, cable, broadband, telecom, utilities, insurance, home services and retail industries, the company reports.
"Field service has become a strategic component of every service business," said Yuval Brisker, Co-Founder and CEO of TOA Technologies.
"As a result, organizations worldwide are rethinking the technology they use to run their mobile operations."
The TCV investment is the fourth largest venture-backed funding in software in 2013, according to CrunchBase data.
Previously TOA Technologies raised $35 million in funding from Draper Triangle Ventures, Early Stage Partners, Intel Capital, and Sutter Hill Ventures.
What Cloud Computing Can Mean for Small Business
Excerpted from The News Tribune Report by Jennie Wong
You've probably been hearing a lot about "the cloud" and how everyone is using it. But what exactly does cloud computing mean for a small business owner?
The term "cloud computing" can actually refer to a variety of things, depending on whether you're talking to a software engineer or a business owner.
For the vast majority of nontechnical people, the most common type is software as service, or SaaS.
One of the most popular examples of cloud-based SaaS offerings are Google's suite of productivity applications, including Gmail and Google Calendar. Google Drive's documents, spreadsheets, and presentations have also gained popularity against their traditional software competitors in the Microsoft Office family, and illustrate the many advantages of working in the cloud, versus on your local computer.
Access can be granted directly to a file, eliminating version control issues. Once access is granted, multiple people can edit a file at the same time, a tremendous boon to remote employees and virtual teams.
Housing information in the cloud also decreases the chances of data being lost because of local hardware failures or even human error like leaving your laptop behind in a taxicab.
Cloud-based SaaS also has the advantage of staying up to date without having to perform frequent local updates.
This is especially helpful when you're dealing with an area that has constantly shifting rules and regulations, such as tax law, which is why companies such as Intuit are seeing significant growth in products such as QuickBooks Online.
There are also a whole host of SaaS providers who specialize in providing individuals and businesses with storage space and backup services.
These include companies such as Dropbox, which provides 2 GB of space for free (and up to 18 GB depending on your number of referrals), and was recently rated the speediest among competitors by LifeHacker.com.
Amazon Cloud Drive placed second.
If you're still backing up critical documents to an external drive that sits right next to your main computer, make sure to check out offsite backup solutions such as Carbonite, Mozy, and iCloud and MobileMe for Mac users.
You'll be glad you used any of these in case of fire, flood, or other natural disaster.
There are even ways to independently back up your SaaS data to a third-party cloud. For a relatively modest monthly charge, Backupify will protect your Google Apps data, Facebook pages, and Twitter accounts. At a higher price point, they will also back-up your Salesforce data.
One important caveat: Given the myriad advantages to cloud computing, it would seem that the days of locally hosted software and data are numbered. But keep in mind that if your Internet connection goes down, you won't be able to access your accounts in the cloud.
Beyond Cloud Computing: Mobile, Apps, Content, and Commerce
Cloud computing is one of the hottest segments in information technology today along with mobile and wireless. Today, the number of smart-phones in the US exceeds the number of laptops, tablets are enjoying significant growth, and just about every employee has one, two or even three mobile devices.
Enterprise IT now has to deal with the additional responsibility of serving customers who use their mobile products to interact with the organization.
Cloud is moving beyond computing and storage and into an entirely new realm of communications, applications, content and applications. Evidence of this evolution ranges from common examples, such as Google Voice for cloud-based communications, to less common examples such as cloud-based payments solutions within the mobile commerce arena.
This research evaluates companies, solutions, opportunities, and the future market for cloud-based communications, applications, content, and commerce. This report is must reading for anyone looking beyond computing alone, back-up/synchronization, and/or hosting for new revenue opportunities in cloud-based services.
To order Beyond Cloud Computing: Mobile Communications, Applications, Content, and Commerce in the Cloud, contact Clare at 339-368-6001 or clare@reportlinker.com.
Coming Events of Interest
NordiCloud 2013 - September 1st-3rd in Oslo, Norway. The Nordic Symposium on Cloud Computing & Internet Technologies (NordiCloud) aims at providing an industrial and scientific forum for enhancing collaboration between industry and academic communities from Nordic and Baltic countries in the area of Cloud Computing and Internet Technologies.
P2P 2013: IEEE International Conference on Peer-to-Peer Computing - September 9th-11th in Trento, Italy. The IEEE P2P Conference is a forum to present and discuss all aspects of mostly decentralized, large-scale distributed systems and applications. This forum furthers the state-of-the-art in the design and analysis of large-scale distributed applications and systems.
CLOUD COMPUTING WEST 2013 - October 27th-29th in Las Vegas, NV. Two major conference tracks will zero in on the latest advances in applying cloud-based solutions to all aspects of high-value entertainment content production, storage, and delivery; and the impact of mobile cloud computing and Big Data analytics in this space.
International CES - January 7th-10th in Las Vegas, NV. The International CES is the global stage for innovation reaching across global markets, connecting the industry and enabling CE innovations to grow and thrive. The International CES is owned and produced by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), the preeminent trade association promoting growth in the $209 billion US consumer electronics industry.
CONNECTING TO THE CLOUD - January 9th in Las Vegas, NV. This DCIA Conference within CES will highlight the very latest advancements in cloud-based solutions that are now revolutionizing the consumer electronics (CE) sector. Special attention will be given to the impact on consumers, telecom industries, the media, and CE manufacturers of accessing and interacting with cloud-based services using connected devices.
CCISA 2013 – February 12th–14th in Turin, Italy. The second international special session on Cloud computing and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and its Applications within the 22nd Euromicro International Conference on Parallel, Distributed and Network-Based Processing.
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