March 31, 2014
Volume XLVII, Issue 8
DDN Showcases Network Storage Solutions at NAB Show
Today's digital media studios, producers, and broadcasters demand technology that can unleash the creative process and enhance the user experience for the entire life cycle of data in the world's most content-intensive workflows — from ingest to editing, transcoding, distribution and archiving.
Organizations require solutions that enable collaboration and eliminate workflow management complexity without compromising performance.
Find DataDirect Networks (DDN) in Booth #SL8016 at the 2014 NAB Show from April 5th to 10th in Las Vegas, NV, where the company will demonstrate technology that addresses the storage, workflow performance, and geographically distributed data center needs of the media and entertainment industry.
Joined by customers Deluxe Entertainment Services Group and Level 3 Communications, DDN will showcase how its file and object storage solutions can help customers drive higher performance, simplify management, increase workflow efficiency, reduce time to market and lower total cost of ownership.
Find Out Where There Are Still Holes in The Cloud at CCE:2014
If how to "Go Cloud" is not totally clear to you, you're not alone, but CLOUD COMPUTING EAST 2014 (CCE:2014) can help.
For government agencies, migrating to the cloud poses risks associated with pricing, infrastructure security, data assurances, governing law, service-level agreements (SLAs), outsourced services, functionality, disaster recovery, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), compliance with laws, terms and conditions (Ts&Cs) modifications, contract renewal, and termination.
In the healthcare sector, there are unique challenges in handling personally identifiable information (PII) data storage and privacy on cloud computing platforms, working with vendors to address key information security and privacy compliance issues, and addressing the HIPPA privacy and security legal requirements and public trust concerns while in the cloud.
Find out about outstanding obstacles and issues still to be overcome for continued advancement of cloud computing solutions within the public sector and healthcare industry at CCE:2014
Rackspace Sr. Dir. of Corp. Strategy & Dev. Bret Piatt, SAP America Director of Public Cloud Services Marlyn Zelkowitz, and MarkLogic Sr. Tech. Dir. of Global Technical Services James Clippinger and others will come together in a plenary session roundtable discussion totally focused on this key topic area.
The CCA & DCIA will present CCE:2014 on May 15th and 16th at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel in Washington, DC.
Please click here to register; here to learn about exhibiting and sponsorship opportunities, and here to apply to speak at this must-attend strategic business summit.
Bret Piatt is responsible for identifying and pursuing new growth opportunities for Rackspace's core business through M&A, strategic partnerships, and incubation efforts. Bret played a crucial role in the formation of OpenStack, the open source cloud software community, as well as in building the Cloud Tools ecosystem for the Rackspace Cloud.
Marlyn Zelkowitz has 20 years of public services industry experience and her current focus is cloud computing. In her current role, she is responsible for solution management for the public sector cloud portfolio at SAP. Prior to joining SAP in August 2008, Marlyn served as the Public Sector Value Creation Lead for IBM Global Business Services.
James Clippinger uses his nearly two decades of high-performance computing experience to help customers build effective MarkLogic infrastructures and applications. As the leader of MarkLogic's global performance team, he has worked with customers to define cost-efficient high-performance systems and to optimize software architectures and code for top performance.
Akamai & Telefonica in Global Content Delivery Alliance
Excerpted from Advanced Television Report
Cloud services specialist Akamai Technologies and Telefonica Global Solutions, the global service provider part of Telefonica have agreed a strategic global alliance to deliver Akamai ´s suite of content delivery network (CDN) solutions to Telefonica enterprise customers.
To further enhance its CDN business, Telefonica Global Solutions is combining Akamai ´s content delivery platform with its own global IP network to deliver a suite of global CDN and telecom solutions to enterprises. The strategic alliance will initially focus efforts in Spain and Latin America with plans to expand globally.
In addition, the companies have formed an innovation steering committee to identify areas of product development and future opportunities, particularly in the fields of media optimization and mobile technologies. As part of the multi-year agreement, Akamai and Telefonica plan to dedicate shared resources across technical support, customer care, marketing and professional services with a goal of providing the best end-user experience.
With over 323 million customers, including more than 254 million mobile subscribers, Telefonica provides high-performing networking solutions to support today's explosive growth in digital content. Telefonica customers are expected to benefit from efficient content routing and high-quality delivery of digital content, video and Web applications, and ultimately a superior end-user experience.
"We are witnessing an unprecedented increase in connectivity from all kinds of devices, new digital services, and an explosion in the use of video," said Juan Carlos Lopez-Vives, President of Telefonica Global Solutions. "Our alliance with Akamai reinforces our full commitment positioning Telefonica at the center of the digital revolution. By offering our enterprise and multinational customers Akamai's complete and premier content delivery solution as part of Telefonica ´s global services value proposition, we are reinforcing our powerful global Content Delivery strategy."
"Telefonica is one of the world's leading, integrated telecommunications operators, with a strong presence in Europe and Latin America," said Tom Leighton, Chief Executive Officer of Akamai. "Together, Akamai and Telefonica aim to align our services to be able to provide enterprises with the highest levels of performance and media optimization. This important alliance represents Akamai's continued expansion and investment in leading carriers around the world, and we look forward to our initial go to market opportunities with Telefonica in Spain and in emerging markets across Latin America."
Akamai uses a widely-distributed platform of servers to spread online content around the world that would otherwise be concentrated in a few locations. The alliance with Telefonica provides greater distribution of Akamai servers within Telefonica's IP network and provides additional capacity within Spain and emerging markets in Latin America. The result is greater network efficiency, better service quality for end users, and a more secure system.
Report from CEO Marty Lafferty
 CLOUD COMPUTING EAST (CCE:2014), the upcoming strategic summit for business leaders and software developers in our nation's capital, will be this spring's must-attend event.
Plenary sessions will feature principal representatives of such leading organizations as Amazon Web Services, Google, and Rackspace, providing delegates with a real insider's view of the latest issues in this space from those leading our industry's advancement.
CCE:2014 will focus on the gCLOUD (The Government Cloud) and the hCLOUD (The Healthcare Cloud).
Jointly presented by the DCIA&CCA, CCE:2014 will take place on Thursday and Friday, May 15th-16th, at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel in Washington, DC.
This important gathering of thought leaders and first movers will thoroughly examine the current state of adoption and the outstanding challenges affecting two major and increasingly related sectors of the economy, whose principals are currently engaged in migrating to the cloud.
gCLOUD case studies will expose the truth about cloud computing and the public sector. What happened when a local municipality tried to streamline operations by moving a few basic functions to the cloud? Why was the FedRAMP experience of one major cloud provider with government bureaucracy so unexpected?
gCLOUD speakers will include representatives of such organizations as ASG Software, Aspiryon, Clear Government Solutions, CyrusOne, DST, IBM, Kwaai Oak, NASA, NetApp, QinetiQ, SAP America, Tech Equity, Unitas Global, V2 Solutions, Virtustream, and WSO2.
hCLOUD sessions will range from revelations of the astonishing experience of a medical imaging company new to this arena to a generous sharing of the deep wisdom from a patient-records-storing firm that was doing cloud computing before the name cloud was even coined.
hCLOUD speakers will include representatives of such organizations as Apptix, BrightLine, CSC Leasing, Dell, DICOM Grid, DigiCert, DirectTrust, Johnson & Johnson, Level 3, Mobily, NTP Software, Optum, Oracle, The PADEM Group, ServerCentral, SoftServe, Stratus Technologies, VeriStor Systems, VirtualQube, Vuzix, and WikiPay.
Other featured speakers will include authors, analysts, industry observers, and representatives of such organizations as ActiveState, Aspera, Canon, CDAS, Dell, Edwards Wildman Palmer, FalconStor, HP, IBM, Juniper Networks, M*Modal, MarkLogic, Microsoft, Numecent. SAP America, Trend Micro, Verizon, and Visionary Integration Professionals.
The gCLOUD will examine the ways that local, state, and federal governments can improve services and protect citizens with cloud-based tools. It will also address liabilities and challenges that need to concern government agencies regarding cloud-based services, countering NSA-fallout gloom with energized and confident approaches that overcome concerns raised by the Snowden scandal.
The explosion of data, advances in security and reliability, and options for redundant storage; challenges to natural resource management, transportation, and utility grid monitoring; and the impact of cloud services on law enforcement and emergency responsiveness will be featured topics.
The hCLOUD will explore progress being made by the healthcare industry in adopting cloud-based solutions to become more efficient, collaborative, and interactively connected. It will also address legitimate concerns that healthcare organizations must address in implementing cloud-based services.
Managing private patient records; collecting clinical research data; big-data imaging, and remote patient monitoring will be covered.
Speakers will include end-user organizations, public-sector thought-leaders, and private-sector cloud vendors, representatives of hospitals, clinics, multi-physician practices, and healthcare solutions providers, and executives and innovators from the cloud computing industry.
Please contact Don Buford, CEO, or Hank Woji, VP Business Development, at the CCA to learn more about attractive conference exhibition and sponsorship opportunities.
To review conference topics and apply to join the speaking faculty for this event, please click here. If you'd like to speak at this major industry event, please contact me, Marty Lafferty, CEO of the DCIA, at your earliest convenience. Share wisely, and take care.
Cloud Computing's Watershed Week
Excerpted from Gnomes News Report
It may be no accident that in the last week of the year's first quarter there were so many significant moves by big companies, particularly in giant systems of connected computers. Cloud computing and the Internet of Things (IoT), these moves suggest, are moving from their rough pioneering days to bigger and more stable.
To consider just a few of the biggest moves over the week: Google harmonized its cloud computing business to a single entity, with a pricing model intended to hold customers by enticing them to build ever cheaper and more complex software.
Cisco announced it would spend $1 billion on a kind of "cloud of clouds" project. Later in the week it was part of a consortium of big multinationals that will set engineering standards for wiring people, machines, and computers together in large industrial settings.
Microsoft's new chief executive made his first big public appearance, offering Office for the Apple iPad, partly as a way to sell more of its cloud-based Office 365 product. Intel announced a big investment of money and technology in Cloudera, a move that establishes a clear leader in the business of doing big data analysis in the cloud.
At a user conference in San Francisco, CA, Amazon Web Services announced the general release of its cloud-based desktop computing business, as well as a deal with Infor to offer cloud-based enterprise software tools to industries like healthcare and manufacturing.
None of these were impulsive, breaking announcements. Rather, they were more like deals that were first hatched in late 2013 as strategic plays for the coming year. And, at the end of the start of 2014, the bets have been placed.
Some of these, like the moves by Cisco, Microsoft, and Intel, seem like efforts by incumbents to catch up with the times. (if that sounds like criticism, consider the alternative.) Others, like the announcements by Google and AWS, further develop cloud computing. The consortium deal tames its next step by establishing practices.
What all of them do is admit that cloud computing soon will not be another business. It will be a part of almost every business, probably one that continues to grow.
"What is surprising to us is how long it took," said Adam Selipsky, Vice President of Marketing at AWS, the biggest company in cloud computing. "This is a multi-trillion-dollar opportunity. We assumed from the beginning it was unlikely we'd be the only participant."
AWS began in 2006, and already takes credit for enabling the creation of businesses like Airbnb, which is taking on the hotels business; Spotify, doing the same to music; Dropbox, a challenge to traditional data storage; and Pinterest, which disrupts things like tearing pages out of catalogs and sharing them. With most everyone on cloud computing, there should be more of that, from AWS and other cloud outfits.
Established companies like Netflix, Kempinski Hotels, and the Australian bank Suncorp have or are in the process of primarily running their business on AWS. Charles E. Phillips, the head of Infor, said his company is "essentially going all in" on a cloud-based enterprise software strategy, changing its compensation to sales people and offering to take all of a customer's data over to AWS from their existing computers for $55,000.
"Friends don't let friends build data centers anymore," he said. That's likely to become a common view, though companies like Cisco still back the idea that private computer centers will remain important for a long time.
Mr. Selipsky saw the market changing from start-up curiosity to established practice in other ways. "We've seen a huge interest from educational institutions in teaching a cloud curriculum," he said. "There's demand in computer science and engineering departments in skills like building applications on inexpensive commodity hardware," with abilities to grow globally fast.
That twinge some feel at times like this is akin to seeing the fences go up on the frontier, the record companies signing your favorite underground band, or the parents coming down to the basement party just when it was getting good. We may be past the wild part, but while there's far more potential with this inevitable outcome.
If you do feel that way, don't worry. This is also the week that Facebook made big investments in virtual reality and solar-powered drones that send high-speed data. A representative from Google gave a talk at the University of California, Berkeley, CA, about Google's experiments in quantum computing that was cautiously optimistic, but not conclusive. Some disagreed.
There's still plenty of frontier out there for everybody.
Cloud Doesn't Exist Where Broadband Doesn't Exist
Excerpted from Computing Report by Danny Palmer
Local government institutions in rural areas will struggle to benefit from services offered through the government's G-Cloud scheme because there isn't the infrastructure to properly handle the demands.
That's what David Wilde, CIO at Essex County Council, told the audience at the Think Cloud for Government Conference at the Business Design Centre in Islington, London, England today.
His concerns mirror those of SMEs recently interviewed by Computing, which revealed that almost one in five surveyed feel that their broadband connection is too unreliable to support cloud applications.
And while Essex might be known for its urban nightlife thanks to reality TV, Wilde explained how much of the county is rural, making deployment of the infrastructure required for cloud a difficult task.
"There's a very interesting geographical issue around Essex; we've got a lot of countryside and cloud doesn't exist in rural areas where broadband doesn't exist," he said.
"One of the things we have to bear in mind, certainly in localized services, is cloud is only as good as the broadband capacity it actually reaches, so some of our constraints of moving into the cloud are actually physical.
"That's where investment in broadband infrastructure is absolutely crucial and I think it's often overlooked in the country," Wilde continued, before making the stark comparison between cities and the countryside when it comes to broadband access.
"In urban centers like London, we've got broadband coming out of our ears," he said. "But if you go out to Dedham in rural Essex, it's well named in terms of broadband - it really is because there isn't any. Then you go out to Dengie peninsula and it's a whole new world of nothingness."
It's that lack of infrastructure, Wilde argued, which means cloud computing - and therefore G-Cloud services - won't be heavily adopted in rural areas for some time yet.
"Those kinds of realities around delivering services on the ground mean that local solutions are going to be a factor for us probably until 2017," he said.
Nonetheless, Wilde is generally positive about G-Cloud itself, although he suggested the time frame for rollout has been too ambitious.
"Sometimes in government we want to do everything yesterday. Any commercial operation that set up something as huge and complex as G-Cloud would have allowed a five year horizon before it started to break even. And yet we want to create this megabeast for all sectors within the public sector in under two years - dream on," he told the audience.
"It's a big and complicated beast that needs more focus round the customer and what the customer wants to buy in terms of the type of service."
Cloud Computing Instrumental in Success of SMBs
Excerpted from Midsize Insider Report by Sue Poremba
Adopting cloud technologies has been a boon for small and midsize businesses (SMBs), according to a new report from Techaisle as discussed in Channel Partners. "Eighty percent of SMBs in the US say cloud computing contributes to business growth," the article states; "More than 40 percent of SMBs said that business agility and new capabilities are driving SMB cloud adoption," the article added.
This is a change from the past, when SMBs turned to cloud adoption primarily as a way to cut costs. IT-related costs are still helping to lead SMBs toward the cloud, especially in the case of smaller businesses that have moved applications to the cloud because of the opportunity to acquire technologies and applications that would otherwise have been too costly or would have required too much IT staffing. Lower costs, however, are no longer the predominant reason for SMBs turning to cloud computing.
Techaisle refers to this changing focus of cloud adoption as a "perfect storm," one that blends together technologies that are essential for the success of SMBs. Applications in social media, business intelligence and mobile can be driven by solutions that operate in a cloud format.
Looking specifically at midsize businesses, the research found that 60 percent of respondents said that turning to cloud computing made IT departments more productive. By using the cloud, IT personnel do not have to waste limited staff resources on tasks such as managing service agreement licenses or upgrading computers with new software.
Another cloud benefit for IT staff is that everyone across the company will be using the same software versions, so there will be no more frustrations with trying to mix and match out-of-date applications.
Moreover, IT can rely on the predictability of cloud-based applications and operations. With monthly costs and a contract that dictates exactly which services are included, the IT department and its budget will be free to focus on new projects that will help grow the overall business without the worries of having to install new hardware and software to handle the increased data loads.
Security has always been the one question mark hanging over cloud adoption and is a top reason why an SMB may hesitate to make the move. IT professionals are usually the default security staff, even though they are not normally trained in cyber security. Therefore, as the cloud becomes more mainstream and security tools become more sophisticated, IT staff may find that incorporating the cloud into their business environment actually improves overall security.
Respondents in the survey appreciated how cloud computing has improved business agility. The ability to adapt quickly to changes in technologies, to reach a broader base of customers and to incorporate mobile and other remote-computing operations has helped to level the playing field between SMBs and enterprises.
AWS Launches Government Cloud Innovation Challenge
Amazon Web Services (AWS) today announced the "City on a Cloud Innovation Challenge," a new global program to recognize local governments and application developers that are innovating for the benefit of citizens using the AWS Cloud.
From May to June 2014, AWS and a panel of worldwide experts from organizations driving local government innovation will select seven grand prize winners from among two award categories: Best Practices and Partners in Innovation.
Today, AWS is opening the call for entries for both the Best Practices Award and Partners in Innovation Award. Three AWS local government projects will be awarded the Best Practices Award, recognizing local governments who have already adopted cloud technology, each receiving $50,000 in AWS credits.
Four application developers will be awarded the Partners in Innovation Award for individuals or companies engaged in creating applications that solve local government challenges, each receiving $25,000 in AWS credits. To learn more about the City on a Cloud Innovation Challenge, click here.
Entries for both awards must be received no later than May 12th and will be judged based on one or more criteria that include the impact of the solution, likelihood of long-term success, implementation of AWS services, and the potential to help other local governments solve similar challenges.
AWS will announce the finalists by the end of May 2014, and the winners of the Best Practices Award and Partners in Innovation Award will be announced on June 25th at the AWS Government, Education, and Nonprofits Symposium in Washington, DC.
"The AWS Cloud is enabling government innovation at all levels. From the United States to Singapore, Europe to Brazil, and Japan to Australia, municipal governments and their technology partners are putting their ideas to work for citizens," said Teresa Carlson, Vice President Worldwide Public Sector, AWS. "We're looking forward to recognizing pioneering municipalities and partners, as well as seeing the next wave of ideas and innovations that will further transform what is possible for local and regional governments through low-cost, highly scalable, agile cloud computing services."
"It is an exciting time in government as we are in the very beginning stages of transformation — the cloud is accelerating innovation at every level of government around the world," said Chris Coleman, Mayor of St. Paul and President, National League of Cities. "Whether it is offering better service to residents through web sites, mobile applications and access to data, or driving new levels of operational efficiency, the City on a Cloud Innovation Challenge makes it possible to dream big."
All City on a Cloud Innovation Challenge entries must use the cloud computing solutions offered by AWS. Entries will be reviewed and considered by a panel of AWS representatives and international experts.
Google Reinvents How Cloud Computing Is Priced
Excerpted from Wired Report by Cade Metz
Many people complain that renting computer power from Amazon and other cloud companies is too expensive. Though the cloud is a great way to get a start-up off the ground or run a website where the daily traffic ebbs and flows, the voices say, there are other times when it's far cheaper to just buy your own computer hardware. "I'm not a big believer in the public cloud," one Silicon Valley CEO told us this past summer. "It's just not effective in the long run."
But Google wants to change this.
Today, at an event in San Francisco, CA, the tech giant significantly reduced the prices attached to several of its cloud computing services, seeking an edge over Amazon, the world's dominant cloud company. "This brings you industry leading pricing without the complexity you're used to," said Urs Holzle, who oversees Google's cloud services and its entire online infrastructure.
The company reduced prices by 32 percent across its Google Compute Engine, which offers raw virtual machines for running just about any software. It made a similar reduction on Google App Engine, a service that automatically runs and manages your software applications but asks that you build these applications in rather specific way.
And it lowered prices by about 68 percent on Google Cloud Storage, a means of storing data, and by about 85 percent on Google Big Query, which lets you analyze larger amounts of data.
But perhaps most notably, given the long-term impact of the move, the company introduced a new pricing scheme that provides discounts if you use a consistent amount of computing power over the course of the day. Google says that now, on Compute Engine, prices will automatically drop by 53 percent on virtual machines that you use 24 hours a day, seven days a week, over the course of a month.
Google calls them "sustained-use discounts," and they address the very problem that cloud customers have most complained about in the past. If their cloud workloads are consistent, the customers say, it makes more economic sense to buy and operate their own machines.
Holzle argues that although cloud prices have dropped consistently over the past few years, they haven't dropped as much as the price of computer hardware. Cloud prices have been lowered 6 to 8 percent annually, he says, whereas as hardware costs have plummeted 30 to 45 percent. Google's new pricing aims to close this gap, and the company intends keep it closed as time goes on (though it has made no firm commitments to future price reductions).
The company's rather enormous pricing shift is certainly welcome news in the world of cloud computing, but James Staten, an analyst with research outfit Forrester, says the changes won't necessarily give Google an edge over its rivals. "In this business," he says, "you're cheaper for about 24 hours.
That's how quickly the others guys can respond on price." But Holzle believes that Google has an inherent advantage because its global computing infrastructure — which runs not only its cloud services but all of its own services, such as Google Search and Gmail — is the largest on earth. Because it can buy hardware in such bulk, the argument goes, it can keep prices lower.
That said, Amazon's operation is rather large as well. And there will always be cases where the cloud services offered by both these companies is more expensive than buying your own gear.
Google and Amazon, after all, must spent money operate and manage its gear. But the beauty of the cloud is that you don't have to manage it. As long as the cloud isn't significantly more expensive than buying your own gear, it makes a tremendous amount of sense. That's what Google is aiming for.
Cisco Joins Cloud Computing Race with $1 Billion Plan
Excerpted from Cloud Consulting International Report by Jarrett Neil Ridlinghafer
Cisco Systems plans to offer cloud computing services, pledging to spend $1 billion over the next two years to enter a market currently led by the world's biggest online retailer Amazon.
Cisco said it will spend the amount to build data centers to help run the new service called Cisco Cloud Services.
Cisco, which mainly deals in networking hardware, wants to take advantage of companies' desire to rent computing services rather than buying and maintaining their own machines.
The company said it plans to deliver the service with and through partners including Australian telecom service provider Telstra, tech distributor Ingram Micro, and Indian IT company Wipro.
"Customers, providers, and channel partners want to rapidly deploy valuable enterprise-class cloud experiences for key customers — all while mitigating the risk of capital investment," Rob Lloyd, Cisco's President of Development and Sales, said in a statement.
Cisco's plans were first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Enterprise hardware spending is dwindling across the globe as companies cope with shrinking budgets, slowing or uncertain economies and a fundamental migration to cloud computing, which reduces demand for equipment by outsourcing data management and computing needs.
Microsoft last year said it was cutting prices for hosting and processing customers' online data in an aggressive challenge to Amazon's lead in the growing business of cloud computing.
What Moore's Law Means for The Cloud
Excerpted from Automated Traders Report by Tein Atkinson
Earlier this week, Google made the bold prediction that pricing for infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and other basic cloud services would fall at a rate that tracks to the computing performance gains modeled by Moore's Law. That means every 18 to 24 months, buyers of cloud computing services could get double the processing power for the same amount of money.
Google's statements have lit the cloud industry on fire. The company has thrown down the gauntlet, asserting it can offer cloud computing services that will drastically decline in price on a predictable schedule. Google has set a high bar that every cloud computing provider - including industry behemoth Amazon - must now clear.
Much of the cloud industry is now counting on a price war between Google and Amazon. But that's missing the bigger picture. As companies such as Amazon and Google make basic cloud services cheaper, they're also making the cloud more attractive and accessible to more companies for more uses.
Price regulates access. Typically, the lower the price, the more accessible a product or service becomes. Google's prediction that cloud services will follow Moore's Law, coupled with Amazon's latest round of AWS price cuts, could drive a mass migration to cloud in the same way that the Model T drove a mass migration to cars.
As more companies move to the cloud-adopting IaaS and integrating their enterprise networks with externally hosted clouds-we expect more companies to move their data centers to Equinix to connect to cloud services. Inside Equinix, customers can get fast and reliable direct connections to more clouds in more locations than through any other data center provider. In fact, Equinix is home to more than 450 cloud service providers and is the only data center company offering direct access to both Amazon Web Services and Windows Azure by Microsoft.
By colocating corporate data centers in Equinix facilities, companies put themselves in prime position to connect to their choice of clouds and network services, enabling them to assemble the virtual portfolio of IT services that their businesses need, now and in the future. Equinix has 100 data centers on five continents where companies can connect to cloud services. And we also help customers plan and test distributed cloud computing and network architectures to ensure their private and hybrid cloud deployments perform as expected.
BitTorrent Sync Is Now Available for Windows Phone
Excerpted from Windows Phone Central Report by Sam Sabri
Despite what other blogs would have you believe, BitTorrent Sync was not released for Windows Phone last week. Instead, it was a private beta that was helping develop the Windows Phone version of the app. That beta is finally over. BitTorrent just announced version 1.3 of their Sync product and with it, a new app for Windows Phone users. Let's check out BitTorrent Sync for Windows Phone.
BitTorrent Sync promises to allow users to share data and files with one another, but still own that data. It offers secure, unlimited file-syncing without requiring a third-party cloud. Your files are never stored on servers, so no NSA eyes will fall on it. You can also access your files anywhere. Create a Sync folder and you'll be able to access it on any computer, phone or tablet. There's also no limit on file sizes. Which means you can send files that range in kilobytes to terabytes.
Version 1.3 of BitTorrent Sync brings a ton of changes to the desktop version of Sync and includes service updates for the mobile apps on iOS and Android, but it also introduces a Windows Phone variant. For the full 1.3 changelog head into the BitTorrent forums.
The Windows Phone app is now public. Here's what you get with BitTorrent Sync for Windows Phone: access all your Sync folders and files from your Windows Phone device; add photos from your Windows Phone device to any of your Sync folders; automatically back up your Camera Roll to a folder on your computer; file transfers are encrypted and protected by secure keys; your information is never stored on a server in the cloud; and connecting the Sync application to other Sync folders is as easy as taking a picture of a QR code with your camera.
Right now Rich was able to download the app in the U.K. Daniel and I couldn't grab it yet in the U.S. This appears to be the version of BitTorrent Sync that was a beta last week. So be patient if you try to download right now and get a permissions error. The Windows Phone Store will take time to propagate that the app is now public.
Nonetheless Rich is enjoying it and we all really like the premise behind BitTorrent Sync. Head to the download page and grab the desktop version of BitTorrent Sync for your operating system. You'll need that to get the most out of BitTorrent Sync. We definitely recommend trying it out on a desktop or PC that you tend to keep on more often than not.
Like Live Mesh, BitTorrent Sync works by skipping the cloud and syncing files and data directly between devices. We like that and know a lot of you are looking forward to something like this.
Download BitTorrent Sync from the Windows Phone Store today. It's free!
Dell Streamlines Patient Care with New Cloud-Based Healthcare Solution
Excerpted from Money Life Report
Dell Services today unveiled a cloud-based solution that seamlessly and cost effectively delivers integrated clinical and financial systems for healthcare providers in India. This is a highly scalable, widely accessible and flexible solution to suit the unique needs of Indian healthcare providers. Targeted at midsized hospitals, large hospital chains and clinic networks, the solution ensures that providers have instant access to uniform workflows and customized reports across entities and geographies. Through a centralized approach, the solution gives healthcare providers the ability to adopt automated workflows and business processes using a single-instance application, reducing operational complexity and dependencies on paper records. This not only prevents manual errors and time delays, but will also enhance decision making and improve the patient experience.
With this solution, end-users (physicians, nurses and back office staff) can access cloud-based applications and reports through the use of a simple conventional browser. The solution also allows users to remain connected via smart phones and other hand-held devices, ensuring secure and anytime, anywhere access to information.
Commenting on the role of cloud in enabling better healthcare outcomes, Dr. Ashwin Naik, Founder and CEO, Vaatsalya, India's first hospital network focused on Tier II and Tier III towns said, "The healthcare industry in India is increasingly turning to IT adoption to improve patient outcomes. As hospitals and providers expand their operations with new referral centers, facilities, and acquisitions in new geographies, the need to access, integrate and connect these disparate systems is gaining importance. Cloud-based technology has the potential to addresses most of the IT-related issues -- access to the right information at the right time and operational efficiency, among others. More importantly it is affordable, scalable and flexible."
Dell is collaborating with Ubq Technologies and Ramco Systems to deliver an end-to-end proposition to providers. Ubq's Hospital Information System (HIS) solution, medics, will serve as the front-end application for patient-centric activities and will integrate with Ramco ERP on Cloud to provide customers seamless enterprise-wide application on the cloud.
Delivered as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model, the solution allows healthcare providers to quickly respond to increasing demands of infrastructure and storage, and train staff without huge capital investments and recurrent readiness costs.
"There is a seismic shift happening in the global healthcare industry. The overarching trend is to integrate and move information to the right person or system at the right time — whether it's a provider's staff, external service provider, or the consumer (patient or prospect),"said Sudhanshu Bhandari, Senior Analyst, Forrester Research. "The ability to create an information infrastructure that brings together the micro level of personalized health and the macro level of epidemiologic mappings to institutional quality and evidence-based practices will be a key differentiator for healthcare providers in future. Cloud-based end-to-end business services would help healthcare companies jump start these business initiatives and collaborate with global peer institutions. However, the Indian healthcare market is still very cost competitive and more maturity is needed to effectively leverage cloud-based solutions."
"We are extending Dell's proven capabilities and global healthcare leadership to India and have brought in the best-of-breed combination of HIS and ERP to help providers achieve their goal of providing efficient, information-driven healthcare in an affordable way. We will continue to bring to India unique solutions that will allow healthcare providers to focus on their number one goal-- enhanced patient care," said Sid Nair, vice president and global general manager, Healthcare & Life Sciences, Dell Services. "The solution is truly one of a kind in terms of its capabilities, delivery model and pricing. We believe that this will be a game changer for the Indian healthcare industry, where hospitals are constrained by huge upfront capital investments, and higher cost of licensing, maintenance and support."
This solution is available today in India and is an integral part of Dell's vision of building future-ready IT platforms to provide cutting-edge technology and services that enable innovation in Health IT. The cloud-based solution also extends Dell's Cloud strategy of providing choice and flexibility to customers to drive tangible business results through cloud computing.
Defense Department Deploys Secure Cloud Service
Excerpted from Information Week Report by Henry Kenyon
The Department of Defense (DoD) is rolling out a new cloud computing service as part of its ongoing efforts to trim IT costs and provide more streamlined services to its military and civilian users. The service, called MilCloud, provides an integrated suite of capabilities, including the ability for users to configure infrastructure resources and manage applications on a self-service basis.
Developed by the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), the DoD agency responsible for managing the military's communications infrastructure, MilCloud represents the latest effort by DoD to reduce IT costs. But DISA officials also claim the service will provide agencies with more flexibility and control over how they manage their computing environments.
The cloud service also helps DISA improve IT security safeguards by standardizing how classified and unclassified data are processed and stored.
"MilCloud allows us to integrate various applications at the core data center (CDC) level," DISA's Chief of Staff, Brigadier General Frederick Henry, said last week at an annual event for government and industry executives that do business with the military.
Henry said MilCloud can deliver cloud services and support DoD applications for about the same cost as providers such as Amazon, "but in a more secure fashion."
MilCloud forms the foundation of the Joint Information Environment's core data center service and represents one part of a broader effort to connect all of the military services' networks into a single, secure information-sharing space. DISA officials say that MilCloud's infrastructure incorporates strict security protocols that keep data secure in the DOD's core datacenters.
MilCloud can also support DoD organizations and military personnel anywhere on the planet, using a variety of authorized desktop and handheld devices. Its features include: on-demand self-service — users can place orders via web-based self-service tools, configure infrastructure resources, and manage mission applications running on those resources without manual
intervention from DISA support staff; broad network access — all MilCloud products and services are connected to the Department of Defense Information Networks (DoDIN) and meet DoD security guidelines and protocols; resource pooling — MilCloud resources are pooled, permitting multiple users to access services for more efficient and flexible use of resources; and rapid elasticity — by using virtual resource pools, MilCloud can rapidly expand or collapse available resources to meet demand.
MilCloud allows the military services and other DoD agencies to control their data and their applications. The cloud service includes a shared, virtual computing environment known as a virtual data center (VDC). According to DISA officials, the VDC is "virtual floor space" analogous to an enclave in a physical data center.
The VDC allows users to manage, compute, store, and network resources as needed to support their systems. VDC resources are accessed through a self-service, on-demand, web-based management interface that allows users to directly order, provision, and manage their VDC resources.
The military services and their agencies — what DISA calls its mission partners -- are responsible for the security and certification of their individual VDCs. Users can configure and manage their resources in a VDC themselves, or resources can be automatically be configured by MilCloud's Orchestrator function.
Orchestrator streamlines and automates the management of functions related to building, testing, and migrating configurations in a VDC. The services can use a set of "recipes" or create their own recipes of assets, such as virtual machines, software packages, and configuration scripts, DISA officials said. The MilCloud Orchestrator then executes these recipes on demand.
Orchestrator also automates labor-intensive and repetitive activities such as functional regression testing after an application has been changed. DISA officials note that environmental recipes can also be published as baselines or minimum system requirements. Administrators can control how recipes are shared and made available to other users in MilCloud.
Henry says MilCloud also includes a central help desk providing continuous Level II/Tier I through III support.
The cloud service is available on the DOD's unclassified NIPRNET and can be ordered through DISA's Cloud Services Marketplace.
Mobile, Cloud, Analytics Set to Disrupt Healthcare Reform
Excerpted from CruxialCIO Report by Al Denis
Perhaps the most radical goal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is to tackle the 80/20 problem - that is, improve the health of the 20 percent of patients that account for 80 percent of healthcare costs.
The ACA creates a financial incentive to reduce the amount of health care individuals require and receive.
This gives insurers a powerful profit motive to reduce childhood obesity, encourage smokers to quit and convince sedentary adults to get off their couches.
Driven by these incentives, healthcare will transform from the existing fee-for-services approach to an outcome-based model, where all parties share risk and reward in delivering care more efficiently.
Consumers, meanwhile, will bear increasing responsibility for choosing their healthcare plans, and will face a dizzying array of options and trade-offs regarding costs and coverage.
In this emerging environment, payers must develop delivery models linked closely to financial results, and must offer customers ease of navigation and clarity of choice when selecting their coverage. The insurers who achieve these imperatives will likely be those that can harness the disruptive technologies of social media, mobility, analytics, and big data and cloud (SMAC).
Social media (SM) will play a central role in driving "wellness programs" designed to incentivize healthy lifestyles — SM is ubiquitous and accessible; it's fun and it drives positive reinforcement and peer pressure. SM platforms can be used to integrate goal definition and rewards, and allow members to make statements about healthy choices and to gain (and give) positive and consistent feedback.
Mobile technology provides the delivery vehicle that records patient activity, monitors data, provides feedback to the patient and communicates with the provider. Cigna, for example, is piloting a fitness app aimed at reducing the risk of diabetes through "high-tech measurement," "high-touch coaching" and "cool tools" aimed at encouraging patients to stick with the program. Mobile applications make it increasingly easy to navigate plans, find physicians and even do first-level triage from a smartphone; they can also be a fitness aid, by recording vital signs during workouts and charting progress.
Big data and analytics will enable insurers to track patient health records and outcomes at a granular level. A key factor here is the ICD-10 diagnostic protocol, which in October will expand from the current system of 14,400 codes to one with more than 68,000 codes. ICD-10 will help insurers gain insight into how positive lifestyle changes affect healthcare requirements, and translate that impact into actuarial models tied to costs. For example, a patient who loses 20 pounds might be able to go from a bi-annual physical to an annual visit — an outcome that reduces costs for the insurer. A related challenge will be to track lifestyle programs and progress, and analyze and evaluate the impact of those programs on health outcomes and on costs over time.
Big data will also help payers target wellness programs to individual preferences. The rewards and incentives payers offer to customer can't be generic — a middle-aged man trying to quit smoking will want different rewards from a pre-adolescent battling obesity. Collecting customer data, analyzing that data and then developing tailored and automated programs based on that data will be key to connecting with member populations on an individual level.
"Gamification" models are already being developed to engage patients with consistent reinforcement and feedback. In addition to making lifestyle changes a positive experience, such programs can offer customized material benefits. So, an avid fisherman who loses 20 pounds could be rewarded with a new set of dry flies. For a 12-year-old boy who loses 20 pounds, the reward could be a new bike.
Big data and analytics will allow payers to tie social media applications that motivate people to exercise and eat right to improved outcomes. Ultimately, this will enable payers and providers to put a dollar value on the impact of lifestyle changes on their customers.
With regard to cloud computing, the healthcare sector is moving to address lingering concerns around security to take advantage of on-premise cloud solutions that address the massive data storage demands posed by electronic health records requirements in general and ICD-10 in particular. Recent regulations have heightened exposure of security breaches within healthcare organizations; the good news for cloud proponents is that most of these breaches can be attributed to theft and hacking incidents, rather than the technology or storage model deployed. Nonetheless, they highlight the fact that due diligence is needed to ensure that the cloud that's purchased is the one that's audited.
More specifically, both payers and providers (particularly the latter) must address some critical questions around their internal processes for compliance to regulatory standards and access to and use of Protected Health Information (PHI). Only then should they think about aggressively pursuing cloud solutions.
Programs that today are being developed in an incubator-type environment are producing viable applications and will quickly move beyond the pilot stage and become foundational to insurer strategy. Forward-looking providers will develop outcome-based delivery models that derive savings from reduced demand for health services — savings that will then be shared among buyers and suppliers. Service providers willing to share the expense and risk of developing and implementing scalable models will emerge as the winners.
Coming Events of Interest
Interop Las Vegas — March 31st to April 4th in Las Vegas, NV. The leading independent technology conference and expo series designed to inspire and inform the world's IT community. New in 2014: Cloud Connect Summit and the InformationWeek Conference.
CLOSER 2014 — April 3rd-5th in Barcelona, Spain. The Fourth International Conference on Cloud Computing and Services Science (CLOSER 2014) sets out to explore the emerging area of cloud computing, inspired by recent advances in network technologies.
NAB Show — April 5th-10th in Las Vegas, NV. From broadcasting to broader-casting, NAB Show has evolved over the last eight decades to continually lead this ever-changing industry. From creation to consumption, NAB Show has proudly served as the incubator for excellence — helping to breathe life into content everywhere.
Media Management in the Cloud — April 8th-9th in Las Vegas, NV. This two-day conference provides a senior management overview of how cloud-based solutions positively impact each stage of the content distribution chain, including production, delivery, and storage.
CLOUD COMPUTING EAST 2014 — May 13th-14th in Washington, DC. Three major conference tracks will zero in on the latest advances in the application of cloud-based solutions in three key economic sectors: government, healthcare, and financial services.
US Cyber Crime Conference — April 27th to May 2nd in Washington, DC. This unique event combines digital forensics training with an interactive forum for cyber professionals and covers the full spectrum of topics facing defenders as well as law enforcement responders. Sessions will cover intrusion investigations, cyber crime law, digital forensics, information assurance, R&D, and testing of forensics tools.
International Conference on Internet and Distributed Computing Systems — September 22nd in Calabria, Italy. IDCS 2014 conference is the sixth in its series to promote research in diverse fields related to Internet and distributed computing systems. The emergence of web as a ubiquitous platform for innovations has laid the foundation for the rapid growth of the Internet.
International Conference on Cloud Computing Research & Innovation - October 29th-30th in Singapore. ICCRI:2014 covers a wide range of research interests and innovative applications in cloud computing and related topics. The unique mix of R&D, end-user, and industry audience members promises interesting discussion, networking, and business opportunities in translational research & development.
|
.jpg)
