Cloud Computing Archives

Federal Mobile Strategy: Increasing Access to Mission-Critical Data & Streamlining IT

February 3, 2012

Last August, I wrote a blog post discussing the federal cloud computing initiative launched by then-U.S. CIO Vivek Kundra and his Cloud-First policy developed to motivate agencies to adopt cloud computing projects and reduce overall spending and energy expenditure. On the heels of his endeavor comes a new federal mobile strategy intended to increase productivity and realize cost-savings. The new U.S. CIO (a newly-minted federal position only two-years-old), Steven VanRoekel, has drafted a mobile strategy outline to push agencies toward a standardized framework and roadmap to complete implementation. In a WhiteHouse.gov blog post, VanRoekel stresses the importance of mobile use with a few key examples and benefits: Realize real estate savings from teleworking Joint agency programs give employees working from different agencies remote access to mission-critical data from any location The Army’s mCare App allows remote monitoring of soldiers’ healthcare statuses The Federal Emergency Management Agency uses mobile Twitter to find victims during an emergency, send out emergency messages and to find out how far the emergency has spread. Social Media for Informed Decisions In the spirit of social media’s knowledge-sharing ability, the government launched an online forum, the National Dialogue on The Federal Mobility Strategy to collaborate on ideas…

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Megaupload’s Series of Unfortunate Events

February 2, 2012

The recent government shutdown of Megaupload, a massive file-sharing service said to house a substantial amount of copyrighted media, has put into motion a series of unfortunate events and provided valuable lessons learned. Server Data Deletion Megaupload’s servers contained more than 25 petabytes (approximately 25 million gigabytes) of data storage (Mashable.com). While the data includes some copyrighted material, a great amount of the data is also legitimate, personal data uploaded by the owners of the content. But the data may be lost forever – initially, the U.S. Attorney’s Office claims the hosting companies that house Megaupload’s servers have filed a letter stating they may begin deleting data as early Thursday, while more recent reports claim the companies have agreed to wait two weeks before wiping servers. However, a nonprofit, Electronic Frontier Foundation, just announced they will be partnering with Carpathia Hosting to help the legitimate users retrieve their data with at www.megaretrieval.com. With at least 50 million users’ data at risk of deletion, one to has to wonder if the right to destroy data without providing a copy to their rightful owners or their client was included in their hosting contract. Make sure you know where your data goes if…

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Online Tech to Attend IMPACT 2012 Conference on Cloud Computing

January 31, 2012

Mike Klein, President and COO of Online Tech, will be speaking about cloud computing at IMPACT 2012 on February 7 in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Featuring sales, marketing, finance, human resources and public sector experts, IMPACT 2012 is an informative networking conference on current economic and technology trends, hosted by Automation Alley. Klein will be speaking at a panel discussion, A Day in the Clouds: Is Your Future Cloudy? Moderated by Peter Marsack, VP of Computer Solutions, the panel will cover cloud computing definitions, cloud services available and the benefits and costs of the cloud for businesses. Other panelists include: Mark Farneth, President of Radley Corporation, will discuss the transition from traditional corporate computing to cloud computing, as well as why they use Online Tech for their private cloud hosting services. Jamie Hamilton, VP of Software Engineering at Quicken Loans James White, Senior Enterprise Solution Advisor at Secure 24. The IMPACT 2012 event overview details what you will gain from attending the conference: Insight from industry leaders on how to navigate business challenges in 2012 Real-world insight on accessing capital and maximizing profitability in your business Tangible tactics to increase sales and generate revenue Grow your professional network by connecting with fellow Automation Alley members representing a…

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Department of Defense’s Cloud Computing Strategy: Saving Money & Increasing Security

December 29, 2011

The 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) recently passed by Congress includes a section on data centers and servers, concerning the IT industry and cloud hosting providers (Section 2867). What do the provisions call for? A plan to reduce the resources needed for servers and data centers. The components of the plan include a reduction in: Square feet of floor space Power and cooling utilities Investments in capital infrastructure (measured in cost per megawatt of data storage) Number of applications Full-time personnel/cost of labor The provisions also call for a performance plan that measures and sets standards for server and data center operations, including the implementation of a strategy for the following: Desktop, laptop and mobile device virtualization Cloud computing transitions for lower costs and greater security Use of cloud computing and data center security services managed by the private sector Reporting standards to measure data center infrastructure aspects, including space, power, cooling, age, cost, capacity, efficiency, etc. The section also calls for reports from the CIO on the division’s cost-savings as a result of transitioning to cloud computing to be presented to Congress in March of each fiscal year, starting in 2012 and reoccurring through 2016. Hopefully a close…

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Revenue, Supply & Demand: Effects of the 2011 Hard Drive Shortage

December 14, 2011

The recent hard drive shortage caused by this year’s extreme Thailand floods is said to continue its major impact through 2013, according to market research firm IDC and reported by ComputerWorld.com. The hard drive shortage is being felt around the world as IT vendors, computer system merchants and consumers are all affected. While initial recovery was estimated to occur within the first three months of 2012, complete recovery may take longer. According to TechRadar.com, the shortage has dramatically increased prices to as much as 150 percent, due primarily to the closure of many manufacturing plants. In addition, Digitimes reports an estimated 70 million HDD shortage for laptops and desktop computers in the fourth quarter of 2011. While computer and laptop demand is currently at 180 million, there are reportedly only enough hard drives available for 110-130 million. Even Apple is feeling it – estimated shipping times have increased significantly from 1 to 3 days to 5 to 7 weeks for customized iMac products with 2TB hard drives, according to AppleInsider.com. Intel recently reported its Q4 revenue will fall from $13.7 billion to $14.7 billion due to the lack of hard drive supply, which has trickled down from fewer personal computers…

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Study on Cloud Computing Security: Managing Firewall Risks

November 10, 2011

A recent cloud computing security study conducted by the Poneman Institute and sponsored by Dome9 reveals that 67 percent of IT professionals claim their organization is left vulnerable to hackers due to lax cloud port and firewall security. Fifty-two percent of respondents rated their organization’s overall cloud server security management as fair (27 percent) or poor (25 percent). In addition, 54 percent of respondents to the study said their IT staff had no knowledge about the potential risks of open firewall ports in their cloud environments. These significant statistics show a major lack of security concerns among IT personnel that ultimately affect clients’ data and applications in the cloud. Even more alarming are the 42 percent of the respondents that fear they wouldn’t know if their data or applications on their cloud were actually compromised or if a data breach occurred, involving an open port on a cloud server. The study “Cloud Security: Managing Firewall Risks” analyzed responses from IT and IT security professionals working in the U.S. that use hosted or cloud servers (dedicated or virtual private servers). And these aren’t novice IT personnel – on average, the respondents had more than 10 years of experience and almost half…

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Data Disclosure in the Public Cloud

November 1, 2011

Do you know who has control of your data? Take precaution when you decide to put your data on the public cloud hosted by Google or Amazon. A recent Wall Street Journal article reports statistics from Google’s Transparency Report, a new effort to disclose a limited amount of information regarding government requests for user data and requests for content removal. According to the report, U.S. government requests for Google user and account data rose 29 percent when comparing the first six months of 2011 to the previous six months. A total of 5,950 user data requests from January to June 2011 affected 11,057 individual users and accounts. In addition, requests to remove content from Google products increased 70 percent – and in response, Google complied with 63 percent of those requests. This raises the question of who has the ability to access, or grant access to your data hosted in a public cloud environment. Can the government simply call up Google or Amazon, submit a request for information and receive your data, whether confidential or not? The Wikileaks incident back in December 2010 is a good example of government influence on hosting providers. The prolific theft and dissemination of classified…

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Apple Invests in Cloud Computing Data Center

October 14, 2011

With the release of iCloud on Wednesday, Apple has been dipping in the cloud computing pool recently with significant ongoing investments – in 2009, the company announced plans to spend billions of dollars on a data center in North Carolina over the course of nine years to support future projects. Asmyco.com reports the total spend to have hit $1 billion last December, while the down payment for the 500,000 square foot cloud data center is estimated at $750 million. With over a billion spent on cloud computing costs, including servers, storage equipment, personnel, R&D, bandwidth and more, Apple has been investing aggressively to keep iTunes, Apps, iCloud and its other cloud-based services on par with demand. However, the NYTimes.com Bits blog reports numerous error messages while using the new iCloud software designed to sync multimedia across numerous devices. The problems are attributed to a major spike in traffic and simultaneous downloading of the new software update, but similar issues occurred during the first few weeks of the MobileMe launch several years ago. Will Apple’s iCloud introduce serious competition to Gmail, Google Docs, or Google Sync? The iCloud is Apple-only, meaning it doesn’t support a wide variety of Windows or other brand…

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Cloud Computing Prompts 2012 Data Center Expansion Plans

October 10, 2011

Who’s planning to build or expand data centers in the next few years? Major growth in Internet service demands and cloud computing is pushing major companies to expand or build new data centers around the world. Follow the breakdown of investments, land size and reasons for data center expansion: Click to View Full Size. Google Dublin, Ireland: An energy-efficient, cloud computing data center on 11 acres of land with a $101 million investment. The natural cooling from Dublin’s climate saves energy by eliminating the need for chillers. Asia – Singapore, Hong Kong &Taiwan: A $200 million investment in three data centers to support increased demand of services via smartphones and tablet computers, and expectations to be operational in 1 to 2 years. Pryor, Oklahoma – Just opened a new $600 million, 130,000 square feet data center, and plans to open a second building for office space. Another energy-efficient project, the data center will be powered from a wind farm which will feed into the electrical transmission grid. Microsoft Dublin, Ireland: Microsoft expects to expand its 19-acre, $500 million data center in Dublin by more than a third – similar to Google, the data center uses natural cooling without any chillers….

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The War of Email Cloud Computing: Google vs. Microsoft

October 6, 2011

Let the war of the email clouds begin. A recent InfoWorld article reports Gartner’s predictions for Google’s share growth of the enterprise email market to shoot from 1 percent to 10 percent within a few years. And when it comes to the cloud-based email market, Gmail owns nearly half of the market. Gartner’s predictions for the cloud email market growth within the overall enterprise email market is an eventual increase from its current 3 to 4 percent market share to 20 percent by 2016, and 55 percent by 2020. With its recent data center investments around the globe, it would appear Google is gearing up for projected growth. Google plans to invest 75 million Euros, or $101 million in a new data center in Dublin, Ireland on 11 acres of land. Just days before, Google announced expansion in Asia plans to build three new data centers located in Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The expected benefits of using cloud email and applications are significant in cost savings – the U.S. Department of Energy’s conversion of its IT department to Google Apps estimates it will save $40 million in technology expenses over a period of five years. InfoWorld details current organizations…

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