Items tagged with Cloud computing
NVIDIA's GRID is a virtual GPU technology that allows for hardware acceleration in a virtual environment. It's designed to run in concert with products from Citrix, VMWare, and Microsoft, and to address some of the weaknesses of these applications. The problem with many conventional Virtual Desktop Interfaces (VDIs) is that they're often either too slow for advanced graphics work or unable to handle 3D workloads at all. Now, with GRID, NVIDIA is claiming that it can offer a vGPU passthrough solution that allows remote users to access a virtualized desktop environment built around a high-end CPU and GPU. The test systems the company is using for these 24-hour test drives all use a GRID K520. That's...
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When NVIDIA first announced that it would create a workstation-class remote virtualization system that enabled full GPU acceleration with latency-free streaming I was more than a little skeptical. Not only did it seem like a solution in search of a problem, the bandwidth requirements and technical heavy-lifting to support professional PC users seemed too steep to surmount in a few short years. Then, this week, NVIDIA announced that it would offer a free 24-hour test drive of NVIDIA GRID to anyone who wanted to see what the technology could do. We took the company up on its offer and what we've seen is damned impressive. Understanding NVIDIA GRID NVIDIA's GRID is a virtual GPU technology that...
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Amazon is taking on an IT unicorn: virtual desktops for enterprises. As Amazon is quick to point out, virtual desktops are fairly rare in large companies at the moment, due to the logistics of managing the hardware and software necessary to pull off the feat. If the cheering stick figures at the end of Amazon’s new promotional video are to be believed, Amazon WorkSpaces will solve your virtual desktop problem. On the face of it, Amazon WorkSpaces sounds fairly easy to use and very scalable. Once you sign up for the service, you have a dashboard you can use to assign desktops to employees, and they can access those desktops on PCs (or Macs) or mobile devices running Android (including the...
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For the past few years, Google has been pushing the idea of Chrome OS and the Chromebook. The idea is simple: Shift your data into the cloud, carry a tiny device that connects to all your online information, and let Google worry about the heavy lifting. Less discussed is the question of what happens if Google decides you've violated its Terms of Service and shuts down your account. That's what happened to Slate contributor Tienlon Ho, and the aftermath wasn't pretty. Google's notification included no specific details on why his account had been closed. He'd lost access to all of his data, including files stored on Google Drive, email, and shared documents. Tienlon goes on to note that Google's...
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Both EMC and IBM are reportedly considering a purchase of SoftLayer, a dedicated server, managed hosting, and cloud computing provider based out of Dallas, Texas. The deal, which is being handled by Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse, could be worth as much as $2 billion, a hefty chunk of change for what's currently the world's largest privately held web hosting service. According to Reuters, SoftLayer warmed to the idea of a buyout after one if its customers, AT&T, approached the company. AT&T has since dropped out of the running. Image Source: Flickr (Tophost) Cloud providers are becoming increasingly popular targets in takeover talks as companies look to streamline the performance of...
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If you're a fan of Boxee, go ahead and say 'howdy' to Cloudee, the set-top box maker's first foray into the world of cloud computing. For the time being, Cloudee is an invite-only cloud party for iPhone and iPod touch users who don't mind playing with beta apps. That stinks if you're an Android user, but if Cloudee proves popular enough, perhaps support for other platforms will follow. So, what exactly is Cloudee anyway? It's a social app that lets you share personal videos with family and friends. "This new iPhone app lets users upload videos to Cloudee, organize them into collections and share them with their family and close friends," Boxee explains. "During the beta period the service is...
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Tilera is a small CPU design firm that first attracted attention back in 2007, when it debuted its TILE64 architecture. The company's tech is designed to offer a grid of CPU tiles. Each tile contains a very simple CPU core, its cache, and a router. All of the processors are attached via mesh networking. Each tile has its own L1 and L2 cache. If a given CPU has a local L2 cache miss, it can reach out and search the combined L2 cache of the entire processor cluster. Tilera refers to this as a "very large, effective L3 cache." Today, the company demonstrated a 100-core processor it claims is capable of competing with the best Intel and AMD have to offer. "The reason we can go against Sandy...
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Last month, we covered AT&T's decision to impose caps on its previous unlimited Internet service plans. An estimated 56 percent of Americans now pay for bandwidth-capped service, almost always at the same price point that once allowed them unlimited bandwidth. Now, toss in the fact that you can't swing a dead cat two feet without smacking into another company eagerly talking about 'cloud services.' The offers are varied, the promises inflated, and the terminology uncertain. In virtually every case, today's cloud services are nothing more than what we used to call 'web storage' or 'sharing content across a network / the Internet.' The difference between these services of yesteryear and today's...
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Nearly a month ago, we discussed Intel's concept of "micro servers" and detailed their position as cloud-providing products. It should come as scant surprise that OEMs have picked up on Intel's vision. Today, Lenovo is first out of the gate with what it calls "Cloud Ready Clients." The company claims these servers "are optimized to interact with the cloud and give end users the best possible experience when accessing applications and services." The label of "Cloud Ready Client" is mostly a marketing initiative, applying as it does to all ThinkPad laptops and ThinkCentre desktop PCs powered by 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ or Core™ vPro™ Processors and unique Intel-developed...
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Data centers are notorious energy pigs. Can cloud computing be the cure? Yes, according to a growing body of research. A new study released by Pike Research shows that if businesses were to adopt cloud computing instead of building out their own data centers, by 2020 they could cut data center energy consumption worldwide by one-third over 2010's levels. Given that emissions from data centers worldwide is approaching the carbon dioxide emissions of the country of Argentina, that reduction is significant. The report says: “Pike Research forecasts that data centers will consume 139.8 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity in 2020, a reduction of 1% from 201.8 TWh in 2010. This also represents...
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Google has turned its Gmail, Calendar, and Contacts into a backup system for your Microsoft Exchange data. Called Google Message Continuity, the service is meant not just to back up, but to sync in real-time your Exchange data on Google's servers. The service is based on technology from Postini, which Google acquired in 2007. Here's how Google Message Continuity is described: Google Message Continuity is a cloud-based email continuity solution—a service that helps ensure that you always have access to your email. Organizations running on-premises email systems, such as Microsoft® Exchange, can run the risk of losing email access—or even worse, their email data—during a server...
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Location, location, location is the mantra for real estate. Donnie and Kathy Fulbright, from Maiden, NC, know that well. Apple just paid them $1.7M to move out of the house they lived in for 34 years. After the couple rejected two offers, Apple told them to put a price on the single-story house built on less than one acre of land, and they did. That property was purchased for $6,000 when they moved in 34 years ago. Now, the Fulbrights live in a 4,200 sq. ft. house on a 49-acre property. Not only that, the house includes a Jacuzzi in the master bathroom, as well as a manmade pond stocked with catfish and bass. Why the big payout from Apple? The Fulbright's former property is next to the location...
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According to Mike Nelson, the relevance of the Internet in all facets of modern life is decreasing as cloud computing takes the stage. Nelson, a Georgetown University professor, gave a speech at the World Future Society in Boston on Friday, where he predicted cloud computing would eventually be more important than the Internet as services evolve. "In the mid-90s there was a clear conscience about what the Internet was going to be," Nelson said. "We don't have as good a conscience as we did in the '90s, so we may not get there...the cloud is more important than the Web." One of the problems when discussing cloud computing is that there's still no exact definition for what cloud computing actually...
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Cisco recently unveiled its new Cisco Cius business tablet device. Pronounced "see us," the new tablet runs on the Android platform. The tablet uses Cisco Collaboration Architecture and virtual desktop integration to provide users with various communication, collaboration, and computing services. The Cisco Cius supports HD video streaming and real-time video, multi-party conferencing, email, messaging, browsing, and the ability to produce, edit and share content stored locally or in the cloud. The tablet has a front-mounted 720p HD camera as well as a 5-megapixel rear facing camera that can transmit streaming VGA quality video and capture still images. It also has dual noise-cancelling microphones...
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At the beginning of this week, T-Mobile informed Sidekick users that their personal data and photos "almost certainly has been lost." Now, Microsoft is coming back with some good news to affected users, saying the company believes it has recovered most of the data after all. "We are pleased to report that we have recovered most customer data for those Sidekick customers whose data was affected by the recent outage," corporate vice president Roz Ho wrote in a letter."We plan to begin restoring users' personal data as soon as possible, starting with personal contacts, after we have validated the data and our restoration plan. We will then continue to work around the clock to restore data to all...
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It's impossible, these days, to swing a dead cat more than about six inches without running into "the cloud" in one form or another. Whether we're discussing cloud computing as a storage concept, server provisioning, or consumer appliance, moving data into or out of the cloud has been a major topic over the past year. For all the traction cloud computing has found as an idea, however, it may end up being practically useful to a relatively small subsection of the total storage market. In theory, Cloud Computing could free data centers from needing to keep quite so much storage around—provided they've got the time and bandwidth to upload it in the first place.A quick glance at the broadband...
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After a major server outage occurred with Microsoft's Danger servers last Friday, users across the country have reported lost address books, weird text messaging problems, and other forms of data loss. Now, T-Mobile is informing Sidekick users that their personal data and photos "almost certainly has been lost." While service outages have hit various online services including Google's Gmail, RIM's BlackBerrys, and Apple's MobileMe apps, this particular outage has hit users in the worst possible way since the company has lost nearly all of its users' data and has no alternative backup plan for recovering it. For T-Mobile's SideKick phone users, this outage shows the dark side of cloud computing....
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RemotePC recently launched RemotePC Lite, a free service that can transform your PC into a personal cloud that is accessible from anywhere. This free new service makes it possible for you to use your PC or Mac as a centralized server or cloud, and use other PCs, Macs, or mobile devices as clients. You can select the folders, documents, images, and emails that are enabled for cloud access without needing to upload the data to a storage service. "RemotePC Lite has been optimized for PCs and iPhones. A Mac version is in the pipeline. Although online storage and sharing services are popular, there is a sizable user base that does not feel comfortable uploading their critical documents or images online...
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Slowly but surely, cloud and dense computing environments are becoming more and more popular. With services such as Apple's MobileMe and Google's own application suite living on the web, it's not hard to see why these tactics are becoming more pervasive. And wouldn't you know it--AMD is chomping at the bit to make sure it gets in on the bandwagon early. Today, the company is introducing the immediate availability of the new six-core Opteron EE processor at 40W ACP. Designed specifically to provide plenty of power for cloud computing environments without the power draw of more gamer-centric processors, this unit promises up to 31% higher performance-per-watt over standard Quad-Core AMD Opteron...
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Google is virtually synonymous with search. So much so in fact that the company has little need to advertise. Not all sales pitches are quite as easy as selling Google ads, however. Getting businesses to buy Google’s online suite of office applications is taking a bit more work. To help spread the word about its online suite of office applications, Google is leasing billboards along major highways in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, and Boston this month. Google’s bundle of business applications sells for $50 per worker annually. Google plans to have a different message displayed each weekday throughout August, starting today. Google has been selling its applications package since 2007. The...
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Is the Tablet PC really ready to make a comeback? With Apple's rumored tablet inching closer to reality each and every day, we've got yet another entrant vying for attention. According to a new article in the Straits Times, a Singapore start-up company by the name of Fusion Garage has teamed up with TechCrunch's own Michael Arrington in order to produce the world's next tablet--or, at least the next one that anyone will bother to care about.The device will purportedly be called the CrunchPad, and according to the report, it boasts a 12" display and weighs 1.2kg. Full dimensions are 12.77" by 7.83" by 0.74", and the homegrown operating system promises to give users easy access to YouTube clips...
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HP announced today that it has purchased data storage company IBrix in a bid to expand its cloud computing capabilities. The two companies have been partners for several years, and HP believes the acquisition "further solidifies the company’s leadership in the emerging market of scale-out and high-performance computing storage, cloud storage, and fixed content archiving. This market is growing at a compound annual growth rate of 20 percent per year, which is faster than both the network-attached storage and total external storage markets."Translate that into English, and it reads: "We can store and retrieve your data remotely faster than you can locally, all for less than it would cost you to...
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