Happy New Year
and to make 2010 happier All Data Transfer In to Amazon S3 is Free until June 30th, 2010 
so if you plan to upload large amounts the window is open. Additionally, Amazon S3 EU WEST (Ireland) storage pricing has been reduced 15% to $0.15 (€0.10*) per GB. Also reducing from $0.012 to $0.010 (€0.07*) per 10,000 GET requests or 1,000 PUT requests.
Things I still need to do.
* approx coversion to euro on date of post
[Update 22.01.10]
Well work is so busy I haven’t had time to do a full write up on these items. But I can say that JungleDisk Server Edition [Linux] installed via RPM and was so easy to setup. I purchased the licence via my Amazon account and added it to an XML file, Hey Presto it was running. I downloaded a client for windows and my server was there waiting to interact and take backup instructions. The backups are scheduled and very painless. Well worth checking out. [btw I had tried to do this 6 months prior to November but it wasn't an available option for my server build]
The EC2 on EBS vols. well again cloud computing is maturing 6 months slower that when I hit it. When I first tried EC2 I couldn’t believe this wasn’t possible and now it is. The GUI makes it possible for less geeky CMD line folk to get what needs to be done done in a visual way. So I played around with it in the run up to Xmas and a bit over the break and can report that it is a major step forward in the Stop / Start usage of on demand computing. I need to have some small but more critical trials of this but I can’t see any draw backs!
Carbonite, PutPlace & JungleDisk. Well Peter@doop is testing Carbonite so I await his views on that, I have been using JungleDisk for a good while now and the new interface is a major step forward. I am backing up much more areas of disk now but nowhere near the amount of data Peter is syncing. I think asynchronous connections are a real pain when trying to upload massive amounts of data over broadband. If you do one thing in 2010, BACKUP! and do it before June 30th.
€22m investment for telecoms firm Intune
doop’s first ever client Intune Networks have secured further funding on 22 million euros! their technology will be integral to moving large amounts of data around the cloud in fast, efficient and in unpredictable ways.
Financier Dermot Desmond and venture firm Kernel Capital are among investors to have pumped €22m into Dublin-based telecoms equipment supplier Intune Networks, it was announced today.The investment was secured by the company in its most recent funding round and is the largest private equity investment in the global telecoms optical equipment sector in 2009. It is also the largest private equity investment round in the European telecoms equipment sector and the third largest in the European IT sector this year.
via €22m investment for telecoms firm Intune | BreakingNews.ie.
Google Wave: You need to pay attention to this. – Jason Kolb re: the Future of the Internet
Jason Kolb talks about XMPP and Google Wave as “the next revolutionary leap in Internet application architecture” and goes on to explain how Google will unleash the the full power of the XMPP protocol throough it’s “Sexy” Wave client.
So here’s the deal with Wave: If you deal in technology, and you get this one wrong, you’ll miss the boat. And it’s a big boat. If, on the other hand, you get this one right, you have the potential to do some incredible innovation.
In a nutshell, this is the next revolutionary leap in Internet application architecture. Maybe the first truly revolutionary leap since HTTP itself.
I’ve been wanting to write this post for a while, but first I wanted to read fully thru and digest the specs and available code. I haven’t done any posts about XMPP for quite a while, but you’re going to start hearing a whole lot about it, and not just from me.
via Google Wave: You need to pay attention to this. – Jason Kolb re: the Future of the Internet.
Tags: Google Wave, Jason Kolb, XMPPOffice Web Apps : Demo of the Office Web Apps
Microsoft Office Web Apps enter technical preview stage (by invite only), offering better file integrity between the desktop and the web with no loss of data in the process. Spreadsheets & Powerpoint presentations are now editable in the browser while Word online-editing is not yet ready.
Spreadsheets keep their functions and charts, Powerpoint delivered over the web, with extra functionality if SilverLight is installed though it’s not a requirement.
Office Web Apps will be delivered throught Windows Live Workspace.
Click below for a video demo from Chris Bryant.
Office Web Apps : Demo of the Office Web Apps.
Tags: Microsoft, Office Web Apps, Silverlight, Windows LiveGet Access to Web-based Microsoft Office Apps Now!
In the coming months, Microsoft will unveil a Google Docs like product that will let users create and edit Office documents in the browser itself without requiring a copy of Microsoft Office software.
The product, known as “Office Web Apps”, will include online versions of Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint. Like Google Docs, Office Web Apps will be available for free and you can use it from all popular browsers on Mac or Windows PC even without the Silverlight plug-in.
How to get Microsoft Office Web Apps
Microsoft is expected to ship Office Web Apps alongside Microsoft Office 2010 sometime next year but here’s a simple hack that will help you access the preview version of Office Web Apps right now…
via Get Access to Web-based Microsoft Office Apps Now!.
Tags: Digital Inspiration, Excel, Microsoft, Office, Office Web Apps, PowerPoint, Silverlight, WordApps.gov brings cloud computing to the Federal government | CTOvision.com
The Federal government embraced cloud computing today with the launch of the GSA operated Apps.gov which promises to bring efficient cloud computing services and infrastructure to the U.S. government agencies. As noted on the Apps.gov website:
“Cloud computing plays a key role in the President’s initiative to modernize Information Technology IT by identifying enterprise -wide common services and solutions and adopting a new cloud-computing business model. The Federal CIO Council under the guidance of the Office of Management and Budget OMB and the Federal Chief Information Officer CIO, Vivek Kundra, established the Cloud Computing Initiative to fulfill the President’s objectives for cloud computing.”
via Apps.gov brings cloud computing to the Federal government | CTOvision.com.
Tags: Apps.gov, Cloud Computing, CTOvision.comWhat the Hell is Cloud Computing? | Strategies for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Governance Risk and Compliance (GRC), Open Source| PrudentCloud
I know every one and their grandfather has their own definition of Cloud Computing. As we go through the blogs, marketing paraphernalia we keep seeing the definition of cloud computing evolve or disintegrate. So I thought what would some of the top technology leaders feel and think of Cloud Computing. (No I did not pick the order based on their unbridled opinion rating).
I will start of with Larry Ellison, the oracle of software industry. Most opinionated and mostly correct, as history has proven, sometimes a few years later. Did I mention he is funny too?.
Tags: Cloud Computing, Eric Schmidt, Frank Gillett, Larry Ellison, Prudent Cloud, SaaS, Software as a Service, Steve Ballmer, technology leaders, video, Werner VogelsMcGarr Solicitors | Cloud Computing: European Data Protection Dangers
Cloud computing is rapidly becoming a buzzphrase in IT-reliant businesses. Its proponents include some of the largest technology companies in the world. But while enterprises may be able to save money by moving into the cloud it is difficult to see how they can do so with their customer’s personal information without breaching EU data protection law.
Household names like Google, Amazon and Microsoft are racing each other to create rival global platforms for the storage and manipulation of data. They have sent their marketers out amongst us to proclaim the Good News- Cloud Computing will reduce costs and improve service when compared to the traditional self-built and run server rooms most significant organisations are used to.
via McGarr Solicitors – Dublin Solicitors Ireland | Cloud Computing: European Data Protection Dangers.
Tags: Cloud Computing, Europe, European Data Protection, law, legal, McGarr Solicitors, privacyState of the Cloud – September 2009 :: Jack of all Clouds
To avoid confusion, the analysis will focus on cloud IaaS providers only. Currently tracked are Amazon EC2, Rackspace Cloud Servers (Slicehost), Joyent and GoGrid. I’m inviting the community to comment below regarding providers you feel should (or shouldn’t) be included. I’ll also be digging deeper into the definition of an IaaS cloud in upcoming posts, so stay tuned.
Snapshot for September 2009
Of the 500k sites analyzed, these are the results for the IaaS providers tracked:
via State of the Cloud – September 2009 :: Jack of all Clouds.
Tags: Amazon, Cloud Computing, EC2, GoGrid, IaaS, Infrastructure as a Service, Jack of all Clouds, Joyent, Rackspace Cloud Servers, Slicehost, State of the Cloud