wavelinks

Games without frontiers

“If gaming from the cloud is as big as gaming on console via DVD then it will be bigger than the music industry in revenue terms before long. Imagine the upgrades and re-versioning that could happen then, nightly builds or hourly builds or mid game code updates! And if the game is in the cloud not the console then the IP is closer to the owner and the not duplicated millions of times to plastic. Game on. ” says Brian Greene who is so not a gamer you would not believe it!

[www.gamasutra.com reports] OnLive Opens Beta For Cloud Computing Game Service. Onlive, which announced its cloud computing gaming service at GDC 2009, revealed today that it has entered open beta.

The service allows gamers to play PC titles through their own PCs or television sets, without needing to render the game on their own hardware — rather, it is rendered remotely and sent frame-by-frame back to the local display device.

In a blog post, OnLive CEO Steve Perlman described the unique challenges of the beta rollout.

“One of the key challenges that OnLive technology addresses is providing a high-quality, fast-response gaming experience over a wide range of situations: different speeds/locations/types of broadband services, a variety of different PC and Mac configurations, several kinds of input and display devices, etc,” he said. “So, a major focus of OnLive Beta is to test as many of these different situations as we can.”

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Tags: Brian Greene, Cloud Computing, Gamasutra, gamers, gaming, onlive

Hey , Google , get off o’ my cloud

As they tend to do with everything else Google are maintaining a strong presence in the growing market for providing key business software and infrastructure as a service.

Just this month they have elevated their ready-to-use cloud computing product ‘Google Apps’ from beta status sending out a clear signal that this is no longer seen as ‘experimental’ and confers it status as a product in its own right.

Google Apps is a web accessible platform that provides storage and functionality to a business to run a mail server and office documentation editing capability. It’s really made up of three elements: Gmail with domain personalisation, Google Docs and Google Sites.

via Hey , Google , get off o’ my cloud . » Via Consulting.

Tags: Gmail, Google, Google Apps, Google Docs, Google Sites, IaaS, Infrastructure as a Service, Via Consulting

Microsoft opens ‘mega data centre’

Software giant Microsoft has opened a $500 million data centre in Dublin after two years of work on the extensive project, writes Gavin Daly.

The facility at the Grange Castle Business Park covers 303,000 square feet, or almost seven acres more than twice the size of the playing surface at Croke Park. The centre is part of Microsoft’s investment in cloud computing, and houses tens of thousands of computer servers running the company’s online software and services.

It is the company’s first so-called ‘mega data centre’ outside the US, and is seen as an important investment by the firm, which already employs about 1,200 people full-time in Dublin.

via Sunday Business Post | Irish Business News.

Tags: data center, Dublin, Ireland, Microsoft, Sunday Business Post

IIA Cloud Computing Working Group

The Irish Internet Association Cloud Computing Working Group seeks to educate decision makers on the advantages of Cloud Computing while also cognisant of the disadvantages. It aims to support businesses to analyse the issues involved in transitioning their IT infrastructure from on premise to cloud applications and advise businesses on areas of concern such as availability, security and data protection. The group aims to clarify the objective opportunities beyond the hype.

via IIA Cloud Computing Working Group.

Tags: Cloud Computing, Collaborative, data protection, IIA, Irish Internet Association, IT infrastructure, security, working group

Understanding the Cloud Computing/SaaS/PaaS markets: a Map of the Players in the Industry

The Cloud Computing/SaaS/PaaS space is loaded with interesting vendors, and the space is booming. If you are trying to navigate this world and need a guide, this blog entry will help. We have assembled a visual map of the industry, showing how the major players fit into the overall space. It will give you an overview of who’s who, and what types of solutions are being offered.

via Laird OnDemand: Understanding the Cloud Computing/SaaS/PaaS markets: a Map of the Players in the Industry.

Tags: Deployment, Elasticity, Highly Available, IaaS, Infrastructure as a Service, Kent Langley, metered service, PaaS, Platform as a Service, SaaS, Scalability, Software Application, Software as a Service, Technology Stack, utility computing

Cloud Computing: Get Your Head in the Clouds – Home – Kent Langley’s Blog on Cloud Computing, Scalability, and Operations

Cloud computing is a commercial extension of utility computing that enables scalable, elastic, highly available deployment of software applications while minimizing the level of detailed interaction with the underlying technology stack itself.

via Cloud Computing: Get Your Head in the Clouds – Home – Kent Langley’s Blog on Cloud Computing, Scalability, and Operations.

Tags: Cloud Computing, Kent Langley, metered service, on demand, what is cloud computing

CloudSpilt gets ready

Not a cloud in the sky (any more) we’re clear for launch. 10, 9, 8 (ok you get the pun)

Congrats to CloudSpilt in the green white and gold of a new logo move onto the pad for launch.

via [echolibre blog] Last night, a simple holding page for a brand new productwas quietly put live, and announced through a tweet from Joe Drumgoole. CloudSplit is a service that offers users of cloud computing a realtime view of what’s happening and how that hits their wallets.

Tags: Cloud Computing, CloudSpilt, echolibre, launch

Basecamp

“For years project management software was about charts, graphs, and stats. And you know what? It didn’t work. Pictures and numbers don’t get projects done. Basecamp tackles project management from an entirely different angle: A focus on communication and collaboration. Basecamp brings people together.”

Well that’s what they say.. over the next week we will test drive Basecamp with an open mind. We will report our findings here at wavelinks.ie

Basecamp is made by 37 Signals who have a work ethic that includes a 4 day week… mmmm Monday or Friday off? Perhaps they can afford to as they’re are so well organised using their own software? We’ll see.

Tags: 37 signals, basecamp, Collaborative, project management

send in the clouds

So a lot of your data is stored in the cloud saving you thousands of euro, but you need to audit your data locally or have it archived to the vaults for safe keeping but it will take weeks to download and the broadband is not the greatest speed and prone to disconnect at 2am. What is required is a courier service to send you back YOUR data when YOU want it.

Those clever folk at Amazon have a service to do just that.

AWS Import/Export accelerates moving large amounts of data into and out of AWS using portable storage devices for transport. AWS transfers your data directly onto and off of storage devices using Amazon’s high-speed internal network and bypassing the Internet. For significant data sets, AWS Import/Export is often faster than Internet transfer and more cost effective than upgrading your connectivity.

The beta currently supports importing and exporting data into and out of Amazon S3 buckets in the US. Support for EU buckets will be added in the coming months.

so if  you need to retrieve  over  1TB of data and you are on broadband it will take more that 82 days to download, it will ship quicker in Europe and the service isn’t even launched here yet!

Tags: Amazon, AWS Import/Export, broadband, buckets

HP selects Galway as global centre for cloud computing

by JOHN COLLINS Irish Times
HEWLETT-PACKARD (HP) has designated its Galway software development centre as a global centre of competency for cloud computing.

The first fruits of the new designation is a product recall service for the food industry, which is being launched in Canada.

Announced yesterday, the service will run on HP’s cloud computing platform for manufacturing and is being offered through a partnership with GS1, a non-profit organisation that attempts to make supply chains more efficient.

Cloud computing, which involves accessing applications over the web rather than installing them on a customers’ own premises, is gaining popularity rapidly.
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Tags: Cloud Computing, development centre, Google Mail, GS1, Irish Times