Cloud Good, Cloud Bad for Your Data?
February 29, 2012
InfoWorld’s David Linthicum–cloud consultant, “real” expert, and podcaster–recently reported on cloud computing in the article, “Big Data and the Cloud: a Far From Perfect Fit.”
According to the article, while big data and cloud computing have some similarities you shouldn’t think that any old enterprise search startup with cloud offerings, generally in the public cloud, will solve your data management issues.
Organizations that try to consolidate their data into public cloud databases are most likely going to run into two primary technical difficulties — bandwidth limitations and higher cost for security.
When discussing the issues with bandwidth, Linthucum states:
“…Big data means big integration challenges. Thus, the ability to get the data from the enterprise to the public cloud may be problematic. Although you can certainly ship up a couple hundred thousand data records each day over the open Internet, in many cases we’re talking millions of data records that must be transformed, translated, and synced from existing enterprise systems.”
While the article is not saying that big data is never a good fit for public clouds, it does bring up some good points that should be considered when deciding what solution is the best fit for your company. We find it interesting to watch the trajectory of advice from experts. Cloud good, cloud bad? One never knows does one?
Jasmine Ashton, February 29, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Amazon Loses Zygna
February 27, 2012
Fancy talk aside losing a big customers generates heart burn. Wired Cloudline reveals that “Zynga Gives Amazon Cloud the Slip.” Game maker Zynga has analyzed its needs and, though it does not plan on dropping Amazon Web Services (AWS) entirely, has determined it can do better by building its own platform, zCloud. The article reports:
“What is a surprise is the dramatic shift away from Amazon for cloud services. Amazon is estimated to have provided 80 percent of cloud computing services to Zynga in the early days, and now delivers a mere 20 percent. . . . [Zynga CTO Allan Leinwand] told GigaOm the move should not be seen as knock on AWS, because zCloud was built and optimized for the unique workloads of its interactive and graphics-intensive games.”
Hmm. . . perhaps. However, we see another possible factor: Amazon’s price increases seem to be unappetizing when there are lots of tiny incremental charges. Perhaps such inflation will spur more companies to create their own clouds.
Zynga has profited mightily by bringing some fun into the social networking boom. The company prides itself as giving people around the world “permission to play”. Now that’s a cheery business model.
Stephen E Arnold, February 27, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
ZyLAB Captures Email in the Cloud
February 27, 2012
Digital Technology recently reported on the information management technology company ZyLAB, in the article, “New ZyLAB eDiscovery Cloud Collectors Retrieve Messages, Calendar Items, and Contacts from Microsoft Office 365 and Other Web-based Email”
According to the article, the company has released the first in its series of new ZyLAB Cloud Collectors to capture email from Microsoft Exchange Online.
the article states:
“With this release, ZyLAB becomes the only end-to-end eDiscovery company to offer both traditional email collection and integrated collection of cloud-based email systems via a hosted or on premise application. This capability enables ZyLAB clients to easily migrate previously collected and processed email from their SaaS-based ZyLAB eDiscovery system to a fully-featured ZyLAB eDiscovery system that is behind the firewall and poised to manage multiple litigation or regulatory matters as well as corporate governance.”
With the increase of mobile technology users, the use of Cloud computing becomes more and more vital. ZyLAB’s new products are an excellent addition to the array of products currently in circulation.
Jasmine Ashton, February 27, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Prevent Amazon Bill Shock
February 26, 2012
Before jumping into cloud-based search and content processing, it is smart to check out your friendly sticker shock preventer.
Uptime Software has announced a new product, uptimeCloud, which monitors and forecasts costs for Amazon Web Services. The product helps users avoid “sticker shock” by allowing them to monitor usage throughout the month. By calculating existing charges and making projections, users can track and predict costs, and can even set alarms when a bill is exceeding a user’s set budget. The article on Wired Cloudline, “Avoid Amazon Cloud Bill-Shock With uptimeCloud,” tells us more about the software:
‘Cost is the key driver in moving the cloud and, at the same time, cost uncertainty is the cloud’s biggest barrier and risk for companies. uptimeCloud completely removes that risk,’ Alex Bewley, CTO of uptime software, said in a statement. ‘uptimeCloud is the first solution to offer this type of service with this level of graphical visualization and simplicity.’
In response to the service, Amazon says they are happy to work with those who want details of analyses and is focused on lowering infrastructure costs. However, unless you are fully comfortable in taking Amazon’s word for it, you should probably check out the prediction software.
We find Amazon’s price creep interesting. The firm is struggling to keep its costs under control in its quest to compete with Apple, kill off WalMart, and dominate the video and book content business. Caveat emptor?
Andrea Hayden, February 26, 2012
NASA to Another Type of Cloud
February 25, 2012
Yep, cost cutting is rampant in the US government.
NASA is accelerating into the ether and it seems to us that the agency plagued with exogenous complexity is retrenching. Government Computer News reveal, “NASA Wants to Put Web Services in Agile-Like Cloud.” The agency wishes to unite content management for its disparate facilities under nasa.gov. Writer Rutrell Yasin relates:
The target environment for Web services is an ‘agile, cloud-based enterprise infrastructure’ that provides the three cloud delivery models — infrastructure as a service, software as a service and platform as a service — according to a draft statement of work NASA issued Feb. 6. The Web infrastructure will service internal and public-facing applications and sites, using an interoperable, standards-based and secure environment, the document states.
Collaboration tools are also on the wish-list, and NASA’s Office of the CIO will make sure the changes adhere to the Representational State Transfer architecture model and other best practices. (Well, that’s good.)
The agency will primarily turn to open-source solutions; we welcome that direction but must ask: is cost control now the order of the day? The answer is, “No matter what buzzwords or woolen cloth is draped over the explanation, the budget crunch is forcing changes which will embrace lower-cost options and headcount reductions. Grants in a girdle are next are in development.
Cynthia Murrell, February 25, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
PolySpot Technology Makes Big Data Manageable
February 23, 2012
A recent white paper by Beyond Search’s own analyst, Stephen Arnold, “Cutting Big Data Down to Size: The PolySpot Solution,” tackles the issue of high-volume data flow by taking an in-depth look into PolySpot’s Information at Work Solution.
Arnold gives much credit to the France-based company for creating a revolutionary system that offers an easy-to-use solution to Big Data, making data available and thus valuable to companies. Information from ArnoldIT’s investigation is summarized on PolySpot’s website:
PolySpot has developed an innovative approach that makes it possible to deploy a robust frame-work over existing content repositories. The PolySpot technology allows licensees to access information from many different sources and deliver information that answers real-life business questions. Users access the content via applications or apps from mobile devices to desktop computers. The company delivers solutions+apps.
Our team at Beyond Search is glad to see PolySpot offering innovative enterprise search solutions that are much needed in the search enterprise search market place. This technology is necessary in ensuring that information of significant value is not lost in the petabytes of information that is growing daily.
Check out Apprapids for more insight from the ArnoldIT team or direct your browser to PolySpot to download a full-length copy of the analysis.
Andrea Hayden, February 23, 2012
Oracle Adds RightNow to Its Cloud Collection
February 21, 2012
Remember when Oracle was grousing about the cloud. Well, the company has gone bonkers for digital meteorology, excelling in cloud moves.
Have you been wondering what Oracle will do with RightNow? Oracle purchased the maker of cloud-based customer service software last fall for about $1.5 billion. ComputerWorld reports, “Oracle Outlines Plans for RightNow Integration.” Writer Chris Kanaracus checked out an Oracle webcast on the subject; he states:
Oracle executives outlined the company’s bid to reinvent the notion of CRM (customer relationship management) software, discussing how RightNow’s applications will work as part of a continuum involving Oracle technologies for e-commerce, natural language search, customer segmentation and other areas, many of which it also procured through acquisitions.
Specifically, RightNow’s applications will fit at the end of the customer experience chain, tracking product usage, maintenance, and recommendation scenarios. Before that, Oracle has the life of a sale covered. FatWire helps consumers research purchase decisions; Social Network and Siebel Marketing help target marketing endeavors; Endeca provides search technology used to find a product; and ATG Commerce furnishes the e-commerce foundation to complete the purchase. The company’s financial and supply chain software follow, leading the transaction to RightNow’s doorstep.
Oracle intends to make these integrations very soon, though no date has been given.
Founded in 1997, RightNow operates out of Montana with a client roster that is almost 2,000 organizations strong. It’s official mission: to “rid the world of bad experiences.” Now that’s the way to aim high. With Oracle’s acquisition of the quirky Taleo, storm fronts are on the move.
Cynthia Murrell, February 21, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
A Look at DynamoDB from Amazon
February 20, 2012
We’ve found a useful write up with useful links in Paperplanes’ “A Tour of Amazon’s DynamoDB.”
DynamoDB is Amazon’s distributed data store. This is a distributed database. It lives in the cloud and appears to leap frog Google and Microsoft in a key solution space.
Billed as fast, reliable, andcost-effective, DynamoDB is a NoSQL database service is tailored tofit Internet-scale applications. It was built on lessons Amazonlearned from Dynamo, the scalable storage system it created in 2007 tomeet its own needs. Writer Mathias Meyer spells out the purpose ofhis article:
Time to take a good look at what it has to offer, how that works outin code, and to make some wild guesses as to what’s happening underthe covers. . . .My goal is not to outline the entire API and its full set of options,but to dig into the bits most interesting to me and to show someexamples. . . . I’m focusing on the effects DynamoDB has on you, theuser. We’ll look at API, general usage, data model and what DynamoDB’sfeature generally entails.
Meyer goes on to examine those points and much more. Even if thearticle weren’t full of useful information, it would be worth a peekif only for the links at the end, under Resources. Check it out.
Cynthia Murrell, February 20, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Lucid Imagination Dives into the Cloud
February 9, 2012
Continuing to reap the benefits of investment in open source, Lucid Imagination has just launched its cloud contender. Marketwire reports, “Lucid Imagination ‘Search-as-a-Service’ Powers Flexible, Cost-Effective Enterprise-Wide Data Discovery.” Like the company’s enterprise version of LucidWorks 2.0, the cloud-based version builds on Apache Lucene/Solr. The write up explains:
“LucidWorks Cloud helps businesses of all sizes conquer even the most daunting data and business quandaries by rapidly firing up cost-effective, flexible, and scalable enterprise search applications that help users find the information they need, when they need it. More than 30 companies used the pre-release version of LucidWorks Cloud, shaping the new product to meet even the most rigorous demands of cloud-based enterprise search.”
Both versions of LucidWorks add a lot of features to their open source foundations, like an improved user interface, monitoring and reporting tools, and an open connector framework that bridges to alternative data sources.
Founded in 2007, Lucid Imagination focuses exclusively on Apache Lucene/Solr search technology. Eight out of the 30 core committers to that open source project work for Lucid. The company also offers free developer software. Many of its clients around the world are huge household names, like AT&T, Ford, and The Smithsonian, to name just a few.
Cynthia Murrell, February 9, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Amazon Embraces Flexibility
January 29, 2012
Amazon’s latest product Elastic Network Interface (ENI) seems to provide some additional options and flexibility to users and could prove especially beneficial for enterprise users. According to the ZDnet UK Blog article “Amazon Separates Servers From IP Addresses.” “
Amazon Web Services has released a product that separates its rentable servers — ‘instances’ — from their IP addresses. “ The new products will only work with instances that are in Amazon Web Services’ Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) product. A post by Amazon on its blog states:
Today we are adding additional flexibility to EC2 instances running in the Virtual Private Cloud. First, we are teasing apart the IP addresses (and important attributes associated with them) from the EC2 instances and calling the resulting entity an ENI… Second, we are giving you the ability to create additional ENIs, and to attach a second ENI to an instance.
Though this provides customers with some attractive options one can’t overlook the surging costs on Amazon. It will be interesting to see how long they control their bulging budget while continually to produce innovative products and keep their customers happy. Amazon continues to demonstrate that it poses a threat to Apple and Google. eBay? Already stung by Amazon.
April Holmes, Janaury 29, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
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