In the end, cloud providers — many of which aim for 99.9 percent uptime, or “three nines” — are likely to offer individual companies a more reliable service than those companies attain for themselves, the CSA’s Howie says.
via Cloud Providers Work To Disperse Points Of Failure – Dark Reading.
Note that telecom typically operates under 5 nines uptime. The point of this article may be that end users need to implement their own backup plans to get higher than three 9s reliability.
The public cloud confirmed today by VMware marks the first time the company will become an IaaS provider itself, analysts said. Unlike platform-as-a-service, which puts the focus on providing simplified tools to application developers, IaaS clouds let customers (or require them to) manage the underlying infrastructure such as the operating system and virtualization tools.
via VMware targets rival “bookseller” Amazon with its own public cloud | Ars Technica.
With its Google Compute Engine launched Thursday, Google is offering an IaaS (infrastructure as a service) cloud for running Linux virtual machines on the same infrastructure that powers the company itself.
From: Where Google Computing Engine fits in
But how will customers decide whether to use Google Compute Engine, Rackspace Cloud, Windows Azure, HP Cloud, or another IaaS provider? For an informed answer to that question, InfoWorld turned to Michael Crandell, CEO and founder of RightScale, the cloud-management services company that helps customers work with everything from Amazon EC2 to Microsoft Azure.
Echo provides a real-time platform bundled with a suite of applications that enables you to transform your website into a vibrant, real-time social experience. One that keeps users engaged as the web continues to evolve.
via Echo – Products.
Cloud storage services are cropping up left and right, all enticing their customers with a few gigabytes of storage that sync seemingly anywhere, with any device. We’ve collected some details on the most popular services, including Google Drive, to compare them.
via Cloud storage: a pricing and feature guide for consumers | Ars Technica.
I don’t normally post images here but this chart makes for a quick reference. The linked to article has much more details and worth a read.
What intrigued me about this is the max file size. This is probably set to keep people from building their own file containers (i.e. tar, zip, etc.) — which is what I hoped to do. Dropbox allows for a max file size of 300MB, ICloud 25MB. By building your own file containers gives you more local control over security of said files by allowing you to use your own encryption. 300MB seems suitable for even rather large databases. Apps will have to be more frugal with a 25MB limit. I need to start using my Dropbox account. Will report more on this later.
Really Simple Systems Cloud CRM is aimed at small and medium sized organisations or departments of larger organisations who want a simple, easy to use web-based CRM sales, support and marketing system. The hosted CRM model is particularly suitable for companies with multiple locations and people who work remotely or at home. With over 5,000 users Really Simple Systems is one of the world’s largest providers of Cloud CRM systems and has offices in the UK and Australia. Customers range from single user to 300 user systems, and include Tumblr, the Red Cross, the Royal Academy of Arts, the British Museum, NHS, the Department for Environment and RSM Tenon as well as hundreds of small and medium sized companies.
In October 2010 the company launched Free Edition, a ground breaking free CRM system for two users.