During an afternoon panel entitled “The Many Faces of MapReduce — Hadoop and Beyond,” moderator Gary Orenstein compared the two primary Hadoop components — MapReduce and the Hadoop Distributed File System — to the meat and bread of a sandwich. Read more »
NoSQL startup DataStax officially entered the pantheon of Hadoop providers today, introducing its own distribution called “Brisk.” Brisk utilizes the open source NoSQL database Cassandra as a replacement for Apache’s Hadoop Distributed File System, as well as Cassandra’s built-in MapReduce engine and Hive. Read more »
At long last, Microsoft has taken a big step forward in its cloud computing fight against VMware by letting customers manage hybrid on-premise and Windows Azure environments from within Microsoft’s System Center systems management software. Read more »
Cloud Platform-as-a-Service startup DotCloud has raised $10 million from Benchamrk Capital and Trinity Ventures, further evidence that openness will be critical if PaaS is to become the future of cloud computing. Openness in PaaS might best be defined as giving users choice and some management access. Read more »
Making good on a pledge last year, Twitter has moved into its own custom-built data center, which the company claims will be the service’s “final nesting ground” — and, hopefully, put an end to its reputation for frequent or extended downtime. Read more »
Last week, Intel announced its plans to produce an Atom processor designed for use within servers, but company’s road map — which doesn’t have the server-ready Atom available until 2012 — raises the question of how serious Intel is about pushing an alternative to its flagship Xeon architecture. Read more »
Reddit suffered some major downtime yesterday, a situation it largely on a failure on the part of Amazon Web Services. But the real takeaway might have to do with the importance for cloud users to make sure all is well with their cloud deployments. Read more »
Using Hadoop to process data for targeted web advertising efforts is nothing new, but this week, two companies in the video advertising space also stepped forward to highlight how Hadoop is helping them deliver the right ads to the right viewers for their clients. Read more »
Consumer electronics recommendation engine Retrevo launched a new feature this morning that challenges the Amazon Marketplace. However, for Retrevo to meet its lofty goals of dethroning Amazon even in this single category, it will have to rely on the accuracy of its machine-learning algorithms. Read more »
Intel has bought Netherlands-based, system-on-chip startup Silicon Hive in an attempt to make Intel’s low-power Atom processor more appealing across a variety of devices. The most important market will be mobile devices, but it looks like the embedded processor and server markets could be potential targets. Read more »
Just over than a month after discontinuing its Hadoop distribution to focus on the flagship Apache Hadoop project, Yahoo is proposing some changes to the Hadoop MapReduce component that could significantly improve processing performance. The proposal illustrates just how beneficial Yahoo’s renewed focus could be. Read more »
Their story arcs aren’t exactly the same, but the strategies employed by Apple and Amazon Web Services to reach their respective pinnacles seem very similar, with result being that users are willing to pay a premium and accept some lock-in as consequences of choosing either company. Read more »
Cloud database provider Xeround has made its MySQL database available as as add-on within Heroku’s PaaS offering, following on its availability for Amazon EC2 users in September and likely preceding availability on a number of other cloud computing platforms. Read more »
Yesterday, HP CEO Leo Apotheker laid out his vision for the company’s cloud computing future, but given HP’s all-but-non-existent cloud strategy until this point, it’s difficult to believe the company can be a real competitor until it actually starts to deliver what Apotheker is promising. Read more »
Amazon Web Services has been on a tear lately in terms of rolling out new features that go a long way toward patching the weak spots in its cloud armor, and it did so again today with the announcement of an actual virtual private cloud capability. Read more »
IBM and Revolution Analytics have brought together SQL queries and predictive analytics by integrating R Enterprise statistical analysis software with IBM’s Netezza TwinFin data warehouse appliance. It’s part of a significant evolution in analytics strategies as big data becomes a big issue for all types organizations. Read more »
Couchbase, the company formed by the merger of Membase and CouchOne last month, has released the first version of its Couchbase Server database, as well as a board of advisors that reads like a who’s who of web infrastructure and big data. Read more »
Microsoft is developing a new big data tool called Dryad. Dryad and the associated programming model, DryadLINQ, simplify the process of running data-intensive applications across hundreds, or even thousands, of machines running Windows HPC Server. Dryad builds upon lessons learned from Hadoop, but differs in some significant ways. Read more »
ParAccel’s competition all got bought, leaving the company standing all but alone as an independent company dedicated to the cause of big data. But with a solid product and a steady business channel to boost a large vendor’s bottom line, it shouldn’t be alone for long. Read more »
Mobile apps for managing cloud computing resources are nothing new, but Rackspace is bringing the capability to even the newest Apple devices, including the iPad2. The company announced the Rackspace Cloud 2.0 application, which is free and can run on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Read more »
According to Violin Memory CEO Donald Basile, Fusion-io’s proposed IPO is just the start of what should be a very busy era for flash. Basile, whose previous job was as chairman and CEO of Fusion-io, sees an impending multi-billion-dollar market, spurred in part by Larry Ellison. Read more »
SaaS leader Salesforce.com is growing so fast that the company is considering the possibility of building its own data centers within the next few years, Rich Miller reported at Data Center Knowledge. The company currently hosts about 3,000 servers across the globe. Read more »
Cloud provider Tier3 announced this morning that it has secured $8.5 million from Ignition Capital and Madrona Venture Group to fund its “enterprise platform-as-a-service” offering, a term that might not be entirely accurate, but that might actually be indicative of a forthcoming trend in cloud marketing. Read more »
Private cloud software startup Cloud.com announced that both Tata Communications and Logicworks have selected Cloud.com’s CloudStack software as the foundation of their IaaS offerings, suggesting that it’s still service providers that seem to be buying the most cloud computing software. Read more »
VMware has expanded its cloud computing reach once again by acquiring WaveMaker, a startup focused on letting users build cloud applications without having to write code. It’s just the latest move by VMware to grow its platform business by bringing in all the developers it can. Read more »
Hot private-cloud startup Nimbula is getting in on the ecosystem act, announcing this morning a partner program currently comprised of Opscode, Puppet Labs, Scalr, enStratus and Cloud Cruiser. It’s more proof that it’s very difficult to go it alone in the cloud computing software space. Read more »
Rackspace is now offering official support services for the OpenStack cloud platform under the moniker of Rackspace Cloud Builders. Until now, companies wishing to deploy OpenStack-based cloud offerings had to either rely on community members for informal support or seek out third-party consultants. Read more »
NoSQL has been able to withstand the trappings of its newfound popularity and maintain a communal spirit, an observation proved once again by the NoSQL Tapes. But how long until they become like many open-source movements, united under the same banner but jockeying for position? Read more »
OpSource stepped up its enterprise cloud push again today, bundling advanced networking and security capabilities into its public cloud offering free of charge. Giving away what once commanded a relatively high fee seems like a bold move, but it has everything to do with staying competitive. Read more »
It seems like when it rains for cloud storage startups, it pours, and this week was no exception. Egnyte closed a $10 million round, Scality closed a $7 million round, and RightScale chose Gluster to provide scale-out NAS within RightScale’s cloud management platform. Read more »
Although it has been around for more than 20 years, Objectivity thinks the advent of NoSQL and companies trying to emulate Twitter’s ability to determine relationships among disparate pieces of data via graphs might finally propel it into the database big time. Read more »
Facebook is working on a real-time analytics dashboard to let users determine which content is getting the most attention from visitors. As described in an educational session on Wednesday night in Facebook’s Seattle office, the service is built atop HBase and tracks about 100 metrics. Read more »
Rackspace is opening the OpenStack board to participation by a greater number of contributors. Issues arose after Rackspace bought Anso Labs last month, giving Rackspace an overwhelming majority of Project Oversight Committee seats, leading some to suggest Rackspace was making a play to have complete control. Read more »
Open source database vendor EnterpriseDB is taking the fight to database market leader Oracle via a survey showing that respondents generally don’t trust Oracle on prices, think Oracle is bad for Java and don’t really like Larry Ellison. Read more »
Canonical is on a quest to make Ubuntu the go-to server OS for cloud computing. If it succeeds, it will validate the stance that there is definite place for open source in cloud computing, and it’s at the OS and IaaS layers. Read more »
After all the talk over the past few weeks about IBM’s Watson, it’s becoming clear that Watson is not HAL of big-screen notoriety. But when used in concert with predictive analytics software, technologies like Watson can become part of a very complete big-data architecture. Read more »
Flexible PaaS startup DotCloud has raised $800,000 in angel funding, although it should be seeing a lot more if its alignment with the evolution of the platform-as-a-service space is any indication. DotCloud prides itself on simplicity, but it sets itself apart by providing a flexible platform. Read more »
Athletic apparel brand Puma is running Puma.com and related sites on a Eucalyptus-powered private cloud. Puma is another well-known customer win for Eucalyptus, and that it’s running a web site on Eucalyptus infrastructure might also help suggest what the first round of private-cloud-hosted applications will be. Read more »
DynamicOps has raised $11 million in Series B funding from Sierra Ventures, Next World Capital and investment bank Credit Suisse’s Next II venture group. Given its already-solid foundation, the new capital could go a long way toward making DynamicOps a household name in the private-cloud space. Read more »
As social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter continue gaining prevalence among mainstream America, they’re having a greater effect on the administration of justice in our court system, with everyone from jurors to judges skirting potential ethical lines. Read more »
