University of Illinois researchers have created an app and a sensor-filled cradle that turn an iPhone into a mobile spectrophotometer. The combination of that mobile lab data and metadata such as location might prove very valuable. Read more »
Facebook executives on Thursday talked about how its acquisition of Parse’s Mobile Backend as a Service (MBaaS) can help developers, Facebook users and, of course, Facebook. Read more »
Red Sox star David Ortiz stole the show at Techstars Boston Demo Day, but here are a few other highlights. Read more »
Box recognizes that user experience is important, particularly on mobile devices. The company said Thursday it has acquired technology from the Folders iPhone app, which lets users open many kinds of files. Read more »
Don’t like the cost of your cloud datastore? Wait a second, it’ll probably go down. Watch for rivals to jump in. Read more »
Joyent isn’t being coy about it: It wants to compete head on with Amazon and that means it will offer many more options including some, it says, are cheaper than analogous AWS services. Read more »
Software-defined networking vendor ConteXtream says a wireless service provider has deployed software to virtualize a network that supports around 40 million customers. Read more »
CIOs may be the kings of the IT heap within their companies but they are also under siege — new technologies from outside, recalcitrant CEOs, budget-stealing CMOS. Some things to ponder. Read more »
In line with big investments in IT security, Skyhigh Networks is gaining ground with $20 million in new funding for software that puts a spotlight on shadow IT. Read more »
The European Commission-funded project wants data center designers and operators to test prototypes of tools that should, from 2014, make it easier to build data centers that are as energy-efficient as possible. Read more »
An article from Data Center Knowledge points to things robots can do to increase efficiency in data centers. But hurdles lie ahead, and data centers will still need administrators, the article suggests. Read more »
In a sign of scorching demand for star developers, Hubspot is willing to pay a $30,000 bounty to whoever recommends the right person it ends up hiring. Read more »
New funding will help Cloudscaling continue to build out its Open Cloud System to suit a new class of enterprise applications that want to build on OpenStack. Read more »
Amazon’s GovCloud presents its own special demands on users and service providers who work with it. CloudCheckr says it’s the only third-party AWS monitoring company that can help agencies assess their GovCloud workloads. Read more »
The London-based backend-as-a-service outfit thinks not enough mobile developers are considering the opportunities afforded by opening up their apps’ data to other apps, and it wants to help. Read more »
As cyberattacks just keep on coming, there’s lots of investment activity, and now Blue Coat Systems is adding more software and hardware capability by acquiring Solera Networks. Read more »
VMware executives shared the prices that its customers will pay to use its new vCloud Hybrid Service launching later this year, but it’s unclear if customers and partners will be happy with the offering. Read more »
Quantum computers, which have recently been bought by Google and Lockheed Martin, aren’t just sophisticated computers, they need to operate at near absolute zero temperatures to deliver their quantum effects, and that’s a tricky problem. Read more »
AppGuru will work with LogMeIn’s own web conferencing; cloud storage and screen sharing applications as well as Google Apps and Office 365, says LogMeIn CEO Michael Simon. Read more »
The multinational-targeting cloud platform is currently based on in-house technology, but France Telecom’s business services arm is considering options such as OpenStack for the future. Read more »
IBM’s Watson has been helping clinicians diagnose ailments and bankers recommend the right products for customers, and with its latest job it will help brands provide better customer service and reach a wider audience. Read more »
AWS is the first major cloud provider to get its FedRAMP certification which should make it easier for government agencies to put more workloads on Amazon’s cloud. Read more »
So, remember that Openstack-based public cloud Dell promised for this year? It ain’t gonna happen. Instead Dell will sell public cloud options from Joyent, ScaleMatrix and ZeroLag. Read more »
Dropbox, the consumer file-store-and-sync champ, hopes to parlay MSPs, IT consultants and other partners to transform users of its free service into paying customers. Read more »
Few companies today have the time or the analytics expertise to apply statistics and complex data modeling to regular or even daily business decisions and operations. Now, however, an ecosystem of companies is emerging to fill this need. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
It’s not often the software world goes through a revolutionary change. But the advent of the cloud will force software developers to reevaluate – and discard – many of their most basic assumptions. Read more »
Google and Microsoft slapfest continues; IBM pushes Watson for third-party apps; SAP bets big on HANA for ERP. Read more »
The rise of cloud and big data is altering business models, and in the process shifting corporate hierarchies, too. The chief marketing officer could be a big beneficiary of all this change. Read more »
The Google Cloud Platform gets a little stronger with the coming of new networking features, such as load balancing, on the Google Compute Engine, which could help enterprises get on board. Read more »
Database startup Drawn to Scale, creator of the SQL-on-Hadoop technology called Spire, is closing down. The company’s product, Spire, was one of the first SQL-on-Hadoop technologies. Read more »
… according to new statistics from Onavo, which tracks actual use of mobile apps and games by “millions” of iOS users. Read more »
RapidShare used to be the world’s most popular one-click hoster, used by millions to store and share files. Now, it has to lay off 75 percent of its staff. Read more »
It’s easy to characterize the cloud computing market as being Amazon Web Services’ to lose, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. McDonald’s dominates the fast food world, but life isn’t exactly bad for its dozens of competitors. Read more »
The internet of things may be largely about connecting everyday objects, but who says design shouldn’t be a major focus? Not Berg and Benetton, who are partnering up on an Italian R&D facility called Sandbox. Read more »
To make sure the response time for their increasingly interactive sites stays low, Chrome developers might want to look at ways to make use of the graphic processors embedded in consumer devices. Read more »
It may not be pleasant for the competitors, but cloud competition is nothing but good for cloud consumers — whether they’re startups or Fortune 100 companies. Read more »
Now that GCE is available to all — complete with by-the-minute charges and a new NoSQL database service, we eagerly await Amazon’s response. Make no mistake, there will be one. Read more »
With Amazon beefing up its own AWS monitoring tools, it makes sense for companies like Newvem to take on other clouds. That’s just what Newvem is doing. Read more »
Even as Google makes moves to compel developers to try out the Google Cloud Platform, developers see Amazon Web Services as the clear cloud to beat, at least for now. Read more »
Google is expanding its cloud platform with a “NoSQL-like” database called Cloud Datastore. It’s a fully managed database that’s replicated across data centers and built to scale. Read more »
