Facebook and Heroku have completed an integration that gives Facebook developers direct access to Heroku’s cloud Platform-as-a-Service offering for hosting their applications. It’s likely just a first step for Heroku when it comes to integrating with popular specialized development platforms. Read more »
Cloud-storage provider Zetta has closed a $9 million Series C round. The company has now raised $31.5 million overall, an indication of just how much promise there is in the cloud storage space even, even if it’s still just relegated to backup. Read more »
A French startup called We Are Cloud thinks it has taken cloud-based BI to the next level with a feature called QueryBlender that lets users combine live data sets to let users better make sense of their business by analyzing disparate data points against one another. Read more »
Xignite, which is offering financial data that’s hosted on Amazon’s cloud to its clients, has raised $10 million to become the big data repository for financial market information. The company, which was formed in 2004, is betting on the trends of mobile, cloud and big data. Read more »
AppFog, the Platform-as-a-Service startup that began life a PHP Fog, now supports both Ruby and Node.js applications. The expanded support comes as no surprise, but speaks volumes about the potential for Cloud Foundry as a PaaS equivalent to what OpenStack is for Infrastructure as a Service. Read more »
Broadcom, a chipmaker known for wireless chips for cell phones and home networks, today said it will buy NetLogic, which provides silicon for networking gear. An emphasis on real-time data has pressured networking inside and outside the data center, and Broadcom wants to capitalize on that. Read more »
Dome9, a stealth company that aims to create the equivalent of a firewall for public and private clouds, launched the company and its product Monday. The company, which was founded last year, is just one of several cloud security companies coming out of stealth mode. Read more »
A decade ago, tech executives had no concept of the magnitude of attacks that could take place on our own soil. In the aftermath of 9/11, we became more aware of our vulnerabilities — at our homes, in our country and within our IT infrastructure. Read more »
Lately, we’re read a lot about the end of the computer age. It isn’t over. The computer is simply hiding in the clouds behind commonplace devices. As it should – and should have long ago, had we been able to figure how sooner. Read more »
Intel Capital announced $24 million in new investments, and cloud computing and big data companies were the big beneficiaries. They underscore Intel’s understanding that it has to prop up software partners to keep Intel dominant as computing evolves. Read more »
At the end of last month Verizon acquired CloudSwitch, adding value to Verizon’s January acquisition of cloud data center provider Terremark. Around the world, big telecommunications providers such as AT&T, BT, Telstra and Verizon have been hard at work, diversifying and seeking new business opportunities as ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Dell-bashing is a fairly common pastime these days, but I actually think Dell has a golden opportunity to reposition itself as IT visionary if it treats hardware it as what it really is: a delivery mechanism for software and services. Read more »
Google App Engine is growing up by changing both its service model and its pricing, and many developers who have been using the service under the old model are none too happy about it. Perhaps they should just be happy that App Engine is sticking around. Read more »
On Wednesday HP released its first two public cloud computing services for private beta, based in part on the open-source OpenStack code. The services, some details of which were leaked in the spring, are HP Cloud Compute and HP Cloud Object Storage. Read more »
Cloud computing and big data are a match made in heaven. Although it’s still very early in the evolution of this combination — experts predict major investment in this area going forward — several companies have already melded the two into a variety of unique services. Read more »
To find out how these two services measure up in the real world, Craig Knighton of LiquidSpace and Zach Richardson of Ravel Data lay out the cases for their clouds of choice to see how the services compared in real-world use at living, breathing companies. Read more »
VMworld can be a lot to digest, but it also can be a good barometer of where IT is and where it’s going. A couple days removed from the show, I gave some thought to the interesting trends I noticed and the insightful discussions I had. Read more »
CloudSpokes, an Appirio-led community that hosts contests in which developers compete on projects for cloud companies with the goal of winning a monetary prize, recently re-architected the site from Microsoft Windows Azure to Database.com, and its team couldn’t be happier with the results. Read more »
Somewhat lost amid last week’s bombshell that Steve Jobs is stepping down as CEO of Apple were signs of potentially major developments around Apple TV, the business Jobs has long described as a “hobby.” The immediate news was that Apple is ending its experiment with 99-cent ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
During VMworld this week, VMware introduced a new Dropbox-like application called Project Octopus that will let users safely store, access and share corporate documents. It all so sounded so promising, and then someone asked me whether it will actually get used. Read more »
Despite OpenStack’s continued growth, a combination of product updates and acquisitions from Citrix, Eucalyptus, Red Hat and VMware over the past week demonstrate that the race to become the dominant private cloud provider, as well as win over the enterprise, is far from over. Is one of ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
In the world of Software as a Service, integration is critical. It gets small SaaS providers in front of new potential customers already predisposed to buying cloud-based services, and it gives individual SaaS vendors a fighting chance against large software vendors with lots of products and salespeople. Read more »
Happy Cloud, a start-up which is trying to speed up game downloads and make them almost instantly playable like streaming gaming services using progressive download technology, has partnered with content delivery network Akamai to boost its performance and make games playable within a couple minutes. Read more »
Remember that whole debate over whether moving to cloud computing is a greener option? Well, data center monitoring startup Sentilla is introducing an analytics tool that can predict whether embracing cloud computing (both private and public) is a smart play from an energy bill perspective. Read more »
Speaking to a jam-packed room of thousands, VMware CEO Paul Maritz kicked off today’s VMworld conference by declaring, once again, the advent of the cloud era. If you don’t believe him, just look at the number of virtual machines deployed. But cloud is more than virtualization. Read more »
Dell has officially become a cloud provider with the launch of an Infrastructure-as-a-Service cloud built atop VMware technology. The move is just the first in Dell’s three-pronged IaaS attack, which will soon include clouds based on the Microsoft Windows Azure and OpenStack platforms. Read more »
Databases aren’t sexy. Except for possibly a brief moment in 2010 and perhaps a bit of 2011 when every reader of Hacker News was sharing his or her experience and every coder on GitHub wanted to know more. The NoSQL Tapes captures this moment. Read more »
Verizon is buying cloud computing startup CloudSwitch in a move that will give Verizon, as well as its subsidiary Terremark, a software-development edge to complement its service-provider expertise. CloudSwitch will lead software development beyond its core product, which will give Verizon additional cloud intellectual property. Read more »
VMware has added support for the PHP and Python programming languages to Cloud Foundry, it open source Platform as a Service. Such news isn’t necessarily groundbreaking considering the project’s focus on multi-language support, but how it added PHP, at least, is very noteworthy. Read more »
With the stock market in flux, do tech startups stand a chance when it comes to luring investors? To find out, we polled GigaOM readers on what’s hot, what’s not, which sectors might favor buyouts versus IPOs and how it all will change in the near ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Eucalyptus Systems released the third generation of its pioneering private cloud computing software on Wednesday, complete with high-availability capabilities to ensure maximum uptime. Rumors of Eucalyptus’s demise have been circulating since OpenStack launched its open-source cloud project last summer, but the company isn’t slowing down. Read more »
VMware has released Micro Cloud Foundry, a fully functional version of its open-source, Platform-as-a-Service software condensed into a virtual image that runs on developers’ personal computers or laptops. The aim is to make it easier to create cutting-edge applications without the hassle. Read more »
With power accounting for between 30 and 50 percent of functional operating costs in a data center, power consumption is on everyone’s mind. So much so that at semiconductor conference Hotchips on Friday, Intel and AMD, two companies that have long competed around processor performance, spent hours discussing ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Platform-as-a-Service veteran Engine Yard is getting on board with the recent trend of multi-language support by acquiring Dublin, Ireland-based PHP PaaS startup Orchestra. An industry shift toward supporting more than one language and/or framework likely influenced the decision to close the Orchestra deal now. Read more »
Without thinking about the SLA it’s impossible to compare costs between clouds. An enterprise gigabyte comes with a whole host of services around it, while Amazon’s does not. So while it seems like cost per gigabyte is a good measure, it’s not. Here’s why. Read more »
If HP does sell off its PC business, it might have to nail its foray into cloud computing to avoid becoming a punchline decades down the road. Without that PC revenue, and billions lighter in the wallet after buying Autonomy, something must pick up the slack. Read more »
Google’s $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola this week has been widely interpreted as a bid to control the mobile phone company’s portfolio of 17,000 mobile patents. As Colin Gibbs noted last week, handset manufacturers such as Apple, Samsung and HTC appear increasingly willing to claim patent infringement in order ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Software-as-a-Service startup GoodData has raised a $15 million Series B funding round for its cloud-based business intelligence product. Andreessen Horowitz led the round, along with other existing investors General Catalyst Partners, Fidelity Growth Partners and Windcrest Partners. GoodData has now raised $28.5 million overall. Read more »
Dell’s stock took a dive this morning after it said it lowered its revenue estimates of the year citing weak consumer demand, but while it’s server business remained strong there’s no doubt that Michael Dell, the company’s CEO is navigating a fine line Read more »
Dell’s Crowbar installation-and-configuration tool now works VMware’s Cloud Foundry. With servers fast becoming low-margin commodities thanks to the push toward micro servers, Dell is doing its best to make deploying the software that inspired the new generation of servers a breeze. Read more »
