Spanning is a backup service for Google Apps that’s completely hosted and run from Amazon’s web services. The idea of backing up one cloud service via another was intriguing enough that I asked Mike Pav, the VP of engineering at Spanning, how he does it. Read more »
Box has debuted the Box Innovation Network, also branded as “/bin,” a platform to make it easy for third-party developers to make apps with Box’s APIs. The company also announced a $2 million fund aimed at supporting developers building the most promising apps on /bin. Read more »
If it’s possible to make “unlimited” more unlimited, Backblaze says it has done so with the latest release of its online storage service. Users can now store bigger files than ever or whole VMs, for the same $5 per computer per month price Backblaze charged before. Read more »
Cloud-storage startup Dropbox has its eyes set on being the foundation of a future where we’re never without our data. Phone, tablet, TV, car, you name it. Dropbox wants integration into everything, with its icon becoming to file access what Facebook’s icon is to sharing. Read more »
DataDirect says its new WOS 2.0 (web object scaler) release adds charge-back mechanisms, multitenancy and support for Amazon and CDMI cloud storage interfaces that better suit it for use by big, third-party service providers. Read more »
Box.net just closed additional Series D funding, netting new money from SAP Ventures–the VC arm of enterprise software giant SAP AG, as well as Salesforce.com, Bessemer Venture Partners and NEA. This brings the total from the overall Series D round of funding to $81 million. Read more »
Cloud data storage can be awesome. But the fact is, most of us still use personal computers to store the bulk of our data. Polkast, an app for Android and Apple iOS, lets you access all the files on your PC from your mobile device. Read more »
The arrival of Apple’s iCloud service has now been dated along with iOS 5. We’ll get our hands on iCloud for Mac and iOS beginning Oct. 12, and it should make everyone’s mobile lives a lot simpler. Here’s a quick look at exactly what it offers. Read more »
Red Hat’s planned $136 million purchase of Gluster should give the enterprise Linux leader a strong play in the cloud-inflected world of scale-out storage. This is the latest in a series of acquisitions by vendors trying to stake a claim in the storage of unstructured data. Read more »
While the computing side of history is well known, the storage side remains hidden from common view. Ed Lee, of Tintri, Inc., takes a look at the state of storage today and compares it with the radically different environment that existed back in 1984. Read more »
Online CRM pioneer Salesforce.com continues to back up its ecosystem with its checkbook, this time with an investment in cloud storage provider Box.net. In the past few months, Salesforce.com has made a series of outright acquisitions of Assistly, Radian6, and Heroku. Read more »
New HTC users will get a taste of expanded Dropbox cloud storage as part of a partnership between the two companies. The handset maker confirmed Thursday to Pocket-lint that it is partnering with Dropbox to offer 3 GB of free storage to users of Sense 3.5. 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 »
Warner Bros. systematically abused an automated takedown system provided by Hotfile, the file host claims in a countersuit against the studio. The claims made by Hotfile include information on the behind-the-scenes actions taken by Hollywood to enforce its rights against file sharing on cloud file hosts. Read more »
In a Silicon Valley technology landscape where young hotshots tend to make their marks with innovative new startups, Farah Giga is different. After nine years in various mangement positions at Hitachi Data Systems and HP, Giga, now 27, has joined Valhalla Partners as a principal. Read more »
If you want to use your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to go paperless, these apps have many basic business needs covered, helping you take notes, scan documents, sign contracts, send faxes, convert business cards to Address Book contacts and even process payments. Read more »
Last week’s outages at Microsoft and Amazon Web Services reiterated a very important lesson in cloud computing: Even the best-laid plans won’t stand up to an act of god or faulty electrical infrastructure. That’s why the burgeoning field of cloud insurance looks even better than ever. Read more »
Forget the division between structured and unstructured data. For the benefits of the big data era to reach businesses bottom lines or to change behaviors, companies will have to figure out how to bring the results of Hadoop analytics to HR and middle managers. Read more »
Major Internet sites like Facebook, Twitter, Apple.com, Best Buy and Buy.com saw an outage this afternoon, as Akamai faced DNS-related issues. For about an hour Monday, those issues slowed down some Akamai sites, while keeping users from accessing others altogether. Read more »
Okta, a startup that makes identity and access management software for enterprises, has closed $16.5 million in new funding. Okta’s software enables multiple people within an enterprise to sign in to the company’s web-based applications, whether they’re in the cloud or behind a firewall. Read more »
Apple is including a tool in iCloud that should make signing up for it a no-brainer for Mac owners: Find My Mac, which went live for iCloud beta users Wednesday. Like Find My iPhone, the service provides an approximate location for all a user’s iCloud-connected Macs. Read more »
Nimbus Data Systems today rolled out its second-generation platform and announced online auction giant eBay as a major customer. In fact, eBay has deployed a non-trivial 100TB of Nimbus gear. Have we finally reached the inflection point for primary flash storage? Read more »
All iOS 5 and Mac OS X Lion users can get 5 GB of storage in iCloud for free, but those who need more storage can pay $20 per year for 15 GB, $40 per year for 25 GB, or $100 per year for 55 GB. Read more »
It’s been clear for years now that cloud storage technology is hot — even Amazon, Google and Apple have made big moves into the area. But judging by the latest funding news out of storage startup CX, heavyweight investors are still bullish about newcomers to the space. Read more »
Less than two years after open sourcing the design of the 67TB “storage pods” that underpin its cloud backup service, Backblaze is at it again. This morning, it shared on its blog specs for a new, 135TB storage pod that costs only $7,384. Read more »
Amazon Web Services announced on Tuesday afternoon that its Simple Storage Service (S3) now houses more than 449 billion objects. The rapid pace of S3′s growth is a microcosm of both AWS’ overall business as well as cloud computing in general. Read more »
New research seems to show that our memories are less accurate when we know the information is stored somewhere else. Some feel this is going to make us less human in some way, but I for one am glad to outsource parts of my brain. Read more »
When the smoke clears, Dropbox’s newfound focus on transparency could turn out to be a great thing. Especially if it triggers an avalanche of other web-service providers following in its footsteps, making life easier for consumers and getting the federal government off their backs. Read more »
Paul Froutan, formerly head of global data center infrastructure at Google, is joining cloud-storage pioneer Nirvanix as CTO. The addition will almost certainly improve Nirvanix’s ability to deliver its services, but the larger-scale news is yet another public defection from Google. Read more »
Cloud computing has grown from a pie-in-the-sky vision to a major IT movement over the past few years. As its promise has grown, though, so too has its scope. This report covers six key sectors in cloud computing: commodity Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), enterprise IaaS, Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), cloud storage and private clouds. We highlight the current state of each and provide informed insights into where they — and cloud computing in general — are headed. Much like any market in a still-evolving state, the infrastructure of the cloud-computing transition is still being built by startups, practitioners and even a big-name company or two. Companies mentioned in this report include VMware, Amazon, Nasuni, Terremark and Heroku. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Cloud storage startup SolidFire is giving cloud providers early access to its solid-state-disk-based systems for storing customers’ data. The Atlanta-based company is building SSD-based appliances that it says will help ease the migration of enterprise applications into the cloud by significantly boosting storage performance. Read more »
Apple failed to update iWeb in its latest iLife refresh, and at last week’s keynote at WWDC, there was no mention of hosting support in iCloud. Here are some alternative strategies for those who were using Apple as their web hosting solution. Read more »
Apple appears to be getting a little help from its frenemies in getting iCloud off the ground. A series of screenshots posted at InfiniteApple indicates that iCloud may be utilizing Amazon’s cloud storage system AWS and Microsoft’s Azure cloud service to help run iMessage. Read more »
It looks as if solid-state cache specialist Fusion-io’s IPO on Thursday has investors thinking big about the possibilities of flash storage in the enterprise. Flash array maker Violin Memory raised a $40 million round from strategic public-market investors, and a software company called VeloBit emerged from stealth. Read more »
VirtualWorks, a Boca-Raton, Fla.-based startup from Citrix Systems founder Ed Iacobucci, has raised $8.5 million from Florida’s New World Angels investment group to tackle the problem of corporate data dispersed across servers, devices and clouds. It could also help with data portability between clouds. Read more »
Apple’s hard work winning over record labels may well be rewarded. A new report says that Apple’s upcoming cloud music service will offer the ability to scan your hard drive, and then mirror your music collection on its own servers with better versions of some tracks. Read more »
With all the bad news about recent outages of Amazon Web Services and Sony’s Playstation Network, cloud-based services and the cloud industry needs to more proactively educate users to protect the “cloud” brand. Read more »
Friday morning, John Paczkowski of Digital Daily confirmed Om’s report earlier this week that Apple acquired the domain name iCloud.com. Apple has acquired and not used domain names in the past, but if Cupertino is planning to use the iCloud brand, what should that trademark encompass? Read more »
Despite building a massive data center and the expected launch of cloud-based music storage, the troubled history of Apple’s online services suggests the company has yet to come up with a plan for the cloud. How can Apple provide the kind of experience its customers expect? Read more »
Apple might charge for its rumored cloud-music storage service, according to a new report from CNET. The tech site says that “music industry insiders” are saying cloud-storage for iTunes libraries won’t be free, at least not after an initial trial period. But would you pay? Read more »
