Hadoop 2.0's YARN component doesn't just make for a better Big Data platform. It makes for a great Big Compute platform.…
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vArmour comes out of stealth to detail how it makes data centers more secure
After spending three years in stealth mode, vArmour is formally launching and opening up about how its technology protects data centers.…
Read MorePromising a privacy-friendly successor to today’s internet, the Safe network is about to go into testing
MaidSafe's project is absurdly ambitious -- a serverless network system that offers free storage, repels surveillance and effectively constitutes a distributed supercomputer. But maybe, just maybe, it might work.…
Read MoreWhat if Netflix switched to P2P for video streaming?
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings suggested tongue-in-cheek this week that the company could switch to P2P video streaming to avoid peering troubles with ISPs. Would that actually be possible?…
Read MoreDeep thinking on complex systems: A devops reading list
GigaOM contributor James Urquhart shares some of the best books, blogs and other information on the concepts of devops and complex IT systems.…
Read MoreLong-shot distributed data center project in Canada like SETI for mobile
A California company is building out a distributed computing operation across connected devices in a small Canadian city, but technical challenges could stand in the way.…
Read MoreDevops, complexity and anti-fragility in IT: Stability and resilience
James Urquhart continues his look into whether companies sacrifice stability by designing systems that value adaptability over strict top-down command and control. This is called the stability-resiliency tradeoff and, he argues, many complex systems benefit from adaptability.…
Read MoreSevOne raises $150M to monitor your network P2P-style
SevOne has raised $150 million for its line of appliances that help companies capture and analyze their streams of operational infrastructure data. Its financial success, even for a relatively quiet company founded in 2005, illustrate how important it is to know your systems data well.…
Read MoreTwitter and Google offer case studies in spanning distributed systems
As our compute infrastructure becomes more distributed it's much harder to keep everything synced. But with users demanding immediate access to their files, photos and whatnot all around the world, solutions like Google's Spanner DB and Twitters photo blobstore are a solution.…
Read MoreResearchers using AI to build robotic bees
Building a robotic bee that acts like a real bee is a lot more complicated than programming a robot to fly around from flower to flower. A project called Green Brain aims to build an artificial intelligence system that can actually mimic a bee's brain.…
Read MoreThe great challenge—and opportunity—of cloud: interoperability
Cloud computing and distributed applications are part of a greater shift to building out an ecosystem with inter-dependent parts. This may seem obvious, but what is less obvious is how the industry will interoperate and develop systems that let information flow through the ecosystem.…
Read MoreBig data meets the connected car: Researchers tackle the vehicular network
Let’s assume that sometime in the future every car has Wi-Fi and every car has a cellular data connection. Wi-Fi is essentially free, while cellular data is expensive. Is there a way to maximize the “free” connectivity of Wi-Fi while minimizing the costs of mobile data?…
Read MoreFat databases, small pipes: The problem of data inertia
As datasets get fatter and cumbersome, it’s becoming harder to move them around. Even the fattest pipes look like cocktail straws when you’re talking about petabyte databases. It's getting more and more difficult to move these massive troves of data to the applications that use them.…
Read MoreWhy open source tools might need a hardware hook
The great things about open source software stacks is that they're free and they work. The not-so-great thing is that -- like many open source projects -- they can be difficult to configure and manage. Luckily, hardware vendors are stepping in to fill the void.…
Read MoreHow to Give Back When You're Strapped for Time
Many times, we want to find ways to give back, be more socially responsible, or make our lives more about service, but running a business can make it seem impossible to find the time to do anything other than the task immediately in front of us. How can we find a way (and the time) to do more good in the world while still keeping up with the demands of our businesses? One solution, focus on one trait at a time. First, make a list of all the traits you would like be (generous, responsible, helpful, supportive, etc.). Under each item, list ways you can incorporate more of that particular trait into your daily life. For example, if you want to be more responsible within your community, you might consider sponsoring an area youth program or volunteering to maintain a local park. Finally, set aside time each day and week to devote to your commitment. Even 15-30 minutes a day can make a big difference. If you could commit to just 15 minutes a day, 5 days per week, at the end of the year, you would have contributed more than 65 hours of your time to improving the world around you. That's more than a week and a half (full time) of your attention!…
Read MoreNewTeeVee in the Movies: We Live In Public
We Live in Public — Dig! director Ondi Timoner’s frantically paced feature-length doc on Silicon Alley web TV pioneer Josh Harris —…
Read MoreIBM, Harvard Launch Distributed-Computing Search for Super-Efficient Solar Cells
IBM (s IBM) and researchers from Harvard University launched a joint effort today to identify more efficient and lower-cost solar cell materials…
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