"The cloud" isn't some nebulous thing existing just beyond your computer's consciousness. As Microsoft showed us, it's stacks of hard drives packed into shipping containers, parked in secret data centers all around the world. Physically real, but still beautiful. More »

"The cloud" isn't some nebulous thing existing just beyond your computer's consciousness. As Microsoft showed us, it's stacks of hard drives packed into shipping containers, parked in secret data centers all around the world. Physically real, but still beautiful. More »

At the RSA Keynote a few weeks back, Amazon's Security Lead, Steve Riley participated on a panel with other security leaders of the industry. We were impressed with the openness of all of the participants, and particularly excited with the new concepts coming from at Amazon. Riley used a term that is being used within his part of Amazon, the "Think Cloud".

As we understand it from the discussion on stage, a Think Cloud is a "body of knowledge" that is a real-time information base of Amazon cloud that can be pivoted all the way down to the threads and individual data concurrency. It would be an index that acts like a control point that helps define movement of data through a servers and compute tasks. Looking at the journey from the data point of view, including data about the environment itself and how to repair itself when damaged and keep data concurrency in tact.

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Here's the RSA cloud security keynote to get a bit of inspiration to benefits of portable (cloud) computing.

In this 30 minute discussion, there are several notable considerations from the contributors on how cloud security challenge can be thought of as a big opportunity and that perhaps now is time to debunk the myth that security is not a part of the cloud.

We picked out a few of Riley's comments that we believe are leading towards the idea of the Think Cloud and why Amazon may be there first.

I/O

Amazon knows it is critical to be able to have good inputs and outputs. And emphasizes ease of use even more than data portability standards themselves.

Riley described a great use case where an un-named customer used Amazon for compute, another cloud provider for data processing, SalesForce for crunching, and then pushed the results to Facebook. Interconnection is happening and applications are already "using all the clouds out there". In this case, all the way down to the consumer.

When we look at this pattern, it we see parts that mimic the history of web in the enterprise. Back-end systems moving data around, optimizing, and passing it to the a web portal. And, the portal demanding "real time" updates for key pieces of data, while relying on batch for others.

We can see that idea of a Think Cloud may come into this pattern to help set boundaries and checks so that when a piece of data passes through an Amazon, it is returned reliably, ever time. Perhaps a Think Cloud is a registry that does part of what a smart Enterprise Services Bus does when registered new applications for master data, that is keeps track of activity.

In a way, we need to solve the cloud-equivalent "floating point" problem in the CPU of generations past in the computer itself.

On the CPU math co-processor, the question was, "Does it know how to do math correctly every-time under all conditions?".

Perhaps the question in the cloud may be "Are all my customers still in the database even though that thread died?", or "Do we have encryption set on every cpu that this user's information is stored in memory or on disk". Solving that problem of interchange the role the concept of Think Cloud might lead.

Many legacy applications won't make it to the cloud.

At least, not as-is. Riley comments that "servers are disposable horsepower, they come, they go".

In other words, Since applications sit on top of servers, and servers are sinking into the cloud, applications will sink or swim based on how they migrate to this model. So, the first movers are "the rats" that have jump ship as it started to sink. Follow the rats, or drown.

The tear-down of the server into the n-resource cloud breaks-or-suboptimizes server based applications in a fundamental way.

Thinking back, this is very similar to web services revolution in the enterprise, where just because an application can export its data model, doesn't mean it is optimized for web services, or API level interaction.

We find this almost a reverse-trend to server virtualization, which has expanded the physical compute space. Perhaps we are finding that there is some new turf to be claimed on where the cloud reaches and virtualization ends.

We like to think of it as "smart service bus" meets "smart application" on infinite resources. Infinite, or course, equaling the credit in your PayPal (or other) form of payment collection required by either, or both parties.

As reported by The Register's Cade Metz, Microsoft's Steve Ballmer recently pointed out that this is a potential opportunity with Microsoft and Azure. Where, instead of "only" focusing on infrastructure clouds, the company is working towards a new programming model, Steve said on March 4, 2010.

"I think Azure is very different than anything else on the market. I don't think that anyone else is trying to redefine the programming model"

When we look at the services recently in our post, Is Amazon's Computing Fabric a New Economy, we noted a series of services outside of core computing that start evolving Amazon quickly down the path of a new development paradigm. Abstracting storage, network, monitoring, and perhaps in future security, in raw terms gives rise to new opportunities to bind them back together.

Security is the topic for RSA. Compliance is the reason to get it right. If the computing model wants to be secure, it needs to know the assets and their relationships. As reported by Search Cloud Computing, Amazon's Riley also tipped the audience at RSA that Amazon is weighing in on encryption as a service offerings. This is another example, where that now Amazon is supporting a new services such as Virtual Private Cloud, it moves one step closer the knowledge point for all the key assets, including their peers within the corporate network.

We find this area, as well as certificate management, to be an area ripe for the type of thinking we see at Amazon. The problem to be solved isn't a better routine, but is how to apply it tandem with the moving assets and data that is ever changing in demand.

Perhaps We Needed to Get to Random, to Get to Secure

We wonder if Amazon's Think Cloud is something new, and if so, is a path towards solving the collision of the major parties in the network. If it joins network, storage, person, and server resources together, perhaps it is the brains of the next generation Internet.

The winner will be the one that makes it simple, because as Devo on Chatroulette is proving, demand is asymmetric, and access control is from the eighties.

Photo credit: RSA, Devo, Inc.

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Databases and the agony of choice

OSBC Red Hat will help others build clouds, but is unlikely to following operating-system rival Microsoft by becoming a cloud service provider itself....

Offloading malware protection to the cloud

As it continues its push into the enterprise market, Google has rolled out a service billed as an easy, four-step process for customers to migrate from Microsoft Exchange to its cloud offering.

Earlier today, FTC commissioner Pamela Jones Harbour cited Google Buzz’s “irresponsible conduct” at launch as an example of how companies are being too careless with consumer privacy and online data.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the remarks were made at a public roundtable on privacy-related matters hosted by the FTC, where Harbour made it clear that the FTC can and will take an active interest in protecting consumer privacy.

“The Commission will unfailingly step in to protect consumers where we believe the law has been violated, and that includes violations relating to privacy promises,” she said.

The commissioner’s remarks echo the sentiments of researcher Danah Boyd during her SXSW keynote, and the infuriated Gmail users who felt exposed when they were involuntarily following or being followed by their frequent e-mail contacts per the algorithm of Google Buzz’s original auto-follow feature.

Google has since made major tweaks to Buzz, but Harbour believes the misfire is a symptom of a greater problem. She says: “This is turning into a dangerous game of ‘copycat’ behavior … Unlike a lot of tech products, consumer privacy cannot be run in beta.”

Obviously Harbour’s strong words were directed beyond Google and could apply to all Internet companies that store personally identifiable information on consumers and their online behaviors. As users we tend to forget about the implications of our online actions and naively place our trust in the cloud by storing information, files and communication online. Hopefully the FTC’s agenda around privacy will help to ensure that our trust is not abused in the future.

[img credit: iSerg, iStockphoto]

Reviews: Gmail, Google, Google Buzz, iStockphoto

Tags: FTC, google buzz, privacy

Earlier this year, we wrote about some Fourth Amendment questions when it came to information stored in the cloud -- and a recent legal ruling provides some new troubling views on this matter. Slashdot points us to Orin Kerr's excellent analysis of a recent 11th Circuit decision, that basically says once an email is delivered, there's no Fourth Amendment protections of that email. But, as Kerr notes, the real problem here (as with so many issues in the digital world) is that the court seems to be confusing copies of digital content with the original: For a real-world example, imagine you write a letter and photocopy it before you put it in the mail. You file the copy in your closet and send the original. During the course of delivery, the original is protected by the Fourth Amendment; when it arrives, you lose Fourth Amendment protection. But the fact that you lose Fourth Amendment protection in the original does not mean that the Government can break into your house and read the copy you made. Conversely, the fact that the recipient of the mail does not have Fourth Amendment rights in the copy does not mean that the government can break into the recipient’s house to read the original.

For these reasons, the court should have analyzed access to the e-mails stored with the ISP based on whether there was a reasonable expectation of privacy in that remotely stored copy accessed, independently of delivery of another copy.... We see this over and over again when it comes to the digital world. People try to automatically equate it to the physical world, not recognizing that they're dealing with independent copies, not the original (hence the argument that "file sharing is the same as theft.") Unfortunately, in this case the ruling could do some serious damage to how the government and law enforcement views your expectation of privacy with regards to your emails.

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At times it feels like the concept of cloud computing is as ephemeral as a towering cumulus cloud on a summer day. It passes by, changes shape and looks different to every person who views it. But like those clouds in the sky, there's a lot of complexity out there, especially as it concerns how data is managed in a multi-tenant environment.

The issue keeps coming up. First off, there are no existing standards for moving data in the cloud. Third party vendors like CloudSwitch are providing ways to "drag and drop," data from on-premise to a cloud environments. But there is just no standardized way to move information between cloud networks.

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But there are some ways to manage the complexity. Informatica's David Linthicum wrote a blog post yesterday on the topic. We agree with Linthicum to some extent but his declarations don't entirely reflect the current reality.

Linthicum outlines some of the inherent issues that come with data integration in the cloud. The biggest issue comes down to the cloud computing providers. They do not provide syncing back to the customer's on-premise environment. Linthicum points out that Salesforce.com is the exception to the rule in this regard.

So, according to Linthicum, what should the customer consider?

• Backup: This is the first and foremost issue for Linthicum. You need to have an on-premise backup in case of cloud computing outages,cloud service providers going out of business or to prevent the headaches that can happen when the new owner of your cloud computing provider decides that it's really not interested in that business at all.
• Data Movement: It's the data integration that drives processes between systems that may be in the cloud or on-premise. How do you manage all this information that may be dispersed over geographically distant platforms? It's a different world than dealing with systems that exist in one data center.

We agree to a point but there are lots of various options to these issues. First off, it's often a matter of what cloud computing platform you choose. The large service providers offer the safest bet. They are vested in the future of cloud computing and are developing ecosystems that consist of third-party partners. A number of these partners specialize in cloud-based application deployments.

And cloud-based security is making advances that make data loss as rare as if the data is on-premise.

Linthicum does offer some sound advice that may seem more like common sense but it is worth noting:

"First, consider the overall requirements of the business. Sounds obvious, but many who deploy cloud computing systems do not have a complete understanding of the overall business requirements.

Second, focus on the holistic architecture, on-premise and cloud-delivered, including how they will and should exchange data to support the core business.

Finally, select the right data integration technology for the job, and do so only after taking everything into account. You'll find that there are both on-premise and on-demand options, and in many instances you may have to mix and match solutions."

There are a lot of options out there. We do not necessarily agree that the hybrid approach is the best way to go. There is no one formula. Standardizing on the cloud has its advantages.

But, still, the over riding issue is really how data passes between systems. Without standards for managing data transfer, the issues Linthicum points out will never go away.

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SAN FRANCISCO, March 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Today UBM TechWeb announced CloudSwitch as the Cloud Connect 2010 Launch Pad People's Choice winner. The attending audience nominated CloudSwitch as the winner of the competition, following the four finalists' presentations. Cloud Connect Launch Pad provides a

1. From Stone To Cloud 2. Show The Clear And Lonely Way 3. The Unbroken Line 4. Complexity Of The Simple 5. Slowburner (with Stillness) 6. A Cloud Of Dust 7. I Ascended

The adoption of cloud computing by enterprises is no longer considered an experiment, but debates still rage over terminology and costs.

Google Apps is offering migration for Microsoft Exchange. The service is free with Google Apps Premiere or Google Apps Education.

Last July, Google Apps began offering migration from IBM's Lotus Notes. Most enterprises are standardized on either Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Notes, which means that Google now pretty much can migrate any organization to the cloud. Google also offers connection to Blackberry Enterprise Server.Google Apps is providing migration for Microsoft Exchange 2003 and 2007.

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Microsoft has very limited capability to offer a cloud-based email environment. Most of the offerings it provides are locally installed, single-hosting services. Concerns will wane about cloud security. The ability to offer a cloud-based email environment for easy access will be the norm, not the exception. But even though Google has a jump, Microsoft will have its own offering. In the meantime, Google has an opportunity to make another leap into the enterprise.

This does represent a tipping point for many companies shedding IT assets. The question about email often comes up when companies consider moving to the cloud. It's an important part of the migration. In recent weeks, we have seen how email is becoming a foundation for the evolution of a web oriented, social enterprise. Google Apps Marketplace offers the capability to offer third party applications that integrate with Google Apps. Email is a critical part of the equation in this Google ecosystem. It provides a backbone for companies to connect its employees with Google Apps and the associated third-parties.

The process to migrate looks relatively simple. Through Google Apps, a customer enters their Microsoft Exchange user name and what it calls "two-legged OAuth," consisting of a consumer user key and a consumer "secret". They then upload a .CSV file consisting of the email adresses, calendar and contact information. It is optional what to migrate. For example, an IT administrator may upload email addresses and contact data but not the calendar. Email service does not get interrupted during the migration.

This is a compelling offering for companies moving to the cloud. But it's only part of the equation. Google still needs to prove it is robust enough for the enterprise to migrate to Google Apps. In the meantime, Microsoft needs to act fast and provide a cloud offering that at least gives its own community the option to move Microsoft Exchange to the cloud.

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On March 16, Fox News anchors during their self-described daytime "news hours" repeatedly forwarded the false suggestion that, by using a legislative procedure known as the "self-executing rule" to finalize health care reform in the House, Democrats would be passing health care reform "without actually voting for it." In fact, implementing the proposed procedure requires a majority vote.

The New York Times reported on October 11, 2009, that Fox News claims its news hours are objective and defined as "9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. on weekdays." Those weekday hours include America's Newsroom, Happening Now,and America Live, which replaced Live Desk in early 2010.

America's Newsroom: Procedure "actually pretty simple," but not for Fox's Hemmer

Hemmer: The self-executing rule "does not require a single vote." On Fox News' America's Newsroom, co-host Bill Hemmer blog post, The Washington Post's Ezra Klein explained that the legislative process Democrats are considering using, theself-executing vote "functions as a vote on the Senate bill" because "the House will pass the fixes under a rule that says the House 'deems' the Senate bill passed after the House passes the fixes." Klein wrote:

Here's how that will work: Rather than passing the Senate bill and then passing the fixes, the House will pass the fixes under a rule that says the House "deems" the Senate bill passed after the House passes the fixes.

The virtue of this, for Pelosi's members, is that they don't actually vote on the Senate bill. They only vote on the reconciliation package. But their vote on the reconciliation package functions as a vote on the Senate bill. The difference is semantic, but the bottom line is this: When the House votes on the reconciliation fixes, the Senate bill is passed, even if the Senate hasn't voted on the reconciliation fixes, and even though the House never specifically voted on the Senate bill.

It's a circuitous strategy born of necessity. Pelosi doesn't have votes for the Senate bill without the reconciliation package. But the Senate parliamentarian said that the Senate bill must be signed into law before the reconciliation package can be signed into law. That removed Pelosi's favored option of passing the reconciliation fixes before passing the Senate bill. So now the House will vote on reconciliation explicitly and the Senate bill implicitly, which is politically easier, even though the effect is not any different than if Congress were to pass the Senate bill first and pass the reconciliation fixes after.

CRS: Self-executing rule requires House's approval. A 2006 Congressional Research Service (CRS) report makes clear that passage of a rule by the House is required for the "self-executing" rule to be adopted. From CRS:

Definition of "Self-Executing" Rule. One of the newer types is called a "self-executing" rule; it embodies a "two-for-one" procedure. This means that when the House adopts a rule it also simultaneously agrees to dispose of a separate matter, which is specified in the rule itself. For instance, self-executing rules may stipulate that a discrete policy proposal is deemed to have passed the House and been incorporated in the bill to be taken up. The effect: neither in the House nor in the Committee of the Whole will lawmakers have an opportunity to amend or to vote separately on the "self-executed" provision. It was automatically agreed to when the House passed the rule. Rules of this sort contain customary, or "boilerplate," language, such as: "The amendment printed in [section 2 of this resolution or in part 1 of the report of the Committee on Rules accompanying this resolution] shall be considered as adopted in the House and in the Committee of the Whole."

Don Wolfensberger, former chief of staff for the House Rules Committee under Republicans, stated in a 2006 Roll Call column:

Almost every major bill must obtain a special rule, or resolution, from the Rules Committee permitting immediate floor consideration. The resolution also specifies the amount of general debate time and what amendments will be allowed. A special rule also may contain other bells, whistles, gizmos and gadgets.One of these optional attachments is a self-executing provision, which decrees a specified amendment to have been adopted upon the rule's passage [emphasis added]. In other words, once the House adopts the special rule it effectively has adopted the amendment before the bill has even been called up for consideration [emphasis added].

Fox News previously misled over budget reconciliation process

Fox News repeatedly falsely labels reconciliation as "nuclear option." Fox News hosts and guests have repeatedly pushed the falsehood that the "nuclear option" refers to the budget reconciliation process. The Fox Nation and Fox News personalities like Hannity, Van Susteren, Dick Morris, Bret Baier, and Bill Sammon have all falsely compared reconciliation to the "nuclear option," and the Fox Nation has previously coupled its headlines with images of a mushroom cloud from a nuclear bomb:

Microsoft News Center press release: "Industry standards and innovation took center stage at MIX10, as Microsoft Corp. made a series of announcements that underscore the company’s commitment to interoperability and performance on the Web."

Google's bid to get businesses on its cloud computing office productivity software has new weapon: a tool for making the Exchange migration easier.

There’s no question that Google is setting its sights on taking some of Microsoft’s marketshare in the productivity suite space. Last year, Google announced a new plug-in that syncs Google’s enterprise versions of Apps, including Gmail, contacts, and calendar, with Microsoft’s Outlook. And Google just acquired Docverse, an application lets users collaborate directly on Microsoft Office documents. Today Google is taking another swipe at Microsoft with a new tool that makes it significantly easier to make the switch over to Google Apps from Microsoft Exchange.

Google Apps Migration for Microsoft Exchange is a new server-side tool that migrates a company’s email, calendar and contact data from Microsoft Exchange, an email server software product from Microsoft, to Google Apps. Google promises ease with the tool, allowing IT administrators the ability to select the mail, calendar and contact data to move in phases and migrate hundreds of users at the same time. Plus, employees can use Exchange during the migration without any interruption. The tool works with Exchange 2033 and 2007 for both on-premise and hosted applications and is available to the enterprise and education versions of Google Apps.

This is clearly a play at showing businesses how simple it is to move from from Microsoft products, such as Exchange, that may not be hosted in the cloud to the cloud-based Google Apps product. Google product Manager Matt Glotzbach told me that the search giant wants to make it as simple as possible for potential customers to make the switch to Google Apps, and many potential Google Apps’ clients are using Microsoft Exchange to host and power email, calendar, and contacts. Google also launched Google Apps Migrator for Lotus Notes and a Connector for BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

Google Apps has steadily been growing; already 25 million people are using the Apps product. And that also includes over 2 million businesses ranging from startups, to small businesses, to Fortune 500 companies. And Google is developing a compelling ecosystem around Google Apps, recently launching the Google Apps Marketplace, which is an an app store for enterprise apps in the cloud.

CrunchBase InformationGoogle AppsInformation provided by CrunchBase

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

Apple’s iPhone wasn’t originally conceived as a business-focused device; however, the advent of the App Store and the rapid rise in usage and adoption has really given the platform — and the phone — some pretty great use cases for business users. The iPhone App Store has more than 150,000 applications and separating the wheat from the chaff, especially when you have a specific goal or task in mind can be difficult. That’s why I’ve compiled this list of some of the best applications for the iPhone for the small business user.

Access to Files and Folders

Something that really sets this generation of smartphone devices apart from devices of even five years ago is the rise in cloud computing and ubiquitous connectivity. While accessing e-mail from multiple devices with full message history intact is old-hat, that capability has now extended to many other types of files.

Using programs like FileMagnet ($4.99) and Air Sharing ($3.99 for the regular version, $9.99 for Pro) you can easily transfer PDF, Microsoft Office and iWork files to your iPhone from your Mac or PC over WiFi.

As I’ve pointed out in the past, services like Box.net and Dropbox can be really great tools for small business owners. Both Box.net and Dropbox have free iPhone applications that let you access your files on those clouds directly from your phone.

If you’re a user of Apple’s MobileMe service, there is also a free MobileMe iDisk app that lets you access those files, folders and images directly from your iPhone.

Document Viewing and Editing

Accessing files and folders is great, but what about when you want to get some serious work done? There are a number of full-fledged productivity applications that make it possible to not only view, but also edit documents, even on cloud-based services.

QuickOffice Connect Suite for the iPhone ($9.99) is a great app because it not only lets you view your Microsoft Office documents, but also edit and create those documents — both stored locally on your phone, and on cloud services like Google Docs, MobileMe, Box.net and Dropbox.

This means you can view a file shared with you on Box.net or in your Dropbox folder, make some changes and save it back. Likewise, you can create a new document or spreadsheet and save it to a cloud service of your choice.

Documents To Go Premium ($14.99) also lets you view and edit Microsoft Office docs on your iPhone, but it only supports Google Docs right now.

If you really need to view documents more than edit, GoodReader ($0.99) is not only the best PDF viewer on the iPhone (you can view files up to 1GB in size without having issues), you can access files from WebDAV servers (including MobileMe), Box.net, Dropbox and for a $0.99 in-app purchase, you can also access GoogleDocs.

File editing is limited to text files for right now, but the viewing capabilities, the ability to transfer files over WiFi, download PDF files from a URL directly to the iPhone and support for stuff like zipping and unzipping of files make this app really fantastic. If you ever find yourself needing to deal with exceptionally large PDF files, GET THIS APP.

Scan, Fax, Print

That camera on your iPhone is for more than just quick snapshots and Facebook uploads. Believe it or not, it’s also a really good document scanner. This goes double for iPhone 3GS owners, as the improved lens and built-in auto-focus and stabilization features make it a real asset for document capture.

While the iPhone camera might not displace a high-quality document or business-card scanner, you might be surprised at how well it can work, especially when paired with the right software.

JotNot Scanner ($4.99) is a solid document scanner that lets you scan multiple page PDF files and then save them to MobileMe, Evernote, Dropbox. Box.net or Google Docs. If you upload to Google Docs you can even take advantage of Google’s OCR engine for better document processing. The app is really optimized for the iPhone 3GS but older iPhones can still utilize its featureset.

Scanner Pro ($6.99) is another solid scanning option. It also can upload to Box.net, Dropbox, Mobile Me (or any WebDAV service). It also lets you do custom-page sizes, send scans by e-mail and if you also have the Print n Share ($6.99), seamlessly send a document to your printer.

For users who need to send faxes from the iPhone, there are a number of faxing-specific apps but most of them charge a high per-fax (and sometimes per-document) fee in addition to the price of the app itself. That’s why, if you plan on doing any serious faxing, I recommend spending the $24.99 and getting the ScanR Business Center app because not only does it let you capture files as PDF and do OCR processing (with desktop web access too), you can send unlimited faxes from the app itself.

If you already have an e-mail to fax solution like eFax or Maxemail, check out Mobile Phax ($4.99) which will do document capture to PDF and easily integrate with lots of e-mail to fax programs. Of course, you can conceivably use any image to PDF app to send faxes as an attachment with your existing e-mail to fax subscription plans, Mobile Phax just makes the process a bit more seamless.

If business card scanning is what you are after, check out ScanBizCards ($5.99 or try the free Lite version).

Which are most useful to you?

Which iPhone apps do you find most useful for your small business? Tell us about your favorites in the comments, and look out for my next post, where I’ll discuss the best productivity apps for the iPhone for your small business.

More business resources from Mashable:

- 7 Essential Online HR Resources for Your Small Business
- Google Buzz: 5 Opportunities for Small Businesses
- 5 Ways to Avoid Sabotaging Your Personal Brand Online
- 4 Elements of a Successful Business Web Presence
- HOW TO: Implement a Social Media Business Strategy
- HOW TO: Use Social Media to Connect with Other Entrepreneurs

Tags: business, iphone, iphone apps, List, Lists, Mobile 2.0, small business

L'américain McAfee commercialise une offre de services visant à améliorer la sécurité des plates-formes de cloud computing. ...

L'américain McAfee commercialise une offre de services visant à améliorer la sécurité des plates-formes de cloud computing. ...

We would say that most cameras are dumb and require intelligent input to be of any use, but the Archerfish Solo aims to buck the trend by being the first “thinking” camera in the world. Having been introduced at CES earlier this January, the
Cernium-developed Archerfish Solo is actually a compact, wireless, IP video camera that was specially designed for homes and small business, boasting the brains to look out for stuff that matters to you. It is smart enough to differentiate between events that matter to you, including your merry bunch of kids arriving home from school safely, as well as identifying potential break-ins, where all these will be sent to your cellphone or email account. Best of all is, the Archerfish Solo is cloud-based and hence doesn’t need a PC connection since it can be managed entirely through a Web portal. Tech Cult – We cover the latest tech news, but always with a funny twist.
[ Archerfish Solo – the thinking camera copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

One week into its public launch, the Google Apps Marketplace has just under 1,500 (enterprise) apps. Combined with Salesfore.com's app exchange (also with over a thousand apps), enterprises interested in moving to cloud apps have an increasing number of software tools to choose from.

So far, the KVM and Samba bug zapping weeks have been a success!

Next week, we will be focusing on Eucalyptus, Euca2ools, and UEC in general. In fact, Mathias Gug, Scott Moser, and I will be on-site at Eucalyptus Systems in Santa Barbara, California. We're going to spend the whole week working on UEC, ensuring that the Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Cloud offering is the best damn Linux hosted Cloud Computing platform in the industry.

Call For Participation

If you have any vested interest in the Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud, please give us hand next week!

Take a look at the open bugs against:

• eucalyptus
• euca2ools
• cloud-init
• cloud-utils

Help us reproduce those, or let us know if they're fixed. Come hang out in #ubuntu-server next week.

:-Dustin

One week† into its public launch, the Google Apps Marketplace has just under 1,500 (enterprise) apps. Combined with Salesfore.com's app exchange (also with over a thousand apps), enterprises interested in moving to cloud apps have an increasing number of software tools to choose from. Popular apps (measured in terms of # of installs) includes graphic design and office integration apps...

My Passport SE

Western Digital has extended its portable drive line for the Mac with 750GB and 1TB models....

Offloading malware protection to the cloud

Taiwan-based Trend Micro, currently the world's second largest provider of information security software solutions and services, aims to take over the global leader from Symentac in five years through its development for cloud computing, according to company founder and chairman Steve Chang.

The switches are intended for storage installations in cloud computing, data centers, and SMB environments.

OnLive, Gaikai and Otoy -- these pioneers of cloud gaming are competing in a field many experts believe is technically impossible.

The IBM Cloud is a prototype of the ecosystem we expect to see emerge in the world of cloud services. It has the flavor of other platform environments, with the primary goal of integrating IBM with third-party applications to serve developers and end customers.

It is the partners that tie into the larger ecosystems, often existing on multiple platforms. The healthy platforms will resemble coral reefs in which the partners are important to the cloud ecosystem as the platform itself.

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But what is the importance of these third-party applications and what do they say about the future of IBM Cloud?

RightScale

RightScale http://rightscale.com is becoming a power in its own right. The San Diego-based company provides a sought after need. The capability to port applications to the cloud. RightScale is playing across the market. It has served as an important partner for Amazon Web Services in helping companies deploy cloud-based applications in the cloud. As part of an IBM ecosystem, the company will be one of those go to services that helps manage the cloud's inherent complexities.

Kaavo

Kaavo is another cloud management application that leverages its position as a service that according to the web site, provides "middleware on demand."That's a fascinating example of how entire infrastructures are moving off premise and into cloud environments. For instance, Kaavo makes the claim that it can bring online one or multiple server systems, configure middleware and deploy applications The result being that people may use the IBM platform to set up and tear down test and and development environments within minutes. Again, we see how IBM is seeking to provide services that serve the needs of the developer or IT manager looking for more efficient and powerful ways t leverage its assets in a private cloud environment or in a public cloud.

Silanis

Silanis fits in the e-signature market. In January, the company announced services that integrate with IBM's LotusLive. The service allows companies to work with customers in an extranet environment where contracts may be reviewed, modified and electronically signed. The service would seem to fit with IBM's efforts to create a transaction environment within IBM Cloud.

Aviarc

IBM is partnering with several application developers, including Aviarc, a custom software application developer for on-premise, private cloud, appliances or the multi-tenant environment of IBM Cloud.

These are just samplings of the ecosystem that IBM is developing. You can tell that IBM is following its strategy to serve hybrid environments and establish its platform as a place where developers may build, test, sell and distribute applications.

Discuss