If you are looking for a place to store your files and documents, check out SmugVault, a storage service provided by SmugMug. SmugVault actually operates under Amazon S3.
Files of all type can be virtually stored in SmugVault. Your raw, original and uncompressed files can be placed here. you can store JPEG, GIF, PNG and even document files. This service is available to SmugMug subscribers. It is a monthly subscription.
SmugMug has a straightforward uploader that you can utilize for uploading your files. You can easily retrieve, save or delete a file. Each gigabyte of uploaded files has a monthly fee of $0.22. Regular fee is $1.00 per month. If you want to relocate files, the price per gigabyte is $0.30 internally, and $0.51 externally.
Whenever you hire IT specialists, the sum of your expenses not only count the salary of the specialist, but other necessities as well. These matters include the computer equipment for the exclusive use of your specialist, office space, additional electric bills and the like, not to mention the upgrades that you have to gain. Indeed, hiring an in-house specialist is expensive. However, having an IT is a requirement for any business who is expanding its reach. But with the current status of the economy, businesses are forced to budget their expenses while doing more.
Cloudworks
But Cloudworks is offering a way to reduce your expenses while having the IT that you need. Cloudworks offers remote management and maintenance of your website or intranet applications of your business. Instead of having an in-house IT, you will be able to get an IT that handles all your applications through the cloud. They will handle most of what is required by the business. Their program includes employees of the company being able to access files and applications they need through a “webtop”, a cloud based desktop.
Cloudworks claim that availing of their services will reduce your IT expenses to just a half of the usual expenses. This is indeed wonderful news for small enterprises struggling to maintain a good business. Plus, you can be sure that your programs and applications are always up to date. Having a Cloud-based IT is actually more practical.
If you are looking for an open structure that can give you or your web developers the option to construct web applications or applications that are on your own computer or mobile devices, then Microsoft Azure is for you.
Windows® Azure is an operating system for cloud services. It is a platform where languages, both Microsoft and non-Microsoft, are supported. It allows the use of Eclipse, Ruby, PHP and Python. It is integrated with Visual Studio, that is why .NET administered applications will be supported.
The Azure™ Services Platform (Azure) is cloud services platform created by Microsoft. Windows® Azure serves as the environment for the Azure Services Platform. It allows web developers and designers to promptly build applications running in the cloud with the use of their knowledge of the environment of Microsoft Visual Studio and Microsoft.NET Framework. In a little while, more programming languages will be supported by Azure.
Azure makes maintenance and management of your operations by supplying compute and storage for your files and applications. Even cloud applications geared up for use are also made available for online services by Microsoft. Some of these are Windows Live™ and Microsoft Dynamics ™.
Just this Wednesday, Microsoft released new tools that will fix bugs in the current system. Furthermore, these tools have been enhanced to better performance at an increased speed.
There is no need to worry about security, personal information is protected in the platform. Only data that which the customers have provided are the only ones that will be used. Anything that is beyond the contractual agreement will not be tread upon.
The Azure Services Platform lets independent software developers present their own products or services to their clients by providing mechanisms for building, compute and storage.
Improvements in cloud computing and cloud services are continually increasing. With many companies providing their services, choosing one that assures businesses of its reliability and safety is essential.
To be able to provide optimum service in cloud computing, 3Tera opened not only one but seven datacenters around the world. Having multiple datacenters assures users of high accessibility and security. A high level of disaster recovery for user’s applications is also provided.
The datacenters are located in seven countries in four continents of Europe, Asia and North and South America. These countries are US, Singapore, Japan, UK, Argentina, Serbia and the Netherlands. Not for long, more resources will opened in Australia and South America.
Another advantage of having worldwide datacenters is that regulatory issues in different locations is no longer a problem. There is minimal or no need for users to go through many legal processes. Changing codes is no longer necessary to deploy your applications. Businesses can easily manage and monitor their operations through a browser.
VMware VCloud Initiative aspires to SMEs to safely access compute capacity, whether within or outside their firewall. VMware extends its services by developing a virtual infrastructure into Virtual Datacenter Operating System. Paul Maritz, president and chief executive officer of VMware mentioned that the company wants to assemble innovators to bring forth enterprise-class cloud computing for entities and their application where flexibility is guaranteed and necessary IT resources can be adjusted.
VMware vCloud Initiative offers a tiered set of service offerings:
1. VMware Ready Cloud services
2. VMware Ready Optimized Cloud Services
3. VMware Ready Integrated Cloud services
Apart from supporting existing applications, vCloud Initiative will also be able to support new applications. Customers do not need to complete build all their applications in a single platform since existing ones in VMware Infrastructure can run in VMware Cloud even without changes made on them.
Individual Software Vendors are utilizing VMware Ready Appliances to be able to patch, manage and transfer applications in and out of the cloud without difficulty. VCloud Initiative is supported by more than a hundred partners, including Verizon Business, Sungard and T-Systems.
The internet has been a venue for thousands of different business opportunities, communications across the world and even varying services are offered. But one of the reasons people access the web nowadays is to socialize. That’s right! We no longer need to leave our homes to be updated with the latest happenings and events about friends and orgmates. The internet made sure it is delivered to us.
One of the most popular social networking in the cloud is the Facebook. But what is Facebook? Facebook was initially created by a Harvard student named Mark Zuckerberg. It was built to cater to the needs of Harvard students only, which later expanded to all members of the Ivy League. Soon Facebook was gaining popularity that the web application had to open its doors to college students, then high school attendees, until it accepted anyone aged 13 and above.
Facebook then created a platform in order for software develpers to add their own applications. That is why currently, members of Facebook are able to do business through Marketplace while enjoying the benefits of a social network. They can be updated with the latest events and happenings and they are also able to view videos.
Although Facebook is currently experiencing problems with some of its members regarding obscenity and ragarding breastfeeding, Facebook still is the most popular social networking site around the world.
Last December 11, 2008, IBM launched the latest cloud service web conferencing: the new version of Lotus Sametime Unyte. Together with InterCall, IBM commenced the service that aims to meet the demands for online collaboration. Lotus Sametime Unyte is a reliable and reasonably priced service that is user friendly. Businesses from around the world can utilize this service that will help them not only minimize costs due to travel expenses but also be environment friendly.
WebDialogs now available for Lotus Sametime Unyte
IBM is proud to deliver that this service can easily be accessed at an affordable price. Furthermore, Lotus Sametime Unyte now supports nine different languages which include French, German, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese and English.
Lotus Sametime Unyte Sharing
Anyone can easily join and participate in Web conferencing with just a click of a button since Lotus Notes and Lotus Sametime are already integrated. Uploading of files, presentations and visual demonstrations are handy. Key persons and clients can be included and invited in your online conference without so much hassle.
IBM initiated “Bluehouse”, an online cooperation that aims to help businesses of all types to work with each other through a secure network connection. This will be a venue for entities to host and paricipate in various activities by means of the cloud using a Web browser. Anyone can access and use”Bluehouse”. Small and medium businesses can use this to their advantage, being easily accessible and secure. They can contact and collaborate with other entities such as experts, customers and other businesses. Furthermore, the cost and maintenance of this Software-as-a-Service platform is minimal.
Features of Bluehouse:
- Share documents and files
- Launch and collaborate in joint project activities
- Initiate online meetings
- Create social networking communities
- Connect with customers and other contacts outside the firewall
- secure
Plus, online meetings have several benefits including availability of online files and presentations, several browsers can be opened, web conferencing is safe and secure. Most of all anyone can join!
Not only will individuals and businesses be able to collaborate with other entities outside their company, they can also have interdepartmental cooperation. Bluehouse Beta is available at http://bluehouse.lotus.com/.
The internet has served as an important part in people’s lives nowadays. A lot of people rely on it for personal and business reasons. One crucial role of the internet is its storage options. That is why having an email account is a necessity today. One can utilize his email, like Yahoo!mail or Gmail, to store important documents and transactions, without the threat of losing vital information. Another service that is being maximized is the Youtube, where individuals can upload, store and even share their videos.
But Amazon took a step further to help people around the world safely keep and store their files. They introduced the Amazon Simple Storage Service or simply Amazon S3. This application serves as a storage and retrieval facility, all in one. It lets the user have a dependable and safe storage that they can quickly access anytime, any place.
Amazon S3
Here are some of the features Amazon S3 offers:
• Storage of objects that have sizes ranging from 1 byte up to 5 gigabytes
• Unlimited number of objects can be stored
• Objects or files are stored in one bucket (United States or Europe) but these objects can be accessed anywhere in the world using a developer-assigned pass key.
• Safe and secured storage that cannot be accessed without proper authorization and authentication.
• Relatively cheaper since it is Pay-per-Use service
• Has a simple and easy to understand web service interface
Simple Interface of Amazon S3
Unlimited Storage plus User Friendly Interface
Amazon S3 is a wonderful feature to utilize, especially by free developers who are worried about data storage. It is reliable, speedy, uncomplicated and inexpensive!
Do you want a web service that offers a compute capacity that can be resized? Finally, a cloud service that is developed to make cloud computing easier is in the market: the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, also known as EC2.
The program interface of this new service is relatively simple and gives you full control of the resources, applications and settings that you desire. You can reboot remotely using web-service APIs. You are given the ability to run whichever operating system that you want, whenever and wherever! Amazon EC2 also provides various management tools that makes it easier for you to manage all your applications.
The best part about Amazon EC2 is that only the real time consumption is credited to you. Increasing or decreasing of capacity is just within minutes, unlike before that it takes several hours or even days.
Here are some of the features that would ensure that you have durable applications:
• Amazon Elastic Block Store – gives constant storage that will protect your applications.
• Numerous Locations – Amazon EC2 gives you the capability to place your instances in various locations.
• Elastic IP Address
With the aforementioned features and highlights, you can be sure that Amazon EC2 can provide you with complete control of your applications. Not only that but have a flexible, secure and reliable web-service that is less expensive.