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.
Adobe recently declared the Adobe LiveCycle ES Developer Express as ready for use for members of the Adobe Enterprise Developer Program. Web developers can test and develop their Adobe LiveCycle ES applications in a cloud-based environment. The Adobe LiveCycle ES has been pre-configured, so subscribers of the AEDP have no need to do that themselves. It uses Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (AEC2) and Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3). Developers can utilize enterprise-scale environments.
LivCycle ES Diagram
As a server solution, Adobe LiveCycle ES provides data storage, security and application management. This is very helpful for various individuals and companies alike. The time needed to download, install and use instances are reduced significantly. It also makes use of Adobe PDF (Portable Document Format), Adobe Reader and even Flash. Documents and files can be viewed quickly and easily.
Some of the LiveCycle ES server applications included in the installation are LiveCycle Reader Extension ES, LiveCycle Rights Management ES, LiveCycle Forms ES and LiveCyclePDF Generator ES. These are just some of the server applications pre-installed.
Using Adobe Web Services enhances LiveCycle ES applications. This is good news for the subscribers of AEDP: having a faster, easier and more reliable platform for their web applications.
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.
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.
Utilizing cloud services is one way in improving your company’s business. The World Wide Web delivers a lot of services to both business and consumer that makes it very dependable to use. The popularity of using cloud services has increased over the years, mainly due to the fact that it is flexible, reliable, easily accessible, extensive and affordable.
Cloud Computing and Sevices can be pretty confusing for a first timer, so let us enumerate some of the options of Cloud Computing. Let us also include the most popular companies offering the respective services (although these companies are not limited to providing the specified service).
* Software as a Service (SaaS) is an option where instead of expecting the user to install the application software, the user is able to access it through the internet. It is a centralized form of service. A popular provider is Salesforce.com.
* Platform as a Service (PaaS) is much like SaaS, although the user has given more control of his application. It provides complete support for the building and execution of the application. Known Providers are 10gen and Google AppEngine.
* Tool as a Service (TaaS) offers online tools needed by users, while guiding them about its usage. An example is Amazon’s Simple DB, which helps users in the indexing of data to simplify its storage and access
* Hardware as a Service (HaaS) may work as licensing for managing services, while can also be a vendor for pay-per-use. Such is Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2).
Service providers offer guidelines, procedures and even hands-on help especially for first timers. Those who would opt for these services are guaranteed to have a satisftying experience.
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.
Looking for dependable storage for your Amazon EC2 instance? You wouldn’t need to look further; Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) can save your day. Amazon EBS provides volume storage for Amazon instances and can serve as device as well.
How does it work? Amazon EBS volumes can be created with sizes ranging from 1 GB to 1 TB and attached to running Amazon instances. It will then appear as a device just like hard drives, and would also work as such, including installing applications and the likes. Furthermore, a single instance can have several volumes attached to it to enhance I/O and throughput performance.
These Amazon EBS volumes are created within a specific Availability zone and can be attached to instances within that same zone. Data loss due to malfunction of one component are prevented since these storage volumes are duplicated also within its specific Availability Zone. On top of that, EBS is able to make snapshots of volumes for protecting data for long-term resilience.
You need not worry about mounting costs since the Amazon EBS is a pay-per-use feature. It is priced at the rate of $ 0.10 per allotted GB per month plus $ 0.10 per 1 million I/O requests for your volume.
Amazon EBS is suitable for your applications requiring connection to raw block level storage or file systems. It is a reliable and durable storage volume for running your Amazon instance.
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!
Google Earth is one of the fascinating applications that Google has made. It allows you to have a view of the key cities and locations around the world. It presents satellite images in varying resolutions. The more popular the place or scene, the clearer is the image. 3D models of structures and buildings are uploaded into the application to give the viewer a better and clearer image of the location. Aside from that, Google Earth also has the capacity to let the user monitor and view the traffic. And the best part is that it is available in 23 different languages!
Google Earth & Map showing 3D image of buildings
But now, more than the features previously included, Google Earth introduces the Google Earth & Map Contacts Navigator.
This feature allows the user to add his friends and family in his account. The user is then able to view the picture and location of his contacts anywhere around the globe. What’s more, it is so easy to use! Google Earth will provide you with the step-by-step guidelines on how to properly use this feature and utilize it. It is convenient for business and leisure.
New Google Earth Contacts Navigator
Furthermore, this feature can also give you detailed instructions and directions on how to get to the address of your contact. Convenient, isn’t it?
The Contacts Navigator gives directions.