Top 10 Cloud Computing Service Provider

By Partho April 28th, 2009

Cloud-computing It's recession hit period where companies are sorting out ways to overcome thedownturn. Companies are looking for economical computing styles that could cut down theinfrastructural cost and maximize entrepreneurial scalability. Cloud computing has emerged as one suchconcept that allows an entrepreneur to avoid capital expenditure (CapEx) on hardware, software andservices, and pay the provider only for what they use. Cloud computing offers a virtual computingenvironment that enables use of web service interfaces to launch instances with a variety of operatingsystems, loading them with the required custom application environment, managing the network, andusing the entire setup using as many or few systems as viable.

Among the other benefits, cloud computing avails shared infrastructure and costs, low managementoverhead, time sharing approach enabling low barrier to entry and most importantly, immediate accessto a broad range of applications. Service is the key features of cloud computing. For an end user it'srelieving to know that the service provider is handling the worries. To put it simply, Cloud Computingcan be anticipated to be a single point of access for all computing needs of consumers. With an aim helpthose in search of a cloud computing services, I extracted the top 10 cloud computing service providers.

1. Amazon web services

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud offers completely flexible computing environment in the cloud. It is asimple and easy to handle cloud computing service that allows development of application.

2. 3Tera

This cloud computing platform offers AppLogic grid OS that enables infrastructure solutions according tothe changing needs of business. AppLogic ensures full control of the cloud environment and onlinedeployment of applications.

3. Force.com

This cloud computing framework by salesforce.com provides one of the fastest platforms for buildingand deploying enterprise application. Force.com allows building of core business applications ondemand such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), human resource management (HRM) and supplychain management (SCM).

4. Appistry-Cloud computing middleware

It provides one of the simplest cloud computing platform for enterprises. Appistry allows easily scalablecloud computing. Appistry provides and manages a wide variety of applications and services for bothpublic and private clouds.

5. Microsoft Live Mesh

This cloud setup synchronize files with all of your devices like laptop, Mac, mobile phone or others. Notonly does it allow the users to access the files from any device, it also enables sharing of files sharing offiles and notifying them whenever needed.

6. AppNexus

This cloud computing set up takes just 30 minutes to reserve With AppNexus the user can launch aseveral operating system, run a variety of applications, load balance these applications and store hugeamount of secure data.

7. Flexiscale

This is pay-as-you-go utility with multi OS support. It offers automatic scaling to meet the demand in realtime. Flexiscale self service through Control Panel or API. Flexiscale features full se lf-service -start/stop/delete, change memory/CPU/storage/IPs of Virtual Dedicated Servers.

8. GoogleApp Engine

This is a free setup that allows the users to run their web application on Google infrastructure. GoogleApp Engine makes it easy to scale the traffic and data storage, as the need grows. Currently the Appengine is restricted to Python but has plans to support more languages in future. This app enginerequires no servers to maintain and the applications are instantly ready for user just after uploading

9. GoGrid

This is a division of a dedicated hosting company. GoGrid offers unique multi-server control panel thatenables the user to deploy and manage load-balanced cloud servers within minutes. Moreover, it offersfull control in the cloud by combining several familiar features of dedicated server or managed hostingwith the flexibility and scalability of cloud server hosting.

10. Terremark Enterprise Cloud

The Enterprise is a revolutionary new managed platform that gives you the power to computingresources for your mission-critical applications in minutes, not days. Instead of buying costly,cumbersome servers, Enterprise Cloud services lets you control a resource pool of processing, storageand networking and allows you to deploy server capacity on demand.

Conclusion

Although cloud platform have not yet fully penetrated the enterprise, given the benefits of scalabilityand reduced cost the cloud computing seems to be the future of enterprise computing. Share youropinions on cloud computing with us.

AT & T Goes for Cloud Computing Dip August 5th, 2008

Cloud Computing has become a buzzword in the tech industry due to marketing and service offeringsfrom big players like Google, IBM and Amazon. AT & T announced that they are entering into CloudComputing by offering the service, AT&T Synaptic Hosting.

The service relieves companies of the burden of managing their own data centers by offering them datastorage and the ability to manage applications and computing resources. The client will be charged on apay-as-you-go basis. Customers will be able to manage their account through AT & T portal and they willget support from AT & T.

Like others, AT & T will employ a virtualized storage and server pool that manages resources in responseto demand. The application hosting service will be built on the technology when it bought USInternetworking in 2006 and five of its data centers located in the U.S.

As the cloud computing is very lucrative business, it is also risky from time to time. Last month Amazon’sSimple Storage Service (S3) experienced a long outage that cut off many companies from their data.Amazon had to give them credit for this.

IBM to Invest $360 million for Cloud Computing Dip August 1st, 2008

IBM is building newest cloud computing center at Research Triangular facility at North Carolina. The newcenter is going to provide infrastructure and services for customers. IBM is investing $360 millio n tobuild this facility. The Aug. 1 announcement comes on the same day that IBM plans to officially open acloud computing facility in Tokyo. The North Carolina park is going to open in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Hewlett-Packard, Intel and Yahoo, along with group of academic institutions, announced a partnershipJuly 29 that will create six research centers to experiment with the types of hardware, software and datacenter management needed to create cloud infrastructures.

Cloud computing means Internet (’Cloud’) based development and use of computer technology(’Computing’). The majority of cloud computing infrastructure consists of reliable services deliveredthrough next-generation data centers which is built on compute and storage virtualization technologies.The consumers can access to the cloud for all of their computing need with single point of access andthey need not bother about the infrastructure.

The 60,000-square foot facility in North Carolina will use IBM hardware that includes x86- and Power-based servers with IBM’s System z mainframe and a host of other IBM hardware, storage products andmanagement software.

“It’s green by design, so the building has a high degree of recyclable materials and it is veryenergy efficient,” says Rich Lechner, vice president of Cloud Computing Strategy for IBM. “From aworkload perspective, this facility will show IBM using the cloud computing model and theservice delivery model to deliver services in a much more scalable and economic fashion to ouroutsource clients.”

Ten Key Reasons for Enterprise to Choose Cloud Computing Dip December 14th, 2008

Cloud computing isn’t about doing anything new, instead it’s about applications that run in the webrather than your desktop. Some technology experts define CLOUD: Common, Location-independent,Online Utility provisioned on-Demand. As per my analysis, the key aspects for selecting Enterprise CloudComputing are:

1. The growing need of extremely powerful forms of end user computing such as complexmodeling and simulation, and data analytics are on the rise dramatically in the last few years.Many of the tasks can be performed by remotely located computing power and thesophisticated software that the typical enterprise IT set up did not.

2. The users desperately need processing cycles, data storage now-a-days for high degree ofcomputation. Since, the communication bandwidth is limited and expensive, we needprocessing cycle and data storage as close as possible. Cloud Computing fits in this category.

3. On Demand allocation and de-allocation of CPU, storage and network bandwidth makes cloudcomputing more appealing to end users.Having hosting facilities on net — that is, in the same locations as core network of switching androuting facilities — eliminates extra expenses to reach a third-party datacenter. Integratedproviders also can access network facilities at cost, rather than at market prices.

4. Energy costs and climate change are the crucial deciding factors to choose the location of datacenter. Cloud Computing satisfies that goal.

5. The Cloud is collaborative and integrating. You can mash up new technologies with the help ofcloud computing and incorporate disparate group of communities like customers, suppliers,interest groups.

6. Cloud Computing is cost effective and provides better pricing model.7. It’s not just sales, but also after-sales service and support, including: lifecycle management

teams ensures successful service delivery on 24/7 basis.8. Provides advanced tooling for service monitoring and management; portals for network and

application performance.9. Cloud Computing offers vendor independence. Service providers are strategically keen on

reaching as wide market as possible because customer base have wide range of requirementsand preferences.

10. Security typically improves due to centralization of data, increased security-focused resources,etc., but raises concerns about loss of control over certain sensitive data. Accesses are typicallylogged but accessing the audit logs themselves can be difficult or impossible.

Cloud computing penetration in India is poor Eureka Bharali Monday,12 January 2009

Bangalore: The buzz of the clouds does not bear a real impact as firms are yet to incline towards cloudcomputing in India. "Despite a $1 billion market to address for cloud computing in the country, thepenetration of it is too poor," said Kiran Datar, Managing Director, Cisco, Webex Technology.

The system of legacy that guides many firms while developing the infrastructure, has kept back manyfrom opting for those available on the clouds. Moreover, there are the insecurities amongst firms thathinder them to be a full-fledged cloud computing client. "Companies do not like to put their datas on theweb as they are not sure about the privacy," said Kishen Manjunath, Principal Scientist, Honeywell.

Apart from the security systems, the bandwidth catastrophe in the country completely wipes off thepossibility of a complete inclination towards the clouds.

Top executives, who gathered at the Headstart compute 2009 were of the view that the solution to thevaried problems concerning the clouds are yet to be found. The pioneer of cloud computing, Amazonstill lingers in the market with a very meager client base. Though many corporate firms have evolvedwith cloud computing like Microsoft and IBM, yet there is no significant shift towards its adoption.

Still there is a hope that this computing phenomena will mature to lure in the industry. "We hope thatwe will see full-fledged solutions in the clouds which will enable high performance computing ," saidSunil, Sherlekar, Director, Computational Research Laboratory, TCS.

So, the software vendors are yet cautious about future developments in the clouds, since it lo wers theinvestment part while the scalability of the infrastructure is high. "The basic challenge that will come upif cloud computing becomes the norm of the day, is to retain existing clients and tap new ones," said PNAnantharaman, Director, Adobe.