Cloud Computing

Hewlett Packard and Other Companies Deploying Zero Carbon Data Centers

I am pleased to see that several companies are starting to recognize that building zero carbon data centers is a more sustainable direction rather than focusing on energy efficiency (i.e. PUE). As China, India and the rest of the developing world starts to deploy data centers, GHG emissions will continue to increase in portion to the number of data centers regardless of the PUE. But building zero carbon data centers powered only by renewable energy means that as the world deploys many more hundreds of data centers, GHG emissions will remain virtually unaltered and close to zero. more

MegaBust’s MegaQuestions Cloud the Net’s Future

Mid-January 2012 marked a major inflection point for digital copyright policy in the United States... Yet no one involved with Congressional interaction on either side of the issue believes it has been sidetracked for long, and "Hollywood" and "Silicon Valley" are both plotting their next moves in this high-stakes game to further define the responsibilities and potential liabilities... The resolution of this dispute will determine the ability of Internet services to move to "the cloud"... more

Cloud Computing’s Concealed Complexity

James Urquhart claims Cloud is complex - deal with it, adding that "If you are looking to cloud computing to simplify your IT environment, I'm afraid I have bad news for you" and citing his earlier CNET post drawing analogies to a recent flash crash. Cloud computing systems are complex, in the same way that nuclear power stations are complex - they also have catastrophic failure modes... more

Emerging Markets Tech Watch 2012

2011 has been a significant year for the technology sector globally. Information technology is touching more people in more ways than ever before. Developed markets will be considering a 2012 in which business innovation, competitiveness, and service differentiation are built on ubiquitous broadband, cloud computing, smarter mobile computing, and an increasing plethora of Internet-connected devices. By contrast, securing the technology future for developing markets demands that attention be placed on more fundamental issues. more

Data Tsunami and the Looming Broadband Capacity Crisis

There is such a huge volume of genomics (DNA related data) and bio-informatics data being produced that it cannot be transferred over commercial Internet networks, and instead organizations are using FedX and other sneaker nets to ship the data. The same crisis in data volumes is also occurring in the climate modelling and other fields as well. Research and Education (R&E) networks for many years have been warning about this coming data tsunami. more

Taking the Leap to Cloud-Based Malware Inspection

Is desktop anti-virus dead? Someday I'd love to make that announcement, but it still feels to me that there's a Patron Saint of Voodoo with an affinity for bringing it back to life -- like some macabre mirror image of the malicious zombies it's supposed to provide protection against. It's kind of ironic that today's innovation in desktop anti-virus isn't really happening at the desktop; rather it's occurring in the cloud. more

Neelie Kroes, the EU, Cloud Computing, Regulation and Good Ears

In her blog EU Commissioner Neelie Kroes blogs on her stance on cloud computing. In short: this is a good development which the EU will embrace and advocate, but may need regulation in order to ensure a safe environment for industry and individuals in the cloud. Here's some thoughts on that. more

The Ultimate Differentiator: Reliability!

Every company that monitors their site or application performance focuses on two key metrics Availability and Speed. However, there is a third metric, Reliability, which is often misunderstood or in some cases ignored by companies. Reliability measures availability, accuracy, and delivery of a service within a time threshold. Reliability is difficult to define and measure as it is different for each company and service. To simplify it, you can think of Reliability as how consistent are you in delivering the "service". more

Live Long and (Do Not) Prosper: Lessons and Reminders from Yesterday’s Wikipedia Outage

Yesterday's Wikipedia outage, which resulted from invalid DNS zone information, provides some good reminders about the best and worst attributes of active DNS management. The best part of the DNS is that it provides knowledgeable operators with a great tool to use to manage traffic around trouble spots on a network. In this case, Wikipedia was attempting to route around its European data center because... more

Email Snooping Can Be Intrusion Upon Seclusion

Analysis could also affect liability of enterprises using cloud computing technologies... Local elected official Steinbach had an email account that was issued by the municipality. Third party Hostway provided the technology for the account. Steinbach logged in to her Hostway webmail account and noticed eleven messages from constituents had been forwarded by someone else to her political rival. more

Cloud Computing and Privacy

There has been a good deal of talk of late on the important topic of security and privacy in relation to cloud computing. Indeed there are some legitimate concerns and some work that needs to be done in this area in general, but I'm going to focus today on the latter term (indeed they are distinct -- as a CISSP security is my forte but I will talk more on this separately). more

AI-Driven Cyber Threats Are Growing, Google Warns

Google says cybercriminals and state-backed hackers are rapidly adopting generative AI to automate attacks, disguise malware, exploit vulnerabilities and spread disinformation, marking a shift from experimental use to industrial-scale cyber operations across the global threat landscape. more

We’re Drowning in Data - A New Kind of Memory Could Change That

As AI devours ever more information, the world faces a costly data-storage crisis. Researchers are betting etched silica glass could preserve vast archives for centuries while consuming far less energy than today's hard drives and magnetic tapes. more

The Illusion of Digital Sovereignty (Part III) - Collision, Geopolitical, Compute Concentration, Future Governance

Geopolitical fragmentation is colliding with the internet's distributed architecture, exposing how sovereign cloud concentration and AI infrastructure can weaken resilience, amplify strategic vulnerabilities, and challenge whether governance can preserve interoperability while managing dependency under stress. more

The Illusion of Digital Sovereignty (Part II) - Emergence, Sovereign AI Ecosystem, the RIR System, Number Resources

As states chase digital sovereignty through clouds, AI and localized infrastructure, the internet's globally coordinated foundations reveal a harder truth: operational continuity depends less on control than on interoperable systems built on trust and governance. more