Eucalyptus returns to its open source roots
Since last year, Eucalyptus CEO Marten Mickos has acknowledged that his company hasn't done a great job in engaging and retaining support from the open source community. That's all changed now, according to Mickos: With today's release of Eucalyptus 3.1, the company has declared it's jettisoning separate enterprise and open source editions of its platform in favor of a single, open source option -- with the entire codebase freely available on GitHub.
Further emphasizing the company's support for the open source world, Eucalyptus 3.1 includes enterprise platform deployments for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Virtualization, as well as for VMware vCenter 5. What's more, the company is introducing a tool called FastStart, which enables users to deploy on-premise AWS-compatible IaaS clouds in under 20 minutes, according to Eucalyptus. Read more...
Hadoop becomes critical cog in the big data machine
Apache's Hadoop technologies are becoming critical in helping enterprises manage vast amounts of data, with users ranging from NASA to Twitter to Netflix increasing their reliance on the open source distributed computing platform.
Hadoop has gathered momentum as a mechanism for dealing with the concept of big data, in which enterprises seek to derive value from the rapidly growing amounts of data in their computer systems. Recognizing Hadoop's potential, users are both using the existing Hadoop platform technologies and developing their own technologies to complement the Hadoop stack.
Hadoop's corporate usage now and in the futureNASA expects Hadoop to handle large data loads in projects such as its Square Kilometer Array sky-imaging effort, which will churn out 700TBps when built in the next decade. The data systems will include Hadoop, as well as technologies such as Apache OODT (Object Oriented Data Technology), to cope with the massive data loads, says Chris Mattmann, a senior computer scientist at NASA. Read more...
Former AT&T exec leaked iPhone, BlackBerry sales figures
A former marketing executive at AT&T has pleaded guilty to charges related to an insider trading scheme in which he leaked sales information about Apple's iPhone and Research In Motion's BlackBerry devices to members of an investment community.
Alnoor Ebrahim, 57, of Alpharetta, Georgia, pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Ebrahim provided nonpublic information about device sales to members of an investment community, described as an expert networking firm, the U.S. Department of Justice said. Read more...
HP worried about an Oracle takeover after Hurd switched sides
Hewlett-Packard voiced concerns about Oracle attempting a hostile takeover after it hired former HP CEO Mark Hurd as co-president, Oracle's lead counsel told a judge on Monday.
HP sued Hurd shortly after he went to Oracle in September 2010, and the two companies quickly tried to settle the dispute. One of HP's core demands was a "standstill" agreement blocking takeover bids by Oracle for a period of time, said Dorian Daley, Oracle's senior vice president, general counsel and secretary, a key player in the negotiations with HP. But Daley dismissed HP's worries.
"I said, 'Are you kidding me?'" Daley said during questioning by Oracle in front of Judge James Kleinberg in Santa Clara County Superior Court in San Jose, California. "It was a very surprising ask, from my perspective," because HP is three times as big as Oracle, Daley said. Read more...
Cloud failures cost more than $71 million since 2007
A total of 568 hours of downtime at 13 well-known cloud services since 2007 had an economic impact of more than $71.7 million dollars, said the International Working Group on Cloud Computing Resiliency (IWGCR) on Monday.
The average unavailability of cloud services is 7.5 hours per year, amounting to an availability rate of 99.9 percent, according to the group's preliminary results. "It is extremely far from the expected reliability of mission critical system (99.999 percent). As a comparison, the service average unavailability for electricity in a modern capital is less than 15 minutes per year," the researchers noted in their paper. Read more...
Surface: Because Microsoft does so well making hardware?
If you want a job done right, do it yourself: that’s the consensus on the Windows 8 Surface tablets. Or, put another way: “OEMs, please pay attention. This is how you build a PC.”
It’s easy to draw this conclusion given the world’s largest maker of software has bothered spending money – something it has been cutting back on in non-core areas – as well as its time designing and building its ideal Windows tablet to take on the iPad.
Microsoft has been banging on about the user “experience” for years, and now it’s putting into practice some of its ideas, without compromise. Read more...
Mozilla teaches coding with new Thimble ‘Webmaker’
Mozilla has released a web page creation editing tool that steps novice users through HTML and CSS.
Dubbed “Thimble”, Mozilla bills the new tool a “webmaker”. While that term is cringeworthy, the two-paned web app is anything but. One pane offers raw HTML, with just a few basic tags. The other offers a WYSIWYG view of the HTML as you code.
Once authors deem a page complete, the service allows publication to a new Mozilla service, webmaker.org.
So far, so bland – aside from instructional floating information about each tag (at bottom left in the image below) there's not a colossal difference between Thimble and myriad HTML editors from the mid-90s. Read more...
New Samsung chief: I want SOFTWARE
Samsung is going to have to do better in software if it wants to stay up near the top of the tech industry, its new CEO said today.
"Samsung needs to improve its competitiveness in software, and is now at a crossroads. To become the top global technology company, we need to challenge and innovate continuously. I will give more authority to our employees for creative ideas," shiny new chief exec Kwon Oh-hyun said in his inaugural speech, reported by the Korea Times.
He said that the company could only produce new customer experiences and value by strengthening its capabilities in design, user experience, solutions and software. Read more...
Attack code published for two actively exploited vulnerabilities in Microsoft software
Attack code for two actively exploited vulnerabilities in Microsoft software, one of which has not yet been patched, was integrated into the open source Metasploit penetration testing framework.
One of the vulnerabilities is identified as CVE-2012-1875 and is located in Internet Explorer. Attackers can exploit it to execute malicious code by tricking users into visiting a specially crafted Web page or opening a Microsoft Office document that has a malicious ActiveX control embedded into it.
Microsoft addressed the security flaw on Tuesday as part of its MS12-037 security bulletin, but according to security researchers from antivirus vendor McAfee, the vulnerability had been actively exploited in attacks since at least June 1. Read more...
SAP looking to create ‘distinguished engineers’ for its HANA database
SAP is creating a new program that seeks to anoint consultants as "distinguished engineers" working with its HANA in-memory database platform, the company announced Monday.
About 1,800 consultants have already received HANA training since its general release one year ago. But the new program will provide a deeper level of engagement with SAP, according to an official blog post.
"SAP will support this organization by providing HANA briefings, development and roadmap updates, access to resources, and joint coordination of activities at conferences and other virtual and in-person technical events," the blog states. In addition, SAP will solicit experts' input "regarding real-world HANA implementation experiences to use as input to guide development and product management for future patches and releases."
The program is also meant to help top HANA experts share their knowledge and experiences, according to the blog. Criteria for membership in the Distinguished Engineer Program will be released soon, it adds. Read more...
Microsoft unveils iPad-like Windows 8 Surface tablet
After teasing the press through the weekend over an invitation-only announcement at a secret location in Los Angeles, Microsoft today revealed a line of tablets that will ship this fall and run Windows 8. An ARM-based model will run Windows RT, the Metro-only version of Windows 8, and an Intel-based model will run the full version of Windows 8, including the Windows 7 portion. Read more...