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Data sharing drives diagnoses and cures, if we can get there (part 1)

The glowing reports we read of biotech advances almost cause one’s brain to ache. They leave us thinking that medical researchers must command the latest in all technological tools. But the engines of genetic and pharmaceutical innovation are stuttering for …

Distributed resilience with functional programming

Functional programming has a long and distinguished heritage of great work — that was only used by a small group of programmers. In a world dominated by individual computers running single processors, the extra cost of thinking functionally limited its …

Distributed resilience with functional programming

Functional programming has a long and distinguished heritage of great work — that was only used by a small group of programmers. In a world dominated by individual computers running single processors, the extra cost of thinking functionally limited its …

Publishing News: You may not own what you think you own

Courts are establishing copyright laws regarding digital media resale and tweet content ownership, Macmillan is funding the business that will replace it, and QR codes help publishers market and collect consumer data.

Publishing News: You may not own what you think you own

Courts are establishing copyright laws regarding digital media resale and tweet content ownership, Macmillan is funding the business that will replace it, and QR codes help publishers market and collect consumer data.

The EC2 API as a Defacto Standard

The argument for EC2 as a defacto standard is, at some level, the same as it is for any defacto standard: through the EC2 API, you eliminate the need for others to learn some custom API and you can leverage the existing, sizable ecosystem. But there is no such thing as the EC2 API. EC2 is actually many different APIs and adopting the EC2 API as a standard ultimately implies supporting all of those APIs.

The AWS Outage: The Cloud's Shining Moment

So many cloud pundits are piling on to the misfortunes of Amazon Web Services this week as a response to the massive failures in the AWS Virginia region. If you think this week exposed weakness in the cloud, you don't get it: it was the cloud's shining moment, exposing the strength of cloud computing.

Mårten Mickos discusses the strategy at Eucalyptus Systems

Mickos responds to such questions as whether private clouds are needed, whether they are too hard to manage, and whether the Amazon API is the best foundation for Eucalyptus.

Failure Is a Feature of Reality

All systems fail. In the computing world, the best we can hope for is the creation of redundant systems and backup systems that help minimize the impact of those failures. Where people run into trouble in the cloud is when they believe that "putting a system in the cloud" means not having to worry about redundancy and backup systems.

A Quick Look at Amazon CloudWatch, Load Balancing, and Auto-Scaling

Amazon recently made available to the public three new services that will have a huge impact on the way people architect systems to be deployed in the Amazon cloud. I have put together my first look thoughts on these new offerings.

[AWS:EC2] EC2 Reserved Instances Launched In EU Data Center

As per a recent post to the EC2 forums, there's now support for reserved instances inside the EC2 EU Data Center.

Cloud Computing - an Excerpt from Cloud Application Architectures

The hallmark of any buzzword is its ability to convey the appearance of meaning without conveying actual meaning. To many people, the term cloud computing has the feel of a buzzword. In this excerpt from Cloud Application Architectures, author George Reese explains just what the cloud is—in terms anyone can understand—and why it has value to your organization. Read on to learn more about cloud computing.

The Weakness of Commodity Server to Cloud Server Cost Comparisons

Though the conventional wisdom on the Internet is that the economic benefits of cloud computing fail for applications with steady usage needs, the reality is that the commodity-server to cloud-server comparisons on which this wisdom is based are flawed. The reality is that the cloud often provides compelling economic benefits even when you have an application with consistent resource demands.

AWS:EC2 Introduces Reserved Instances; Massive Potential Cost Reduction

What's the best way to jump start a stalling economy? Provide reasons for people to spend money by reducing costs for goods they're already paying for, freeing up capital to be invested into places they otherwise would not be invested into. Enter Amazon Web Services and the introduction of EC2 Reserved Instances.

[AWS:EC2] Windows Gains EC2:EU Support; Additional US Availability Zone

As per the recent announcement in the AWS:EC2 forums, Amazon Web Services has beefed up their support of Windows 2k3, adding an additional availability zone in the U.S. as well as extending support via two availability zones to EC2:EU.

Cloud Tips: Sending Email from an EC2 Instance

Many email systems mark email coming from an SMTP server in the Amazon cloud as spam. As a result, you can't use traditional mail delivery techniques for sending out form submissions or program alerts from the cloud. In this cloud tip, I describe how you can successfully send legitimate email from an Amazon EC2 instance.

How I Ended Up in the Cloud

Like most of us, I have been in the cloud longer than I have thought about being "in the cloud". But it took the need for a significant capital investment in hardware to drive Valtira into cloud computing using Amazon Web Services like Amazon EC2 and Amazon S3. Our journey into the cloud began with a new product offering and an attempt to avoiding shelling out huge up-front cash on hardware. Today, we have a complex infrastructure that saves us money over other options and provides greater flexibility.

Three Criteria for Being a Cloud Service

You may agree or disagree with those criteria. When I talk about cloud computing, that's what I mean. The expression "cloud computing" is confusing a lot of people. I use three criteria when talking about cloud computing to separate cloud services from other kinds of services. I think they capture the essence of what excites people about cloud services as opposed to other kinds of technology services.

ECWin2k8?

In a surprise announcement just a few moments ago, Jeff Barr, Amazon Web Services lead technical evangelist announced they would now be supporting Windows on EC2. This is a /HUGE/ deal, especially when you consider the fact that Microsoft is rumored to be preparing a competitor to EC2, something they will supposedly be announcing at the PDC in November.

Amazon Continues to Tweak Webservices

Amazon continues to tweak their webservices (S3, EC2, SimpleDB, etc...) to respond to the needs of the users. Over the last month, three major enhancements have been announced.  

What SimpleDB Could Do For Your RIA

Amazon's latest release in its arsenal of web services is SimpleDB (still in private beta). This was an obvious advance for Amazon who already has a powerhouse group of web services including Elastic Computer Cloud (EC2), Simple Storage Service (S3), and the Simple Queue Service (SQS). The previous services allowed a developer to store static assets, deploy virtual servers, and create a line of communications between those servers. However, there was no easy way to replicate dynamic data between the virtual servers. SimpleDB fills this void.