Basho Upgrades Some Services
March 29, 2012
Basho is in the search business. We monitor the company’s Riak Search product. today we notice that the company has rolled out an “all new” Riak CS. The “CS” refers to cloud storage. We are generally suspicious of categorical affirmatives in general. In this particular announcement, Basho asserts “at any scale.” You can read the somewhat art history inspired announcement at this Basho link.
The company asserts:
Riak CS is a multi-tenant, distributed, S3-compatible cloud storage platform that enables enterprises and service providers to launch public or private cloud services. Built on top of Riak, the world’s most advanced distributed database, Riak CS provides horizontal scale, extreme durability and low operational overhead in a distributed object storage system.
This is a buzzword fiesta. We assume that one finds content within the categorical affirmative charged system using the company’s Riak Search system.
We are monitoring developments. Notice we did not insert “all” because that is a logical impossibility for an addled goose. Art history majors engaging in PR puffery are not as restrained perhaps?
Stephen E Arnold, March 29, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Cloud Sherpas and GlobalOne Merge
March 22, 2012
Partners merge as Google goes its own direction in the enterprise. “Top Google and Salesforce Partners Merge, Form Global Cloud Co. Cloud Sherpas,” announces The Wall Street Journal. Valuable Google partner Cloud Sherpas is joining forces with Salesforce top partner GlobalOne Group. The new company will use the colorful Cloud Sherpas moniker. Details of the deal have not been released.
The CEO of the new Cloud Sherpas has reason to believe his company will be successful. The article reports:
“Many vendors claim to sell software that runs in the cloud, but Google and Salesforce have become two of the most significant cloud software platforms for all sizes of businesses, according to David Northington, the former chief executive of GlobalOne who is now chief executive of the combined company.
“Also, traditional IT services companies accustomed to offering expensive software that runs inside corporate walls and may take months or years to deploy are still catching up to the demand for cloud skills, he said, and that should give Cloud Sherpas and its customers a head start.”
Taking to the cloud can provide definite advantages; it can reduce costs and provide finer control over technology. However, because the field is changing so rapidly, businesses look to providers to double as cloudy advisers. With the experience behind both Cloud Sherpas and GlobalOne, Northington believes his newly blended company is well positioned to provide such guidance.
No employees were axed in the merger. The new company will retain its 177 workers from GlobalOne and the 84 from the original CloudSherpas. In fact, they are actively hiring. Not only that, but the company anticipates acquiring more businesses and raising more money in the near future.
Now, that’s the way to set your sights sky high.
Stephen E. Arnold, March 22, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
PR Push for Azaleos and Fast Search
March 14, 2012
My email overflowed this morning with descriptions of Azaleos, its expertise in Microsofty stuff, and Fast Search. I am on the ball with regard to Fast Search, its legal back story, and the issues associated with getting the system to deliver useful results to users on time and on budget. You will find the Azaleos blog quite interesting. I noted no recent postings about Fast Search. For some current information about the search system, you may want to check out this Beyond Search write up. I ran a query using the Azaleos search system and got three hits about Fast Search. The coverage of search suggests that Azaleos may be succumbing to a communications expert’s inputs about how to sell search services.
What was new was the statement in MSPmentor’s “Azaleos Cloud Gets Microsoft Fast Search Server 2010”. How does a Microsoft partner “get” Fast Search? I don’t know. Maybe pay a fee? Here’s the passage I noted:
…the company’s Managed Enterprise Search solution addresses a different need. It gives enterprises the ability to remotely design, configure, monitor and manage FAST Search Server 2010. According to Azaleos, the development is big news for its customers because the Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 can perform searches in “an interactive and visual format,” in addition to the basic search functions that the Microsoft SharePoint Server provides. The FAST Search Server is a high-visibility solution, which brings its own set of complex issues to the table for enterprise IT departments. But Azaleos claims its Managed Enterprise Search solution eliminates the challenges associated with high visibility applications and can keep the FAST Search Server available and running at top speed.
My thoughts after reading this included:
- There is an implicit assumption that Microsoft’s cloud search will be Fast centric. My own view of this is that the assumption may be out of kilter. The reasons include performance, extensibility, and customization. Fast Search can be turned into a capable performer, but the “cloud” angle implies a certain standardization of features. So of Fast Search’s vast capabilities what will the core service do? Keywords, clustering, linguistic analysis, entity extraction, sentiment analysis, relationship mapping, etc. My point is that customers may want all of these functions and that suggests the Fast Search from Azaleos may be very different from the Fast Search marketing collateral’s assertions.
- Can Azaleos maintain an “interactive and visual format” when the content throughput increases. The challenge of keeping indexes fresh equates to resources. Resources, in my experience, cost money. The fix may be to gate how much data are processed in order to keep the fees acceptable to customers. Price spikes are not encouraging to some licensees in my experience.
- The assertion of “available and running at top speed” is an interesting one. My thought was, “Relative to what?” Are we comparing a small corpus with weekly index refreshes or are we talking about 100 million documents refreshed in near real time? I am not sure Fast in an on premises installation with original Fast engineers babysitting the hugely complex system with often unexpected dependencies can be a challenge to keep perking along at optimum performance levels.
I want to watch how this business unfolds. After all, a PR blitz which puts several stories in front of me signals some real enthusiasm on the part of the Azaleos stakeholders.
Stephen E Arnold, March 14, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Discounts in the Cloud from Amazon
March 11, 2012
Orchard Street discounts arrive in the cloud.
We say Amazon is both exploiting Microsoft Azure weaknesses and responding to customer complaints; ZDNet reports, “Amazon drops cloud prices worldwide (again).” Exactly where reductions will be seen depend on region and type of cloudy instance. Clients using Elastic Compute Cloud, Elastic Map Reduce, its relational database service RDS, and ElastiCache benefitted right away.
The attention gives Amazon a chance to highlight its usability by companies great and small. The write up notes:
Despite the company namedropping Foursquare and Samsung as its two prime examples of the model customer, it goes to show that Amazon’s cloud services are not just for the startup, the avid developer, and the bank on the corner. Big names use it, and rely on it, and Amazon is keen to stress how valuable its service is compared to its Microsoft competitor.
Reducing cloud prices has become a habit for Amazon; this is the nineteenth time in six years. At least they’re flexible. All this cutting keeps pressure on primary competitor Microsoft. We think it also has to do with appeasing unhappy customers. We understand, though, why the company wouldn’t emphasize that detail.
One outcome of Amazon’s price cutting is that its margins may come under increased pressure. Amazon is going for the throat in a number of business sectors. The problem is that the tactics can be expensive. Maybe Amazon can make up the costs with volume?
Stephen E Arnold, March 11, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Cloud Good, Cloud Bad for Your Data?
February 29, 2012
InfoWorld’s David Linthicum–cloud consultant, “real” expert, and podcaster–recently reported on cloud computing in the article, “Big Data and the Cloud: a Far From Perfect Fit.”
According to the article, while big data and cloud computing have some similarities you shouldn’t think that any old enterprise search startup with cloud offerings, generally in the public cloud, will solve your data management issues.
Organizations that try to consolidate their data into public cloud databases are most likely going to run into two primary technical difficulties — bandwidth limitations and higher cost for security.
When discussing the issues with bandwidth, Linthucum states:
“…Big data means big integration challenges. Thus, the ability to get the data from the enterprise to the public cloud may be problematic. Although you can certainly ship up a couple hundred thousand data records each day over the open Internet, in many cases we’re talking millions of data records that must be transformed, translated, and synced from existing enterprise systems.”
While the article is not saying that big data is never a good fit for public clouds, it does bring up some good points that should be considered when deciding what solution is the best fit for your company. We find it interesting to watch the trajectory of advice from experts. Cloud good, cloud bad? One never knows does one?
Jasmine Ashton, February 29, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Amazon Loses Zygna
February 27, 2012
Fancy talk aside losing a big customers generates heart burn. Wired Cloudline reveals that “Zynga Gives Amazon Cloud the Slip.” Game maker Zynga has analyzed its needs and, though it does not plan on dropping Amazon Web Services (AWS) entirely, has determined it can do better by building its own platform, zCloud. The article reports:
“What is a surprise is the dramatic shift away from Amazon for cloud services. Amazon is estimated to have provided 80 percent of cloud computing services to Zynga in the early days, and now delivers a mere 20 percent. . . . [Zynga CTO Allan Leinwand] told GigaOm the move should not be seen as knock on AWS, because zCloud was built and optimized for the unique workloads of its interactive and graphics-intensive games.”
Hmm. . . perhaps. However, we see another possible factor: Amazon’s price increases seem to be unappetizing when there are lots of tiny incremental charges. Perhaps such inflation will spur more companies to create their own clouds.
Zynga has profited mightily by bringing some fun into the social networking boom. The company prides itself as giving people around the world “permission to play”. Now that’s a cheery business model.
Stephen E Arnold, February 27, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
ZyLAB Captures Email in the Cloud
February 27, 2012
Digital Technology recently reported on the information management technology company ZyLAB, in the article, “New ZyLAB eDiscovery Cloud Collectors Retrieve Messages, Calendar Items, and Contacts from Microsoft Office 365 and Other Web-based Email”
According to the article, the company has released the first in its series of new ZyLAB Cloud Collectors to capture email from Microsoft Exchange Online.
the article states:
“With this release, ZyLAB becomes the only end-to-end eDiscovery company to offer both traditional email collection and integrated collection of cloud-based email systems via a hosted or on premise application. This capability enables ZyLAB clients to easily migrate previously collected and processed email from their SaaS-based ZyLAB eDiscovery system to a fully-featured ZyLAB eDiscovery system that is behind the firewall and poised to manage multiple litigation or regulatory matters as well as corporate governance.”
With the increase of mobile technology users, the use of Cloud computing becomes more and more vital. ZyLAB’s new products are an excellent addition to the array of products currently in circulation.
Jasmine Ashton, February 27, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Prevent Amazon Bill Shock
February 26, 2012
Before jumping into cloud-based search and content processing, it is smart to check out your friendly sticker shock preventer.
Uptime Software has announced a new product, uptimeCloud, which monitors and forecasts costs for Amazon Web Services. The product helps users avoid “sticker shock” by allowing them to monitor usage throughout the month. By calculating existing charges and making projections, users can track and predict costs, and can even set alarms when a bill is exceeding a user’s set budget. The article on Wired Cloudline, “Avoid Amazon Cloud Bill-Shock With uptimeCloud,” tells us more about the software:
‘Cost is the key driver in moving the cloud and, at the same time, cost uncertainty is the cloud’s biggest barrier and risk for companies. uptimeCloud completely removes that risk,’ Alex Bewley, CTO of uptime software, said in a statement. ‘uptimeCloud is the first solution to offer this type of service with this level of graphical visualization and simplicity.’
In response to the service, Amazon says they are happy to work with those who want details of analyses and is focused on lowering infrastructure costs. However, unless you are fully comfortable in taking Amazon’s word for it, you should probably check out the prediction software.
We find Amazon’s price creep interesting. The firm is struggling to keep its costs under control in its quest to compete with Apple, kill off WalMart, and dominate the video and book content business. Caveat emptor?
Andrea Hayden, February 26, 2012
NASA to Another Type of Cloud
February 25, 2012
Yep, cost cutting is rampant in the US government.
NASA is accelerating into the ether and it seems to us that the agency plagued with exogenous complexity is retrenching. Government Computer News reveal, “NASA Wants to Put Web Services in Agile-Like Cloud.” The agency wishes to unite content management for its disparate facilities under nasa.gov. Writer Rutrell Yasin relates:
The target environment for Web services is an ‘agile, cloud-based enterprise infrastructure’ that provides the three cloud delivery models — infrastructure as a service, software as a service and platform as a service — according to a draft statement of work NASA issued Feb. 6. The Web infrastructure will service internal and public-facing applications and sites, using an interoperable, standards-based and secure environment, the document states.
Collaboration tools are also on the wish-list, and NASA’s Office of the CIO will make sure the changes adhere to the Representational State Transfer architecture model and other best practices. (Well, that’s good.)
The agency will primarily turn to open-source solutions; we welcome that direction but must ask: is cost control now the order of the day? The answer is, “No matter what buzzwords or woolen cloth is draped over the explanation, the budget crunch is forcing changes which will embrace lower-cost options and headcount reductions. Grants in a girdle are next are in development.
Cynthia Murrell, February 25, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
PolySpot Technology Makes Big Data Manageable
February 23, 2012
A recent white paper by Beyond Search’s own analyst, Stephen Arnold, “Cutting Big Data Down to Size: The PolySpot Solution,” tackles the issue of high-volume data flow by taking an in-depth look into PolySpot’s Information at Work Solution.
Arnold gives much credit to the France-based company for creating a revolutionary system that offers an easy-to-use solution to Big Data, making data available and thus valuable to companies. Information from ArnoldIT’s investigation is summarized on PolySpot’s website:
PolySpot has developed an innovative approach that makes it possible to deploy a robust frame-work over existing content repositories. The PolySpot technology allows licensees to access information from many different sources and deliver information that answers real-life business questions. Users access the content via applications or apps from mobile devices to desktop computers. The company delivers solutions+apps.
Our team at Beyond Search is glad to see PolySpot offering innovative enterprise search solutions that are much needed in the search enterprise search market place. This technology is necessary in ensuring that information of significant value is not lost in the petabytes of information that is growing daily.
Check out Apprapids for more insight from the ArnoldIT team or direct your browser to PolySpot to download a full-length copy of the analysis.
Andrea Hayden, February 23, 2012
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