The big problem with all the cloud services is that there's no way to move from one cloud service to another cloud service easily... so if I start using one cloud, I'm essentially locked into it, and in order to switch to another service, I need to figure out how to export/import all my applications/data/etc -- which can be difficult or impossible to do.
Som clouds are more friendly than others -- and try to offer "open stacks" so that there's at least some expectation of being able to migrate away to other providers (or my own hardware). But proprietary clouds seem to be the more lucrative and popular services.....
This is causing some real concerns. Given the relatively small number of big players in the public cloud, doesn't this threaten the Internet with increased centralization and lack of diversity?
It probably does, Kim, but the Internet is also probably most threatened by success. Any mass-market service or product is the domain of the giants by nature. Whether that's bad for the Internet and the public or not, and whether it can be stopped or not, it should likely be debated.
To be fair, sometimes goodness trends in the same direction. The lowest cost base for anything in terms of network services is achieved with zero competitive overbuild, for example. The challenge is that monopolies will abuse their power unless they're prevented from doing that. To rely on the free market to prevent that abuse is a solution only to a degree, but to expect unbridled competition to produce optimum consumer cost is a completely unrealistic dream. How do you balance that? Through enlightened debate and policy, and of course we have precious little of that in the Internet.
The whole Amazon.reader debate is a double-stupid. It's stupid to think that there's any e-book buyer who doesn't know Amazon's URL, and it was stupider to let ICANN launch the whole free-form TLD initiative to start with.
Subsidized handsets, rather than locked handsets, should be the focus of regulators. We're not getting good deals, not fostering innovation, and weakening our power as buyers.
50 billion household devices will be on the Internet by 2020, according to Cisco. And we're hearing foreign governments are hacking our infrastructure. Surely our refrigerators are next!
YouTube's move to a partial pay-for-view model could help relieve a dearth of good new content but it could also complicate debates in many parts of the world over payment by content providers for delivery of their material to customers.
That's what Larry Page said on Google's earnings call, referring to the conjunction of mobile and the cloud. Well, let's chart it then! We need to be thinking about an Internet where 90% of our traffic goes to 70 destinations within 40 miles of us.
Facebook's Graph Search may face some profound challenges and risks, first, because Facebook users haven't been thinking of their posts as product reviews; and second, because Facebook will now have to contend with the social-network equivalent of SEO "gaming" of results.
EU operators are considering joining up to create a pan-European network to reduce competitive overbuild and cost. This might lower costs and focus operators on higher-level, more interesting services.
Multi-tenant clouds assure security for clients, but not necessarily for their ideas. Here's one thing you should discuss with your cloud provider before you sign on.
Microsoft's recent decision to bundle its Office software with business partner offerings indicates that cloud software may be in the news, but licensed packages are still in demand for failover.
Cloud is pushing classic corporate data centers beyond their physical boundaries and into new territory to where they one day might be expected to federate with different clouds. For this to happen seamlessly, a new class of systems management superstructure software will be needed.
Enterprises would like to move to cloud computing but are hesitant because they are concerned about providers’ ability to secure company data. Here are some tips that help to ensure that if breaches occur, the business is not left holding the bag.
That's what Larry Page said on Google's earnings call, referring to the conjunction of mobile and the cloud. Well, let's chart it then! We need to be thinking about an Internet where 90% of our traffic goes to 70 destinations within 40 miles of us.
Software-defined networks, which deliver virtualization functions to enterprise networks, have the potential to dramatically change network design and significantly reduce costs and maintenance.
Expert Integrated Systems: Changing the Experience & Economics of IT In this e-book, we take an in-depth look at these expert integrated systems -- what they are, how they work, and how they have the potential to help CIOs achieve dramatic savings while restoring IT's role as business innovator. READ THIS eBOOK
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