NTCA's The New Edge » cloud computing

VOTW: A Cloud-Connected Car

Jesse Ward — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 16:43:43 +0000

And last but not least, our video of the week (VOTW). Ford revealed its major redesign of the automobile this week with the Evos concept car. The design includes integration of IT and the cloud. Andrew Nusca over at SmartPlanet wrote up an excellent summary of 10 of the tech advances in the Evos, and how a cloud-connected car will benefit the end user.

Apple Releases iCloud Details

Steve Fravel — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 18:50:47 +0000

Earlier this week, Apple posted important details concerning the upcoming iCloud feature that will allow consumers to access content through multiple connected devices.

Apple will likely begin allowing access to iCloud later this year. Consumers will have access to 5 GB of storage at no charge. Those who need additional storage space may purchase more at annual rates that range from $20 to $100.

Of key importance for most customers is that applications, books and music will not count against the initial 5 GB. Only photos, mail, account settings and iWork documents will be measured in the iCloud storage.

UltraViolet Licensing

Steve Fravel — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 16:40:18 +0000

Digital media asset collecting can now take a giant step forward. The Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE) launched UltaViolet licensing on Wednesday. The licensing of content, technology and service providers was seen as the final step in getting the digital entertainment asset platform moving.

Mark Teitell, UltraViolet general manager said, “Consumers are looking for a better value proposition to own and collect movies and TV shows. A proposition that provides downloads, streaming and physical copy viewing options which are accessible on multiple platforms. The initiation of UltraViolet’s business-to-business licensing program represents another key step in the development and roll-out of this new ecosystem designed to respond to this consumer demand.”

UltraViolet can be described as pay-for-it once, watch or listen to it anytime, anywhere there is a compliant playback machine available. The purchaser actually buys a license for the movie, music or TV show that he or she wants to add to their library. They can then burn a copy, share it with family or watch it on their compliant equipment. The licenses are stored for the license owners in a “cloud” locker for retrieval whenever and wherever they are wanted.

UltraViolet licenses are available for content, services and products, and are identifiable by the UltraViolet logo.

VOTW: Apple’s iCloud

Jesse Ward — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 20:49:46 +0000

And last but not least, our video of the week (VOTW). At the Apple Worldwide Development Conference on June 6, CEO Steve Jobs introduced iCloud, Apple’s widely anticipated digital media storage platform.

Tennessee Law Makes it Illegal to Share Your Streaming Media Account

Jesse Ward — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 17:02:21 +0000

Last week Tennessee became the first state to make it illegal to share the user name and password of any streaming media account. The bill, signed into law June 1 by state Governor Bill Haslam, makes it a crime for anyone other than account holders to access services such as Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video or Rhapsody. The law also provides service providers with legal recourse against the violators.

Streaming media — and Internet video in particular — is gaining in popularity and overall share of Internet traffic. Consumers increasingly want to store their digital content in the cloud and access it from any device. Apple, Amazon and Google have each announced plans to launch cloud music services.

The recording industry championed this bill in an attempt to account for losses through illegal file sharing. Tennessee’s capital is home to many of the major record labels, including Sony Music Entertainment, BMI, Warner Music Group and EMI. This state law is clearly an attempt to catch up with technology and, IMHO, stop the train after it has already left the station.

However, the bill overlooks one very important point; most application providers already protect their content through their official terms and conditions.

“Netflix applauds any efforts to stave off video piracy. However, Netflix already has provisions in its Terms of Use that restrict passwords to the member’s household,” the company stated in regards to the state bill. According to the terms of use, sharing an account password outside of a household will result in termination of the user’s subscription. The company also reserves the right to terminate any account, at any time, at its discretion.

Just in case users decide to test the waters, Netflix also has a failsafe built into its service. Simultaneous streams cannot load on the same account. (The only exception to this is if a user subscribes to a plan that allows for multiple DVDs to be rented at the same time, his/her account may be able to operate a few separate video streams before the restrictions kick in).

CenturyLink to Acquire Savvis, Expand Cloud and Enterprise Services

Jesse Ward — Mon, 02 May 2011 19:14:04 +0000

CenturyLink, the nation’s third largest telecom company, announced last week that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire information technology company Savvis Inc. for about $2.5 billion. The acquisition will expand the telco’s hosting, cloud computing and enterprise services.

The offer values Savvis at $40 a share, an 11% premium over its April 26, 2011, closing price, and a premium of 54% compared to its stock price at the beginning of the year. Under the terms of the deal, which also includes about $700 million in debt, Savvis holders will receive $30 a share in cash, and $10 in shares of CenturyLink common stock.

Analysts note that CenturyLink is striving to become the third major enterprise carrier in the U.S. alongside AT&T and Verizon. The Savvis acquisition will put CenturyLink in a prime spot to market itself to enterprises as a company that can deliver the same level of service as the big telcos.

With the addition of Savvis, CenturyLink will accelerate its ability to deliver quality managed hosting and cloud capabilities to its business customers. The combination of CenturyLink’s hosting and network assets with Savvis’ co-location, managed hosting and cloud solutions, enhances CenturyLink’s capabilities and provides the company with a solid platform for future growth.

“Today, businesses are shifting the way they manage their information technology services and infrastructure, and this transaction helps us meet these needs by offering Savvis’ leading products and services coupled with CenturyLink’s network,” said Glen F. Post, III, CenturyLink chief executive officer and president.

Together, CenturyLink and Savvis will operate 48 data centers located in North America, Europe and Asia with more than 1.9 million square feet of gross floor space; a robust, national 207,000 route mile fiber network; a 190,000 mile global access network; and have a customer list that includes a majority of the Fortune 500 and Fortune 1000 companies.

CenturyLink anticipates integrating its hosting business and Savvis’ managed hosting and cloud services into a single CenturyLink business unit. This integrated hosting business will be based in St. Louis and led by Savvis CEO James Ousley.

Following the closing of the transaction, CenturyLink will employ approximately 50,000 people — based on the total number of CenturyLink and Savvis employees as of April 26, 2011.

For more, see this press release.

VOTW: PlayStation Network Attack, Outage

Jesse Ward — Mon, 02 May 2011 16:21:18 +0000

And last but not least, our video of the week (VOTW).

Several weeks ago Sony was hit with a massive network attack on it’s PlayStation Network, which boasts 77 million international users and connects gamers to play against one another as well as chat with each other. The Sony Qriocity service, Sony’s new cloud-based digital entertainment venture which is used to stream audio and video to Sony devices, was also compromised in the attack.

Sony responded to the security breach by turning off its network services until it can further investigate and strengthen the service.

In the meantime, questions remain about data the hackers were able to obtain. Security researchers have seen discussions on online forums indicating that the hackers may have accessed a database that includes customer names, addresses, usernames, passwords and as many as 2.2 million credit card numbers.

Congress sent a letter to Sony last Friday asking for detailed information on the gaming system’s security and privacy, and what it knows about credit card data that might have been stolen.

On the heels of Amazon’s EC2 cloud outage, this high-profile attack further supports the public perception that cloud services are insecure.

VOTW: Amazon’s Cloud Services Outage

Jesse Ward — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 19:35:58 +0000

And last but not least, our video of the week (VOTW). Keith Shaw of IDG Enterprise chats with Network World’s Jon Brodkin about the Amazon EC2 cloud service outage that brought down some high-profile websites last Thursday. This is a black eye for Amazon and for the cloud services industry as a whole, leading some analysts to question if companies will think twice about relying on the cloud in the future. For more, see this PC World post.

IBM Wants to Help Telcos Offer Cloud Services

Jesse Ward — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 19:33:28 +0000

Late last week IBM announced a new cloud services platform designed to help telecom service providers capitalize on the growing market for public cloud services, which is expected to increase to $89 billion by 2015.

The IBM Cloud Service Provider Platform is a comprehensive set of hardware, software and services to help telcos court businesses with new, pay-as-you-go services. IBM promises carrier-grade results and 99.99% service reliability.

Telecom providers will be able to use the platform to offer “as-a-service” offerings such as collaboration applications, customer relationship management services, data storage, backup and recovery, and industry-specific applications.

IBM says it can help a telco launch a new cloud service–such as virtual desktop management, storage or hosting–in six weeks, compared with six months if the telco decided to tackle the project solo. IBM’s telco partners also will have access to the company’s partners such as Broadsoft, Corent Technology, deCarta, Jamcracker, Juniper Networks, NetApp, Openet, RightScale and Wavemaker as well as cloud builders, application, technology and infrastructure providers, resellers, and cloud aggregators.

Multiple pilots worldwide are already underway on the IBM Cloud Service Provider Platform with clients such as Orange, Shanghai Telecom and SK Telecom.

Cloud-based services are emerging as an important new business model for the telecommunications industry.

For more, see this IBM release. Read more about cloud computing in NTCA’s ePaper “Moving Up the Stack with Cloud Computing and SaaS.”

Verizon Advances Video Agenda with Cloud TV, iPad and FiOS TV Online

Jesse Ward — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 19:57:20 +0000

Verizon is extending its FiOS video service beyond the living room to tablets, PCs and mobile devices.

Late last week Verizon CIO Shaygan Kheradpir hosted an event in New York City and offered a sneak peek of new features coming soon for FiOS customers, as well as some of the company’s long-term plans for FiOS TV. Verizon plans to offer live video programming as well as video-on-demand services to new platforms.

The service provider announced several new initiatives which rely on the concept of “cloud TV.” Flex View gives customers the ability to rent, purchase and watch video-on-demand programming on FiOS TV, the PC and select mobile devices. Flex View will initially support RIM’s BlackBerry Storm 2, the Droid 2 and Droid X and all Windows Mobile 6.5 devices, with more devices following soon. When it launches this fall, Verion plans to offer 3,000 movie titles, with rental and purchase prices ranging from $2 to $18. TV programming will follow soon after. Videos can be streamed over Wi-Fi, 3G and 4G.

Instead of local storage, Verizon will store customers’ video libraries in the cloud. Verizon’s Media Manager cloud application will provide remote streaming access to purchased VoD files, as well as personal video, photo and music files. Any content stored on the cloud can be viewed or listened to anywhere with an Internet connection. At launch, customers will be given 70 GB of allocated storage.

Verizon also is developing an application for Apple’s iPad which will likely be extended to other tablets. The “What’s Hots” app will allow the iPad to function as a mobile TV, essentially turning the device into a “software set-top box” which streams live cable programming. Instead of a traditional media guide, the application will feature a mosaic of popular channels which subscribers can browse through.

Initially, the app will work only inside the customer’s home over a WiFi connection, and allow FiOS TV customers to watch what they want on their iPad screen, while someone else in the home might be watching a different show via Verizon’s traditional set-top box. It will capture the channel as an IP stream being delivered through Verizon’s fiber network. The long-term vision is for consumers to utilize the iPad application outside the home, streaming FiOS TV wherever there is WiFi.

While the application was functioning for the live demo, it’s still under development, and there’s a long road ahead before it can be released to FiOS customers. Most importantly, each content provider has to agree to allow their content to play on this additional screen, and Verizon is hoping that it will not have to pony up additional compensation.

Time Warner and Turner Broadcasting have both expressed an interest in the TV Anywhere strategy.

In related news, Verizon announced last Thursday that it will be making more popular programming from Time Warner available online in an on-demand fashion. Verizon, which has been offering online content from TNT and TBS since June, will now offer shows from Adult Swim, Cartoon Network and truTV. Programming will be available on “FiOS TV Online” within 24 hours after an episode airs on live television.

For more, see Broadcasting & Cable, Reuters and PC Magazine.