VOTW: PlayStation Network Attack, Outage
Posted by Jesse Ward on Monday, May 2, 2011 · 
·
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
Posted by Jesse Ward on Monday, April 25, 2011 · ·
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
Posted by Jesse Ward on Monday, October 18, 2010 · ·
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. Read more
Verizon Advances Video Agenda with Cloud TV, iPad and FiOS TV Online
Posted by Jesse Ward on Monday, August 23, 2010 · ·
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. Read more
VOTW: What is Cloud Computing?
Posted by Jesse Ward on Monday, July 13, 2009 · ·
Have you recently seen a funny, entertaining or informational video? The New Edge would love to hear from you. Please send your suggestions for the next video of the week (VOTW) to jward@ntca.org and your video might be featured in an upcoming issue.
Google and Microsoft Embrace Cloud Computing
Posted by Jesse Ward on Monday, July 13, 2009 · ·
Internet titans Google and Microsoft both recently announced new desktop computing environments. Google came out swinging first, announcing last week that it is developing an operating system (OS) for PCs that is tied to its Chrome Web browser.
Here’s the quick and dirty on Google OS: Read more
NTCA Releases Cloud Computing ePaper
Posted by Jesse Ward on Monday, June 22, 2009 · ·
Application service providers (ASP), software as a service (SaaS), on-demand applications, hosted or managed services, cloud computing—each of these concepts is similar in nature. Regardless of what buzz word you choose, the same general principle emerges: the movement of applications from the desktop or server further back into the network, or the cloud. The product or application is then delivered to the end user via the Internet.
Many global tech companies and startups have entered the cloud computing fray, offering a wide variety of products and services, each targeted at perhaps a different audience. Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Verizon Business, Salesforce.com — these are just a few of the companies blazing the cloud computing trail.
With the advent and prevalence of IP technology and network bandwidth, cloud computing might enable broadband service providers to move further up the stack, away from simply delivering a high-speed pipe, to offering new and innovative applications, and potentially creating new revenue streams. Read more