As president of Microsoft’s server and tools division, a $19 billion-a-year business devoted to databases, servers and other software products, Satya Nadella has a predictable cast of competitors to worry about. There is Oracle, VMware, SAP and a bunch of other makers of highly technical products that make everyday services like banking and airline reservations work, even if the software running them is invisible to most consumers.
But one of Mr. Nadella’s competitors – Amazon – is not like the others.
The Internet retailer is beloved by consumers for its seemingly infinite online selection of merchandise available for one-click purchasing, speedy delivery and Kindle e-readers. Out of view of most of the public, though, it has transformed itself into a huge player in the field of cloud computing. By renting capacity on the industrial-strength servers and beefy Internet connections in its data centers to anyone willing to pay for it, Amazon has become the virtual landlord of choice for technology start-ups, including the likes of Instagram and Foursquare.
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Microsoft Takes Aim at Amazon With a New Cloud Service
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
How To Get 50GB of Free Cloud Storage Right Now
Need a place to squirrel away your digital stash? Box is giving 50GB of online storage free to new users.
Box will let you sync across both Mac and PC, and it has apps for Android, iOS, Outlook, BlackBerry PlayBook, and a bunch of other platforms listed here. To get yours, just head over to Box here, sign up for an account, and enjoy.
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
How To Manage The Cloud As A Designer
The cloud has revolutionized the way creative professionals work; by enabling easy sharing, editing, selling, advertising, and more, it has become an essential aspect of the design process. Cloud computing has spread so far that it’s even given rise to the concept of “cloud commuting;” so many designers have integrated these services into their job that they’re now able to work from home.
In essence, the cloud is able to run applications via the large number of computers that are available online, instead of just relying on yours. Refer to a cloud computing guide to find more in-depth information, but for now, read on to find out just how many essential tools are being hosted on the cloud.
Friday, October 26, 2012
10 Awesome Tools to Enhance Your Dropbox
Dropbox is an amazing cloud service that has totally revolutionized the way people used to store their data. It is easy to use, extremely handy and useful. Dropbox is a lot more than just a simple online storage website. Many apps work side by side to ameliorate your Dropbox experience.
These apps can prove to be really useful as they allow you to do a lot of cool things with your Dropbox account such as backing up your site to Dropbox, creating a simple site with Dropbox, automatically organizing your Dropbox files, or even emailing file attachments straight to your Dropbox account. All these things would definitely make your life a lot easier and enhance your Dropbox experience. So check out this list of 10 Awesome Tools to Enhance Your Dropbox and pick the tools you like the best!
Friday, October 12, 2012
8 Tips To Get the Most Out Of Microsoft SkyDrive
Cloud drive services are becoming widely popular nowadays with services like Dropbox, Google Drive, and even Amazon Drive. Microsoft has its own version, SkyDrive with many recently improved features for a better cloud experience.
Monday, September 3, 2012
Baidu shows China pushing forward mobile, cloud, maps and apps
Many may consider China a copycat country. But some of its biggest tech players are taking western ideas and improving upon them. Baidu shows off its own steps forward in several product categories.
Saturday, August 18, 2012
The Best Websites for Backing Up and Sharing Your Data in the Cloud for Free
We’ve been told many times how important backups are, although we may not realize it until it’s too late and our data’s gone. You can backup your PC’s data to external media, but free online backup services provide useful redundancy that could save your data.
We’ve discussed cloud computing previously, or running a web or internet-based application from a major provider like Google or Microsoft, but the “cloud” could also be used to provide an offsite location for your data backups.
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
14 Things You Never Knew You Could Do On Dropbox
Dropbox is an excellent cloud storage service, despite it losing out to Google Drive in our recent fight.
That's in part because Dropbox allows developers to come up with their own apps and services for you to use.
That means Dropbox can be used as more than just a file storage system. You can use the service to back up and organize important files that may be scattered all over the web, stream music, or even host a website.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
What Is Google Drive?
Google has finally taken the lid off of the long-rumored Google Drive, giving you another option for stashing your stuff in the cloud. But what is it, exactly?
The Dropbox-dominated cloud storage space has become increasingly crowded. Microsoft's SkyDrive, Apple's iCloud, Evernote, and Box are all contending for your content. But Google Drive might just stand out from the pack.
Friday, April 13, 2012
Amazon's Cloud Can Handle 1 Million Transactions Per second
Amazon's cloud is so popular, it now routinely handles more than 500,000 transactions every second, and peaks above 1 million.
That's according to a letter to shareholders today from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. Bezos was talking about S3, the storage service used by many startups, including Instagram and BandCamp (which is mentioned in the letter).
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Adobe sends Creative Suite to the cloud
Adobe is gearing up to release Creative Cloud, their online edition of the Creative Suite. The Mountain View-based company claims it offers all of the benefits of their desktop applications, with the added ability to use anyof their CS software titles. Creative Cloud gives users the freedom to run any Adobe Master Collection application on a multitude of systems and store their work in the cloud. However, critics of the platform claim the cost outweighs the benefits of these Cloud features.Much like its desktop-based prototype, Adobe Creative Cloud enables users to explore, create, publish, and share work using Adobe’s proprietary set of desktop and mobile aps and services. According to Adobe, users can work on all aspects of their projects, from ideation to publishing.
Saturday, March 10, 2012
You Can Now Stream Many of Your DVDs From iTunes in the Cloud
In the wake of the new Apple TV announcement on Wednesday, some users discovered that you'll be able to stream movies from iTunes in the Cloud even if you didn't buy them from iTunes.
Thursday, December 8, 2011
IBM Shells Out $440 Million For Another Cloud Company
IBM is buying DemandTec, a marketing analytics company, for $440 million.
It's the third big cloud acquisition in the past two months.
SAP just acquired SuccessFactors for $3.4 billion and Oracle made a $1.5 billion bid for RightNow.
IBM is paying $13.20 per share, a 57 percent premium on its current price of $8.43 before market open.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Xbox Live update adds 40 entertainment apps, Kinect voice and motion controls, cloud storage, and more
Xbox Live will receive a major overhaul, starting tomorrow, December 6. The update includes a new Windows Phone Metro-like design, voice- and motion-control functionality and a slew of new entertainment apps.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
How To Store Your Files in The Cloud - And Why You'd Want To
So far in our series exploring cloud computing for consumers, we've looked at calendars and music. In the multi-device world we now live in, files from your computer are also increasingly being stored in the cloud.
Monday, November 21, 2011
What The Heck Is iCloud?
If you have ever wondered what iCloud is all about, have a look at this infographic.
Friday, November 4, 2011
What Is Cloud Computing?
Everyone is talking about cloud computing. Forrester projects that the total market for cloud computing will be $241 billion by 2020.
But what does cloud computing mean, exactly?
Cloud computing means computing can be used as a service rather than a product.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Friday, October 28, 2011
What Is Cloud Computing?
Everyone is talking about cloud computing. Forrester projects that the total market for cloud computing will be $241 billion by 2020.
But what does cloud computing mean, exactly?
Cloud computing means computing can be used as a service rather than a product.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Everything Apple Just Released
iOS 5 and iCloud are both out now, but that's only the beginning of all the ground Apple just covered. The deluge is more about extending Apple's platform as a whole, not just with a specific app or upgrade, and updates and new features abounded.
Here's the full rundown on everything that happened...