![[Some of] what you need to know about the cloud for 2013 [Some of] what you need to know about the cloud for 2013](https://149351417.v2.pressablecdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/342289398_ddfd22d1a5_z-290x290.jpg)
[Some of] what you need to know about the cloud for 2013
Towards the end of last year, David Linthicum and I joined GigaOM’s Adam Lesser on a skype chat to take a look back at cloud successes and failures in 2012, and forward to cloud opportunities in 2013. GigaOM released the conversation as a podcast this morning. Amazon, Rackspace, Google, OpenStack, DropBox, and more get a...

Big Data as Core, Big Data as Context, and Big Data as Buzzword Bingo
It’s neither particularly newsworthy nor insightful to suggest that ‘Big Data’ gets everywhere these days, but two recent items reminded me of the gulf between credible execution of a big data play and the more questionable tacking of the big data meme onto an otherwise useful product. Christmas is coming. Which means skating, and pantomimes...

Hewlett Packard: a tale of many clouds
Hewlett Packard used its Discover event in Frankfurt last week to reassert the company’s cloud credentials. Public, private, hybrid; HP is painting pictures that encompass them all, whilst seeking to protect hardware revenues and reassure conservative executives at some of its largest and most profitable customers. But HP has been here before, making bold claims...

‘Autonomy Inside’ matters at Hewlett Packard
The Hewlett Packard marketing machine was busy last week, assuring the world that the company’s £7.1bn ($11.7bn) acquisition of Autonomy still made sense despite an eye-watering financial write down and unseemly public squabbling with the Cambridge company’s former management. HP CEO Meg Whitman used her keynote at HP Discover in Frankfurt to assert that the...

Dropbox, Google Drive, Apple iCloud, Microsoft SkyDrive; maybe they’re not apples after all?
Cloud storage product Dropbox is one of those tools that users tend to rave about. It’s deceptively simple. It’s pretty reliable. The value proposition is immediately apparent. It has paid tiers of usage that bring additional storage but (like other freemium beacons such as Evernote) the free offering is rich enough to be compelling, engaging,...

My GigaOM week – report published, fireside chat videos, and more
It’s been a pretty GigaOM-focussed week. To begin the week, my GigaOM Pro report on Europe’s Helix Nebula cloud project was published. Then Tuesday and Wednesday were dominated by activities in and around GigaOM’s first conference on this side of the Atlantic; Structure Europe, held in Amsterdam. I moderated two sessions on the main stage...

My GigaOM Pro report on metered computing
I’ve just had another report published on GigaOM Pro. This one, Metered IT: the path to utility computing, is about the importance of defining common ways of describing and measuring computing resources. Until you can do that, it isn’t really feasible to compare the true cost of running jobs on different IT infrastructures. The piece was underwritten...

A guest post on VentureBeat
As part of the work I’m doing to help assemble the programme for this year’s CloudBeat conference (you should come, you’ll love it), I had a guest post published on VentureBeat earlier today. The big vendor extravaganzas – the Dreamforces and OpenWorlds and I/Os of the world – wrap attendees in a warm and fuzzy blanket of...

When did Amazon abandon Main Street for ‘the Skyscrapers of Cloud Hosting’ ?
In the competitive world of cloud-based computing infrastructure, Amazon remains top dog. It’s highly visible, its footprint is almost global, it incrementally adds features or cuts prices to keep competitors on their toes, and it generally manages to meet most people’s needs, most of the time. It may not always offer the lowest prices, or...

CloudBeat is back – and the call for papers is open
Ben Kepes and I had a load of fun last year, helping the team at VentureBeat put on their inaugural cloud computing event, CloudBeat. Clearly we did something right whilst having fun, as they’ve invited us back to reprise our content advising/ programme shaping role again this year. Right at the end of November, we’ll...

The Americans are Coming
This October, two great US events are making their first forays into Europe. O’Reilly‘s big data conference, Strata, reaches London on 1-2 October. Then GigaOM‘s cloud computing event, Structure, hits Amsterdam on 16-17 October. I’ve attended both in the States (see disclaimer), and look forward to seeing how each sets about fusing the best elements...

Crunching the numbers in search of a greener cloud
Although sometimes portrayed as a big computer in the sky, the reality of cloud computing is far more mundane. Clouds run on physical hardware, located in data centres, connected to one another and to their customers via high speed networks. All of that hardware must be powered and cooled, and all of those offices must...