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Google Funds Campaign Against Child Porn Online
Google announced via blog post a new technology-driven initiative against child pornography. The company is launching a $2 million Child Protection Technology Fund "to encourage the development of ever more effective tools" to fight online child pornography.
Google announced via blog post a new technology-driven initiative against child pornography. The company is launching a $2 million Child Protection Technology Fund "to encourage the development of ever more effective tools" to fight online child pornography.
LATEST NEWS
Indian Printing and MFP Shipments Decreased 8.9 Percent in 1Q13: Gartner
According to Gartner, the total end user spending has remained almost the same, with only a marginalized fall of 1 percent from last year.
AMD Reboots Server Strategy with First ARM Chips
Advanced Micro Devices is building its future server strategy around chips used in smartphones and tablets. The company said its first ARM server processors -- which will be released in the second half of next year -- will be faster and more powerful than its existing low-power x86 server processors.
Open Data Center Alliance Tackles Big Data Analysis
The Open Data Center Alliance, a customer group that shares tips about cloud deployments and tries to nudge vendors into supplying the products they want, has added big data to the list of IT topics it covers.
Efficiency Will Hold Down Storage Growth: IDC
Lean storage techniques will keep a lid on storage investments over the next few years, though the world's enterprises still are on track to buy 138 exabytes of storage system capacity in 2017, IDC said.
Bing Voice Search Improves Accuracy, Speed
In 2012, Microsoft's Rick Rashid blew an Asian audience away with a live translation of his speech into Mandarin. On Monday, Bing added some of that technology to Bing Voice Search, to cut down the processing response time of voice input into Windows Phone by half, while improving accuracy at the same time.
.jpg "Bing Voice Search Improves Accuracy, Speed")
In 2012, Microsoft's Rick Rashid blew an Asian audience away with a live translation of his speech into Mandarin. On Monday, Bing added some of that technology to Bing Voice Search, to cut down the processing response time of voice input into Windows Phone by half, while improving accuracy at the same time.
LATEST NEWS
Indian Printing and MFP Shipments Decreased 8.9 Percent in 1Q13: Gartner
According to Gartner, the total end user spending has remained almost the same, with only a marginalized fall of 1 percent from last year.
AMD Reboots Server Strategy with First ARM Chips
Advanced Micro Devices is building its future server strategy around chips used in smartphones and tablets. The company said its first ARM server processors -- which will be released in the second half of next year -- will be faster and more powerful than its existing low-power x86 server processors.
Open Data Center Alliance Tackles Big Data Analysis
The Open Data Center Alliance, a customer group that shares tips about cloud deployments and tries to nudge vendors into supplying the products they want, has added big data to the list of IT topics it covers.
Efficiency Will Hold Down Storage Growth: IDC
Lean storage techniques will keep a lid on storage investments over the next few years, though the world's enterprises still are on track to buy 138 exabytes of storage system capacity in 2017, IDC said.
Google's Project Loon Spreads the Net with High-flying Balloons
You know what's awesome? The Internet. What's not so great: The utter pain it is to find a fast, reliable Internet connection in so many parts of the world. With its latest moonshot, Google[x] is fighting that headache with creativity.
You know what's awesome? The Internet. What's not so great: The utter pain it is to find a fast, reliable Internet connection in so many parts of the world. With its latest moonshot, Google[x] is fighting that headache with creativity, attempting to make an awesome thing, well, even more awesome by spreading the Internet to the furthest reaches of the earth.
The delivery method? High-flying, Internet-spewing balloons.
Yes, you read that right.
LATEST NEWS
Indian Printing and MFP Shipments Decreased 8.9 Percent in 1Q13: Gartner
According to Gartner, the total end user spending has remained almost the same, with only a marginalized fall of 1 percent from last year.
AMD Reboots Server Strategy with First ARM Chips
Advanced Micro Devices is building its future server strategy around chips used in smartphones and tablets. The company said its first ARM server processors -- which will be released in the second half of next year -- will be faster and more powerful than its existing low-power x86 server processors.
Open Data Center Alliance Tackles Big Data Analysis
The Open Data Center Alliance, a customer group that shares tips about cloud deployments and tries to nudge vendors into supplying the products they want, has added big data to the list of IT topics it covers.
Efficiency Will Hold Down Storage Growth: IDC
Lean storage techniques will keep a lid on storage investments over the next few years, though the world's enterprises still are on track to buy 138 exabytes of storage system capacity in 2017, IDC said.
Facebook Sets New Product Reveal for June 20
Facebook is gearing up for a product announcement on June 20, but isn't saying what it has planned.
Facebook is gearing up for a product announcement on June 20.
The social networking giant has begun sending out invitations to news media to check out a new product it's unveiling, if not launching, on Thursday, June 20, in its Menlo Park, Calif. offices. In an odd move, the company appears to be getting the invitations out by snail mail instead of email.
"A small team has been working on a new idea," the invitation reads. "Join us for coffee and learn about a new product."
LATEST NEWS
Indian Printing and MFP Shipments Decreased 8.9 Percent in 1Q13: Gartner
According to Gartner, the total end user spending has remained almost the same, with only a marginalized fall of 1 percent from last year.
AMD Reboots Server Strategy with First ARM Chips
Advanced Micro Devices is building its future server strategy around chips used in smartphones and tablets. The company said its first ARM server processors -- which will be released in the second half of next year -- will be faster and more powerful than its existing low-power x86 server processors.
Open Data Center Alliance Tackles Big Data Analysis
The Open Data Center Alliance, a customer group that shares tips about cloud deployments and tries to nudge vendors into supplying the products they want, has added big data to the list of IT topics it covers.
Efficiency Will Hold Down Storage Growth: IDC
Lean storage techniques will keep a lid on storage investments over the next few years, though the world's enterprises still are on track to buy 138 exabytes of storage system capacity in 2017, IDC said.
Digital Surveillance Programs in Other Countries Trigger Controversy, Including India
Last week's disclosure of massive data collection efforts at the U.S. National Security Agency has generated heated debate in the U.S. and across the world about privacy.
Last week's disclosure of massive data collection efforts at the U.S. National Security Agency has generated heated debate in the U.S. and across the world about privacy. The NSA is collecting metadata on U.S. residents' phone calls made on Verizon's network and Internet records from nine Web companies, including Facebook, Google and Microsoft, according to reports in the Guardian and The Washington Post newspapers.
LATEST NEWS
Indian Printing and MFP Shipments Decreased 8.9 Percent in 1Q13: Gartner
According to Gartner, the total end user spending has remained almost the same, with only a marginalized fall of 1 percent from last year.
AMD Reboots Server Strategy with First ARM Chips
Advanced Micro Devices is building its future server strategy around chips used in smartphones and tablets. The company said its first ARM server processors -- which will be released in the second half of next year -- will be faster and more powerful than its existing low-power x86 server processors.
Open Data Center Alliance Tackles Big Data Analysis
The Open Data Center Alliance, a customer group that shares tips about cloud deployments and tries to nudge vendors into supplying the products they want, has added big data to the list of IT topics it covers.
Efficiency Will Hold Down Storage Growth: IDC
Lean storage techniques will keep a lid on storage investments over the next few years, though the world's enterprises still are on track to buy 138 exabytes of storage system capacity in 2017, IDC said.
Magnasoft Northstar: The Cloud Was a Natural Fit for Us
Now with the Amazon Web Services (AWS), our roll-outs are 60 percent faster--down from three days to one day per release.Kunal Ashar Head of Product Development Division , Magnasoft Northstar
The Head of Product Development Division, Magnasoft Northstar, Kunal Ashar spoke to us how the cloud has helped his company to grow and be more competitive in the market. He also sheds light on and how Northstar's tracking solution is ushering a new age of safety for children travelling on school buses and peace of mind for their guardians.
Could you talk a bit about your company and what triggered your move to the cloud?
We are the provider of a comprehensive, integrated child and school bus tracking and monitoring solution that ensures children's safety and security when they travel to and from school. To this effect it was important for MagnaSoft NorthStar to be able to quickly and efficiently launch our solution into the market with minimal capital investment, low running cost, low risk and high reliability and scalability.
The cloud was a natural fit for us. During our beta phase, we hosted and managed dedicated hardware. However, our on-premise infrastructure proved to be a challenge to grow and maintain it as it had limited reliability, scalability and agility and increasing capital requirements. Moving to the cloud enabled us to overcome these challenges in a cost effective and efficient manner. In addition, with the existing instance models, the cloud enables us to compete with the other players in the market. With the cloud, we are able to free up human resources so that we can now focus on advancing the core business of monitoring child safety, providing better quality of service and agility to our customers at lower prices.
Apart from flexibility, scalability and cost, what other benefits have the cloud enabled for Magnasoft NorthStar?
We're saving 40 percent of our costs as opposed to renting or purchasing dedicated hardware and hosting it ourselves (like we did in its beta phase). Now with the Amazon Web Services (AWS), our roll-outs are 60 percent faster (down from three days to one day per release).
Our product is built using Agile software development practices, and therefore it is imperative that the cloud solution provider supports an iterative and incremental development and release model, with a rapid and flexible response to change. AWS provided us with such an environment which has allowed us to prototype and deploy new features rapidly and efficiently, and quickly validate them in the market.
When you initially decided to move to a cloud infrastructure, did you factor in the cost of migrating to another cloud platform - from the current provider, Amazon Web Services, especially when considering factors such as vendor lock-ins in the future?
Yes. Initially when we decided to move to cloud infrastructure, we considered all the options available to us from a cloud vendor perspective. We looked at Google, RackSpace and Azure and even conducted in-depth trials with them. In addition to this, we also spoke to cloud providers about HP, eNLight and Netmagic.
There were three key deciding factors - which AWS won on all counts: (1) Pricing – it offers the lowest cost (2) Support – it's team has been most helpful (3) Reliability – It gave us a proven platform of reliability that we can build and grow our business.
NorthStar is built using Free and Open Source Software technologies, and AWS is an ideal choice because it provides a flexible platform that supports any operating system, programming language and programming model. There is no long term contract and no upfront commitment from us.
98 percent of our product runs on the AWS cloud, with the exception of the SMS sending system, which is routed through the TRAI servers. The GPS server, database, messaging system, business rules engine, applications server, reporting engine, web server and notification engine all run on the AWS cloud platform.
How has it helped with storage?
NorthStar receives hundreds of kilobytes of data every second from tracking units across the country. Data such as location, speed, traffic patterns, driving habits, video, audio, fuel levels, etc., need to be stored permanently, and continuously analyzed to detect and report school bus and child safety issues.
We use Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) extensively. EBS provides a highly available, highly reliable, predictable storage that is vital for such a mission critical service such as child safety. It gives us the ability to create point-in-time snapshots of our data for rapid restores if needed, and automated, periodic database monitoring reports that allow us to monitor the health of our database and take proactive, preventive action to minimize downtimes.
Could you give us some quantify some of the other benefits you have reaped ?
Today, our roll-outs are 60 percent faster (down from three days to one day per release). We add over 50GB of new data every week, and Amazon EBS has saved us 70 percent in new RAID hardware.
What would you say is NorthStar's main USP?
NorthStar’s solution tracks school buses, vans and other vehicles used to transport students, to ensure their safety and security. It notifies parents of their child’s impending arrival at pick up and drop off stops; it enables parents to monitor for instances of unsafe driving; and it helps schools reduce transportation costs by optimizing bus routes.
Our in-house manned control room or Command Center receives a constant stream of data and alerts from the AWS Cloud. The operators of the command center then are able to analyze the data and alerts, and provide immediate feedback to the schools, parents and bus drivers.
Our key differentiator and an important aspect of our solution is the ability to consistently provide real time updates to parents, with minimal or zero downtime. Since moving to the AWS Cloud, we have been able to increase our ability to provide these updates from 85 percent (previously on-premise hosting) to 100 percent. This is a selling point for us - we claim (and provide) 99.9 percent uptime because of AWS, which none of our competitors are able to provide.
We treat the school bus and children’s safety as a mission-critical service, and so we ensure that our SMS messages/alerts to parents, schools and police (in cases of accidents) are guaranteed to be delivered in six seconds.
LATEST INTERVIEWS
SAP Wins Key Ruling in Long-Running Patent Battle with Versata
SAP has received a ruling that sets a legal landmark in patent law and could also prove favorable to its defense in a long-running intellectual-property dispute with Versata.
SAP has received a ruling that sets a legal landmark in patent law and could also prove favorable to its defense in a long-running intellectual-property dispute with Versata.
LATEST NEWS
Indian Printing and MFP Shipments Decreased 8.9 Percent in 1Q13: Gartner
According to Gartner, the total end user spending has remained almost the same, with only a marginalized fall of 1 percent from last year.
AMD Reboots Server Strategy with First ARM Chips
Advanced Micro Devices is building its future server strategy around chips used in smartphones and tablets. The company said its first ARM server processors -- which will be released in the second half of next year -- will be faster and more powerful than its existing low-power x86 server processors.
Open Data Center Alliance Tackles Big Data Analysis
The Open Data Center Alliance, a customer group that shares tips about cloud deployments and tries to nudge vendors into supplying the products they want, has added big data to the list of IT topics it covers.
Efficiency Will Hold Down Storage Growth: IDC
Lean storage techniques will keep a lid on storage investments over the next few years, though the world's enterprises still are on track to buy 138 exabytes of storage system capacity in 2017, IDC said.
What a #Copycat: Facebook Apes Twitter with Hashtags
Hashtags, the popular tool used on Twitter and in an array of other social sites to surface content around specific topics #likeso, are coming to Facebook.
Hashtags, the popular tool used on Twitter and in an array of other social sites to surface content around specific topics #likeso, are coming to Facebook.
LATEST NEWS
Indian Printing and MFP Shipments Decreased 8.9 Percent in 1Q13: Gartner
According to Gartner, the total end user spending has remained almost the same, with only a marginalized fall of 1 percent from last year.
AMD Reboots Server Strategy with First ARM Chips
Advanced Micro Devices is building its future server strategy around chips used in smartphones and tablets. The company said its first ARM server processors -- which will be released in the second half of next year -- will be faster and more powerful than its existing low-power x86 server processors.
Open Data Center Alliance Tackles Big Data Analysis
The Open Data Center Alliance, a customer group that shares tips about cloud deployments and tries to nudge vendors into supplying the products they want, has added big data to the list of IT topics it covers.
Efficiency Will Hold Down Storage Growth: IDC
Lean storage techniques will keep a lid on storage investments over the next few years, though the world's enterprises still are on track to buy 138 exabytes of storage system capacity in 2017, IDC said.
Facebook Finally Adds Hashtags #holla
The social network said hashtags will now be clickable and searchable, like they are on Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and, well, basically every other social network.
Your nonsensical hashtagged status updates on Facebook will now, at last, have some meaning. The social network on Wednesday said hashtags will now be clickable and searchable, like they are on Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and, well, basically every other social network.
LATEST NEWS
Indian Printing and MFP Shipments Decreased 8.9 Percent in 1Q13: Gartner
According to Gartner, the total end user spending has remained almost the same, with only a marginalized fall of 1 percent from last year.
AMD Reboots Server Strategy with First ARM Chips
Advanced Micro Devices is building its future server strategy around chips used in smartphones and tablets. The company said its first ARM server processors -- which will be released in the second half of next year -- will be faster and more powerful than its existing low-power x86 server processors.
Open Data Center Alliance Tackles Big Data Analysis
The Open Data Center Alliance, a customer group that shares tips about cloud deployments and tries to nudge vendors into supplying the products they want, has added big data to the list of IT topics it covers.
Efficiency Will Hold Down Storage Growth: IDC
Lean storage techniques will keep a lid on storage investments over the next few years, though the world's enterprises still are on track to buy 138 exabytes of storage system capacity in 2017, IDC said.
No Internet Access? Microsoft Advises You to Skip Xbox One, Stay with Aging Xbox 360
Microsoft came out in full damage control mode to try and explain to consumers why its more-expensive, less-consumer-friendly console is indeed the better choice.
With the thunderous applause that came after Sony's E3 press conference ended still ringing in its bleeding ears, Microsoft came out in full damage control mode to try and explain to consumers why its more-expensive, less-consumer-friendly console is indeed the better choice.
And failed.
Unfortunately, Microsoft's Don Mattrick and Co. seem to be gluttons for punishment when it comes to this Xbox One business.
LATEST NEWS
Indian Printing and MFP Shipments Decreased 8.9 Percent in 1Q13: Gartner
According to Gartner, the total end user spending has remained almost the same, with only a marginalized fall of 1 percent from last year.
AMD Reboots Server Strategy with First ARM Chips
Advanced Micro Devices is building its future server strategy around chips used in smartphones and tablets. The company said its first ARM server processors -- which will be released in the second half of next year -- will be faster and more powerful than its existing low-power x86 server processors.
Open Data Center Alliance Tackles Big Data Analysis
The Open Data Center Alliance, a customer group that shares tips about cloud deployments and tries to nudge vendors into supplying the products they want, has added big data to the list of IT topics it covers.
Efficiency Will Hold Down Storage Growth: IDC
Lean storage techniques will keep a lid on storage investments over the next few years, though the world's enterprises still are on track to buy 138 exabytes of storage system capacity in 2017, IDC said.
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