I have a confession: I’ve never properly backed up my computer. Ever. Whether it was a cloud-based solution or a local NAS, the upload speeds were horrendous or the software was just plain ugly and confusing to use. But a couple of former Mozy employees have convinced me otherwise. Say hello to Space Monkey. More »
We’re used to external hard drive makers offering some kind of backup software to add value, although it’s usually forgettable for the experienced users among us — what we erase while we’re busy setting up Windows 8 File History, Time Machine or a cloud service. Western Digital thinks some cloud integration of its own will get us looking at its new, standalone WD SmartWare Pro app. While the client can automatically back up file changes to a local drive as they happen, it can also schedule backups to both the drive and a Dropbox account. The extra-cautious can backup that Dropbox account to the external disk, and the whole affair isn’t limited to the company’s MyBook drives, either; just about any old USB storage will do. It will cost a minimum of $30 ($20 on sale) for a three-computer SmartWare Pro license, but those who want both physical and cloud-based safety nets might consider the money well-spent.
Filed under: Storage, Internet
Source: Western Digital
In the highly competitive arena of cloud services, software giant Microsoft has slashed prices for both hosting and processing customers’ online data, and this move can be seen to be an aggressive challenge to Amazon.com Inc’s current lead in the expanding business of ‘cloud’ computing. In fact, Microsoft was so bold as to say that they will match Amazon’s prices in order to pick up more than just a slice of the growing market, including the more common online data services.
This has been seen by some to be the most aggressive move in the market arena done by Microsoft to date, where they do seem to keep their fingers crossed that its Windows Azure business is capable of winning the hearts and minds of customers from Amazon Web Services (AWS), where AWS actually paved the way in renting out technology resources including computing power and storage. AWS has been projected to generate approximately $20 billion before 2020, and it would be interesting to see how Microsoft’s latest move will upset the apple cart – if ever.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Titan Supercomputer Has World’s Fastest Storage System, Google Autocomplete Results Censored By Tokyo Court, 
     |
As often as Dropbox has been courting serious cloud storage users with Dropbox for Teams, it doesn’t feel that the name reflects the company’s loftier ambitions — so it’s giving the service a rebranding. Now called Dropbox for Business, it’s pitched more directly at the suit-and-tie set. There’s more than just talk involved in the new strategy, though. The shift also sees Dropbox build in identity management from five providers so that Dropbox users don’t have to sign into the service if they’re already logged in elsewhere: they can hop on to the corporate Active Directory service, for example and have Dropbox ready for action soon after. We doubt that the new moves by themselves will sway IT managers, but they may help would-be users who’ve been on the fence.
Filed under: Storage, Internet
Via: TechCrunch
Source: Dropbox (1), (2)
Following the trend of everything accentuating its connection to the “cloud,” Boxee has rebranded its new box as the Boxee Cloud DVR. GigaOm reports the company made the shift to emphasize its DVR features as a differentiator from other $99 set-tops like those offered by Roku and Apple. Other than the name change and a website redesign, one other new tack is a free “Basic” service package. Buyers still get the “All-access” $10 service tier free for a month upfront on a trial basis, which has unlimited storage and playback across different devices. Once that runs out however, they can opt for basic service where cloud-stored DVR recordings are limited to 5 hours of monthly playback on the box itself and expire after 90 days. While the DVR service’s availability is still limited to eight markets, the plan is to expand to 26 by the end of this year. Once it rolls out to more areas and the DVR features come out of beta, we’ll see if buyers are ready to give this second attempt at blending online and OTA video a shot.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
Via: GigaOm
Source: Boxee.tv
HP is looking to make a splash in the enterprise industry again with the announcement of the company’s new line of Moonshot servers running Intel Atom chips. These new servers are a part of a multi-year plan by HP to cut down on space and power needs when it comes to big data storage. The company says that these new Moonshot servers will help with that initiative.
The company mentioned last week that they would be announcing the next generation in Moonshot hardware, and as expected, they’re starting out the week on a high note with the new line of servers. HP mentions that with the growing needs of internet users, cloud data storage will grow exponentially, to the point where larger and larger facilities will have to be built in order to meet the demand of storage needs.
However, HP says that Moonshot will dissolve the need for bigger and bigger data centers, saying that the new Moonshot servers can take up 80% less space, as well as use up to 89% less energy and be 77% less costly than traditional servers. HP even went as far as saying that the new Moonshot systems are comparable to the move from Unix to x86 servers, as well as the innovation of blade servers.
The new Moonshot systems are available today in the US and Canada, while availability in Europe, Asia, and Latin America will start next month. Pricing begins at a whopping $61,875 for the enclosure, 45 HP ProLiant Moonshot servers, and an integrated switch, but clients will be able to customize their setup to fit their own needs.
HP launches Moonshot cloud server system is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Google Drive and iPhone users rejoice. Google just updated their Google Drive app for the iPhone, and it comes with one new feature that completely changes how you edit documents on your smartphone. The updated app now includes landscape mode for both document editing and spreadsheet editing, making it easier and quicker to type out those reports on the go.
Google also promises that loading times and editing are much quicker on this release, although we didn’t seem to notice a huge difference in that respect — you’re mileage may vary as far as that’s concerned. It still took a couple of seconds for documents to load, and creating a new document took even longer.
The Mountain View-based company also included the usual consortium of bug fixes in this release, which will hopefully fix any quirks that you might have been having with the app recently. Other than that, you can expect the same experience on the app. It’s certainly not a huge update, but the added bonus of landscape mode is a Godsend if you ask us.
Google has been keeping a good eye on its line of iOS apps and is even updating them in a timely fashion. While the app didn’t support editing when it first launched on Apple’s platform, the company eventually added editing support later on, with spreadsheet editing being tacked on back in November. Google has yet to add more capabilities like this, but could be a matter of time before they do.
Google Drive for iPhone updates with landscape mode and better performance is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Today, Fujitsu announced that it has finalized an agreement to acquire all shares of French cloud service provider RunMyProcess (RMP).
With this acquisition, Fujitsu will add integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) to its cloud offerings to bolster its cloud portfolio as it expands its global cloud business.
The cloud service offered by RunMyProcess is already used in over 300 active projects in 45 countries and partnerships with 53 cloud integrators in 25 countries. It has also been recognized as a “Cool Vender” by Gartner. The company was founded in 2007.
Fujitsu has also announced plans to establish the “Global Software Center” in Silicon Valley in the U.S. which will become a base for their cloud business, and they will aim to expand their cloud business, including the RunMyProcess service, globally.
The monetary amount of the deal was not disclosed.
Dropbox is one of the most popular cloud storage services on the internet today, and in an effort to bolster its email capabilities, Yahoo has included Dropbox integration with Yahoo Mail, making management of your various email attachments much easier and quicker than before, allowing you save and retrieve attachments from the cloud.
The Dropbox integration only supports English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish, but you’ll be able to access your Dropbox folder from right inside your Yahoo Mail inbox. You can save attachments in email messages directly to your Dropbox, or include attachments into outgoing email using files from your Dropbox.
Current Dropbox and Yahoo Mail users can take advantage of the integration right this second, and if you don’t have a Dropbox account, you’ll be able to create one right from Yahoo Mail. What’s perhaps one of the more notable features to come from this integration is that you don’t have to worry about the 25MB attachment limit in Yahoo Mail, since all the files are stored in the cloud in your Dropbox.
This is very similar to how Google’s Gmail integrates with Google Drive. Users can quickly and easily attach files that are located in Google Drive and send them along in an email without having to worry about searching around for the files you need in the regular file explorer on your desktop.
Yahoo Mail brings Dropbox integration for easier attachments is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
A company that used to be the darling and poster boy of tech, Yahoo!, might not be of the same size as well as having a similar level of clout as with the past, but is still large enough of an entity to create headlines when required. From what we do know, Yahoo! Mail have worked with Dropbox in order to make life a whole lot easier for road warriors. This new Yahoo! partnership with Dropbox is said to make life easier whenever you want to send, receive and manage attachments in Yahoo! Mail to your mates.
So high is the interest on this particular partnership between Dropbox and Yahoo! Mail, that it would be folly to play Judas. This apparent integration on the cloud is tipped to let you share additional files in more or less a dummy-proof setup, and since these files are safely stashed away in your Dropbox account that will remain online round the clock, barring a terrible natural disaster that spells the end of all land lines in the country. You can pick up the app in English, French, Spanish, German and Italian, now how about that for a warm welcome after a long day out at the office?
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Windows Blue To Become Windows 8.1 [Rumor], Report: Windows 8 Market Share Now at 3.17%, 
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
