LinuxCon: all about the cloud

Nearly every major at LinuxCon, and of course each private conversation I had with the people here are engaged in some kind of "cloud". How Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst said in his keynote, no single definition of "cloud" exists. There is no doubt that Amazon really pioneer default cloud offering, but there are a lot of work going on to build a better, more reliable and more open solutions cloud.

Red Hat has the OpenShift, their platform as a service and CloudForms, their infrastructure as a service offering. Long term, according to Whitehurst is that programmers the company will start to build something on OpenShift and not worry about any of the underlying infrastructure. If the product is ready to be deployed inside the country, it will go to the CloudForms client installation inside the company firewall. In principle, developers will select the platform and you can own and manage the operations of this platform.

Canonical pushes ensemble, their "service orchestration solution. Instead of thinking about applications, Canonical wants to see people start to think about services. Instead of deploying the Web server application that talks to a database application for reporting and to receive input from visitors to the Internet, instead of thinking about the "blog tools" that can be deployed through a series of recipes. According to the Canonical Allison Randal Canonical feels that Amazon AWS sets a high standard and Amazon API must be accepted by everyone. This allows users of cloud services have some modicum of portability: if my ISP cloud connectors to their prices, I should be able to smoothly move to a different provider or cloud-my own private cloud — because the fundamental mechanisms for interacting with him (published API) must be the same between the suppliers.

When Randall told me this, I was initially skeptical. If your ISP cloud connectors to their prices, it is a business task. This is not specific to the cloud or the technology sector as a whole. There is real value in the ability to switch from one cloud provider to another or make the decision public cloud House? Then I listened to Marten Mickos keynote. Mickos, the former CEO of MySQL AB, now in eucalyptus systems, innovative solutions to the private cloud. His principal stopped for a couple of very interesting things.

Firstly he briefly cleared up confusion around public and private clouds and how you can use both. Turn on the phone. Telephone infrastructure has been around for about a hundred years, and nearly every company still performs its own internal PBX system. This is a pretty solid lines of clouds.

But the most interesting thing that raised Mickos the importance of the principles of free software in relation to the decisions of the cloud. With the old paradigm of Linux distributions four freedoms provided by the GPL was crucial to ensure the long-term success of the platform, because it explicitly allows derivative works. Moving to the cloud, however, we look at the image, not distributions, and the whole notion of the derivative work is fuzzy at best. How are the four freedoms applied to situations, cloud GPL?

Suddenly a lot more sense Randall in the commentary. So, too, whether OpenStack, is the result of cooperation between RackSpace and NASA establish a framework of common, open cloud.

Mickos has its major repeating that Linux has gone from the destructive forces of innovation. Its concluding comments, the very nicely in line with Whitehurst keynote: Linux is now the default selection for the deployment of new technologies and is the basis on which to build the best future technological advances. Whitehurst and Mickos said that the transition that we are now seeing in the cloud, at least as fundamentally radical as the transition from MAINFRAME to client server.

As innovation continues over Linux in the cloud, Mickos offering some very insightful tips: we must strive to ensure that no one, which we opened closes.

Photo credit: clouds, karindalziel, on Flickr.

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iFixIt launches Dozuki, cloud service docs

Biggs is the editor of TechCrunch gadgets. Biggs wrote for the New York Times, InSync, United States at the weekend, popular mechanics, popular science, money, and a number of other outlets for technology and watches. He is the former editor-in-Chief of Gizmodo.com and lived in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. You can Tweet it here and G + it here. ? Read More

iFixIt, known for their Apple update manuals and supplies, branching out into cloud services for hardware, devices, and chemical industry. A new project called Dozuki is currently in beta and it is designed to streamline the process of technical documentation, creating a Wiki similar conditions for the documentation and instructions.

Company testing their software to make magazine for the past year, and they point to Autodesk's acquisition of Instructables as an example of how the environment is ripe for the violation. "I think, buy AutoDesk Instructables shows that big money is in this space," said Kyle Wiens, CEO of iFixIt's.

"Industry has a huge technical documentation and software that is out there now is very old," he said. Dozuki is used to create simple instructions for the clients of the company's expansion plan and iFixIt as Ryobi and Home Depot. For example, a client can create a guide like this one fix RROD Xbox using cloud-based server that supports multiple editors. The whole team can talk about each part of the device separately – think "hints" for major hardware elements for woodworking and metalworking, for example – and offer useful tips for customers in the shop or after purchase.

"You have a lot of Service manuals for your tools, but they are in old PDF," Wiens said. "You could put them on the Internet and use them as the beginning of the Internet community, and perhaps your tool guide are just the start — encourage your customers to share how to do things with your tools."

"So they've got this useful information on how to learn plumbing and they sell all the parts, but they have not made it easy for people to connect the two. We would give them online as site and mobile applications to consumers and to the point of sale. "

"It's a great lesson that we learned from iFixit. People may not use our products if we do not teach them how. "

The site is now in beta and will launch this fall. You can sign up for a beta account and service will cost about $ 100 for small business clients and $ 499 for large organizations. You can see the prices here. "The going rate for social content software for large companies it is a little north of $ 100 k/year", said Kyle.

"The opportunity is huge," he said. "I'm not one to lavish estimates because I don't want to split the VCs, but we're going to make millions." I hope he can make a how-to, when it is done for the rest of us.

BTW this Dozuki. Is a Japanese saw, used for very precise cuts.

Product page

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EZOfficeInventory SMB allows you to easily track and manage the assets of the company (the cloud)

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Office list control systems: not exactly the world's sexiest software to be sure. Nevertheless, without inventory and asset management systems, many businesses likely will work similar pace DMV. Currently, small and medium-sized businesses have no shortage of funds to choose from when selecting a software system for tracking asset management and inventory; However, most of these settings requires working tirelessly with Excel or using a desktop product like TurboSystems data or, in the village of FoxFales, to name a few. If the company has more than a few dozen staff, however, Excel, and desktop solutions can be a pain in the ass.

Ali Sayeed, a former employee of Sun Microsystems (before the company was acquired by Oracle) and his team and software geeks, said that they were tired of having to deal with repeated instances of inventory of obsolete and mismanagement in the modern tracking solutions. Saeed said that he and his team collectively has worked with many different companies that, for example, actually keep property lists, but specific information related to who has what (as track records check outs) are often completely missing or worse deprecated — not to speak of the fact that the wrong assets often are assigned the wrong employee even may not work in the company anymore.

As you can imagine, very numerous. To help solve these problems, Syed and his team today are EZOfficeInventory, SaaS-based solution that untraditionally asset management approaches through the delegation model, in which responsibility is shared by the inventory, reducing the load on administrators.

The solution allows the assets of the joint bureaux will be tracked easily through check-in and check-out mechanism for staff members, as well as the activities of news to administrators, allowing them to review and take responsibility only when necessary. Employees can also find free tools that they need to carry out its work and can instantly access the guides and drivers.

Since the EZOfficeInventory live in the cloud solution uses QRCodes as asset tags so that asset with a unique URL in QRCode, employees can quickly provides links to information on capital assets and determine the rightful owner, if something is lost. And employees can do this with a quick scan of the iPhone or Android device with QRCode reader and Web client.

The decision also works to minimize efforts during inspections, as administrators can request photos of an asset or other custom workflows from employees by using a few mouse clicks. EZOffice also allows administrators to view reports, track the checkouts and checkins, total cost of ownership and even serve the story on their assets.

Companies can also change the security settings in their decision that it was compatible with existing business processes and add additional privacy features when needed.

Some readers may find the following images news like Basecamp (a well-known product released by 37Signals, the same company is home to David Heinemeier Hansson, the guy who created the Ruby on Rails). EZOfficeInventory is also implemented in Ruby on Rails, as Saeed said that he is an avid fan "in the Web development platform.

EZOfficeInventory offers a free trial of the two months of its cloud app with packages for more than two users, starting at $ 29 per month.

Asset management system is still in very early stage (seed and start-up) at the moment and there is work to be done on Web design and user interface (and name), but the software itself attacked a major pain for many small and medium-sized enterprises.

At the time of deposit of the responsibility for the management of the assets in the hands of staff (along with, of course, the system of checks and balances) may well be to increase the efficiency and confidence among these employees, it is risky. But Saeed said it was "part of the fun of mergers with Web development and the process of using Web technologies to target the problem of the enterprise. This shot of the status quo, and the Director-General believes that this shot is worth taking, despite the risk.

More on EZOfficeInventory click here.

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We are ready to really cloud?

MG Siegler wrote to TechCrunch since 2009. It covers web, mobile, social, big companies, small companies, in fact all. And Apple. A lot. Prior to TechCrunch he covered various technology beats for VentureBeat. Originally from Ohio, mg attended the University of Michigan. He had previously lived in Los Angeles, where he worked in Hollywood and in San Diego where ... ? Read More

As we approach the fall, all Apple Rumors Empire descend upon us. And this year might be the craziest yet because for the first time since the establishment of the iPhone, Apple does not release the new equipment in the summer. And there are even whispers of iPad rebuild. iOS 5 is coming. iCloud is coming. And then there's the iPods that have traditionally been updated in the fall of dates each year. Things are already quite crazy that potential Apple announcements dates topping Techmeme one minute and then stories debunking these dates were the top story in tech the following minute.

This will only get worse.

But there's a reason why people write these rumors. Because people read these rumors. And the reason they do this because sometimes these rumors are true. And more often than this, they at least somewhat correct. This hope keeps the imagination of people running wild. Now it's time for me to imagine it.

One rumor that caught my eye this week was talking Apple, looking to the release of the "iCloud phone along with the new iPhone 5 this fall. Actually this is not a new hearing, as this reuse one. If you have heard speak of the "4S iPhone» this is the same potential device. This is the cheapest iPhone, TechCrunch and others have written about in the past. In view of smoke there, it seems that there is something to this rumor. Even Apple executives have hinted at the possibility.

But iCloud angle is particularly interesting. This does not mean that it is entirely accurate necessarily, just wondering. For the first time tells Apple n Apps, Trevor Sheridan writes:

It has come to our attention that Apple is planning to merge the iOS 5 and iCloud part equipment, internally called the iCloud iPhone. ICloud iPhone will build heavily on Apple's new cloud-based offering and less on internal memory.

He continues:

Apple seeks to iCloud iPhone compared to the typical price of $ 600 iPhone iPhone 5, which will cost the final price of $ 400. Carrier subsidies would cost for consumers to free with 2 year contract to iCloud iPhone with equal cost $ 199 iPhone iPhone 5.

He quoted three independent sources of information and notes that changes iPhone 4 design can be used for such a device.

Reduction of internal memory iPhone definitely is one of the ways Apple could reduce the overall cost of the device. In addition, Apple has spent the past year and a half while improving manufacturing iPhone 4, so you can be sure, in this regard have come down. On the face of, it makes some sense.

But the larger question remains, if the world is ready for smartphones, cloud-based? And there are on the side of the question: what if this phone cloud is a device for data?

The first question with Apple, rolling iCloud this fall, the timing may be right. Apple does not include things like music streaming from clouds, but they easily could. They recently did this update Apple TV for television shows. If you have always connected device, this concept might work. Storage will be needed for applications and perhaps a little for offline use, but in General, maybe Apple can get away with a device with several gigabytes or so from on-board storage.

The second issue is different. After we reported on Apple's work for cheaper iPhone, yes some people wondering if the iPod touch can simply morph into this product? In other words, Apple can update iPod touch with iPhone 4 body, including 3 G radio.

If Apple's thinking for this product, this can be a great opportunity to create a phone that does not give a traditional telephone service. As it is only for the data.

Now carriers will probably have a hard time with this concept. But if Apple sold it as more of an iPod touch with 3 G capabilities, they can bite. Carriers are currently making money not on iPod touch, which is a very popular product. It remains the only WiFi. If they offered data plan $ 29 per month, or distribution, it can be really convincing a new source of income.

And for consumers, Apple could advertise it as a "lite" phone. He can do everything except the iPhone can make phone calls. Indeed, thanks to apps like Skype, FaceTime, etc., he can do it too — maybe they just don't play as much in the first place.

Without the full $ 60 or $ 70 per month plans for cellular minutes and data carriers may not subsidize the cost of such a device to $ 0. But they could get close, if Apple was able to make the device cheap enough. Low-end iPod touch now $ 229. But then again, the contracts are one more headache for consumers, so maybe Apple would be more in favour of selling the device cheap without contract and allowing consumers to pay for 3 G on the move, as they do with 3 G iPads.

The concept only for phone data has been around for awhile. In November 2009 we reported that Google is considering may offer their own Android devices that will be available only for the data. This does not happen, obviously. Instead, Google has not only fully hopped in bed with carriers for device interconnection, they got very close to maximum snuggling and renounced their broader Android dreams.

Apple uses that path this year, it's pretty obvious that this is the future. In the end, carriers will exist as data dealers. All information including voice calls will occur through this channel. Cellular phone service will simply be an optional add-on if you are in an area with bad data connection. Apple may start this movement in the coming months. Or they may not. But someone else will.

[image: Jesse flickr Kruger]

Started by Steve jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne, Apple has expanded from computers to consumer electronics over the past 30 years, officially change their name from Apple Computer.

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SEC Watch: cloud storage startup raises $ 18.6 mln Box.net more

Leena Rao is currently working as a writer for TechCrunch. She recently finished graduate school of the Medill School of journalism at Northwestern University, where she studied business journalism and videography. From 2004 to 2007 she helped lead efforts for advocacy and community relationships Congressman Carloyn Maloney in New York. She graduated from Columbia University in 2003 where it was ... ? Read More

Box.NET raises $ 18.6 million of the 35 million Australian dollars round according to the SEC filing. We have confirmed this with the company. This brings its total funding to $ 96 million.

A field that has 6 million users and stores 300 million documents — Enterprise cloud storage platform that comes with the collaboration, the functionality of social and mobile. The field has become more than just storage platform Fils and became a full-fledged joint applications, where companies can actually talk about updates to the document, synchronize files remotely and even add features of Salesforce, Google Apps, NetSuite, hurt, and others.

Box has just raised $ 48 million from Andreessen Horowitz and other earlier this year, but the company's CEO and co-founder Aaron Levie tells us that the mighty venture market, high rates of growth of the company and in the cloud, the new zoom round made sense. He said this is a follow-up round with (d) raise earlier this year, and it will attract investors and new as well.

Round was not closed completely and can change, said Levie. In making lists of the current investor Draper Fisher Jurvetson, United States venture partners and venture scale.

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