2012: A Look Back into Parallels Between Cloud and Education 2012 has so far seemed like the proverbial year where there is always some gigantic technological breakthrough simmering in the underground. It also appears to be a year where most teaching staff will be telling their pupils to put their cell phones on the desk and get ready for a lesson. This is because high-end handheld devices and laptops are becoming part of classroom learning. The following breakthroughs have particularly come out strong through 2012. The thirty-dollar data machine One of the most innovative products to come off the pipeline
energy consumption
Is Cloud Computing The Biggest Green Technology? Global warming and climate change are on top of world’s list of concerns and one of the reasons is our dependence on dirty energy from fossil fuels. We all consider the transportation sector as the main pollution source of our atmosphere, but is the IT industry really exempted from the blame? Governments around the globe usually have stringent standards on factory or industrial facility energy consumption and emission while the energy consumption in IT laboratories and data centers is overlooked, with the exception of some universities and research organizations. So there are no
3 Key Auto Areas That Stand To Gain Immensely From Cloud Computing Cloud computing has emerged as one of the greatest influencers of the global auto industry. Fortunately the influence the cloud is having on the auto sector is the kind that brings more hope to the industry than the kind of misery it is facing at present. Auto-mobile executives can at least bank on the cloud to streamline their manufacturing processes, cut down on costs and turn in the profits. The following three critical areas of the auto industry stand to benefit the most out of cloud computing: Energy
How Small Businesses Can Leverage Cloud Computing To Save Money Most small businesses spend a lot on energy bills, even as much as $20,000 per year. This is extremely expensive. According to energy experts, small businesses that are struggling with such exorbitant bills need to rethink their energy policies. Saving on electricity costs can help these businesses lower their expenses. This will boost their overall revenues and efficiency for growth. But even in the face of these realities, what energy-saving models can small businesses use to lower their energy costs? The adoption of cloud computing is one of them. IT
The Carbon Footprints of Cloud Computing IT is a tool to reach environmental sustainability objectives which allow business entities to report, manage, analyze, and measure environmental data in order to manage risks and lessen their general impact. The kind of IT services and infrastructure chosen is part of the business entity’s carbon footprint which can control the growth and scale through time. Cloud computing is a solution which lessens hardware requirements, offers scalability, and provides reductions in carbon and direct energy emissions. It also provides efficiency to business scalability, processes, and improved collaboration and communication. Although cloud computing can greatly
Cloud Benefits in the Energy and Utility Industry A report issued in June 2011 by the Carbon Disclosure Project and supported by AT&T discovered that companies which embrace cloud computing technologies can reduce energy consumption, lower their carbon emissions, and decrease their capital expenditure on IT resources while improving operational efficiency. By 2020, the same group estimates that large US companies using cloud can achieve annual energy savings of $12.3 billion and annual carbon reductions equivalent to 200 million barrels of oil. In addition to environmental benefits, the energy industry is fostered to adopt the technology in order to reduce costs, enhance
CloudSigma Introduces Innovation in Cloud Computing with Solid State Devices (SSDs) Now, Switzerland can add innovation in cloud computing to its list of achievements that include banks, chocolates, cheese and fine watches. The country’s leading Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) provider CloudSigma (www.cloudsigma.com) recently set the cloud computing world buzzing by announcing the addition of solid state drive (SSD) storage to its public cloud portfolio. SSD, or flash memory as it is better known, has significantly faster access capabilities and reduced energy consumption as compared to the traditional hard disk drives (HDDs) that sit inside servers powering cloud computing. It’s only a few
