YubiKey Authenticates Microsoft Azure Cloud Platform Yubico has announced the availability of its authentication token YubiKey to increase security for Microsoft Cloud Platform Windows Azure platform applications. Yubico specializes in providing easy and secure login solutions and the scalable and cost-effective Windows Azure Platform enables customers to build, host and dynamically scale applications and services through the Microsoft data centers around the world. The collaboration between two companies will increase security in a very cost-effective and flexible manner thanks to the integration between Windows Azure based solutions and the YubiKey two-factor authentication service. “Being able to integrate solutions for two-factor
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Microsoft Improves Performance Through Private Cloud Computing Microsoft is now focusing on private cloud computing mainly to improve the performance of many applications. Through private cloud computing the performance levels of the application services such as Windows Azure, Office 365, Xbox Live and Bing services can be optimized. This benefit of private cloud can be applied to every IT environment. The benefits in designing the private cloud are being discussed at Microsoft Management Summit that is going on now in Las Vegas. This sold-out IT conference is being attended by about 4,000 members. The new prototype of private cloud computing
As Windows Azure matures, independent software vendors are starting to provide extra value to Azure customers. Paraleap Technologies created a unique Elasticity-as-a-Service offering designed to help applications running in Azure capitalize on the pay-for-use model of Microsoft’s cloud technology. Arlington Heights, IL January 26, 2011 — Paraleap Technologies, a Chicago-based software company specializing in cloud-computing solutions, is proud to announce the long anticipated release of its flagship product AzureWatch, designed to provide dynamic scaling to applications running on Microsoft Windows Azure cloud platform. After nearly a year of development and testing, AzureWatch is released with a purpose to deliver on
Dell’s Deals in Cloud Computing By Sourya Biswas of CloudTweaks.com Dell may be known across the world for its computers, but its well on its way to emerging as a serious player in the cloud computing space, if its recent spate of acquisitions is any indication. Its recent announcement to acquire cloud-based medical archiving services provider InSite One, Inc is another step in that direction. Dell is looking to diversify from its niche as a hardware player and has acquired several companies in its bid towards becoming a solutions company, with 2009’s acquisition of Perot Systems being the biggest buy
The Scalability Of Windows Azure Cloud-computing providers in general and Windows Azure in particular offer nearly infinite scalability, virtually unlimited capacity, blazing performance and extremely quick provision times. However, to properly take advantage of these great benefits, teams need to plan ahead and understand all potential pitfalls and challenges. One of the more significant differences between development of on-premise applications and cloud applications is a rather direct correlation between choices made during construction of an application and its support costs after deployment. Because of the Windows Azure pricing model, every inefficient architectural decision and every inefficient line of code will
Microsoft announced the release of the National Centre for Biotechnology Information Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (NCBI Blast) on Windows Azure at Supercomputing 2010. The new application enables a broader community of scientists to combine desktop resources with the power of cloud computing for biological research. Microsoft showcased the scale of the application on Windows Azure, demonstrating its use for 100 billion comparisons of protein sequences in a database managed by the NCBI. Search Engine Zips Through Data NCBI Blast on Azure enables researchers to take advantage of the scalability of the platform to perform analysis of vast proteomics and genomic
Part One – Introduction This article is written for IT professionals who are interested in optimizing their Windows Azure cloud applications by dynamically adjusting compute resources to accommodate for changes in demand – in realtime. The need for dynamic scaling is great: without it, your Azure applications will be performing poorly when demand is unexpectedly high and waste a lot of money when demand is low. Your application is charged for all allocated compute instances even if they are underutilized or not utilized at all. There are a number of articles and examples available that allow one to start on






