Samsung Data Center Outage

Seeing an error message on your Samsung phone, tablet or Smart TV today? You're not alone, as the Samsung.com website appears to be down and owners worldwide have reported anything from error messages to being unable to access apps on their smart TVs. Reports have spread on Twitter -- mostly from a community news site called Wikitree -- that a fire at a Samsung SDS building in Gwacheon, South Korea is the culprit. We've contacted Samsung but haven't heard anything back yet, and while some of its social media pages have noted the outage, there isn't an official explanation posted. Update: Naturally now that we've mentioned it, the outage that lasted several hours appears to have ended around 6:15AM ET. Many of the same users who were having problems with their smart TVs and phones seem to have full access again, and Samsung.com is back up and running. A Samsung SDS blog post confirms the fire and subsequent outage, while apologizing for the inconvenience. Despite some scary photos and video of the blaze (after the break) Korean news reports indicate there were no fatalities. The big question left? Why a fire at one location seemed to have such a large affect on the company's devices and services. Source >>

Price Wars Revealed

On Tuesday, March 25, Googleannounced it was cutting on-demand virtual machine prices by 32 percent. Moreover, it announced what it called sustained-use discounts, in which the on-demand price is progressively lowered once a virtual machine is used for 25 percent of a given month. At full-month use, this discount reduces the cost for a virtual machine a further 30 percent. In addition, Google dropped the price for storage to 2.6 cents per GB per month. Finally, it indicated this was just the first of a series when it stated that its future prices would continue to drop in response to lower costs based on Moore's Law. A day later, Amazon Web Services announced a set of price reductions to EC2 and S3, along with cuts in other service prices. EC2 on-demand costs will go down around 35 percent, with reserved instance prices cut a further 30 percent or so. S3 prices were cut about in half, down to around 2.75 cents per GB/month. Not to be left out, Microsoft announced price cuts intended to match AWS prices. Azure virtual machine prices are down around 35 percent, and blob storage (e.g., S3-like storage) has been reduced 65 percent to around 2.75 cents per GB/month. READ MORE >> In Public Cloud Computing Fight, the Gloves Come Off

Which cloud companies are cleaner?

Which cloud companies are cleaner? To this question the answer from the Greenpeace goes as follows: These six leading Internet companies are helping to build the green internet by committing to power their operations with 100 % renewable energy. Find out how each of them are doing it. Google Google’s massive internet ecosystem means its energy demand is the highest of any of the green internet leaders on this page, but the company has still been able to power 34 % of its data centers with renewable energy - and that means our searches, Gmail, and YouTube videos all are being increasingly powered by clean sources of energy. Google’s pioneering use of power purchase agreements to procure clean energy has been adopted by others in the sector, like Microsoft, and it has successfully influenced utilities in Oklahoma and North Carolina to offer new renewable energy options by using its immense business clout. Google has also invested over $1 billion in 15 renewable energy projects. Facebook Facebook’s 1.2 billion monthly active users can be happy to know that Facebook is getting greener. Thanks to the loud call Facebook heard from its users to go green, the company made a pledge in the end of 2011 to move toward 100 % renewable energy. Facebook’s latest data center will be in Iowa, where its agreement to purchase 100% wind power pushed the local energy utility to invest nearly $2 billion in wind energy and make the largest single purchase of wind turbines in the world! Apple The next time you’re listening to iTunes, you can smile knowing that your music is being powered by clean energy. Apple is bringing its trademark innovation to the effort to green the internet, starting with its 2012 commitment to power the iCloud with 100 % renewable energy. Apple made good on its pledge by building the two largest privately owned solar farms in the country at its North Carolina data center, and then working with its utility in Nevada to power its upcoming data center there with an innovative new type of solar panels that concentrate sunlight up to seven times! Rackspace Though not a household name, Rackspace is well-known among IT companies as one of the leading cloud and managed hosting providers. Rackspace committed in 2012 to become 100% renewably powered as part of a forward thinking energy policy, and is now in the early stages of making that commitment a reality. The company’s sustainability director described why they’ve set the ambitious goal at a Greenpeace forum in November, saying: “Our customers simply expect green energy.” Salesforce If you work in the business world, you’ve probably heard of Salesforce, which is growing fast as it provides customer management tools and other cloud computing products to businesses. Forbes called Salesforce the most innovative company in America in 2013, and Salesforce showed that it can apply that innovation to sustainability when it committed to powering its cloud with 100 % clean energy. The company’s rapid growth means that it will need more data centers soon to store its clients’ data, which is why it’s so important that Salesforce has committed to grow using renewable energy. Box Box became the sixth and latest company to join the growing club of global technology firms who have committed to powering their cloud computing operations with 100 % renewable energy. Box houses its customers’ data in rented co-location facilities, and its new policy shows that all cloud computing companies, even young ones, can make the smart decision of moving toward renewable energy, whether they own their own data centers or not. for more information >>

QlikView teams up with Circle of Blue   QlikView ( Business Intelligence company) and Circle of Blue (a team of award-winning journalists and researchers reporting on water and worldwide resource issues) announced  a  newdata dashboard  on the 19th of March. New data dashboard was issued as a supporting effort to White House Climate Data Initiative. QMass amounts of data, particularly water-related, are often compartmentalized within agencies and not available in comparative, visual formats. The QlikView dashboards and their sophisticated and engaging, state-of-the-art graphics – combined with Circle of Blue’s on-the-ground reporting, online networks, and participatory convenings – will help officials make informed decisions and better understand, monitor, compare and manage the nation’s most vulnerable water supplies in an era of climate change. The application also includes reservoir data from water-challenged areas of Australia. According to World Economic Forum Global Risks Report 2014 ranks “water crises” among the planet’s top three most urgent issues. Water scarcity and supply are particularly influenced by climate change, and are emerging as serious threats to people, business, the environment and political stability across the world, including the United States. It has been said that QlikView is helping in empowering individuals with meaningful context about the decisions they make every day. Anthony Deighton, CTO and senior vice president of products at Qlik said “We’re thrilled that Circle of Blue is using QlikView to bring its important research findings and larger freshwater issues to the public.” The White House Climate Data Initiative has identified private, philanthropic, academic, and nonprofit sector commitments to leverage data and data-driven insights that can support communities, companies and citizens prepare for the impacts of climate change, including system shocks such as floods, droughts, wildfires and heat waves. for more information >> http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/CPX/.