Information overload has infiltrated our lives. From the amount of news available and at our fingertips 24/7, to the endless choices we have when making a simple purchase, to the quantity of emails we receive on a given day, it's increasingly difficult to sift out the details that really matter. When you envision your cloud monitoring system, the same thinking applies. We receive a lot of useless data that gets fed into the system, and the reality is no one in IT or DevOps has the time to manually determine the actionable data points (that's a whole job itself), meaning monitoring what really matters is a tall order. Even a basic cloud application can produce hundreds or thousands of data points per second. From resource metrics to activity logs, a handful of servers produces more "monitor-able" data than any human can reasonably consume. Factor in the rest of the c... (more)

SQL Azure and Spatial Data Types

SQL Azure at Cloud Expo The present version of SQL Azure (10.25.9085) does not support the 'Geometry' and 'Geography' data types of which the 'Geometry' data type conforms to Open Geospatial Consortium's Simple Features of SQL Specification Version 1.1.0. However businesses may be interested in tagging data from their far flung resources with some information on their location which may involve these data types. Perhaps this is one of the items on the feature wish list of future versions of many businesses. With SQL Azure data being resident in the 'clouds', this feature is all the more important. ... (more)

Windows Azure VMs - New "Stopped" VM Options Provide Flexibility

Didn’t make it to TechEd this year? Don’t worry. This month, we’ll be releasing a new article series that highlights the Best of TechEd announcements and technical information for IT Pros.  Today’s article focuses on a new, much-heralded enhancement to Windows Azure Infrastructure Services to make it more cost-effective for spinning VMs up and down on-demand on the Windows Azure cloud platform. New: VMs that are shutdown from the Windows Azure Management Portal will no longer continue to accumulate compute charges while stopped! Previous to this enhancement being available, the Azure platform maintained fabric resource reservations for VMs, even in a shutdown state, to ensure consistent resource availability when starting those VMs in the future.  And, this meant that VMs had to be exported and completely deprovisioned when not in use to avoid compute charges. In th... (more)

Book Review | Microsoft SharePoint 2013 Pocket Guide

This little book is packed with tons of information. The authors did a good job of selecting topics that SharePoint administrators need to know, but may use so infrequently, they don't retain the details. In today's IT world that is just life. A little over a year ago we upgraded from 2007 to 2010. By the time the process was over, I had a 120 page document full of reminders. At the end of this year we will be going to 2013. I have barely touch SharePoint in the interim, so without those notes I would be as lost as the day they told me I was going to do the 2007 to 2010 upgrade. In the introduction the authors say this book is designed for those with SharePoint experience as well as with a basic knowledge of Windows Server 2012, Active Directory, Internet Information Services (IIS), SQL Server, and web browsers. I would agree with that. The book is broken down into 3... (more)

Cloud Expo 2011 East To Attract 10,000 Delegates and 200 Exhibitors

SYS-CON Events announced today that the 8th International Cloud Expo will take place June 6-9, 2011, in New York City. The International Cloud Computing Conference & Expo series is the world's leading Cloud-focused event and is held three times a year, in New York, Silicon Valley and in Europe. Over 600 corporate sponsors and 10,000 industry professionals have participated in Cloud Computing Expo since its inception, more than all other Cloud-related events put together. Cloud Computing Expo 2011 East Call for Papers Deadline November 30, 2010 - SUBMIT YOUR SPEAKING PROPOSAL TODAY! The four-day event will offer a rich array of sessions led by exceptional speakers about the business and technical value of cloud computing with more than 150 sponsors and exhibitors and over 5,000 estimated delegates from well over 48 different countries. Explore Cloud Expo Sponsorship &... (more)

Architecting Next-Gen Connected Supply Chains | @ThingsExpo [#IoT]

Disruptive macro trends in technology are impacting and dramatically changing the "art of the possible" relative to supply chain management practices through the innovative use of IoT, cloud, machine learning and Big Data to enable connected ecosystems of engagement. Enterprise informatics can now move beyond point solutions that merely monitor the past and implement integrated enterprise fabrics that enable end-to-end supply chain visibility to improve customer service delivery and optimize supplier management. Learn about enterprise architecture strategies for designing connected systems that integrate physical and digital supply chains with your enterprise systems, leveraging IoT devices, hybrid cloud and network service providers to enable innovative business models while mitigating risk, managing security and increasing capacity to meet customer changing SLA ... (more)

The Difference Between Web Hosting and Cloud Computing

Cloud Hosting Journal on Ulitzer Yesterday a friend of mine was asking me what I've been doing lately in my spare time. When I mentioned that I'd been doing a lot of messing around with Windows Azure, he was naturally curious. After explaining what Azure is, he asked me what the difference was between Windows Azure, a cloud computing environment, and traditional web hosting scenarios. On a really high level, he's got a valid point : With Azure you can develop your application offline locally and then when you're done you can publish it to a remote host. To the casual observer, this looks exactly like what you might do with a web hosting company that provides space on an IIS box and let's you use ASP.NET and maybe even a little SQL server database. The beauty, of course, is that to the end user it doesn't matter. To someone using your website, they don't (and shouldn'... (more)

Adobe Flex Developer Earns $100K in New York City

Adobe AIR on Ulitzer CIO and CTO salaries will see a spike of 12.5% in 2010, according to research conducted by Bluewolf on salaries in the Tri-state region (New York, Conn. and New Jersey). Bluewolf is a global technology consulting firm and the preeminent source of salary data and statistics for IT professionals. Every year, Bluewolf issues its Bluewolf IT Salary Guide for Tri-state job seekers and employers, revealing its proprietary salary research. In 2010, CIO salaries will range from $175-200,000 in 2010, up from $149,000-175,000 in 2009. CTO salaries are predicted to range from $140,000-$175,000 in 2010 up from $120,000-$150,000 in 2009, according to Bluewolf's salary research. In addition to CIOs and CTOs, 2010 starting salaries for VPs of Information Technology are expected to increase from $110,000 to $125,000. "The increase in C-level salaries shows a ... (more)

Book Review: Microsoft Expression Blend Unleashed

I have not taken the time I should have to get to know Microsoft Expression Blend like I should know it. I use it a lot to build user interfaces and to create SketchFlow prototypes, but I knew I was not fully aware of its capabilities. My hopes for this book where that it would get me up to speed. I am happy to report that Microsoft Expression Blend Unleashed has provided me with the insight into the Blend tools I was looking for. The book is in full color so it is a pleasure to read and the author has a great writing style. The book starts off with a history of Expression Blend, the author's opinion on why you should learn it, and insight into the direction Microsoft is taking with Windows 8 and Project Jupiter. The author then covers the Blend interface in detail. Like I said above, I have been using Blend for years, and this section shed a lot of light on the tools... (more)

Windows Server 2012 Certified

Linoma Software has announced it will launch a new version of its application, GoAnywhere Services, which works with Microsoft Server 2012 to offer customers enhanced security, as well as innovative user interface features and reliability improvements. The secure file server in GoAnywhere Services covers more than just secure file portals. Data security professionals can breathe easily when their employees use the secure mail send option in Outlook 2010 to send files securely using GoAnywhere Services. The FIPS140-2 mode also ensures government and other organizations requiring high-security that their files are secure and encrypted. “Our ISV community is alive with innovation, and we’re committed to helping our partners drive the next generation of software experiences,” said Ross Brown, Vice President of ISV and Solutions Partners for the Worldwide Partner Group ... (more)

Book Review: C# 5.0 Unleashed

In this version of the book the author still starts off by answering the question, "Why do we need another C# book?". I was asking myself that very question when I turned to the introduction of C# 4.0 Unleased which was the first version of this book I read. He says "In short, what sets this book apart from many others is its in-depth coverage of how things work." As far as C# 5.0 books go, I have read C# 5.0 in a Nutshell: The Definitive Reference, Pro C# 2012 and the .NET 4.5 Platform, Essential C# 5.0, and CLR via C# (Dev-Pro) . All very good books, very good!!! C# 5.0 Unleashed belongs on the shelf with them. The author does indeed break down the C# language in a unique and very enjoyable way. The book starts out with a great overview of the .NET Framework and history of C#. The author breaks the history down by versions. The first two chapters will catch all thos... (more)