Paul Miller

County Arcade, Leeds The global CloudCamp movement continues to grow, with events over the next few weeks in Denmark, Germany, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and across the United States. And now, I’m very pleased to announce that the English city of Leeds is joining the party. CloudCamp events have been taking place in the UK for years, and the London gatherings have picked up real momentum. Outside London, we’ve seen a few events in Warrington, Newcastle, and Edinburgh. We believe that the time is now right for something more regular; a place in which the cloud-building, cloud-using, cloud-interested and cloud-exploring can come together for talk, beer, pizza and more… without having to jump on a train to the deep south. CloudCamps are interesting events, with a real emphasis on informality. I’ve attended several around the world, and am always impressed by the energy i... (more)

Surely the computer should do that?

Computer rendering of the Chicago Spire. This is not the current design as of July 12, 2008. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) We have become accustomed to the simple yet all-powerful search box. ‘Advanced’ search options and arcane query syntaxes have largely been replaced by the learned behaviour of throwing some words at Google*, ignoring the sponsored links, and (usually) finding what we want somewhere in the first 5-10 proper results. A Google search is certainly impressive (especially to those who really remember how poor some of the earlier search engines were), but it remains fa... (more)

Data Market Chat: Microsoft’s Windows Azure Marketplace

As CEO Steve Ballmer has noted more than once, Microsoft’s future plans see the company going “all in” with the cloud. The company’s cloud play, Azure, offers the capabilities that we might expect from a cloud, and includes infrastructure such as virtual machines and storage as well as the capability to host and run software such as Office 365. Microsoft also recognises the importance of data, and with the Windows Azure Marketplace and the nurturing of specification such as OData, the company is playing its part in ensuring that data can be found, trusted, and incorporated into a... (more)

Independent Cloud Providers: Introducing Brightbox

Amazon’s globe-encircling cloud infrastructure is compelling to many. From Virginia to California, from Ireland to Singapore, and from Japan to Brazil; wherever you find yourself there’s a local instance of the same familiar set of services. And, in all likelihood, Australia will soon be added to the list. For those primarily interested in just serving both Europe and the US, the list of options grows to include Rackspace, GoGrid, CloudSigma and a few others. And yet, despite the buying power and increasing ubiquity of these larger players, there seems to be plenty of space left ... (more)

Solar power in the data centre – solution or window dressing?

Image via Wikipedia Most of us recognise that the Earth is warming and that — despite our planet’s temperatures having dramatically risen and fallen before — we humans must accept some measure of responsibility for the current changes. Already consuming at least 1.1-1.5% of global power, and only forecast to grow ever-more rapacious, the data centres that power our information economy are surely one area in which we can, should, and must find ways to reduce consumption. And, although by no means perfect, data centre builders, operators and suppliers are paying attention. Individu... (more)