Cloud computing has become a global phenomenon and it is being adopted by increasing numbers of organizations all over the world. There are many aspects of cloud computing. These include public clouds, private clouds, online cloud storage, software as a service, infrastructure as a service, platform as a service and so forth.

According to the 2013 Future of Cloud Computing Survey 75 percent of respondents use at least one kind of cloud platform. The main drivers are business orientated (52 percent) compare to 36 percent that are IT orientated. However the biggest growth areas tend to be IT orientated. These are big data, mobile, cloud backup, management of systems, security, and help desk. Reducing costs is seen as a major driver.

Although the main application currently is Software-as-a-Service which is used by 63 percent of respondents, the fastest growing sector is infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), though it is thought that Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) will be the dominating growth area in the future; 72 percent said that they would by using it within the next five years.

There remains certain reluctance about moving to the cloud, and the main concern is security. However fewer organizations than last year have security concerns. Last year 55 percent of non-cloud using respondents said that security was the main reason why they had not adopted the cloud, and this year that had fallen to 46 percent.

According to Doug Clark, the head of cloud computing at IBM UK, the main drivers of cloud computing in terms of adding value to an organization and marketing the organization as a service are intelligence, context, reach, pace, and economics. Intelligence concerns the power of data analytics and applying it in situations where it will bring about an improvement; context involves addressing the specific user requirements; reach involves exceeding the physical boundaries of the organization; pace is simply the ability to move rapidly and be flexible and adaptable; and economics concerns improving the efficiency and reducing the cost of IT resources that can be achieved by moving to the cloud;

Many organizations are successfully applying these factors and in doing so are making significant improvements to how their organizations are delivering to their customers. Some examples of this include Sci-Tech Daresbury which offers computing as a service through its ‘Blue Joule’ computer which it is claimed is the most powerful computer in the UK and is being used for such applications as climate modeling and the detection of diseases; Wimbledon tennis and other major sporting events are sharing cloud resources in response to sports fans demand peaks to deliver an improved experience to sports fans; and TP Vision the joint venture that produces and markets TV sets with the Philips brand uses the cloud for its smart TV services for managing TV software.

If you would like any further information on moving to the cloud, then please visit Mimecast.com; a software as a service company focused on unified email and data management.

A decade ago, basic HTML sites were all the rage and everyone was learning how to code them or how to modify free templates, in order to create some simple sites. Thankfully, the age of those horrible looking little sites is finally over and people have easy access to great looking custom management systems which allow them to deploy sites quickly and without knowledge of coding or design.

Some of these CMS’s are WordPress, Drupal or Joomla and all you need to install one is a domain name and a hosting PHP MySQL account, which is quite cheap. There are hundreds of companies that offer cheap hosting these days and all of them offer this combination of PHP and MySQL that is so popular for content sites based on a CMS.

With the help of PHP sites can offer dynamic content, based on what you want to show the visitor, content which is taken from the MySQL database. Usernames and passwords weren’t possible with simple HTML sites, but with a CMS you can have accounts on sites, which give you access to different features that are also possible thanks to the hosting PHP MySQL combination.

When looking for a hosting PHP MySQL package you should keep in mind that the company offering it should be reputable. Don’t pick the cheapest option available to you, as your site’s availability is influenced by its hosting. If the company doesn’t have professional support, your site data might be lost, data can be stolen by hackers and there are a number of other possible issues.

To find out whether a company is a good choice for your hosting PHP MySQL needs, check webmaster forums for reviews of their services and see what other webmasters recommend. You need to know that they have a good uptime and that their online support staff is very helpful and quick to help when you need them. Keep in mind that this is an important decision and in the event of a hardware failure you could lose your site’s data if the company doesn’t do proper backups. Another reason why hosting PHP MySQL needs to be considered properly is that it can be time consuming to move your sites from one host to another. Ideally you should pick a good hosting company from your first try.

There is one other choice at your disposal, the one between paid and free hosting. The temptation is to pick the free hosting option, but the disadvantages are too great to ignore. In many cases, these companies make money by placing ads on your pages, which means that they make money off your work. They also have little money to spend on professional staff or on proper hardware, so you get a slow site and your data is at risk. Since hosting with PHP and MySQL costs just a couple of dollars per month, it’s worth getting a paid account, even a cheap one, rather than going with the free version.

The conclusion is that if you’re looking to get your own site and you want to use a popular CMS, like WordPress, you need a hosting account with PHP and MySQL installed.

Web hosting is a internet service which allows companies and simple users to store information, pictures, sounds, videos or any content accessible via the Web. Web hosting companies provide space on a server with high internet connection.

There are 9 types of hosting

• Free web hosting service: is free, (sometimes) advertisement-supported web hosting, and is extremely limited when compared to paid hosting. (eg. www.geocities.com )
• Shared web hosting service: one’s Web site is placed on the same server as several hundred other sites. These are somewhat restricted to what can be done.
• Dedicated web hosting service: involves getting your own webserver with full control over it (root access for Linux/administrator access for Windows)
• Colocation web hosting service: provides physical space that your server takes up and the hosting company takes care about bandwidth/data center.
• Reseller web hosting: allows clients to become web hosts themselves.
• File hosting service: is a kind of web hosting service optimized for hosting large files. (eg. www.rapidshare.de)
• Clustered hosting
• Image hosting service (eg. www.photobucket.com)
• Blog hosting service(e.g www.blogger.com)

Cloud Computing is a term related to information technology services and resources. Resources that are received by outside entity are termed as “cloud” formation. The services in the cloud are provided by companies and accessed via internet.

In cloud computing models, customers basically rent for the infrastructure. Cloud computing is also affects reliability and scalability. In a cloud infrastructure, security improves and also improves resource utilization. Users need not have knowledge or control over the technology infrastructure "in the cloud".

There are many companies who provide cloud computing services. It’s not just a shift from traditional software models to the Internet but the next decade of cloud computing will be expected through mobile devices. The term cloud may be used as a metaphor for Internet, based on how the Internet is depicted in computer network diagrams, and is an abstraction for the complex infrastructure it.

Business applications have always been very complicated and expensive with variety of hardware and software required. With cloud computing, you can get rid of the managing hardware and software problems. You are only required to pay for your need in a better and easy way. As cloud computing is gaining popularity, thousands of companies are taking services as “cloud computing.” Some analysts define cloud computing as an updated version of utility computing which is virtual server available over Internet.

The latest innovations in this field are to make business applications even more mobile and collaborative. With Cloud2 keeping up with your work would be as easy as your personal life on Face book. It is a way to increase capacity and capabilities without investing in new infrastructure, or licensing new software. Cloud computing in real time over the Internet, extends capabilities. Now Server hardware, capacity, maintenance and all It support – forget all! Let Storm-IT worry about that.

EPUB is an ebook standard used by many online book sellers these days. It has a number of features, including vector images, word wrapping or css styling. Free ebooks are often coming in this format. Reading an epub file is usually done by downloading it to your computer and then opening it with an application that can read it. A Firefox addon now allows for EPUB files to be opened from the comfort of your browser, without all the other steps that are usually required.

Once installed, the EPUB reader addon will take over when it sees that the download of an EPUB file begins. Instead, it will display the content of the book inside the browser, in a new tab. On the left side you will see the book’s index and on the right side of that new tab you will be able to read the book.

The addon also allows you to search archive.org and feedbooks.com for titles to read. If you use Firefox, you can download the EPUBReader here.

They’ve been around the block for some time now and they can be played from anywhere, as long as you have an Internet connection and a browser. Browser games of the persistent type take months to finish or don’t end at all.

ImperialAges.com is such a game. It’s a strategy game set in the medieval ages, that can be played with only a browser. It restarts every 12 months and there is always a server open for new registrations.

Imperial Ages is a persistent browser-based game (PBBG), set in the Medieval Ages. You only need a browser and an Internet connection to play it, and you can train or fight against 120 types of military units, from 4 different civilizations.

GOG (Good Old Games) is a place where you can buy legally, old games, at prices smaller than $10. For this money you get a game that is DRM free and XP & Vista compatible, that you can install and play as many times as you like.

Some of the games that you can buy:

• Price of Persia: The Sands Of Time for $9.99,
• Beyond Good & Evil for $9.99,
• Septerra Core: Legacy Of The Creator for $5.99
• Fallout and Fallout 2 for $5.99 each

If you’re feeling nostalgic and you want to play some of the games of your youth, this is the site to visit.

A new option implemented in Google Image Search is the ability to restrict the results to images that contain a certain color in them. You can’t select this option directly, but you can modify the URL of the search results to get it.

For example, the url below is for the “phone” search with the red attribute attached to the URL, and the result can be seen in the image below:

http://images.google.com/images?q=phone&imgcolor=red

These are the colors that can be used in the URL: Black, Blue, Brown, Gray, Green, Orange, Pink, Purple, Red, Teal, White, Yellow.

Source

A little known Google Images command that allows you to find images of a certain size is imagesize.

You can use the command in the following form:

imagesize:1680×1050 keyword

Replace 1680×1050 with the size you want and use the keyword you need. An example is in the screenshot below.

It’s a very useful command, especially for those with wide LCD screens, since most wallpapers are offered in normal format.