Amazon Web Services Archives - Page 10 of 10

vNab: Workflow in the Cloud for Visual Effects, Sports and 4K

By Don Levy
March 26, 2015

Videos from the third session of The Entertainment Technology Center @ USC “Virtual NAB Cloud Conference” are now live for viewing on the ETCenterVideo YouTube channel. The videos include a presentation on visual effects workflows in the cloud by Jeff Kember of Google and a description of a popup render farm for VFX by Thinkbox Software’s Chris Bond. Martin Wahl of Microsoft Azure Media Services presented a scalable workflow for live sports and Michelle Munson of IBM/Aspera showcased streaming sports to second screens through the cloud. Usman Shakeel of Amazon Web Services discussed the demands of and solutions for 4K workflows. Continue reading vNab: Workflow in the Cloud for Visual Effects, Sports and 4K

IoT: Amazon Acquires Connected Enterprise Startup 2lemetry

By Erick Mendoza
March 16, 2015

Amazon recently confirmed that it has acquired 2lemetry, a startup with a focus on creating real value of data being processed and shared via Internet-connected devices. Under Amazon, Denver-based 2lemetry will continue to service its existing clientele, which includes companies such as Honeywell and First Mile. All other deal details remain undisclosed. Amazon’s acquisition of 2lemetry reflects the company’s early efforts to develop an Internet of Things business strategy. Continue reading IoT: Amazon Acquires Connected Enterprise Startup 2lemetry

Amazon Targets Companies with New Corporate Email Service

By Erick Mendoza
January 30, 2015

Amazon is previewing WorkMail, a corporate email service that aims to compete with Google Gmail and Microsoft Outlook. Although the corporate email market is heavily congested, Amazon believes there are customer problems not being addressed by any of the existing corporate email providers. With WorkMail, Amazon promises to deliver on two things: simplicity and security. The company also wants to let users keep the interfaces and applications with which they are already familiar. Continue reading Amazon Targets Companies with New Corporate Email Service

Race to Zero: Reduced Costs of Cloud Storage and Services

By Erick Mendoza
November 12, 2014

As the market for cloud computing continues to expand, customers can expect to pay less for more. Increased competition in cloud computing is leading to greater storage at lower prices. And at the given rate at which customers are being offered lower prices, tech companies await their greatest challenge — “the race to zero” — or the moment when unlimited storage will be available at no cost. Amazon is one of the first companies to reflect this trend with the cost of its Web Services. Continue reading Race to Zero: Reduced Costs of Cloud Storage and Services

Amazon Introduces “Prime Pass” with British Fashion Retailer

By Erick Mendoza
November 7, 2014

The expedited shipping available to members of Amazon’s $99 Prime service may soon become available to external retail sites. Amazon recently secured a partnership with British fashion retailer AllSaints that allows Prime members to enjoy free next-day shipping on all purchases made via AllSaints.com. While Amazon hopes to expand its partnerships with other retail sites, it has already encountered some early resistance from retailers that are weary of the “Prime Pass” program. Continue reading Amazon Introduces “Prime Pass” with British Fashion Retailer

Twilio Aims to Help Businesses Send Photo, Video Messages

By Meghan Coyle
September 22, 2014

The company behind Uber’s driver calls and Airbnb’s text messages is now offering multimedia messages for businesses that want to reach their customers with photos and videos. Twilio’s API enables businesses to run call centers and send voice and text messages through Amazon Web Services for mere pennies. The new multimedia offering will work via MMS, or multimedia messaging service, through contracts with phone carriers in the U.S. and Canada. Continue reading Twilio Aims to Help Businesses Send Photo, Video Messages

Google Acquires Effects Startup Zync, Takes on Amazon Cloud

By Rob Scott
August 27, 2014

Google plans to make special effects more affordable and accessible. Yesterday, the company announced that it has purchased Boston-based Zync, the maker of cloud-based rendering software Zync Render, which has been used in movies such as “Flight,” “Looper,” “Star Trek Into Darkness” and the “Transformers” series. While terms of the deal have yet to be disclosed, Google is expected to integrate Zync’s data and tech into its Google Cloud Platform, and move Zync off Amazon Web Services. Continue reading Google Acquires Effects Startup Zync, Takes on Amazon Cloud

Alibaba Growing, But Not a Threat to Top Cloud Services Yet

By Meghan Coyle
August 6, 2014

In May, Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba filed for a public stock offering in the United States. However, this fast growing company still has a way to go before it will be able to compete with the American tech giants that currently control the multibillion-dollar cloud computing business. For now, Alibaba appears to be focusing on expanding in China, where it already has four data centers and handles up to $5.8 billion in commerce per day at its peak. Continue reading Alibaba Growing, But Not a Threat to Top Cloud Services Yet

Amazon Web Services: Outage During Bid for CIA Contract

By Chris Castaneda
August 30, 2013

Amazon’s Web Services went down on Sunday due to a technical issue at a North Virginia data center. The outage was caused by a problem with a single networking device, and reveals that many companies do not distribute their Web services in different locations for service redundancy. This comes as Amazon is bidding on a CIA contract to manage their data services, and competitors are critical of whether Amazon can manage the demands of government data. Continue reading Amazon Web Services: Outage During Bid for CIA Contract

Are There Implications to Consider Regarding the Silk Web Browser?

By Dennis Kuba
September 29, 2011

As part of its New York press event yesterday that unveiled the Kindle Fire tablet and three new Kindle e-readers, Amazon announced Silk, a new Web browser powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS) and available exclusively on its new tablet.
Amazon Silk is an important part of the Kindle Fire pitch, and as a “split browser” exclusive to the tablet it “gets the heavy lifting done on its EC2 cloud servers and promises faster access as a result,” reports Engadget. “Dubbed Silk to represent an ‘invisible, yet incredibly strong connection,’ it takes advantage of Amazon’s existing speedy connections, and that so many sites are already hosted on its servers to speed up Web access.”
Amazon’s cloud-accelerated browser may have some technical implications. First, Amazon may release a Silk desktop browser. It’s reliance on Amazon’s EC2 infrastructure may cut off access to the Web for customers during outages. That said, if Amazon succeeds, it may push other browser developer such as Google, Apple and Microsoft to follow. Mozilla may have a difficult time doing the same.
From a privacy perspective, Amazon talks about learning from “aggregate traffic patterns,” but in reality each Kindle has its own Amazon ID. Thus, Amazon will be able to track your personal Web habits, buying patterns and media preferences in detail.
“Until the Kindle Fire ships, there are more questions than answers,” suggests ReadWriteWeb. “I’m eager to get hands on a Fire so I can test out Silk and see for myself how it works. I’m not yet concerned about the privacy issues, but I do think they bear watching. What do you think? Is the Silk model something you’re excited about, or is Amazon a middle-man you’d rather do without when browsing the Web?”

Amazon Elastic Cloud Tech: Stretching the Boundaries of Cloud Computing

By Dennis Kuba
September 22, 2011

Cycle Computing demonstrated the potential power of cloud computing by building a 30,000-core cluster running CentOS Linux for molecular modeling using Amazon’s Elastic Cloud 2 (EC2).
The cluster, created for an unnamed “Top 5 Pharma” customer, ran about seven hours at a peak cost of $1,279 per hour (including fees to Amazon and Cycle Computing) and performed approximately 10.9 “compute years of work.”
“Amazon EC2 and other cloud services are expanding the market for high-performance computing,” reports Ars Technica. “Without access to a national lab or a supercomputer in your own data center, cloud computing lets businesses spin up temporary clusters at will and stop paying for them as soon as the computing needs are met.”
The statistics are rather impressive; highlights include 30,472 cores, 26.7TB of RAM and 2PB (petabytes) of disk space. The cluster — dubbed “Nekomata” — ran across data centers in three Amazon regions in the United States and Europe.
It is unknown whether or not Nekomata is the largest cluster run on EC2 to date. “I can’t share specific customer details, but can tell you that we do have businesses of all sizes running large-scale, high-performance computing workloads on AWS [Amazon Web Services], including distributed clusters like the Cycle Computing 30,000 core cluster to tightly-coupled clusters often used for science and engineering applications such as computational fluid dynamics and molecular dynamics simulation,” indicated an Amazon spokesperson.