Following months of expanding its LTE data pipes, Verizon Wireless is now offering improved 4G speeds under its new “XLTE” banner. The carrier is introducing improved performance in areas where it has added AWS wireless spectrum. Verizon promises that XLTE regions will feature double the bandwidth and faster peak speeds. The company says that more than 35 percent of devices operating on its network can take advantage of the added capacity of AWS. Continue reading Verizon Wireless Promises Double the Bandwidth with XLTE

One division of e-commerce giant Amazon may take the wholesale and distribution market by storm. The two-year-old AmazonSupply offers over 2.2 million products in bulk, from scientific equipment to food service products. Unlike current wholesale businesses that are regional, family-run companies, Amazon is a multinational company with $74 billion in annual revenue, a user-friendly website, 24-hour delivery, and a massive database of consumer data. Continue reading AmazonSupply is Formidable Competitor in Wholesale Market

Retail and cloud giant Amazon has joined Google and Facebook in investing in development its own server chips. The company recently brought together a team of CPU architects and hardware development engineers, four of whom come from Calxeda, the defunct ARM-based server startup in Austin, Texas. Despite the high initial costs of custom server chips, these specialized products would allow Amazon to optimize costs and improve performance. Continue reading Amazon Hires Engineering Team to Design Its Own Server Chips

Today’s cloud services — including CGI, digital intermediate, asset management and storage — are allowing small productions to realize their big visions with less money. Independent films and live events are more frequently using cloud computing to get the rendering and storage services they need without the high costs of traditional physical infrastructure. Productions can also save money because cloud computing helps speed up the long shooting and filmmaking process. Continue reading Cloud Computing Proves an Asset for Productions on a Budget

Popular websites have been scrambling to update software and Internet users have been encouraged to change their passwords following the news of an encryption flaw known as the Heartbleed bug, which is already being categorized as one of the biggest security threats the Internet has ever experienced. The bug has affected a number of websites and services (although the extent is not clear), and may have exposed account info including passwords and credit card numbers going back two years. UPDATE: Cisco and Juniper said yesterday that some of their networking products contain the bug, which means sensitive info may have been obtained while moving across corporate networks, home networks and the Internet. Continue reading Bug Causes Scramble to Update Software and Change Passwords

Day one of Media Management in the Cloud, a two-day conference co-produced by NAB and the ETC, opened Tuesday morning to a standing-room only crowd in the Convention Center’s South Hall. After a brief welcome by ETC CEO Ken Williams, ETC’s Erik Weaver began the day’s events, noting that almost everything happening at NAB this year seems to have some connection to the cloud. Day one presentations and panels focused on key areas related to cloud services, such as cost, scalability, security, production and storage. Continue reading NAB Cloud Conference Opens to a Packed House in Las Vegas

While it is unclear if Amazon will release an Android-based gaming device besides the Kindle tablet, the company has been creating tools aimed at making game developers successful across Amazon’s various app platforms. The company launched its updated portal for app and game developers, and has been investing in tools for developers to create more Android games. Amazon now features more than 100,000 apps in its Android Appstore, a significant increase from one year ago. Continue reading Amazon Dedicates Resources to Draw Mobile Game Developers

In December, Google made its IaaS (infrastructure-as-a-service) Google Compute Engine (GCE) available as a full-fledged commercial service, after testing it in preview mode for more than a year. Last week, the company introduced its new Billing API as an easier way for developers to monitor and analyze how much running an application on the Cloud Platform costs. According to Google, the Billing Export offers a new means of accessing usage data, and is available in preview. Continue reading Google Gets Serious About Public Cloud: Previews New API

To avoid possible outages, Netflix is now running its streaming-video service across two regions of the Amazon Web Service (AWS) cloud platform, balancing its traffic between the two. The major service disruption that occurred Christmas Eve of last year took down the site’s streaming, forcing Netflix to scramble. Now, the company will run its streaming service across AWS’ East and West regions, allowing for rerouting of traffic if necessary. Continue reading Netflix Plans Streaming Traffic Across Amazon Cloud Regions

For years Google has been evasive about plans for its public cloud for computing and data storage. However, the company is soon to announce pricing, features, and performance guarantees for both startup and multinational companies. Google’s efforts are part of an escalating battle amongst technology companies to control government and corporate computing through public clouds. This battle includes such companies as Microsoft, IBM and Amazon. Continue reading Google to Announce Plan for Cloud Computing and Data Storage

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos revealed some significant plans for the company on “60 Minutes” this week. In the not-too-distant future, Amazon plans to offer drone delivery service for its smaller packages headed for customers close to its distribution centers. Bezos expects packages weighing less than five pounds to be deliverable to addresses within a 10-mile radius by small helicopter-like devices. Amazon is calling the service “Prime Air.” Continue reading Jeff Bezos Reveals Amazon’s Plans for Drone Delivery Service

In its effort to get apps, games and entire desktops running on the cloud, Amazon is launching two new Web services. The first, AppStream, enables developers to run and render an application in Amazon’s cloud. It can then be distributed to users on a variety of platforms. The second, WorkSpaces, will allow virtual desktops to be managed through Amazon’s cloud, a solution that Amazon claims would run for less than half the cost of a company maintaining its own virtualization servers. Continue reading Amazon Unveils New Web Services to Stream From the Cloud

Verizon recently released a study that found that NSA surveillance concerns have not decreased the adoption of public cloud services by large corporations. Companies have been increasing their amount of data stored in the cloud. Public clouds remain attractive as they allow companies to decrease or increase the scale of resources, and to share the cost of ownership among users. But some big companies are looking to vendors outside the U.S. to avoid the NSA. Continue reading Verizon: Big Corporations Still Moving to the Public Cloud

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

Jeff Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon, will pay $250 million for The Washington Post and its affiliated publications. Amazon will not have a part in the purchase. Bezos alone will buy The Post and be its sole owner, while keeping the existing management and operations. The sale saves the financially troubled newspaper, and Bezos brings a new technology focus that it desperately needs as print continues to be affected by digital news competition. Continue reading Jeff Bezos, Founder of Amazon, Buys The Washington Post