Mobile Cloud Computing Subscribers to Total Nearly One Billion by 2014

Experts say that the number of mobile cloud computing subscribers worldwide will grow rapidly over the next five years, rising from 42.8 million subscribers in 2008, (approximately 1.1% of all mobile subscribers) to just over 998 million in 2014 (nearly 19%). Mobile cloud applications move the computing power and data storage away from mobile phones and into the cloud, bringing apps and mobile computing to not just smartphone users but a much broader range of mobile subscribers.

According to senior analists; “From 2008 through 2010, subscriber numbers will be driven by location-enabled services, particularly navigation and map applications. A total of 60% of the mobile Cloud application subscribers worldwide will use an application enabled by location during these years.”

Some quite innovative applications are already commercially available. Lock manufacturer Schlage, or example, has launched LiNK – a keyless lock system for the home that enables subscribers to remotely control not only the door lock, but heating/cooling, security cameras and light monitors, all via PC or mobile device.





Business productivity applications will soon dominate the mix of mobile cloud applications, particularly collaborative document sharing, scheduling, and sales force management apps.

Experts expect some or all of the major PaaS platforms — Google, Amazon AWS, and Force.com – to market their mobile capabilities aggressively starting in 2010.

Experts conclude by reiterating their findings that; “By 2014, mobile cloud computing will become the leading mobile application development and deployment strategy, displacing today’s native and downloadable mobile applications.”

HP Unveils Scale-Out Computing Hardware For Data Centers

The ProLiant SL server line is a lightweight, power-efficient modular computing system for companies with large data centers that support cloud computing environments.













Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) on Wednesday introduced a lightweight, power-efficient modular computing system for companies with large data centers that support cloud computing environments.

The new HP ProLiant SL server line, the latest addition to the HP ExSO portfolio for scale-out computing, comprises an open 2U chassis, which holds fans and power supplies, and task-specific server nodes that slip into the hardware's rail-and-tray design. The ProLiant SL chassis fits into any standard rack from HP or third parties.

Next is the SL160z, which is designed for large memory-cache apps. The server has 18 dual in-line memory module slots and up to two PCI slots. Finally, the SL170z is built for large storage applications such as Web search and database apps. The server has up to six large form-factor Serial ATA or serial-attached SCSI hard drives.

The new systems are scheduled to be available in July. Pricing will vary according to configuration and order volume. HP also offers management software and services as options for the ProLiant SL product line.

Cloud computing is a type of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources are provided as a service over the Internet. Companies operating such environments include Google (NSDQ: GOOG), Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN), and Salesforce (NYSE: CRM).com. Small and midmarket companies are particularly interested in running applications on vendors' cloud computing environments in order to avoid building large IT infrastructures.

HP, Intel, and Yahoo last year launched the Open Cirrus cloud computing test bed with a goal of promoting collaboration among businesses, government agencies, and colleges and universities. More than 50 research projects are plugged into Open Cirrus.

Intel, Oracle Head For 'The Cloud'

CEO Paul Otellini discusses plans for the public and private cloud at OpenWorld 2008.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Intel and Oracle, which have partnered for 15 years, are heading for the cloud, Intel CEO Paul Otellini announced at Oracle OpenWorld 2008 Tuesday.

"Today Intel and Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) are announcing that they're taking the enterprise aspect of cloud computing and driving it outwards," Otellini said. The two will work on security and flexibility for migration between private and public clouds, and on industry standards for this migration.

Earlier in the week at OpenWorld, Oracle announced that it has partnered with Amazon to let customers deploy and back up its applications in the cloud.

Otellini also unveiled some of Intel's (NASDAQ: INTC) other plans, bringing other Intel executives on stage to elaborate. These include a new toolset to help C++ developers learn about parallel programming, and details of when products based on forthcoming Nehalem chip will ship.

By tackling the migration between private and public clouds, Intel and Oracle are going head to head with VMware, whose vCloud initiative, announced last week at VMworld 2008 in Las Vegas, will do the same thing. Oracle has its own hypervisor, (define) based on the Xen open source hypervisor.

Enterprises can now license Oracle's Database 11g, Fusion Middleware and Enterprise Manager over Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). It also introduced a secure backup module for Amazon's Simple Storage Service (S3).

Oracle is itself leveraging virtualization heavily within its own infrastructure, and recently announced its VM Templates suite, which combines Oracle Database 11g, Enterprise Manager 10g, Siebel CRM 8 and Enterprise Linux, with all the applications preinstalled and preconfigured.


To elaborate on his announcement about working with Oracle, Otellini brought out Renee James, vice president and general manager of Intel's software solutions group. "Most of our datacenter customers are already using virtualization in their infrastructure behind the firewall; we want to help them take it out into the public cloud," James said.

She added that Intel has added several features in its CPU and chipsets to ensure the best performance for virtualization, and "we're delighted to see Oracle's getting a 17 percent performance improvement on the Oracle virtual machine using the hardware features we've put in."

The move to multicore
Turning to parallel computing, James said that, within the next couple of years, all Intel's processors will be multicore, and, to help C++ developers prepare for this, Intel has come up with a new set of tools for C++ developers called Intel Parallel Studio.

Intel will run a beta trial for most components of Intel Parallel Studio from November through May 2009.

Intel's Otellini also announced that Intel will go into production in the fourth quarter with the Nehalem chip for desktops and workstations. It will offer a product for database servers which will be available from its hardware partners in the first quarter of 2009, he added.

Nehalem was the code name for the processor when it was in development, but it's official name is the Core i7.