Digital Times » Cloud

Thank you for the music – Google and Microsoft see the future

Stephen — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 13:42:28 +0000

The death of the big music label is well documented. Hard copy music sales have plummeted and recording artists today make most of their money from live performances. Now the search giants are getting in on the music scene – in a big way. Microsoft says 10% of all search queries are entertainment related with 70% of these searches looking for lyrics to songs. With this in mind it launched an entertainment vertical to Bing which now serves up full-track streaming of songs from Zune and details on upcoming tours and links to where the music can be bought.
Google is listening to the music too and this year will launch a music download service that’s tied to its search engine. Apple currently commands 70% of digital music download sales in the United States. Google recently bought Simplify Media, a technology that can be used to synch and stream music bought online to any Android phone containing the technology.
What Google, Microsoft and Apple already know is that the future of music publishing lies in combining a vast cloud-based music library with online search and mobile-synching and then having the ability to sell advertising, concert tickets and merchandise around it. The video above shows what Google announced eight months ago. On the back of this, its much anticipated music download service is expected to be very good.

A promise of quality mobile websites in minutes

Stephen — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 12:23:57 +0000

Dublin-based dotMobi, a leading developer of mobile content solutions, has launched a new product aimed at SMEs – goMobi™ – and claims it can allow businesses to easily create “quality mobile websites” in minutes.
Aimed at SMEs, developers and designers, the goMobi platform is able to recognise the capabilities of all mobile phones and work across all makes and models.
“All goMobi sites automatically recognise what handset your customer is using, so goMobi sites make every phone seem like it’s a smart phone,” says Trey Harvin, CEO of dotMobi. “goMobi site owners can build a site in minutes and then focus on their business and if site owners want to make changes, they can do so in seconds.”
All goMobi sites will be hosted in the cloud so there’s no hosting charges. Registrars, web services companies, developers and designers can contact sales@goMobi.info.
Details on setting up a goMobi mobile website are at http://goMobi.info (on desktops) and at http://go.mobi (on mobile devices).

An Irish cloud community

Digital Times — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:44:59 +0000

EuroCloud Ireland, the first Irish cloud computing representative body, has started operations in Ireland. It will be an organisation “for the cloud computing community as a whole while working with the public to enhance its understanding of the role, capabilities and importance of cloud technologies,” says Noel Shannon, EuroCloud Ireland’s chairman.

EuroCloud Ireland plans to, among other things, provide policy statements on cloud computing best practice, conduct periodic surveys to gauge how the industry in Ireland is competing effectively, use sub-groups to research specific topics and issue white papers and provide a framework where service providers can benchmark themselves against industry best practice.

EuroCloud, a European network of cloud computing communities, includes vendors and industry experts and has a presence in 15 other European countries.

Further details can be found at http://www.eurocloud.org or it can be followed on twitter via www.twitter.com/eurocloud.

O2 joins the exodus to the cloud

Digital Times — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 12:58:35 +0000

Telefónica O2 Ireland has hooked up with email specialist Mimecast to offer large and small businesses a new cloud-based email management service.

The service will provide businesses with a solution for email archiving, security and continuity. Users can search 10 years of archived or deleted email without needing support from IT staff.

Recent research by Forrester Consulting, on behalf of Mimecast, measured the financial impact of using the cloud-based service. It estimates an 86% return on investment in seven months. Not a bad return.

Watch the video explaining cloud computing (in very simple terms).