Seeing the need for better content and media delivery in the cloud, Juniper Networks has announced its new line of content delivery appliances. The VXA Series Media Flow Engines will give publishers, service providers and content delivery networks the ability to stream content more efficiently and cost effectively. From Juniper: "Content delivery is the service provider's primary revenue opportunity, and a CDN has to address that opportunity and mesh with the operations, network and cloud computing commitments that form the modern service layer," said Tom Nolle, founder and president of CIMI Corporation. "Media Flow's cloud-powered content delivery architecture is the only solution to abstract and virtualize content and resourc

Google Voice and Gmail may be getting hitched, allowing users to make phone calls via Google Voice through the GTalk IM interface or directly from their mail in-box. According to the CNET article, "...Google is testing a Web-based service within Gmail that will allow users to place phone calls from their in-boxes. It's launched from the Google Chat window on the lower left-hand side of a Gmail page and allows users to place and receive calls from within their contacts through a user interface that strongly resembles the one used in Google Voice." Google Voice has been a great boon for people who want to keep records of their voicemails online, or to keep their normal phone number private, but as a service it has always routed calls thr

As posted earlier,  The CUBE is part of SiliconANGLE’s continuous coverage of cloud computing and virtualization. The CUBE is powered by SiliconANGLE in conjunction with VMware, and introduces an innovative, four-day editorial live coverage of all the angles at VMworld 2010. Join Us. Watch Live! SiliconANGLE introduces VMworld Live – The CUBE. The CUBE is part of SiliconANGLE’s continuous coverage of cloud computing and virtualization. The CUBE is powered by SiliconANGLE in conjunction with VMware and introduces an innovative four-day editorial live coverage of all the angles at VMworld 2010. Join us everyday August 30–September 2, 2010, in San Francisco at the VMworld 2010 Blogger Lounge in Moscone South, as we cover all

Broadband; we want it, and we all depend on it; but where you live can impact access and adoption of the best that service providers have to offer.  The FCC is looking to change both geographic and demographic limitations now plaguing the U.S. in the global race for broadband economic supremacy. Can combinations of a fixed and wireless-mobile strategy improve broadband economic viability by increasing access, adoption, and affordability across the broadband spectrum? Geographic Limitations The reality is significant, that where you live depends on the access and quality of broadband service available for most U.S consumers. Its impact is felt most positively in highly dense population areas like the Northeast and large urban

Cisco is a bellwether company and a leading indicator of tech market sentiment. It called the recession early and was one of the first companies to call the bottom and forecast strong growth in the first half of 2010. That's why tracking Cisco's results are so important, especially in uncertain times. Yesterday, Cisco reported its fourth quarter earnings and while profit surged 79% relative to the same period last year, and revenue grew 27%, the company's top line revenue came in somewhat below expectations. More troubling was Cisco's guidance that despite its forecasts of 18-20% revenue growth next quarter (relative to 2009's Q1), its outlook going forward is somewhat uncertain and it expressed concerns about the pace of the global econ

Today the Federal Communications Commission is voting on taking public comment on Chairman Julius Gnachowski's proposal for more control regarding net neutrality. The idea here is that the FCC would have the power to impose rules for broadband and wireless service providers to allow all applications and devices on their networks. A study at the New York University Law School indicates that such regulations would actually be debilitating to the industry overall. Charles Davidson, director of the law school's Advanced Communications Law & Policy Institute, did the study with Bret Swanson, president of technology researcher Entropy Economics in Zionsville, Indiana. Their report emphasizes the decreased amount of investment and developmen

Michael Porter kicked off the World Innovation Forum at the Nokia Theatre in NYC today.  He spoke on healthcare – a topic which affects everyone – you can a portion of this content in a video that was posted from Davos 2010.  There are also plenty of lessons around strategy that can be applied broadly. Porter believes that there is a fundamental issue with how the challenge of healthcare is framed.  Most people are concerned about the cost of healthcare (where there is a downward spiral of losing as everyone tries to shrink the bottom line) while the focus should be on increasing value for the patient.  He defined value as the patient health outcome per dollar spent.  We know in business that the worst competition is based o

Foursquare just had its 40 millionth ‘sign in’.  Many of your phone apps now ask you if you’d like to geo-locate.  Facebook is coming out with a location based update capability. What’s happening to all this information? First off, Foursquare is not a game.  I’ve been signing in since its inception and I’ve added lots of locations to its map, filling in the grid of ‘what business is operating where’.  I thought about what I was doing, since the first thing people said was, ‘you’re telling the burglar that you’re not at home’.  Yes, I was telling Foursquare where my kids go to school (I sign in off the grid), I was telling Foursquare that I love the fresh blueberry scone at Café Marmalade

The FCC seems determined in revisiting and repairing the current CableCard rules fiasco in which it chose to mandate a universal Set-Top-Box for Cable, Telco, and DBS providers. Where does a solution lie, and is the FCC going down another road of improbable acceptance? See (Boucher Backs FCC Set-Top Box Effort) The problem with a CableCard solution, in an attempt to create more competition, was the opening of current provider STB’s to access other venues, which turned out to be both technically and business concept unfriendly. Video providers are not going to share proprietary technology or a business specific customer experience to comply with such a rule. It did not make for good business economics, and led retail manufacturers down t

Data centers touch all our lives. Businesses rely on data centers to house mission critical information and run operational initiatives across the organization.Today's largest data centers feature state-of-the-art technology, operation rooms spanning thousands of square meters, and are required to hold billions of pieces of customer and business information. As demand for cloud services increase these centers comprise tens or sometimes hundreds of thousands of servers, multi-petabyte storage systems and increasingly are situated in locations where cheap energy is plentiful. In pictures, here is an inside look at ten of the world's largest data centers. (more...)