Apologies for the tardiness of this post and the lack of updates today (yesterday – this post went live 5/16). My ISP decided to follow Google in its fail-a-thon….

Google Outage Lesson: Don’t Get Stuck in a Cloud – PC World

But it’s not all rainbows and light when you dance in the clouds, because eventually a storm rolls in. In an article published today entitled, “Will Your Data Disappear When Your Online Storage Site Shuts Down?” PC World’s Tom Spring reports on the many recently shuttered data storage services from big companies like AOL, HP, and Sony. Some smaller storage companies have even gone under without giving users a chance to collect their precious bits and bytes. Canadian photographer Ryan Pyle told Spring how he lost more than 7000 edited and retouched images after the storage company Digital Railroad abruptly shut its doors last year.

Microsoft Targets Gaps In Virtualization Portfolio – ChannelWeb

Microsoft’s stance has been that a feature in Hyper-V called Quick Migration can perform virtual machine migrations in just six seconds, and partners have said this is sufficient for most scenarios. But Windows Server 2008 R2 will have Live Migration built in, giving Microsoft’s foes one less point on which to harp.

EPA Sanctions Energy Star Specification for Servers – eWeek

The new specifications do not pertain to blade servers, which will be included in a separate initiative. The Energy Star program decided to separate standard x86-type servers from the denser, more powerful and hotter-running blades due to industry doubts about the accuracy of the metric used to measure server energy use when the machines are idle.

Colocation stunts data centre tier upgrades – iTnews Australia

Driven by requirements like reducing power consumption and increasing rack densities, data centres are exploring options such as modular plant design and increased ambient operating temperatures in the suites to get that little bit more from existing facilities.

But they can’t enforce efficiencies onto the customers in those suites, in some cases preventing them from achieving whole-of-centre benchmarks such as tier-level increases.

Asus Sends $420 Seashell Netbook To U.S. Market – Sci-Tech Today

ASUSTeK Computer has introduced the Asus EEE PC 1008HA netbook, also known as Seashell, in the United Kingdom and it’s headed for the U.S. market. The $420 Asus Seashell has a 10-inch screen, weighs 1.1 kg, and is one inch deep. The Asus netbook has an Intel Atom processor and Asus said it delivers six hours of battery life.