Targeting Azure Storage – Virtual Studio Magazine

Visual Studio 2008, ASP.NET 3.5 Service Pack 1 (SP1) and the Azure Services Platform simplify uploading blobs to scalable, replicated storage in virtual server clusters at Microsoft data centers. Azure blobs offer a simple interface to store unstructured binary data and metadata that corresponds to files in a directory structure. Developers can quickly learn how to create, store and consume blobs of varying sizes with a simple Azure ASP.NET Web application called a WebRole.

Cisco cuddles all clouds but one – The Register

The important newsflash today is that Cisco does not plan to throw its hat in the ring and build its own compute or storage clouds and compete against the likes of Amazon, IBM, and Sun Microsystems Oracle, who are building their own clouds just like every telecom company, service provider, and Internet hosting firm seems to be doing or will soon do.

Lenovo Launches Four Xeon Servers – InformationWeek

The servers are “virtualization ready,” meaning they are available with a choice of virtualization technology from Microsoft, Novell, VMWare or Red Hat pre-installed. With the expanded memory and storage capacity, the latest computers can be used to consolidate applications running on several legacy servers into one system.

HP Plans Server Presence At VMworld – ChannelWeb

Channelweb.com reported Friday that Cisco plans to contribute its new server hardware for use at VMworld as part of an aggressive move to gain traction with its new Unified Computing System (UCS) platform and related servers. Channel sources reported last week that Cisco took HP’s place as the server provider for VMworld. VMware said in that story that HP was welcome to participate, but HP did not comment at the time.

Do we need cloud oriented architecture? – Service Oriented – ZDNet Blogs

One of the criticisms leveled at service oriented architecture is that the ‘architecture’ aspect has often been overlooked. In one of his latest analyses, ZapThink’s Ron Schmelzer wonders where architecture fits among all the excitement around cloud computing.