Google tries wowing the world with a look at its data centers

Google only rarely gives outsiders a look at its data centers, but today it's trying to make up for lost time with a large online photo gallery and Street View tour of the computing hardware.

The company launched a new site, "Where the Internet Lives" with a lot of eye candy for people who enjoy racks of computer gear, raised-floor ventilation systems, multicolored cables, and massive air-conditioning chillers. Urs Hoelzle, Google's senior vice president for technical infrastructure, announced the site in a blog post today.

It's short on details for those who want to eye Google's servers up close, … Read more

Chip startup Calxeda raises $55 million for ARM-based servers

Calxeda, the startup that's building data centers with chips normally found in cell phones, has raised an additional $55 million, signaling that its low-power server technology may be gaining traction.

The company, which was founded four years ago by former Intel and Marvell engineer Barry Evans, is an early proponent of using ARM architecture in servers rather than traditional x86 designs popularized by Intel and Advanced Micro Devices.

"This significant infusion of capital will accelerate the exciting trajectory we've been on for the past four years," Evans said in a statement. "Businesses require a more … Read more

Huawei will have tough time cracking U.S. data center market

By product line, Huawei looks like any other data center equipment provider. Storage, networking, and security software rolls out at a steady clip and market wins -- mostly in China and emerging markets -- follow.

Except for the U.S., where Huawei is a vendor that rankles national security experts and politicians regularly. When it comes to networking and telecom gear, Huawei is a relatively small player in the U.S. In fact, most IT buyers will recite the top vendors easily -- Cisco Systems, Juniper Networks, and Hewlett-Packard. Huawei might as well not exist.

In emerging markets Huawei is … Read more

iPhone 5 so far: One road warrior's two-week test

Two weeks in, I've got a better feel for the iPhone 5, both good and bad.

After upgrading from the iPhone 4S to the 5 two weeks ago yesterday, I've been on the road -- bouncing between the east and west coasts. That's plenty of opportunity to test the iPhone 5's mettle.

The good, the bad, the meh:

Wi-Fi: This was the first gotcha. After arriving at my destination in Philadelphia, a Wi-Fi network I needed to access didn't take -- despite working fine with a host of other devices, including an iPhone 3GS and … Read more

Intel shows off personal cloud for consumers, small business

SAN FRANCISCO--Intel is getting into the personal cloud storage game with the introduction of its own Atom processor-based storage solutions aimed towards both consumers and small businesses.

Essentially, these are network-attached storage appliances powered by either the Intel Atom D2550 or D2500 processors for securing, backing up and sharing content through the cloud. The cloud technology comes in through an exposed HTML IP address (with a secure log-in), and the end user can access that IP address either through a regular desktop browser or it can look like a drive.

Intel said it has been focused on developing reference architectures … Read more

Facebook groups gets Dropbox file-sharing option

Facebook users can now share their Dropbox-stored files from inside their Facebook groups, the cloud storage service announced today.

The two companies have partnered up to roll out the new integration today. Soon, all users will have the Dropbox option in their groups.

"Now you can share notes with your study group, add the latest game schedule to your basketball team's group, or post a birthday video to your family's group at lightning speed from wherever you are," Dropbox engineer Chris Varenhorst wrote in a blog post.

To share a file, users can click on the &… Read more

NYT story on data center waste scares some, frustrates others

The New York Times today kicked of an investigative series on how the cloud's physical structures are affecting the environment with a first installment that offers some scary stats about energy waste. But some say the story unfairly depicts an Internet industry that has been making major strides in this area.

Taking into account a year's worth of reporting and research, the Times' James Glanz concludes that most data centers are wasting huge amounts of energy, which, puts the information industry "at odds with its image of sleek efficiency and environmental friendliness."

"Online companies typically … Read more

Cloud-storage Box boosts its upload speed

Box, the cloud storage company that serves companies including LinkedIn, McAfee, and DirectTV, launched a service today that is suppose to make file transfers from the cloud up to 10 times faster.

The Box service lets businesses and individual consumers store their files in the cloud, much like competitors Dropbox and Google Drive. But Whitney Bouck, Box's general manager of enterprise, said that Box's new feature puts it ahead of other cloud offerings.

"We basically have the fastest cloud on the market," she said.

The new feature, called Box Accelerator, is a home-grown method for easing … Read more

Apple iPhone 5 event adds to Intel woes

It's been a bad week for Intel.

The earnings warning today capped a week that began ominously when Apple sent out invites for an event -- widely expected to be the unveiling of the iPhone 5 -- that could bury Intel's biggest annual conference.

Call it bad luck, but the three-day Intel Developer Forum will peak on September 12, the same day of the big Apple event (which, by the way, CNET will be live-blogging).

And it's probably not a stretch to say that Apple's announcement will generate a mountain of news before, during, and after … Read more