1. AWS Drops Prices For Windows On-Demand EC2 Instances Up To 26% As Competition Intensifies | TechCrunch
The giant has cut the price of certain instances by a quarter, as price competition in the infrastructure market continues to heat up. This announcement came just hours after GCE was given wider release to developers (see #3). Amazon believe that they can continue to squeeze margins going forward; citing scale, purchasing power and better efficiencies as drivers.
2. New Tag Management Tools in the EC2 Console | AWS
This new feature will allow AWS users to browse through their setup via tags that identify their EC2 instances. They can also add/remove multiple tags at once. This is expected to save tag-friendly users a significant amount of time.
3. Google Opens Up Compute Engine To All Developers Who Buy Its $400/Month Gold Support Package, Drops Instance Prices By 4% | TechCrunch
In an unprecedented announcement, Google said on Thursday that it would be releasing its infrastructure service to developers who sign up for its Gold Support package. Previously, prospective users had to be invited or go through Google’s sales team to get access. It also announced a 4% price drop for all instances, diskless standard instances and improvements to its admin console.
4. Six Tips For A Smooth Cloud Migration | Rackspace
Although there are many benefits of moving to the cloud, business often hit sore spots when transferring their system. Here, Rackspace outline ways that this can be avoided, citing preparation and monitoring among other things.
5. AWS adds File-Syncing to Compete with Dropbox and Google’s Drive | GigaOM Pro
Amazon has added file syncing to Cloud Drive; putting it in line with the services of Dropbox and Google Drive. This will allow users to view up-to-date documents on a range of devices. This seems unusual for AWS, who typically focus on enterprise customers, but it may be a defensive play against lower level competitors moving into their patch.
6. GCE Feels Fast, UI Needs Work | Stackdriver
Stackdriver engineer Joey Imbasciano was invited by Google to try out and review their product weeks before its release. Aside from a few teething problems associated with the beta stage, his experience was positive. Read the full review on the Stackdriver blog.
7. Amazon, AWS and the public cloud paradox | Archimedius
Greg Ness explores the idea of the hybrid cloud and whether Amazon should have, from a marketing standpoint, used it to gain leverage with enterprise players and delimit themselves from the idea of the public cloud. It is certainly an angle that VMware is trying going forward.
