Data Center Provider Switch Raises 1M in IPO
[unable to retrieve full-text content]With market value of $4.2 billion, the deal is year’s second-largest tech IPO. Read More…
Source: TheWHIR

House Begins Bipartisan Push for New Limits on Surveillance Law
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Republican and Democratic leaders of the House Judiciary Committee plan to propose new restrictions on law enforcement’s access to information collected by the National Security Agency….
Source: TheWHIR

11 open source tools to make the most of machine learning

Venerable Shogun was created in 1999 and written in C++, but can be used with Java, Python, C#, Ruby, R, Lua, Octave, and Matlab. The latest version, 6.0.0, adds native support for Microsoft Windows and the Scala language.

Though popular and wide-ranging, Shogun has competition. Another C++-based machine learning library, Mlpack, has been around only since 2011, but professes to be faster and easier to work with (by way of a more integral API set) than competing libraries.

Project: Shogun
GitHub: https://github.com/shogun-toolbox/shogun

Source: InfoWorld Big Data

Microsoft Says Azure Outage Caused by Accidental Fire-Suppression Gas Release
[unable to retrieve full-text content]A chain reaction of precautionary automated shutdowns lead to seven hours of service glitches. Read More…
Source: TheWHIR

Shopify Tumbles as Citron Calls Company ‘Get-Rich-Quick Scheme'
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Shopify Inc. tumbled as much as 10 percent, the most in 11 months, after short-seller Citron Research issued a stinging rebuke of the Canadian e-commerce company, calling it a “get-rich-quick scheme.”…
Source: TheWHIR

Yahoo Triples Likely Scope of '13 Hack to 3 Billion Users
[unable to retrieve full-text content]The assessment, based on new intelligence obtained after the $4.5 billion acquisition, compares with Yahoo’s initial estimate that 1 billion accounts were compromised. …
Source: TheWHIR

MapR Converged Data Platform Now Available in Oracle Cloud Marketplace

MapR Technologies, Inc. has announced that the MapR Converged Data Platform is now available in the Oracle Cloud Marketplace bringing a modern data system to Oracle Cloud customers. A silver level member of the Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN), MapR Data Technologies enables a unified operational and analytic data service for Oracle Cloud customers.

“In today’s rapidly evolving technology landscape, organizations moving to the cloud are looking for increased flexibility and the quickest time to value,” said Sanjay Sinha, vice president cloud platform products, Oracle. “With Oracle Cloud, MapR can quickly and efficiently address the growing needs of its customers with support for Oracle’s state-of-the-art cloud platform.”

The MapR Converged Data Platform enables global access to a wide variety of data sources including big data workloads such as Apache Hadoop and Apache Spark, POSIX compliant file systems, NFS-enabled file systems, multi-model databases, and streaming data. The MapR Platform enables customers to collect data in the Oracle Cloud as well as any number of other data sources – on-premise, hybrid cloud and even other public clouds – supporting analytics, deep learning, machine learning, artificial intelligence and edge computing.

“The MapR Platform is designed to better leverage public clouds with the recent introduction of MapR Orbit Cloud Suite. Joint customers will be able to run big data workloads on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure with cloud-native operations and cloud storage integration,” said Tom Fisher, CTO, MapR. “Our participation in the Oracle Cloud Marketplace further extends our commitment to the Oracle community and enables customers to easily reap the benefits of harnessing value from all of their data. We look forward to leveraging the power of the Oracle Cloud to help us achieve our business goals.”

The Oracle Cloud Marketplace is a one-stop shop for Oracle customers seeking trusted business applications and service providers offering unique business solutions, including ones that extend Oracle Cloud Applications. Oracle Cloud is the industry’s broadest and most complete public cloud, delivering enterprise-grade services at every level of the cloud technology stack including software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS), and data as a service (DaaS).

Source: CloudStrategyMag

GoDaddy Adds More Women to Senior Leadership Roles in Diversity Push
[unable to retrieve full-text content]The increase in women in senior leadership positions from 26 to 31 percent was partly driven by a new system developed in partnership with the Clayman Institute….
Source: TheWHIR

Two Acquisitions Consolidate Local Hosting and Data Center Markets
[unable to retrieve full-text content]In two separate announcements this week, Hostopia acquires an Australian web hosting business to grow its Asia-Pacific reach, while 365 Data Centers grows its data center footprint. …
Source: TheWHIR

QTS Releases Cloud-Based FedRAMP-Compliant System

Responding to increasing Government demand for outsourced cloud and hybrid data center solutions, QTS Realty Trust has announced deployment of the nation’s first multi-tenant unemployment insurance and single state tax system in the cloud.

The Mississippi Department of Employment Security (MDES), a consortium of Mississippi, Rhode Island, Maine, and Connecticut, are the first states to go live on the system that supports the U.S. Department of Labor’s mandate to identify and develop promising repeatable practices that reduce costs throughout the workforce system.

QTS was chosen to develop and host a compliant, cloud-based solution that could accommodate multiple states with the expectation of achieving high levels of commonality. QTS provided a VMware-centric, hybrid IT solution that integrates QTS’ FedRAMP-compliant Government cloud and colocation services from QTS’ Dulles, VA, and Phoenix data centers.

“We are one step closer to creating the future for delivery of unemployment solutions in a cost-effective manner, while being conscientious stewards of our state workforce funds,” said Dale Smith, chief operating officer, MDES. “QTS has been a trusted partner in developing the innovative multi-tenant hybrid IT solution that will be utilized by many states for years to come.”

The new system is expected to attract the attention of states that may be struggling to meet their obligations to pay unemployment benefits to their customers. In Mississippi, the expected cost of operating the consortium system over the on-premise single state system will be reduced by approximately 40%, leaving much needed funding to meet the needs of Mississippi’s unemployed.

“We are pleased to support MDES and the U.S. Department of Labor in their mission to transform State and Local government processes,” said David McOmber, executive vice president, public sector & federal, QTS. “QTS’ Government Solutions is committed to providing the Federal marketplace with innovative and highly secure hybrid data center solutions.”

Source: CloudStrategyMag