How to set up an HP Cloud account

The HP cloud service is now available to the general public. Signing up to use their service is a similar process to creating an AWS (Amazon Web Services) account.

Another cloud provider

HP want to supply the entire cloud space. You can buy a ready-rolled data center in a shipping container, integrate HP software with the private cloud flagship VMware vCloud, and get support through social media. HP now offer cloud services, with IT Service Management at the SaaS layer, dev and test at the SaaS layer, and computing, storage and CDN at the IaaS layer. HP’s cloud IaaS offering opened up for beta testing in May. The compute service is similar to what you can get from the reigning champion AWS — there’s an API for programmers and an easy-to-use web-based control panel for normal people. You can run a small instance for free for a while, and there’s all the cloud stuff of self-service, massive scaling, and utility billing.

The technology

HP has bet its cloud future on the success of the OpenStack cloud system. The HP cloud contains open source building blocks from the OpenStack project. The HP guys added all the parts required to turn OpenStack into a money-making service.

The internal workings of the HP cloud aren’t exposed to the general public, so the core technology is irrelevant to customers.

How can you tell if the software hidden away in HP’s data centers is OpenStack, Cloudstack or Eucalyptus?

Will it last?

Longevity is more important to the average customer than the technology used. If you are tying an enterprise to a cloud provider for a few years, you want to do your homework. OpenStack is a young project, and HP are early adopters. If OpenStack doesn’t make it to maturity then a lot of companies will suffer, including HP. HP doesn’t needs a huge amount of revenue from its new service. If the money doesn’t roll in, the project will be canned.

Customers can happily sign up to HP cloud for the long haul. An OpenStack early demise is extremely unlikely — the OpenStack project is backed by the heavyweights of the IT world. The board of directors includes high flyers from Rackspace, Dell, and Cisco. The failure of the new HP Cloud service is also unlikely (let’s just forget about that HP TouchPad fiasco). This company is in the same weight class as IBM, Microsoft, and Google. It can spend huge amounts of time, money and resources learning how to play AWS at its own game.

Sign up for HP Cloud

And why not sign up and poke around the web control panel, to see if you like it? It takes 20 minutes, no cash, and no fancy technology. This step-by-step procedure gets you to the control panel. These steps don’t guide you through consuming the HPCloud services. Open a web browser. Go to the URL https://www.hpcloud.com/. The HPCloud home page appears, with a big GET STARTED NOW button. Any similarity to http://aws.amazon.com/ is pure coincidence.

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How to Keep Your Information Secure in the Cloud?

In 2011, hacking groups like Lulzsec and Anonymous provoked an Internet firestorm by hacking major Web sites like Fox.com and online services like Sony's PlayStation Network. Millions of user accounts were compromised. Usernames, passwords, home addresses and credit card information -- lax Web site security often allows hackers easy access to boatloads of personal information. We can blame corporations for poor security and hackers for maliciously attacking Web sites, but there's a third party often at fault in these attacks: ourselves, the users. No, it's not our fault Web sites get hacked. But poor Web safety habits put us at risk when we shouldn't be. How often do you use the same username and password? Every time you create a new profile? If someone hacked your Facebook account, could they just as easily get into your e-mail inbox? Reusing passwords -- or using weak passwords -- makes you an easy target for identity theft. Remembering multiple passwords can be a pain, but there are Web services that can help. We'll talk about one of the most popular options later in this Post. Internet cloud services -- services that store your data on a server rather than on your hard drive so you can access it from any Internet-enabled device -- are more powerful than ever before. Backing up photographs and important documents has never been easier. Google Docs and Gmail can take the place of Microsoft Word and Outlook Express. Banking sites take the place of expensive finance applications. All we have to do is be safe while we use them. Here are some simple safety tips for keeping your data secure in the cloud. First up: making your passwords as tough to crack as Fort Knox.


1: Be Alert and Play It Safe


Internet hazards like viruses are, for the most part, easy to avoid. Shady Web sites usually look shady; e-mail attachments from spam addresses are never worth opening. Antivirus software is always a smart precaution, but smart browsing is an even greater ally. What does this have to do with protecting your data in the cloud? The same rules apply when it comes to buying online or creating accounts on new Web sites: Make sure the site is trustworthy. If you're buying from a retailer you've never heard of, do a little research on them first. They could have notoriously lax security and have a history of losing customer credit card information to hacking breaches. Finally, be aware of what computers you're logged into. Browsers will often ask to save your login information and keep a login session alive as long as the browser is open. If you log in to Facebook or your e-mail account on a friend's laptop and then leave, you'll likely still be logged in to those sites. If they're trustworthy, that may not be a problem. But what if you're using a public computer? Stay logged in to one of those and anyone could gain access to your account. Yep, that would be bad. Unless you're using your own computer, remember to log out and never save your password and user information. Browse safe, and with a little luck, you'll never have to worry about anyone finding a single one of your online passwords.


2: Back Up Your Data


 If there's one piece of advice the tech savvy have been espousing for years and years, it's this: Back up your data. A power surge, faulty hard drive platter, robbery or other unexpected system failure could happen when you least expect it, and if your data isn't backed up you'll beat yourself up over it for weeks. Years ago, backing up data was an arduous task. Hard drive storage was costly, but floppy disks only held a paltry amount of data. Eventually, ZIP disks and CD burners offered enough space to facilitate backups, and DVDs and cheap hard drives made them easier still. But now we have something even better: the cloud.

Cloud storage solutions come in all shapes and sizes. Dropbox offers only a couple gigabytes of free storage, but its interface is incredibly simple to use. It creates a folder on your hard drive that's linked to the Web -- all you have to do to upload files is drag them into the folder. WindowsLiveSkydrive is designed to make it easy to view and edit Office documents in the cloud. Amazon's Cloud Drive offers 5 gigabytes of free storage and a Web interface for uploading your files. Other services, like SugarSync and Mozy, focus more on automatically backing up your important data and storing it, rather than making it easily accessible online. Here's the smartest way to backup your data: Don't rely on one service. Store files you access frequently in Dropbox and back up more in a free service like Amazon Cloud Drive.

Keep a local backup on a secondary hard drive or on an automated backup drive like Apple'sTimeCapsule. With your data securely backed up and your passwords uncrackable, there's only one thing left to be concerned about: your browsing habits.


3: Manage Passwords with LastPass 


LastPass is a password management utility that locks all of your unique passwords behind one master password. That means you can create separate logins for e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, cloud storage and everything else you do online, but still access those accounts by memorizing one single password. Web browsers will remember passwords for you, but LastPass can synchronize your information across multiple browsers and devices and fill in forms with a single click. LastPass will even help you create randomized passwords that no one will ever crack.

The service is free, but for a $1 per month premium account you gain access to the mobile version of LastPass for iOS, Android and most other mobile operating systems. What if LastPass gets hacked? That's possible, but LastPasshasprotocolsinplace to encourage users to change their master passwords in the event of a breach. More importantly, validation tools like IP and e-mail address verification make it difficult for an impostor to log in to your LastPass account. LastPass is just one example of a cloud-based service that makes managing data on the Web easier. When it comes to preserving your important pictures and files, finding the right backup services is key.

4: Don't Reuse or Share Passwords 


The annoyance of remembering passwords strikes again. It's bad enough that we tend to use simple, easy-to-remember passwords for our Web logins -- we also tend to pick one or two passwords and use them again and again for our e-mail, banking, Facebook and everything else. That's bad. In fact, that's really bad. If your password is compromised, someone could easily gain access to your e-mail account. And change that password. And then go to every site you're registered on and change those passwords -- the replacement passwords are always sent to your e-mail address. Use different passwords for different sites. At the very least, change up letters, symbols and capitalization if you plan to use the same word or phrase across multiple sites. Make absolutely sure you don't repeat a password across sites that have your credit card information or social security number. Your e-mail password is the most important. Keep it secure and don't use it for any other sites. One last password tip: Don't tell other people your passwords. Even if you trust them, it's not a particularly good idea. The more people who know your passwords, the greater the chances that those passwords could be accidentally compromised. All these password rules make our online lives more secure, but they don't make them easier. Next up: a tool for taking some of the inconvenience out of password management.


5: Play Smart with Passwords 


Passwords are designed to keep our information safe from prying eyes. They're like locks. A hacker may force the door and break your lock, but most of the time a strong lock keeps people out. But let's be honest: Passwords are annoying. Remembering them is a pain, so we often take the easy way out and use simple passwords that we won't forget. But if they're easy to remember, they're also easy to guess.

When the site RockYou.com was hacked in 2009, a security firm examined the 32 million compromised passwords and found that thousands upon thousands of users relied on the same basic phrases.

The password "123456" took first place with 290,731 hits; "12345," "123456789," "Password" and "iloveyou" rounded out the top five most-used passwords [source: Tom'sHardware].

If you use one of those passwords, change it. The more complicated your password is, the safer your data will be. It's true, complex passwords won't be as easy to recall. Find a safe place to record your passwords if you can't remember them. The best passwords combine letters, numbers and symbols into an unusual configuration. Don't take the easy route and capitalize the first letter of the word or use the numeral "1" in place of the letter "l" or a zero in place of the letter "O." Throw in a few random numbers or characters like a plus sign (+) or underscore (_) and you'll be far better off than anyone relying on "password123" or "qwerty" to keep them safe. Once you have a good password, what you do next is just as important: Don't spread it around.

How to Implement a Cloud Storage Strategy

The explosion of digital information—from e-mails and files to instant messages and electronic records—has companies of all sizes and industries grappling with not only how to best manage and secure their data, but also how to do it cost-effectively. It's being predicted that digital content will grow five-fold in the next two years, all while IT budgets are expected to grow a mere 2.3 percent in 2010.

Many IT departments are asking, "How can we ensure that we have the right tools in place to guarantee the security of our data and meet today's regulatory demands, all while keeping costs in check?"
Cloud storage provides enticing advantages to companies that need to drive cost, risk and complexity out of the information management equation. Cloud storage is on-demand, flexible storage that can scale up and down as needed. It requires no capital outlay and offers a pay-as-you-go model. But how can you determine which cloud-based solution is best for your business? Do you need a private or public cloud? Primary or secondary storage?


While increased competition in the cloud storage space is pushing costs lower, it is also forcing IT decision makers to evaluate more solutions and providers. Knowing which data to keep, what to delete, and what to retain to meet the necessary compliance and legal mandates for your business will help make your decision to implement cloud storage easier.

Developing a cloud storage strategy may seem complicated at first, but doing so can reduce costs by utilizing a shared infrastructure and shifting capital expenses to operating expenses. Before considering cloud-based services, organizations need to assess both the associated risks and benefits involved. They also need to work with service providers to understand key areas from compliance and data location to availability, recovery and viability. Businesses should consider the following seven elements before implementing a cloud storage strategy:

1. For starters, rethink your storage strategy

Take time to evaluate your organization's data and policies. Establish metrics and reports, understand your organization's trends and think about what can be purged. Assess moving away from high-priced Tier 1 storage and consider when it would make sense to utilize secondary storage. Ensure that your storage polices are in line with your legal and compliance policies, as many companies often keep too much. Finally, focus on the bottom line. Rethinking your storage strategy can help you reduce both the risks and costs of managing your information, so it's a good time to start asking these questions.

2. Understand your needs

Are you looking for primary storage for applications and file server replacements, secondary storage for data protection or archiving for business continuance and disaster recovery? Understand the differences in standardization and cost between closed private clouds, community private clouds, enterprise-class public clouds and public commodity clouds. Most likely, you'll choose a combination, which leads to the next consideration: versatility.

3. Choose a versatile solution

Storing data in the cloud is one thing, but data is diverse in its format and the policies that govern it. Implementing a versatile cloud storage solution is vital in assessing between critical and non-critical data. Further, it's important to understand not just how your cloud storage provider can store your data, but what they can enable you to do with your data.

This is where having a provider with an enterprise-class, storage-as-a-service infrastructure is key so that you can meet an array of information management challenges—from archiving and discovery to PC and server backup to e-mail management and escrow services. Having a full house of services can make an immediate impact on the way your company can capture, store and protect corporate information. This, in turn, impacts the way you can enable cost reduction, optimize compliance and ensure security.


4. Understand your options

Not all cloud storage is the same, and there are distinct differences between standard cloud storage and value-added, storage-as-a-service solutions. Storage-as-a-service models are based on enterprise-class infrastructure not found in standard cloud storage. They come with capabilities and services that make stored data actionable, reduce risk, create efficiencies and control costs. All this can help companies further their peace of mind.


5. Focus on security, access and control

Ensure that you understand the provider's method for getting the data from your PCs, servers, and/or applications to their data center. Make sure you understand the chain of custody once the data leaves your office, as well as the provider's recovery process should disaster strike. Select a service provider who understands your business, its size and the types of data uses that may arise. Lastly, consider the type of business the solution provider runs and the type of data that needs to be protected before choosing a solution based on enterprise storage infrastructure (which adds levels of security, scale, control and access not found in standard cloud storage). 6. Take an information management approach Remember that storage-as-a-service is not just about cheap storage or backing up your data to be able to recover it when you need to. It's about the overall management of your data. Storage-as-a-service should reduce the risks and costs of information storage and protection from rising storage costs, litigation, regulatory compliance and disaster recovery.

7. Don't go on faith alone

Investigate the provider's track record. Seek a trusted partner who offers deep experience and a history of protecting and managing vital information. Look at the number of customers the provider has, the number of years it has been providing the service, and the amount of data it currently stores. Ensure that you select a provider that adheres to necessary compliance protocols such as external audits and security certifications. All will be indicators that you're making a wise investment.



When deciding which cloud storage strategy or solution is right for your business, it's important to assess all your needs and options so that you can choose a solution and provider which can meet each and every requirement.

The PC Is Dead

The rapid rise of cloud computing, coupled with a slew of increasingly powerful mobile computing devices, is killing the PC faster than analysts had predicted.

In fact, some now say, the desktop PC is essentially dead – an immobile zombie that's already irrelevant to many consumers and soon will be to businesses, too.

Yesterday's announcement of Apple's iCloud, which will store content online and synch all of a user's Apple devices wirelessly, is the latest in a series of nails being hammered into the PC coffin. Smart phones and tablets have given rise to a new consumer demand for immediate information at our fingertips, which John Quain, industry expert and longtime technology writer, said has made the desktop computer defunct.
"We don’t need PCs anymore," Quain told BusinessNewsDaily. "They are dead."

PC sales slide

The two-stage death march is evident in surprisingly dim statistics released recently.

Two of the world's largest manufactures of personal computers, HP and Dell, recently reported significant losses in sales to consumers. PC sales to individuals for quarter ending April 30 plunged 23 percent at HP and 7 percent at Dell.

PC sales to businesses have fared better. But overall, a turning point has clearly passed.

This spring, Gartner, Inc. released statistics showing PC sales overall dropped 1.1 percent compared to last year. Meanwhile, IMS Research has forecasted a whopping 213 percent growth for tablets.

While the PC has long been considered a necessity in the workplace, Quain said mobile devices are now giving businesses the chance to break from that mold. "I see a lot of large enterprises and small businesses reconsidering the need for a desktop computer," Quain said. "The tablet computers are much cheaper, and give small and medium-size business another option so they don’t have to invest in a desktop computer."

Meanwhile laptops, considered to be PC's, are changing rapidly. Apple's Mac Air has the instant-on capability of a tablet computer, and isn't much bigger than one. Intel recently announced Ultrabook, a thin, light tablet-like laptop with a touch screen. The company thinks it'll make up half the laptop market by the end of next year.

And earlier this year, Motorola released the Atrix 4G, a smartphone that docks to a laptop-like device that's really just a screen, keyboard and giant battery. The smartphone is the brains of the operation.

Gone from campuses

Nowhere is the PC demise more stark than among the consumers of tomorrow.

At Penn State University, Director of Education Technology Services Allan Gyorke said the former student staple is now rarely spotted in dorm rooms.

"The desktop PC is dead," Gyorke said, estimating that 95 percent of students now bring a laptop or tablet media device to campus instead of using a traditional PC in their dorm room.

Those newer devices, he said, are easier to store and easier to set up.

While not ready to put the final nail in the PC's coffin, Roger Kay, an industry expert and president of Endpoint Technologies Associates, said the growing use of media tablets and smartphones is indeed pushing it out the door.
"Death might be an over-exaggeration, but the wind has been taken out of the PC’s sails," Kay said. "There is a lot of momentum going the other way."

With tablets and smartphones having as many computer capabilities as a desktop PC, Kay said it's only naturally for people to choose the handier option. "It is hugely more convenient," Kay said. "It immediately changed my lifestyle, in that it offered a type of mobile computing that wasn’t available before."

The wireless connection

The explosion of wireless networks is also linked to the PC's demise. You no longer need to be seated at a desktop computer that is plugged into the phone line next to it to access the Internet, Gyorke noted.

"If there is a wireless connection somewhere, people want to access it," Gyorke said. "That is a real drawing force."

Apple's new iCloud will help seal the desktop's fate by spurring the use of all cloud-based services, Quain said. "It is going to make everyone feel more confident in using those cloud services."

Other analysts point out that the iCloud is mostly an Apple affair, but that Google, Microsoft and others who want a foothold in the cloud are already racing in that direction, and iCloud will only heat that race up. Evolve or die Still, even as he acknowledged that PC alternatives like the iPad and other media tablets are slowing personal computer sales, George Shiffler, research director at Gartner, Inc., said he expects the PC to survive by evolving into something else. "PCs are a very flexible platform," Shiffler said. “There will be something like a PC (in the future), but it won't be exactly what it is like today.” One scenario, he suggested, is to have a further merge of the television and computer. "I think we may see the desktop move to an all-in-one screen," Shiffler said. "Then it becomes a media center." Gyorke said he actually sees the future of personal computers headed in the same direction as tablets, with touch screens and app centers. "The interface will be very similar to the iPad," Gyorke said.

How Cloud Computing Works

Introduction to How Cloud Computing Works

A typical cloud computing system. See more computer networking pictures.

Let's say you're an executive at a large corporation. Your particular responsibilities include making sure that all of your employees have the right hardware and software they need to do their jobs. Buying computers for everyone isn't enough -- you also have to purchase software or software licenses to give employees the tools they require. Whenever you have a new hire, you have to buy more software or make sure your current software license allows another user. It's so stressful that you find it difficult to go to sleep on your huge pile of money every night.

Soon, there may be an alternative for executives like you. Instead of installing a suite of software for each computer, you'd only have to load one application. That application would allow workers to log into a Web-based service which hosts all the programs the user would need for his or her job.

Remote machines owned by another company would run everything from e-mail to word processing to complex data analysis programs. It's called cloud computing, and it could change the entire computer industry.

In a cloud computing system, there's a significant workload shift. Local computers no longer have to do all the heavy lifting when it comes to running applications. The network of computers that make up the cloud handles them instead. Hardware and software demands on the user's side decrease. The only thing the user's computer needs to be able to run is the cloud computing system's interface software, which can be as simple as a Web browser, and the cloud's network takes care of the rest.

There's a good chance you've already used some form of cloud computing. If you have an e-mail account with a Web-based e-mail service like Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail or Gmail, then you've had some experience with cloud computing. Instead of running an e-mail program on your computer, you log in to a Web e-mail account remotely. The software and storage for your account doesn't exist on your computer -- it's on the service's computer cloud.

Cloud Computing Architecture

When talking about a cloud computing system, it's helpful to divide it into two sections: the front end and the back end. They connect to each other through a network, usually the Internet. The front end is the side the computer user, or client, sees. The back end is the "cloud" section of the system.

The front end includes the client's computer (or computer network) and the application required to access the cloud computing system. Not all cloud computing systems have the same user interface. Services like Web-based e-mail programs leverage existing Web browsers like Internet Explorer or Firefox. Other systems have unique applications that provide network access to clients. On the back end of the system are the various computers, servers and data storage systems that create the "cloud" of computing services. In theory, a cloud computing system could include practically any computer program you can imagine, from data processing to video games. Usually, each application will have its own dedicated server.

A central server administers the system, monitoring traffic and client demands to ensure everything runs smoothly. It follows a set of rules called protocols and uses a special kind of software called middleware. Middleware allows networked computers to communicate with each other.

cloud computing company has a lot of clients, there's likely to be a high demand for a lot of storage space. Some companies require hundreds of digital storage devices. Cloud computing systems need at least twice the number of storage devices it requires to keep all its clients' information stored. That's because these devices, like all computers, occasionally break down. A cloud computing system must make a copy of all its clients' information and store it on other devices. The copies enable the central server to access backup machines to retrieve data that otherwise would be unreachable. Making copies of data as a backup is called redundancy.




Cloud Computing Applications

The applications of cloud computing are practically limitless. With the right middleware, a cloud computing system could execute all the programs a normal computer could run. Potentially, everything from generic word processing software to customized computer programs designed for a specific company could work on a cloud computing system.

Why would anyone want to rely on another computer system to run programs and store data? Here are just a few reasons:

• Clients would be able to access their applications and data from anywhere at any time. They could access the cloud computing system using any computer linked to the Internet. Data wouldn't be confined to a hard drive on one user's computer or even a corporation's internal network.
• It could bring hardware costs down. Cloud computing systems would reduce the need for advanced hardware on the client side. You wouldn't need to buy the fastest computer with the most memory, because the cloud system would take care of those needs for you. Instead, you could buy an inexpensive computer terminal. The terminal could include a monitor, input devices like a keyboard and mouse and just enough processing power to run the middleware necessary to connect to the cloud system. You wouldn't need a large hard drive because you'd store all your information on a remote computer.
• Corporations that rely on computers have to make sure they have the right software in place to achieve goals. Cloud computing systems give these organizations company-wide access to computer applications. The companies don't have to buy a set of software or software licenses for every employee. Instead, the company could pay a metered fee to a cloud computing company.
• Servers and digital storage devices take up space. Some companies rent physical space to store servers and databases because they don't have it available on site. Cloud computing gives these companies the option of storing data on someone else's hardware, removing the need for physical space on the front end.
• Corporations might save money on IT support. Streamlined hardware would, in theory, have fewer problems than a network of heterogeneous machines andoperating systems.
• If the cloud computing system's back end is a grid computing system, then the client could take advantage of the entire network's processing power. Often, scientists and researchers work with calculations so complex that it would take years for individual computers to complete them. On a grid computing system, the client could send the calculation to the cloud for processing. The cloud system would tap into the processing power of all available computers on the back end, significantly speeding up the calculation.

Cloud Computing Concerns

Perhaps the biggest concerns about cloud computing are security and privacy. The idea of handing over important data to another company worries some people. Corporate executives might hesitate to take advantage of a cloud computing system because they can't keep their company's information under lock and key.

The counterargument to this position is that the companies offering cloud computing services live and die by their reputations. It benefits these companies to have reliable security measures in place. Otherwise, the service would lose all its clients. It's in their interest to employ the most advanced techniques to protect their clients' data.

Privacy is another matter. If a client can log in from any location to access data and applications, it's possible the client's privacy could be compromised. Cloud computing companies will need to find ways to protect client privacy. One way is to use authentication techniques such as user names and passwords. Another is to employ an authorizationformat -- each user can access only the data and applications relevant to his or her job.

Some questions regarding cloud computing are more philosophical. Does the user or company subscribing to the cloud computing service own the data? Does the cloud computing system, which provides the actual storage space, own it? Is it possible for a cloud computing company to deny a client access to that client's data? Several companies, law firms and universities are debating these and other questions about the nature of cloud computing.

How will cloud computing affect other industries? There's a growing concern in the IT industry about how cloud computing could impact the business of computer maintenance and repair. If companies switch to using streamlined computer systems, they'll have fewer IT needs. Some industry experts believe that the need for IT jobs will migrate to the back end of the cloud computing system.

Another area of research in the computer science community is autonomic computing

. An autonomic computing system is self-managing, which means the system monitors itself and takes measures to prevent or repair problems. Currently, autonomic computing is mostly theoretical. But, if autonomic computing becomes a reality, it could eliminate the need for many IT maintenance jobs.