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Responding to the news, Greenpeace International executive director Kumi Naidoo said: "A charge of piracy is being laid against men and women whose only crime is to be possessed of a conscience. This is an outrage and represents nothing less than an assault on the very principle of peaceful protest. Any claim that these activists are pirates is as absurd as it is abominable. It is utterly irrational, it is designed to intimidate and silence us, but we will not be cowed.
"This is now the most serious threat to Greenpeace's peaceful environmental activism since agents of the French secret service bombed the Rainbow Warrior and killed our colleague Fernando Pereira because we stood against French nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific. Three decades later the activists of the Arctic Sunrise also took a stand, this time against the powerful vested interests of the oil industry, and they could now face the prospect of long periods in a Russian jail. I call on people from across the world, anybody who ever raised their voice in support of something they believe in, and especially the good people of Russia, to come to their aid at this moment and join us in demanding the release of the Arctic 30.
"The courageous crew of the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise protested at that Gazprom rig because they felt compelled to bear witness to the slow but unrelenting destruction of the Arctic. The ice is retreating, oil companies are moving north to drill for the fuels that are driving that melting, species are at risk, including our own. Thirty men and women, some young, others not-so-young, all with a moral compass, actually did something about it. Just as in years past, the resolve and courage required to win a better future for our children requires personal sacrifice, a sacrifice the Arctic 30 are now making. They made their stand in the interests of us all. Now we must come together and stand with them."
The charge has so far been laid against crew member Ana Paula Alminhana from Brazil, and freelance videographer Kieron Bryan from the UK.
The 28 activists, a freelance photographer and the freelance videographer, were involved in a protest against the Gazprom Arctic drilling platform Prirazlomnaya on September 18th. Two activists tried to climb the side of the platform and hang a banner. Today Greenpeace is releasing photographs of the moment Russian security services abseiled from a helicopter onto the deck of the Arctic Sunrise and seized the ship at gunpoint. The photographs clearly show peaceful activists posing no threat to the Russian authorities.
"I ask people to look at those photographs and decide if the peaceful campaigners with their arms raised, with guns pointed at their chests, could ever be described as pirates," said Kumi Naidoo.
Last week President Putin himself scoffed at the notion that the Greenpeace protesters were pirates. He said that "It is absolutely evident that they are, of course, not pirates."
The number of people worldwide who have written to Russian embassies demanding the release of the activists and freelancers today passed 750-thousand. Others calling for the release of the Arctic 30 include Nobel peace prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the actor Ewan McGregor.
The Captain of the Arctic Sunrise, Peter Willcox - now in a Russian jail - was the Captain of the Rainbow Warrior when it was bombed in 1985.
Greenpeace International press desk: +31 20 718 2470 or
Greenpeace International picture desk: +31 20 718 2471
Greenpeace International video desk: +31 20 718 2472
Photos of the boarding: http://photo.greenpeace.org/C.aspx?VP3=ViewBox&STID=27MZIFVWBH31&CT=Story
Any charge of piracy against peaceful activists who tried to protect the Arctic environment has no merit in international law.


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Have a super special friend with whom you really enjoy getting wasted? Looking to repay them for that one time they dropped cash for the weekend party supply like five weeks in a row and you didn't contribute jack because you needed to save your paycheck for "legitimate" expenses like "gas" and "groceries?" Look, no further, deadbeat friend.
- Reposted by

subset: commoncrawl


text:
HA! Apologies for the daft name, it's just seemed to work (thanks to @kath_hartley).
This is a nice, well balanced and spicy cocktail – super simple to make and lots of fun to drink! You can mess about with the chilli of course, I'd like to try it with some chipotle or perhaps something superfruity like habanero.


text:
TrendLabsSM 2Q 2014 Security RoundupTurning the TablesResponding to Evolving Tactics
on Cyber Attacks
Web product/service providers hit by Heartbleed and other critical flaws
Throngs of Web users' hearts skipped a beat with the discovery of the Heartbleed bug. The flaw affected around 5% of 1 million of the most popular domains worldwide.
Read more
Severe breaches and DDoS attacks on big brands called for effective incident responses
Severe attacks against big brands affected millions of users this quarter, continuing the trend seen in the first quarter of 2014.
Read more
Online banking malware and ransomware creators challenged new platforms
The profit seekers behind ransomware, which force victims to pay up to regain access to their devices/accounts, spawned versions that ran on mobile devices.
Read more
Trend Micro aided law enforcement, banded with the Tokyo MPD, and helped with high-profile arrests
This quarter again reinforced the real-world effects of public-private partnerships (PPPs) against cybercrime worldwide.
Read more
Global market forces, regulations, and courts took a stance for user privacy
A year after former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden revealed state-sponsored monitoring, the general public started taking a stronger stand with regard to data privacy.
Read more


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Glycomet GP Forte 0.5mg Tablet 10'S
By Usv Private Ltd Prescription Needed
|In Stock
|Out of stock
Please note, before you can choose the low cost generic option, please ask your doctor to add the generic drug to your prescription.
What is GLYCOMET?
- GLYCOMET contains Glimepiride and Metformin
Tell your doctor about all your medical conditions including, if you:
- are allergic to GLYCOMET or to any of its ingredients
- have a condition called metabolic acidosis, including diabetic ketoacidosis
- have liver or kidney or heart problems
- have insulin dependent diabetes
- are in a diabetic coma
- are alcoholic
- GLYCOMET may pass into breast milk. It should not be taken during breast feeding
- Tell your doctor if you are pregnant or planning to become pregnant or breast feeding
Tell your doctor about all the medicines you take including:
- phenylbutazone, azopropazone, oxyphenbutazone, used to treat pain and inflammation
- other medicines to treat diabetes mellitus (such as insulin or metformin)
- anti-arrhythmic agents used to control abnormal heart beat such as disopyramide
- fibrates, used to lower cholesterol level in blood
- enalapril, used in the management of high blood pressure
- fluoxetine
- allopurinol, probenecid, sulfinpyrazone, used in the treatment of gout
- certain antibiotics such as tetracyclines, chloramphenicol, fluconazole, miconazole, quinolones, clarithromycin
- medicines to increase circulation when given in a high dose intravenous infusion (pentoxifylline)
- levothyroxine
- Take GLYCOMET exactly as prescribed
- Your doctor will usually start you on a low dose and increase your dose slowly to control your blood sugar level
- Swallow the medicine whole with at least half glass of water
- Do not crush or chew the medicine
- The dose of GLYCOMET depends on your needs, condition and results of blood and urine sugar tests and is determined by your doctor
If you take more GLYCOMET
- If you have taken too much GLYCOMET or an additional dose there is a danger of hypoglycaemia and therefore you should instantly consume enough sugar (e.g. a small bar of sugar cubes, sweet juice, sweetened tea) and inform a doctor immediately
If you forget to take GLYCOMET
- If you forget to take a dose, do not take a double dose to make up for forgotten doses
If you stop taking GLYCOMET
- Continue to take this medicine as long as your doctor prescribes
Like all medicine, this medicine can cause side effects, although not everybody gets them.
- allergic reactions (including inflammation of blood vessels, often with skin rash) which may develop into serious reactions with difficulty in breathing, fall in blood pressure and sometimes progressing to shock
- abnormal liver function including yellowing of the skin and eyes (jaundice), problems with the bile flow (cholestasis), inflammation of the liver (hepatitis) or liver failure
- allergy (hypersensitivity) of the skin such as itching, rash, hives and increased sensitivity to sun
- severe hypoglycaemia including loss of consciousness, seizures or coma
- lactic acidosis (a buildup of an acid in the blood) that can cause death
- hypoglycemia (low blood sugar)
- lower blood sugar than normal (hypoglycaemia)
- decrease in the number of blood cells
The contents of this website are for informational purposes only and not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Please seek the advice of a physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Do not disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website.
Glimepiride and Metformin Tablet - Drug Information
Glimepiride and Metformin Tablet : Therapeutic Uses, Warning and Precautions, Interactions, Directions for Use, Side Effects and Storage
The contents of this website are for informational purposes only and not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Please seek the advice of a physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Do not disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website.


text:
It's Africa's Turn
In Washington last Friday, I boarded a flight to Addis Ababa at 11:00 am. By the time I arrived in Johannesburg, Egypt's president of 30 plus years was no longer in power. The pace of change in the Middle East and North Africa is mind boggling. Anyone doing business in the region is trying to grasp the implications, and the risk profile of doing business in some of the countries has suddenly changed.
In the meantime, sub-Saharan Africa is looking more and more attractive to investors. At least that was the consensus at today's MIGA-sponsored seminar on managing political risk for cross-border investment. For too long, Western media has portrayed the region as a place of war and famine.


text:
A Commentary on the Shorter Catechism
Paperback, 220 Pages
Price: $18.00
Prints in 3-5 business days
A Commentary on the Westminster Shorter Catechism by Alexander Whyte
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Product Details
- 9781446687055
- Copyright
- Post Tenebras Lux Books (Standard Copyright License)
- Published
- November 23, 2010
- Language
- English
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- 220
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- Product ID
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Martial Abilities
The term 'martial ability' refers to any special ability normally granted to a character through levels in a martial adept class. Martial abilities fall into two broad categories: maneuvers and stances. A martial maneuver is a discrete extraordinary or supernatural effect that is temporarily expended after it is used. A stance, in contrast, is an assumed fighting position that is never expended and is always available to a martial adept. A martial adept is the term uses for anyone who is able to initiate maneuvers, and any class that grants access to martial powers is a martial adept class.
Unlike with spells or powers, a character can use any martial abilities he or she knows as many times as they like in a single day. However, martial maneuvers are restricted to one use per encounter; after initiating a martial maneuver, it is expended for the remainder of that combat and cannot be used again, barring special circumstances or abilities. Martial stances can be assumed and ended as often as the adept wishes, unless a special circumstance or ability prevents them from doing so.
Selecting Martial Disciplines
At 1st level, all martial adept classes gain access to a specific number of martial disciplines. Magi, Paladins, Psychic Warriors, Rangers, and Soulknives gain access to three specified disciplines while Barbarians, Fighters, Knights, Monks, and Rogues gain access to four. Swordsages gain access to six specified disciplines.
At 1st level, a martial adept is assumed to have made choices in their life that allowed them to pick which path of martial study they wished to take. Each martial adept class can, at 1st level, select a number of disciplines that their class automatically has access to and swap them for other disciplines. The number of disciplines that a martial adept can swap depends on which adept class he or she belongs to. Each martial discipline has a specific list of prerequisites that must be met in order for an adept to learn martial abilities from that discipline if it does not appear on their class's list of martial disciplines.
Multiclass martial adepts cannot learn the same maneuver for both of their class lists; they either know the maneuver or they don't. For example, if a Fighter 4 / Rogue 5 both have access to the Iron Heart discipline, the adept could only know the steel wind maneuver as part of their Fighter list or their Rogue list, not both lists.
Readying Martial Abilities
Martial maneuvers need to be readied before they can be used. A readied maneuver can be initiated; after a readied maneuver is initiated, it becomes exhausted for the remainder of the combat, barring special abilities that refresh exhausted maneuvers.
The number of maneuvers that a martial adept can ready depends on their adept class and initiator level. Initially, a martial adept can ready all of the maneuvers he or she knows, but as the adept increases in level their maneuvers known rapidly surpasses their maneuvers readied, which means that the adept must select which maneuvers they wish to ready for use. If the character gained martial abilities through a means other than levels in a marital adept class (such as through the Martial Study feat or as part of their racial profile), the character can ready each maneuver they know.
Reading martial maneuvers requires a brief period of practice and exercise that lasts 5 minutes. Maneuvers that are not readied during this time are not considered expended; they merely are inactive and not practiced. An adept can take this 5 minute readying period as many times as they like during the course of the day, each time selecting new readied maneuvers. Like with casting spells, a martial adept requires 8 hours of rest in order to use their martial abilities; without rest, a warrior's movements become too sluggish and predictable for any of their maneuvers to succeed.
Unlike with spells, a character cannot ready a maneuver multiple times, even if they are a multiclass adept; they are either ready to use the maneuver or they aren't.
Initiating Martial Abilities
To initiate martial abilities, a martial adept must be able to move and be focused enough on the combat to set up their assaults. This means that the martial adept cannot use any martial abilities while they are dazed, frightened, grappled, immobilized, nauseated, panicked, paralyzed, pinned, stunned, unconscious, or otherwise unable to move. The Rage effect, which normally infringes on one's ability to focus, does not affect an adept's ability to initiate martial maneuvers. All martial abilities require a specific action to initiate: an immediate action, a swift action, a move action, a standard action, or a full-round action. The process of initiating a maneuver is similar to casting a spell or manifesting a power, although there are some differences.
A maneuver must be readied and unexhausted in order for a martial adept to be able to initiate it. A stance can be initiated as a swift action. A martial maneuver must be immediately used during the turn that it is initiated. After initiating a martial maneuver, it is immediately exhausted and cannot be used again for the duration of the encounter. A stance remains in effect indefinitely, the adept gaining its benefits until they change stances as a swift action or until it ends, if the stance's effects end, as noted in its description. Stances can be used outside of combat situations, granting their benefits to an adept while exploring or traveling.
If a martial adept attempts to initiate a maneuver and misses with it (by failing to overcome Armor Class, saving throws, Combat Maneuver Defense, etc) or subsequently cannot use it during their turn, the maneuver is still considered expended and its initiation action is spent for the purpose of determining what actions remain available to the adept on that turn. The martial adept does not provoke attacks of opportunity when they initiate a maneuver or stance unless its description explicitly says otherwise. Some maneuvers allow a martial adept to move, charge, and take other actions that provoke attacks of opportunity. Unless the maneuver description specifically says that such actions do not provoke attacks of opportunity, they do, and feats and other special abilities that cause actions to no longer provoke attacks of opportunity apply to martial abilities.
Unlike with other ability systems, a martial adept does not need to concentrate in order to initiate a martial ability and they do not lose their martial abilities after being injured by hostile attacks while initiating a martial ability, as a spellcaster or manifester might lose a spell or power.
Furthermore, if they are injured or affected by hostile spells, powers, or maneuvers while initiating a maneuver or assume a stance, a martial adept doesn't lose the maneuver or stance. Enemy interference might make certain maneuvers impossible to complete, however. For example, if an enemy who readied an action to trip the martial adept when they started their turn knocks them prone, the martial adept would not be able to use a maneuver that required them to charge. Similarly, if the martial adept began their turn grappled or pinned, they might find that most of the maneuvers available to them simply won't be of any use until they get free.
Initiator Level
Most martial abilities have variable effects, such as their duration, that depend on the adept's initiator level. A martial adept's initiator level is equal to their class level in the appropriate martial adept class. If a creature lacks martial adept class levels but still has access to martial abilities (such as through the Martial Study feat), their initiator level is equal to half of their effective character level.
Selecting Martial Abilities
Martial abilities are organized by level, ranging from 1 to 9. Higher-leveled maneuvers are more powerful than lower-leveled ones, and as a martial adept gains levels, they have the option to learn higher-leveled abilities. An adept's class level determines the highest-leveled martial abilities they can learn; this is listed under the class's maximum maneuver level.
At 1st level, an adept selects a number of maneuvers equal to their class's maneuvers known and a number of stances equal to their stances known. At 1st level, all martial adept classes can only select 1st level maneuvers, but they can select these maneuvers from any discipline that they have access to. As the adept increases in level, they can select additional martial abilities, as shown on the adept's maneuver's known and stances known entry, and as they gain levels their maximum maneuver level also increases.
Beginning at an adept's 4th class level and at every even-numbered class level thereafter, a martial adept can choose to learn a new maneuver in place of one he or she already knows. In effect, the adept looses the old maneuver in exchange for the new one. An adept may choose a new maneuver of any level they like, so long as the adept observes the restriction on the highest-level maneuvers they know; an adept need not replace the old maneuver with one of the same level, and an adept can only swap a single maneuver for another one at any given level.
Resolving Martial Abilities
Once a martial adept has chosen a martial ability to initiate and used the appropriate initiation action, they must resolve its effects. Martial disciplines usually either apply
Attack: Many maneuvers include an attack of some kind. All offensive combat actions, including combat maneuvers and any effects that deal damage are considered attacks. Attack maneuvers can be resisted by saving throws, deal damage, or otherwise harm or hamper their targets. Strike maneuvers are most commonly attack maneuvers.
Bonus Types: Some martial abilities grant bonuses to ability scores, Armor Class, attack rolls, damage rolls, skill checks, saving throws, and many other variables. These bonuses are typed, and with the exception of dodge bonuses and racial bonuses, no two bonuses or the same type stack unless specifically specified otherwise. Martial abilities that do not identity a bonus are untyped, and therefore stack with all other modifies that apply to the same characteristics or attribute. If a maneuver or stance does not identity the type of bonus conferred, its effects stack with all other effects modifying the same characteristics or attribute.
Special Effects: Some maneuvers have unique, special effects that do not classify as attacks or bonuses. Such maneuvers describe how they function as part of the maneuver description.
Recovering Expended Maneuvers
When an encounter ends, a martial adept automatically recovers all maneuvers they expended during the encounter. Even a few moments out of combat is sufficient to refresh all maneuvers expended in the previous battle. For the purpose a long, drawn-out series of battles, if a character makes no attacks of any kind, initiates no maneuvers, and is not targeted by enemy attacks for 1 minute, they recover all expended maneuvers. If they cannot avoid attacking or being attacked for 1 minute, they cannot automatically recover their maneuvers.
Special Recovery Methods: Some special class abilities, feats, and prestige class features offer methods for a character to recover their maneuvers in combat. Such abilities list the conditions for which they can recover expended maneuvers.
Multiclass Martial Adepts
Like with other classes, multiclass martial adepts continue to increase in prowess with their techniques even when they venture out and take other paths. For each martial adept class, you can add half of another class's level to your initiator level when determining maneuvers readied, maneuvers known, maximum maneuver level, and stances known. For example, a Monk 4 / Wizard 4 adds half of their Wizard level (2) to their Monk level when determining their initiator level. Likewise, the character adds half of their Monk level to their Wizard level (2) when determining their caster level (see magic).
Multiple Martial Adept Classes: If a martial adept multiclasses into multiple adept classes, each class maintains its own list of maneuvers readied, maneuvers and stances known, and maximum maneuver level.
Multiclassing into Prestige Classes: When a martial adept multiclasses into a prestige class that provides a martial ability progression, they can add the levels gained from that class to one of their martial adept classes to determine their initiator level with that class's martial powers. If the martial adept has levels in multiple adept classes, they must choose one per level to apply the prestige class's level to. Once chosen, this cannot be changed.
Martial Powers and Other Abilities
Some martial abilities have effects that produce supernatural effects, as described in the ability's descriptor. Although such abilities are resolved as supernatural abilities (they cannot be used in an Antimagic Field, for example), martial abilities rarely interact with spells, powers, and other non-martial ability effects. Once a maneuver is initiated, its effect lasts only for the martial adept's turn unless its description notes otherwise, giving an opponent little time to counter it. Note that some martial abilities, known as counter maneuvers, can be used to counter other martial abilities, and occasionally spells and powers. However, there are few spells and powers that can directly interfere with an adept that is performing a martial ability. It should be noted that if a character is unable to move or afflicted with one of the conditions listed above, their martial ability fails, even if the condition is the result of a spell or power.
Extraordinary or Supernatural Abilities: Martial maneuvers and stances are never spells. powers, spell-like abilities, or psi-like abilities. Unless the description of the specific maneuver or stance says otherwise, treat all maneuvers as extraordinary abilities. Thus, these abilities work fine in an Antimagic Field, a dead magic zone, or a Null Psionics Field. A maneuver or stance cannot be dispelled or counterspelled and initiating one does not provoke an attack of opportunity unless specifically stated otherwise. If a maneuver is overtly magical or otherwise uses a supernatural power source, it is noted as a supernatural ability in its description. In this case, the maneuver obeys all the standard rules for supernatural abilities.
Resolving Martial Abilities with other Abilities: Most martial abilities work as described, no matter how many other powers, spells, or effects happen to be operating in the same area or on the same subject. Whenever a maneuver or stance has a specific effect on other maneuvers, powers, or spells, its description explains the effect. Most martial adepts can only use one stance at a time, though high-leveled fighters can use two stances at once.
Stacking Effects: Martial abilities that provide bonuses or penalties to a creature's attack or damage rolls, skill checks, Armor Class, or saving throws do not stack with other similarly typed bonuses unless the ability's description specifically states otherwise.
Martial Ability Descriptions
The various martial abilities available to martial adepts are described by discipline that the martial ability belongs to. A discipline is a collection of martial maneuvers and stances that share a common origin, style, and theme in attack method. The description of each power follows a standard format, which is explained below.
Name: This entry is the name by which the maneuver is generally known. However, it's fairly common for various schools or traditions of martial adepts to bestow their own names on maneuvers and martial adepts should not be expected to know each of their maneuvers by its true name unless they were specifically taught by a master of that fighting school.
Martial Discipline: Each maneuver belongs to a unique martial discipline. The martial abilities in a discipline are loosely linked by common effects, philosophies, or functions. The second line of a maneuver or stance description provides the name of the relevant discipline, along with its type (See below). Just like maneuver names, the names of the martial disciplines widely vary from locale to locale; in fact, the term "discipline" is typically only used among Swordsages. Most of the martial adept classes don't even realize that they are following the Sublime Way, that their maneuvers and attacks are part of a secret, worldly tradition that would perplex even the most studious of Wizards. The disciplines available to a character are listed below:
- Black Heron: A discipline of cruelty and fear, users of the Black Heron's style specialize in taunts and insults to catch their foes off-guard. The Black Heron discipline's key skill is Intimidate.
- Blood Sage: The Blood Sage discipline was utilizes medical knowledge to deal fatal incisions and wounds to the adept's victims. The Blood Sage discipline's key skill is Heal.
- Braggart Fox: Adepts of the Braggart Fox are boastful duelists that specialize in illusion and cunning over brute strength. The Braggart Fox discipline's key skill is Bluff.
- Dancing Leaf: Adepts of the Dancing Leaf discipline are masters of defense and teach the arts of dodging blows to any adept that wishes to learn of them. The Dancing Leaf discipline's key skill is Escape Artist.
- Desert Wind: The scorching power of the Desert Wind discipline allows an adept to harness the elemental forces of fire for one's use. The Desert Wind discipline's key skill is Survival.
- Devoted Spirit: By utilizing utter devotion and cause, an adept of the Devoted Spirit becomes a divine conduit; able to utilize powerful divine effects through combat. The Devoted Spirit discipline's key skill is Knowledge (Religion).
- Diamond Mind: Presence of mind is the most important trait of the Diamond Mind discipline; perfect concentration allows for devastating strikes. The Diamond Mind discipline's key skill is Autohypnosis.
- Falcon's Eye: The keen eye of a Falcon's Eye adept allows them to make extraordinarily accurate attacks with ranged weapons. The Falcon's Eye discipline's key skill is Perception.
- Iron Heart: The Iron Heart discipline proclaims the use of extreme weapon skill and tactical finesse in order to fell foes. The Iron Heart discipline's key skill is Martial Lore.
- Napalm Rain: The bravados of the Napalm Rain discipline focus on flashy stunts and wicked tricks utilizing ranged weapons. The Napalm Rain disicpline's key skill is Profession (Engineering).
- Ocean Tempest: The fury of the ocean is an adept's to command when they are a practitioner of the Ocean Tempest discipline, able to unleash devastating gouts of water and thunder on their foes. The Ocean Tempest discipline's key skill is Swim.
- Poised Lotus: The sinister techniques of the Poised Lotus focus an adept's abilities upon the art of unmercifully slaying one's target with pin-point accuracy. The Poised Lotus discipline's key skill is Sleight of Hand.
- Sanguine Brand: Through vindictive and malicious practices, the adepts of the Sanguine Brand mark their victims in cruel ways to hinder their effectiveness in battle. The Sanguine Brand discipline's key skill is Linguistics.
- Setting Sun: A discipline focused on balance, adepts of the Setting Sun learn to utilize their foe's strengths and turn it to weakness. The Setting Sun discipline's key skill is Sense Motive.
- Shadow Hand: The disciplines of the Shadow Hand favor the cover of the night and can use the darkness to quickly move about without detection. The Shadow Hand discipline's key skill is Stealth.
- Sidewinder Arrow: A trickster discipline, the Sidewinder Arrow focuses on defying all possible reality with unbelievable ranged attacks and tricky maneuvers. The Sidewinder Arrow discipline's key skill is Perform.
- Sleeping Goddess: The adepts of the Sleeping Goddess discipline use psionic manifestation to get the upper hand on their enemies. The Sleeping Goddess discipline's key skill is Psicraft.
- Soaring Dragon: Crafted by the dragonborne, the Soaring Dragon discipline is reserved for those who are able to participate in airborne combat. The Soaring Dragon discipline's key skill is Fly.
- Solaris Arcanum: An anciently old martial art; the adepts of the Solaris Arcanum discipline utilize powerful magic alongside their bladed attacks. The Solaris Arcanum discipline's key skill is Spellcraft.
- Stone Dragon: Using the might of the stony earth, adepts of the Stone Dragon discipline crush their foes with the weight of the world. The Stone Dragon discipline's key skill is Climb.
- Sundered Veil: Those who follow the way of the Sundered Veil believe that the best way to stop an enemy is by breaking them. The Sundered Veil discipline's key skill is Disable Device.
- Synchronized Souls: Practiced by those who fight to the death with bestial companions, adepts of the Synchronized Soul are able to unify their hearts with their greatest allies. The Synchronized Souls discipline's key skill is Handle Animal.
- Tiger Claw: The wild and barbaric adepts of the Tiger Claw discipline fight like savage beasts in a flurry of dual wielding attacks. The Tiger Claw discipline's key skill is Acrobatics.
- Twin Spirit: Martial adepts belonging to the Twin Spirit discipline specialize in mounted combat and fight as one with their mounts. The Twin Spirit discipline's key skill is Ride.
- White Raven: Psychology is the key to any combat, and adepts of the White Raven discipline take their place as generals and commands, inspiring their allies to greatness. The White Raven discipline's key skill is Diplomacy.
Level: This entry follows the Discipline and gives the maneuver's level in relationship to Martial Adept classes.
Type: All martial abilities fall into one of five categories: boost, counter, stance, strike, or sublime power.
- Boost Maneuver: A boost maneuver grants some type of bonus to its initiator for the duration of their turn. Initiating a boost always requires a swift action, allowing an adept to initiate it before unleashing another attack. Boosts are varied in their effects; some add bonuses to attack and damage rolls, some add special conditions to the adept's attacks, while others provide unique and fantastic special effects. If a boost affects to an adept's attacks, it applies to all attacks they make during the round they initiated it on, but its effects end at the end of the adept's turn. A boost's effects always apply for its entire duration no matter which weapon you wield during the round, even if you switch weapons. Each boost maneuver's description outlines its unique effects. A boost does not have to modify a melee attack; it can provide a bonus on skill checks, to the adept's speed, and so on, but such maneuvers are rare.
- Counter Maneuver: A counter maneuver is a fast, usually defensive maneuver that an adept can use to foil their opponent's actions. Initiating a counter always requires an immediate action that is taken in response to a specific action or condition being met. Counter maneuvers can prevent attacks, counter attack enemies, and even negate some effects.
- Stance: A stance is not a maneuver but a specific fighting method that an adept maintains from round to round. A stance applies its benefits to an adept for as long as they maintain their stance, and once the stance is assumed, it requires no action to maintain it unless a stance's description states otherwise. Initiating a stance is a swift action, and after assuming a stance an adept immediately gains its benefit. Ending a stance requires no action and a stance automatically ends if the adept is unable to initiate any martial abilities because they cannot move or are affected by a specific combat condition (see above). Stances are considered maneuvers for the purpose of fulfilling prerequisites for learning higher-level maneuvers, or for qualifying for prestige classes or feats.
- Strike Maneuver: A strike maneuver allows a special attack to be made. Initiating a strike maneuver is usually either a standard action or a full round action and most involve either an attack roll or a combat maneuver check. On a successful attack roll, the creature usually takes normal weapon damage, plus any additional effects of the strike maneuver. On a successful combat maneuver check, the creature usually suffers the normal penalties of that check, plus any additional effects of the strike maneuver. When initiating a strike maneuver, you use all combat modifiers normally, except in some situations where the maneuver will specify otherwise. Strike maneuvers can critically hit normally, and in some cases a critical hit grants additional benefits. Additional damage from a strike maneuver is not multiplied; it is treated as extra damage from any other special ability, such as precision damage or rending damage. Because strike maneuvers allow for a specific form of attack, an adept cannot benefit from any effect that grants the adept extra attacks while making a martial strike (such as the Haste spell). There are exceptions to this rule; for example, the special rule of the Shadow Hand discipline allows the adept to deal sneak attack damage in conjunction with their martial strikes. Using a martial strike does not count as a full round action, even if its initiation action is a full round action. Also, a martial adept cannot combine special attacks and combat maneuver checks, such as dirty tricks or bull rush attempts, with strike maneuvers. However, some martial maneuvers enable a character to make such special abilities more potent or even enable the adept to make those special attacks as part of their initiation.
- Sublime Power Maneuver: Sublime power maneuvers allow for extremely unique special abilities to be used. They are not classified as boosts, counters, stances, or strikes, and initiating them differs from sublime power to sublime power. Very few maneuvers are classified as sublime powers, and they often have extremely unique effects.
Descriptor: Some martial abilities have special descriptors that further define them. These descriptors appear on the same line as the discipline of the maneuver. Most of these descriptors have no game effect by themselves, but they govern how a maneuver interacts with other effects and abilities.
- Alignment Descriptors: Alignment descriptors show the alignment that the maneuver belongs to. A character cannot use a maneuver with an alignment descriptor if their alignment is opposed to that descriptor (evil characters cannot use [Good] maneuvers, for example). The alignment descriptors are: [Chaos], [Evil], [Good], and [Law].
- Compulsion: The [Compulsion] descriptor describes a maneuver that forces its victim to do something against its will as a mental compulsion. Some creatures have defenses or immunity to compulsion effects.
- Death: The [Death] descriptor marks a maneuver that causes a death effect. A maneuver with a death effect can potentially slay its target regardless of the number of hit points it has remaining and some creatures have defenses or immunity to death effects.
- Fear: The [Fear] descriptor marks a maneuver that causes a fear effect. The [Fear] descriptor is always accompanied by the [Mind-Affecting] descriptor and will cause either the shaken, frightened, or panicked condition in its targets. [Fear] maneuvers usually stack their effects, progressing shaken to frightened and frightened to panicked unless noted otherwise.
- Force: The [Force] descriptor is a special energy descriptor that marks a maneuver that deals force damage. [Force] effects ignore a wide variety of spell and psionic effects, as mentioned on the descriptions of individual spells and powers. The most notable among these are [Force] effect's unique ability to affect incorporeal and ethereal creatures.
- Elemental Descriptors: Elemental descriptors show the element that the maneuver utilizes. The element descriptors are: [Air], [Earth], [Darkness], [Fire], [Light], and [Water]. Note that [Fire] is considered as both an elemental descriptor and an energy descriptor.
- Energy Descriptors: Energy descriptors show the type of energy that the maneuver utilizes. The energy descriptors are: [Acid], [Cold], [Electricity], [Fire], and [Sonic]. Note that [Sonic] maneuvers do not function in places where sound is suppressed.
- Illusion: The [Illusion] descriptor designates a maneuver that uses supernatural effects similar to a spell from the Illusion school. A creature with defenses or immunity against illusion spells can apply them against maneuvers with the [Illusion] descriptor.
- Language-Dependant: The [Language-Dependant] descriptor marks a maneuver that uses intelligible language as a medium for communication. The maneuver automatically has no effect on creatures that cannot hear or understand the language of the martial adept.
- Mind-Affecting: The [Mind-Affecting] descriptor marks a maneuver that alters or affects a creature's mental capacities. Maneuvers with the [Mind-Affecting] descriptor have no effect against mindless creatures without an Intelligence score.
- Rend: The [Rend] descriptor designates a Tiger Claw maneuver that utilizes the Tearing Claws special rule. This descriptor notes a maneuver that can have rending damage added onto it; normally, martial maneuvers cannot be used in conjunction with special attacks such as rending.
- Spirit: The [Spirit] descriptor designates a Devoted Spirit maneuver that utilizes the Aligned Spirit special rule. These maneuvers are treated as having an alignment descriptor of the same alignment as their spirit's alignment ([Chaos], [Evil], [Good], or [Law]).
Prerequisite: Before learning a martial ability, an adept must meet its prerequisites, if it has any. Most high-leveled martial abilities require that a martial adept know a specific number of maneuvers from the same discipline; stances count as maneuvers for the purpose of meeting these prerequisites.
Initiation Action: This entry describes the type of action of action a martial adept must expend to activate a martial maneuver. In some cases, a martial adept initiates a maneuver, and its effect last for the rest of their turn (or beyond). Other maneuvers are instantaneous, lasting only as long as the action required to initiate. Reference the combat rules for more information on the rules involving individual action types.
Range: A maneuver's range indicates how far from the adept it can range. Standard ranges include (but are not limited to) the following:
- Personal: A maneuver with a range of personal only affects its initiator.
- Touch: A maneuver with a range of touch affects a creature that the initiator directly touches. A touch maneuver that deals damage can critically hit just as a weapon can, although the maneuver's damage is not multiplied on a successful critical hit.
- Melee Attack: The maneuver affects any creature that the initiator makes a successful melee attack against.
- Charge Attack: The maneuver affects any creature that the initiator makes a successful charge attack against.
- Ranged Attack: The maneuver affects any creature that the initiator makes a successful ranged attack against.
- Weapon's Range: The maneuver can target any creature within the equipped weapon's range. This means that the creature can hit with either a melee attack or a ranged attack, so long as the ability is within the melee weapon's reach or one range increment of the ranged weapon.
- Range Expressed in Feet: Some maneuvers have no standard range category, just a range expressed in feet. The maneuver can be used against any creature within that given range, provided that the adept has line of sight and effect to the creature.
Targeting a Maneuver: As part of initiating a martial ability, an adept must select what their maneuver targets. The target can be either a specific creature or object or an area. This entry describes the maneuver's target or targets, its effect, or its area, as appropriate.
- Target or Targets: Most maneuvers affect a specific creature or object (or more than one creature or object) that its initiator designates as their target or targets. The initiator must be able to see or touch the target, and they must specifically choose that target. Some maneuvers can be initiated only on willing targets, and an initiator can always willingly target themselves with a martial ability at any time. Unconscious characters are always considered willing, but a character that is conscious but immobilized or helpless is not automatically willing. Some maneuvers target their initiator (but they might confer an unusual ability to affect other creatures for the rest of their turn). If the target of a maneuver is "You", the initiator does not receive a save; they receive the benefit of the maneuver automatically as long as they meet any other requirements for initiating it successfully. Other maneuvers affect a creature or creatures that an initiator successfully hits with a melee attack, and some affect a creature that is successfully hit with a melee or ranged touch attack.
- Area: Some maneuvers can affect an area. A maneuver's initiator might be able to choose the point where the maneuver's effect originates, but otherwise they don't usually control while creatures or objects an area maneuver effects.
- Burst: A burst affects whatever it catches in its area, including creatures the initiator can't see. It can affect creatures that have total cover from its point of origin. The default shape for a burst is a sphere.
- Emanation: An emanation functions like a burst, except that the effect continues to radiate from the point of origin (often its source, or the initiator) for the duration of the maneuver.
- Spread: A spread effect spreads out like a burst, but cam turn corners. The initiator selects the point of origin, and the effect spreads out a given distance in all directions.
- Effect: Some maneuvers create something rather than affecting things that are already present. The maneuver's initiator must designate the location where these things are to appear, either by seeing the location where these things are to appear, either by seeing it or defining it. Range determines how far away an effect can appear.
Line of Effect: Maneuvers that affect a target other than their initiator require line of effect. A line of effect is a straight, unblocked path that indicates what an effect can affect. A solid barrier cancels a line of effect, but line of effect is not blocked by fog, darkness, and other factors that limit normal sight. An initiator must have a clear line of effect to any target that they initiate a maneuver against, or to any space in which they wish to create an effect at range (if their maneuver allows that). A burst of emanation effects only an area creature or objects to which it has a line of effect from its origin. An otherwise solid barrier with a hole of at least 1 square foot through it does not block a maneuver's line of effect.
Duration: A maneuver's duration indicates how long its effect lasts.
- End of Turn: The maneuver's effect lasts until the end of the initiator's turn, then ceases to function.
- Instantaneous: The effect of the maneuver comes and goes the instant the maneuver is initiated, though the consequences might be long-lasting. Most maneuvers fall in this category. An instantaneous maneuver always lasts for the length of the required action.
- One-Round Durations: Some martial abilities' durations are measured as 1 round. The maneuver's initiator gains the capability to perform whatever special effect or attack the maneuver permits on their turn. Immediately before their action in the round after they initiated the maneuver, its effect comes to an end.
- Stance: This duration indicates that the ability is a stance, and therefore ends only when its initiator wills it to end, when they become unable to move, or when they fulfill a specific condition described in the stance's description.
- Timed Duration: Many maneuvers last some number of rounds or minutes. When the time is up, the energy sustaining the effect fades, and the maneuver's effect ends.
Saving Throw: Some maneuvers with a special or supernatural effect that targets an enemy allow for a saving throw to avoid some or all of the effect. The saving throw line in a maneuver description defines which type of saving throw a maneuver allows.
- DC: A maneuver's saving throw DC is always provided in the maneuver's description.
- Negates: On a successful saving throw, the maneuver's special effects do nothing (melee damage is usually dealt as normal).
- Partial: On a successful saving throw, the target(s) take a lesser effect then they would have if they failed the save (for example, taking damage instead of dying).
- Half: On a successful saving throw, the target(s) takes half the normal amount of damage (rounded down).
- None: Maneuvers with no saving throw line do not allow saving throws.
Spell/Power Resistance: Unlike spell descriptions or power descriptions, martial maneuvers don't have a spell resistance or power resistance entry. Since maneuvers are either extraordinary abilities or supernatural abilities, n


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Broadcasting Your Destination Wedding by Webcam
Expenses can prevent many guests from going to your destination wedding, but you can help them attend "remotely" by using a Webcam. A Webcam enables the bridal couple to share their day with faraway friends and family. These "virtual" guests witness the event in real time — as it happens — as long as those folks have a computer and Web access.
The Webcam (a digital camera that streams live video over the Internet) is one of the biggest boons to hit destination weddings, reducing any residual guilt a couple may have over getting married far away. From a facility that has a Webcam, your friends and family (and perhaps an ex who just happens to stumble across it) can watch your ceremony on the Internet.
Places that host many destination weddings every year — ranging from the Viva Las Vegas Wedding Chapel on the Las Vegas Strip to Princess Cruises's Golden Princess at sea to Frenchman's Reef & Morning Star Marriott Beach Resort in the Caribbean — have Webcams built into their chapels that couples can employ to transmit pictures of their weddings in real time anywhere in the world.
When you decide where you'll marry, ask the wedding coordinator whether a Webcam is available. If the answer is yes, sometimes there will be a fee; other times it is part of a wedding package. Typically, a wedding Webcast is hosted on the facility's Web site for at least a month. You may be able to arrange for the facility to e-mail the broadcast to you as a RealPlayer or QuickTime file or burn it onto a CD or DVD so that you have a permanent copy.
To help guide people how to watch your wedding on a Webcam, you need to e-mail them a link to the Web page that hosts the images and tell them what time to click on the link to watch your wedding live. Be sure to take time differences into account!
If your destination wedding location doesn't have a Webcam, you can take advantage of the technology by contracting with an outside company to provide this service. Ask a local planner for a recommendation. Prices start at about $400 for the Webcast, plus 30 days of access to view your wedding on a company's site.


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|Rocklin, Calif.
|High School:
|Rocklin HS
Oakland Athletics 2009 MLB Draft pick (7th round, 513 overall)
All-Tournament Team in part of the Jack Gifford Memorial Tournament (4/11-4/13)
Action Photos
SOPHOMORE (2011): Appeared in 12 games and had nine RBIs … in the season opener at South Carolina on Feb. 18 recorded 3 RBIs on one hit with a run scored … drew a walk in the finale of the South Carolina series on Feb. 20 … in a four-game series with Albany had five RBIs and three runs scored while going 7-14 to raise his average from .083 to .308 … walked and scored against San Jose State on Mar. 5 … drew a season-high three walks at San Jose State while starting at DH on Mar. 6 … appeared as pinch-hitter on Mar. 27 vs. Brown … missed remainder of season due to injury.
FRESHMAN (2010): Drafted by the Oakland Athletics, but chose to attend Santa Clara … made 43 starts in 50 appearances, started 24 times in the outfield, and 19 times as the designated hitter … posted a .302 batting average … hit 3 HR ... named All-Tournament player in part of the Jack Gifford Memorial Tournament (4/11- 4/13) … had 15 multiple-hit games … had nine multiple-RBI games…enjoyed a season-high in hits (5) and RBI (4) at Cal State Fullerton (5/23) … hit .361 against left-handed pitching … stole 2 bases on 3 attempts.
HIGH SCHOOL: Outstanding athlete at Rocklin High School in Northern Calif. ... selected by the Oakland Athletics in the 17th round (513 overall) of the 2009 MLB First Year Player Draft ... led the Thunder to the 2009 CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division II baseball state title ... Rocklin finished 23-8 overall and 15-3 in the Sierra Foothill League (SFL) ... led Rocklin with a .451 average and slugged .756 as a senior ... hit safely in 21 of the 25 games he played (missed the start of the season due to the basketball playoffs) ... Sacramento River Cats 2009 All-City baseball team honoree ... 2008 Sacramento Bee All-Metro League First Team selection ... 2008 CalHiSports.com All-State Second Team outfielder ... member of the NY Yankees Area Code team ... participated in both the Rawlings NorCal World Series and the California Baseball Coaches Association North-South games ... Rocklin's baseball team captain as a senior ... three-year starter on the Thunder's basketball team, helping Rocklin to the CIF Division II state championships at Arco Arena ... Sacramento Bee and MaxPreps.com 2009 All-SFL First Team basketball player.
PERSONAL: Born September 12, 1990 in Newport Beach, Calif. ... son of Carol and Jeff Stover ... has three older siblings, Teylor, Matt and Katie ... brother, Matt, plays basketball at Humboldt State and sister, Katie, is on the swim team at UC Santa Barbara ... enjoys movies, weightlifting, eating, cycling and ballet ... family is related to John Quincy Adams and John Adams... majoring in Communication.


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|By Jeremy Geelan
Article Rating:
|November 23, 2011 05:00 AM EST
With 9th Cloud Expo - Cloud Expo Silicon Valley - still in full swing at the Santa Clara Convention Center in California, what is being said about the future landscape of cloud computing? In this round-up we asked a variety of members of the cloud computing ecosystem, from CIOs to independent consultants to marketeers.
We asked in each case for their top five predictions. Here are their views on what's in store in 2012:
Santa Clara Convention Center is getting ready for Cloud Expo Silicon Valley
DIY Service Provision | Cloud of Devices | Security Breach Looms | Personalized SPs | African Growth
Lauren C. States | @lauren_states
VP & CTO, Cloud Computing & Growth Initiatives, IBM
Lauren is responsible at IBM for the technology strategy for the company's growth initiatives, including cloud computing, Smarter Planet, business analytics and emerging markets. Previously she was VP of Cloud Computing for the IBM Software Group. She is also a Top 100 Cloud Blogger.
1. Cloud computing will allow everybody to be a service provider. The infrastructure to do things is no longer a limiting factor. Focus will shift to application and business services.
2. Employees will be able to use any device to access, transact and manage their work.
3. There will be a security breach in 2012 that will force organizations to rethink how they secure their data and applications.
4. A new class of real time, personalized service providers will emerge and they will develop partnerships to exploit the advantages of big data, social media and mobility.
5. In Africa, the convergence of social, mobile and cloud will emerge as critical tools for governments to deliver services and drive economic growth.
Greg Ness | @Archimedius
VP of Marketing at Vantage Data Centers
Greg, a Top 100 Cloud Blogger, is a Silicon Valley marketing veteran with background in networking, security, application delivery and virtualization. He is a Vice President at Vantage Data Centers. Formerly at Infoblox, Blue Lane Technologies, Juniper Networks, Redline Networks, McAfee, IntruVert Networks and ShoreTel. He will be attending 9th Cloud Expo - Cloud Expo Silicon Valley (Nov 7-10) - like so many others in the industry - to ensure he is bang up to date with all that's going on in the cloud computing ecosystem.
1. Five more public cloud outages in 2012... industry will take them in stride because expectations have been set by 2010/11 outages and more public cloud customers are adopting hybrid cloud strategies.
2. VMware will break the LAN barrier through partnerships and inhouse innovations around networking and make significant headway in infrastructure 2.0
3) Arista Networks, Infoblox and Palo Alto Networks will attain new heights of market awareness and leadership
4. A new public cloud player will enter the market
Social Nets | Tablets | New Collaboration Models | IT Skills Shortage | RoR & HTML5
Peter Coffee | @petercoffee
VP and Head of Platform Research at Salesforce.com
Listed as one of the Top 100 Bloggers in the Cloud Computing Ecosystem, Peter joined Salesforce in 2007 after 18 years as a senior contributor to the enterprise IT journals eWEEK and PC Week. Based in the Los Angeles area, he works with IT professionals and ISVs to build a global community based on Force.com: the salesforce.com Platform Cloud.
1. Surging volume of externally originating data (e.g., social nets) will drive more companies to cloud-based analytics like Radian6.
2. Accelerating tablet use will create vast numbers of multi-device users who will prefer cloud-based tools like Google Docs.
3. File-based models of collaboration will give way to cloud-based, conversational models like Chatter where file location is irrelevant.
4. Continued scarcity of IT skills - despite still-high general unemployment - will discourage complex 'private cloud' schemes.
5. Developer talent will focus on Ruby on Rails, HTML5, and other skill sets that improve cloud experience and weaken legacy preferences.
The growth and success of Cloud Computing will be on display at the upcoming Cloud Expo
Private Cloud | Infrastructure Irrelevance | Enterprise API Economy | Enterprise App Stores | Cloud Concierge Services
Christian Reilly | @reillyusa
Manager of Global Systems Engineering, Bechtel
Christian is former President of the Private Cloud, member of the Clouderati and author of the Loose Couple Blog (blog.theloosecouple.com)
1. Traditional enterprises will begin to accept that there is no magic formula for moving their incumbent LoB applications "to the cloud" en masse. During 2012, we will see enlightened enterprises (i.e. those who have already invested time and effort in portfolio identification & consolidation) execute on a multi-faceted deployment and operations strategy for bestshoring their application workloads.
Private Cloud solution will continue to lead the way in this as organizations continue to look for further efficiencies and increased agility to complement their initial server virtualization investments, combined with deploying "capable" applications and some new workloads to public cloud services.
2. In 2012, we will see the beginning of the dawn of infrastructure irrelevance as the unstoppable forces of consumerization shift enterprise spending priority away from the purely mechanical pieces of the data center into areas that help address the surging demand from a new, savvy and empowered user base. This shift will help organizations proactively focus on the needs, and alignment to, their business while enabling a new generation of workforce mobility.
3. The enterprise API economy will be a 2012 concept that is brought into a clearer focus as the successes of "new" enterprises, such as Twitter, Netflix and others are analyzed and learned from. Enterprises burdened by legacy applications will be required to think differently on how to expose locked-in data through APIs to enable them to respond to mobile demands.
4. Throughout 2012, we will see the continued rise of the enterprise app store offered as both SaaS or on-premise as more and more enterprise development activity is undertaken on cross-platform mobile and tablet form factors. Enterprises will be forced to replicate the experience of consumer app stores to provide their user base with a simple mechanism for offering, acquiring and managing the lifecycle of mobile applications. As part of this, we will see the emergence of a number of Mobile Application Management (MAM) solutions that complement the app store approach, offering less invasive methods than MDM to help "secure the data, not the device" as part of the consumerization-driven demand where more and more devices used for daily work tasks are not owned nor provisioned by the company.
5. Finally, 2012 will bring an uptake in interest in cloud concierge services where the emergence of new marketplaces for offering and acquiring cloud services will appeal to many forward-thinking CIOs as they transition from solution providers to service aggregators. Initially, we will see this develop in "carrier-neutral" data center facilities where typical cross-connect services begin to evolve to higher value services, connecting customers to providers through a global offering.
PaaS | Federated Clouds | Big Data & Cloud | Convergence of Mobile, Cloud and Social | Indian & APAC Clouds
Krishnan Subramanian | @krishnan
Industry Analyst covering Cloud Computing & Open Source. Open Source Evangelist
Krish is a Top 100 Cloud Blogger, a card-carrying member of the Clouderati and an all-round force for good in the world of cloud computing. Being an ex-physicist, he says, helps him use a scientific approach towards life, and certainly he has a deep philosophical connection to open source, open standards, and open communications, As an industry analyst he covering areas like cloud infrastructure, SaaS and PaaS.
1. PaaS is the future of cloud services and we will see some interesting business model innovations in 2012.
2. Federated clouds will take off in a big way and we will be seeing more and more cloud brokerage services helping buyers navigate the ecosystem.
3. 2012 will be the year when the marriage between big data and cloud will strengthen. Though we will be seeing more on the analytics side in 2012, we will also be seeing some efforts to remove the inertia associated with big data.
4. The convergence of mobile, cloud and social will accelerate and by the end of 2012, cloud apps that are not "socially aware" and without mobile support will be looked down as "legacy apps". We will see more and more application vendors bringing in feature parity in their apps for different mobile applications. Towards the end of 2012, mobile web apps will dominate over native apps.
5. Watch out for some interesting cloud adoption trends in the Indian sub-continent and APAC region. They will soon become the biggest market for clouds
Join leading Cloud industry players in a fast-moving industry power panel at Cloud Expo
Overhyped PaaS | Public Clouds & Security | VMware Acquisition? | SaaS Desktop Strategy | Interoperability
Brian Gracely | @bgracely
Cloud Evangelist at Cisco
A VMware vExpert and a Top 100 Cloud Blogger, Brian is additionally Co-Host of @thecloudcastnet and Co-Founder of @GracelyGirl.As he says himself: "Take complex new technologies, figure out the future opportunities, connect the dots across the industry, simplify it and explain it to people in suits or t-shirts. That's what I do best."
1. PaaS becomes the overhyped buzzword for 2012, still needing another year to shake out competition in the market before companies begin making decisions on which platforms to adopt. Whoever can combine Java and .NET into an integrated PaaS platform, with options for modern web languages, will take a significant lead with developers.
2. Security issues replace downtime problems as the major story for public clouds. The press will claim that this shows public clouds are not ready for production applications, but it actually creates a new level of awareness and round of start-ups with viable solutions.
3. VMware acquires one of the Software Defined Network (SDN) start-ups, creating the final distinction between traditional Data Center and "Cloud" (Private or SP/Public provided). They now provide all the tools (virtualization, security, network, automation) to allow CloudOps groups to be created within Enterprise or Service Provider.
4. 2012 is the year of "Enough VDI talk, let's create a SaaS desktop strategy".
5. One of the major infrastructure vendors combines OpenStack + the major open-source cloud tools (Chef/Puppet, Xen, etc.) into a unified package that can be deployed in-house (Private Cloud), on AWS (public cloud) or on their vendor-operated cloud, allowing customers to actually deploy cloud in any environment.
Enterprise Clouds | AWS | Service Provider Problem | Open, Open, Open | IaaS Clouds
Randy Bias | @randybias
Top 100 Cloud Blogger and Co-Founder, CTO & Founding CEO of Cloudscaling.
According to Gartner, Randy reminds us, 2012 will be the year of IaaS cloud failures and we'll stumble into the trough of disillusionment. A vast number of expensive 'enterprise cloud' solutions have been widely deployed amongst service providers and enterprises alike, he notes. What he believes we'll discover In 2012 is summarized below.
1. Enterprise clouds don't scale on cost or manageability
Unlike Amazon Web Services (AWS) or webscale clouds in general, enterprise clouds will not scale. Simply put, AWS EC2 is not just the market maker for IaaS clouds, but also the anti-pattern to enterprise datacenters in general. In 2012, we're finally going to see widespread acceptance that the enterprise cloud architectural model is fundamentally broken. At the same time we'll see wider adoption and deployment of webscale clouds by "service providers" both inside and outside the enterprise who realize their enterprise clouds are failed technologies and failed business models.
2. AWS continues to rise in prominence as the guiding light for building webscale clouds
We all know that AWS is successful and winning in the public space, but if their current pace is maintained they are on track for over 2M managed VMs and 2B revenue in 2012. VMware recently claimed an install base of 20M VMs. At 2M, AWS would be 10% of VMware's entire install base, a staggering number to consider. At 2B in revenue it will be hard for AMZN to continue to hide AWS inside the 'Other' revenue category. Perhaps more importantly, we'll see that AWS continued focus on enterprises is coming to fruition. Large enterprises will give up the ghost and begin adopting AWS en masse.
3. Enterprise IT fails on uptime, service levels, and recognizes the "Service Provider Problem"
We all know that public service providers like Amazon, Google, and Facebook have uptime and service levels that far exceed the average enterprise IT shop. In 2012, enterprise IT will figure out that everything they think they have been doing 'right' is wrong. ITIL will be reexamined, questions will be raised, and hair will be pulled trying to understand how to pivot from inside to outside of their box. This will be a recognition that enterprise IT needs to adopt a 'service provider' model, drive based off of measurable ROI, and truly service internal customer needs through operational excellence. Open source will be seen as a key enabler for this approach (see next).
4. Rise of Open, Open, Open
OpenStack, Open Compute, and other related projects will be sought after to solve the problem that enterprise IT has in competing effectively with external service providers. This will create traction for these projects, but deployment failures, operational problems, and service level failures will continue to plague the enterprise. Attempts to build webscale IaaS clouds will continue to proliferate using open source such as OpenStack, but the structural issues inside the organization that cause enterprise IT to be setup to fail will not be resolved.
5. The Market finally 'gets it': an IaaS cloud isn't about delivering on-demand VMs
Running a real IaaS cloud at scale is hard and takes a lot more than downloading some open source software and installing it on x86 servers. The market finally gets it towards the end of 2012 after continued failures. The market begins to refocus on what matters: operational excellence and tools, production grade solutions, proper process and procedures, lifecycle management, and scale architecture. Enterprise IT is hopefully helped by a new crop of startups with the experience in building and operating true clouds.
Cloud Achieves Security | SP Competition Around QoS | Cloud Brokerage Takes Off | OpenStack Drives Private Clouds | Complex Networking
Ellen Rubin | @ellen_rubin
Founder & VP of Products at CloudSwitch & Top 100 Cloud Blogger
Ellen, an experienced entrepreneur with a proven track record in founding innovative technology companies, was before CloudSwitch a member of the early management team at Netezza (NYSE: NZ), the pioneer and market leader in data warehouse appliances, where she helped grow the company to over $125M in revenues and a successful IPO in 2007.
1. Cloud security stops being a blocker to cloud adoption: Enterprise security teams will reach a détente with IT and business users on guidelines for allowing at least a subset of applications and data to run in the cloud. 2011 reviews of app portfolios and facts on the ground will yield some agreement about moving forward with external clouds in addition to private ones.
2. Value-added services enter the competitive arena: After the past few years of building underlying platforms and placing data centers around the world, it's time for the cloud service providers to face-off on higher levels of services – competition with be around Quality of Service, but also managed cloud offerings and professional services.
3. Cloud brokerage starts to take shape: The need to manage more than one cloud environment (hybrid models of private, public and multi-cloud) will cause cloud brokerage services to gather steam, simplifying things for enterprises via business and technical rules-based management controls.
4. Private clouds will encompass more than just VMware: In spite of all the talk about private clouds as a "new" phenomenon, up till now these have been primarily VMware environments + some custom workflows/portals on top. In 2012, other more open platforms will start to be viable within the enterprise as an alternative, in particular OpenStack.
5. Complex networking emerges as a critical success factor: Somewhat in the background till now, the need to provide full configurability for networking in the hybrid model is rising in the list of cloud "must-haves." Many early cloud service models have flattened the network and prevented enterprise control and flexibility. In 2012, new and better options will continue to emerge.
PC Persistence | Big Data | Right Data | Network Services | Enterprise App Stores
Dana Gardner | @Dana_Gardner
Principal Analyst, Interarbor Solutions
Dana Gardner created BriefingsDirect to give his online readers and listeners in-depth and direct access to the brightest thought leaders on IT. A veteran IT analyst, he moderates discussions and interviews get to the meat of the hottest technology topics.
1. The PC remains to primary and most important cloud client. Even as tablets, smartphones, thin clients, zero clients, iOS, Mac OS, Android, and desktop virtualization all gain, they at most represent 20 percent of enterprise clients used for mission critical activities. Therefore the PC is the most important client device for cloud computing for the foreseeable future. Supporting that PC, however, has never been more complex and costly, especially as it it asked to support more of "all of the above." So the IT personnel that support PCs will be a critical weak or strong link, depending, at enterprises in 2012. Time to shore these people up.
2. Big Data gives way to Right Data. The means by which to acquire, store, manage and analyze "Big Data" is in place or soon will be for most enterprises. Some may even look more to cloud services to augment their Big Data activities. The next step, however, is to decide the Right Data to analyze, acquire, access, manage, join, and/or buy. Making wise choices about what data from where and at what cost will be a important strategic chose for enterprises in 2012. The low-lying fruit has been plucked. Now it's time for the hard choices on what data is worth, and what are proper investments in data, especially as part of a greater whole and integrated data lifecycle approach.
3. Big Data meets the IT information morass. If IT as a Service has a future, real-time insights into IT equipment and software in total - across all types of deployments and cloud hybrids - is essential. The architectures and approaches used for Big Data and Complex Event Processing (CEP) will now be brought to bear on the IT operations and systems management problem. By accessing the Right Data from all IT systems, management agents, XMLs dreams, logs, third-party management and each products' outputs and applying Big Data analytics, in real time, than a true and accurate moment by moment snapshot of IT state can finally be acquired at acceptable cost. By overlaying a CEP engine and rules, then finally real automation and real-time resolution and proactive anticipation of performance, security and efficiency can be obtained. The first major strides toward this vision go mainstream in 2012.
4. Network Services Support Cloud Economics. Advanced networks services around cloud, SaaS, and WAN-delivered applications will become essential for cloud trends to advance, and for the costs of reliability to remain competitive. The question is who will provide these services, telcos and carriers, third-party CDNs, public cloud providers, the enterprises themselves? Expect consolidation and bold acquisitions from carriers and public cloud providers to add advanced networks services to their offerings. These serves will be focused on applications performance, governance, security, isolation from public Internet problems, and in providing the full integration of networks for mobile and wireless devices and applications to work in content with legacy enterprise data and applications.
5. App Stores Set Up Shop in Enterprises. In 2012, we'll see more enterprises put in their own app stores, whereby IT can allow users to take over more of the apps provisioning process. They're doing it first with mobile apps. But well see it go to the desktop, to the PC, and for traditional apps. Besides getting IT out of the costly application installation and maintenance business, and enabling users to be more productive more quickly, one of the side benefits of app stores is they force organizations to rationalize their application strategy. They are also in better position to begin using cloud and SaaS applications, but user-provisioned and billed based on actual use. This then really starts the process of thinking through your application strategy, what to keep in-house, what to outsource, how to charge for them, how to license them and maybe put in a lifecycle where you can decide what apps are high use and [high] value and others that are going to trail off that you might want to sunset and get rid of altogether.
Infrastructure | Big Data | Bankruptcy | PaaS | Mobile
William Toll | @utollwi
VP, Marketing at Yottaa, Inc.
Passionate about helping small and medium sized businesses succeed on the Web, William was formerly at the leading managed hosting and cloud services provider, NaviSite, and now drives the marketing strategy and implementation for web performance pioneer, Yottaa.
1. Pure play infrastructure providers (think colocation and IaaS hosters) will move further up the stack with pre-packaged rapid Private Cloud deployment pltforms and services. AWS, Rackspace, SoftLayer continue to battle it as these services continue to eat into what was once called managed and dedicated hosting.
2. Big data's growing ease of deployment and managment enables IT to actually mine and analze the data to make real time apps and business decitions. Data integration platforms expand their capability to pull data from across environments - powering growth to companies that leverage their new data and analytics wealth.
3. M&A, final pivots and bankruptcy for 2007-2009's early cloud platforms for cloud automation and cloud/data center tool sets.
4. 2012 is the year of PaaS - growth will be more than just PaaS providers adding multiple distinct environements - we will see the early majority of ISVs transition their apps to PaaS platforms - bypassing IaaS in their first cloud deployments.
5. Mobile will drive an exponential number of data portability and synchronization projects - further moving data off devices to the cloud.
Private Cloud | Cloud Management Tools | Opportunity | Cloud-Hosted Desktops | More -aaS
Mark Hinkle | @mrhinkle
Director, Cloud Computing Community at Citrix Systems
Mark joined Citrix through its acquisition of Cloud.com, the maker of the open source cloud computing management software, CloudStack. He's a long-time open source expert and advocate, and is a co-founder of both the Open Source Management Consortium and the Desktop Linux Consortium. He has served as Editor-in-Chief for both LinuxWorld Magazine and Enterprise Open Source Magazine.
1. More Private Cloud – After spending the last few years toe-dipping in public cloud for point projects, enterprise users will start to utilize private cloud for mission critical and data-sensitive applications. Heavy virtualization users will start augmenting high-availability virtual infrastructure by creating private clouds to reap the benefits of resource pooling, self-service and elasticity on top of their existing virtual infrastructure.
2. The Rise of the Cloud Management Tools - Now that IT operations has the ability to easily spawn 1000s of servers in a cloud environment it only will illustrate the need for tools that can handle the dynamics of increased scale and rapid elasticity. Management tools that are cloud aware and lend themselves to automation become critical. Look to solutions from Opscode, PuppetLabs and enStratus for these needs.
3. Less OPEX, More Opportunity – Much of the cloud conversation has dwelled on the fact that cloud (particularly, public cloud) shifted up-front capital investment (CAPEX) to pay-as-you go operating costs (OPEX). The conversations will shift as users realize the real power of the cloud is increased agility, shorter time to deployment and better efficiency. IT personnel with DevOps experience and understanding who can make this a reality will be in high demand.
4. Cloud Hosted Desktops – What's good for the server, may be good for the desktop. With the success of Google Docs, DropBox and other mobile productivity tools it sets the stage for greater virtual desktop adoption. Look for more virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solutions paired with data-as-a-service allowing users to take their desktop computing everywhere (think iPad) without requiring a wholesale migration to thin client computing.
5. Less Cloud, More -aaS – Cloudwashing has run rampant in 2011 with technology companies running to brand their products as "cloudy". Informed conversations will see more specificity in their use of cloud terminologies, like Data-as-a-Service, Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS). Consumers of the technologies will start becoming savvier as to what the differences, which will help them, sort out the types of technology that best fit their needs.
PaaS | Innovation | Social Networking & Mobile | BigData & Business Analytics | Cloud Security
Larry Carvalho | @larrycincy
Cloud Computing Bootcamp 2011 Instructor @ CloudExpo
Larry runs Robust Cloud, an advisory services company helping various ecosystem players develop a strategy to take advantage of cloud computing. He's won a wide industry-wide following as the 2010-11 Instructor of Cloud Expo's popular Cloud Computing Bootcamp.
1. Platform as a Service gets defined better.
2. Innovation through acquisition by established technology players.
3. Social Networking and Mobile get weaved together as cloud solutions.
4. BigData and Business Analytics gives companies a leg up and becomes mainstream.
5. Cloud security will make significant leap with breakthrough innovations.
Cool Factor | "Split Processing" | Big Data in the Cloud | Industry Matures | Disposable Apps
Jay Fry | @jayfry3
Vice President, Marketing at Stealthy Cloud/Mobility Start-up
Jay was until very recently VP of Strategy & Business Development for Cloud Computing Business at CA Technologies, so many in the industry have an eagle eye on his next choice of company, about which he is being carefully discreet.
1. The consumer convinces the enterprise that cloud is cool. Things like iCloud and Amazon's Cloud Drive help get your average consumer comfortable with cloud. Consumer acceptance goes a long way to convincing the enterprise that this model is worth investigating – and deploying to. "There might be something to this cloud thing after all…." This, of course, accelerates the adoption of cloud and causes a bunch of changes in the role of IT. It's all about orchestrating services – and IT's business cards, mission statements, and org charts change accordingly.
2. Enterprises start to think about "split processing" – where you are and in the cloud. Pressure from mobile devices and the "split browser" idea from things like Amazon Silk lead people to consider doing heavyweight processing in locations other than where the user is interacting. It's a great model for working with that myriad of mobile devices that have limited processing power (and battery life) that IT is working feverishly to figure out how to support. Somehow.
3. Using Big Data in the cloud becomes as common as, well, data. Given the rise of NoSQL databases and the ecosystem around Hadoop and related approaches, companies begin to understand that collecting and using massive amounts of data isn't so hard any more. The cloud makes processing all this information possible without having to build the infrastructure permanently in your data center. And it's pretty useful in making smart business choices.
4. The industry moves on from the "how is the infrastructure built and operated?" conversation and thinks instead about what you can do with cloud. This may sound like wishful thinking, but the nuts and bolts of how to use cloud computing are starting to coalesce sufficiently that fewer discussions need to pick apart the ways to deliver IaaS and the like. The small, smart service providers move up the stack (leave the commodity stuff to Amazon and Rackspace), finding niches for themselves in delivering new service capabilities. Finally, enterprises can have a more useful conversation not about how do we make this work, but about how they our business can benefit? The question now becomes: what new business can come from the cloud model?
5. Applications become disposable. Enterprises will start to leverage the on- demand nature of cloud computing and take a page from the user experience of tablet and smartphone apps. The result: thinking about applications and their deployment less monolithically. The cloud will help enterprises make smarter decisions about how to handle their processing needs, and give them a way to do on-demand app distribution to both customers and employees. This will open up new options for access, even to older legacy applications. Enterprises will also start to evolve applications into smaller functional chunks - like iPad or iPhone apps.
Data Centers Slowing | Cross Cloud Connectivity | Private Clouds | Cloud Computing Consulting Internal Clouds
Michael Sheehan | @HighTechDad
Top 100 Cloud Blogger & Technology Evangelist for GoGrid
Michael is an avid technology pundit. As Technology Evangelist for Cloud Computing Infrastructure provider GoGrid, he keeps his finger firmly on the pulse of what's being thought about and done with the cloud industry-wide.
1. Data Centers Show Slower Growth – what I mean by this is that while data centers will continue to show growth via larger customers (e.g., cloud providers), many companies who currently rack and stack their IT environments within these data centers will shift to an outsourced cloud to replace aging bare metal and optimize their topologies to take advantage of the scalability and controlled costs of cloud computing. Many corporations will transition large portions of their infrastructure to either public clouds or consolidate as private clouds employing a virtualization solution. This consolidation will reduce footprints within the data center and potentially power consumption as VMs will be either driven by larger, more efficient servers or take advantage of the economies of scale of public clouds and their efficiencies. Gartner is predicting that 1 in 5 businesses will own no IT assets at all in the coming years.
2. More Cross Cloud Connectivity & Integration – different clouds offer different advantages and capabilities. Also, to avoid outages, companies will look to linking public, private and in-house infrastructures for better disaster recovery. Partnerships and alliances between various cloud service providers will emerge to thwart off "putting all of your eggs in one basket." In the past, there were services that helped you manage multiple clouds from within one pane of glass. What we will see is not only that capability with more cloud providers included, but also the ability to migrate infrastructures and configurations. This will become more important in the coming years and services that allow full migrations, connectivity between disparate IT environments and integration of unique services will gain traction.
3. Private Clouds Rise in the Ranks – having gone through a "wait and see period," Enterprises will now be more accepting of private cloud for their IT environments. Constrained budgets, server sprawl, unused or underutilized hardware environments will cause these corporations to rethink their IT strategies and will cause a shift in executive thinking from the "old school" "server hugging" days to adopting scalable cloud infrastructures.
4. Cloud Computing Consulting & Professional Services Firms will grow dramatically – Clouds are becoming more prevalent and more options, configurations, and services are cluttering the marketplace. To that end, companies will need to understand these options and how it can benefit their organizations. Cloud companies will further develop their own professional services organizations in order to assist companies navigate and craft their custom solutions (unless of course these cloud providers are extremely commoditized and only offer DIY solutions). Consultancies will continue to evolve and new ones form, leveraging and implementing the best practices of multiple cloud services.
5. IT Organizations within Companies will shift to the Cloud – as I mentioned previously, IT departments within companies will now look to the cloud as their primary IT solution for application and infrastructure hosting as opposed to legacy systems (provided the clouds can support unique infrastructure environments). SaaS applications will continue to be rolled out within enterprises as a more efficient and cost effective way to deploy software. And PaaS and IaaS will become buzzwords and action items within conference rooms, in standup meetings and within raised floor environments.
Cloud Stack Market Shakeout | PaaS Growth | Multi-cloud Governance | Global IT Spending Decline
John Treadway | @cloudbzz
Top 100 Cloud Blogger & Director of Cloud Computing Solutions, Unisys
John is the author of CloudBzz (www.cloudbzz.com) and is a senior enterprise technology marketing and business development executive with significant experience across horizontal IT and financial technology markets.
1. The cloud stack market will shake out. UR either huge (VMware, BMC, CA, IBM, HP, VCE), or you're OpenStack. Several others will exit.
2. The PaaS momentum of 2011 will accelerate - that's where the action will be in 2012. It's about the Apps, stupid :)
3. Multi-cloud governance will start to be a mainstream area of focus enabling IT to gain control over their "cloud-sprawl" issues.
4. Global IT spending decline based on economy will change calculus of public vs. private cloud - lack of capex at most companies.
ITSM | Street Commerce | Market Maturity | DaaS | Private Cloud
Scott Stewart | @CIOmatters
Top 100 Cloud Blogger & Research Director at Longhaus Pty Ltd
An experienced CIO, Scott was among the first in Australia to move an entire financial services organization to the cloud. Through this experience he quickly emerged as a thought leader, shedding light on this disruptive transformation and helping business understand and develop the business case for cloud computing.
1. ITSM as a service
Service management, service assurance and security management to become high on the criteria for the discerning CIO. The period of 2009-2011 saw the 'race' to get a cloud product to market, but increasingly the demand-side will shift their questioning from "do you have a cloud offering" to: "how well do you run your cloud". Cloud vendors will need to invest in ITSM-as-a-service offerings to stay competitive.
Because too many vendors are totally reliant on the functionality that comes through from their core technology provider (eg IaaS vendors on VMWare) they will not be well differentiated with their competitors. They will need to turn to service management and service assurance investments to find the differentiation that will be compelling to the CIO. The enterprise CIOs will be asking "what is your investment in ITSM", "how many dedicated ITSM staff do you have?" and "how many security professionals are employed?"
2. Cloud-based 'street commerce'
The rapid adoption of mobility and the increased deployment of the NFC chip will see the rapid start of the 'street commerce' phenomenon. The digital media industry will drive the adoption of NFC equipped interactive signage and displays allowing users to interact with displays, signs and shop fronts using smartphones. The experience will be enhanced by further leveraging of Bluetooth that will allow for innovations with proximity aware interactions as well as transparent LCDs to animate shop fronts and bus shelters.
The cloud-based smartphone wallet will take off and the focus will increase for 'information personalisation'. (Imagine walking up to a shop front late at night and it says "Hello Jeremy we having your favourite running shoes on special, just tap the picture with your smartphone to buy now"). As a result of the demand for this level of interaction Mobility-centric PaaS will be a hot market item, In Australia there is a lot of interest in providers of this specialised area. (check out www.blinkmobile.com.au). As the APAC region is currently leading the world in adoption of smartphones and mobility there will be considerable investment in street commerce in this region.
3. Maturing of the cloud marketing message and the settling down of the hype
Cloud marketing begins to differentiate its message recognising that the 'go to the cloud' messaging for enterprises is vastly different to the message for start-ups, web shops, development shops and small business. Whilst the enterprise will move individual workloads to the cloud, the more large scale cloud adoption by enterprises will continue to slow as the realization that the scale of these transformations will have deep impacts on business models, processes and people.
The hype such as 'everything will be in the cloud by 2015' will be replaced with 'Cloud is here and stay and will be more about a business transformation over the next 5+ years'. This will lead to an increased focus on professional services as the cloud adoption process for the enterprise becomes a discussion on long-term 'roadmap' and slow and safe transitions touching everything from project management, business process improvement, Enterprise Architecture and Business Analysis. In Australia the data clearly shows that enterprise adoption of cloud in the enterprise has slowed and the cloud bubble is bursting in this space.
4. Desktop-as-a-service increasingly popular
The low hanging fruit for many CIOs will be to adopt the Desktop-as-a-service offering to deal with the very expensive and resource hungry provisioning of desktops. These multi-tenanted offerings will deliver a standard operating environment through a cloud based virtualized desktop as a service and will include network links, email, productivity suites, document management and identity management.
The issue for the CIO around "Bring your own device" will be largely solved as the virtualised desktop strategies will be extended to include providing every device access to the desktop- as-a-service. Also many Australian CIOs having to grapple with the issue of delivering remote access to global offices will find that the cloud based desktops will solve a lot of their issues. The competition in this space will be around providing these services as a PER USER PER MONTH pricing model and the use of user profiles to offer different cost choices. The cost saves will be compelling for the CIO especially in the 500 to 2000 seat sized organisations.
5. Private cloud to dominate
IT Managers in the enterprise will find plenty of reasons to support a shift to a private cloud model and the vendors will line up to provide the capability. Whether many of these models are actually cloud will be questioned as they will resemble traditional hosting and managed services models of single instances of infrastructure serving a single enterprise. . The vendors will make money enabling these private 'cloud' strategies and in so doing will try attempt to stretch the definition of multi-tenant to mean "if more than one user logs onto a server then we have a multi-tenant private cloud".
The reasons that IT managers will drive for private cloud adoption will be issues of data sovereignty, privacy regulations, security concerns – on the back of high profile cloud outages. Underpinning the move to private cloud will be the existing investment made by enterprises in massive infrastructures making it difficult for enterprises to deal with how they transition out of these models. Understandably in some cases job protectionism is also at play with the push to manage internal private 'clouds'. In time the larger enterprises will fail to realise the promised economies of scale with these models and there will be a shift to public cloud portability so that the enterprises can exploit the dynamics of data centre contestability and vendor price arbitrage for utilities such as storage and compute.
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- How Enterprise Big Data Will Affect Organizations in 2012
- Big Data Analytics: Thinking Outside of Hadoop
- Introducing Big Data


text:
Perkins Library was my friend. He/she/it/they had been my friend for a while now. That was before FaceBook began their jihad against fakesters. Not that Perkins was a fake. She/he/it/they represented the Library in its fullness, its aspect as a social creature or at least a social building with a social awareness, an interactive and responsive organism — not unlike the living Geisel Library protrayed in Vernor Vinge's Rainbows End.
Perkins isn't the only Library to be destroyed by FaceBook, Jason Griffy over in Tennessee sees a trend and reports in from there. More Libraries killed. Vanished and not allowed to return.
FaceBook, about the be bought possibly by Yahoo!, is retracing the missteps of the faded Friendster as Fred notes over at Unit Structures.
The Blogging Section of the SLA-IT has the story on the University of Kenntucky Library.
FaceBook bring back my Library friend!