Thursday, August 13. 2009

Pay-as-you-Go Windows Azure...Microsoft Prices its Cloud Computing Services

One of the big questions facing CIO's with regard to cloud computing is..."how much will it cost." In an article in CIO Today, author Mark Long provides specific details on how Microsoft will price its cloud services through Azure but warns that comparing it to Amazon's and Google's cloud services needs more than just price shopping...the differences reside in the service level agreements. Details on Azure according to CIO Today:

The Azure platform includes a Web-based relational database in Microsoft SQL Azure together with connectivity and interoperability with .NET services. Microsoft said it will charge $9.99 for the basic Web edition of its SQL Azure database, which includes up to a one-gigabyte relational database; and $99.99 for the business edition with up to a 10GB database. By contrast, .NET services will be 15 cents per 100,000 message operations, including service-bus messages and access-control tokens, the company said. And when it comes to network bandwidth, Microsoft said it will charge between 10 and 15 cents per gigabyte for Windows Azure, SQL Azure and .NET services.

Register for the Location Intelligence Conference for $199...limited time offer

Attendees may register for the Location Intelligence Conference for just $199...a savings of $600. This is a limited time offer and the deadline is Aug. 24 or the first 200 registrants.

Our offer to you is simple. Register for the full conference for $199, which includes meals, workshops and our conference social event. You will need a special code to receive this special offer...it is listed below.

Use the code: db4e9281.

The Fine Print:

• The offer is good until August 24th and limited to the first 200 registrations.
• All payments must be made by credit card.
• No refunds. Registration is transferable to someone else.
• After August 24th or 200 registrants, attendees will pay the regular registration fee of $795 (still a great deal!).

Also, we will give you a $50 rebate to those attendees that stay two nights or more at the conference hotel, the Westin Westminster, just for showing us your hotel receipt.

We're putting a focus on cloud computing and our distinguished speakers will touch on this as well as their enterprise IT implementations that have helped their company become more "location intelligent." I hope you will join us in Westminster, Colorado, for #LI2009 (follow us on Twitter @locationintel) October 5-7. You can join our LinkedIn Group that now has over 1000 members.

The New Model for Geo Grants

The Google.org Blog shares the 14 recipients of its Geo Challenge Grants. The grants run from $5000 to $50,000 and support local regional and nationwide efforts in education, health, energy and the environment. Some like the Green Belt Movement will be familiar to those in the geospatial community.

The apps created from the grants along with the data used will be open sourced for all to use.

Is this the new model for grants in this time of "Free"? Is giving software passe now that so much is free? Is the best use of resources to support the programming efforts and to make their impacts wider by turning it open source?

The Strange Geographical Sense of the Aloft Hotel

Aloft Hotels are a "vision of W hotels," owned by Starwood. I'd never been to one and didn't even know there was one in my area until last night when I went to meet a friend at one. There were some interesting geographic challenges.

First off, the signage was almost non-existent. The signs were small and frankly, made the hotel complex, hidden in the woods appear to be some small time office park. I missed the entrance during daylight hours.

Second, while I waited in the lobby I overheard Chinese visitors querying the reception staff about their dinner options. There's just a bar in the hotel, so they'd have to go out. But the busses stopped running, said the staffer. (I'm not sure that was completely true). And, the hotel shuttle ended its runs at 8 pm. And it was a three mile walk into town and the hotel had no maps. All the other stuff was possible, I guess but no maps? You have folks "in the middle of no where" - who can't find the way in and now you have no maps to guide them out for dinner?

Third, and this should have tipped me off the strangeness of this establishment: the entrance had two sets of automated sliding doors, one after the other. After you went through one, you did not walk straight through and have the same side open for the remainder of the trip. No, the second door open at other end so you had to walk diagonally in the breezeway to get inside. I saw several bewildered people with luggage try to negotiate this unexpected set of obstacles. I tried to imagine someone in a wheelchair doing so.

This hotel chain describes itself as hip. I guess it's hip to be lost and run an obstacle course to get inside.

Palm Collecting Pre Location (and other) Data: Story Summary

Short version:

1) Programmer finds that location and other information about user habits are being sent to Palm daily
2) Media writes about it and demands explanation from Palm
3) Palm responds - saying in essence - we said we'd do that in the license toward a better user experience and there are ways to turn sharing off
4) Some users agree that such data sharing is in the license; some are appalled and call this spying

- c|net

iPhone App Store: Teachable Moments

While I have mixed feelings about Apple's decision to approve (or not) apps to run on its iPhone platform, I do think the stories coming out of those decisions are educational. Take for example the recent "available"/"not available" status of the Offender Locator App. The app (in free and paid versions) locates sex offenders within 5 miles of the device's location.

The paid app was in, then out because it may have broken California laws. For now, the California data has been removed and the app is back while things get sorted out. This story highlights a few issues for developers (and everyone else):

- just because you can present data based on location, doesn't mean the data itself is legal to share
- different states have different laws on the books, so building a nationwide (or even worldwide app) may require some extra research and/or legal fees
- a big media discussion like this provides great advertising
- you can serve the greater good: 10% of proceeds from the app go to "stop child predator" organizations
- a new version (with hopefully all the legal issues sorted out and new features) may warrant a doubling in price ($.99 to $1.99)

- C|net