Stories by Joab Jackson

Facebook engineer: Going large requires thinking small

When managing a constantly expanding system with many moving parts, it is crucial to break the system into large numbers of small pieces and manage them with lots of small, dedicated teams, advised Bobby Johnson, who is director of engineering for Facebook, at the Usenix Annual Technical Conference in Boston.

Red Hat launches hybrid cloud platform

Red Hat has launched a comprehensive package, called Red Hat Cloud Foundations, that will allow organizations to run applications in both public clouds and their own private clouds.

IBM courts finance market with new framework

IBM unveiled on Tuesday a new package of pre-integrated software applications, called the Financial Markets Industry Framework, configured for the financial services market.

Oracle socializes business process management

While business process management (BPM) has traditionally been about automating office and departmental workflows, Oracle is looking to put humans back into the loop, at least in an advisory capacity.

Chicago school to offer degree in predicting the future

The Chicago-based DePaul University will offer what it says is the nation's first master's degree in predictive analysis, the school announced on Wednesday in conjunction with IBM, which will provide resources for the program.

VDI provides flexibility, but at a cost

Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) may be the most flexible way to deploy remote desktops, but traditional terminal servers win on cost, a remote desktop specialist asserted in a talk at Microsoft's Tech Ed conference this week in New Orleans.

Microsoft: Features still missing in Azure

Due to an early emphasis on getting the right architecture for its Azure cloud platform, which went live in February, Microsoft's cloud service is still missing key features that are available in the company's standalone products, said Microsoft executives at the company's 2010 Tech Ed conference, being held this week in New Orleans.

Microsoft emphasizes hybrid cloud at TechEd

As the technology industry moves toward the cloud, users can ease the transition by adopting a hybrid computing model, said Bob Muglia, Microsoft's president of servers and tools, at the kickoff keynote speech at the company's TechEd 2010 event in New Orleans Monday.

New Yahoo CTO: Standardize then personalize

Raymie Stata, named Thursday as Yahoo chief technology officer, has a tough job ahead of him: Yahoo has experienced <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/197234/bartz_yahoo_working_to_boost_flagging_user_engagement.html">flagging</a> user interest of late and although it started as a search company, it has since farmed out that area to Microsoft Bing, repositioning itself as an online content and service provider.

Yahoo appoints new chief technology officer

Consumer Web portal company Yahoo has appointed a new chief technology officer, with former Chief Architect Raymie Stata taking on the role immediately, Yahoo <a href="http://ycorpblog.com/2010/06/03/raymiecto-2/">announced</a> Thursday.

Microsoft cloud service deployed by Kentucky schools

The Kentucky Department of Education is replacing its e-mail servers with a free cloud-based offering from Microsoft, one that will supply 700,000 students, faculty and staff with e-mail and other information-sharing tools.

Adobe viewer first step to digital content platform

Adobe Systems' newly released magazine digital viewer for iPad is the first component of an Adobe digital publishing platform that should help content producers more easily port their printed content onto various portable electronic devices, said Dave Burkett, vice president of Creative Solutions at Adobe.

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