The Finnish Cloud Software Programme has published a guidebook that examines Cloud software development from the user experience point of view. A comparable book on how the user experience contributes to service design has not been published before. Cloud services are used daily by millions of people for communicating, sharing and storing content, gaming and consuming media. The way people perceive and experience Cloud services is critical to user acceptance and the eventual success of these services. However, technology developers and service developers need to design these services so that they are meaningful, fluent, pleasant and rewarding to use. Read further...

GreenButton, a provider of compute intensive and integrated on-demand Cloud solutions, has launched the GreenButton WarpDrive, a solution providing accelerated and secure transfers of large datasets to the Cloud. Previously this capability was only available to GreenButton customers for running Big Compute and Big Data workloads; however, demand from other use cases, such as enterprise back-ups, has led to a new standalone service. Read further...

NetApp has introduced two new hardware platforms and updated a third to address the broad performance requirements of data-intensive applications. The new NetApp EF550 all-flash array delivers high performance and consistent low latency for business-critical applications for which responsiveness and enterprise reliability are critical. The new NetApp E2700 has been designed for small remote/branch offices requiring optimal price/performance. The updated NetApp E5500 is aimed at performance, density, and modular flexibility for the widest range of data-intensive workloads. Read further...

The European Commission has launched a report with standards for Cloud computing. The report has to put an end to the enormous amount of stnadards and concepts used by Cloud providers. The report includes standards for interoperability, data exchange, and privacy protection. Read further...

Alelo Brasil, a Brazilian provider of pre-paid credit and benefit cards, has deployed a solution based on PureSystems that will upgrade and simplify their IT infrastructure at mirrored sites in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. As a result of the technology upgrade, Alelo will be able to move its applications into the Cloud, providing enhanced services for customers. Read further...

The 2014 International Supercomputing Conference is now accepting submissions, ranging from tutorial and birds of a feather (BoF) session proposals, research paper and poster abstracts, as well as student volunteer programme applications. The ISC'14 Call for Papers is supported by the IEEE Germany Section. Read further...

The HPC Advisory Council, an organisation for high-performance computing research, outreach and education, and the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS), will host the 5th HPC Advisory Council Switzerland Conference 2014 in the Lugano Convention Centre, Lugano, Switzerland, from March 31st through April 3rd, 2014. New this year, is an additional day of tutorials and will include comprehensive education for topics such as the progress of Exascale in the European Union, accelerators, high-speed interconnects, Big Data, HPC Cloud, OpenStack, storage and server advancements, new topologies, and middleware and communication libraries. Speaking and sponsorship opportunities are available on a limited basis. Read further...

For the first time, scientists at IBM Research have demonstrated a complex quantum mechanical phenomenon known as Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC), using a luminescent polymer (plastic) similar to the materials in light emitting displays used in many of today's smartphones. This discovery has potential applications in developing novel opto-electronic devices including energy-efficient lasers and ultra-fast optical switches - critical components for powering future computer systems to process massive Big Data workloads. The use of a polymer material and the observation of BEC at room temperature provides substantial advantages in terms of applicability and cost. Read further...

The DRIHM project - Distributed Research Infrastructure for Hydro-Meteorology - sets the stage for a new way of doing hydro-meteorological Research (HMR) at European and eventually global levels through the development and deployment of an e-Science environment. Read further...

Mellanox Technologies Ltd.'s FDR InfiniBand solution provides the University of Cambridge GPU-based supercomputer with leading, scalable performance. The system has a sustained performance of over 250 TF and ranked 166th on the November 2013 TOP500 list of supercomputers. The system was designed to increase energy efficient high-performance computing and ranked second in the November Green500 list that ranks supercomputers by energy efficiency. Read further...

Minister for Economic Affairs and competitiveness, Luis de Guindos, and Catalonian Regional Minister of Economy and Knowledge Andreu Mas-Colell visited the facilities of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC-CNS). The event was also attended by Repsol Chairman Antonio Brufau, Secretary of State for Research, Development and Innovation, Carmen Vela; Secretary of Universities and Research of the Government of Catalonia, Antoni Castellà as well as representatives of several companies that have collaboration agreements with the BSC-CNS. Read further...

Altair, a global provider of simulation technology and engineering services, will host the 2014 European Altair Technology Conference from June 24th to 26th, 2014 at the Dolce Hotel Congress Center in Munich, Germany. Customers and industry experts are now invited to submit their presentation proposals to contribute to the success of the event. The deadline for abstract submission is February 28th, 2014. Read further...

A GBP 2 million investment has increased the capability and power of the state-of-the-art BlueCrystal High Performance Computer (HPC) facility, which allows over 650 researchers and students to process vast amounts of complex data at record speeds. Read further...

One of the world's greenest supercomputers has been unveiled by the High Performance Computing Service at the University of Cambridge. Named "Wilkes", after the Cambridge pioneer Maurice Wilkes, who built one of the first ever programmable computers in 1949, the new system has been rated second in the "Green 500" - a ranking of the most efficient supercomputers worldwide. It is, however, the most efficient air-cooled supercomputer in the world today - the first-placed machine used an oil-cooled system instead, making it the greenest machine of its kind. Read further...

The HPC Advisory Council, an organisation for high-performance computing research, outreach and education, has formed the HPCmusic subgroup, an advanced research project that focuses on the usage of High-Performance Computing (HPC) to enable advancements in music production and creation. The new subgroup is chaired by Antonis Karalis, whom in 2012 received the prestigious HPC Advisory Council University Award for advanced research in the subject area of music in high-performance computing. Read further...

Qualcomm Incorporated's wholly-owned subsidiary, Qualcomm Technologies Inc., has introduced the Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 chipset with integrated 4G LTE World Mode. The delivery of faster connections is important to the growth and adoption of smartphones in emerging regions, and Qualcomm Snapdragon chipsets are poised to address the needs of consumers as 4G LTE begins to ramp in China. Read further...

Convey Computer Corporation has made the newest addition to Convey's expanding bioinformatics suite, PacBioToCA, an application that facilitates the assembly of genomes sequenced with Pacific Biosciences long-read technology. Optimized to take advantage of the highly parallel processing architecture of the Convey hybrid-core (HC) server, PacBioToCA delivers six to fifteen times acceleration. Read further...

One of the most powerful tools for understanding the formation and evolution of galaxies has been the use of computer simulations - numerical models of astrophysical processes run on supercomputers and compared with astronomical observations. Getting computer simulations to produce realistic-looking galaxies has been a challenge, however, and different codes (simulation programmes) produce inconsistent results. Read further...

HP has introduced new HP ConvergedSystem and HP Converged Storage offerings that give enterprises the speed, agility and lower economics to build the next-generation data centres that will power tomorrow's successful organisations. Read further...

As expected, worldwide factory revenue for the high performance computing (HPC) technical server market declined sharply to $2.5 billion in the third quarter of 2013 (3Q13), down from an exceptional $3.4 billion in the same period of 2012, according to the newly released International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide High-Performance Technical Server QView. Read further...

The University at Buffalo will receive $1 million from New York State to make its downtown Buffalo supercomputing centre more accessible to businesses in Western New York and beyond. The award, announced through Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's Regional Economic Development Council initiative, will fund the purchase of computer servers, software and other components for the Center for Computational Research (CCR). University at Buffalo will make those resources available to industry, such as Sentient Science, IBC Digital, CUBRC, Empire Visual Effects and other companies looking to innovate through high-performance computing and Big-Data analytics. Read further...

A team led by an Iowa State University nuclear physicist has won a grant of 204 million hours on two of the country's fastest supercomputers to study the structure and reactions of rare and exotic nuclei. Read further...

Oracle has released Oracle SQL Developer 4.0, enhanced with new functionality to simplify the development and management of Oracle Database environments. Supporting new innovations in Oracle Database 12c, including its multitenant architecture and data redaction, Oracle SQL Developer 4.0 helps developers and database administrators increase productivity and performance. Read further...

Raritan, a provider of data centre infrastructure management (DCIM) and rack power distribution solutions, has added two new sensor models that are easy and quick to deploy for monitoring temperature among racks and keeping IT equipment healthy. Read further...