Didi Chuxing Teams with NVIDIA for Autonomous Driving and Cloud Computing – HPCwire

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Dec. 17, 2019 NVIDIA and Didi Chuxing (DiDi), the worlds leading mobile transportation platform, today announced that DiDi will leverage NVIDIA GPUs and AI technology to develop autonomous driving and cloud computing solutions.

DiDi will use NVIDIA GPUs in the data center for training machine learning algorithms and NVIDIA DRIVE for inference on its Level 4 autonomous driving vehicles. In August, DiDi upgraded its autonomous driving unit into an independent company and began a wide range of collaborations with industry partners.

As part of the centralized AI processing of DiDis autonomous vehicles, NVIDIA DRIVE enables data to be fused from all types of sensors (cameras, lidar, radar, etc.) using numerous deep neural networks (DNNs) to understand the 360-degree environment surrounding the car and plan a safe path forward.

Developing safe autonomous vehicles requires end-to-end AI, in the cloud and in the car, said Rishi Dhall, vice president of Autonomous Vehicles at NVIDIA. NVIDIA AI will enable DiDi to develop safer, more efficient transportation systems and deliver a broad range of cloud services.

To train these DNNs, DiDi will use NVIDIA GPU data center servers. For cloud computing, DiDi will also build an AI infrastructure and launch virtual GPU (vGPU) cloud servers for computing, rendering and gaming.

DiDi Cloud will adopt a new vGPU license mode to provide users with better experiences, richer application scenarios and more efficient, flexible GPU cloud computing services. Currently, DiDi Cloud is collaborating with industry partners including NVIDIA to provide services in transportation, AI, graphics rendering, video games and education.

Delivering 10 billion passenger trips per year, DiDi is working toward the safe, large-scale application of autonomous driving technology, leveraging its own technology capacities, data resources and open collaboration with tech leaders and OEM partners.

About Didi Chuxing

Didi Chuxing (DiDi) is the worlds leading mobile transportation platform. The company offers a full range of app-based transportation services for 550 million users across Asia, Latin America and Australia, including Taxi, Express, Premier, Luxe, Bus, Designated Driving, Enterprise Solutions, Bike Sharing, E-bike Sharing, Automobile Solutions and Food Delivery. Tens of millions of drivers who find flexible work opportunities on the DiDi platform provide 10 billion passenger trips a year.

About NVIDIA

NVIDIAs invention of the GPU in 1999 sparked the growth of the PC gaming market, redefined modern computer graphics and revolutionized parallel computing. More recently, GPU deep learning ignited modern AI the next era of computing with the GPU acting as the brain of computers, robots and self-driving cars that can perceive and understand the world. More information at http://nvidianews.nvidia.com/.

Source: NVIDIA

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Didi Chuxing Teams with NVIDIA for Autonomous Driving and Cloud Computing - HPCwire

Amazon used Bluetooth beacons to track attendees at its massive AWS cloud computing conference – Business Insider UK

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Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is an engineer at heart and built a company that gathers data on everything it can. "People think of Amazon as very data-oriented and I always tell them, look, if you can make the decision with data, make the decision with data," Bezos once said in 2018

So it should not be surprising that when 60,000 people descended on Las Vegas earlier this month to attend Amazon Web Services re:Invent, the cloud platform's biggest annual customer conference, Amazon wanted data on what these attendees did and where they went during the show.

Specifically, the lanyards for the conference badges that Amazon issued this year included a Bluetooth beacon from a company called TurnoutNow, AWS confirmed to Motherboard's Joseph Cox.

Not everyone was aware that the badge included such tracking information, sources told Motherboard. But many were. On Twitter, people were discussing signs that AWS placed around the registration area alerting people to the tracker.

Per posts on social media, the signs said:

"Notice that object on your lanyard? It's an anonymous beacon that lets us count the number of attendees at certain event locations, so we can facilitate foot traffic, improve transportation, and help plan future events. Your beacon is not associated with your name or any other personal information about you, and it will only send anonymous data to us about our meeting space and other central gathering locations for this event. If you'd rather have a lanyard without the beacon, please visit the help desk."

Amazon also told Business Insider that attendees were free to opt out, and that accepting the lanyard was not a requirement for admittance.

Even still, given this was a conference for IT professionals, many of whom are computer security experts, a few people complained about the tracking device on Twitter, including security pro Jerry Gamblin.

Gamblin pointed out in a tweet that if some hacker figured out how to match the lanyard tracker with the name on the badge, they would no longer be anonymous. "The beacon has a unique ID so it is not anonymous and at best is pseudonymous. It would only take matching of name to the unique ID for full tracking," he tweeted.

And attendee Rachel Dines dissected hers and posted a picture on Twitter. "Did anyone else take apart the beacon on their #reinvent lanyard? I see a battery, an antennae and some unknown chips. Also, as soon as you remove the beacon from your lanyard, the QR code starts to fade #creepy"

The beacon was the subject of other jokes and banter, from opting out with a hammer to swapping lanyards with other attendees.

Interestingly, such conference attendee tracking devices are hardly a new idea. They've been used by conference organizers for well over a decade.

And it's a bit ironic that Amazon, of all companies, wouldn't use one of the cutting edge technologies it develops and sells to solve this problem, like machine learning/AI, computer vision, or even something more mundane, like the location data from its conference mobile app.

As one attendee on Twitter put it, "2008 wants their conference badges back."

Are you an insider with insight to share? Contact Julie Bort on encrypted chat app Signal at (970) 430-6112 using a non-work phone (no PR inquiries, please), or email at jbort@businessinsider.com. Open DMs on Twitter @Julie188.

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Amazon used Bluetooth beacons to track attendees at its massive AWS cloud computing conference - Business Insider UK

National Science Foundation Awards Grant to Develop Next-Generation Cloud Computing Testbed Powered by Red Hat – Business Wire

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RALEIGH, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Red Hat, Inc., the world's leading provider of open source solutions, today announced that the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Computer and Network Systems has awarded a grant to a research team from Boston University, Northeastern University and the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass) to help fund the development of a national cloud testbed for research and development of new cloud computing platforms.

The testbed, known as the Open Cloud Testbed, will integrate capabilities previously developed for the CloudLab testbed into the Massachusetts Open Cloud (MOC), a production cloud developed collaboratively by academia, government, and industry through a partnership anchored at Boston Universitys Hariri Institute for Computing. As a founding industry partner and long-time collaborator on the MOC project, Red Hat will work with Northeastern University and UMass, as well as other government and industry collaborators, to build the national testbed on Red Hats open hybrid cloud technologies.

Testbeds such as the one being constructed by the research team, are critical for enabling new cloud technologies and making the services they provide more efficient and accessible to a wider range of scientists focusing on research in computer systems and other sciences.

By combining open source technologies and a production cloud enhanced with programmable hardware through field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), the project aims to close a gap in computing capabilities currently available to researchers. As a result, the testbed is expected to help accelerate innovation by enabling greater scale and increased collaboration between research teams and open source communities. Red Hat researchers plan to contribute to active research in the testbed, including a wide range of projects on FPGA hardware tools, middleware, operating systems and security.

Beyond this, the project also aims to identify, attract, educate and retain the next generation of researchers in this field and accelerate technology transfer from academic research to practical use via collaboration with industry partners such as Red Hat.

Since its launch in 2014, Red Hat has served as a core partner of the MOC, which brings together talent and technologies from various academic, government, non-profit, and industry organizations to collaboratively create an open, production-grade public cloud suitable for cutting-edge research and development. The MOCs open cloud stack is based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Red Hat OpenStack Platform and Red Hat OpenShift.

Beyond creating the national testbed, the grant will also extend Red Hats collaboration with Boston University researchers to develop self-service capabilities for the MOCs cloud resources. For example, via contributions to the OpenStack bare metal provisioning program (Ironic), the collaboration aims to produce production quality Elastic Secure Infrastructure (ESI) software, a key piece to enabling more flexible and secure resource sharing between different datacenter clusters. And by sharing new developments that enable moving resources between bare metal machines and Red Hat OpenStack or Kubernetes clusters in open source communities such as Ironic or Ansible, Red Hat and the MOCs researchers are helping to advance technology well beyond the Open Cloud Testbed.

Supporting Quotes

Michael Zink, associate professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), University of Massachusetts AmherstThis testbed will help accelerate innovation in cloud technologies, technologies affecting almost all of computing today. By providing capabilities that currently are only available to researchers within a few large commercial cloud providers, the new testbed will allow diverse communities to exploit these technologies, thus democratizing cloud-computing research and allowing increased collaboration between the research and open-source communities. We look forward to continuing the collaboration in MOC to see what we can accomplish with the testbed.

Orran Krieger, professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Boston University; co-director, Red Hat Collaboratory; PI, Massachusetts Open CloudAn important part of the MOC has always been to enable cloud computing research by the academic community. This project dramatically expands our ability to support researchers both by providing much richer capabilities and by expanding from a regional to a national community of researchers.

Chris Wright, senior vice president and chief technology officer, Red HatThis grant and the work being done by the MOC show how open source solutions can positively impact real-world challenges outside of enterprise data centers. Red Hat is no stranger to pioneering new ways in which open source software can be used for innovative research, and we are pleased to help drive this initiative in bringing open cloud technologies to a wider range of disciplines, from social sciences to physics, while also continuing our commitment to the next generation of open source practitioners.

Additional Resource

Connect with Red Hat

About Red Hat, Inc.

Red Hat is the worlds leading provider of enterprise open source software solutions, using a community-powered approach to deliver reliable and high-performing Linux, hybrid cloud, container, and Kubernetes technologies. Red Hat helps customers integrate new and existing IT applications, develop cloud-native applications, standardize on our industry-leading operating system, and automate, secure, and manage complex environments. Award-winning support, training, and consulting services make Red Hat a trusted adviser to the Fortune 500. As a strategic partner to cloud providers, system integrators, application vendors, customers, and open source communities, Red Hat can help organizations prepare for the digital future.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including: risks related to the ability of the Company to compete effectively; the ability to deliver and stimulate demand for new products and technological innovations on a timely basis; delays or reductions in information technology spending; the integration of acquisitions and the ability to market successfully acquired technologies and products; risks related to errors or defects in our offerings and third-party products upon which our offerings depend; risks related to the security of our offerings and other data security vulnerabilities; fluctuations in exchange rates; changes in and a dependence on key personnel; the effects of industry consolidation; uncertainty and adverse results in litigation and related settlements; the inability to adequately protect Company intellectual property and the potential for infringement or breach of license claims of or relating to third party intellectual property; the ability to meet financial and operational challenges encountered in our international operations; and ineffective management of, and control over, the Company's growth and international operations, as well as other factors. In addition to these factors, actual future performance, outcomes, and results may differ materially because of more general factors including (without limitation) general industry and market conditions and growth rates, economic and political conditions, governmental and public policy changes and the impact of natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods. The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release.

Red Hat, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the Red Hat logo, and OpenShift are trademarks or registered trademarks of Red Hat, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and other countries. Linux is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other countries. The OpenStack Word Mark is either a registered trademark/service mark or trademark/service mark of the OpenStack Foundation, in the United States and other countries, and is used with the OpenStack Foundation's permission. Red Hat is not affiliated with, endorsed or sponsored by the OpenStack Foundation, or the OpenStack community.

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20 Experts Share Predictions for Cloud in 2020 and Beyond – Solutions Review

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As part of our Cloud Insight Jam, we got in touch with several experts and asked for their predictions on cloud computing in 2020. These experts represent the top cloud vendors, cloud solutions providers, and IT software companies, and have decades of combined experience with operating solutions inside the cloud. Weve compiled 26 quotes from 20 experts on where they see the field of cloud in 2020 and beyond.

Thanks to all of these experts for submitting their quotes and advice and be sure to follow us on Twitter all day for insights, advice, and best practices on cloud computing during our #CloudInsightJam!

Weve been hearing people talk about the hybrid cloud for the past three years now. And for the most part, thats all its been talk. 2020 is the year it gets real. But first, what does hybrid cloud actually mean? Red Hat defines hybrid cloud as a combination of two or more cloud environmentspublic or private. We are seeing large enterprises refusing to add capacity on-prem to their Hadoop deployments and instead invest in the public cloud. But they are still not willing to move their core enterprise data to the cloud. Data will stay on-prem and compute will be burst to the cloud, particularly for peak demands and unpredictable workloads. Technologies that provide optimal approaches to achieve this will drive the rise of the hybrid cloud.

In 2019, major brands like Target, British Airways, Facebook and Twitter all experienced major IT outages. 2020 will be no different as we expect to see some high-profile project failures and/or outages. Digital transformation opportunities are encouraging companies to take risks, but the stakes are high as the technology is being stretched to its limits. The deployment and use of multi-cloud/hybrid service architectures are creating fragile environments where many accidents are just waiting to happen.

Work has changed. Weve seen the decomposition of software applications into tens of thousands of best-of-breed applications, complicating the very nature of work [] thankfully, were rapidly moving into a new era of pre-built integrations and powerful new tools that even non-developers can use to quickly and easily integrate their ecosystem of apps. This is unleashing a new kind of innovation, one where enterprises and software companies alike can quickly create entirely new, business processes harmonized across multiple applications. Whether its connecting up the many disparate apps required to manage the workforce in a big enterprise, or its fintechs and traditional finserv players vying to create the next killer open banking application, 2020 will be the biggest year yet for productized integrations.

2020 will mark a notable shift in enterprise IT as the dawn of a new era of edge computing arises. The first-generation model of centralized cloud computing and storage has now run its course, and most of the new opportunities for enterprise data management reside at the edge. [] Such data growth outside the datacenter is the new reality, and its creating a need for enterprises to deploy computing power and storage capabilities at the network edge, aka edge computing. Enterprises are already investing in edge computing to move faster, to have data continuously available, and to improve data security. As edge computing goes mainstream in enterprise IT in 2020, edge-to-cloud architectures that manage data centrally while making it instantly available to users at the edge will be a key enabler for business success.

In 2020, I believe well see the rise of the Omni Cloud, or what multi-cloud will become. Basically, the abstraction above the physical public clouds, providing common ways to access storage, processing, databases, compute, and HPC. This will likely be more of an idea than an actual thing in 2020, but it will be game changing in terms of how we deal with complex heterogenous cloud deployments.

In 2020, I also believe well see public cloud providers finally accept that they will most often be deployed as part of a multi-cloud architecture. Thus, well see native public cloud tools that will be focused on managing, securing, and governing several cloud brands, all from a single cloud brand. At the end of the day, this can provide public cloud providers with a key advantage that they are able to exploit to grow the use of public cloud in general. Who will be first?

Each of the big clouds is looking to capture more enterprise data by moving in this direction, but there are also other players who look to unify all environments. This isnt software defined storage exactly, the model is more about stretching cloud services into the data center, as opposed to deploying storage on commodity hardware to reduce cost. The idea is that users should have a consistent experience from the services they run in the cloud, but across their infrastructure. This cloudification of data is a necessary step in seeing hybrid cloud fulfill its potential, but there is a risk that customers may trade one set of vendor lock-ins for another. They should ask themselves, Am I gaining the freedom to use my data across all sorts of clouds and services? Or am I locking myself into just another ecosystem?

A growing number of users who gravitated to Microsoft Azure, Amazon AWS or other one-stop commodity providers are on the verge of turning negative on the cloud. Theyre looking for vendors to help them do what they originally sought from cloud computing: that is, save on everything from engineering to equipment to support by delivering a truly turnkey offering. This disaffection is tied less to cloud computing as a concept or a platform than to issues around execution; todays commodity cloud simply doesnt have everything baked-in, as the early adopters experienced.

2020 may well be defined by the question: Whos an MSP? In the year ahead, both sides in the industry will become more like the other. Where users once stressed about the hybrid cloud (What is it? Is it for me? Who will decipher it for my organization?) or some other permutation of IaaS, the market will continue to evolve in the users direction, thanks largely to the managed services option. When an organization can deploy Azure or AWS but entrust day-to-day management to a more responsive (local) provider, everyone wins.

I think that in 2020, enterprise tech customers will finally realize that pursuing a multi-cloud strategy is proving to be worthless. It takes enormous effort and adds a lot of complexity to build systems that can switch between different public clouds for the relatively meager benefit of hedging against outages and vendor lock-in. Of course, technology vendors must continue to build solutions that work across all major public clouds in order to satisfy the demands of a diverse base of customers that each choose cloud providers based on their specific needs. But for tech customers, the goal of hedging against failures is just not meaningful when prolonged outages among major cloud providers, the kind that would require a company to shift operations to another cloud, have been practically non-existent. As for avoiding vendor lock-in, it ends up being more expensive for end-users to build the same system in multiple clouds than to build for your cloud of choice and then possibly move to another cloud if the terms or functionality get bad.

The coming year will show that cloud-based applications are the winning monetization strategy for open-source software companies. While the first generation of companies that developed open-source software tried to use a paid customer support and training model, the last couple of years have shown that to be unsustainable. In 2020, pay-per-use, cloud-based services will take hold as the leading business model for open-source companies. As enterprises increasingly focus on agility and time-to-value, cloud-based services can deliver speed and scalability for customers that are willing to pay and by extension they offer a source of revenue for software companies that want to develop and monetize open-source technology.

The war over cloud compute dominance is a real one between Amazon, Microsoft and Google. Recent announcements from these vendors (Google in particular) are showing the acquiescence to polarize and consolidate where computing is done, in favor of transportability of assets between them. Kubernetes and the vendor ecosystem surrounding this will be a very specific sector to watch.

When it comes to DevOps, companies are looking for more than just tools. They are looking for platforms that play nice with their current tool offerings while also adding value with artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics. Between 2019s public cloud adoption rate of 94% and private cloud adoption rate of 72%, I predict a strong shift in 2020 toward flexible platforms that can be adapted to the unique needs of the company rather than tools that offer out-of-the-box solutions.

Kubernetes is exciting to application developers because its vendor-agnostic and provides automation for deployment, operations, and scaling for microservices-based applications. While Kubernetes can simplify development, operations, and scaling, its also quite a complex beast, which can make it challenging to operate. Early adopters of Kubernetes discovered that while they were seeing the benefits in their application, they were spending an increasing amount of time and effort managing Kubernetes itself. AWS, Microsoft, and Google now all offer fully-managed Kubernetes services, freeing the next wave of Kubernetes adopters to reap the benefits without having to take on the complex task of managing Kubernetes itself. As a result, an increasing number of workloads will make the leap to Kubernetes in 2020, and the ecosystem of tools surrounding Kubernetes will continue to explode.

AWS introduced Lambda in 2014 to much fanfare, pioneering serverless computing. Since 2014, AWS has rapidly evolved Lambda, making it more flexible, powerful, and usable. But, these days, serverless is about much more than just functions, like AWS Lambda. AWS has introduced an entire suite of fully-managed services that enable customers to build and run serverless applications, covering compute, storage, orchestration, databases, analytics, and more. By leveraging these services such as AWS Lambda, AWS Fargate, Amazon S3, DynamoDB, Aurora Serverless, and Amazon API Gateway application developers can create sophisticated, powerful, and cost efficient applications that require no management or maintenance of servers or the underlying execution environment. In 2020, I expect AWS to introduce dozens of new services and features that continue to drive serverless adoption, while the other hyperscalers will race to follow their lead.

Public cloud represents the largest growth market in the history of computing, and the race for market share has been heating up over the past few years. AWS is the clear market leader, but both Microsoft and Google have been pushing to win a slice of the market. Google has made interesting advances technically, but has struggled to gain a foothold selling into enterprise. Microsoft, on the other hand, has made a huge investment in leveraging its existing enterprise install base and enterprise sellers to push its Azure cloud service. In late October of 2019, Microsoft surprised many by winning the $10B JEDI contract from the U.S. Department of Defense. AWS had been widely considered the clear leader for the contract, so much so that Oracle sued, alleging that the requirements were stacked in their favor. The victory is a huge boost for Microsoft, and a blow to AWS.

Cloud migrations introduce an opportunity to evaluate and switch to other databases, such as Amazon Aurora or Azure SQL MI, since the process takes the same amount of effort, regardless of whether a company is sticking with its existing vendor or selecting a new one. This trend is disrupting the enterprise database market most notably, pitting Oracle against Amazon, with the latter rapidly gaining ground. [] Regardless of which vendor takes the top spot, organizations will be the true winners of this race, by taking advantage of the myriad benefits the cloud has to offer while gaining access to more providers and services than ever before.

Recurring cloud and managed services is the way MSPs will have to evolve their business. No longer will it be possible for to survive making a one-off service or technology. Many MSPs arent equipped with a business model that allows them to grasp making money in a cloud world, so to stay competitive in 2020 they will need to adopt a business model based on recurring revenue.

Public cloud adoption will continue to rise as a result of MSPs seeking a more secure IT environment, as its currently a top concern causing them to rethink the continued feasibility of their practice and offerings. Public cloud is a huge comfort here because if MSPs store their data and apps with someone like Microsoft they get the work and knowledge of thousands of people who are dedicated solely to security.

Microsoft Azure (Azure Arc, Azure Stack Hub, Azure Stack Edge), Amazon Web Services (AWS Outpost, VMware on AWS) , and Google (Anthos, Google Kubernetes Engine) are all investing heavily not only in solutions that connect on-premises infrastructure to their own public clouds, but also in cross-cloud interoperability and management. This blurring of lines between vendors and technologies is an excellent development for enterprises who are looking not to be locked into a single vendor, but for the best technology to solve specific business problems.

Enterprises will seek to take full advantage of the clouds agility by re-architecting their application/technology stacks to optimize them specifically for the cloud environment. IT departments regularly use a lift and shift approach to migrating applications to the cloud, but the effort still requires some changes to ensure meeting desired service levels owing to some differences between private and public infrastructures. After the initial wave of migration to the cloud is optimized, DevOps will drive re-architecting their application/technology stacks to a cloud-native implementation to take further advantage of the clouds greater efficiency, reliability, scalability and affordability.

As the migration of enterprise applications to the cloud accelerates and matures, the need to ensure mission-critical high availability (HA)will create opportunities for resellers and system integrators. This window of opportunity is forming as enterprises seek more robust HA solutions that have yet to be fully integrated into the application and system software. Some system integrators may have the expertise and resources needed to leverage opensource software in their Linux offerings. But an increasing percentage will choose to integrate solutions purpose-built to provide HA and disaster recovery protections, as these have proven to be more dependable for the customer, while also being just as (if not more) profitable for the integrator.

Rather than consolidation, organizations will look to best of breed cloud technologies to provide the services that they need for their enterprise deployments. The agility provided through the flow and exchange of data across companies will become more critical as organizations are looking to optimize their operations and maximize ROI. We will see a trend of the top cloud providers joining forces to house their applications in each others environments.

Open source technologies enable a common environment across different cloud environments because they are cloud agnostic, and easy to run. The ability to accommodate an array of applications and host them in any cloud or open source containers will help spur multi-cloud adoption. Public cloud providers; like Azure ARC, Google Anthos and Amazon Outposts; will leverage multi-cloud deployments powered by their stacks. While the use case is still rare today, the movement will pick up in 2020, as more enterprises realize the capabilities of open source technologies in cloud environments.

Multi-cloud deployments are becoming the norm in todays enterprise. In 2020, this trend will continue to accelerate. A multi-cloud approach is critically important for organizations that run on-premise, since they need to stay in a hybrid mode when moving microservices to the cloud. As a result, we expect to see enterprises widely embrace distributed SQL databases to ensure agility without the availability constraints of traditional monolithic databases, like Oracle.

In the decade ahead, organizations of all sizes will continue to eschew Oracle for cloud-native databases, shrinking the user base of the monolithic legacy provider. Two major trends driving this activity are the ongoing move to microservices-based redesign of applications and the rise of cloud-native deployments running in public clouds or Kubernetes. Overall, Oracle has lost market share every year since 2013, and legacy relational database players have dropped about five percentage points per year. Major organizations, such as Amazon and Salesforce, have already figured out that its to their benefit to use less, not more, Oracle and this is a trend that will accelerate in the year ahead.

Looking for more info on managed service providers for your cloud solutions? Our MSP Buyers Guide contains profiles on the top cloud managed service providers for AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, as well as questions you should ask vendors and yourself before buying. We also offer an MSP Vendor Map that outlines those vendors in a Venn diagram to make it easy for you to select potential providers.

Check us out onTwitter for the latest in Enterprise Cloud news and developments!

Dan is a tech writer who writes about Enterprise Cloud Strategy and Network Monitoring for Solutions Review. He graduated from Fitchburg State University with a Bachelor's in Professional Writing. You can reach him at dhein@solutionsreview.com

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20 Experts Share Predictions for Cloud in 2020 and Beyond - Solutions Review

Global Continuous Integration Tools Market Analysis, Trends, and Forecasts, 2019-2025: Rise of Cloud Computing Opens up Lucrative Growth Opportunities…

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DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The "Continuous Integration Tools - Market Analysis, Trends, and Forecasts" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Continuous Integration Tools market worldwide is projected to grow by US$1.1 Billion, driven by a compounded growth of 19.2%.

On-Premises, one of the segments analyzed and sized in this study, displays the potential to grow at over 17.2%. The shifting dynamics supporting this growth makes it critical for businesses in this space to keep abreast of the changing pulse of the market. Poised to reach over US$924.9 Million by the year 2025, On-Premises will bring in healthy gains adding significant momentum to global growth.

Representing the developed world, the United States will maintain a 20.8% growth momentum. Within Europe, which continues to remain an important element in the world economy, Germany will add over US$43.7 Million to the region's size and clout in the next 5 to 6 years. Over US$54.1 Million worth of projected demand in the region will come from the rest of the European markets. In Japan, On-Premises will reach a market size of US$66.5 Million by the close of the analysis period.

As the world's second largest economy and the new game changer in global markets, China exhibits the potential to grow at 18.9% over the next couple of years and add approximately US$199.6 Million in terms of addressable opportunity for the picking by aspiring businesses and their astute leaders.

Presented in visually rich graphics are these and many more need-to-know quantitative data important in ensuring quality of strategy decisions, be it entry into new markets or allocation of resources within a portfolio.

Several macroeconomic factors and internal market forces will shape growth and development of demand patterns in emerging countries in Asia-Pacific. All research viewpoints presented are based on validated engagements from influencers in the market, whose opinions supersede all other research methodologies.

Competitors identified in this market include:

Key Topics Covered:

1. MARKET OVERVIEW

2. FOCUS ON SELECT PLAYERS

3. MARKET TRENDS & DRIVERS

4. GLOBAL MARKET PERSPECTIVE

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/syvspv

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Global Continuous Integration Tools Market Analysis, Trends, and Forecasts, 2019-2025: Rise of Cloud Computing Opens up Lucrative Growth Opportunities...

Prime Leverage: How Amazon Wields Power in the Technology World – The Indian Express

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By: New York Times | Seattle | Published: December 18, 2019 4:13:50 pm While cloud computing may appear obscure, it has grown into one of the technology industrys largest and most lucrative businesses, offering computing power and software to companies. And Amazon is its single-biggest provider.

By Daisuke Wakabayashi

Elastic, a software startup in Amsterdam, was rapidly building its business and had grown to 100 employees. Then Amazon came along.

In October 2015, Amazons cloud computing arm announced it was copying Elastics free software tool, which people use to search and analyze data, and would sell it as a paid service. Amazon went ahead even though Elastics product, called Elasticsearch, was already available on Amazon.

Within a year, Amazon was generating more money from what Elastic had built than the startup by making it easy for people to use the tool with its other offerings. So Elastic added premium features last year and limited what companies like Amazon could do with them. Amazon duplicated many of those features anyway and provided them free.

In September, Elastic fired back. It sued Amazon in federal court in California for violating its trademark because Amazon had called its product by the exact same name: Elasticsearch. Amazon misleads consumers, the startup said in its complaint. Amazon denied it had done anything wrong. The case is pending.

Not since the mid-1990s, when Microsoft dominated the personal computer industry with Windows, has a technology platform instilled such fear in competitors as Amazon is now doing with its cloud computing arm.

While cloud computing may appear obscure, it has grown into one of the technology industrys largest and most lucrative businesses, offering computing power and software to companies. And Amazon is its single-biggest provider.

Amazon has used its cloud computing arm called Amazon Web Services, or AWS to copy and integrate software that other tech companies pioneered. It has given an edge to its own services by making them more convenient to use, burying rival offerings and bundling discounts to make its products less expensive. The moves drive customers toward Amazon, while those responsible for the software may not see a cent.

Even so, smaller rivals said they have little choice but to work with Amazon. Given the companys broad reach with customers, startups often agree to its restrictions on promoting their own products and voluntarily share client and product information with it. For the privilege of selling through AWS, startups pay a cut of their sales back to Amazon.

Some of the companies have a phrase for what Amazon is doing: strip-mining software. By lifting other peoples innovations, trying to poach their engineers and profiting off what they made, Amazon is choking off the growth of would-be competitors and forcing them to reorient how they do business, the companies said.

All of this has fueled scrutiny of Amazon and whether it is abusing its market dominance and engaging in anti-competitive behavior. The companys tactics have led several rivals to discuss bringing antitrust complaints against it. And regulators and lawmakers are examining its clout in the industry.

AWS is just one prong of Amazons push to dominate large swaths of the US industry. The company has transformed retailing, logistics, book publishing and Hollywood.

But what Amazon is doing through AWS is arguably more consequential. The company is the unquestioned market leader triple the size of its nearest competitor, Microsoft in the seismic shift to cloud computing. Millions of people unknowingly interact with AWS every day when they stream movies on Netflix or store photos on Apples iCloud, services that run off Amazons machines.

Jeff Bezos, Amazons chief executive, once called AWS an idea no one asked for. The service began in the early 2000s when the retailer struggled to assemble computer systems to start new projects and features. Once it built a common computer infrastructure, Amazon realized other companies needed similar capabilities.

Now companies like Airbnb and General Electric essentially rent computing from Amazon otherwise known as using the cloud instead of buying and running their own systems. Businesses can then store their information on Amazon machines, pluck data from them and analyze it.

For Amazon itself, AWS has become crucial. The division generated $25 billion in sales last year and is Amazons most profitable business.

But in interviews with more than 40 current and former Amazon employees and those of rivals, many said the costs of what the company was doing with AWS were hidden. They said it was hard to measure how much business they had lost to Amazon or how the threat of Amazon had turned off would-be investors. Many spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of angering the company.

Now regulators are approaching some of Amazons software rivals. The House Judiciary Committee, which is investigating the big tech companies, asked Amazon in a September letter about AWS practices. The Federal Trade Commission, which is also investigating Amazon, has questioned AWS competitors, according to officials.

When Amazon Web Services began last decade, Amazon was struggling to turn a consistent profit.

Startups embraced AWS. They saved money because they did not need to buy their own computing equipment, spending only on what they used. Soon more companies flocked to Amazon for computing infrastructure and, eventually, the software that ran on its machines.

In 2009, Amazon established a template for accelerating AWS growth. That year, it introduced a service for managing a database, which is critical software to help companies organize information.

The AWS database service, an instant hit with customers, did not run software that Amazon created. Instead, the company plucked from a freely shared option known as open source.

Technologists initially paid little attention to what Amazon had done with database software. Then in 2015, Amazon copied Elasticsearch and offered its competing service.

This time, heads turned.

There was a company that built a business around an open-source product that people like using, and suddenly they have a competitor using their own stuff against them, said Todd Persen, who started a nonopen-source software company this year so there was zero chance that Amazon could lift his creations.

Again and again, the open-source software industry became a well that Amazon turned to. When it copied and integrated that software into AWS, it did not need permission or have to pay the startups for their work.

That left little recourse for many of these companies, which could not suddenly start charging money for what was free software. Some instead changed the rules around how their wares could be used, restricting Amazon and others who want to turn what they have created into a paid service.

Last year, MongoDB, a popular technology for organizing data in documents, announced that it would require any company that manages its software as a web service to freely share the underlying technology. The move was widely viewed as a hedge against AWS, which does not openly share its technology for creating new services.

AWS soon introduced its own technology with the look and feel of MongoDBs older software, which did not fall under the new requirements.

By the time AWS held its first developer conference in 2012, Amazon was no longer the only big player in cloud computing. Microsoft and Google had introduced competing platforms. So Amazon unveiled more software services to make AWS indispensable.

Amazon has since added AWS services at a blistering pace, going from 30 in 2014 to about 175 as of December. It also built in a home-field advantage: simplicity and convenience.

Customers can add new AWS services with one click and use the same system to manage them. The new service is added to the same bill, while using a non-Amazon service on AWS is more complicated.

Saket Saurabh, chief executive of the startup Nexla, said he signed his startup to work with Amazon in September. The reason? Amazons giant sales teams can give his data-processing and monitoring service access to a vast audience.

What choice do we have? he said.

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Prime Leverage: How Amazon Wields Power in the Technology World - The Indian Express

Will Amazon Make a Dent in Cisco’s Revenue With This New Project? – Motley Fool

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Every time Amazon(NASDAQ:AMZN) ventures into a new business, the targeted industry should worry about the risks of competing against such a disruptive player. For instance, traditional retailers have been struggling against Amazon's e-commerce dominance. And the giant retailer has become a leading public cloud computing company with Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Legacy traditional computer network vendors such as Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) may be concerned by Amazon's latest move. Last week, the Linux Foundation announced the DENT project, which is aiming at "the creation of network operating system for disaggregated network switches in campus and remote enterprise locations," and Amazon is one of the six premier members of this initiative.But this apparently disruptive technology may actually have a limited impact.

Before cloud computing emerged a few years ago, computer networking had been following the same model over a couple of decades. Network vendors had been selling monolithic, proprietary solutions that integrated network devices with the software to run these boxes. This was great for customers that wanted a network that just works and that would not distract them from their core business.

Giant cloud providers such as Amazon with AWS and Microsoft with Azure required more scale and flexibility at low cost, though. As a result, solutions that disaggregated software from network devices emerged. For instance, Microsoft developed its network operating system SONiC that can run on any compatible network device. The advantage of this technology is cloud titans can run their tailor-made software on top of any hardware that better fits their needs.

And this technology has been having a significant impact on the networking industry. For instance,Arista Networks grew its revenue from $361 million in 2013 to $2.45 billion over the last 12 months thanks to its network solutions that address cloud titans' requirements.

In contrast, Cisco was late to adapt. Its market share in the high-speed data center network segment dropped from 74.4% in 2013 to 46.6% during the first half of this year.And Cisco announced only last week the disaggregation of its software from its hardware for its new data center networking solution.

Image source: Getty Images.

The idea of the DENT project is to applyto smaller and remote networks the same disruptive technology thatconsisted of separating software and hardware in the cloud data center networks. As an illustration, the project's first use case targets the retail industry, which involves many small locations.

Cisco doesn't disclose its revenue from its enterprise and campus business, but the company's largest segment, "infrastructure platforms" (which includes network devices), represented 57.3% of its revenue during the most recent quarter.Besides,a study indicates Cisco controlled 59% of the enterprise and campus markets in 2018.

Thus, with its disruptive technology on the campus and enterprise network, the DENT project represents a real threat to Cisco, but its impact may stay limited.

First, disaggregating network software and hardwaremakes sense for giant cloud providers since their scale allows them to develop their tailor-made technology in an economical way. But smaller companies don't necessarily want to deal with integrating networking software and hardware. They may still just want an integrated and trouble-free solution that connects their remote locations to their networks. The same concept exists with computer operating systems: Linux is available for free and can run on any personal computer, but many companies prefer to pay for Microsoft's operating system because it won't distract them from their core business.

Second, the DENT project is initially targeting the retail industry. However, some retailers may be reluctant to choose a solution provided by their biggest competitor (Amazon) as we saw when theypreferred Microsoft's cloud for their data centers.

Third, companies may worry about potential future integration of DENT with AWS, making their whole network -- remote locations and data centers -- dependent on Amazon's infrastructure and software.

Finally, even if this disruptive technology expands, Cisco can now quickly adapt since it developed a similar disaggregated solution for data centers.

Thus, investors should not expect any meaningful impact from the DENT project for either Amazon or Cisco. This project may actually signal Amazon is preparing to expand its physical footprint with a tailor-made networking solution that would lower its costs to deploy its remote locations.

And even if the DENT project gains traction, Cisco remains an attractive tech stock. The company will quickly adapt because it recently embraced the concept of disaggregating software and hardware in the data center segment.

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Will Amazon Make a Dent in Cisco's Revenue With This New Project? - Motley Fool

Raleigh analytics firm Cymatic named most promising startup finalist in The Cloud Awards – WRAL Tech Wire

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RALEIGH Cymatic,a Raleigh-based provider of user and entity behavior analytics, today announced that is has been names a finalist as the 2019-2020 Most Promising Startup in the international Cloud Computing Awards program, The Cloud Awards.

To be shortlisted for our revolutionary work in web application defense is not only an honor, but a clear recognition of our early success in leading secure cloud technologies, said Cymatic Founder and Chief ExecutiveJason Hollander, in a statement. We offer the only unified WAF that deploys at the client through a simple line of JavaScript without agents or proxies to deliver first-look, first-strike capability that is earliest in the kill chaina fundamental shift from traditional approaches to security.

Founded in 2011, Cymatic has developed a next-generationall-in-one web application defense platformthat moves protection from the network side to the client to defend against todays most sophisticated client and browser-based attacks.

The startup says it is the only UEBA platform to provide web applications with deep visibility into and proactive remediation of the threats from human and non-human attacks, as well as the vulnerabilities users bring with them on their devices.Instead of just protecting network-based threats like traditional WAFs, Cymatic said it uses sophisticated artificial intelligence and machine-learning algorithms to identify page mutations and user anomalies. The platform protects against user-derived and device-based threats such as poor credential hygiene, dark web vulnerabilities and potentially risky devices. It is invisible and frictionless to users, deploys in mere minutes and has immediate time-to-value.

Web applications continue to be highly vulnerable to human derived threats such as poor credential and device hygiene. Unfortunately, todays current security solutions fail at really understanding how a users security hygiene directly affects the cyberhealth of companies they interact with, said Hollander.

Back in August, the firm raised $4.5 million in seed fundingfrom prominent private angel investors.

Cymatic was selected from hundreds of organizations that entered from the Americas, Australia, Europe and the Middle East. Its advanced cloud-based microservices and real-time message-bus architecture offer unparalleled scale to provide the resilience necessary to validate and process the millions of users and transactions that touch web properties every second. The platform is engineered to work across all web applications regardless of operating system, browser or device. It eliminates the OWASP top 10, bots, CAPTCHAs, dark web threats, forced MFA, shared accounts, IP threats, device vulnerabilities and other cloud-based threats with no erosion of the user experience.

The Cloud Awards is an international program which recognizes and honors industry leaders, innovators and organizational transformation in cloud computing. The awards are open to large, small, established and start-up organizations from across the entire globe, with an aim to find and celebrate the pioneers who will shape the future of the Cloud as we move into 2020 and beyond. The Cloud Awards currently offers two awards programs, the Cloud Computing Awards and the Software-as-a-Service Awards.

Raleigh analytics firm Cymatic raises $4.5M in seed funding

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Raleigh analytics firm Cymatic named most promising startup finalist in The Cloud Awards - WRAL Tech Wire

12 Highlights from the First Annual Cloud Insight Jam – Solutions Review

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Yesterday, Solutions Review hosted our first ever Cloud Insight Jam and it was a huge success! We received more participation from cloud vendors, thought leaders, and IT experts than we could have hoped for, all sharing their thoughts and insights on cloud computing and how they expect the market to change in 2020. In case you missed the event, wed like to share the key highlights from the Insight Jam!

First, wed like to share our video compilation containing clips on advice and best practices for deploying cloud solutions. We compiled advice from 12 experts in the field of cloud from companies across the globe.

We also pulled several Tweets containing valuable cloud insights and predictions that vendors and individuals shared during the event. The intended backbone of the Cloud Insight Jam was to generate discussion and allow experts a forum for them to provide their thoughts. It was great seeing this concept come to life, as all throughout the day, several cloud solution providers and thought leaders Tweeted their perspectives!

Looking for more info on managed service providers for your cloud solutions? Our2020 MSP Buyers Guide contains profiles on the top cloud managed service providers for AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, as well as questions you should ask vendors and yourself before buying. We also offer a2020 MSP Vendor Mapthat outlines those vendors in a Venn diagram to make it easy for you to select potential providers.

Check us out onTwitterfor the latest in Enterprise Cloud news and developments!

Dan is a tech writer who writes about Enterprise Cloud Strategy and Network Monitoring for Solutions Review. He graduated from Fitchburg State University with a Bachelor's in Professional Writing. You can reach him at dhein@solutionsreview.com

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12 Highlights from the First Annual Cloud Insight Jam - Solutions Review

Cloud computing IaaS in Life Science Market Growth Rate by 2026 Top Key Vendors, Trend, Segmentation, Drivers, Challenges and Forecast – Market…

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Cloud computing IaaS in Life Science Market Overview:

The report titled Cloud computing IaaS in Life Science Market is one of the most comprehensive and important additions to Verified Market Research archive of market research studies. It offers detailed research and analysis of key aspects of the Cloud computing IaaS in Life Science market. The market analysts authoring this report have provided in-depth information on leading growth drivers, restraints, challenges, trends, and opportunities to offer a complete analysis of the Cloud computing IaaS in Life Science market. Market participants can use the analysis on market dynamics to plan effective growth strategies and prepare for future challenges beforehand. Each trend of the Cloud computing IaaS in Life Science market is carefully analyzed and researched about by the market analysts.

Global Cloud computing IaaS in Life Science market was valued at USD 946.1 million in 2017 and is projected to reach USD 5,245.31 million by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 32.7% from 2018 to 2025.

The report includes detailed analysis of the vendor landscape and thorough company profiling of leading players of the Cloud computing IaaS in Life Science market.The researchers have considered almost all important parameters for company profiling, including market share, recent development, gross margin, future development plans, product portfolio, production, and revenue.

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Leading players covered in the Cloud computing IaaS in Life Science market report:

Insight into Competitive Landscape :

Market players need to have a complete picture of the competitive landscape of the Cloud computing IaaS in Life Science market as it forms an essential tool for them to plan their future strategies accordingly. The report puts forth the key sustainability strategies taken up by the companies and the impact they are likely to have on the Cloud computing IaaS in Life Science market competition. The report helps the competitors to capitalize on opportunities in the Cloud computing IaaS in Life Science market and cope up with the existing competition. This will eventually help them to make sound business decisions and generate maximum revenue.

Market Segment Analysis :

The report offers a comprehensive study of product type and application segments of the Cloud computing IaaS in Life Science market. The segmental analysis provided in the report is based on significant factors such as market share, market size, consumption, production, and growth rate of the market segments studied.Readers of the report are also provided with exhaustive geographical analysis to provide clear understanding of the regional growth of the Cloud computing IaaS in Life Science market. Developed as well as developing regional markets for Cloud computing IaaS in Life Science have been deeply studied to help market players identify profit-making opportunities in different regions and countries.

North America (United States, Canada and Mexico)

Asia Pacific (China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines and Vietnam)

Middle East and Africa (Turkey, GCC Countries, Egypt and South Africa)

South America (Brazil and others)

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Table of Content

1 Introduction of Cloud computing IaaS in Life Science Market

1.1 Overview of the Market 1.2 Scope of Report 1.3 Assumptions

2 Executive Summary

3 Research Methodology of Verified Market Research

3.1 Data Mining 3.2 Validation 3.3 Primary Interviews 3.4 List of Data Sources

4 Cloud computing IaaS in Life Science Market Outlook

4.1 Overview 4.2 Market Dynamics 4.2.1 Drivers 4.2.2 Restraints 4.2.3 Opportunities 4.3 Porters Five Force Model 4.4 Value Chain Analysis

5 Cloud computing IaaS in Life Science Market, By Deployment Model

5.1 Overview

6 Cloud computing IaaS in Life Science Market, By Solution

6.1 Overview

7 Cloud computing IaaS in Life Science Market, By Vertical

7.1 Overview

8 Cloud computing IaaS in Life Science Market, By Geography

8.1 Overview 8.2 North America 8.2.1 U.S. 8.2.2 Canada 8.2.3 Mexico 8.3 Europe 8.3.1 Germany 8.3.2 U.K. 8.3.3 France 8.3.4 Rest of Europe 8.4 Asia Pacific 8.4.1 China 8.4.2 Japan 8.4.3 India 8.4.4 Rest of Asia Pacific 8.5 Rest of the World 8.5.1 Latin America 8.5.2 Middle East

9 Cloud computing IaaS in Life Science Market Competitive Landscape

9.1 Overview 9.2 Company Market Ranking 9.3 Key Development Strategies

10 Company Profiles

10.1.1 Overview 10.1.2 Financial Performance 10.1.3 Product Outlook 10.1.4 Key Developments

11 Appendix

11.1 Related Research

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Analysts with high expertise in data gathering and governance utilize industry techniques to collate and examine data at all stages. Our analysts are trained to combine modern data collection techniques, superior research methodology, subject expertise and years of collective experience to produce informative and accurate research reports.

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Cloud computing IaaS in Life Science Market Growth Rate by 2026 Top Key Vendors, Trend, Segmentation, Drivers, Challenges and Forecast - Market...

Cloud computing IaaS in Life Science Market Global Size, Share, Outlook and Growth Opportunities 2019-2026 – Market Research Sheets

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The global Cloud computing IaaS in Life Science Market is broadly studied in the report with large focus on market competition, segmentation, geographical expansion, and other important aspects. The analysts who have prepared the report are highly experienced in market research and possess vast knowledge about the global Cloud computing IaaS in Life Science Market . The report includes deep analysis of microeconomic and macroeconomic factors impacting the growth of the global Cloud computing IaaS in Life Science Market . It also offers analysis of production, sales, and consumption growth in the global Cloud computing IaaS in Life Science Market . With the help of exhaustive research studies provided in the report, readers can easily become familiar with key dynamics of the global Cloud computing IaaS in Life Science Market , including drivers, restraints, and opportunities.

The trends analysis offered in the report will help players operating in the global Cloud computing IaaS in Life Science Market to cash in on lucrative business opportunities. The all regional analysis included in the report will help players to explore untapped markets and increase their market presence in key regions. Most importantly, the report offers crucial market information and data that will prepare players to effectively strategize for their business to gain significant profits. On the whole, it comes out as a powerful tool that players can use to gain a competitive edge in the global Cloud computing IaaS in Life Science Market .

Global Cloud computing IaaS in Life Science market was valued at USD 946.1 million in 2017 and is projected to reach USD 5,245.31 million by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 32.7% from 2018 to 2025.

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Topmost Leading Key Players in this report :

Cleardata Networks, Dell Global Net Access (GNAX), Carecloud Corporation, Vmware, Carestream Health, IBM Corporation, Iron Mountain, Athenahealth, and Oracle Corporation

As part of primary research, our analysts interviewed a number of primary sources from the demand and supply sides of the global Cloud computing IaaS in Life Science Market . This helped them to obtain both quantitative and qualitative data and information. On the demand side of the global Cloud computing IaaS in Life Science Market are end users, whereas on the supply side are distributors, vendors, and manufacturers.

During our secondary research, we collected information from different sources such as databases, regulatory bodies, gold and silver-standard websites, articles by recognized authors, certified publications, white papers, investor presentations and press releases of companies, and annual reports.

The research report includes segmentation of the global Cloud computing IaaS in Life Science Market on the basis of application, technology, end users, and region. Each segment gives a microscopic view of the market. It delves deeper into the changing political scenario and the environmental concerns that are likely to shape the future of the market. Furthermore, the segment includes graphs to give the readers a birds eye view.

Last but not the least, the research report on global Cloud computing IaaS in Life Science Market profiles some of the leading companies. It mentions their strategic initiatives and provides a brief about their structure. Analysts have also mentioned the research and development statuses of these companies and their provided complete information about their existing products and the ones in the pipeline.

Based on regions, the market is classified into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa and Latin America. The study will provide detailed qualitative and quantitative information on the above mentioned segments for every region and country covered under the scope of the study.

Finally, Cloud computing IaaS in Life Science Market report gives you details about the market research finding and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage. Supported by comprehensive primary as well as secondary research, the Cloud computing IaaS in Life Science Market report is then verified using expert advice, quality check and final review. The market data was analyzed and forecasted using market dynamics and consistent models.

Verified Market Research has been providing Research Reports, with up to date information, and in-depth analysis, for several years now, to individuals and companies alike that are looking for accurate Research Data. Our aim is to save your Time and Resources, providing you with the required Research Data, so you can only concentrate on Progress and Growth. Our Data includes research from various industries, along with all necessary statistics like Market Trends, or Forecasts from reliable sources.

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Cloud computing IaaS in Life Science Market Global Size, Share, Outlook and Growth Opportunities 2019-2026 - Market Research Sheets

Global Cloud Computing Industry Emerging Trends and Prospects by leading Players Yahoo Inc. CISCO Systems, IBM Co., Hewlett Packard, Dell Inc. -…

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The Latest Research Report published by Global Reports Store on Cloud Computing Industry Forecast 2019-2025. Which contains 120 Pages, 80 Figures, and Tables, With a detailed description of past, present, and future of Cloud Computing Industry along with 15 Companies detailed profile analysis. The global Cloud Computing industry valued approximately USD 209.9 billion in 2016 is anticipated to grow with a healthy growth rate of more than 17.93% over the forecast period 2019-2025.

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The major driver for this industry is the cost-effectiveness. This service of cloud computing helps various organizations to save up to one-third of their annual operations costs. Also, the rising number of SMEs will bolster the use of cloud services. The objective of the study is to define Industry sizes of different segments & countries in previous years and to forecast the values for the next eight years. The report is designed to incorporate both qualitative and quantitative aspects of the industry with respect to each of the regions and countries involved in the study. Furthermore, the report also caters the detailed information about the crucial aspects such as drivers & restraining factors which will define the future growth of the Industry. Additionally, it will also incorporate the opportunities available in micro Industries for stakeholders to invest, detailed analysis of competitive landscape and product offerings of key players.

Market Player in Cloud Computing Industry:Yahoo Inc.CISCO SystemsIBM Co.Hewlett PackardDell Inc.Akamai TechnologiesVM WareMicrosoft CorporationAmazon Web Services

Market Segmentation:By Service:Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)Platform as a Service (PaaS)Software as a Service (SaaS)

By Deployment Model:Public CloudPrivate CloudHybrid Cloud

By Organization Size:Small & Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs)Large Enterprises

By End-User:Telecommunications & IT (ICT)HealthcareRetailPublic SectorMedia & EntertainmentBanking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI)

By RegionNorth America (USA, Canada)Europe (Germany, U.K., France, Italy, Rest of Europe)APAC (China, India, Japan, Rest of Asia-Pacific)RoW (Latin America, Middle East & Africa)

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High lite Form This Research Report:1 Business Overview: An exhaustive description of the companies operation and business divisions.2 Corporate Strategy: Analysts summarisation of the companies business strategy.3 SWOT Analysis: A detail analysis of company Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threats.4 Company History: Progression of key events associated with the company.5 Major Products and Services: A list of major Products, Services, and Brands of the company.6 Key Competitors: A list of key competitors to the company.7 Important Locations and subsidiaries: a list and contact details of key locations and subsidiaries of the company.

Table of Contents Major Key PointsChapter 1: Executive summaryChapter 2: Scope of the reportChapter 3: Market research methodologyChapter 4: IntroductionChapter 5: Market landscapeChapter 6: Market segmentation by productChapter 7: Key leading countriesChapter 8: Market driversChapter 9: Impact of drivers

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Karina, Christmas and the immortality of grace – ArtsHub

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How to deal with times of intense change? Let Anna Karina show you the way to a life beyond language and moral certainty.

Anna Karina was a Danish-French actress who burst onto the independent French scene just as a bunch of critics broke free of classical aesthetics and invoked a decisively new sensibility. It was called The New Wave, with a bunch of masculine heroes like Godard and Truffaut. Karina was an icon of the era.

Billions of words have probably been written about this, which few of us are equipped to understand. Let's just say that it broke free of wartime trauma, and allowed us to feel a different way of being alive. Fluid, spontaneous, guiltless, young and very, very cool.

Anna Karina was a living, breathing embodiment of that freedom, based on consummate skill in the relationship with her body.

She was fated to die young on a motor scooter or old, of cancer. She made it to 79 and died on December 14.

She worked mostly for Godard, her husband in the early sixties, though she was important in more traditional cinema as well. One of her most delicious scenes comes from Bande a Part, in which the narrative broke open with a dance scene which is full of insouciant joy.

Art is the dream to which we must surrender.

And we have this untranslated clip of the shoot. Bear with the Alpha Godard in the middle.

And a New Yorker article from Richard Brophy discussing the scene.

While the cineastes like to concentrate on the distilled essence of their sense of self in the people, the clothes, the streets and the offhand disintegration of narrative, I love the way these films took advantage of new lighter equipment, with better blimps and faster film. They were made by very skilful people.

Here is cinematographer Raoul Coutard, who shot the dance scene, talking about Alphaville. [There is more on youtube if you get sucked in.]

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Karina, Christmas and the immortality of grace - ArtsHub

Amazon Games’ New World MMO Isn’t About Colonization, but About Greed and Cooperation – The Escapist

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Ever since its new trailer was shown off at The Game Awards, Amazons upcoming massively multiplayer online game New World has been back in the news again. The basis of the title, and one that helps it differentiate itself from other MMOs on the market, is that players are able to create settlements throughout the game world.

This can potentially lead to massive 50-versus-50 multiplayer battles, as well as potential uprisings if players feel they are being treated poorly by leadership. Naturally, worries have arisen that the game could be glamorizing the topic of colonization, a horrible act that has shaped history.Thankfully, some key story decisions have kept the title from falling down such a rabbit hole.

An important aspect of colonization, and what separates it from just creating a settlement in an uninhabited area, is taking control of land away from indigenous people. Obviously, any attempt at making the player seem like a hero while committing such atrocities would be in poor taste.

However, that isnt the case in New World, whose fantasy setting stems from a collapsed society filled with corrupted explorers. The in-game enemies have all been corrupted by a magic that also grants immortality, and they are former settlers themselves.

They have been detached from their humanity thanks to greed and are now more monster than man. Furthermore, director Scot Lane has explained to Eurogamer that the games Aeternum island is an entirely fictional setting and that it has nothing to do with America and its history.

Its worth noting that there have been games based around the idea of colonization in the past. Most notable are Sid Meiers Colonization and its Civilization IV remake, which has the player building a worldwide power using an army from England, France, The Netherlands, or Spain. Of course, these turn-based strategy games are based on history and largely get a pass on the issue to some degree because acting like colonization hasnt had a huge impact on history is just as dangerous as celebrating it.

We cant erase problematic elements from history, and if a game wants to explore such a time period, then it should be able to. Ultimately, players have the moral authority to play as they please or even abstain entirely from the experience should they not want to participate.

Players in New World will be given the opportunity to do better than their corrupt predecessors. The allure of magic still stands, and there will be plenty of tests of players own greed along the way. Those that start a settlement will be able to enforce tax rates and even come up with plans to grow their colony. Higher tax rates can be appreciated if they go to good causes (such as building fortified walls and more advanced shops), but they can also alienate those struggling financially.

More tyrannical players will quickly learn that there is a penalty for their actions, as players can choose to support an invading faction during a war if they prefer their way of life. Much like a good leader in real life, those that control a settlement will have to listen to their inhabitants and make sure their needs are being met if they want to continue having a high place in society.

While the player-versus-player multiplayer is optional in New World, it gets at the games core theme of cooperation. In order to create a successful settlement, players will need to support each other and work together for a goal that is greater than one persons wants and desires. Its about coming together and doing the right thing. Its entirely possible, if quite unlikely, that New World could wind up being a peaceful game with different settlements that are willing to work together and help out others as they battle the corrupted.

Its more likely that the world will be ravaged by nonstop war caused by greed, similar to our current world, but the option is there for players to be better. How the world ends up will ultimately be decided by its players, and thats what makes New World such an intriguing spin on MMOs.

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Amazon Games' New World MMO Isn't About Colonization, but About Greed and Cooperation - The Escapist

This weekends best Tampa Bay concerts: Isley Brothers, local favorites – Tampa Bay Times

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SHOUT IT OUT: THE ISLEY BROTHERS

It has been six, count em, six decades since the Isley Brothers achieved pop immortality with Shout, the wedding-dance staple that put them on the global map in 1959. Ronald Isley can barely believe it. Everything we do now, its not like starting all over again, but its just such a great thing, the legendary singer and Shout co-writer said by phone recently. The crowds are incredible, all the sellouts. And the people, its just fantastic to make them see and feel everything that were doing. The Isley Brothers have put together one of the most influential careers of all time, shaping everyone from the Beatles (whose cover of Twist and Shout was inspired by theirs) to Kendrick Lamar (who put Isley on To Pimp a Butterfly), Jimi Hendrix (their onetime guitarist) and the Notorious B.I.G. (who sampled Between the Sheets on Big Poppa). Isley and his brother Ernie are the only brothers left in the band, but theyre still drawing crowds of all ages eager to hear hits like That Lady, Fight the Power and Its Your Thing. Even Shout can still get them all up and dancing. $35 and up. 7:30 p.m. Thursday. Mahaffey Theater, 400 First St. S, St. Petersburg. (727) 893-7832. themahaffey.com.

A fun footnote in Tampa Bays musical history: In 1973, the Grateful Dead played a concert at Curtis Hixon Hall; 20 years later the show became the first release in their Dicks Picks line of official bootlegs. The album featured stereo recordings of favorites like Truckin and Hes Gone, plus a rare cover of Blind Willie Johnsons Nobodys Fault But Mine. Earlier this spring, longtime local Dead cover band Uncle Johns Band served up tasty selections from the show at the Gasparilla Music Festival in Curtis Hixon Park, near where the Dead stood in 1973. Now, in a holiday treat for fans, theyll revive the concept in St. Petersburg in an attempt to play the whole show, start to finish. $20. 8 p.m. Friday. Palladium, 253 Fifth Ave. N, St. Petersburg. (727) 822-3590. mypalladium.org.

You cant talk Tampa death metal without talking Morbid Angel. Along with Obituary, Deicide and later Cannibal Corpse, theyve been slinging sludgy brutality out of the 813 since the early 80s. The lineup around reclusive guitarist and songwriter Trey Azagthoth has changed over the years longtime singer-bassist David Vincent, influential drummer Pete Sandoval and Hate Eternals Erik Rutan are all long gone but theyre still in demand around the globe. Theyre headlining this falls USA Sickness Tour alongside Swedish death metal lords Watain and New York group Incantation, both respected veterans in their own right. $25 and up. 7 p.m. Friday. Orpheum, 1915 E Seventh Ave., Tampa. (813) 248-9500. theorpheum.com.

The Outlaws are in the discussion for biggest Tampa Bay band of all time, rising to Southern rock hero status in the 70s and 80s on the strength of their hits Green Grass and High Tides and There Goes Another Love Song. Over the last few years, theyve started a successful local tradition with their annual Green Grass and Yuletide Jam shows, where Henry Paul, Monte Yoho and friends blast out hits by the Outlaws, Blackhawk and other projects. This year theyve expanded it to a two-night stand, with special guests Firefall (You Are the Woman) opening both nights. $39.50 and up. 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Nancy and David Bilheimer Capitol Theatre, 405 Cleveland St., Clearwater. (727) 791-7400. atthecap.com.

If you like your holiday parties with a little bit of edge, this is the show for you. Psychobilly punk survivor the Reverend Horton Heat returns to St. Petersburg for the 2019 edition of his Hortons Holiday Hayride tour, mixing spiky Christmas tunes in alongside his own popular tunes. Hell be joined by a bundle of similarly retro-minded acts, including the Blasters Dave Alvin, ska-punk vets Voodoo Glow Skulls and Japanese surf-rockers the 5.6.7.8s, arguably best known as that house band from the massacre scene in Kill Bill Vol. 1. Put a little peppermint in your Pomade, slick it back and duck-walk this way. $27.50 and up. 7 p.m. Saturday. Jannus Live, 200 First Ave. N, St. Petersburg. (727) 565-0550. jannuslive.com.

Tampa label and promo honchos New Granada have a lot of reasons to amplify this years annual Christmas night concert. For one thing, its the 25th edition. (Maybe a cover of Silver Bells is in order?) For another, its been an epic year for Pohgoh (pronounced pogo), the band featuring New Granadas Keith Ulrey on drums and his wife, Susie Ulrey, writing songs and singing. Since releasing their long-awaited comeback album Secret Club last year, Pohgoh have gone on tour with Jawbreaker and Mineral and even played shows in Japan. New Granadas got another much-anticipated album coming next year by local faves DieAlps!, and theyll play this show, too. So will the aptly titled Wreath, featuring veterans of punk outfits like Awkward Age and Vacancy. $10. 7 p.m. Wednesday. Crowbar, 1812 N 17th St., Tampa. (813) 241-8600. facebook.com/crowbarlive.

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This weekends best Tampa Bay concerts: Isley Brothers, local favorites - Tampa Bay Times

‘Anyone’ book review: You’ll tear through this sci-fi story in a ‘Flash’ – Hypable

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Anyone by Charles Soule will make you desire and fear the world it builds in equal measure.

At its best, science fiction serves as both a social commentary and a cautionary tale. A good sci-fi story immerses you in a world that looks just familiar enough that you can place yourself in it, while exploring a fundamental change that makes it unrecognizable.

Charles Soule has been acclaimed for his science fiction work in novels and comics alike, so its no surprise that hes mastered the craft. Although I had not picked up any of his works previously, if any of them are penned with the storytelling prowess of Anyone, consider me very interested.

Anyone is centered around an intriguing technology called the Flash. The Flash allows you to temporarily transfer your consciousness into another body. You can hang out in that body for a while, and then when youre ready, Flash back to your own.

While at first glance the Flash seems like a logistical nightmare and like something that would be immediately abused to the point of madness, the people of Anyone have actually managed to make it work for them. The climate crisis has been all but eradicated with fewer planes in the sky and cars on the road, entertainment has been revolutionized, and of course, the elite can achieve virtual immortality by continually Flashing into younger hosts.

The book also makes some great observations about empathy, discrimination, prejudice, and inclusion that I didnt expect. As the Flash continues to impress the books characters, Anyone keeps pace by mesmerizing the reader with its capabilities and potential. What would happen to racism, homophobia, and sexism if you couldnt tell who someone is just by looking at them? This book does its best to answer that in a thought-provoking way.

Anyone takes place over two different timelines, and theyre both a wild ride. Its rare that a book can engage me equally in two storylines as different as those in this book. Yes, both storylines are centered around the Flash, but the stories come at it from completely different angles.

One storyline follows Gabby White, who somewhat accidentally invents the tech that allows the Flash to be realized. This storyline is all big dreams, family dynamics, espionage, and corporate greed. The way it unfolds allows you to dream alongside Gabby, while simultaneously agonizing over her decisions and circumstances.

The second storyline takes place 25 years after the first, in a world where the Flash has been fully integrated into society. With Annami, we fully explore the capabilities of the Flash, including the salacious and less than legal side of things. Were also forced to ask ourselves some tough ethical questions about power and the greater good.

Both storylines are interesting, engaging, and packed with action and mystery! Soule has told two amazing stories with Anyone, intertwining them seamlessly. And theyre definitely intertwined. As the story goes on, you realize just how important Gabbys story is to Annamis, and vice versa.

As much as the book is a cautionary tale about this particular kind of technology, its also a commentary on how quickly weve adapted to other technology in our lives, without really stopping to think about the consequences. We have sacrificed a lot for convenience, and Anyone takes a different approach to showcasing that than Ive seen before.

Pick up a copy of Anyone if youre interested in jumping into this intriguing, thoughtfully crafted world. Fans of sci-fi will be enthralled by the technology, fans of drama will love the corporate edge, and fans of stories will be with these characters from the first page to the last.

Pick up your own copy of Anyone by Charles Soule now at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or your local bookstore. Dont forget to add the book to your Goodreads shelf!

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'Anyone' book review: You'll tear through this sci-fi story in a 'Flash' - Hypable

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: 10 Original Trilogy Storylines That Were Never Resolved – Screen Rant

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The final chapter in the nine film Skywalker saga has premiered, andStar Wars: The Rise of Skywalkerhad a tall order to fill. It needed to neatly tie up the plot points of eight previous films, give the legions of Star Wars fans what they wanted, and respectfully send off the franchise that visionary George Lucas created whenStar Warsdebuted in 1977.

RELATED:Obi-Wan Kenobi: 5 Things Fans Want To See In The Disney+ Series (& 5 They Don't)

While it does a credible job of expanding on the thematic elements from the eight previous films, it is its duty to do right by the original trilogy fans are most concerned with. Both heroes and villains found themselves playthings at the mercy of the ultimate puppet master, Emperor Palpatine, a character which neatly threads the films together. As certain mysteries were revealed, from the origins of Rey's parents to the origins of Supreme Leader Snoke, their telling created more. Here are 10 Original Trilogy storylines that were never resolved.

InReturn of the Jedi,Palpatine tries to bait Luke in the same way he tries to bate Rey inStar Wars:The Rise of Skywalker."I am defenseless," he croons, gesturing to Luke and his lightsaber. "Strike me down with all of your hatred, then your journey towards the Dark Side will be complete".

RELATED:Star Wars: 10 Greatest Emperor Palpatine Moments To Get You Excited For His Return

When addressing Rey, he makes it clear that when she does the same, he'll transfer his essence (and the essence of all the Sith) into her and rule as Empress. Was this Palpatine's plan for immortality all along? A common practice of the Sith involved apprentices slaying their masters to gain their power, but perhaps discerning masters did the same to their apprentices.

InStar Wars:The Rise of Skywalker,we hear Anakin Skywalker's voice floating to Rey telling her to "bring Balance to the Force" like he did. Was this really accomplished by the time of the events ofReturn of the Jedi,when he passed away?

Darth Vader couldn't allow Luke Skywalkerto be killed by the Emperor. After destroying the Emperor and saving his son, his body was too weakened. Despite Luke's effort to save him he passed away, but redeemed himself in the end by becoming one with the Force. Was this bringing about balance, and didStar Wars: The Rise of Skywalkernegate his sacrifice?

When last we saw General Calrissian, he had just valiantly helped the Rebel Alliance deliver the final blow to the Empire by destroying the second Death Star inReturn of the Jedi.After that, it was presumed he could have returned to Cloud City because Imperial occupation would be ending.

RELATED:Star Wars: 10 Greatest Lando Calrissian Moments To Get You Excited For His Return

When we run into Lando in Star Wars:The Rise of Skywalker,we don't really know what he was doing.Yes, there were missions with Luke trying to track down the coordinates for Exegol, but Luke became a recluse on Ahch-To for some time, so why did Lando remain on Pasaana? Was he forgotten there, perpetually on his last assignment?

We know from watching the original trilogy that the Imperial Fleet was vast. Destroying two Death Stars wouldn't be enough to cripple it because there were thousands of Star Destroyers, garrisons, bases, and troops occupying every part of the known galaxy.

Where did the Imperial loyalists go? Some would become part ofthe First Order, but others became part of the Final Order, a separate force operated by officers sporting a Sith crest.Why did Palpatine shield himself from the First Order, put his puppet Snoke in charge, and then work on a separate faction? If the Final Order is able to build planet-destroying ships, why allow the First Order to waste time constructing Starkiller Base?

In one of the most emotionally stirring scenes in the entire original trilogy, Darth Vader picks up Emperor Palpatine and throws him down a reactor shaft when he realizes his son might die at the Emperor's hand. Palpatine's jagged black form is seen and heard screaming down into a kinetic abyss of lightning.

When next we meet the great galactic puppet master in Star Wars:The Rise of Skywalker, he's clinging to life, supported by a series of tubes that seem to keep his sagging flesh upright. How are we supposed to believe Palpatine survived what was most certainly his death? Or is this simply another clone? Palpatinewassearching for the path to immortality along with Darth Plagueis.

InThe Empire Strikes Back,Luke loses his lightsaber when he loses his handin the climactic duel with Vaderon Cloud City. His lightsaber (with hand still attached) goes sailing into space, yet somehow got retrieved by Maz Kanata, who kept it safe for Rey.

Star Wars: The Force Awakensmay have concluded where the lightsaber had gone, but when pressed, Kanata simply said that thehowportion was a "story for another time".Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalkerwas evidently never going to be that time, so we'll never know.

Darth Vader marvels at Luke Skywalker's ability to construct a new lightsaber inReturn of the Jedi,pushing the Proud Papa moment a step further by laying on the thick praise, "Indeed you are powerful, as the Emperor has foreseen". There are no canon explanations of how Luke found a green kyber crystal, only that he constructed his saber from parts in Ol' Ben's hut.

RELATED:Star Wars: Every Major Lightsaber Color (And What They Mean)

This mirrors the confusing fact that Rey also appears to randomly have constructed her own yellow-bladed saber at the conclusion ofThe Rise of Skywalker. Kyber crystals are difficult to find (especially yellow ones), which is one of the reasons why it was considered a part of the completion of a Jedi's training to find one and construction their Jedi weapon.

In the original trilogy, Luke is visited by three Force ghosts. One is Obi-Wan Kenobi (most prominently) and the others are Yoda and Anakin Skywalker (after he's redeemed). Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda's bodies became one with the Force, but Anakin's body was physically burned on a funeral pyre.

InStar Wars:The Rise of Skywalker,Rey is visited by Luke and Leia. Yet in the Emperor's throne room on Exegol, we hear the spirits of Qui-Gon Jinn and Mace Windu, Jedi who retained their physical bodies when they passed yet seem able to communicate after death. There is never any clear indication of why some Jedi are able to manifest, despite the presence (or lack) of a corpse.

As Obi-Wan Kenobi's Force ghost famously told Luke, he couldn't "interfere" with Luke's confrontation with Darth Vader on Cloud City. It wasn'tspecificallystated whether or not this was a choice of Ol' Ben's because he disapproved of Luke's impulsive actions, or because as a Force ghost he literally couldn't be of much help.

However, as we see inStar Wars:The Rise of Skywalker,Luke's Force ghost can interact with the corporeal realm, going so far as to hold the lightsaber Rey chucks into the blazes of Kylo Ren's smoldering fighter. And he plenty "interferes" by levitating his X-Wing out of the sea surrounding Ahch-To so Rey has a getaway vehicle.

From the timeStar Warspremiered in 1977 and the world's most lovable droid duo lit up the screen, there's always been a bit of mystery around R2-D2. He's got a lot of personality for a little droid, and some fans have wondered if that isn't because his memory has never been wiped.

The real question is, how was Luke always able to understand him in the original trilogy? Rey is a scavenger and might be familiar with droid language, so her communication with BB-8 isn't as surprising, but Luke has always been able to instinctively know what R2 says, the same way Anakin did in the prequel trilogy.

NEXT:Star Wars Rise of Skywalker: 5 Most Surprising Moments (& 5 We Saw Coming)

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Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: 10 Original Trilogy Storylines That Were Never Resolved - Screen Rant

Xavier has shot the three this poorly before – Banners On The Parkway

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Sometimes the internet can take you down some odd rabbit holes. In researching why this Xavier team has struggled so much in getting rolling from deep, I stumbled across another team that also struggled from behind the arc. This team also never got going from deep, relied heavily on one sharpshooting guard, and was loaded with the talent that would eventually go on a deep run. That team was Skip Prossers last, the 2000-01 Xavier Musketeers.

The 2000-01 Musketeers were playing a slightly different game from todays Xavier squad. For starters, that team was shooting from a three point that had yet to move back twice and was still the same one that a high schooler would shoot from now. That team shot 30.3%, 1% better than this years squad, against an Atlantic 10 schedule as well. The teams in the A10 that year managed to be ranked nationally a grand total of seven times. None were ranked at the end of the year, only Xavier and conference champ St. Joes were ranked in multiple weeks.

The roots of Xaviers first Elite Eight team were there in Skips boys. Lionel Chalmers and Romain Sato were the starting guards. In Chalmers and David West, the team had two players who would go on to play in the NBA. Sato was also drafted by the Spurs but never appeared. Kevin Frey, Mo Mcafee, Alvin Brown, and Lloyd Price filled out a roster laced with names familiar to Xavier fans. Price and Sato were both top 100 recruits and a fourth player would go on to be drafted in the NBA but not appear. (And huge Xavier fan credit if you know who that was).

Those names may have been familiar, but they didnt shoot themselves into immortality that year. Sato led the team with a perfectly reasonable 37.4% mark from behind the arc as a freshman. Romain took exactly six threes per game and far and away led the team for volume. That fourth player who was drafted into the NBA from the 2001 squad? That would be David Young and he was second on the team in three point shooting at 32.3%. Lionel Chalmers was the only other player to make more than 30% of his three point attempts, and he only shot 30.2%.

After that, it was grim. Mcafee hoisted nearly five threes a game despite making just 26.5%, Kevin Frey took at least two pops a game and made 25.8%, and Lloyd Price, who never did really find his shooting stroke, made just 25%. After those six, no one made a three. Alvin Brown tried three that didnt go, West missed one, and James Baronas missed his only attempt. But for the sharpshooting of Sato, the roster that Skip Prosser put together was actually far worse than this years team. Without Romain, the Musketeers shot 27.3% behind the arc that season. That is, in one word, awful.

What does this tell us about this years team? Not much of anything, really. It is a reminder that things are never quite as bad as they seem and have likely been this bad before. Its also a reminder that David Young existed. More than any of that, its a fun look back into Xaviers history. Now back to your coverage of the season in progress.

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Xavier has shot the three this poorly before - Banners On The Parkway

Every WrestleMania Match Of The Rock, Ranked From Worst To Best – TheSportster

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The Rock has finally, officially announced his retirement from the squared circle and so it is now safe to look back on his career as a whole. A man who experienced the highest of highs and lowest of lows in perhaps the quickest time of anyone, and he had plenty of both. This can also be said of his Wrestlemania matches, achieving moments of unsurpassed immortality and turning in a couple of stinkers as well.

As with his movie career, The Rock is usually fun to watch but sometimes even he can't save things. So let's see which Wrestlemania matches of his were Fast 5 and which ones were The Toothfairy.

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The classic nobody saw com.... oh, it's over? Well, nevermind. The Rock tearing off his pants to reveal his ring gear was cool. There were a few minutes of quality banter, 6 seconds of unblemished action, and a hot crowd.

This one has not aged well. Michael Cole 3 minutes in declares it the greatest main event in Wrestlemania history and it's that type of overblown hype that sums this entire thing up. Watching all these matches close together you see The Rock's badly degraded ring prowess and John Cena's inability to make up the difference. Age comes for everyone and despite his immaculate physique, Rock is either not in 'ring-shape' or has severe 'ring-rust'. Lengthy, boring headlocks, bearhugs (a lying down bearhug at that), and slow plodding action sucks the crowd right down almost from the bell.

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Only Cena's perpetual divisive relationship with the fans keeps them involved when things mildly pick up in the latter stages. Cena's mockery of an STF takes up most of the endgame until a quick flurry of action and finisher spams closes things out. Cole was also in career-low form with the over-praising here. Only crowd volume and bells and whistles can bamboozle this effort into seeming more than what it sadly was. 4/10

The Rock's, or Rocky Maivia's in this case, first Wrestlemania match isn't much to write home about. Hints of the soon-to-be ubiquitous 'Rocky Sucks' chants can be heard every few minutes. Weirdly, a 4-man commentary booth of Vince, JR, The King, and Honky Tonk Man flooded the audio side of things with mostly distracting bickering. Rocky has one of the most hilariously bad punch wind-ups in wrestling history that does his father's version no justice.

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Vince praises Rocky's heritage ironically while his cousin Rikishi is portraying The Sultan right next to him. Finally, it ended on a terrible roll-up that made everyone involved look bad. The biggest cheer this got was the post-match beatdown of The Sheik by Rocky and his dad..... Rocky. 5/10

Once In A Lifetime 2: Electrifying Rapadoo! Well, it holds up better than the first. Rock is clearly in better ring shape for this one and now that they've got the first one out of the way there's some good callbacks and more advanced grappling here. The best parts come when Cena realizes the crowd isn't on his side and he plays it up.

You also can't tell that The Rock detached his abdominal muscles from his hip bones and that's got to count for something. An improved effort and thankfully so for The Rock. His last proper match and not a bad one. 6/10

A hot match with a fast start had Rock and Shamrock brawling up and down the entryway. Once back in the ring Shamrock took out a ref, took a sickening chairshot to the skull, then proceeded to wreck shop. The match ended abruptly with Shamrock tapping The Rock out to his Ankle Lock, but that was far from the end.

For the second year in a row, the post-match outclassed the bell-to-bell action, as Shamrock rampaged through The Nation members, referees, and The Rock a second time leaving him bloody and battered. Unfortunately, it got the match overturned so Rock could keep the Intercontinental championship, but it net-improved the overall rating. 6.5/10

The 'McMahon in every corner' situation that ultimately worked against this match's quality. Big Show is rushed out of the match as if he wasn't needed at all, Mick Foley gets a good moment to shine but is similarly ousted. It was all quite good up to there, but it overloads badly in the endgame.

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Rock and Triple H, amid the looming McMahon shenanigans (hereafter named the all too common 'McManigans'), can't bring it all together. Noteworthy, but because of the complete mess of an ending and big expectations, ultimately disappointing. 6.5/10

Rock teamed with Mick Foley to take on 3/4 of Evolution and it was a lot of fun. A flurry of action from beginning to end, punctuated with hilarious moments from Flair and Rock having something of a 'charisma fight' in between everything else makes it well worth a re-watch.

The ending comes rather abruptly and would lead to the equally good match between Foley and Orton at Backlash, but this fills it's spot on the card well. 7.5/10

The Rock and Austin complete their trilogy with The Rock finally getting to defeat Austin at Wrestlemania. His Hollywood Rock persona now fully realized, he preened his way to the victory while also slyly giving Austin a great match to end his career on. It wasn't quite as good as the others but those are incredibly high bars to hit. The best parts involved Rock indulging in his Hollywood bravado mid-match, stealing Austin's vest and mocking the crowd throughout.

A finisher-fest closed it out and if you look closely you can see it in both Rock and Austin's demeanors that they knew this was their last go-round, Rock as a full-timer and Austin to this day. 7.5/10

The first match of his Wrestlemania trilogy with Stone Cold Steve Austin and it's great stuff. Nobody matched these guys when it came to living their parts and every second they're in the ring together, it's magic. Rock wouldn't even let Austin perform his pre-match ritual without getting in his face, and that heightened everything before the bell even rang.

The match's best element is its constant uptempo pace. It never lets you relax, only taking a short chinlock in the middle almost like a strangely classy intermission. Besides that, it's a wild brawling first half followed by a hardcore feast with just the right amount of McManigans on top to bring it home. 9/10

Still hailed as the 'best' Wrestlemania of all time and a main event that ensures it will always be in that discussion. The Rock and Stone Cold went at it for the second time and used that for all it was worth.

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Callbacks to their first match, to other Wrestlemania matches like Austin's classic with Bret Hart, to the sudden No Disqualification wrinkle all played major parts in this brilliant contest. The McMahon-centric ending may not have been to everyone's liking but it made sense in the grand scheme of things. A momentous sophomore effort from these two. 9/10

For years the talk was all about Hollywood Hogan and Stone Cold coming together, or Goldberg and Stone Cold, but we should've known better. The Rock's now-cemented world-class charisma against Hogan's magnetic presence came together and blew the roof off the Toronto Skydome. Sticklers who cite the lack of technical wrestling hold little sway against the magnitude of Rock and Hogan merely trading stares as the stadium rumbles around them.

Peak JR on commentary provided near-perfect accompaniment to a match that ended exactly when it should've. Hogan's return to Wrestlemania provoked a proper 'Once In A Lifetime' reaction and their reversal of the heel/face dynamic on the fly proved masterful. 9.5/10

NEXT:5 Superstars Who Should Face The Fiend (& 5 Who Shouldn't)

Tags:wrestlemania,The Rock

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Every WrestleMania Match Of The Rock, Ranked From Worst To Best - TheSportster

Of uncommon appearances – The Tribune

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BN Goswamy

The sun may at times be hidden from us behind the clouds, but that makes no difference to the sun itself. Its own brilliance can never be obscured. Likewise, primordial wisdom and compassion are always present within every sentient being, even when hidden by clouds of hatred, obsession, pride, jealousy, and first and foremost, ignorance. Matthhieu Ricard

Fearful am I to fear itself, with my necklace made of a string of heads, and dancing furiously on a solar disk. Black am I and terrible, a crossed vajra on my head, my body smeared with ashes, and my mouths sending forth the sound HUM. But my inner nature is tranquil, and holding Nairatmya in loving embrace. I am possessed of tranquil bliss. From the Hevajra Tantra

Nepal, 19th century

The piece that I write here has at its base I need to state this sheer ignorance, an inability to reach those levels of thought that lie clearly beyond our, at least my, understanding.

To be certain, mysteries abound, and one finds oneself, almost all the time, at the very periphery, the outermost edge, of comprehension, when it comes to things that are come upon sometimes in our myths or art or philosophy, as in life itself. I, for instance, never cease to be puzzled when it comes to the world of gods and demons as it is treated in our texts. I have lectured sometimes upon the theme, at least as far as represented in our art, but never without confessing that I understand remarkably little of what I am speaking on.

Take the case, as an example, of the birth, those primordial happenings, of beings of all description as detailed in a section of one of the Puranas, the Bhagavata. The great sage, Kashyapa, we read, had many wives and from each of them he fathered many, many children. From the womb of Aditi were born adityas, the shining ones: gods like Surya, Vishnu, Varuna, Agni, among others; Diti, on the other hand, gave birth to daityas, demons, like Hiranyaksha, Hiranyakashipu, Kalanemi; Danu, another wife, gave birth to danavas, demons of a different order; to Muni were born apsaras or female angels; Vinata gave birth to the divine bird called Garuda, while of Kadru were born nagas or snakes. Thus it goes on. One registers from this that gods and demons, birds and snakes, were all step-siblings. Stories then keep unfolding in the texts; rivalries develop; enmities between them surface; accommodations are made; demons meditate upon gods and appease them to gain boons of power or immortality and, having gained those, turn upon them.

Tibet, 18th century

To take a couple of random examples. Hiranyakashipu, one reads, performs great tapas, meditating upon the god Brahma and receives, at the end of it, the boon of virtual immortality, for he, the god decrees, will never perish either in the day or in the night; on the earth or in the sky; at the hands neither of man nor of beast. This fills the demon with a sense of unbridled power, leading to his unleashing untold terrors upon his subjects, subduing them, including his own son, the devout Prahlada, completely to his demonic will. Till of course, as the absorbing tale goes, the great god, Vishnu, incarnates himself as Narasimha who is neither man nor beast, who appears at the time of dusk which is neither day nor night, and who seizes the demon and tears him apart, laying him flat on his knees which are neither the earth nor the sky.

Ravana, the mighty lord of Lanka, similarly performs intense tapas and goes through unheard-of austerities, in the worship of the great god Shiva, to seek his blessings.

However, when Shiva, greatly pleased by the demon kings devotion, blesses him and confers upon him the boon of immeasurable strength, he sets out to test his own powers by shaking, with his bare hands, the great mountain, Kailasha, which is the lofty abode of Shiva. It is another matter that Shiva brings everything under control by simply pressing the shaking mountain down with his toe, thus restoring things back to stability. The tales, as told in the texts, are delightful in themselves, but can easily lead to great puzzlement, for natural questions occur: why, for instance, could the all-knowing gods not have anticipated the evil intent of the demons and denied them the blessings they were seeking? Just one of a myriad questions, born of our avidya, of our inability to penetrate, even peer through, mysteries?

Rubins personal collection, New York

There are times when one reads of the gods themselves taking on frightening aspects. Nowhere does one see this more than in Himalayan art or thought that had its base in regions like Tibet or Nepal or Bhutan. Those infinitely gentle, serene images of the Buddha, or Bodhisattvas, which one so adores, mingle there with images of what have often been called demonic divines that people the world of Vajrayana Buddhism. With their roots in tantra, and their extension to Bon, the indigenous religion of Tibet, one moves into the world of wrathful deities and dangerous protectors: Mahakala and Rakta Yama, Ekjati and Vaishravana, Hevajra and Vajrabhairava. When one sees the thang-kas those paintings on cloth or silk, with their roots going back to a thousand years or more and which are still being made one knows that they serve as aids to meditational practices, and more often than not one gets drawn into their fantastic naturalism, their agitated line and dramatic colour. Psychedelic colour contrasts deep reds glimmering out of a black background, or a black figure silhouetted by an orange backdrop of flames are everywhere. Exaggerated, bulging eyes, gaping mouths, protruding fangs and pointed tongues, crowd the surfaces. Knives and swords, clubs and fetters, lie about, or whirl around in agitated fashion.

There is, in these images, and these practices, a central paradox: that of wrathful compassion. No outsider can really come to terms with this world, but again and again we are reassured in these words which come from the Tibetan Book of the Dead: They (these images) rise manifestly before you, having emerged from within your own brain! Do not fear them! Do not be terrified! Do not hate them! Recognise them as an image of your own awareness. He is your own Archetype Deity, so do not panic! In fact, they are really Lord Vairochana (Buddha) Father and Mother, so do not be afraid! The very moment you recognise them, you will be liberated!

As I said at the beginning: mysteries abound.

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Of uncommon appearances - The Tribune