Google Play Game Services is a great cloud utility for keeping track of high scores on your Android, IOS or Web device. Google have created a set of achievements and leaderboards (high scores) for your application. Allowing you to quickly and easily integrate these features into your app with minimal complexity and frustration.
We at Noisy Cloud love these services and have begun using them in all our Android games. They integrate really easily with Google + which means you don't need to worry about social media. It's extremely easy for users to share their games and their scores with their friends.
This is another great example of cloud computing put to a practical use. This time using the might of Google to upload scores directly from a user's phone, to the cloud.
If you're a developer looking for a getting started guide then the Google sample app "Type-A-Number" is a really great place to begin:
https://developers.google.com/games/services/downloads/
Hope you enjoy and please search the play store for Noisy Cloud, we hope you have fun!
Making the data centre greener
We at Noisy Cloud are as green as we can be. We're big on recycling and even more on efficiency. This is why we're really pleased to see big companies taking steps like the one Facebook has just made:
https://www.facebook.com/notes/lule%25C3%25A5-data-center/lule%25C3%25A5-goes-live/474321655969861
Data centres are obviously critical in the cloud computing world, but do we need to worry about the resources consumed? Well data centres are increasingly becoming a vital part of our daily lives, although the average consumer isn't aware of their roll. All that processing power in one place obviously consumes a lot of electricity and generates a lot of heat. So locating the data centre somewhere like Sweden makes a lot of sense as it allows the environment to naturally cool the building down. Facebook are even going so far as to invest in efficient systems and hydro-electricity. Well done Facebook this is excellent work.
Can the rest of us take anything from this approach? Well it might be hard to justify an AWS data centre or a CDN endpoint in Northern Sweden, but we can easily learn from their efficiency example? Could those instances be powered down during peak periods? Perhaps.....
Anyway, an interesting thought for the day.
Cloud Computing power utilized by Microsoft Xbox
Microsoft this week announced the new Xbox One. Part of this announcement was the 300,000 new servers Microsoft will launch to support their new product. Engadget have published an article detailing how Xbox will use these servers. Engadget.com.
This is a really interesting read for Cloud Computing enthusiasts as it demonstrates perfectly how the Cloud is reaching into every aspect of our lives. Now Microsoft does need to be a bit careful to ensure the system works well and looks good offline or in low bandwidth situations, but that shouldn't be hard.
Graphics calculations are notoriously processor intensive and you'll notice this in load speeds of some high graphics games. Obviously Microsoft are keen to keep equilibrium between cost, selling price and processing power on the Xbox. So a great way to manage this is to off load those intensive calculations to the cloud and return them pre-fetched to the Xbox.
We at Noisy Cloud are very much looking forward to seeing this in action, and of course the new Xbox :)
This is a really interesting read for Cloud Computing enthusiasts as it demonstrates perfectly how the Cloud is reaching into every aspect of our lives. Now Microsoft does need to be a bit careful to ensure the system works well and looks good offline or in low bandwidth situations, but that shouldn't be hard.
Graphics calculations are notoriously processor intensive and you'll notice this in load speeds of some high graphics games. Obviously Microsoft are keen to keep equilibrium between cost, selling price and processing power on the Xbox. So a great way to manage this is to off load those intensive calculations to the cloud and return them pre-fetched to the Xbox.
We at Noisy Cloud are very much looking forward to seeing this in action, and of course the new Xbox :)
Adobe Launch ColdFusion 10 On Amazon Web Services Cloud
Adobe have recently released the ability to launch a cloud based ColdFusion server running on Amazon Web Services (AWS). This is a big step for Adobe as it shows they’re actually listening to demand and putting the right foot forward and entering the cloud market. Will it be a viable solution for businesses looking to quickly deploy CF applications in the cloud?
The first thing to note is the version, you’re getting Adobe ColdFusion (ACF) Enterprise edition with all it’s extended functionality and added benefits:
So basic calculations a standard large would set you back approximately $4500 per year.
Compare that to normal ACF Pricing:
But that will again depend on your needs. I know 7.5 Gb isn't a lot of memory for a server and most commercial solutions have many times more than that. AWS do offer bigger, better faster servers and perhaps Adobe have plans to offer these as well.
This does hopefully mean you can quickly and easily get ACF running in the AWS stack and take advantage of the many benefits, including of course auto scaling, load balancing etc.
Does this offer a cookie cutter solution for CF in the cloud? No, not really, you'll need to look carefully at your current setup and compare and contrast for your needs.
Just a quick note all of the above is taken from Amazon AWS / Adobe ColdFusion websites and prices / technical specifications are current as of April 2013. If you're interested I encourage you to look at their websites as prices and details change regularly.
The second important thing to realize is the pricing. You need to pay for the AWS hardware and then you need to pay for the ACF License as well (as of April 2013)
| EC2 Instance Type | Software | EC2 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard Large (m1.large) | $0.15/hr | $0.364/hr | $0.514/hr |
| Standard XL (m1.xlarge) | $0.30/hr | $0.728/hr | $1.028/hr |
Compare that to normal ACF Pricing:
Enterprise edition = $8,499
Standard edition = $1,499
That's a pretty good saving! ...However you will also of course have to pay for storage and input / output all of which will differ depending on your needs.
The specs of an M1 Large instance are pretty good:
M1 Large Instance 7.5 GiB of memory, 4 EC2 Compute Units (2 virtual cores with 2 EC2 Compute Units each), 850 GB of local instance storage, 64-bit platformThat's a pretty good saving! ...However you will also of course have to pay for storage and input / output all of which will differ depending on your needs.
The specs of an M1 Large instance are pretty good:
But that will again depend on your needs. I know 7.5 Gb isn't a lot of memory for a server and most commercial solutions have many times more than that. AWS do offer bigger, better faster servers and perhaps Adobe have plans to offer these as well.
This does hopefully mean you can quickly and easily get ACF running in the AWS stack and take advantage of the many benefits, including of course auto scaling, load balancing etc.
Does this offer a cookie cutter solution for CF in the cloud? No, not really, you'll need to look carefully at your current setup and compare and contrast for your needs.
Just a quick note all of the above is taken from Amazon AWS / Adobe ColdFusion websites and prices / technical specifications are current as of April 2013. If you're interested I encourage you to look at their websites as prices and details change regularly.
Using a Free Content Delivery Network
Content Delivery Networks (CDN) are a fantastic way to improve the speed of your site, user experience and save money. I've always felt they are an excellent example of cloud computing as in theory your files are hosted in various locations around the globe and you have limited specific knowledge of their physical whereabouts. This is a wonderful thing for web sites and users alike, taking advantage of large distributed cloud resources.
Noisy Cloud have recently updated two of their most common web libraries to utilise free CDN resources.
Google themselves are nice enough to offer free JQuery hosting:
https://developers.google.com/speed/libraries/devguide
and another very generous company NetDNA offer free Bootstrap hosting:
http://www.bootstrapcdn.com/
It's really very simple to update your website and provides a huge range of benefits.
Enjoy!
Noisy Cloud have recently updated two of their most common web libraries to utilise free CDN resources.
Google themselves are nice enough to offer free JQuery hosting:
https://developers.google.com/speed/libraries/devguide
and another very generous company NetDNA offer free Bootstrap hosting:
http://www.bootstrapcdn.com/
It's really very simple to update your website and provides a huge range of benefits.
Enjoy!
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