Read more about the stories in today’s news:
- WikiLeaks’ Offer to Help Secure Tech Products Fraught With Legal Risks
- Microsoft Adds New ‘Premium RS’ Cloud Database Option
- Google’s New Cloud Spanner Makes It Easier Yet to Buy Cloud
- Excelero Uses Storage Ideas from Big Guys, Goes Mainstream
Today’s topics include why WikiLeaks’ offer to help tech companies fix security holes exploited by CIA hacking tools also carries legal risks, Microsoft’s new Premium RS Cloud database option, Google’s new Cloud Spanner service and Excelero Storage’s high end storage for mainstream enterprises.
Now that the technology industry has had a chance to see the Central Intelligence Agency files released by WikiLeaks on March 7, founder Julian Assange is offering the companies affected a chance to see the complete details about security gaps in their products.
However, the tech companies need to think twice before taking Assange up on his offer. While the companies could learn more about how the CIA exploits product security flaws, they could also face potential government prosecution.
The CIA files are still legally classified, which could mean that possessing it could be considered a criminal act, even though it came from a public source.
Microsoft is now offering Azure SQL database customers a new service tier called Premium RS, along with a no-cost storage upgrade on select plans.
It is designed for input-output-intensive workloads that need Premium performance but don’t require the highest availability guarantees.
The new tier is also suited for pre-production work on databases, including performance testing and developing applications for technologies like SQL’s in-memory features.
Google introduced a series of new services March 9 during Day 2 of Google Cloud Next conference in San Francisco. One of the more interesting ones is Cloud Spanner, which resembles an order-taker at a restaurant more than an actual cloud service.
With Spanner, users can determine the parameters of a workload, dial up how many nodes or cores on GCP are required, and then press the “Go” button.
At a time in the IT industry when some young storage vendors are going belly-up and most others simply aren’t making any money, Excelero Storage has boldly stepped out of stealth mode and planted a new stake in the ground.
How does Excelero plan to survive and succeed on a road where others have failed? By offering the high performance, scalability and cost-effectiveness of storage systems currently being run by the largest web services providers and giving it to mainstream enterprises.