InternetAmazon Opens 'Block Store' in the Cloud

Web services provider pushes new "block" system for storage cloud.

Amazon Web Services is more "persistent" than ever today after officially launching its Elastic Block Store (EBS) as part of its Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) environment to let users create large volumes that can behave as raw, unformatted hard drives. Pricing for EBS is based on storage provisioned monthly starting at 10 cents per gigabyte monthly and 10 cents per 1 million input/out (I/O) requests. For example a 100-gigabyte database averaging 100 I/O operations per second during a month would cost $10 in storage and $26 in "request" fees. Common EBS applications range from providing a block interface for running databases, processing large datasets and hosting Web sites, according to an Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) Web Services spokesperson. The launch comes as cloud storage gains momentum given it's proving to be efficient in terms of cost and operations, especially for small and midtier enterprises aiming to safely house data away from traditional costly datacenters. RELATED ARTICLES Amazon Profits Jump 102 Percent Amazon Kindle: The iPod of Book Readers? Amazon Kindles Tech Rally Stormy Weather for Amazon's Cloud Storage Amazon Tops Expectations on Soaring Sales Amazon Gets Persistent With Cloud Storage For more stories on this topic: As one pundit noted, it's not a new concept but the flexibility provided by EBS will prove useful to a wide variety of organizations. "This isn’t really anything... [ Read more on www.internetnews.com ]

InternetOops! I Fixed the Linux Kernel

Make no mistake: Efforts like "oops" show the Linux community's focus on improving code quality, fixing bugs and even enlisting non-technical users to help the cause.

InternetReport: Google, Verizon near mobile-search pact (CNET)

CNET - Google is close to inking a deal with Verizon that would build its search interface into the mobile phone service provider's products, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.