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An Android smartphone owner filed a lawsuit filed on May 1 against Google in federal court in San Jose, California. The suit is over Google’s alleged policies that require smartphone makers to load less-popular Google apps on devices if they want to pre-load more popular Google apps like YouTube on devices that run Android.
The suit was filed by the owner of an HTC Evo 3D smartphone who claimed that these Google restrictions have made the Android phone more expensive. What’s more, the lawsuit claims that these policies allow Google to maintain and extend its monopolies.
Microsoft recently previewed the company’s new SQL Database for Azure service tiers, which allows companies to tailor their subscriptions based on the performance requirements of their cloud-based SQL implementations. Microsoft’s cloud chief Scott Guthrie explained that the two new tiers—Basic and Standard—complement the previously announced high-end Premium offering.
The Basic tier is designed for light transactional workloads that have a predictable rate of hourly transactions, while the Standard tier is being billed as the go-to option for cloud-designed business applications.
In an attempt to help make the cloud computing environment more efficient and scalable, IBM researchers have developed what they are calling digital air traffic controllers. Basically, what these controllers do is manage how resources are used and work is done within a cloud, reducing bottlenecks and increasing efficiency by distributing control throughout the interconnected systems.
Finally, Hewlett-Packard officials introduced the company’s HP Facility-as-a-Service offering, which allows organizations to avoid the millions of dollars in upfront capital costs that are traditionally associated with building new data centers. Instead, that cost will be spread out over a number of years.
This gives businesses another option when choosing a data center strategy and to keep control of their infrastructure rather than opt for a cloud or co-location solution.