Intel's 'Hybrid Cloud' Is a Cloud Server Inside Your Office (PC Magazine)

On Tuesday, Intel announced a cloud-based hosted applications service that actually runs on a local, on-premises server to protect data.

Formally, Intel's initiative is known as the AppUp Small Business Service, running on the Intel Hybrid Cloud. It's a fancy name for a small server that a small business can keep in its office, with applications that would otherwise be hosted in the cloud as a service, or else running locally on an individual PC.

The key, however, is that it allows customers to store their data locally, while taking advantage of some of the pricing cloud-based services offer. "Having their data on premise is absolutely the advantage," for SMBs, said Bridget Karlin, general manager of the Intel Hybrid Cloud.

How does it work?

Small businesses can't buy the service directly from Intel. Instead, managed service providers will need to register at IntelHybridCloud and then start offering the solutions to their customers. SMBs wll then sign up for a three-year lease with the MSP.

The hardware will be installed on site. Users will be able to access the apps as they would from a true off-site cloud, with the pay-per-use pricing. But data will be stored locally, providing additional security for healthcare providers and others concerned about their data being exposed in an offsite cloud.

The requests and software transactions will be handled by Intel, via its cloud server manager middleware.

Lenovo and white-box OEMs will be manufacturing the first servers, based on a one-socket Xeon design that Intel developed. This summer, Acer and NEC will take part, with two-socket servers added to the mix. The hardware runs the Intel hybrid cloud server manager, on top of which will sit the AppUp small business service catalog, a collection of apps from Microsoft, Intuit, Symantec, Vembu, and others, optimized and priced for small business on a pay-per-use basis.

"This is something new, with options that we haven't seen in the marketplace yet," said Boyd Davis, general manager of the Intel Server Group.

For a small business, there are two benefits: the security of on-premise data, and the lower cost that pay-per-use software can entail, which will be spread over months of use, rather than a one-time up-front fee. Davis said that Intel encourages customers to buy their own infrastructure and install packaged apps, but that it might not be cheaper over the long haul. He described what Intel is doing - taking packaged apps, and distributing them on a pay-per-use model, "as kind of a unique offering".

Users could pay as little as a "few dollars per month," Karlin said, although the total cost will depend on the number of applications and users.

Software providers will be able to offer solutions like ERP, security, and backup as a service, Intel executives said. The Intel AppUp Small Business Service features a mix of local and cloud software with an Intel Xeon-based server that comes pre-loaded with tools for remote management, firewall, VoIP/PBX and backup, app vendors added.

Applications vendors can apply for approval and appear on the site in about a week's time, Karlin said.

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Hackers may have used Amazon server for Sony PSN breach (Digital Trends)

Hackers responsible for the massive security breach of Sony’s PlayStation Network that left as much as 100 million users at risk of identity theft used an Amazon-run server to launch the attack, according to “a person with knowledge of the matter,” reports Bloomberg.

Rather than hijack Amazon’s server, the hackers allegedly used an alias to sign up for an account through Amazon’s EC2 service, and waged their cyber attack from there, says the unnamed source. The account is said to have been since shut down but the revelation that Amazon’s cloud network was used for one of the largest data breaches in US history could shed light on the perpetrators’ identities.

Neither Sony nor Amazon have yet been willing to confirm the allegation that an Amazon server was used for the breach.

Security expert E.J. Hilbert, president of Online Intelligence and a former cyber-crime agent for the FBI, tells Bloomberg that the FBI will likely subpoena Amazon as part of its investigation into the PSN hack.

“The subpoena will give law enforcement a history of the transactions,” said Hilbert. “The search warrant will get them more detailed information, including payment information and which credit card was used.”

Now a month after the attack, the PlayStation Network remains down. With the outage beginning to take a tangible financial toll on the gaming industry, Sony released a letter to game publishers this week in an attempt to explain the situation as best it can.

For PSN customers, Sony has offered a year’s worth of free identity protection through the AllClear ID Plus service, which gives users a $1 million insurance policy if their personal data is compromised.

As for the hackers, their identities remain unknown. But so far, evidence points to members of the “hacktivist” group Anonymous, though the group as a whole firmly denies any involvement, and has criticized Sony for its lack of a proper security infrastructure to keep its users’ financial information safe.

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