Links for June 24, 2008

As I mentioned a few days back, this is one busy week! Here is a wrap-up of some interesting links I have run across over the last few days:

• Aaron Phillips does a very nice job of summarizing the Iowa Floods and the impact on Fast Servers (now a part of Layered Tech). It echoes what I had said about the tremendous teamwork and compassion that was witnessed over the last few weeks and how this really makes a difference when experiencing an event like this.

• I ran across mashable.com (again). I really liked this site a year ago or so and my Bloglines list got so long I have neglected to go there in quite some time. It is a wonderful Web 2.0 resource though and I've also started following the author Pete Cashmore on twitter as well. I am a self-admitted information junkie, but even I am a bit overwhelmed at the content that this blog produces. Search Engine Journal recently did a very thorough review of the 70+ most useful Mashable.com posts.

• CleanTechnica.com has a write-up and video of vertical-axis wind turbines. Pretty interesting stuff....

• An IDC forecast was released last week that warns of the high cost to cool storage. The Storage Forum Blog has a nice write-up of the IDC report.

• IBM reports that it is opening Africa's first "Cloud Computing" center and a second cloud center in China.

  "The two new centers are part of IBM's expansion of its cloud computing capabilities around the world. IBM launched Europe's first Cloud Computing Center in Dublin, Ireland in March. Over the past year, IBM has provided cloud computing services to clients such as Wuxi City of China, Sogeti, the Local Professional Services Division of Capgemini, the Vietnamese government institutions and universities, and iTricity, a computing host service company based in the Netherlands"

• IBM has also launched "Blue Cloud", a "collection of enabling technologies that is used to create cloud computing experiences for customers in data center, hosting service and other cloud environments."