Windows Server 8 to Serve Up The Cloud
Is Microsoft finally coming around to fully embrace private clouds with Windows Server 8?

Google Shores Up Android By Buying Large Batch of IBM Patents
Google quietly purchased (if you can call a few billion dollar transaction quiet) an additional 1000 patents from IBM In August. These patents range from server and desktop patents to web related patents.

America Invents Act Signed Into Law
On the subject of patents,President Obama recently signed the America Invents Act into law. Critics argue that this bill will further hamper technology startups due to the fact that the bill will transition the patent process  from “first to invent” to” first to file”.

Facebook Aims for Small Business Market
With Google+ just getting around to soon launching Business Pages, Facebook wil try to corner the SMB demographic by offering $50 in advertising to 200,000 small businesses

Amazon EC2 suffers significant outage on April 21
Amazon’s challenges with getting all services back online following an outage in its US-East  region  is already becoming a hot topic for debate in the Cloud Computing Industry.

Key differences between Social Business and Social Media
Social Media Club readers have posted compelling feedback on Chris Heuer’s framework that outlines the differences between Social Business and Social Media.

New Enterprise 2.0 survey needs participants
Jacob Morgan is looking for reader participation in an interesting Enterprise 2.o Survey.

Dell makes 1 Billion investment in Data Centers
Dell continues its transformation into a full services IT firm with 1 Billion investment in data centers. This investment in comes on the heels of recent major acquistions by Dell.

What is this event?

Now in its third year, CloudSlam® covers the latest trends in the world of cloud computing. The conference has evolved from a purely virtual format to a hybrid Cloud Computing conference spread over 5 days. Day 1 of the conference will take place at Microsoft Research Silicon Valley Campus in Mountain View California on Monday 18 April followed by 4 days of virtual cloud content.

Conference tracks for 2011 will include technology & innovation, implementation experiences, social & mobile cloud, security in the cloud and cloud for business.

How can you win Free Pass?

Simply click the button below or like the new OnDemand Beat Facebook Fan Page, for a chance to win the pass. The fifth person to like the page will win a pass to CloudSlam’11.

If you don’t win the pass you can still receive 10% off either the VIP or virtual conference fee by using discount code OnDemandBeat when registering.

What you need to know

1. The Winner will receive 1 virtual conference pass (Day 1 VIP pass not included)
2. The CloudSlam® Conference Pass Winner will be contacted via email.
3. Contest deadline is Wednesday April 13th and the winner will be announced on the OnDemand Beat Fan Page on Thursday April 14th.
4. No purchase is necessary to win.

Good Luck!

Ever wondered which one of your dogs got into the fresh baked cookies that were cooling on the kitchen table while you were in the home office checking your email? Did your sweet innocent furry feline actually scare the Goldfish to death? Well guess no more…Google has released the species breaking Translate For Animals.

2 weeks in the making, Google Translate for Animals finally gets humankind and the animal world on level speaking terms. Version 1.0 of Google Translate For Animals has been released on the Android Market in English but soon will translate to a number of Latin and Han based languages including Mandarin, Japanese, Pig-Latin and Gibberish.

Powered by an Advanced Cognitive Linguistic Algorithm that measures Neuro Biological Acoustics,  Google Translate for Animals will initially be released only on Android but should be available soon for the IPhone and (gasp) even Windows 7 mobile.

SpeakerMeter records audience Social Media reactions and feedback for presenters. Originally designed for use by conference speakers the SpeakerMeter team envision usage by educators, managers and others who value real time graphical feedback for their presentations.

New York City based startup TripMedi aims to become a aggregator for individuals and businesses looking for world-class Medical Tourism treatment. As one who has struggled to help others in the past review medical tourism options, this is an application that if it truly can offer timely, useful and accurate offshore medical treatment information, will truly be a winner.

Chicago land based startup Shotput was conceptualized and cobbled together in 48 hours on the Startup Bus journey from Chicago to Austin in early March. Shotput is a SMS list application that allows organizations or user groups with mailing lists to add subscribers via SMS.

FlyByMiles is targeted at frequent flyers who have miles in numerous accounts who wish to book award travel easier and or with combinations of miles and dollars. FlyByMiles promises to offer real time award availability for frequent flyers (which for award tickets is harder to achieve than it sounds) and hopes to monetize quickly by being first to market.

Smartling allows customers to utilize real time translation services to offer static web sites in multiple languages. Smartling was a SXSW Accelerator finalist and offers free and pay for service options. Website Translations ON Smartling are completed via crowd sourcing, professional translators or machine based translation.

Although not technically a startup bySXSW standards, (SocialWare received an additional 3 million in funding just prior to SXSW) Austin based SocialWare was also present at SXSW. Socialware allows companies in regulated industries like banking or insurance to integrate social media around its business processes.

Is the timing ripe for Cloud Computing Capacity Marketplaces?
The beta launch this week of SpotCloud; from Reuven Cohen’s firm Enomaly, is a first in terms of a company focusing on the trading of compute capacity. Although SpotCloud is first to market, I would expect many players in this space in the near future as smaller cloud providers will have to soon start maximizing utilzation and profitability to stay viable.

Social Business Vs Enterprise 2.0
Peter Modigliani’s recent article really keys into the latest trending of the dualing terms Social Business vs Enterprise 2.0.

Cloud Computing Stocks Outperform General Market
While I don’t agree with the inclusion of Qwest Communications as a pure Cloud computing company, the charts do bear out that Cloud computing companies are doing quite well on Nasdaq since 2009.

Applications Made for the Cloud
James Urquhart reviews the 3 application types that are currently thriving or posed to do well in the coming years in the Cloud.

IBM launches its 3 day Social Business Jam on 8 February 2011. The Social Business Jam is a online business social media brainstorming event along the lines of IBM’s Innovation Jam and is one of a series of Jam Events that IBM sponsors throughout the year.

During the event IBM partners, Subject Matter Experts, developers and Social Media Analysts will examine the role of Social Media in business, how to lower the risks of engaging in Social Media in business and what type of systems need to be in place for Social Media to be adopted in business.

A few of the scheduled participants in the Social Business Jam include, Charlene Li, Founder of Altimeter Group, Author of “Groundswell”, Steve Wylie, GM of Enterprise 2.0 Conference and Vittorio Cretella, CIO, Mars, Inc.

Some of the topics to be covered during the jam include Building the Social Business of the Future, Using Social to understand and engage with Customers, and What Social Means for IT.