News from the cloud computing sector includes developments from Pengiun Computing, Software AG and Amazon:<\/p>\n
Amazon launches AWS certification program<\/strong><\/a>. Amazon (AMZN)\u00a0announced the launch of the new AWS Certification Program with the first of several exams that will made available in 2013.\u00a0The new AWS Certification Program helps to fill this need to recognize IT professionals that possess the skills and technical knowledge necessary for building and maintaining applications and services on the AWS Cloud.\u00a0To earn an AWS Certification, individuals must demonstrate their proficiency in a particular area by passing an AWS Certification Exam. Individuals looking to prepare for an exam can attend courses through\u00a0AWS Training\u00a0to help gain proficiency with AWS services.\u00a0\u201cAWS Certified Solutions Architect \u2013 Associate Level” is the first exam available, which\u00a0tests skills for technical professionals and solutions architects involved in the design and development of applications on AWS. “With cloud computing being quickly adopted by organizations of all sizes around the world, in-depth training programs as well as certifications for individuals who have demonstrated competence with AWS are increasingly important,” said\u00a0Adam Selipsky, Vice President,\u00a0Amazon\u00a0Web Services. “The AWS Certification Program helps organizations identify that the employees, partners and consultants they depend on for their AWS solutions are well-versed in the best practices of building cloud applications on AWS and have the skills to help them be successful.”<\/p>\n Penguin Computing Icebreaker Cloud CS storage<\/strong>. Penguin Computing\u00a0announced<\/a> the immediate availability of the Icebreaker CS storage platform for large scale-out cloud storage deployments. The Icebreaker CS is a fully integrated and pre-configured appliance that incorporates Scality\u2019s<\/a> RING Organic Storage software. It will be available directly from Penguin as well as through Scality. Based on\u00a0its Icebreaker 4860 storage server the Penguin Computing Icebreaker CS offers\u00a0240TB of raw data in a 4U form factor.\u00a0It is powered by an Intel Xeon E5-2600 processor and configured with 128GB of RAM.\u00a0Organizations with multiple sites can achieve even higher levels of availability with Scality RING\u2019s geo-redundancy features.\u00a0\u201cPerformance, availability and scalability requirements of large scale cloud businesses cannot be met with traditional IT approaches to storage, that typically excel in one of these areas and fall short in another,\u201d said Charles Wuischpard, CEO Penguin Computing. \u201cTo meet the demands of our customers that require storage solutions at the petabyte scale we based our large scale storage appliance Icebreaker CS on software from Scality. With its distributed no-shared architecture and its sophisticated Advanced Resilience Configuration, Scality RING offers excellent storage scalability and great availability without compromising performance.\u201d<\/p>\n