Doing big stuff in the cloud

Live webcast At 11am today we're broadcasting live with a show that takes a different angle on cloud.

Over the last few months our broadcasts have focussed on the use of cloud for delivering internally facing services such as email and collaboration. We've also looked at how cloud can be used to achieve reach. Now we're switching our attention to the real grunt and capacity of the cloud for large-scale data-centric apps. Whether you use terms like high volume analytics, big data or some other trendy phrase, what we are referring to here are applications that consume lots of compute power to act on extremely large datasets.

To help with this, we are lucky enough to have Peter Elleby (CTO) from Hydra, an innovative new company that provides and supports large clients with a service that allows them to analyse huge volumes of Web and social media data, along with complex internal product and service information, to optimise the way in which they interact with customers.

The application itself is fascinating enough, but of particular interest to Reg readers will be some of the practical lessons learned - e.g. about the difference between traditional and cloud based database environments, the practicalities of integrating a large scale cloud app with on-premise systems, and the kind of things that are important to consider when thinking about using the cloud for the ‘big stuff’.

Lucy Sherriff is your host for the hour. She will be joined by Dale Vile from Freeform Dynamics and Michael Newbury from Microsoft. You can join Lucy and the gang right here for free.