Cray Supercomputers on Microsoft Azure, Blockchain services on Azure Government, and more in today’s top data science news.
Microsoft Azure in News
Cray bringing its supercomputers to Microsoft Azure
Microsoft has entered into an exclusive partnership with Cray to provide its customers access to supercomputing capabilities in Azure. Under the partnership, customers can get a dedicated Cray XC or CS series supercomputers in Azure to run HPC and AI applications alongside their other cloud workloads directly on the Azure network. As Cray systems easily integrate with Azure Virtual Machines, Azure Data Lake storage, the Microsoft AI platform, and Azure Machine Learning services for rich workflows and collaboration, customers can solve their toughest challenges in climate modeling, precision medicine, energy, manufacturing, and other scientific research.
Microsoft adds blockchain services to Azure Government, pushes forward Coco framework
Microsoft has embedded blockchain capabilities into its Azure Government Cloud. The company announced at the recently held Microsoft Cloud Forum that Azure Government will now support a wide array of blockchain and distributed ledger solutions, including Ethereum, Hyperledger, R3 Corda and Chain. In addition, Microsoft said it has a proof of concept for the Coco framework which could be made public early next year. The Coco Framework, which the Microsoft calls its “trusted execution environment designed to remove the latency” found in public blockchains, will serve as an open-source framework. Blockchain for Azure Government will help government agencies deal with issues such as the distribution of funds after natural disasters and the registration of property ownership.
Analytics in News
Teradata unveils Teradata Analytics Platform offering users preferred analytic environment
Teradata has launched a new analytics system called Teradata Analytics Platform that embeds analytics close to data, and enables users throughout an organization to leverage their preferred analytic tools and languages, at scale, across multiple data types. “It’s making advanced analytics really accessible to a broad set of users, not just those with specialized skills,” said Imad Birouty, director of product marketing at Teradata, adding that the new platform will help “bring the data and analytics functions together so that they can be part of a company’s daily operation; repeatable, reusable, and extended out to a broad set of users.” Teradata Analytics Platform is part of the company’s Teradata Everywhere strategy that was launched last year with four key components: Deploy anywhere, Buy any way, Move any time, and Analyze anything.
Cloudera speeds analytics deployment for next generation Cybersecurity Hub
Cloudera has teamed up with Arcadia Data, Centrify, and StreamSets to simplify the first use case on the Cybersecurity hub. Leveraging Cloudera Manager’s parcel deployment capabilities, chief information security officers (CISOs) can now access Cloudera’s cybersecurity solution based on Apache Spot (incubating), through an app store-like experience, making machine learning simple and accessible by removing the barrier of entry to data-driven insights for security operation centers. The new service also provides easy access to associated ISV capabilities such as ingestion, visualisation, and analytics. “Together with our partners, Cloudera is providing CISOs with a point and click path to deploy and benefit from a next generation cybersecurity data platform,” Cloudera CEO Tom Reilly said.
Other Data Science News
ErosCoin kicks off ICO to fund R&D and business expenses
Blockchain-based payment gateway solution EROSCOIN is launching an ICO for ERO tokens, and are accepting BTC, ETH, and LTC as means of contribution. Out of the total supply of 2.4 billion ERO tokens, 1.2 billion coins are available for the ICO. Half of the funds raised will go towards research and core development and the other half will get divided between other business expenses like marketing, legal and operational work as well as bounty programs. EROS foundation, which will ultimately be responsible for the development of EROSCOIN platform, is currently slated to receive 20% of the total coin supply. The remainder of all issued tokens will then be distributed to advisory and escrow (9%), a reserve fund (10%), charity (10%) and bounties (1%). The first phase of the EROS ICO will offer a 25% bonus to investors who contribute on the 1st and 2nd day of the sale, with bonuses then decreasing by roughly 5% on a weekly basis. The sale will run over a month-long period.