ReadWriteCloud

The Google Apps Marketplace now has a preliminary billing API that allows a SaaS vendor to manage subscriptions on its own platform.

SlideRocket, GQueues, Cohuman, and WikiFYD are the first services to accept customer transactions using the API, which is powered by Google Checkout.

Thomas Bittman is a well-known Gartner analyst. We were looking at some findings Bittman reported earlier this fall that are more relevant now as more companies seek to extend its data centers to public cloud infrastructures. We've seen this trend pick up momentum in the past month so it is worth reviewing again what the numbers say about the market.

In a post last week about lessons learned using Amazon Web Services, Netflix's John Ciancutti revealed that the company built something called "Chaos Monkey" to ensure that individual components work independently. Chaos Monkey randomly kills instances and services within Netflix's AWS infrastructure to help developers to make sure each individual component returns something even when system dependencies aren't responding.

The Westcon Group is a distributor of equipment data, voice and video network and data center security technology.

The company decided two years ago to adopt virtualization. In doing so, the company closed its two data centers in London and New York and started building a brand new one in Cincinnati, Ohio. In building the new Cincinnati data center, they encountered issues that gave them experiences they realized anyone would have when adopting virtualization technology.

So what did they do? Before even finishing their own data center, they built two new ones in Denver and London for customers to use and get the experience of what it takes to build a modern data center with virtualization technology. They turned an expense into a new form of marketing that gives customers the confidence to understand virtualization technology and confidence to make the switch.

Dear Mr. David Girouard,

I decided to write you a quick note after reading your post about 2011 as the year there will be nothing but the Web. I am not so sure that is a great idea.

I'll give you a few reasons: WikiLeaks, Delicious and YouTube.

What are the hottest trends of 2010?

Let's look at it this way. The cloud computing world had more hype than anything else in this tech universe, outside of Facebook and Twitter. But with that hype came a lot of activity and proof that the cloud does provide advantages over what you can do on-premise.

Transport for London (TfL) has relaunched its API using Microsoft Azure. Last June, TfL released an API that enabled developers to build tools such as a live London Underground train tracker. Unfortunately, the API was a victim of its own success: the service had to be shut down less than a month later due to the strain the enormous number of API calls were placing on TfL's servers. The Guardian reports that the API is back, and the live train tracking with it.

We chose our top 10 services based upon what trends bubbled in 2010 and the companies and organizations that responded or even set the tone for the overall market.

We looked at the entire landscape but with a particular focus on platforms.

Platforms provide infrastructure and serve as developer ecosystems. Platforms are where apps are created and served.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt wrote a blog post today about why the network computer failed and how cloud computing has made it possible to support a Web-based operating system.

Schmidt calls the announcement of the Chrome OS notebook earlier this week one of the most important developments of his working life. He says the news is testament to the advancement of computer science that allows developers to use lightweight tools supported by complex back-end systems to create products and services that are easy for people to use.

The Heroku acquisition is about the next decade for Salesforce.com and its transformation into a platform company, said co-founder Parker Harris at a media lunch yesterday.

For the rest of the world, there is a different view about the news. There are plenty of congratulations but the acquisition is not overwhelmingly supported.

James Lindenbaum, co-founder of Heroku said they were convinced that Salesforce.com would be the right partner as its focus is on being a platform company. Lindenbaum acknowledges that developers may have concerns.