Technology
Mark Zuckerberg says cloud computing is too expensive
Mark Zuckerberg says cloud computing is too expensive
Mark Zuckerberg says cloud computing is too expensive
Medical research is hindered by the growing costs of cloud computing
During a recent discussion about bio sequencing, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg questioned why cloud computing costs have become so expensive.
He specifically called out Amazon’s cloud computing service, AWS and suggested it might be a good idea to call up Jeff Bezos to discuss the issue further.
Back in 2015, Zuckerberg and his wife Pricilla Chan founded the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) and the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub with the aim of using technology to advance research into health, social and scientific issues.
During a live chat on Facebook, which was moderated by Zuckerberg, the research center’s co-presidents Dr. Joseph DeRisi and Dr. Stephen Quake made the point that scientific progress is often impeded by the high costs of cloud computing services.
– Apple is spending millions each month on AWS
– Enterprises look to optimize cloud spend as costs grow
– AWS now makes up more than half of Amazon’s revenues
Zuckerberg explained that the Biohub’s high AWS bill is often discussed in its meetings, saying:
“In our bio board meetings, one of the things we talk about is the cost of the compute, and our AWS bill, for example, is one of the specific points. Let’s call up Jeff and talk about this. It’s interesting, the bottleneck for progress, in medical research at this point, a lot of the cost for it, is on compute and the data side and not strictly on the wet labs or how long it takes to turn around experiments.”
Medical research
The Biohub receives billions of dollars in funding from Facebook but LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman is also a big contributor.
Other organizations and research labs around the world aren’t so lucky when it comes to investment though and Dr. Quake explained that the high costs of cloud computing services are often a barrier that many are unable to overcome, saying:
“This is no more apparent than in the developing world or low-income resource settings. The cost of the sequencing and the lab work has gotten to the point where you can do this almost anywhere in the world. It’s gotten that cheap. The compute to be able to analyse that data is unfortunately not available to the vast majority of the people that do that. It’s very often the case that you’ll go to one of these low-income resource settings, they’ll have a sequencer but its collecting dust because they can’t compute. Even if they can access the cloud, they can’t afford it.”
Governments may need to eventually convince cloud providers to lower their costs if live-saving advancements in medicine and research are to continue.
Via Cloud Pro
Samsung said that starting with its 2022 TV lineup, it would provide broad support for NFTs.
This was disclosed in Samsung press releases titled, “Samsung Electronics Unveils Its 2022 MICRO LED, Neo QLED and Lifestyle TVs, With Next-Generation Picture Quality and Range of Cutting-Edge Personalization Options.”
Samsung becomes the first major TV manufacturer to support NFTs to such a significant degree.
Samsung is introducing the world’s first TV screen-based NFT explorer and marketplace aggregator. This would be a groundbreaking platform that lets you browse, purchase, and display your favourite art all in one place.
“NFT Platform: This application features an intuitive, integrated platform for discovering, purchasing and trading digital artwork through MICRO LED, Neo QLED and The Frame,” Samsung said.
The need for a solution to today’s fragmented viewing and purchase landscape has never been higher, according to Samsung.
What you should know
- Non-fungible token (NFT) assets were extremely popular in YTD with about $20 billion in volume recorded in terms of NFT sales among 100 collections.
- While many single NFTs sold for millions of dollars, a number of NFT projects and collections saw hundreds of millions and even billions in all-time volume.
- According to defillama.com metrics, the popular NFT collection Cryptopunks captured $2.98 billion in all-time volume.
- Numerous NFT collections have been very prominent in 2021 and have been the topic of various discussions
- Hence with the growing popularity of NFTs, Samsung saw that the need for a solution to today’s fragmented watching and purchase landscape has never been higher.
Microsoft’s Bid To Purchase TikTok Is Rejected
Microsoft will not be purchasing the wildly influential social media app, Tik-Tok, the company announced, Sunday. ByteDance, according to a statement from Microsoft, refused to sell to them.
“ByteDance let us know today they would not be selling TikTok’s US operations to Microsoft,” the company said in the statement. “We are confident our proposal would have been good for TikTok’s users, while protecting national security interests. To do this, we would have made significant changes to ensure the service met the highest standards for security, privacy, online safety, and combatting disinformation, and we made these principles clear in our August statement. We look forward to seeing how the service evolves in these important areas.”
Instead, ByteDance has reportedly reached an agreement with the software giant, Oracle.
TikTok was desperate to be sold after the Trump administration put pressure on the company, considering TikTok to be a threat to national security.
“The U.S. government is forcing one of China’s most successful global media companies to sell under a less than ideal timeframe, and China is trying to avoid having this set a precedent,” said Paul Triolo, head of global technology policy at the Eurasia Group. “The TikTok ban has to be viewed as part of this longer-term effort by the U.S. to police the boundaries of its technology ecospheres with China.”
Sony Officially Confirms Date For PS5 Showcase
Sony has adamantly teased the PlayStation 5 for months now, and it looks like the time is nearly among us.
The tech giant has prepared its rival products to compete against the XBox Series X and Series S, just in time for the Black Friday/Christmas/ever-lasting quarantine rush. Wednesday at 1 PM (PDT), the company is set to hold a 40-minute showcase, detailing news among Sony’s first-party game studios and its third-party partners.
PlayStation 5 Showcase broadcasts live this Wednesday at 1pm Pacific Time: https://t.co/W4gkVp7pdv pic.twitter.com/Nn33RT0yki
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) September 12, 2020
While sensational drips of information have leaked ahead of the showcase, including Sony’s apparent intent to produce two separate models of the console at two different price-points, technological specification potentially making it worth the upgrade has yet to come to the mainstream circle.
In addition to unveiling the functionality of the console, Sony is expected to announce its price(s) and release date(s).
All eyes are especially open to see if the company plans to match, undercut, or exceed the relatively bare-bones price tag of $299 USD placed on the XBox Series S.
After having already opened pre-registration for preorders of the console, Sony seems confident it can deliver upon its own hype as they provide “one more look at some of the great games coming to PS5 at launch (and beyond!)” This coming Wednesday.
