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Tweet Today’s data center managers must not only satisfy customer demands for around-the-clock availability from anywhere in the world; they must also contend with demands from within their own organizations to help reduce operational costs. Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial. GigaOM

Tweet As IT pros aim to make the most efficient use of their budgets, there is a rapidly increasing range of infrastructure options at their disposal. While public cloud services in particular have exploded in popularity, especially for organizations without the resources to operate their own data centers, a “one-size-fits-all” myth has also emerged, suggesting that this is the most efficient and cost-effective option for all scenarios. In reality, the…

Tweet Solar thin film leader First Solar saw its shares zoom almost 50 percent on a rosy 2013 guidance, new records for efficient solar cells and news that the company acquired solar panel tech company TetraSun. Marketwatch blog reported that the stock rallied so much that it “triggered Nasdaq circuit breakers” (which pauses trades if a stock moves more than 10 percent in five minutes) and trading of First Solar’s stock…

Tweet In 2013, solar makers are preoccupied with boosting the efficiency of solar cells, or basically using various techniques to increase the amount of sunlight that each solar cell can convert into electricity. That’s because it’s one of the most important ways they have right now to reduce costs in a difficult year for solar manufacturers. The supply of solar cells in the market over the past year is far…

Tweet One of the important ways to make solar energy cheaper is to improve the amount of sunlight that solar cells can convert into electricity. So it’s a big deal to see that First Solar announced on Tuesday that it’s managed to create a record 18.7 percent solar cell, up from the 17.3 percent cell it touted in July 2011. That 18.7 percent sets a new world record for cells…