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Cloud Computing is ranked 20th in qualifying points for the Kentucky Derby.

Trainer Chad Brown on Monday said he is leaning towards passing the Kentucky Derby with Cloud Computing, a decision that has implications regarding the potential field for the May 6 Derby at Churchill Downs.

Cloud Computing currently sits 20th on the Derby points list, pending a decision by the connections of Conquest Mo Money as to whether to supplement for $200,000 and run.

Cloud Computing most recently finished third in the Wood Memorial, only the third start of a career that began on Feb. 11. Brown said Cloud Computing would have his first work since that race this weekend.

The horse looks great, but he is lightly raced, Brown said. We havent made a final decision yet, but were leaning towards passing and pointing to the Preakness or even a summertime campaign. Well see what hes ready for right now.

Brown and the owners of Cloud Computing, Seth Klarman and William Lawrence, have one certain starter in the Derby in Practical Joke, who was second in the Blue Grass in his final prep. Brown said Practical Joke would work this weekend at Keeneland, then move over to Churchill Downs and have his final work there. Joel Rosario has the mount.

Assuming Cloud Computing skips the Derby, that would provide an opportunity for Untrapped, currently 21st on the points list, to get in. He finished sixth in the Arkansas Derby on Saturday.

Currently 22nd on the points list is Lookin At Lee, third in the Arkansas Derby. Steve Asmussen trains both Untrapped and Lookin At Lee and on Monday said both remain under consideration for the Derby.

Several riding assignments are pending for the Derby, most notably runners trained by Asmussen and Todd Pletcher, both of whom potentially will juggle multiple entries. Pletchers lone confirmed assignment is John Velazquez on Always Dreaming.

One assignment finalized Monday was with Irap, who won the Blue Grass with Julien Leparoux. In light of Classic Empire winning the Arkansas Derby and moving on to the Derby, Leparoux will remain with Classic Empire. Irap will be ridden by Mario Gutierrez, reuniting him with trainer Doug ONeill and owner Paul Reddam, the team that won the Derby with Ill Have Another in 2012 and Nyquist last year.

The winning Beyer Speed Figure of the Sunland Derby, won by Hence, has been adjusted to 97 from its original 93, according to Andrew Beyer. Irap and Conquest Mo Money, second in the Arkansas Derby, both exited the Sunland Derby.

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Cloud Computing might skip Kentucky Derby - Daily Racing Form

Leading the fastest-growing and most profitable division of Amazon.com Inc. is paying off for Andrew Jassy.

The head of Amazon Web Services, which includes the companys cloud business, received $35.4 million in stock and about $179,000 in salary and a 401(k) match, according to a regulatory filing from the Seattle-based company Wednesday. The shares rose in value to about $54 million as of Tuesdays close.

Jassy, promoted to a new CEO role for the division a year ago, was the companys top-paid employee among the six executives whose compensation has to be publicly disclosed, including Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos.

Jassy is leading a push into artificial intelligence to boost Amazons cloud computing, which commands about 45 percent of the market for infrastructure as a service, where companies buy basic computing and storage power from the cloud. The unit, which Jassy has run since its inception 11 years ago, brought in a record $12.2 billion in revenue last year as the company introduced an image-recognition program, a speech-to-text service dubbed Polly and tools for building conversational apps. AWS has data centers around the world that provide computing power for many large companies, such as Netflix Inc. and Capital One Corp.

Inside AWS, were excited to lower the costs and barriers to machine learning and AI so organizations of all sizes can take advantage of these advanced techniques, Bezos wrote in his annual letter to shareholders, which was also released Wednesday.

Biennial Grants

Like fellow tech giant Alphabet Inc., Amazon mainly pays top employees with biennial grants of restricted shares that vest over several years independently of company performance. That sets them apart from large companies in other industries, which tend to link payouts to specific goals such as revenue or stock return. Emphasizing certain criteria could cause employees to focus solely on short-term returns at the expense of long-term growth and innovation, Amazons board said in the filing.

Amazon last year also promoted Jeffrey Wilke to CEO of the worldwide consumer business, awarding him a $33 million compensation package, the bulk coming from restricted shares vesting over several years.

Senior Vice Presidents Jeffrey Blackburn and Diego Piacentini got $22.2 million and $23.7 million, respectively, mostly coming from biennial stock grants.

CEO Bezos, whos the worlds second-richest person with net worth of $77.7 billion, got his usual $81,840 annual salary and $1.6 million in security services last year. The billionaire, whose wealth comes from his ownership stake in the company, has never received equity compensation from Amazon.

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Amazon Web Services Head Jassy Reaps $35.4 Million for 2016 - MSPmentor

A service level agreement (SLA) is a technical services performance contract. SLAs can be internal between an in-house IT team and end-users, or can be external between IT and service providers such as cloud computing vendors. Formal and detailed SLAs are particularly important with cloud computing providers, since these infrastructures are large scale and can seriously impact customer businesses should something go awry. In the case of cloud computing, SLAs differ depending on a specific providers set of services and customer business needs. However, all SLAs should at a minimum cover cloud performance speed and responsiveness, application availability and uptime, data durability, support agreements, and exits.

Customers will provide their key performance indicators (KPI), and customer and provider will negotiate related service level objectives (SLO). Automated policies enforce processes to meet the SLOs, and issues alerts and reports when an agreed-upon action fails. Cloud computing providers will usually have standard SLAs. IT should review them along with their legal counsel. If the SLAs are acceptable as is, sign it and youre done. However, many companies will want to negotiate specific requirements into their SLAs, as the vendor SLA will be in favor of the provider. Be especially careful about general statements in the standard SLA, such as stating the clouds maximum amount of customer computing resources, but not mentioning how many resources are already allocated. Not every cloud computing provider will automatically agree to your requirements, but most customers can make good-faith negotiated agreements with providers. Quality of service depends on knowing what you need and how they will provide it.

This example of a cloud computing SLA details numerous technical details of the cloud agreement.

A service level agreement is not the time for general statements. Assign specific and measurable metrics in each area, which allows both you and the provider to benchmark quality of service. SLAs should also include remediation for failing agreements, not only from the cloud provider but from the customers as well if they fail to keep up their end of the bargain. Cloud computing users should specifically review these items in a cloud computing SLA:

Service credits are the most common way for a cloud computing provider to reimburse a customer because the provider failed an agreement. The reason for the failure is an issue, since the provider will rarely issue credits if the failure was out of their control. Terrorist acts and natural disasters are common exclusions. Of course, the more data centers that a service provider has, and the more redundant your data is, the less likely that a tornado will affect your data.

Your computing needs are not static, and your SLA shouldnt be either. Your needs and the providers capabilities will change over time. Your provider will periodically revisit their standard and custom SLAs considering new procedures and technologies. You should do the same. Periodically review your SLAs, especially when there are changes to your business needs, technology, workloads, and measurements. Also review your SLAs when your cloud computing provider announces new services. You wont take advantage of every offer that comes down the pike. But if a new service will improve your customer experience, then adopt it and modify the service level agreements to reflect the new product.

SLAs are a critical part of any service offering to an internal or external client, and are particularly important between a business and its cloud computing provider. Dont let the cloud SLA be a battleground of assumptions and mistaken expectations. Negotiate and clarify agreements with your provider. Be reasonable without being blindly trusting, and the SLA will protect both of your businesses as it is meant to do.

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Cloud Computing and Service Level Agreements (SLAs) - Datamation