An example of an application that does not work well in a simple cloud environment is a shared database, such as the typical Oracle database application, where the information is one big block of data that needs to be manipulated all the time by many computing processes and where access to the shared data needs to be synchronized and managed.

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While that can significantly expand their potential audience, it often comes at the cost of shared revenues and more limited access to data about their customers.

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"In each case, the scientific analysis concluded that neither Rex Energy's operations nor natural gas development impacted water quality, " said Rex spokesman Derek Smith, who noted that the company provided access to records, shared data, and gave "its complete cooperation and support" to the reviews.

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PhD student Tilo Muller told the BBC that the attack generally gave them access to data that had been put in memory as users browsed websites, sent messages or shared pictures.

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