The cloud can be used for many purposes. Securing a second copy of your backups offsite is a wise cloud use scenario and one that may save your or your clients’ businesses one day.
In his session at the 13th International Cloud Expo®, Chris Francesconi, Sales Engineer for StorageCraft Technology Corporation, will review the reliable cloud recovery solution available to users who store their StorageCraft ShadowProtect backup images offsite in the secure StorageCraft Cloud. He will showcase virtualization of backup images in the cloud, easy StorageCraft seeding procedures, and, most important, he will demonstrate the control users have over their own recoveries using the StorageCraft Cloud. Join us in this informative session that will leave you equipped to ensure the business continuity of your business and your clients’ businesses.
Archivo mensual: octubre 2013
Cloud Expo Silicon Valley: 100,000 Hours in the Cloud… Lessons Learned
SOASTA’s five-year journey began at the very first Cloud Expo back in 2008 when they launched an enterprise cloud service called CloudTest. CloudTest quickly became one of Cloud Computing’s «Killer Apps» by helping the world’s largest consumer brands to test and deliver quality online experiences. SOASTA is a story of the evolution of cloud computing through the eyes of one of its largest consumers. What SOASTA learned along the way may help you with some challenges and pitfalls of cloud computing and will offer some clues as to where the cloud is going in the future: – It’s all about the workload – Know your APIs – Architecture matters – There’s no magic pill.
In his session at the 13th International Cloud Expo®, Tom Lounibos, CEO for SOASTA, will take an energetic trip through cloud history and provide invaluable tips learned through hard-earned success.
Cloud Expo Silicon Valley: 100,000 Hours in the Cloud… Lessons Learned
SOASTA’s five-year journey began at the very first Cloud Expo back in 2008 when they launched an enterprise cloud service called CloudTest. CloudTest quickly became one of Cloud Computing’s «Killer Apps» by helping the world’s largest consumer brands to test and deliver quality online experiences. SOASTA is a story of the evolution of cloud computing through the eyes of one of its largest consumers. What SOASTA learned along the way may help you with some challenges and pitfalls of cloud computing and will offer some clues as to where the cloud is going in the future: – It’s all about the workload – Know your APIs – Architecture matters – There’s no magic pill.
In his session at the 13th International Cloud Expo®, Tom Lounibos, CEO for SOASTA, will take an energetic trip through cloud history and provide invaluable tips learned through hard-earned success.
Compuware Raises the Bar for APMaaS Availability and Security
Compuware has announced it has set the highest Quality of Service standard in the industry for an APM solution delivered as-a-service. Compuware now guarantees 99.9 percent availability of its industry-largest global synthetic monitoring platform. The solution is offered on a subscription basis via the SaaS delivery model for fast time-to-value and extremely low cost of ownership.
Compuware APMaaS helps customers ensure the highest performance of their mission-critical web and mobile applications. Compuware APMaaS is the only solution that enables organizations to manage end-user experience, web and mobile application performance, availability and service levels from a unified real-user and synthetic perspective – all within a single on-demand platform for fast and easy deployment. By increasing its service level agreement (SLA) standards to 99.9 percent, Compuware reconfirms its status as a global leader in the industry.
Compuware Raises the Bar for APMaaS Availability and Security
Compuware has announced it has set the highest Quality of Service standard in the industry for an APM solution delivered as-a-service. Compuware now guarantees 99.9 percent availability of its industry-largest global synthetic monitoring platform. The solution is offered on a subscription basis via the SaaS delivery model for fast time-to-value and extremely low cost of ownership.
Compuware APMaaS helps customers ensure the highest performance of their mission-critical web and mobile applications. Compuware APMaaS is the only solution that enables organizations to manage end-user experience, web and mobile application performance, availability and service levels from a unified real-user and synthetic perspective – all within a single on-demand platform for fast and easy deployment. By increasing its service level agreement (SLA) standards to 99.9 percent, Compuware reconfirms its status as a global leader in the industry.
Cloud Expo: Adopting Cloud Solutions from the Couch to the Corporation
Enterprise Cloud adoption revolves around pushing the BYOD movement and focusing on data security.
In his session at the 13th International Cloud Expo®, Ross Brouse, COO and President of Solar VPS, will cover how cloud adoption is driven by consumerism and how humanity needs to socialize. He will also discuss our addiction to new gadgets and the ability of data to stay secure in a growing collaborative world. The Cloud is a drug and we’re just getting hooked.
Ross Brouse, COO and President of Solar VPS, is a true creative thinker. He believes the solution to most challenges involves discipline, positive reinforcement and innovative problem solving. As an industry leader, he draws from decades of experience in film and television production, graphic design and development, and managed IT. A graduate of New York University, Ross founded FortressITX’s subsidiary company, Solar VPS, in 2005.
WebRTC Summit | The True Meaning of the Voice-Enabled Web
Since the initial buzz of WebRTC, the ability to enable browser-to-browser applications for voice calling, video chat and P2P file sharing without plugins has been touted as a potential game changer for many industries. What are the parameters around this technology and its placement? Is it secure enough for prime time? Will WebRTC magnify OTT threat for telcos? Is WebRTC really that big of a deal for consumers?
In his session at WebRTC Summit, Keith McFarlane, Chief Technology Officer at LiveOps, will discuss the future of WebRTC and its disruptive tendencies, specifically regarding monetization and customer service.
WebRTC Summit | The True Meaning of the Voice-Enabled Web
Since the initial buzz of WebRTC, the ability to enable browser-to-browser applications for voice calling, video chat and P2P file sharing without plugins has been touted as a potential game changer for many industries. What are the parameters around this technology and its placement? Is it secure enough for prime time? Will WebRTC magnify OTT threat for telcos? Is WebRTC really that big of a deal for consumers?
In his session at WebRTC Summit, Keith McFarlane, Chief Technology Officer at LiveOps, will discuss the future of WebRTC and its disruptive tendencies, specifically regarding monetization and customer service.
CheckAction to Exhibit at Cloud Expo Silicon Valley
SYS-CON Events announced today that CheckAction will exhibit at SYS-CON’s 13th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 4–7, 2013, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
CheckAction is collaborative project management software developed by I.T. engineers for I.T. departments. Through years of experience, research, interviews, and surveys we’ve identified that I.T. departments have a truly unique set of needs when it comes to working with projects. Since we understand our customers’ needs we build in features that save time, help teams collaborate, and provide visibility into what’s going on. We understand that a project requires care throughout the entire lifecycle, so we help teams with every phase of a project, from initiation to close-out.
My VMworld Breakout Session: Key Lessons Learned from Deploying a Private Cloud Service Catalog
By John Dixon, Consulting Architect, LogicsOne
Last month, I had the special privilege of co-presenting a breakout session at VMworld with our CTO Chris Ward. The session’s title was “Key Lessons Learned from Deploying a Private Cloud Service Catalog,” and we had a full house for it. Overall, the session went great and we had a lot of good questions. In fact, due to demand, we ended up giving the presentation twice.
In the session, Chris and I discussed a recent project we did for a financial services firm where we built a private cloud, front-ended by a service catalogue. A service catalog really enables self-service – it is one component of corporate IT’s opportunity to partner with the business. In a service catalog, the IT department can publish the menu of services that it is willing to provide and (sometimes) the price that it charges for those services. For example, we published a “deploy VM” service in the catalog, and the base offering was priced at $8.00 per day. Additional storage or memory from the basic spec was available at an additional charge. When the customer requests “deploy VM,” the following happens:
- The system checks to see if there is capacity available on the system to accommodate the request
- The request is forwarded to the individual’s manager for approval
- The manager approves or denies the request
- The requestor is notified of the approval status
- The system fulfills the request – a new VM is deployed
- A change record and a new configuration item is created to document the new VM
- The system emails the requestor with the hostname, IP address, and login credentials for the new VM
This sounds fairly straightforward, and it is. Implementation is another matter however. It turns out that we had to integrate with vCenter, Active Directory, the client’s ticketing system, and client’s CMDB, an approval system, and the provisioned OS in order to automate the fulfillment of this simple request. As you might guess, documenting this workflow upfront was incredibly important to the project’s success. We documented the workflow and assessed it against the request-approval-fulfillment theoretical paradigm to identify the systems we needed to integrate. One of the main points that Chris and I made at VMworld was to build this automation incrementally instead of tackling it all at once. That is, just get automation suite to talk to vCenter before tying in AD, the ticketing system, and all the rest.
Download this on-demand webinar to learn more about how you can securely enable BYOD with VMware’s Horizon Suite
Self-service, automation, and orchestration all drove real value during this deployment. We were able to eliminate or reduce at least three manual handoffs via this single workflow. Previously, these handoffs were made either by phone or through the client’s ticketing system.
During the presentation we also addressed which systems we integrated, which procedures we selected to automate, and what we plan to have the client automate next. You can check out the actual VMworld presentation here. (If you’re looking for more information around VMworld in general, Chris wrote a recap blog of Pat Gelsinger’s opening keynote as well as one on Carl Eschenbach’s General Session.)
Below are some of the questions we got from the audience:
Q: Did the organization have ITSM knowledge beforehand?
A:The group had very limited knowledge of ITSM but left our project with real-world perspective on ITIL and ITSM
Q: What did we do if we needed a certain system in place to automate something
A: We did encounter this and either labeled it as a risk or used “biomation” (self-service is available, fulfillment is manual, customer doesn’t know the difference) until the necessary systems were made available
Q: Were there any knowledge gaps at the client? If so, what were they?
A: Yes, the developer mentality and service management mentality are needed to complete a service catalog project effectively. Traditional IT engineering and operations do not typically have a developer mentality or experience with languages like Javascript.
Q: Who was the primary group at the client driving the project forward?
A: IT engineering and operations were involved with IT engineering driving most of the requirements.
Q: At which level was the project sponsored?
A: VP of IT Engineering with support from the CIO
All in all, it was a very cool experience to get the chance to present a breakout session at VMworld. If you have any other questions about key takeaways we got from this project, leave them in the comment section. As always, if you’d like more information you can contact us. I also just finished an ebook on “The Evolution of the Corporate IT Department” so be sure to check that out as well!