Archivo mensual: mayo 2015

Aaron Levie, Box, federal government, News & Analysis, Public Sector, Sonny Hashmi, US Department of Justice

US Department of Justice taps Box for file sharing and collaboration

The US DoJ is deploying Box as the company pushes forward in the public sector

The US DoJ is deploying Box as the company pushes forward in the public sector

The US Department of Justice is deploying Box in a bid to improve content sharing and collaboration. The company also said it will shortly receive Agency Authorization to Operate, which means the solution can be deployed across all DoJ agencies.

The DoJ said it is deploying Box to simplify internal and external collaboration between other federal government agencies and third-party organisations, improve support of mobile devices for content sharing and collaboration, and reduce its increasingly fragmented landscape of document storage and the tools used to manage content.

“There is an increasing need to securely connect and enable processes across agencies and jurisdictions as well as to connect government employees with their data, content, and stakeholders,” said Aaron Levie co-founder and chief executive officer at Box.

“Innovative government agencies, like DOJ, are deeply committed to leveraging emerging cloud technologies to better serve the American people, while ensuring the security and privacy of sensitive information. We are thrilled to support the DOJ’s technology efforts, helping to transform the way they manage and share information,” Levie said.

Box said it has over 40 federal government customers, over 34 million users and 45,000 organisations globally using its service, and the company is planning a big push into the public sector. The company recently brought on Sonny Hashmi, former chief information officer for the US General Services Administration to help it penetrate further into the public sector, and it is also currently pursuing FedRAMP compliance in a bid to certify the service for use across all US federal government agencies.

ConteXtream, HP, News & Analysis, NFV, Saar Gillai, SDN, Virtualisation

HP buys ConteXtreme in SDN, NFV play

HP is acquiring SDN specialist ConteXtreme

HP is acquiring SDN specialist ConteXtreme

HP has acquired software-defined networking (SDN) specialist ConteXtreme to strengthen its service provider business and network function virtualisation (NFV) offerings.

Founded in 2007, ConteXtream provides an OpenDaylight-based, carrier-grade SDN fabric controller that works on most hypervisors and commodity server infrastructure. It’s based on the IETF network virtualisation overlay (NVO3) architecture, which includes virtualised network edge nodes that aggregate flows and maps them to specific functions, a mapping subsystem based on the Location-Identity Separation Protocol (LISP), a set of application-specific flow handlers for service chaining, and a high-performance software flow switch.

The company also offers analytics that help monitor traffic and detect anomalies.

“We’re moving away from being tied to dedicated machines to having a resource pool with automated, self-service mechanisms. In the networking world, there are countless functions – firewall, caching, optimization, filtering etc. – and a bunch of inflexible hardware to do those things. NFV is about saying, ‘Why can’t we put these various functions in the cloud? Why does each function need to be on specialized and dedicated hardware?’,” explained HP’s telco business lead Saar Gillai.

“ConteXtream’s scalable and open and standards-based technology delivers innovative capabilities like advanced service function chaining, and is deployed at a number of major carrier networks across the globe. ConteXtream’s technology connects subscribers to services, enabling carriers to leverage their existing standard server hardware to virtualize functions and services.”

Gillai said the acquisition will accelerate its leadership in NFV, and that HP also plans to increase its involvement with OpenDaylight, an open source collaboration between many of the industry’s major networking incumbents on the core architectures enabling SDN and NFV.

The past year has seen HP slowly scale up its involvement with SDN and NFV initiatives.

In September last year the company announced the launch of an app store for HP customers to download SDN-enabled and virtual networking applications and tools – networking monitoring tools, virtual firewalls, virtual load balancers and the like – developed by HP as well third parties and open source communities. It also partnered with Wind River to integrate its NFV technologies with HP Helion OpenStack.

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The Internet of Security Things By @LMacVittie | @ThingsExpo #IoT #M2M #InternetOfThings

No, this isn’t a tirade on the security of IoT. It’s about story about change. Specifically, change and its implications on security.

Change is constant. There’s a million different axioms and proverbs about change, so it’s really hard to choose just one to sum up how it impacts security. Inarguably it does. And right now there’s a lot of change going on that’s impacting security.

«Micro» movement like microservices and microsegmentation are dramatically changing perimeters and breaking apart traditional «edge» security into distributed pockets of security, each architected specifically for the application or architecture it’s protecting.

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Akamai, Asia Pacific, China Unicom, Networks, News & Analysis, Noam Freedman, Telco Cloud, Vendor

Akamai, China Unicom strike cloud deal

China Unicom may be using the Akamai deal to bolster its appeal outside China

China Unicom may be using the Akamai deal to bolster its appeal outside China

China Unicom and Akamai have announced a partnership that will see the two companies integrate their cloud services and content delivery network, respectively.

The deal between China Unicom’s cloud division CU Cloud and Akamai will see the former offer the latter’s full portfolio of content delivery, web performance and security offerings, a move CU Cloud said will improve global access to its growing suite of cloud services.

Akamai’s turnkey CDN technology will also underpin global delivery of its cloud services, CU Cloud said.

“China Unicom is a major carrier in China, serving the global internet market,” said Noam Freedman, senior vice president of Akamai’s global networks division. “We’re excited to be partnering with CU cloud to tap into the fast-growing China cloud and CDN market. Akamai sees increased demand for delivering content to Chinese internet users from global customers. With this strategic partnership, we believe Akamai is best positioned to serve this growing need.”

China Unicom has for the past few years targeted cloud services fairly aggressively. In 2013 it was revealed the company was teaming up with a other incumbents including China Mobile and China Telecom on the construction of massive cloud computing datacentres, with total investment from all three operators topping $3bn.

It has also partnered with other local specialists like Huawei and Pacnet on cloud infrastructure and service development.

The latest move may be a sign that China Unicom has set its sights beyond the local market and wants to compete with other increasingly global cloud providers with roots in China – like Alibaba and Pacnet, which have also bolstered global access to their platforms in a bid to cater mainly to large Chinese multinationals.

Big Data, IBM, Internet of Things, News & Analysis

IBM opens IoT, cloud, big data studio in Shanghai

IBM has opened another studio in Shanghai to target IoT, cloud and big data development

IBM has opened another studio in Shanghai to target IoT, cloud and big data development

IBM has opened another studio aimed at attracting design and digital experts to work with clients on digital solutions using the company’s mobile, big data and cloud technologies, this time in Shanghai.

Based at IBM’s Yangpu and Zhangjiang offices, the hub will host local IBM Design and Interactive Experience teams as well as digital service designers and developers.

“People’s expectations of enterprise technology has changed because of great design they see in devices and apps they use at work and at play,” said Phil Gilbert, general manager, IBM Design. “Our studios around the world bring design into everything we do and change the way we work to transform how enterprise technology is created, with client experience at the centre.”

The company said the studio will be a space for clients in industries such as healthcare, financial services and retail that are keen to develop new digital services in collaboration with IBM; it has about 20 of these studios located around the world.

Earlier this year the company opened a studio at its Southbank location in London which hosts employees specialising in big data, cloud and mobile products and services – including Bluemix, the company’s platform as a service.

AT&T, Ericsson, Networks, News & Analysis, NFV, SDN, telstra

Ericsson cloud lab to focus on NFV, SDN

Ericsson is opening up a lab to help coordinate SDN and NFV research among telcos

Ericsson is opening up a lab to help coordinate SDN and NFV research among telcos

Ericsson has opened a lab in Italy which will coordinate research among telecoms operators on deploying software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualisation (NFV) in their datacentres.

The company said the lab, which will be based in Rome but will also have an associated cloud platform for data sharing and collaboration, will help develop multi-vendor SDN and NFV solutions that primarily address the needs of telcos.

Participating organisations will be able to link up to the cloud platform and share their results.

Nunzio Mirtillo, head of Ericsson in the Mediterranean region said: “Cloud will enable the biggest evolution of the telecom business and this new lab is an example of Ericsson’s passion for driving innovations in Italy.”

“As great ideas come from collaboration, operators can turn cloud-based approaches to their advantage and implement new architectures that provide network efficiency and shorter time to market for innovative services,” Mirtillo added.

The company said the lab is intended to help operators experiment with getting SDN and NFV technologies integrated into their existing infrastructure estate, which can be quite a challenge for most that aren’t refreshing their hardware for SDN or NFV compliance quickly enough. As a result many have been forced to take the overlay approach.

Ericsson is already working with a number of operators on SDN and NFV. Last year the company was tapped up by Telstra and AT&T to help virtualise key aspects of their networks.

linked clones parallels desktop, linked clones VM, Parallels Desktop, Parallels Desktop for Mac

Everything You Need to Know About Linked Clones in Parallels Desktop

Guest blog by Ram Chavali, Parallels Support Team As I recently described in my previous blog post, snapshots in Parallels Desktop can be a really useful feature for almost all users. But did you know you can also create another virtual machine based on these snapshots? I know, I know—you’re probably thinking: “Why would I […]

The post Everything You Need to Know About Linked Clones in Parallels Desktop appeared first on Parallels Blog.

IT, IT outsourcing, Parallels, Parallels 2X, Parallels 2X RAS, Parallels 2X Remote Application server, Parallels Business Solutions

Discover How Parallels 2X Remote Application Server is a Great Asset in IT Outsourcing

With technology enabling professionals to work from anywhere, IT outsourcing has become a business need, therefore a business opportunity. It appears to be an added expense at first glance, but businesses ultimately save money by outsourcing, as Managed Service Providers (MSPs) provide similar services to multiple customers, which lowers the cost. By delegating server deployment, […]

The post Discover How Parallels 2X Remote Application Server is a Great Asset in IT Outsourcing appeared first on Parallels Blog.

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Which IaaS vendor to choose? High price doesn’t always mean high performance

(c)iStock.com/erhui1979

Cloud Spectator, an analyst firm, has put together the second of its infrastructure as a service (IaaS) pricing reports, and found Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) crown slipping.

The latest study, which collected over one million data points over a 24 hour period on processor and memory, examined performance alongside other patterns, such as instability and unpredictability. Performance tests were conducted on five different virtual machine sizes across 15 IaaS providers.

The results were described by the analysts as “eye-opening.” AWS’ T2 micro, with burst performance features, revealed a controlled period of high performance alongside a controlled period of lower performance, putting it right at the bottom of the table. The high degree of fluctuation was caused by the burst performance, which occurred for three quarters of an hour during the 24 hour testing.

In contrast, CenturyLink, SoftLayer and Verizon showed steady performance over the 24 hour testing period. SoftLayer recorded the lowest variability, while DigitalOcean and Rackspace recorded the highest performance figures.

Picture credit: Cloud Spectator

Anne Liu, an analyst at Cloud Spectator, argues both performance values and performance variation should be taken into consideration when selecting a VM. She wrote: “Comparing VMs using pricing, performance and price-performance can lead to significantly different results, and therefore it is critical for customers to select the most fitting comparison criteria.

“Knowing what the most important criteria [are] and using those criteria to compare and select VMs are essential,” she added.

The 24 hour continuous testing, she noted, was to test a provider’s requirements, and due to the large performance fluctuations, the performance level may drop below a customer’s minimum performance requirement.

The first part of the report, released in January, found Amazon EC2 offers “significant” cost advantages over a long term investment.

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Your #Python Performance By @Monitis | @DevOpsSummit [#DevOps #Containers #Microservices]

Python is really a language which has swept the scene in recent years in terms of popularity, elegance, and functionality. Research shows that 8 out 10 computer science departments in the U.S. now teach their introductory courses with Python, surpassing Java. Top-ranked CS departments at MIT and UC Berkeley have switched their introductory courses to Python. And the top three MOOC providers (edX, Coursera, and Udacity) all offer introductory programming courses in Python. Not to mention, Python is known to have an easy syntax that makes learning much more tolerable, and it scales up easily – especially in cloud-based environments.

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