Three Simple Steps to Really Succeed in 2016 By @IanKhanLive | @CloudExpo #Cloud

If you were too busy with things and unable to give the desired attention to planning the right steps for your business in 2016, fear not. You’re not alone, and yes welcome to the party! With too many things going on, I could completely believe if you said you don’t have time to breathe. The boss wants the reports, the customer wants the installation while the sales teams have been asking for help on some technical stuff. You can only do as much as you do. With so much going around us, it’s also sometimes hard to keep up with what really matters. Here is how to achieve planned success in this New Year and with no room for excuses.

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Matrixx partners with Vlocity for cloud content platform

Cloud Computing color vector illustration.The lengthy gestation period for new products and services from mobile operators could be radically shortened by a new cloud-based service from a team of app software developers, reports Telecoms.com.

Telco software developer Matrixx Software and cloud apps vendor Vlocity have jointly launched Go Digital, in a bid to simplify the provision of video and music streaming, roaming passes and lifestyle applications for comms and digital service providers. Go Digital is based on the Salesforce platform and combines Vlocity’s cloud apps with Matrixx’s digital commerce platform. Vlocity claims it is Salesforce’s preferred ISV partner for the comms industry.

With comms service providers (CSPs) hamstrung by their clunky legacy platforms, many struggle to execute on their digital agendas, the partners behind Go Digital claim. The new service allows clients to define their own experience, giving them the option to try, buy and manage digital services. Clients can choose from video and music streaming services, track their usage in real-time, make one-click purchases, share selected balances with friends, add roaming passes on-the-fly and consume services in manageable chunks. Go Digital’s founder say they’ve also cracked another problem that has dogged the CSPs, by creating a consistent service experience, regardless of the device or network they use.

Go Digital gives each client a virtual control centre to manage their digital services and it promises service providers a one-click customer experience with multiple payment options for additional mobile services. The solution is immediately available and reference customer include Swisscom, Telstra and Sky Italia.

“Go Digital creates a significant new revenue opportunity that can be rapidly deployed in any carrier or service provider, of any size, anywhere in the world. The possibilities are endless,” said Vlocity founder David Schmaier. Matrixx and Vlocity will showcase Go Digital at February’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Tech News Recap for the Week of 1/11/2016

Were you busy last week? Here’s a tech news recap of articles you may have missed for the week of 1/11/2016!

An issue was found with Fortinet’s FortiOS. The issue affects firmware versions 4.30-4.3.17 and 5.0-5.0.7. Customers running a Fortigate Firewall with these versions are advised to upgrade to version 5.2.3. Could there be a ban of encrypted smartphones in New York? The US Intelligence Chief was hacked by the same teen who hacked the CIA Director. Hyatt Hotels said their data breach hit 250 hotels across some 50 countries. Malware alone didn’t cause the Ukraine power station outage…and more top news from last week! 

Tech News Recap

  • Brief Statement Regarding Issues Found with FortiOS
  • Malware alone didn’t cause Ukraine power station outage
  • Apple iPhone ban? New York looks to outlaw sale of encrypted smarthphones
  • US Intelligence Chief Hacked by the Teen Who Hacked CIA Director
  • Ford: Our new app will be like iTunes, but for cars
  • Hyatt Says Data Breach Hit 250 Hotels in Some 50 Countries
  • Moving to Hyper-converged from a Traditional Virtualized Environment
  • Air Force focused on cloud governance, says CTO
  • Uber pushes into public transit with new app partnership
  • 10 Medical-Device Wearables To Improve Patients’ Lives
  • Top 10 Tactics Cities Can Use to Do More with Big Data
  • Driving stressed or sleepy? Soon your smartwatch will be able to warn your car
  • A dozen Google Chrome extensions to boost your privacy and productivity
  • 6 amazing changes that will change the way we do business in the next 5 years
  • iPhone 7 Rumors: 7 That Have People Talking

If you’re looking for information around migrating and supporting mobile workforces, download this on demand webinar, “Microsoft O365: Expectations vs. Reality”

 

By Ben Stephenson, Emerging Media Specialist

New Service Director from HPE could simplify hybrid cloud management for telcos

HPE street logoHPE claims its new Service Director system could put comms service providers back in control of their increasingly complex hybrid computing estates. It aims to achieve this by simplifying the management of network function virtualisation (NFV).

HPE claims that Service Director will automate many of the new management tasks that have been created by the expanding cloud environment and provide a simpler system of navigation for all the different functions that have to be monitored and managed. The new offering builds on HPE NFV Director’s management and orchestration (MANO) capacity and bridges existing physical and new virtualized environments.

As virtualisation has expanded it has extended beyond the remit of current generations of operations support systems (OSS) and the coexistence of physical and virtual infrastructure can introduce obstacles that slow the CSPs down, HPE said. It claims the Service Director will help CSPs roll out new offerings quicker.

The main benefits of the system outlined by HPE are automation of operations, shared information, flexible modelling of services and openness. With a single view of the entire infrastructure and dynamic service descriptors, it aims to make it easier to spot problems and create new services, HPE claims. As an open system the Service Director platform will have interfaces to any new third party software defined networking controllers and policy engines.

Since there is no such thing as a green field NFV set up there has to be a system to rationalise the legacy systems and the new virtualised estate, said David Sliter, HPE’s comms VP. “Service Director is a transformational change in the relationship between assurance and fulfilment, allowing the OSS resource pool to be treated, automated and managed as a service,” said Sliter.

The telecoms industry needs an omnipotent service orchestration system that can span every existing NFV MANO and OSS silo, according to analyst Caroline Chappell, principal analyst of NFV and Cloud for Heavy Reading. A model-driven, fulfilment and assurance system like Service Director could speed up the delivery of services across a hybrid physical and virtual network, Chappell said.

HPE Service Director 1.0 will be available worldwide in early 2016, with options for pre-configured systems to address specific use cases as extensions to the base product, starting with HPE Service Director for vCPE 1.0.

A New Market Segment: SDN / NFV | @DevOpsSummit #DevOps #SDN #Microservices

SDN / NFV may not be new with next gen telcos and data centers but by 2016 it is certainly going to be the new beast in DevOps space. It’s a multi-million dollar virgin market, so it’s not only those traditional OEMs are in the fray even the DB companies will be entering this new market. Telcos and Data center wants a vendor agnostic network devices and are expected to replace all physical devices including those routers and switches with software devices. This not only drastically brings down the PCB replacement costs and other maintenance charges but the latest release automation tools and technology of DevOps will do radical changes by reducing the overall current service provisioning time from 4-5 months to few hours. In the near future the network administration may not require to have niche skill sets to manage large networks because the latest zero touch release automation technology with GUI based orchestration dashboard will do the network configuration.

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Optomec and IoT | @ThingsExpo #IoT #M2M #ML #InternetOfThings

IoT depends to a large part on the availability of custom hardware of sensors that can be efficiently manufactured with exacting tolerances in its specifications. Smart Parts manufacturing will be one of the key technologies required to address the IoT 3D Sensors and 3D Antennae.
Optomec which manfuactures production grade 3D printers can manufacture parts both in plastics and metals.

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DevOps and Test Automation | @DevOpsSummit #DevOps #Microservices

Test automation is arguably the most important innovation to the process of QA testing in software development. The ability to automate regression testing and other repetitive test cases can significantly reduce the overall production time for even the most complex solutions. As software continues to be developed for new platforms – including mobile devices and the diverse array of endpoints that will be created during the rise of the Internet of Things – automation integration will have a huge hand to play delivering reliable, multifunctional products that end users want and need.

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Top 10 Blog Posts | @DevOpsSummit @Catchpoint #APM #IoT #DevOps

Web performance issues and advances have been gaining a stronger presence in the headlines as people are becoming more aware of its impact on virtually every business, and 2015 was no exception. We saw a myriad of major outages this year hit some of the biggest corporations, as well as some technology integrations and other news that we IT Ops aficionados find very exciting.
This past year has offered several opportunities for growth and evolution in the performance realm — even the worst failures presented valuable lessons to be carried into the New Year. So before we dive headfirst into 2016, let’s take a quick look back at Catchpoint’s top blog posts of 2015.

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IoT: Four Things to Watch | @ThingsExpo #IoT #M2M #InternetOfThings

There’s no doubt that there’s a lot more «connected things» these days and that means a lot more data. Specifically, technology is moving out of the consumer’s hands and into Healthcare, Oil & Gas, Transportation, Aviation and more. The spread of smart devices and sensors creates new forms of value and brings challenges for enterprises seeking to exploit this technology. However, while this boom in data has the potential to advance the industrial space in ways never before thought possible, few companies today have the right technologies in place or the right business models that can truly utilize the power of IoT.

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