IT’s role is changing dramatically from working in isolation to operating hand in hand with the business team. Successful IT leaders understand that they need to keep a pulse on the newest technologies and work in unison with their business counterparts in order to remain at the forefront of their industry. By approaching IT service delivery through a business lens, IT is able to streamline processes, lessen the IT management burden, and empower end users. Management Cloud: IT’s Key to the New Front Office, a CA Technologies eBook, has the details on how Management Cloud allows IT to move up the totem pole.

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OpenNebula Systems has nnounced it has joined a consortium of leading organisations and universities from the U.K., Germany, Spain, Belgium, Israel and Italy focused on developing new innovative techniques to federate cloud network resources and to derive the integrated management cloud layer that enables an efficient and secure deployment of federated cloud applications.
The BEACON project will deliver a homogeneous virtualization layer on top of heterogeneous underlying physical networks, computing and storage infrastructures, providing enablement for automated federation of applications across different clouds and datacenters. Head of Research at OpenNebula Systems, Dr. Constantino Vázquez, said:

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In my blog from September 2014, I wrote “encryption and access controls are your front-line defenses for defending data-at-rest. Given today’s threat environment, encrypt everything possible, everywhere possible.” While lots of things change in 6 months – the projected World Series Champion, the Super Bowl front-runner, Taylor Swift going from tweeting about dating to tweeting about hacking – this recommendation remains constant.

Data-at-rest is susceptible to many forces, not least of which are malicious and non-malicious insiders. As we noted in our recent 2015 Insider Threat Report, the insider threat landscape is becoming more difficult to deal with as the range of miscreant’s moves beyond employees and privileged IT staff. It now includes outsiders who have stolen valid user credentials; business partners, suppliers, and contractors with inappropriate access rights; and third-party service providers with excessive admin privileges. Unless properly controlled, all of these groups have the opportunity to reach inside corporate networks and steal unprotected data.

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There is no arguing the cloud is hot. In a recent blog post The Cloud – Is it your actual destination? I raise the point that the cloud itself is not the destination. It’s a vehicle, a conduit that can help you solve challenges and provide value back to the business. It is a powerful vehicle. IDC forecasts global public IT Cloud services spending to reach nearly $108B by 2017. Gartner expects that by 2016 the bulk of IT spend will be for the cloud. For all the hype, the cloud and its benefits are real.

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Selling is a professional that you can never take lightly. To be successful at marketing and selling something you have got to be the best, on top of your game, ahead of the competition and ready to do what nobody else dares to do. The world of SaaS sales is no different. Competition can be cut throat, with every next company offering the best shiniest object that can help you cure your worst nightmares and keep your numbers and yes the boss happy. That’s far too easy !

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At Logentries we chat to new users everyday who are looking for an improved solution for centralizing and analyzing their log data. They have often tried rolling their own solution, have previously gone the open source route, or are using an «old school» logging technology.

But, what we find across new users, regardless of how they are managing their log data, are some common challenges that have historically made log management and real-time analytics challenging.

We decided to take our data, along with some similar research from a recent SANs report, and show you some of these challenges, and possible solutions!

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Thanks to an early season skiing accident, I found myself sitting in the Emergency Department of a small hospital in a Colorado ski town. The hospital had recently gone through a major renovation and was proud of its investment on HIT (Health care IT). Most patient workflows are now automated.
Check-in and registration were a breeze. Within a few minutes, my patient record was updated, and my case was well documented. With an electronic signature of consent and a scan of my insurance card, all I needed to do was wait for my turn. A large monitor displayed my name as well as the names of others waiting to be seen, as well as the likely waiting time.

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Since enterprise digital transformation efforts involve organizational, process, and technology changes that better connect the customer to the technology systems of record, formulating the best way of accomplishing the goals of digital sounds like a perfect application of enterprise architecture. Only most organizations don’t see this connection.

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This is the first of a series of posts and links to resources on server storage I/O performance and benchmarking (view more and follow-up posts here).
The best I/O is the I/O that you do not have to do, the second best is the one with the least impact as well as low overhead.
Drew Robb (@robbdrew) has a Data Storage Benchmarking Guide article over at Enterprise Storage Forum that provides a good framework and summary quick guide to server storage I/O benchmarking.

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SYS-CON Events announced today that that Innodisk, the service-driven provider of industrial embedded flash and DRAM storage products and technologies, will exhibit at SYS-CON’s 16th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 9-11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY.
Innodisk is a service-driven provider of industrial embedded flash and DRAM storage products and technologies. With satisfied customers across the embedded, aerospace and defense, cloud storage markets and more, it has set itself apart with a commitment to dependable products and unparalleled service. This has resulted in products including embedded peripherals designed to supplement existing industrial solutions and high IOPS flash arrays for industrial and enterprise applications. The expanded business lines are leading its next step in being a comprehensive solution and service provider in the industrial storage industry.

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