Todas las entradas hechas por Richard

Anonymous, HaaS, Hacking, Hacking-as-a-Service, High Tech Security, Malware, McAfee, Opinion

Let’s Hope Not: Least Favorite 2013 Prediction is “Hacking-as-a-Service”

Among all the pundit predictions for the coming year in cloud computing the one that caught my eye was this one by BusinessInsider’s Julie Bort in an article entitled “5 Totally Odd Tech Predictions That Will Probably Come True Next Year”

1. Bad guys start offering “hacking as a service”

Security company McAfee says that criminal hackers have begun to create invitation-only forums requiring registration fees. Next up, these forums could become some sort of black-market software-as-a-service. Pay a monthly fee and your malware is automatically updated to the latest attack. Don’t pay, and it would be a shame if something happened to your beautiful website …

HaaS? Let’s hope not.

CDN, Cloud & IT Management, Content delivery network, Content Management, EMEA, hybrid cloud, Le Nouvel Observateur, Multimedia & Internet, Networking, Nouvel Observateur, Openmix, User Story

Le Nouvel Observateur Digital Uses Openmix Hybrid CDN Strategy for News Cycle Load Balancing

Sudden traffic load bursts following the news is business as usual for an online news provider. When the news is hot, interruptions and heavy slow-downs are common things on various websites; which can mean loss of audience and consequently loss of revenues, forcing technical teams to constantly anticipate any possible incident.

The third most read news & politics media in France, as per a September 2012 Nielsen study, with almost 8 million unique visitors every month, Le Nouvel Observateur recently chose the Cedexis “Openmix” load balancing solution to roll out and manage its own hybrid CDN — a mix of their infrastructure at origin and their own cache servers spread among various webhosting providers with third parties CDNs.

Rolled out during the second quarter of 2012, Le Nouvel Observateur’s hybrid CDN strategy now includes two content origins, backed by Varnish cache servers, located at two French hosting providers whose performance had been previously measured with Cedexis Radar as being optimum for serving their French audience. A global CDN is also used, mostly to deliver content to their international audience.

Details can be found in a case study published by Cedexis.

Amazon, Amazon AWS, Amazon S3, Batch Processing, Clients, Free, Glacier, Mac OS X, Storage, Uploading and downloading, Windows

FileZoomer for Amazon S3 Adds Glacier, Life Cycle, Versioning, Batch Options

A new release of FileZoomer, a cross-platform client for Amazon’s S3 has been released,  adding support for new S3 features including Versioning and Object Life Cycle. Object Life Cycle for S3 includes the option to migrate files to the lower-cost AWS Glacier storage option, and includes a facility to retrieve archived files so they can be downloaded from S3.

The Glacier support in S3, as featured in FileZoomer, does not require a separate AWS Glacier account. Instead it is handled transparently by S3 and FileZoomer.

Versioning allows the option of keeping previous versions of files as they are updated.

Unique to FileZoomer is the Batch Processing option, which allows the interactive creation of configuration files that control batch uploads, downloads, and syncing files between a local machine and S3. Once configured, the pre-defined actions can be invoked from within the FileZoomer client, of from batch processes in Windows, Mac OS X, or linux.

FileZoomer is a free java client that runs on Windows, Mac OS X, and linux, and it can be downloaded from FileZoomer.com

Business Processes, Customer Relationship Management, Real estate

RES.NET Platform Now Supports Traditional Real Estate Market

RES.NET, a provider of software applications connecting real estate professionals and consumers, today announced that its platform now supports the traditional real estate market. Originally introduced in 2004 as a technology solution for the default space, RES.NET has evolved its platform to now enhance retail, or traditional real estate transactions. By enabling agents to perform tasks and communicate with other real estate agents, companies and consumers, they can better meet the demands of today’s tech-savvy consumers while gaining the accessibility and accountability to operate more productively and improve their businesses.

RES.NET’s Agent Portal, one of the platform’s six cloud-based portals, connects agents to other real estate professionals, buyers and sellers and allows them to handle every aspect of the sale through one, centralized system – and even on-the-go through a mobile application. Agents can define their unique task workflow and input all details on their properties including photos and videos. The portal facilitates transparency among agents and other participants, who can easily send and sign documents online using e-signature technology.

“Our network has grown to include more than 200,000 users, some of which are Fortune 500 companies with very complex workflows and stringent requirements,” said Todd Mobraten, COO and president of RES.NET. “With our experience in the default space and as a response to the real estate market’s evolution, we elected to expand our platform’s capabilities to support the traditional market. With more than 80 percent of consumers now beginning their home search online, it is important for agents to leverage technology that meets their expectations. With the platform agents can eliminate communication gaps and securely share information in an automated, paperless environment or even from a mobile device, which minimizes their time in front of the computer and lets them focus on serving homebuyers, cultivating relationships and increasing their business opportunities.”

Within the portal, Agents can also access RES.NET’s offer submission link tool, which enables them to submit offers to listing agents directly through the platform, instead of mailing or faxing paper documents. Through the system agents have ultimate control to manage offers, negotiations and counter offers, resulting in faster closings.

Mobraten continued, ”One of the portal’s most valuable features for agents is the ability to add and invite contacts to their network. Not only does this contribute to more efficient communications and accelerates transactions, but the technology also empowers them to increase their professional networks and improve their businesses.”

Bitcasa, iOS, Mobile, Storage

Bitcasa Releases Infinite Drive Apps for Android, Windows 8/RT

Bitcasa announced today the release of its Android and Windows 8/RT apps. The new mobile apps allow instant streaming of music, photos, videos, and documents from the Bitcasa Infinite Drive™. The Android and Windows 8/RT apps are available today for new and existing Bitcasa users on Google Play, Windows Store, and at www.bitcasa.com/download. Mac and iOS apps will be available in January.

With Bitcasa, users can backup and consolidate all of their files and media into one Infinite Drive. The Bitcasa Infinite Drive acts like an external drive that users are already familiar with, except that it never runs out of space and is accessible from anywhere and any device. With the new Infinite Drive and mobile apps, Bitcasa users get immediate benefits:

  • Instant Streaming, Access Anywhere: With Bitcasa, users can
    play whole music albums, watch videos in various formats, view and
    share photo albums, and read documents from anywhere. Instant
    streaming from the Bitcasa Infinite Drive allows users to stream their
    personal jukebox of music, videos, and photos to mobile and desktop
    devices without having to sync or store files locally on each of your
    devices.
  • Infinite Storage: The Infinite Drive acts as a virtual external
    drive that expands with the user’s growing storage needs without ever
    worrying about running out of space again.
  • Safe Backup: Continuous and automatic backup gives peace of
    mind. Users can mirror their content from all their computers to
    Bitcasa, and access it anywhere. All files and backups are protected
    with client-side encryption, which means that only users can see and
    access their data. Users can easily retrieve files with time-capsule
    versioning by date.
  • Share Content: With one click, users can share any file or
    folder with their friends and family – Bitcasa or non-Bitcasa users –
    regardless of file size. For sharing on mobile devices, users can also
    set up alerts to protect against large downloads that might affect
    their mobile bandwidth charges.
  • Get Organized: Bitcasa automatically categorizes users’ data
    into Music, Photos, Videos, and Documents.
    Users no longer have to worry about managing and organizing their
    files – the same way they do not have to worry about
    storage capacity limits.

“With our mobile app releases, we are now making all of your data easily available from mobile and PC/Mac clients while taking the security of that data very seriously,” said Tony Gauda, co-founder and CEO of Bitcasa. “By announcing our cross-platform support today, we are offering our global users secure access on all computers, mobile devices, or Web browsers by streaming from the cloud while allowing them to keep the data they access more often localized on their hard drive. With an Infinite Drive, mobile users can automatically store and access their photos from any device. It also means that they can send large videos and albums to friends and family, as well as watch videos in multiple formats. It’s an infinite, organized drive in the cloud. Users don’t have to manage it and it’s much safer than their desktop or laptop.”

Bluebeam, Business Processes, Collaboration, Computer-aided design, Partnerships, Portable Document Format, ProjectWise, Skanska

Bluebeam Revu for PDF-based Collaboration Now Available to Skanska Projects

Skanska has entered into a global purchasing agreement with Bluebeam® Software, the developer of PDF-based solutions for digital project workflows. Under this new agreement, Skanska project teams throughout the world can deploy Bluebeam’s Revu®, for digital project communication and collaboration.

Bluebeam Revu is a PDF-based solution that enables architecture, engineering and construction professionals to streamline workflows, improve communication and reduce paper use. Revu includes 2D and 3D PDF creation and a variety of industry-standard redlining tools including text, highlights, shapes, clouds, CAD symbols and measurements. Advanced features include automatic drawing comparisons, hyperlink management, integration with SharePoint® and ProjectWise®, and tablet PC compatibility. Additionally, Revu includes an integrated cloud solution, Bluebeam Studio™, for storing PDFs and other project files online and collaborating in real-time on PDFs.

Skanska’s NKS project team is currently using several of these features to electronically share information for this massive, 3.4 million gross square foot facility. Project team members are using Revu to create and annotate PDFs, enabling them to easily share detailed drawings, comments and questions with project team members downstream. The team is also organizing and managing the enormous amount of project information by using Links – Revu’s hyperlink manager – to link PDF drawings to additional project data stored in SharePoint®.

“Revu is a powerful solution that creates so many opportunities for streamlining project communication and collaboration and allows project teams to work more efficiently,” said Christian Gren, Director of Account Services, Bluebeam AB. “With this agreement, Skanska project teams can increase productivity, create significant time savings and reduce costs, ultimately having a substantial impact on the bottom line.”

“Skanska’s implementation of Revu on the incredible New Karolinska Solna project proves that anything is possible with Bluebeam,” said Kristine Hopkins, Bluebeam Software’s Director of Account Services. “Bluebeam is thrilled to enter into this purchasing agreement with Skanska, making it easier for its project teams around the globe to communicate and collaborate digitally and work without limits.”

Bluebeam Software products are available direct and through a global network of authorized resellers. For more information, visit www.bluebeam.com.

 

Opinion

More End-of-Year Predicting: 7 ‘Half-Baked Ideas’ on Where Cloud Will Take Us in 2013 and Beyond

As we mentioned earlier, there are a lot of people publishing lists of this and that for the year we’re about done with, and predicting what’s to come in 2013. As a followup to his first such list, Joe McKendrick at Forbes now offers us “7 ‘Half-Baked Ideas’ on Where Cloud Will Take Us in 2013 and Beyond“. My favorite: “Cloud increasingly recognized as a “green” enabler“. I’ve never bought into the notion that it’s not more energy efficient to depend on the massive scale that cloud data centers represent. Less travel, more energy-lean devices (mobile in particular), less built environment for offices, and fewer underutilized, energy-sucking servers sitting in small offices and departments.

Read the whole list and see which you think are more than “half-baked”.

Opinion, Research

That Time of the Year: Everyone Has a List and Predictions

It’s getting to be the time of year when the “lists of” come out, recalling the best (or worst, depending) of this and that, usually followed by pundit predictions for the coming year. Cloud Computing is no different so this particular form of holiday cheer is starting to appear. We’ll try to find and point to the ones worth spending some time with.

First up: Joe McKendrick at Forbes on “7 Predictions for Cloud Computing in 2013 that Make Perfect Sense“. Notice we’re no longer shackled to the nice round number 10. He found 7 so what’s what he offered us. They range from “More hosted private clouds” to “Cloud as a defining term fades“. I think maybe the most intriguing one was “Cloud and mobile becoming one“.

Read the post for the full list and all his reasoning and details.

Asia/Pacific Rim, China, Research, Strategy Analytics

Chinese Companies Taking Hybrid Approach to Business Clouds

Taking a hybrid approach that supports traditional and cloud-based IT solutions is key to business cloud adoption in China, according to the Strategy Analytics Business Cloud Strategies (BCS) service report “Chinese Organizations Adopt SaaS and Other Business Clouds.” It describes the extent to which businesses and other organizations in China have embraced a mix of public and private clouds while maintaining traditional on-premise software deployments.

Chinese organizations are moving to cloud computing due to expectations of superior scalability and other benefits. However, the pace of cloud adoption is affected not only by security concerns which represent the top reason for not moving apps to the cloud for every country surveyed but also reliability concerns which is more of a concern in China than in all but one of the other countries surveyed.

“Chinese organizations are investing in moving applications and infrastructure to public and private clouds,” commented Mark Levitt, Director of Business Cloud Strategies research at Strategy Analytics. “However, continued reliance on traditional on-premise solutions for key business workloads due to reliability and security concerns requires cloud service providers and product vendors in China to fully support hybrid cloud and non-cloud environments.”

“Cloud product and service providers that want to be successful in China need to demonstrate how clouds can actually enhance security, reliability and mobility for Chinese organizations,” said Andrew Brown, Director of Enterprise Research at Strategy Analytics.