Monthly Archives: October 2012

Authentication, two-factor authentication

New SafeNet Authentication Service Designed for Service Providers

SafeNet, Inc. today announced the immediate availability of SafeNet Authentication Service, a new cloud-based authentication service. The cloud authentication solution was designed and engineered specifically for the service provider environment and allows service providers to rapidly introduce authentication-as-a-service to their enterprise customers. By doing so, it enables service providers to increase their average revenue per user (ARPU), significantly reduce the cost and complexity associated with offering and implementing strong authentication, and strengthen their security and compliance posture.

SafeNet Authentication Service extends the company’s portfolio of two-factor authentication solutions, providing enterprise and government organizations with  choice and flexibility to best customize their authentication solutions to meet current and future security needs.

SafeNet Authentication Service’s automated, customizable cloud platform can reduce authentication-related operational costs through the elimination of manual tasks associated with the provisioning, administration, billing, and management of users and tokens. Service providers can manage their customers from a multi-tier, multi-tenant platform that is vendor-agnostic and will work with an organization’s existing token technology, enabling a quick migration to a centralized cloud environment with minimal disruption to end users. In addition, the service can be white-label branded and completely customizable to the service provider’s needs, enhancing the service brand and overall awareness. In addition, the platform is highly scalable, which enables service providers to accommodate a growing number of customers added to the service without requiring costly infrastructure upgrades.

Strong authentication has also become a major challenge for today’s “extended enterprise,” in which remote employees, partners, customers, and other third parties require access to an organization’s systems, applications, and data. With no infrastructure required, enterprises can quickly turn to service providers for SafeNet Authentication Service to simplify the implementation of strong authentication in this environment—providing “security without borders” from a fully automated, high-assurance, trusted cloud environment.

In addition, SafeNet Authentication Service enables service providers to free up their customer’s IT staff to focus on higher-value activities. By doing so, this automation facilitates real-time policy application to ensure regulatory compliance and improved business efficiency.

According to Chris Morales of the 451 Research Group, “The consumerization of IT, the adoption of mobile computing and SaaS applications, and the incipient growth of desktop virtualization places identity front and center of emerging security and management concerns. As identity assumes more centrality for IT (in terms of both industry and organizational function) in coming to terms with these trends, securing the integrity of the identity assertion, characterizing it in terms of risk assessment, and supplementing (or supplanting) user name and password comprise the initial set of security hurdles. Also, as enterprises and organizations assess the requirements for authentication against the cost and flexibility of the options available from incumbent vendors, authentication-as-a-service, and new form factors or channels such as smartphone tokens and one-time passwords delivered as an SMS have gained in appeal.”

SafeNet Authentication Service reflects the combined offering resulting from SafeNet’s acquisition of Cryptocard in March 2012. This new service combines SafeNet’s market-leading authentication solutions with Cryptocard’s innovative, scalable, and flexible platform.


Apica, Apica WebPerformance, AppDynamics, Application programming interface, Google Analytics, Performance testing, SPDY, Tools

Apica WebPerformance Now Supports HTML5, Integrates with AppDynamics, Cloud Services, and Google Analytics

Enhancements to Apica WebPerformance portal, introduced today, include integration with AppDynamics and Google Analytics, HTML5 support, real browser monitoring from leading browsers, and provides an API solution for advanced monitoring capabilities.

Apica WebPerformance monitors the delivery of all web content and application functionalities from more than 100 locations worldwide, providing a controlled perspective on application performance. Using Apica WebPerformance’s powerful analytics, users can drill down to the code level to better understand the capacity, scalability, and responsiveness of their applications; troubleshoot bottlenecks; and take measures to proactively improve performance.

The latest enhancements to Apica WebPerformance include:

  • Integration with AppDynamics and Google Analytics. Real-time data
    from third-party accounts is fed directly into the Apica
    WebPerformance portal to provide deeper insight into the correlation
    of performance and traffic from a single location.
  • Websockets/HTML5 and SPDY standards support. To optimize the
    performance of live, rich media content such as real-time game
    updates, stock feeds, and status indicators, Apica WebPerformance
    includes Kaazing support, a commercial full-duplex communication
    server using Websockets and HTML5.
  • HTML5 GUI. The entire Apica WebPerformance portal now supports
    HTML5, which means that it can be accessed from laptops, smartphones,
    or tablets. The interface adjusts itself to the chosen platform so
    customers can keep track of their web performance wherever they are
    located.
  • Expanded real browser monitoring. Apica
    WebPerformance now supports browser checks from Google Chrome, in
    addition to Internet Explorer and Firefox. This provides a true
    end-user view of performance from the most popular browsers used today.
  • API access. Developers can embed monitoring results and
    performance check summaries into native programs using real-time data
    from Apica’s
    global network of monitoring agents.
  • Self-service functionality. Users can easily record scripts on
    their own and immediately begin reviewing and analyzing the
    performance of their website.

“Consumer demand for high-performing websites and applications is constantly increasing. Fast response times are no longer a luxury; they are expected,” says Sven Hammar, CEO of Apica. “Performance testing as part of the development process, not just after launch but prior to launch as well, is necessary to avoid problems that can cost businesses time, money, and poor brand reputation. We’ve enhanced our WebPerformance solution with more standards support and integration so users can correlate data from multiple instances and locations across the globe to get a transparent look at application performance and improve the end-user experience. We give businesses the power to optimize their web performance and identify issues before they impact customers.”


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Cloud Computing: Rackspace Cloud Institute Launched

Rackspace has unveiled a new global open cloud initiative, dubbed the Rackspace Cloud Institute, to train and certify an “army of thousands of technicians, engineers and developers” on the fundamentals of OpenStack, the open source cloud platform it put in play.
Rackspace, the first company to commercialize OpenStack, has been beta testing a training course for the last year and has educated 300-350 people from about 50 mostly end-user companies in Australia, China, South Africa and the US so far, with Israel and Hong Kong scheduled soon.

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Cloud Expo Silicon Valley: Storage Performance in the Cloud

It is no secret that one of the main challenges for applications in the cloud is storage performance. The storage performance problem in the cloud has multiple facets. It is not just low vs. high performance, but also the fact that performance varies over time and one customer can impact the performance of others. There is also the issue of storage performance monitoring. How does one know if an application is running slow because of storage performance or because of other factors like networking, IO concurrency, latencies, etc.?
In his session at the 11th International Cloud Expo, Nelson Nahum, CEO & CTO of Zadara Storage, will discuss how a new cloud storage architecture is needed – one that is not based on “scale out,” but it is more similar to the compute cloud.

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Business Processes, Content Management, Customer Relationship Management, GlobalSCAPE, Mobile device, Salesforce, salesforce.com

TappIn Pro Edition Includes Salesforce.com Integration

TappIn, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of GlobalSCAPE, Inc. announced today the launch of the new TappIn Professional Edition. TappIn’s Professional Edition offers 10 GB of secure transactional cloud storage, enhanced secure mobile access features, integration with Salesforce, and group management capabilities designed for professional users, businesses, and an increasingly mobile workforce, by creating a go-to service for remote access to all content regardless of where it resides.

“The increasingly mobile nature of today’s workforce, coupled with the rapid diversification of content sources and storage repositories, has forced a re-envisioning of how IT manages the access device landscape,” said Maureen Fleming, analyst with IDC. “Content is no longer stored on just a computer or server, it’s stored across collaboration platforms like Salesforce and Microsoft Exchange, on NAS drives, and in cloud repositories—public, private, and personal. As mobile devices put our lives at our fingertips, businesses and their employees will look for solutions that also streamline access to these content sources, increasing efficiency and eliminating the need for redundant copies and storage.”

“If we have learned anything from the BYOD revolution, it’s that people are looking for the simplest way to manage and access everything they need via a mobile device,” said Chris Hopen, President of TappIn, Inc. “TappIn Professional Edition is the next evolution of our approach to access and management, allowing users to go to a single place on their mobile device and securely access or share all of their important content—whether it resides on a home computer, business server, or SaaS application such as Salesforce. TappIn is the one place they can go for access to all of their content without having to move it all to one place.”

 

 


Content Management, Small business

Marketecture Business Center 3.0 Offers Integrated Online SMB Platform

Marketecture today announced the full platform launch of the Marketecture Business Center 3.0, its turnkey website solution for micro and small businesses, which allows small business owners to establish and grow their business online without having to build their own software or become Internet experts.

Marketecture Business Center 3.0 provides a suite of integrated online business management and marketing tools. The new platform leverages proprietary, scalable software and includes the following features:

  • Custom Website Design – Build a website in minutes using
    Marketecture’s intuitive drag-and-drop functionality
  • Content Management – Upload as many images, video, music and data
    files as desired with Marketecture’s unlimited storage and hosting
    space
  • Social Marketing Management – Monitor and manage the social
    environment surrounding a small business with deep social media
    integration for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, LinkedIn and
    foursquare
  • Online Marketing Management – Work alongside Marketecture’s experts to
    deploy a variety of online business strategies, including SEO, PPC,
    viral, content and local marketing
  • Customer Relationship Manager – Track visitor analytics from one
    simple interface
  • Communications Manager – Unlimited email accounts, webmail access,
    newsletter and drip campaigns
  • E-Commerce – Set up a merchant account to collect money directly from
    the SMB’s website and use Facebook integration to enable customers to
    reserve services, purchase products and fill out forms and signups
    directly from the business’ Facebook page
  • Business Tools – Blogs, secure document editing and sharing,
    scheduling and reservations
  • Custom Logo Design – Use easy software tools to build great logos, or
    work side-by-side with Marketecture’s designers to create a logo to
    establish a brand

“After honing our platform for the past two years, we are thrilled to offer the full integration of the Marketecture Business Center,” said Oliver Bigler, chairman and CEO of Marketecture. “For years, thousands of micro and small businesses have benefited from aspects of our online platform and we pride ourselves in now being able to provide all the essential components needed to thrive on the web. For too long, small business owners have been unfairly offered select solutions by Internet software solution companies marketing their individual app. Marketecture’s all-in-one website solution and business system helps small business owners across the country build, market and grow their online business and adapt to an increasingly Internet-based economy.”

According to a 2011 report by research firm Borrell & Associates, most small and medium business (SMB) owners do not have the time or the expertise necessary to successfully conduct business online; in fact, 46 percent of SMBs in the U.S. have no online presence. Of the SMBs with an online presence, 80 percent are a simple “business card” site without embedded revenue generation. Marketecture addresses both deficiencies in its easy-to-use, all-in-one system, which helps clients build and maintain their website, find and retain customers and generate revenue.


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Cloud Expo Silicon Valley: From Code to Cloud in 45 Minutes

In her hands-on workshop session at the 11th International Cloud Expo, Diane Mueller, the Cloud Evangelist for ActiveState, will introduce conceptual cloud architectural principles and show how private Platform as a Service enables cloud app development, deployment, and management.
She will provide an overview of cloud architectures, present web frameworks and sample applications, then show how to package, create a manifest, and deploy apps to any cloud. By the end of the session, Cloud Expo delegates will be able to push an application from a source repository (e.g., Github) to the cloud and make it available for others to deploy, manage, or monitor.

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Disaster Recovery Ascends to the Cloud, Part I

While many new technologies claim to revolutionize the practice of disaster recovery (DR) for IT environments, few have significantly altered the economics and logistics of building and maintaining a secondary IT site. For most organizations, a secondary site housing server and storage infrastructure has remained the only recovery path for their business from a primary site disaster, failure or outage.
While it might seem preferable to avoid the expenditure of a secondary IT site altogether, what drives investment in DR infrastructures is a set of recovery time objectives (RTOs) and recovery point objectives (RPOs) that respectively determine the maximum allowable downtime and data loss an organization is willing to sustain. While certain organizations may require both of these objectives to be near zero (i.e. instant recovery, no data loss), other organizations may be able to withstand minutes or even hours of downtime. Understanding these objectives is one of the fundamental tenets for DR planning and investment.

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Load Balancing 101: Active-Active in the Cloud

Why active-active is not best practice in the data center, and shouldn’t be in the cloud either.

Last time we dove into a “Load Balancing 101” discussion we looked at the difference between architected for scale and architected for fail. The question that usually pops up after such a discussion is “why can’t I just provision an extra server and use it. If one fails, the other picks up the load”?

We call such a model N+1 – where N is the number of servers necessary to handle load plus one extra, just in case. The assumption is that all N+1 servers are active, so no resources are just hanging out idle and wasting money. This is also sometimes referred to as “active-active” when such architectures include a redundant pair of X (firewalls, load balancers, servers, etc… ) because both the primary and backup are active at the same time.
So it sounds good, this utilization of all resources and when everything is running rosy it can benefit in terms of improving performance, because utilization remains lower across all N+1 devices.

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Interoute: Attainable SLAs and taking on AWS #AppsWorld

CloudTech caught up with Matthew Finnie, the CTO of IaaS cloud providers Interoute, who is exhibiting at Apps World.

According to Interoute CTO Matthew Finnie, a 100% service level agreement (SLA) is ‘nonsense’, although a lot depends on the sector your cloud company is trying to reach and the shape of your business model.

Interoute, who is currently exhibiting at Apps World in London, has a virtual data centre (VDC) which offers a 99.99% uptime rate and, while it doesn’t reach the magical ‘five nines’ in availability, Finnie inferred that it’s worth looking beyond the statistics.

“99.99% is an actual availability,” he said. “We’re coming at it from a world where we have enterprise customers and carriers who are building businesses on the back of us, and they don’t want a commercial SLA.

“If we gave them three, five hours’ service credits, it doesn …