SYS-CON Events announced today that HPC in the Cloud has been named “Media Sponsor” of SYS-CON’s 12th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 10–13, 2013, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York, and the 13th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 4–7, 2013, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
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Monthly Archives: January 2013
Solving Substantiation with SAML
Organizations are deploying distributed, hybrid architectures that can span multiple security domains. At any moment, a user could be accessing the corporate data center, the organization’s cloud infrastructure, or even a third party, SaaS web application. SAML can provide the identity information necessary to implement an enterprise-wide single sign-on solution.
Proving or asserting one’s identity in the physical world is often as simple as showing a driver’s license or state ID card. As long as the photo matches the face, that’s typically all that is needed to verify identity. This substantiation of identity is a physical form of authentication, and depending on the situation, the individual is then authorized either to receive something or to do something, for instance, enter a bar, complete a purchase, etc.
In the digital world, identity verification is not as easy as showing the computer monitor a driver’s license. To gain entry, you must provide information like a name, password, randomly generated token number—something you have, something you know, or something you are—to prove you are who you say you are.
Cloud Computing Service Models
In this post I will look at the three different service models for cloud computing as defined by NIST. More specifically I will look at the management and operations overhead for each one of the models and compare it…
Let’s look at how things have been done in the past. Traditionally enterprises have been responsible for managing their own IT infrastructure as well as the software stack that runs their applications. For small companies that meant hiring polyglot employees with wide range of skills varying from low level networking to high level application support. For larger ones, that can afford more staff, it meant creating specialized teams responsible for only networking infrastructure, or only storage or servers and virtualization. However for lot of those enterprises the core business has never been managing IT infrastructure – the only thing they are interested in is to manage their line-of-business (LOB) apps.
Project Communications to the C-Suite
By Tobi Evangelisti, Senior VP of PMO, and Craig Mullen, Engagement Manager
Project communications to the C-Suite must include as much rational objectivity as possible to provide a pragmatic update taking into consideration identification of the C-Suite stakeholder’s interest.
The importance of constructing a projects’ communications to the C-Suite, starts with conscious development of the subject line. The first couple of sentences must address directly the project status and communicate whether action (or reading is required) or that the communication is providing a summarized update. It should have detail to understand the big picture but not overly granular. C level execs will always come back if they require more.
Communications to the C-Suite are not project status reports. Do not lead off with issues, items, or ideas, unless they are strategic or business oriented. Management functions within the C-Suite typically have functional expertise, but their focus usually would be different than a department because of their focus on the larger business environment. Ideally, the project communications role to the C-Suite would be as trusted advisor. A communication should be concise and clearly outline project status, open issues requiring attention and specifics as to how the project may require assistance. If the communication is in regards to issues that may be occurring an overview of the timeline is important for the C level person to understand the magnitude and the sense of urgency. In C level communications it is important to make sure the message includes a next step or a move forward plan. This creates a confidence that you are continuing to work the issue.
There is a time and place for email communication, phone calls and in person communication:
- Rule number one: Understand how your audience prefers to be communicated with.
- Rule number two: Do not hide behind email. Sending an email does not mean that the issue is resolved and if the topic is hot it is imperative to either call or find the person face to face if possible.
- Rule number three: Sense of urgency should assist in choosing your communication method.
- Rule number four: IF you are using email: Use proper use of the to and cc fields. If you do not require action use the cc. If you are requiring action, use the to field.
Effective communications start with using simple words and clear thoughts. C-Suite communications is essentially the project manager’s version of the sales elevator pitch. It may help to have a co-worker proof your message, or at least make sure you re-validate the initial draft to ensure clarity, emotional tone (balanced), accuracy, and timeliness.
To learn more about how GreenPages can help you click here.
Scalable Data Management and Protection Solutions for the Enterprise
“CommVault and Coraid complement each other perfectly for organizations that need a scalable, comprehensive, cost-effective approach to data protection,” said Doug Dooley, vice president of product management at Coraid, as Coraid today announced certification for its EtherDrive storage system with CommVault Simpana.
“Advanced data management paired with a scale-out, flexible storage infrastructure ensures data growth can be managed effectively. A joint solution with CommVault and Coraid demonstrates the flexibility and power of an open system architecture.”
Tape is still alive – or at least in conversations and discussions
By Greg Schulz
Depending on whom you talk to or ask, you will get different views and opinions, some of them stronger than others on if magnetic tape is dead or alive as a data storage medium. However an aspect of tape that is alive are the discussions by those for, against or that simply see it as one of many data storage mediums and technologies whose role is changing.
Here is a link to an a ongoing discussion over in one of the LinkedIn group forums (Backup & Recovery Professionals) titled About Tape and disk drives.
Rest assured, there is plenty of FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) and hype on both sides of the tape is dead (or alive) arguments, not very different from the disk is dead vs. SSD or cloud arguments. After all, not everything is the same in data centres, clouds and information factories.
For what it …
Citrix CEO Pleased with Q4 Financially and Strategically
“I’m pleased with our results, both financial and strategic,” said Mark Templeton, president and CEO at Citrix, as Citrix Systems, Inc. yesterday reported financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended December 31, 2012.
“We focused on execution to leverage new routes to market, acquire new customers, and drive subscription, maintenance and technical services growth. We also saw success in our newer markets,” Templeton continued. “Our customers are increasingly interested in mobility. CIOs are looking to mobility to help deal with IT consumerization, a multi-generational workforce, collaboration, consolidation and disruption,” he added.
Parallels Plesk Panel 11 six month after launch
by, Adam Bogobowicz, Senior Director of Marketing, Parallels
Our goal is to make easy-to-use and feature-rich products that are a delight to our customers. That being said, for a well architected, engineered and designed product to make a difference and gain acceptance, it has to do more than delight its end users. For a panel product to be successful, it has to do two more things. First, it needs to enchant hundreds of our partners who recommend and deliver it to the customers as a service on their infrastructure. Second, it needs to make a difference for the community of users who support it, use it, recommended it and help make it better.
With Parallels Plesk Panel 11 we have experienced the fastest adoption rate of any of our panel products ever. With over three times the adoption rate of any previous version, it is supported by a vast majority of infrastructure providers who make it available on physical hardware, and any imaginable virtual environment, from highly efficient container technology to open and commercial hypervisors. This level of adoption is higher than market growth rates or historical product adoption rates.
I attribute the success of Parallels Plesk Panel 11 to three fundamental factors.
- Plesk 11 has reached a new level of usability that makes life for server administrators in small businesses meaningfully better.
- Unprecedented support from a family of Parallels partners who deliver Plesk 11 to customers because the product itself has made major gains in supportability and security.
- A new level of excitement from a community of small hosters, who are not only delighted by the maturity and completeness of the hosting features, but now are also excited by the growth path that Parallels Plesk Panel enables when combined with a multi-server solution delivered by Parallels Plesk Automation.
With Plesk 11, we have reached a new level of visual and functional simplicity that allows administrators of any skill level to effectively execute core business tasks without the need to learn, or get support, from Linux or Windows server administrators. For example, we are able to adjust the level of UI complexity at the product setup time and match it with administrator skill levels. As one of our customers commented, “Everyone who is not a full time IT person should use Plesk. [I’ve] been using it for about 10 years and it gets better with every release. Since I moved from physical servers to AWS, it makes managing your server a breeze.”
This new level of usability translates directly into experiences of service providers delivering Plesk 11 on their infrastructure. It increases customer satisfaction and cuts down on support volume and costs. With Plesk 11, we are experiencing support ticket counts three times lower than with previous product versions. It is no wonder then that when you combine this with easy migration from Panel 10 to Panel 11 and hardened security of Panel 11, we have experienced unprecedented launch support with 80 of Parallels’ top partners becoming Parallels Plesk Panel 11 launch partners actively promoting value of the product to new and existing customers.
Most important, however, is the support this product has received from the community of shared hosters. With the announcement of Parallels Plesk Automation, a multi-server solution based on Panel 11 technology, our most important customers are genuinely excited about new growth opportunities for their businesses. Having once been locked into a single server hosting solution and paying with high administrative overhead for the limitation of the software, hosters love the fact that they can now use Plesk 11 as a platform for a new level of efficiency and growth enabled with Parallels Plesk Automation. And this story will only get more exciting when Plesk Automation is extended with new revenue generating services, like cloud VPSs, syndication and enablement of SaaS services with another exciting technology APS 2.0.
Lessons learned from Panel 11 launch and momentum and feedback from our customers and partners are driving our engineering path forward, and we are fully committed to this winning formula. I could not be more optimistic about the value the next wave of innovation will bring to our customers.
COBOL in the Cloud
Heirloom Computing Inc. today announced a new partnership with Java Platform as a Service (PaaS) provider CloudBees to speed the transition of mainframe workloads to the CloudBees PaaS. With the partnership, Heirloom will help IT managers lower costs and modernize their COBOL-based mainframe workloads by deploying them to the cloud, utilizing Heirloom Elastic COBOL and the CloudBees Platform.
For more information about Heirloom Computing and how Heirloom can help you transition mainframe workloads to the cloud, please visitwww.heirloomcomputing.com. For more information about CloudBees, please visit www.cloudbees.com.
Cloudreach Says Businesses Don’t Maximize Cloud Investment, They Can Help
To help businesses maximize their investment in cloud technologies, Cloudreach has today launched an Innovation Services program. Starting with Google Apps, this consultancy-based service helps business cloud users consistently review how they’re using Google Apps, make the best of the tools they have and adopting new services from Google as they are released. Cloudreach will work with new and existing users to help them adopt and benefit from all of the services Google Apps offers as opposed to just the familiar tools – going beyond the familiarity of Gmail, contacts and calendar to other Enterprise functionality and even the less well known Google Maps and Geospatial data management tools. By working with Cloudreach businesses can ensure they extract maximum value from the cloud-based services and avoid needlessly making costly investments elsewhere, all while enabling a culture of collaboration and giving end-users the flexible tools and features they demand.
Failing to exploit public cloud services thoroughly is proving costly for cloud users, says Cloudreach. As the adoption of public cloud services soars, businesses have the opportunity to realize vast benefits, such as reduced costs and improved efficiency, but many are only scratching the surface by not reviewing and not looking beyond the more familiar tools, says the cloud computing consultancy.
“It’s not just about driving innovation within business, but also about optimizing all the services you use. In the world of using public cloud, one drives the other, so it’s important that businesses remain focused on getting the most on both counts,” comments Pontus Noren, co-founder and CEO, Cloudreach. “The cloud is a great thing, and the reality is it just keeps getting better as more developments are made by Google Apps and Amazon Web Services. This ongoing evolution is only good news for businesses – as long as they continually review to ensure they harness these developments.”
