SYS-CON Events announced today that MFX, a leading provider of IT Infrastructure solutions and business application solutions, will exhibit at 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.
Founded in 2001 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited, a multi-billion dollar financial services holding company, MFX delivers cost effective infrastructure solutions matching your needs and the dynamic and growing data demands in industry today. MFX offerings meet these demands through a variety of infrastructure solution options priced to match the variability of your business. MFX Infrastructure Solutions are secure, dependable and proven, and are supported by an experienced staff of specialists who deliver our solutions with unparalleled service quality. Speed, Innovation and Technology are what we provide.
Monthly Archives: February 2013
Cloud Computing: AWS Gets Its Own Form of Obamacare
Israeli-based Newvem, a start-up cloud operation analytics service, can do triage, so to speak, on anybody’s Amazon installation, pinpointing where the user or corporation of any size may be losing money by using the widgetry incorrectly or over-provisioning with resources that are too big for the job.
A user can stay up-to-date in real-time with what he’s spending on Amazon compute or storage, and find out precisely what resources are being deployed or where his governance is going awry.
From what it’s seen so far, the company estimates that 50% of Amazon users have security issues, 30% run an outage risk and 15% under-utilization problems.
Since Newvem started offering a free beta of its just released Amazon Cloud Care healthcare service eight months ago, its top 25 customers, mostly large accounts, have upped their use of the Amazon cloud anywhere from 3x to a whopping 70x.
Three Approaches to Single Sign-On for Cloud Application Providers
Signing up and signing on are major threats to any cloud application business. What approaches can an application provider take, and what are the implications on the business?
Did you know that:
Half of paid SaaS customers do not use the application at all
Nine out of 10 has left an application when they forgot a password, instead of restoring it
Eighty-six percent may leave a web site when asked to sign up
Two out of five would rather scrub the toilet than come up with a new password
These figures, based on research from Totango and Janrain in 2012, clearly show that sign-up and sign-on are major issues for any cloud application provider.
Rackspace Survey: The Cloud Helps US Businesses Boost Profits
Cloud computing allows US businesses to reduce their total IT costs by a significant 26 percent, according to a new study released on Wednesday. In addition, a majority 62 percent of respondents agree cloud computing has helped them boost profits.
“Businesses of all sizes, from the very largest global corporations to startups, say their operations are seeing multiple benefits from cloud computing,” noted Rackspace Chief Technology Officer, John Engates. “Thanks to the cloud, at least half of businesses on both sides of ‘the pond’ are growing with increased profits despite the ongoing economic backdrop. Savings from the cloud have enabled these companies to hire new employees, increase wages and drive innovation.”
The study, conducted by Rackspace Hosting with support from Manchester Business School, a UK and world business school, found an overwhelming 94 percent of businesses in the US using the cloud had saved money.
Post Agile – State of Software Development
There is a significant change in how software is developed over the last decade. Agile had been the buzzword over the last decade and probably is most significant of changes in software development to date. Now that the hype around Agile has been subsided, it is worth an effort to understand what it is like post agile. Often we see Agile with a narrow perspective, limiting it to a few programming practices and nothing more. We also fail to notice the indirect influence and the larger impact of Agile over the last decade.
TOOLING It is very interesting to see the way tooling has been changed over the decade. I must say this is the area where most innovation has happened. Almost all the aspects of software tooling has been changed; from version control systems to functional testing software. Several new categories of tools have born, which we couldn’t have imagined in 90s. Monolithic IDEs and tightly integrated eco systems are replaced with more specialized tools integrated via loose interfaces. Tools like GIT (distributed version control systems), Hudson (Continuous Integration Systems) are few examples of this change.
Post Agile – State of Software Development
There is a significant change in how software is developed over the last decade. Agile had been the buzzword over the last decade and probably is most significant of changes in software development to date. Now that the hype around Agile has been subsided, it is worth an effort to understand what it is like post agile. Often we see Agile with a narrow perspective, limiting it to a few programming practices and nothing more. We also fail to notice the indirect influence and the larger impact of Agile over the last decade.
TOOLING It is very interesting to see the way tooling has been changed over the decade. I must say this is the area where most innovation has happened. Almost all the aspects of software tooling has been changed; from version control systems to functional testing software. Several new categories of tools have born, which we couldn’t have imagined in 90s. Monolithic IDEs and tightly integrated eco systems are replaced with more specialized tools integrated via loose interfaces. Tools like GIT (distributed version control systems), Hudson (Continuous Integration Systems) are few examples of this change.
IBM Picks Mobile for Its Next Big Growth Play
Pity IBM won’t say what it spent on mobile last year sans acquisitions, but whatever it was it’s going to double it this year under a big new “ second wave” initiative decreed by its new CEO Ginni Rometty, who has apparently sensed an inflection point that will grow Blue by a few billion dollars.
It’s Ginni’s first big initiative, and Mike Riegel, IBM’s VP in charge of mobile solutions, has been heard to say that the rise of mobile connectivity and e-commerce is “bigger than the web.”
That makes the new initiative the equal of IBM’s famous push into analytics and the cloud.
So, the company is mustering its troops and its 270 mobile patents and its R&D people behind the effort and has carved a new MobileFirst platform out of the products and services bought in by its 10 acquisitions in mobile that it will hawk.
Guest Post: Why Midmarket Business Needs Cloud Services in 2013
Guest Post: Grant Davis
This is a guest post and does not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of GreenPages Technology Solutions.
The global market is becoming more and more competitive by the second, thus requiring businesses to operate very efficiently with regards to organizational structure. Businesses, specifically midmarket size, are faced with tall tasks in 2013. With a growing enterprise, information increases as the operations do. A growing company requires higher level data management, and this leads to more intricate demands when it comes to IT organization and communication.
If a midmarket is firing on all cylinders, acquiring new clients and consumers by the day, there is only so much that an unorganized or incapable operations model can withstand. The IT department can only cope with so many networks and so much data. A commonality among growing business in America throughout modern society is the implementation of cloud services. Cloud offers a way to outsource data and network management with the ability to focus resources and time on more intricate and fundamental aspects of the business.
Below I list the main ways that midmarket businesses can benefit from the utilization of cloud services in 2013, and the critical reasons for the argument.
1. Cost.
Cloud services can be financially viable in the right situation. Using an outsourced data storage center can decrease the cost of real estate, software and employee payroll. For one, a midmarket that works with a cloud vendor does not have to physically house as much data. This is substantial benefit, mainly because of the physical space but also the operational costs of a larger company with high energy consumption.
Secondly, a cloud provider would be responsible for software agreements and also network operations. This is a huge burden off of a midmarket, as serious growth tends to take focus away from standard processing issues. This responsibility being shifted to the cloud provider alleviates cost in the sense that a business can reduce or relocate IT staff for better efficiency. It can also benefit an enterprise to not have to worry about multiple SLAs with various software providers. It can save money to have the agreement consolidated and maintained by the cloud vendor.
Why this is crucial: Midmarket business can only reach maximum efficiency if all of the parts are in place. Part of this is allocating resources in a way that gets the most out of each aspect of the company. If a Data Modeler or System Admin can be utilized more effectively in this crucial phase of business development, maybe it’s better to outsource their daily role to a cloud vendor. It’s possible that their creativity and focus needs to be distributed in another area of the business different than process management. Innovation is key right now, and this is part of the process.
2. Flexibility.
Cloud services may be a good idea for IT decision makers within a midmarket because employees are able to be more flexible. For instance, a cloud vendor allows for immediate access to business information from various portals, including mobile devices. In 2013 a typical cloud vendor seamlessly supplies business leadership and operations teams with the ability to access information from all angles of daily routines. This is a huge benefit in modern society where nearly everything is immediate and in constant real-time.
Also, because midmarket business is often trying to compete and outreach in a competitive market, traveling off location will be much less detrimental to work efficiency. If the company CIO is going to a tradeshow in Phoenix, they should still be able to access any processes being maintained by the cloud vendor.
Why this is crucial: Midmarket business in 2013 requires collaboration to be successful. With information being stored in a cloud storage center, information can be accessed from diverse locations. This increases both internal and external business collaboration. Modern society is far too demanding to have anything that is inefficient, and flexibility is directly related to efficiency when it comes to a growing business and data management.
3. Scalability.
IT is the backbone of most business operations. Modern information is too complex to handle manually, and we rely on computers and networks to transport and maintain data. An additional advantage of a midmarket acquiring cloud services is that the business can upscale or downscale IT services based on specific need. For instance, if the midmarket has stagnant growth over the holiday season, they can scale back their service agreement with the vendor to save money during that time. Similarly, if business continues to grow, the cloud service can easily expand and accommodate the new volume of data management that it performs for the business. This is not as viable with internal data management, as new software and hardware will need to be purchased with each major alteration in IT requirements. This can lead to wasted money and lost resources.
Why this is crucial: Business in general is too unpredictable in the current economy to assume anything, even when it comes to IT requirements. Cloud vendors allow for leeway with regards to data storage and this is important when a midmarket is concerned because often times these businesses don’t have the margin of error to make up for any inefficiency. They need the exact amount of storage they need, when they need it.
Conclusions
Midmarket business is important to the United States economy and affects the lives of many people. Usually these operations are on the cusp of doing something significant, and proper organization within IT can help allocate resources in the right areas for maximum production and business model maintenance. It’s time for IT and business leadership to make note of this and move to action in early 2013.
Grant Davis is a Data Modeler by day and a writer by night. His passion for computers started when he discovered instant messaging in junior high school. When Grant isn’t trying to climb through the computer screen he writes for BMC, a leading mainframe management provider.
Are you a midmarket organization looking to bring your IT environment to the next level? Click to learn more about how GreenPages can help!
Rackspace Lowers Pricing on its Open Cloud
Rackspace Hosting, on Friday announced that it is lowering the price for cloud bandwidth and content delivery network (CDN) services by 33 percent. The company also announced that it is implementing tiered pricing for its open cloud product portfolio, starting with Cloud Files, its object storage service. The new pricing changes will take place over the next several weeks, beginning on February 22nd with tiered pricing for Cloud Files.
Rackspace’s customers deploying bandwidth-intensive workloads serving large amounts of content (which include video streaming, mobile and applications that require fast content delivery to end users) will benefit from the lower price of bandwidth, including CDN bandwidth. The price will change from $0.18 to $0.12 per GB.
Rackspace Lowers Pricing on its Open Cloud
Rackspace Hosting, on Friday announced that it is lowering the price for cloud bandwidth and content delivery network (CDN) services by 33 percent. The company also announced that it is implementing tiered pricing for its open cloud product portfolio, starting with Cloud Files, its object storage service. The new pricing changes will take place over the next several weeks, beginning on February 22nd with tiered pricing for Cloud Files.
Rackspace’s customers deploying bandwidth-intensive workloads serving large amounts of content (which include video streaming, mobile and applications that require fast content delivery to end users) will benefit from the lower price of bandwidth, including CDN bandwidth. The price will change from $0.18 to $0.12 per GB.