Have you ever wondered if you could use Parallels Desktop to run CAD (computer-aided design) software? You can! In fact, Parallels recently interviewed Seattle-based designer Jon Ellison, who uses SolidWorks—a widely used, Windows-based solid modeling CAD software—in conjunction with Parallels Desktop every day on his Mac: Parallels: Hello Jon! What do you use SolidWorks for? […]
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GoPro Inc. has had immense success with their series of cameras that can survive in almost any condition. However, now they want to branch away from this and become a lifestyle company. The first thing on their to-do list is to utilize cloud services to make it easier for customers to share their content. Right now, all of the content is saved onto SD cards that require many steps before it can be shared.
GoPro is planning to create an iTunes like management system which would allow the content to be uploaded to the cloud while the camera is plugged in to charge. This eliminates the need to manually upload the content to be edited, users can edit and share the content right from the cloud. GoPro is also looking into a service that will cut and edit the content into highlight reels.
By moving to the cloud, GoPro believes more cameras will be sold based on the ease of editing and sharing the content. At the moment, you can register your camera but there isn’t really any incentive to do so. With the cloud service, registering your camera comes with the benefits of the new system.
Since this idea is in the very early stages, there are not many details available. One thing that needs to be figured out soon is the security issue associated with running a cloud. Moving to a cloud means there will be very large amounts of data being obtained and stored, and securing that will be a challenge. GoPro has not stated who they will be partnering for this.
GoPro recently released wireless add-ons to allow their cameras to stream content directly to broadcasters. Future high-end GoPro cameras will likely include this ability while the rest of the product line will have Bluetooth and WiFi capabilities.
If the move to the cloud is smooth and comes with high security measures, GoPro could see great success and growth.
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(c)iStock.com/DragonImages
The average number of cloud apps used per enterprise has declined for the first time, according to the latest data from Netskope.
This shift – which the company notes is “consolidation efforts from IT begin[ning] to take hold” – is exacerbated by the lack of enterprise-grade security in most cloud apps. 89.6% of apps used are not enterprise-ready, and 90% of data loss prevention violations occur in cloud storage apps.
The latter point is of most concern. Netskope identified violations by discovering content at rest in sanctioned cloud apps via their APIs, alongside inspecting content in-line in real-time as per enterprises’ DLP policies, all through the Netskope Active Platform.
The five cloud app categories with the highest volume of policy violations are cloud storage apps, webmail, finance and accounting, social and CRM. In the instance of cloud storage, the action most likely to cause a violation is download, followed by login and upload. Personally identifiable information (PII) appears 27% of the time, followed by payment card information (24%) and what Netskope categorises as confidential or top secret documents.
The average number of apps used by enterprises has declined from 511 in Netskope’s last quarterly report, to 483 this time round.
“With so many cloud apps in the enterprise lacking the capabilities required for safe enablement, it is imperative that IT possess a holistic view of cloud app usage to inform proactive policies that reduce the risk of losing sensitive data,” said Sanjay Beri, Netskope CEO and founder. “More than just knowing where violations occur, it’s important to know how they are occurring and what steps can be taken to mitigate such behaviours.”
The most recent report, which CloudTech examined back in April, showed more than 15% of European organisations use more than 1000 cloud apps, with Google Drive, Facebook, and Twitter the most popular.
The University of Bradford is deploying ServiceNow to modernise its HR function
The University of Bradford is deploying ServiceNow in a bid to transform its human resources function.
The university said it is deploying the platform to increase the HR department’s efficiency and responsiveness, and give it stronger technical capabilities to facilitate recruitment. It said it previously relied on a range of manual techniques, with little reporting, prioritisation capabilities or unified visibility on the day to day activities in HR.
“We are seeing increased demand for easy access to HR services and information,” said Joanne Marshall, director of HR at the University of Bradford. “Our old way of working was no longer fit for purpose. ServiceNow has facilitated a new model where employees can complete their own transactions and find answers to a wide range of questions. As a result, we now have the ability to redirect strategic HR resources to other areas within the business.”
Jennifer Stroud, general manager, HR service management business unit, ServiceNow: “We are increasingly seeing organisations adopting a service management approach across the workplace with HR leading the way. As the University of Bradford demonstrated, organisations can see fast transformations and dramatic improvements in the overall service experience.”
While ServiceNow is primarily deployed as an IT service management platform it’s clear the company is keen to refocus its offering on other central functions like HR and finance. Earlier this year the company launched its own application marketplace so customers can buy third-party apps built on the ServiceNow platform including a range of HR, legal and financial services apps.
(c)iStock.com/Barcin
The latest figures on European cloud computing adoption, this time from managed services provider Easynet, shows only one in 10 enterprises are using public cloud.
The research, which polled 660 IT decision makers at companies with more than 1000 employees, found that cloud had been adopted by almost three quarters (74%) of European enterprises. In total, almost half (47%) used private cloud, compared with 17% utilising hybrid cloud, and the remaining 26% naturally staying on-premise.
The study found discrepancies – 17% of firms polled in Belgium use public cloud, ahead of the European average – and some less surprising results. The business and consumer services (30%) and IT and computer services (21%) were most likely to lead the trend towards adoption of hybrid cloud, while banking and financial services were among the most likely to favour private cloud.
Belgium, along with the UK, had the highest proportion of hybrid cloud users, with a 23% and 22% score respectively, while the government sector was most likely to opt for on-premise hosting (52%).
Elsewhere, a study from managed public cloud provider 2nd Watch has revealed three in five US companies are currently engaged in a big data project, with a further 20% soon to begin one. The leading force behind big data projects is predominantly the CEO (32%), followed by the CIO (25%) and line of business managers (18%).
The survey also revealed how strategic imperatives are changing to address the needs of big data deployments. Almost three quarters (71%) of those polled said their company had already adopted a new data warehouse or was considering purchasing one. Established enterprise database vendors, such as IBM (38%), Oracle (31%) and HP (24%) are the most likely choices.
IBM is working with SiCAD to offer an IoT silicon design service in the cloud
IBM is partnering with silicon design platform provider SiCAD to offer a cloud-based high performance services for electronic design automation (EDA) which the companies said can be used to design silicon for smartphones, wearables and Internet of Things devices.
The IBM Electronics Design Automation (EDA)-based tools will be delivered via SoftLayer infrastructure on a PAYG basis and provide on-demand access to silicon design tools.
IBM will initially deliver three key services: IBM Library Characterization, to create abstract electrical and timing models for chip designs; IBM Logic Verification, to simulate electronic systems and design languages; and IBM Spice, an electronic circuit simulator used to check design integrity and probe chip behaviour.
The company said deployment clusters will be segregated (both compute and networking), so clients won’t share any infrastructure.
“The proliferation of smartphones, tablets, wearable devices and Internet of Things (IoT) products has been the primary driver for increased demand for semiconductor chips. Companies are under pressure to design electronic systems faster, better and cheaper,” said Jai Iyer, founder and chief executive of SiCAD. “A time-based usage model on a need basis makes sense for this industry and will spur innovation in the industry while lowering capital and operations expenses.”
The companies said the partnership will help enable startups designing silicon for IoT applications, a venture not only increasingly attractive because of the explosion of activity around IoT and the need for purpose-built chip architectures but the sheer size of the silicon land-grab in the sector.
Pivotal is acquiring Quickstep Technologies to boost SQL performance
Pivotal has acquired Quickstep Technologies, a query execution technology developer, for an undisclosed sum. The company said the move could vastly improve the performance of its big data solutions.
Quickstep’s technology was developed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison by Jignesh Patel, professor of computer sciences and a team of developers at the school, in part with funding from the US National Science Foundation. It’s a relational data processing engine that incorporates a technology called Bitweaving, which uses various techniques to reduce the number of cycles to evaluate and compute a predicate across a batch of code, the result being a massive improvement in performance when asking a database a question.
Patel is no stranger to the database space. His thesis work was commercialised by NCR when it was acquired by Teradata, and he also co-founded Locomatix, a startup that designed a platform to power real-time data-driven mobile services, which became part of Twitter two years ago.
“In the Quickstep project we have rethought from the ground up the algorithms that make up the DNA of data platforms so that the platform can deliver unprecedented speed for data analytics. It is time to move our ideas from research to actual products,” Patel said. “There is no better home for this technology than at Pivotal given Pivotal’s formidable track record in delivering real value to their customers in big data.”
Pivotal said the technology will be integrated as a new query execution framework for Greenplum Database and Pivotal HAWQ, which it claims will “provide orders of magnitude increase in performance for advanced analytics, machine learning, and advanced data science use cases.”
Sundeep Madra, vice president, data product group, Pivotal said: “Enterprises are seeking ever faster speeds for their data so that they can affect outcomes in real time. Quickstep brings to Pivotal a fresh way of thinking about data, one aligned to new capabilities in hardware and demanding expectations today’s businesses have. We look forward to bringing this technology to our customers, and welcome the Quickstep team to the Pivotal family.”
SYS-CON Events announced today that the “First Containers & Microservices Conference” will take place June 9-11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York City. The “Second Containers & Microservices Conference” will take place November 3-5, 2015, at Santa Clara Convention Center, Santa Clara, CA.
Containers and microservices have become topics of intense interest throughout the cloud developer and enterprise IT communities.
Talkdesk has raised $15m to take call centre software into the cloud
Cloud-based contact centre software provider Talkdesk has secured $15m in a series A round of funding led by DFJ with participation from existing investor, Storm Ventures, which the company said would be used to fuel its international expansion.
The latest round of funding brings the total amount raised by the firm since its founding to over $33m.
Talkdesk, which was founded in 2011, said its web-based contact centre solution integrates with Zendesk, Desk.com, Salesforce, Zoho, SugarCRM and Help Scout among other cloud services.
“Today’s consumers are used to instant app-driven communications, but most cloud-based call center solutions do not provide the functionality necessary for companies to meet their rising expectations for service. As such, companies are looking for a more progressive call center technology that provides relevant real-time customer information so they can deliver an exceptionally personalized experience,” said Tiago Paiva, Founder and chief executive of Talkdesk.
“We developed Talkdesk to address the needs of this $20B market1. We accomplished this by making it simple for companies to deploy a robust cloud-based call center software solution that provides contextual information about their customers, without the complexity or high cost associated with implementation,” Paiva said.
Call centres are becoming increasingly dispersed and as a result the software they use needs to be more nimble, slimmed down and flexible to deploy than when these were operating as large, centralised departments. The trend has contributed to the rise of a wide range of cloud-based contact centre solutions delivering omni-channel support.
Talkdesk said it’s one of the companies capitalising on this rise, and at more than 70 employees said it has experienced 1,000 per cent year on year revenue growth since its founding.
“This is the classic cloud-software eats the world storyline that we have seen before,” said Josh Stein, partner at DFJ. “We are seeing a massive evolution in the call center technology space that, until now, has been dominated by antiquated solutions.”
This blog post is being reprinted with permission from the original author, Ian North. We are extremely excited and pleased to get to share his post as a special guest blog this week. Read on for Ian’s how-to for configuring a Mac image in Microsoft SCCM and Parallels Mac Management, and let us know if you are […]
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