Monthly Archives: October 2015

Box, Enterprise Cloud, Enterprise IT, governance, IBM, News & Analysis

Box tightens security for enterprise cloud offering with IBM integration

BoxWorks15Box has announced new developments in its security, governance and infrastructure management offerings.

At its annual BoxWorks conference, Box’s general manager for enterprise Whitney Bouck promised users would get better governance and better integration with IBM in a bid to fortify itself as an enterprise class cloud system.

New revisions to Box governance were promised, in order to help companies address their legal, regulatory and business goals for secure content collaboration. The improvements include additions to retention management and collaboration whitelist features. New development work has gone into Legal Holds, which caters for legal discovery or litigation processes. In future, customers can use the Legal Holds system to arrest content stored in Box, which makes a ‘defensible discovery’ on all Box content possible.

A raft of IBM integration initiatives was also announced, in order to improve Box’s capacity to work with IBM’s Content Navigator, StoredIQ, Case Manager and IBM Datacap systems.

Box clients were promised a single integrated view across IBM Content Navigator, while the integration with IBM StoredIQ makes searches of on-premise and Box-based data more thorough, giving users the option to classify and upload data directly back to the Box Platform.

Box and IBM Case Manager can now seamlessly share content, according to Bouck. This means users can put context to content and gives them more license to adapt their business processes. IBM Datacap with Box will simplify management and save clients money by enabling users to capture documents from multiple sources, extract key information and store them to Box, according to Bouck.

Box also promised an improvement in its information rights management service, with new Device Trust features giving intelligent control over sensitive content, without neutralising any of the system’s usability.

The cloud infrastructure has been beefed up with Box now supporting the new Amazon Web Services Key Management Service (KMS), which aims to simplify the self-management of encryption keys in the cloud.

More than 40 million users and 50,000 businesses use Box for collaboration, including 52 per cent of the Fortune 500, according to Bouck, and as more enterprises use Box it is working to fortify it.

“We’re building a new kind of enterprise content management and collaboration platform that meets the needs of the modern enterprise,” said Bouck.

Network Infrastructure, SDN

How to Prepare Your Environment for the Software Defined Networking Era

In preparation for my upcoming webinar, here is another video  I did a few months back around how to prepare your environment for software defined networking. Regardless of which SDN solution you choose, there is a lot of backend work that needs to be done. Before you get into the weeds around specific products, you need to take a step back. To be successful, you’re going to need to have a level of understanding about your applications you’ve never needed before. I will cover this briefly in my webinar, but if you are planning on attending, this is a good one to watch first to help set the stage.

Register for Nick’s webinar, “VMware NSX vs. Cisco ACI: When to Use Each, When to Use Both.” In the webinar, Nick will cover:

  • The current state of the SDN market
  • VMware NSX & Cisco ACI overview
  • When it makes sense to use each, or even both
  • Next steps to get your environment prepared for SDN initiatives

By Nick Phelps, Principal Architect

Featured, Network Infrastructure, SDN

How to Prepare Your Environment for the Software Defined Networking Era

In preparation for my upcoming webinar, here is another video  I did a few months back around how to prepare your environment for software defined networking. Regardless of which SDN solution you choose, there is a lot of backend work that needs to be done. Before you get into the weeds around specific products, you need to take a step back. To be successful, you’re going to need to have a level of understanding about your applications you’ve never needed before. I will cover this briefly in my webinar, but if you are planning on attending, this is a good one to watch first to help set the stage.

 

 

Register for Nick’s webinar, “VMware NSX vs. Cisco ACI: When to Use Each, When to Use Both.” In the webinar, Nick will cover:

  • The current state of the SDN market
  • VMware NSX & Cisco ACI overview
  • When it makes sense to use each, or even both
  • Next steps to get your environment prepared for SDN initiatives

 

By Nick Phelps, Principal Architect

API, App Stores, application development, Content & Applications, Mendix, modeling, News & Analysis

New Mendix system replaces programme writing with system modeling in the cloud

AppsDevelopment system maker Mendix claims its new system can speed application development by replacing the programme writing with application modeling.

It claims the newly announced Mendix 6 system makes it possible to build digital applications quickly by importing and exporting a range of previously made models. It has also introduced a mechanism that supports offline functions in mobile applications, so that mobile workers can still use their cloud applications when cut off from a network.

Mendix claims developers can build mobile applications that make use of static resource storage, and use data and data entry caching in order to maintain consistency of user experience and performance when offline.

The Mendix 6 Model API (application programming interface) and open source platform software development kit will help companies avoid vendor lock-in, help them migrate from or modernize legacy systems, automate tasks and – through fault finding analytical systems – create a new level of quality assurance, claims Mendix.

The processes of legacy migration and modernization are supported by a ‘model importing system’ which, in effect, allows would be developers to use development models that have worked successfully in similar situations elsewhere. This, claims Mendix, allows organisations to ‘accelerate application modernisation at massive scale’.

The model exchange function also aims to save time for clients by making it easier to examples for documentation, to move applications to other platforms and to increase transparency.

Customers running Mendix apps on the open source platform service, Cloud Foundry. will work with simpler configurations and enjoy more resilience said Mendix CTO Johann den Haan.

“Application development doesn’t run fast enough for many companies,” said den Haan, “now you don’t have to programme apps. You model them in the cloud and click run.”

Mendix is available in the Amazon Web Services Marketplace.

Cloud Services, Enterprise IT, Europe, HP, News & Analysis

HP launches cloud service catalogue for European Union

HPHP has launched a new ‘one stop’ cloud shop for Europe. The announcement was made by HP Helion VP Xavier Poisson to a gathering of HP’s Cloud28+ partner community in Brussels.

A new catalogue – also called Cloud28+ – will be a centralised cloud services portal for all the systems created by the 110 official members of the community that create or use cloud services in Europe.

HP claims it has made it easier for enterprises to identify and implement the cloud services they need, while complying with local regulations. In addition, the EuroCloud Star Audit (ECSA) program will, it claims, save members from the expense of performing their own individual audits. The rationale is to create a high level of transparency and guidance for customers and service providers, Poisson told delegates.

Lack of knowledge, security concerns and legal uncertainty are the biggest barriers to cloud adoption in Europe, according to a Eurostat survey, quoted by HP. The study, conducted by the EU’s statistical office, asked staff at 151,000 EU companies about their aspirations for using cloud services and their reservations over purchasing processes.

In response, HP has designed an easy and transparent system for matching cloud services to both functional and non-functional criteria, such as security or data privacy regulations, according to Poisson. The system is also designed to provide a need to know briefing on legal and compliance variations across Europe. The Cloud28+ catalogue is to be hosted and secured in Europe.

It’s time for a common framework of quality, costs and security, said Poisson. “This is already creating new opportunities for cloud service providers, greater choice for enterprises, and better access for developers and will play an integral role accelerating organizations’ transformation to hybrid infrastructure.”

Uncategorized

Cloudant Named “Bronze Sponsor” of @CloudExpo | @IBMcloudant #BigData #IoT #API #DevOps

SYS-CON Events announced today that IBM Cloud Data Services has been named “Bronze Sponsor” of SYS-CON’s 17th Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 3–5, 2015, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
IBM Cloud Data Services offers a portfolio of integrated, best-of-breed cloud data services for developers focused on mobile computing and analytics use cases.

read more

Parallels Desktop, Parallels Desktop 11, Parallels Desktop 11 for Mac, Parallels Desktop for Mac, Parallels Desktop for Mac Pro Edition, Parallels Desktop Pro, Parallels Desktop Pro Edition, web dev tools, webmaster, website development, website development tools, website testing

Parallels Desktop Pro Edition and Website Development Tasks

There are a number of features in the recently released Parallels Desktop Pro Edition that streamline the development and testing of websites and webpages. This short blog post examines several of these features in some detail. Testing in Multiple Browsers There are a lot of different browsers out there—some with multiple versions. NetMarketShare reports 11 different […]

The post Parallels Desktop Pro Edition and Website Development Tasks appeared first on Parallels Blog.

Uncategorized

US and China will continue to lead for data centre location, analyst notes

(c)iStock.com/sigurcamp

A note from Synergy Research has shed light on the most popular data centre geographies, with the US and China coming out on top.

Not surprisingly, the US is the most popular location for cloud and internet data centres in Q215. After analysing the data centre footprint of 13 of the world’s major cloud and internet service firms, 44% of data centres were in the US. China (10%) was in clear second place, ahead of Australia, the UK, Japan, and Singapore (all 5%), with Germany and the Netherlands (4%) behind.

Synergy argues the results reflect two trends; the dominance of the US market, and the unique proposition of China’s ecosystem. Companies who have already built data centres in China include Amazon, IBM and Microsoft – although in December it was reported that cloud computing providers in the Asian country were to be tested for their ‘trustworthiness’, potentially meaning bad news for foreign CSPs.

The research also noted the importance of traditional data centre hubs, such as Singapore, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, and Ireland, but customer demand dictating reduced latency and greater data sovereignty means vendors are moving closer to home. IBM, as an example, launched its first Italian cloud data centre in Cornaredo, a municipality in Milan, in June this year, while a data centre in Frankfurt, opened its doors in January.

“While the hyperscale cloud operators continue to invest huge amounts in their data centre footprints and to expand their geographic scope, there is no doubt that the US and China will continue to be the lead countries for locating major data centres,” said John Dinsdale, a Synergy chief analyst.

The 13 companies analysed now have almost 150 major data centre sites between them, Synergy added.