All posts by Richard

SYSPRO ERP Software Able to Facilitate Medical Device Unit Recalls

SYSPRO today announced that SYSPRO ERP software offers manufacturers extensive traceability capabilities to facilitate the ability of manufacturers to trace products from origin, through the manufacturing process, to their ultimate destination, fully maintaining assurance certification and tracking expiration dates. The reaffirmation of the extensive traceability functionalities inherent in SYSPRO ERP software was in reaction to the announcement that “over 123 million medical device units were recalled in the second quarter of 2012, reaching an eight-quarter high,” according to the quarterly ExpertRECALL Index released August 22, 2012.

SYSPRO lot traceability and serial tracking functionality afford extensive visibility up or down the supply chain, as well as providing specific component to parent tracking, thereby providing the means to expedite recalls, should the need arise. SYSPRO optionally allows specific traceable components to be reserved for specific work-orders, as well as providing the flexibility of specifying the parent traceable numbers at the beginning, during or the end of the manufacturing process.

The Associated Press article reporting the record number of recalls contains the following statement by Mike Rozembajgier, vice president of recalls at Stericycle ExpertRECALL, “The growing importance of this product category means that companies need to have a comprehensive recall plan in place that can be deployed within the blink of an eye and can effectively protect their customers…”

According to SYSPRO USA President Joey Benadretti, “The implementation of cost- effective SYSPRO software helps medical device manufacturers streamline their supply chains and also to employ extensive ‘backwards and forwards’ component and product traceability for speedy recalls.


Macheen Inc. Gets $10 Million for Connected Devices

Macheen Inc., a  service provider for connected devices, has closed an additional $10 million in financing to build on its leadership position as an enabler of flexible cloud-based connectivity solutions. Philippe Vallée, representing GemVentures, will join Macheen’s Board of Directors as the company continues its drive to deliver greater choice for end-users and new monetization opportunities for device manufacturers, value-added resellers, network operators, and content and cloud service providers.

Macheen’s existing investors also participated in this new financing. Existing investors include North Bridge Venture Capital, which led last year’s Series B financing; and DFJ Mercury (a partner in the DFJ Global Network of venture funds, with over $7 billion in capital under management), which led Macheen’s Series A financing in 2010. Also among Macheen’s investment group are prominent angels and industry figures Tom Meredith, Mike Maples Sr. and Yechiam Yemini.

Richard Schwartz, Macheen’s President and CEO, commented, “We are thrilled to welcome GemVentures as an investor and Philippe Vallée as a board member. Philippe’s vast knowledge, experience, and relationships will be invaluable to Macheen as we continue to expand our cloud-based connectivity services platform.”

Philippe Vallée added, “Macheen is exemplary of the kind of company in which GemVentures tends to invest: at the forefront of an exciting new opportunity, management with a track record of success, and early momentum that underscores and validates its approach. Richard and his team are building the future connectivity model for devices and we are happy to support innovation in the mobile industry.”


Securadyne Systems Acquires Surveillance Specialties

Securadyne Systems, LLC  and Pamlico Capital announced today that they have completed the acquisition of Surveillance Specialties, Ltd., a  New England-based security systems integrator. The SURV acquisition is the second for Securadyne, which was founded in February 2012 in partnership with Pamlico.

“The acquisition of SURV, which enjoys a commanding market presence in New England, ideally complements our build-up strategy focusing on best-in-breed operating platforms,” explained Carey Boethel, President and CEO of Securadyne Systems. “The addition of SURV considerably expands our geographic reach and our ability to deliver high-end, fully integrated solutions in a number of key vertical markets,” Boethel added.

SURV was founded in 1986 as a covert surveillance company by Arthur and Joan Bourque. The company changed its business model to a full-service systems integrator in 1999. Since then, the company has achieved considerable and consistent growth, and has emerged as the top independently-owned and operated security systems integrator in New England. SURV currently has branch offices in Wilmington, MA and Portland, ME.

Arthur Bourque, President and CEO of SURV, stated “We were fortunate to have a number of viable strategic alternatives for our business, but it was clear that Securadyne represents the future of our industry and is the best possible fit for SURV’s employees, customers and shareholders. We’re very excited about joining the Securadyne team and the opportunities for growth that will be created by this partnership.”

Mr. Bourque will join Securadyne’s Board of Directors and be active in setting the business’s strategic direction and helping with future M&A activities. Justin Davis, Chief Operating Officer for SURV, will join the Securadyne Systems executive team and will be responsible for leading the company’s Northeast Region.

Stuart Christhilf, Principal at Pamlico, noted “We are excited to be partnering with Arthur, Justin and the SURV team, as their passion for integrity, quality service, and industry-leading technologies represent exactly what we are trying to build with Securadyne. We expect them to be valuable contributors as we look to expand the combined business going forward.”


appMobi Offers Free Remote Debugging Tool for HTML5

Today appMobi added to its lineup of free and open source HTML5 development tools with the immediate availability of debugMobi, a free remote JavaScript debugging tool.

Until now, HTML and JavaScript have been difficult for developers to debug on mobile devices because of the closed environments of smartphone hardware and Web browser software. An open source tool called “Web Inspector Remote” (WEINRE) provides remote Web debugging for mobile devices, but it requires developers to configure and run their own servers in order to work.

debugMobi dramatically reduces the complexity of remote debugging on mobile devices with a configuration-free, hosted version of WEINRE that developers and mobile devices can tap into from anywhere on the Internet. Like all appMobi cloud services, debugMobi is hosted on the global Amazon AWS “cloud,” which offers dependable high performance all over the world.

debugMobi provides Web developers with a remote window into the target mobile device while the hybrid app or site is actually running. JavaScript and CSS variables can be examined, and JavaScript code can be viewed and modified on the desktop viewer in real time. Because debugMobi is hosted on the open Internet (as opposed to the more typical WiFi or Intranet hosting), debugMobi can be used to debug devices that are physically anywhere in the world – making it the first truly worldwide “remote” debugging tool for mobile HTML5.

This new HTML5 developer tool can be used by anyone who is developing Web-based code for mobile devices, including Web app developers, and hybrid app developers using appMobi or PhoneGap. debugMobi is available immediately at www.debugmobi.com. For developers who use the Google Chrome browser, it is also available as a  Chrome extension.


Tenable Network Security Gets $50 Million for Vulnerability Management

Tenable Network Security, Inc., whose software identifies network security gaps before they are exploited by attackers, today announced $50 million in first-round funding from Accel Partners.

Tenable will use the funds to expand its innovative security offerings and accelerate global growth – while deepening its research into evolving threats that are becoming a critical trust issue for CEOs, regulators and customers worldwide.

“Security is a mainstream issue – especially with the explosion of mobile, cloud and virtual computing,” said Ron Gula, CEO of Tenable. “Serious network attacks are far more common than anyone wants to publicly admit – and our customers count on us to keep their networks safe.”

Tenable is the top choice for businesses of all sizes, governments and universities to manage network threats. The company’s flagship vulnerability management products, Nessus and SecurityCenter, are used by the most demanding security professionals and compliance auditors at 15,000 organizations worldwide, including:

  • The entire U.S. Department of Defense, where Tenable has become the
    vulnerability management standard
  • 12 of the 14 U.S. Federal Civilian Departments
  • Top Financial Services Companies: Barclays, Deloitte, RBS, Morgan
    Stanley, T. Rowe Price, Visa
  • Technology Leaders: Spotify, Dell, Etsy, Google, Intel, Microsoft,
    Skype, Apple, Yahoo
  • Top Universities: Brown, Dartmouth, Michigan, Ohio State, Purdue
  • Healthcare Leaders: Coventry, HealthSouth, Johnson & Johnson,
    Merck, Scripps, Sutter Health
  • Key Energy Players: Chevron, Chesapeake Energy, ConocoPhillips,
    ConEdison, Duke Energy, TXU
  • Retailer Innovators: Chipotle, GSI, Meijer, Diapers.com, Zappos.com
  • Media Visionaries: British Sky Broadcasting, CBS, Comcast, Time
    Warner, 20
    th Century Fox
  • Telecom Providers: Alcatel Lucent, Bell Canada, British Telecom,
    Softbank Mobile, Verizon

Tenable’s user community has 1 million people who have learned the benefits of automated vulnerability scanning through their viral adoption of Nessus.

“Tenable is the thought leader in the rapidly growing and critical area of vulnerability assessment,” said Ping Li, General Partner at Accel, who will join Tenable’s board of directors. “IT security practitioners fight the constant battle to stay ahead of network attacks, and it’s only getting harder. Many of these practitioners globally rely on Tenable for their vulnerability management platform.”

Tenable’s SecurityCenter is the only security platform combining essential active and innovative passive vulnerability scanning, real-time network monitoring, and configuration and compliance management. Tenable’s Nessus, the industry’s most widely deployed vulnerability scanner, provides the deepest database of known vulnerabilities and compliance risks on the market today.

 


Netflix Open Sources its Eureka Load Balancing Tool for AWS

Netflix has moved its Eureka mid-tier load-balancing tool, formerly known as the Netflix Discovery Service, to open source.Eureka Architecture Diagram

From the Netflix announcement of the move:

Eureka is a REST based service that is primarily used in the AWS cloud for locating services for the purpose of load balancing and failover of middle-tier servers. We call this service, the Eureka Server. Eureka also comes with a java-based client component, the Eureka Client, which makes interactions with the service much easier. The client also has a built-in load balancer that does basic round-robin load balancing. At Netflix, a much more sophisticated load balancer wraps Eureka to provide weighted load balancing based on several factors like traffic, resource usage, error conditions etc to provide superior resiliency. We have previously referred to Eureka as the Netflix discovery service.


Nebula Gets $25 Million for OpenStack Cloud Enabling

Nebula, the cloud systems company, has closed its Series B financing round, involving over $25M of additional equity and debt financing. The new round was led by Comcast Ventures, the venture capital arm of Comcast and NBCUniversal, with significant participation from Highland Capital Partners and included Kleiner Perkins, Innovation Endeavors and industry luminaries Andy Bechtolsheim, David Cheriton and Ram Shriram. Investors that participated include Harris Barton, William Hearst III, Scott McNealy and Maynard Webb. Additionally, Silicon Valley Bank is providing additional debt and credit facilities to the company.

“We’re delighted to have the support of investors who have such remarkable track records of success as we continue on our path to make on-premise private cloud computing a reality for all businesses,” said Chris C. Kemp, Nebula CEO and co-founder.

Nebula is now powering next-generation cloud infrastructures in market-leading biotech, financial services and media companies in a private beta program that began in March. This investment will allow Nebula to expand the number of companies that will be able to participate in the beta, continue to expand its product and engineering teams, build a petascale test system, and accelerate development and testing of its product.

“We invest in companies that innovate with open source projects and teams that are focused on creating game-changing disruption,” said Louis Toth, Managing Director at Comcast Ventures. “After spending several years looking at this market, we are confident that Nebula is the company that will bring private cloud infrastructure to the enterprise.”

Nebula, co-founded by former NASA CTO and OpenStack co-founder Chris C. Kemp, has assembled a team of more than 50 engineers inspired by the opportunity to pioneer a new era of enterprise computing. In addition to Dave Withers, former Dell Executive and Senior Vice President of Field Operations, and Jon Mittelhauser, Netscape co-founder and VP of Engineering, Nebula now employs four OpenStack project technical leads, and the engineers responsible for a large percentage of the code in OpenStack.


Proact supplies virtualised infrastructure, cloud backup to Grafia

Proact has implemented a new, virtualised infrastructure and a new storage environment for Grafia. The contract also includes backup to Proact’s secure cloud and consecutive support. The implementation project commenced and was completed in the summer of 2012.

Grafia is one of Sweden’s most sought-after companies in the field of model and product photography, supplying photos to companies such as clothing giants Kappahl, Brothers, Lindex and MQ. To enhance the performance and flexibility of the business, Proact has implemented a new, virtualised infrastructure and a new storage environment.

“Of course, our success is based on the fact that we supply high-quality images, but the fact that we supply technical solutions that allow our end-clients to receive and manage our images with ease is also a factor. These technical solutions, which make us highly competitive, are entirely dependent on a flexible, high-performance IT infrastructure and storage environment,” says Martin Gårdmark, CIO of Grafia.

To meet Grafia’s demands for outstanding flexibility and performance, Proact presented a solution comprising a new, virtualised infrastructure and a storage and backup environment. The Proact solution also includes the backup of vital applications to Proact’s own cloud, thereby giving Grafia greater access and reliability if anything were to affect the local infrastructure.

“Grafia has a clear vision regarding what its IT environment has to supply to the business and what it should facilitate. The solution which we have devised and implemented gives Grafia outstanding performance, reliability and, above all, the flexibility the company needs for its business,” says Martin Ödman, Regional Manager at Proact.


How a Personal Cloud Might Streamline Our Personal Business

Jon Udell in a post today in Wired Cloudline uses a story of his son’s car accident and hospitalization, and the related auto and health insurance issues, to paint a hopeful picture of how a “Personal Cloud” might, sometime in the future, simplify and streamline the flow of documents and bills.

What’s interesting is that instead of the usual ranting about the inefficiencies of various health care providers (doctors, hospitals, rehab clinics) and insurance payers (auto and health, he acknowledges that only he can be the “router” of documents for this single event.

His business relationship with particular providers and payers, combined with the event (an accident and subsequent treatment) makes him the only party uniquely able to be the traffic cop for data flow.

One View of the customer is a laudable business mantra. But a customer often engages with many businesses in the context of what is, from the customer’s point of view, one business process. It’s a decentralized game with many players, and the only referee is the customer. Only we can create the One View that we need. Today we do it the hard way, using phone calls and faxes and piles of papers on our desks, and we do it poorly. I’m hoping our personal clouds will enable us to do it easily and well.

He’s right. There’s no magic way to take these burdens off our shoulders. But the right technology could make it lighter and more efficient.

Read his post.


Cloud Computing Application Market Driven by Small, Medium-sized Financial Institutions in China

With the continuous growth of China’s economy over the recent years, the small- and medium-sized financial institutions have also witnessed rapid development. According to statistics of China Banking Regulatory Commission, the urban commercial banks and rural financial institutions have outplayed the large state-owned commercial banks in terms of total assets growth rate in recent years. By the end of December 2011, the total assets of urban commercial banks registered a year-on-year growth rate of 26.6%, much higher than that of state-owned commercial banks, which was 16.8% year-on-year.

The rapid development of small and medium-sized financial institutions has boosted the development of IT application in the financial industry. As small and medium-sized financial institutions need to reduce investment costs and accelerate their own business development, building the public cloud will undoubtedly be the best choice, which will be a new type of data center outsourcing service. Various application platforms will provide all kinds of settlement services for small and medium-sized banks, saving them from building application systems on their own. In this case, the small and medium-sized financial enterprises no longer have to build data centers and they can throw all technical problems with software and hardware to the cloud computing service providers. Besides, the use-on-demand and pay-per-use delivery model can also significantly cut the construction and operation costs.

According to statistics of CCID Consulting, China’s financial application of cloud computing yielded a revenue of RMB 15.62 in 2011, up 48.2% year-on-year and accounting for 9.5% of overall cloud computing application market. The small and medium-sized financial institutions, contributing 20% of the revenue, are an important force in promoting the rapid development of cloud computing application in the financial industry. For instance, banks in villages and towns of Jiangsu, Henan and other provinces and cities have carried out informatization construction through managed cloud services. Thealliance of urban commercial banks of Shandong Province also actively deployed cloud service platforms for its 14 member banks, providing unified IT system and product development, data operation maintenance, gross settlement and business operation platform services.