All posts by Richard

Customer Relationship Management, Customer service, M&A Activity, Mobile, Technical support, Telecommunication, Xerox

Xerox Acquires UK-based WDS for Wireless Customer Experience Management

Xerox  has signed a definitive agreement to acquire WDS, a firm that provides technical support, knowledge management and related consulting to the world’s largest wireless telecommunication brands.

WDS uses a proprietary cloud-based platform called GlobalMineTM to capture, analyze and manage millions of technical support interactions across thousands of different mobile device types. WDS uses this data to help clients adjust, in real-time, any systemic issues and/or customer experience problems that their end-users may be experiencing with their devices or service.

Based in the United Kingdom, WDS has over 2,000 employees in the United States, United Kingdom, South Africa, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.

“WDS’s expertise in the telecommunications industry strengthens Xerox’s already broad portfolio of customer care solutions – differentiating us as a trusted partner for a rapidly evolving industry that requires reliable, accessible and scalable ways to support the complexity of their consumers’ needs,” said Chris Tranquill, president of the Xerox Telecommunications and Technology group.

Through its more than 48,000 call center employees who support clients in 150 locations, Xerox is a leading provider of customer care solutions, handling more than a million consumer interactions every day via the phone and Web.

Founded in 1995, WDS is led by CEO David Ffoulkes-Jones, who will continue with the company after the acquisition closes. “By focusing on the customer experience, wireless brands can drive greater loyalty and differentiation,” said Ffoulkes-Jones. “With Xerox, we now have the ability to accelerate our global expansion, add more value to our customers and deliver greater opportunities to our employees.”


Apache Hadoop, Big Data, Hadoop, HBase, HDFS, MapReduce, Medical, NextBio, Partnerships

NextBio, Intel Collaborate to Optimize Hadoop for Genomics Big Data

Image representing nextbio as depicted in Crun...

NextBio and Intel announced today a collaboration aimed at optimizing and stabilizing the Hadoop stack and advancing the use of Big Data technologies in genomics. As a part of this collaboration, the NextBio and Intel engineering teams will apply experience they have gained from NextBio’s use of Big Data technologies to the improvement of HDFS, Hadoop, and HBase. Any enhancements that NextBio engineers make to the Hadoop stack will be contributed to the open-source community. Intel will also showcase NextBio’s use of Big Data.

“NextBio is positioned at the intersection of Genomics and Big Data. Every day we deal with the three V’s (volume, variety, and velocity) associated with Big Data – We, our collaborators, and our users are adding large volumes of a variety of molecular data to NextBio at an increasing velocity,” said Dr. Satnam Alag, chief technology officer and vice president of engineering at NextBio. “Without the implementation of our algorithms in the MapReduce framework, operational expertise in HDFS, Hadoop, and HBase, and investments in building our secure cloud-based infrastructure, it would have been impossible for us to scale cost-effectively to handle this large-scale data.”

“Intel is firmly committed to the wide adoption and use of Big Data technologies such as HDFS, Hadoop, and HBase across all industries that need to analyze large amounts of data,” said Girish Juneja, CTO and General Manager, Big Data Software and Services, Intel. “Complex data requiring compute-intensive analysis needs not only Big Data open source, but a combination of hardware and software management optimizations to help deliver needed scale with a high return on investment. Intel is working closely with NextBio to deliver this showcase reference to the Big Data community and life science industry.”

“The use of Big Data technologies at NextBio enables researchers and clinicians to mine billions of data points in real-time to discover new biomarkers, clinically assess targets and drug profiles, optimally design clinical trials, and interpret patient molecular data,” Dr. Alag continued. “NextBio has invested significantly in the use of Big Data technologies to handle the tsunami of genomic data being generated and its expected exponential growth. As we further scale our infrastructure to handle this growing data resource, we are excited to work with Intel to make the Hadoop stack better and give back to the open-source community.”


Apache Hadoop, Big Data, Hadoop, HBase, MapReduce, Medical, NextBio, Partnerships

NextBio, Intel Collaborate to Optimize Hadoop for Genomics Big Data

Image representing nextbio as depicted in Crun...

NextBio and Intel announced today a collaboration aimed at optimizing and stabilizing the Hadoop stack and advancing the use of Big Data technologies in genomics. As a part of this collaboration, the NextBio and Intel engineering teams will apply experience they have gained from NextBio’s use of Big Data technologies to the improvement of HDFS, Hadoop, and HBase. Any enhancements that NextBio engineers make to the Hadoop stack will be contributed to the open-source community. Intel will also showcase NextBio’s use of Big Data.

“NextBio is positioned at the intersection of Genomics and Big Data. Every day we deal with the three V’s (volume, variety, and velocity) associated with Big Data – We, our collaborators, and our users are adding large volumes of a variety of molecular data to NextBio at an increasing velocity,” said Dr. Satnam Alag, chief technology officer and vice president of engineering at NextBio. “Without the implementation of our algorithms in the MapReduce framework, operational expertise in HDFS, Hadoop, and HBase, and investments in building our secure cloud-based infrastructure, it would have been impossible for us to scale cost-effectively to handle this large-scale data.”

“Intel is firmly committed to the wide adoption and use of Big Data technologies such as HDFS, Hadoop, and HBase across all industries that need to analyze large amounts of data,” said Girish Juneja, CTO and General Manager, Big Data Software and Services, Intel. “Complex data requiring compute-intensive analysis needs not only Big Data open source, but a combination of hardware and software management optimizations to help deliver needed scale with a high return on investment. Intel is working closely with NextBio to deliver this showcase reference to the Big Data community and life science industry.”

“The use of Big Data technologies at NextBio enables researchers and clinicians to mine billions of data points in real-time to discover new biomarkers, clinically assess targets and drug profiles, optimally design clinical trials, and interpret patient molecular data,” Dr. Alag continued. “NextBio has invested significantly in the use of Big Data technologies to handle the tsunami of genomic data being generated and its expected exponential growth. As we further scale our infrastructure to handle this growing data resource, we are excited to work with Intel to make the Hadoop stack better and give back to the open-source community.”


Apache Hadoop, Big Data, Hadoop, HDFS, MapReduce, Medical, NextBio, Partnerships

NextBio, Intel Collaborate to Optimize Hadoop for Genomics Big Data

Image representing nextbio as depicted in Crun...

NextBio and Intel announced today a collaboration aimed at optimizing and stabilizing the Hadoop stack and advancing the use of Big Data technologies in genomics. As a part of this collaboration, the NextBio and Intel engineering teams will apply experience they have gained from NextBio’s use of Big Data technologies to the improvement of HDFS, Hadoop, and HBase. Any enhancements that NextBio engineers make to the Hadoop stack will be contributed to the open-source community. Intel will also showcase NextBio’s use of Big Data.

“NextBio is positioned at the intersection of Genomics and Big Data. Every day we deal with the three V’s (volume, variety, and velocity) associated with Big Data – We, our collaborators, and our users are adding large volumes of a variety of molecular data to NextBio at an increasing velocity,” said Dr. Satnam Alag, chief technology officer and vice president of engineering at NextBio. “Without the implementation of our algorithms in the MapReduce framework, operational expertise in HDFS, Hadoop, and HBase, and investments in building our secure cloud-based infrastructure, it would have been impossible for us to scale cost-effectively to handle this large-scale data.”

“Intel is firmly committed to the wide adoption and use of Big Data technologies such as HDFS, Hadoop, and HBase across all industries that need to analyze large amounts of data,” said Girish Juneja, CTO and General Manager, Big Data Software and Services, Intel. “Complex data requiring compute-intensive analysis needs not only Big Data open source, but a combination of hardware and software management optimizations to help deliver needed scale with a high return on investment. Intel is working closely with NextBio to deliver this showcase reference to the Big Data community and life science industry.”

“The use of Big Data technologies at NextBio enables researchers and clinicians to mine billions of data points in real-time to discover new biomarkers, clinically assess targets and drug profiles, optimally design clinical trials, and interpret patient molecular data,” Dr. Alag continued. “NextBio has invested significantly in the use of Big Data technologies to handle the tsunami of genomic data being generated and its expected exponential growth. As we further scale our infrastructure to handle this growing data resource, we are excited to work with Intel to make the Hadoop stack better and give back to the open-source community.”


Collaboration, DropBox, Facebook, Google, Google Apps Marketplace, Social, Twitter

CaptureToCloud Launches Social Workspace Service for Professionals, SMBs

CaptureToCloud is announcing the launch of its new Social Workspace that, for the first time, allows users to capture any type of digital content to share or collaborate with anyone on any device in the cloud. CaptureToCloud was developed for professionals and SMB’s to deliver a unique Social Workspace and is tightly integrated with Google Apps. CaptureToCloud offers both a free and premium service and is available in the Google Apps Marketplace, Google Chrome Web Store, Google Play and at www.capturetocloud.com.

“Digital content is evolving rapidly, packing more information and coming in many different forms; yet the tools to capture, organize and share content have not progressed at the same pace,” said Ramon Nunez, CEO, CaptureToCloud. “Successful organizations and individuals rely on timely and relevant information and need a practical and efficient method to capture any digital content in their normal workflow, retain its original form and structure, and include it in private social conversations.”

CaptureToCloud changes how people work with content and moves beyond the traditional file-centric mentality. There is no longer a need to convert content from its original format into a file or to keep important but different types of content in different places. With the click of a button, users can capture Internet content or drag and drop items from Google Drive or files from Dropbox into their Social Workspace. Users can then organize content into topical or thematic collections and share them with anyone via email, Facebook, Twitter or CaptureToCloud while retaining control of their content. Users can engage others in private conversations that include people from inside and outside the firewall and integrate relevant content to work smarter and transform information sharing and decision-making.

“We deployed CaptureToCloud across our organization to make our team more productive,” said Oscar Garcia, CEO of the Mountain View Chamber of Commerce. “CaptureToCloud makes it easy to capture virtually any type of content in our normal workflow and work collaboratively with anyone in or outside our organization. The integration with Google Apps is a huge plus and being a cloud app makes it easy to install and manage.”

CaptureToCloud is also mobile and is the first app to capture mobile web pages. Mobile users not only have access to their content libraries, but can send, share and comment from their mobile devices while on the go.

“CaptureToCloud has fundamentally changed how our team works with digital content when collaborating with others,” said Jim Weldon, managing director of ePopDev. “Having all the relevant content for a project in one place and integrated with Google’s real-time document collaboration suite is genius.”

For more information visit www.capturetocloud.com.


Collaboration, DropBox, Facebook, Google, Google Apps Marketplace, Social, Twitter

CaptureToCloud Launches Social Workspace Service for Professionals, SMBs

CaptureToCloud is announcing the launch of its new Social Workspace that, for the first time, allows users to capture any type of digital content to share or collaborate with anyone on any device in the cloud. CaptureToCloud was developed for professionals and SMB’s to deliver a unique Social Workspace and is tightly integrated with Google Apps. CaptureToCloud offers both a free and premium service and is available in the Google Apps Marketplace, Google Chrome Web Store, Google Play and at www.capturetocloud.com.

“Digital content is evolving rapidly, packing more information and coming in many different forms; yet the tools to capture, organize and share content have not progressed at the same pace,” said Ramon Nunez, CEO, CaptureToCloud. “Successful organizations and individuals rely on timely and relevant information and need a practical and efficient method to capture any digital content in their normal workflow, retain its original form and structure, and include it in private social conversations.”

CaptureToCloud changes how people work with content and moves beyond the traditional file-centric mentality. There is no longer a need to convert content from its original format into a file or to keep important but different types of content in different places. With the click of a button, users can capture Internet content or drag and drop items from Google Drive or files from Dropbox into their Social Workspace. Users can then organize content into topical or thematic collections and share them with anyone via email, Facebook, Twitter or CaptureToCloud while retaining control of their content. Users can engage others in private conversations that include people from inside and outside the firewall and integrate relevant content to work smarter and transform information sharing and decision-making.

“We deployed CaptureToCloud across our organization to make our team more productive,” said Oscar Garcia, CEO of the Mountain View Chamber of Commerce. “CaptureToCloud makes it easy to capture virtually any type of content in our normal workflow and work collaboratively with anyone in or outside our organization. The integration with Google Apps is a huge plus and being a cloud app makes it easy to install and manage.”

CaptureToCloud is also mobile and is the first app to capture mobile web pages. Mobile users not only have access to their content libraries, but can send, share and comment from their mobile devices while on the go.

“CaptureToCloud has fundamentally changed how our team works with digital content when collaborating with others,” said Jim Weldon, managing director of ePopDev. “Having all the relevant content for a project in one place and integrated with Google’s real-time document collaboration suite is genius.”

For more information visit www.capturetocloud.com.


InfiniBand, Mellanox, Mellanox Technologies, Partnerships, Quanta Computer, Quanta QCT

Mellanox Partners with Quanta QCT

Image representing Mellanox Technologies as de...

Mellanox® Technologies, Ltd. (NASDAQ:MLNX) (TASE:MLNX), a leading supplier of high-performance, end-to-end interconnect solutions for data center servers and storage systems, today announced a partnership with Quanta QCT, a leading provider of server, storage and network equipment to data center customers in the United States.

This partnership was developed as part of Quanta QCT’s increased focus on cloud technology-based solutions. The companies are partnering on solutions based on servers and storage from Quanta QCT and interconnect technology from Mellanox to deliver unprecedented price performance on cloud computing for enterprise and service provider data centers.

“Many of our customers are asking for interconnect solutions that support applications demanding high-bandwidth and low-latency,” said Mike Yang, vice president and general manager of Quanta QCT. “Mellanox delivers a high-performance solution for these applications, and we’re proud to offer it to our customers requiring higher levels of interconnect performance.”

Mellanox products – including the ConnectX-3 suite of products that accelerate application performance by increasing available bandwidth and decreasing the associated transport load on the CPU – are immediately available through Quanta QCT.

“Quanta QCT has recognized Mellanox as a leading vendor for Ethernet and InfiniBand interconnect solutions,” said Marc Sultzbaugh, vice president of worldwide sales at Mellanox Technologies. “Mellanox and Quanta QCT are partnering to offer some of the highest-performing cloud solutions currently available.”

Quanta QCT targets midsize and large enterprises, governments and service providers who want the engineering excellence of a global manufacturer of integrated datacenter solutions, but do not require the scale and resources of a full-service ODM. Quanta QCT is headquartered in Fremont, Calif., and its parent company is Quanta Computer, Inc., a $37 billion original design manufacturer. More information is available at http://www.QuantaQCT.com.


Azima, Azima DLI, Computer Electronics, Computer Hardware, IT Management, Predictive maintenance

Buzzword Alert: Reliability as a Service (RaaS) from Azima DLI

 

Image representing Azima DLI as depicted in Cr...

Azima DLI, the leader and premier provider of Predictive Maintenance (PdM) analytical services and products, today announced the new industry standard for delivery of highly-efficient, cost-effective machine condition monitoring programs: Reliability as a Service™ (RaaS). RaaS™ is delivered through a combination of Azima DLI’s TRIO family of data collectors and cloud-based access to its ExpertALERT™ vibration analysis software. Launched today, the TRIO™ CA6 with RaaS is the industry’s first cloud-based data collector and machine condition analyzer.

The second of a new generation of vibration data collectors and machine condition analyzers from Azima DLI, the CA6 with RaaS provides a complete, fully managed software and service solution. The CA6 is the first to market with a cloud computing solution providing access to the latest PdM analysis technologies and collaboration tools, while assuring lower total cost of ownership. Its durable design, unmatched software and wireless capabilities provide greater efficiency of collection and safety.

The TRIO line is a powerful computerized system in a mobile industrial package that sets aside the traditional data collection model to focus on productivity and elevating the overall success of PdM programs. Designed and engineered specifically for a new generation of data collection, the CA6 with RaaS features:

  • Reliability as a Service (RaaS): Includes locally installed
    ExpertALERT analysis software, cloud-based ExpertALERT analysis
    software web application, and cloud-provided WATCHMAN Reliability
    Portal™, hosted data storage and replication services, mentored PdM
    training and available professional analytical expertise. Azima DLI
    reduces the need for IT support, database management and capital costs
    associated with dedicated servers and static software fees. RaaS
    provides broad access to collaborate on critical assets across the
    enterprise or from Azima DLI’s certified analytical experts.
  • Advanced Computing Power: The embedded, Azima DLI ALERT™
    analysis software and Windows® 7 Ultimate operating system combine to
    provide the most capable data collector in its class. With its modular
    design allowing ease of replacing the industrial tablet PC user
    interface, downloadable software upgrades, and little-to-no need for
    new data acquisition hardware investments, TRIO offers the lowest
    total cost of ownership of any industrial vibration data collector /
    field analyzer.
  • Bluetooth Enabled: For improved safety and maneuverability, the
    CA6 supports hands-free, Bluetooth®-enabled, wireless data acquisition
    control up to 30 feet away from the sensor.
  • Greater Portability and Ease of Use: A lightweight, ergonomic,
    modular design enables greater portability and decreases the physical
    demands of data collection, thanks to the various body-worn and
    carrying options offered by Azima DLI.

“RaaS from Azima DLI is a PdM game changer as it provides a complete software as a service solution unmatched by any other provider,” said Randy Johnson, vice president of sales and marketing, Azima DLI. “This integrated solution incorporates the latest collection hardware with Azima DLI’s leading ExpertALERT software and WATCHMAN Reliability Portal, making enterprise-wide PdM collaboration possible for customers that want to manage their own maintenance programs.”

With a solid-state hard drive, bright sunlight-readable touch screen and Wi-Fi access, the CA6 can automatically connect with desktop or networked PCs and servers. The TRIO family of data collectors is the only one to include a digital camera, allowing the operator to take a video or still photos during routine machine inspections and either include them within the diagnostics report or send to remote analysts.

Pricing and Availability

The entire TRIO CA6 with RaaS solution is priced with an entry point of under $15,000 with hardware, software and IT infrastructure costs all provided by Azima DLI. Ongoing costs are as much as 60 percent less than non cloud-based models and are subscription based.

For more information, visit www.AzimaDLI.com/TRIO to view product videos, download the brochure and learn additional details about getting started with modernizing your current PdM program today..


Firewalls, Hosting, Virtual firewall, Virtual machine, Virtual security appliance

Hosting.com Extends Security Offerings with Cloud Firewall Solution

Hosting.com, a leading provider of enterprise-class, cloud-based application availability and recovery solutions, today extended the security options for cloud customers with the announcement of their Cloud Firewall service. Leveraging Juniper Networks vGW Series Virtual Gateway, a comprehensive virtualization security platform, Cloud Firewall is a hypervisor-based, VMsafe-certified stateful virtual firewall with more than ten times the throughput of firewalls typically deployed in cloud environments. Cloud Firewall meets the needs of cloud customers looking for an easy, affordable way to comply with major regulatory and industry security standards and to lock down their virtual environments.

“Cloud Firewall expands protection for cloud customers who want higher levels of security and VM workload access control. We already provide the highest level of physical firewall protection and now, another option is available at a granular, VM level. This furthers our commitment to enterprise-class, Always Secure cloud solutions,” said Jim Potter, Vice President of Products at Hosting.com.

Cloud Firewall satisfies the dynamic security and compliance needs of IT managers by offering a self-managed firewall that can be deployed in minutes. Managed through rich instrumentation in the Hosting.com Customer Portal, customers view and administer their complete VM and VM group inventory, including virtual network settings, and intra/inter-network traffic monitoring and access controls. Modifications to security rules can be made quickly and enforced nearly instantaneously through the Portal.

Companies with strict compliance mandates get granular control of VM traffic, without impacting the throughput of high-performance applications. Enterprise businesses with hybrid data solutions – those running on dedicated hardware servers in conjunction with workloads on cloud-based VMs – can add granular control and scalability to their virtual environment with Cloud Firewall, extending traditional perimeter-based security to the virtualized realm.

“The vGW platform that powers Cloud Firewall delivers layers of protection without the performance tradeoffs that users typically experience when implementing sophisticated security,” said Johnnie Konstantas, director of product marketing at Juniper Networks. “The innovations inherent in the hypervisor-based Cloud Firewall offer very compelling value to cloud service providers because they are able to maximize security and cloud VM capacity.”


BlueLock, Business Processes, Enterprise software, IT Management, Project management, Tools, VCloud, VMware, VMware vSphere

SpringBoard V5.5 Makes the Cloud More Efficient for Project Managers

LoadSpring Solutions, a provider of Project Management (PM) hosting and software, is introducing a new version of their SpringBoard cloud portal.

SpringBoard is a user-friendly control console that enables easy access to PM software and information that is hosted within LoadSpring’s cloud infrastructure. It connects project teams through any computer or mobile device worldwide.

The new SpringBoard 5.5 retains the same familiar look and feel as previous versions, but with improved tools and features that afford more functionality, speed and efficiency.

Launched on July 9th, these improvements will deliver broader enterprise access and greater data control, while helping users get more done in less time and with less effort.

According to Eric Leighton, LoadSpring’s founder and CEO, “Our enhanced control console will serve as a gateway to software resources and core LoadSpring services,” adding that, “The new features will further allow our enterprise-level customers to be more productive and efficient. SpringBoard 5.5 will even link users to our new LoadSpring Academy, transforming the way people are trained to maximize their use of new software.”

The upgraded portal is part of LoadSpring’s continuing pursuit of refinements that improve the customer experience and help them realize a quicker return on investment faster.

SpringBoard 5.5 is based on strengths that users value most in previous versions, such as:

  • Easy application and data access, anywhere, on any device
  • Software deployment in days, not weeks or months
  • Simple user scaling, both up and down
  • Fast global application upgrades and version changes
  • Safe, effortless migration of large amounts of data
  • Trouble-free, corporate-wide ID management
  • Disaster recovery with more Data Rescue options than ever
  • Enterprise-level security, support and service