All posts by Richard

Internet security, M&A Activity, Total Defense

Total Defense Acquires iSheriff

Image representing isheriff as depicted in Cru...

Total Defense, Inc., provider of solutions to combat the growing threat of cybercrime, today announced the company has acquired iSheriff. Together, the companies will offer “one of the most robust cloud security solutions on the market.”

“The days of employees safely accessing the internet from behind a corporate firewall are increasingly history for modern businesses. Today’s workforce is increasingly mobile, connecting through a broad array of devices and adopting cloud services at an accelerating pace. This reality requires a new approach to security,” said Paul Lipman, CEO at Total Defense. “A truly effective security solution requires a multi-layered approach. The cloud enables companies to very easily scale and deploy a powerful additional layer of security that is specifically tailored to today’s ‘de-perimeterized’ environments. As the security industry transitions, our acquisition of iSheriff puts us at the forefront of Internet security firms, by providing customers solid, best of breed, integrated security that’s managed through the cloud. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to truly make an impact and change the dynamic of the security market,” added Lipman.

Recently, Total Defense announced its first cloud product, Total Defense Cloud Security, an integrated cloud based SaaS (Security as a Service) solution for Web and email protection. The new offering provides a powerful and versatile Web and email security platform that protects users anytime and anywhere. This game changing solution provides a comprehensive additional layer of security that enhances the company’s existing endpoint solutions, giving Total Defense the advantage of a global cloud for real time malware protection across multiple platforms.

Oscar Marquez, CEO & Director of the Board of iSheriff, commented, “I have shared a vision for transforming the way businesses consume internet security with Paul Lipman for some time. Becoming part of Total Defense creates an ideal synergy. Total Defense’s large base of customers and extensive network of global partners will quickly accelerate the growth of our cloud offerings giving Total Defense a multi-tenant solution to provision and manage their customers, partners and OEM providers. This coupled with our global cloud infrastructure and cloud security expertise and Total Defense’s complete line of internet security solutions make a formidable company even stronger.”

For more information about Total Defense and its products, please visit: www.totaldefense.com.


Facebook, Frost & Sullivan, Research, Social, Twitter, Web Filtering, YouTube

How Web Content Filtering is Affected by Social Networking

Research and Markets has added Frost & Sullivan’s new report “Analysis of Global Web Content Filtering Market” to their offering. anylises

The prevention of malware exposure, content liabilities, and meeting government compliance has grown significantly in demand in the last three years. However, vendors are in a constant state of competition in which acquisitions, partnerships, volatile rebranding, consolidation, and aggressive pricing structures have created global strategic and tactical marketing. Cloud solutions have become a disruptive technology for on-premise appliances where cloud solutions are seen as a new way to reduce total cost of ownership (TCO) and capital expenditures (CAPEX). Mobile and remote devices are becoming a new paradigm for corporate environments with laptops, tablets, and smartphones as a major concern.

-Web 2.0 applications such as Facebook and Twitter, along with a growing establishment of new Web sites, opened new channels for malware distributors to perform malicious attacks.

-Organizations face the complexity of managing evolving malware, maintaining productivity, and meeting compliance.

-Number of malicious sites identified each day, percent of legitimate sites compromised by malware distributors.

-Employees have become a liability to an organization’s security; throughout 2011 major corporations experienced security breaches as a result of Web 2.0 Web site access.

-Access to inappropriate content such as pornography, violence, and racism can create litigations and lawsuits that could range in the millions of dollars.

-Loss of productivity remains a top concern with executives, where content management becomes highly complex and laborious.

-Social networking sites can cause productivity concerns because of cyber slacking activities.

-Large enterprises seek solutions offering simplified, single-console management features that can control a large number of devices and users.

-Web content filtering vendors must address requirements presented by legacy systems, different platforms, and a variety of information technology (IT) environments in enterprises.

-Additional features such as data loss prevention (DLP), antivirus, and network optimization tools are becoming increasingly integrated within secure Web gateway solutions.

-Cloud computing, or software-as-a-service (SaaS) Web content filtering solutions, provide SME’s with low total cost of ownership (TCO) and efficient offsite filtering abilities.

-Partnerships with major Web 2.0 sites and major acquisitions of smaller security vendors indicate a new trend in achieving market leadership and penetration.

-Frost & Sullivan believes convergence of Web content filtering with additional security solutions will become the new paradigm within the next five years.

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/2mgc9n/analysis_of_global


Global Secure Content, Information technology management, Research

Report on Global Secure Content and Threat Management Market Points to Growing Complexity of IT Infrastructure

Research and Markets has announced the addition of the “Global Secure Content and Threat Management Market 2011-2015″ report to their offering.

TechNavio’s analysts forecast the Global Secure Content and Threat Management market to grow at a CAGR of 8.6 percent over the period 2011-2015. One of the key factors contributing to this market growth is the rising number of compliance requirements. The Global Secure Content and Threat Management market has also been witnessing the increasing popularity of cloud-based security solutions. However, growing complexity of IT infrastructure could pose a challenge to the growth of this market.

TechNavio’s report, the Global Secure Content and Threat Management Market 2011-2015, has been prepared based on an in-depth analysis of the market with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the Americas, and the EMEA and APAC regions; it also covers the Global Secure Content and Threat Management market industry landscape and its growth prospects in the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.

According to the report, vendors in the Global Secure Content and Threat Management (SCTM) market are nowadays providing various deployment options such as software, hardware, software as a service (SaaS), and virtual appliances. However, with the increasing severity of security threats, vendors have started offering SaaS-based and virtualized appliance offerings to enable companies to dynamically identify and respond to threats. The advancement of technologies which has led to deployment options such as SaaS and virtualized appliance-based security solutions provides advantages such as low initial investment and maintenance costs. Therefore, SaaS and virtual solutions are driving market growth.

Further, the report also discusses that the growing complexity of IT infrastructure is becoming a key challenge for the vendors in this market.

 


Arrow ECS, Arrow Electronics, Cloud computing, EMEA, Information technology, IT Management

Arrow ECS EMEA Launches ArrowSphere Cloud Services Platform for IT Channel

Image representing Arrow Electronics as depict...

Arrow Enterprise Computing Solutions, a business segment of Arrow Electronics Inc., today unveiled ArrowSphere, a cloud services aggregation and brokerage platform for the European solution provider community, system integrators, independent software vendors and service providers.

Through ArrowSphere, Arrow ECS is adding new growth opportunities for enterprise and midmarket business solutions for the channel. ArrowSphere will enable the Arrow ECS European channel network to resell aggregated cloud services, such as infrastructure-, platform-, storage- and software-as-a-service solutions, from industry leaders around the world. ArrowSphere brings new dimensions to cloud delivery by facilitating access to more than 60 leading-edge cloud services, in addition to adding flexibility with white-label webstores; increasing simplicity by centralizing billing and provisioning; and improving reliability through trusted single-sign-on solutions.

“By offering turnkey webstores that address the needs of today’s and future businesses, we bridge the gap between cloud service provider innovation and solution provider market reach,” said Laurent Sadoun, president of the Europe, Middle East and Africa region for Arrow ECS. “This approach represents the much-needed catalyst that can drive significant cloud adoption through the channel over the next five years.”

ArrowSphere is available to the IT community in the United Kingdom (beginning July 11) and will be available in September in Denmark, France, Germany and Spain, with other countries to follow.

“Migrating legacy IT systems to the cloud, connecting cloud solutions to existing on-premise infrastructure and supporting these hybrid solutions are complex undertakings for small and midsize enterprises. Solution providers are the trusted advisors that routinely help businesses integrate IT services securely and efficiently,” said Sadoun. “Arrow ECS is proud to offer the IT community a unique opportunity to enter into the cloud. This strategy of investments toward added value and the channel will guide innovation forward for our partners as well as the entire IT industry.”

“The ArrowSphere platform allows us to address new markets and new business in a fast and simple way, and it therefore represents a massive revenue opportunity for us,” said Shamus Kelly, managing director of Portal, an ISV working with Arrow ECS in the U.K. “Being able to leverage a turnkey webstore with our own solutions and the services portfolio developed by Arrow ECS puts us in a solid position to embrace the cloud. Also, it gives us the flexibility to adapt to our customers’ needs.”

More information about the ArrowSphere marketplace for cloud services, including details about the portfolio, is available online at http://sphere.arrow.com.


Amazon, Amazon AWS, Amazon Web Service, Amazon.com, AWS, Data center, Emergency power system, Outage Alert

AWS Outage Postmortum: “the generators did not pick up the load”

Amazon has provided their take on how the big derecho storm that hit the Eastern US (and still leaves millions without power during a heat wave) brought down one of their data centers. Basically it was “hardware failure” — in this case a couple of emergency generators.

In the single datacenter that did not successfully transfer to the generator backup, all servers continued to operate normally on Uninterruptable Power Supply (“UPS”) power. As onsite personnel worked to stabilize the primary and backup power generators, the UPS systems were depleting and servers began losing power at 8:04pm PDT.

Read the AWS statement for more detail.


Data center, Equinix, Hosting, M&A Activity

Equinix Adds Networks with ancotel Acquisition

Image representing Equinix as depicted in Crun...

Equinix, Inc., a provider of global data center services, today announced it has completed its acquisition of ancotel GmbH, a  provider of carrier-neutral colocation and interconnection services in Europe.

The acquisition adds more than 400 network, cloud and content customers to Equinix. This includes 200 new networks and an additional 6,000 cross connects. In addition, Equinix adds one data center to its Frankfurt campus and now operates 21,000 square meters (223,000 square feet) of data center capacity across five data centers in the Frankfurt market. As part of the acquisition, Equinix also gains edge nodes in Hong Kong, London and Miami, providing additional points of presence in these markets. One of the world’s busiest data hubs, Equinix’s Frankfurt campus offers a broad mix of networks from Western and Eastern Europe, and significant growth opportunities for customers looking to expand their data center footprint globally.

“As a leading interconnection hub for networks throughout Europe, ancotel brings highly complementary capabilities to our European business that increases our network density in the region and offers a strong interconnection infrastructure that will provide our customers with a platform for growth in Europe and beyond,” said Eric Schwartz, president, Equinix EMEA.


Amazon AWS, Amazon Web Services, AWS, New York Times, Outage Alert

Eastern US Storms Also Disrupted the Technology Cloud

The New York Times has an interesting article on new concerns over Cloud Computing (that is to say, AWS) reliability in the wake of recent outages caused by the weather.

The interruption underlined how businesses and consumers are increasingly exposed to unforeseen risks and wrenching disruptions as they increasingly embrace life in the cloud. It was also a big blow to what is probably the fastest-growing part of the media business, start-ups on the social Web that attract millions of users seemingly overnight.

As someone who was involved during the pre-cloud era in private data centers and later colocation facilities for startups, small and medium-sized companies, I have a question:

Does anyone really think they can do any better on their own?

Read the article.


Gaikai, M&A Activity, PlayStation, SCE, Sony Computer Entertainment, Video game

Sony Computer Entertainment Acquiring Interactive Cloud Gaming Company

Image representing Gaikai as depicted in Crunc...

Sony Computer Entertainment today announced that it entered into an agreement to acquire Gaikai Inc.,  an interactive cloud-based gaming company, for approximately USD 380 million. Through the acquisition, SCE will establish a new cloud service, ensuring that it continues to provide users with truly innovative and immersive interactive entertainment experiences.

“By combining Gaikai’s resources including its technological strength and engineering talent with SCE’s extensive game platform knowledge and experience, SCE will provide users with unparalleled cloud entertainment experiences,” said Andrew House, President and Group CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. “SCE will deliver a world-class cloud-streaming service that allows users to instantly enjoy a broad array of content ranging from immersive core games with rich graphics to casual content anytime, anywhere on a variety of internet-connected devices.”

“SCE has built an incredible brand with PlayStation and has earned the respect of countless millions of gamers worldwide,” said David Perry, CEO of Gaikai Inc., “We’re honored to be able to help SCE rapidly harness the power of the interactive cloud and to continue to grow their ecosystem, to empower developers with new capabilities, to dramatically improve the reach of exciting content and to bring breathtaking new experiences to users worldwide.”

Established in 2008 and headquartered in Aliso Viejo, California, Gaikai has developed the highest quality, fastest interactive cloud-streaming platform in the world that enables the streaming of quality games to a wide variety of devices via the internet. With this acquisition, SCE will establish a cloud service and expand its network business by taking full advantage of Gaikai’s revolutionary technology and infrastructure including data centers servicing dozens of countries and key partners around the world.
The transaction is subject to certain regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.
SCE will continue to aggressively expand a new world of entertainment through the introduction of innovative technologies and the delivery of amazing experiences.


Avnet, Avnet Technology Solutions, EMEA, M&A Activity, Magirus, Middle East

Avnet Aquiring Magirus Group

Avnet, Inc. announced today that it has agreed to acquire the Magirus Group (Magirus), a leading pan-European distributor of data center solutions and services. Magirus is a leading value-add distributor of software, systems and related services encompassing virtualization, storage management, cloud computing, security, intelligent networks and information life-cycle management services. Through its professional services portfolio and knowledge of the IT sector, Magirus enables business partners to take new technologies to market in eleven markets throughout Europe and the Middle East. The transaction, which is subject to normal regulatory approvals, is expected to close in October 2012.

Phil Gallagher, president of Avnet Technology Solutions, Global, commented, “The acquisition of Magirus will significantly enhance our competitive position in Europe and the Middle East by expanding our suite of solutions in high-growth technologies. Magirus increased its revenue 20 percent in calendar 2011, delivering powerful, flexible and cost-effective data center solutions from a breadth of suppliers, including Cisco, VMware and EMC. We welcome the knowledge and expertise of their talented management team and staff, who will allow us to further enhance the value we provide to our customers and suppliers.”

Founded in 1981, Magirus has 400 business and technical professionals that help over 4,500 resellers, system integrators and IT service providers develop and deploy IT infrastructure solutions that bring together traditional server, storage and network operations so that constantly changing business requirements can be supported more efficiently. Its services span demand generation, pre-sales, consultancy, training, certification, implementation as well as support from its pan-European, multi-lingual support center. Magirus generated revenue of approximately US$530 million in the 2011 calendar year, and will be integrated into Avnet Technology Solutions’ EMEA business.

Graeme Watt, president, Avnet Technology Solutions EMEA added, “Magirus is a high quality focused business and represents an excellent expansion to our current operations as it adds complementary product lines across the region while meaningfully increasing our scale in important markets including Germany and France. Magirus’ position with market-leading suppliers in high growth technologies will bolster our solutions practices and create significant cross-selling opportunities in the combined customer base. Its business model is a strong fit with our strategy to provide more value-add services, and the combined expertise of both organizations will enable us to accelerate the success of our customers and suppliers.”


CollabRx, M&A Activity, Medical, Tegal

Tegal Corporation Acquiring CollabRx, Inc.

Tegal Corporation today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire CollabRx, Inc., a privately held technology company in the rapidly growing market of interpretive content and data analytics for genomics-based medicine.

CollabRx offers cloud-based expert systems that provide clinically relevant interpretive knowledge to institutions, physicians, researchers and patients for genomics-based medicine in cancer and other diseases to inform health care decision making. With access to approximately 50 clinical and scientific advisors at leading academic institutions and a suite of tools and processes that combine artificial intelligence-based analytics with proprietary interpretive content, the company is well positioned to participate in the $300 billion value-added “big data” opportunity in the US health care market (as reported by McKinsey Global Institute), over half of which specifically targets areas in cancer and cancer genomics.1

The Chief Executive Officers of the two constituent companies, Thomas Mika of Tegal and James Karis of CollabRx, plan to serve as co-CEOs of the combined, publicly traded company, with headquarters in San Francisco, CA. Tegal entered into an employment agreement with Mr. Karis that will become effective at the closing, and Mr. Karis will also be appointed to Tegal’s Board of Directors. Tegal will continue to operate under its current name and ticker symbol for the time being, but plans to seek stockholder approval at its upcoming annual meeting in September 2012 for an amendment to its Certificate of Incorporation, changing its corporate name to CollabRx, Inc.

Originally founded in 2008 by Silicon Valley Internet pioneer Jay (Marty) Tenenbaum, CollabRx has developed clinical advisory networks, expert systems, proprietary tools and processes, and a pipeline of commercial data products and applications (“apps”) for cancer. CollabRx Therapy Finders™, its first commercial product, provides sophisticated, credible, personalized, and actionable information to physicians and patients for rapidly determining which medical tests, therapies, and clinical trials may be considered in cancer treatment planning with a specific emphasis on the tumor genetic profile.

CollabRx Therapy Finders™ are web-based apps that serve as one type of user interface to access proprietary CollabRx content. CollabRx content is dynamically updated and organized in a knowledgebase that includes information on molecular diagnostics, medical tests, clinical trials, drugs, biologics and other information relevant for cancer treatment planning. Capturing how highly respected practicing physicians use this information in the clinical setting further refines the knowledgebase.

Upon the acquisition’s closing, Tegal will issue an aggregate of 236,433 shares of common stock, representing 14% of Tegal’s total shares outstanding prior to the closing, to former CollabRx stockholders in exchange for 100% of the capital stock of CollabRx, Inc. Tegal and certain former CollabRx stockholders will enter into a Stockholders Agreement providing for, among other things, registration rights, transfer restrictions and voting and standstill agreements. Tegal also will assume $500,000 of existing CollabRx indebtedness through the issuance of 5-year promissory notes in substitution for outstanding notes previously issued by CollabRx. In addition, Tegal will grant a total of 368,417 RSUs and options as “inducement grants” to newly hired management and employees, all subject to four-year vesting and other restrictions.

“Medicine is entering a new era of low cost genome sequencing and the proliferation of personalized treatments based on specific genetic mutations,” said James Karis, CEO of CollabRx. “With the technology platform and expert system leadership position that CollabRx has developed over the past few years, we believe that the new company is in a position to lead the market for accurate, credible and current genomic information in the cancer space. We are excited to be joining the Tegal management team in a well-resourced, publicly-traded entity.”

“This acquisition marks both the successful conclusion of a transition process and the beginning of a new chapter for Tegal Corporation,” said Thomas Mika, Tegal’s Chairman, President and CEO. “We are excited to help drive the rapid growth of this market while we meet a critical and consequential human need. This is a mission Tegal’s board has embraced wholeheartedly. I am very pleased to be working with James Karis as Co-CEO and fellow director, and look forward, along with the entire team at CollabRx and Tegal, to building a dynamic company in a new era of genomic medicine.”