All posts by Richard

Dell, Legacy system, M&A Activity, Make Technologies, Tools

Dell Acquires Make Technologies for Cloud Transition Tech

English: logo.

Dell announced today it has finalized the acquisition of Make Technologies, a leading application modernization software and services company. This acquisition, combined with the recent acquisition of Clerity Solutions, enables Dell to empower customers to reduce the cost, risk and time required to transition business-critical applications from legacy systems to cloud infrastructure and open, standards-based platforms. Through this technology, Dell is positioned to help organizations leverage more flexible platforms, allowing them to better leverage social and mobile technologies, enhancing workforce productivity and helping to deliver better business results.

The acquisition significantly augments the applications expertise Dell offers to customers with the following services enabled by the Make Technologies Transformational Legacy Modernization (TLM) suite:

  • Detailed application portfolio assessments to help customers define a
    modernization roadmap
  • Faster, lower risk, and cost-effective approach to application and
    data re-engineering

With this acquisition, Dell is better able to provide customers IT modernization solutions to reduce operational costs, migrate to an easier-to-maintain, standards-based architecture, and move to an application and data architecture that more effectively aligns with their business strategy. With a comprehensive mix of software and services dedicated to application modernization, Dell is well positioned to help scale Make’s offering and adds another tool in its suite of solutions that can help relieve customers from the inefficiencies of legacy applications and legacy infrastructure.

By better aligning their environments with current and future business processes, Make can empower customers’ modernization efforts by providing fully re-architected applications that provide a foundation for growth. The company differentiates itself in several ways:

  • Provides customers with end-to-end application portfolio
    transformation solutions that modernize entire portfolios of legacy
    applications in less time and with higher precision
  • Provides code and data migration tools to re-architect legacy
    application software to a more modern architecture
  • Reduces cost of maintaining and managing legacy applications
  • Drastically reduces the amount of custom code in legacy portfolios,
    while protecting the legacy information and business processes of the
    business functions it supports
  • Increases business agility through a re-engineered application that
    better aligns with our customers’ current and future business processes

“The addition of Make Technologies to our Dell Services portfolio allows us to offer customers a complete suite of application modernization services to help them move their legacy IT environments to more modern architectures,” said Steve Schuckenbrock, president, Dell Services. “At Dell, we are focused on solving some of our customers’ most complex problems with powerful IT solutions. With Make and Clerity we believe we have the industry’s most robust offering to help customers meet their modernization goals in an efficient, reliable and cost-effective way.”

“If Dell embraces the MAKE process as well as the tooling, it will gain a formidable weapon for its services arm. The sky truly is the limit for Dell – if it plays its cards right¹,” wrote Forrester Research, Inc. principal analyst, Phil Murphy.

“The combination of Make Technologies and Dell provides the market with a single vendor solution for any modernization activity and is an exciting step in expanding growth opportunities for our core application modernization software and services,” said Bill Bergen, president and CEO of Make Technologies, Inc. “Together, with Dell’s global reach, scale and reputation for customer support, Make’s methodology and tools will become even more accessible to more customers struggling with the dilemma that surrounds legacy environments.”


Green, GreenQloud, Hosting, Iceland, NordicPhotos, Reykjavík

PixPuffin Photo Management System for SMBs Runs Carbon-free on Iceland’s GreenCloud

NordicPhotos image agency has released PixPuffin, a cloud-based photo management system for medium sized and small businesses.  Web-based, without any need for additional software or servers, it is the first of its kind and specially designed to administer  the image library of today’s companies and organizations. The system has been in constant development for over 11 years as the core system overseeing NordicPhotos’ own image library. Based in Iceland, the system is cloud hosted on greenqloud’s 100% renewable energy servers, making PixPuffin the first completely eco-friendly image management solution available.

Between single user solutions and large, very expensive server based media management solutions, the creators of PixPuffin felt that user friendly and affordable image management solutions were somewhat lacking from the market.  Businesses and organizations can save a great amount of money every year by using a solution like PixPuffin, they can save time and prevent damages such as lost images and expensive copyright mistakes. Furthermore, they can improve or extend the use of their images, save on image purchase and make their marketing and PR presence better than ever.
For more information www.pixpuffin.com and www.greenqloud.com

“We have talked to almost 200 companies during the past few weeks and it surprised us how much of a problem image management is becoming within companies of all kinds,” said Arnaldur Gauti Johnson, Managing Director.  “They are using more images than ever, but lacking systems to manage the images and the copyrights attached. Access to the images is also becoming increasingly important as many administrators in the company need to grant access to the media and clients as well as the employees and they must be able to control this access.”


Business process, Business Processes, DocuSign, Electronic Signature, Microsoft SharePoint, Partnerships

DocuSign, bluLink Solutions Enhance Enterprise Workflow with DocuSign for Microsoft SharePoint

Image representing DocuSign as depicted in Cru...

DocuSign today announced its collaboration with bluLink Solutions, a  provider of custom enterprise solutions with Microsoft SharePoint. bluLink will use the DocuSign eSignature Transaction Management Platform to fully automate signature processes for its SharePoint clients.

“By integrating with DocuSign, we will enable our SharePoint clients to keep their document processes including approvals requiring signatures entirely electronic,” said John Bech, vice president of sales at bluLink Solutions. “Our joint solutions will deliver tremendous value to our clients by reducing transaction times from days to minutes.”

“bluLink’s deep expertise with business processes, SharePoint, and DocuSign allow it to deliver significant value to its clients extremely quickly,” said Dustin Grosse, chief marketing officer at DocuSign. “With DocuSign, bluLink can dramatically shorten signature cycle times, eliminate the need for paper and eradicate data rekeying errors. Together we make it much easier for employees to do their jobs by delivering substantial, nearly immediate ROI that also improves employee satisfaction.”

Companies interested in integrating DocuSign’s electronic signature solution with Microsoft SharePoint may visit www.docusign.com or www.blulinksolutions.com for more information.


Enterprise software, Mendix, Mobile, Mobile application development, Mobile Enterprise

New Release of Mendix App Platform Brings Mobile to the Enterprise

Mendix, the app platform company for the enterprise, announced today the availability of the Spring 2012 release of its App Platform, further extending its capabilities, and advancing the way companies build, integrate and deploy web and mobile enterprise apps.

“Our goal with this release was to further advance the state of the market with the most socially collaborative and productive app platform that truly empowers the mobile enterprise user,” said Derek Roos, CEO of Mendix. “We wanted to enable companies to build, integrate and deploy enterprise scale apps faster and easier than ever, regardless of device.”

With this new release companies are able to more quickly and efficiently launch mobile enterprise apps and take advantage of the newly updated app platform that now combines visual business modeling, social productivity, enterprise integration, an app store, and secure cloud deployment. This helps organizations build apps with less effort, automate inefficient processes, and extend existing systems with new apps, while accelerating time-to-market and reducing traditional IT costs.

Rob Boomsma, Division Manager at Capgemini, participated in the beta program of this release and noted: “Mendix set the bar higher yet again with this release and has delivered highly productive social collaboration, mobile and enterprise integration features. I couldn’t believe how easy it now is with the Mendix App Platform to extend an existing system with a mobile app. This is IT and business innovation at its best, providing immediate value to any company.”

The Spring 2012 Release Highlights:

  • Enterprise Mobile – Companies are now
    able to quickly and efficiently launch mobile enterprise apps
    providing the best experience for their users while ensuring the
    necessary back-end system and process integration.
  • One Complete App Platform for the Enterprise
    – This release brings together all app platform components under one
    roof and user interface. As a result, companies are able to seamlessly
    plan projects, design and build apps, collaborate, integrate with
    existing systems and instantly deploy them in the cloud.
  • Enterprise Integration and App Mash-Up –
    Companies now have additional integration options and can quickly
    incorporate other enterprise applications via Enterprise Mash-Ups.
    This results in improved performance and simplifies integration with
    external systems.
  • Social Productivity – The Mendix App
    Platform now includes built-in social collaboration features such as
    activity streams, online chat, groups, and project planning that make
    it easier to fully engage all stakeholders throughout an app
    development project. This produces better results and happier users as
    it includes stakeholders from the IT and business side but also
    captures feedback from end users. Users are now more than consumers of
    an application, they are part of the project team and an integral part
    of a successful project.


Citrix Receiver, Citrix Systems, Citrix VDI, IT Management, Thin client

Stratodesk Unveils New Version of NoTouch Desktop

Stratodesk today announced the latest version of NoTouch Desktop, offering customers and resellers a versatile and easy to use endpoint VDI and cloud OS and client management solutions.

Stratodesk’s NoTouch Desktop allows businesses to simplify and unify their desktops. The PC and thin-client re-purposing and management solution consists of two-parts: the NoTouch Receiver OS, a thin OS that runs on PCs or Thin Clients and provides instant connectivity to all popular server-side technology and connection brokers, and the NoTouch Center, an innovative, browser-based client-management tool that gives system administrators the ability to manage and secure any and all PCs and OEM thin clients from one virtual management console. NoTouch Desktop is completely hardware, vendor and platform agnostic and has minimal hardware requirements.

The latest version of NoTouch Desktop inter alia includes:

  • Integration with the native Citrix VDI-in-a-Box Client to connect to a
    Citrix VDI-in-a-Box Server in three different ways (Citrix Receiver,
    Java Client, Web browser). NoTouch Desktop now enables users to
    repurpose existing endpoints and to establish a connection to a
    VDI-in-a-Box infrastructure in under five minutes.
  • Citrix Receiver 12.1 with flash redirection and USB support
  • Firefox 12 with Flash Plug-in 11.2
  • The remote tool Team Viewer to give fast and hassle free support

“Stratodesk’s latest version of NoTouch Desktop provides businesses with a best-of-breed endpoint OS and management solution that is even more versatile, easy to connect and cost effective,” explains Emanuel Pirker, Founder and CEO of Stratodesk. “We’re excited to provide a smart and effective, hassle-free, hardware independent solution for businesses moving to VDI. We are also very proud to present a rapid way for VDI-in-a-Box users to repurpose all their endpoints and connect to VDI-in-a-Box environment. “

Pricing for NoTouch Desktop begins at $31.49 for 1-10 clients, $29.92 for 11-100 clients, $28.34 for 101-500 clients and $27.00 for 501-1000 clients. For more information, please visit www.stratodesk.com or call (415) 946-4029. To evaluate NoTouch Desktop for free please register at: http://www.stratodesk.com/download.

Stratodesk will host a free webinar on how to repurpose and manage your existing hardware with NoTouch Desktop on Wednesday, May 30 at 09:30 a.m. PST. For registration please click here: http://www.stratodesk.com/calendarevents/20/webinar-30-may-2012


Total Defense

Total Defense Addresses Rampant Cybercrime by Launching Cloud Security Protection for Businesses

Total Defense, Inc. today announced the launch of Total Defense Cloud Security, an integrated cloud-based SaaS (Security as a Service) solution for Web and email protection. This new offering provides organizations with a powerful and versatile Web and email security platform that protects users anytime and anywhere.

The widespread use of the Web as a business tool, coupled with an increasingly mobile workforce, has enhanced corporate productivity, but it has also created new security challenges for companies that must balance providing access with protecting critical corporate assets and data. “The days of the typical business user accessing the Internet solely from the safety of a protected corporate network are over. Today’s workers are connecting from an array of different devices through a multitude of private and public networks, Wi-Fi hotspots, home networks and the like. Traditional appliance-based Web and Email security solutions are unable to address the evolving security needs of modern businesses,” said Paul Lipman, CEO of Total Defense.

“As social media becomes more prevalent, attack vectors are multiplying, forcing IT administrators to require a multi-layered security approach. Our new Cloud Security service complements our existing endpoint products by securing Web and email traffic, while protecting users and data, even when endpoints are outside of the corporate network. Total Defense Cloud Security delivers a comprehensive extra layer of protection for in-house, remote and mobile workers, while improving workplace productivity and reducing cost. Companies can now rest assured that their most valuable assets are safeguarded with multiple layers of protection,” added Lipman.

Total Defense Cloud Security provides users with a secure Internet connection, safe from threats and malware, while ensuring that Web browsing is appropriate and complies with acceptable use policies. Unlike competitors’ security SaaS offerings, the Total Defense service provides a fully unified solution for Web and email protection within a single management and reporting interface, delivering easy and flexible security for all of an organization’s users– wherever they are and on any device. No software installation or administration is required and there are no upfront implementation costs.

“Total Defense Cloud Security is an intuitive, integrated web & e-mail security product that is exceptionally easy to manage. It is extremely simple to provision and customers can be up and running in just a few minutes without ever worrying about server hardware and maintenance,” said Maurice Thompson, Network Administrator for RTL Networks.

Total Defense Cloud Security benefits include:

  • Security for Mobile and Remote Users – protection and policies
    that can be applied to users anywhere whether in the corporate
    environment, on the road or at home
  • Anti-Virus & Blended threat protection – detects and blocks
    virus attachments and malware including malicious URL links to ensure
    protection against the full range of threats that infect corporate
    networks via email
  • Anti-spam & phishing protection – employs latest range of
    anti-spam technologies including IP reputation and real-time content
    analysis to detect and block spam in the cloud before the email
    gateway even receives it
  • Application Control – enables control over social media,
    streaming media and Web-based messaging (E.g. Facebook, Skype, Google
    Talk, YouTube etc.)
  • Bandwidth Control – enables management of Internet bandwidth
    consumption and control over unnecessary, non-business use through
    flexible, policy-based controls
  • URL Filtering – utilizes latest range of Web filtering
    technologies including real-time content analysis and behavioral
    modeling in conjunction with more than 50 continuously updated
    categories of millions of websites
  • Highly redundant Global network – 27 geographic data center
    locations ensures global coverage and near zero latency
  • Comprehensive and Multi-layered Security – Cloud Security
    bundled with Total Defense r12 endpoint suite offers robust tools for
    businesses to secure their assets and data

Total Defense provides a free 15-day trial of Total Defense Cloud Web and Email Security that includes full reporting services to help businesses understand all of the service’s capabilities. To learn more, please visit: www.totaldefense.com/business


Private placement, Speech Technology, Venture Funding, Voice

Voice Assist Closes $800,000 Strategic Private Placement

Voice Assist, Inc. (speech enabled handsfree safe driving solutions) today announced that it has closed a private placement yielding gross proceeds of $800,000. The terms include the sale of 5,333,333 shares of restricted common stock priced at $0.15 per share. In addition, the company has issued five year callable warrants to purchase up to an additional 5,333,333 shares of common stock at $0.50 per share, which would provide the company with up to $2.6 million of additional working capital if exercised.

“We are excited to participate as a significant strategic shareholder in Voice Assist,” said Paul Arena, Chief Executive Officer of Augme Technologies, Inc.. “This funding should allow Voice Assist the growth capital to accelerate its market penetration and sales cycle and to continue to innovate its speech platform into the smartphone, automotive and other mobile device industries. We are also impressed with Voice Assist’s intellectual property covering speech-driven browsing of cloud-based address books, music libraries and speech-driven updates to social networks including Facebook, Twitter and leading CRM platforms including Salesforce.com. We see a tremendous growth opportunity in these sectors and feel that Voice Assist is well positioned to become a market leader.”

“We believe the growth capital and relationship opportunities provided by strategic investors such as Augme Technologies can support the integration of speech control functionality into mobile marketing,” said Michael Metcalf, Chief Executive Officer of Voice Assist, Inc. “We also appreciate the participation in this private placement by a group of seasoned telecom and digital media executives who understand how our technology can be applied not only to mobile devices but also to landlines, VoIP lines and in other modes of communication.”

The funding package was managed by Source Capital Group, Inc., a boutique investment bank focused on emerging growth companies involved in the Communications, Internet, Digital Media, Energy, and Clean Tech industries. “We’re excited about Voice Assist because its technology can be used on any phone, which opens up a massive market opportunity unlike other solutions, which only run on the data channel of a smartphone,” said Vik Grover, CFA, Senior Managing Director.


Hosting, Interxion, London, M&A Activity, Six Degrees Group

Six Degrees Group Acquires Datahop

Six Degrees Group has expanded its UK network capabilities with the acquisition of Datahop, an international datacentre interconnection business with 200 customers. Datahop’s network consists of a resilient, high-speed fibre ring that connects 21 points of presence (PoPs) in London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Paris.

Six Degrees Group’s expanded network will bring most of London’s datacentres on-net, including Telecity, Telehouse, Interxion, Level 3 and Iomart facilities. Datahop’s network brings 16 new PoPs onto the Six Degrees core network as well as extending the Group’s footprint into four Western European countries. Six Degrees Group run-rate revenues are now approximately £44m with EBITDA of over £11m.

Following the acquisition, Six Degrees Group will be investing in its network by undertaking a multi-million pound upgrade before launching a next generation VPLS-enabled datacentre interconnect fabric that will enable multi-gigabit port capability for distribution of its converged voice, data and hosting portfolio. The Group’s network now connects European and American financial centres with an unrivalled footprint in London carrier-neutral datacentres, and uniquely positions it with the ability to deliver high-speed network interconnects in London.

Daniel Lowe, managing director of Six Degrees Group’s managed data division, commented: “This announcement marks a significant step-change in the scale, reach and capability of the Six Degrees Group network. Datahop’s technologies will allow us to deliver higher bandwidth, and a broader range of services to our customers. Our ability to link people, places and clouds has been boosted significantly with the flexible service creation capability we now offer to the market.”

To find out more please visit: www.6dg.co.uk


Government, Health care reform, Health Insurance Exchange, HIX, Insurance, Medical, Partnerships, Xerox

Xerox, CHOICE Administrators Team to Deliver Health Insurance Exchanges for States

Xerox

Xerox has formed an alliance with CHOICE Administrators Exchange Solutions in all 50 states to offer a comprehensive, secure, cloud-based Health Insurance Exchange (HIX) solution. States can begin implementing and customizing the solution today with confidence that the HIX will be fully operational for October 2013 enrollments and for January 2014 coverage effective dates, the deadlines set by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

“Our discussions with states show that the majority want to make health reform as state-specific as possible and to maintain control over their HIX rather than defaulting to the federal solution,” said Kevin Counihan, president, CHOICE Administrators Exchange Solutions. “As the certification deadline gets closer, it’s increasingly important for states to consider a comprehensive solution that doesn’t require building a product and allows time for customization. States can tailor their HIX solution developed by Xerox and CHOICE to meet the needs of their residents and small businesses and be sure their HIX is ready on time.”

CHOICE Administrators Exchange Solutions delivers the framework of the HIX Solution Suite, a software-as-a-service cloud-based platform, which allows participants to make informed enrollment decisions while providing their sponsoring employers the infrastructure to maintain affordable budgets. Xerox provides the business process and technology solutions to help states operating a HIX handle massive amounts of information quickly, efficiently and securely on behalf of millions of people.

“Xerox has more than 40 years of experience working with state governments,” said Kevin Walsh, vice president, Healthcare Eligibility and Insurance Exchange Services, Xerox. “Our expertise, knowledge of the marketplace and partnership with CHOICE positions us well to support the HIX design to increase access to health coverage for consumers.”


Business Intelligence, Data as a service, Data management, Data quality, Informatica, Master data management, Partnerships

D & B and GlobalSoft Partner with Informatica to Power-Charge Customer Master Data

Image representing Informatica as depicted in ...

D&B announced that GlobalSoft, a global software consultancy, and D&B have partnered to launch D&B360 for Informatica MDM. This marks the first time that D&B has used its Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) solution to integrate its unequaled database with an MDMsolution, enabling companies to automatically update and streamline their data across the enterprise to increase productivity, reduce costs and maximize ROI.

“With the increasing volume, complexity and volatility of data, it has become a struggle for companies to not only effectively manage their data, but to gain the insight necessary to act upon that data to drive real business change,” said Mike Sabin, senior vice president of Sales and Marketing Solutions at D&B. “D&B360 for Informatica MDM helps companies get ahead by delivering timely business data with actionable perspective to provide a competitive advantage.”

D&B360 for Informatica MDM provides true data stewardship and entry-point integration, making it easier to address data consistency and quality issues. In addition, D&B360 for Informatica MDM automatically embeds the industry-standard D&B DUNS® Number and all related business data via the cloud, ensuring users have timely access to a current and complete source of data, enabling them to quickly synchronize information across other business systems.

“At the recent Gartner MDM Summit, a common theme on the minds of attendees was the need to evolve current MDM tools to support the ‘day in the life of the data steward’,” said Andrew White, research vice president and agenda manager for MDM and Analytics, Gartner. “An MDM solution that couples business information like credit rankings and revenue performance can help IT leaders deliver a compelling business case for the value a holistic data view offers to company executives.”

Specific customer benefits include:

  • Faster and easier data management: D&B360 for Informatica MDM
    can be used to match, group and master records more quickly.
  • Improved data stewardship: Timely matching service can
    automatically route records that meet specified criteria for more
    effective and efficient distribution of information.
  • Entry Point Integration: D&B360 for Informatica MDM Adapter
    eliminates data quality issues and duplicate challenges at the entry
    point, to dramatically enhance data quality, decrease MDM processing
    time, improve decision making and drive lower total cost of ownership.

“Together, as we expand our long-standing relationship with D&B, we continue to help our customers and the industry improve and unlock the true value of their data,” said Dennis Moore, senior vice president and general manager, MDM, Informatica. “Our combined offering allows companies to leverage their data more effectively to make better business decisions that benefit their customers – and the bottom line.”

D&B360 for Informatica MDM will be available in the United States beginning in May 2012. For additional information about D&B360 DaaS Solution for Informatica MDM, please visit: www.dnb.com.