Category Archives: Partnerships

Alcatel-Lucent, GigaSpaces, Guest Post, Partnerships

Alcatel-Lucent, GigaSpaces Partner for Delivery of Carrier Cloud PaaS

Guest post by Adi Paz, Executive VP, Marketing and Business Development, GigaSpaces

GigaSpaces Cloudify solution enables the on-boarding of applications onto any cloud. For several months now, GigaSpaces has been working with Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) on the use of Cloudify in a carrier cloud service environment. Together with Alcatel-Lucent’s CloudBand™ solution, Cloudify is a fundamental building block in the technological backbone of ALU’s carrier-grade Platform-as-a-Service (CPaaS).

Dor Skuler, Vice President & General Manager of the CloudBand Business Unit at Alcatel-Lucent, has said that, “Offering CPaaS as part of the CloudBand solution enables service providers to make a smooth migration to the carrier cloud and quickly deploy value-added services with improved quality and scalability, without the need for dedicated equipment.”

This new class of carrier cloud services brings the benefits of the cloud to the carrier environment without sacrificing security, reliability and/or quality of applications. The CPaaS enables the on-boarding of mission-critical applications on a massive scale, including both legacy and new carrier cloud services. This is a factor in meeting the requirements of many customers’ Service Level Agreements (SLAs) by integrating carrier networks.

Unlike regular cloud environments, where an application needs to explicitly handle multi-zone deployments, CPaaS enables the application workload and availability to be handled through a policy driven approach. The policy describes the desired application SLA, while the carrier CPaaS maps the deployment of the application resources to the cloud and reflects the best latency, load, or availability requirements.

Additionally, the integration will enable the creation of network-aware CPaaS services, simplified on-boarding to ALU’s CloudBand platform, multi-site app deployment and simplification of management of a number of latency and location-sensitive applications. The ability to comply with five-nine reliability, security, and disaster recovery requirements ensures peace-of-mind for enterprises choosing to on-board mission-critical applications to the carrier network.

The Cloudify Approach

Cloudify manages applications at the process level, and as such uses the same underlying architecture for any application regardless of the language or the technology stack that comprises the application. That said, working at the process level is often not enough, because not all processes are made the same. For example, databases behave quite differently from web containers and load-balancers. In order for us to still get in-depth knowledge about the managed application’s processes, Cloudify uses a recipe-based approach. The recipe-based approach enables us to describe the elements that are specific to that individual process, such as the configuration element, the dependency on other processes, the specific key performance indicators that tell if that process’ behavior is aligned with its SLA, and so on.

Working on the process level makes it possible to plug into a large variety of infrastructures, whether they happen to be public, private, or bare-metal environments. Cloudify uses an abstraction layer known as the Cloud Driver that interfaces with the cloud infrastructure to provide on-demand compute resources for running applications.

The Cloudify process can be implemented be done on individual clouds from HP, Microsoft, IBM, CloudStack, etc., or in the carrier network infrastructure of a company like Alcatel-Lucent.

Adi Paz is responsible for developing and communicating GigaSpaces’ strategy, and managing the company’s go-to-market activities and strategic alliances.

 

Malware, Mandiant, Network security, Palo Alto Networks, Partnerships, WildFire

Mandian, Palo Alto Networks Partner for Malware Security

Mandiant has announced that it will team with Palo Alto Networks, a network security company, to integrate Palo Alto Networks’  firewalls and its WildFire malware prevention subscription with Mandiant’s recently announced product, Mandiant for Security Operation. Both companies will be presenting their solutions as participants at the RSA Conference 2013 in San Francisco from February 25th to 28th.

The joint solution from Palo Alto Networks and Mandiant provides a holistic approach to thwart advanced attackers by integrating malware detection and prevention capabilities on the network with the ability to resolve security incidents on endpoints. With this integration, Mandiant for Security Operations will automatically generate Indicators of Compromise (IOC) based on malware alerts generated by the Palo Alto Networks platform and identify which endpoints have been compromised. WildFire modern malware prevention service uses the inherent advantages of Palo Alto Networks next-generation firewalls to find new types of malware that have never been seen before across all applications – not just Web and email. To date, WildFire has discovered more than 70,000 new malware files that had not been identified by existing anti-malware solutions.

“Our mutual customers view this joint solution as a significant advantage to creating actionable insights to assess risk, prevent threats, and improve security,” said Chad Kinzelberg, senior vice president of business and corporate development, Palo Alto Networks. “We are also confident that this strategic partnership will continue to lead our industry in security intelligence for enterprise organizations.”

Mandiant for Security Operations is an appliance-based solution that utilizes a lightweight agent deployed on endpoints to enable security teams to confidently detect, analyze and resolve security incidents in a fraction of the time it takes using conventional approaches.

Palo Alto Networks offers a subscription service for WildFire, the company’s cloud-based modern malware prevention service. The WildFire service gives subscribers one-hour response times for the delivery of modern malware signatures, and integrated, on-box logging and reporting. The enhanced response time ensures that the damage caused by attackers using “zero-day” malware is mitigated for Palo Alto Networks customers.

“The tactics of targeted attackers and well-funded adversaries are constantly evolving,” said Mandiant’s Chief Technology Officer, Dave Merkel. “With the integration of the WildFire subscription malware detection service and Mandiant for Security Operations, security professionals will now be able to respond to threats faster and automatically investigate alerts from WildFire so they can confirm and resolve targeted attacks as they are unfolding.”

Call Center, Evolve IP, NACR, Partnerships, Telecommunications Industry

Evolve IP, NACR Partner for Unified Communications, Hosted Contact Centers

Today Evolve IP announced it has partnered with NACR, an independent integrator of communications solutions. With this agreement, NACR will leverage Evolve IP’s  unified platform to offer its customers cloud services including unified communications/hosted IP phone services, virtual servers, and call center solutions.

NACR serves over 5,500 clients from small businesses to Fortune® 100 and global enterprise clients. Through this relationship, NACR’s customers gain access to Evolve IP’s cloud services including:

  • Unified communications/IP phone systems that provide advanced features such as fixed mobile convergence (FMC), find me/follow me, unified messaging, HD voice, and more, all delivered as a cloud service but with the quality and control of on-site equipment.
  • Virtual servers that utilize Evolve IP’s private cloud infrastructure to reduce CAPEX while improving IT productivity. Evolve IP’s virtual servers leverage the scalability and failover of public cloud services while maintaining the privacy and security of dedicated environments.
  • Hosted contact centers that improve operations and customer service with intelligent routing and queues, call recording, call whisper, and every major feature needed to run a best-practice call center.

8X8, Partnerships, Softbank, Virtualization, Zerigo

8×8 and SoftBank Partner to Offer Virtualized Cloud Data Services

8×8, Inc., provider of cloud-based business communications and computing solutions, and SoftBank Telecom Corp. today announced that they have signed an agreement for SoftBank to license 8×8’s subscription-based “Zerigo” enterprise cloud software.

The agreement calls for 8×8 to license its Zerigo software and to develop some additional related software for Softbank to provide virtual desktop interface (VDI) services to its customers in Japan and throughout the world. The combination of the Zerigo software and the new VDI software will enable SoftBank to offer a full suite of virtualized cloud services to its major enterprise customers using Vblock products from VCE, a leader in converged cloud infrastructure systems.

Initially, SoftBank will deploy these services in Japan, but plans to rapidly extend the roll out of services to the rest of Asia as well as Europe, the United States and other major markets throughout the world. SoftBank counts some of the world’s largest enterprises as customers for its award-winning services and it intends to market these new, innovative virtualized services to those same customers. The agreement provides 8×8 with development and installation fees as well as on-going license fees over an initial 36-month contract.

“8×8 is delighted to partner with SoftBank to deliver these valuable services to their business customers,” said 8×8 Chairman & CEO Bryan Martin. “SoftBank is one of the most agile, successful telecom service providers in the world and the speed at which they move matches 8×8’s similar culture of always leading rather than following the market.”

“SoftBank selected 8×8 after an extensive search of software providers based on 8×8’s clear commitment to quality, scalability and reliability as well as flexibility and cost competitiveness,” said Ken Miyauchi, Director of The Board, SoftBank Telecom Corp. “SoftBank is pleased to partner with such a nimble, Silicon Valley company whose culture mirrors our own and whose experience in delivering cloud services will be invaluable in helping us to rapidly deploy similar services in Japan. We expect our customers will be delighted with these new offerings and we look forward to expanding the available markets in the near future.”

Censum, Garbage Collection, Java, Java Virtual Machine, Partnerships, Tools, Waratek

jClarity’s Censum, Waratek’s Virtualization Combined for Java Analytics

jClarity’s Java analysis tool Censum will be integrated with Waratek’s virtualization technology, providing its customers with operational insight into Waratek’s Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and cost savings.

Founded by leading Java experts, jClarity’s debut product jClarity Censum offers Java analytics and insight for developers as opposed to solely supplying raw data. Censum locates Garbage Collection (GC) performance problems and advises how to fix them in an easily comprehensible manner. Launched in December 2012, jClarity Censum has already been hailed as ‘technology you can’t and won’t miss in 2013′ by Nerdability.

The Waratek CloudVM for Java allows enterprises, data centres and providers to run Java in the Cloud with genuine multitenancy, addressing serious incompatibilities that have previously undermined Java’s place in this new computing space.

“Waratek’s technology represents a significant step towards reducing data centre footprint & increasing application density, both of which are hugely important in today’s market conditions” says jClarity’s CEO Ben Evans. “By adopting the combination of Waratek & jClarity, IT departments can feel confident that they can realise cost savings whilst still fully understanding their production plant.”

“Inefficient Garbage collection can affect application performance, using Censum to monitor live application behavior can bring enhanced performance and cost savings to the Cloud” says Waratek’s CTO and Founder John Matthew Holt. “The use of Censum with the Waratek CloudVM for Java, provides a seamless and cost effective way to host elastic multitenant Java applications with fine-grained performance metering and control.”

COBOL, Mainframe, Partnerships, Tools

COBOL in the Cloud

Heirloom Computing Inc. today announced a new partnership with Java Platform as a Service (PaaS) provider CloudBees to speed the transition of mainframe workloads to the CloudBees PaaS. With the partnership, Heirloom will help IT managers lower costs and modernize their COBOL-based mainframe workloads by deploying them to the cloud, utilizing Heirloom Elastic COBOL and the CloudBees Platform.

For more information about Heirloom Computing and how Heirloom can help you transition mainframe workloads to the cloud, please visitwww.heirloomcomputing.com. For more information about CloudBees, please visit www.cloudbees.com.

Big Data, Denmark, Elasticsearch, Open Source, Partnerships

Elasticsearch, Trifork Partner to Expand Big Data Search

Elasticsearch today announced a partnership with Trifork, a provider of open source solutions, consulting and training for the enterprise market, headquartered in Denmark. Under the partnership, Trifork will include Elasticsearch software within its data and search product portfolio, and offer its global customer base high-end consulting, implementation, training and support for their Elasticsearch-driven big data search projects. Elasticsearch is one of the most popular open source search products in the world and is being used by thousands of companies in production that require real-time data accessibility and transparency across large volumes of distributed data.

“Trifork is an ideal partner for Elasticsearch. Together, we help customers gain invaluable insights hidden in ever-expanding data sets in key markets such as finance, healthcare and telecommunications,” said Steven Schuurman, co-founder and CEO of Elasticsearch. “Their deep experience at developing and supporting business-critical search solutions for its customers is firmly in line with our mission, and will help us to meet the overwhelming demand for Elasticsearch technology.”

A number of Trifork customers already use Elasticsearch including the University of Amsterdam, Greetz, NPO/VPRO, Suppledia, DiVault and PRIME Research. Visit the website to learn more about Trifork’s open source software offerings including the information about our Elasticsearch services.

“We have worked extensively with other open source search solutions, but Elasticsearch has taken real-time information discovery completely to the next level – the combination of its advanced search and analytics capabilities and its user-friendliness makes it the most powerful open source search solution out there,” said Bram Smeets, CTO of Trifork Amsterdam. “We believe in Elasticsearch; the team and the technology and feel both clearly differentiate in a highly competitive market. This makes Elasticsearch the logical choice for both our own internal use and on customer projects.”

Business Processes, Credit Cards, Go Daddy, Partnerships, Payment

Go Daddy Getting Into Web Payments

First Data Corporation and web host Go Daddy today announced Go Daddy Payment Solutions. The application is designed to serve the electronic payment needs of the small business community.

Go Daddy customers will be able to leverage Go Daddy Payment Solutions to process eCommerce transactions online. Go Daddy gives customers the ability to go from an idea to a full-blown Web presence – including a website, shopping cart and online payment acceptance – in a few simple steps.

“Go Daddy’s main focus is to help small businesses get bigger without investing a lot of time, money or energy,” said Neil Proctor, senior director of Development, Go Daddy. “First Data’s payment processing gives Go Daddy customers the chance to quickly enable credit card payments online, expanding their revenue growth opportunities exponentially. The best part is, if customers have any questions, they can reach out to Go Daddy’s world-class customer service to get them answered quickly.”

To find out more about Go Daddy Payment Solutions, please visit http://www.godaddy.com/ecommerce/merchant-services.aspx.

Analytics, Artificial intelligence, Cloud & IT Management, Machine learning, Partnerships, Prelert, Splunk

Anomaly Detective Adds Predictive Analytics to Splunk

Prelert today announced Anomaly Detective, an advanced machine intelligence solution for Splunk Enterprise environments. The introduction of Anomaly Detective expands Prelert’s line of diagnostic predictive analytics products that integrate with a customer’s existing IT management tools and quickly provide value by finding problematic behavior changes hidden in huge volumes of operations data.

Anomaly Detective’s self-learning predictive analytics with machine intelligence assistance recognize both normal and abnormal machine behavior. Using highly advanced pattern recognition algorithms, Anomaly Detective identifies developing issues and provides detailed diagnostic data, enabling IT experts to avoid problems or diagnose them as much as 90 percent faster than previously possible. IT personnel who utilize Splunk Enterprise software in infrastructure, applications performance and security can now additionally benefit from machine learning to automatically spot anomalies and isolate their root causes in minutes, saving time and resolving problems before the business is impacted.

Anomaly Detective is  downloadable software that installs as a tightly integrated application for Splunk Enterprise. Because it leverages recent advances in machine intelligence, Anomaly Detective is 100 percent self-learning and requires minimal configuration. Anomaly Detective augments existing IT expertise, empowering IT staff to spend less time mining data, reduce troubleshooting costs and improve compliance with service-level agreements — all of which contribute to a rapid return on investment.

“Prelert Anomaly Detective is like a machine intelligence assistant, using advanced machine learning analytics to analyze the massive amounts of IT operations management data produced by today’s online applications and services,” said Mark Jaffe, CEO of Prelert. “We’ve packaged the power of big data analytics, normally focused on solving business problems, in easy-to-use machine intelligence solutions that are greatly needed in the real world of IT operations.”

Prelert Anomaly Detective is now available and easily downloadable from the Prelert website and from Prelert resellers. Pricing is based on the amount of data analyzed per day, starting at $1,200 for environments indexing more than 500MB of data per day. For information on pricing for Splunk Enterprise, go to http://www.splunk.com/view/how-to-get-splunk/SP-CAAADFV.

Electronic medical record, Health administration, Health Care, Medical, Medical Billing, Partnerships

iSALUS Healthcare, CIPROMS Partner to Launch Revenue Cycle Management

iSALUS Healthcare, a privately held electronic medical records and practice management service provider, and CIPROMS, Inc., an Indianapolis-based revenue cycle management firm, are partnering to offer medical billing and revenue cycle management services.  The agreement allows both organizations to co-promote their respective services.

“The healthcare industry is quickly becoming more automated with electronic medical records.  We felt it was time to provide a fully integrated service that could save physicians time, improve efficiency, and enhance patient care, while delivering increased financial performance.  It is critical for our organization to be aligned with a leading EMR and practice management solution provider, and we were fortunate to find that team right here in Indianapolis,” said Cheryl Louks , president and CEO of CIPROMS.

The management at both iSALUS and CIPROMS recognized that in today’s fast-paced medical environment, there is little time for providers to focus on all the necessary details to ensure a practice is reaching its financial potential.  As such, the partnership addresses the market need to deliver medical billing services within a web-based EMR.  This solution is designed to increase practice revenue, reduce costs, and minimize the administrative aggravations associated with the ever-changing rules and regulations.

“Being a 100% mobile practice poses challenges for a traditional EMR company and managing all the paper charting became very burdensome and time consuming for me as a physician.  I wanted to transition to an EMR for process improvement and efficiencies and knew an all-inclusive solution was ideal.  I chose OfficeEMR™ RCM for its simplicity, mobile application, and the ability to provide medical billing services within an integrated cloud-based service,” said Dr. Irene Roge , D.P.M.  “It is great to have one affordable solution that services both the clinical and financial aspects of my practice.”

“Our partnership with CIPROMS is a noteworthy milestone for iSALUS.  Physician practices are increasingly forced to navigate the choppy waters of changing regulations while trying to manage constant margin pressure.  It was imperative that we offer our clients a ‘best in class’ solution to address such pressures.  We have a long-standing relationship with CIPROMS and I am pleased to be moving forward with this all-in-one service,” said Michael Hall , founder and CEO of iSALUS Healthcare.