Category Archives: Tools

Amazon AWS, Amazon Web Services, AWS, Eureka, Load Balancing, Multitier architecture, Netflix, Open Source, Tools

Netflix Open Sources its Eureka Load Balancing Tool for AWS

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

From the Netflix announcement of the move:

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


Azure, Internet Technology, Microsoft Windows, Quest, Tools, Windows Azure

Quest Software Foglight for Windows Azure Monitors Application Performance.

Quest Software today introduced Foglight for Windows Azure Applications, an application performance monitoring (APM) solution available via software-as-a-service (SaaS). Available immediately as a beta, the newest addition to the industry-leading Foglight APM portfolio enables IT administrators to monitor performance and understand what end users are experiencing with Windows Azure-based application.

Foglight for Windows Azure Applications enables enterprises to leverage cloud-based performance monitoring technology for applications built on the Windows Azure platform, and allows IT administrators to gain critical insight as to how end users interact with these applications.


Collaboration, PM Coach, Project and Program Management, Project management, Project-Manager, Systemation, Tools

Systemation’s New Tool Aids Project Managers

Even experienced project managers get stuck occasionally. Perhaps, they need a memory jog regarding a concept they learned in training last year. Or advice on a PM scenario they’ve never faced before. Systemation’s new e-tool, Ask My PM Coach, provides quick responses on over 1,000 project management topics, via computer or mobile device, 24/7.

“This is a new type of on-the-job aid for the project management community,” says Ben Snyder, Systemation’s CEO. “When under a deadline crunch, project managers do not have time to wade through a workbook or online curriculum to locate answers. Ask My PM Coach enables PM’s to get just-in-time responses to burning project management questions.”

The tool provides soup-to-nuts information for every phase of a project: initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing. Users can find tips for managing risk, scope, schedule, people, communication, estimating, and more, as well as tricks to get the most from project management tools.

Designed for project managers who have spent time in a classroom, it helps folks translate textbook knowledge into real-world projects.

“In most any sport, players can get advice from their coach in the middle of competition,” explains Snyder. “Ask My PM Coach provides this type of real-time support for project managers—in a friendly, relaxed, accessible way that won’t sideline your key players.”

Companies can purchase bulk licenses for all the project managers in their organization. Or project managers can purchase a license individually.

For more information on Ask My PM Coach, or to learn about Systemation, contact Laurel Bretting at 1.800.747.9783.


Accedian Networks, Carrier Ethernet, Cell site, Ethernet, IT Management, service provider, Telecommunications Equipment, Tools

Accedian Updates MetroNID and MetroNODE 10GE Solutions

Accedian Networks today announced the release of its Version 5.5 software, which is now available on its MetroNID® and MetroNODE 10GE™ solutions.

This latest release embedded in Accedian’s  MetroNID and MetroNODE 10GE solutions enables operators to perform Y.1564 testing with multiple simultaneous flows from a single device directly from the cell site. By using multiple flows to different destinations, service providers can test different services at the same time and thereby save time, money and OPEX.

The addition of TWAMP-Lite as a second Layer 3 testing option provides further flexibility to the operators and allows Layer 3 performance monitoring with any standards compliant monitoring tools.

“This release validates our leadership position in the market and affirms our commitment to continually be bold and innovative,” said Patrick Ostiguy, CEO of Accedian Networks. “As consumers insatiable demand for all things mobile continues to put pressure on the network, and as carrier Ethernet is the technology of choice for mobile operators and service providers, we are pleased to deliver the most innovative and effective solution to meet, and exceed, the needs of our global customers.”


Customer Relationship Management, Fonality, Fonality PBXtra, Mobile, Mobile device, Tools, Voice, Voice over Internet Protocol

Fonality Enhances Contact Center Features for HUD Mobile

Image representing Fonality as depicted in Cru...Fonality today announced a new release of the Fonality Heads Up Display (HUD) Mobile application delivering extensive contact center features among other enhancements. The application now offers users 100 percent management and visibility of individual queues over tablets and mobile smartphones. In addition, the solution can now be accessed by Fonality’s 200,000+ end-users across its entire cloud-based and hybrid-hosted product line including: Fonality Connect, Fonality PBXtra and Fonality trixboxPro.

HUD Mobile empowers the mobile workforce with cloud-based Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) communications and contact center capabilities in a single-view, secure, user-friendly interface via Apple or Android platforms. This announcement represents a first step in an ongoing “innovation series” of rollouts over the coming months to help growing businesses save time, communicate more efficiently and reduce costs.

“Mobility is without question a must-have to drive productivity especially for SMBs and we’ve already seen broad adoption of Fonality HUD Mobile,” said Fonality’s Chief Technology Officer Rick Bushell. “By enhancing contact center features and making the app available our entire solution base, all of our customers can work from anywhere, anytime. We are committed to delivering smart, simple and affordable business phone solutions to small businesses. HUD Mobile and the upcoming feature releases were designed to help our customers communicate more efficiently, giving them the competitive edge they need for growth.”

The exclusive Fonality HUD Mobile technology brings the entirety of the contact center environment on-the-go. All activities in the queue, including current and pending calls, can be accessed complemented by real-time performance metrics for quality control. Managers enjoy a 360-degree view of all communications, including color-coded agent status, call types and duration. In addition, they have the ability to record calls on-the-fly or join through barge, monitor or whisper modes. Agents can also log in and out of queues to maintain high levels of customer service.

“As a global wine distributor we are extremely busy and often work remotely,” said Justin Hammer, vice president of B-21. “Because our industry is so competitive, we have to be in touch with our global network of buyers to ensure that we have the most popular wines available as quickly as possible. Fonality HUD Mobile allows us to stay connected around the world so we can make quick purchasing decisions to add the latest wines to our catalog. This flexibility has improved our productivity and profitability, because we can stock wines faster. In fact, we recently secured a new wine, made it available online and sold out within a single day solely because of the efficiencies enabled by Fonality HUD Mobile. It is a real difference maker!”

Fonality HUD Mobile creates the same experience as its award-winning desktop counterpart. The mobile solution connects phones, desktops and critical business applications with access to presence and collaboration capabilities. “Find me/follow me” provides seamless connectivity between desktop and mobile devices, along with unified messaging and Microsoft Outlook integration. For improved productivity, other features include company directory, visual voicemail, virtual conference room access, as well as photo caller ID, ring-back and on-the-fly call recording. To control costs and preserve cell minutes, Wi-Fi connectivity can also be activated.


Android, iOS, Mobile, Natural Language Understanding, Nina, Nuance, Nuance Communications, Speech recognition, Tools, Voice

Nuance Introduces Nina, the Virtual Assistant for Mobile Customer Service Apps

Nuance Communications today introduced Nina, the virtual assistant for mobile customer service apps. With Nina, companies can add speech-based virtual assistant capabilities to their existing iOS and Android mobile apps, enhancing the self-service experience for their customers. Nina combines Nuance speech recognition, Text-to-Speech (TTS), voice biometrics, and Natural Language Understanding (NLU) technology hosted in the cloud to deliver an interactive user experience that not only understands what is said, but also can identify who is saying it.

Nuance also announced that USAA, a leading financial services provider that serves members of the U.S. military, veterans and their families, has adopted the virtual assistant for use within its popular mobile app. A pilot is planned for August and the functionality will launch to all USAA members early next year.

“USAA’s innovative solutions are designed to make life easier for our highly mobile military service members, and increasingly for all members who now expect to get things done when, where and how they want,” said Neff Hudson, assistant vice president of emerging channels for USAA. “We believe that the virtual assistant has tremendous potential to make it simpler, faster and more satisfying for our members to manage their financial affairs on their mobile devices.”

Nina is significant because it is the first virtual assistant for mobile customer service apps to incorporate both speech recognition and voice biometrics into a single integrated solution. Nina is also the first solution that provides an open software development kit (SDK) to support the rapid integration of virtual assistant capabilities into existing mobile applications. In addition, Nina is the first to allow organizations to brand their own virtual assistant persona, including the visual appearance and implementation of optional custom TTS voices.

“Nina is a watershed innovation for the automated customer service industry, not only because it brings the virtual assistant directly into an app, but because it raises the bar through its level of interactive dialog and language understanding,” said Robert Weideman, executive vice president and general manager of the Nuance Enterprise Division. “Nina provides our customers a major competitive differentiator by enabling more successful self-service through their mobile apps. We are especially pleased to further our partnership with USAA, a company known for its innovation and approach to delivering a premier mobile customer service experience to its members.”


Amazon AWS, Amazon Web Service, AWS, KnowYourCloud Analytics, Newvem, Reserved Instances, Tools

Newvem Launches New Tool to Help Amazon Web Services Customers Make Sense of Reserved Instances

 

Image representing Amazon Web Services as depi...

Newvem has launched a new tool as part of its KnowYourCloud Analytics web application. Newvem’s new Reserved Instances Decision Tool helps Amazon Web Services (AWS) customers make the right decision on exactly which On-Demand Instances should be moved to Reserved Instances. With KnowYourCloud Analytics, AWS users have insight into their cloud usage patterns and can now easily determine – based on flexibility, availability and cost considerations – whether a long-term commitment to Reserved Instances is the right decision for their business.

To keep ahead of competitors and give customers more value, Amazon is promoting Reserved Instances, which, compared to On-Demand Instances – the popular pay-as-you-go model that AWS is known for, offer even more cost savings and assured capacity availability. Reserved Instances require long-term commitments to Amazon with contracts ranging from one to three years. The problem is that moving to Reserved Instances is an extremely complex decision for IT and finance managers, who must weigh the tradeoffs between costs and utilization over time and between flexibility and a long-term commitment.

“Newvem’s KnowYourCloud Analytics is like Google Analytics for cloud computing,” said Zev Laderman, Newvem’s co-founder and CEO. “It scans AWS usage patterns and lets AWS users know if they can benefit from Reserved Instances, indicates which parts of their cloud would benefit the most, and offers recommendations on how to execute the move.”


Amazon AWS, Amazon Web Services, Chaos Monkey, Free, Netflix, Open Source, Tools

Netflix Chaos Monkeys: “If You Love Something Set It Free”

Image representing Netflix as depicted in Crun...

Netflix has released its Chaos Monkey AWS “test-by-failure” tool as open source for all to use. The tool seeks to improve the resilience if the Netflix AWS cloud by forcing failure.

“We have found that the best defense against major unexpected failures is to fail often. By frequently causing failures, we force our services to be built in a way that is more resilient. We are excited to make a long-awaited announcement today that will help others who embrace this approach.

We have written about our Simian Army in the past and we are now proud to announce that the source code for the founding member of the Simian Army, Chaos Monkey, is available to the community. Do you think your applications can handle a troop of mischievous monkeys loose in your infrastructure? Now you can find out.”


.NET Framework, ADO.NET, ADO.NET Entity Framework, Internet Technology, Microsoft Visual Studio, Tools

Progress Introduces DataDirect Connect for ADO.NET R4.0

Progress Software Corporation today introduced the new Progress DataDirect Connect® for ADO.NET 4.0, the latest version of its suite of ADO.NET (ActiveX Data Objects for .NET) data providers that eliminates the need for database client libraries with a managed, wire protocol architecture. This new release includes Microsoft Entity Framework support, Visual Studio LightSwitch support and expanded enterprise capabilities that enable developers to rapidly create, deploy and manage high-performance, mission-critical desktop and Cloud applications with ease.

Tatsuro Hayashi, Corporate Development Office Manager for MapQuest Corporation in Japan, noted: “Using the DataDirect Connect for ADO.NET 4.0 data provider, we can develop high performing, reliable ADO.NET applications that offer bulk load functionality, application failover, and top of the line security for our customers. Because managed code runs in the Common Language Runtime (CLR) environment, it reduces risks such as memory leaks and closes security holes that unmanaged code leaves exposed. This means our programmers and developers have secure, reliable and versatile deployment options available in either application or client-server environments. Additionally, our software developers and programmers can avoid the versioning headaches associated with other .NET providers as well as multiple versions of client libraries and databases used across our company.”

As more .NET applications move to the Cloud, high performance and efficiency become even more important. The Progress DataDirect Connect for ADO.NET 4.0 data providers are a critical component to delivering on that goal, while significantly lowering operating costs for Cloud applications by using less memory and CPU cycles. The DataDirect Connect for ADO.NET 4.0 data providers deliver top performance, as well as significantly higher levels of security and authentication, reliability and failover, connection pool management and multi-database consistency not found in other drivers. This enables developers to create higher performing applications with greater uptime and better security.


AppNeta, Business transaction management, IT Management, Network performance, PathView Cloud, Tools

AppNeta Enhances Web Application Performance Monitoring

AppNeta today announced the launch of PathView Cloud with AppView Web for insight into Web application performance for end users. PathView Cloud automatically delivers Web performance visibility from the perspective of remote enterprise users, and also delivers network performance insight.

“When the Electronic Health Record (EHR) applications don’t perform well, end users get frustrated, adoption decreases, and the value of the application is never realized,” said Bob Dupuis, Director, Technical Services, Arcadia Solutions. “By using PathView Cloud with AppView Web as part of our EHR optimization services we can quickly determine root cause and resolution to performance problems. AppView Web also enables our managed services team to proactively manage EHR infrastructures, increasing physician satisfaction and adoption. This results in more meaningful use of the critical application.”

As more and more organizations transition to Web-based technology for business critical applications, it is necessary for IT teams to have 24/7 visibility from the end user’s perspective, and be able to understand and troubleshoot performance issues wherever they are occurring in the network or the application. When critical business applications such as CRM systems, hosted email, collaboration tools or healthcare and financial record services stop working, so do the employees.

“Poor end-user performance of critical Web applications like Netsuite, Salesforce.com, Google Apps and hosted email seriously disrupts business operations,” said Jim Melvin, CEO of AppNeta. “Unlike traditional Web performance tools available today, PathView Cloud with AppView Web enables you to see the performance of these applications within your own network and how they are impacting service delivery to your end users.”

With the newest AppView Web enhancements, PathView Cloud now provides a continuous view of the actual application performance with unprecedented network performance insight. This integrated performance visibility enables IT operations teams to monitor and troubleshoot performance of Web applications more quickly and easily than ever before. With a simple click within the PathView Cloud reporting interface, users can drill down from the overall performance of their Web application into the specific application steps and a detailed view of the Web pages involved to understand the cause of poor performance. AppView Web is compatible with Web applications that require authentication and performs multi-step scripted actions to accurately assess the application performance experienced by the user.