We live in a world that requires us to compete on our differential use of time and information, yet only a fraction of information workers today have access to the analytical capabilities they need to make better decisions. Now, with the advent of a new generation of embedded business intelligence (BI) platforms, cloud developers are disrupting the world of analytics. They are using these new BI platforms to inject more intelligence into the applications business people use every day. As a result, data-driven decision-making is finally on track to become the rule, not the exception.
Secure File Delivery API Aimed at Medical Records Sharing
My Docs Online yesterday released its “Secure File Delivery API” which allows web and mobile apps to easily incorporate HIPAA-compliant file delivery. Although My Docs Online supports a wide variety of professionals and small businesses needing secure file sharing, a significant part of their customer base uses the product for files containing “Protected Health Information” (PHI). This core competency should make My Docs Online an attractive partner for adding ad hoc file delivery to a variety of EMR, EHR and other medical applications.
My Docs Online Secure File Delivery includes the following features and options:
- Branded web page listing the files being delivered
- Optional PIN or password
- HIPAA compliant
- SSL standard for all connections
- Files encrypted at rest using AES256
- Default file delivery expiration in days with override
- Control panel enabling checking of delivery results, link reuse, and delivery cancellation
- Delivery results query via API
- Delivery cancellation via API
SOASTA Reveals Five Technology Predictions for 2014
It’s been a great 2013. Out of the global $1.2 trillion dollars’ worth of business conducted online in 2013 across the globe, SOASTA is trusted with protecting 10% of that figure – or $150 billion. Based on the hundreds of brands SOASTA worked with this year and listened to the challenges they face, there are five predictions that are pretty clear as we look ahead to 2014. Hint: Simplify, the User Experience, and M-commerce will be buzz words for successful enterprises and e-commerce vendors. The Top 5 Predictions for 2014 are:
Acquisitions vs Innovation Drive Legacy Tech Companies into New Frontiers
We’ll see the larger legacy vendors take a proactive approach to buying into social, mobile, cloud, and Big Data environments. They’ll begin to buy into the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) space. “With the changing face of application development, I suspect we’ll see increased M&A activity and increased consolidation in the market for cloud -based and social-based tools.”
DaaS Re-Boot: Citrix Execs Move to VMware
VMware execs Bob Schultz and Sumit Dhawan were in leadership training in Boston during their first day at their new company. They promised to respond to my inquiries regarding their new positions as soon as possible. When they do, I’ll report what they said.
The news of their move came as a seeming lightning strike on the first real work day of 2014. Officially, they give Wmware “even deeper end-user computing and industry expertise going into 2014 and position us very well to continue to provide customers with industry leading solutions,” according to a blog entry by Sanjay Poonen, EVP & General Manager of the company’s End-User Computing (EUC) Unit.
Schultz fills a new positions as chief strategy lead for the EUC, “and will be responsible for driving our business, technology and alliance strategies,” according to Poonen. He’s a 30-year veteran (writer’s note: I personally like this age group) and was Group VP and General Manager of Desktop and Applications at Citrix.
Sumit Dhawan, who was with Citrix for almost 16 years, “will lead our desktop business and organization and be responsible for the overall business including overseeing the strategy, product portfolio and engineering,”
Not to be lost in this announcement was the promotion of long-time VMware exec Kit Colbert to the position of CTO of the EUC.
DaaS Re-Boot
So let’s call this “DaaS Re-Boot,” with apologies to the creators and fans of the 1981 film with a similar name. That film centered around a submarine crew in a crisis situation, and perhaps serves as a close analogy to the virtualization business.
It’s hard for me to pin a dollar figure on the size of DaaS (and desktop virtualization by other names). But it’s clear that VMware, Citrix, and Microsoft are now competing hard in a tight, claustrophobic environment for access to every desktop in the world.
Poonen specifically mentions Vmware’s acquisition of Desktone (the folks who were trying to patent DaaS) in October as part of the dynamism of the desktop virtualization market. He also mentioned “enterprise mobility and enterprise social collaboration” as growth areas in this space.
Citrix Announces New Exec
For its part, top management at Citrix is remaining outwardly calm. “We have a strong leadership team in place, including the new executive for our app and desktop virtualization business, which was announced this morning,” a company spokesperson told me in an email.
The newly named Citrix exec is Rakesh Narasimhan, a 25-year industry veteran “with 15 years in leadership positions at Microsoft, and whose expertise fits squarely in the Citrix market space,” according to Citrix’s note to me.
Narisimhan served as a General Manager in Microsoft’s Server and Tools division, covering Microsoft Azure, SQLServer, Windows Server, Windows Client, virtualization, storage, data protection and security products,” according to Citrix.
He was most recently President and CEO at InstallFree, a developer of application portability, virtualization and access soluions that delivered Microsoft Office as a subscription-based cloud service to any device. He also has experience at Oracle.
Hong Kong unveils government cloud, funding put in
Hong Kong has launched the Government Cloud Platform, joining an array of countries with established cloud computing initiatives.
Yet the scheme, named GovCloud, is different from the US and UK initiatives as it is only for internal government use.
“GovCloud is the government’s first major private cloud computing initiative and is important central information technology infrastructure with full cloud computing functions,” a spokesman for the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) said, adding: “With robust and fully resilient infrastructure, GovCloud provides a stable and reliable environment for bureaux and departments to develop and host their e-government services.”
According to OGCIO, there’s a lot of capital in this venture: a total of HK $242m (US $31.2m) has been set aside to implement GovCloud in the next five years, with the doors opening on December 27.
Hong Kong is of course a major area for growth in …
Should Quantum Computers Cracking Encryption Matter to You?
Many news organizations including The Washington Post are reporting that the latest documents leaked by former NSA contractor turned whistleblower Edward Snowden show the NSA is in the early stages of working to build a quantum computer that could possibly crack most types of encryption. The NSA actually discloses they are working on quantum computing technology on their website, however, the status of the research was previously unknown. According to these new documents the agency is working on a “cryptologically useful quantum computer” as part of a research program called “Penetrating Hard Targets” and the goal is to use it for cracking encryption.
With headlines that scream, “NSA Secretly Funding Code-Breaking Quantum Computer Research,” it’s easy to see why many executives and enterprises are anxious and perhaps starting to lose faith in internet communications and transactions. Encryption is used to protect medical, banking, business and government records around the world. But, as many of the articles in the media today point out, the reality today is quantum computing is a theoretical research topic and is many years away from being a usable real-world technology. The Washington Post article quotes Scott Aaronson, an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, “It seems improbable that the NSA could be that far ahead of the open world without anybody knowing it.”
Continuous Infrastructure
SYS-CON Events announced today that Windstream, a leading provider of advanced communications, has been named “Silver Sponsor” of SYS-CON’s 14th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 10-12, 2014, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. IBM is strengthening its software defined environment (SDE) portfolio with the introduction of IBM Platform Resource Scheduler, a dynamic resource management tool for private and public OpenStack cloud that automatically allocates the right resources to the right job, balances workload demand with infrastructure supply and ensures adherence to service level agreements. While unprecedented technological advances have been made in healthcare in areas such as genomics, digital imaging and Health Information Systems, access to this information has been not been easy for both the healthcare provider and the patient themselves. Regulatory compliance and controls, information lock-in in proprietary Electronic Health Record systems and security concerns have made it difficult to share data across health care providers.Windstream Named “Silver Sponsor” of Cloud Expo New York
Windstream (Nasdaq: WIN), a FORTUNE 500 and S&P 500 company, is a leading provider of advanced network communications, including cloud computing and managed services, to businesses nationwide. The company also offers broadband, phone and digital TV services to consumers primarily in rural areas. IBM Introduces Platform Resource Scheduler for OpenStack Cloud Management
“IBM Platform Resource Scheduler provides a fully virtualized, open and programmable architecture that ensures enterprises are taking advantage of all available cloud resources – from application software licenses to available network bandwidth,” said Jay Muelhoefer, Director Strategy, IBM Platform Computing. “IBM Platform Resource Scheduler is an important building block of SDE and helps cloud clients optimize infrastructure usage, reduce cost of cloud ownership, and deliver higher workload quality of service.”Accelerate Mobile Application Development within Healthcare
The opportunities inherent in mobile technology are dramatically changing the way healthcare business gets done. Healthcare provider professionals are adopting mobile devices and tablets as an alternative to desktops/laptops and using mobile applications to augment gaps in existing patient management system capabilities. Developing mobile applications for the healthcare industry has some unique challenges, particularly protecting your backend data services while making them available to mobile application frameworks and SDKs.