I’ve been using WaveMaker since I started working at the startup in 2008 and it has been a great IDE for quickly creating robust enterprise AJAX Web applications integrating SQL databases, and SOAP/REST Web Services. Along came Cloud Foundry and deploying those applications on a scalable platform became just as quick and easy as WaveMaker made it to build them. Add PubNub to the equation and you get the power of real time messaging in an instant. No complicated servers to configure and no expertise required to start using the service – just a few lines of code to start sending and receiving messages.
In this tutorial I will walk you through how to build and deploy a basic chat room application in under 15 minutes using PubNub, WaveMaker, and Cloud Foundry. You can deploy to whatever application server platform you like, however, in this tutorial, we are going full-cloud so there will be no installation required. WaveMaker Studio runs in Cloud Foundry, PubNub’s messaging service is cloud-hosted, and we’ll be deploying to Cloud Foundry, so no need to install an app server either.
PropertyVista Lowers Cheque Processing Costs for Property Management Industry
Property Vista Software Inc. today announced that its cloud-based property management service can save property management companies up to 30 percent on the cost of processing rent and related payments, currently being made by cheque. Unlike other property management solutions, PropertyVista’s software provides unmatched CRM capabilities at a fraction of the cost, helping property managers streamline their operations, from 1 to 500 units, along with REITS and larger property & condo management firms. The service provides property managers with a personalized website and online tenant portal that they can administer without IT support.
According to independent research, the cost to process cheques can range from $15 to $25 for each cheque issued. This includes both hard and soft costs, such as clerical, cheque requisitioning, authorization, reconciliation, tracing and more. PropertyVista allows property managers to eliminate many of these costs by automatically accepting payments online 24/7, via cheque, credit, debit or direct payment. The cost to process payments is included with the PropertyVista monthly subscription, plus an additional fee, which varies depending on payment type and number of transactions.
According to research from the Canadian Banker’s Association, 51 percent of Canadians reported that they bank primarily online, while 38 percent use Automated Banking Machines. In addition, CBA reports that 46 percent of Canadians use online bill payment as their primary tool for paying bills.
“The demand by tenants to conduct transactions online continues to increase – whether it’s the need to pay online, make a maintenance request, or pursue a rental-related inquiry,” said Leonard Drimmer, CEO and Founder of Property Vista. “PropertyVista addresses the online shift in consumer and tenant behaviour, while providing property managers with the tools to more effectively operate in the internet and mobile age.”
PropertyVista Service Overview
- Integrated payment system; centralized maintenance and
tenant service requests – results in more efficient customer
service; timelier processing of rental payments and faster closings &
renewals. Accepts payments online and by mobile device, 24/7, via
cheque, credit, debit or direct payment. - Scalable and Customizable – easy to add applications,
buildings, and property details as required. Customize reports and
websites; provide information in whatever format preferred. - Point-and-click technology – Cloud-based, simple to use,
available online and on mobile devices, 24/7. No hardware or IT
support required. - Bank-grade security – PCI-compliant with token-based
security ensures secure data and transactions. - Multi-lingual Support – Includes support for English, French,
Spanish, and Traditional and Simplified Mandarin - Minimal up-front investment – service available on
month-to-month basis. No long-term contract required.
IceWEB Files Patent for IceSTORM Operating System
IceWEB Inc. today announced that the Company has filed an application with the United States Patent & Trademark Office (Application #: 61714375) entitled “Single Management Pane for Unified Storage” to secure one of its most valuable assets, the IceSTORM Operating System.
“Our breakthrough ‘single pane of glass’ approach provided by all of IceWEB’s Unified Storage products is built upon our IceSTORM technology. Protecting this key intellectual property is a great step forward for our company,” said Rob Howe, CEO of IceWEB. “Our growing base of customers understands that IceSTORM makes our solutions more useful, more easily trained upon, and more quickly and easily expandable. That’s real core value.” Howe said.
Cloud Expo: ‘IT Industrial Revolution’ Made Possible by Cloud Computing
After 50 years of adolescence, the IT industry is entering its Industrial Age and this will have a huge impact on all sectors of the industry. Most organizations will see huge gains from this industrialization; most legacy vendors will suffer a lot.
In his session at the 11th International Cloud Expo, Louis Naugès, Co-Founder & Chief Cloud Evangelist of Revevol, will explain who will be the winners and the losers of this industrialization of IT made possible by the generalization of SaaS solutions and public clouds.
Capsilon Provides New Mobile Application for Mortgage Lenders to Access Loan Documents
Capsilon, a provider of cloud-based document sharing, imaging and collaboration solutions for mortgage lenders, announced the release of its Katalyst mobile app for Apple iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, which addresses mortgage lenders’ need for a cloud-based imaging solution available to them from any location, at any time.
With the Katalyst mobile app, authorized users can access and view electronic loan folders from a variety of Apple devices. The mobile app enables retail loan officers in branch offices, regional account executives, production managers and other on-the-go users to better participate in the loan origination process while out of the office. The solution gives users the ability to review documents and the documents’ status while traveling, providing better and more timely information and support to customers.
“Capsilon’s mobile solution transforms the loan origination process for mortgage professionals by greatly enhancing their productivity through a reliable document management system,” said Sanjeev Malaney, chief executive officer at Capsilon. “At last, mortgage professionals can instantly see up-to-date loan documents, wherever they are, whenever they need them.”
Capsilon’s new mobile app works with Katalyst 8, the newest version of the company’s cloud-based document imaging and collaboration platform to ensure all loan information is accurate. Katalyst mobile works in conjunction with the Web-browser and desktop interfaces, providing ubiquitous access and meeting the needs of all user types to streamline document management through the entire lending process.
The recently enhanced Katalyst 8 solution includes a re-architected image conversion system that dramatically reduces errors during file intake, a more sophisticated automated document recognition capability that provides faster and more reliable document naming and filing and a new high-performance desktop application for employees who access documents frequently or for longer periods of time. Capsilon’s secure cloud-based platform provides lenders with the assurance that borrower information is protected while documents are accessed.
The Impact of the Cloud on Digital Forensics – Part 1
Digital Forensics is not an elephant, it is a process and not just one process, but a group of tasks and processes in investigation. Examiners now perform targeted examinations using forensic tools and databases of known files, selecting specific files and data types for review while ignoring files of irrelevant type and content.Despite the application of sophisticated tools, the forensic process still relies on the examiner’s knowledge of the technical aspects of the specimen and understanding of the case and the law – Mark Pollitt.
Forensics in the Cloud.
Cloud Expo Silicon Valley: Cloud-Driven Mobile Apps
Building cloud and API driven mobile apps introduces numerous complexities around syncing, caching, and securing data.
In his session at the 11th International Cloud Expo, Alex Gaber, an API Evangelist for Layer 7 Technologies, will explore and review numerous tools and frameworks, including best practices around building HTML5 cross-platform hybrid native applications.
Alex Gaber is an API Evangelist for Layer 7 Technologies, a company that manages over 200 APIs spanning business and government. Starting as a web developer 15 years ago, he grew up in Silicon Valley and is an active member in the hackathon and developer community. He has a passion for building web and mobile applications that integrate numerous APIs and to create innovative and unique solutions.
Secure Data in Flight
According to Netcraft, who tracks these kinds of things, SSL usage has doubled from 2008 and 2011. That’s a good thing, as it indicates an upswing in adherence to security best practices that say “SSL Everywhere” just makes good sense.
The downside is overhead, which despite improvements in processing power and support for specific cryptographic processing in hardware still exists. How much overhead is more dependent on the size of data and the specific cryptographic algorithms chosen. SSL is one of those protocols that has different overhead and impacts on performance based on the size of the data. With data less than 32kb, overhead is primarily incurred during session negotiation. After 32kb, bulk encryption becomes the issue.
The problem is that a server is likely going to feel both, because it has to negotiate the session and the average response size for web applications today is well above the 32kb threshold, with most pages serving up 41kb in HTML alone – that’s not counting scripts, images, and other objects.
Gartner: IT to Spend $232B on Big Data over 5 Years
A new report from analyst firm Gartner forecasts that IT organizations will spend $232 billion (US) on hardware, software and services related to Big Data through 2016. Some key findings from the report: $5.5 billion in new software sales will be driven directly by demands for new big data functionality in 2012, and will grow at a rate of over 16% annually through 2016.
The sub-segments receiving the biggest Big Data investments are social network analysis and content analytics, with 45% of new spending each year. In the short term, much more will be spent on IT services than on software, by as much as a 20:1 ratio. Gartner forecasts that this ratio will drop as the market matures., Gartner projects a 20x ratio of IT Services to Software in the short term, dropping as this market matures and more expertise is available “Big Data” will soon be the “new normal”.
Why MaaS (Model as a Service) is the emerging solution for Open Data
Open Data is data that can be freely used, reused and redistributed by anyone – subject only, at the most, to the requirement for attributes and sharealikes (Open Software Service Definition – OSSD).
As a consequence, Open Data should create value and might have a positive impact in many different areas such as government (tax money expenditure), health (medical research, hospital acceptance by pathology), quality of life (air breathed in our city, pollution) or might influence public decisions like investments, public economy and expenditure.
We are talking about services, so open data are services needed to connect the community with the public bodies. However, the required open data should be part of a design and then integrated, mapped, updated and published in a form, which is easy to use.
MaaS is the Open Data driver and enables Open Data portability into the Cloud.
Introduction
Data models used as a service mainly provide …