Cloud Security Alliance, Distributed Management Task Force, Object Management Group, Open Data Center Alliance, Open Grid Forum, Open Group, Standards, Storage Networking Industry Association

DMTF Releases Specification for Simplifying Cloud Infrastructure Management

The Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF), the organization bringing the IT industry together to collaborate on systems management standards development, validation, promotion and adoption, today announced the release of the new Cloud Infrastructure Management Interface (CIMI) specification. The new specification standardizes interactions between cloud environments to achieve interoperable cloud infrastructure management between service providers and their consumers and developers, enabling users to manage their cloud infrastructure use easily and without complexity.

Cloud computing allows customers to improve the efficiency, availability and flexibility of their IT systems over time. As companies have adopted cloud computing, vendors have embraced the need to provide interoperability between enterprise computing and cloud services. DMTF developed CIMI as a self-service interface for infrastructure clouds, allowing users to dynamically provision, configure and administer their cloud usage with a high-level interface that greatly simplifies cloud systems management.

“The CIMI standard is a critical piece for cloud infrastructure management because it alleviates complexity while improving flexibility, portability and security,” said Winston Bumpus, Chairman of the Board, DMTF. “With the release of the CIMI v1.0 specification, DMTF offers a well-rounded, industry-wide solution for simplifying cloud infrastructure management.”

Today’s release includes two components:

  • Cloud Infrastructure Management Interface – (CIMI) Model and REST
    Interface over HTTP Specification
  • Cloud Infrastructure Management Interface – (CIMI) Primer

The CIMI specification is the centerpiece of DMTF’s Cloud Management Initiative, and is the first standard created by the Cloud Management Working Group (CMWG). DMTF’s Cloud Management Initiative includes contributions from additional working groups including the Cloud Auditing Data Federation Working Group (CADF WG), the Network Services Management Working Group (NSM WG), the Software License Management (SLM) Incubator and the System Virtualization, Partitioning, and Clustering Working Group (SVPC WG). Additional announcements are expected from DMTF cloud-related working groups early next year.

DMTF working groups and incubators collaborate with a number of industry organizations in an effort to unify their cloud management initiatives. These organizations include the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), the China Communications Standards Association (CCSA), the China Electronics Standardization Institute (CESI), the Open Data Center Alliance (ODCA), the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA), the Open Grid Forum (OGF), the Object Management Group (OMG), The Open Group (TOG), the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF), the Global Inter-Cloud Technology Forum (GICTF) and the TeleManagement Forum (TMF).

For additional information on DMTF’s cloud efforts, including specifications, whitepapers and charters, visit www.dmtf.org/cloud.

 


Bessemer Venture Partners, ClearSlide, Felicis Ventures, Greylock Partners, Venture Funding

ClearSlide Get $28 Million for Cloud Sales Platform

ClearSlide today announced that it has raised $28 million in Series B funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP), with participation from existing investors Greylock Partners and Felicis Ventures. Byron Deeter, partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, and John M. Jack, former Chief Executive Officer and President of Fortify Software, have joined ClearSlide’s board of directors.

ClearSlide transforms enterprise sales teams by giving them a single, modern, cloud-based platform on which to communicate with their customers and prospects, whether in-person, over the phone, or via email. Companies use ClearSlide’s analytics to keep their sales teams on message, identify and standardize best practices, and optimize collateral. For sales reps, ClearSlide removes technology friction, encourages teamwork, and highlights customer interest. ClearSlide is 100% focused on providing a broad, integrated product platform that helps enterprise sales teams drive more revenue.

“At BVP, we’ve been fortunate to work with and help nurture some of the largest businesses in the SaaS industry, which has given us strong insight into the key growth drivers and metrics of leading cloud companies,” said Byron Deeter. “I was really impressed by ClearSlide’s team, as well as their operating metrics and rate of market adoption. There is extremely strong customer demand for their offering and we’re thrilled to work closely with ClearSlide in their next stage of hyper growth.”

ClearSlide will use the new funding to rapidly expand the team, invest in new products and technologies, open new offices, and expand marketing. The company has quickly grown to more than 100 employees with plans to more than double headcount in San Francisco and New York.

“We see a huge opportunity before us. I’m excited that our latest round of funding gives us the resources to expand even faster,” said Al Lieb, CEO and co-founder of ClearSlide. “I’m truly proud of what our team has built to date, honored by the passion and loyalty from our customers, and look forward to the size and scope of what we will build in the coming year.”

ClearSlide’s customer base is expanding rapidly and includes companies from a wide range of verticals, including media, technology, business and financial services. Industry-leading companies such as CareerBuilder, Expedia, Gannett, Rackspace, Shazam and The Weather Channel rely on ClearSlide daily for customer communications across their sales team.

“We ran a detailed study on the impact of using ClearSlide within our sales team,” said Andrew Garcia, Media Sales & Marketing Manager at Wayfair. “In Q2, we saw a 60% higher close rate for the companies we pitched using ClearSlide, compared to our traditional average. We also clearly saw that the reps that used ClearSlide the most also closed the most business.”

More information on the ClearSlide platform and innovative new product features that are helping sales professionals win more deals can be found at: http://clearslide.com/public/content/company/blog


Uncategorized

Cloud Expo: How Does My Enterprise API Platform Differ from Facebook?

The API Economy is here. Enterprises are making business applications available through APIs to drive business growth and expose new opportunities. The business landscape is being reshaped as dramatically as it was during the rush to create an Internet presence with a web site in the late 90s. APIs are becoming the primary way that businesses interact with their customers, reach new markets, and provide the global app development community with the tools to deliver innovative new business capabilities to customers.
In his session at the 11th International Cloud Expo, Corey Scobie, VP of Technology of SOA Software, will show how businesses are harnessing the power of APIs to reach new customers and markets. He will walk the audience through the growth and evolution of the API, why effective API management us important, how the game changes when companies expose business applications to the outside world.

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Trends and Challenges in the Hyperconnected World

Cloud computing has gained momentum and is increasingly being embraced by enterprises of all sizes. But the cloud itself is often its own worst enemy as performance, reliability, and the lack of enterprise-level capabilities has led to obstacles in growth and adoption of this still promising infrastructure methodology. This is only exacerbated by an increasingly mobile and global world, one that is plagued with security concerns. In his Lunctime Keynote at Cloud Expo New York, Neil Cohen, Akamai’s VP of Enterprise Application Products, discusses the challenges you face in the cloud, and how you can leverage both public and hybrid cloud infrastructures without sacrificing security or control.

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Uncategorized

Cloud-Based Security Services: When Will Market Expectations Be Realized?

Gartner recently issued a research note on “Cloud-Based Security Services,” the capability to deliver security controls without on-premise technology deployment and management. The category currently sits in the “Trough of Disillusionment” in the latest Gartner Hype Cycle for Cloud Security, meaning the technologies offered have failed to meet market expectations.
Gartner suggests that users investigate specific areas in their cloud implementations and SLAs, including service continuity, response time, and customization to ensure they deliver on the expected outcomes. A key design goal of the PerspecSys Cloud Data Protection Gateway was to offer multiple deployment options, including cloud data protection as a service. Our validated Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) hosting partners are well-equipped and experienced in supporting enterprise mission-critical business requirements. Our IaaS partners have a long history of providing a variety of enterprise services – including security – without any on-premise infrastructure, and they do not compromise on service continuity, response time, or user customization. Our cloud data protection virtual service is underpinned through our partners’ SLAs, consistent with what enterprise companies have come to expect.

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Amazon AWS, Amazon S3, Amazon Web Services, Azure, Cloud & IT Management, Cloud Storage, CloudBerry Lab, Microsoft Windows, Rackspace, Storage

Cloud Migrator Transfers Files between Amazon S3, Azure, Rackspace

CloudBerry Lab today announced the beta version of its new CloudBerry Cloud Migrator service that allows users to transfer files from one cloud storage to another. The service supports data migration between Amazon S3, Windows Azure Blob Storage, Rackspace Cloud Files and FTP servers.

Cloud Migrator service by CloudBerry Lab is a web application that lets users transfer their files across different cloud storage services without installing any additional software. All copy operations executes inside a cloud and managed through the web interface.

The service allows users to copy files between different locations or accounts within one cloud storage provider as well as between different. It’s a perfect solution to painlessly migrate data from one Amazon S3 bucket to another or from Amazon S3 to Azure Blob Storage or Rackspace Cloud Files and vice versa.

Finally, Cloud Migrator supports FTP so it can also be used to easily copy/move files from an FTP server to any of the supported cloud storage accounts with no need to implement complicated scripts.

In the Cloud Migrator future releases, the new low-cost Glacier storage by Amazon AWS will be added to the list of supported cloud storage accounts.

CloudBerry Cloud Migrator is available at http://sync.cloudberrylab.com/


Uncategorized

A Pragmatic Journey to the Cloud

As enterprise adoption of cloud computing accelerates, organizations must have a strategy and roadmap for moving to the cloud. Faced with different options including building a private cloud, subscribing to public clouds, or leveraging a hybrid cloud, organizations need a rational and pragmatic approach. In this Lunchtime Keynote Amir Halfon explores the emerging trends in cloud computing and offers best practices for how organizations can successfully navigate a journey to the cloud.
Amir Halfon is Chief Technologist for Financial Services at Oracle, where he oversees the development of industry-specific solutions and strategy, addressing challenges such as Bid Data analytics, on-demand risk management and deep customer insight.

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Vertical Cloud Targets Needs of Wall Street

NYSE Euronext’s innovative cloud and groundbreaking business model targets the needs of Wall Street IT leaders.
We’ll learn about how this innovative cloud and groundbreaking business model targets the needs of Wall Street IT leaders, how the business of the financial services industry has received them, and explore how providing cloud services as a business has evolved.
We’ve been very happy with the progress we’ve made. When we announced at VMworld last year, we had just gone into early access for our first clients in our data center in the New York, New Jersey, Connecticut tri-state area, where we have all of our US-based markets running the New York Stock Exchange Markets, the Arca Electronic Markets, and AMEX

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Cloud Expo Silicon Valley: Best Practices of API Management

We are in the midst of an API revolution. Countless major enterprises are opening up access to their core information systems, allowing innovative third-party developers to build new business opportunities through collaboration and community. However, this remarkable movement puts pressure on IT to manage APIs. The goal is to ensure optimal business outcomes through APIs without inadvertently creating security and system management problems or running up unsustainable costs.
In his session at the 11th International Cloud Expo, Alistair Farquharson, CTO at SOA Software, will address this challenge by exploring some proven best practices for API management.

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Cloud Computing: SUSE Cloud Rolls Out

SUSE claims it’s got the first enterprise-supported private Infrastructure-as-a-Service cloud solution powered by the Essex version of OpenStack, the open source platform that Red Hat is also supporting.
Red Hat’s widgetry, now in preview, won’t solidify until next year. SUSE’s is ready to roll.
It calls the stuff SUSE Cloud, which is supposed to be easier to deploy and manage than Rackspace’s OpenStack package because it’s integrated Crowbar in the thing.

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