CCIE Certification, CDW, CDW Cloud Collaboration, Cisco, Cisco Systems, Collaboration, Partnerships

CDW Offering Cisco Cloud Collaboration Solution

CDW  today announced its new CDW Cloud Collaboration solution. CDW, a Cisco Gold Certified Partner, will host the new offering in its own facilities and will combine Cisco’s collaboration platforms with CDW professional services to provide customers the security and personalization of a traditional, on-premise communications solution with the flexibility, scale and economics of a cloud solution.

Most organizations understand the value of collaboration technologies such as voice and video conferencing, voicemail or customer collaboration platforms, but many lack the deep technical expertise and staff resources to successfully deploy and manage them. With CDW’s Cloud Collaboration offering, users can focus on critical business responsibilities and customer needs with peace of mind, knowing that CDW is behind them to deliver a strategic collaboration solution from design to implementation to management.

“The way organizations work is changing, with employees no longer confined to working in the same physical location and customers increasingly involved in product and service development. As a result, collaboration technology needs are evolving,” said Christine Holloway, vice president of converged infrastructure solutions, CDW. “Today, organizations need new technologies that increase efficiency, accommodate a dispersed workforce and integrate customer communications, while freeing up IT staff to work on other projects. Built upon industry-leading technology from Cisco, CDW Cloud Collaboration includes all the features necessary to provide organizations with top collaboration services.”

CDW’s Cloud Collaboration solution, powered by the Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution (HCS), provides organizations with exceptional flexibility in choosing the way that collaboration applications are deployed. The capability to choose a hosted deployment option can also help organizations deploy collaboration technologies faster, while potentially lowering capital expenditures and operating expenses.

“As enterprises adopt collaboration technologies to quickly connect people with a high level of security to the resources and information they need to get work done, many businesses are requiring cloud solutions and looking for options from partners,” said Richard McLeod, senior director, Worldwide Partner Collaboration Sales at Cisco. “Based on Cisco HCS, CDW Cloud Collaboration provides customers with the flexibility to have collaboration applications delivered to them as services, with ongoing support and management provided by CDW.”

CDW Cloud Collaboration is supported by a dedicated team of CDW solution architects and engineers, and each client will have its own highly secure, virtualized private intranet hosted in CDW’s facilities. Partnering with Cisco helps ensure that CDW Cloud Collaboration meets a proven quality standard, with CDW’s expert team ready to support implementation and management. CDW holds Cisco Master Certifications in unified communications, managed services and security, and the CDW team includes more than 600 Cisco certified engineers, including more than 50 with the CCIE certification – the highest technical certification offered by Cisco. Further demonstrating CDW’s deep knowledge, Cisco recently named CDW its Global Partner of the Year – Americas and awarded the company its U.S. Nationals Architectural Excellence Award for Collaboration.

For more information about CDW’s Cloud Collaboration offerings, please visit: http://www.cdw.com/cloudcollaboration.


Mobile, Mobile application development, NeoLoad, Neotys, Partnerships, Performance testing, Tools, Wipro

Neotys Partners with Wipro for Performance Testing Solutions for Web, Mobile Applications

Neotys today announced that Wipro Technologies, the Global Information Technology, Consulting and Outsourcing business of Wipro Limited, has chosen NeoLoad, a leading load and performance testing solution for web and mobile applications, to upgrade its performance testing suite to increase test productivity and enhance the value proposition for end customers.

As part of this alliance, Wipro will provide testing solutions for customers who need load and performance testing solutions for Web and mobile applications, using NeoLoad. Wipro will use NeoLoad to realistically simulate user activity and analyze server behavior. The solution allows Wipro consultants to test more quickly, efficiently and frequently, enabling customers to safely deploy Internet, intranet or mobile applications on whatever architecture they use. NeoLoad supports Flex, Silverlight, GWT, Ajax Push, HTML5 etc. Wipro will also use NeoLoad across the major application types including ERP and CRM from the major providers. NeoLoad supports Oracle, SAP and Microsoft among others.

“We’ve had outstanding results from the Neotys partnership already,” said Arun Kumar Singh, VP Testing Services Business, Wipro. “Using NeoLoad we were able to reduce the testing time required for many applications by 30%. We expect NeoLoad to substantially increase our productivity and the value we provide to our customers.”

“As one of the world’s leading IT majors, Wipro provides a comprehensive solution for customers looking to implement and test web and mobile applications either within their company firewalls or in the cloud,” said Laurent Gaudy, VP Partners & Alliances, Neotys. “This partnership is strategic to Neotys and we look forward to the expanded presence that Wipro will provide to us.”

“Developing partnerships is a key step in market maturity as it broadens a vendor’s ability to address a wider market,” said Thomas Murphy, research director with Gartner. “As applications become more complex, an increasing number of users rely on a mixture of internal and outsourced resources to achieve cost effective results, making it imperative to form strategic relationships.”

Wipro Technologies is the largest offshore independent testing services provider with innovative solutions and differentiated offerings that reduce cycle times and provide quality assurance for software across industry verticals and domains and has 13+ years of experience in independent Testing Services. The Testing Services Business is a service line in Wipro with testing capabilities across verticals and domains.


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Which of these lesser known storage services is right for you?

There are so many cloud storage services vying for your business that it can be seriously tough to decide on which is best. DropBox is the poster child and flush with an infusion of $250m in venture capital. Good on flexibility and functionality but not so much on pricing. DropBox for Teams provides 1000 GB of storage, version history, admin tools and customer support starting at $795 per year for five users.

Small businesses with basic needs may get away with using Google or Microsoft. Google Drive offers five GB free, 25 GB for $2.49 per month and goes all the way up to 16 TB for $799.99 per month. The pricing is competitive and you have limited version history, the ability to share and edit files and the option to have discussions.

The problem is Google would like you to use all their services. It’s perfect …

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DoD Cloud Computing Strategy

The DoD recently released the department’s formal cloud computing strategy.

DoD Cloud Computing Strategy

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In the forward, DoD CIO Teresa Takai said that:

“The DoD Cloud Computing Strategy has been expanded to address use of commercial cloud services in the Department’s multi-provider enterprise cloud environment. Adoption and implementation of commercially provided cloud services are being rapidly accelerated with the maturing of the Federal Cloud Computing initiative, the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), and release of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act.”

Specific cloud computing transition steps include:

  • Foster adoption of Cloud Computing
  • Optimize Data Center Consolidation
  • Establish the DoD Enterprise Cloud Infrastructure; and
  • Deliver Cloud Services

A subsequent memo identified the Defense Information Systems Agency as the department cloud services broker.

DISA Broker Designation

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A copy of the strategy is available for download at http://www.slideshare.net/kvjacksn/findod-cloud-computing-strategy

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( Thank you. If you enjoyed this article, get free updates by email or RSS – © Copyright Kevin L. Jackson 2012)



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Layer 7 At Your Service

Layer 7 has been providing solutions for more than a decade. In this time, we have gained valuable experience of how to make our industry-leading products deliver maximum benefit in critical customer environments. In particular, we’ve gained a great deal of knowledge about how to translate clients’ business needs into robust solutions that meet the functional requirements and address key non-functional areas like performance, security and operations.

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What are the 7 challenges facing federal cloud computing?

The United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) has found that, while the US ‘Cloud First’ enterprise project is making tangible progress, there are seven cloud lessons for the public sector.

The report, subtitled “progress made but future cloud computing efforts should be better planned”, charts the progress of Cloud First – a federal policy which exhorts agencies to find a cloud-based IT solution whenever logistically possible.

Things appear to have moved forward since 2010, when the GAO previously warned about the difficulties associated with federal cloud management.

Back in May 2010, the accountability office found that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in the White House hadn’t even developed a cloud strategy.

But it appears there is still work to be done.

Research as recently as October 2011 found that 22 out of 24 major federal agencies were either “concerned or very concerned” about security risks in the cloud …

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Random Saturday Morning Cloud Thoughts

Half a dozen random cloud thoughts on a hot and cloudless Saturday morning in Illinois

1. Mobile will end the bleeding in the media industry, as apps rather than advertising drive revenue. Online ads will be dead within five years.

2. “Cloud crash” has already replaced “computer error” as the catch-all explanation for human screw-ups. It will grow in popularity as local governments and businesses make their inevitable, yet painful move to cloud computing.

3. Amazon joins cigarette and fast-food companies as being able to blame customers for problems legitimately. But in Amazon’s case, the problem is customers don’t buy enough, rather than too much.

4. Tired of “SEO Gurus?” Well, brace yourself for the great transmogrification to “Mobile SEO Gurus.’ MoSeRoos.

5. VMware and its open-source competitors have not begun to fight. Prepare for the Gigantic Cloud Clusterfail in 2014 when organizations realize they’ve got more on-site spaghetti than ever.

6. Windows 8 will be the biggest news in mobility next year, if it makes big deals with the carriers. Can it do so in an era when it can no longer be a monopolistic bully?

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Olympic Cloud, CloudViews Unplugged, Cloud-Based EHR, and More…

IT spending is on the rise, according to this New York Times article. Recent figures published by Gartner state that IT spending will increase by 3% from 2011, more than was previously predicted. Cloud computing is one of the main contributors to the increased spending as more companies start to adopt the technology. Spending on public cloud services is predicted to rise from $91b in 2011 to $109b in 2012. Still, cloud services represent only a fraction of the $3.6 trillion that is predicted to be spent on IT in 2012.

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Cloud News

  • IT spending is on the rise, according to this New York Times article. Recent figures published by Gartner state that IT spending will increase by 3% from 2011, more than was previously predicted. Cloud computing is one of the main contributors to the increased spending as more companies start to adopt the technology. Spending on public cloud services is predicted to rise from $91b in 2011 to $109b in 2012. Still, cloud services represent only a fraction of the $3.6 trillion that is predicted to be spent on IT in 2012.

  • The Olympics may be the perfect event to showcase the power and scalability of cloud computing, but unfortunately, that won’t be happening in London this year, according to this ZDnet blog. CIO for the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games, Gerry Pennell, revealed that cloud infrastructure isn’t mature enough to support the games, but he predicts that we’ll see cloud computing being utilized in future events.

  • Microsoft announced a pre-beta version of the Service Management Portal which provides a Windows Azure-like Infrastructure-as-a-Service experience for users, whether they are using Microsoft’s cloud or not, according to this GigaOM article.

  • Cloud computing may add as many as 14 million new jobs worldwide by 2015, according to this Forbes.com article.

Featured Content on Cloud Commons


Gartner Report: Cloud Sourcing: Lessons Learned from Early Adopters

Cloud offerings continue to grow in maturity and volume. CIOs look at them as an alternative in their IT value chain. Gartner recently assesses organizations that purchased cloud-based service offerings. This report by Gartner (compliments of Cloud Commons® Ecosystem) shares some early lessons from their experiences.

Feature article


Survey Says – We’re More Comfortable with Cloud, Yet Same Worries Persist

By George Hulme, Independent Writer

George Hulme

A survey released just prior to the 2012 GigaOM Structure Conference had a number of interesting results about cloud services adoption. It seems organizations are concerned about security, compliance, and cloud lock-in, but certainly not enough to curb adoption.

785 respondents including industry experts, users and vendors participated in the survey. Respondents were asked about such cloud issues as business drivers, objections, and its business impact. One potential ding of the survey is that 65 percent of respondents were vendors, and only 35 percent were classified as customers. So the results may skew heavily toward what vendors would like to see market realities to be, rather than what they are. Plus, cloud vendors are certain to be cloud champions (one would certainly hope so, anyway).

Here are a number of the headline findings from the survey I found interesting. Read the full article.

Cloud Views

  • In the July episode of CloudViews Unplugged, Andi Mann and George Watt of CA Technologies wrap up the month’s cloud news in 10 minutes. This month’s episode topics include Europe’s cloud, Oracle’s cloud, Google Coordinate and IaaS, Facebook and more!

  • Is cloud-based EHR taking the healthcare industry by storm? In this Cloud Commons blog, George Hulme discusses a recent article which declared that cloud-based EHR is having a huge impact on the health industry, but the data may not be there to back the claim.

  • Should you design your cloud for failure? In this Forbes blog, Reuven Cohen discusses the recent outage of Amazon Web Services due to a lightning storm on the east coast that brought down popular websites including Netflix, Pinterest and Instagram. Reuven suggests that businesses should rely on more than one cloud provider and an automated fail-over process to ensure business continuity.

  • A recent survey conducted by Rackspace revealed that 91% of IT decision makers think cloud computing is a positive thing, according to this ZDNet blog. The survey also revealed some of the top concerns when it comes to cloud including adding additional computing power and vendor lock-in.

MSP Corner

  • A recent report from AMI Partners reveals that US SMBs will invest $34 billion in cloud services in 2012, according to this MSPmentor article. This article takes a look out how MSPs should be positioning themselves to take advantage of the increased interest in cloud among SMBs.

  • With HostingCon just around the corner, many MSPs that are evaluating cloud services and strategies will be heading to the event in Boston, according to this Talkin’ Cloud blog. The blog also details some of the current trends for MSPs and their involvement with cloud.

Upcoming Cloud Events

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