This article originally appeared on F5.com on 10.20.15. With Halloween in our rearview mirror and the holiday shopping season upon us, a couple surveys are out examining our fears and in particular, our concerns about identity theft. Apparently, ID theft is not so scary anymore – like entering a haunted house for the hair-raising screams […]
PubNub Announces BLOCKS | @ThingsExpo @PubNub #IoT #Microservices
PubNub has announced the release of BLOCKS, a set of customizable microservices that give developers a simple way to add code and deploy features for realtime apps.PubNub BLOCKS executes business logic directly on the data streaming through PubNub’s network without splitting it off to an intermediary server controlled by the customer. This revolutionary approach streamlines app development, reduces endpoint-to-endpoint latency, and allows apps to better leverage the enormous scalability of PubNub’s Data Stream Network.
Big Data to Smart Data | @ThingsExpo @CloudianStorage #IoT #M2M #BigData
As organizations realize the scope of the Internet of Things, gaining key insights from Big Data, through the use of advanced analytics, becomes crucial. However, IoT also creates the need for petabyte scale storage of data from millions of devices. A new type of Storage is required which seamlessly integrates robust data analytics with massive scale. These storage systems will act as “smart systems” provide in-place analytics that speed discovery and enable businesses to quickly derive meaningful and actionable insights.
In his session at @ThingsExpo, Paul Turner, Chief Marketing Officer at Cloudian, addressed how and where we’ll see smart data first make an impact.
Clouds Are Coming! | @CloudExpo @ZertoCorp #IoT #M2M #API #BigData
The cloud. Like a comic book superhero, there seems to be no problem it can’t fix or cost it can’t slash. Yet making the transition is not always easy and production environments are still largely on premise. Taking some practical and sensible steps to reduce risk can also help provide a basis for a successful cloud transition.
A plethora of surveys from the likes of IDG and Gartner show that more than 70 percent of enterprises have deployed at least one or more cloud application or workload. Yet a closer inspection at the data reveals less than half of these cloud projects involve production workloads, which suggests there is still apprehension in moving towards utilizing cloud for critical core infrastructure.
Strategies for Deploying Mission Critical Apps at Scale By @Anders_Wallgren | @CloudExpo #Cloud
Earlier this month we had a great time on #c9d9 talking about some of the strategies and patterns for deploying mission-critical apps at scale.
New Canonical offering makes it cheaper to run OpenStack on Autopilot
Canonical has launched an OpenStack Autopilot system which it claims will make it so much easier to create and run clouds using open systems that it will ‘dramatically’ cut the cost of ownership. In a statement it promised that the need for staff and consultants will fall as a result of the pre-engineered simplicity built into it OpenStack based system.
The OpenStack Autopilot is a new feature in Canonical’s Landscape management system, a platform based on Linux. The Autopilot can add hardware to an existing cloud, making it easy to grow a private cloud as storage and compute needs change.
According to Canonical, currently the biggest challenge for OpenStack operators is finding a way to adapt their cloud to requirements dynamically, when the computing demands of customers are invariably both volatile and unpredictable. The cost of manually doing this, which involves re-designing entire swathes of infrastructure, is proving prohibitive to many clients, it said. The Autopilot provides a best-practice cloud architecture and automates that entire process, it claims.
Canonical is the company behind Ubuntu, the most widely used cloud platform and the most popular OpenStack distribution. According the latest Linux Foundation survey 65% of large scale production OpenStack clouds are built on Ubuntu. The OpenStack Autopilot allows an operator to choose from a range of software-defined storage and networking options.
The Autopilot presents users with a range of software-defined storage and networking options, studies the available hardware allocated to the cloud, creates an optimised reference architecture for that cluster and installs the cloud from scratch, according to Canonical.
The OpenStack Autopilot is so simple to use that any enterprise can create its own private cloud without hiring specialists, according to Mark Baker, Canonical’s cloud product management leader.
“Over time the Autopilot will manage the cloud, handling upgrades and dealing with operational issues as they occur,” said Baker.
Red Hat launches software defined storage systems that run on commodity hardware
Open source software vendor Red Hat has launched a portfolio of open, software-defined storage systems which will cut costs by running on commodity hardware. The systems will be sold through a variety of sources across Red Hat’s sales channel.
The logic of selling Red Hat Ceph Storage and Red Hat Gluster Storage system through different channels is to widen the scope of opportunity for Red Hat’s partners, it said. The technology will be made available to any participants in the Red Hat Connect for Business and Red Hat Embedded programmes, as well as all Red Hat Certified Cloud and Service Providers from 2016.
Red Hat Ceph Storage and Red Hat Gluster Storage are open source, software-defined storage systems designed to cater for rapid expansion. They will run on commodity hardware and have durable, programmable architectures the vendor said.
Each is suited for different types of enterprise workloads and similarly enterprise customers will be able to mix and match the Red Hat partners whose skill sets are suited to the technical and vertical market conditions.
Red Hat Advanced and Premier partners are authorised to sell Red Hat Storage solutions, but only if they meet the training requirements for their region’s partner programme via the Red Hat Online Partner Enablement Network (OPEN). Having qualified, however, the resellers can be kept motivated as they benefit from competitive and flexible pricing models. Further service incentives come from opportunities to earn additional margin and recurring revenue.
Red Hat Ceph Storage and Red Hat Gluster Storage subscriptions are scheduled to be available to partners through the Red Hat Embedded Program by the end of 2015. Red Hat Ceph Storage and Red Hat Gluster Storage are scheduled to become available to Red Hat Certified Cloud and Service Providers in 2016.
Training and certification, marketing and sales programs, and technical content for Red Hat Storage solutions will be available to certified partners in the Red Hat Connect for Business Partners portal.
“By making Ceph Storage and Gluster Storage enterprise-procurement friendly, Red Hat is positioning itself as a formidable IT storage supplier,” said Ashish Nadkarni, program director at analyst IDC.
Citrix to axe 1000 staff and spin off GoTo amid shareholder pressure
Citrix is to decimate its workforce and spin off its GoTo product into a separate listed company as it seeks $200m savings and a return to its most profitable basics.
The loss of 1000 jobs, thought to be sanctioned under pressure from the activist hedge fund manager Elliott Management, represents 10% of the company’s workforce.
In July BCN reported that Citrix was considering its options for the future of its GoTo range of networking systems, which includes videoconferencing and the popular desktop sharing service GoToMeeting. At the time, Elliott Management, a 7% stakeholder in Citrix, made no secret of its wish to see the company spin off any non-core assets, slim down the product portfolio and cut costs dramatically to yield higher rates of growth.
In an operational review released on November 17th, the company said it would stop investing in certain programmes and products and shut down non-core products. The company said it expects about $200 million in annualized pre-tax cost savings, 75% of which is likely to be in 2016. The job cuts do not include the impact of the spinoff, according to Citrix. The job cuts will cost between $65 million and $85 million in the fourth quarter of 2015 and fiscal 2016 with most of the restructuring would be done in November and in January, Citrix disclosed.
The Go To business, which is valued at $3.5 billion to $4 billion (according to FBR Capital Markets analysis) could be sold as a separate business unit.
In a statement, Citrix said it plans to ‘increase emphasis and resources’ to its core enterprise products, including XenApp, XenDesktop, XenMobile, ShareFile and NetScaler. It has previously been reported that Elliott suggested that Citrix to explore the sale of NetScaler, a system that speeds up cloud based applications.
“We are simplifying our product, marketing, sales, operations and development,” said interim Citrix CEO Bob Calderoni, “Focusing on core strengths and simplifying how we work will improve execution, drive higher profit and begin growth in areas in which we provide the greatest value.”
Analyst Clive Longbottom at Quocirca said Citrix has become becalmed and can’t propel itself to the next level it needs to reach.
“It has a decent position as the main virtual desktop vendor, but with a new CEO and pressure from investors, Citrix has to do something,” said Longbottom.
However GoTo in combination with other technology such as ShareFile could have created the means for a massively scalable information platform, said Longbottom.
“There is one possibility around all this – a possible acquisition by another organisation. If Microsoft acquired a company that it has supported for so long, it would gain a platform for full desktop computing in Azure,” said Longbottom.
Microsoft Visual Studio Dev Essentials Will Include Parallels Desktop Pro and Parallels Access
Great news for developers! Today Microsoft announced that its Visual Studio Dev Essentials, a free program that offers everything developers need to create applications on any device or operating system, will include a three-month subscription to Parallels Desktop for Mac Pro Edition and Parallels Access. This program provides easy access to all the services, tools and […]
The post Microsoft Visual Studio Dev Essentials Will Include Parallels Desktop Pro and Parallels Access appeared first on Parallels Blog.
IoT Software Development and Delivery | @ThingsExpo #IoT #M2M #API
The IoT trend brings rise to a plethora of new and useful services that enrich our lives, simplify it, or save us time and money. To provide these kind of connected – and complex – services, software companies must have three different software teams (at least!) and they have to deliver the different, integrated, service components across different platforms and devices. In addition, software upgrades must be coordinated across all environments to ensure service continuity. Only an integrated DevOps platform can provide the traceability, visibility, shared control, and the ability to react quickly – for these complex software development, test, and deployment processes.