SYS-CON Events announced today that Telx, leading provider of global interconnectivity, cloud enablement services and 100% Uptime SLA data center facilities, will exhibit at SYS-CON’s 13th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 4–7, 2013, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Telx is a leading provider of interconnection and data center services in strategic, high-demand North American markets. With 20 datacenters supported by 100% Uptime SLAs and 24 Hour Cross Connect guarantees, Telx increases speed to market and reduces connectivity costs by providing direct connections to a community of the industry’s highest performance networks and access to 1,100+ customers, including leading telecommunications carriers, ISPs, cloud providers, content providers and enterprises. Telx is a privately held company headquartered in New York City, servicing 13 US markets with six facilities across the New York / New Jersey Metro area, two facilities in Chicago, two facilities in Dallas, four facilities in California (Los Angeles, San Francisco, and two in Santa Clara), two Pacific Northwest facilities (Seattle and Portland), and facilities in Atlanta, Miami, Phoenix and Charlotte, N.C.
Growth of Cloud-based Mobile Platforms
This morning I was reviewing the preliminary results of my «State of Enterprise Mobility 2013» survey. Over 210 people have now completed it. Thank You!!!!! The results are very interesting and point to many changes in perceptions and preferences year-over-year. Stay tuned here for the complete and final results soon.
I was surprised to see that 34.7% of participants now prefer cloud-based mobile platforms. That is especially meaningful when you consider 23% don’t even use a mobile platform. If my math is right, 45% of those that use or want to use a mobile platform prefer a cloud-based platform. That is meaningful.
Behind the Scenes of IT Resource Scheduling
By Ryann Edwards, PMP, Resource Specialist, LogicsOne
A few years ago, we made a change at GreenPages-LogicsOne to streamline how we handle the resource scheduling process. It’s a good thing too, because so far in 2013 there have been close to 400 engagements that have used this new process. While scheduling a large group of resources may sound easy, at times it feels like it takes a team of highly skilled scientific specialists and analysts to get it right. Ok, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but there is actually a bit of a science to it.
I should begin with the disclaimer that the process hasn’t always been so efficient. In fact, most of my new hire trainings begin with the “back in the day” spiel because it brings to light the lessons we’ve learned. This in turn leads to where we are today. So where did we begin? We were slightly blind. Our services team of Account Executive, Solutions Architects, and Project Managers were working in silos when it came to choosing and selecting resources for our services engagements. Everyone involved had the best of intentions: to find the right resource for the project, meet our customers’ deadlines or requests, schedule the project, and implement a highly successful engagement. The problem came when multiple Project Managers had “just the right project” for “just the right Consultant” who, yes, happened to be just the same person. Needless to say, as our professional services organization has grown and matured over the years, the need became strong for a streamlined scheduling system. That brings us to present day where we now have a Resource Specialist team to handle scheduling requests.
As I mentioned above, there is quite a bit of thought and strategy (“science” may have been pushing it) that plays out behind the scenes when it comes to the scheduling of service projects. It is imperative that at the forefront of it all is our customers’ best interests, including special requests and internal deadlines. While some might joke that we should just throw darts at a board of names to figure out who to schedule, I assure that you that we really don’t. In fact, we look at each Statement of Work and scheduling request that comes in to our queue in great detail. From researching the background and history that Consultants may already have with a client, to looking at geographical location, travel, availability, customer dependencies and deadlines; there are a lot of considerations.
At the end of the day, our objective is always the same: to make sure we are looking at the big picture and are doing everything we can to keep our internal and external customers satisfied. Our top priority is making sure the resource(s) assigned to a project are a good match for all parties involved, so the outcome is a successful professional service engagement for our customers. Believe it or not, our customers can help in this process. Here are some things that help us ensure a successful engagement:
- Sign Off. The signed Statement of Work is crucial. It is the only way we can fairly and accurately prioritize requests for services.
- Information. The more details you can provide regarding the project or services, the better. Does a key resource on the project have an upcoming vacation? Are there outside dependencies that will effect when your project can start? Do you have an important internal deadline that you need to meet? All of those things are pieces to the scheduling puzzle.
- Be open-minded. While you may have worked with one Consultant in the past and would like to use them again, we have a full staff of highly qualified resources that welcome the opportunity to work with you!
Streamlining the scheduling process has allowed members of the services organization to focus on other important aspects in the project lifecycle; project planning, managing, and executing. Having a team dedicated solely to resourcing has improved efficiency in scheduling, increased visibility into utilization of the solutions team, and is a key piece of the puzzle for successful project delivery.
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Google, Amazon Outages a Real Threat For Those Who Rely On Cloud Storage
Guest Post by Simon Bain, CEO of SearchYourCloud.
It was only for a few minutes, however Google was down. This follows hot on the heels of the other major cloud provider Amazon being down for a couple of hours earlier in August. This even relatively short outage could be a real problem for organizations that rely on these services to store their enterprise information. I am not a great lover of multi-device synchronization, I mean all those versions kicking around your systems! However if done well, it could be one of the technologies that help save ‘Cloud Stores’ from the idiosyncrasies of the Internet and a connected life.
We seem to be currently in the silly season of outages, with Amazon, Microsoft and Google all stating that their problems were cause by a switch being replaced or an update going wrong.
These outages may seem small for the supplier. But they are massive for the customer, who is unable to access sales data or invoices for a few hours.
This however, should not stop people using these services. But it should make them shop around, and look at what is really on offer. A service that does not have synchronization may well sound great. But if you do not have a local copy of your document on the device that you are actually working on, and your connection goes down, for whatever reason, then your work will stop.
SearchYourCloud Inc. has recently launched SearchYourCloud, a new application that enables people to securely find and access information stored in Dropbox, Box, GDrive, Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint or Outlook.com with a single search. Using either a Windows PC or any IOS device, SearchYourCloud will also be available for other clouds later in the year.
SearchYourCloud enables users to not only find what they are searching for, but also protects their data and privacy in the cloud.
Simon Bain is Chief Architect and CEO of SearchYourCloud, and also serves on the Board of the Sun Microsystems User Group.
Is the Cloud Really Less Costly Than On-Premise?
To state the obvious, businesses of all sizes are moving their applications to the cloud or renting software as a service (SaaS) instead of licensing or buying the software outright.
The number one reason people cite is cost. Businesses large and small are under the impression they can save a bundle by moving their apps to the cloud. At the same time, companies who handle a move to the cloud badly can suffer a negative backlash from their user community.
When you consider all the cost factors, like your time, energy and risk to your business, will you save money in the long run by going with SaaS? The short answer is no.
One thing is clear: businesses will pay less up front for cloud vs. on-premise. Modern SaaS systems are rented on a pay-as-you-go basis, or might have short-term contracts. Average license fees for equivalent on-premise software range from two to three years’ worth of SaaS subscriptions. Add in 20% annual maintenance when you buy and install your own software and you are in concept paying three years’ worth of subscription revenues up front for the same tools.
Deep Insight and Collaboration in the Cloud: A Customer Story
Recently, one of our customers, let’s call him PointInFact, had a very typical problem. After deploying a new version of its software, some user requests degraded horribly. Requests that should have taken half a second took up to a minute. Interestingly, the PointInFact team runs a multi-tenant SaaS solution in the AWS Cloud and relies heavily on cloud services. This reliance makes User Experience Management and fault domain isolation very challenging.
Back Story: Application Running in the AWS Cloud
PointInFact runs a SaaS service. Internally this results in a multi-tenant service where each customer has his own instance of the application he subscribes to. All of these applications and services are hosted in Amazon’s EC2 Cloud where they dynamically create new application environments and offload some functionality to AWS by using the provided services. As a SaaS business, customer satisfaction is very important to them, as a consequence they monitor all applications and services centrally and from an end-user and server-side perspective with Compuware APM.
Transporting HIPAA Best Practices to the Cloud
The people assigned to rethink the role of cloud computing by those charged with HIPAA best practices management and security have a daunting task on their hands these days. There are many decisions that should be made, and not a lot of emerging information and best practices.
However, as more cloud providers hit the market, many are offering HIPAA-compliant cloud services. At least, that’s what they are selling. The trick is to arm yourself with enough information to make sure you make the right choices, and move in the right directions.
The most important best practice is to understand the existing requirements, and then understand how the emerging uses of cloud computing could provide compliant and secure HIPAA solutions. The good news is that this is not the first time we’ve dealt with HIPAA data outside of our own data centers; we’ve been working with managed services, hosting, and co-location providers for years.
NetIQ to Exhibit at Cloud Expo Silicon Valley
SYS-CON Events announced today that NetIQ, a global, enterprise software company, will exhibit at SYS-CON’s 13th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 4–7, 2013, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
NetIQ is a global, enterprise software company with a relentless focus on customer success. Our portfolio includes scalable, automated solutions for Identity, Security, Access, Governance, Systems and Application, Service, and Workload Management that help organizations securely deliver, measure and manage computing services across physical, virtual and cloud computing environments.
Cloud Expo Silicon Valley: Cloud Marketplace for ISVs
To succeed in the software business, you need good software and great business skills. The software part is probably already covered, but growing your business without busting the bank can be tough. That’s why partnering with SHI makes good business sense.
In his session at the 13th International Cloud Expo®, Greg Rusu SHI’s Senior Director of Cloud Product Management, will show how the SHI Cloud Marketplace, in combination with one of the industry’s largest and most successful sales force, can be a great way to grow your market share.
Cloud Expo: SHI Cloud Marketplace, Brokering for the Enterprise
In his session at the 13th International Cloud Expo®, Wade Yi, Managing Director & Head of Cloud Solutions at SHI, will discuss the technical and financial benefits of using the SHI Cloud Marketplace to discover, customize, and automate the provisioning of both large and small scale cloud services, using different providers and carriers. He will also discuss the advantages of integrating cloud service provisioning with existing corporate procurement processes.
Wade Yi is Managing Director & Head of Cloud Solutions at SHI, where he oversees the SHI cloud strategy, ecosystem partnerships, & sales enablement for all of SHI’s cloud solutions.
He joined SHI from HP where he served in a variety of roles including sales management, solution sales, ISV management and software business development. Prior to HP, he worked in software development, support and sales functions for two startups.
He has a PhD in Engineering from University of Maryland and an MBA from Cornell University.