Sin categoría

Microsoft’s Cloud-Based PaaS Offering: Windows Azure Media Services

«Building a media solution that encodes and streams video to various devices and clients is a complex task,» blogged Microsoft’s Scott Guthrie this week. «It requires hardware and software that has to be connected, configured, and maintained. Windows Azure Media Services makes this problem much easier by eliminating the need to provision and manage your own custom infrastructure,» he added.

Used last year by several broadcasters to stream the London 2012 Olympics, Windows Azure Media Services is now live in production, and Guthrie’s blog introduced it in great depth.

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Sin categoría

Symform Brings in New Leadership

Symform, the distributed cloud backup service, has a new CEO.
The recent incumbent, Matthew Schiltz, is, as they say, “pursuing new opportunities,” replaced by the company’s original backer Mark Ashida, former managing director of OVP Venture Partners and a Symform board member.
The announcement says the Symform board executive team “agreed to leadership adjustments to execute on its aggressive 2013 plan and support the company’s long-term vision.” Its mission is to build the world’s largest virtual data center and cloud storage network. Ashida is supposed to strengthen the company’s management team and drive continued momentum of its Cloud Storage Network focusing on small business and prosumers.

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HP’s Converged Cloud and AppZero

As the cloud market matures, the desire to get the agility and cost savings for new and legacy applications that run your business grows stronger. Quickly migrating to the cloud or across clouds is where AppZero specializes.
At AppZero, we’ve had many discussions with IT leaders who plan to empower business unit mangers to choose whatever cloud they want to run their applications. This represents a marked departure from the developer who chooses a cloud for building an application for test and development purposes. Now business leaders want to choose a cloud vendor that can scale and meet their business objectives and it may not be the cloud where the application lives and breathes forever.
Here is a question that in the IT world is equivalent to asking about gun control: Who should decide which cloud is best for which business application, the application developer or the business manager? (You can now see how controversial the question can be.)

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Human Resources, Microsoft Dynamics, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Microsoft SharePoint, Offender360 Version 2013

Tribridge Updates Offender360 for Corrections Industry

Tribridge, a  U.S. based IT services and business consulting firm, today announced its latest release of Offender360 Version 2013, an integrated offender management solution. Built on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform, Offender360 represents a clear breakthrough for correctional institutions by providing a scalable, user-friendly and cost-effective offender management solution that is capable of managing the entire offender lifecycle. Offender360 Version 2013 will be formally launched on Jan. 28 with an exclusive preview during a private reception at the 2013 American Correctional Association (ACA) Winter Conference in Houston.

Designed to increase information sharing, improve accountability and enhance public safety, Tribridge’s Offender360 Version 2013 leverages Microsoft Dynamics CRM, SharePoint and SQL Server to provide correctional and other public safety institutions with a deployment-ready tool for managing and tracking offenders. Some key features of the offender management solution include Reception and Commitment; Classification; Discipline; Housing and Bed Management; Grievances; and Security Threat Group Management.

Tribridge’s Public Sector experts worked directly with correctional facility professionals and Microsoft to develop a system that is customizable to the needs of individual facilities. Tribridge Offender360 is currently in use or being deployed at several agencies across the United States at both state and regional facilities.

“We are extremely proud and excited about the release of Offender360 Version 2013,” said Josh Jaquish, Managing Director of the Public Sector practice at Tribridge. “While we’ve based quite a few of our modules on CTA (Corrections Technology Association) specifications and guidelines, our customers played a significant role in shaping the newest version of our comprehensive offender management solution.”

Offender360 is one of several solutions that Tribridge has developed for the Public Sector. The sensitive nature of public data and requirements for complete transparency in many cases, as well as the demand for improved constituent service levels and fiscal constraints, elevate the need for technology solutions that are dependable, efficient, cost effective and secure. With hundreds of deployments for various state and local government agencies to its credit, Tribridge’s Public Sector team understands how to help its clients select, adapt and implement technology solutions.

A complete preview of Offender360 Version 2013 offender management solution will be available at the ACA Winter Conference at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Jan. 25-30. Visit Microsoft booth #831 in the Expo Center for specific information, or to schedule a private demonstration at ACA or any other time, please contact Linda Athans at linda.athans@tribridge.com or 813-287-8887, x1212.

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From Infrastructure to Applications: The Next Step in Your Cloud Journey

In the last several years as virtualization and cloud computing adoption has expanded, we have seen endless proof points in support of the value these technologies and solutions bring to Opex and Capex savings. However, cloud has yet to bring to life the agility and efficiency promised to application teams.
In his General Session at Cloud Expo Silicon Valley Shahar Erez, Director at VMware, provides concepts and solutions that can enable customers to leverage their investment in the cloud technologies while surfacing-up capabilities to the application teams to enable them to take advantage of the constructs of the cloud and empowering them to deliver more business value on top of IaaS. He examines types of cloud applications, new approaches to deploy applications, embed policies, monitor the applications and leverage the cloud elasticity.

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Big Data, Denmark, Elasticsearch, Open Source, Partnerships

Elasticsearch, Trifork Partner to Expand Big Data Search

Elasticsearch today announced a partnership with Trifork, a provider of open source solutions, consulting and training for the enterprise market, headquartered in Denmark. Under the partnership, Trifork will include Elasticsearch software within its data and search product portfolio, and offer its global customer base high-end consulting, implementation, training and support for their Elasticsearch-driven big data search projects. Elasticsearch is one of the most popular open source search products in the world and is being used by thousands of companies in production that require real-time data accessibility and transparency across large volumes of distributed data.

“Trifork is an ideal partner for Elasticsearch. Together, we help customers gain invaluable insights hidden in ever-expanding data sets in key markets such as finance, healthcare and telecommunications,” said Steven Schuurman, co-founder and CEO of Elasticsearch. “Their deep experience at developing and supporting business-critical search solutions for its customers is firmly in line with our mission, and will help us to meet the overwhelming demand for Elasticsearch technology.”

A number of Trifork customers already use Elasticsearch including the University of Amsterdam, Greetz, NPO/VPRO, Suppledia, DiVault and PRIME Research. Visit the website to learn more about Trifork’s open source software offerings including the information about our Elasticsearch services.

“We have worked extensively with other open source search solutions, but Elasticsearch has taken real-time information discovery completely to the next level – the combination of its advanced search and analytics capabilities and its user-friendliness makes it the most powerful open source search solution out there,” said Bram Smeets, CTO of Trifork Amsterdam. “We believe in Elasticsearch; the team and the technology and feel both clearly differentiate in a highly competitive market. This makes Elasticsearch the logical choice for both our own internal use and on customer projects.”

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Case Study: Raising ITs Credibility at Dole Fresh Fruit with APM

As Senior Director/IT Leader of Information Technology at Dole Fresh Fruit North America, I am responsible for providing consistent and reliable distribution services for our division. Dole’s mission is to provide our customers with safe, healthy, high-quality products and services. To succeed, our business critical systems must be highly available and we need to quickly identify and resolve problems as they arise.
When I assumed this role in March 2008, IT credibility was at an all-time low. Our internal IT user community was very frustrated with the poor stability of the applications supporting our logistics functions including transportation, product tracking and traceability from Dole farms to our distribution centers. System stability was so poor it disrupted our ability to ship products effectively.

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Amazon, Amazon AWS, Amazon Kindle, Amazon.com, IVONA, Kindle Fire, M&A Activity, Speech synthesis, Voice

Amazon Acquires IVONA, Makers of Kindle Text-to-Speech Tech

Amazon.com, Inc. today announced that it has acquired text-to-speech technology company IVONA Software. IVONA technologies power the “Text-to-Speech,” “Voice Guide” and “Explore by Touch” features on Kindle Fire tablets. Additionally, IVONA delivers text-to-speech products and services for thousands of developers, businesses and customers around the world.

“IVONA’s exceptional text-to-speech technology leads the industry in natural voice quality, accuracy and ease of use. IVONA is already instrumental in helping us deliver excellent accessibility features on Kindle Fire, including Text-to-Speech, Voice Guide and Explore by Touch,” said Dave Limp, Vice President, Amazon Kindle. “The IVONA team shares our passion for innovation and customer obsession, and we look forward to building great products to deliver world-class voice solutions to customers around the world.”

“For more than ten years, the IVONA team has been focused on creating innovative text-to-speech technologies,” said Lukasz Osowski, CEO and co-founder of IVONA. “We are all thrilled that Amazon is supporting our growth so that we can continue to innovate and deliver exceptional voice and language support for our customers.”

IVONA offers voice and language portfolios with 44 voices in 17 languages and more in development.

Sin categoría

AppDynamics Pulls in $50 Million

AppDynamics is a four-year-old start-up that can tick off all the current buzzwords that make a VC get out a pen and write a check – to wit, it manages and accelerates federated web apps in the cloud, tries to make sure they stay up and spots problems with their web sites.
So it’s gotten a juicy $50 million D round led by Institutional Venture Partners after the VC discovered that a lot of its portfolio companies were using the stuff.
Other enterprise customers include Cornell University, Orbitz, Expedia, Tivo, Overstock.com, Fox News, Staples, Time Warner Cable, Intuit, Priceline and Netflix. It reportedly has 500 clients.

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CIO, Miscellaneous IT, Twitter

Top CIOs on Twitter

By Ben Stephenson, Journey to the Cloud

Vala Afshar (@valaafshar) of Enterasys Networks recently posted a list of the 50 most social CIOs on Twitter, along with 20 rising stars. If you’re on Twitter and looking to connect with peers and gain useful information, these CIOs are worth checking out. Vala’s list is below…What do you think? Did he leave anyone off that you think was worthy of making the list?

Top 50 CIOs on Twitter: [Name — Company, Twitter Alias]

  1. Oliver      Bussmann — SAP, @sapcio
  2. Jason      Smylie — Capriotti’s Sandwich Shop, @capriottisjason
  3. Jonathan      Reichental — City of Palo Alto, CA, @Reichental
  4. Peter      Yared — CBS Interactive, @peteryared
  5. Mike Kail      — Netflix, @mdkail
  6. Brenda      Cooper — City of Kirkland, WA, @brendacooper
  7. Ben Grey      — Oak Lawn-Hometown District 123, IL, @bengrey
  8. John      Halamka — Beth Isreal Deaconess, @jhalamka
  9. Susan      Bearden — Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy, @s_bearden
  10. Kelly      Walsh — College of Westchester, @EmergingEdTech
  11. Casey      Coleman — General Services Administration, @caseycoleman
  12. Victor      Fetter — LPL Financial, @vpfetter
  13. Joe Palmer      — Jefferson County, CO, @CIOJoe
  14. Phil      Komarny — Seton Hill University, @PhilKomarny
  15. Brett      Bobley — National Endowment for the Humanities, @brettbobley
  16. Rachel      Wente–Chaney — High Desert Education Service District, OR, @rwentechaney
  17. Ben Haines      — Pabst Brewing Co., @bhaines0
  18. Steven      VanRoekel — Executive Office of the President, @stevenvDC
  19. Aaron      Batalion — Livingsocial.com, @abatalion
  20. Dan Webber      — Prime Holdings BV, @SocialDanWebber
  21. Stephen      diFilipo — Cecil College, @S_dF
  22. Paul Slot      — KPN Corporate Market, @Tri4Ever
  23. Vivek      Kundra — Salesforce.com , @VivekKundra
  24. Sonny      Hashmi — Deputy Chief Information Officer, GSA, @sonny_h
  25. Michael      Skaff — LesConcierges, @mskaff
  26. Adam      Gerrard — LateRooms group, @CIO_Adam
  27. Linda      Cureton — NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, @curetonl
  28. Mark      Brewer — Seagate Technology, @brewerma
  29. Jos Creese      — Hampshire, @JosCreese
  30. Will      Weider — Ministry Health Care, @CandidCIO
  31. John David      Son — Naperville 203 School District, IL, @JDSCIO
  32. Kim      Stevenson — Intel Corporation, @Kimsstevenson
  33. Brian      Miller — Davenport University, @suydam
  34. Paul Coby      — CIO and Head of BA Services at British Airways, @PaulCoby
  35. Drex      DeFord — Steward Health Care, @drexdeford
  36. David      Sullivan — City of Norfolk, VA, @ciophoto
  37. Glenn      Lanteigne — South West LHIN, @GlennLanteigne
  38. Stephen      Lamb — British Columbia Institute of Technology, @SEE_EYE_OH
  39. Laurent      Maumet — SOITEC, @lmau
  40. Steve      Huffman — Memorial Health System of South Bend, @SteveHuffmanCIO
  41. Brian      Nettles — Sigma Solutions, Inc, @7bn
  42. Ganesan      Ravishanker — Wellesley University, @ravishan
  43. Jon Walton      — City of San Francisco, CA, @SFCityCIO
  44. Paul Dale      — ITV, @paulcdale
  45. Bruce Maas      — University of Wisconsin, @uwmadisonCIO
  46. Sean      O’Donoghue — DreamWorks Animation, @seanwod
  47. Susan      Kellogg — Kenan-Flagler Businss School, UNC, @susankellogg
  48. Thabo      Ndlela — Sun International, @ThaboNdlela
  49. Steve Spot      — Alarm New England , @SteveSpott
  50. Kelly      Flanagan — BYU, @kelflanagan

20 Rising Star CIOs on Twitter (Name — Company, Twitter Alias)

  1. Baz      Abouelenein — Kansas City Kansas Community College, @CIO_Baz
  2. A. Michael      Berman — California State University, Channel Islands, @amichaelberman
  3. Raechelle      Clemmons — St. Norbert University, @rclemmons
  4. Sabine      Everaet — Coca-Cola- Europe, @S_Everaet
  5. Scott      Fenton — Wind River Systems, @sdfenton
  6. Bill      Greeves — County of Roanoke, VA, @bgreeves
  7. David      Hinson — Hendrix College, @davidjhinson
  8. Rick      Holgate — Bureau of the ATF, @rickholgate
  9. Jeanette      Horan — IBM, @jeanettehoran
  10. Roxane      Reynolds-Lair — Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, @IBMiCiO
  11. Tom      LaPlante — Top Golf, @tomlap
  12. Ernest      Lehmann — Nicholas H. Noyes Memorial Hospital, @ernestlehmann
  13. John D.      McMillen — Graves County Schools, Kentucky, @ujdmc
  14. Brian      Nettles — Sigma Solutions, Inc, @7bn
  15. Dan Petlon      — Enterasys, @DanPetlon
  16. Sukumar      Rajagopal — Cognizant Technology Solutions, @rsukumar
  17. Bill      Schrier — (former)City of Seattle, WA, @billschrier
  18. Wayne      Shurts — Sysco, @wayneshurts
  19. Trad      Robinson — SC School for the Deaf and Blind, @TradRobinson
  20. Joanna      Young — University of New Hampshire, @unhcio

 

Enjoy!

The cloud news categorized.