Realtime, creator of the leading global technology framework and applications to power the Realtime web, announced a competition for developers to submit their xRTML 3.0 apps before a distinguished panel of judges, including developer Peter Lubbers of Google and Sam Wierema of TheNextWeb. The latest release of xRTML 3.0, the eXtensible Realtime Multiplatform Language, is transforming the World Wide Web into the Realtime Web.
The new xRTML 3.0 flattens the learning curve for building next-generation apps with bidirectional Realtime communications. Its instantaneous updates employ a fraction of the bandwidth required of traditional request/response and near-real time technologies.
Apprenda Private PaaS + Azure = One Big Happy Cloud
Apprenda has just launched rev 4.0 of its flagship private Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), claiming the new eponymous, uniquely single-language widgetry will be the model for how to modernize existing mission-critical enterprise applications and build new cloud-architected apps and services.
Well, so long as they’re Windows apps and Windows-based cloud environments. Ah, but then let’s remember that 40% of the apps running the enterprise, many of them custom-made, have Windows written all over them.
Security in the Public Cloud Is a Shared Responsibility
While a public cloud provider, like Amazon, secures the datacenter and network, application owners are still responsible for securing their applications and virtual machines (instances).
When you host applications in the public cloud, you assume partial responsibility for securing the application. The cloud provider, for example Amazon Web Services (AWS), secures the physical data center (with locked badge entry doors, fences, guards etc) in addition to securing the physical network with perimeter firewalls. This is no significant change from how you secure your corporate datacenter.
NextGen Healthcare, Partners with Aviacode for Medical Coding
NextGen Healthcare Information Systems, LLC., a wholly owned subsidiary of Quality Systems, Inc., announced today it has partnered with Aviacode, a provider of technology-enabled medical coding services, to provide integrated cloud-delivered medical coding services to NextGen Healthcare clients.
Under this agreement, NextGen Healthcare clients can leverage Aviacode’s ProCoder™, a web-based coding system, along with Aviacode’s experienced network of specialty-specific certified coders to help improve the accuracy and efficiency of medical coding – a critical component of the healthcare revenue cycle.
Through this partnership, providers can take advantage of special pricing on Aviacode’s turnkey medical coding services. The NextGen Healthcare and Aviacode platforms are seamlessly integrated with the billing system to ensure the highest degree of data integrity. This provides a more efficient option for medical coding services to help clients optimize revenue while minimizing compliance risk.
“In the healthcare industry, proper reimbursement for healthcare services is crucial to the financial stability of any business. However, fair and complete reimbursement is only realized when services are accurately coded,” noted David Jensen, founder and chief executive officer at Aviacode. “This partnership allows Aviacode to continue its growth with the leading practice management and electronic health record system in the industry.”
“Realizing appropriate payment for services is a challenge for healthcare providers across the board and becoming increasingly difficult. Our goal has been, and continues to be, helping our clients reduce costs while improving the quality of care. Coding can have a major impact on a provider’s ability to manage revenue, insurance denials and compliance risk,” said Monte Sandler, executive vice president for NextGen RCM Services. “Our partnership with Aviacode is just one more example of the solutions and services we offer that afford providers the opportunity to leave their revenue cycle worries to us — the experts — allowing them to focus on clinical competency and patient care.”
Quest Software Adds Monitoring for Windows Azure Apps
Quest Software, Inc., now part of Dell today announced the general availability of Foglight for Windows Azure Applications, as well as beta availability of Foglight for Cloud Cost Management. Both are available immediately via the new Foglight On-Demand platform. This enhanced product offering, together with a new, currently free, cost management tool, enables developers to easily optimize the performance of applications built on the Windows Azure platform.
“The enhanced functionality in Foglight for Windows Azure Applications and the accompanying new and free tools open the door for Quest to provide valuable services at a nominal price to small- and mid-sized organizations that are leveraging Azure today. For large enterprises, these new solutions provide the assurance that when they are ready to leverage cloud platforms, or look to use SaaS-based application performance monitoring (APM), Quest will be there to support them.”
Thunderhead.com Launches ONE for Capital Markets
Thunderhead.com today announced the launch of its ONE for Capital Markets solution for the cloud.
The cloud solution automates trade and relationship documentation processing and all paper transactions throughout the entire trading lifecycle, across all asset classes and product types, to bolster business performance through enhanced compliance, greater control and reduced costs.
Used by 14 of the G15 investment banks and major energy companies, the Thunderhead.com functionality is now available as a Software as a Service to the broader trading sector, and provides a path to cloud for existing on-premise customers. The solution provides real-time collaboration capabilities to support secure multi-party negotiation based on a single source of the truth, eliminating the time-consuming and error-prone sequential circulation of documents.
In addition, the solution allows trade data in industry-schema based XML to be fed to downstream processes, enabling rapid integration and regulatory reporting.
The SaaS solution has been developed with advisory support from a group of representatives from the G15 investment banks as well as Sapient Capital Markets to ensure market compliance in line with CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) and ESMA (European Securities and Markets Authority) rules.
QuickBooks Mobile Now Optimized for Android Tablets
Intuit reports that design updates to QuickBooks Mobile for Android optimize the app for tablets, and make it easier to navigate and use on any mobile device. The app is available to download for QuickBooks Online subscribers on Google Play at no additional cost. QuickBooks Mobile enables small businesses to access customer information, create, send and review estimates and invoices, and record payments from Apple and Android mobile devices.
QuickBooks Mobile offers Android tablet users the same functionality provided to Android phone users, but with a native tablet experience. The app serves small businesses that want to accomplish more work on mobile devices. Industry analysts say the trend is on the fast track, with Android claiming a significant share:
- 32.5 percent of small businesses currently own tablets, and 31.6
percent plan to purchase tablets in the next 12 months, according to
an IDC report published in October. - 31.9 percent of small businesses purchased or planned to purchase
tablets in 2012 to substitute laptops, according to an iGR study
released in March. - The number of global tablet and smartphone users will surpass the
number of PC users by July 2013, based on projections from KPCB
partner Mary Meeker in a November presentation. She also noted that
Android adoption is growing six times faster than that of iPhones.
“Small business owners want to get more done everyday, so mobile apps afford them a fantastic way to stay organized and productive from either their computers or mobile devices,” said Dan Wernikoff, senior vice president and general manager of Intuit’s Financial Management Solutions division. “In the past year, we’ve seen our QuickBooks Mobile users triple, and adoption amongst Android phone users outpace iPhone users.
“With tablets becoming pervasive, we’re creating QuickBooks Mobile experiences that take full advantage of the devices’ unique capabilities to help small businesses save time managing their finances. Today we’re giving customers what they want – a native tablet experience for our fast-growing population of Android users.”
Product Launch X, Christmas… and Other Well-Known Spikes
Do chief information officers really prepare and provision their datacenter backbones especially for Christmas? Do CIOs honestly talk to systems architects, software development team leaders and individual programmers about the festive season and plan for an additional data burden?
The fact is that the IT industry has a vibrant and healthy media and publicity scene. Come the “holiday season” (let’s use the politically correct term), the stories turn to the so-called seasonal spike ahead.
Of course, Christmas is really only one seasonal spike among many for the truly discerning CIO. During normal trading hours companies witness demand spikes for any number of reasons including new product launches, web-based viral (usually positive) publicity surges and even the weather.
OK, Here We Go, Cloud Protection
HighCloud Security, one of those rare cloud security start-ups, is warming up to its subject.
A year ago when it first came to market it was focused on encryption and policy-based key management in the private cloud. It has now moved on to the public cloud in rev 2.0 of its widgetry and figures it could change the way companies buy security. After all, encryption isn’t reserved to the CIA anymore.
It claims its particular brand of magic is the first cloud encryption solution to let enterprises and cloud service providers lock down data across private, hybrid and public clouds.
It’s not something legacy solutions can do; at least not easily; they’re hard to manage and hard to deploy, not to mention expensive. And data security is often the gating factor scaring companies off the cloud.
Intel & Red Hat Tuck Money in 10gen’s Jeans
10gen, the open source document-oriented MongoDB creator, says Intel Capital and Red Hat have made strategic investments in it.
It means to use the undisclosed amount of money for product development and support of its rapidly growing worldwide community and user base. It has visions of being the top NoSQL database on the cloud and is reportedly hiring.
It doesn’t need the money. It’s up to Series E and got $42 million in September from VCs – who supposedly valued the company at between $500 million and $550 million – followed by an undisclosed investment from the CIA’s venture arm In-Q-Tel. Since 2009 the start-up has gotten more than $73.4 million and with these last two undisclosed investments TechCrunch thinks the total amount is now around $81 million.