To entice the Fortune 1000 to use more clouds, IBM and AT&T have cut a deal to combine resources and deliver a highly secure, supposedly first-of-its-kind “network-enabled” cloud service that uses private networks rather than the public Internet.
The widgetry combines AT&T’s virtual private networking and IBM’s SmartCloud Enterprise+ cloud capabilities with what is called “breakthrough” technology from AT&T Labs that creates a fast, new, shared cloud service that’s secure enough to overcome corporate inhibitions about the cloud.
It’ll take them until early next year to get it out.
The pair says that when customers connect to IBM’s IaaS resources over AT&T’s virtual private network, the newfangled technology tightly integrates the security protections of both so customers can quickly and reliably shift information or applications between their own data centers (private clouds) and this new cloud service.
TBlox Named “Bronze Sponsor” of Cloud Expo Silicon Valley
SYS-CON Events announced today that TBlox has been named “Bronze Sponsor” of SYS-CON’s 11th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 5–8, 2012, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
TBlox is the new standard in cloud business software with embedded social media, mobile commerce, business intelligence and open system-to-system integrations. Users stay connected and share business data in their communities. Individuals and businesses team-up for the best deals by using TBlox’ or third party apps.
Cloud Computing: Workday Jacks Up Its IPO Price
Workday, the cloud-based human capital and payroll management house expected to IPO this week, has boosted the price of its shares from $21-$24 to $24-$26 apiece, suggesting that there’s investor appetite for the stock although the company isn’t making money yet.
It means to float 22.75 million Class A shares so it could gross as much as $591.5 million. It may use some of the money or the stock itself for acquisitions.
None of its outside investors will be parting with any of their positions in the IPO.
Cloud Computing: Compuware Lights Up the Mainframe
Compuware Corporation on Tuesday announced Compuware APM for Mainframe, a solution for deep transaction management from the edge through the mainframe. By combining Compuware dynaTrace’s patented PurePath Technology® with Compuware Strobe’s unrivaled mainframe application management expertise, distributed system and mainframe teams can resolve performance problems faster, reduce MIPS costs, postpone hardware upgrades and accelerate time-to-market for new applications.
Stealth Software Named “Bronze Sponsor” of Cloud Expo Silicon Valley
SYS-CON Events announced today that Stealth Software has been named “Bronze Sponsor” of SYS-CON’s 11th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 5–8, 2012, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Stealth Software is uniquely positioned to enable Cloud Service Providers and Enterprises manage the explosive growth of data in a secure, transparent and cost effective manner. Information is growing at a rate of 9 fold every 5 years. Last year 1.8 Trillion GB’s of information was generated. Cloud Service Providers will manage a large part of this data. They are looking for a secure and transparent way to scale, efficiently manage and provide business continuity for the information they hold in their environments. The Stealth Software solution addresses the requirements Cloud Service Providers and Enterprise Customers have around security, data protection, data privacy and business continuity.
Cloud Computing: Zenoss Raises $25 Million C Round
Zenoss, which develops management software for unified physical, virtual and cloud-based IT infrastructures, has closed a $25 million C funding round led by growth equity investor Summit Partners.
That makes $45 million altogether although Zenoss has reportedly been at cash flow breakeven since last year with most of the revenues coming from the US.
Existing investors Grotech Ventures, Intersouth Partners and Boulder Ventures also participated in the C round, which will be used for product development and global expansion.
The company wants to push into Europe and the Pac Rim by the end of the year.
ServiceNow Takes Software Asset Management to the Cloud
ServiceNow today announced a new release of its IT service automation software. By embedding new IT Asset Management application, ServiceNow enables companies to more efficiently utilize software and help achieve compliance with license terms and requirements. At the same time, companies can avoid over-purchasing of software licenses and maintenance or support contracts. The release also includes new capabilities for agile software development that ultimately lead to an improved user experience.
Enterprises today waste a great deal of money and time through improperly managed software resources. ServiceNow software can help businesses rightsize and monitor a software portfolio through a fully integrated cloud-based service for all types of IT assets, while helping achieve audit-ready license compliance automation and reporting.
“Managing software assets is increasingly complex in the age of virtualization and cloud, and enterprises are wasting millions of dollars annually due to a fundamental lack of visibility and poor management,” said Matt Schvimmer, vice president of product management, ServiceNow. “In this new software release, ServiceNow provides a comprehensive view of all assets – physical, virtual, and cloud-based – and the processes to control the full lifecycle management of those assets.”
The ServiceNow IT Asset Management application helps IT organizations significantly reduce operational costs, identify software portfolio requirements, facilitate planning and simplify compliance efforts. It works across all types of assets, including SaaS applications and subscription services, licensing of virtual resources and the use of consumable assets.
The ServiceNow IT Asset Management application is fully integrated with all of the other ServiceNow applications for automating enterprise IT operations, including asset discovery, service catalog and configuration management database (CMDB), providing a single system of record for IT management.
The new release also adds a new Scrum process pack to the ServiceNow Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) application. Scrum is a popular development methodology for managing agile software development projects in multi-team, multi-product environments. The new capabilities include planning boards, progress boards, burn-down charts, preferential ranking and the assignment of standard roles associated with this methodology, like product owner and scrum master.
Click here for a detailed webinar on software asset management.
Thinking big
In 1919 Irish poet WB Yeats wrote ‘The Second Coming’, a work that conjured the image of a “spiritus mudi”—a vast warehouse that contained all the archetypes of human concepts. This enormous storage facility was located somewhere out in the inhospitable desert, yet magically accessible to every person walking the earth. Almost a century later, in the age of high speed data transport, intelligent networks and virtualisation, it’s easy to forget that behind the almost magical connection delivering information to the screen in front of the end user’s eyes, there is a solid, squat building full of humming electrical equipment. The datacentre is almost an abstract concept in itself. It sits at the heart of the network and carries out many of the critical tasks that keep the services fl owing; rarely, if ever, occupying the attention of the millions of customers it serves.
The vision of a datacentre as a hulking steel warehouse packed with racks and racks of servers studded with flashing lights isn’t far wrong. But what actually goes on behind the glowing LEDs? A telecom operator’s datacentre houses critical applications such as OSS and BSS and everything essential for running the Master Control Centre. As a result, a datacentre requires 24/7 uninterrupted availability, high security, high speed connectivity and lots and lots of power. That power is by far the biggest factor in running a datacentre, so if a carrier can reduce the electricity bill by 30 per cent, they can dramatically reduce cost. This consideration has influenced a number of approaches to datacentre building. Scale—a common concern in the telecoms industry—is another important dynamic affecting which approach an operator takes.
Revenue Management Systems Unveils airRMexpress for Small Airlines
Revenue Management Systems (RMS) is launching airRMexpress, a new cloud-based airline revenue management solution designed specifically for small airlines.
With airRMexpress, RMS brings the advantages of powerful forecasting and optimization capabilities to a whole segment of the airline industry that was previously underserved. And RMS delivers it at a price that is affordable. In addition to forecasting and optimization, airRMexpress also features many other tools, such as an executive dashboard, flight analysis screens, a report builder and the popular Business Rules manager.
“There are literally hundreds of small airlines around the world today who are either spending too much time making manual inventory adjustments or are using solutions that don’t have all the features they need,” said Scott Schade, CEO of RMS. “We have designed airRMexpress for these airlines so they can quickly and efficiently optimize their seat inventory, thereby significantly improving their bottom line.”
As a cloud-based solution, airRMexpress can be rapidly deployed. Accessing the system via the internet also saves airlines from having to buy expensive server hardware.
GreenButton CEO to Present at 11th Cloud Expo with Dell Cloud Evangelist
Scott Houston, chief executive officer for GreenButton, and Stephen Spector, cloud evangelist for Dell, Inc., will be co-presenting «Game Changer – High Perfomance Computing in the Cloud for Everyone,» at the 11th International Cloud Expo. Scott and Stephen will discuss how companies of all size and budgets can best leverage cloud-based high performance computing, without breaking the bank. They will also demonstrate the simplicity and cost efficient methodology for running a rendering workload in the cloud in a matter of minutes instead of hours.
GreenButton will be exhibiting at Booth #1032 on November 5 thru November 8. To schedule appointments please email sales@greenbutton.com.