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Eight IT Predictions for 2010 By Jake Sorofman, VP of Marketing - rPath

Claude - THE CLOUD ARCHITECT — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

Eight IT Predictions for 2010

By Jake Sorofman

To paraphrase philosopher Thomas Hobbes, 2009 was nasty, brutish and not short enough. It was a year characterized by uncertainty and punctuated by pain.

It was a year of survival—a year of sacrificing to serve the most basic needs.

It was a year many of us may prefer to forget.

Another famous philosopher (Plato) rightly observed that necessity is the mother of invention. Adversity forces us to innovate, economize and solve problems creatively.

That’s why—despite hardscrabble days—2009 is a year we shouldn’t soon forget. In fact, it’s a year we ought to remember—as the year that changed enterprise IT.

You see, 2009 brought us to the brink—and on the way, it forced us to think.

And in the process, we learned to adapt.

Which is a good thing because this adaptation is by no means temporary.

Mercifully, the tone next year is bound to be more positive—more hope, less sky-is-falling despair. But I can assure you that the IT agenda will focus, once again, on cost reduction. Only this time, it won’t be tactical. It will be strategic.

Which brings me to my 2010 predictions, offered in no particular order:

1. Virtualization Rising. Not surprisingly, this juggernaut will continue to top the agenda for 2010, as physical hardware spending continues to contract under the “halo of the hypervisor”—a technology with a cap ex ROI that is hard to beat.

2. Clouds Forming. Still early days for cloud, but 2009 science projects will give way to real enterprise production usage, as IT leaders are emboldened by non-production experience and competitive pressures mount. Expect the first half of the year to be more of the same, with real success stories appearing in the back half.

3. Storm Warnings. Cloud will march on, but we’ll see more handwringing about the hidden costs of this approach. Security and data privacy will continue to top the discussion, but we’ll see a heightened awareness of the climbing management costs caused by explosive growth in the number of running software systems.

4. Self-service IT Takes Shape. Inspired by the rise of the cloud and the pressure to remove the IT bottleneck, leadership will get serious about service catalogs and self-service initiatives that delegate key IT tasks to decentralized stakeholders, reducing costs and allowing IT to—finally—move at the speed of business.

5. Conquering Complexity. The growing diversity of software and interdependency of software systems will collide with the accelerating pace of change and compounding growth in server volume to create a complexity mess of nightmarish proportions. Taking this on will be a major priority for IT leadership.

6. Automation Expands. IT will expand investment in process automation to deal with exploding complexity, enable self-service initiatives, standardize ad hoc processes, and “do more with less.” Particularly notable will be release automation because it offsets the system management costs of virtualization and cloud.

7. IT Roles Shift. The emergence of cloud and other self-service compute models and the continued growth of process automation will force IT roles to shift from doing to directing. Defining and enforcing policies will become the new role of IT.

8. The Application-Centric Data Center Emerges. IT will “get lean,” shifting from infrastructure- to application-centric in orientation. Systems will become complete, self-contained and self-describing, including just the infrastructure they require to run. They’ll be set free to run anywhere—internal and external, physical, virtual or cloud. The application will become the unit of deployment and the unit of management—and IT will get out of the infrastructure business.

So, that’s it—eight IT predictions for 2010. Let’s see if I hit the mark after we ring in the New Year. In the meantime, let me know what you see on the horizon.

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Jake Sorofman is vice president of marketing for rPath, an innovator in automating application deployment and maintenance across physical, virtual and cloud environments. Learn more about rPath at http://www.rpath.com, follow rPath on Twitter at @rpath and contact Jake at jsorofman@rpath.com.

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Eucalyptus Systems Releases First Major Update of the Open Source Eucalyptus Private Cloud Platform

Claude - THE CLOUD ARCHITECT — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:41:00 GMT

Eucalyptus Systems Releases First Major Update of the Open Source Eucalyptus Private Cloud Platform

New Version Extends Flexibility, Portability and Cost-Effectiveness of Eucalyptus' "No Lock-in" Cloud Computing Approach to Virtually any Enterprise Infrastructure

Santa Barbara, CA., November 5, 2009 – [@PR2WEB] - Eucalyptus Systems, Inc., creators of the leading open source private cloud platform, today announced the first major update of the open source Eucalyptus cloud computing software since it was launched. The latest version of Eucalyptus features new multi-cluster support and enhanced concurrency management for improved scaling, enabling users to seamlessly overlay their Eucalyptus cloud on top of virtually any existing IT infrastructure, regardless of size or configuration.Eucalyptus now also includes new monitoring capabilities to deliver ongoing visibility into the status of an organization's on-premise cloud. This newest version of Eucalyptus is available today and can be downloaded at www.eucalyptus.com.

This news follows the company's announcement last week that Eucalyptus software is the engine behind the Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC), a new cloud computing solution packaged in the latest version of the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution. UEC powered by Eucalyptus will ship with every copy of Ubuntu 9.10 Server Edition, which is available now at www.ubuntu.com.

"An important tenet of on-premise cloud computing is that it takes advantage of an organization's existing resources and organizational infrastructure," said Dr. Rich Wolski, co-founder and CTO at Eucalyptus Systems. "Our goals for this significant new release are two-fold.First, we enhanced the flexibility with which Eucalyptus can be deployed so that it can take greater advantage of the IT hardware,software, security, and organizational policies already in place in the data center. Secondly, we have concentrated on engineering better performance into the platform itself to enhance scale. We believe that these features will provide the benefits of Eucalyptus on-premise cloud computing to virtually any organization."

Eucalyptus is an open source software infrastructure for implementing on-premise cloud computing using an organization's own IT infrastructure. Eucalyptus turns data center resources such as machines, networks, and storage systems into a cloud that is controlled and customized by local IT. With Eucalyptus, businesses of any size can leverage their own IT resources to get the benefits of cloud computing without the concerns of lock-in, security ambiguity and unexpected storage costs that can be associated with public clouds. Eucalyptus is the only cloud architecture to support the same application programming interfaces (APIs) as public clouds, and today, with the release of version 1.6.1, Eucalyptus is the only on-premise cloud platform that is fully compatible with the Amazon AWS public cloud infrastructure. By virtue of its open source foundation and seamless interoperability with other major clouds, Eucalyptus delivers an unmatched level of flexibility and freedom, enabling users to successfully avoid the pitfalls associated with getting "locked in" to a specific vendor's cloud infrastructure.

"We have been running Eucalyptus in our production environment for over six months and have been extremely satisfied with the technology,"said Guy Naor, CTO of Morph Labs, which provides a complete solution for private and hybrid clouds, and enterprise PaaS. "We are looking forward to upgrading to version 1.6.1 and taking advantage of the new features that will enable us to provide a more scalable and robust cloud computing environment for our global customer base."

Multi-Cluster Support, Enhanced Scaling and Configuration

The latest release of Eucalyptus now features support for multiple clusters, enabling Eucalyptus users to manage compute, network, and storage resources across multiple distinct clusters. It is not uncommon for IT infrastructures to be organized as separate clusters of machines to segregate resources based on different user groups, to partition the resources across geographically distributed data centers, or to isolate machines within a datacenter in accordance with organizational,business, or security policies. The extension of Eucalyptus to support multiple clusters provides a new level of organizational flexibility for IT administrators, allowing them to view their entire IT infrastructure as a single Eucalyptus cloud.

In addition, Eucalyptus can now more easily scale up to meet the requirements of an expanding IT infrastructure. An IT administrator can now install different components of Eucalyptus on different physical machines, ensuring that Eucalyptus can leverage both the security and performance topologies present in the IT data center. Further, to support greater flexibility and ease of management Eucalyptus installation is also now faster, with an easy, more automated install process.

Monitoring

With an elastic cloud computing infrastructure such as Eucalyptus,deployed to encompass multiple clusters, it is important for users tohave visibility into various aspects of what is happening within thecloud. The latest release of Eucalyptus makes available a variety ofrelevant information which can be used in open source tools like Nagiosand Ganglia to provide cloud administrators with insights on variousaspects of the cloud, as well as the status of specific Eucalyptuscomponents.

Eucalyptus Enterprise Edition Available

In addition to developing and supporting the Eucalyptus open source software, Eucalyptus Systems provides Eucalyptus Enterprise Edition(Eucalyptus EE), a commercial version of its eponymous software designed to meet the needs of enterprise IT. With Eucalyptus EE,customers can implement an on-premise Eucalyptus cloud with industry-leading virtualization technologies, including vSphere®, ESX™and ESXi™. The only private cloud today to support VMware vSphere, Eucalyptus EE provides a robust, affordable cloud computing solution that leverages customers' investments in VMware technologies.Eucalyptus EE also supports other hypervisors typically found in a datacenter, such as Xen and KVM, providing customers the flexibility to configure cloud solutions that best meet their infrastructure needs.

Eucalyptus runs on a wide range of popular Linux distributions,including Ubuntu, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CentOS, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, OpenSUSE and Debian. The latest release, Eucalyptus version 1.6.1, is available today for download at www.eucalyptus.com.

About Eucalyptus Systems, Inc.

Eucalyptus Systems develops enterprise-grade technology solutions built on the open source Eucalyptus software for private and hybrid cloud computing. Originally developed as part of an academic research project, Eucalyptus is quickly becoming the standard for on-premise cloud computing, delivering the cost efficiencies and scalability of a cloud architecture with the security and control of deploying on an organization's own IT infrastructure. Eucalyptus is the only private cloud to support the same application programming interfaces (APIs) as public clouds, such as Amazon Web Services. Eucalyptus is available as open source software and also in the Eucalyptus Enterprise Edition(EE), a commercial offering designed for large scale enterprises. For more information about Eucalyptus, please visit www.eucalyptus.com.

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Eucalyptus and Eucalyptus Systems are pending trademarks in the U.S. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners. Other product or company names mentioned may be trademarks or trade names of their respective companies.

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Claude - The Cloud Architect

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Saugatuck Assesses Cloud Billing and Payment Solutions

Claude - THE CLOUD ARCHITECT — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:35:00 GMT

Saugatuck Assesses Cloud Billing and Payment Solutions

Leading Cloud Research Authority Develops First Objective Analysis of Cloud Monetization Capabilities

Westport, CT (November 5, 2009) – [@PR2WEB] - Billing capability is an important ingredient in business success and sustainability in the Cloud. Effective billing and payment solutions are essential in enabling monetization, providing agility in competitive situations, managing the channel, and reducing operational costs for any Cloud services provider.

The need for effective billing and payment solutions for both established and emerging Cloud providers is the foundation of the latest research study from Saugatuck Technology Inc., titled “Monetizing the Cloud: Assessing Billing and Payment Providers.” Released today via Saugatuck’s website, the study explains the need for, and roles of, billing and payment solutions in all aspects of Cloud Computing, from the foundational technology layers up through SaaS and Cloud platforms and ecosystems.

In examining this highly fragmented market, the study profiles solutions of eight Cloud billing solution providers, some of them Cloud-based solutions – Aria, Monexa (formerly IP Applications), OpSource, Vindicia and Zuora – and some on-premise software solutions – Metratech, Parallels, RevX.

“These eight providers really represent the diversity of options available for monetizing Cloud solutions,” according to Saugatuck research VP Mike West, leader and author of the study. “Any of these would be a decided improvement over homegrown and spreadsheet solutions, as they permit Cloud providers to focus more closely on their core value propositions, and outsourcing operational functions that can be performed more effectively by professional billing specialists.”

West’s statement is borne out by the study’s key findings, which include the following:

Billing, administration and related marketing capabilities are essential in meeting the new operational challenges of a Software-as-a-Service business. ISVs in transition to SaaS too often overlook the complexity of what is required to support SaaS billing, a much more complex set of processes when compared to most on-premise software environments.
Billing systems used in SaaS and Cloud environments must account for constant variations that occur much more frequently, and sometimes uniquely.
The evolving billing solutions market for the Cloud is still highly fragmented, with many solutions originating in prior markets, reflecting their design origins. Consequently, billing solution offerings vary, and no two solutions provide the same set of billing functionality, nor user interface approach, ranging widely from telecom OSS/BSS to SaaS pure-play solutions.

The study is available immediately to clients of Saugatuck’s premium Continuous Research Service (CRS), or can be purchased from Saugatuck’s web site.

About Saugatuck Technology

Saugatuck Technology Inc. provides subscription research and management consulting services focused on the key market trends and disruptive technologies driving change in enterprise IT, including SaaS, Cloud Computing, Open Source and Enterprise Social Computing. Founded in 1999, Saugatuck is headquartered in Westport, Connecticut, with offices in Santa Clara, CA and in Frankfurt, Germany. For more information, please visit www.saugatech.com, or call +1.203.454.3900.

For Press Inquiries, including setting up one-on-one interviews with the lead authors, please contact Chris MacGregor, Analyst and Media Liaison, at +1.203.454.3900.

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Vordel Announces Cloud Service Broker to Bring trust and Reliability to Cloud Computing

Claude - THE CLOUD ARCHITECT — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:24:00 GMT

Vordel Announces Cloud Service Broker to Bring trust and Reliability to Cloud Computing

Enables Management of Multi-Domain Services Across Enterprises, Partners and Cloud Service providers including Amazon and Google

Dublin, Ireland - November 5, 2009 – [@PR2WEB] - Vordel, a provider of governance products for Cloud Computing and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), today announced at VordelWorld its annual user conference in Dublin, Ireland the release of the Vordel Cloud Service Broker. The Vordel Cloud Service Broker aggregates and manages multi-domain services. This creates a trusted environment for enterprises to leverage the benefits of Cloud Computing.

Organizations who wish to use Cloud services in conjunction with their own on-premises SOA and those of their partners face major issues related to reliability and trustworthiness. One significant challenge is aggregating services from multiple domains including Public, Private Clouds and community Community Clouds - into coherent composite services and applying policies to them. The Vordel Cloud Service Broker solves this multi-domain problem by registering services from all three domains into a single repository – the multi-domain registry repository - enabling monitoring, management and policy enforcement. Additionally, the Vordel Cloud Service Broker offers value -added services such as caching, acceleration, and transformation saving enterprises time and money while creating a trusted and reliable environment.

Gartner, commented that “The future of Cloud Computing will be permeated with the notion of brokers negotiating relationships between providers of cloud services and the service consumers. In this context, a broker might be software, appliances, platforms or suites of technologies that enhance the base services available through the Cloud. Enhancement will include managing access to the services, providing greater security or even creating completely new services.” ¹

Vordel CEO, Vic Morris, speaking about the company's Cloud Service Broker news said "Trust is a major barrier to Cloud adoption particularly among enterprises. It's clear that many organizations see the value of incorporating Cloud Services into their IT infrastructure, but they also have concerns about the reliability and performance of these services outside their domain of control. The Vordel Cloud Service Broker addresses these issues by providing a trustworthy and reliable onramp to Cloud services allowing businesses to monitor and manage them in the same fashion as their own internal services. This means that composite applications can be built in a completely seamless fashion offering users full visibility, trust and control".

Key valued added services provided by the Vordel Cloud Service Broker include:

Multi-Domain Registry Repository
The Multi-Domain Registry (MDRR) aggregates services across domains. These domains include not only Cloud providers such as Amazon and Google, but also local on-premises services, and business partner services. In this way, all of the services a business depends on are managed in one place. This becomes a single point where compliance to Service Level Agreements, privacy and security mandates, and usage statistics can be viewed.

Analytics for visibility
Organisations require a record of how they are using Cloud Computing, not least because they will be billed for this usage. The Vordel Cloud Service Broker provides an independent audit trail of Cloud service usage. Analytics of Cloud Computing usage includes not only raw usage information, but also information about service quality, patterns of usage over time, and identity of users. In this way, an organization can understand how they use Cloud Computing.

Content Analysis
All content sent to Cloud services must be analysed for leaked data, in order to enable Data Loss Prevention. In addition, content-level threats must be detected and blocked. This includes application-level attacks at the API and payload level.

Caching
Caching protects the enterprise from latency associated with connecting to the Cloud service. Cloud Service Broker's cache saves the organization money by allowing some requests to be serviced by the broker itself, removing the need for a (billed) connection up to the Cloud provider.

Composition
Vordel Cloud Service Broker allows developers to link together local applications with Cloud-hosted applications. The local applications may be accessed via Web Services interfaces, via database calls, via message schemes such as MQ or JMS or simply via the file system.

Content transformation
Content sent to the Cloud service may need to be transformed, for example in order to mediate between different versions of applications. In addition, many Cloud services use REST API interfaces whereas internal services may use SOAP, JMS or older technologies such as COBOL. Vordel's technology includes an accelerated transformation engine allowing data to be transformed at speed.

SLA Monitoring
Vordel Cloud Service Broker complements the Cloud Service providers by offering comprehensive Service Level Agreement monitoring to monitor the response time of the Cloud service, and the entire transaction throughput time.

Traffic Throttling
Throttling is the "surge protector" of Cloud Computing. If an application makes a high number of calls to a Cloud service then a Cloud Service Broker can deflect a portion of the calls to a back-up service, newly provisioned for this purpose.

Event Alerting
Events such as Cloud outages must be alerted, so that remedial measures can be put into place.

Extensibility 3rd Party Valued Added Services
Organizations may wish to add their own value-added services from 3rd party sources, or indeed add their own pluggable modules.

Vordel Cloud Service Broker will be available in Q1 2010. For more information:
http://www.vordel.com/scripts/downloadA.pl?downloadfile=VordelCloudServiceBroker.pdf
http://www.vordel.com/solutions/cloud.html

About Vordel
Vordel provides high performance, enterprise-level hardware and software products to enable enterprises confidently deploy SOA and Cloud-linked applications. Vordel accelerates, manages and protects applications to enable enterprises govern their Service usage and performance. Vordel customers include Allianz, ASR, Badenia, BAT, Ericsson, European Union, Fortis, Mazda, Telefonica, TIM, and Government agencies in the US and worldwide.

Press Contacts:
annemarie@returnpr.com
+ 353 86 834 9329
press-info@vordel.com
+353 1 234 2500

¹Three Types of Cloud Brokerage will enhance Cloud Services - Daryl C. Plummer, L. Frank Kenney - 11 May 2009

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Microsoft calls Zoho the "Fake Office", so does that mean Bing is ... Commentary by Sridhar Vembu CEO of ZOHO

Claude - THE CLOUD ARCHITECT — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 02:32:00 GMT

Microsoft calls Zoho the "Fake Office", so does that mean Bing is ...

by Sridhar Vembu

[@PR2WEB]

At Zoho, we have been banging the drum on the coming new era of competition, thanks to the cloud, in software and how that is going to pose a serious threat to the stratospheric 90% operating profits that Microsoft enjoys on its Office suite. And sure enough, the news that Microsoft Drops Prices of Cloud Apps caught our attention.

Some excerpts (emphasis mine):

Microsoft has lowered the subscription prices for its cloud computing applications, and has announced new customer wins and broader geographic availability for the apps.

The software giant has lowered the price of its Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), which includes online versions of Exchange, SharePoint, Office Communications and Office Live Meeting, from $15 a month per seat to $10 a month.

For Exchange Online alone, its email software-as-a-service, the price drops from $10 to $5. Microsoft also has increased its standard e-mail storage per user from 5 Gbytes to 25 Gbytes ...
Still, are Microsoft's cost cuts enough? Google Apps, by comparison, which includes apps for documents, spreadsheets and presentations, in addition to email, costs only $50 per user per year. Markezich's response is that Microsoft offers a scaled-down version of Exchange Online, designed for employees who aren't frequent PC users, for $24 a year, and a scaled-down version of BPOS for $36 a year. What's more, "we're not seeing any inclination that Zoho or Google or Zimbra or any other of those offering fake Office capabilities can replace [Microsoft Office]," he [Ron Markezich, corporate VP of Microsoft Online] said.

Wow, wow, wow — Fake Office! That is indeed a badge of honor for us. We just have a polite suggestion to Microsoft: to be perfectly consistent, Microsoft should also label their Bing "Fake Search" — fair is fair, right? For the record, we actually think Bing brings a welcome dose of competition and we certainly don't think Bing is by any means fake, but with Microsoft marketing terming the entire competitive landscape to their number 1 cash cow "fake", we have to wonder if that would apply to their own effort at competing with the other dominant vendor.

While Zoho and Google are happily doing update after competitive update to our respective Office suites, Microsoft, with their "real" web office, is not actually making their web offering generally available.

Seriously, the whole "fake office" designation illustrates the main problem Microsoft faces. In their world view, with their quaint "Release to Manufacturing" rituals, the fact that a Zoho user has no CD or DVD to buy, no bloatware to download, nothing to install, simply just visit a web site, log-in (using Google or Yahoo accounts, if they must), and they are on their way to Work.Online, must all feel a bit, well, fake. But take it from us Microsoft: there is nothing fake about browser-based applications, no matter how you wish to keep the world on your "manufacturing" world-view of software, with your proprietary lock-ins and your 90% operating margins.

It is a new world now — I have called it the Google Era of Computing a while ago. At Zoho, we fully grasp this fundamental reality. That is why we are excited about today's other announcement, this one by Google: Single Sign-on to Zoho, Tripit, SocialWok and more from Google Apps.

As the Google announcement illustrates, cloud vendors are moving aggressively forward to establish a new competitive landscape. While Google is an existential force and a major competitor for Zoho, this new "Google era" also means tremendous opportunity for us.

Thank you Microsoft, for the "Fake Office" moniker. Please await our real launch of FakeOffice.org soon.

Regards,

Sridhar

Sridhar Vembu

CEO of ZOHO Corp.

http://blogs.zoho.com/

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Claude - The Cloud Architect

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Crosscheck Networks Introduces Industry-First Federated SOA Testing Product

Claude - THE CLOUD ARCHITECT — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:09:00 GMT

Crosscheck Networks Introduces Industry-First Federated SOA Testing Product

Facilitates Medical, Financial and Other Large-File Exchange; Complements Comprehensive Federated Identity Management and Message Queue Testing Capabilities

BOSTON, November 3, 2009 – [@PR2WEB] - Crosscheck Networks, Inc., a leader in Web services testing, simulation and security, today announced immediate availability of SOAPSonar 5.0.

This latest release empowers enterprises, for the first time, to test functional and performance characteristics of unlimited-sized Web services attachments via streaming of structured and unstructured data based on industry standards such as MTOM and MIME. Notably, in this new release SOAPSonar also offers support for WS-Trust, SAML 2.0, and WS-identity tokens ensuring a best-practices approach to federated identity management for strict authentication and authorization testing.

“Moving to an SOA doesn’t mean that you’ve solved the issue of how to move large files throughout your environment,” said L. Frank Kenney, Research Director for Gartner, Inc. “Because the complexity and size of files and thus attachments is growing exponentially, it is very likely companies will find themselves quickly looking for mechanisms and technologies to address the exchange of large file attachments via Web services. This is an issue we expect to see grow as SOA adoption rates increase, and more and more companies embrace interoperable services.”

“Tax-, home loan- and medical-related documents in various sizes and formats are being exchanged with greater frequency using Web services, particularly now with such initiatives as the HITECH Act promoting use of Electronic Health Records (EHRs). Until now, large size Web services attachment testing has been problematic due to hardware resource constraints,” said Mamoon Yunus, CEO of Crosscheck Networks.

Yunus continued: “Addressing this challenge, SOAPSonar delivers the precise, efficient testing and modeling of document exchange critical for our enterprise and public-sector customers to achieve the optimal return on their infrastructure investments. Since conducting business securely is paramount, Crosscheck now offers extensive Federated SOA testing without adding unnecessary complexity. Doing so facilitates safe, seamless integration both within organizations and between them and their partners and customers.”

A core component of Crosscheck Networks’ holistic product suite, SOAPSonar provides simple, intuitive and comprehensive testing for SOAP-, XML- and REST-based services. The SOAPSonar framework is easy-to-deploy and provides testing modes for functional, multi-client performance, compliance and security testing. Additionally, SOAPSonar provides end-to-end message queue testing supporting IBM MQ, Tibco EMS, WLS JMS and Native JMS, ensuring business continuity with all trading partners – including those interacting via legacy components.

Crosscheck Networks’ products can be deployed together or seamlessly integrated with organizations’ existing infrastructure. In addition to SOAPSonar, the enterprise-class suite comprises:

SOAPSimulator – An affordable, easy-to-configure, comprehensive service simulation product for developers and testers, SOAPSimulator enables Web services to significantly reduce project expense and duration by allowing parallel development of the client and service components of a SOAP- or XML-based Web service.

Forum Sentry – Simplifying business communications through secure integration across networks and business boundaries, the FIPS- and DoD-certified Sentry XML Gateway ensures preemptive risk mitigation of business transactions exposed via Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) by enabling the ability to develop and deploy robust and reliable SOAP- and XML-based Web services.

Pricing and Availability

SOAPSonar 5.0 is available immediately to customers. Existing clients can upgrade to this latest version directly within the product interface. Deployment models include floating and instance-based licensing as well as subscription or perpetual pricing. Pricing starts at $799.

About Crosscheck Networks

Crosscheck Networks and its wholly owned subsidiary Forum Systems deliver solutions for deploying robust, resilient, secure and reliable Web services. The company’s integrated, holistic product suite streamlines and optimizes resources throughout the Web services lifecycle, ensuring reduced time-to-market and more rapid return on investment. Crosscheck Networks is the only company with HP Enterprise Management Alliance Program (EMAP) certification for Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) testing with native HP Quality Center Integration. For more information, please visit www.crosschecknet.com.

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F5 Enhances Management and Support for Microsoft Windows-based Virtualization

Claude - THE CLOUD ARCHITECT — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:09:00 GMT

F5 Enhances Management and Support for Microsoft Windows-based Virtualization

Updated Management Pack and new Application Ready Solutions for Hyper-V & System Center Virtual Machine Manager offer joint customers dynamic network control to ensure optimal application delivery in virtual environments

SEATTLE, NOVEMBER 3, 2009 – [@PR2WEB] – F5 Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV), the global leader in Application Delivery Networking (ADN), today announced a new F5 Management Pack® solution for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager that allows joint F5 and Microsoft customers to dynamically manage application delivery in virtual environments. F5 also updated its Application Ready Solution portfolio to support Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V, and System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2.

The F5® solutions announced today offer optimization and increased availability for virtual environments, enabling IT staff to make better decisions regarding applications running in the virtual environment, and automating virtual machine management.

“The benefits offered by Application Delivery Controllers (ADCs) apply to all applications, whether they’re deployed on physical or virtual servers,” said Calvin Rowland, VP of Application Partner Programs at F5. “One of the primary challenges faced by companies who deploy applications on virtual servers is the management of those virtual machines. F5’s solution for System Center Virtual Machine Manager is designed with virtual environments in mind, enabling customers to realize significant business value through faster rollout times, cost savings, and flexibility.”

Dynamic Administration of Virtualized Server Infrastructure

F5 has added Performance and Resource Optimization (PRO) capabilities to the F5 Management Pack, introduced in April 2009. The PRO-enabled Management Pack, in combination with Microsoft System Center Operations Manager and System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2, provides customers with enhanced visibility into both the application delivery network and the server environment, enabling IT teams to proactively monitor and dynamically manage application delivery as network or user conditions change. In addition, the F5 Management Pack now proactively offers tips to improve application delivery.

“Microsoft is pleased to see F5 embrace our vision for the dynamic data center, and deliver its PRO-enabled Management Pack to offer seamless integration with System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2,” said Dai Vu, Director, Virtualization Solutions Marketing, Server and Tools Business at Microsoft Corp. “Our joint customers will benefit from F5’s new management capabilities that allow them to better understand and meet the needs of end-users that rely on specific applications.”

Building on F5’s Robust Portfolio of Application Ready Solutions for Microsoft

This announcement comes as part of a series of updates for the existing suite of F5 Application Ready Solutions for Microsoft Windows Server, including solutions for IIS, Remote Desktop Services (RDS), Hyper-V, and System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2. Leveraging the Live Migration feature of Hyper-V, F5 solutions also include configuration guidance to perform the network-level changes required to move virtual machines between hosts without taking them offline.

Availability
More information about F5 and Microsoft virtualization solutions working in concert can be found at www.f5.com/solutions/applications/microsoft/virtualization.

The F5 PRO-enabled Management Pack is a free download from F5’s DevCentral^smcommunity. PRO-enabled Management Pack downloads, documentation, FAQs, TechTips, and more can be found at http://devcentral.f5.com/mpack.

Additional Materials

· Introduction to the F5 PRO-enabled Management Pack – DevCentral blog post

· F5 PRO-enabled Management Pack overview – Datasheet

· Virtual Machine Manager and SharePoint demo – Video

About F5 Networks

F5 Networks is the global leader in Application Delivery Networking (ADN), focused on ensuring the secure, reliable, and fast delivery of applications. F5's flexible architectural framework enables community-driven innovation that helps organizations enhance IT agility and dynamically deliver services that generate true business value. F5's vision of unified application and data delivery offers customers an unprecedented level of choice in how they deploy ADN solutions. It redefines the management of application, server, storage, and network resources, streamlining application delivery and reducing costs. Global enterprise organizations, service and cloud providers, and Web 2.0 content providers trust F5 to keep their business moving forward. For more information, go to www.f5.com.

F5, DevCentral, and F5 Management Pack are trademarks or service marks of F5 Networks, Inc., in the U.S. and other countries. All other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

This press release may contain forward looking statements relating to future events or future financial performance that involve risks and uncertainties. Such statements can be identified by terminology such as "may," "will," "should," "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," "potential," or "continue," or the negative of such terms or comparable terms. These statements are only predictions and actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these statements based upon a number of factors including those identified in the company's filings with the SEC.

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New StarWind 5.0 iSCSI SAN Software Redefines High Availability Storage

Claude - THE CLOUD ARCHITECT — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 02:07:00 GMT

New StarWind 5.0 iSCSI SAN Software Redefines High Availability Storage

SMB Customers Finally Get Affordable Enterprise-Class Network Storage for VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V and Other Server Applications

Burlington, Mass. – November 2, 2009 – [@PR2WEB] - StarWind Software, a global leader in storage virtualization and a pioneer in iSCSI storage, today announced a release of the fifth-generation of its flagship product StarWind 5.0, an iSCSI SAN software platform which turns any industry-standard x86 or x64 Windows server into a fail-safe, fault-tolerant storage that will be continuously available even in the event of failure. With this new release, StarWind redefines high availability storage by offering this enterprise-class technology, which was previously only available in high-end storage products, to small and midsize companies at an affordable price. This combination of true active-active high availability and affordable price is unprecedented.

StarWind's true active-active high availability (HA) architecture provides continuous and non-disruptive access to storage in the event of failure by synchronously mirroring data between two active storage appliances, or nodes, in real time. This technology is important to IT professionals because it eliminates a single point of failure. If a disk, power or even an entire storage node fails, the redundant storage node will take over and will continue actively operating without any disruption, ensuring that storage is available and accessible on the network.

“We are thrilled to announce the availability of StarWind 5 which is on track to deliver reliability, performance and ease-of-use,” said Zorian Rotenberg, President and CEO of StarWind Software. “With this new release, we are making enterprise-class high availability storage truly affordable to small and midsize companies.”

"The new StarWind with automatic failover and failback makes data on networked storage continuously available and it really simplifies storage management," said Taylor Strong, Systems Specialist at Oklahoma State University. "We can now have a cost-effective fault-tolerant SAN."

Greg Shields, a VMware vExpert and a Microsoft MVP, says “With the introduction of StarWind 5.0, VMware and Hyper-V users can have the reliability, performance and data availability they need at an affordable price.”

StarWind 5.0 Key Features:

· Synchronous Mirroring with Automatic Failover: mirrors data in real time across a storage cluster, ensuring that storage is continuously available in the event of failure.

· Failback with Fast Synchronization: re-synchronizes data back to the original storage node and restores it to a previous live state before failure.

· Remote Replication across a WAN: replicates data to a remote location. allowing multi-site disaster recovery in the event of a disaster at the primary site.

· CDP & Snapshots: captures instant, point-in-time volume images, allowing a user to rollback and recover an entire volume or individual files and folders.

· Server clustering: supports Windows Server 2008, Hyper-V, VMware ESX and vSphere 4.0 and other applications.

· Redesigned User Interface: allows IT professionals to easily manage all storage from a central management console built on the same tree structure used in Microsoft Hyper-V and VMware vSphere.

StarWind 5.0 will be demonstrated live on " Introducing StarWind 5.0" webinar which is scheduled for Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 12pm GMT and then at 2:00 pm EST.

Pricing and Availability:

StarWind HA is available immediately from StarWind (sales@starwindsoftware.com) and from authorized resellers in North America, Europe and Asia. Prices range from $395.00 for the basic StarWind Server iSCSI Target to $5,995, an all-inclusive license for the High Availability edition that includes 2 active-active storage nodes with unlimited capacity and with all enterprise-class features. All licenses include a 1st year of StarWind Premium Support and Maintenance.

"StarWind continues to show its commitment to channel partners,“ said Leonard Jacobs, CEO of Netsecuris, a premier managed IT services provider (MSP). "The new product delivers enterprise storage at cost-effective prices and this is exactly what our customers need.”

About StarWind Software Inc.

StarWind Software is a global leader in Storage Virtualization and iSCSI storage for small and midsize companies. StarWind's flagship product is a storage virtualization software platform that turns any industry-standard Windows Server into a fault-tolerant, fail-safe iSCSI SAN. It is designed for use as networked storage for VMware, Hyper-V, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SharePoint and other server applications configured in server clusters. StarWind Software is focused on providing small and midsize companies with affordable high availability technology which was previously only available in high-end storage products. The advanced, enterprise-class features include Synchronous Mirroring with Automated Failover and Failback, Remote Replication across a WAN, CDP and Snapshots, Thin Provisioning and Virtual Tape Array (VTA). Since 2003, StarWind has pioneered the iSCSI industry and has been the solution of choice for over 30,000 global users in over 100 countries, from small and midsize companies, to governments, and Fortune 1000 companies. For additional information regarding StarWind Software, please visit www.StarWindSoftware.com.

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StarWind Software and the StarWind logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of StarWind Software Inc. or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. Other names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

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CloudStorm heads to Paris to showcase "real" Cloud Computing Solutions

Claude - THE CLOUD ARCHITECT — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 14:12:00 GMT

CloudStorm heads to Paris to showcase "real" Cloud Computing Solutions

European End user and channel event organised by leading cloud computing specialists to showcase innovative products and services

30/10/2009 - Paris, France - [@PR2WEB] - CloudStorm, a European focused cloud computing event has announced that Paris will be the third location on its tour around major European cities. The event, funded equally by its participants,provides a showcase of cloud computing solutions covering a wide range of areas including application development and deployment, infrastructure, storage, video management and SAAS from leading European technology vendors.

Participants, who have just 5 minutes each to present their cloud based offering to the audience, offer a mix of vision, technology and snapshots of the actual Cloud Computing solutions. The presentations are followed by a lively panel discussion with visitors invited to a mini expo and networking party to allow participants to interact on aone-to-one basis. The sponsors, in alphabetical order, include:

A-Server, a specialist in private cloud platforms for service providers. Presentation by Arvid Fossen, Product Management Director (http://www.aserver.com)
B-Virtual, an emerging leader in cloud storage solutions. Presentation by Wim De Wispelaere, Sales and Products manager (http://www.b-virtual.org)
CloudSphere, infrastructure as a service. Presentation by Thomas Rulmont, CTO (http://www.cloudsphere.com)
ContactOffice, one of the first cloud-based collaboration providers. Presentation by Patrick De Schutter, CEO (http://www.contactoffice.com)
Parallels, A leader in Cloud enablement solutions. Presentation by Belkacem Moussouni, Sales Manager for Hosting (http://www.parallels.com)
RunMyProcess,a platform specialized in building and running workflows and business process based applications. Presentation by Matthieu Hug, VP Prod.& Marketing (http://www.runmyprocess.com)
SUN Microsystems, a technology provider for public and private clouds.Presentation by Patrick Crasson, Strategic Business Development (http://www.sun.com)

Paris is the third stop for CloudStorm and follows a successful launch in Brussels in early September and an event in London in October. As Arvid Fossen, Product Management Director for A-Server explains, "CloudStorm gives visitors a chance to quickly understand both the technical and business benefits of a number of cloud solutions directly from the vendor and then interact with them in a informative yet social environment. The short duration of each stage presentations means the environment is more engaging and speakers need to focus on real benefits and less on hype"

CloudStorm Paris will take place on the evening of Tuesday 1st of December at the Centre International d'Affaires et de Congrès which is just a short walk from the Eiffel tower. Attendance to CloudStorm is entirely free but the small venue means that places are limited with complimentary tickets available from the http://cloudstorm-paris.eventbrite.com website on a first come, first served basis.

CloudStorm has further events planned for early next year in Holland and Germany which will have many of the same core sponsors as well as additional regionally focused cloud computing specialists.

For more information visit: www.cloudstorm.org

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Eucalyptus Powers the Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud in Ubuntu 9.10

Claude - THE CLOUD ARCHITECT — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:53:00 GMT

Eucalyptus Powers the Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud in Ubuntu 9.10

Eucalyptus Private Cloud Software Shipping with the Latest Ubuntu Linux Distribution

Santa Barbara, CA., October 26, 2009 – [@PR2WEB] - Eucalyptus Systems, Inc., creators of the leading open source private cloud platform, today announced that Eucalyptus software is the engine behind the Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC), a new cloud computing solution packaged in the latest version of the popular Ubuntu distribution. UEC including Eucalyptus will ship with every copy of Ubuntu 9.10 Server Edition (announced today), which is fully supported by Canonical, the commercial sponsor of the Ubuntu project. Ubuntu 9.10 Server Edition with the UEC (powered by Eucalyptus) will be available for free download at www.ubuntu.com starting October 29.

"Canonical has once again taken a leadership role in driving industry innovation by providing a freely available and supported Linux distribution containing everything needed to deploy a fully functional private cloud in minutes," said Dr. Rich Wolski, co-founder and CTO at Eucalyptus Systems. "We are thrilled that Eucalyptus is such an integral part of the very forward-looking Ubuntu 9.10 distribution, targeting the many millions of Ubuntu users. With UEC powered by Eucalyptus, the benefits of secure, flexible and cost-effective on-premise cloud computing will be experienced by a wide range of users."

Eucalyptus is an open source software infrastructure for implementing on-premise cloud computing using an organization’s own IT infrastructure, without modification, special-purpose hardware or reconfiguration. Eucalyptus turns data center resources such as machines, networks, and storage systems into a cloud that is controlled and customized by local IT. With Eucalyptus, businesses of any size can leverage their own IT resources to get the benefits of cloud computing without the concerns of lock-in, security ambiguity and unexpected storage costs that can be associated with public clouds.

Eucalyptus is the only cloud architecture to support the same application programming interfaces (APIs) as public clouds, and today Eucalyptus is fully compatible with the Amazon AWS public cloud infrastructure. The Eucalyptus design gives users the flexibility to seamlessly move applications from on-premise Eucalyptus clouds to public clouds, and vice versa. Eucalyptus also makes it easy to deploy “hybrid” clouds, which use public and private cloud resources together to get the unique benefits of each. Eucalyptus runs on a wide range of popular Linux distributions, including Ubuntu, for which it has been specially packaged to improve ease of installation and maintenance.

Eucalyptus Enterprise Edition Available

In addition to developing and supporting the Eucalyptus open source software, Eucalyptus Systems provides Eucalyptus Enterprise Edition (Eucalyptus EE), a commercial version of its eponymous software designed to meet the needs of enterprise IT. With Eucalyptus EE, customers can implement an on-premise Eucalyptus cloud with industry-leading virtualization technologies, including vSphere®, ESX™ and ESXi™. The only private cloud today to support VMware vSphere, Eucalyptus EE provides a robust, affordable cloud computing solution that leverages customers’ investments in VMware technologies. Eucalyptus EE also supports other hypervisors typically found in a data center, such as Xen and KVM, providing customers the flexibility to configure cloud solutions that best meet their infrastructure needs.

About Eucalyptus Systems, Inc.

Eucalyptus Systems develops enterprise-grade technology solutions built on the open source Eucalyptus software for private and hybrid cloud computing. Originally developed as part of an academic research project, Eucalyptus is quickly becoming the standard for on-premise cloud computing, delivering the cost efficiencies and scalability of a cloud architecture with the security and control of deploying on an organization’s own IT infrastructure. Eucalyptus is the only private cloud to support the same application programming interfaces (APIs) as public clouds, such as Amazon Web Services. Eucalyptus is available as open source software and also in the Eucalyptus Enterprise Edition (EEE), a commercial offering designed for large scale enterprises.

For more information about Eucalyptus, please visit http://www.eucalyptus.com.

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Claude - The Cloud Architect

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Layered Technologies Ranked 60th Fastest Growing Company in North America on Deloitte’s 2009 Technology Fast 500™

Claude - THE CLOUD ARCHITECT — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:53:00 GMT

Layered Technologies Ranked 60th Fastest Growing Company in North America on Deloitte’s 2009 Technology Fast 500™

Attributes its 3,182 Percent Revenue Growth to Innovation and Customized Solutions

PLANO, Texas – Oct. 29, 2009 – Layered Technologies, Inc. (Layered Tech) today announced that it ranked number 60 on Technology Fast 500™, Deloitte LLP’s ranking of 500 of the fastest growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and clean technology companies in North America. Rankings are based on percentage of fiscal year revenue growth during the five year period from 2004–2008. Layered Tech grew 3,182 percent during this period.

Layered Tech’s CEO, Jack Finlayson, credits innovation and customized solutions with the company’s 3,182 percent revenue growth over the past five years. He said, “Layered Tech is honored to be included among so many other forward-thinking companies on Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500™. We are committed to helping customers find the best infrastructure strategy for their unique business needs and are constantly evolving our offerings to further support our customers. This recognition from Deloitte fuels our determination to continue delivering superior levels of infrastructure support and services so our customers can focus on achieving their goals.”

“Technology Fast 500™ recognizes innovative companies that have broken down barriers to success and defied the odds with their remarkable five-year revenue growth,” said Phil Asmundson, Vice Chairman and U.S. Technology, Media and Telecommunications Leader, Deloitte LLP. “We congratulate Layered Tech on this accomplishment.”

“With its impressive five-year growth, Layered Tech has earned its position among the fastest growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and clean technology companies in North America,” said Mark Jensen, Managing Partner, Technology and Venture Capital Services, Deloitte & Touche LLP. “Deloitte is proud to honor Layered Tech for its achievement.”

Overall, Technology Fast 500™ award winners for 2009 had growth rates ranging from 212 to 146,050 percent over five years, with an average growth rate of 2,486 percent.

Technology Fast 500™ Selection and Qualifying Criteria

Technology Fast 500™ provides a ranking of the fastest growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and clean technology companies in North America. This ranking is compiled from nominations submitted directly to the Technology Fast 500™ website, and public company database research conducted by Deloitte. Technology Fast 500™ award winners for 2009 are selected based on percentage fiscal year revenue growth during the five year period from 2004 to 2008.

In order to be eligible for Technology Fast 500™ recognition, companies must own proprietary intellectual property or proprietary technology that contributes to a significant portion of the company's operating revenues. Using other companies' technology or intellectual property in a unique way does not satisfy this requirement. Consulting companies, professional service firms, etc. are not eligible unless they have proprietary technology that contributes to a significant portion of their operating revenues.

Technology Fast 500™ award eligibility requirements also include base-year operating revenues of at least $50,000 USD or CD, and current-year operating revenues of at least $5 million USD or CD. These revenues must have more than doubled between 2004 and 2008. Additionally, companies must be in business for a minimum of five years, and be headquartered within North America.

About Layered Technologies

Layered Technologies is a leading global provider of managed dedicated hosting, on-demand virtualization/cloud computing and Web services. By providing high-quality technology, infrastructure and support, Layered Tech enables customers to eliminate capital expenses and save on operating costs while focusing on core business issues. Layered Tech’s scalable infrastructure powers millions of sites and Internet-enabled applications including e-commerce, software as a service (SaaS), content distribution and more. Our clients range from leading-edge Web 2.0 startups, successful mid-sized enterprises and some the world’s largest consultancy and integration firms. For more information about Layered Technologies, please visit www.LayeredTech.com or call 1-866-584-6784.

About Deloitte

As used in this document, “Deloitte” means Deloitte LLP. Please see www.deloitte.com/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries.

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Tech Alert: Solid-State Storage Appliances Make Good Business Sense

Claude - THE CLOUD ARCHITECT — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:54:00 GMT

Tech Alert: Solid-State Storage Appliances Make Good Business Sense

Princeton, NJ, October 28, 2009 — [@PR2WEB] - Solid-state storage is increasingly becoming an attractive alternative to the over-provisioning and management headaches of traditional hard disk drive arrays in many IT infrastructures. Leveraging the benefits of solid-state storage in a dedicated appliance is a smart move for businesses, enabling companies to improve application performance, leverage existing IT investments and cut costs, according to experts at Dataram Corporation [NASDAQ: DRAM], a worldwide leader in the manufacture of high-quality computer memory, storage products and software.

Solid-state appliances can optimize performance, leverage existing IT investments and measurably reduce the total cost of ownership associated with storage infrastructure in a typical OLTP or OLAP environment consisting of network, database, host and storage. Boasting excellent reliability and availability, they typically feature hot-swappable redundant power supplies and drives, and all but the most entry-level systems offer built-in backup and automatic restore. Monitoring and remote management are offered via flexible, Web-based browsers and system status alerts.

“In a world of increasing data, higher-volume transactions and tighter budgets, IT departments should definitely evaluate solid-state solutions that maximize performance while minimizing cost,” said Dataram’s Chief Technologist Jason Caulkins. “Solid-state storage appliances offer customers significant benefits due to their ability to seamlessly integrate into existing SANs, dynamically cache I/O-intensive data, dramatically accelerate application performance and provide an immediate return on investment.”

Solid-state storage appliances offer a compelling business case for mid-range storage environments by delivering:

Improved Application and SAN Performance
Typical storage servers are configured for speed, not capacity. Businesses must over-provision storage capacity to gain improvement in storage performance. This quickly becomes a wasteful exercise because the amount of spinning disk required to attain the performance required for business-critical computing becomes cost prohibitive. With a solid-state appliance as part of the total storage infrastructure, servers need far fewer disks to reach desired performance levels and capacity can be optimized. Application performance can be improved by as much as 30 times – obtaining high-end performance from mid-range systems.
Leverage Existing IT Investments
Solid-state storage appliances can be transparently installed into existing SAN architectures with no changes to the operating system or infrastructure. By being interoperable with existing storage subsystems, solid-state appliances deliver immediate results and extend the life of current infrastructure without the need for expensive upgrades. Solid-state appliances provide a cost-effective alternative solution to purchasing additional storage systems, reducing total cost of ownership by more than 50 percent on average.
Significant Infrastructure Cost Savings
Because IT managers can leverage their mid-range storage investment and obtain the equivalent performance of high-end storage systems, solid-state storage appliances configured with a mid-range server can save an organization hundreds of thousands of dollars. And solid-state storage appliances may require no additional software, can provide lower licensing costs, and will cut energy, cooling and floor space expenses dramatically compared to high-end solutions.

Solid-state storage appliances, like Dataram's XcelaSAN, provide application acceleration to businesses that rely on transaction-intensive databases, or perform high volume online transactions and/or analytical processing. With increased flexibility, scalability that adds capacity and performance, and cost approximately one-sixth that of high-end solutions, solid-state storage appliances make good business sense for organizations looking to optimize their existing storage infrastructure.

About Dataram
Founded in 1967, Dataram is a worldwide leader in the manufacture of high-quality computer memory, storage and software products. Our products and services deliver IT infrastructure optimization, dramatically increase application performance and deliver substantial cost savings. Dataram solutions are deployed in 70 Fortune 100 companies and in mission-critical government and defense applications around the world. For more information about Dataram, visit www.dataram.com.

All names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

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Nirvanix Launches Channel Partner Program

Claude - THE CLOUD ARCHITECT — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 01:49:00 GMT

Nirvanix Launches Channel Partner Program

Nth Generation first channel partner to integrate Nirvanix cloud storage into portfolio

San Diego, October 27, 2009 –[@PR2WEB] - Nirvanix, the premier enterprise cloud storage service provider, today announced a Channel Partner Program that helps solutions providers capitalize on the growing interest in cloud services.

Resellers,integrators and IT consulting firms partnering with Nirvanix can offer secure, scalable, and cost effective cloud storage to customers via the award winning Nirvanix Storage Delivery Network and Nirvanix CloudNAS. Nirvanix provides its partners with tools, training, support, and resources to increase your revenue from cloud storage. Program benefits include:

Direct access to Nirvanix Solutions and Technical Support staff
Training on all Nirvanix products and services
Marketing support with a library of Nirvanix presentations and collateral to co-brand and educate customers on cloud storage
Financial incentives

Nth Generation Computing Inc. is the first partner to add the Nirvanix Storage Delivery Network (SDN) to its existing product and services portfolio. The partnership agreement with Nirvanix offers Nth Generation customers a fully supported solution for integrating cloud storage into their ILM processes and heterogeneous storage environments. By integrating Nirvanix’s SDN as part of an overall IT strategy, Nth Generation is helping enterprises reduce CAPEX while optimizing existing data center and storage resources.

“Our team of highly trained engineers, business analysts and project managers have over 500 combined years of experience in designing and implementing IT solutions that directly address our enterprise customers' unique business challenges,” said Dan Molina, Chief Technology Officer of Nth Generation. “In looking to add cloud storage services to our portfolio, we found only one that was market-tested and ready for immediate integration. Nirvanix enables enterprises to supplement their existing storage infrastructure with cloud storage to reap the benefits of lower costs, maximum performance and increased flexibility. By adding their services to our solution portfolio, we are well positioned to provide the benefits of cloud storage to our enterprise customers.”

“The cloud storage market is maturing and customers are going to their Systems Integrators and VARs for support in implementation. This is why we launched our Channel Partner Program and are extremely pleased to have Nth Generation as one of the first participants,” said Geoff Tudor,Co-founder and SVP of Business Development of Nirvanix. “Their reputation for integrating best-of-breed products and services for their customers is unrivaled in Southern California. The fact that Nth chose to integrate Nirvanix into their solution portfolio affirms that cloud storage solves the issue of managing the explosive growth of data with constrained resources. We look forward to working with Nth Generation to optimize the IT infrastructure of some of Southern California’s largest organizations.”

About Nth Generation

Nth Generation is a full-service IT engineering and consulting firm dedicated to helping Southern California clients protect, access and manage their enterprise data. Nth’s customers range from Fortune 500 to mid-tier organizations across many industries. All share the need to protect mission critical information while maintaining rapid, reliable and secure access. Nth Generation has designed and implemented successful IT solutions for over 650 enterprise clients. With more than500 aggregate years of data center experience, Nth specializes in IT Consolidation, Server & Storage Virtualization, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, Disaster Recovery/Data Protection/Business Continuance and Information Lifecycle Management & IT Regulatory Compliance. For more information, visit www.nth.com or call (800) 548-1883.

About Nirvanix

Nirvanix is the market leader in enterprise cloud storage and offers a fully managed cloud storage service designed from the ground up for the enterprise. Headquartered in San Diego, California, Nirvanix is privately held and has raised more than $23 million in funding from world-class investors including Intel Capital, Valhalla Partners, Mission Ventures, Windward Ventures, and the European Founders Fund. Nirvanix has over 700 business customers ranging from Internet startups to Fortune 10 organizations and include Arizona State University, Nero,and The Planet, among others.

For more information about the company and its services, visit www.nirvanix.com.

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