Cloud Architect | Cloud Architecture | THE CLOUD NETWORK

Upcoming Cloud Computing Events for Monday Feb 6th @CloudEvent by @TheCloudNetwork

2012-02-03T12:34:26Z

Cloud Architect - Architect to the Clouds by CloudGear
Browse more Cloud Embroidered Hats

Upcoming Cloud Computing Events for Monday Feb 6th @CloudEvent by @TheCloudNetwork

Submit Event Information to cloudevents@pr2web.com

Feature your Cloud Computing Event here with a banner ad.

Backto Main Page

Gary E. Smith - Architect to the Clouds - Cloud Architect

Upcoming Cloud Computing Webinars / Webcasts for Monday Feb 6th @CloudWebinars by @TheCloudNetwork

2012-02-03T12:32:34Z

Cloud Architect - Architect to the Clouds by CloudGear
Browse more Cloud Embroidered Hats

Upcoming Cloud Computing Webinars / Webcasts for Monday Feb 6th @CloudWebinars by @TheCloudNetwork

Submit Webinar Information to cloudwebinars@pr2web.com

Now follow @BigDataWebinars by @BigDataClouds

Back to Main Page

Gary E. Smith - Architect to the Clouds - Cloud Architect

Upcoming Cloud Computing Courses for Monday Feb 6th @CloudCourses by @TheCloudNetwork

2012-02-03T12:31:14Z

Cloud Architect - Architect to the Clouds by CloudGear
Browse more Cloud Embroidered Hats

Upcoming Cloud Computing Courses for Monday Feb 6th @CloudCourses by @TheCloudNetwork

Submit Course Information to cloudcourses@pr2web.com

Feature your Cloud Computing Course here with a banner ad.

Back to Main Page

Gary E. Smith - Architect to the Clouds - Cloud Architect

CloudCon Expo & Confrence July 19-20, 2012 - San Francisco, CA

2012-02-02T13:14:02Z

CloudCon Expo & Confrence
July 19-20, 2012 - San Francisco, CA

Cloud Computing Industry's Must Attend Event
If your organization has IT deployment, you should have cloud policy in place. If not, we are here to help you. This once a year conference is designed for IT professionals and decision makers looking to implement Cloud Technology to achieve benefits like Reliability, Scalability, and Accessibility.

Learn, Network & Collaborate
Learn and boost your knowledge in cloud computing arena by attending many track sessions designed to educate you and help your companyʼs bottom-line.
Meet with industry experts and discuss your companyʼs needs and get advise from them. You will be meeting peers from industries like:
Enterprise Solutions, Healthcare, Financial, Banking, IT Services, Managed Hosting Mobility, Data Security, Storage / Network, State & Local Government
Interact with CIOs & CEOs, IT Managers, Directors, Policy Makers Government Staff, VCs & Investors, Vice Presidents, CMIOs CTOs, Security Officers, State & Local Government Officials.

Keynote & Track Speakers
Listen to industry leaders from Rackspace, SAP, Google, IBM & More...

Apply Now
We are now accepting applications for Speakers, Exhibitors & Sponsors. Please send email at info@exponential-inc.com before March 1, 2012
www.CloudConExpo.com

-xx-

Back to Main Page

Gary E. Smith - Architect to the Clouds

eXo Platform 3.5 Now Available: First Cloud-Ready Enterprise Portal and User Experience Platform-as-a-Service (UXPaaS)

2012-02-01T12:34:42Z

eXo Platform 3.5 Now Available: First Cloud-Ready Enterprise Portal and User Experience Platform-as-a-Service (UXPaaS)

Users Connect, Collaborate and Improve Productivity — in the Cloud, on Mobile Devices or on the Ground

Multi-tenancy support for deployment in public and private clouds

Secure access to personal dashboards, documents and activity streams via native mobile apps

Social network features and integration with existing infrastructure

Mashup and gadget development for third-party app integration in built-in web IDE

SAN FRANCISCO — January 31, 2012 —@PR2WEB - eXo, the user experience platform-as-a-service (UXPaaS) company, today announced general availability of eXo Platform 3.5. This new release of eXo Platform is designed for organizations that want a cloud-enabled solution for creating and managing next-generation portal-based sites that facilitate engagements between colleagues, customers or partners, and can easily integrate with existing enterprise applications, policies and procedures.

Enterprises today require greater flexibility and tools that will enable them to deliver rich user experiences for a variety of use cases — social intranets, extranets, transactional websites and more. They want options to deploy in the cloud or in the back office, to integrate with external web services and internal line of business applications. The eXo user experience platform (UXP) gives IT professionals the resources they require to meet all these needs.

“Built on open standards and open source technologies, eXo Platform 3.5 has the features and extensibility of a UXP and the cloud architecture to build public and private clouds. We built the first true UXPaaS,” said Benjamin Mestrallet, founder and CEO of eXo. “Imagine company ABC wanting to integrate their custom-built inventory application in an enterprise portal with social networking and document management capabilities, and then deliver that as a private cloud service to all their customers. eXo Platform 3.5 enables them to do just that — and to do it very efficiently.”

The Emergence of the UXPaaS

The user experience platform (UXP) is the emerging implementation of next-generation portal services. Unlike traditional portal services, though, a user experience platform offers an organization an integrated collection of technologies that speed the creation of portals built around content, collaboration capabilities, social streams and services, mobile access and more. eXo Platform has long provided these integrated platform services.

With the release of eXo Platform 3.5, eXo has added support for multi-tenancy and engineered this platform to be cloud-ready. Now, organizations or service providers that want to offer a UXP as a service — a UXPaaS — can do so. A single instance of eXo Platform 3.5 can support many UXP-based social intranets, extranets, transactional websites and more for many different clients, each in their own private cloud environment. To understand the UXPaaS landscape, see http://budurl.com/kah4.

Native Mobile Apps and Cloud-Ready Features for Unprecedented Deployment Flexibility

Using eXo Platform 3.5, companies can create a secure portal-based site and add the user experience services — such as content, document management and social activity streams — that best suit project needs. IT organizations can give their end users an easy yet controlled way to interact with their networks and work collaboratively. Key technology enhancements in eXo Platform 3.5 include:

Mobile Apps: Native iPhone, iPad and Android apps integrate elegantly with sites built on eXo Platform 3.5, ensuring that users can interact with personalized gadget dashboards, activity streams, document repositories and more — at any time, from anywhere.

Cloud-Ready: Support for multi-tenancy deployments includes the option to host isolated portals on a single auto-scalable instance of eXo Platform 3.5. The unique integration capabilities and extensive set of UXP features enable enterprises, service providers and independent software vendors (ISVs) to build their own private and public cloud offerings with immediate productivity.

Additionally, eXo Platform 3.5 includes a range of new or enhanced features for delivering a rich user experience:

Simpler, More Intuitive Interface: The look and feel of all of the built-in apps has been refreshed for eXo Platform 3.5, with the goal of greater simplicity and enhanced readability. In addition, the new desktop mode allows users to access eXo Platform 3.5 services in a familiar and windowed environment, right within the browser.

Enhanced Social and Collaboration Tools: Rich collaboration features such as an enterprise Wiki, forums, polls, FAQs and shared calendar components (including remote calendar synchronization) are standard. Social network capabilities empower users to create work groups, follow activity streams of connections and groups, and more.

Improved Content Management: Enterprise Content Management features provide the ability to store, share, version and organize documents; integrate advanced workflows; and create dynamic content-rich websites. eXo Platform 3.5 introduces search engine optimization (SEO) features, improves Java Content Repository (JCR) performance, and enhances content explorer usability. Easier website authoring is facilitated by the new inline editing feature, making it possible to edit and publish content from the front-end in a single click.

Embedded IDE: An integrated web development environment (IDE) is embedded in eXo Platform 3.5, which enables an IT team to develop, customize and extend the experience presented to a user in a platform-based engagement environment. Developers can create and refine elements on the fly and deploy with one-click ease.

Integrated Sample Sites: The website samples included with eXo Platform 3.5 have been expanded to illustrate how developers can take advantage of many of the new features of eXo Platform 3.5 — from UI customization to the inclusion of rich content and improved site navigation.

eXo Platform Gadget Pack: The gadget pack includes 15 new gadgets that provide easy access to a variety of adoption, collaboration, development, monitoring, social and other eXo Platform services. With easy access to the source code, developers can also use these gadgets as templates for building additional extensions and quickly become productive with the REST API of eXo Platform 3.5.

Enterprise Portal Framework: Integrated portlets, user- and role-based views, security and single sign-on features (including integration with existing Active Directory and other LDAP systems) are supported.

Pricing and Availability

eXo Platform 3.5 is available today in two editions:

eXo Platform 3.5 Enterprise Edition is a full-featured implementation of eXo Platform 3.5. Offered under a subscription model, it includes the support and services needed for deployment in an enterprise production environment. Features include support for native mobile applications and multi-tenant deployment as well as clustering, built-in web IDE and the eXo Platform Gadget Pack.

eXo Platform 3.5 Community Edition is an open source package of the core features of eXo Platform 3.5. It is ideal for developers who do not require production support, mobile or cloud deployment options, or the extensibility and customization capabilities provided by the Gadget Pack or embedded IDE.

A 30-day trial version of eXo Platform 3.5 can be downloaded from http://budurl.com/3k6e.

For more information about eXo Platform 3.5, visit the website at http://budurl.com/jw5l.

Additional Online Resources

Discover eXo Platform 3.5 in three minutes; http://budurl.com/epxx

eXo’s CTO gives a full-feature tour of eXo Platform 3.5; http://budurl.com/t5wn

What’s new in eXo Platform 3.5; http://budurl.com/bp7m

eXo Platform 3.5 datasheet; http://budurl.com/q7v8

eXo Platform 3.5 features table; http://budurl.com/92kt

For more information on eXo, please visit http://exoplatform.com. For additional perspectives, please visit and subscribe to eXo RSS blog feeds at http://blog.exoplatform.org/. Follow eXo on Twitter at @exoplatform.

About eXo

eXo offers the first cloud-ready enterprise portal and user experience platform-as-a-service (UXPaaS). eXo Platform makes websites and applications faster to build and easier to deploy, and offers modern features such as content, collaboration, social and knowledge on a services-based architecture. eXo Cloud IDE offers a multi-tenant hosted development environment that enables the collaborative creation of applications based on HTML, Java, Groovy, Spring, PHP, Ruby and more — all of which can be deployed directly to a PaaS environment. The company has established technology leadership and proven value by their large European installed base and strategic partnership with Red Hat. eXo maintains U.S. headquarters in San Francisco, Calif. with global headquarters in France and offices in Tunisia, Ukraine and Vietnam. For news and updates from eXo, visit http://exoplatform.com, and follow http://blog.exoplatform.org/ and @exoplatform.

###

All brand names and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

-xx-

Back to Main Page

Gary E. Smith - Architect to the Clouds

Nimbus Launches E-Class Flash Memory System for Mission-critical Enterprise and Cloud Infrastructure

2012-02-01T03:53:11Z

Nimbus Launches E-Class Flash Memory System for Mission-critical Enterprise and Cloud Infrastructure

New Sustainable Storage® Platform Scales to Industry-leading 500 TB with No Single Point of Failure and Record-setting Energy and Rackspace Efficiency

South San Francisco, CA, January 31, 2012 – @PR2WEB - Nimbus Data Systems, Inc., the leader in Sustainable Storage, today unveiled the new E-Class Flash Memory System, the industry’s first fully-redundant multiprotocol solid state storage system. With record-setting capacity and unprecedented power, cooling and rackspace efficiency, the E-Class outperforms and costs less to operate than conventional disk arrays while providing the high-availability, scalability and cost reduction that enterprises and cloud providers demand. Highlights of the new E-Class include:

• First multiprotocol solid state system with no single point of failure and enterprise-grade flash

• Most scalable solid state storage system ever engineered, supporting 500 TB as one logical pool

• Highest density primary storage system ever, eclipsing 15K RPM disk arrays by over 3x

• Lowest energy consumption of any primary storage system, consuming as little as 5 watts per TB

• Comprehensive data management software and “unified” storage without any licensing fees

“The Nimbus E-Class sets a new standard for solid state storage scalability and operating cost economics,” stated Benjamin S. Woo, program vice president, worldwide storage systems at IDC. “Large enterprises and cloud providers must consider the significant infrastructure consolidation possible with all-flash storage systems. By providing both innovative hardware and comprehensive software, Nimbus is well-positioned to not only capitalize on the need for high-performance systems but also the significantly greater trend towards primary storage based exclusively on solid state technology.”

No Single Point of Failure
Complementing Nimbus’ existing S-Class flash systems, the E-Class elevates Nimbus’ multiprotocol solid state storage platform to meet the needs of the most rigorous IT environments. With no-single-point-of-failure, the Nimbus E-Class is ideal for applications such as enterprise-wide server virtualization, Web infrastructure, database clusters, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), and high-performance computing. The E-Class platform consists of a pair of redundant controllers and up to 24 solid state storage enclosures. Each E-Class controller supports up to four active-active IO modules including 10 Gigabit Ethernet, Fibre Channel, and Infiniband. Nimbus software automatically detects controller and path failures, providing non-disruptive failover. The E-Class also supports online software updates and online capacity expansion. With RAID protection and hot-swappable flash, power, and cooling modules, components can be easily replaced without downtime.

Most Scalable Flash Memory System Ever
Scaling from 10 TB to an unprecedented 500 TB with one point of management and one unified storage pool, the Nimbus E-Class is the highest capacity flash storage system ever engineered. Nimbus achieved this record-setting capacity through both hardware and software innovation. The E-Class features Nimbus’ third-generation enterprise flash modules, packing twice as much enterprise-grade flash memory as before. Nimbus’ file system seamlessly aggregates the capacity across all E-Class solid state enclosures. From one interface, users can provision capacity using Fibre Channel, iSCSI, NFS, CIFS, or SRP (SCSI RDMA Protocol), providing unified block (SAN) and file (NAS) storage in one easy-to-use system. All storage is thin-provisioned, maximizing utilization and simplifying storage capacity planning.

Most Efficient Primary Storage System Ever
Requiring as little as 5 watts of power per terabyte, the E-Class also sets a new record for efficiency, delivering the lowest power consumption of any primary storage system. Whereas conventional disk arrays consume 25 watts or more of power per terabyte, the E-Class consumes 80% less, reducing energy costs, cutting power and cooling capital expenditures, and improving overall datacenter reliability.

Highest Density Primary Storage System Ever
Nimbus’ latest solid state storage enclosures pack 20 TB of enterprise-grade flash memory in a mere 2U of rackspace. This unmatched system density enables up to 440 TB of solid state storage in a single industry-standard rack, delivering the same capacity that would otherwise take more than three racks of 15K RPM disks. In IOps, the E-Class delivers in one rack the equivalent of 14 racks of 15K RPM disks. These gains in rack density perfectly complement existing server, desktop and IO virtualization initiatives to maximize datacenter utilization and significantly reduce OpEx.

Affordable and Software Complete
The E-Class is powered by Nimbus’ award-winning HALO storage operating system, a full-featured unified SAN and NAS software stack proven at over 200 customer installations. With snapshots, replication, deduplication, and encryption, all at no additional cost, the E-Class helps customers escape excessive licensing fees and avoid external appliances or gateways that increase cost and complexity. Despite being based entirely on enterprise-grade flash memory, the E-Class is remarkably affordable, matching the per terabyte net acquisition cost of 15K RPM disk arrays without relying on data reduction.

“Unveiling the E-Class is a watershed event for both Nimbus and the rapidly-growing solid state industry,” stated Thomas Isakovich, founder and CEO of Nimbus Data Systems. “Customers are not satisfied with hybrid storage arrays or proprietary tiered systems that offer only modest performance gains, do not improve efficiency, and lock-in customers to one vendor for all of their storage capacity. With the Nimbus E-Class, the ultimate goal can be achieved: a best-in-class all-flash primary storage infrastructure that helps our customers leapfrog the competition in both IT performance and profitability.”

Availability and Pricing
The Nimbus E-Class is available immediately, with a 10 TB dual-controller configuration starting at $149,995. The full HALO storage operating system is included in the system price.

To Learn More

To learn more, please contact a Nimbus FlashPoint partner or visit our website at www.nimbusdata.com.

About Nimbus Data Systems
Nimbus develops award-winning Sustainable Storage® systems, the most intelligent, efficient and fault-tolerant solid state storage platform engineered for server and desktop virtualization, databases, HPC, and next-generation cloud infrastructure. Combining low-latency flash memory hardware, comprehensive data management and protection software, and highly-scalable multiprotocol storage features, Nimbus systems deliver dramatically greater performance at a significantly lower operating cost than conventional disk-based primary storage arrays, all at a comparable acquisition cost.

For more information, visit www.nimbusdata.com.

Follow Nimbus on Twitter: twitter.com/nimbusdata.

-xx-

Back to Main Page

Gary E. Smith - Architect to the Clouds

Citrix Cloud Webinar Series: How to Successfully Implement Cloud Solutions

2012-02-01T03:18:49Z

Citrix Cloud Webinar Series: How to Successfully Implement Cloud Solutions
Accelerating the Enterprise Journey to the Cloud
On Demand. View Now.
Cloud computing is one of the hottest topics for today’s Enterprises. With any new technology, there’s often uncertainty around use and adoption. In this 60-minute webcast, Peder Ulander, VP of Product Marketing at Citrix focuses on how cloud computing is driving changes in the way Enterprise IT services are delivered and consumed. Discussion topics include:
Why enterprises are embracing cloud computing
Best practices and tools necessary to design a successful cloud for your organization
Customer success stories for how Citrix cloud solutions are being used in Enterprise IT today
Featured Speaker:

Peder Ulander
VP of Product Marketing, Citrix Systems, Inc

How to Implement Infrastructure as a Service and Platform as a Service Solutions
February 1, 2012 11 am PST/ 2 pm EST
In this 60-minute webcast, you’ll learn how leading companies use open source to implement cloud solutions incorporating compute, storage and network capacity – all while avoiding vendor lock-in from proprietary systems. Please join David Nalley, CloudStack Community Manager at Citrix and Rajesh Ramchandani, Vice President Products, Cumulogic, as they explore:
The compute, storage and network tools needed to build and manage clouds
Hypervisor choices, cloud orchestration solutions, and cloud abstraction layers needed to automate service delivery
Use cases and open source technology that can help you get started
Featured Speakers:

David Nalley
CloudStack Community Manager, Citrix Systems, Inc

Rajesh Ramchandani,
Vice President Products, Cumulogic

How to Build Your Own Cloud with Citrix CloudStack
February 29, 2012 11 am PST/ 2 pm EST
CloudStack accelerates the deployment, management and configuration of compute, network and storage capacity into highly scalable IaaS clouds. In this 60-minute technical webcast, Kedarnath Poduri, Director of Product Management for CloudStack, explores the features available in the latest release of CloudStack, as well as best practices for deploying your own public or private cloud. Discussion topics include:
The comprehensive capabilities of CloudStack 3
How CloudStack automates provisioning and orchestration of compute, network and storage resources
How leading companies are successfully using CloudStack to drive go-to-market cloud strategies
Featured Speaker:

Kedarnath Poduri,
Director of Product Management for CloudStack

Successful Cloud Implementation for Managed Service Providers
March 14, 2012 11 am PST/ 2 pm EST
As IT spend continues to shift to cloud services, Service Providers are increasingly using Cloud computing to grow their businesses in new ways. This 60-minute webcast focuses on how one industry leader successfully launched their new Cloud offering with the Citrix CloudStack solution. Join Peder Ulander, Vice President of Product Marketing at Citrix and Brian Krouse, Sr. Director Product Development at GoDaddy to discuss:
Challenges and opportunities when moving to a Cloud computing architecture
Planning steps and strategies to launch a Cloud services offering
Practical implementation guidance for getting up and running quickly
Featured Speakers:

Peder Ulander
VP of Product Marketing, Citrix Systems, Inc
Brian Krouse,
Sr. Director Product Development at GoDaddy

Register Here for the events:
http://video.webcasts.com/events/pmny001/viewer/index.jsp?eventid=40947&adid=thecloudnetwork

-xx-

Back to Main Page

Gary E. Smith - Architect to the Clouds

Xerox Expands Cloud Services for Small and Mid-sized Businesses

2012-02-01T01:40:46Z

Xerox Expands Cloud Services for Small and Mid-sized Businesses

Affordable Enterprise-level Cloud Services for SMBs Begin with IaaS, Back-up and Disaster Recovery

DALLAS - Jan 31, 2012 – @PR2WEB - Small-and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) seeking cloud services previously only available to global corporations can now transform their business operations using a new suite of cloud services from Xerox Corporation (NYSE: XRX).

The services will be sold through Xerox’s value-added resellers (VARs) and include Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) for midrange and Intel systems; Cloud Backup; and Disaster Recovery services.

Xerox’s business cloud services ensure that a company’s applications, data and IT platforms are secure. These services also manage workload demand and are priced to serve SMBs that have annual revenue of $10 million to $250 million.

“Cloud technology is often presented as a complex, ‘big company’ infrastructure solution. But, in fact, managing IT operations in the ‘cloud’ is just as relevant and affordable for smaller companies and can be even more impactful,” said Ken Stephens, senior vice president of Xerox Cloud Services. “Expanding Xerox’s IaaS and Backup and Recovery services to SMBs is the next step toward offering a full suite of business cloud services that SMBs can access on a ‘pay-as-you-go’ model.”

“Xerox extending its sales efforts to SMBs through VARs is a smart move, especially in the growing cloud space,” said Ben Trowbridge, CEO at Alsbridge, a global advisory firm. “It’s a logical extension of their longstanding enterprise services, with more opportunities to sell additional Xerox products and services relevant to SMBs.”

The new services include:

Xerox Cloud IaaS for Midrange and Intel systems
- Many cloud providers - for enterprises or SMBs - do not support multiple operating systems, databases, legacy applications and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. The Xerox Cloud IaaS meets the conflicting demands of various operating models.
- Xerox delivers secure cloud services via five global data centers that house multi-tenant technologies and virtualized LANs.
- IaaS is quickly installed and ready to use with an on-demand “click and pick” provisioning process.
- IaaS ensures complete tracking, auditing and reporting capabilities.
Cloud Backup and Disaster Recovery Service
- Recovery of data, applications and operating systems - everything on the server and can be restored in less than 24 hours.
- An affordable approach for enterprises and SMBs needing remote backup and disaster recovery at a monthly, utility-based price, meaning customers pay for what they use.
- No long-term contracts required.
- The Business Cloud infrastructure used for corporate enterprises also is available for SMBs.
- Data backup is replicated, secured, encrypted and conducted daily.

“No matter the size, scope or location of a company, there’s a common denominator: how to manage costs and risks. Xerox delivers a utility model approach, intense security controls, systems and data redundancy, even a customized company-wide disaster recovery plan,” added Stephens.

About Xerox

With sales approaching $23 billion, Xerox Corporation (NYSE: XRX) is the world’s leading enterprise for business process and document management. Its technology, expertise and services enable workplaces – from small businesses to large global enterprises – to simplify the way work gets done so they operate more effectively and focus more on what matters most: their real business. Headquartered in Norwalk, Conn., Xerox offers business process outsourcing and IT outsourcing services, including data processing, healthcare solutions, HR benefits management, finance support, transportation solutions, and customer relationship management services for commercial and government organizations worldwide. The company also provides extensive leading-edge document technology, services, software and genuine Xerox supplies for graphic communication and office printing environments of any size. The 140,000 people of Xerox serve clients in more than 160 countries. For more information, visit http://www.xerox.com, http://news.xerox.com or http://www.realbusiness.com. For investor information, visit http://www.xerox.com/investor.

-xx-

Back to Main Page

Gary E. Smith - Architect to the Clouds

Open Source File, Sync and Share Project Adds Cloud Text Editing and More

2012-01-31T01:23:27Z

Open Source File, Sync and Share Project Adds Cloud Text Editing and More

ownCloud Version 3 introduces online editing, photo gallery, PDF viewer, application store and improvements to existing functionality

BOSTON, Jan. 30, 2012 – @PR2WEB - ownCloud, the popular open source file, sync and share project, today announced improvements to its functionality and stability, enabling users to get even more out of their privately-hosted and owned file-sharing cloud.

Available for download now, ownCloud Version 3 enables users to share files and folders with others from their privately controlled infrastructure. Major new features in this release include: the ownCloud application store, which allows users to take advantage of the extensibility of ownCloud; and, directly edit text file capabilities from a browser. ownCloud is the only technology to offer such functionality made possible by its open and modular nature.

With more than 350,000 users and growing - ownCloud offers the ease-of-use of Dropbox and box.net with a more secure, transparently managed offering. As an open source project, ownCloud Version 3 offers innovative features, a flexible architecture, and no vendor lock in. ownCloud users can run its file sync and share services on their own hardware or use popular public hosting and storage offerings, allowing them to choose the trade-off between convenience and privacy they prefer.

"In many ways Version 3 is a leap forward for the ownCloud project -- not just in the technology, but also as a measure of the contributions from our expanding community," said Frank Karlitschek, founder of ownCloud. "Aside from the new functionality, the calendar and contacts have been given major improvements both in capabilities and interfaces."

With the announcement last month of ownCloud Inc., end users will now also have a broader support base and commercial supported offerings centered on the ownCloud project.

Major improvements

Cloud Text Editing

ownCloud Version 3 gives users the unique ability to access and edit documents in multiple ways. Users can access files directly if ownCloud is mounted via WebDAV, access them offline if the file is synced locally with the upcoming syncing client or access and edit files directly from within a browser with the new text editor.

The browser based text editor supports 35 programming languages for syntax highlighting, keyboard shortcuts, drag and drop text, automatic indent and outdent, unstructured/user code folding and Live syntax checker (for JavaScript, Coffee and CSS). The editor is based on the ACE JavaScript Editor. The editor supports basic text files. Editing more advanced formats like doc(x) and ODT is planned for future releases.

Application Store

ownCloud Version 3 supports installation of new third party applications and add-ons directly from a central repository of ownCloud applications. Developers who want to offer new features can upload new ownCloud applications at apps.owncloud.com. ownCloud users can browse and install the new applications directly from within the ownCloud Admin interface. Both users and developers can develop and use this new application store.

PDF Viewer

ownCloud Version 3 ships with an integrated PDF viewer for convenient viewing and printing of PDFs, even with browsers that don't have a PDF plugin installed. The viewer is based on the pdf.js library.

Photo Gallery

ownCloud Version 3 adds a photo gallery application to help view and organize photos of different file types. Photo albums are automatically created for uploaded photos.

PIM Improvements

The calendar application has a completely new and more user-friendly web interface. New features include repeating events and automatic time zone detection. The interface of the contacts application is also improved with thumbnails of contact photos, and the option to export address books or single contacts as .vcf files. It is now possible to create, edit or delete multiple address books in ownCloud.

Other Improvements

ownCloud Version 3 contains a new "external" application which can be used to integrate external groupware solutions or webmail interfaces into the ownCloud GUI.

The community also enhanced integration between ownCloud and LDAP or Active Directory servers. Administration and setup of ownCloud is now easier because of the new logging feature which makes it easier to monitor and debug an ownCloud installation.

ownCloud Community

Since the release of ownCloud Version 2 in October, the ownCloud community has enabled ownCloud for Juju Charms (Ubuntu) and built pre-configured software and virtual appliances ready for direct deployment in SUSE Studio. Additionally, the community has created a new website (owncloud.org) as well as a new forum site (forum.owncloud.org), improved installation documentation, and produced a new bug tracker (bugs.owncloud.org).

About ownCloud

ownCloud is a popular open source community project started at a KDE Community event in 2010, aiming to bring greater flexibility, access and security to data in the cloud.

ownCloud enables universal access to files through the widely implemented WebDAV standard, providing a platform to easily view and sync contacts, calendars and bookmarks across devices while supporting sharing, viewing and editing via the web interface.

Installation has minimal server requirements, doesn't need special permissions and is quick. ownCloud is extendable via a simple, powerful API for applications.

For more information, please visit: http://www.owncloud.org

About ownCloud, Inc.

ownCloud, Inc. offers software and services around the ownCloud product. The company headquarters are in Boston, with a development lab in Germany. Product and services offerings will be announced in the first quarter of 2012.

For more information, please visit: http://www.owncloud.com

-xx-

Back to Main Page

Gary E. Smith - Architect to the Clouds

cVidya Unveils Data Retention Solution Which Enables CSPs to Comply With EU Regulatory Requirements

2012-01-31T01:14:17Z

cVidya Unveils Data Retention Solution Which Enables CSPs to Comply With EU Regulatory Requirements

DRMap™, with Oracle Exadata Database Machine, leverages CSPs revenue intelligence systems to answer data retention regulation requirements with minimal operational cost

London, January 30, 2012 – @PR2WEB - cVidya Networks, (www.cvidya.com) a global leader and innovative provider of Revenue Intelligence solutions for Telecom, Media and Entertainment service providers, announced today the release of DRMap, a complete data retention solution that enables CSPs to comply with current regulations and swiftly fulfill law enforcement requests.
With its current positioning in the revenue assurance and fraud management spaces, cVidya was able to leverage its capabilities to create a solution which by nature collects richer sets of information as part of existing applications deployed at CSPs. With the necessity to ensure compliance with increasing regulations, such as the EU Data Retention Directive 2006/24/EC requiring CSPs to store data for up to 24 months, it is imperative that CSPs have fast, secure, and compliant data retention systems.
According to a leading research firm white paper, the majority of CSPs are spending a lot of time and money trying to adapt their current systems to meet the regulations.
cVidya is leveraging Oracle Exadata Database Machine, allowing CSPs to benefit from the extreme performance, speed and scalability offered by Oracle. cVidya’s DRMap V1.0 has also achieved Oracle Exadata Ready status through Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN). This demonstrates that cVidya has fully tested and supports DRMap V1.0 on Oracle Exadata Database Machine.
Oracle Exadata Ready is part of the Oracle Exastack Ready program which allows partners, such as cVidya to be recognized by Oracle for developing, testing and tuning their applications on the latest component products of Oracle Exadata Database Machine or Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud engineered systems. The Oracle Exastack Ready program recognizes cVidya as having applications that leverage the latest Oracle technology to better support joint customers. The Oracle Exadata Database Machine is the only database machine that provides extreme performance for both data warehousing and online transaction processing (OLTP) workloads, making it the ideal platform for consolidating onto private clouds. It is a complete package of servers, storage, networking, and software that is massively scalable, secure, and redundant.
“We are excited to see cVidya leverage Oracle Exadata Database Machine and achieve Oracle Exadata Ready Status for DRMap V1.0 ,” said Chris Baker, Senior Vice President, Worldwide ISV and OEM Sales, Oracle. “The extreme performance for data warehousing and online transaction processing that Oracle Exadata Database Machine delivers coupled with the faster time to market, makes it the ideal platform for DRMap. Oracle takes pride in the accelerated performance, query speed, and reduced database storage requirements offered with Oracle Exadata Database Machine.”
“With cVidya’s already strong presence and vast experience in the revenue intelligence and fraud management spaces, this was a natural move for us into data retention,” commented Alon Aginsky, CEO and president of cVidya. “cVidya’s superior revenue assurance and fraud management capabilities along with its global presence of over 150 worldwide customers, combined with Oracle Exadata Database Machine, paves the way for CSPs to answer the EU data retention regulations quickly and effectively.”
cVidya’s DRMap provides operators with a compelling solution powered by Oracle Exadata Database Machine. Moreover, with linear data and query capabilities, secured data retrieval, RDHI support, automated information lifecycle management, graphical link analysis and location spotting in near real time, they benefit from powerful tools which enhance the carrier’s business analysis and enable regulation compliance.
cVidya is a Gold level member in Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN).

About cVidya Networks
cVidya Networks is a global leader and innovative provider of revenue-intelligence solutions for telecom, media and entertainment service providers. The company’s product portfolio helps operators and service providers maximize margins, improve customer experience and optimize ecosystem relationships through revenue assurance, fraud management, operational risk management, sales performance management and pricing analytics. Backed by a team of highly skilled professional experts and consultants, cVidya’s solutions have a proven track record of achieving rapid ROI and lower TCO. With over 150 customers and an extensive network of regional offices in Europe, North America, Latin America, Africa and APAC, cVidya has one of the largest installed bases of revenue-assurance and fraud-management implementations worldwide.
About the Oracle Exastack Program
The Oracle Exastack program helps enable Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and other members of Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN) to rapidly build and deliver faster, more reliable applications. Leveraging the Oracle Exastack Program, qualifying OPN members have access to Oracle performance experts and dedicated labs for testing and tuning their applications on Oracle Exadata Database Machine and Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud. Customers can be confident when selecting Oracle Exastack Optimized applications that they have been tested and tuned to achieve optimal performance, scalability and reliability. Also part of the program, Oracle Exastack Ready is dedicated to helping ISVs run their solutions on the latest major release of Oracle Exadata Database Machine, Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud and their component products, including Oracle Database, Oracle WebLogic Server, Oracle Solaris, Oracle Linux and Oracle VM. These products provide partners with a lower cost and high performance infrastructure for database and application workloads across on-premise and cloud based environments.
To find out more, visit http://www.oracle.com/partners/goto/exastack

About Oracle PartnerNetwork
Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN) Specialized is the latest version of Oracle\'s partner program that provides partners with tools to better develop, sell and implement Oracle solutions. OPN Specialized offers resources to train and support specialized knowledge of Oracle products and solutions and has evolved to recognize Oracle\'s growing product portfolio, partner base and business opportunity. Key to the latest enhancements to OPN is the ability for partners to differentiate through Specializations. Specializations are achieved through competency development, business results, expertise and proven success.
To find out more, visit http://www.oracle.com/partners.

Trademarks
Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates.

-xx-

Back to Main Page

Gary E. Smith - Architect to the Clouds