New OpenVPN Licensing In AWS Marketplace Simplifies Managing Remote Access And Cloud Security

OpenVPN Technologies Inc. has launched a new product licensing model available in Amazon Web Services Marketplace (AWS Marketplace), giving any size company worldwide access to a Virtual Private Network (VPN) solution. This provides employees safe and secure remote access to their private networks. 

Security and Privacy on the Cloud

Technology has created a plethora of connection choices and with this IT, pain points can arise for business owners, or anyone else trying to manage company-owned and private devices connecting in the office or at home. Employees working remotely need flexibility and typically use their own devices, including laptops, desktops, tablets and cell phones, for work tasks. They are connecting over home broadband or Wi-Fi hotspots, each presenting potential security challenges.

OpenVPN provides the ability to create a secure platform for all device connections across public or private networks and addresses the end point security risk. By encrypting and tunneling traffic with OpenVPN, customers limit the size of the user access area and the overall security footprint decreases. This makes monitoring and securing company resources more manageable.

“Expanding into new distribution channels like AWS Marketplace increases the OpenVPN geographic footprint, helping us to better serve our clients around the world as they migrate to the AWS Cloud. This change really fits with our blueprint for enterprise-grade cloud VPN services, targeting small to large enterprises,” says said Francis Dinha, CEO of OpenVPN Technologies Inc.

“Customers today want not only the cost-savings and scaling benefits of shifting their network infrastructure to the cloud, but also secure management of their data,” said Barry Russell, general manager, global business development, AWS Marketplace and Catalog Services. “OpenVPN’s new licensing model via AWS Marketplace combines rapid procurement and deployment with an easy-to-use, cost-effective method to migrate and scale business on the AWS Cloud, while leveraging the security that AWS and OpenVPN offer via the shared responsibility model.”

Source: CloudStrategyMag

Masergy's Unified Enterprise Security Solution Honored With SaaS Award

Masergy Communications Inc. has announced that the 2016 SaaS Awards Program has selected the company’s Unified Enterprise Security (UES) solution as the Best SaaS Product for Business Intelligence or Analytics.

Recently recognized for Most Innovative Security Strategy by Light Reading and honored with a 2016 Stratus Award, Masergy’s UES continues to impress industry experts with its advanced behavioral analytics and machine learning that collects, analyzes and predicts abnormal network traffic patterns that are indicative of cyber security threats. In addition, the multiple award-winning solution offers:

• Advanced persistent threat management
• Integrated vulnerability scanning & IDS/IPS system
• Security threat intelligence dashboard
• Managed firewalls

“Cyber security methods needed a fresh approach to better protect corporate assets and quickly detect the growing array of advanced threats,” said Craig D’Abreo, vice president of security operations, Masergy. “Masergy’s security solutions offer proven methods to mitigate the risks of attacks. We are proud our offering continues to be validated by technology experts.”

Source: CloudStrategyMag

CloudJumper Expands Sales Team

CloudJumper has announced the appointment of Scott Bechtold as channel sales manager. Scott reports directly to Max Pruger, chief sales officer for CloudJumper and is responsible for developing new channel partners throughout North America. Bechtold’s position at CloudJumper follows a 31-year history in information technology where he has focused on sales and management in the software and managed services space.

Formerly the CEO of Agility IT, an MSP based in the Atlanta metropolitan area, Scott Bechtold’s charter at CloudJumper is to build relationships with MSPs and telco partners, helping them create and grow successful cloud businesses on the nWorkSpace WaaS platform. Bechtold will support the sales efforts of CloudJumper to expand its base of IT service providers seeking to deliver high margin WaaS solutions.

Bechtold has long been interested in the cloud. While running Agility IT, Bechtold white labeled the CloudJumper WaaS solution, marketing it to his customer base. He chose the CloudJumper solution after working with several very small and unreliable cloud providers. When the opportunity arose to join CloudJumper, Bechtold chose to sunset Agility IT and market the CloudJumper solution to companies similar to his own. 

Prior to Agility IT, Bechtold was CEO of cloud service provider Insource Technologies where he was responsible for starting, running, building, and maintaining the startup MSP/CSP from its founding to profitability. During his tenure at Insource Technologies he oversaw all sales management activities for the organization and maintained business relationships that led to substantial growth. Before Insource Technologies, he held the position of director at First Data in Atlanta where he managed the mobile commerce professional services division, all services personnel, and initiated successful client engagements worldwide.

According to new data by Transparency Research, The global WaaS market is projected to register a 12.10% CAGR between 2015 and 2022, and anticipated to reach a value of US$18.37 billion by the end of 2022. The North American continent is projected to lead in terms of deployments over the next several years, owing to the easy availability of developed telecommunication and IT infrastructure. WaaS solutions aid in boosting employee productivity, allowing greater access to critical applications and data, irrespective of location. [Transparency Research, Growth of Global WaaS Market Shifts into High Gear with Expanding Enterprise Mobility, Expected to Reach US$18.37 billion by 2022].

This continued shift toward cloud-based workspaces is increasing demand among organizations that are making the switch to WaaS to improve business mobility and IT infrastructure efficiency. IT service providers, including managed service providers (MSPs) and telecommunication providers, have eyed this emerging market and begun complementing their service portfolios with cloud-based workspace solutions. CloudJumper nWorkSpace is a comprehensive, yet easy to deploy, offering for IT service providers seeking fast entry into the WaaS market with a white label platform that can be customized to meet the needs of any size customer.

“As analysts have forecast, the WaaS market will be an area of growth over the next several years,” said Bechtold. “CloudJumper is positioned to succeed and lead in this market with an increasing number of MSPs and telcos who understand the opportunity and advantages of partnering with a pioneer in the space.”

“In the evolving managed services business, IT service providers are faced with new challenges on a regular basis, including the identification of simple yet profitable cloud solutions for business consumption,” said Pruger. “As the former owner of an MSP himself, Scott brings the kind of experience we need to support the education of our markets. We are pleased to have him join with CloudJumper in these efforts and to help our partners achieve greater financial success.”

Source: CloudStrategyMag

Tableau 10 gives users the features they want

Tableau, the flagship visual tool for analytics and BI, wanted its 10.0 edition to be truly worthy of another digit in front of the decimal point.

The self-dubbed “Google of data visualization” shaped version 10.0 based on feedback from its user community, and paired that with an all-new visual design intended to make Tableau both more attractive and easier to use.

An eyeful of info

The most prominent outward feature of Tableau 10 is a redesigned interface that’s more in line with a Bootstrap-powered website than the legacy toolbar-and-panel desktop-app look found in previous versions of the app.

Tableau

Tableau 10’s refined interface hews closer to a Bootstrap-powered web app than a desktop app — both for the sake of consistency across devices and the aesthetic appeal of such a look.

That mobile-esque look is no accident. Tableau has a habit of leveraging trends in mobile devices and web interfaces, such as its Vizable app for data exploration. The company has also provided a tool for designing dashboards that are useful on both desktops and mobile devices, and has commissioned custom-designed fonts to make data legends more legible.

Information Builders Named A Visionary In Gartner's 2016 Magic Quadrant For Data Integration Tools

Information Builders has announced that the company was positioned in the Visionaries Quadrant of Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Data Integration Tools. The recognition is based on Gartner’s evaluation of the company’s iWay integration tools as well as the Omni-Gen data management platform. 

Information Builders’ data integration solutions facilitate rapid time to market for vital operational, business intelligence and analytical initiatives, allowing organizations to be agile and retain a competitive advantage. The company’s Omni-Gen platform provides a single toolset for generating applications that combine data integration, data quality and master data management. With Omni-Gen, customers gain seamless access to any application or data store to speed creation of integration architectures with the greatest breadth and depth.

Information Builders’ iWay offerings simplify big data management and equip organizations with comprehensive data, application and B2B integration capabilities. Using iWay, customers can easily integrate traditional data with big data such as mobile information, social media and sensor data from the Internet of Things (IoT). Information Builders delivers a modern, native approach to Hadoop-based data integration that ensures high levels of capability, compatibility and flexibility — giving organizations the ability to more quickly respond to business requirements.

“Data is only as good as a company’s ability to have a unified view of it. In the age of information, as new data sources continue to be introduced into the enterprise, data integration has never been more important. We’re honored by our position as a Visionary in the Gartner Magic Quadrant, as we believe it underscores our ongoing vigilance in anticipating the needs of our customers and ensuring we equip them with the tools needed for successful information management strategies,” said Gerald Cohen, president and CEO, Information Builders.

Access the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Integration Tools here.

Source: CloudStrategyMag

12% off Texas Instruments TI-84 Plus Graphics Calculator – Deal Alert

If a graphic calculator is somewhere on your list, consider this 12% discount on the Texas Instruments TI-84 Plus graphing calculator. Building on the hugely popular TI-83 Plus, which is perhaps the best-selling calculator of all time, the TI-84 Plus is completely compatible with its predecessor. From that well-established platform, this new model adds more speed (a processor that’s 2.5 times faster), more memory (24 KB RAM and 480 KB of Flash ROM), an enhanced high-contrast display (eight lines by 16 characters), and more Apps. Newly added “USB on the go” feature lets you share with other calculators, or connect to a PC or presentation tool. Ideal for middle school through college. The TI-84 Plus currently averages 4.5 out of 5 stars on Amazon from over 2,900 customers (read reviews). Save 12% off the regular $100 list price on Amazon, and buy it now for $88. Oh, and it might not hurt to drop this in your cart while you’re there: Ti-84 Plus Graphing Calculator For Dummies. 

This story, “12% off Texas Instruments TI-84 Plus Graphics Calculator – Deal Alert” was originally published by TechConnect.

Source: InfoWorld Big Data

Rackspace Expands Multi-Cloud Security To Microsoft Azure

Rackspace® has announced from Rackspace::Solve that Rackspace® Managed Security for Microsoft® Azure® is now available in early access. This means that companies using Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS)™, Rackspace Dedicated Hosting, and Rackspace Managed VMware® Cloud can now benefit from the additional security protections provided by Rackspace Managed Security to detect and respond to security threats across leading cloud platforms.

With Rackspace Managed Security for Microsoft Azure, Rackspace customers leveraging the Aviator service level of Fanatical Support® for Azure can layer additional active security on their Microsoft Azure cloud platform to identify and respond to advanced cyber threats. Whereas most managed security service providers only notify customers about a breach, leaving it to the customer to respond, Rackspace Managed Security utilizes pre-approved actions to promptly remediate many security issues. This level of security strengthens customers’ environments beyond the operational network and infrastructure security provided by most cloud providers. Rackspace Managed Security also complements the strategic planning, architectural guidance and 24x7x365 operational support available through Rackspace Fanatical Support for Azure.

“In today’s cybersecurity landscape, organizations are no longer asking if they should have a security solution in place, but rather whether they should do it themselves or partner with a trusted managed security service provider,” said Brannon Lacey, general manager of Rackspace Managed Security. “We are proud to extend this security solution to Azure, as it represents the continued growth of our Managed Security capabilities and aligns with the overall Rackspace mission to provide the best expertise and service across the world’s leading clouds.”

Rackspace launched Rackspace Managed Security in September 2015 to help provide greater business resiliency by helping protect customer data and respond to cyber attacks before they are able to impact customers’ businesses. This approach lessens customer burden on budget and in-house expertise. Rackspace Managed Security provides host and network security, 24x7x365 monitoring and response from Rackspace experts in the Customer Security Operations Center (CSOC) as well as compliance assistance guidance to ease the burden of achieving and maintaining compliance.

According to a cloud security survey from ESG, 32% of enterprise cybersecurity and IT professionals said “their organization finds it challenging to monitor cloud-based network traffic patterns to detect anomalous/suspicious behavior. This could be related to monitoring weaknesses and/or skills deficiencies, but either way it makes organizations more vulnerable to cyber-attacks.”¹ Furthermore, 33% of enterprise cybersecurity and IT professionals said “their organization finds it challenging to maintain regulatory compliance while using cloud infrastructure. This certainly restricts organizations’ ability to maximize cloud computing business benefits.”²

“With Rackspace Managed Security, Rackspace addresses and solves for security needs in organizations that use multiple cloud providers. This is particularly a challenge for organizations facing a cybersecurity skills shortage,” said Dan Conde, analyst from ESG Research. “Top challenges for cloud security includes the ability to provision security controls, assessing the security status, monitoring workloads and maintaining regulatory compliance across clouds. As Rackspace expands its security capabilities across multiple cloud platforms, such as Microsoft Azure, they address the security needs and improves the velocity for on-boarding to a multi-cloud world.”

1. Source: ESG Blog, Cloud security challenges, April 2016
2. Source: ESG Blog, Cloud security challenges, April 2016

Source: CloudStrategyMag

Nimbus Data Unveils ExaFlash™

Nimbus Data has unveiled ExaFlash™, a revolutionary new all-flash platform for cloud, big data, virtualization, and massive digital content.

Nimbus Data’s ExaFlash™ Platform is an historic achievement that will reshape the storage and data center industries. It offers unprecedented scale (from terabytes to exabytes), record-smashing efficiency (95% lower power and 50x greater density than existing all-flash arrays), and a breakthrough price point (a fraction of the cost of existing all-flash arrays). ExaFlash brings the all-flash data center dream to reality and will help empower humankind’s innovation for decades to come.

“Worldwide storage demand continues to escalate, and with it, the need to increase data center efficiency, achieve scale with consistent performance, maintain simplicity, and reduce cost,” stated Thomas Isakovich, CEO and founder of Nimbus Data. “Our vision is unencumbered by conventional thinking, and ExaFlash’s ground-breaking achievements reflect that vision.”

The ExaFlash Platform incorporates a novel architecture that enables virtually infinite scalability, from terabytes to exabytes, as one centrally-managed all-flash system. With ExaFlash, data flow is decoupled from metadata and management is centralized, operating completely out-of-band. This provides one interface and one pane-of-glass for all administration. There is no data network between the storage arrays themselves, so performance truly scales in lock-step with capacity and with consistent latency. Multiple storage protocols, including block, file, and object, can operate simultaneously using Ethernet, Fibre Channel, and InfiniBand networks, eliminating storage “islands”.

The building blocks of the ExaFlash Platform are ExaFlash Arrays, a new family of all-flash system that sets new records for energy efficiency, capacity, connectivity options, and rack space density. Unlike off-the-shelf servers, ExaFlash Arrays are precision-engineered for maximum efficiency and performance. ExaFlash Arrays draw 95% less power per terabyte than competing designs by eliminating irrelevant components and minimizing CPU utilization through intelligent hardware-offload engines. ExaFlash Arrays also incorporate ultra-dense flash drives to deliver up to 50x the capacity in the same rack space as competing alternatives. ExaFlash Arrays are available in sizes ranging from 50 TB to 4.5 PB and feature the latest 32 Gb Fibre Channel, 100 Gigabit Ethernet, and EDR InfiniBand connectivity. ExaFlash Arrays feature dual active-active controllers, redundant power and cooling, and hot-swappable components for always-on availability and easy serviceability.

The all-new ExaFlash Operating System is powerful, API-driven storage and data management software for the ExaFlash Platform. The ExaFlash OS provides a single pane-of-glass administration interface for total control. It also provides support for all major storage protocols, including block, file and object protocols, simultaneously. Using the API, storage administrators can automate every conceivable storage task centrally. Inline variable deduplication and compression maximize storage utilization, and real-time checksums ensure data integrity.

Source: CloudStrategyMag

Denodo Recognized As A Visionary In The 2016 Gartner Magic Quadrant For Data Integration Tools

Denodo has positioned Denodo as a Visionary in its 2016 Magic Quadrant for Data Integration Tools. According to Gartner, “The biggest changes in the market from 2015 are the increased demand for data virtualization, the growing use of data integration tools to combine ‘data lakes’ with existing integration solutions, and the overall expectation that data integration will become cloud- and on-premises-agnostic” (August 2016 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Integration Tools).

Data virtualization has achieved broad recognition as an agile method of data integration for organizations frustrated with long, repetitive, and expensive methods of physically moving data such as ETL (Extract, Transform and Load).

Data virtualization is a virtual data layer that combines disparate data from a variety of source systems into complete, connected information and then presents that information to business users through applications and reporting solutions. Data virtualization has grown to become a critical part of modern data architectures. This is due to its flexible approach and ability to quickly integrate new data sources and to provide the information in real-time to business users.

“We believe that Denodo’s furthest placement in the visionaries quadrant for completeness of vision demonstrates that our approach to data virtualization is the most complete in this quadrant,” said Ravi Shankar, chief marketing officer at Denodo. “Version 6.0 of the award winning Denodo Platform accelerates fast data strategy with breakthrough performance in big data, logical data warehouses, and operational scenarios; facilitates solution adoption with data virtualization in the cloud; and expedites the use of data by business users with self-service data discovery and search. Denodo’s customers are benefiting from shorter time, fewer resources, and lower cost to solution.”

The Denodo Platform serves critical enterprise roles including:

• CIOs and CDOs in supporting new business models, digitalization initiatives, strong ROI from reduction in resources and integration costs. Denodo also accelerates analytics initiatives resulting in more timely insights, increased revenue and operational excellence.
• Enterprise, data, and solution architects in exploiting modern data architectures such as logical data warehouse, logical data lake, and data as a service in support of analytical and operational initiatives.
• Business users by accelerating the decision making process through dynamic adaptation to business requirements, agile data delivery, trusted insights, and self-service data discovery capabilities.
• Developers by providing Denodo Express edition for expediting POCs, ease of use, and configuration of the product and advanced optimization techniques such as dynamic query optimization.

Source: CloudStrategyMag

Informatica Positioned As A Leader In Gartner’s Magic Quadrant For Data Integration Tools

Informatica has announced that Gartner, Inc., a leading IT research and advisory firm, has positioned Informatica as a Leader in its 2016 Magic Quadrant for Data Integration Tools. For the third consecutive year, Informatica is positioned the furthest and highest on the completeness of vision and ability to execute axes, respectively. Additionally, Informatica has demonstrated its leadership in the data integration market by being a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Integration Tools for 11 years in a row. In this year’s Magic Quadrant, published August 8, 2016, Informatica is positioned the furthest and highest than ever before.

According to the Gartner report, “Data integration remains central to enterprises’ information infrastructure.” The report continues to say, “Enterprises pursuing frictionless sharing of data are increasingly favoring tools that are flexible in that they can be designed once for delivery across multiple platforms, mixed architectural and broad deployment without significant rework.”

The authors of the Gartner report note that, “the biggest changes in the market from 2015 are the increased demand for data virtualization, the growing use of data integration tools to combine ‘data lakes’ with existing integration solutions, and the overall expectation that data integration will become cloud- and on-premises-agnostic.”

The report projects that “the growth rate is above the average for the enterprise software market as a whole, as data integration capability continues to be considered of critical importance for addressing the diversity of problems and emerging requirements. The total market revenue is expected to be about $4 billion in 2020 (see ‘Forecast: Enterprise Software Markets, Worldwide, 2013-2020, 2Q16 Update’).”

The report’s authors say “Leaders in the data integration tool market are front-runners in the convergence of single-purpose tools into an offering that supports a full range of data delivery styles. Additionally, they have recognized the growing affinity between data and application integration, and are haltingly approaching location-agnostic deployments (that are not limited only to cloud or on-premises, but can be deployed beyond specific location). They are strong in establishing data integration infrastructure as an enterprise standard and as a critical component of modern information infrastructure. They support both traditional and new data integration patterns to capitalize on market demand. Leaders have significant mind share in the market, and resources skilled in their tools are readily available. These vendors recognize and design to deploy for emerging and new market demands, (to a large degree) often providing new functional capabilities in their products ahead of demand, and by identifying new types of business problem to which data integration tools can bring significant value. Examples of deployments that span multiple projects and types of use case are common among Leaders’ customers. Leaders have an established market presence, significant size and a multinational presence (directly or through a parent company).”

“Informatica is focused on providing customers with solutions that enable them to leverage the new era of data and put great data at the center of everything they do in order to make their businesses more successful,” said Amit Walia, executive vice president and chief product officer, Informatica. “We believe that the positioning of Informatica as a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Integration Tools further validates our dominance and leadership in data integration for a hybrid world, across on-premises, big data and cloud. We feel that our recognition in this report reflects the unmatched breadth and depth of Informatica’s metadata-driven data management offerings, for any user, any style and any speed of data integration, and for all data, big or small, structured or unstructured. The 2016 Magic Quadrant for Data Integration Tools represents Informatica’s best positioning yet in this arena and we believe we continue to set the pace for data management innovation and customer success.”

Informatica offers the most comprehensive set of solutions focused on enterprise data integration across on-premise, big data, cloud and hybrid integration environments, spanning from departmental to big data solutions. The Informatica Intelligent Data Platform takes away the complexity of accessing, transforming and unifying any type of data from disparate underlying sources, and delivering it to any business system or user at any latency. With Informatica, business users can quickly discover and prepare data for their needs using self-service tools with the assurance that the data is complete, clean, relevant, timely and trusted. At the same time, IT is able to deliver even complex data integration projects up to five times faster than traditional hand-coded methods.

Source: CloudStrategyMag