Monday, January 19, 2009
OmniCast Content Distribution Software Now Available as a SaaS
Bull To Peddle Cassatt Cloud-Making Software
Bull is going to push Cassatt widgetry - software from BEA co-founder Bill Coleman's start-up - to improve the effectiveness of data center infrastructures of large European organizations.
It's going to hit on select lines of business, sectors like large government and local authorities, telecommunications, finance, retail, utilities and manufacturing.
Bull says the widgetry can cut operations, capital and energy costs by at least 30% through dynamic control, repurposing and power management.
But first the Cassatt software suite has to be optimized for Bull's NovaScale and Escala servers. Bull will also distribute the stuff on non-Bull servers. The deal involves consulting services and support.
Bull said the Cassatt software will be marketed as part of its Bio Data Center initiative, which aims at providing customers with "radical new approaches for operating their data centers," focusing on stuff like quality of operational processes, architectural topology and power consumption.
Cassatt concentrates on policy-based management software, controlling and optimizing multiple, diverse components of an organization's IT infrastructure, and providing cloud computing-style benefits using an organization's existing data center resources.
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The exercise may be as simple as running less-critical applications or batch-processing jobs when energy costs are low but require modifications to the core processes used to run the data centers.
Virtualization can play a key part in shifting workloads to lower utilization periods, and mean automatically powering down servers and then powering them up again and moving the workload.
To help customers better manage their data centers, Bull and Cassatt say they will provide European organizations a starting point: active power management.
This way, large data center operators can power off their unused servers based on policies they set, minimizing power consumption by a factor of at least 30% for business operations workloads. Other workloads such as application development can reportedly benefit up to 50%. Idle servers can be restarted as business needs require, according to rules based on demand, time, capacity and specific events.
The pair says Cassatt shows a payback in less than one year.
Bull will move all three Cassett editions: Active Response, Standard Edition for increased energy efficiency; Premium Edition for increased energy efficiency and application resiliency; and Data Center Edition for increased energy efficiency, high application availability and server workload management in production environments. This last can also create a cloud-style infrastructure inside a data center using existing IT resources.
Cassatt fancies itself a kind of "data center operating system."
Google hawking "cloud" software to businesses
Google on Wednesday began recruiting a sales force to offer the Internet firm's software to business customers worldwide who
traditionally use Microsoft programs.
Google will train people to pitch its Google Apps Premier Edition, an array of business software hosted online in what is referred to as "cloud services."
Cloud services such as spread sheets, word processing, and calendars are maintained and supported on Google computers and users access them when they wish by using the Internet.
Cloud services eliminate the need for packaged software to be installed and maintained on computers in homes or offices.
Google has been steadily increasing its host of cloud services, with a basic array offered for free and a Premier Edition available at a cost of 50 dollars annually.
"Google Apps has reached a level of maturity where it is useful and valuable for almost any business" said Google president of enterprise Dave Girouard.
"This program gives IT solution providers an easy way to introduce cloud computing to their service offerings, while helping more businesses make the transition to this new era of technology."
Google said it will teach "resellers" how to integrate Apps into customers' business operations and give them a 20 percent break on the price that they can pass on to customers if they chose to do so.
The program has been tested with more than 50 pilot partners.
"We believe strongly that all companies will adopt SaaS (Software as a Service) to one degree or another, and Google's reseller program empowers us to be experts in the cloud," said Tony Safoian, president of SADA Systems, an IT consulting firm.
"Reselling Google Apps opens up new opportunities via new conversations we could not have had with prospective clients as little as two years ago."
Safoian said Google Apps can be an easy sell, given that letting the California technology firm handle software updates, maintenance and disaster recovery can cost businesses 75 per cent less than doing it themselves.
Google Apps is seen as a direct challenge to a Microsoft empire founded on selling packaged software for installation on people's machines.
Until now, Google had relied on its own team to sell businesses subscriptions to its cloud services. Schools and charity groups are able to use the software services free.
Microsoft has responded with its own move "into the cloud" and says that the Windows 7 operating system it is preparing for release has been crafted with that in mind.
NEC JOINS FORCES WITH ORACLE, OTHERS ON SAAS SOFTWARE
NEC Corp. plans to team up with major U.S. IT firms Oracle Corp. and Salesforce.com Inc. and Japanese software firm WingArc Technologies Inc. to create database software that enables client firms to run, without compatibility problems, multiple types of software provided through SaaS (software as a service) services.
Under SaaS arrangements, companies access software - such as that for managing customer data or employee schedules - on the servers of the service provider.
This helps them slash IT costs, as it removes the need for them to have dedicated servers.
However, with current SaaS services, compatibility problems can arise if companies use different service providers.
The new database software is expected to be installed at NEC's data center this spring.
The company began SaaS operations in earnest about a year ago, aiming to generate sales of Y120 billion ($US1.32 billion) in fiscal 2010.
According to research firm Nork Research Co., the domestic SaaS market is projected to grow 800% to 770 billion yen in 2012 from the estimated level in 2008.
Likewise Accepted into Intel Certified Solutions Program
Likewise Software has successfully completed the process for the Intel Certified Solutions Program. Likewise software helps Microsoft, Mac, Linux and Unix systems work together in mixed networks by administering authentication and access policies for all users from a centralized location.
Likewise becomes part of the Intel Software Partner Program to help grow its business and expand its sales reach. Now, Likewise software is available to small- and medium-size business (SMB) buyers globally through the Intel Business Exchange online storefront.
The company's flagship enterprise software, Likewise Enterprise 5.0, facilitates integration of Linux, Unix and Mac systems with Microsoft Active Directory, adding group policy and reporting capabilities to the core authentication function. Version 5.0 includes a number of compliance features for regulatory requirements and standards such as PCI and Sarbanes Oxley, as well as flexibility for identity mapping, and support for Active Directory-based NIS (Network Information System) maps.
Likewise Enterprise allows organizations to provide users with a single username and password for Windows and non-Windows systems. The latest version is based on Likewise Identity Service (LWIS), the next-generation authentication engine, and provides enhanced capabilities and integration for Mac OS X-based computers, allowing Mac system administrators to manage Microsoft Active Directory from a Mac OS-based machine, and perform policy editing using familiar Mac tools via the Likewise Administrative Console (LAC).
LinkedIn Surpassing Facebook for Enterprise Use-Cases
While early 2008 found enterprises buzzing about Facebook and some firms even adopted it as their Intranet platform, 2009 is seeing LinkedIn moving more rapidly to address enterprise social computing needs, according to new research by independent analyst firm, CMS Watch.
CMS Watch released an update which evaluates twenty-six social computing platforms against eleven potential enterprise use-cases. Vendors reviewed include IBM, Microsoft, Google, Oracle, Jive, Telligent, Awareness, Drupal, SocialText, Lithium, and Ning, as well as Facebook and LinkedIn.
LinkedIn outperformed Facebook in CMS Watch's "Professional Networking" and "Community of Practice" scenarios. The report also found that from a functional standpoint, LinkedIn surpasses Facebook in Information Filtering and Discussion - although neither platform provides the broader Blog, Wiki, and Project Tracking services that support broader enterprise collaboration.
"Both platforms are increasingly important to professionals worldwide, but LinkedIn is beginning to make more progress towards services that can support enterprise-oriented social computing," explained CMS Watch analyst Jarrod Gingras.
Of particular note, CMS Watch found that:
- Enterprises can use LinkedIn groups as internal and external discussion boards and link-sharing areas. LinkedIn participants can be pre-authorized by e-mail domain, they can keep track of discussions through notifications, and they can search group content.
- LinkedIn has chosen to slowly control the release of several "approved" applications for professional use, unlike Facebook, which allows any developer to post applications. Several official LinkedIn applications target enterprise users, such as a SlideShare application, as well as a Huddle application that provides lightweight file sharing and collaboration. There are no native document collaboration services in Facebook.
- LinkedIn is perceived as more professional by members. "Enterprises should not assume that their employees and business partners are comfortable mixing professional and personal personas on Facebook, especially beyond North America," concludes CMS Watch analyst, Adriaan Bloem.
Facebook seems to be the most popular public networking service, with a membership of 150 million that is expected to double in 2009.
"There's good reason for all that growth," notes CMS Watch founder Tony Byrne, "and Facebook certainly has a better 'fun factor,' but I'm not as sanguine about the platform's business potential as I was a year ago, whereas LinkedIn seems to be pursuing a measured plan to provide more value to the enterprise."
Xobni Gets Cisco Investment
Its A round was good for $4.4 million. And its widgetry went into public beta last May. It has reportedly seen 1.5 million downloads since.
Cisco of course recently bought Jabber, the instant messaging software, and PostPath, the e-mail and calendaring software so one might reasonably ask what Cisco is thinking.
Google Axes Mashup Editor to Focus on Cloud Computing Infrastructure
"Existing Mashup Editor applications will stop receiving traffic in six months," Gundotra noted, "and we hope you will join our team in making the exciting transition to App Engine."
By way of eating in its own kitchen Google is in the process of porting Jaiku over to Google App Engine.
By way of explaining this move, Gundotra wrote:
"After the migration is complete, we will release the new open source Jaiku Engine project on Google Code under the Apache License. While Google will no longer actively develop the Jaiku codebase, the service itself will live on thanks to a dedicated and passionate volunteer team of Googlers."
The new Jaiku Engine will include support for OAuth, and we're excited about developers using this proven code as a starting point in creating a freely available and federated, open source microblogging platform."
After the migration is complete, Gundotra added, Google will release the new open source Jaiku Engine project on Google Code under the Apache License.
"While Google will no longer actively develop the Jaiku codebase, the service itself will live on thanks to a dedicated and passionate volunteer team of Googlers," he noted.
Google Apps Resale “Easy Intro” to Cloud Computing
It was resellers that made Microsoft great and so, following in those well-trod footsteps, Google said that it's recruiting resellers to push its Google Apps to businesses of all sizes everywhere in the world, taking Microsoft on where it lives.
So far Google's collected 50 "pilot partners."
The authorized resellers are supposed to be able to sell, customize and support Google Apps Premier Edition, creating new revenue opportunities for themselves and easier access to Google's cloud services. And they'd get a 20% discount off the $50-a-user-a-year price.
The software includes Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Sites, Google Talk and Google Video for business.
To push more users into paying for the Premier Edition - and diversify its revenue stream - from here on out Google will limit the use of its freebie version of the software to 50 people per company. Current users, schools and non-profits will be exempt.
Google of course is famous for leaving its software in interminable beta but its enterprise president Dave Girouard claims the widgetry "has reached a level of maturity where it is useful and valuable for almost any business."
It's also recommending the software as an "easy introduction" to cloud computing.
Google says it will give resellers training, support and tools for sales and marketing as well as access to tools for integrating Google Apps into their customers' business operations.
Resellers will bill customers directly and can bundle their own services and support with Google Apps.
The reseller program includes a portal with business and technical information and online discussion groups; tools for setting up business customers, provisioning end users, management and reporting; and REST-based integration APIs for directory synchronization, migration, reporting and single sign-on.
Google said potential resellers will be evaluated based on relevant experience and credit worthiness.
It's looking to recruit companies with a strong SaaS orientation and a business model built around providing value-added services and solutions. Sales are due to kick off by the end of March.
The company already claims a million businesses and 10 million users use Google Apps, predominantly the freebie stuff.
Click here to learn more about the program.
