Thursday, April 10th, 2014

Time	Event
11:30a	Red Hat Enables Linux Licenses to Migrate to Google Compute Engine Red Hat enables its customers to migrate Linux subscriptions to Google Compute Engine, Citrix integrates NetScaler as a remote services blade for Cisco Nexus 7000 switches and Verizon launches a Secure Cloud Interconnect service to enable enterprises to connect more than one cloud seamlessly and securely. Red Hat and Google Collaborate. Red Hat (RHT) announced a collaboration with Google that will enable Red Hat customers to move eligible Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscriptions to Google Compute Engine using Red Hat Cloud Access. Cloud Access is a unique “bring-your-own-subscription” benefit available from select Red Hat Certified Cloud Providers that enables customers to move their Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscriptions from on-premise to public clouds. By joining the Red Hat Certified Cloud Provider program, Google has signified that they are a trusted destination for Red Hat customers, independent software vendors (ISVs), and partners to benefit from Red Hat offerings in public clouds. “As customers move to the cloud, they want flexibility and portability, which is a key component of our vision for the open hybrid cloud is to enable freedom of choice across both new and existing heterogeneous infrastructures,” said Tim Yeaton, senior vice president, Infrastructure Group at Red Hat. ”By collaborating with Google to offer Red Hat Cloud Access for Google Compute Engine, we’re bringing even more choice to the open hybrid cloud: whether on-premise or in the public cloud with Google Compute Engine, customers can rely on their Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscriptions to meet their needs.” Citrix NetScaler integrates with Cisco Nexus. Citrix (CTXS) announced the availability of Citrix NetScaler as a remote services blade for the Cisco Nexus 7000 Series Switch. The integration has been jointly developed between the two companies using the Cisco Remote Integrated Service Engine (RISE) technology. Once installed, NetScaler integrates an external appliance as if it were an embedded service module attached directly to the switch backplane in order to leverage the intelligence of the switch itself. The unique integration of NetScaler VPX, MPX, SDX and 1000V (distributed by Cisco) – each of which can act as a remote services blade of Nexus 7000 – will enable organizations to take advantage of the full power of NetScaler, but with the additional advantage that it will also be tightly coupled with any Cisco Nexus 7000 Series switch backplane. “As networks transform into cloud architectures for secure and scalable mobile services delivery, intelligent automation becomes a core underpinning to ease deployment, enhance operational control and enable true network elasticity,” said Sunil Potti, Vice President and General Manager, NetScaler Product Group at Citrix. ”Leveraging Cisco RISE technology in the Nexus 7000 series, best-in-class application delivery capabilities powered by Citrix NetScaler become an industry-first offering to be tightly coupled with the Nexus fabric – empowering public and private clouds to dramatically simplify networks and gain unparalleled agility.” Verizon launches secure cloud interconnect service. Verizon (VZ) launched its Secure Cloud Interconnect service. Enterprise organizations will be able to use Verizon’s Private IP service to connect to multiple cloud services including the Verizon cloud and Microsoft Azure, with an additional half-dozen other major cloud services expected to come online later this year. In addition, enterprises that have located their private cloud infrastructure in Equinix data centers can directly access Verizon’s Private IP service in 15 Equinix data centers in the U.S., Europe and Asia-Pacific. The service will offer a combination of features to enterprises, including dynamic bandwidth allocation with fully redundant connections, application performance throughput and quality of service, usage-based billing, and simple provisioning and management via a centralized portal. ”With Secure Cloud Interconnect, Verizon is removing the barriers for enterprise cloud adoption,” said Michael Palmer, vice president of product development for Verizon. “The reality is that many organizations today use multiple clouds to meet their business and technical objectives, but there was no easy way to manage this environment until now.” (Comment on this)
12:30p	Four Considerations for Data Center Manufacturers When Partnering With Modular Builders This is the final piece of a three-part series by Stephen Madaffari, Principal of Data Centers Delivered, on how various sectors of the business serving the data center industry can effectively partner with modular data center construction companies to achieve success. His previous column was Considerations for Data Center Owners Partnering with Modular Builders. As a modular data center builder, we often field questions from different manufacturers about whether we can base a design on their product or enter into a strategic partnership with them. The types of manufacturers we typically hear from cover the gamut of data center solution providers including switchgear, UPS, DCIM, mechanical cooling, controls, etc. There is always room to partner on projects where there is a mutual benefit in doing so; however, there are four considerations manufacturers should make note of in order to better gauge what leads to a successful partnership with a modular data center builder. 1. What is your goal? It is vital for a manufacturer to communicate their end-goal with the modular data center builder before entering into a partnership. If a UPS manufacturer wants to partner and develop a product for their UPS systems that they can sell into the marketplace, then the modular builder is certainly capable of accomplishing that goal. However, the manufacturer is also looking for a way to sell more of their equipment and use modular deployment as a means to an end. The theory is not flawed and there is certainly some value in having a more complete system to offer clients as a way to provide more value than competitors. However, creating a standardized product will always end up limiting the full potential. Partnering with a custom modular builder gives the manufacturer endless opportunities to create value for their client, while at the same time letting the modular builder become more familiar with the equipment. 2. How will you sell it? Manufacturers often have ambitions of equipping their current sales force with modularized systems that come as a “SKU” or part, and rely on the ability of their team to create revenue opportunities. In reality, the consultative approach of selling modular data center systems is a strategic, well thought out process with many moving parts. The final product very rarely looks like the conceptual design as intended from early conversations. This being the case, manufacturers should identify key personnel in their corporate structure and appoint them as modular sale liaisons or product experts. Further, manufacturers should partner with a company that understands what it will take to develop, engineer, and sell modular systems in a collaborative manner. 3. Manage the Supply Chain. Manufacturers are constantly looking for better ways to manage inventory, deplete inventory or build on demand. These dynamics are very important to understand when fostering a relationship with a modular builder. While the notion that building in a factory is quicker, it will always be susceptible to the on-time delivery of all the critical equipment and parts needed to support the modular build. Knowing when equipment is ordered, what the lead times are, and accuracy of the expected delivery timeline are all supply chain metrics that modular builders need to be aware of. They are detrimental to the success of the manufacturer that sold the system to their client and to the modular builder as a trustworthy and capable partner for the long term. 4. Be Realistic! The modular business is growing every year and becoming more preferable as a viable alternative to the traditional construction market. However, if you are a manufacturer selling 100 widgets a year, it is not realistic to think you will successfully sell another 100 modular systems with your widgets preassembled, tested and shipped the next year. Success comes from working with key clients to develop your own model for success. Every time you deploy a modular system, a new lesson is learned. The beauty of the program is all the intellectual property and those lessons learned reside under one roof at the factory level. There are no lost in translation moments from job site to job site or client-to-client based on different teams doing different work. So, be realistic about what your goals are to sell modular systems that support your product and watch your business grow steadily. The Right Partner Leads to Success Every company is looking for a way to sell more of their own product or solution. In our industry, partnering with a modular builder is a good avenue for manufacturers to increase revenue and market share by creating more value than the competition. However, there are right and wrong ways to go about it. Finding the right partner who understands the complexities of the product, sale, delivery and deployment ensures a higher level of success for all parties involved and results in more fruitful growth and revenue generation efforts. Industry Perspectives is a content channel at Data Center Knowledge highlighting thought leadership in the data center arena. See our guidelines and submission processfor information on participating. View previously published Industry Perspectives in our Knowledge Library. (Comment on this)
12:30p	The Total Economic Impact of DCIM Increasingly, data center environments are leveraging DCIM solutions. These management platforms not only help you better control your environment, they optimize the performance of your data center in general. Whether it’s the proactive nature of your management layer – or the ability to better distribute resources – your DCIM platform must be robust and adapt to your growing needs. In this Emerson-commissioned Forrester Consulting whitepaper, we examine the total economic impact and potential ROI that enterprises may realize by deploying the Emerson DCIM solution. Remember, it’s not just another set of eyes on your system. There are direct benefits that can be delivered via an intelligent DCIM platform. This includes: Increased system availability. Improved productivity with remote management. Reduced power consumption and energy savings. Consolidation of underutilized inventory. Better capacity management and planning Improved team communication. Reduced server EMAC-related costs. And many more! Here’s the scenario – A global bank was interviewed in this study. The bank has offices in the Middle East, Europe, Asia, Australia and the US. The bank has three data centers including one for disaster recovery. Their challenge quickly became management, unplanned outages, as well as the direct need for better asset controls. So what did the bank do? They went with a powerful Emerson DCIM Solution to provide direct, centralized, vision and remote management of all data center systems. Download this white paper today to learn about the economics, scenario details, and actual results around DCIM deployment in this example. Remember, IT and facilities organizations have invested heavily in technology resources (people, processes, and tools) to manage the DC infrastructure. Still, they are challenged to achieve the promise and potential of a truly optimized environment due to critical gaps between their DC facilities and IT infrastructure components. As the whitepaper outlines, a new perspective on managing the critical infrastructure gaps is emerging which recognizes: The importance of real-time data to understand the true capacity of available infrastructure The criticality of interdependencies between logical and physical layers. The need for holistic management capabilities and visibility if IT and facilities infrastructures. The need for more powerful management tools that offer a rich visual view of the infrastructure and can guide design and change management. As your data center model evolves,  it’ll become even more critical to have direct visibility into your distribute infrastructure plane. This means understanding resources utilization, optimizing existing components, and developing a system that can handle new business demands. (Comment on this)
12:48p	Amazon Cost Explorer Provides Deeper Insight Into Cloud Spending Amazon Web Services has introduced Cost Explorer, a tool for managing spending on its cloud computing platform. It features reporting, analytics, and visualization tools to help Amazon users track and manage their costs. Pre-configured views and filters give customers control over how they view their spending and also offers an opportunity for further cost cutting through optimizing, right after the recent big overall price cuts. Cost Explorer is integrated with the AWS Billing Console launched in November. It will be a welcome addition, as it’s not always transparent for some customers as to how much they’re spending, where the spending is coming from, and ways to cut those costs – unless they use third party tools. Monthly Spend by Service: See where money is going, helps identify opportunity to save by changing usage patterns, or taking advantage of  service-specific pricing options Monthly Spend Linked by Account: This is not just a clever name, it helps you track spending by your linked accounts. The master paying account sees where all the money is going while the linked accounts see only their spending Daily Spend: Let’s you see spending as it happens. Good for tracking key areas or projects proactively without waiting for the monthly spend. Custom filters let you get granular with your cost exploration. You can check out information around your launch date to see what the initial spend from the resulting traffic is like. It lets you examine a specific time frame, the total cost for a particular application, or functional group regardless of the AWS resource (compute, storage, etc.). Cost Explorer, allows you to collect data from isolated resource pools, reconciling vendor-specific reporting formats, and estimating how to allocate shared resources. What might be noteworthy is that this is a lot of functionality that was previously offered through third parties. One example of a cloud cost monitoring solution is Cloudability. Rightscale offers this feature set as well, addition to other features, so it won’t impact the AWS ecosystem posterboy. Once again this is a release of a feature set that will have mass appeal, and Amazon does a pretty good job not stepping on any toes by sticking to necessary functions with mass appeal.  It does mean that some third parties on the AWS cloud providing price tracking solutions might have to sell their value proposition a lot harder, most likely by offering more data or spanning disparate clouds. This also means that Amazon’s  cloud rivals now have a feature that needs to become a default offering in their clouds as well. Many of the major cloud competitors don’t offer this level of granularity in pricing, but instead point to third parties that offer these capabilities. Consider cost exploring a mandatory cloud feature now. (Comment on this)
1:00p	CyrusOne Commences Construction in Ashburn Data center services provider CyrusOne has broken ground on its new data center in the Loudoun Tech Center in Sterling, Va. The company plans to build a 400,000 square foot, 48 megawatt facility on the site. The first phase of construction is expected to be completed in October, and includes a 124,000-square-foot shell with 60,000 square feet of raised floor space, 15,000 square feet of office space, and 12 megawatts of critical load. CyrusOne expects to construct new data center space at an average cost of about $7 million per megawatt over the life of the facility. “This new data center will enable us to more effectively serve our growing customer base on the East Coast,” said Tesh Durvasula, Chief Commercial Officer of CyrusOne. “We’re very excited to expand our footprint to Northern Virginia in order to meet existing customer demand for space in the region.” Northern Virginia is home to one of the world’s largest clusters of data center real estate. Loudoun County is already home to 5.2 million square feet of space in more than 50 existing data centers, with another 1 million square feet of space under construction. “We are delighted that a global colocation leader such as CyrusOne has chosen Loudoun County and northern Virginia to build their first east coast data center,” said Bob Blue, president of Dominion Virginia Power. “This is the culmination of years of concerted and focused effort between Dominion’s economic development team and CyrusOne to locate a facility that meets the business needs of CyrusOne, while ensuring that there will be a robust supply of reliable electric power available.” CyrusOne has a footprint of 1 million square feet of space in 25 data centers across the United States, Europe, and Asia, with much of its capacity concentrated in Texas, Ohio and Phoenix. (Comment on this)
1:30p	Zettaset and Simba Bring Hadoop and Analytics Together Zettaset and Simba partner to streamline interoperability between Hadoop and analytics applications, TIBCO StreamBase is selected by TXOdds to power zero-latency odds analytics, and MapR signs with WE-Ankor meet the growing big data market needs in Israel. Zettaset and Simba partner. Big Data management provider Zettaset announced a strategic technology partnership with Simba Technologies, a provider of standards-based data access and analytics solutions for both relational and multi-dimensional data sources. The partnership will streamline interoperability between Hadoop and analytics applications, as well as provide enterprise-class security for organizations deploying a combined Hadoop + Analytics ecosystem. Users of the Zettaset Orchestrator management application/add-on running on Cloudera or Hortonworks can directly access and analyze Big Data sources in Hadoop, using the BI / Analytics application of their choice. Simba ODBC and JDBC drivers for Zettaset Orchestrator will be available in May. “Zettaset continues to lead the Big Data security initiative for organizations that are mining Hadoop for business intelligence with this inclusion of Simba’s enterprise class ODBC and JDBC drivers in our Orchestrator management application,” said Jim Vogt, CEO of Zettaset. “Now Cloudera and Hortonworks customers can use Orchestrator to automate connectivity and ensure compatibility between their Hadoop clusters and upstream analytics applications, as well as fortify security and automate routine management.” TIBCO selected by TXOdds. TIBCO Software (TIBX) announced that TXOdds, a leader in real-time betting data, has selected TIBCO StreamBase to power its new, innovative generation of zero-latency odds analytics. The new TXOdds data service provides real-time betting analytics discovered using the StreamBase Event Processing platform. With TXOdds analyzing fluctuations in lines that represent opportunities or trouble in over 50 betting markets in real time, subscribers can quickly identify, understand, and act accordingly on that data. ”Today, 80% of the world’s betting decisions are made in real time,” said Einar Knobel, chief executive officer, TXOdds. “Our firm is a leader in providing streaming betting data to our subscribers, so it was only fitting that we employ a stream-based solution for our new, innovative betting analytics. The biggest value of TIBCO StreamBase is how quickly we were able to obtain these innovative odds analytics – we deployed in months what would have taken years with traditional programming tools such as Java or .NET.” MapR signs partnership with WE-Ankor in Israel. MapR Technologies announced that WE-Ankor, an IT specialist based in Petach Tikva, has become a registered partner in Israel, which has a high potential and very promising market for big data and has started its first proof of concept project using the MapR Distribution for Hadoop. WE-Ankor is a NetApp and VMware partner in Israel, with  a reputation for deep expertise within data storage, virtualization, servers, data protection and disaster recovery solutions. “WE-Ankor is a great partner for us based on its extensive experience in the data management business and strong expertise in storage and networking infrastructure solutions that are important and complementary to big data requirements,” said Xavier Guerin, vice president southern Europe and Benelux for MapR.  “WE-Ankor also has a strong customer base in Israel that it has helped to provide best of breed technology solutions for over many years and a proven track record for delivering high value projects.” (Comment on this)
3:07p	Oracle Strengthens CX Cloud with Big Machines Integration Oracle (ORCL) has added new features and improvements to its Oracle CPQ (Configure, Price, and Quote) Cloud, which was enhanced last year after acquiring Big Machines software. The latest release of Oracle CPQ Cloud include enhancements that support extended integrations with Oracle Sales Cloud and Salesforce.com, enabling automation, efficiency, and accuracy throughout the sales process. “The addition of Oracle CPQ Cloud to Oracle CX Cloud makes it the best cloud-based suite of marketing, sales, and customer service tools for businesses of all types and sizes,” said Ken Volpe, Senior Vice President, Oracle Product Development. “Oracle CPQ Cloud helps improve customer satisfaction and sales efficiency. Its integration into Oracle CX Cloud enables sales teams to sell more and sell faster, from lead to order, and service through renewal.” New features in the latest release include formula management for complex pricing and discounting calculations, migration rollback, function-to-function calls, and a re-launched product help feature. It has also enhanced benchmarks and tuning for large quotes. CPQ Cloud Development benchmarked a 2,000 line item quote and optimized the most common activities users perform to complete the sales cycle. As a result, system performance improved up to 80 percent. Customers of Oracle Sales Cloud can now easily integrate their sales force automation tool with Oracle CPQ Cloud. CPQ Cloud and Oracle Sales cloud share a single sign-on via SAML, and CPQ Cloud can import and export information from a variety of Oracle Sales Cloud standard and custom objects. CPQ Cloud also supports Salesforce.com with enhancements include updates to the administrative capabilities to provide better data synchronization and reduced system maintenance while utilizing the latest Salesforce.com integration APIs. The new release includes new features optimized for tablet devices, with field sales agents in mind. Oracle CPQ Cloud on the tablet allows sales agents to sell collaboratively and to offer an engaging and interactive customer experience via a tablet device. “BigMachines has developed a reputation for building category-leading CPQ solutions that help customers sell accurately and intelligently,” said Christopher Shutts, Oracle Vice President of Development, and BigMachines Co-Founder. “Customers can achieve greater sales performance and improved customer experiences as a result of Oracle’s commitment to increase investment in the innovation of the Oracle CPQ Cloud product.” (Comment on this)
3:47p	Fujitsu and Oracle Accelerate SPARC Servers Fujitsu and Oracle accelerate Fujitsu M10 SPARC servers, Violin Memory is selected by iTalkBB to improve performance for on-demand video streaming, and Scality integrates Aspera FASP high performance file transfers for large media content distribution. Fujitsu and Oracle enhance Fujitsu M10 SPARC servers. Fujitsu and Oracle today announced worldwide availability of enhanced Fujitsu M10 servers with new SPARC processors. M10-4 and M10-4S servers are now equipped with SPARC64 X+ processors, which have 16 cores and run at speeds up to 3.7 GHz, providing up to 30 percent more processing power than the previous SPARC64 X processor. The Fujitsu M10 servers support both Oracle Solaris 11 and Oracle Solaris 10, as well as Oracle Solaris Legacy Containers for the flexibility to run previous Oracle Solaris generations. Additionally, built-in virtualization features such as physical partitions, Oracle VM Server for SPARC and Oracle Solaris Zones, have helped many Fujitsu M10 customers consolidate and shrink the size and power requirements of their data centers. ”The Fujitsu M10, which Fujitsu and Oracle jointly launched in 2013, has evolved to a new stage today through the close relationship between the two companies,” said Akira Kabemoto, Corporate Senior Vice President, Fujitsu Limited. “With the extreme performance further improved by the new SPARC64 X+ processors, the enhanced Fujitsu M10 will contribute to customers’ competitiveness by improving business efficiency and accelerating decision-making.” Violin Memory selected by iTalkBB. Violin Memory (VMEM) announced it has been selected by telecommunications company iTalkBB to improve customer experience with on-demand video streaming. iTalkBB leveraged its existing infrastructure investments, and with the addition of the Violin all-flash array and all-flash appliance solutions, improved its service levels by 10 times. iTalkBB customers can choose from up to 50TB of video on-demand content, with roughly 10 percent of it considered ’hot‘ content viewed by many customers simultaneously. Because of the challenge of predicting which content will be ‘hot’ at any given time, iTalkBB turned to the Violin Maestro appliance for a cost-effective solution to scale less-viewed ’cold‘ content while still servicing changes in demand. “In addition to having a unique technology solution that met our requirements, Violin delivered an unprecedented level of customer service by helping us optimize our network switches, server environment, and video on-demand application configuration,” said Frank Landavazo, director of network operations at iTalkBB. Scality integrates Aspera FASP server software. Scality announced the integration of Aspera FASP transfer server software with Scality’s massively scalable RING storage solution and the RING’s file-based access methods.  The integration ensures that media companies can transfer large files such as HD video into and out of Scality’s RING petabyte-scale storage with the highest speed, security and reliability regardless of file size or distance between the production sites. The integration also brings added file transfer functionality to customers who use Scality RING for Content Distribution Networks (CDNs) origin servers, Video On Demand (VOD), streaming services and Media Asset Management (MAM) workflows. “Scality RING has been deployed at a number of leading, global media sites. We are pleased that Aspera customers can benefit from the RING and that existing Scality customers can benefit from Aspera’s advanced geo-distribution capabilities. Aspera transfer server is available for all RING releases thanks to Scality’s integration with file-based protocols. Users are able to leverage the RING platform across media workflows wherever the location of media content,” said Philippe Nicolas, Director of Product Strategy at Scality. (Comment on this)
3:54p	New Rackspace Hire Signals Hybrid Cloud Channel Program, International Growth This article originally appeared at TheWHIR. Rackspace Hosting has made a couple of key appointments this week, adding Microsoft veteran Will Knight as VP of channel partner sales and Ryan Neading as CIO. Knight will be responsible for increasing sales through solution providers, and building strategic and competitive channel partner programs with an emphasis on specialization, Fanatical Support, and support for hybrid cloud solutions. Prior to Rackspace, Knight served in a variety of capacities at Microsoft, most recently driving partnerships in APAC through his role as Microsoft Small and Business Leader for Asia Pacific. “A massive growth opportunity exists within the cloud market, and executing a channel strategy to engage partners in a meaningful and collaborative way is key to Rackspace Partner Network’s future success,” Todd Cione, SVP Sales, Americas at Rackspace said. “Will is a proven leader who has built winning channel programs for top IT organizations across the globe, and we are excited for him to join the team.” The hybrid cloud market will reach nearly $80 billion by 2018, and with a tailored channel program, Rackspace could be in a good position to capitalize on the opportunity. With Rackspace’s eye on international growth, Knight’s experience could be exactly what it needs to capture the hybrid cloud demand in emerging markets. Last year,Rackspace expanded its OpenStack hybrid cloud to Hong Kong after appointing chief customer officer to grow its presence internationally. Currently, Rackspace has four different partnership programs: Reseller Program, Referral Program, Cloud Affiliate Program and its Strategic Program. “With the addition of Will Knight and by evolving a stronger, more diverse set of partner programs, Rackspace has shown that it’s ready to double down on its channel strategy,” IDC analyst Steve White said. “As its channel program matures, Rackspace will appeal to an even broader ecosystem of partners, which will help support future business growth in the U.S. and abroad.” On the technology side of things, Neading will be responsible for the Rackspace billing systems, internal IT systems and tools, technology operations, operational metrics and interfacing with external suppliers and resource providers. Prior to Rackspace, Neading co-led eBay’s development site in Austin, TX. “Ryan Neading is an experienced leader in running world-class back office functions globally including financial systems and services, business management and analytics,” Mark Roenigk, chief operating officer at Rackspace, who Neading will report to at the company. “Ryan’s skills and understanding of large scale enterprise technologies will help enhance the effectiveness of our operations and will add skills to our team of specialists who deliver expertise in running the world’s leading hybrid cloud.” This article originally appeared at http://www.thewhir.com/web-hosting-news/new-rackspace-hire-signals-hybrid-channel-program-international-growth (Comment on this)

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