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Friday, September 11th, 2015
| Time | Event |
| 12:00p | IIX Brings Simplicity of SaaS and Social Networks to Global Data Center Connectivity It’s been a little more than one month since IIX first made the cryptic announcement that it had in the works a game-changing Software-as-a-Service app for provisioning network interconnection in data centers but stopped there without sharing much detail about how the app would work or who would use it. The Silicon Valley startup filled in the blanks this week, unveiling Console, some well-known early adopters of the platform, and a list of partners that will help take it to market. IIX’s goal with Console is to make data center interconnection as simple as making a few mouse clicks on the screen, Al Burgio, the company’s founder and CEO, said. Enterprises, carriers, service providers, or anybody else that uses data center services, need to connect their infrastructure to others. A SaaS company, for example, may need to connect to other cloud companies, a payment processing company, and to enterprise customers that don’t want to use its services over the public internet. While its data center provider may offer the physical interconnects, configuring them takes a lot of expertise, which it either needs to have in-house or hire outside help. That’s the need Console addresses: automatic interconnect configuration, regardless of who you’re interconnecting with. “There’s no other platform in the world that can enable true direct interconnection that fully automates Layer 2 and Layer 3 BGP configuration that also auto-assigns Autonomous System Numbers,” Burgio said. “We developed console to do that. They simply have to click a button.” Console can be used through both a graphic interface and through RESTful APIs for users that want deep integration with existing automated workflows they may have. Cloud storage company Box, one of Console’s early adopters, uses the latter option, according to Burgio. Because being part of an interconnection ecosystem is much like being a member of a social network, IIX included a social-networking element in Console. In a traditional data center interconnection scenario, representatives from two companies meet, agree that they would both benefit from interconnecting their networks, and then implement the link. The social networking aspect of Console narrows this process down to something similar to connecting to someone on LinkedIn, as Burgio described it. LinkedIn also happens to be an early adopter. Through Console, IIX offers connectivity options on a global scale. Following its acquisition of interconnection provider IX Reach in April, the company’s has Points of Presence in about 150 locations in North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific, including in data centers operated by Equinix, Telecity, and Interxion, among others. It has partnerships with numerous data center providers, including vXchnge, Hurricane Electric, and T5 Data Centers, and with the biggest public cloud infrastructure providers: Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. IIX has made at least one technology-oriented acquisition – a $10 million purchase of connectivity automation company Allegro Networks last year – but it built Console from scratch, Burgio said. A big part of the engineering effort was CloudRouter, the open source software-defined networking project that uses OpenDaylight and ONOS. OpenDaylight is an open source SDN controller, and ONOS is an open network operating system. CloudRouter is a Linux-based SDN implementation optimized for interconnection. IIX founded the CloudRouter project, and CloudRouter is its registered trademark, Burgio said. As enterprises turn to technology to create value, they develop more sophisticated infrastructure needs. They want to use public cloud infrastructure services, include various web services in their applications through APIs, and deliver those applications to users globally, all while bypassing the public internet whenever possible. Companies like IIX want to give these enterprises the tools they need to build this infrastructure without hiring in-house interconnection experts or contracting the work out. Console is an attempt to bring the simplicity of provisioning cloud VMs on Amazon Web Services to data center interconnection on a global scale. |
| 3:00p | Friday Funny: What’s That Blob in My Data Center Who you gonna call? Here’s how it works: Diane Alber, the Arizona artist who created Kip and Gary, creates a cartoon, and we challenge our readers to submit the funniest, most clever caption they think will be a fit. Then we ask our readers to vote for the best submission and the winner receives a signed print of the cartoon. Congratulations to Stanley, whose caption won the “Cabinets” edition of the contest. Stanley’s caption was: “When I said I wanted everything in “black and white,” this isn’t quite what I meant.” Lots of submissions came in for the “Floating Data Center” edition – now all we need is a winner. Help us out by submitting your vote below! Take Our Poll
For previous cartoons on DCK, see our Humor Channel. And for more of Diane’s work, visit Kip and Gary’s website! |
| 4:27p | Weekly DCIM Software News Roundup: September 11 Software updates, new integrations, and new product launches in the DCIM software space: Geist updates Environet Asset. Geist announced a new version of its Environet Asset software, featuring a more comprehensive workflow engine. The new interface also features the ability to easily create entire projects, which encompass multiple work orders and tasks, allowing users to plan effectively for changes within the data center. Device42 completes integration with Confluence. Device42 announced the release of free integration code that enables users of Atlassian’s Confluence collaboration software to embed device links and details from the Device42 configuration management database (CMDB) into their Confluence IT knowledge base articles. Altima releases NetZoom Pro. Altima Technologies announced the availability of its new software, NetZoom Pro, a multi-user, browser-based NetZoom application. NetZoom Pro is an asset management solution focused on enabling management of data center asset inventory and connectivity, prior to the process change required to implement a full featured DCIM. Altima updates Visio Stencil Library. Releasing updates to its NetZoom software Altima announced updates to Visio Stencil libraries for Cisco, HP, EMC, Crestron Electronics, Super Micro, Hitachi Data Systems, and others. |
| 5:54p | SingleHop Provides Free Private Cloud for Colocation Customers
This article originally appeared at The WHIR Managed hosting and hosted private cloud provider SingleHop has launched ColoPlus, which provides colocation customers a virtual private cloud to use at no charge, as well as either 100GB of storage-area network (SAN) resources or one terabyte of cloud-based backup through Veeam Cloud Connect. According to SingleHop’s Thursday announcement, newly acquired colocation customers from SingleHop’s acquisition of Datagram in May have expressed interest in cloud infrastructure services. With ColoPlus, colocation customers can use a VMware-powered private cloud as a way to evaluate the utility of the cloud for their business. The initial “VPC Starter Pack” provides 3 GHz CPU and 12 GB RAM, and the ability to move workloads to the cloud, and spin up and down any number of virtual servers. Customers can upgrade their private cloud to a larger one at any time for its standard market rates, or convert the VPC to a disaster recovery site for $50 per VM per month. Paving the Way for Hybrid CloudAs more hosting options emerge for customers, many service providers have been working to ensure they don’t lose customers to a variety of new vendors as they move to more complex, hybrid environments. More than 65 percent of enterprises IT organizations will commit to hybrid cloud technologies before 2016, according to consultancy IDC. For SingleHop, offering hosted private cloud helps ensure that colocation customers don’t move to another provider as they experiment with new cloud options. And earlier this year SingleHop rolled out managed services for Microsoft Azure public cloud for customers adding public cloud to their infrastructure. This provides a variety of hybrid cloud services across dedicated and virtual environments. “There is no one-size-fits-all cloud,” Jordan Jacobs, SingleHop’s VP of products, said in a statement. “Every organization has a unique combination of IT environments that must work together. So SingleHop has focused on delivering solutions that empower the modern IT department to support a broad spectrum of technology.” Aside from virtual private cloud, colocation customers also get the option of 100GB of SAN or 1TB of Veeam-powered cloud Backup-as-a-Service. SingleHop’s SAN service provides advanced load balancing, backup and disaster recovery capabilities without the customer having to source or configure anything on their own. SingleHop’s implementation of Veeam Cloud Connect lets customers extend data protection outside of the data center to an off-site repository. It supports VMware and Hyper-V platforms. This first ran at http://www.thewhir.com/web-hosting-news/s |
| 7:50p | IBM Acquires StrongLoop for Node.js Capabilities
This article originally appeared at The WHIR IBM announced this week that it has acquired application development software provider StrongLoop to integrate Node.js capabilities with its software portfolio. The terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed. StrongLoop’s software enables developers to build applications using APIs (application programming interfaces). IBM said that the integration of StrongLoop will help clients and developers build scalable APIs and connect existing back-end processes with front-end mobile, Internet of Things and web apps. “Enterprises are focused on digital transformation to reach new channels, tap new business models, and personalize their engagement with clients,” Marie Wieck, general manager, Middleware, IBM Systems said. “APIs are a critical ingredient. By bringing together StrongLoop’s Node.js capabilities to rapidly create APIs with IBM’s leadership in Java and API Management on our cloud platform, we are unlocking the innovation potential of two vibrant development communities.” In the announcement, IBM said that by combining StrongLoop’s services with IBM’s WebSphere and Java capabilities clients will be able to connect Java and Node.js development platforms more easily. “With this acquisition, the industry benefits from Node.js’ formal entry into the mainstream enterprise,” said Juan Carlos Soto, Chief Executive Officer, StrongLoop. “As leaders in the Node.js open community, we plan to further advance open, community-driven innovation coupled with global, enterprise class software and services offerings to grow client value in the API economy.” IBM will add select cloud capabilities from StrongLoop to its IBM IoT Foundation. Global support for the StrongLoop platform will be available in the second half of 2016, including language translation support for Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese. Earlier this month, GoDaddy-owned Nodejitsu announced that its existing customers can transition their Node.js applications running on Nodejitsu to Modulus, an applications hosting PaaS company. This first ran at http://www.thewhir.com/web-hosting-news/i |
| 9:56p | Report: Apple Takes Space in Russian Data Center to Comply With Data Location Law Only one of every 10 customers of Russian data center providers managed to move Russian citizens’ personal data they store to servers located in Russia to comply with the new data location law that went into effect September 1, and one of them was Apple. The Cupertino, California, giant has taken about 50 IT cabinets in a data center operated by Russian provider IXcellerate, news daily Kommersant reported, citing anonymous sources. One of Apple’s neighbors in the 700-cabinet facility is Booking.com, which started working with IXcellerate earlier. The level of interest in moving data to Russian data centers to comply with the data localization law is high, but implementation has been slow, due primarily to lack of clear understanding of the new rules by data center customers, Kommersant said citing a recent market study by Circuit Exchange and 42Future. As a result, some data center customers have been moving just some of their systems, while others have paused activity until regulators offer more clarity. On average, only 10 percent of customers of some of Russia’s largest data center providers managed to move the data in time for the September 1 deadline, according to the study. In combination with continuing devaluation of the ruble, the data localization law, which requires companies that store personal information of Russian citizens to store that information on Russian soil, have driven up demand for data center capacity in the country. The biggest players in the market have added new clients recently. DataLine, the country’s largest data center provider, added 20 new foreign clients between 2014 and 2015; about 75 percent of its foreign clients have completed transfer of user data to DataLine’s data centers in Russia. Provider DataPro secured five new foreign customers; about 80 percent of its foreign customer base has moved personal user data to Russia. Selectel, Russia’s third-largest data center provider, closed 10 or so new foreign customers, but only 10 percent of its foreign customers have moved the data. |
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