Web Hosting Geeks' Blog » IT http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog Web Hosting Industry News, Latest Trends, and Analyses. Thu, 24 May 2012 11:11:11 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 Mezeo Takes Part in Cloud Storage Gatheringhttp://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/mezeo-takes-part-in-cloud-storage-gathering/ http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/mezeo-takes-part-in-cloud-storage-gathering/#comments Thu, 04 Jun 2009 13:02:23 +0000 Art http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/?p=362 It seems as if everyone in the IT world today is singing the praises of the “cloud.”  This has been reflected by experts at the Hosting Transformation Summit Europe in London, England desire to have a closer look at cloud storage, easily the fastest growing facet of the cloud computing market.

Bill Pitts, senior Vice President of global sales at Mezeo Software Corp., participated in the panel called “Storage Opportunities: Cloud vs. Conventional.”  Pitts touched on the issue of while traditional NAS and SAN-based storage capacities have continuously expanded, users are increasingly demanding capabilities these solutions simply can’t provide.  Shedding light on how cloud storage has rapidly become a mainstream solution, Pitts says that the cloud is being widely accepted and adopted by end-users and service providers alike.  Aside from helping providers stay relevant in their respective industries, cloud storage also allows these companies to offer new capabilities to their existing clients and essentially expand their market reach utilizing the same solutions.  Pitts highly recommends that service providers and those who are still unsure of the benefits tap into the cloud storage market, and tap into it fast.

Coupled with web services APIs, the Mezeo cloud storage platform enables IT service providers to instantly enter the highly competitive cloud storage sector with their own fully-branded cloud storage solution.  The platform it currently offers is built on four different solutions: Cloud Storage with Web Services APIs, SaaS Cloud, Access Cloud and Personal Cloud Storage.  This suite of services allows customers to completely leverage the type of cloud solution that meets their storage needs best.

The Storage Opportunities panel was held on June 2, 2009, kicking off at 11:40 a.m. at the Hilton Tower Bridge in London, England.  The event was moderated by Simon Robinson, research director of storage at 451 Group.  Joining Pitts in the discussion was Sajai Krishnan of cloud storage startup ParaScale and a co-founder from Nirvanix. 

About the Hosting Transformation Summit Europe

Headed by Tier 1 Research, the Hosting Transformation Summit Europe is a major international  forum made for executives in the data center, web hosting and internet infrastructure markets.  Its overall focus is to deal with the economies of these specific markets and how each can position themselves to succeed.

About Mezeo Corp.

With its headquarters based in Houston, Texas, Mezeo Corp. is an industry leading provider of easily deployable cloud storage platforms.  Its solutions enable managed dedicated server providers, IT hosting providers, SaaS providers and converged telecommunications providers to instantly incorporate a profitable cloud storage service into their existing portfolio.  Mezeo’s cloud solutions include secure file storage, file sharing and collaboration, content tagging and genuine anytime, anywhere access for any Microsoft Windows desktop via Web 2.0 browsers and devices such as the iPhone, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile native client.   The company focuses on delivering solutions that are easy to deploy and maintain, highly scalable and secure.  Thanks to the immaculate design of its APIs, Mezeo’s cloud storage solutions are also highly extendible.

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]]> http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/mezeo-takes-part-in-cloud-storage-gathering/feed/ 0 The Crave Behind Cloud Hostinghttp://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/the-crave-behind-cloud-hosting/ http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/the-crave-behind-cloud-hosting/#comments Tue, 21 Apr 2009 15:02:59 +0000 Art http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/?p=297 Cloud computing is one of the most talked about technologies in the web hosting industry.  More businesses are finding that it can be a practical, affordable option for their storage and server needs.  So, how hot is this technology?  Well, Gartner is predicting that by 2012, nearly 80% of Fortune 1000 companies will pay for some type of cloud computing service while 30% will pay to build a cloud computing infrastructure.  If you’re not familiar with the concept, the cloud is far from what you get in the typically hosting arrangement.  The technology offers a multitude of benefits and this article will introduce you to a few of them.

Cost Effective Implementation – With a cloud hosting solution, there is no need to invest in any costly hardware, software or licenses.  Instead of making costly upfront investments, you simply add or subtract from the cloud as your needs change.  In most of these setups, you simply pay for the only the services you use.

Scalability – When IT departments anticipate enormous spikes in user load, they usually have to purchase additional hardware and software components to make it happen.  This isn’t the case with cloud hosting.  The hosting provider’s IT infrastructure typically offers all the resources you need.  Once again, you only pay for what you need and use.

Technical Expertise – When an emerging technology hits the market, it is common for a plethora of companies to jump on the proverbial bandwagon.  Unfortunately, some of them don’t have the expertise to leverage it effectively.  However, many vendors have been able to master cloud computing technology to the point where they can offer customers a highly reliable service.  This is made possible by state of the art data centers, high performance hardware and tremendous computing capacity.  The companies relying on this technology range from industry leading names like Microsoft and IBM to Google and IBM.

Optimized Resource Usage – Clouding hosting services allow businesses to shift the burdens of in-house IT tasks to third-party professionals.  This in turn, gives IT departments the opportunity to concentrate on mission-critical tasks without incurring additional costs on manpower and training.

Higher Availability - Outages and service interruptions can have a serious impact on normal business operations.  With the right cloud hosting solution, you have immediate access to 24/7 customer service and technical support to address emergency situations.  Even though cloud computing is susceptible to outages and other problems, a knowledgeable staff of technicians can dramatically reduce the threat of downtime.

Cloud Considerations

While there are many advantages to cloud computing, this technology does have some drawbacks, mainly security risks.  On the other hand, several providers offering these hosting solutions employ strict privacy policies along with advanced security measures to protect their customers.  This includes various cryptographic schemes to authenticate users and strong encryption algorithms to protect data while its in transit to third-party cloud servers.  This gives cloud hosting providers the ability to provide a much greater level of security than many businesses can achieve in-house.

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]]> http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/the-crave-behind-cloud-hosting/feed/ 1 Novella Reveals Plans for New IT Solutionshttp://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/novella-reveals-plans-for-new-it-solutions/ http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/novella-reveals-plans-for-new-it-solutions/#comments Thu, 16 Apr 2009 14:58:28 +0000 Art http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/?p=291 Last week, IT solutions provider Novell, unveiled a marketing strategy for what it is calling a “Service-Driven Data Center”.  The plan includes a line of integrated products the company says is custom designed to help clients enhance their agility while reducing complexity, risks and costs.  This concept is Novell’s latest move towards delivering more service-driven and business-centric IT solutions.

According to Novell, the new solutions will provide services designed to create, manage and effectively measure an advanced data center that enables IT executives to deliver flexible, cost efficient business services to their customers.  The plan is said to couple the SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 Server platform with the recently acquired ManagedObjects and PlatSpin in the company’s portfolio of integrated products.

The Service Driven Data Center has been set to function in a heterogeneous environment.  It utilizes management and automation tools to measure the performance of complete IT services against their business objectives.  Novell’s concept is based on the following core values:

Build

Build is the company’s dedication to creating a flexible, highly efficient data center using SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 as its platform.

Manage

The manage characteristic relates to a holistic approach to virtualization and workload management.  This is made possible by using PlateSpin Workload Management solutions to leverage the company’s assets.

Measure

Lastly, the Measure aspect refers to the utilization of ManagedObjects, which provides business service management across multiple platforms and hardware types.

Released in March, 2009, Novell’s SUSE platform offers open-source benefits of the Linux environment along with enterprise features such as support for Xen virtual machines and Microsoft Management Tools.  It also offers a level of scalability that allows customers to run an unlimited amount of virtual machines.  This past February, SoftLayer Technologies made a similar move by adding SUSE Linux Enterprise Server to its line of server operating systems.

Reps at Novell say the solutions allow customers to maximize the utilization of their IT assets within a compliant and secure framework, enabling those who have plans of running a server farm, building an internal cloud or leveraging an external cloud.   Jeff Jaffe, Novell chief technology office and executive VP of business units, says that the company has received helpful feedback from a number of customers and partners.  The one thing they heard the most is that IT exists to deliver services to meet business demands.  Jaffe says Novella is confident that the new solutions are what IT teams need to meet those demands.

The news of Novell’s vision for its data center comes at a time when several of the industry’s key players are making announcement to gain a competitive edge in the very lucrative data center market.  Just last month, Cisco revealed Unified Computing System, a new data center strategy that unifies server, network, storage and virtualization resources into one energy efficient system.  Ironically, Sun Microsystems recently turned down a $7 billion acquisition offer from computer giant IBM.  It is reported that the move would have improved Sun’s infrastructure to compete with market rivals like Hewlett Packard.

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]]> http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/novella-reveals-plans-for-new-it-solutions/feed/ 0 Ensim Showcases New Unify Enterprisehttp://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/ensim-showcases-new-unify-enterprise/ http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/ensim-showcases-new-unify-enterprise/#comments Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:52:03 +0000 Art http://webhostinggeeks.com/blog/?p=65 Ensim Corporation, collaborative infrastructure and web hosting software company, recently gave a demonstration of its latest Unify Enterprise platform this year at the Microsoft Tech ED EMEA IT Professionals Conference.  The event took place in Spain and ran for five days, concluding on November 7.  Labeled as Version 2.5, Ensim Unify Enterprise Edition is structured in a manner that will allow companies to simplify common IT challenges by fully automating the administrative procedures.  This includes provisioning, password and role management and auditing as well as well remaining compliant to Active Directory servers.  Additionally, all Exchange applications can be managed through a secure web-based portal.

Ensim’s latest enterprise product is designed to standardize various procedures using IT policies to provision and provide access control for Active Directory, Exchange and mobile device infrastructure such as Windows Mobile and BlackBerry.  The components of Unify Enterprise can be installed as individual tools or as an entire suite, providing a turnkey environment where IT policies can be enforced and administered from a centralized interface, significantly reducing the downtime associated with configuration issues.

Ensim unveiled the power of its complete Unify Enterprise suite at the Centre Conventions International in Barcelona Spain, reportedly at Booth B8.  Some of the features of the new release include the following:

Fine Grain Role Delegation: Allows the role of system administrator to be restricted by organizational unit policies.

Simplified Provisioning: Automatically configures various integrated componets including logon scripts, end user home folders and the home drive.

Customizable Provision Policies: Allows system administrators to customize the creation of user accounts and provision processes.  This is done by making automatic configurations to specified Active Directory attributes as well as validated username patterns.

Ability to Modify and Audit Logs: Lets administrators keep track of changes made to individual objects.

Enhanced Alert Notification: Enables the customization of action reports such as end-user license notifications and usage statistics.

Multiple Domain Controller Support: Allows system administrators to leverage the software’s preferences to access a number of domain controllers.

Unify Enterprise Edition 2.5 is currently available on the Ensim website.  The company is currently offering an upgrade promotion of the standard Ensim Unify Enterprise Edition for NetPro, NetIQ and Quest users on the site as well.  http://www.get.ensom.com)Additionally, any enterprise currently using a competitor’s solution will qualify for a discount when switching to Ensim Unify product.  This promotion will be active up until December 31, 2008.

Microsoft Tech Ed EMEA IT Professionals is Microsoft’s premiere educational conference strictly made for IT professionals.  The 2008 conference runs five days, teaching administrators how to structure, deploy, administer and secure a networked enterprise with tips from Microsoft experts and other industry leaders.

The Ensim Corporation was founded in 1998, delivering products to enterprises and service providers throughout the world.  This company is leading provider of user provision and access control products, well known for its Ensim control panel software.  As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, it has strategic partnerships with several industry leading companies including Accenture, BroadSoft, Hewlett-Packard, Research in Motion and Siemens.

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