StackRox, a leader in security for containerized, cloud-native applications, today announced that Mux, a leading provider of streaming video infrastructure and monitoring technology for developers and publishers of online video, has deployed the StackRox Container Security Platform to protect its microservices and container environments in Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). StackRox enables Mux to meet its compliance requirements, harden its Docker and Kubernetes infrastructure to reduce the attack surface, and detect and stop threats at runtime. StackRox secures containers and microservices across the entire life cycle – build, deploy and run – and supports multiple platforms across the ecosystem, including Kubernetes and Docker as well as Amazon EKS, Microsoft AKS, Google Kubernetes Engine and Red Hat OpenShift. 

"Mux’s goal is to make high-quality video streaming accessible to every developer. Our SaaS model lends itself to that level of accessibility, but we needed an agile and powerful infrastructure to match," said Adam Brown, Mux Co-founder and Head of Infrastructure. "With that DevOps mindset, we started building our platform entirely in containers from the outset. As our platform matured, so did our container security and compliance needs, which is why we turned to StackRox."

Amazon Web Services announced it will open an infrastructure region in South Africa in the first half of 2020. The new AWS Africa (Cape Town) Region will consist of three Availability Zones. Currently, AWS provides 55 Availability Zones across 19 infrastructure regions worldwide, with another 12 Availability Zones across four AWS Regions in Bahrain, Hong Kong SAR, Sweden, and a second GovCloud Region in the U.S. expected to come online in the coming months. For more information on AWS’s global infrastructure, go to: https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/global-infrastructure/.

"Having built the original version of Amazon EC2 in our Cape Town development center 14 years ago, and with thousands of African companies using AWS for years, we’ve been able to witness first-hand the technical talent and potential in Africa," said Andy Jassy, CEO, Amazon Web Services, Inc. "Technology has the opportunity to transform lives and economies across Africa and we’re excited about AWS and the Cloud being a meaningful part of that transformation."

The new region is the latest in a series of AWS investments in South Africa. In 2004, Amazon opened a development center in Cape Town that focuses on building pioneering networking technologies, next generation software for customer support, and the technology behind Amazon EC2. AWS has also built a number of local teams including account managers, customer services representatives, partner managers, solutions architects, and more to help customers of all sizes as they move to the cloud. In 2015, AWS opened an office in Johannesburg, and in 2017 brought the Amazon Global Network to Africa through AWS Direct Connect. In May of 2018, AWS continued its investment in South Africa, launching infrastructure points of presence in Cape Town and Johannesburg, bringing Amazon CloudFront, Amazon Route 53, AWS Shield, and AWS WAF to the continent and adding to the 138 points of presence AWS has around the world.

DataDirect Networks (DDN) announced record performance results across the entire spectrum of the SPEC SFS 2014 benchmark suite. The SPEC SFS 2014 benchmarks provide a standardized approach to comparing performance for file server throughput and response time across different vendor platforms. In the latest round of testing, DDN improved on existing benchmark results by at least 25 percent.

The SPEC SFS 2014 benchmarks were introduced to test five aspects of a storage solution’s performance in the number of simultaneous software builds that can be performed: the number of video streams that can be captured; the number of simultaneous databases that can be sustained; electronic design automation; environment simulation; and the number of virtual desktops that can be maintained. DDN’s success across all test parameters demonstrates the flexibility and robust performance capabilities of DDN SFA platforms.

CenturyLink, Inc. is expanding its portfolio of SD-WAN solutions, offering more technology choices for network transformation. CenturyLink will offer customers across the United States Managed Cisco SD-WAN powered by Viptela.

This new offer provides the tools, technology and expertise needed to design, deploy, configure, migrate and manage SD-WAN services. CenturyLink will support the offer across Cisco’s Viptela vEdge series routers and enterprise network computer system (ENCS) 5000 series virtualized network platform, with multiple feature packages available. Customers will also have access to a dedicated CenturyLink SD-WAN portal.

NetApp, the data authority for hybrid cloud, today announced new solutions to enable customers to deliver data-driven business outcomes for applications across hybrid cloud and multicloud environments, including NetApp Cloud Insights, Azure NetApp Files, Cloud Volumes Service, Cloud Volumes ONTAP, NetApp HCI, SaaS Backup for Microsoft Office 365, and NetApp Data Availability Services.

These new data products and services bring to life NetApp’s vision to empower customers to innovate in the cloud, in any form, to improve business outcomes in the face of a rapidly evolving technological landscape. Cloud reliance is now essential for taking advantage of data across the organization to make better business decisions, improve customer experiences, and leverage the Internet of Things to offer new services and develop new business models. However, success in the cloud depends on integrating, protecting, and optimizing data stored in any cloud environment.

"It’s not an exaggeration to say that every time we create a product or service at NetApp, we always first ask ourselves what it will be able to do in the cloud," said Anthony Lye, SVP and GM, cloud data services, NetApp. "For our customers, the competitive demand to transform into a cloud-first organization is now a given – but achieving significant business impact as a result is not. Our vision is to inspire data-driven innovation with the cloud."

DataCore Software today announced the results of its seventh consecutive market survey, "The State of Software-Defined, Hyperconverged and Cloud Storage," which explored the experiences of 400 IT professionals who are currently using or evaluating software-defined storage, hyperconverged and cloud storage to solve critical data storage challenges. The results yield surprising insights from a cross-section of industries over a range of workloads, including the fact that storage availability and avoiding vendor lock-in remain top concerns for IT professionals, and illustrate the status of the industry on its journey to a software-defined future.

The report reveals what respondents view as the primary business drivers for implementing software-defined, hyperconverged, public cloud and hybrid cloud storage. For example, the top results for software-defined storage include: automate frequent or complex storage operations; simplify management of different types of storage; and extend the life of existing storage assets. This portrays the market’s recognition of the economic advantages of software-defined storage and its power to maximize IT infrastructure performance, availability, and utilization.

The report also highlights the capabilities that users would like from their storage infrastructure. The top capabilities identified were business continuity/high availability (which can be achieved via metro clustering, synchronous data mirroring, and other architectures) at 74%; disaster recovery (from remote site or public cloud) at 73%; and enabling storage capacity expansion without disruption at 72%.

Armor, a leading cloud security solutions provider, has released the results of its second annual social media poll. The responses will give readers a quick take on how businesses and institutions view their cybersecurity posture, especially as it relates to adopting the cloud.

The annual #ArmorU poll fielded responses from 37,000 Twitter users over a 13-week period. According to the findings captured in the #ArmorU Report, many corporate employees are ready to store highly sensitive data in the cloud. However, many are still skeptical of the security posture of their own organizations. Additional key findings show that reducing the cost of managing security, maintaining compliance, and improving incident response capabilities are important pieces of the security puzzle as digital transformation pushes companies toward cloud adoption.

Pulse Secure, the leading provider of Secure Access solutions to both enterprises and service providers, announced the launch of new packaging of its award-winning Pulse Access Suite for Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs). The solution offers service providers an accelerated, cost-effective means to differentiate and build out their service portfolio to meet the massive demand for protected connectivity to cloud applications and hybrid IT resources.

Pulse Secure offers a comprehensive, integrated and highly interoperable set of Secure Access solutions spanning remote, mobile and cloud access security; network visibility and access control; and application delivery. The suite allows service providers to extend lucrative access protection, endpoint compliance, threat response and availability services for the data center, hosted in the cloud or running as SaaS.

The service provider packaging optimizes capital expenditure through an on-demand, pay-per-use model. MSSPs can spin up or spin down virtual Secure Access instances and licenses at a cost based on the number of concurrent monthly users. On-demand provisioning and tiered, user-based pricing gives service providers needed flexibility for customer onboarding, growth spurts and business downturns.

"Even the best laid disaster plans can go awry, especially if no one bothers to test them," said Peter Tsai, senior technology analyst at Spiceworks. "Ideally, a company’s disaster recovery plan should evolve and improve over time as weaknesses are exposed during testing and an organization’s needs change. However, the results show testing is often infrequent or not taking place at all, leaving many organizations vulnerable when disaster strikes."

Platform.sh, the Idea-to-Cloud Application Platform that simplifies cloud infrastructure, announced the availability of its white-label platform, which enables software companies and SaaS entrepreneurs to transform their existing on-premise software or build new SaaS businesses with unprecedented speed.

Organizations spend increasingly significant amounts of time and budget on the development and maintenance of infrastructure, distracting focus from the core value that they provide to their customers – amazing applications and digital experiences. Platform.sh allows them to put their energy towards exciting and engaging customers – rather than building teams and technical debt to manage tooling, servers, containers, and cloud infrastructure – and eliminates capital expenditures needed to launch new lines of business.

In a matter of days, Platform.sh can provide a fully branded experience for the rapid deployment of SaaS software, commerce apps, mobile back-ends, and web applications at scale, built in multiple languages or frameworks. This capability leverages Platform.sh’s API-first approach to development, its unique instant-cloning technology, and its complete "batteries included" continuous deployment workflow, where infrastructure becomes composable and managed with the same tools as application code.