CloudGenix, the software-defined wide-area (SD-WAN) network leader, today announced it has been selected as an IDC Innovator in the IDC Innovators: SD-WAN, 2017 Report in recognition of its innovative technologies and ground-breaking business models in SD-WAN.

According to the report, "traditional WANs are complex to manage and do not support DX-level business agility as legacy WANs often are characterized by backhaul inefficiencies that compromise application performance, business agility, and employee productivity… SD-WAN has emerged as the solution for enterprises increasingly dependent on the cloud and on requiring "anytime, anywhere" application access."

Cloud Architects

Cloud architects compile enterprise requirements and then determine the right set of technologies and software to build a cloud service, whether public, private or a public/private hybrid. They determine how to deliver the cloud services someone needs from virtual desktops to virtual servers.

Virtustream, the enterprise-class cloud company and a Dell Technologies business, today announced a collaboration with Pivotal to provide a fully managed, enterprise-class cloud service for customers building and deploying applications with Pivotal Cloud Foundry, one of the world’s most powerful cloud-native platforms.

Designed to pair Virtustream’s leading enterprise-class cloud and managed services with the widely popular Pivotal Cloud Foundry cloud-native application development platform, the single instance, hosted service provides an alternative to general purpose public cloud offerings. This enables organizations to quickly build and deploy applications, while delivering capabilities that enhance developer productivity, ensure high availability and security, and provide operational control, all of which are necessities in developing innovative software solutions.

"To compete in today’s markets, enterprise customers require the ability to develop and deploy their applications at a faster clip," said Kevin Reid, president and chief technology officer, Virtustream. "Virtustream Pivotal Cloud Foundry Service enables organizations to utilize one of the most popular developer platforms on the market today to deploy into a secure, enterprise-class cloud, while offloading the management of the environment to Virtustream."

Grazed from NComputing

Following the acquisition of VERDE Workspaces in Q1 2017, NComputing today launches VERDE VDI 8.1, a purpose-built desktop virtualization solution for enterprise and SMB. NComputing is now able to cater to businesses and organizations of all sizes, offering a full stack, end-to-end solution including thin clients, software clients, and desktop management and provisioning infrastructure.

VERDE VDI is a purpose-built VDI solution for enterprise customers, aiming to deliver the highest performing, flexible and affordable desktop management and provisioning infrastructure on the market. VERDE VDI’s features address the three main challenges that stand in the way of widespread VDI adoption: cost, complexity and use case coverage.

Security, in addition to Windows 10 migration, is a major driver of VDI adoption and is at the heart of VERDE VDI. VERDE VDI is organically built from the ground up on a secure Linux foundation. VERDE VDI incorporates a dynamic provisioning model that protects users by making unsanctioned changes non-persistent. Prevention of malware, virus attacks, data leakage and unauthorized access to the internal network are all cornerstones of the VERDE VDI security protocols. VERDE VDI also automates desktop management and helps keep images up-to-date and available thereby offering further protection to users.

Ping Identity, the leader in Identity Defined Security, today announced that the integration of PingAccess with Microsoft Azure Active Directory is now generally available. Together, Azure Active Directory and PingAccess provide an IDaaS solution that gives mobile workers secure access to on-premises applications from any device, without the need for VPNs or modifications to the network infrastructure.

Many enterprises, including 85 percent of Fortune 500 companies, have embraced Azure Active Directory as the identity platform for managing users and providing secure access to thousands of SaaS and on-premises applications. Azure Active Directory handles over one billion authentications daily. This integration with Ping allows enterprises to expand single sign on (SSO) to even more of their on-premises web applications. The result is seamless and secure single sign-on for all applications and all users on all devices and clouds, without the need for a VPN.

Excelero, a disruptor in software-defined block storage, announced that it was assigned a US patent # 9,658,782 for underlying technology to its NVMesh server SAN solution that is key to its ability to efficiently share NVMe devices at data center scale with local performance. The patent represents the first US patent officially awarded to Excelero, with 9 additional US patents pending , and is among the reasons why NVMesh achieves exceptionally low latency, high NVMe storage ROI and greater flexibility in some of today’s most demanding application areas.

An estimated 70 – 80% of enterprises will have adopted a web-scale IT architectural approach by 2027 (Intel data) – enterprises for whom  Excelero’s 100% software-only server SAN solution is a perfect fit. The new patent covers Excelero’s technique of combining two industry standards, remote direct memory access (RDMA) and storage-oriented memory mapped input/output (MMIO), which dramatically reduces CPU use, removing the target-side CPU from the data path, lowers latency and enables superior performance compared to traditional storage architectures, even those leveraging Flash.  Uses include machine learning, visualization simulation, real-time analytics, genomics and encoding among many other hyper-scale applications.

Cloud computing is using the Internet to deliver hardware and software services instead of keeping physical hardware and software at your office.  Many small businesses are migrating to the cloud and experiencing benefits that were never before possible, which is why today, 37 percent of U.S. small businesses have fully adapted to cloud computing, with experts predicting those numbers to double by 2020. The cloud is redefining the way small businesses do business.

To learn more about why your business should use the cloud, check out the below slideshow from Maryland Computer Service.

DataCore Software, a leading provider of software-defined storage and hyperconverged infrastructure solutions powered by Adaptive Parallel I/O technology, today announced that its software-defined storage platform, SANsymphony, has been implemented on the cruise ship fleet of TUI Cruises, a joint venture between German TUI AG and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., the world’s second-largest cruise company. The SANsymphony storage platform delivers highly available and high-performance storage capacity for VMware, Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Exchange. DataCore partner BSH IT Solutions was key to the successful implementation.

"DataCore’s scalability in terms of capacity, performance and functionality gives us the flexibility we need to respond to future challenges, whether it is on the single ships or for the entire fleet. In addition, SANsymphony has demonstrated total reliability. We plan to keep expanding our ‘Mein Schiff’ fleet, and we will continue to rely on BSH IT Solutions and SANsymphony to sail alongside," said Matthias Fahrner, director IT Competence Center & Strategy at TUI Cruises.

Altaro, a leader in virtual machine data protection, today announced the Altaro VM Backup for MSPs recurring revenue channel program and highlighted a new company milestone with the signing of more than 6,000 channel partners worldwide. The company’s new partner program formally introduces subscription pricing and provides MSPs with access to the Cloud Management Console (CMC), a ground breaking online tool for partners to efficiently monitor and manage geographically dispersed VM Backup customer deployments.

In a report on server virtualization, Gartner found that approximately 80% of x86 server workloads are virtualized, making virtual server backup and data recovery an enormous market opportunity for managed service providers. However, because virtual infrastructure differs substantially from physical IT environments, IT service providers require backup and recovery solutions that are designed to meet the unique challenges presented by virtual machines. VM Backup provides a production-proven answer for MSPs with a high-performance, multi-tenant backup solution that scales on demand and features centralized monitoring and management.