IndependenceIT, the company that unifies cloud application and data management for IT administrators, today announced Cloud Workspace Suite version 5.1. The integrated automation software platform has been enhanced with several new features to facilitate the management and delivery of software defined data centers (SDDCs), workspaces, applications, and data to users anywhere, anytime, and on any device.

As MSPs, CSPs, and ISVs support business efforts to digitally transform their operations, much of their success will follow the deployment of cloud-based workspaces. Rapid adoption of Cloud Workspaces has accelerated in recent years and is expected to skyrocket with recent research showing global sales set to reach US $18.37 billion by 2022. With a focus on cloud enablement for service providers, IndependenceIT has been at the forefront of innovation in this space. Today’s release of Cloud Workspace Suite version 5.1 furthers the functionality of its platform with several new capabilities.

Cloud Workspace Suite Software Enhancements

IDC’s research shows the majority of today’s enterprise class organizations expect to rely on multiple clouds. Organizations need to make this transition in a way that maintains control over their applications, constantly optimizes the capacity being purchased, and doesn’t inadvertently create operational silos.

Join Andrew Hillier, co-founder and CTO of Cirba, and guest speaker, Mary Johnston Turner, IDC Research Vice President Enterprise Systems Management Software, to learn why workload aware multi-cloud capacity and migration analytics are becoming critical enablers to modern cloud strategies.

Learn about critical enablers to modern cloud strategies.
Major topics include:

With a shortened development cycle, you’d think we’d have trouble finding 53 new features of interest in OpenStack Ocata, but with so many projects (more than 60!) under the Big Tent, we actually had a little bit of trouble narrowing things down. We did a live webinar talking about 157 new features, but here’s our standard 53. (Thanks to the PTLs who helped us out with weeding it down from the full release notes!)

Nova (OpenStack Compute Service)

1. VM placement changes: The Nova filter scheduler will now use the Placement API to filter compute nodes based on CPU/RAM/Disk capacity.
2. High availability: Nova now uses Cells v2 for all deployments; currently implemented as single cells, the next release, Pike, will support multi-cell clouds.
3. Neutron is now the default networking option.
4. Upgrade capabilities: Use the new ‘nova-status upgrade check’ CLI command to see what’s required to upgrade to Ocata.

FINALLY! After 14 months of development, almost 29,000 lines of PowerShell, many hours of my time and with the help of almost 200 testers, we are pleased to present you with Version 2.0 of the XenApp/XenDesktop 7.x documentation script. This script is for versions of XenApp/XenDesktop 7.8 and later. Version 1.xx is for XenApp/XenDesktop versions 7.0 through 7.7

First, I would like to thank my employer, Choice Solutions, for allowing me the time to do some of the development work on company time. I was able to use customer deployments to run the script and verify data and some of my fellow engineers at Choice submitted enhancement requests.

Mobile Labs, a leading provider of enterprise-grade mobile testing and development solutions, today announced that its deviceConnect mobile device cloud is now being hosted and managed by Mobile Labs in the company’s secure data centers. Customers now have a choice — have Mobile Labs manage deviceConnect in a Mobile Labs data center, or install deviceConnect on their own premises. Either type of installation is supported by Mobile Labs’ industry-leading customer support and customer success teams.

"We believe our new hosted cloud appeals to customers who want Mobile Labs’ experts to manage the infrastructure and day-to-day functioning of their mobile device clouds — freeing more resources to focus on delivering world-class apps," said Dan McFall, President of Mobile Labs. As part of the hosted service, Mobile Labs will purchase, configure, install, and maintain the customer’s inventory of smartphones and tablets. "To efficiently deploy mobile app and mobile web as the face of enterprise digital transformation, customers can now choose the cloud type that is right for them. Our hosted cloud extends our determination to meet customer teams ‘where they live,’ accelerating deployment and support of world-class mobile apps," continued McFall.

Parallels announced that Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS) is now available at Microsoft Azure Marketplace. IT decision makers who currently use Azure, can search the Azure Marketplace for Parallels RAS and simply add its preconfigured free trial to discover how it can result in IT cost savings of up to 60 percent, expedited deployment and reduction in complexity for small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

"Microsoft Azure brings even more cost savings and simplicity to our solution, enabling SMBs to install Parallels RAS and deploy virtual desktops and apps to any device around the world in record time, so IT admins and end users can experience the simplicity and power of the latest mobile productivity tools that fit within their budgets," said Jack Zubarev, Parallels president. "Parallels is leveling the playing field for SMBs that have struggled to implement virtual client computing (VCC) due to cost and complexity."

Grazed from BusinessWire. Author: Editorial Staff.

Warehouse TERRADA (Shinagawa, Tokyo / CEO: Yoshihisa Nakano) announces that we will begin offering its “minikura” cloud storage system, where any user can have his/her own warehouse, one box at a time, to users outside of Japan. Since the foundation in 1950, Warehouse TERRADA has been cultivating better storage techniques and making proactive action on the capital investment in order to store and preserve items under the best environment.

Expanding our business beyond the traditional warehousing, we are currently pursuing the preservation and restoration techniques to raise the value of items that require high expertise such as wines, artworks and media and pass it on to the next generations. Also we are developing a business to output the new culture by making a full use of our knowledge as a professional in space creation…

Grazed from ZDNet. Author: Joe McKendrick.

One of the buzzwords to emerge over the past year is that of "serverless" computing or architecture, which, as the term suggests, involves the provisioning of key information technology resources to users without the fuss and muss of acquiring and activating additional hardware, which not only means servers, but disk space as well. Let the cloud vendors worry about the messy details of protocols, security, resource provisioning, processor speeds, and memory allocation, and focus on the applications business users need to run their organizations.

Serverless is, for all intents and purposes, another name for Platform as a Service. There are vendor tools and environments suited for such a purpose, including Amazon Web Services Lambda, IBM BlueMix OpenWhisk, and Microsoft Azure Functions, Buzzwording aside, full-throttle adoption of serverless platforms may even stir rethinking of optimal hybrid cloud architectures, and what it means for IT teams to serve as brokers of needed business services…

Read more from the source @ http://www.zdnet.com/article/cloud-to-client-computing-serverless-computing-reduces-the-middle/

The Internet of Things might be a buzzword you know nothing about, but it is something that can’t be ignored by software testers and developers alike. The interconnectivity of wearables, smart devices, home appliances, etc. present a whole host of unique challenges that you need to prepare yourselves for.

Gartner predicts that the number of connected devices through the Internet of Things is expected to rise to 26 billion units by 2020, so software professionals need to equip themselves with the appropriate knowledge and technology to succeed.

We are delighted to announce the general availability of VMware vCloud Director 8.20. The latest in a string of successful vCloud Director releases on a regular cadence (following 8.0 and 8.10), vCloud Director 8.20 is an innovative, highly-anticipated release that enables vCloud Air Network service providers to achieve three key objectives:

1. rapidly monetize new services,
2. deliver radical operational efficiency to shared vCenter environments, and
3. with the new “Adopt a vCenter” capability, extend this radical operational efficiency to existing vCenters.

These three capabilities are critical enablers for every service provider’s business. We are yet to speak with a single provider in the market today who is not under pressure to grow revenue by adding new services, while simultaneously needing to control costs and increase efficiency.