Security is a high-growth market for IT spending and presents a key opportunity for partners to solve one of their customers’ biggest challenges. According to the Ponemon Institute, the total cost of data breach has increased 29 percent since 2013, with the average data breach costing a company approximately $4 million.

Today Zerto announced the launch of the new Enterprise Cloud Edition with the general availability of Zerto Virtual Replication 5.0 (ZVR).  Zerto states that ZVR is the industry’s only heterogeneous data and application protection, replication and mobility solution for building and managing a hybrid cloud platform, and with the 5.0 launch, is now available with Microsoft Azure support. The new Zerto Enterprise Cloud Edition that comes with the 5.0 general availability, is designed to enable organizations to implement a hybrid cloud strategy by simultaneously protecting and recovering any virtual machine (VM) in any environment, from on-premises data centers to public clouds, all with different SLAs and retention policies using One-To-Many replication. Zerto Virtual Replication 5.0 will also be available in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace starting November 15, 2016.

"Zerto Virtual Replication recently completed a successful alpha test phase, and we’re pleased to see it a step closer to becoming generally available as cloud-based and software-defined infrastructures become more pervasive in today’s IT-enabled businesses," said Dominic Anschutz, director, Global Cloud Team, Microsoft Corp. "Across industries we see our mutual customer base embracing the shift BC/DR software is driving for these cloud environments, including Microsoft Azure, and how they’re allowing business leaders to build and execute their cloud strategies using Zerto."

As enterprises in every industry digitally transform their businesses to meet modern consumers’ demands, AppDynamics is bolstering its role as a digital accelerator in that process with the expanded Azure support. AppDynamics gives enterprises the confidence to deploy digital solutions for business-critical functions knowing that they have uninterrupted, end-to-end visibility across public, private and hybrid cloud environments. With AppDynamics Application Performance Management powered by the App iQ Platform, enterprises have flexibility to cost-effectively deploy and manage application workloads and the digital businesses built on them.

“The healthcare sector is evolving quickly, especially with respect to patient engagement and consumerism,” said James G. Graham, Head of Treasury Management at PNC. “Our team brings to bear deep industry knowledge and sophisticated treasury management capabilities for our customers. Aligning with CareCloud will help both of us continue to lead the way with physicians’ practices and patients.”

The acquisition, which closed on November 14, 2016, was financed with a new $70.0 million senior secured credit facility led by East West Bank, which replaces Fusion’s previous $40.0 million senior credit facility. The new credit facility reduces Fusion’s weighted average borrowing cost from 8.0% down to 7.5%.

Highlights

Grazed from PointAndBeyond. Author: Kelley Katsanos.

A recent Cisco white paper projects cloud data center traffic will exceed 14 zettabytes (ZB) in 2020 — a 262-percent increase from 2015, according to a report in Data Center Knowledge. Also by 2020, 92 percent of all workloads will be in the cloud, and total global traffic will reach 15.3 ZB annually.

Data Center Traffic Projections by Cisco

The Cisco Global Cloud Index white paper shows that the number of Hyperscale data centers will grow from 259 at the end of 2015 to 485 by 2020. Moreover, most traffic through data centers will move from private to public clouds this year, and, according to Data Center Knowledge, “public cloud will continue to grow by 35 percent CAGR throughout the forecast period (compared to 15 percent for private), boosted by demand for cost efficiency and agility, along with strengthening public cloud security.”…

Read more from the source @ http://pointbandbeyond.com/news/nearly-all-data-center-traffic-will-be-in-the-cloud-by-2020/

DataStax, the leading provider of database software for cloud applications based on Apache Cassandra™, today announced the acquisition of DataScale, a provider of cloud-based management services for data infrastructure. DataStax also announced the forthcoming availability of DataStax Managed Cloud, a fully-managed database service. DataStax Managed Cloud will be available in early 2017 on Amazon Web Services, followed by other popular public cloud providers.

"At DataStax, we recognize that delivering cloud applications at a global scale is critically important, and that’s why we’ve decided to introduce a fully-managed, comprehensive data service offering to help our customers transform their businesses even faster," said Billy Bosworth, CEO, DataStax. "DataStax is thrilled to welcome to our team the experienced engineers and senior leaders at DataScale. Together we will accelerate our customers’ ability to deliver cloud applications that provide real-time value, by offering another powerful option for deploying and managing those systems at epic scale." 

Grazed from IndustryWeek. Author: Editorial Staff.

General Electric Co. agreed to buy ServiceMax, a cloud-based software company, for $915 million to expand its digital operations and enhance equipment maintenance. The deal will help GE automate and digitize the servicing of heavy-duty machinery, the Boston-based company said Monday in a statement. GE expects the acquisition to close in January.

“It’s no secret our services revenue is the bulk of our earnings and is a key part of what makes us successful,” Bill Ruh, chief executive officer of GE Digital, said in an interview. “We’re moving away from where it’s all on paper to where it’s all becoming fully automated. Services are becoming a key part of the digital economy.”…

Read more from the source @ http://www.industryweek.com/strategic-planning-execution/ge-deepens-silicon-valley-push-915-million-cloud-purchase

Skyport Systems, a leading secure hyper-converged infrastructure provider for the hybrid enterprise, today announced the addition of threat analytics to its hyper-converged system, SkySecure. SkySecure delivers a turnkey hyper-converged solution that combines secure computer, virtualization, and network security controls to run critical applications, like Microsoft Active Directory, with less complexity and greater peace of mind. SkySecure Threat Analytics can detect administrative account and credential misuse, providing actionable insight that can help mitigate and prevent security breaches. 

In 2015, over 75 percent of all compromised records due to data breaches involved the loss or theft of a privileged credential. Attackers used stolen administrative access for weeks without detection, resulting in breach costs in the millions.

Five9, Inc. and Verint Systems Inc. today announced a new partnership in which Five9 will resell the complete Verint Enterprise Workforce Optimization (WFO) suite in the cloud. 

Verint Enterprise Workforce Optimization is now being offered as an integral part of the Five9 portfolio, fully integrated and deployed alongside the award-winning Five9 cloud Virtual Contact Center. Five9 will sell and support the complete range of Verint WFO solutions that Five9 will make available from the cloud to organizations of all sizes.

Featuring a single user interface and unique business process workflows, Verint’s WFO solution offers rich functionality for call recording, quality management, workforce management, performance management, elearning and coaching, and desktop and process analytics, as well as speech analytics. Leveraging the comprehensive solution, organizations can capture and analyze customer interactions, journeys and sentiments across channels to enhance the quality and security of interactions, drive deeper engagement with customers and employees, enhance internal processes and compliance, uncover business trends, and heighten overall productivity and performance.