No Instant Gratification

Virtual desktops are an investment, and infrastructure costs may outweigh any potential savings in operational and maintenance expenses, especially at first.

• How to get over it – VDI does have a number of impressive benefits that can move your organization forward, including increased data security, simplified management, and a more mobile and productive workforce. Talk with an expert about a custom VDI solution that minimizes expenditures and maximizes your potential to gain from the technology.

Complex to Set Up

Some small business owners may feel that VDI isn’t feasible because of the complexity of implementation.

• How to get over it – Opt for a dedicated, pre-integrated solution that simplifies configuration.

Steep Upfront Costs

In many instances, making the move to VDI is not cheap. The high price tag may discourage some organizations that could otherwise benefit from the technology.

• How to get over it – You don’t need to buy or maintain the infrastructure yourself if you opt for a cloud-based subscription service. With this model, you pay only for the service you need, thereby reducing implementation costs.

Return on Investment May Not Be Immediate

While virtual desktops have the potential to be a cost-saver in the long run, many organizations do not see an immediate return on their money.

• How to get over it – Talk to VDI vendors that offer a solution that fits both your needs and your budget.

Are you planning to implement VDI in your organization? How are you dealing with the barriers?

Matt Smith works for Dell and has a passion for learning and writing about technology. Outside of work he enjoys entrepreneurship, being with his family, and the outdoors.

New platform is custom built for midsize organizations and completely eliminates the cost and complexity of VMware from virtualized environments

The two day conference will provide answers to some of the key questions regarding enterprise cloud deployments. Attendees will have the opportunity to hear about the impact that cloud computing can have on their company’s bottom line, why it is a necessity for today’s enterprises, what are the cost benefits, as well as how they can secure their Cloud Deployments. Now in its third year, CloudCon Expo and Conference 2013 will gather top rank speakers and cloud industry vendors and provide attendees with a great platform for networking with IT Executives, CTOs, VCs, Directors, and Managers.

Conference attendees will hear from industry thought leaders, including keynote speakers Richard McDougall, Application Infrastructure CTO at VMware, Rod Smith Vice President, Emerging Internet Technologies at IBM, and Lucas Carlson Founder and CEO, AppFog. Full list of conference speakers can be found here. In his keynote address titled “Delivering Big Data,” IBM’s Rod Smith will talk about how the explosive growth in the amount of data being generated affected companies and how their need to efficiently analyze that data in order to achieve enhanced insights drove the emergence of new, sophisticated software for data analytics.

Here is our pick for top 3 sessions to attend at CloudCon Expo and Conference 2013:

Cloud Based Deployment of Enterprise Applications and Monetizing Cloud Based Services. This session will be moderated by Erica Brescia, Co-Founder and COO at BitNami, and it starts at 11:30 am on May 15. It will focus on the important question of how organizations can monetize cloud based services for enterprise class business applications such as sales, Marketing, Collaborative, Data and Financial services. Among the session speakers are Uri Budnik, Cloud Evangelist at Rightscale, and Sahil Sarosh, Senior Director, Salesforce.

Managing Big Data in Cloud. This session is a must-attend for anyone interested in learning more about the role of Cloud Computing in adoption of Big Data. It will focus on the many advantages of managing big data in cloud: Agility & Big data Analytics. The session starts at 11:30 on Wednesday and will be moderated by Greg Caressi, Senior Vice President, Frost & Sullivan.

Challenges of Cloud Computing in Highly Scalable and Secure Enterprises. This session is scheduled for Wednesday, May 15, at 3:30pm. Session speakers, including Saran Mandair, Sr. Director, Infrastructure Engineering at PayPal, and Kevin Nikkhoo, CEO & Founder, CloudAccess, will discuss the challenges and the opportunities of Cloud Computing in a highly scalable and secure enterprise.

For more info on conference sessions, check out the CloudCon Expo & Conference 2013 schedule.

Numerous exhibitors will participate in this year’s CloudCon Expo, including Citrix, IBM, VMware, Nebula, CA Technologies, and MapR Technologies.

Several registration packages are available allowing different levels of access to the event. Prices range from $20 for Expo Pass, to $599 for a Full Conference Pass which includes access to both days (expo area, all sessions and meals). Register now and get a 15% discount on full registration.

Citrix has announced that its enterprise mobility management solution, XenMobile, has been selected as the winner of Best of Interop for the Wireless, Mobility and BYOD Support award category. In addition, Citrix received the Audience Choice award. The Best of Interop winners were announced on Tuesday, May 7 at 5:30 pm at the Interop Theater on the Expo Floor during Interop Las Vegas, happening May 6-10, 2013 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center. For more information visit: http://www.bestofinterop.com/.

The Citrix enterprise mobility management solution, comprised of XenMobile MDM™ and Citrix CloudGateway™, is a complete solution that balances IT’s need to manage and secure devices, apps and data, with users’ desire to access any app from any device and experience work and life their way. Users gain single-click access to all of their mobile, SaaS and Windows apps from a unified app store, including seamlessly-integrated email and browser apps. IT gains control over mobile access based on users’ identities, including scenario-based app access, automatic account de-provisioning and selective wipe for lost or stolen devices.

“Enterprises require a solution that addresses employee demands to use their own devices, choose any app and get access to their email and documents from anywhere,” said Ahmed Datoo, vice president of product marketing, Mobile Platforms group at Citrix. “The Best of Interop award is a testament that Citrix is fulfilling enterprise needs for a comprehensive solution to manage and secure all devices, apps and data. It is gratifying to be recognized as an innovator driving advancements in enterprise mobility.”

Citrix showcased its enterprise mobility management solution at Interop Las Vegas, the industry’s premier technology event enabling IT professionals and technology solution providers to leverage technology to power their business. The Best of Interop Judging Committee, comprised of 16 award-winning IT editors and analysts, reviewed nearly 150 entries and selected winners based on the products with a significant technical impact with the most potential of advancing the business technology market.

“The Best of Interop Awards showcases IT vendors pushing the boundaries of technology,” said Andrew Conry-Murray, editor of Network Computing. “Citrix, and each category winner, demonstrates a commitment to innovation and has a compelling offering deserving of recognition.”

The category areas that Best of Interop winners were selected for include:

• Cloud Computing & Virtualization
• Data Center & Storage
• Management & Monitoring
• Networking
• Performance Optimization & Testing
• Security
• Wireless, Mobility & BYOD Support

In the cloud era, businesses no longer want to house data at remote locations, instead opting to centralize files and applications in datacenters and the cloud. As a result, IT must transform from installed applications on PC’s, to cloud-based application services, enabling enterprises to take advantage of cloud computing while continuing to serve users with the latest business applications. Virtual Desktop Infrastructure fully removes the need to optimize legacy applications in branches while emphasizing the importance of delivering a secure and outstanding experience for virtual desktop users. Securely connecting branches to cloud-based services while continuing to serve private WAN-connected applications delivered from the corporate datacenter provides the best user experience while maintaining security and reducing ongoing WAN costs.

Unlike complex and expensive competitive solutions that require IT to purchase multiple products from different vendors, the new CloudBridge is an extensible platform that will deliver IT twice the functionality yet require only half the amount of hardware, and all from the same vendor. When deployed in conjunction with the Citrix XenDesktop® product and Citrix XenApp® product, CloudBridge reduces bandwidth-per-desktop by more than 50 percent, significantly decreases high-definition video bandwidth consumption, all while continuing to provide substantial performance improvements for traditional enterprise applications such as email, file sharing, and database transactions. The new CloudBridge provides a solution to optimize legacy PC applications while enabling enterprises to immediately leverage cloud-based application delivery via virtualized, PC client and mobile applications.

Pending Acquisition Expected to Extend the Success of McAfee’s Security Connected Strategy

“We are excited to have Steve join Vello’s board of directors. As a well-known industry veteran, he brings critical experience and market understanding to the table that will help guide Vello’s next level of growth and development,” said Karl May, chief executive officer, Vello Systems. “Steve’s track record of success in growing major technology companies and brands, his wide network of industry relationships, and his proven ability to build shareholder value will be of great impact in helping Vello become the leading company for innovation-driven enterprise networking solutions, especially as we continue to expand our international presence.”

“As compute, storage, and networking systems converge to support complex application requirements, Vello has begun to establish itself as the leading provider of innovative infrastructure software to accelerate the process,” said Steve Leonard. “Customers need to roll out new applications quickly across a broad multivendor network and storage environment, but that can be complicated and costly.  Vello delivers software-defined infrastructure-management capabilities that enable these complex systems to work together as a single entity regardless of vendor.  This represents an important leap forward in putting choice and control in the hands of the enterprise customers.  I am excited to support Vello in helping its customers more-confidently confront their cloud- and big data-driven challenges moving forward.”

Leonard is Deputy Chairman of the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, a role he began in May 2013.  For more than 20 years, Leonard has been a senior executive at major technology companies including EMC, Symantec, and EDS.  In each of those roles, he was accountable for building and leading large go-to-market organizations, in addition to other executive responsibilities.  From 2006-2013, Leonard worked for EMC Corporation (EMC), first as President Asia Pacific/Japan, then as Corporate Senior Vice President Global Emerging Markets.  Prior to EMC, Leonard was Senior Vice President Asia Pacific/Japan for Symantec Corporation, and held various senior positions at EDS Corporation including President Solutions Consulting EMEA.

When I met Mr. Ito a year ago, he mentioned that the strategy is within the lab environment and it is not ready for full deployment. NTT has been facing challenges with pushing forward OpenFlow SDN innovation. The underlying technology is hard to develop and standards are even harder to develop since they require participation from the larger community.  Along with those obstacles,  it’s been a hard battle for traditional tech heavy weights that want to guide the direction of new technology adoption in favor of proprietary hardware. Yet all of these challenges are being dealt with head on by Open Networking Foundation and its directors such as Mr. Ito.

It was clear in my conversation with Mr. Ito that traditional hardware manufacturers such as Juniper or Cisco bring huge Operating costs to Network providers such as NTT. At NTT each network device manufacturer has a team of dedicated professionals that deal with next generation products, as well as evaluate and deal with compatibility and operations of each vendor’s specific gear. The ongoing management, integration and support across a vast network manufacture landscape is costly for any organization, especially one the size of NTT global footprint. Mr. Ito’s goal in the long term is to reduce the operation costs associated with managing these vendors. Therefore, NTT is working hard on developing its own OpenFlow Controller. The NTT OpenFlow Controller would be the underlying foundation to manage various hardware solutions provided by network vendors. An OpenFlow controller developed internally by NTT can streamline operational expenses to act as master controller across various vendors’ network gears. The OpenFlow NTT controller will not just be used in-house, but Mr. Ito believes they could potentially license it to other carriers, network providers and enterprise companies as a part of an overall network connectivity solution.

So what is the current status of SDN at NTT? Currently SDN is running within four of its data center facilities throughout Asia. At these facilities SDN and OpenFlow controllers are available to enterprise customers. NTT customers at these facilities can take control of traffic routes within the network by deploying and managing infrastructure using SDN. By 2015, Mr. Ito expects that over 100 NTT facilities and data centers will be using SDN technologies.

One limiting factor for the adoption of SDN is the physical limitations of current embedded processors on switches and network devices.  As a result, NTT has extensively partnered with NEC of Japan in producing the next generation of switches to be designed specifically for the needs of carriers that are looking to migrate to OpenFlow.

Mr. Ito sees the future opportunity in this space for entrepreneurs is to build applications and functionalities to enhance the current SDN development. My take away from the conversation was that the SDN solution that NTT is developing by building its own OpenFlow Controllers is ripe for third parties and new ventures to build additional functionality. These functionalities will be an add-on in order to enhance the core product offerings. Considering the reach that NTT has across the globe, the strategy of leveraging the tech community to develop functionality on top of Open source software will empower carriers such as NTT to break free from the chain of black box networking provided by the power house of Juniper and Cisco’s.

I would personally not count the traditional network manufactures out of the game yet. They have a ton of brilliant people in these organizations, we just hope instead of trying to hold onto legacy technology and fighting off new functionality, they use those efforts to build on SDN and accept the changes. If they don’t adapt, they will end up sitting by the sideline and perished like so many previous giants of the networking world.

News Summary:

• Aitonic (www.aitonic.com) is VoIP technology and customer processes proven in Europe.  Since 2003, 750,000 end points including 15,000 businesses serviced.  In late 2012 U.S. service initiated with selected sites.
• Portal-driven for ease of learning, use and management.  Usable by both customers and channel IT VARs and consultants.   Robust PBX features fully implemented and maintained for customers, not left partially installed and failing.  Proactively engaging and competent customer service.
• All-inclusive, economical pricing.  No common deceptive practice of padding profits into add-ons and fees later in the purchase process.

Los Altos, California, May 7, 2013 – After a prodigious start in Europe, Aitonic from Aiton Caldwell Inc. now provides next generation hosted Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) Private Branch Exchange (PBX) phone service throughout the United States. With globally distinguished core technology as well as portal- and phone-based user processes, Aitonic solves several problems which have previously limited U.S. adoption of hosted VoIP PBX.

Working closely with local IT VARs and consultants, Aitonic presents a legion of technically talented and enthusiastic support personnel with a sense of duty for customer success. Sales are not forced.  Before an order, there is technical assessment of VoIP-readiness with regard to Internet, routing, cabling and phones.

Aitonic presents an elegantly crafted full PBX feature set including auto-attendant, call routing, ring groups, queuing, forwarding, extensions, history, call recording, mobile integration, teleconferencing, international calling, faxing, voicemail, automated billing, and more.  Aitonic’s Integrity Scalability ® provides fully steeled account security in the expansive multi-tenant world of hosted VoIP.  The PBX is in cloud data center, so there is no on-premises box to buy and maintain.  Changes can be administered by the customer or a consultant from the portal’s secure user panel, all backed by Aitonic’s included Guardian Customer Support. Compatible, easily provisioned SIP-based phones with such brands as Aastra, Cisco, Polycom, Snom, and Yealink are readily available.

The platform is all Aiton Caldwell’s. They are not beholden to an underlying platform vendor, limited in capability or inflexible, or charging high licensing fees which must be passed on to the customer. They control all of the platform development and can therefore adapt it for market or individual customer needs.

“As a law firm representing vital interests of individuals, our phone service must work well at all times. We have that now with Aiton.  Plus it is easy to administer, with competent customer service readily available,”  says Mark Venardi of The Venardi Law Firm in Walnut Creek, CA.

“With a tight schedule we deployed 30 lines of a new phone service with Aiton in time to handle springtime park facility bookings and maintenance for thousands of our citizens. Auto-attendant, call routing and forwarding, and voicemail are the features we found beneficial.   Customer service was excellent and available at a moment’s notice,”  says Don Hilgenbrinck, Director of Business Services, Quincy Park District, Quincy, IL.

“Enough of shaky platforms, support abandonment, customer churn, price smoke and mirrors.  Businesses can have hosted VoIP that truly works, at a lower cost, right now. We bring up first lines in 15 minutes, complete an install in hours instead of weeks, with a 30-Day Satisfaction Guarantee so no risk, even without disturbing current phones. With thorough customer support.  We straight up compare our features and prices with others, apples to apples.  That’s our culture,” says Clay Bullwinkel, CEO of Aiton Caldwell Inc.

Service and price information are available now at www.aitonic.com, and 1 (855) 888-VOIP(8647). Local representation is by IT VARs and consultants as sales agents throughout the U.S. in conjunction with Aitonic’s included Guardian Customer Support. There is a Cash Referral Reward program of up to $2,500 for referred sales.

Customers positively tweeting, posting or liking will receive a free month of phone service. Sales agents doing the same will receive double their commission for the first month of their first sale.

About Aiton Caldwell Inc.:

Aiton Caldwell Inc. is a California-based corporation formed in 2011 to provide better telephone service at a lower cost to small and medium-sized organizations. It is part of a 2003-founded family of companies with which it shares common investors, as well as technology and services.

Press contact:

DeAnna Jernigan

Aiton Caldwell Inc.

d.jernigan@aitoncaldwell.us  

tel. 650-397-2506

“As enterprises increase their use of public, private and hybrid clouds, the need for controls, security, governance and automation becomes more critical,” said Tom Kendra, vice president and general manager, systems management, Dell Software. “Dell, together with Enstratius, is uniquely positioned to deliver differentiated, complete cloud-management solutions to enterprise customers, large and small, empowering them with the efficiency and flexibility in the allocation and use of resources.”

Cloud management is a main strategic priority for Dell as the company’s customers are rapidly adopting cloud-based apps. Dell noted that Enstratius complements the capability it recently acquired from Gale Technologies, by providing enhanced multi-cloud management and application configuration capabilities.

Dell said in a statement that “Enstratius also builds upon Dell Software’s strong portfolio of technologies such as Foglight performance monitoring, Quest ONE identity and access management, the Boomi integration platform, and data protection offerings such as AppAssure and NetVault to create a stronger systems management portfolio that enhances multi-cloud management.”

Talking about the acquisition, David Bagley, CEO of Enstratius said in a press statement, “We are excited to join the Dell team and bring our expertise to Dell’s rapidly growing cloud-management capabilities.”

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Dell said it plans to retain Enstratius’ staff and continue to invest in its engineering and sales divisions to help grow the business.