xml
News
SilkRoad Rakes in More Funding Ahead of IPOSilkRoad Technology, the aptly named competitor of, say, the up-and-coming Workday that peddles cloud-based social talent management solutions, has topped up its funding with another reportedly oversubscribed $35 million round. That makes an incredible $162 million since 2003. The latest money comes from new investors Keating Capital and NTT Finance along with existing investors Intel Capital, Crosslink Capital, Foundation Capital, Azure Capital and Tenaya Capital, among others. It’s supposed to support worldwide expansion and product innovation ahead of a potential IPO this year or next.
xml journal | 20-May-2012 21:00
PTO Finds Key RPost Patent 100% Valid
A US Patent and Trademark Office re-examination has found a basic RPost proof-of-delivery patent valid. In a sweeping decision all 89 of its claims have been left standing against challenges of prior art. Patent holders dream of such things. It is understood to be a so-called “final final” decision covering items such as time-stamp authentication. No one except the PTO knows who made the claims of prior art but that unknown challenger reportedly dumped scads of documentation on the PTO for it to wade through and failed. It’s bad news for the slate of companies RPost is suing in federal courts in California, Texas and Virginia for infringing US Patent No 6,182,219 including Swiss Post, Canada Post, Adobe, Docusign, Zix, RightSignature and Farmers Insurance among others.
xml journal | 13-May-2012 21:30
AWS Revamps Partner Program
Amazon is overhauling its partner program. It’s starting a public beta of a new global AWS Partner Network (APN) that’ll provide members of its ecosystem with technical information as well as sales and marketing support to accelerate their Amazon cloud business. Membership is divided into technology-based partners (ISVs, SaaS, tools providers and platform providers) and consulting-based partners (SIs, agencies, consultancies and MSPs). And there are tiers in each (Advanced, Standard and Registered) based on a set of requirements. Partners that qualify for the Standard and Advanced tiers will get a logo, a listing in a new directory, $1,000 in AWS Services credits and $1,000 in AWS Premium Support credits. The credits are good for a year.
xml journal | 22-Apr-2012 20:00
FLA Reports What It Saw in Apple Plants in China
The Fair Labor Association (FLA), which Apple hired to look into working conditions at Foxconn plants in China a few months ago, said late Thursday that it had interviewed 35,000 workers and found no instances of child labor or forced labor. What it did find was people working an unsafe 60 hours or more a week in violation of even China’s labor laws (49 hours) to make “quick money.” Foxconn has reportedly pledged to reduce overtime and hire and house tens of thousands more people by July of 2013, which the FLA called “an unprecedented commitment.” Workers weren’t always paid fairly for the overtime and 64% of the workers said the basic wage of a few hundred dollars a month was insufficient although more than the Chinese minimum wage.
xml journal | 31-Mar-2012 19:00
EMC Buys Pivotal Labs
EMC Tuesday confirmed a report that it had bought 22-year-old privately held web development house Pivotal Labs for its agile development methodology and its widely used Pivotal Tracker tool. How much EMC spent buying the San Francisco-based software consulting operation wasn’t disclosed. It did say it paid cash. EMC imagines tuning datasets in its newly available Greenplum Chorus, which adds a Facebook-like social collaboration tool to Big Data for the data science team, and rapidly building out insightful Big Data applications using modern programming environments such as Ruby on Rails complements of Pivotal. Pivotal worked on Chorus’ development with EMC last year. EMC, which points put that packaged Big Data applications are scarce, wants to be seen as the platform for next-generation applications and solutions in Big Data easing corporations’ internal development process. After all it needs to fill its storage with Big Data, but it’s expensive.
xml journal | 24-Mar-2012 17:00
Amazon Web Services Cuts Prices
OpenStack has gone into beta running tens of thousands of instances. Meanwhile Amazon, its target of opportunity, has “significantly” cut prices on EC2, its Relational Database Service (RDS), ElastiCache and Elastic Map Reduce, both on-demand and Reserved Instances, claiming it has nothing to do with competitive pressures. Amazon attributes its largesse to economies of scale, its supply chain and its DNA. Exactly how much a user can expect to save depends on the regions used and how big the instances are.
xml journal | 11-Mar-2012 15:00
New York Drops Intel Antitrust Case
Intel has finally seen the back of that 2009 antitrust suit that New York State’s attorney general brought against it that was pretty much a case of New York copying over the charges AMD had made in its massive but now long-settled suit. See, AMD was building a big state-of-art chip plant upstate New York, a project that Globalfoundries inherited when it bought AMD’s factories, and New York figured it could get some easy money. Its mistake was in thinking that cases like AMD’s actually go to a jury – like Intel would ever let that happen – and not realizing that AMD needed the money and would take a settlement and run. When it did, New York was left in district court in Delaware, where it had piggybacked on AMD’s suit, with no home court advantage.
xml journal | 11-Feb-2012 19:00
Resara Launches OfficeBox Appliances
NAS devices offer an affordable compromise to investing in more expensive server solutions for small businesses. "Every small business with a network needs a server to share and secure data. NAS devices are an easy solution, but they don't provide the powerful features that would make them an ideal replacement to a server," says Warren Luebkeman, CEO of Resara LLC. "We wanted to develop a solution that would bridge the gap between NAS products and small business servers. A simple appliance that shares data, and also has advanced features like a domain controller for network management." Earlier this year, Resara LLC launched its line of OfficeBox server appliances, which offer the simplicity of a NAS solution, but pack the powerful features of a traditional small business server. "With this product, a business can configure a network with an Active Directory compatible domain controller, add users, setup DNS and DHCP, and create file shares and drive maps in just a few minutes," says Mr. Luebkeman, "There is nothing else like it on the market."
xml journal | 31-Jan-2012 02:18
Network Security 101: Automating for Continuous Compliance
Managing access to confidential information and application resources via firewalls is the foundation of network security, and firewall audits are central to any mature network security process. However, relying on security and network experts to review rules across multiple firewall zones and different firewall products is proving to be costly and ineffective. Few will dispute that when it comes to network security, automating best practices to reduce operating costs, complexity, human error, and streamline processes is a good thing. However, in what we call the age of Continuous Compliance – brought on by the reality that point-in-time audits done hastily to meet reporting deadlines rarely – if ever – deliver any security or compliance benefits once that point in time has passed, automation becomes more than just good. It becomes essential. Case in point: a November 2011 survey from Tufin Technologies of 100 firewall managers revealed that only 1.3% of configuration changes that cause network downtime or pose a security breach are identified during the quarterly audit, yet almost a third of the respondents spent 3 to 7 days per quarter of valuable network security team time on firewall audits (Disclosure: I work for Tufin). Organizations receive precious few benefits for the level of resource spent on manual firewall audits – it is proving to be an inefficient approach to maintaining a secure network and if you do the math, an extremely inefficient use of skilled security personnel.
xml journal | 28-Jan-2012 20:00
Planning, Scoping and Recon Techniques
The purpose of this article is to describe some tools and techniques in performing the planning, scoping, and recon portion of a penetration test. In covering these tools and techniques the reader will learn how to use them to find vulnerabilities in their organization and help improve security posture. Some other names for this first phase of penetration testing are; OSINT (Open Source Intelligence), Footprinting, Discovery, and Cyberstalking.
xml journal | 06-Jan-2012 21:00
AMD Delivers 16-Core Chip
A couple of months late, as is its time-honored fashion, AMD Monday wheeled out its 16-core Interlagos server chip, based on its new long-awaited Bulldozer architecture and formally christened it the Opteron 6200. There’s also the Valencia, a smaller low-power eight-core chip now officially designated the Opteron 4200. It’s got them pointed at virtualization, the cloud and HPC hoping to revisit the market share gains and margin expansion it experienced years ago with its first Opterons before the ill-fated Barcelona crushed its lead. On a good day it currently holds about 5% of the market but it’s hoping to make a bigger dent in emerging markets like China.
xml journal | 19-Nov-2011 20:00
The agile upside of XML
Frankfurt TOC presenters Anna von Veh, a consultant at Say Books, and Mike McNamara, managing director at Araman Consulting Ltd & Outsell-Gilbane UK Affiliate, discuss xml workflows, the (sorry) state of ebook design, and how books and the web will evolve.
oreillynet.com | 03-Oct-2011 15:00
The Specific ElementFormDefault Schema Attribute
Here is my 'five-minute XML' series where by I give you scheduled byte size guides. Today's issue is good for those people that happen to be starting out with XML. In "XML Schema - Overview" (5 Minute XML #7), I reported the need for a schema definition language. I defined principle syntax for the purpose of indicating the namespace from the schema document and W3C URI (for referencing components and attributes not defined from the targetNamespace). In conclusion I referred to the following schema attribute: . Here, I am hoping to explain precisely why and how this attribute is used and additionally precisely what influences it brings to bear.
xml journal | 21-Sep-2011 13:15
Red Hat Pushes into All-Cloud Management
Red Hat is building a policy-based cloud manager meant to spin up, deploy and, well, manage multiple Linux and Windows virtual images, their applications and their necessaries across clouds. It’s called Aeolus presumably after the Greek ruler of the winds. It’s advertised as “freeing users from cloud lock-in by making the choice of cloud provider – private, public, or hybrid – a simple launch-time option.” It’s theoretically supposed to pick the best solution, but it’s also part of Red Hat’s beta IaaS widgetry, CloudForms. Red Hat says it wants Aeolus to be an open source project, but you know how those things go, the butcher never quite gets his thumb off the scale.
xml journal | 05-Sep-2011 16:30
XML Schema development approaches
The way that people approach developing schemas has evolved over the years: each new approach grows out of problems with the status quo (see Hegelian dialectic) but enriches rather than supplants. I thought I would take a little walk through...
oreillynet.com | 09-Aug-2011 02:53
Externalizing Fine-Grained Authorization from Applications
The recent spike in insider threats, coupled with a rise in compliance considerations, has forced organizations to ensure only authorized users access sensitive application functionality and data. Historically, user entitlements or authorization logic has been embedded inside an application. For example, if the user of an application meets specific conditions, such as a specific role, access to that application function will be granted at runtime. But if the definition of specific authorization conditions changes over time, then the application developer needs to modify the application’s source code, test, and re-deploy the application. Suppose a homegrown portal application must present a sensitive piece of customer information such as a Social Security Number (SSN) when a service representative views a customer’s profile. It is determined that in order to ensure compliance with various privacy regulations, only directors and senior managers may be able to view a customer’s SSN. A decision has to be dynamically made whenever the application must show an SSN as to whether the current user may view the actual data or some default value (e.g., “XXX-XX-XXXX”). The decision must take into account the user’s job title. A dozen parts of the application that can display a customer’s SSN mean a dozen places for this business logic to be applied.
xml journal | 03-Aug-2011 20:15
Google Waves Small White Flag
Google told the court considering whether the Oracle-Google Android suit should be stayed that it’s willing to settle. That’s like the next best thing to admitting that it’s guilty of infringing the Java patents that now belong to Oracle and could lose the case, something the judge has already sussed out. Google made the suggestion in a joint filing despite the Patent and Trademark Office’s preliminary finding against a couple of the Oracle patents. Google’s trying to get the trial stayed pending a re-examination of all the patents, but is arguing for at least a narrowing of the case “for the sake of efficiency,” it said: “Such a narrowed case will also eliminate the need for those efforts specifically directed at the claims rejected through re-examination, including motion practice, expert reports, and other trial preparation, as well as make it more likely that the parties could reach an informal resolution of the matter.” (Emphasis added.)
xml journal | 24-Jul-2011 16:00
Cisco Seems to Remember It’s in the Switching Business
Cisco, which has been having trouble moving its switches up against competition from HP and Juniper et al, updated the Catalyst 6500 Tuesday, its most popular product even, generator of some $42 billion in revenue the last 12 years with 700,000 installations out there somewhere, a seeming indication that it had gotten some focus back on its most important business. The widgetry promises to let users plug the upgrade into existing chasses. Meanwhile, HP claims market share gains in networking at Cisco’s expense. Cisco’s switching business was down 9% in the April quarter to $3.3 billion and, although it continues to dominate, it’s supposed to have lost five points of share in the 12 months between 1Q10 and 1Q11.
xml journal | 17-Jul-2011 18:00
Communicate... Because in IT, If You Build It, They May Not Come
Finding the perfect balance of influence between IT and the Business Owners (I will resist the urge to refer to them as B.O.) is not easy. I usually find that most projects are influenced by one or the other in an unbalanced manner. The story is usually goes like this... The business feels that technology should not be a factor in making sound business decisions. In the business owner's eyes, whatever the solution is, the IT department should be able to support the technology that comes with that solution. This is bad when a custom software package is the solution. .NET/SQL Server shops may end up with a Java/Oracle product or visa versa. Although it is possible to support every technology in the world it makes absolutely no sense to attempt to.
xml journal | 17-Jul-2011 12:00
The Costs and Implications of EHR System Downtime on Physician Practices
Compromising on software and/or hardware uptime assurance can be financially punishing for healthcare organizations, not to mention operationally disruptive with increased susceptibility to data-entry errors during recovery. Government funding incentives (ARRA HITECH Act) to implement electronic health record systems (EHR) are driving most physicians towards the selection and implementation of EHR applications that are appropriate to their practice. However, even though the average practice takes more than 120 days to select their EHR solution, 87% of practices spend no time evaluating the service levels and uptime associated with these installations, instead leaving this important criterion in the hands of the software provider. Even when asked, some vendors avoid this growing need and offer no solution at all, leaving it as a point of exposure for the practice. Neglecting the amount of system downtime that a practice might experience could cost the average 5-physician practice nearly $25,000 if the product is down just ten hours during the course of a year. Therefore before selecting an EHR product, the practice should not only consider price, functionality, usability, support, and training. It must also determine the practice’s exposure to the potential effect of system downtime. This will impact the overall practice efficiencies, staff and client satisfaction, and the ability to provide care.
xml journal | 09-Jul-2011 20:00
Cisco Tablet Due July 31
Cisco says its seven-inch Android-based Cius tablet will be available to the enterprise, and only the enterprise, on July 31, around four months late, for a list price of $750, $150 more than the relatively comparable 32GB Wi-Fi iPad model. Apparently volume discounts could bring the price below $700. Cisco is charging a premium because Cius has voice, desktop virtualization and videoconferencing. It also includes what Cisco calls AppHQ, a secure cloud-based combination storefront and tool shop that can be used to supply and build Cius applications. Companies can use it as a privately branded store-within-a-store for deploying applications. Being an Android device Cius can also connect to the less secure Android Marketplace if allowed.
xml journal | 02-Jul-2011 17:00
Hadoop Begets Hortonworks
Yahoo, which needs to turn a buck as well as focus on its own issues, is spinning out its Hadoop unit into an independent new company co-funded by Benchmark Capital called Hortonworks after the Dr. Seuss character Horton the Elephant. It’s a nice whimsical touch considering Hadoop is really a stuffed elephant who had his identity stolen, which may explain why the code is sometimes cranky. Hortonworks will compete against other Hadoop commercializers like Cloudera, IBM, newcomer MapR and its buddy EMC and figures to accelerate Hadoop’s adoption by making the code “more robust and easier to install, manage and use for enterprises and technology vendors.”
xml journal | 02-Jul-2011 15:30
OpSource Gets Bought
OpSource, the cloud house, has been bought by Dimension Data, a $4.7 billion global ICT services and solutions provider and a wholly owned subsidiary of NTT Holdings headquartered in South Africa. As it happens NTT is an investor in OpSource, or was. Dimension Data has now bought NTT’s piece out. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed but OpSource saw $56.5 million in funding over the years from Artiman Ventures, Crosslink Capital, Intel Capital, Key Venture Partners, Velocity and NTT. NTT owned 5% of OpSource since 2009. OpSource public cloud platforms are also hosted in NTT America’s data centers in Virginia and California and expansion into one of NTT Europe’s data centers is expected in Q3.
xml journal | 02-Jul-2011 15:00
Why Response Times Are Often Measured Incorrectly
Response times are in many – if not in most – cases the basis for performance analysis. When they are within expected boundaries everything is ok. When they get to high we start optimizing our applications. So response times play a central role in performance monitoring and analysis. In virtualized and cloud environments they are the most accurate performance metric you can get. Very often, however, people measure and interpret response times the wrong way. This is more than reason enough to discuss the topic of response time measurements and how to interpret them. Therefore I will discuss typical measurement approaches, the related misunderstandings and how to improve measurement approaches.
xml journal | 24-Jun-2011 17:00
IBM CEO Seeks Heir
IBM CEO Sam Palmisano is going to designate his heir apparent in 12-18 months by naming a president or operating chief, according to the Wall Street Journal. Handicappers say the mantle is likely to fall on the shoulders of Virginia Rometty, 53, who led the integration of PriceWaterhouseCoopers’ consulting arm, got her services card punched and in the three quarters she’s been running sales has managed to up the number 5.8%. Obviously she would be IBM’s first female captain. Also reportedly in the race are Global Services chief Michael Daniels, 56, who may be too old and Rodney Adkins, 52, the African-American, who held the server unit together after Robert Moffat got arrested in the Galleon Group insider-trading case.
xml journal | 18-Jun-2011 18:00
Amazon’s About to Entertain a New Rival
Amazon better watch its back. Tata Communications, the $2.5 billion telecom arm of the even bigger $62.5 billion Tata Group, is reportedly about to launch its InstaCompute IaaS cloud in the US meaning to go toe to toe with AWS. In Amazon’s favor is the fact that most Americans think “ta-ta” is something Brits say when somebody’s leaving, but maybe, just for a change, the India-based company will create some jobs over here. According to the charming deck of slides out on the net it’s a dead-ringer for Amazon down to the Xen virtualization with only the pricing to be argued over. Seems it’s not just depending on debit or credit cards, it’ll take corporate purchase orders too.
xml journal | 12-Jun-2011 16:00
ETL and Publishing
I have for a few years been trying to come up with a good definition of publishing workflows: as an architectural pattern. The two key distinctive features, I think, are that publishing workflows are one-way flows rather than two-way flows...
oreillynet.com | 05-Jun-2011 14:52
Intel Brings New Meaning to the ‘Hybrid’ Cloud
Intel – like everybody else these days – has gone into the cloud business with a new subscription-based business model and its own special twist. It’s got a Hybrid Cloud Platform that it’s pointing at server makers, ISVs and service providers so they can lease small businesses of under a hundred people plug-and-play Intel AppUp service of pre-packaged applications on an Intel Xeon server that the small businesses can run in-house and pay for like a utility. The data won’t leave the premises. Charges will be monthly with Intel keeping the books and billing the service provider for what is used. The service provider in turn will bill the small business. Charges will be based on the number of users and software rented. Leases are supposed to run three years.
xml journal | 28-May-2011 15:30
SAP Moves to Amazon
SAP is moving its software to Amazon – which is still recovering its dignity after crashing and losing data. SAP’s beginning with all of its BusinessObjects business intelligence and so-called Rapid Deployment widgetry. Initially the software will just work on Linux but Windows instances are promised along with SAP’s signature ERP. When all that’s finally toted up it will represent a big chunk of SAP’s change. SAP running wholesale in production on Amazon’s public cloud – as opposed to just test and development– is supposed to do a lot to burnish the image of both the public cloud as an enterprise vehicle and Amazon, which says it hasn’t lost any customers because of that unfortunate upgrade run amok. Ironically, SAP complained to Bloomberg afterwards that the Amazon outrage made it harder to sell clients on SaaS, but it’s backpedaling on that now. It was the only company to say such a thing.
xml journal | 22-May-2011 15:15