Daily Archives: August 25, 2010

6 posts

UK Broadband ISP Speeds Cause Mass Dissatisfaction

The results from 511 respondents (polled in July 2010) to ISPreview.co.uk’s latest survey has revealed that consumers are growing more knowledgeable about broadband ISP speeds. A staggering 91% claimed to know the “advertised” speed of their internet connection and 86% even knew the real-world (speedtest) performance too.

However nearly two thirds (60%) said they were still unhappy with their broadband ISP speeds. The survey follows last week’s attempts by market regulator Ofcom to toughen its voluntary code of practice, which found that the gap between what an ISP advertises and what is actually delivered has continued to widen.

Ofcom also found that the average internet download speed now stands at 5.2Mbps (megabits per second), which is up from 4.1Mbps last year. The regulator went on to highlight how most ADSL2+ based broadband lines advertise speeds of “up to” 20-24Mbps and yet manage to return a real-world average of just 6.5Mbps.

“Many UK ISPs have leapt at the chance to upgrade their older 8Mbps ADSL based packages to the new 20-24Mbps ADSL2+ standard and by doing so they have further widened the gap between what is expected and what is actually achievable,” commented ISPreview.co.uk’s Founder, Mark Jackson. “The problem with ADSL2+ is that it only really improves the speed (beyond that of 8Mbps ADSL tech) when you live close enough to the telephone exchange and on a good line. Most will only see a minimal benefit from it and others might gain nothing at all.”

“Ofcom’s efforts to tighten up its code of practice should be commended but it is not an end to the problems. Estimating the speed of ADSL and ADSL2+ based broadband lines is very difficult because they are very susceptible to problems. Only by replacing the old copper wire infrastructure with new fibre optic lines can we truly break away and give consumers what they expect,” concluded Jackson.

www.ispreview.co.uk

HP Unveils Private Cloud Readiness Program

HP today unveiled a Private Cloud Readiness Program consisting of self-assessment tools and a Cloud Boot Camp to be held during the VMworld conference next week at San Francisco’s Moscone Center.

The company also announced a team of experts who, as pioneers in cloud computing, are driving future innovations and assisting clients with advanced cloud deployments.

Get ready to assess, plan, deploy

HP has designed a private cloud scorecard that enables companies to rate and rank key factors that help determine their “cloud readiness.” Questions range from rating internal knowledge of cloud concepts and services to existing cloud security capabilities. View the scorecard at www.hp.com/go/cloudassessment.

HP also is offering a Cloud Boot Camp for clients during VMworld to be held on Sept. 2 from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. PT at the Westin Hotel (“Press Room”). Developed and conducted by technology experts, the boot camp will provide participants the knowledge needed to transform their infrastructures, applications and processes for the private cloud. VMworld attendees can register at the HP Cloud Assessment room from noon to 6 p.m. PT on Aug. 31 and Sept. 1.

There is also a Cloud Boot Camp and breakfast specifically for analysts and media. Details are below.

Meet the HP Cloud Advisors

With combined experience of nearly 200 years, the HP Cloud Advisors consist of the best technical and strategic minds in cloud computing. They offer a unique combination of vision and real-world experience, as well as a distinct point of view. Each was hand-picked based on the innovations they influenced, their knowledge and their expertise. The HP Cloud Advisors are:

* Nigel Cook is an HP technology director and strategist. He is an integral part of the leadership team spearheading the DMTF Cloud Management Working Group. He was previously part of the DMTF Cloud Incubator, formulating technology submissions, requirements and use cases for interoperability between an enterprise data center and Infrastructure-as-a-Service clouds.
* A noted cloud computing expert, Jamie Erbes is chief technology officer for the Software and Solutions business at HP. She is responsible for driving the company’s strategy for IT management software. Follow Erbes on Twitter.
* Archie Reed leads the security component of HP’s cloud computing strategy, offering guidance across architecture, products, research and development, and cloud implementation in high-profile environments. Follow Reed on Twitter.
* Lee Kedrie is chief brand officer and evangelist for Technology Consulting at HP. He leads teams that augment organizational, cultural, governance and operational processes for enterprise clients so shared services and cloud computing become workable realities in organizations.
* As chief technologist for the enterprise storage business, Paul Perez is HP’s predominant expert on how storage fits within a Converged Infrastructure, particularly within a cloud computing framework.
* Mark Shoemaker is a 20-year industry veteran with experience covering the scope of cloud service management, cloud automation, visibility and control, bringing virtualization into the data center, standards, and public cloud versus private cloud considerations.

The HP Cloud Advisors will be available at the VMworld conference, to be held Aug. 30 to Sept. 2, to answer client questions, provide tips on private cloud planning and discuss successful deployments. In addition, HP will present more than 20 educational sessions focused on private cloud, virtualized infrastructure and client virtualization at the HP booth 1008.

HP client events at VMworld

Monday, Aug. 30

* 10:30 a.m. – HP Platinum Breakout, Scale-Out Storage (Moscone Room 310)
* 6:30 p.m. – 7 p.m. – “Cloud in a Pod” (VMware Theatre)
* 7 p.m. – VMware TweetUp with HP and other partners (Intercontinental Hotel). Sign up at http://vmpartnerup.eventbrite.com/

Tuesday, Aug. 31

* 11 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. – Meet the HP Cloud Advisors (HP booth 1008)
* 11:30 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. – TweetUp (HP booth 1008)
* Noon – 1 p.m. – Meet Bill Haggard, director of enterprise infrastructure for the Dallas Cowboys, (HP booth 1008)
* 3:30 p.m. – 4 p.m. – HP Customer Track: Bill Haggard, director of enterprise infrastructure for the Dallas Cowboys (Moscone Room 310)
* Noon – 6 p.m. – Visit HP Cloud Readiness Room (Westin San Francisco “Press Room”)
* 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. – HP and VMware reception at “Fluid” (Invitation only)
* 8 p.m. – 10 p.m. – HP customer reception at “SupperClub” (Invitation only)

Wednesday, Sept. 1

* 10:30 a.m. – 11 a.m. – Keynote by Mark Potter, senior vice president and general manager, Industry Standard Servers and Software, HP
* Noon – 6 p.m. – HP Cloud Boot Camp (Westin San Francisco “Press Room”)

Thursday, Sept. 2

* 9 a.m. – 11 a.m. – HP Cloud Boot Camp (Westin San Francisco “Press Room”)
* Noon – 1 p.m. – HP Session, Desktop Virtualization (Moscone Room 310)

HP media events at VMworld

Monday, Aug. 30

* 7 p.m. – VMware TweetUp with HP and other partners (Intercontinental Hotel). Sign up at http://vmpartnerup.eventbrite.com/

Tuesday, Aug. 31

* 11:30 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. – HP TweetUp and Competition (HP booth 1008)
* 1:45 p.m. – 2:15 p.m. – Media roundtable with HP Cloud Advisors (Moscone, East Mezz Theater 1, 224/226)

Wednesday, Sept. 1

* 9 a.m. – 10 a.m. – HP Cloud Boot Camp and breakfast for analysts and media (Westin San Francisco “Press Room”)
* 10:30 a.m. – 11 a.m. – Keynote by Mark Potter, senior vice president and general manager, Industry Standard Servers and Software, HP

Additional resources

* Follow the buzz on HP at VMworld by staying tuned to the HP microsite: www.hp.com/go/vmworld-buzz
* Follow HP Enterprise Business on Facebook: www.facebook.com/HPEnterpriseBusiness
* Follow HP ProLiant on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ProLiant
* Follow HP on Twitter with the hashtag: #HPCI #VMworld
* Find us on FourSquare: http://foursquare.com/venue/8115666
* Learn more about the HP Cloud Advisors.
* View the Private Cloud Scorecard: www.hp.com/go/cloudassessment
* Information on HP’s cloud computing solutions, products and services

About HP

HP creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people, businesses, governments and society. The world’s largest technology company, HP brings together a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure to solve customer problems. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at http://www.hp.com/

Novell Announces General Availability of Novell Cloud Security Service

Novell today announced the general availability of Novell Cloud Security Service. Part of Novell’s WorkloadIQ™ vision, Novell Cloud Security Service® gives cloud providers the ability to deliver secure access and compliance in the cloud for their customers. Novell Cloud Security Service is a critical part of Novell’s broader identity and security portfolio, which enables enterprises to have a consistent framework for managing identities across physical, virtual and cloud deployments. Novell is the only vendor to offer this integrated capability, which helps organizations manage complex security and compliance requirements through a cost-effective and easy-to-use suite of products.

With Novell Cloud Security Service, enterprises can quickly and easily extend their identity infrastructure to any public cloud. Any changes that are made to their users or permissions are immediately replicated in the cloud environment, thus ensuring one consistent identity and security framework for the enterprise, regardless of where the computing is actually taking place.

“Security is the biggest hindrance to cloud adoption that service providers offering cloud services need to overcome” said Antonio Piraino, Vice President of Research, Tier 1 Research. “The ability to provide interoperable security solutions for and between an enterprise’s internal infrastructure and the cloud provider’s platform will alleviate the biggest assurance, vulnerability and SLA concerns enterprises have today”

As cloud computing vendors that offer software-, platform-, or infrastructure-as-a-service seek to differentiate themselves in the marketplace, value-added services like customized security become increasingly important. Novell Cloud Security Service helps cloud service providers deliver trusted security assurance and compliance to their enterprise customers. It is the first, and only multi-tenant identity and access management solution that provides just-in-time provisioning, authentication, authorization and support for compliance.

The Novell Cloud Security Service currently has several beta deployments globally. With today’s announcement of general availability, Novell’s cloud services team will target more than 200 IaaS, and 1,300 SaaS and PaaS vendors to get them started with this ground-breaking technology that is supported by more than 60 patents.

“Novell’s ability to deliver a complete set of provisioning, access, security and compliance solutions that help both organizations and cloud providers control access, monitor activity and provide compliance is yet another example of their leadership in this area” said Jim Reavis, co-founder and executive director of the Cloud Security Alliance. “The Cloud Security Alliance is working closely with Novell to address many of the trust concerns end-user organizations have with cloud computing, including issues that go beyond just technology solutions”

Novell Cloud Security Service is hosted in the cloud, either where the provider hosts its application or via a Novell hosting partner. A user can log on directly or via the enterprise identity system. The service first verifies the identity and, if successful, will generate an identity token in the format needed by the SaaS provider. The user is now authenticated to the SaaS service. Once inside the application, the application connectors that are provided with the service capture deep page-level user activity and provide the audit stream for compliance purposes.

NCSS expands Novell’s identity product portfolio in WorkloadIQ
WorkloadIQ is Novell’s vision to deliver products for the rapidly growing intelligent workload management market, which IDC estimates is more than $4.2B. A key part of this vision is to deliver a spectrum of cloud-ready Identity and Security solutions to meet today’s enterprise need for security in physical, virtual and cloud environments.

As cloud models mature and businesses look at cloud solutions, security questions such as protecting data in the cloud, providing audit reports for inspection and ensuring regulatory compliance are becoming increasingly important. For enterprises looking at moving critical workloads to the cloud, the combination of Novell Identity Manager 4® and Novell Access Manager® is the only solution that offers seamless provisioning and access in real-time.

“Despite the speed with which organizations are deploying virtualized systems and moving to SaaS, reporting on access to cloud-based resources is a continuing challenge. Novell Identity Manager provides an intelligent, identity-driven framework to ensure consistent management of identities, both in our organization and in the cloud” said Mark Edson, infrastructure manager, Huntington National Bank. “With Novell Access Manager, we’ve built a flexible solution to establish a secure, federated connection with our cloud providers so our passwords are never shared with an external party”

For cloud service providers who want to deliver a secure, compliant computing environment for their customers, the Novell Cloud Security Service offers a multi-tenant environment with built-in metering, billing and auditing.

“There is a tremendous market opportunity to help our customers with their cloud strategy, including deploying and managing cloud applications in a secure and compliant manner” said Kevin Nikkhoo, founder and president of CloudsID.com. “Novell Cloud Security Service offers secure access management from the cloud and works with our customers’ existing identity infrastructure to enable us to offer our customers best-in-class solutions”

Many Novell customers today are seeking to move applications to the cloud in order to reduce costs and increase agility.

“Today’s enterprises are embracing cloud services while continuing their investment in their physical and virtual data centers. To support these efforts, Novell offers the most complete and interoperable set of provisioning, access, security and compliance products for IT organizations and cloud providers. Novell Cloud Security Service complements Novell’s comprehensive suite of Identity and Security solutions” said Jim Ebzery, senior vice president and general manager, Security, Management and Operating Platforms, Novell. “Our goal is to give our customers the ability to take advantage of the economic benefits of cloud computing while also mitigating risk and maintaining compliance”

Availability
For more information on Novell Cloud Security Service go to: http://www.novell.com/cloud-security.
About Novell

Novell, Inc. (Nasdaq: NOVL), a leader in Intelligent Workload Management, helps organizations securely deliver and manage computing services across physical, virtual and cloud computing environments. We help customers reduce the cost, complexity, and risk associated with their IT systems through our solutions for identity and security, systems management, collaboration and Linux based operating platforms. With our infrastructure software and ecosystem of partnerships, Novell integrates mixed IT environments, allowing people and technology to work as one. For more information, visit www.novell.com.

Singapore Based Usonyx Partners With Cloud Linux Inc

Cloud Linux Inc., an innovative software company dedicated to serving the needs of hosting service providers, announces today that . As Asia’s leading web hosting provider, USONYX offers a full suite of hosting services including domain name registration, shared hosting, Virtual Private Servers (VPS), dedicated hosting, as well as managed and unmanaged dedicated servers.

USONYX selected CloudLinux for its new innovative Lightweight Virtual Environment™(LVE) technology, and will be the first hosting provider to introduce CloudLinux to the Singapore and Malaysia hosting markets.

“USONYX is focused on providing superior products and services for our customers, and CloudLinux is the newest and most innovative addition to the hosting market we have seen in a long time,” states Martin Chan, Managing Director of USONYX. “This partnership will help our customers benefit from the increased stability and performance that CloudLinux technology delivers.”

CloudLinux’s core technology is Lightweight Virtual Environment™ a kernel-level technology that limits the amount of resources (CPU, I/O, memory) available to a group of processes. While similar to container type virtualization technology, LVE is completely transparent and lightweight. Once installed, the LVE works transparently to manage resources that the hosting provider sets for the accounts on a server. It controls the CPU resources to ensure that each account on a server is allocated enough resources to run efficiently without jeopardizing the other tenants on that server, making the server more stable and delivering better performance. With LVE, CloudLinux can deliver performance, reliability and operational benefits for hosting providers like USONYX.

USONYX serves a diverse customer base and with CloudLinux will be able to provide customers with:

Increased density and capability per server without increasing risk
More efficient and stable servers
Reduced impact of unpredictable events like load spikes that can take down or slow down a server
Reduced operational costs related to hardware, electricity, datacenter space and management costs
Better utilization of existing infrastructure
Compatibility with all major control panels for easy management
Protection from hackers and poorly written scripts that drain resources, cause outages and impact productivity

“USONYX will not only bring the benefits of CloudLinux to their customers but also ensure competitive advantages over other hosting providers in Asia,” states Igor Seletskiy, Cloud Linux Founder and CEO. “With our proven technology, service providers like USONYX can achieve higher performance and increased stability which equates to ultimately providing a higher level of service and support to their clients.”

CloudLinux is priced to support all types of hosting providers and is available at a tiered retail monthly price based on the number of servers under management. The CloudLinux Partner Program offers discounts and more competitive pricing and a support model designed to meet the specific requirements of hosting companies as well as an opportunity to leverage the CloudLinux brand.

For more information, please visit www.cloudlinux.com

About USONYX

USONYX is Asia’s leading Broadband Web Hosting Service Provider for small business to enterprises. Built on the state-of-the-art datacenters in Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and Japan, the USONYX.net platform offers secure, reliable and comprehensive shared, VPS and dedicated Web hosting solutions with unmatched price plans.

USONYX’s world-class fully automated infrastructure, broadband network and round the clock technical support enable customers and resellers to develop, and sustain a strong web and email infrastructure without costly investments in hardware, software and IT staffing. Thousands of enterprises rely on USONYX as the gateway to global businesses, customers and networks. For more information, visit www.usonyx.net

LCN.com Offers 50 Per Cent off Top Web Hosting Packages

LCN.com, today announced the start of a 50 per cent off hosting promotion, which gives customers savings of up to £60/$90 on its top end hosting packages.

“Within the current economic climate customers are always looking for ways to cut costs; this can lead to cheaper and less reliable hosting solutions being chosen on price.”
Both the LCN.com Premium and Unlimited hosting packages are included within the promotion which runs until 31 September 2010. Customers that purchase either package for a one year period will automatically receive the 50 per cent discount, reducing the monthly cost to as little as £3.33/$5.18.

Mark Boost, LCN.com Managing Director, said: “Within the current economic climate customers are always looking for ways to cut costs; this can lead to cheaper and less reliable hosting solutions being chosen on price.

“When customers sacrifice the quality of their hosting plan it can often result in significant downtime where potential sales and leads are lost due to their site being offline. This LCN.com offer will give customers the peace-of-mind that comes from the reliability of a top quality, high-spec hosting package, and a very low cost.”

LCN.com’s Unlimited hosting package provides customers with unlimited web space, bandwidth, mailboxes, and spam protection. The Premium hosting package offers 5GB of web space and bandwidth, PHP & PERL support, plus phpMyadmin to help customers manage their databases.

Winner of two Web Host Directory ‘best budget web hosting’ awards, both hosting packages on offer come with £80 free online advertising vouchers, £60 worth of free web software from Serif, free Fotolia stock photos, and 500 free Mailing Manager email marketing credits.

For more information, or to get 50% off Premium and Unlimited web hosting visit www.lcn.com/web_hosting

About LCN.com

LCN.com has been providing world class web hosting since 2000 and have grown to become the UKs largest organically grown web hosting company with over 40,000 hosting customers and over 350,000 domain names registered since its launch in 2000. For more information, visit www.LCN.com

MyHost Corp. – Hosting Company Supports Open Source Projects

MyHost Corp. unveils a new, exciting business approach by becoming one of the main media partners of eLiberatica.ro.

This event is listed among the biggest independent Open Source and Free Software conferences in Eastern Europe and prides itself with names such as Sun Microsystems and IBM as its main sponsors. A long term result of this partnership is MyHost Corp.’s decision to support the growth of the Open Source concept on an ongoing basis. One of the organization’s chosen methods is to implement a permanent discount policy for all shared hosting accounts on offer as well as for any dedicated server that would be used for either hosting or otherwise designing free applications.

This decision was to be expected considering that MyHost is already using many top open source technologies. The core of the business consists of services brought to the web-users market by means of systems that are certified by various freely available licenses.

Mr Liviu Damian, CEO and Chairman of the Board at MyHost Corp. states: “Seeing as to how we as an organization actually make use of the open source concept on a daily basis, it has been decided to publicly support the expansion of freely available software by implementing the previously mentioned policy. All projects following specific licensing criteria will benefit from a 25% discount on all shared hosting accounts or a significant 10% discount on any dedicated server, regardless the type or hardware configuration.”

Thus, for as little as $116 you could have a Business shared hosting account for an entire year of open source project hosting or, if needed, a dedicated server such as the Atom Dual Core 330 for as little as $134 / month.

In order to benefit from the support offered by MyHost Corp. to all open source projects, just follow a few simple steps. Developers should contact MyHost at [email protected] and include a complete description of the project together with a link, should the project be hosted by someone else. Also, the licensing characteristics should be mentioned. This data will then be evaluated by the MyHost Corp. team and a discounted quote will be provided for the particular hosting requirements of each open source project.

For additional information regarding the hosting services offered by MyHost Corp. as well as a complete set of shared hosting, reseller hosting and dedicated server hosting packages please visit the official website at http://www.myho.st or contact the MyHost sales department via email at [email protected].

About MyHost Corp

MyHost Corp. is a Delaware (USA) registered corporation. It has been created in order to provide in-depth assistance to web-users worldwide in supporting their online applications. MyHost Corp. intends to grow and develop further through forging long-lasting partnerships with our clients, business associates and, last but not least, our employees.