SiliconANGLE » Unified Communications

Cloud Apps for a Smarter, Secure Home

Mellisa Tolentino — Fri, 18 May 2012 11:23:11 +0000

These days, we want everything to be connected, and we want to be able to pull data from wherever we are. But one of the most important ways connected devices are helping consumers in their everyday lives is helping them organize their homes and personal spaces.

BrightNest, the online app dedicated to helping people de-clutter and get their homes in order, has recently launched Homefolio. The app lets homeowners keep important files such as appliance owner’s manuals, paint colors and contractor phone numbers, in a single place.

Once users sign up for a free BrightNest account, they can click on Homefolio and organize documents and files based on their corresponding room in the home, detailing their appliance manuals, wall coverings, paint colors, flooring and other features. Then, based on the information entered, BrightNest provides customized to-do’s, reminders and simple step-by-step instructions on a weekly basis. The more information people enter, the more customized advice they receive for their home. Beyond storing owner’s manuals and design details, people can also store important phone numbers for contractors and emergency contacts.

“People love the idea of keeping their home in shape because that translates to saving money and a healthier, safer environment for their family,” said Allen Shulman, co-founder and chief executive officer of BrightNest. “But, getting organized can be overwhelming. The Homefolio brings an order to the chaos, providing people with the organization and direction they need to stay on top of home maintenance. No more drawers of unidentified manuals and papers, now it’s all right there at their fingertips.

“Our vision is to make BrightNest the place where people go online to explore, organize and take action when it comes to their home,” said Shulman. “The Homefolio is the go-to tool for organizing – it keeps all essential information in one easy place, but it also brings tangible value for homeowners. They can track repair and maintenance history, which they can use for their own records or pass on to prospective buyers as reassurance during the selling process.”

Home organization starts in the cloud

If you think that your home needs de-cluttering fast, 52 Organizing Mission is another app for you. The app contains 52 organizing missions that can be completed in 30 minutes each, helping you organize your work and home life. Each mission is presented in easy-to-follow steps so you won’t get lost or frustrated as you organize your life. And to reward you, every completed mission earns you a badge that you can share on Facebook for bragging rights. The app also allows you to create to-do lists as you go, so you never worry about forgetting things. And with the in-app browser, you can pull up additional sources or recommended articles without leaving the app.

Want more data on your utilities usage? Meter Reading is worth a try. Meter Reading allows users to track their utility consumption on a daily basis so they’ll get an idea of how much they’ve consumed. All you need to do is download the app and create a profile where everything will be organized. You can create separate profiles for your electric, gas and water readings. Then just input your daily meter reading and a graph will be created that helps you keep track of your utilities.

And of course, home security is still the number one priority for anyone. There’s no sense of keeping things organized if your lives are at stake. AT&T announced at the International CTIA 2012 that they will be entering the home security sector with their digital life services group that lets users control every facet of their homes – from thermostats to locks – all from their mobile devices.

“AT&T digital life will change the way people live, work, and play — and meets a clear need in the market,” said Kevin Petersen, senior vice president of AT&T’s digital life business.

AT&T plans to offer connected cameras, windows, and door sensors, smoke, carbon monoxide, motion, and glass-break sensors, door locks, thermostats, moisture detectors, and the ability to remotely turn off appliances. The devices will all be hooked into the home’s broadband network, which can be controlled from the homeowner’s mobile device using a cellular network.

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In the same vein:

Planning the Future is All About Flexibility, Says Producteev CEO [Q&A Series]

Kristen Nicole — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 19:33:34 +0000

Producteev is one of the many companies looking to the cloud in order to make our lives a little simpler. With a task-management tool that integrates a series of prompts around the actions needed to complete your tasks, Producteev takes your to-do list and helps you execute around it. Producteev is the difference between seeing your tasks and having the tools to complete them, all centralized into a single service.

In today’s Snapshot Profile we hear from Producteev’s French-born founder and CEO Ilan Abehassera who discusses how his company leverages the cloud, his vision of the perfect artificial intelligence system, and a surprising collection you’ll find in his kitchen drawer.

What role does the cloud play in Producteev’s collaboration features?

Without the Cloud, we wouldn’t exist. When building a platform like Producteev with multiple integrations and native apps, every single user action goes through the Cloud so all the apps a user is already using remain in sync. The beauty of what we’re building is in the Cloud.

Here’s a simple example: John runs a web agency and he often works outside of the office. He has a team of 10 people with2 of his sales people always on the go, using an iPhone or Android phone while7 of his teammates work using their desktop computer 95% of the time. All of their collaboration can take place on Producteev with his sales people using the iPhone and Android apps almost exclusively, his team using the Mac, Windows and Web apps, and John himself using all of those. All of their tasks are always in sync.

What’s your vision of the ultimate Artificial Intelligence system/gadget?

Personally, I’d love to see a “productivity bracelet.” I would speak my tasks to it, it would be location aware, I would get reminded when I need to do something, and I could share tasks with other bracelet owners (like my wife), just by saying their name. How cool would that be, seriously?

Who’s more organized — Americans or the French?

According to a recent study, the Frenchies are the most productive people in the world. I am not sure they’re the most organized though! I would say Americans are pretty well organized; they’re using way more “tools” and “software apps” on a daily basis than the French! To sum it up: The French are more productive, the Americans, more organized!

Producteev is all about preparation and planning. What does “balancing the future” mean to you?

Being able to plan things is a must, especially for a startup like Producteev. On the other side, after a couple of years of experience, you find out that most of what you do and build is happening in real time. You work on a 12 month roadmap, and then you realize that a year later, you’ve developed 30% of the features you’ve planned. Why? Because users’ desires change, and you change your roadmap with it. New competitors may have appeared and you need to adapt your product to it. I believe that planning is very important in staying organized, but priority #1 for a startup team is to remain highly flexible on your schedule.

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In the same vein:

First Look at Windows 8 Debut: MWC 2012

Mellisa Tolentino — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 18:30:43 +0000

Microsoft created a big splash, not literally, as they hosted their launch on a covered pool at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona when they launched the consumer preview of the Windows 8.

During the almost 2-hour “show,” various Microsoft execs graced the stage, demonstrating the power of the new OS.

First up was Tami Reller, a Microsoft exec, who opened by telling people that half of them were sitting on top of the covered pool, followed by Windows President Steven Sinofsky, who said they’re all “super excited” to be there. Sinofsky also tackled how the Windows 8 is drastically different from Windows 7, but the familiarity is still there.

Julie Larson-Green, who heads design and vision for Windows 8 and Antoine Leblond, the VP who has headed up the Windows Store that is built into Windows 8 did the actual product demo.

So what does the new OS offer?

Getting Things Started

Windows 8 offers various login options such as typing in your PIN, a photo login, or drawing your login into your photo, so you can be sure that keeping your files secured is both complex and quite fun.

How To Get There

Most that tried the new OS are all thinking the same thing: Windows 8 seemed to have been created for tablets. Why? Because the features of the new OS begs to be touched since it’s all about apps which Microsoft calls Tiles.

A hands on review from CNET stated that, “Windows 8 is all about the edges of the screen. You swipe in from the right edge to reveal the Windows 8 charms. These include the instantly-recognizable Search, Share, Start, Devices, and Settings. The Start button returns you to the Start screen, which is what you see after you log in and where Microsoft expects most of your activity to take place. Once you’ve launched at least one app, you can swipe in from the left edge to return to the last-open app.”

“You can also perform a U-turn from the left edge. Swipe in a little bit, then swipe back to the edge, and instead of pulling forward the last app you used, you’ll get a sidebar of thumbnails of your last six apps. At the bottom left corner of the thumbnail bar is a thumbnail of the Start screen, providing another way to return “home.” So yes, the familiar Start “button” is hidden, but no, it’s not hard to get to. It takes about the same effort to get to the Start screen from either edge.”

“One of Windows 7′s better interface features was a split-screen view that you could initiate just by dragging one program’s Title Bar to the left or right side of the screen. This has been updated for Windows 8. When you drag an app from the left edge, if you drag it slowly and hold it near either the left or right edge, a vertical separation bar will appear. Once the bar shows up, release the app and it will “snap” to the edge. The screen will be split, with one-third for the app you just dragged over, and two-thirds for the previous app.”

But that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t work well when you use a mouse or a keyboard. Things become easier with the use of external devices such as a mouse or a keyboard. When you’re on the Start screen, looking for an app is as easy as typing the name of the app, no search bar needed, just type the app’s name and voila! It’s there, right in front of you. And the mouse makes it easier for you to navigate Windows 8 and explore all its beauty.

It’s All in the Store

And because Windows 8 is all about the apps, Microsoft also launched the Windows Store for Windows 8. The store features apps for both ARM and x86 and it will automatically download the app appropriate for your device so you won’t have to guess which version you should download.

Apps already available for download are: MSNBC, Vimeo, Slacker Radio, Evernote,Hivemind, Wordament, Pirates Love Daisies, Train Titans, and Carmen Sandiego: Adventures in Math.

And because Windows 8 is all about making things simpler and organized, the apps in the store are grouped by type, making it easier for users to find what they are looking for.

Cloud Makes it Perfect

But the best part of Windows 8 might be its cloud integration since your Microsoft account can be used in any Windows 8 device and your account settings, even your Windows Store settings or the apps you’ve downloaded will be synced to the Windows 8 computer you are using. So no more lost files to worry about. But as we mentioned before, it won’t support PC-to-PC syncing without using the cloud.

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In the same vein:

Brightcove Brings Content-Centric Analytics to Mobile Apps

Kristina Farrah — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 14:15:13 +0000

Brightcove is ramping up its content app platform with the Brightcove App Cloud. With it, digital media organizations are able to build and operate growing portfolios of cross-platform native apps for iOS and Android smartphones and tablets through App Cloud, and the addition of cross-platform messaging and content-level analytics will allow them to engage more easily with their installed base, track campaign efficacy and identify the content with the greatest impact.

Push messaging is a powerful tool that will keep users up to date of new content such as breaking news, local events and discount offers, eliminating the need for a disorganized assortment of platform-specific messaging systems and generic analytics that impedes the immediate and effective capitalization on popular content. This will help digital media companies better manage apps across iOS and Android app stores.

Brightcove’s App Cloud push messaging feature is designed to allows marketers to schedule and send push message campaigns to their user base across iOS and Android platform from a single dashboard. The message can be address to all app users, those in a specific geographic area, users who have not opened the app in a specific time frame, or a combination of these criteria. Integrated analytics deliver real-time feedback on the number of push messages delivered, the number opened, and user interactions with the content of the message.

“Push messaging has proven to be not only an effective means of driving users to new content within the app experience, but also a tool for driving behavior, such as TV viewership or event attendance,” said Melissa Webster, program vice president, Content and Digital Media Technologies at IDC. “Emerging content app platforms like Brightcove App Cloud are addressing this need and making it easier for organizations to increase engagement with their app audience.”

The new expanded analytics capabilities are arguably the most important update with Brightcove’s new App Cloud, tracking user activity at the content item level. Producers and marketers will see how many users have watched a particular video, viewed a specific image or read a specific article or blog post.

App Cloud is a mashup of HTML 5 and intelligent cloud services, all in an effort to accelerate app development, continuously optimize performance, measure efficacy and enable dynamic updates to installed apps.

“The percentage of time spent consuming content in apps on smartphones versus browsing the Web is growing, and publishers of all kinds are looking to capitalize on this trend,” said Ashley Streb, vice president of technology at Brightcove. “We continue to introduce new capabilities like push messaging and expanded analytics within App Cloud to enable consumers to engage with content while making it easy for publishers to build impactful apps that look and operate great on an ongoing basis.”

Brightcove App Cloud was launched back in November for operating engaging native apps for iOS and Android smartphones and tablets. Before that, it went public and filed for a $50 million for an IPO amidst net loss.

Other companies building out their social analytics tools include Quantivo, SocialVolt and Fan Appz, all recognizing the need to deliver better analytics across social sharing platforms and the mobile sector.

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In the same vein:

Cloud Reinvents Law Enforcement, FBI Imposes Rules

Cherr Aira — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 15:45:37 +0000

Parallel to the modernization of technology, criminals also upgrade their tactics to escape the claws of the authorities. With this in mind, the police force turns to the cloud for the most up-to-date lineup, fighting fire with fire. The government sees huge potential in cloud computing to increase their ability to gather evidence, capture crime as it happens, and for surveillance.

Several security businesses, and even law enforcement, are tickled by the idea of chasing a suspect within the cloud, circumventing the usual violence that comes with physical altercations. Here are some products and innovations around this paradigm.

AVON FLEX

Arguably, the strength of the evidence is what dictates the pace of a case filed before the courts of law. Consequently, authorities spend so much time and effort putting the pieces together to ensure that they put the culprit behind bars. For that, you need concrete data–proof.

TASER, a leader in synthesizing safety technologies, recently introduced a crime-busting tool for police forces called AVON Flex on-officer camera. This video recording system is self-contained, designed to be (unnoticeably) worn by law enforcers. This product comes with a secure cloud-based evidence storage system: Evidence.com—a one-stop digital evidence management system that significantly reduces time spent in filing and locating information.

Emphasizing the need for innovation in law enforcement is Fort Worth Texas Police Chief Jeff Halstead:

“On-officer video systems like the AXON Flex give us an opportunity to showcase and support the jobs our officers are doing in the field. Having a complete video record of these incidents will provide a higher level or protection for both our officers and the public.”

Harris Corporation

To stay relevant in the growing market of web security and cloud-based solutions, Harris Corporation reinvents its services by providing advanced cyber security and cloud-enabled applications to host mission-critical information. Before, hosting operations were done remotely. Their engineers have developed a tool to tightly safeguard military missions, intelligence and critical information for federal law customers.

President and CEO William Brown briefly explains how these changes affect their organization and services offered, saying ”these actions allow us to refocus our capital and efforts on the secure, cost-effective communications and IT solutions that our customers are demanding.”

Datamaxx Group

Inter-state sharing of criminal information is now possible in Montana. In partnership with Datamaxx Group, public safety agencies are now allowed to share information via a secure cloud infrastructure. The technology will allow access to private law enforcement networks and homeland security resources.

Using the cloud as a partner to potentially solve crimes has its own benefits, including cost-savings, reducing manual work considerably and having a solution that can hold large amount of electronic information. The one thing still raising doubt is the security of the data being passed to third party vendors. Such concern even pushed the FBI to tighten security rules, strictly observed by cloud vendors working with the U.S. government. With companies like Clio we see how security determines the features and appeal for niche cloud services, as each industry has its own security demands.

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In the same vein:

ScaleXtreme Adds CloudStack Support, Thinks Mobile

Kristen Nicole — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 19:32:37 +0000

Cloud-based systems management provider ScaleXtreme has launched support for Citrix CloudStack, expanding its core offering to include yet another stack service. CloudStack is an open source platform, the result of Citrix’s acquisition of Cloud.com earlier this year. In broadening the number of stacks that can be managed from ScaleXtreme’s central platform, the company offers one of the richest systems management services on the market.

“CloudStack is driving emerging cloud standards and bringing order to chaos of multiple hypervisors and APIs. It has had impressive success because it helps companies get quickly into the cloud by simplifying it,” said Nand Mulchandani, co-founder and CEO of ScaleXtreme. “We look forward to working with Citrix to benefit our joint customers, nurture our growing relationship and help users manage the entire server lifecycle.”

The idea is to simplify cloud management, extending a single, unified view to provision and manage servers throughougt their entire lifecycle. Clients can access and control all their servers across local, hosted, public or private clouds. And ScaleXtreme itself is cloud-based, so no software deployment is needed. ScaleXtreme’s latest inclusion of CloudStack support follows the recent addition of OpenStack, joining others like Amazon and VMware for its centralized management system.

ScaleXtreme’s focus on web-based management solutions is proactive in a world of on-demand client needs, creating a cross-platform dashboard of sorts to monitor your servers across providers. The future Mulchandani sees is one where companies utilize multiple stacks to serve their varied needs, and just as there’s a growing trend around cross-platform services for managing apps on Android and iOS, ScaleXtreme anticipates the benefits of offering a single service for managing multiple clouds.

As ScaleXtreme scales its own business, mobility becomes an increasingly important area of interest. As we’ve seen from Amazon, Rackspace and VMware, mobile management is a keen perk for IT administrators. The key players’ dispersed app offerings also present another opportunity for ScaleXtreme. While the company doesn’t yet have a dedicated mobile app for any of the major OS’s (stay tuned), ScaleXtreme has always ensured web access for its systems management offerings, and that includes the mobile web.

“The way we’re thinking about mobile really depends on the client,” Mulchandani explains. “Do you need connectivity all the time or can you do some actions offline on your phone? Believe it or now, we’re looking into SMS and other systems as a way to deliver alerts. IT administrators have typically used SMS and phone calls for alerts. We’re looking at a combination of all this technology to give customers what they want, and for mobile browsing, we’re also looking at HTML5.”

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In the same vein:

The Government Goes Internally Social with IBM’s SmartCloud

Mellisa Tolentino — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 22:03:21 +0000

IBM is pushing for unification through the cloud. They just announced the Intelligent Operations Center for Smarter Cities which aims to provide a general view of information across city departments and agencies through real-time communication and collaboration. Also, IBM is unleashing the full potential of their SmartCloud, an enterprise-class, secure managed cloud services platform that brings the best of public and private cloud models together to meet customer needs, as they now have infiltrated the government.

IBM merged social networking features and cloud features to make the SmartCloud Social Collaboration for Government. This offers Software as a Service (SaaS) options for email and collaboration solutions that are designed to meet federal government guidelines and requirements. With these services, you can move from premise-based hardware and software solutions to a service that allows for a usage-based model without upfront investments.

The social aspect features:

IBM SmartCloud eMail – Government
IBM SmartCloud Sametime® – Government
IBM SmartCloud Connections – Government
IBM SmartCloud eMail Suite – Government
IBM SmartCloud Office Automation Suite – Government

The social aspect of the service allows government employees to save files in the cloud and tag people in saved documents. The government is looking into making things more social for people on the inside.

“At the highest level, [government agencies] are looking for better collaboration for both inside and outside their firewalls,” said Chip Emmet, manager of social collaboration for IBM government and public sector.

The security levels associated with IBM SmartCloud eMail Suite – Government, IBM SmartCloud eMail Suite – Government Blackberry Service, and IBM SmartCloud Office Automation Suite – Government may be increased via the following options:

IBM SmartCloud eMail Suite – Government with Private Cloud
IBM SmartCloud eMail Suite – Government with Secret Enclave
IBM SmartCloud eMail Suite – Government Blackberry Service with Private Cloud
IBM SmartCloud Office Automation Suite – Government with Private Cloud
IBM SmartCloud Office Automation Suite – Government with Secret Enclave

The service is Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) compliant. Simply put, no one outside the government will have access to any information or data stored in the service.

“To a certain extent, [IBM] is packaging and offering a set of solutions they already had,” said Shawn McCarthy, director of research at IDC Government Insights. “And there’s plenty of competition in that realm right now. So it allows them to continue to be a player.”

This collaboration for a cloud-based social network came from the government’s need for a service like this. There’s a high demand in this type of service because this would allow government agencies to share private data among government employees or among specific agencies. But just like any social platform, users can choose who to share certain files with because privacy is still the number priority as not all government files are for everyone to see.

The service is only available via Passport Advantage, and requires a customer-signed IBM International Passport Agreement and IBM SaaS Terms of Use Agreement.‎

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In the same vein:

Pano Logic Strengthened as VDI Deployments Increase

Cherr Aira — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 11:00:45 +0000

In this day and age, when enterprises cloud solutions are becoming a great deal and cost savings are what chiefly constitute IT economics policies, a virtualized environment is tantamount to an ideal workplace set-up.

With different offerings and seemingly endless upgrades from key players like VMware, Citrix and Pano Logic, IT departments and managers are faced with a difficult task to pick the ultimate solution or provider for their business requirements. Since, there is no one-size-fits-all package available in the market today, hybrid solutions are what will fuel an organization’s drive to having VDI benefits.

Easier said than done, transitioning to a virtualized environment is perhaps a puzzling point that remains for enterprises to this very day. But the promise that VDI has towards addressing storage, cloud, space and cost predicaments pushes more and more companies prioritize virtualization in the coming 12 months or so. Forrester Consulting published a study on how most enterprises view virtualization as a segment of their businesses. One of the key findings of the study talks about the present challenges on desktop virtual transformation:

“IT leaders must realise that neither the data centre nor the desktop team alone has sufficient experience or visibility to make the decisions required in the planning and deployment process, nor the tools to manage the resulting hybrid environment effectively.

“Isolated planning leads to inappropriate and impractical decisions about hardware, software, and tools. The results are always disappointing if they ultimately deliver reduced availability and performance, higher operational costs or poor end-user satisfaction.”

Pano Logic

Pano Logic has tried to reach out to SMB’s by scaling down their VDI offerings via the launch of two powerful solutions: Pano Express SMB and Pano Express HA. This is in line with the company’s goal to ease management burdens by radically reducing the cost ownership. Before the second quarter of 2011 ended, Pano Logic tapped the cloud, leveraging the power of Zonics to resell their services worldwide. They have also gained the trust of the state of Virginia to virtualize the award-winning library at the city of Staunton.

But when it comes to new technology and solutions, there’s the issue of raising awareness in an increasingly competitive market. Pano Logic relies on its innovation to stand out amongst the crowd.

“Pano Logic is seeing exponential growth in our innovative technology, as customers look toward cloud computing, or centralizing compute power for either security reasons, or ease of management and better control, Pano’s radical centralization works to eliminate both at the endpoint,” says Dana Loof, EVP of Worldwide Marketing.

“As larger customers make the move to either VMWare View or XenDesktop, Pano zero clients appeal to them due to the ability to move and support either infrastructure without lock-in. As smaller companies move to VDI, they take advantage of the Pano manager/broker (packaged with Pano zero clients) which can do the work of VMware View or XenDesktop on either vendor’s hypervisor platform, or HyperV, without additional cost.”

For Pano Logic’s own clients, the company is seeing an equally impressive push for virtualization, especially as VMware continues to make strides in its enterprise offering, building out an ecosystem that Pano Logic readily supports. It’s the ability to circumvent vendor lock-in that makes Pano Logic appealing, turning to VDI services in an effort to better allocate resources around virtualization.

With traction gaining in industries like government and education, Pano Logic hopes to further its success by building out its products and partnerbase. Teaming up with the likes of Fujitsu gives Pano Logic the exposure it needs to land larger OEM clients, strengthening its offerings and its market presence as well.

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In the same vein:

Piston Cloud Brings First OpenStack Solution: Ready for Prime Time?

Kristen Nicole — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 07:03:42 +0000

OpenStack has been around for over a year now, racking up some pretty high profile partners especially in the past few months. And as the ecosystem continues to mature, we begin to see some product launches around RackSpace’s open source initiative. Piston Cloud is officially launching today, introducing pentOS for the enterprise. It’s an open cloud operating system for managing enterprise private cloud environments, looking to offer the best of both worlds to its users.

The brainchild of co-founder and CEO Joshua McKenty, Piston is a cherished project with a deep-seated understanding of the OpenStack platform. McKenty is a former RackSpacer, and was also the technical lead and cloud architect of NASA’s Nebula Cloud Computing Platform, upon which the OpenStack project was built. Along with other Rackspace alum including Christopher MacGown (Piston co-founder and CTO), the Piston team is well-versed in open source cloud technology, but more specifically the OpenStack platform.

Growing a worldwide community with over 1,450 contributors and over 100 participating companies, OpenStack is certainly a supported initiative that’s recognized for its velocity. And with that comes a demand to see the proof in the pudding, with Piston emerging as an early OpenStack product out to demonstrate it’s ready for prime time. Piston’s got a head start in this regard, and is in a good position to become a leader in this sector. It’s first product is pentOS.

Piston Enterprise OSTM (pentOS) is the first enterprise OpenStack cloud operating system focused on security and private cloud operations. Using Piston’s patent-pending Mull-Tier Architecture, clients receive storage, compute and networking on every node for massive scalability. It’s custom built to address regulatory requirements and other concerns many enterprises have with cloud solutions. Enabling companies to better manage big data, pentOS is the first enterprise implementation of CloudAudit, a cross-industry standard that came out in 2010 to automate auditing cloud processes.

The Null-Tier Architecture is really the point of interest with pentOS, addressing the complexity of hardware while optimizing on the software side, through automation for integration to maintain security as well. It aims to get rid of the middle tier all together, taking advantage of the cloud without this new breed of systems operations. It gives pentOS a nice little bundle called the Cloud Key, a USB stick that configures everything for you once you plug it into the stack. “We call it the insider attack,” McKenty says. “Most security breaches come from folks that work inside of the company. The fewer that have administrative credentials on hardware, the more secure it is. That’s just a starting point.”

Piston Cloud has a lot it’s looking to do moving forward, helping to bring OpenStack solutions to the enterprise while addressing their security concerns as well. In doing so, Piston marks an effort to validate the OpenStack platform, which is just now building a market around its initial offering.

“There are so many people involved in [OpenStack] that any individual perspective is going to be wrong,” McKenty says. “And I still have no grasp of what’s happening–OpenStack is unbelievably global…the timing is so serendipitous. It’s the right thing at the right time, pointing in the right direction. This will be one of those things like the Internet. No one knows who invented it.”

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In the same vein:

What’s Facebook’s Mobile Strategy for Media-Rich Timeline?

Kristina Farrah — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 15:14:08 +0000

During the f8 Developers Conference, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Timeline to replace Profile and Wall. The new functionality will enable users to have more control over what they have published on their account from inception to date. “Timeline is a completely new aesthetic for Facebook,” says Zuckerberg. And it will also be available on mobile devices.

For instance, you want to find a particular post you’ve typed back in 2005, you’ll be able to find it without clicking the ‘Older Posts’ hyperlink over and over for God knows how long. With Timeline, you can simply filter your search to instantly scroll down. It’s going to be very fast, by the way.

Which raises an important question for mobile users, as Facebook boasts 350 million in its network. How will this media-intensive Timeline feature work on data-hungry mobile devices? Facebook was smart enough to think about a mobile interface right from the beginning. And it looks like they were smart enough to consider the burden of data as well. According to Joey Flynn, one of Facebook’s product designers, the challenge about Timeline is to show users interesting content without overloading data subscriptions.

“What we do with mobile is that we put as much on the page as possible, but collapse most of the things on the back end,” Flynn said. “So you can look at someone’s timeline on mobile and it’s pretty cool.”

During f8, Facebook proudly announced the traction for the its mobile app, reaching a major milestone of 350 million monthly active mobile users from a total of 800 monthly active users. This can also be translated to 43.75 percent of its total users. It’s likely to pass the 50 percent mark before it hits the billion mark.

And that’s quite a feat as far as the mobile social networking scene goes. Expected to reach 550 million users by the end of 2011, mobile social networking activity is becoming more active than PC activity. Analysts predict that mobile social networking will reach nearly 2 billion by 2016, indicating a lot of mobile interest for the future.

Despite revealing some awesome features at f8, its steady belief in the importance of mobile, and further plans of encouraging people to use Facebook to consume media, the social network didn’t provide any specific mobile strategy during the conference, despite its big talk and boastful stats.

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