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(The Hosting News) – GigaOM, a leading business media company, today announced that more top-tier speakers have joined the lineup at the Structure 2011, the number-one cloud computing conference now in its fourth year. Returning headliners Paul Maritz, CEO of VMware, and Werner Vogels, CTO of Amazon, will be joined by new speakers this year, including Lew Tucker, VP and CTO of cloud computing at Cisco; Pradeep Sindhu, founder of Juniper Networks; Sid Anand, software architect at Netflix, ; and Simon Crosby, CTO of Citrix Systems.

“Structure is without a doubt the most influential cloud computing conference in the world, and the top-tier speakers who will deliver keynotes and presentations at the fourth-annual event are the key leaders shaping the future of the multi-billion dollar global enterprise technology industry,” said said Derrick Harris, site editor at GigaOM and chair of Structure 2011. “But Structure is not just about bringing together technology bigwigs; the conference welcomes a diverse group of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, business leaders, media, and IT professionals who come to debate the newest innovations and biggest challenges in the cloud industry.”

Structure 2011 will take place June 22-23, 2011 in San Francisco at the Mission Bay Conference Center. Now in its fourth year, Structure 2011 is the pivotal, must-attend conference for the top executives, investors, entrepreneurs, and technology directors leading the cloud computing and Internet infrastructure industries.

With major enterprises, government, and global organizations adopting cloud technologies on a large scale, the cloud industry has reached critical mass, but the industry is not without challenges. Structure 2011 will bring together top minds to debate the future of cloud computing and Internet infrastructure and to discuss practical solutions for using cloud technology for everything from application development and data center design, to cost savings and overall business effectiveness.

Structure 2011 will once again host a Launchpad competition, allowing the most innovative cloud computing startups to apply for the chance to present their companies on stage in front of an audience of VCs, industry executives, and entrepreneurs. Startups less than 12 months old in the cloud computing, SaaS, IaaS, PaaS, and Internet infrastructure sectors are encouraged to apply to the Launchpad competition before May 16, 2011 at 11:59 PM PST. Winners will be selected by a panel of expert judges and GigaOM editorial staff, with winners announced May 25, 2011.

“The cloud computing industry would never have evolved to where it is today without the astounding innovation created by Internet, infrastructure, and enterprise software startups, and the Launchpad competition will give the newest cloud upstarts a chance to show the world how they plan to move cloud technology to the next level,” said Stacey Higginbotham, senior writer at GigaOM and assistant chair of Structure 2011. “At Structure, open dialogue is encouraged, and entrepreneurs mingle with CEOs of large enterprise software companies – with everyone focused on discovering how the newest cloud technologies are transforming the entire enterprise sector.”

Key themes
At Structure 2011, speakers and delegates will engage in a two-way debate about how cloud computing will impact the ways we work, communicate, and improve business outcomes in the years to come. Structure 2011 will include panel discussions, roundtables, and fireside chats that address how wider adoption of platforms as a service, infrastructure as a service, managed services, hybrid clouds, and more will affect everything from application development to data center design. Attendees will also hear real-world case studies of organizations that have successfully implemented cloud technologies to reduce costs, improve efficiencies, and boost performance.

Topics and themes covered at Structure 2011 will include:

• Has infrastructure as a service come down to earth?
• The potholes that await platform as a service.
• What’s new in webscale infrastructure?
• What rights do consumers, customers, and providers have in the cloud?
• Making the case for cloud databases.
• Does the need for speed mean saying goodbye to disk?

Register Now
Structure usually sells out quickly, so those looking to interact with the movers and shakers of the cloud industry should register now to ensure a space. Business leaders, IT professionals, investors, entrepreneurs, and anyone else interested in the future of computing and the Internet should not miss Structure 2011.

About GigaOM
Founded in 2006, GigaOM has grown into the leading provider of online media, events and research for global technology innovators. The company is one of the most credible and insightful voices at the intersection of business and technology, with an online audience of more than 4 million monthly unique visitors; industry-leading events, including Structure, Mobilize, NewTeeVee Live, Net:Work, Green:Net, and Structure Big Data; and a pioneering market research service and digital community, GigaOM Pro, which provides insider access to expert analysis on emerging technology markets.

GigaOM’s Structure 2011 Announces New Speakers

(The Hosting News) – Overview: The reasons why IT transformations fail are as numerous as grains of sands on the beach. This webinar will not only discuss some of the more common reasons why IT transformations fail, such as lack of shared vision, passive resistance due to poor communication, or a misunderstanding regarding how metrics should be used, but will also provide some guidance on how to avoid the major pitfalls.

What You Will Learn

In this brief 45-minute webinar you will learn four key reasons why IT Transformations fail or do not achieve their full potential. You will also learn some simple concepts that you can employ in any Transformation effort that will significantly improve your chances of success.

CastlePointe is uniquely focused on leading their clients through successful IT transformation initiatives through a range of services including initiative leadership, strategic planning, operational efficiency, process improvement and metrics development. Since 1997, CastlePointe has been dedicated to helping lead IT transformation efforts.

This webinar will occur on Wednesday, October 13 at 12:15 pm PST. Don’t miss this opportunity to gain valuable insight on how to bring your apps and infrastructure teams together.

The “Free Lunch” IT Transformation Webinar Series

For more information about CastlePointe’s “Free Lunch” IT Transformation Webinar Series, and to register, please visit: http://www.castlepointe.com/event/21/Why-IT-Transformations-Fail.html.

Archives of all past webinars from CastlePointe are available on demand at http://www.castlepointe.com/The-IT-Transformation-Journey.html.

About CastlePointe
Headquartered in Newport Beach, CA, CastlePointe is a premier provider of strategic IT consulting services to Fortune 2000 firms. Uniquely focused on helping IT executives transform their organizations to drive innovation, react to market changes and continually reduce IT operating costs, CastlePointe operates nationally from offices in California, New Jersey and Tennessee. Using our proprietary DeepRoots™ methodology, we help IT leaders execute targeted programs based on specific, business-driven objectives that improve operational efficiencies, increase service performance and build leadership at all levels of their organization. To learn more about CastlePointe, please visit us at http://www.castlepointe.com

CastlePointe Presents Webinar: “Why IT Transformations Fail”

(The Hosting News) – OneLogin offers Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) vendors a free and open-source SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language) toolkit designed to shorten the development time and reduce the complexity previously needed to SAML-enable an application. SAML is a web browser single sign-on protocol that eliminates passwords from the login process, providing quick and safe application access. OneLogin is experiencing a growing demand for its toolkit and has recently assisted the following vendors with their SAML implementation: Zendesk,KnowledgeTree, SugarCRM, Chrome River andSAManage. The SugarCRM and Zendesk SAML implementations will be demoed to SugarCon 2011 attendees from April 4-6, 2011, booth 501 and 503.

“SAML is definitely gaining traction among SaaS vendors,” says Thomas Pedersen, Founder and CEO of OneLogin. “With our toolkit, most applications can be SAML-enabled in hours, significantly reducing the development time and essentially democratizing SAML – it’s now available to the masses.”

Organizations who have embraced cloud computing are asking their SaaS vendors for single sign-on in order to alleviate the pain points of both IT and non-IT staff – while employees are suffering from password-fatigue, IT cannot adequately protect enterprise data from unauthorized access. With single sign-on, employees gain easy and secure access to all their web applications – hosted in the cloud and behind the firewall – while IT can control application access and authenticate users centrally.

“Zendesk customers are cloud-savvy and use several web-based applications for more efficient business processes,” explains Ben Rohrs, Product Manager with Zendesk. “We leveraged OneLogin’s SAML toolkit to help users get fast and secure access to Zendesk while easily integrating their help desk with Active Directory or LDAP.”

About SAML
SAML is an XML-based standard for web browser single sign-on defined by the OASIS Security Services Technical Committee. SAML enables identity providers like OneLogin to securely sign users into web-based applications such as, Zendesk, SugarCRM and KnowledgeTree, without a user-managed password, which has a number of significant advantages for customers:

• Eliminating passwords prevent phishing attacks and make application access safe yet easy.
• Authenticating users is done by the identity provider who can implement multi-factor authentication and enforce security policies.
• Integrating the company’s directory for single sign-on is done via the identity provider – there’s only one, central integration point required.
• Controlling application access is done in one centralized location, providing IT staff with greater visibility and access to auditing tools.

OneLogin’s Free, Open-Source SAML Toolkit

SAML has historically been complex and expensive to implement for SaaS vendors. With OneLogin’s free and easy-to-use SAML toolkits for C#/ASP.NET, Java, PHP and Ruby there is no reason for web application vendors not to implement SAML and provide their customers with easy and secure access to their data.

“When SugarCRM customers asked for single sign-on functionality, we turned to OneLogin’s free and open-source SAML toolkit,” says Jason Nassi, Directory of ISV Alliances at SugarCRM. “OneLogin’s solution enabled us to complete the SAML implementation in less than an hour, greatly accelerating the development time.”

About OneLogin

OneLogin is a cloud-based identity management solution that provides single sign-on, user provisioning and directory integration. OneLogin is pre-integrated with thousands of applications and allows enterprises to get up and running in minutes. IT can centralize user management, access control and auditing while end-users get secure, one-click access to all their web applications – in the cloud and behind the firewall. OneLogin, Inc. is backed by Charles River Ventures and Redpoint Ventures.

OneLogin’s SAML Toolkit Democratizes Single Sign-On

(The Hosting News) – HELIOS Software GmbH, a leading developer of multi-purpose File-, Print-, Image-, and PDF-server software, today launched a public preview of its upcoming HELIOS UB2 server solutions suite. UB2 delivers better overall performance, enhanced file server support for Mac and Windows clients, as well as a broad range of new features including improved SMB/CIFS and AFP compatibility, new AD/PDC authentication, PDF text export, Apple Spotlight compatible searches, and support for Oracle Solaris 11 and Red Hat 6 servers.

“The UB2 public preview provides users with hands-on experience with the new features that will facilitate deployment when UB2 officially ships,” explained Helmut Tschemernjak, president of HELIOS Software GmbH. “UB2 brings the latest compatibility with operating systems, networking protocols, and design and print applications.”

Windows PCShare UB2 clients will benefit from higher SMB/CIFS compatibility, increased overall performance, as well as a new AD/PDC authentication. The upcoming HELIOS EtherShare UB2 provides advanced file server compatibility for Mac clients, including support for extended attributes used by Mac OS X 10.5 and 10.6 clients to store file comments. Support for AppleTalk, which is no longer part of Mac OS X starting with 10.6 Snow Leopard, is optional with UB2, as all HELIOS EtherShare UB2 services–including HELIOS printer drivers for Mac OS X and Mac OS 9–are supported over TCP/IP.

Extending its ability to work on all major server platforms, HELIOS UB2 server software will also support Oracle Solaris 11 and Red Hat 6 server operating systems.

Additional information about new features of the upcoming HELIOS UB2 software suite can be found at the HELIOS Software website at http://www.helios.de.

Smart Ideas for Better Networking

HELIOS UB+ Unbreakable Server Solutions deliver mission critical server solutions to enterprise, government, university, and prepress sites. WebShare, EtherShare, and PCShare provide integrated cross-platform networking for Mac, Windows and Web clients, with advanced file and print server services, and easy remote server administration. HELIOS ImageServer, PDF HandShake and PrintPreview bring high efficiency and advanced capabilities to design, prepress and printing operations.

Public Preview of HELIOS UB2 Server Software

(The Hosting News) – Stibo Systems’ the independent market leader in master data management (MDM), today announced that Lynx IT Pty Ltd, a specialist Information Technology development company, has been chosen as the Australian and New Zealand reseller of Stibo Systems’ STEP — a leading master data management (MDM) and product information management (PIM) software solution. As a premier IT developer and system integrator in Australia, Lynx IT works closely with customers to create project based software using leading edge software tools and highly developed processes. Using the STEP platform, Lynx IT customers can turn master data into a trusted asset by more effectively managing, gathering and sharing, and publishing product master data across the information supply chain.

“The STEP platform allows our customers to eliminate duplicate data silos and create a single trusted source of information that turns departmental data into a strategic asset,” said Craig McGrath, Director, Lynx IT. “As a premier reseller of Stibo’s MDM and PIM solutions, we look forward to helping our customers gain control of their data with the benefit of boosting their operational efficiencies, reducing costs, increasing revenue opportunities, growing market share, maintaining regulatory compliance, and improving profitability and share market performance.”

In an effort to improve decision making, business leaders are demanding business process efficiencies and timely and accurate information — factors that require a consolidated view of master data. As the independent market leader in master data management (MDM) and the highest-ranking product information management (PIM) provider, Stibo Systems enables companies to turn master data into a trusted asset. By providing a single, consistent view of master data the STEP MDM platform enables organizations to improve their business performance and establish a competitive differentiation.

“For more than 30 years, Stibo has been providing organizations with a single, consistent view of master data across the enterprise without forcing them to apply the same application or data format to every department and business unit,” said Chris Sharrock, Managing Director of Stibo Systems Asia Pacific. “Our unparalleled MDM track record, cost-effective master data solutions, and financial soundness have made us the platform choice for market-leading companies worldwide. We are thrilled to have Lynx IT join our ever-growing partner program and together we look forward to helping our customers achieve accurate, reliable and consistent information on products, suppliers, locations and other types of master data.”

About Lynx IT

Founded in 2002, Lynx IT forms close working partnerships with its customers via successful project delivery and continuous knowledge improvement. The Company’s long term vision and commitment to excellence has created a business with a loyal following of customers in the Logistics, Manufacturing, Finance, Wagering and Government markets, using Lynx IT custom built software in Microsoft technologies. Based in Southbank on the edge of the Melbourne CBD, Lynx IT currently employs more than 70 IT professionals ensuring our customers receive a high level of technical expertise. To learn more visit: http://www.lynxit.com.au.

About Stibo Systems

Stibo Systems delivers enterprise software solutions that help companies gather, manage and share product master data across the information supply chain. The STEP platform creates a single trusted source of information by eliminating duplicate data silos, turning departmental data into a strategic asset. STEP has been implemented by many of the world’s leading manufacturers, distributors, retailers and service providers. With global operations, Stibo Systems is part of the privately held Stibo A/S group of companies. For more information, visitstibosystems.com.

Step Master Data Management Software In Australia

(The Hosting News) – The South Dakota Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) is working with officials from Sioux Falls, Vermillion and Yankton to attract data centers to the state. The group is attending the Data Center World Expo in Las Vegas, Nev., which wraps up today.

South Dakota State Officials Recruit Data Centers

(The Hosting News) – Bubble Motion today announced that it has raised $10 million (USD) in growth capital to accelerate the roll-out of its voice-based social communications service that has attracted millions of consumers across Asia. Led by SingTel Innov8, the SingTel Group’s corporate venture capital fund, this round also includes Singapore’s Infocomm Investments in addition to insiders Sequoia Capital, Palomar Ventures, and NGC.

This is Bubble Motion’s second round of financing since its strategic shift into becoming a social messaging company in 2009. Since Bubble Motion launched Bubbly™, its flagship voice-based social messaging service, just one year ago, it has gained over 7 million users across 4 countries (India, Indonesia, Japan and Philippines) and has delivered more than 250 million bubble messages through its service.

This strategic round of financing will be used by Bubble Motion to accelerate growth of its service into new countries, while scaling its technology platform which has become the standard voice-based mobile social networking solution for mobile operators across Asia. The company’s flagship service Bubbly will expand to additional mobile platforms including additional operator networks, the mobile Web and smartphone applications.

Bubble Motion is already working closely with several large associates within the SingTel Group, including Bharti Airtel in India, Telkomsel in Indonesia, and Globe in the Philippines. SingTel brings a vast network of operator partners and contacts, as well as renowned telecom expertise and experience to Bubble Motion.

“We have been impressed with the strong growth of the Bubbly service across Asia and are excited to be joining up with the Bubble Motion team” said Yvonne Kwek, CEO of SingTel Innov8. “We are looking forward to working with the company to build and expand on their early success.

“We are excited to have SingTel and Infocomm Investments join our group of existing investors as we continue to shape the mobile social media landscape in Asia and beyond,” states Bubble Motion CEO Thomas Clayton. “Given our focus in mobile social media in Asia, these two new investors are the perfect fit for our current strategy and we’re very excited to have them onboard.”

“Bubble Motion has assembled a world-class team in Singapore. It is yet another leading tech startup leveraging Singapore’s position as a base for technology innovation and to address the fast-growing Asian market,” said Dr Kuo-Yi Lim, CEO of Infocomm Investments. “Infocomm Investments is pleased to join a distinguished team of investors and be a strategic partner to Bubble Motion.”

For more information about Bubble Motion, please visit http://www.bubblemotion.com or email contact(at)bubblemotion(dot)com.

About Bubble Motion

Bubble Motion is pioneering social communication for mobile phones. Bubble Motion’s Bubbly™ is a social messaging service where people share SMS and voice updates with friends, family, fans and followers. Bubbly is like ‘Twitter with a voice’ and brings social networking to mobile phones.

Bubble Motion Raises $10M to Expand Bubbly

(The Hosting News) – Cloud hosting provider Host Virtual, Inc. has seen a 473% increase in its customers’ use of dual-stack IPv4 and IPv6 hosting services since late last year. The company is more than ready for the global deployment of IPv6; it’s been providing native IPv6 services since 2008, and operates seven IPv4 and IPv6 clouds worldwide, including locations in Europe and South Asia.

It is crucial for companies that provide Internet services to adopt IPv6, so that their products and online content will remain accessible. This new Internet Protocol will eventually replace IPv4 and can offer many more IP addresses, particularly for wireless and handheld devices. It will effectively help the Internet grow and develop for years to come. Fortunately, Host Virtual offers an easy and cost-effective way for companies to keep up with the rest of the online community.

“Many of our customers are using us to quickly and easily deploy an IPv6 version of their web presence, test their IPv6 software and services for compatibility, or expand their reach throughout the world,” said Sandy Bhargavi, Host Virtual’s Vice President of Operations. “Our customers continue to be amazed that for less then the cost of a few cups of coffee per month, they can have root access to an IPv6 cloud server in minutes using our self-service IPv6 hosting service and cloud platform.”

Host Virtual’s customers can instantly provision a Linux or FreeBSD cloud server in any of its seven cloud locations. Additionally, its clouds support more than 65 Linux and FreeBSD operating system images and appliances, making it easy for companies to migrate into the cloud. The company keeps a full list of their most updated and recently released distros on its site.

Host Virtual’s payment plans are hassle-free, and don’t include complicated per minute or per resource structures. The company enables its customers to deploy to any of its cloud locations with unlimited usage for a flat monthly fee starting at under $10 per month.

For more information about IPv6 hosting or Host Virtual, Inc.’s cloud hosting and virtualization services, please visit http://www.vr.org/

More Than 400% Increase With IPv6 Hosting