McAfee has announced the latest version of their Application Control software, which is now integrated with McAfee Global Threat Intelligence to show the file reputation of every file in the enterprise. This feature coupled with whitelisting and memory protection makes it an ideal solution for blocking advanced persistent threats and zero-day attacks. The solution is centrally managed by McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator software and uses a dynamic trust model, which reduces costs. You can download the free trial from here.

Protecting the desktop and the endpoint is essential as that is often a vulnerable point subject to human error. Employees and online users can unintentionally introduce software that installs malware, creates support issues, and violates software licenses, thus compromising systems and the overall business. McAfee Application Control allows only trusted applications to run on the company’s endpoints and servers.

Some of the key features of Application Control include:

* McAfee Global Threat Intelligence – a cloud based knowledge of reputation of files which is used by McAfee Application Control to classify applications as good or bad. This feature indicates whether any malware is being whitelisted inadvertently and also highlights files without a reputation, which need to be investigated internally.
* Dynamic Whitelisting – can configure it such that the whitelist will grow dynamically when systems are patched and updated, which alleviates the hassle of manual updates to the whitelist.
* Memory Protection – helps ensure that the whitelisted programs which might contain some inherent vulnerabilities that cannot be exploited through a buffer overflow or other means. This feature helps prevent complex threats from circumventing whitelisting.
* McAfee Ecosystem – well integrated within the McAfee product ecosystem to create a multi-faceted whitelisting solution. Integration with the ePolicy Orchestrator platform gives organizations a single security console to manage all their security solutions, thus improving operational efficiency. Additionally, integration with McAfee Risk Advisor helps prioritize, which systems to patch first and offers visibility on whether or not McAfee Application Control gives them coverage from the most recent threats.

Source:http://tech2.in.com/news/software/mcafee-announces-application-control-software-for-enterprises/276632

01 Synergy will unveil a range of iPhone & Android Applications — including ExhibitionApp — at India Soft, an international IT meet scheduled for March 2012. Over 350 business partners and global enterprises from 75 countries are expected to participate in the two-day event.

01 Synergy will launch ExhibitionApp, which is designed specifically for the tradeshow industry, it features real-time show alerts and interactive floor maps. Users can schedule tradeshow information while travelling to the show or download it to the phone for later reference. Exhibitor information can also be downloaded to prevent a user from having to carry marketing materials and brochures around the show. 01Synergy will also launch the Pro version of Golf eScorer at IndiaSoft 2012.

We look forward to meet & interact with the India Soft 2012 delegates and forge business alliances.

Drafix Software, a leader in professional landscape design software, has introduced PRO Landscape Companion, an iPad application created specifically for professional landscape designers.

“We are proud of our team’s ability to continue leading the industry with product innovations. PRO Landscape Companion will give our customers yet another way to design faster, close more sales, and improve their ability to compete in this tough market,” said Pete Lord, president of Drafix Software. “Landscape contractors, designers, architects and garden centers have been asking for a mobile solution, and we are pleased to once again be the first to market with a solution for their needs.”

PRO Landscape Companion works in conjunction with PRO Landscape, Version 18. The app allows users to create a design from scratch on the iPad using a photo you’ve taken with the iPad’s camera. Users then have the option to transfer the design to a computer and finish it in PRO Landscape. If the design has been started in PRO Landscape, it can be transferred to the iPad to show to a customer, and make changes on the fly.

PRO Landscape Companion will also let users show their customers complete proposals, 3D movies and other design options created with PRO Landscape, giving great flexibility to use this exciting new technology as an interactive sales tool.

“I’ve used PRO Landscape for years and it’s improved my close rate to almost 100%,” said Aron Hoffman, Groundskeepers Landscaping Inc. “I fully expect that now with the PRO Landscape Companion for iPad, I’ll easily win every bid, and my customers will love it, and me.”

PRO Landscape Companion for iPad will be available in January 2012 for free from the App Store on iPad or at www.itunes.com/appstore. The App will be available on other tablets in the near future.

Source:http://www.greenindustrypros.com/news/10568685/drafix-software-launches-pro-landscape-companion-for-ipad

It is interesting to keep track of the latest technologies and Software Searches. This year we have noticed a huge increase in the amount of people who are downloading “New Year’s Countdown Applications” for their phones. The New Year’s Countdown Applications are simple software to help people keep track of how long it is still before New Year.

Some applications are so advanced that you can watch live New Year’s countdowns for various countries, and switch from country to country, to see when it is New Year in a specific country.

If you live in the United Kingdom, and want to know when it is official New Year in Australia or New Zealand you can set the Countdown Timer to let you know in advance when it is New Year in these countries. The Live New Years Countdown applications can be set to warn you at intervals how long it is still to go before everyone shouts “happy new year 2012”. The applications will work on most Smart phones and there are even specific Live New Year’s Countdown applications specifically written for Blackberry’s, Android Phones, I-phones and Nokia Phones with different features and functions!

Most of the New Year’s Countdown Applications we looked at allow people to see a Counter that counts the days, hours, minutes and seconds to the New Year. Once it is New Year an alarm will go off, some o the applications will wish you a Happy New Year 2012 and others will have a New Year’s Fireworks display!
View the New York Drop Ball 2012 live on your Phone

There is many web sites this year that are going to offer live streaming of the biggest New Year Eve event in the world. This year it will be possible to use your smart phone to view the traditional New Year’s Eve New Year Drop Ball ceremony live on your phone. It is envisaged that the New York Drop Ball 2012 New Year’s Tradition will be the most viewed New Year’s event ever, viewed on mobile phones!

It have been announced on the 28th December 2011 that Lady Gaga will have the honor of pressing the button to start the 2012 New Year Drop Ball ceremony.
New Year’s Tracker

We have also created a “New Year’s Tracker” to track New Year as it happens in various countries across the world. For more information you can go to the New Year’s Tracker page. The New Years Tracker will also show Live Countdown to the New Year for various countries worldwide.

Source:http://3d-car-shows.com/2011/new-years-countdown-application-for-smart-phones/

Software development is not easy. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever really seen a job with more conflicting priorities.

On one hand developers are asked to churn out endless code releases and deal with continuously shifting requirements of what feels like an impossible race. During crunch times they’re asked to work hundreds of hours to meet insane deadlines, skip holidays and ignore families. On the other hand, they’re expected to explain to the business why a piece of functionality is taking so long to develop and why testing its functionality can take just as much time.

Developers are pulled in a million different directions and they are always asked to deliver more than before.

I have not worked as a developer. That said, I’ve worked alongside them and been present during a lot of these kinds of discussions. I can’t help but empathise with them, their problem solving and hard work ethic so often goes unsung.

So it comes as no surprise to me when information security professionals conflict with developers grappling with application security. “When will they get it?” the security pros cry.

I am often bemused when consultants talk about application security awareness training for developers and testers. Have they ever tried training the developers themselves? Have they ever stopped to ask developers why they didn’t validate certain inputs? Not likely. If they did ask, they might have received a response along the lines of “Umm. I dunno what I was thinking. It was one AM and I hadn’t slept for two days at the time I wrote that. Sorry bro.” If, as a security professional, you were a developer in another life, then you are a rare breed. I’m sure you would never need to ask that question. You’d understand.

Application security does not exist in a vacuum and for developers, it is just one of many competing (and in some cases, seemingly conflicting) requirements that are expected to be addressed. Security controls should always be seamless and transparent, and in the case of developers, their work should be no exception. Frameworks like ASP.NET come with a number of attributes which can be readily adopted by developers to support security with minimal fuss, such as Anti-XSS library, features to prevent Cross Site Request Forgery and robust session management controls.

Our job as security professionals is to make developers jobs easier, and by extension, our own as well. Try to understand the languages and frameworks your developers are working with. Tell them what libraries they can use which contain the desired security functionality. If these libraries resolve specific problems, that means less code they have to write and a reduced likelihood that they’ll get it wrong. The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP)’s ESAPI Project is a prime example of providing a consistent toolset for all languages. Once you prove you can help them save time in development and prove that security doesn’t have to be a huge problem, then they’ll invariably be grateful – and perhaps they’ll also start getting it.

Source:http://www.cso.com.au/article/410766/why_software_developers_don_t_care_about_application_security/

A provider of Application Life Cycle Management (ALM) and IT Service Management (ITSM) solutions, announced today the immediate availability of the new versions of their industry strength Enterprise, ALM Studio and ITSM Studio, delivered on the Cloud (as SaaS) in addition to their current On-Premise offerings.

“Based on our customers’ feedback we have optimized the out-of-the-box solutions of ALM Studio and ITSM Studio with a simpler UI for various groups of users of the products. In addition Kovair’s industry leading integration technology, the Omnibus, can be used to integrate multi-vendor tools to these products on the Cloud,” said Bipin Shah, CEO and Chairman of Kovair. “With an attractive SaaS pricing and multiple Enterprise class applications in a single box we believe that many customers will find our solutions very compelling.”

Both ALM Studio and ITSM Studio come in two flavors — Starter and Enterprise. The free Starter edition of ALM studio includes maximum of 5 users and that of ITSM Studio includes maximum of 1 technician and 5 concurrent end users. The Enterprise editions for ALM Studio and ITSM Studio have $45 per user per month pricing. The Enterprise editions allow customers to have a 30 days free trial before they decide to purchase.

“Unlike other vendors of ALM and ITSM, Kovair brings absolute code-less configurability along with high-end functionality like graphical workflow designer and integration middleware based on Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) architecture,” said Sky Basu, CTO of Kovair. “The single ALM Studio product provides a set of tightly integrated out-of-the-box applications like Requirements, Test, Issues, Risk, Release and Project Management. Similarly ITSM Studio offers ITILv3 compatible out-of-the-box applications like Service Desk, Incident, Problem, Change, CMDB, Knowledge, SLA Management and Service Catalog.”

Source:http://www.marketwatch.com/story/kovair-software-unveils-new-versions-of-alm-and-itsm-solutions-on-the-cloud-2011-12-15

BMC Software today announced the availability of the latest release of the BMC Atrium Discovery and Dependency Mapping solution with collaborative application mapping. With this new capability, BMC drastically reduces the time, effort and cost of mapping multi-tier applications to the IT infrastructure supporting them by simplifying both the process and technology. Using these maps, IT can better understand how applications and infrastructure work together to deliver the services that enterprises depend on.

IT has previously been dependent on the owners of business applications to provide large amounts of detailed data about applications. With this new collaborative application mapping capability, application owners can now provide a small amount of basic information, such as the application type and host names. With this data, IT can use the BMC Atrium Discovery and Dependency Mapping solution’s unique search and query-building capabilities to create a dynamic application map, which is automatically updated and maintained whenever there are changes in the IT environment. In contrast with other discovery products, all of this is accomplished without the need for complex programming or substantial staff effort.

“The new Collaborative Application Mapping in BMC Atrium Discovery and Dependency Mapping greatly accelerates the process of mapping applications,” said Michael Tomasiewicz, senior network and systems administrator at ConAgra Foods. “Working with our application owners has become much more efficient, and the ability to get their buy-in and feedback using shareable artifacts is a huge advantage. With BMC, we have improved the availability of critical business applications by eliminating our reliance on tribal knowledge to understand dependencies and the impact of proposed changes.”

As a foundational technology for Business Service Management (BSM), application discovery and the mapping of dependencies is critical for succeeding with strategic IT initiatives such as IT service management, data center automation and transformation, cloud computing and virtualization management, service impact management and service costing. Understanding complex application dependencies is a fundamental requirement for these initiatives. With the BMC Atrium Discovery and Dependency Mapping solution, IT leaders have the insight they need to make the right planning choices, safely manage changes, prioritize support and understand the real costs of IT.

“Application dependency mapping tools provide the capability to discover server and application dependencies, which result in improved visibility in support of various data center activities,” said Ronni Colville, vice president and distinguished analyst, IT operations group at Gartner. “Manual application mapping is a resource intensive activity that requires a continuous assessment process, creating an information tug-of-war between operations and application support. Enterprises need a solution to stabilize this phenomenon.”

BMC Atrium Discovery and Dependency Mapping is part of BMC’s comprehensive, service-driven architecture for managing IT. The addition of collaborative application mapping provides capabilities that have previously been absent from the market. The new capabilities not only enable customers to save time and resources, but also expand the power of BSM to a much broader set of business critical applications.

“BMC pioneered the important connection between IT and the business with BSM and helped to make it a reality through Atrium,” said John Peters, vice president of research and development at BMC. “Understanding multi-tier application dependencies is critical to understanding how IT resources support business services and how IT supports their business customers. Until now, this has been an elusive goal for most vendors despite their claims. By streamlining the interaction between application owners and IT, we have created a pragmatic approach to build ongoing visibility into complex application dependencies and have changed the game for our customers by helping them make bigger contributions to their businesses in a way that no other IT management provider can match.”

Source:http://www.marketwatch.com/story/bmc-software-simplifies-application-dependency-mapping-2011-12-13

01 Synergy has a passionate and creative team of technology experts who believe in delivering high performance solutions to match its client’s demand for quality focus, cost and time effectiveness. The Team has experience of various years in Mobile Application Development. Now it is offering Industrial Training in iPhone Application Development. This Practical training course in iPhone will play instrumental role in building the career growth of individuals. It is  a next generation course on iPhone technology which is specially designed keeping in view the need of IT and engineering graduates who have either completed or in the final year of completion of BCA, M.Sc IT, MCA, BE/B.Tech. in CSE and IT. The exclusivity of six months course in iPhone help the trainees to kick start their career in right direction as they will also get placement assistant and career counseling during the training.

This is hands on training, you will be asked to set-up development environment & then start to work on “LIVE” Application Development for iOS devices including iPhone, iPod & iPad, MacMini, MacBook and iMacs.

The live project would entail understanding of object oriented programming (OOPS) and coding in Objective-C, xCode, Interface Builder, Cocoa Touch, views & controllers, navigation, table views, gesture recognizers, custom graphics, animation, core data, web services and performance & debugging.

Since Industrial Training in iPhone Application Development is a job oriented course, the trainees will get job security amalgamated with bright career prospects. They will also get experience certificate for working on live project with credit.

Enquires about the training program will be available at 0161-4344000 or you can even email at: hr@ldh.01s.in or register online at www.01s.in/IT

Android is the new craze of the Mobile application development industry and is predicted to be the next-generation thing in the mobile-web world. By providing an open development platform, Android offers developers the ability to build extremely rich and innovative applications. 01 Synergy is offering six months Industrial training in Android. This training aims at learning Android applications for various purposes. It is a course which is specially designed keeping in view the need of IT and engineering graduates who have either completed or in the final year of completion of BCA, M.Sc IT, MCA, BE/B.Tech.

This is hands on training, you will be asked to set-up development environment & then start to work on “LIVE” Application Development for Google Android mobile devices in JAVA and C/C++.

The project would entail understanding of object oriented programming (OOPS) and coding in Java & C/C++. The Live project would cover Graphical User Interface (GUI) design, inter-process communication, threading, graphics, multimedia, networking, GPS API. web services , performance & debugging.

After the training is completed, 6 months experience certificate is offered by 01 Synergy, which qualifies the trainee as an expert in Android software apps. Since Industrial Training in Android is a job oriented course, the trainees will get job security amalgamated with bright career prospects.

Enquires about the training program will be available at 0161-4344000 or you can even email at: hr@ldh.01s.in or register online at www.01s.in/IT

Software applications engineering specialists Tugboat Software have upgraded a cutting edge solution provided to the manufacturing market place with staffing level planning and job bidding. The new Labor Scheduling platform is designed to help companies optimize and automate all aspects of their work schedule programs so that every unit within the organization is better equipped to make the most efficient use possible of their existing workforce.

For organizations to compete on a global scale, they require solutions that are designed to help decision-makers manage all areas of Labor Scheduling in order to match their production requirements in response to variations in levels of customer demand. It is critical for companies to correctly assign workers according to their skill-set if they are going to become successful in the longer term, and that’s the reason that so many multinational manufacturing giants are now choosing to utilize solutions like Tugboat Software’s new Labor Scheduling platform.

Tugboat’s solution is powered by a dynamic rules engine, which is tailored to conform to the specific workforce policies and production scheduling requirements currently in place within the client’s company.

The central rules engine is designed to work dynamically to create work schedule programs according to the client’s site-specific business policies. These policies could be to reduce their overall labor cost within the manufacturing unit, reduce un-needed overtime, reduce the number of temporary workers, or resolve conflicting job assignment and more faithfully deploy labor resources according to their policies. No matter what the client’s business objective is, the new Labor Scheduling platform from Tugboat Software represents the requisite solution.

Source:http://www.pr.com/press-release/369199

UC4, the world’s largest independent IT Process Automation software company, today announced its enhanced Application Release Automation (ARA) solution. UC4 Application Release Automation provides visibility into the end-to-end release processes through cross functional planning, tracking and reporting. It’s designed to fully automate the deployment of complex applications from development through production and scales to support large, diverse enterprise IT environments.

“Application Release Automation bridges development, application and operations engineers — and is a key enabler to DevOps,” said Ronni Colville, VP Distinguished Analyst for Gartner, Inc. “Application Release Automation tools provide two primary benefits, which are better communications and visibility between teams, and faster time to market with new services and features. Application Release Automation tools will also add a higher degree of reliability to the application deployment process.”

Application release is a complex, time-consuming process. Typically, it involves numerous manual steps, which require significant staff time, with an increased risk of errors. Complex dependencies — both between and/or across applications and operating systems — further complicate the process. The overall process can be highly disruptive to everyday operations, resulting in delayed releases, delayed revenue opportunities and missed SLAs.

Application Release Automation has become a top priority for CIOs due to several trends:

UC4’s Application Release Automation combines the only ARA solution to address application release planning challenges natively within the solution with the most advanced centralized environmental configuration and control abilities.

TASC, an early adopter of the new solution, is recognized as one of the top 5 benefits administration services providers nationwide. TASC has growing base of over 60,000 clients and 600,000 online users.

“Our strategy is to differentiate through our product capabilities and quality of services provided, and our online platform is at the core of that strategy,” said Karl Richards, CIO of TASC. “It’s critical that we roll out continuous innovation with new products and features for our customers. With UC4’s ARA solution, we’re able to drive that innovation in hours and days instead of weeks and months — without adding additional IT staff capacity. This would not be possible without UC4.”

UC4’s ARA solution is one of several enterprise automation solutions that comprise its ONE Automation platform. ONE Automation means that companies only need to buy one integrated product to automate multiple areas of data center processes that traditionally require intensive manual operations. According to Richards, “ARA is a strategic initiative for our company, and we are also using UC4 to automate other areas of the data center, saving a tremendous amount of time and money. UC4 supports many off-the-shelf systems and is able to break down the silos of our diverse IT environment, establish a single pane of glass and accomplish all automation requirements with one tool.”

“DevOps has become mission critical and our solution extends the benefits of IT Process Automation to the market, bridges the gaps within the organization and brings into focus new opportunities for data center efficiency,” said Randy Clark, CMO of UC4.

Source:http://www.marketwatch.com/story/uc4-software-introduces-enhanced-application-release-automation-solution-2011-10-19

Flexera Software, the leading provider of Application Usage Management solutions for application producers and enterprises, announced today that Raynet GmbH has joined Flexera Software’s Application Readiness Alliance Partner Program as a reseller and managed service provider.

Raynet is an innovative IT Specialist with a successful track record of more than 10 years in system and software management with emphasis on services around software packaging and software virtualization. Raynet has developed a standardized application packaging process, which includes analysis of an enterprise’s application portfolio and its compatibility with other systems and versions, application packaging, quality assurance (QA), and rollout with an interface to the organization’s distribution system. Their Rayflow workflow solution incorporates this process into a scalable solution to set up, monitor, control and automate Application Readiness.

As a Software Alliance Partner, Raynet will become a European reseller of Flexera Software’s market-leading AdminStudio Suite Application Readiness solution and will also deliver Rayflow consulting and training services to its AdminStudio customers.

“Given the constant change enterprises face in their application portfolios, Raynet understands the need for turnkey Application Readiness solutions delivering an application portfolio that is properly packaged, compatibility- and conflict-checked, and ready to be installed on the new target platform,” said Ragip Aydin, Managing Director of Raynet. “AdminStudio is the global leader in Application Readiness, with the most advanced software packaging solution to efficiently prepare reliable application packages for deployment. So it is a natural fit for us to deliver our managed services around this great solution.”

“Application Readiness has become strategic, and AdminStudio has become essential to future-proof a company’s applications in order to ensure they are up-to-date and in the hands of business users, when and where they need them,” said Tim Boudreau, vice president of strategic alliances at Flexera Software. “We welcome Raynet to our Alliance Partner program and believe their managed services program, delivered to AdminStudio customers, is a winning combination.”

Resources: Learn more about Flexera Software AdminStudio Suite Learn More about AdminStudio 10 Learn More about AdminStudio Virtualization Pack Learn More about AdminStudio Application Compatibility Pack Background on Windows 7 Migration

Strategies for application virtualization Related Flexera Software Webinars AdminStudio White Papers

Source:http://www.marketwatch.com/story/raynet-joins-flexera-softwares-application-readiness-alliance-partner-program-2011-10-13

Business application software provider – A German business application software provider for industries and market segments, SAP AG, has launched its new product for small and medium businesses in Tanzania. According to the chief executive officer (CEO) of Double Click Consulting Ltd, Mr Ali Shariff, the product called Sap Business One 8.8.1, integrates all core business functions across an entire company including all key departments within the particular organisation.

With sap application in a particular company, different departments get connected to one system and they get email notifications of what is going on in another section in terms of transactions.

“Unlike other small business solutions on the market today, Sap business one is a single application eliminating the need for separate installations and complex integration of multiple modules…Sap brings all systems together and the manager can view the whole company simply,” said Mr Shariff.

Mr Shariff was speaking during a press briefing before the official launch of the software in yesterday in Dar es Salaam.Sap delivers its software solutions in Tanzania through its business partners who are Advance One, Bluekey, Double Click Consulting Ltd, iO.sys and ITSL.

The Sap Business One Channel Manager for Africa Region, Mr Nazir Jadavji said the product was meant for all companies and small and medium entrepreneurs for efficient management of their respective organisations.

“We have packages of different levels of organisations from SMEs to government institutions like ministries and its departments,” said Mr Jadavji.

However, it was noted that only few organisations about 20 companies are using the software in the country and according to Mr Shariff, the low turnout is due to lack of merits of using such systems in their operations.

Source:http://www.afriquejet.com/business-application-software-2011101324897.html

Luminosity Lightshow is the new HTML5 tool for creating interactive simulations, for training users to perform particular tasks and activities within software applications. It is aimed at all organisations and software companies which need to teach users or customers how to use a software application and who want to enable users to try your application in a completely safe, controlled environment.

Screen-capture-based simulations are a proven technique for reducing the amount of time that users take to become productive with a new software package or application. The interactive features of Lightshow make it a powerful, yet easy-to-use authoring environment for all software training requirements.

Unlike most software simulation solution tools, Lightshow doesn’t use Flash and as a result requires no browser plug-ins. Instead, it uses HTML5 (the rapidly evolving new Internet standard) that can be viewed in any modern Web browser, and most significantly on multiple device types, including desktops, mobile phones, and tablets – including Apple iPads!

Source:http://www.einnews.com/247pr/237468

The question is often asked, “What is IBM doing for the small to midsize businesses that run on the IBM i platform?” From a numbers standpoint, this is the largest segment of customers Big Blue can claim under a single brand, with 95 percent of the IBM i installed base being SMBs. IBM built the System/3X and AS/400 business over three decades, and it did so with application software. It has been in maintenance mode for more than a decade, and now the company has seen that to keep and expand this business, it needs application software.

With this strategy, the bulk of the work is done by IBM partners, both the independent software vendors and the reseller channel that peddles the iron and the software. It’s the software drives hardware approach that was hugely successful when the IBM AS/400 broke from the gate. So IBM is in the process of applying that strategy to its entire product line. Basically it is admitting that if all its products were as successful as the AS/400–now the Power Systems server with IBM i–the company will be better off.

The job of applying AS/400 business success, achieved to a large degree on the backs of the ISVs, to IBM’s other hardware and software products sits on the desk of Ari Kugler, director of business development and business unit executive for IBM i. Kugler, in an interview with IT Jungle last week, provided his view of the ISV program that in his words is externally aimed at developing business relationships between IBM and ISVs and, on the internal side, improving the integration between IBM hardware and software groups.

This emphasis on ISVs differs from the past in that it is not platform specific. It does, however, have an IBM i flavor to it because it borrows heavily from the AS/400 success story noted earlier.

There are 85 people working worldwide on ISV relationships within IBM’s Systems and Technology Group. Kugler described it as a “brand new group and a big increase in the number of people devoted to building new relationships in the ISV community.”

This current ISV effort differs from those in the recent past, which have not been particularly successful, by switching the focus from technical issues to business issues.

“We are deciding to do more with less ISVs,” Kugler says. “The general program that exists will be sustained. But we will be picking a short list of who are best potential partners are and work with them more aggressively and in a more integrated manner–a go to market, joint sales, joint marketing, and joint value proposition type of thing.”

The ISV model that Kugler describes as two components: a “core” group and an “invest” group. The large ISVs fit into the core group. In the IBM i space, these are primarily the ERP vendors. His new program will seek ISVs with skills and capabilities and solutions in complementary areas such as CRM, social media, analytics, data mining, and Web portals. The ISVs in this category make up the invest group.

Vendors that have multi-platform offerings should be looking at IBM i as the foundation, and surround it with peripheral applications that can be integrated with those running on IBM i. One example he points to is the recent introduction of manufacturing and distribution products from Infor that use an integrated appliance to run a suite of Infor applications, which are not all running on one operating system. Infor is one of the largest IBM i ISVs, both in terms of revenues and installed base.

“The idea is to provide a complete set of solutions on i and focus on emerging opportunities where there will be growth,” Kugler says.

“We are getting to the point where platforms don’t matter so much because we can integrate things. This is what I call a hybrid option. Because the i is really good at certain things doesn’t mean you can’t incorporate one or two applications that run on other platforms. Becoming somewhat less platform dependent actually makes i a more attractive option because it is no longer a religious discussion any more. You just pick the application that works the best.”

The hybrid approach also looks good to Kugler because it plays well in the cloud. In that scenario a company could be running its core ERP on premise on IBM i and running CRM, social marketing, and Web-based ecommerce in a cloud. This type of interface between on-premise and the cloud is a “tremendous opportunity for ISVs to get in the game,” Kugler says.

The hybrid model that Kugler likes so much is also made to order for BladeCenter blade servers, which has little momentum overall and even less than that in the SMB sector. It also seems to me that Kugler too quickly discounts the religious fervor that still exists in the SMB space. Although there may be many good reasons to be platform agnostic, the reality is that IBM i shops still want to do things the OS/400 way. And the same is true for other platform loyalties, most importantly Windows, which is used at most IBM i sites these days for all kinds of work. Even though IBM has promoted Power Systems as one box that can run multiple platforms, very few SMB shops do that, either because they are i-centric or in cases where multiple platforms exist integration has not taken place because the silos are very strong.

There is also the issue of integrating IBM hardware and software with the efforts of the ISV community. Too many times in the past this unwillingness of IBM’s in-house development to sing harmony with the ISVs (territorial feuding) has undermined the big-picture strategy that has tried to be ISV friendly.

Kugler says the IBM i community is ready in many ways and will be accelerated by this ISV program, but that seems a bit optimistic to me. Perhaps the forces of change in the way businesses operate are accelerating and the necessary cultural changes will happen sooner than I think, but you can’t make people ready just by saying the word. Still, to Kugler’s point, if you wait until people are ready, you’ve waited too long. A competitor will be there to snatch that business.

My enlightening conversation with Kugler was precipitated by a conversation one day earlier with Ed Ahl, director of business development for Tributary Systems, a storage systems vendor that entered the IBM i market about two years ago.

Ahl attended an IBM Systems and Technology Group meeting for ISVs in Austin, Texas, the week before talking to me. His enthusiasm for the new ISV program was industrial strength.

“I was amazed,” Ahl told me while quickly following that up with the acknowledgement that he’s heard a lot of snake oil salesmen in the 30-some years he’s been in the IT business. “They opened the door and I was made welcome. I was introduced to all the right people, and they figured out Tributary had some real value and was serious about promoting IBM solutions.”

Up to this point, Ahl says he had been frustrated in his attempts to develop a business relationship with IBM. Prior to that he had had unsatisfying relationships with Hewlett-Packard and Oracle, but his company had succeeded there despite the obstacles put in its way.

Ahl believes the STG initiative for ISVs has the correct focus: to take advantage of technology that helps IBM products work better.

“IBM is looking at keeping its current market and expanding into more midmarket solutions, which it doesn’t do well but the ISVs do very well,” he told me. There are companies outside of IBM that have good solutions and by opening doors IBM is encouraging better solutions for the customer and doing what it needs to do to make and keep customers.”

In his view, Tributary’s contribution to IBM is that it helps customers leverage their investments, which has a positive effect on customer retention. It also cannot be overlooked that Tributary products help push IBM products such as servers and storage devices. That’s the kind of business partner that IBM likes. An ISV with a “value plan” like that will definitely be shown some love.

“I’ve gotten more positive out of this in the short time I’ve been exposed to this than anything I’ve been involved with before at IBM, Oracle, or HP,” Ahl claims.

Ahl met with three ISVs similar in size to Tributary while at the Austin meeting. All expressed past troubles with IBM and all were excited about opportunities that were available because of the new program.

“I think IBM has realized that in today’s business setting it has to make the channel more successful. It can do that by providing people as points of contact for the ISVs so they can get things done. The ISVs have needed someone to reach out to. Someone dedicated to ISV problem solving,” Ahl says.

Arrow, one of two master resellers in the IBM channel, was responsible for bringing Tributary the invitation-only ISV confab in Austin. According to Ahl, Tributary’s appliance-like product, Storage Manager, was brought to IBM’s attention by Arrow and Big Blue saw it as a good fit for its new ISV investment.

“We want to stimulate the ISVs to help them go to market more aggressively with their sales force and marketing to help drive i marketing,” Kugler says. “In the past few months, we are seeing growth in the i market. Growth in volumes and in sales, and it’s starting to generate momentum. We want to sustain the current growth with these go to market plans.”

Source:http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh091911-story02.html

Centrix Software, a provider of unified end-user computing solutions, today announced it will be demonstrating solutions that help organizations understand in detail the real usage of applications at this year’s VMworld event, to be held in Las Vegas on 29th August to 1st September 2011. Centrix WorkSpace provides vital information to help plan desktop transformation projects, such as desktop virtualization. The company will also be demonstrating updated products that enable organizations to deliver user-centric applications, regardless of the underlying technology.

Located in the Innovator Pavilion at Booth 171-F, Centrix Software will demonstrate the latest version of its Centrix WorkSpace Suite, a range of business technology solutions that enable organizations to analyze, plan and deliver virtual environments and ensure they are optimized to meet user needs. It will also unveil new self-service features within WorkSpace 5.1 that allow organizations to manage the on-demand delivery of applications from virtual, cloud and physical application provisioning environments.

For organizations migrating to or expanding virtual environments, Centrix Software will be demonstrating solutions for:

Virtualization Planning – that help organizations determine the most cost effective approach to application and desktop virtualization, the most viable candidates for virtualization and the financial impact of implementing virtualization.
Virtualization Implementation decision support – that gather the details of what operating system licenses can be re-used, what applications should be available in a virtualized environment and who needs to access them; how to define application group templates for virtual desktops; the viability of devices as virtual desktop or application client machines; anticipated workload on virtualization servers; who is using local printers, and many other details that help inform choices in virtualization.
Analyzing virtualization server usage and demand – providing reporting on the application inventory and usage demand on currently virtualized servers, as well as the use of any App-V packaged applications. This enables organizations to establish the appropriate license entitlement, whether there are applications that can be removed from the servers and what the user load on virtual servers really is.
Usage Reporting – that quickly identify which users consume which applications, how frequently and for how long. This provides intelligence for rationalizing IT infrastructure and costs.
“Enterprise organizations are making significant decisions about their application and desktop strategies against a backdrop of tight cost control and intense organizational pressure,” said Lewis Gee, Vice President Worldwide Sales and Marketing for Centrix Software. “At VMworld this year we are showing organizations how they can gather the critical information and intelligence data they need to make the best technology decisions for their organizations, and ensure new technology investments and services deliver fast return and business value.”

Source:http://www.virtual-strategy.com/2011/08/23/centrix-software-showcase-new-solutions-vmworld-help-organizations-control-their-changing

GT Software, a leading provider of mainframe integration and data access solutions, today announced at the SHARE conference that its market-leading product, Ivory Service Architect, now allows developers to build web services that natively access CA IDMS programs and data. By providing native access, Ivory Service Architect enables developers to quickly and easily access and extend business applications.

“With this enhancement, it’s even easier to achieve seamless, secure, high performance access to valuable mainframe applications provided by CA IDMS,” said Steve Able, Chief Technology Officer for GT Software. “CA IDMS developers now have a better way to enable web services.”

Ivory Service Architect is bi-directional, allowing CA IDMS mapped and mapless transactions to access external services hosted on SOAP, REST XML, and JSON servers so developers have a choice of interfaces. CA IDMS mapless transactions are integrated at the application layer using direct interface modules.

“This is yet another example of the strong relationship between GT Software and CA IDMS solutions,” Able said. “We work closely with CA, and our solutions are CA Smart Certified.”

In addition, Ivory Data Access provides SQL data access to CA IDMS databases via industry standard ODBC or JDBC.

Ivory Service Architect supports the deployment of mainframe-based SOAP, REST-based, and JSON services without requiring any changes to the service definition. It also supports the deployment of web services across z/VSE, z/OS, CICS, IMS, Windows, and Linux. Key features of this ubiquitous platform support include the ability to shift integration and SOA-related workload off the mainframe to reduce MIPS, as well as leveraging new mainframe MIPS-reducing hardware such as IFL processors with Linux on z, and the exploitation of the zIIP and zAAP.

Source:http://www.benzinga.com/pressreleases/11/08/p1840086/gt-software-announces-native-web-services-access-for-ca-idms-applicatio

Eastern Software Systems announced that it has added Oracle Application Development Framework in its bouquet of services for software applications development.

Oracle ADF is an end-to-end development framework, built on top of the Enterprise Java platform, offering unparalleled productivity to application developers. The framework provides integrated infrastructure solutions for the various layers of the application and an easy way to develop on top of them.

ESS ( www.essindia.com/ )has been one of the pioneers in offering Oracle based enterprise software in India. Its flagship product ebizframe ERP uses Oracle 11g. ESS has been at the forefront of technology innovation and adoption in the last decade. This has helped customers derive maximum ROI in ESS products and services.

Oracle Application Development Framework (Oracle ADF) is an innovative, yet mature Java EE development framework available from Oracle and unlike most other frameworks is directly supported and enabled by the award winning development environment, Oracle JDeveloper 11g.

Oracle ADF simplifies Java EE development by minimizing the need to write code that implements the application’s infrastructure allowing the users to focus on the features of the actual application. Oracle ADF provides these infrastructure implementations as part of the framework. To recognize a set of runtime services is not enough, Oracle ADF is also focused on the development experience to provide a visual and declarative approach to Java EE development through the Oracle JDeveloper 11g development tool.

The most prominent features of Oracle ADF are its powerful components for REA/RIA, Page Flow 2.0, Declarative Data Binding, Declarative Business Services, Multi-Channel Client Support, Declarative End-to-End, Security, Declarative Application, Customization, Reusability, Developer Productivity and Ease of Use.

Eastern Software Systems (ESS) is a leading software products and services company having a presence in more than 25 countries. ESS is CMM Level 5 Company and ISO 9001:2008 certified.

At ESS we have the experience, the expertise and the resources to respond to the unique challenges and opportunities that are associated with providing high quality IT solutions in the extremely competitive business environment of today.

We specialize in the business of providing Application Development & Maintenance ( ADM) services to our clients globally. Our forte encompasses the broad spectrum of your business – whether building custom applications, developing database intensive solutions, tailoring an existing software product to meet new requirements, creating a collaboration and communication platform or providing support.

Source:http://www.openpr.com/news/173841/Eastern-Software-Systems-offers-Application-Development-on-Oracle-ADF.html

Endosense, a Swiss medical technology company, and Siemens Healthcare, one of the world’s largest suppliers to the healthcare industry, have announced completion of prototype software integrating the contact-force data provided by Endosense’s TactiCath® force-sensing ablation catheter1 with Siemens’ electrophysiology solutions.

The new application, which was created under a joint development agreement announced in January 2011, was designed to allow electrophysiologists to view catheter tip-to-tissue contact force within a fluoroscopically-enabled, three-dimensional anatomic heart model during catheter ablation procedures.

“The ability to visualize contact force in real time represents a significant step forward in the catheter ablation treatment of cardiac arrhythmias,” said Dipen Shah, M.D., University Hospital of Geneva, who will soon demonstrate the technology’s feasibility by performing the first patient case. “Using this new software, we gain the ability to not only measure and control contact force in real time but also view it within the three-dimensional context of the heart anatomy.

I believe the enhanced visualization will allow me and my fellow electrophysiologists to perform catheter ablation with an even greater level of insight and confidence, ultimately translating into procedures that are more effective and safe.”

Eric Le Royer, chief executive officer, Endosense, also commented on the development milestone. “With the completion of this all-in-one software prototype, we have proven our ability to deliver the critical dimension of contact-force sensing on a totally new platform.

The speed and quality of execution of our collaboration has been remarkable since we announced it in January of this year. We look forward to bringing this new technology to market to both expand the use and enhance the benefits of force control in the EP lab.”

Commenting on the development milestone, Martin Ostermeier, Director Innovations of the Interventional X-ray business unit of Siemens Healthcare, added, “We believe catheter tip force sensing will play a major role in the EP lab in order to improve safety and success rate of cardiac ablation procedures.

The completed prototype will allow us to evaluate the clinical benefits of Endosense’s TactiCath technology integrated into future Siemens Healthcare products.”

Source:http://www.sys-con.com/node/1818249

01 Synergy – your Mobile phone application development partner