Software AG is the leading Enterprise Management Software developer has acquires cloud platform vendor LongJump based in Santa Clara, CA. LongJump acquisition enables the customers of Software AG to build flexible situational and process-driven applications in the cloud quickly with minimum development times. With the acquisition, Software AG will extend their customer offerings to address departmental and small and medium enterprises projects through end-user, self-service application development.

According to the press release, the main benefits of LongJump includes, End-user development, Cloud, Flexible process based applications and deployment to any mobile device. Software AG will also continue to develop and extend LongJump’s Platform-as-a-Service products for fast and flexible cloud based development and deployment of situational and case management applications. Software AG offers enterprise tools like, database management system, an application development language, and a SOA governance application and the technology of LongJump will be an added advantage for Software AG’s Aris, Terracotta and webMethods product suites.

“The digital enterprise is all about real-time business insights driving fast decisions and faster reactions,” said Wolfram Jost, CTO at Software AG. “With this latest acquisition we have taken a major step in optimizing both the business knowledge and IT skills needed to develop flexible, business process driven, situational applications and deploy them rapidly wherever they are needed.”

“More people across the organization can now participate in processes of innovation and differentiation,” says Pankaj Malviya, CEO and Founder of LongJump. “LongJump can now leverage Software AG’s strength in enterprise connectivity and business process to provide business users and IT departments with more agility to respond to changing business requirements, automate their situational processes, improve team data sharing and integrate with systems of record.”

Magento, a leading E-commerce platform announced on April 11, 2013 that it unveils the latest edition of Magento Enterprise for merchants to scale more effectively. Magento Enterprise version 1.13 includes the new features of optimized catalogue indexing, improved content caching, streamlined checkout flow and improved tax recommendations. To increase the value to both merchants and developers Magento has implements new quality control requirements for extensions and delisting those extensions that do not meet the requirements. Based on compatibility and popularity Magento evaluates the extensions and removed about 20 percent of extensions which didn’t meet Magento Connect product standards. Magento’s main focus is on the quality control because its ecosystem is huge and has over 150,000 merchants plus partners including web hosting providers.

“Over the past year Magento and our diverse ecosystem have continued to innovate on the Magento platform to support ever-larger brands, more robust product catalogues and more complex implementations,” Roy Rubin, co-founder and chief operating officer at Magento said in a statement. “We’re committed to building upon the Magento platform enabling greater flexibility, performance and scalability to empower merchant growth. The latest product updates improve critical functions for the systems integrators that work with Magento code directly and further ease platform management for merchants as they continue to expand their business – often featuring more than 1 million product SKUs.”

The new Enterprise version 1.13 adds new developer extensions with PayPal including order ahead and in-aisle selling for merchants. “We’re excited to see the innovative solutions that Magento and PayPal developers create as they integrate our order ahead and in-aisle selling technologies with the Magento platform,” James Barrese, chief technology officer at PayPal said in a statement. “By solving real customer pain points like waiting in line, merchants can improve service, attract more customers, and drive more repeat purchases.”

OpenDNS is the leading provider of Internet security and DNS services who provides millions of businesses, schools and households with a safer, faster and more intelligent internet experience by protecting them from malicious Web threats. The company announced that it has recruited Stefan Dyckerhoff to bring his long-term experience in the enterprise networking and security markets to its board of directors. Stefan previously worked as EVP and GM in Juniper Networks and OpenDNS also conducted a Series B financing with Sutter Hill Ventures in order to fuel growth in sales and marketing and to expand security research and development. OpenDNS serves over 7,000 businesses today that include some of the world’s most trusted brands and it wants to scale its customer base and revenue in 2013 and beyond.

The new funding enables OpenDNS to quickly ramp its comprehensive go-to-market efforts after demonstrating adoption of its cloud delivered Web security product line Umbrella. “OpenDNS has developed a high-performance global security network that is uniquely capable of securing off-network users across all their devices. It’s no question that OpenDNS is the right company to disrupt the multi-billion dollar security market,” said Dyckerhoff. “Delivering security-as-a-service is the only way to effectively empower IT in today’s world of mobile devices, nomadic workers and cloud applications that require elasticity and unlimited performance. OpenDNS is already securing thousands of businesses and over 50 million end users with its powerful cloud platform.”

“We’ve already built a world-class technological infrastructure, hired respected executives experienced in security and SaaS, and created disruptive products that solve security’s visibility and efficacy problems,” said David Ulevitch, OpenDNS Founder and CEO. “We’ve laid the foundation, and with Stefan’s guidance and this round of funding we will quickly grow out our team, sharpen our products and packaging, and redouble efforts across all of sales and marketing.”

Data center solutions provider Digital Realty Trust announced yesterday the completion of acquisition of 371 Gough Road in Markham, Ontario (Canada), a 120,000 square foot data center development property which is situated about 17 miles north of Toronto’s central business district and the acquisition price was C$8.65 million. “We have been tracking a significant amount of demand for enterprise-quality data center space with very limited supply in the Toronto market,” said Michal F. Foust, chief executive officer of Digital Realty. “The acquisition of this property expands our existing footprint and enables us to support our customers’ data center requirements in the Toronto market.”

“The property currently consists of warehouse and some office space that is 48% leased to two tenants,” said Scott Peterson, chief acquisitions officer of Digital Realty. “As a data center, the facility is capable of supporting approximately 5.4 megawatts of IT load, or four 1,350 kW Turn-Key Flex suites, utilizing our new POD Architecture 3.0.” According to the press release, POD Architecture 3.0 represents an improved, simplified arrangement of components that serves as the foundation of Digital Realty’s Turn-Key Flex solution.

The main aspect to the improvement is an increase in critical IT load capacity to 1,200 to 1,300 kW from 1,125 kW and POD 3.0 will also produce data centers that feature higher energy efficiency. With the use of two electrical skids versus the previous design’s three skids, the reduction of the infrastructure footprint will help to enhance the yield on building space for data centers. In order to meet customer’s just-in-time requirements Digital Realty’s Turn-Key Flex solution helps to deliver secure, enterprise quality data center space. Each Turn-Key Flex facility comes with its own dedicated electrical and mechanical infrastructure to provide maximum flexibility, reliability and efficiency.

Velocity Technology Solutions is the top provider of cloud-based Managed Application Services and Managed Disaster Recovery Services, announced yesterday that it has acquired UK-based velos-IT Ltd, provider of hosting, managed services and consulting to medium and large scale European enterprises. Velos-IT was founded in 2004, one of the UK’s fastest growing IT services companies and has around 100 employees in Glasgow, Scotland. Their customer base crosses multiple industries and ranges from mid-market through enterprises with revenues that exceeds £3 Billion. Velos-IT provide services to organizations in 25 countries and their services includes 24/7 support of business applications and IT infrastructure, systems integration, application deployment, upgrades, and custom software development.

The financial terms of the transaction has not been disclosed. “Velocity and velos-IT share a common set of core values and a reputation for technology innovation and customer service,” said Tom Bruno, CEO of Velocity. “The acquisition of velos-IT furthers our global services footprint and immediately strengthens and expands our Universal Cloud Services offering to include Oracle E-Business Suite. We are excited to serve the European market and enthusiastically welcome the entire velos-IT team into the Velocity family.”

According to press release, Velocity’s Universal Cloud Services suite includes fully managed application services, platform-as-a-service (PaaS), infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), and managed disaster recovery services provides through a secure and resilient virtual private cloud. “We are excited by the opportunity to leverage the knowledge and technical expertise of Velocity and velos-IT across the expanse of Universal Cloud Services and extend a compelling offering for our current and future customers. This is fantastic news for both velos-IT customers and employees alike,” said Jim McInnes, founder and Managing Director of velos-IT, who has been named Velocity’s General Manager, Europe.

Fasthosts is one of the leading web hosting providers that offers a wide range of services that includes domain name registrations, servers, online backup solutions and reseller web hosting. The company announced that it has launched two new dedicated servers that featured with latest SSD technology and quadruple the SSD space on the flagship DS1210. With this latest configurations customers benefited from fast application launch times, backup solutions and also an increase in performance. These new dedicated servers will be available half price for the first 3 months therefore the price starts from £84.50 per month excluding VAT.

Without the capital expenditure or physical space that required running on premise solutions Fasthosts dedicated servers offer a powerful and secure server platform for both web and IT applications. Their servers allow customers to understand the balance between budget and technical requirements and the most important changes to the new range are mainly on the Hard Disk Drive. Fasthosts advanced series provides best value for small businesses whereas the professional series are designed for small to medium-sized businesses for providing ultimate speed, processing power and stability. Both the DS1120 and DS1210 are ideal for business applications or to host large websites, mail or media with a guaranteed 99.99% network uptime.

“As a part of our ongoing campaign and promise to further inspire and support business, we have introduced these top end servers,” said Claire Lewis, marketing director at Fasthosts Internet. “Our latest range reflects our mission of working alongside businesses to provide the latest technology and support business growth. Our new 24 and 32 core servers are an excellent opportunity to access huge processing power on an affordable basis. We are confident that even the most demanding professional users will be impressed with the performance and responsiveness.”

Internet television network Netflix has more than 33 million members in 40 countries has announced that it will provide $100,000 prize money to developers around the world who enhance the features, usability, quality, reliability and security for cloud computing. A panel of experts will judge the content submissions and all submissions will be freely available to anyone. The Cloud Prize of Netflix is divided into 10 categories that offer a US$10,000 prize each including Best Example Application Mash-Up, Best Contribution to Code Quality, Best New Feature and Best New Monkey.

“Cloud computing has become a hot topic recently, but the technology is still just emerging,” said Neil Hunt, chief product officer at Netflix. “No doubt many of the key ideas that will take it to the next level have yet to be conceived, explored, and developed. The Netflix Cloud Prize is designed to attract and focus the attention of the most innovative minds to create the advances that will take cloud to the next level.”"We’re laying railroad tracks for cloud adoption and usage,” said Hunt. “The Netflix Cloud Prize is designed to improve understanding of what it takes to build native applications for the cloud that take full advantage of the opportunities for scalable computing.”

According to the press release, the contest is judged by a panel of independent, renowned, technology pioneers Amazon.com Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Werner Vogels, Thoughtworks Chief Scientist Martin Fowler, Strategist Simon Wardley, Telx Senior Vice President and author of Cloudonomics Joe Weinman, University of Aarhus Developer Training Expert Aino Corry and Netflix Cloud Vice President Yury Izrailevsky. The entry period runs from March 13, 2013 to Sept. 15, 2013. Winners will be announced in October with prizes presented at the Amazon Web Services (AWS).

VMware is the leader in providing virtualization and cloud infrastructure solutions, announced today that it appoints Bill Fathers as senior vice president and general manager of VMware’s newly formed Hybrid Cloud Services business unit. “Bill understands how to drive adoption of enterprise cloud services and has a clear vision to build and strengthen our newly-formed Hybrid Cloud Services business unit,” said Pat Gelsinger, CEO of VMware. “With his expertise and proven ecosystem mindset, VMware and its partners will deliver the richest set of complementary cloud offerings and empower our customers to achieve maximum value from their hybrid cloud investments.”

VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger at a Strategic Forum for Institutional Investors outlined the company’s strategy, including plans to expand the software-defined data center with a hybrid cloud service offering and the creation of a new Hybrid Cloud Services business unit that to be led by Bill Fathers. “Enterprise adoption of cloud services is ramping exponentially, and VMware is uniquely positioned to deliver on the promise of hybrid cloud,” said Fathers. “I look forward to leading the new Hybrid Cloud Services Business Unit and partnering with our ecosystem to provide customers the ultimate flexibility in how they deploy existing and new applications – on-premise, off-premise, or through whatever combination works best for their business needs.”

Prior to join in VMware leadership team Fathers served in Savvis, a leading provider of cloud computing and managed hosting where he served as President overseeing sales, marketing, product development, global operations and all corporate functions in North America, Europe and Asia. He has more than 15 years of experience in scaling global services businesses as well as expertise in ecosystem from his years building partnerships with service provider, ISV and system integrator communities.

IT infrastructure solutions provider Savvis, a global leader in cloud infrastructure for businesses, announced the launch of its new data centre for the London metro market. The expansion to Savvis’ operations in Slough, England, increase the site’s total square footage to 100,000 that spreads 8.88 megawatts of power across the site’s two data centres. “This investment marks a significant milestone in Savvis’ commitment to serve the growing infrastructure needs of the European market,” said Jeff Von Deylen, president of Savvis. “We have nearly doubled capacity in Slough to meet growing demand and give businesses in the region the services they need to grow.”

Savvis’ new LO5 data centre initially provides 2.4 megawatts of IT load on 35,000 square feet of raised floor space and it is designed to support power densities in surplus of 150 watts per square foot. “The success of our existing data centre in Slough confirms that businesses view this area as a strategic geographic location,” Von Deylen said. “Our hosting portfolio in Slough allows businesses in the financial services, consumer brands and other verticals to benefit from Savvis’ carrier diversity, interconnectivity and cloud services.”

As it is the Savvis’ fifth data center in the London market and sixth in Europe, it serves growing demand for the company’s full suite of cloud, colocation and managed-hosting services including the recently launched Savvis Symphony Cloud Storage. Savvis has more than 50 data centres worldwide with more than 2 million square feet of gross raised floor space around North America, Europe and Asia. With advanced networks worldwide, the company provides cloud, colocation and managed hosting services to their customers who can meet new market opportunities.

Cloud transformation company dinCloud helps organizations quickly migrate to the cloud through Business and it provides subscription-based services tailored to fit a range of business models resulting in reduced cost, enhanced security, control and productivity. The company has appoints Barry Weber as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) who is an IT veteran. Weber has more than thirty years of proven success as a leader in IT in the retail, financial services, professional services and high tech industries. Weber will be responsible to lead all aspects of infrastructure engineering and future technology development for dinCloud in order to make him as an integral part of the company’s strategic direction and future growth.

Prior to dinCloud, Weber was served as President and CTO for T3 Dynamics, where he was responsible for cloud transformation services and ITIL ITSM process change. His previous roles include vice president of information technology for the Barnes and Noble e-commerce division and CIO of Lieberman Research Worldwide.  “We are very excited to have attracted someone of Barry’s caliber for CTO,” said Kevin Schatzle, CEO of dinCloud. “Barry has the perfect combination of deep technology understanding and process driven operational experience necessary to implement and support our customers’ IT Infrastructure inside their virtual private data center.”

“The focus of dinCloud is clear – to provide a heavenly experience for its customers and partners. For me, this translates into driving dinCloud’s technology and service offerings to provide a full platform for customers at a price point that fits their budget,” said Weber. “While there is a lot of technology available for those that want to leverage cloud, before dinCloud, I hadn’t seen a full service offering that satisfied the needs of this market at the right price. I am excited about the opportunity to take what is real and available today at dinCloud and to join the team in extending it far beyond what is available in other IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) clouds.”