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Top 6 Major Cryptocurrencies and the Differences Between Them – The Merkle

April 8, 2017 | Author: admin

As most cryptocurrency enthusiasts are well aware of, there are different groups of currencies to take into account. The major cryptocurrencies are all offering something seemingly different, whereas the rest are mostly copy-and-paste clones. However, there are some big differences between the major cryptocurrencies, otherwise there would be very little point in distinguishing between them.

One of the main thing that Dash does well is providing its users with additional privacy when completing transactions. The network of Dash Masternodes provides these services, while also incentivizing users to not spend their wallet balance. Additionally, Dash is making quite an impact in the point-of-sale industry, through strategic partnerships. All things considered, Dash provides a valuable service to people looking for those specific traits.

When it comes to finding anonymous cryptocurrencies, one has to look well beyond bitcoin and others. Monero is leading the charge in the anonymity race due to some innovative concepts. Monero has also been embraced by darknet markets because it provides privacy and anonymity one cannot find in bitcoin. Other use cases for Monero are somewhat limited, though.

Although many have quite contrasting opinions regarding Ripple, one cannot ignore the benefits it brings to the table. Unlike other cryptocurrencies, Ripple is not about speculation, but strongly focuses on transactional utility. Dozens of banks around the world are looking at Ripple to improve their transactions and other day-to-day operations moving forward. Over the past few days, Ripples XRP token saw its price increase significantly due to a new banking partnership.

Over the past year or so, many people have compared Ethereum to bitcoin. That is like comparing apples and oranges, since both ecosystems are nothing alike. Ethereum focuses on the technical side of blockchain development, including native tokens, smart contracts, and decentralized applications. It is possible all of these features will come to bitcoin in the future, but it is good to have some competition among cryptocurrency ecosystems.

To a lot of people, litecoin is either a bitcoin cloneor one of the first original outcomes to gain traction. Litecoin offers a different mining algorithm and faster transactions. Interestingly enough, there are some development similarities between bitcoin and litecoin. Segregated Witness, for example, may very well activate on the litecoin network first before it will go into effect among bitcoin users. Litecoin is accepted as a payment solution in various places, although it is nowhere near bitcoins level of acceptance.

It is impossible to deny the success bitcoin has had. Even though bitcoin has some problems that need addressing, such as scalability and privacy, it has become the worlds leading cryptocurrency with relative ease. Bitcoin is designed to make global transactions possible and boost financial inclusion. Moreover, thousand of merchants all over the world have started accepting bitcoin payments, both in the online and offline world.

If you liked this article, follow us on Twitter @themerklenews and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and technology news.

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MapR File System selected by SAP for cloud storage layer – ZDNet

April 8, 2017 | Author: admin

It's news that it may cause big double-takes in the world of Big Data. MapR announced Tuesday that the file system in its Converged Data Platform Hadoop distribution has been chosen by SAP to be used as its cloud storage technology for HANA, SAP IQ, and similar data workloads.

You read that right: MapR File System (MapR-FS), the company's drop-in replacement for the Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS), has been selected by a major software company for general-purpose cloud storage, or at least purposes beyond Hadoop and Spark.

It was always special MapR's file system was its original differentiator in the Hadoop market: unlike standard HDFS, which is optimized for reading, and supports writing to a file only once, MapR-FS fully supports the read-write capabilities of a conventional file system. That still doesn't explain why SAP would use it for broader purposes, of course.

But Vikram Gupta, Senior Director of Product Management at MapR, explained to me that, far from being just an enhanced version of HDFS, MapR-FS was in fact implemented as a standard file system from the get-go. After the core file system was developed, an HDFS-compatible interface was built on top of it, allowing MapR to swap it into its Hadoop distro as a replacement for generic HDFS.

Polymorphic storage Meanwhile, the full file system is still in there, and additional interfaces for NFS and POSIX sit on top of it as well. This allows different file system clients to treat MapR-FS differently, while all of them physically read and write data to the same place. That's important for companies who wouldn't want to use standard HDFS to store the "gold" copies of their data, but also don't want to pay the twin penalties of data movement and duplication.

Apparently, that's important to SAP too.

Distributed storage, and elastic infrastructureOf course, HDFS itself (and thus MapR-FS' HDFS-like functionality) has features that make it work well in the cloud. First, it's a distributed file system, allowing multiple physical disks to be federated into a single storage volume. This allows for geo-distribution and mixing and matching of different drive types (for example, flash storage, SSD and spinning disks) into the system. That, in turn, allows for a storage hierarchy where data of different "temperatures" can be stored on different media. For example, frequently accessed data could be stored in flash while more archival, historical data could be kept on cheaper, spinning media.

HDFS and MapR-FS also have redundancy built in, keeping multiple replicas of each file, where each of those replicas is stored on separate physical drives. This makes both file systems resilient to the failure of any one drive, as bad drives can quickly be removed from the storage cluster and new drives added in their place just as easily. And that ability to add and remove disks so easily allows for the general elasticity that cloud computing demands.

It all makes sense now If Microsoft and Amazon swap in and recommend their own blob storage in their Hadoop services, to substitute for HDFS, then why can't SAP go the other way and take a storage system used in a customized Hadoop distribution as a more mainstream file store?

And this MapR-SAP deal isn't a one-off either. When I spoke with Gupta, he was adamant that additional, similar deals would be pursued with other licensees. MapR really sees its Converged Data Platform as just that, a platform. And and one that transcends Hadoop, Spark and maybe even traditional "data" itself.

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This Cloud Computing ETF Is Loaded With FANG Stocks | Stock … – Investor’s Business Daily

April 8, 2017 | Author: admin

It's been years since cloud computing became a technology buzzword, and the buzz hasn't really let up. Now, an ETF that tracks that industry is in IBD's ETF Leaders screen.

First Trust Cloud Computing ETF (SKYY) holds 30 stocks in the cloud business, either providers or heavy users of cloud computing the data and software shared over the internet rather than on PC hard drives.

Some companies in the fund are cloud-computing pure plays, while others are big users or merely provide support for the cloud-computing space, according to First Trust. About 10% of the portfolio is in what the fund calls technology conglomerates, which are large companies "with business models that indirectly utilize or support the use of cloud-computing technology," the prospectus explains.

Amazon.com (AMZN), for instance, got about 15% of sales last year from Web Services, its cloud business that has emerged as a major provider of cloud infrastructure services.

Facebook (FB), Netflix (NFLX) and Amazon are the three biggest holdings. With Alphabet (GOOGL) as another large holding, First Trust Cloud Computing is somewhat of a "FANG" ETF, the term used to describe the four internet giants Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google's parent company, Alphabet.

The FANG stocks are trading near highs and have contributed to the ETF's success. So have other components. SAP (SAP), the German business software company, has made a strong advance since a July bottom. Equinix (EQIX), a real estate investment trust that owns server farms, has advanced well for more than two years, despite a plateau in the second half of 2016.

VMware (VMW) is still recovering from a deep decline. Apple (AAPL) has rallied more than 20% from a Jan. 6 breakout and has been a big contributor to the ETF's gains this year. Adobe Systems (ADBE) has climbed about 18% from a 111.19 entry.

The ETF is trading near record highs. Although it's extended from its most recent breakout in July, shares are just above the 38.45 buy point of a three-weeks-tight pattern. Such formations can be used to buy shares, though they are not as prime opportunities as breakouts from bases. Shares have found support at the 50-day moving average since their run started in July, a positive sign.

First Trust Cloud Computing is up about 12% so far this year. Last year, it climbed 15.4% and had its best year in 2013, when it roared more than 33%. The ETF started trading in 2011. The biggest price decline was 27% in the fund's first year of operation.

Stocks the ETF buys must have a minimum market capitalization of $100 million. The median market cap is $34.3 billion, making it a predominantly big-cap fund.

The IBD ETF Leaders index shows the performance of a model portfolio of exchange traded funds that are leading the overall market. A computer algorithm selects the ETFs based on relative strength and other objective performance ratings, with periodic adjustments for market trends and conditions. The universe from which the ETFs are selected includes the funds listed below.

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Research and Markets – $18.9 Billion Cloud Computing Market in Europe 2017-2021 Featuring Amazon, Salesforce … – PR Newswire (press release)

April 8, 2017 | Author: admin

The European Cloud Computing industry is expected to generate total revenues of $18.9bn in 2016.

Whilst not on the scale of the industry in US, European Cloud computing continues to be a quickly developing and fast growing industry. Organizations have sought cloud solutions to reduce expenditure, widen productivity and scale, and increase computing power in light of Big Data issues. Western European countries are ranked significantly higher on the World Economic Forum Network Readiness rankings than those in the East.

Who Should Read This Report

Executive leaders and business unit leaders, procurement managers, advisors, Investors who have responsibilities to set their organization on a Digital transformation and cloud journey.

Readers will get a deeper understanding of the current adoption level, market drivers and challenges of cloud services in European organizations which would help IT vendors to market their products and services effectively in Western and Eastern European region. The report covers the impact of Brexit and how cloud services vendor can penetrate European market keeping in mind other issues related to data privacy and protection, data accessibility laws, email spam laws etc.

Cloud service providers can look into the IT spend areas by countries and their forecasts till 2021. With growing adoption of cloud services, European enterprises continue to see IT security as a major barrier to adoption which is continuously haunting the enterprises.

Key Topics Covered:

1. Europe Cloud Computing Market - An Overview

2. Europe Cloud Computing Market Size and Forecast

3. Europe Cloud Computing Market, By Cloud Models

4. Europe Cloud Computing Market, By Country Breakdown

5. Europe Cloud Computing Market - Market Approach Post Brexit 5.1. Adoption of Cloud in Europe 5.2. Competitive Analysis - Cloud Services Players 5.3. Europe Cloud Computing Market Trends and Challenges 5.3.1. Data Issues 5.3.2. Accessibility Issues 5.3.3. Marketing and Email Issues 5.3.4. Legal Contract Issues 5.3.5. Brexit Issues 5.3.6. GTM Approach

6. Europe Cloud Computing Adoption Trends 6.1. Western Europe Cloud Market Insights 6.1.1. Cloud Deployment Plan 6.1.2. Key Cloud Adoption Drivers 6.1.3. Key Cloud Adoption Challenges 6.1.4. Key Cloud Services Adoption Methods 6.1.5. Investments in Bundled Services 6.1.6. Hybrid Cloud Usage 6.1.7. Key Drivers for Public Cloud Services Adoption 6.1.8. Key Challenges for Public Cloud Services Adoption 6.1.9. SaaS Adoption 6.2. Eastern Europe Cloud Market Insights 6.2.1. Key Drivers of Cloud Services Adoption 6.2.2. Cloud Services Adoption, by Cloud Type (SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS) 6.2.3. Cloud Services Budgets 6.2.4. Key Benefits of Cloud Services Adoption 6.2.5. Key Challenges for Cloud Services Adoption 6.2.6. Infrastructure Migration to Cloud Timeline 6.2.7. Key Recommendations

7. UK - Cloud Computing - An overview

8. UK Government Cloud Spending

9. UK Cloud Computing - Market Size and Forecasts

10. UK Cloud Computing Market, By Cloud Models

11. UK Cloud Computing Market - Competitive Analysis 11.1. Amazon.com, Inc. 11.2. International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) 11.3. Microsoft Corporation 11.4. Salesforce.com, inc.

12. Germany Cloud Computing Market - An Overview

13. Germany Cloud Computing Market Size and Forecast

14. Germany Cloud Computing Market, By Cloud Models

15. Germany Cloud Computing Market - Competitive Analysis 15.1. Amazon.com, Inc. 15.2. International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) 15.3. Microsoft Corporation 15.4. Salesforce.com, inc.

16. Cloud Security: Continues to Remain a Concern

17. Key Aspects for Cloud Service Provider (CSP) Selection

18. Key Recommendations

19. Europe Cloud Service IT Spending (US $ Million), By Countries, 2014-2020

For more information about this report visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/d8bv4n/cloud_computing

Media Contact:

Laura Wood, Senior Manager press@researchandmarkets.com

For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900

U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/research-and-markets---189-billion-cloud-computing-market-in-europe-2017-2021-featuring-amazon-salesforce-microsoft-and-ibm-300436632.html

SOURCE Research and Markets

http://www.researchandmarkets.com

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Okta rings the bell on IPO as shares soar – Cloud Tech

April 8, 2017 | Author: admin

The cloud tech IPO landscape has arguably stalled in recent years with the M&A landscape heating up alongside it but one company looking to buck that trend is identity and management provider Okta, who officially rang the bell today after going public last month.

According to CNBC, the companys shares went up 37% in the aftermath of its public debut, trading at around $23.

Were proud that today is Oktas first day as a public company, a statement from co-founders Todd McKinnon and Frederic Kerrest said. Were all familiar with the Okta saying always on. That includes today, the day of our IPO, and each day that follows. It speaks to the mission-critical nature of our products, and acknowledges the trust that we must build with our customers every single day.

The companys introduction, as per its S-1 form published on March 13, details its customer base more than 2,900 customers in over 185 countries, with 20th Century Fox, Adobe and LinkedIn among the standouts and its cloud-centric focus.

We believe that we have the opportunity to serve the identity needs not just of the largest companies, but of organisations of all sizes that want to safely and securely move to the cloud, the note explains under our opportunity. We estimate that there is at least an $18 billion global opportunity to serve organisations of all sizes by providing an integrated approach to managing and securing all of their internal identities.

Back in February, a report from Byron Deeter, of Bessemer Venture Partners, argued the state of the cloud was in flux last year, but has since roared back. 2016s IPOs in the cloud space Apptio, Blackline, Coupa, Everbridge, and the standout, Twilio represented the lowest figure since the financial crisis of 2008. Yet the various M&A activity alongside that suggested a serious amount of work going on underneath: Microsoft buying LinkedIn;, Oracle buying NetSuite, and so on.

Okta was notably one of the original cloud-based investments made by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). In a post on the venture capital firms blog, Ben Horowitz wrote that Okta has become the cloud identity company (emphasis theirs). Through relentless hard work, determination and ingenuity, they defeated their startup competitors and fulfilled their original vision.

According to the S-1, Oktas revenue grew to $85.9 million in the 2016 fiscal year, putting alongside it net losses of $76.3 million for the same period.

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Amazon amp; Microsoft: Are These Cloud Computing Leaders in a Growth Slowdown? – Zacks.com

April 8, 2017 | Author: admin

The cloud and cloud computing have become incredible buzzwords. It seems most people are floating around the idea, as the term ambiguously suggests, but dont seem to have a grasp on how the cloud functions.

Believed to be invented by American psychologist and computer scientist J.C.R. Licklider in the 1960s, cloud computing was created to connect data for people between locations and times. Now, this technology has vastly grown and made publicly available by industry leaders Amazon (AMZN - Free Report) and Microsoft (MSFT - Free Report) .

What is the Cloud?

In basic terms, cloud computing is accessing and storing data over the Internet. To the end user, benefits of the cloud include: the ability to deliver and manage their own computer resources, scale up or scale down computing levels as needed, and only pay for the amount of computing power they use.

Synergy Research Group shows cloud vendor revenues reached $148 billion in 2016, which accounts for 25% annualized growth. Clearly, this is a vast and fast growing space. Leaders in the movement are changing the traditional notion of accessing data through hardware by introducing the idea of retrieving data through space, or the cloud.

At the end of the day, this data needs to be stored somewhere. Companies which offer cloud computing services allocate massive and secure servers to store the data being held in the cloud. Even though cloud data is not being stored in users personal hard drives, is it held somewhere and may be vulnerable to failures.

With the rate of growth this technology is flying at, it seems cloud computing will soon take over the necessities of personal hard drive space. The two popularly known leaders of the cloud computing business are known to be: Amazon with AWS (Amazon Web Service, Inc) and Microsoft with Azure.

How Fast are the Amazon and Microsoft Growing?

Amazons cloud computing service, AWS, launched in 2006. They advertise themselves to deliver large computing capabilities and capacities which cost less and take less time than a company building physical servers. As of 2016, AWS offers more than 70 services.

Year over Year (Y/Y) growth of AWS sales for Amazon were increasing until, and as of now peaked on, Q2 of 2015 at 81%. Since, AWS revenues have been seeing high growth, but not to the level it once did. In Q4 of 2016, Y/Y net sales growth for AWS was 47%.

A similar story is shown with Microsofts Azure. Y/Y revenue growth (GAAP) of their Azure business capped, to date, in Q2 of 2016 at 127% growth. Just like AWS, the later quarters show sales growth at a decreasing rate with Q4 2016 Y/Y revenue growth (GAAP) at 93%.

So Who Cares?

Two of the leaders in cloud computing platforms have not been able to increase their sales growth of their respective cloud businesses. In an industry which is infamous for how fast it is expanding into the hands of businesses and individuals, these numbers are concerning.

It looks like the maximum potential for Amazons and Microsofts sales growth for their cloud computing businesses have capped. Unless either company releases break through cloud computing technology or breaking price points, their sales growth rates look to continually decrease considering current levels.

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CLOUD COMPUTING Cisco Announces New Developer Tools from AppDynamics – CIO Today

April 8, 2017 | Author: admin

Hot on the heels of its recent acquisition of application performance management company AppDynamics, Cisco announced today that its newest subsidiary will be launching a new developer toolkit as part of its Spring 2017 release. The toolkit is aimed at helping application development teams within enterprises better manage their application development lifecycles.

The goal of the AppDynamics' Developer Toolkit is to accelerate the process of building and launching Web and mobile apps for corporations, according to Cisco. The toolkit includes tools to build, test, analyze, and improve on a companys application products. The toolkit is generally available starting today.

Support for Mobile App Developers

"Today, the application is the business, creating immense pressure on organizations to deliver new experiences that 'wow' customers," said Bhaskar Sunkara, chief technical officer and head of product at AppDynamics. "With our new Developer Toolkit, companies can give their application teams the context of how their code impacts the business and deliver innovation like a digital leader."

Included in the capabilities of the new toolkit is support for new languages and development tools, such as Go (or GoLang) and Xamarin, a C#-based platform used by developers to build native user interfaces for apps on the iOS, Android, and Windows environments. The toolkit also includes new extensions to help development teams integrate and test their apps before and after launch.

AppDynamics' spring release also includes updates to its Enterprise iQ and Business iQ products, both of which are designed to help app developers monitor and improve the experiences their customers have with their apps. The Business iQ update, for example, will include a Unique Crash Tool to analyze crash reports and correlate them with business metrics such as customer conversion rates or revenue. A new Android Studio plugin, meanwhile, should help developers reduce errors when delivering apps for mobile operating systems.

Tracking User Experiences

Business iQ is also being upgraded with new tools to allow developers to track the way their users interact with their applications, including information on events such as scrolling through a screen, tapping a button or link, or using other gestures to interact with a mobile app.

Cisco's goal for the new tools is to help enterprises better meet increasing customer expectations for positive user experiences by making it easier for development operations to overcome the difficulties inherent in coordinating work between multiple divisions within an organization by providing a single tool that everyone involved in the development process can use.

The spring release comes only weeks after Cisco acquired AppDynamics for $3.7 billion on March 23. The subsidiary is now a business unit within Ciscos IoT and Applications division. AppDynamics, which primarily focuses on managing the performance and availability of applications deployed across cloud computing and data center environments, should help Ciscos strategy of bulking up its cloud services offerings.

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The Doyle Report: How to Make Money Selling the Cloud – MSPmentor

April 8, 2017 | Author: admin

GreenPages, the Kittery, Maine, digital solutions company, is 25-years old this April. If ever there were an organization that embodies staying power amid wave after wave of digital disruption, GreenPages is it.

In letter to the industry, CEO Ron Dupler describes his companys evolution. We have moved from a supply chain organization that offered a faster, better and cheaper method for procuring IT goods, to an industry leader in cloud computing, offering strategic consulting, architecture, systems integration and systems management for the hybrid cloud computing models fueling the digital era, Dupler writes.

Ron Dupler, CEO, GreenPages

Which brings me to you: are benefitting from the cloud, or still operating with a wariness towards it? A surprisingly number of partners have adopted the latter stance. Dont just take my word for it. Consider the findings from the CompTIA 2016 State of the Channel Study, which found eroding enthusiasm for cloud computing among digital services providers.

While 4 in 10 channel firms cite cloud as the No. 1 reason to be optimistic about the channels future, another third identifies it as one of the main reasons to think negatively about the years ahead, CompTIA concluded. Channel respondents describing the clouds impact on the channel in the last five years as extremely positive has gone from 63 percent to 37 percent in the last two years.

Experts and practitioners who have embraced the cloud say theres no reason not to dive in. This includes John Scola, global vice president of cloud channels & transformation at SAP. Hes responsible for SAP cloud partner revenue globally and has outlined several ways partners can make money in a new LinkedIn blog. Here are some highlights:

1) Take Note of the Customer Journey Take a look at the entire customer journey, which includes but is not limited to the job design, build, test, deploy and support cycles, Scola says. Take note of the questions youre asked regularly, the special notes your consultants receive from clients and the gaps you see in the customers processes. If youre not aware of whats happening at each stage you are likely not serving the client to your fullest capacity and missing opportunities for growth within that account.

2) Commit Yourself to Package Your IP Our experience shows that if you can identify IP within your business offering and package it for marketing and delivery that it will first attract more customers and also increase the profitability of your business, he adds.

3) Finally, Connect with a Program That Rewards the Value You Provide SAPs Cloud Choice program rewards partners for doing different things. For example, it provides referralfees to partners who send business SAPs way. It also provides incentives and support to those who build an app for the SAP marketplace. Other vendors have similar programs. The point is there are options for almost any kind of business value you provide.

John Scola, global vice president of cloud channels & transformation, SAP

Then theres Ingram Micro. In advance of the upcoming Ingram Micro 2017 Cloud Summit for partners, Ingram Micro recently published a list of eight practical tips for developing best practices that can improve cloud sales, marketing, profitability, and business growth for VARs and MSPs.

The list suggests partners do the following:

1) Build a solution

2) Choose vendor partners

3) Develop a pricing model

4) Establish KPIs as lead indicators

5) Conduct financial planning and analysis

6) Build operational processes

7) Develop a marketing strategy

8)Enable the sales team

Complete details can be found here. Be sure to check out the advice for Step 3, Developing a Pricing Model, which is one of the most difficult challenges when it comes to building a successful cloud business.

One of the biggest mistakes a partner can make is building a solution that is not scalable for future growth and change, Ingram advises. Not automating certain operational processes is another red flag. Often a partner will price their solution without realizing all of the operational touch costs that can escalate and eat up profits.

Another point worth noting: building a cloud business takes time. Consider what Green Cloud Technologies, a cloud services provider of IaaS, DRaaS, and DaaS solutions, discovered while building its business.

Green Cloud has been around for almost 6 years. When we launched, the plan was to get telecom agents to sell cloud and disaster recovery, says Charles House, executive vice president of sales and marketing at Green Cloud. In 2012, the agent community wasn't ready to cloud yet. There was no pain; they still made good money selling a commodity product with a short sales cycle that paid good residuals. Fast forward to 2017 [and] I am finally seeing the agent channel move into the cloud. We are seeing wins. The agents are selling an IT product even though they aren't really sure how it works. I am glad to see them finally come around.

Isnt it time you did, too?

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Armor Raises $89M to Bolster Secure Hosting – eSecurity Planet – eSecurity Planet

April 8, 2017 | Author: admin

Secure cloud hosting vendor formerly known as Firehost gets a capital infusion.

Secure cloud hosting provider Armor announced on April 5 that it has raised $89 million in a new round of equity financing. The money will be used to help grow Armor's global business efforts.

The funding round was led by ST Telemedia (STT), which will now be a joint lead shareholder with The Stephens Group (TSG), the existing majority shareholder. Total equity funding in Armor now stands at $149 million.

"Security is a baseline concern as organizations seek to move to the cloud," Nikhil Eapen, chief strategy and investment officer at STT, said in a statement. "For years, Armor has quietly proven the value of their solutions by protecting a large and respectable customer base in a variety of industries."

Armor got its start back in 2009 a secure hosting company known as Firehost. In August 2015, the company rebranded as Armor as a way to emphasize the security aspects of the organization.

Armor has two core product offerings. The Armor Complete platform provides cloud hosting with built-in security capabilities to help mitigate and reduce security risks. The Armor Anywhere platform provides managed security for Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure cloud deployments.

"Much of our growth has been attributed to word-of-mouth and customers seeking us out as they searched for a reliable security partner," Chris Drake, founder and CEO nof Armor, said in a statement. " Our goal is for the global community to embrace what our customers already know Armors end-to-end cloud security orchestration platform is the best approach to protect sensitive data backed by measurable results."

"This additional capital and partnership with STT will help spur innovation, drive brand awareness and broaden global distribution channels," Drake added.

Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at eSecurityPlanet and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.

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Pebble releases update so that watches will work when cloud servers shut down – Liliputing

April 7, 2017 | Author: admin

Pebble was one of the first major players in the smartwatch space. But when Fitbit acquired the company late last year, pretty much the entire product lineup was scrapped and plans were made to only continue supporting Pebble software and services through the end of 2017.

But that doesnt necessarily mean that your Pebble watch will become useless at the end of the year.

Pebble has just released updates to its Android and iOS apps that will allow you to keep using Pebble watches even after the Pebble cloud servers shut down.

The new apps will let you skip the login process, sideload apps, and install updated firmware even if a Pebble authentication server cannot be reached something that you can be pretty sure will happen in the future.

Pebble has also released new developer options, including an offline mode option that will prevent an app from even trying to communicate with Pebble servers. Developers can also sideload a service configuration to change which servers the Pebble app communicates with, which could allow developers to continue offering cloud-based services for Pebble smartwatch users even after the Pebble servers are gone.

Now its just up to developers to decide whether they want to continue investing in updates to their apps for a dead platform.

Other changes in the latest app include the removal of options to suggest new features or contact support, and health data collection and telemetry reporting have been removed.

via The Verge

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