Judging from the advancements in Mobile Computing in 2011, it is safe to assume that the market will grow exponentially in 2012. Developers are moving from building small mobile apps for iOS and Android, to full-scale integration with backend applications – integration that will tie into customer relationship management, enterprise resource management systems and more. More people and applications will not only be using mobile phones, but also incorporating many types of remote devices, including remote sensors. Middleware will be necessary to support these types of applications through advanced messaging and complex event processing (CEP) technology.

This year, the industry is likely to witness the intersection between middleware and big data. CIOs and decision-makers look at big data as a way to store and analyze vast amounts of information. Middleware can help to leverage and extend that information into applications via a more robust process and analytics platform.

Cloud computing- the buzzword of 2011 in the IT world- will continue to be huge. As Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solutions continue to mature, and the need for PaaS solutions to support more enterprise-related applications continues to increase, cloud-based solutions will grow beyond the core application server to include other middleware capabilities such as integration, workflow and process management. This is because organizations are eager take advantage of everything cloud has to offer – more effective economics, the shift to operational expenses from capital expenses, increased ability to scale, quicker time to market, etc. As was the case during the early stages of on-premise applications a lot of organizations have raised concerns regarding the development of cloud standards. Although the market is still young, standards will play a key role in its subsequent success.

A side-effect of increased migration to the cloud is that more developers are handling deployments in addition to development. As the emergence of this new role of developer operations, or dev-ops, becomes more apparent, developers will begin taking on more and more responsibilities. In addition, greater levels of abstraction, as a result of PaaS and cloud in general, will allow less skilled developers to create resources like sophisticated e-commerce websites without the skills needed in the past. Innovation leaders in the middleware and cloud market will come up with solution platforms which make it easier for developers to complete these tasks in the cloud, allowing more people to become involved in building applications than ever before.

A major pain point echoing through industry has been the need to scale businesses. As the global economy meanders through continued malaise, organizations are battling to maintain growth- emphasizing the need to scale without increasing fixed costs. CIOs are focused on avoiding vendor lock-in and Enterprises continue to express interest in more standards-based, open technologies.,

Talking about important standards in 2012, HTML 5 will see greater adoption, especially as a standard to support mobile applications. The benefit of HTML 5 is that it provides the richness of an application but also offers greater portability across various mobile platforms. Another standard that is receiving increased attention is Business Process Model and Notation 2 (BPMN2). This standard has made a place for itself amidst other technologies, such as Business Process Execution Language (BPEL).An increased interest in technologies like Advanced Messaging Queuing Protocol (AMQP) is expected. There has also been significant demand for a standards-based wire protocol in industries like financial services and transportation. People are tired of proprietary messaging protocols. There is also a lot of discussion around cloud standards. Although the market is still young, one may expect to see more standards starting to mature here for the benefit of interoperability and choice for the customer.

The IT forecast for 2012 is bright for vendors who pay heed to the consumer and make a conscious effort to align their cloud offerings to allow new economies of scale in IT and contribute true value to their customers’ business.

Red Hat customers and partners continue to deliver compelling business value and innovation utilizing the Red Hat technology portfolio. This award program provides an opportunity to recognize and honor these organizations for their cutting-edge usage of Red Hat solutions. Organizations have the opportunity to submit their nomination in seven various categories, and category winners will be selected based on the uniqueness, complexity and magnitude of their Red Hat implementation.

Categories for the 2012 Red Hat Innovation Awards include:
Optimized Systems – Recognition of striking performance, scalability and/or groundbreaking enhancements delivered with open source solutions.

Next Generation Business Application – Recognition of overall performance of creating, maintaining and deploying successful next generation business applications, be it traditional, mobile or cloud, all while using Red Hat solutions.

Outstanding Open Source Architecture – Recognition of a combination of Red Hat’s platform, middleware, cloud and/or storage solutions to create innovative architectures based on Red Hat solutions.

Superior Alternatives – Recognition of the most successful migration from proprietary solutions to Red Hat’s platform, middleware, cloud and/or storage solutions.

Extensive Partner Ecosystem – Recognition of the most successful use of Red Hat’s expanding partner ecosystem to create innovative architectures based on Red Hat’s platform, middleware, cloud and/or storage solutions.

Best Middleware Implementation – Recognition of the most cutting-edge utilization of the JBoss Enterprise Middleware portfolio.

Best Storage Implementation – Recognition of the most cutting-edge utilization of Red Hat Storage software.

Submissions for the Red Hat Innovation Awards will be accepted until March 16, 2012. A winner will be recognized in each of the seven categories. From these category winners, a Red Hat Innovator of the Year will be selected by the community through online voting, and will be announced during an awards ceremony at the 2012 Red Hat Summit and JBoss World.

Each submission will be evaluated by a panel of experts in the field of business and open source technology, including: Joe Brockmeier, editor/writer, ReadWriteWeb; Lee Congdon, CIO, Red Hat; Jim Kaskade, Stealth Startup CEO, PARC EIR, GigaOM analyst; Jay Lyman, senior analyst, Enterprise Software, 451 Research; Scott Merrill, contributor, TechCrunch; Craig Muzilla, vice president and general manager, Middleware, Red Hat.

For more information, or to submit a nomination for the 2012 Red Hat Innovation Awards, please visit: www.redhat.com/summit/awards. For more information on the 2012 Red Hat Summit and JBoss World, visit: www.redhat.com/summit.

If a business has more than two computer terminals, it more than likely has a network. The network enables an organisation to easily share, communicate, interact, perform transactions – the list is endless – in fact, many organisations rely entirely on the network to operate. Whilst some small businesses have little more than a modest local area network (LAN), perhaps connecting a small server to a handful of terminals, the largest enterprises are capable of handling networks of massive data centres, as well as regional LANs and a multitude of components, linked to locations around the world.

Our networks are beginning to bow under the pressure of the colossal data volumes that industry, government and consumers are now handling and transmitting. In fact, IDC predicts that the world’s data doubles every two years, with 1.8 zettabytes of data1 created during 2011. Many providers have recently – and very publicly – felt the impact of severe outages, causing millions worldwide to go without access to services, and these companies are still feeling the repercussions today. Despite ploughing extensive budgets into business continuity to protect customers (as well as an organisation’s integrity) from server or data centre downtime, the network does not often get the attention it deserves.

Now is the time to really think about your organisation’s network and whether it is up to the job. Could your network let you down at the worst possible time, or is your business taking smart (and often simple) measures to mitigate disaster?

Ignorance is bliss
One of the primary challenges for technology-dependent organisations is that the network manager, or team, typically has little visibility with business managers. The network manager finds himself or herself in a bind as they are driven by sourcing and maintaining reliable, robust technology, but the board is driven by budgets and efficiencies. Senior management often doesn’t see the need to throw money at a problem that doesn’t appear to exist, until it is too late.

Let’s go back to basics for a moment. The fact is the network is a complex and often misunderstood business entity. ‘Network’ is often used as a ‘catch-all’ term for two or three parallel networks – at least one for storage (reliability, guaranteed data integrity and non-blocking performance) and one for data (typically unpredictable bandwidth and frustrating levels of complexity). Separate switches, host bus adapters (HBAs), network interface cards (NICs) and cables are required for each network. This clutter causes day-to-day pressures on IT department time, budgets, power consumption and cooling.

The IT department is often charged with building their own network monitoring and diagnostics tools to claw back some form of network visibility. Whilst they offer some form of check on switches, bandwidth capacity and the flow of data through the network, they rarely cover all requirements, nor provide rapid diagnosis before outages can occur.

Planning, testing and simulation building ensures that business applications are resilient against stress and aren’t close to falling over anytime soon. Network managers are concerned about what the network is doing, while not knowing, and not being able to do anything about it. Knowing about bottlenecks and where they are, whether the network is near its limits, and whether a component is near the end of its useful life, are key to keeping the network robust.

Prepare for change
Business change is also a key variable on the capability of the network – whether this is a large influx of new employees, a merger, or a new service or product reliant on delivery by the network. How can your organisation account for business change if you do not know that it is a day away from imploding? The network should be resilient enough to cope with today’s demands, as well as those of the future. This is particularly true for organisations that rely on the network to deliver products and services to customers.

Systems upgrades, new business applications and anything else that sucks up network bandwidth should be prepared for. Changes can cascade throughout the business, and these situations are difficult to work back from.

A Cloudy outlook
Given the widespread adoption of Cloud computing, enterprise mobility and virtualisation, it is important to understand if the network is ready to support the planned growth of the business and respond quickly to the unexpected opportunity without time-consuming and expensive architectural changes. Business managers also need to control levels of customer expectation and, with any new network model, manage user education.

Whilst Cloud computing and virtualisation deliver considerable efficiencies, this has only added to the demands imposed on the corporate network infrastructure. Both clearly mean more traffic travelling across corporate networks and beyond the firewall, whilst virtualisation relies on one server to host multiple virtual machines and keep up with demand during peak times; the Cloud has its distributed applications, residing on different machines and all performing different parts of the vital business process.

“We need double capacity for tomorrow’s launch…”
The business case for the network does not end here; business leaders need to recognise it for the foundation on which all progressive businesses depend, and its role in underpinning all future business growth. In today’s fast-paced business environment, business leaders often need to respond quickly and therefore having visibility of what a business has is crucial. Being able to flex and react to change without affecting performance – whether it is to increase capacity within 24 hours, or simply add a few more users – will give an organisation a core edge on competitors. It is for this reason that technologies like Ethernet Fabric are making significant in-roads in achieving converged, highly reliable, robust and resilient, low latency networks.

Keeping well-maintained and monitored networks that deliver continued resilience if something does go wrong means a certain amount of trust needs to be imparted onto the network manager, so that budget is not released at the last minute, by which time it may be too late. Visibility (of the network team and the network itself), preparation and planning and keeping a firm grip on projects, upgrades and applications can ensure the network is fit for the future and cemented on the corporate agenda.

“Market demand was strong and we executed well during the fourth quarter, a combination that provided a strong finish to a year with record revenues,” said Interactive Intelligence founder and CEO, Dr. Donald Brown. “In 2011, we firmly established Interactive Intelligence as a vendor-of-choice at the high end of the contact center market. We continue to consistently grow faster than the overall market with our on-premise solutions and are emerging as a leader with our cloud-based offering.

“We show ever-increasing momentum among customer cloud deployments, which is the highest growth segment of our market. In 2012, we plan to capitalize on this momentum and step up investments to further enhance our brand recognition, extend our product capabilities and gain additional market share.

“Our order mix is expected to continue shifting toward the cloud, which combined with strategic investments in sales, marketing and development is expected to reduce our reported profitability from a near-term perspective. However, we’re confident in the long-term viability of our business model, and our ability to generate shareholder value. We’re addressing a multi-billion dollar market opportunity, and we’re taking focused action to grow the business for long-term financial success driven by increasing recurring revenue,” concluded Brown.

Fourth-Quarter 2011 Financial Highlights:
Orders: Total orders increased 17 percent year-over-year, with cloud-based orders up over 500 percent year-over-year. The company signed 101 new customers during the fourth quarter of 2011, up 29 percent from 78 new customers during the same period in 2010, including 12 new customers for its cloud-based offering during the fourth quarter of 2011, up from 8 during the same period in 2010.

Revenue: Total revenues were $57.7 million, with non-GAAP revenue of $58.0 million, an increase of 14 percent on a year-over-year basis. Recurring revenues, which include both maintenance contracts and cloud-based subscriptions, increased 23 percent to $24.4 million and accounted for 42 percent of total revenues. Cloud-based revenues increased 61 percent year-over-year to $3.8 million. Product revenues were $27.3 million and service revenues were $6.0 million, up 9 percent and 4 percent, respectively, compared to the fourth quarter of last year.

Operating Income: GAAP operating income for the fourth quarter was $6.5 million, with an operating margin of 11.3 percent, compared to $9.1 million and an operating margin of 18.0 percent for the fourth quarter 2010. Non-GAAP operating income was $8.7 million with an operating margin of 15.0 percent, compared to $10.5 million and an operating margin of 20.7 percent for the fourth quarter of 2010. The year-over-year decline in operating margin was primarily due to the shift toward cloud-based orders, which are recognized ratably over the life of the contract, and away from on-premise product orders, which are typically recognized as revenue on an upfront basis.

Net Income: GAAP net income for the fourth quarter was $4.6 million based on a 30.0 percent effective tax rate, and includes an adjustment of the full year effective tax rate down to 33.4 percent. This compares to GAAP net income of $7.1 million based on a 22.3 percent effective tax rate for the same period last year. GAAP diluted earnings per share (EPS) for the fourth quarter was $0.23 based on 19.9 million weighted average diluted shares outstanding, compared to $0.37 based on 19.3 million shares outstanding for the same period last year. Non-GAAP net income for the fourth quarter was $7.3 million based on a 16.6 percent effective tax rate, compared to $10.4 million based on a 0.5 percent effective tax rate for the same period last year. Non-GAAP EPS for the fourth quarter was $0.37, compared to $0.54 for the same period last year.

Full Year 2011 Financial Highlights:
Orders: Total orders increased 28 percent compared to 2010, with product orders up 11 percent and cloud-based orders up 179 percent year-over-year. The company signed 301 new customers in 2011, up 16 percent from 259 new customers during 2010, including 42 new cloud customers during 2011, up 91 percent from 22 new customers during 2010. Cloud-based orders were 23 percent of total orders in 2011, up from 11 percent of total orders in 2010.

Revenue: Total revenues were $209.5 million, with non-GAAP revenue of $210.1 million, an increase of 26 percent on a year-over-year basis. Recurring revenues, which include both maintenance contracts and cloud-based subscriptions, increased 33 percent to $91.4 million and accounted for 44 percent of total revenues. Cloud-based revenues increased 96 percent year-over-year to $12.2 million. Product revenues were $94.7 million and service revenues were $23.4 million, up 19 percent and 32 percent, respectively, compared to 2010.

Operating Income: GAAP operating income was $21.6 million, with an operating margin of 10.3 percent, compared to $23.4 million and an operating margin of 14.1 percent for 2010. Non-GAAP operating income was $29.3 million, with an operating margin of 13.9 percent, compared to $27.8 million and an operating margin of 16.7 percent for 2010.
The year-over-year decline in operating margin was primarily due to the shift toward cloud-based orders, which are recognized ratably over the life of the contract, and away from on-premise product orders, which are typically recognized as revenue on an upfront basis.

Net Income: GAAP net income was $14.8 million based on a 33.4 percent effective tax rate, compared to $14.9 million based on a 34.0 percent effective tax rate for 2010. GAAP EPS was $0.74 based on 19.9 million weighted average diluted shares outstanding, compared to $0.79 based on 18.9 million shares outstanding for 2010. Non-GAAP net income was $24.9 million based on a 16.7 percent effective tax rate, compared to $26.5 million based on a 1.8 percent effective tax rate for 2010 and non-GAAP EPS was $1.25, compared to $1.40 for 2010.

Deferred Revenue: Total deferred revenue was $75.4 million as of Dec. 31, 2011, up 39 percent from $54.1 million at the end of 2010. Unrecognized future cloud contracts were $34.6 million as of Dec. 31, 2011, up 172 percent from $12.6 million at the end of 2010.

Cash and Cash Flow: As of Dec. 31, 2011, the company had cash and cash equivalents and investments of $92.5 million, an increase compared to $85.9 million at the end of 2010. During 2011, the company generated operating cash of $21.4 million and used $13.4 million for acquisitions and $13.3 million for purchase of property and equipment, including significant fourth-quarter purchases to support facilities expansions and cloud operations.

A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures has been provided in the financial statement tables. An explanation of these measures is also included below under the heading “Non-GAAP Measures.”

Additional Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2011 Highlights:
For the fourth quarter of 2011, the company had 6 orders over $1.0 million and 31 additional orders over $250,000, compared to 5 and 26, respectively, during the same period last year.

For the full year 2011, the company had 17 orders over $1.0 million and 96 additional orders over $250,000, compared to 19 and 71, respectively, for 2010.

The company launched Customer Interaction Center™ (CIC) version 4.0, a major new release of its flagship all-in-one IP communications software suite, which added real-time speech analytics, increased scalability, Web portal access, and a private cloud deployment model.

The company launched Quick Spin, a cloud-based communications-as-a-service trial program, providing a risk-free introduction to sophisticated applications with set-up time in minutes.

The company was named among the Top 500 Software and Service Providers by Software Magazine for the eleventh consecutive year.

The company was positioned in the Leaders Quadrant in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Contact Center Infrastructure, Worldwide report for the fourth consecutive year.

The company was honored by Frost & Sullivan with its Company of the Year, Contact Center Systems North America award for the second consecutive year.

The company was ranked by Forbes Magazine among America’s Best Small Companies for the second consecutive year.

The new appointments include:

Sufian Dweik, Regional Manager – Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
With a wealth of networking sales and technical experience, Sufian Dweik will assume the role of MENA Regional Manager. In this position, he will oversee all aspects of sales management including product education, sales training and strategy development to ensure the company’s continued growth the region.
Dweik has a breadth of experience with 18 years’ IT industry experience, 12 of which were in the Middle East. He spent the last six years at Cisco leading the vendor’s Abu Dhabi Public Sector team. Prior to Cisco, Dweik spent 10 years at Hewlett Packard; five years as a Technical Account Manager in California and the rest in the Middle East as IT Service and Sales Manager.

Khaled Kamel, Channel Territory Manager – Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
Khaled Kamel’s primary task in this role will be to evolve Brocade’s MENA channel portfolio. He will lead the adoption of a highly channel-driven business strategy, involving in-depth analysis of market trends in order to increase the performance of existing channel partners, and look to identify new channel partners to support Brocade’s growing business.
Kamel has a proven track of record in the IT industry along with a strong background in the channel. Prior to Brocade, Kamel ran his own management consulting company and was a General Manager for Lenovo Middle East. He has also held various sales roles and was the Business Development Manager at Hewlett Packard before he became Hewlett Packard’s Country Manager for GCC and Saudi Arabia.

Abdul Rehman Tariq, Technical Account Manager – Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
Abdul Rehman joins Brocade as a Technical Account Manager focused on the channel business in MENA. Tasked with channel enablement, his priorities will involve identifying new channel partners and ensuring they are equipped with the tools necessary to sell Brocade’s portfolio of network solutions.

Prior to joining Brocade, Rehman worked for Siemens, Cisco and most recently Juniper where he was a Technical Account Manager.

“The networking business in the Middle East is growing at an exponential rate, and customers are demanding more and more from their environments”, commented Manu Bonnassie, Regional Director – Central Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEMA) at Brocade. “These new appointments bring with them a wealth of experience and in-depth understanding of the regional market, helping Brocade to further address the needs of local customers and channel partners.”

About Brocade
Brocade (Nasdaq: BRCD) networking solutions help the world’s leading organizations transition smoothly to a world where applications and information reside anywhere. (www.brocade.com)

© 2012 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Brocade, Brocade Assurance, the B-wing symbol, DCX, Fabric OS, MLX, SAN Health, VCS, and VDX are registered trademarks, and AnyIO, Brocade One, CloudPlex, Effortless Networking, ICX, NET Health, OpenScript, and The Effortless Network are trademarks of Brocade Communications Systems, Inc., in the United States and/or in other countries. Other brands, products, or service names mentioned may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Media Contact:
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Email: colin@procre8.biz

New Simpana OnePass capability slashes the combined time typically required to backup, archive and report by more than 50 percent over traditional methods with the industry’s first converged backup, archive and reporting process designed to affordably protect, manage and access data on systems that have become “too big”.

Simpana SnapProtect® technology now delivers the industry’s broadest hardware snapshot integration, providing customers with SAN investment protection and choice, eliminating the backup window, accelerating recovery and reducing costs.

Simpana software enhancements accelerate virtual server adoption further by helping organizations better manage, protect and scale virtual machines across their enterprises and into the cloud.

New Simpana Edge Protection protects data on laptops and desktops with embedded source deduplication for optimized efficiency. End users now have flexibility to search, access and perform self-service recovery through any Windows, iOS and/or Android device.

New Simpana 9 integration with Microsoft SharePoint improves application performance, capacity utilization and shrinks backup windows.

News Facts
Global businesses today face greater complexity and risk, especially as data continues to double every two years. This unabated data surge creates business, IT and economic challenges that are compounded by an influx of mobile computing devices, driving more business-critical data to the edge and to the cloud. According to Dave Russell, research vice president, Storage Technologies and Strategies, “more than two thirds of all organizational data resides outside the data center and the majority of that is unprotected by IT.”

Built on Simpana software’s unique, singular platform, CommVault’s latest advancements are highlighted by the industry’s first converged backup, archive and reporting solution for Big Data management; industry-leading array snapshot integration; next-generation virtual machine protection; new mobile worker protection; and optimized SharePoint data management.

With these modern innovations, IT organizations can quickly adapt to the changing demands of their businesses, meet rising recovery service levels, and increase protection and management of data center, virtualized, edge and cloud computing environments.

Quotes
N. Robert Hammer, CommVault’s chairman, president and CEO:
“Today’s global businesses are governed by two key drivers: unprecedented rates of data growth and the increasing need for instant data access to cost effectively extract data for timelier, more informed decision-making. Traditional data backup methods are being replaced as customers demand better ways to protect, manage and access data in order to derive greater value from this information. With our latest Simpana software innovations, CommVault continues to lead the industry in helping businesses move rapidly toward more efficient, self-service infrastructures, while redefining how data is managed to increase its ultimate business value. Today’s announcement reinforces our innovation lead, further setting us apart as the standard in modern data and information management.”

Protect, Manage and Access Big Data with New Simpana® OnePass
According to Gartner Inc., in 2011 traditional content types, including simple unstructured user data, are seeing growth rates of up to 80 percent year over year. This unrelenting growth is a major force driving the era of “Big Data.” There simply isn’t enough time, resources or budget to manage, protect, index and retain massive amounts of unstructured data using legacy methods and tools.

An industry first, CommVault’s new Simpana OnePass converges backup, archive, analytics and deduplication into a single process reducing combined operations time more than 50 percent compared to traditional methods. From a single data collection, information is copied, indexed and stored in Simpana ContentStore—an intelligent, virtual repository that provides an efficient and scalable foundation for eDiscovery, Data Mining, Retention and more. Additionally, data analytics and reporting can be performed from the index to help classify data and implement archive policies for data tiering to lower cost media, thereby further reducing total cost of ownership. Simpana OnePass capability enables customers to:
Lower Costs – One, integrated product reduces infrastructure demands, operational costs and administrative burden associated with siloed backup, archive, reporting and deduplication tools.

Simplify Management – Consolidating management and policies into a single console maximizes IT productivity and reduces overall support costs.

Collapse the Backup Window – By moving data once, redundant backup, archive and reporting processes are eliminated from the backup window. Integrated source-side deduplication combined with deduplication-aware synthetic full backups remove the majority of the workload impact on production systems.

Report and Analyze – File analytics provide insight into data types, classification, trends and metrics about the data under management.

Simpana OnePass policies now extend full coverage for scale-out file systems including Dell Lustre HPC and HP X9000 Network Storage System to combine cost-effective protection, retention and management for Big Data solutions.

Unleash Value of Hardware Snapshots
Users are increasingly employing snapshot and replication tools to fix broken backup windows, complex recovery processes and limited infrastructure resources. However, they often face new challenges caused by the relatively high cost of primary storage, lack of a centralized catalog and the need for complex scripting to move snapshot data to lower cost storage media.

Simpana SnapProtect technology unlocks the value of snapshot and replication techniques through automated policy management that eliminates scripting, while providing a centralized console for managing multiple-vendor SAN arrays. Also, the Simpana SnapProtect technology catalogs snapshot data to enable granular recovery while automating the movement of deduplicated data to lower cost storage media for long-term retention.

With unmatched array integration and its new IntelliSnapTM Connect Program, CommVault’s support for disk-based snapshot management includes integration with Dell Compellent, EqualLogic and MD arrays; EMC’s DMX, VMAX and VNX platforms; Hitachi Data Systems’ VSP, USPv and AMS; HP’s EVA and 3PAR arrays; IBM’s XIV and SVC; and storage arrays from NetApp, including recently acquired LSI storage arrays.

Deeper integration with NetApp provides end-to-end automation across snapshot, provisioning and replication storage architectures to eliminate the backup window while simplifying recovery and protection for applications.

New SnapProtect integration with Simpana replication software enables affordable disaster recovery for applications running on non-snapshot supported storage.

Accelerate Migration to Virtualization
Organizations are scaling their virtualization efforts rapidly to achieve more flexible, agile applications and services. However, they often grapple with data protection limitations that inhibit scale, increase risk and add complexity.

Enhancements to Simpana Virtual Server Protection remove these roadblocks, including:
New Reference Architectures Accelerate Application Migration – Leveraging Simpana SnapProtect for virtual server protection, new scalable reference architectures for virtual infrastructure building blocks on NetApp storage deliver massively scalable data protection for large VM deployments.

New Self-Service Restores Increase Agility – New self-service recovery options for VMware simplify restore operations in multi-tenant environments to free IT resources for more strategic projects. A vCenter plugin enables VM admins to restore files directly from the vCenter console to lower management costs. A web-based restore console enables admins and users to restore their own data, skipping the low-level helpdesk calls.

New VirtualizeMe P2V Automated DR Testing Reduces Risk – By leveraging the encapsulation and portability features built into the virtual platform, Simpana software users can dramatically simplify and accelerate their DR test processes by performing a “Virtualize Me” automated virtual recovery.

Protect and Empower the Mobile Worker
Data at the edge has quickly become as important to an organization as data that resides on servers in the data center, but too often is left unprotected and undiscoverable. Simpana 9 introduces the most complete set of capabilities today for protecting, recovering, accessing and discovering the information stored at the edge of the enterprise.

CommVault’s new Edge Data Protection solution delivers centralized protection for thousands of Windows, Mac and Linux systems, including self-service backup and recovery to improve productivity and reduce operating costs. Integrated content indexing centralizes discovery of edge data that resides in the datacenter or cloud storage to lower risk and eDiscovery costs.

A new mobile app available on iOS and Android further enhances mobile worker productivity for search, access and recovery of data stored on laptops and desktops.

Optimize SharePoint Management
SharePoint is one of the fastest growing applications in Microsoft’s history. With Simpana 9, organizations can easily manage growing SharePoint deployments across their enterprises, without impacting business risk and productivity.

Simpana archiving with BLOB (binary large object) storage integration enables faster, trimmer, better performing SharePoint access while automating data tiering to reduce both primary storage costs and the backup window.

Integrated Simpana storage resource management provides data reporting and analysis to help organizations understand their SharePoint data and implement storage policies to optimize performance.

Pricing and Availability
Simpana software is available with a simplified, capacity-based licensing model and is available direct from CommVault and through official partner and distribution channels. Pricing for specific configurations is available upon request.

“Application delivery performance, scalability and flexibility are critical requirements for our customers. These requirements have a direct effect on our ability to scale our business while exceeding customer expectations,” said Rob Jackson, Solution Line Leader for Networking and Security at Rackspace. “With the Brocade ServerIron ADX, we look forward to continuing our success with the platform and implementing stable, customizable traffic management capabilities so that our new and existing customers can maintain greater application control.”

Application Flexibility and Predictability with the OpenScript Engine
Service customization and traffic manipulation are critical requirements for businesses to deliver new and differentiated cloud-based services. To foster innovation and enable the deployment of advanced capabilities in production environments, Brocade has introduced the OpenScript engine, a scalable and deterministic application scripting engine that allows network operators to customize the capabilities of their network to match their specific needs.

Built on PERL, a powerful and widely-accepted standards-based programming language, the OpenScript engine provides the programming framework for network operators to develop customized traffic management capabilities. The Brocade OpenScript Performance Estimator provides network operators the unique ability to estimate the performance impact of custom scripts before implementing them in live production environments. This deterministic visibility enables operators to better plan for service capacity requirements, and to deploy new services with confidence.

To enable application delivery professionals to learn, browse and share application scripts, Brocade has created the OpenScript community. It provides a social networking space for real-time discussions, solutions, technical guidance, and configuration examples for the OpenScript engine.

“A service provider’s critical asset is its network; this makes reliability, scalability and performance critical factors for its success,” said Alan Weckel, senior director for Dell’Oro Group. “The importance to predetermine the impact network load on their application delivery infrastructure is becoming critical as service providers not only create new revenue generating services but also mitigate network implications before any traffic passes through their application delivery infrastructure.”

Facilitating IPv6 Internet Transformation for Cloud-Optimized Networks
IPv6 technology dramatically increases the pool of global IP addresses while simplifying network administration, resolving security and mobility issues and improving Quality of Service (QoS). Brocade ADX version 12.4 doubles the IPv6 performance of ADX and delivers consistent services across IPv4 and IPv6. The Brocade ADX switch also enables a seamless transition to IPv6 while preserving IPv4 assets through standards-based IPv4-to-IPv6 translation technology. Organizations can now migrate to IPv6 while offering consistent services to clients across both IPv4 and IPv6.

Tools to Simplify Network Management and Control
As network operators develop and deliver new cloud services, application delivery switches must seamlessly integrate with orchestration and automation systems. Brocade ADX version 12.4 enables automatic provisioning of application and network resources in a heterogeneous virtual environment. Coupled with Brocade Application Resource Broker 2.0, Brocade ADX simplifies the management of application resources within globally distributed data centers by automating on-demand resource provisioning of virtual machines within heterogeneous virtual environments, which include VMware, Citrix XenServer and Microsoft Hyper-V.

Brocade has also delivered an all-new task-oriented graphical interface that offers an intuitive approach to configure, monitor, and maintain the ADX. The new ADX web interface also includes a real-time dashboard for quick access to essential application and system performance information. Brocade has also released extensions to the Brocade ADX XML/SOAP API, simplifying integration with custom and third party orchestration applications. The API extensions include the OpenScript engine support, as well as richer server load balancing, security, health check, and system management capabilities.

Pricing and Availability
The Brocade ServerIron ADX software release version 12.4 is generally available now. This is a no-cost software upgrade for customers with valid service contracts.

As the growing usage of on-demand applications and cloud computing are driving the need for business partners to focus on the delivery of solutions and services within virtualized environments, the Brocade ADX family of application delivery switches presents a unique value proposition for channel partners. All products are available through dedicated Brocade partners.

The explosion of data coupled with data center modernization, virtualization and cloud computing have overwhelmed traditional backup methods and led to poor recovery times, potential data loss and higher costs and business risk. The only way to bridge this data protection gap requires a radical new approach to protecting applications, systems and data through tight integration of data management software with hardware snapshot and replication technologies. CommVault is making this modern data protection approach available to more customers than ever by expanding its support for array-based snapshots through the new CommVault® IntelliSnap™ Connect Program.

News Facts
CommVault today introduced the IntelliSnap™ Connect Program, an open development program that enables disk array vendors to integrate their array-based snapshot solutions with the SnapProtect® module in CommVault Simpana® software.

With Simpana® software and Qualified IntelliSnap™ Connect Arrays, customers can further consolidate and extend their SAN investments for greater efficiency and accelerated backup and recovery performance while reducing recovery costs and minimizing the risk of data loss.

IntelliSnap™ Connect Partners gain exclusive access to technology and resources that help them create innovative solutions, differentiate their storage platforms and gain competitive advantage in the data and information management marketplace by harnessing the power of application-aware snapshot management to provide customers with the most scalable and reliable data protection technologies.

Working with CommVault’s IntelliSnap™ program, prospective partners are provided a Software Development Kit that allows them to rapidly and reliably integrate their storage systems with Simpana software and, upon completion of the program, achieve Qualified IntelliSnap™ Connect Array status.

Qualified IntelliSnap™ Connect Arrays are fully supported with Simpana software to allow users to harness the full power of rapid-fire, persistent, hardware-based snapshots with leading data management capabilities to protect the largest, most demanding virtual and physical server environments.

The IntelliSnap™ Connect Program bolsters CommVault’s standing as having the industry’s most comprehensive compatibility matrix for hardware snapshot management without custom scripting or solution modifications helping customers unlock and optimize their existing and future SAN investments. Since the beginning of 2011, Simpana software’s SnapProtect technology has supported nine of the top 10 best-selling storage arrays in the industry and, when the IBM DS8000 is used with the IBM SVC (SAN Volume Controller), SnapProtect technology supports all 10.

Companies like Dell, HDS, and NetApp are foundational members of the program while emerging players like Nimble Storage and XIO are working toward full integration within the program parameters.

CommVault’s support for disk-based snapshot management is unmatched in the industry and includes integration with Dell’s Compellent, EqualLogic, and MD arrays, the EMC DMX, VMAX and VNX platforms, Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform (VSP), Hitachi Universal Storage Platform® V (USP V) and Hitachi Adaptable Modular Storage (AMS) from Hitachi Data Systems, HP’s EVA and 3PAR arrays, IBM XIV and SVC, and storage arrays and replication technology from NetApp including their LSI storage arrays.

The Power of Modern Data Protection with Array-Based Snapshots

Redefining traditional backup, Simpana software quickly captures the application consistent copies without impacting the performance of production applications, allowing customers to fully leverage investments made in high performance storage arrays to tackle the 24×7 uptime and accessibility challenges surrounding mission and business critical data.

With a rapid-fire, persistent, hardware-based snapshot capability fully integrated, Simpana SnapProtect technology delivers the performance capability to protect the largest, most demanding virtual and physical server environments and recover them in minutes.

By creating snapshot copies using the storage array, backup time can be slashed to approximately five minutes or less and production server impact can be minimized.

CommVault’s integrated approach to snapshot management eliminates the need to create and maintain scripts and manage numerous storage array tools and consoles independently. The centralized management, protection and recovery of application data across tiers of disk and tape storage becomes fast and simple and occurs without impacting production systems.

With SnapProtect technology, customers can recover individual objects, files, whole volumes or entire applications, including Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint, SQL Server, Oracle, DB2 and SAP.

Supporting Quotes

David Ngo, Director of Engineering Alliances, CommVault:

“The IntelliSnap Connect Program ensures that more customers than ever will have access to advanced, comprehensive data protection solutions. This program is essential for our partners to rapidly develop complete, modern data protection solutions that set them apart in highly competitive and rapidly changing technology markets.”

Dave Russell, Research Vice President, Storage Technologies and Strategies, Gartner, Inc.:

“Many of today’s backup applications were designed and optimized for environments that are now outdated, resulting in a greater willingness on the part of organizations to modernize and consider new technologies and vendors for data protection. We continue to see a growing number of organizations turn to snapshot and replication technologies as a method for augmenting or replacing traditional backup software and believe that vendors in consideration should be pushed for their current and committed road maps for new data protection capabilities, such as snapshot and replication file sharing, and potentially cloud capabilities.”

Mike Davis, Director of Marketing for Dell NAS and Backup Solutions, Dell Enterprise Storage:

“Dell and CommVault work closely together to help provide integrated, automated and scalable solutions designed to manage and protect our customers’ vital information assets. With SnapProtect integration, Dell’s customers can more seamlessly leverage our products’ high performance array-based snapshots, to better protect their data and quickly adapt to changing demands in physical and virtual environments.”
Sean Moser, Vice President, Software Products, Hitachi Data Systems:

“The combination of our industry leading data protection platform and CommVault’s SnapProtect technology offers an innovative, high performance and cost-effective solution to help enterprise customers solve their most pressing data management challenges. As part of the IntelliSnap™ Connect Program, Hitachi Data Systems continues to build upon the success of our long-standing partnership to deliver a unified solution to our customers.”

Mark Welke, Sr. Director of Product and Solutions Marketing, NetApp:

“Customers gain proven performance and efficiency to minimize risk of downtime or data loss by leveraging NetApp’s innovative portfolio of integrated data protection solutions with CommVault Simpana. NetApp is focused on continuing its longstanding collaboration with CommVault as a founding member of the IntelliSnap Connect Program to provide our mutual customers with efficient, high-speed backup and recovery and enable our mutual customers to manage both NetApp® Snapshot™ copies and SnapVault® and SnapMirror® replication from Simpana.”

Suresh Vasudevan, CEO, Nimble Storage:

“The Nimble Storage CS-Series makes high performance affordable, simplifies and enhances disaster recovery and backup, and delivers pain-free operations. Nimble snapshots offer industry leading efficiency and can scale to many thousands of snapshots, enabling frequent recovery points. Integrating with CommVault’s Simpana SnapProtect technology will provide seamless data protection for enterprises, eliminating the need for copy-based backups, and simplifying data recovery. ”

Steve Sicola, CTO, XIO Storage:

“XIO Storage provides performance-driven storage systems that deliver industry leading price, performance and capacity ratios. The integration of XIO’s SSD-based Hyper ISE and HDD-based ISE Storage Blade with SnapProtect as a part of the CommVault IntelliSnap Connect Program will simplify data management for our joint customers by automating their application data protection and recovery solutions without impacting the performance of production systems.”

IP communications systems, based on a soft switch design, are rapidly replacing aging digital PBXs. All-in-One solutions support traditional telephony services and unified communications tools on a single centralized server; full featured contact center services may also be available. Today’s customer has the option of fully replacing their existing system or installing a co-located IP soft switch for a gradual system migration while leveraging the new technology and associated benefits. So how does one make an informed decision when preparing an enterprise communications system upgrade roadmap?

Today’s Enterprise Communications System
Most enterprise customers have been migrating their communications systems from traditional digital PBXs to those based on Internet Protocol (IP) communications standards. These IP communications systems support traditional telephony requirements and in addition offer customers a collection of more advanced communications services. While there are several design options available, the one of choice for most of today’s customers is referred to as a soft switch based on traditional client/server architecture topology. The advantage of this design is that the adoption of industry standards permits compatibility between the system and third party applications and that most, if not all, of the hardware equipment is non-proprietary.

In spite of these advantages, many customers chose to upgrade their digital PBX to either an IP-enabled or Hybrid system design. This is done so as to retain a sizable percent of their earlier communications systems investment. The viable option to extend the life of existing systems is to install a co-located soft switch. The customer can then execute a gradual migration of users between the two systems. It may not be an ideal situation, operating two systems, but the cost savings and performance advantages to be gained are likely to outweigh the negatives.

The Basics of Unified Communications
One of the many advantages of an IP communications system is the availability of a range of features, functions, and processes collectively referred to as Unified Communications (UC). While many customers believe IP telephony and UC to be one and the same thing, in actuality, UC offerings facilitate and enhance the traditional telephony experience, not replace it. Implementation of IP communication systems provides the necessary framework for UC solutions. Many UC features and applications are enabled by Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), a prominent industry standard for IP communications systems, particularly when customers need to interface to third party solutions.

Justifying an IP Communications System
A new IP communications system should be viewed as a business asset, not as an expense item (which many do). And as a business asset it should help reduce existing communications expenses as well as affect how the enterprise operates and competes in the competitive market. Basic justification factors fall into two categories: hard cost savings and enhanced user/business productivity (both real and perceived). The following are a few of the many justification factors for implementing a current generation All-in-One soft switch IP communications system.

Reduced hardware costs owing to: fewer common equipment hardware elements and as a result lower maintenance costs; use of non-proprietary third party hardware equipment which allows flexibility in design choice; option of using PC-based soft phones.

Enhanced system survivability and resiliency (reducing system disasters) based on: a limited number of points of failure compared to traditional PBXs; availability of cost efficient, fully redundant and geo-distributed communications control server options; pooled media services and gateway resources; alternate transmission signaling paths among servers, gateways and endpoints.

Consolidation of multiple networked PBXs by migrating to a centralized data center system design offers numerous benefits including: fewer systems with significant hardware/software savings; easier and more manageable growth and network expansion; centralized, more efficient system administration and management; lower cost integrated voice/data network transmission services; greater user mobility across the network.

Many UC features and services are designed to automate communications. Among the many UC cost/time savings and productivity benefits are the following:

Faster and more efficient contacts through presence management services
Reduced messaging management time/cost through unified messaging
Lower cost and self-managed audio conferencing services
Simplified and more efficient access/implementation of communications systems features and functions through a GUI-based soft client screen

The Systems Upgrade Checklist
It is recommended that a comprehensive corporate communications strategy be in place well before a customer is ready to replace their aging voice-centric communications systems. This approach must address goals and objectives of the enterprise’s overall business strategy and identify how a new system can contribute to such things as: revenue enhancement; cost reduction; competitive positioning; market expansion; improved customer service; and Green initiatives.

Current generation All-in-One communications systems support hundreds of features and functions and it necessary to understand and identify the distinct communications needs of many different system subscriber communities, to avoid a “one size fits all” approach.

Replacing an existing communications system can be traumatic for the majority of customers, because many system subscribers are averse to change. Identifying the current communications issues that can be addressed, corrected or improved by a new communications system will help gain stakeholder support and facilitate the migration process.

An incremental implementation approach across the enterprise network is recommended for purposes of manageability and to avoid too much change at once. Customers with large networks should consider having a mix of new and old communications system platforms for a few years, gradually migrating on a site-by-site basis according to a well defined time line.

Sufficient training services and help desk support must be provided to cover feature operations and system interfaces (desktop telephone instruments, soft phones, mobile clients). Personal one-on-one training may be mandated at the executive level and small group training for system specialist, such as attendants, system administrators, and contact center personnel is also often necessary. Systems upgrades are inevitable and a well thought out strategy can greatly ease the transition process.

As per the arrangement, Scope ME will provide support contracts and professional services to A10 Networks’ wide customer base in the Middle East. These support contracts can be customized to suit the requirements of each individual customer.

Mark Edge, Sales Director, EMEA, for A10 Networks indicated the importance of the agreement and its strategic implications in consolidating the company’s position in the Application Delivery Controller (ADC) market in the Middle East which is valued at over $20 million (AED 73 million) annually. “We entered the region with the intention of rapid market capitalization. Signing Scope Middle East on as a distributer in 2011 was the first step towards this goal. Differentiating ourselves by providing superior and highly dedicated customer support was the next logical phase.”

“We have experienced first-hand Scope Middle East’s technical expertise and professionalism. They already have a well-established support center and extensive experience in security and networking products and we believe that our customers stand to benefit greatly from this,” he said.

Scope ME already handles hundreds of support contracts with customers in the region from various segments of industry such as telecom, government, education, internet service providers etc. The certified engineers, who have extensive networking and security experience, are capable of providing 24/7 support via telephone, web and email in multiple languages including English, Arabic, Hindi and Urdu. In addition, customers can opt for a dedicated support engineer.

“We are extremely excited to build upon what has already proved to be a mutually beneficial relationship. There has been a good reception to A10 Networks’ AX Series solutions in the region and as a value-added distributor; we have worked closely with a number of their customers. Our contact center engineers have been trained and certified by A10 Networks and we are all geared up to provide world-class support,” said Mr. Fadi AbuEkab, Chief Executive Officer of Scope Middle East.

SCOPE ME is one of the Middle East’s premier technology solutions providers. Its vendor base includes well known leading global technology vendors like Blue Coat, Legrand, Kaspersky, SpliceCom and intranet technology specialist Adenin Technologies.