CloudTweaks Q&A with Mimecast’s chief scientist, Dr. Nathaniel Borenstein, and chief security officer, James Blake
Sep 10th
Q&A Between Anthony Park of CloudTweaks and Mimecast’s chief scientist, Dr. Nathaniel Borenstein, and chief security officer, James Blake
1) In your own words, please describe Mimecast and the company’s service to readers.
- Nathaniel: Mimecast is a cloud-based email management company. We provide our customers with a unified solution for their company’s email that
incorporates security, business continuity, storage, and eDiscovery solutions. With Mimecast, companies’ email systems are more secure, less costly and easier to maintain as several different products can be replaced with one holistic cloud-based solution. In the future, we expect to provide similar services for additional types of information management.2) What are the key questions most of your customers ask related to security and back-up concerns?
- James: The most common security and backup questions/concerns in the industry are typically related to data access and continuity—who can access data and how do you ensure that there are no service interruptions. Specifically, we’ve seen questions around:
-
- Confidentiality of Data: How is data encrypted and how much access does staff have to that data? It is important for vendors to create an impenetrable wall between its customer’s data, its employees, and other customers’ data.
- Protective Controls Around the Data: Customers want to know details about how data is protected, including encryption, perimeter security (firewalls), physical security (at the data center) and operational security (change control, incident management, log auditing, staff vetting, etc.);
- Jurisdiction of the Data: Will the customer breach local regulations or legislation by having data leave the country of origin? And if this is the case, how can my service provider or vendor help me prevent this from happening? Are there multiple locations or ways that data can be stored locally to mitigate this problem?
- Judicial Access to Data: What happens when law enforcement requests access to customer data held on a vendor’s system under laws such as the US PATRIOT Act or UK Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act?
- Continuity of Service: How does my vendor guarantee that my business does not have any service interruptions? It is important to many companies that their service provider has several geographically dispersed data centers and layers of redundancy to protect against an outage.

3)How do you internally insure that client data can be restored if you yourself are subject to a major threat to your datacenter(s)?
- Mimecast utilizes a grid computing model which is comprised of multiple geographically dispersed data centers, each containing multiple grid nodes (servers) which themselves contain multiple disks. Each customer’s processing and data storage is balanced across a number of nodes to increase performance and redundancy, which itself is duplicated across multiple data centers.
- This architecture allows Mimecast to lose a disk, a server, a cluster or an entire data center without impacting customer data or service availability.
Continue… More >
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CloudTweaks Goes To California – The HP Cloud Tech Day
Sep 9th
The HP Cloud Tech Day
Anthony Park is our representative at the “HP Cloud Tech Day” and he will be sending us updates along the way. In his words. 
“The campus in Cupertino is a testament to HP’s commitment to Development.
The invited Bloggers from around the world aside for CloudTweaks include two writers from London, one from Rome, Denver, Cleveland and Atlanta. This AM the engineers have spent a great deal of time talking about the HP foundational strategy. Their internal process goals include building, transforming and then managing both Private and Public cloud infrastructure”
In the meantime here are a few photos and the Twitter Hashtag is #HPSWcloud to follow.
http://www.twitter.com/cloudtweaks
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CA Technologies to Share Expert Insights on Real-World Cloud Computing Event
Sep 9th
ISLANDIA, N.Y., Sept. 9 /PRNewswire/ — As more organizations implement cloud computing solutions to become more nimble and better serve the needs of business users, IT leaders are in need of pragmatic advice about implementation best practices. Experts from CA Technologies (Nasdaq: CA) will be
sharing their insights to help organizations get the most out of their cloud computing initiatives at several key IT industry events in September and October.
Managed service providers (MSPs) looking to leverage the cloud to more quickly roll out new services to their customers can tap into a significant growth opportunity with cloud computing . Adam Famularo, general manager of the Cloud customer solutions unit at CA Technologies, will deliver a keynote outlining strategies to help MSPs take advantage of this “land-grab” opportunity at MSPWorld 2010, co-located with ITEXPO in Los Angeles on October 4, 2010.
“Cloud computing represents a dramatic shift in the way organizations and service providers are building, managing and consuming IT services,” said Famularo. “Many IT departments see the potential of cloud computing and are now working to make sense of their options – public, private and hybrid clouds. We are focused on helping organizations navigate the many choices available based on their needs, risks and desired outcomes. We deeply understand the opportunities and challenges associated with cloud computing and we’re eager to share our knowledge and lessons learned to help IT pros better manage their dynamic IT service supply chains.”
Attendees will hear from CA Technologies experts at the following events and conferences:
- Hosting & Cloud Transformation Summit North America: Brian Burba, vice president of strategy, will present a keynote session on “What the Cloud Means for Service Providers: The Chance of a Lifetime for Competition & Growth” on September 14 at 11:45 a.m. PT. On the same day, Bert Armijo, vice president of strategy, will participate in a panel session on “Enterprise and the Cloud – Breaking Down the Barriers to Adoption” at 3:00 p.m. PT, and Gary Read, CEO of Nimsoft, a CA Technologies company, will join the panel on “Cloud Computing – The Role of Software Vendors and Partnering Strategies for New Revenue Streams” on September 15 at 2:00 p.m. PT. The event will be held at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas (September 13-15). For more information, visit: http://www.hsvsummit.com/na/2010.
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NaviSite to Sponsor and Speak at UK Cloud Event in Boston
Sep 9th
ANDOVER, MA–(Marketwire – September 9, 2010) – NaviSite, Inc. (NASDAQ: NAVI), a premier provider of enterprise-class hosting, managed application, managed messaging and managed cloud services, today announced that it is sponsoring and speaking at the UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) UK Cloud Invasion event titled: “2010 Cloud Reality Check: Applications and Infrastructure – Moving from Early Adopter to Early Mainstream.”
UKTI’s ICT Sector Team and US Posts in Boston and Silicon Valley are promoting the “Cloud Computing Mission” to foster relationships among leading UK-based cloud and SaaS companies and their US counterparts. Twelve UK cloud and SaaS companies are traveling on the mission and meeting with leading US companies and investors. The Boston lunch and panel event details are:
Speaker: William Toll, Sr. Director of Alliance Marketing – NaviSite
Description: Mass TLC Panel 2010 – Cloud Reality Check: Applications and Infrastructure – Moving from Early Adopter to Early Mainstream
Date/Time: Tuesday, September 14th at 12:00 noon
Location: British Consulate-General – Boston (Cambridge, Massachusetts)
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TrackVia Introduces First Cloud Database Application Development Platform Designed for Non-Technical Business Users
Sep 8th
DENVER, CO–(Source: Marketwire – September 8, 2010) – TrackVia, a leader in Cloud-based databases, today introduced its new TrackVia cloud
application development platform, the first solution that makes the cloud accessible to business users while delivering a secure, scalable & performant platform that is attractive to internal IT. Already known for its cloud database, this new TrackVia application development platform is designed for business users, letting them easily build their own database-driven applications, thereby avoiding the interpretation challenges and IT backlogs that often put non-technical business users, traditional software developers, and internal IT at odds. And because TrackVia balances advanced but easy-to-use data management and application development with reliable support and enterprise-class data security and control, internal IT can feel comfortable championing the product across the enterprise — empowering business users to easily and securely help themselves while clearing IT’s busy schedules to focus on other project priorities.Related posts
BigMachines and Salesforce.com Announce New BigMachines Configuration and Quoting Application
Sep 7th
Cloudforce 2010 London
SAN FRANCISCO & CHICAGO, Sep 07, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — –BigMachines Demonstrating New Solution at Cloudforce 2010 London
BigMachines, the leading vendor in the configuration and quoting space, and salesforce.com, (CRM 119.00, -0.63, -0.53%) the enterprise cloud computing company, today announced BigMachines’ on-demand configuration, quoting and proposal application is now tightly integrated with Force.com, salesforce.com’s enterprise cloud computing platform. With Force.com, BigMachines’ solution integrates seamlessly into Salesforce CRM, simplifying the user experience and providing customers with flexibility and advanced integration capabilities. In addition, users can access both the BigMachines and Salesforce applications with a single login.
BigMachines will be exhibiting the new solution at Cloudforce 2010 London (www.salesforce.com/live/), the largest cloud computing event in the UK. This industry, customer and developer event is being held on Wednesday, September 8th, 2010 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre in London.
Comments on the news
– “BigMachines’ alliance with salesforce.com further strengthens our relationship as we work closely to ensure tight integration of current and future products,” said Godard Abel, CEO and co-founder, BigMachines.”We are dedicated to providing a solution that is easy to buy, easy to integrate, easy to support and helps our customers sell more and sell faster.”
– “BigMachines continues to deliver an excellent solution for customers quoting and configuration needs,” said Kendall Collins, chief marketing officer, salesforce.com. “The Force.com platform provides the fastest path to commercial success for partners with cloud computing solutions. Now, our joint customers will benefit from the integration of BigMachines powered by Force.com.”
– “The tight integration of BigMachines with Salesforce CRM provides a powerful solution to help our business grow,” said Peter Minihane, CFO, Acme Packet. “The benefits include improved efficiencies in our quoting process, easy pricing and SKU updates, ownership and process improvements in communicating new products, management of quote approvals, and reduction in quote-to-purchase-order delivery errors. The integration ensures that our forecasts and data analysis are accurate and we have been able to grow our business without adding headcount.”
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3PAR Partners With Dongbu CNI to Sell Utility Storage Systems in Korea
Sep 7th
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA–(Marketwire – September 7, 2010) – 3PAR® (NYSE: PAR), the leading global provider of utility storage, announced today a partnership with Seoul-based Dongbu CNI to deliver 3PAR Utility Storage products and maintenance services to customers throughout Korea.
3PAR Korea, the company’s Korean subsidiary, chose Dongbu CNI due to its large, nationwide customer base and expert network of sales and pre-sales engineers across Korea who specialize in delivering large enterprise server and storage solutions for enterprise, service provider, and Internet/Web datacenters. Dongbu CNI has agreed to sell 3PAR Utility Storage as well as offer maintenance services through its proven nationwide support network.
Under the terms of the agreement, Dongbu CNI now offers sales and support for all elements of the 3PAR Utility Storage platform, including 3PAR InServ® Storage Servers and 3PAR InForm software products. These software products include 3PAR Thin Technologies — designed to improve capacity utilization; 3PAR Adaptive Optimization — developed to give data mobility across storage tiers; and 3PAR Remote Copy — 3PAR’s disaster recovery solution. Through the partnership, 3PAR gains the leverage of Dongbu CNI’s sales and technical pre-sales capabilities.
3PAR and Dongbu CNI plan to focus on large enterprises, financial services, and Web portals as target markets where the drive to deploy cloud datacenters has gained momentum within Korea. The attention of both companies will also be directed at the IT outsourcing (IT-as-a-Service) market, where Dongbu CNI has existing initiatives, and where 3PAR has already demonstrated strategic success outside of Korea.
“3PAR has solid momentum in the hosting and private cloud computing markets,” said vice president, Mansung Park, who leads the solutions division of Dongbu CNI. “We expect to leverage product simplicity, efficiency and quality to benefit our customers by increasing flexibility and reducing total cost of ownership for storage.”











