SHAW DIRECT AND XPLORNET ANNOUNCE MARKETING AGREEMENT


SHAW DIRECT AND XPLORNET ANNOUNCE MARKETING AGREEMENT

Exclusive Customer Discount for DTH Video and 4G Internet Customers

CALGARY, AB and WOODSTOCK, NB (April 4, 2012) – Shaw Direct and Xplornet Communications Inc. are proud to announce a marketing agreement that will offer increased value to new and existing Shaw Direct DTH video customers and Xplornet high-speed Internet customers.

Shaw Direct provides leading satellite services to more than 900,000 Canadian households, primarily in rural areas. Customers already benefit from Shaw Direct’s exceptional quality High-Definition channel offerings, which will dramatically increase with the launch of its new Anik G1 satellite in Fall 2012. With the new satellite, Shaw Direct will have more satellite capacity than any other provider in Canada, enabling the delivery of over 200 HD channels to customers.

“Our customers have told us they’re looking for the same exceptional experiences that are part of their Shaw Direct service,” said Peter Bissonnette, President, Shaw Communications Inc. “Partnering with Xplornet will provide our rural customers with an exclusive bundle that fits their needs – and is part of our commitment as a leader in satellite technology and service.” Xplornet, Canada’s leading rural broadband Internet provider, is continually investing in state-of-the art broadband networks for rural homes and businesses. Last year, it commenced the rollout of Canada’s first national 4G network and recently launched its first of two scheduled 4G broadband satellites. Xplornet’s first satellite supports customer download speeds of up to 25 Mbps, with more capacity than all current North American broadband satellites combined.

“Our agreement with Shaw Direct to promote two services – video and Internet – together, specifically for rural Canadians is unprecedented,” said John Maduri, Chief Executive Officer of Xplornet Communications Inc. “With the broad reach and appeal of Shaw Direct’s video service, this initiative will support the adoption of high-speed Internet in rural Canada as well as our business growth.”
The offer will be available exclusively to Shaw Direct and Xplornet customers starting May 9, 2012.

About Shaw Communications Inc. Shaw Communications Inc. is a diversified communications and media company, providing consumers with broadband cable television, High-Speed Internet, Home Phone, telecommunications services (through Shaw Business), satellite direct-to-home services (through Shaw Direct) and engaging programming content (through Shaw Media). Shaw serves 3.4 million customers, through a reliable and extensive fibre network. Shaw Media operates one of the largest conventional television networks in Canada, Global Television, and 18 specialty networks including HGTV Canada, Food Network Canada, History Television and Showcase. Shaw is traded on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges and is included in the S&P/TSX 60 Index (Symbol: TSX – SJR.B, NYSE – SJR). For more information about Shaw, please visit www.shaw.ca.

About Xplornet Communications Inc. Headquartered in Woodstock, New Brunswick, Xplornet Communications Inc. (formerly Barrett Xplore Inc.) is Canada's leading rural broadband provider. We believe everyone should have access to the transformative benefits of broadband, so we make our service available everywhere in Canada, including the hard to reach places. We overcome the challenges of Canada's vast geography through our deployment of Canada's first national 4G network, which leverages both fixed-wireless towers on the ground and next-generation satellites in space. Our customers live in the farthest reaches of the country and just outside of major urban centres, and through our coast-to-coast network of local dealers we connect them to all that the Internet offers.
Xplornet is high-speed Internet - for all of Canada. xplornet.com | twitter.com/xplornet | facebook.com/xplornet

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For further information, please contact:
Katherine Emberly Lindsay Krzepkowski
Vice President, Communications & Public Relations Manager, Media Relations
Shaw Communications Inc. Shaw Communications Inc.
(403) 750-4500 (403) 750-7439
katherine.emberly@sjrb.ca lindsay.krzepkowski@sjrb.ca
Jeff Hecker
Director, Marketing Communications and Public Relations
Xplornet Communications

SAP Unveils Strategy to Gain Predictive Insights From Big Data

SAP Unveils Strategy to Gain Predictive Insights From Big Data

SAP® BusinessObjects™ Predictive Analysis Software to Bring Intuitive Predictive Modeling and Advanced Visualization to More Users, Harnessing Power and Speed of the SAP HANA® Platform

WALLDORF, Germany - April 03, 2012 - As organizations evolve their business strategies to remain competitive in ever-changing markets, they rely on today's information to make choices for tomorrow. Empowering them with the ability to improve decision-making by predicting future outcomes, SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced SAP® BusinessObjects™ Predictive Analysis software . The new offering aims to equip more people with a modern, user-friendly, graphically stunning tool for predictive modeling and advanced visualization. The software is intended to harness and unleash the full value of "Big Data" when coupled with the power and speed of the SAP HANA® platform, enabling organizations to reveal and act upon untapped opportunities and hidden risks.

"There is a lot of untapped insight that could be exposed from exploding internal and external, structured and unstructured data sources," said Dan Vesset, vice president, Business Analytics solutions, IDC. "Predictive capabilities help businesses explore and identify the opportunities and risks hiding in the sea of all that big data. SAP's integrated approach to predictive analytics helps more users learn not only what has happened, but also understand why it happened, what might happen and what the best course of action is."

Predictive modeling has traditionally been the domain of statisticians and data scientists. However, the intuitive interface and stunning visualization of SAP BusinessObjects Predictive Analysis are intended to bring predictive insight to an under-served user community – the business analyst. With the software, analysts can create models either by using the predictive algorithms included or can integrate and use algorithms from the widely-used R open-source data analysis and statistical language. SAP plans to enable customers to use the software for instant insight into large data volumes to anticipate future opportunities and risks. Examples include:

  • Understanding how historical sales, costs and other key metrics translate to future performance
  • Seeing how predicted results compare with goals
  • Revealing the causes of customer satisfaction and employee turnover
  • Showing how past and emerging trends impact the bottom line
  • Finding correlations in data for cross-sell and up-sell opportunities
  • Locating anomalies and clusters for targeted analysis

Unleash the Value of Big Data With SAP HANA
While SAP BusinessObjects Predictive Analysis is planned for availability via standalone deployment, the software is also intended to uniquely unlock the value in "Big Data" when utilized with the SAP HANA database, which provides a data mining and statistical function library. Access to data sources outside of SAP HANA is planned, including universes, SAP® Sybase® IQ server and more.

Once data – structured, unstructured or both – is loaded into SAP HANA or an alternative data source, data and business analysts will be able to benefit from intuitive predictive modeling, beautiful advanced visualizations and data exploration, all with a drag-and-drop interface for data selection, preparation and processing.

Insights can then be delivered to dashboards, alerts and mobile devices, or accessed by other analytics solutions from SAP such as the SAP® BusinessObjects™ Business Intelligence (BI) platform, SAP BusinessObjects Explorer® and SAP® BusinessObjects™ Web Intelligence® software , as well as Microsoft Office applications.

Bring Predictive Analytics to Everyone in the Business
SAP BusinessObjects Predictive Analysis and SAP HANA are important steps in SAP's goal of bringing predictive insight to everyone in the organization – not just the analysts. This means extending predictive capabilities to where people work: into business applications, BI and collaboration environments, and on mobile devices.

SAP has already delivered predictive applications powered by SAP HANA to numerous industries, and is aggressively expanding its predictive applications portfolio.

Utilities companies, for example, use SAP® Smart Meter Analytics software to identify energy-consumption patterns and perform customer segmentation. Retailers use predictive algorithms in SAP HANA to hone in on product relationships and their associated financial performance in achieving corporate targets, as well as view store-level performance and conduct what-if demand model scenarios. Sales teams, similarly, use predictive capabilities extended into SAP BusinessObjects BI solutions to generate up-to-date pipeline reports, drill down on individual leads and make projections for the end of the fiscal period.

"Analytics solutions from SAP are powering a decision-making revolution for businesses that recognize the future starts a second from now, not a week or a year from now," said John Schweitzer, senior vice president and general manager, Analytics, SAP. "That's why predictive applications must be intuitive, where people work and powered by real-time performance. With SAP's comprehensive approach to predictive analytics, more people in the business can explore, visualize and share insights from exploding volumes and varieties of data."

SAP BusinessObjects Predictive Analysis is currently available via the SAP® Ramp-Up program.

For more information, including a blog post by Mani Gill, vice president and general manager of business intelligence solutions, visit the SAP Newsroom. Follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnewsand @businessobjects, and participate in the conversation using the hashtag #sapanalytics.

About SAP
As market leader in enterprise application software, SAP (NYSE: SAP) helps companies of all sizes and industries run better. From back office to boardroom, warehouse to storefront, desktop to mobile device – SAP empowers people and organizations to work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively to stay ahead of the competition. SAP applications and services enable more than 183,000 customers (includes customers from the acquisition of Sybase) to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and grow sustainably . For more information, visit www.sap.com.

Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "intend," "may," "plan," "project," "predict," "should" and "will" and similar expressions as they relate to SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. The factors that could affect SAP's future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including SAP's most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.

© 2012 by SAP AG. All rights reserved.
SAP and the SAP logo are registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and other countries. Business Objects and the Business Objects logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Business Objects Software Ltd. Business Objects is an SAP company. Sybase and the Sybase logo are registered trademarks of Sybase Inc. Sybase is an SAP company. Crossgate is a registered trademark of Crossgate AG in Germany and other countries. Crossgate is an SAP company.

Note to editors:
To preview and download broadcast-standard stock footage and press photos digitally, please visit www.sap.com/photos. On this platform, you can find high resolution material for your media channels. To view video stories on diverse topics, visit www.sap-tv.com. From this site, you can embed videos into your own Web pages, share video via email links, and subscribe to RSS feeds from SAP TV.

For customers interested in learning more about SAP products:
Global Customer Center: +49 180 534-34-24
United States Only: 1 (800) 872-1SAP (1-800-872-1727)

For more information, press only:
Susan Miller, +1 (610) 661-9225, susan.miller@sap.com, EDT
Samantha Finnegan, +1 (650) 276-9350, samantha.finnegan@sap.com, PDT
SAP Press Office, +49 (6227) 7-46315, CET; +1 (610) 661-3200, EDT; press@sap.com
Jeff Shadid, Burson-Marsteller, +1 (214) 224-8419, jeff.shadid@bm.com, CDT

Norton Launches Industry's First Security Membership Offering

Norton Launches Industry’s First Security Membership Offering

 

New Norton One Delivers Comprehensive Protection and Personalized Service Across Devices

 

TORONTO, ON. – Apr. 4, 2012 – Norton by Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC) today released Norton One, the security industry’s first membership offering.  In pilot since February, Norton One membership provides comprehensive protection across multiple devices, backed with a truly personalized experience and dedicated Norton One Advisors on hand to guide consumers every step of the way.  Norton One provides simple, cloud-based management for protection across PCs, Macs, Android-based phones and tablets.

 

“With Norton One, we are making security simple for consumers,” said Janice Chaffin, group president, Consumer Business Unit, Symantec.  “A Norton One membership gives our customers a level of attention far beyond that of a traditional security product with personalized, high-touch service and the assurance that all their devices are protected with one simple, integrated solution.”

 

A security membership provides consumers with a personalized experience, priority support, comprehensive care and exclusive benefits.  In addition to delivering best-in-class core protection technologies across multiple devices, the Norton One membership delivers these specific key benefits:

·         Personalized Experience – Each Norton One membership is uniquely tailored to the member’s individual security needs, allowing for customized communications and an entirely personalized experience.

·         Priority Support – Members enjoy a high level of service including exclusive access to Norton One Advisors in an estimated two minutes or less and an Instant Call Back option allowing members to choose when and how they wish to be contacted.  Norton One Advisors are dedicated to ensuring that members get the most out of their membership and that their families stay protected.

·         Comprehensive Care – In the unlikely event members think they may have a virus, Norton One Advisors are there.  Norton One Advisors will remove any malware on customers’ devices at no additional charge, as long as their Norton One account is active.

·         Exclusive Benefits – In addition to access to dedicated Norton One Advisors and unlimited virus protection assurance, members will receive exclusive special offers for Norton products and services.  Norton One membership grows with the changing needs of each member’s household and provides the flexibility to add additional devices to their membership or expand their online storage at any time for a prorated fee.

 

Norton One Pricing and Availability

Norton One is available for online purchase in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.  Norton One initially includes Norton 360 version 6.0, Norton Internet Security 2012, Norton Internet Security for Mac, Norton Mobile Security and 25 GB of online storage.  The price for one year of Norton One is U.S. $149.99, which includes protection for up to five interchangeable devices with the option to add more when needed, and premium services and automatic protection updates. All Norton One customers with an active account are eligible to download the latest product versions and updates during their paid period.

 

About Norton

Norton protects the Stuff that matters to consumers, across all aspects of their digital lives. Norton provides a range of security solutions including technologies for PCs and mobile devices, live tech support services and online backup. Like Norton on Facebook.

 

About Symantec

Symantec’s Canadian operations are headquartered in Toronto with offices in Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary and Vancouver.  For more information on Symantec products or current promotions, access Symantec’s Canadian Web site at www.symantec.ca. Symantec is an active member of the Business Software Alliance (BSA). Symantec is a global leader in providing security, storage and systems management solutions to help consumers and organizations secure and manage their information-driven world.  Our software and services protect against more risks at more points, more completely and efficiently, enabling confidence wherever information is used or stored. More information is available at www.symantec.com or by connecting with Symantec at: go.symantec.com/socialmedia.  

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Gartner Says Emerging Markets Will Generate $1.22 Trillion in IT Spending in 2012

Gartner Says Emerging Markets Will Generate $1.22 Trillion in IT Spending in 2012

Analysts to Reveal Latest Global IT Spending Forecast on April 5

STAMFORD, Conn., April 3, 2012—

Emerging markets will generate $1.22 trillion in IT spending in 2012, representing more than 31 percent of the worldwide total, according to Gartner, Inc.

The emerging regions of Asia/Pacific (which exclude the mature markets of Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan), Latin America, the Middle East and Africa (minus mature Israel), and Central and Eastern Europe, continue to show positive IT momentum, despite economic deceleration and a high degree of financial uncertainty in mature markets.

"While professional and consumer market opportunities can be found in many emerging markets, Brazil, Russia, India, Mexico and China (BRIMC) continue to perform particularly strongly, and this is where over half of emerging markets' IT spending will be concentrated in 2012," said Luis Anavitarte, research vice president and head of emerging markets research at Gartner. "Seventeen percent of global IT spending will be generated by BRIMC in 2012, representing nearly $658 billion, and the markets remain far from saturated."

From a regional perspective, Latin America will generate nearly $326 billion in IT spending in 2012, of which professional markets will represent 48.4 percent of the total IT market in reaching $157.7 billion in 2012. Consumer markets in Latin America will reach $168 billion in 2012.

IT spending in the Middle East and Africa is expected to reach $244 billion in 2012, with Saudi Arabia, Turkey and South Africa accounting for nearly 35 percent of this revenue. The Middle East and Africa professional markets represent 38 percent of the total IT market in the region, and will reach $93 billion in 2012.

Central and Eastern Europe are expected to generate nearly $158 billion in IT spending in 2012. Professional markets will represent 48.2 percent of this, totaling $76 billion, while the consumer market is predicted to reach $81.7 billion. Russia's share of IT spending in the region in 2012 is expected for be nearly 45 percent, followed by Poland with 11.8 percent, the Czech Republic with 7.7 percent and Hungary with 3.7 percent.

IT spending in emerging Asia/Pacific countries is expected to reach $496 billion in IT spending in 2012. Emerging Asia/Pacific professional markets will reach 42 percent of the total IT spending in the region, while consumer IT spending will reach $288 billion in 2012.

"IT spending caution will be a constant in 2012, suggesting IT sales will be more challenging than in 2011," Mr. Anavitarte said. "In 2012, we expect to see a more aggressive approach of selected professional and consumer markets, with particular attention to new consumer buyers. IT budget increases are expected in emerging markets for 2012 and end users' top technology priorities include cloud computing and mobile technologies."

Mr. Anavitarte advised providers to rebalance their portfolio of markets by assessing worldwide demand for 2012 and shifting resources accordingly from some mature markets to selected emerging economies. Being selective and strategic in regions, countries and selected cities will be key in the coming year, and providers will need to carefully select where to execute their strategies after BRIMC countries, maximizing profitability while minimizing investments. They should also plan for a larger direct presence and execution in BRIMC, and for a slightly higher reliability in channel partners in the rest of the emerging markets.

Additional information is available in the Gartner report "Emerging Market Analysis: Bases for a Solid 2012 Market Growth Strategy." The report is available on Gartner's website at http://www.gartner.com/resId=1879518.

Gartner analysts will announce the latest overall worldwide IT spending forecast on April 5. The findings will be available on the Gartner Quarterly IT Spending Forecast site at www.gartner.com/quarterly-it-forecast. The forecast will include a breakout of IT spending by hardware, software, services and telecom.

Contacts:

Christy Pettey
Gartner
+1 408 468 8312
christy.pettey@gartner.com

Rob van der Meulen
Gartner
+44 0 1784 267892
rob.vandermeulen@gartner.com


About Gartner:
Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) is the world's leading information technology research and advisory company. Gartner delivers the technology-related insight necessary for its clients to make the right decisions, every day. From CIOs and senior IT leaders in corporations and government agencies, to business leaders in high-tech and telecom enterprises and professional services firms, to technology investors, Gartner is a valuable partner to 60,000 clients in 11,500 distinct organizations. Through the resources of Gartner Research, Gartner Executive Programs, Gartner Consulting and Gartner Events, Gartner works with every client to research, analyze and interpret the business of IT within the context of their individual role. Founded in 1979, Gartner is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, U.S.A., and has 4,500 associates, including 1,250 research analysts and consultants, and clients in 85 countries. For more information, visit www.gartner.com.

New IBM Software Accelerates Decision Making in the Era of Big Data

Made in IBM Labs: New IBM Software Accelerates Decision Making in the Era of Big Data

Coca Cola Bottling Company Consolidated Taps Data to Bring Products to Market Faster, Saving $1 Million

ARMONK, N.Y. - 03 Apr 2012: IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced new software to provide clients with a sophisticated way to tame the data deluge and speed up business processes, making it easier for decision makers to gain insights from data. Based on innovations from IBM labs, the new software continuously accesses, compresses, and analyzes data, freeing up IT staff to work on higher value tasks such as big data and business analytics.

Over the past four years, more than 100 clients, 200 business partners, and hundreds of experts from IBM Research and Software Development Labs around the world collaborated to develop the new software.

In the era of big data, organizations are struggling to gain insights from information assets to transform business operations and be competitive in their industries. The challenge is compounded by new high performance applications that require instant access to new types and massive amounts of data from social networks, sensors, and mobile devices, along with data growing exponentially inside business applications.

New Software Helps Clients Find Answers Up to 10 Times Faster and Free Up Storage

To help clients meet these challenges, IBM is unveiling DB2 10 and InfoSphere Warehouse 10 software that easily integrates with big data systems, automatically compresses data into tighter spaces to prevent storage sprawl, and slices information from the past, present, and future to eliminate expensive application code.

During testing, clients performed data warehouse queries up to 10 times faster to speed up decision making, freed up storage space up to 90 percent to dramatically reduce storage needs, and easily migrated data from expensive Oracle Database to IBM DB2 software with 98 percent code compatibility that didn't require changing the data or retraining staff.  Using the new software, clients can:

  • Access big data for deeper insights –- Big data integration and real-time data analysis provides faster insights from unstructured data, such as social networking information or text from mobile devices. Insights from Hadoop-based systems are now easily integrated with real-time analysis of structured data in the warehouse to enable better and faster business decisions.  
  • Speed up business processes and lower data management costs -- Adaptive Compression and Multi-Temperature Data Management instantly compresses data to make it easier for business applications to use it and place into the most effective storage. Compression speeds up the flow and better manages big data for use by analytics applications. The new software automatically assesses how frequently data is needed and moves it to cost effective storage based on how "hot" or "cold" it is.  
  • Look into the past and future to improve decision making -- Time Travel Query enables easier access to data at any point in time. For example, an online travel agency can automatically detect inconsistencies in itineraries such as a hotel booked in Rome for eight days while a car is reserved in New York City for three of those days. Previously, database administrators and application developers had to write complex code to uncover this relationship.  

“Today’s growing data volumes make it tougher for clients to access the right data when they need it to stay competitive," said Arvind Krishna, general manager, IBM Information Management. “IBM has advanced database and data warehouse technology to the point where data management can be automated and insights shared more broadly than ever before, freeing up decision makers and IT staff to focus on business growth.”

Coca-Cola Bottling Company Reinvests Cost Savings by Switching to DB2

The largest independent bottler of Coca Cola products in the U.S. has been using DB2 10 to drive increased performance and lower software and hardware costs.  

“Coca Cola Bottling Company has saved more than a million dollars over the past four years in licensing, maintenance, and storage costs by migrating from Oracle to IBM database software,” said Tom DeJuneas, IT team manager. “We’ve reinvested these savings into other business projects, while keeping our operating expenses flat. As a result, we don’t have to pass rising costs on to consumers, which allow us to maintain our sales volumes and market share.”

The upgrade to DB2 10 further enhances performance and boosts business processes. Coca-Cola Bottling Company has seen the time to process queries decrease dramatically. This improves Supply Chain Management processes with increased average response of SAP workloads from 30 to 60 percent, which in turn helps bring products to market faster.

Clients Choose IBM Software for New Workloads

“Banking customers today require instant and anytime access to accounts either online or through mobile devices. IBM's new database software allows us to meet these demands and helps predict and address network bottlenecks so there is not an interruption in service,” said Lefentse Sennelo, DB2 database specialist, ABSA Bank, a member of the Barclays Group. “The high availability and disaster recovery features help ensure our customers get the best experience every time.”

“IBM's new database software allows Mindray to compress business data flowing through our SAP applications by nearly 77 percent, which means we spend less time and money on managing and storing our data,” said Eric Xu, DB2 database administrator, Mindray Medical International Limited. “This new feature is automatic and we don't have to take our data offline or require an administrator to spend time working on it, freeing up valuable resources.”

“As one of China’s top 15 manufacturers, Jianlong Steel is interested in controlling costs and improving performance as we process 6.5 million tons of steel each year,” said Feng Wang, database administrator, Jianlong Steel. “We tested the IBM software and found improved performance and cost savings from the new adaptive compression and workload manager features. We think the new database software will prove very valuable to our business.”

Credit-qualified clients can take advantage of 0 percent financing over 12 months for new IBM database and data warehouse software licenses and support charges. Competitive rates are also available for 24 and 36 month payment terms.  Clients benefit by improving project payback, preserving upfront cash for other strategic investments and securing a fixed, predictable monthly payment.  

For more information on DB2 and InfoSphere Warehouse software, visit http://www.ibm.com/software/data/db2-warehouse-10.
To see how Coca Cola Bottling Company is using IBM software to speed up its supply chain, visit .

Check out an infographic that shows how big data is the new natural resource (source: IBM) Link: http://bit.ly/Gzp4HA.

High Tech US Smart Grid Lab Integrates Calgary's SUBNET Technology

High Tech US Smart Grid Lab Integrates SUBNET Technology

Tuesday, April 03, 2012


SUBNET Solutions Inc. technology is being used in the new EnerNex state-of-the-art Smart Grid Labs, one of the premier smart grid testing and evaluation facilities in the country.

CALGARY, ALBERTA--(Marketwire - April 3, 2012) - SUBNET Solutions Inc. ("SUBNET"), a solutions provider that works with utilities to integrate substation IED access and security, visualization and control, fault file management and asset monitoring, recently donated software and engineering time to help build the EnerNex Smart Grid Labs (SGL). The facility was developed to give vendors, utilities and regulatory personnel a place to evaluate smart grid services for communications, security, standards compliance and implementation assistance.

SUBNET was selected to supply an integration platform for the substation and distribution devices at SGL to demonstrate multi-vendor interoperability. SUBNET's vendor agnostic solutions enable EnerNex to demonstrate advancements in unifying smart grid substation device access and security.

Travis Jaffray, Technical Product Manager with SUBNET, worked closely with EnerNex to help integrate a number of SUBNET smart grid technologies at the lab. EnerNex Smart Grid Labs is currently using SUBNET's PowerSYSTEM Center with My Passwords and My IEDs to provide complete and secure IED access control, password management, as well as My Faults for event file collection. SUBNET's SubSTATION Server is also being used as a secure data gateway and for protocol conversion, while SubSTATION Explorer is found in the testing facility's system as an HMI for visualization.

"SUBNET is really excited to have been included by EnerNex in their Smart Grid Labs initiative," says Jaffray. "One reason SUBNET was included in the project was we provide specifically multi-vendor solutions. The smart grid lab includes devices from multiple vendors such as Arbiter System, Bitronics, eMS, GE Digital Energy, Hindle Power, SEL, RugggedCom, Sisco and TE Connectivity all of which are accessible with SUBNET's vendor agnostic software solutions."

The lab's substation architecture was deployed using the SUBNET Unified Grid Intelligence Architecture, which SUBNET designed in order to eliminate the expense and inefficiencies of legacy tiered substation architectures. The system includes redundancy, creating a more reliable substation that is affordable and vastly improves the maintainability of the overall solution.

The SUBNET Unified Grid Intelligence Architecture enables utilities to configure substations in significantly less time than traditional RTU or other tiered communication processor based architectures. This architecture enables the consolidation of numerous different legacy device configurations per substation into one consolidated device configuration. Also, SUBNET's advanced configuration capabilities enable configuration automation that leverages the utilities engineering design standards and configuration processes that vastly simplifies and accelerates system configuration.

The lab was opened on February 29, 2012, in Knoxville, Tennessee.

About SUBNET

SUBNET Solutions Inc. is a global software solutions provider for electrical utilities. SUBNET focuses on Making Power Grids More Intelligent®. Founded in 1992, SUBNET is an industry leader providing intelligent solutions that securely connect real time electrical utility field information with utility business systems to enable Smart Grid solutions. Over 200 utilities worldwide rely on SUBNET software to safely manage and monitor thousands of substations. SUBNET is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and a Cisco Developer Network Connected Energy Partner. Visit http://www.SUBNET.com for more information.

All product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies.

Dell Acquires Clerity Solutions, Launching New Applications Modernization Services

Dell Acquires Clerity Solutions, Launching New Applications Modernization Services

  • Expands Dell Services capabilities with Clerity’s applications re-hosting solutions and services
  • Helps commercial and public sector customers seamlessly transition from legacy IT systems to converged, open standards-based platforms
  • Provides faster, more secure path to hosting applications in the cloud



Dell today announced it has acquired Clerity Solutions, a leading global provider of applications modernization and re-hosting solutions and services. Clerity’s capabilities will enable Dell Services to help customers reduce the cost of transitioning business-critical applications and data from legacy computing systems and onto more modern architectures, including the cloud.

Dell has taken significant steps over the past three years to expand its services capabilities to help customers manage the increasing complexity of IT, including the ability to support growing volumes of data, streamline processes and ease the transition to cloud-based solutions.

Clerity’s unique re-hosting solution makes it easier for customers to move applications off legacy computing architectures into the new IT environment of their choice. By automating this approach to IT modernization through its UniKix™ offering, Clerity helps customers minimize the need to retest systems and retrain IT personnel—which results in overall cost and time savings.

Clerity was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Chicago, Ill. Dell welcomes Clerity’s approximately 70 employees to the Dell Services team, and plans to make continued investments to grow the applications modernization capabilities of its Services business. Additional terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Quotes
“Unlike other providers, Dell remains committed to open architecture computing and to helping our customers implement optimal platforms for their applications,” said Steve Schuckenbrock, president, Dell Services. “Increasingly, these x86 platforms are enabling super-scale cloud environments, and the addition of Clerity gives us a clear advantage in helping customers modernize and migrate their applications off outdated hardware infrastructure to more current architectures. We are thrilled to welcome the Clerity team to Dell.”

“The combination of Clerity and Dell provides tremendous growth opportunities for our core application modernization and re-hosting solutions, and rapidly expands our global reach and scale,” said Brandon Edenfield, president, Clerity Solutions. “Taking this step with Dell is a very natural progression for our business and offers customers access to world-class enterprise solutions and services offered by Dell Services.”

About Clerity Solutions
Clerity Solutions is a leading full-service provider of legacy migration, modernization, and optimization solutions. Drawing from over 20 years of experience, Clerity recognizes that companies have significant investments in core applications and procedures and provides a wealth of low risk, high value tools, technology, and services to reduce IT costs without sacrificing current functionality and service level agreements. Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois with offices worldwide, Clerity has customers in all major countries, including some of the largest financial services ISVs and Fortune-class end users.

About Dell
Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) listens to customers and delivers innovative technology and services that give them the power to do more. Dell Services develops and delivers a comprehensive suite of services and solutions in applications, business process, consulting, infrastructure and support to help customers succeed. Learn more at www.dell.com.

RIM Launches Next Generation Mobile Device Management Solution for Government and Business Customers

Introducing BlackBerry Mobile Fusion – RIM Launches Next Generation Mobile Device Management Solution for Government and Business Customers

Cost-Efficient Solution Delivers Secure, Reliable, Scalable and Easy Management of BlackBerry, iOS and Android Devices

Waterloo - Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today launched the highly-anticipated BlackBerry® Mobile Fusion, RIM’s next-generation mobile device management (MDM) solution for enterprise customers. Built on the foundation that has established BlackBerry® Enterprise Server as the gold standard for government and businesses, BlackBerry Mobile Fusion delivers a cost-efficient, secure, reliable and scalable solution that consolidates the management of smartphones and tablets running BlackBerry® OS (including support for BlackBerry PlayBook™ and future BlackBerry® 10 devices) as well as Android™ and iOS®*, and provides a single, unified, web-based console for easily managing all devices.

For businesses and government, managing a mix of mobile devices on any scale is chaotic. Organizations face pressure to allow employees to bring their own devices into the workplace, and they are looking to RIM as the global leader in the enterprise mobility space to solve that problem,” said Alan Panezic, Vice President, Enterprise Product Management and Marketing at Research In Motion. “BlackBerry Mobile Fusion allows organizations to manage a mixed environment of devices in the most secure, simple, and cost efficient manner possible. It also means that businesses and government do not have to move to the lowest common denominator on security for all the devices they need to manage.

BlackBerry Mobile Fusion integrates the market-leading features and security architecture of BlackBerry Enterprise Server (version 5.0.3), providing advanced IT management and controls, a single outbound security connection (256-bit AES encrypted “BlackBerry VPN”), enforceable IT policies, support for BlackBerry® Balance technology, and over-the-air app and software installation capabilities for the management of BlackBerry smartphones and PlayBook tablets (as well as future BlackBerry 10 devices).

For the wide range of government workers around the world and approximately 90 percent of Fortune 500 companies using BlackBerry smartphones today, BlackBerry Mobile Fusion allows them to leverage their current end-to-end BlackBerry security infrastructure and have flexible options for individually liable devices while keeping costs low.

In addition to providing unmatched functionality for BlackBerry devices, BlackBerry Mobile Fusion also provides comprehensive mobile device management capabilities for iOS and Android devices including:

  • Support for multiple devices per user
  • Application and software management
  • Connectivity management (Wi-Fi®, VPN, certificates)
  • Centralized, easy to use, unified web-based console
  • Security and policy definition and management
  • Asset management
  • Configuration  management
  • Security and protection for lost or stolen devices (remote lock, wipe)
  • User- and group-based administration
  • High scalability

BlackBerry Mobile Fusion software is available as a free download and is priced by the number of devices being managed. Client access licenses (CALs) start at $99 per user or $4 per user per month (billed annually); volume discounts are also available. In addition, RIM is offering a 60 day free trial, so customers can deploy a pilot before purchasing a single CAL. The 60 day free trial is available at https://www.blackberry.com/eBES/trialOrder.do?id=121.

For more information, visit www.blackberry.com/mobilefusion.

* iOS and Android devices require the Mobile Fusion Client app to enable the BlackBerry Mobile Fusion management services, which is available as a free download for iOS and Android devices from their respective app stores. Device security, manageability and controls vary according to the inherent capabilities of the individual device operating systems.

"Rethink Ink" with Xerox's Launch of Fast, Affordable Color Multifunction Printers

"Rethink Ink" with Xerox's Launch of Fast, Affordable Color Multifunction Printers

Maritime`s IWK Health Centre trials new device performance

TORONTO, April 3, 2012 /CNW/ - Small businesses and enterprises share a common set of challenges - finding new customers and staying productive.  Xerox's (NYSE: XRX) new color multifunction printers (MFPs) can help turn these challenges into opportunities by making it affordable to create colorful marketing materials while managing office functions ranging from printing to scanning with ease.

Compact enough to fit into any office environment, including on a desk, the Xerox ColorQube® 8700/8900 Color Multifunction Printers use solid ink technology - a cartridge-free, crayon-like ink stick - to produce high-quality prints such as sales brochures, flyers and presentations. With the ColorQube, any size business can create professional-looking, colorful marketing materials and other documents on a range of media, including recycled paper.

"The ColorQube 8700 produces excellent print quality on many different types of paper," said Bev Higgins, Manager, Telecommunications and Desktop Support, IWK Health Centre, and an early adopter of the new multifunction printer. "We've found it very easy to use - from the simplified network install, to the easy ink-loading system, to the large and intuitive color control panel. The 8700 is also very reliable - we've had no issues with paper jams and we're confident that our data is secure through the device's encrypted hard drive and image overwrite features."

Cost-savings can be gained with Hybrid Color Pricing Plans, allowing businesses to pay only for the amount of color on a given page. This is an important differentiation when using just a little bit of color, such as a company logo on letterhead.

But saving money on color prints doesn't have to come at the expense of sustainability, functionality or security. Companies can maximize resources and productivity with features that include:

  • Energy-saving methods like Intelligent Ready, which switches to low-power mode during downtimes. Compared to laser MFPs in the same class, the ColorQube 8700/8900 MFPs produce up to 90 percent less printing waste and use 17 percent less life cycle energy.
  • A 7-inch touch screen makes it easy to program jobs, including printing, scanning, distributing and organizing documents.
  • Embedded security features, such as image overwrite and encryption, protect the documents, hard drive and network from vulnerabilities.

"The new ColorQube is designed as the first desktop, solid ink device completely engineered to deliver secure, true multifunction performance and office productivity - representing Xerox technology at its best," said Steven Connor, Vice President of Marketing, Xerox Canada. "Featuring our solid ink technology, the ColorQube 8700/8900 multifunction printers deliver cost-effective color printing with sustainability in mind."

ColorQube 8700/8900 Support Xerox's Managed Print Services

The MFPs are offered as part of Xerox's Managed Print Services (MPS), which helps companies control print spend. As the MPS market leader, Xerox works with businesses of all sizes to increase productivity and achieve savings up to 30 percent.

Pricing and Availability

Immediately available worldwide, the ColorQube 8700 has a list price starting at CDN $2,999 and the ColorQube 8900 starts at $5,799.

About Xerox

With sales approaching $23 billion, Xerox (NYSE: XRX) is the world's leading enterprise for business process and document management. Its technology, expertise and services enable workplaces - from small businesses to large global enterprises - to simplify the way work gets done so they operate more effectively and focus more on what matters most: their real business. Headquartered in Norwalk, Conn., Xerox offers business process outsourcing and IT outsourcing services, including data processing, healthcare solutions, HR benefits management, finance support, transportation solutions, and customer relationship management services for commercial and government organizations worldwide.  The company also provides extensive leading-edge document technology, services, software and genuine Xerox supplies for graphic communication and office printing environments of any size. The 140,000 people of Xerox serve clients in more than 160 countries.  For more information, visit http://www.xerox.com, http://news.xerox.com or http://www.realbusiness.com.  For investor information, visit http://www.xerox.com/investor.

About Xerox Canada Ltd.

Headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, with regional offices nationwide, Xerox Canada provides extensive, leading-edge document technology, services, software and genuine Xerox supplies for graphic communication and office printing environments of any size, in industries such as financial services, retail, telecommunications, healthcare, education and transportation. Xerox Canada offers and delivers an exclusive portfolio of leading managed print services (MPS), communication and marketing services (CMS) and specialized business process outsourcing (BPO) - such as managing paper-based work processes - and information technology services. LaserNetworks, a leading managed print services provider, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Xerox Canada Ltd. For more information visit www.xerox.ca.

Note:  To receive RSS news feeds, visit http://news.xerox.com/pr/xerox/rss.aspx. For open commentary, industry perspectives and views visit http://twitter.com/xeroxcorp, http://realbusinessatxerox.blogs.xerox.com, http://www.facebook.com/XeroxCorp, http://www.youtube.com/XeroxCorp.

XEROX®, XEROX and Design® and ColorQube ® are trademarks of Xerox Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.

Prices, features, specifications, capabilities, appearance and availability of Xerox products and services are subject to change without notice.

For further information:

Media Contacts:
John Quinn, Xerox Canada, 1-416-733-6828, John.Quinn@xerox.com

INTTRA Powers Business Processes and Delivers Customer Value with Red Hat JBoss Middleware Solutions

 

INTTRA Powers Business Processes and Delivers Customer Value with Red Hat JBoss Middleware Solutions

Raleigh

NC, Global, April 3, 2012

Leading shipping industry e-commerce provider to use suite of Red Hat’s Middleware solutions for business rules management, ESB, and enterprise application processes

Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT), the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, and INTTRA, the world’s largest multi-carrier e-commerce network for ocean freight, today announced that INTTRA will implement several solutions from the Red Hat JBoss Middleware portfolio to enhance and speed the delivery of business solutions for the shipping industry.

INTTRA selected several Red Hat solutions to achieve this goal, including JBoss Enterprise BRMS, JBoss Enterprise SOA Platform (ESB), JBoss Enterprise Application Platform, JBoss Operations Network, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux. INTTRA intends to use the solutions to facilitate more streamlined, automated interactions with its customers by leveraging business rules driven processes. INTTRA’s customers include more than 30 of the world’s leading ocean carriers. With the addition of Red Hat, INTTRA will be able to more easily control and manage each of its application components, resulting in faster software delivery, greater application flexibility and reduced management costs.

“We were looking for sophisticated yet intuitive solutions to help us better manage the processes and data we use to provide services to our large ocean freight network. Red Hat JBoss Middleware Solutions offered the best features to suit our needs, as well as a very attractive subscription approach,” said Anthony Costa, vice president, Technology and Customer Experience, INTTRA. “The implementation of these Red Hat solutions will help automate our system’s decision-making processes and assist in managing complex events more effectively.”

The Red Hat solutions INTTRA will be using are designed to create a fully integrated, intelligent enterprise. JBoss Enterprise BRMS is a comprehensive platform for the development, deployment and management of business rules and events; JBoss Enterprise SOA Platform integrates and orchestrates a wide range of applications, services and business processes; and JBoss Enterprise Application Platform helps enterprises build, host and deploy enterprise Java applications and services.

“The fact that the world’s largest multi-carrier e-commerce provider has selected Red Hat is a testament to the scalability and efficiency of our Middleware platforms to solve high-value business challenges,” said Craig Muzilla, vice president and general manager, Middleware, Red Hat. “We’re thrilled to be working with INTTRA, and look forward to providing them with a wide range of integration and application development and deployment solutions that can serve their needs for years to come.”

For more information about Red Hat JBoss Middleware Solutions, visit www.redhat.com/products/jbossenterprisemiddleware/. To learn more about Red Hat Enterprise Linux, visit www.redhat.com/products/enterprise-linux.

For more news about Red Hat, visit www.redhat.com. For more news, more often, visit www.press.redhat.com.

About Red Hat, Inc.
Red Hat, the world's leading provider of open source solutions and an S&P 500 company, is headquartered in Raleigh, NC with more than 70 offices spanning the globe. Red Hat provides high-quality, affordable technology with its operating system platform, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, together with cloud, virtualization, management, storage and service-oriented architecture (SOA) solutions, including Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization and JBoss Enterprise Middleware. Red Hat also offers support, training and consulting services to its customers worldwide. Learn more: http://www.redhat.com.

About INTTRA
INTTRA is the world’s largest, multi-carrier e-commerce network for ocean freight. INTTRA professionals work with over 30 leading carriers and their customers to streamline and standardize their shipping processes worldwide through a network of more than 30,000 corporate locations. Over 500,000 container orders are initiated on the INTTRA platform each week, representing more than 15 percent of global ocean container trade.

For further information, visit inttra.com or contact Win Ross, corporate communications manager, +1.973.917.1509, win.ross@inttra.com