Friday, March 30, 2012

Financial Cloud Demystified at New Webinar

New York, NY, March 30, 2012 --(PR.com)-- “FX in the Cloud,” an upcoming Webinar for financial professionals will show Foreign Exchange (FX) trading firms how to capitalize on the benefits of cloud computing to optimize their high-volume, latency-sensitive trading operations.

Hosted by Equinix, e-Forex, Aite Group and FCM-360, the Webinar is free and open to the financial community.

Time: 10 AM New York, 3 PM London, Thursday, April 12.

Thursday, March 29, 2012

IDC: nearly 1 billion 'smart connected devices' shipped last year

from Engadget:

>>Know that gadget you're currently using to read this article? It may be one of 916 million "smart connected devices" that shipped in 2011, with global revenue totaling some $489 billion last year. But the IDC expects that figure to jump to 1.1 billion for 2012, with a total of 1.84 billion new web-connected gadgets hitting the market in 2016.

Brennan IT chooses Equinix as strategic data centre partner for Sydney and the United States

29 March, 2012, Sydney, Australia: As it continues to grow its cloud and managed services business, Brennan IT today announced that it has selected Equinix, a provider of global data centre services, as part of an ongoing expansion of its cloud infrastructure and services platform.

The relationship will see Brennan IT transition many of its NSW-based cloud services to Equinix’s Sydney data centre, while also providing Brennan IT with the opportunity to take advantage of Equinix’s global platform of state-of-the-art facilities, especially in the United States.

The move is aimed at increasing Brennan IT’s cloud capacity and capabilities – ensuring that the company can continue to deliver cost effective and flexible services to new and existing Infrastructure-as-a-Service customers. Brennan IT will maintain a permanent, private suite at Equinix’s Sydney site.

Brennan IT’s managing director Dave Stevens said that, with Brennan IT’s cloud investments doubling every nine months, the relationship with Equinix would form an important part of the company’s overall cloud strategy.

“As our cloud offerings and customer base continue to expand, so do our requirements,” Mr Stevens said. “By partnering with Equinix we are guaranteeing access to the capacities, quality facilities and services we need to cost-effectively expand as the popularity of our cloud services continues to rise.”

Demand for Brennan IT’s cloud and Infrastructure-as-a-Service platforms continues to be strong. For the FY 10/11, Brennan IT’s infrastructure revenue grew by 101 per cent and the company is on track to deliver similar levels of growth this FY. Mr Stevens added that Q2 2012 was the company’s strongest sales quarter on record, up 15 per cent on the previous best quarter.

“For this vital service we wanted an A-grade provider with first-class facilities with the highest uptimes, stability, redundancy and performance. As one of the largest facilities in Sydney, Equinix emerged as the obvious choice,” Mr Stevens said.

In addition to delivering cloud services from Equinix’s local facility, Mr Stevens explained that Brennan IT would also take advantage of Equinix’s status as a global provider to provision services internationally, initially in the United States but also potentially in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia. “An increasing number of our Australian customers are expanding into global markets and our partnership with Equinix will allow us to support them in their ventures,” Mr Stevens said.

“Brennan IT is a fantastic example of a local service provider who understands how to drive growth in the competitive cloud market with the right service offering. Equinix’s global platform of International Business Exchanges provides an ideal launching pad for their domestic and international success. Brennan can not only take advantage of our unrivalled breadth and scope of data centre facilities around the world, but also leverage the full benefits our ecosystem has to offers,” said Tony Simonsen, managing director, Equinix Australia.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Samsung ships five million Galaxy Notes in just five months

from Engadget:

>>Five is an important number for Samsung's Galaxy Note. It has a 5.3-inch screen and now, just five months since it debuted Samsung has announced it's shipped five million units (the one million mark was crossed right around the end of December).

New Cadillacs to have collision alert systems

from www.detroitnews.com:

>>General Motors Co. will make available new safety technologies such as a vibrating seat to alert drivers to potential collisions on 2013 models of the Cadillac XTS, ATS and SRX, the automaker announced Tuesday.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Gramercy Capital Corporation: An Edward De Bono Stock

Read the whole article at Seeking Alpha:

>>Gramercy Capital Corporation (GKK) is an interesting stock that should offer investors a limited downside, due to its strong cash position, while potentially representing, on the upside, a kind of an "option" on the turnaround of commercial real estate property in the USA.Some lateral thinking, however, rather than a more classical investing approach, may be necessary/useful to understand why the company, in spite of its recent near-death experience, can belong to the "value investing" category, although some risks that could derail the happy ending still exist. Patience may also be required, as the story doesn't really seem close to get a catalyst.

There are several interesting articles about this stock on the Internet that we suggest you should read, including Plan Maestro's analysis, available also here on Seeking Alpha (I, II), as well as a recent post by Laminar Capital Management - we'll try to add to this commentary our view and an update to the most recent Q4 2011 results.

Jamba Juice Expanding Into Schools, Hiring: CEO

from CNBC:

>>The juice and smoothie chain is "making a major push in the schools," he said, expecting to put its JambaGo kiosks in 400 to 500 schools by the end of the year. The company has already opened 30 kiosks in a pilot program.

Canaccord Genuity Starts Equinix at Buy

from www.streetinsider.com:

>>Canaccord Genuity initiates coverage on Equinix (NASDAQ: EQIX) with a Buy. PT $150.00.

Jamba Juice plans more outlets

from http://businessmirror.com.ph:

>>Jamba Juice launched its first flagship store in Bonifacio High Street Central in November. A second store was this month in Alabang Town Center.

Jamba Juice Philippines Managing Director Sharon Fuentebella said the local affiliate of is going to open more stores in the country in prime locations such as Makati, Greenhills, Quezon City and other prime locations.

...

She said Jamba Juice Philippines plans to open a store every quarter.

Jamba Juice Senior Vice President for international operations Thibault Chatellus said the group is also planning to get the Philippines as one of its chief sources of mango. It has already formed a partnership with a Guimaras-based mango planter’s organization to plant 50,000 seeds as an initial project. “Aside from bananas, we will be buying Philippine mango for our requirements very soon,” he said.

Mobile Andrio

A jump-and-run game in the style of Super Mario, Giana Sisters and similar games. It has 18 levels of increasing difficulty.

Highscores get uploaded to the social gaming network Scoreloop, and you can compare your highscore with those of players all around the world. Furthermore you can start challenge games against other players to determine the better player in a 1:1 situation.

The game can be controlled using keyboard (preferred), touchscreen, orientation sensor or trackball. Use 'Edit Settings' to customize. Integrated with Immersion MOTIV Haptic Effects.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.joergjahnke.mario.android.free

Equinix downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Dougherty

from Yahoo:

>>Dougherty downgraded Equinix based on valuation. Price target is $140.

Monday, March 26, 2012

Tactile Display With Directional Force Feedback

from www.diginfo.tv:

>>This new touch panel concept imparts a directional tactile feedback force to the user, by moving the panel surface. Developed by a research group with members from NEC and the Tokyo Institute of Technology, the system uses wires to pull the four corners of the panel. The tensile force to be applied to each wire can be adjusted, so the strength of the force, as well as the direction, can be controlled.

JPMorgan raised its price target for Equinix

from http://wallstcheatsheet.com:

>JPMorgan raised its price target for Equinix after meeting with management and keeps an Overweight rating on the stock.

Five Ways Cloud Hubbing Can Change Your Business

from Forbes:

>>But what does cloud hubbing mean to you? Does it apply to your business? Can you safely forget about it? To figure this out we talked with Chris Sharp, Equinix’s general manager of content and cloud, one of the leading companies in putting cloud hubbing to work for its customers.

Nirvanix Offers Direct Connections to Cloud Storage within Equinix Data Centers Worldwide

Direct Connections Provide Customers with Improved Throughput, Performance and Cost Savings

SAN DIEGO, March 26, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Nirvanix, the leader in enterprise-class cloud storage services, today announced the availability of direct connections to its Cloud Storage Network™ in Equinix (Nasdaq: EQIX - News) International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data centers. By offering this direct connection to Nirvanix offerings, new and existing Equinix customers are able to establish a private network connection between their owned or managed IT infrastructure and the Nirvanix Cloud Storage Network in the same data center—providing immediate access to the Nirvanix Cloud File System™, designed to support millions of users, billions of objects and exabytes of data. The service is currently available in Equinix data centers in New Jersey; Frankfurt, Germany; and Tokyo, Japan and enables customers to bypass Internet service providers to improve throughput, gain consistent network performance, reduce costs and add cloud storage capabilities to their existing IT foundation.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20090113/LA58239LOGO)

"Making cloud storage a virtual extension of an organization's IT infrastructure is quickly replacing conventional approaches for applications such as backup and archival," said Scott Genereux, President and CEO of Nirvanix. "By offering direct connections to our Cloud Storage Network, Equinix customers running a cloud computing environment or a SAN storage infrastructure can now establish an immediate and direct connection into our public cloud for on-demand storage capacity, availability and bandwidth. This provides them with continuous data access achieved by multiple live replicas spread across a global grid, enabling work-flow sharing and content collaboration across multiple diverse locations while maintaining data consistency."

"Given the degree of variability and uncertainty around bandwidth, speed and latency that comes with relying on the public internet for core application connectivity, many customers are looking to connect their IT infrastructure directly to their cloud service providers, a solution that improves performance and security, reduces cost and enables new business capabilities," said Chris Sharp, General Manager, Cloud and Content for Equinix. "This partnership provides customers with a high bandwidth and low latency connection to Nirvanix's leading enterprise-class cloud storage services and is a welcome addition to the Platform Equinix ecosystem of more than 300 cloud service providers and the destination of more than 4,000 companies."

For Equinix customers, this service provides new business-enabling capabilities, including:

  • High volume data transfer: high bandwidth connectivity enables customers to more efficiently, cost-effectively and securely upload or download large amounts of data from the Nirvanix Cloud Storage Network.
  • Enhanced performance: high bandwidth, low latency connectivity enables customers to treat Nirvanix cloud storage as part of the data center for more frequent migration/replication of data, allowing for more homogeneous business continuity/disaster recovery policies, and retention strategies.
  • Hybrid cloud storage: With a Nirvanix Hybrid Cloud Storage node deployed within an Equinix data center and a direct connection, customers can maintain cloud storage capacity on premises for frequently accessed data plus have the ability to access the public cloud for on-demand capacity and bandwidth, supporting cloudbursting during peak business hours.
  • Concurrent access to public and private resources: Nirvanix direct connections can be partitioned into multiple logical connections, enabling customers to use the same connection to access public and private resources.