Dell unveils business- and school-friendly 13.3-inch Latitude 3330 notebook

DNP Dell unveils enterprisefriendly Latitude 3330 and Mobile Computing Cart

Cash-strapped businesses and schools are getting some love from Dell today, thanks to its freshly unveiled Latitude 3330 laptop. Shipping with an entry-level price of $419, this modest machine packs an Intel Core i5 3337U processor, a 13.3-inch 1,366 x 768 display, 2GB of DDR3L RAM, a 720p HD webcam and a 128GB SSD. Sure, it may not be the most beastly configuration, but this hardware is definitely capable of handling your homework. In case an employer or local schoolhouse needs to find safe-keeping for a fleet of its rigs, Dell also revealed its new Mobile Computing Cart to take care of the job. This $1,900 transportable docking station supports remote management and can house multiple notebooks, including up to 30 Latitude 3330s at a time. Students on a ramen-noodle budget and fledgling entrepreneurs can expect both the computer and storage cabinet to land sometime at the end of the month.

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Aruba WorkSpace gets futuristic with Bring Your Own Device enterprise security

This week the folks at Aruba are showing off their brand new WorkSpace platform complete with what they note is the first Bring Your Own Device solution that integrates the elements they’re bringing to the table. With this new system, Aruba will be managing networks, devices, and applications all in one – and all BYOD! This futuristic solution brings on another winning ClearPass Access Management System and is set to protect the vital information flowing in and out of your company devices every single day.

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With Aruba’s solution you’ll be working with a visible differentiation between work and play – personal privacy is at the forefront of this initiative and will allow businesses as well as employees to take command of their devices. And not just laptops. Also included in this push is Apple products from desktop to iPhone, iPad, Android smartphones and tables, Windows, and BlackBerry too.

Aruba is making an effort to secure your data and your workspaces on all devices by partnering with a variety of brands that have high-powered apps you’re already using right this minute. Cisco, Box, SugarSync, and more are on-board already – Aruba has made it clear that the community has already brought fourth more than 40 apps working with the system at launch time – nothing to turn your nose up at! This WorkSpace Partner Program continues to expand, as well – more partners are jumping onboard all the time!

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At this very minute, those of you out there with an app that you feel would be a good fit for this secure business-minded system can sign up on the official Aruba WorkSpace site – there you’ll get a toolkit that will jump-start your app into a whole new realm. Also at this minute you’ll be able to jump onboard with the ClearPass Access Management System – meanwhile Aruba’s newest in WorkSpace is currently still in Beta.

WorkSpace will be making its official launch later this year – July is expected for both the main system and the client-side software application for both iOS and Samsung Android devices. We’ll see more soon!

[via Aruba]


Aruba WorkSpace gets futuristic with Bring Your Own Device enterprise security is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Dropbox for Teams becomes Dropbox for Business, adds single sign-on for good measure

Dropbox for Teams becomes Dropbox for Business, adds single signon for good measure

As often as Dropbox has been courting serious cloud storage users with Dropbox for Teams, it doesn’t feel that the name reflects the company’s loftier ambitions — so it’s giving the service a rebranding. Now called Dropbox for Business, it’s pitched more directly at the suit-and-tie set. There’s more than just talk involved in the new strategy, though. The shift also sees Dropbox build in identity management from five providers so that Dropbox users don’t have to sign into the service if they’re already logged in elsewhere: they can hop on to the corporate Active Directory service, for example and have Dropbox ready for action soon after. We doubt that the new moves by themselves will sway IT managers, but they may help would-be users who’ve been on the fence.

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Via: TechCrunch

Source: Dropbox (1), (2)

Microsoft urges businesses to upgrade from Windows XP

With exactly one year left before Microsoft cuts off all support for Windows XP, Microsoft is urging businesses who are still running the decade-old operating system to upgrade to either Windows 7 or Windows 8. It has also cut off support to Office 2003 today. It has cited a lot of reasons that businesses should upgrade their software, including security risks and lack of technical support if things go awry. It has even offered some nice incentives to upgrading.

Microsoft urges businessess to upgrade from Windows Xp

Businesses with Windows XP and Office 2003 on their systems will no longer receive security updates, so they’re more prone to viruses, malware, and trojans. Software and hardware companies will stop making their products compatible with Windows XP after support ends, and there will be no tech support to call if you need help with your systems. Luckily, Microsoft has offered some decent discounts for upgrading to Windows 8.

There are a list of partners offering Open License discounts for Windows 8 and Office 2013. Businesses will have to purchase the two as a set however. They will also have to be running Windows XP Professional on their systems prior to upgrading to Windows 8. When purchasing both Windows 8 and Office 2013 together, businesses will get 15% off of their total cost, amounting to $477 per combo license. If businesses only want one product or the other, they can get Windows 8 for $188 and Office 2013 for $373. They’re limited to 100 licenses for each software.

According to ComputerWorld, last month, 39% of all PCs, and 42% of all Windows PCs, ran Windows XP last month. Analysts also believe that 1/3rd of all PCs will continue to run XP even after support ends. Chances are, if most of these businesses are still running Windows XP on their systems, they’re going to need more than just a license to upgrade. These businesses will most likely have to upgrade all of their computers, which is a costly effort and most likely the reason why they haven’t gone through with the change.

[via Microsoft]


Microsoft urges businesses to upgrade from Windows XP is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

LenovoEMC LifeLine 4.0 brings Snapshots to Iomega network storage products

This week the folks at LenovoEMC have delivered no less than LenovoEMC LifeLine 4.0, a brand new update to their Lenovo EMC LifeLine operating system for their Iomega-branded network storage solutions. This system upgrade will be available free for those of you out there owning StorCenter ix and px series network storage products and will be running right out of the box on LenovoEMC-branded storage devices starting in May. LenovoEMC LifeLine 4.0 is bringing with it both an expansion of enterprise computing and security features, made futuristic for your small and medium-sized business.

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With LenovoEMC LifeLine 4.0, you’ll be working with several improved feature categories: Snapshots, SSD Caching (Cache Pools), IVX (Integrated Virtualization Technology), NFS v4, Active Directory Hybrid Authentication, Active Directory High Availability, iSCSI Security, the ability to work with 4TB HDDs, Twonky Media Server version 7, and Increased emphasis on network security features designed to protect data. At 4TB, this system offers the highest capacity server class HDDs available today (this is with px series products only at the moment).

With Twonky Media Server version 7 you’ve got DLNA / UPnP compliant media server action running with Twonky Media Beam from mobile devices – connect anywhere! With iSCSI security you’ll have secure connections with Mutual CHAP authentication.

With IVX you’ll be able to run multiple virtualized machines on your Iomega px12-300r and px12-450r rackmount arrays – good times! This ability is being suggested by LenovoEMC as being great for lightweight Windows Services or dedicated Linux Web Servers, while you’re able to have your own private virtualized hardware all around – network cards, drives, and graphics adapters alike.

Snapshots are one of the most fabulous added features in the whole upgrade. With Snapshots your able to work with a point in time of a backup of any storage volume. You can take the snapshot at any time, even when the storage device is actively writing, and you’ll be able to restore to this source volume and revert this source volume to its former state, too! Welcome to the Volume Shadow Copy (VSS) provider way to fly!

If you’d like to download this update for yourself, you’ll need to go to either http://support.lenovoemc.com or www.iomega.com/support and make it so! You’ll have to have an Iomega ix or px series network storage device to do so, while future devices with this system onboard will be coming closer to May all around the world!

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LenovoEMC LifeLine 4.0 brings Snapshots to Iomega network storage products is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Microsoft posts its first Law Enforcement Requests Report, shows US-centric scrutiny

Microsoft posts its first Law Enforcement Requests Report, shows US-centric scrutiny

Civil liberty advocates have had access to Google’s Transparency Report and a handful of equivalents to understand just how frequently governments want our data. But what if we spend most of our time in Outlook.com, Skype or Xbox Live? Microsoft wants to show that it’s equally concerned, and it’s accordingly publishing its first-ever Law Enforcement Requests Report to reveal just how much attention the police gave to our information in 2012. The gist? While there were 75,378 international requests, 99 percent of the 1,558 actual content disclosures went straight to American agencies — thankfully, with court warrants. Microsoft did get its fair share of FBI National Security Letter requests, although those may be short-lived. Different Microsoft services also received different levels of attention: Skype handed over certain account details but no actual content, while enterprise users were virtually untouched from Microsoft’s position. The company plans to keep publishing these reports in the future, which should give us a better long-term sense of just how we’re put under the microscope.

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Via: Official Microsoft Blog

Source: Microsoft

Amazon Debuts Bulk Kindle Fire App Distribution For Schools And Enterprise Via Whispercast

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Amazon introduced Whispercast for Kindle back in October of 2012, and now the service is getting an update that allows it to deploy not just books and documents, but also apps. that means organizations like schools and businesses can now widely deploy apps across a number of Kindle Fire devices quickly and easily.

The service improves on the previous way of getting the same app onto a number of different Kindle Fire tablets owned by a single group, which actually required a manual install using everyone’s individual user account. Now, they can not only push out apps from the Amazon Appstore to all of their target devices, but they can also use Whispercast to send an invite to employees who have their own BYOD Kindle Fires. Once those employees join up with the program, they can be gifted the relevant Fire apps direct to their existing accounts.

It’s a pretty convenient feature, and free to use, which makes it all the more attractive. Back when Amazon first debuted Whispercast, it was pretty clear they were trying to make the decision about which platform to choose for broad device deployment easier. Schools benefit immensely from this kind of wide deployment, which, partnered with the Kindle Fire’s lower cost of entry, might help it become a more attractive option for organizations who might otherwise be leaning towards iPads.

Apple offers centralized app distribution to a range of deployed iPads via third-party MDM solutions, but now with Whispercast’s expansion into app territory it can offer some of those same functions without requiring third-party software or solutions, though it is less flexible and extensible than many MDM offerings. It was a natural next step for Amazon to introduce app deployment to Whispercast, so now that it’s here it’ll be interesting to watch if this moves the needle on institutional Kindle Fire adoption.

BlackBerry Secure Work Space due in Q2, divides work and play on Android and iOS

BlackBerry Secure Work Space due in Q2, divides work and play on Android and iOS

BlackBerry acknowledged that we live in a bring-your-own-device world with BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10, which oversees platforms beyond Waterloo’s own. It’s reinforcing that support through new details for Secure Work Space for iOS and Android, an expansion of BlackBerry Balance to rival mobile devices. The upcoming offering will blend a BES10 update with a locked-down suite of apps, letting those of us without a BlackBerry easily check our corporate calendars, email and notes without requiring a VPN or other elaborate gateways. Whether or not you think the company is giving away the keys to its kingdom, the expanded Secure Work Space should put up a (frankly needed) wall between our corporate and personal lives sometime in the second quarter, or before the end of June.

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Source: The Next Web

IntraLinks VIA introduces the “UNshare” for information security

If there’s one thing the internet has taught the business universe over its relatively short lifetime, it’s that information is valuable – so valuable, in fact, that there’s an industry built around securing digital information of all types. This week we’ve had the opportunity to speak with a company with a 16-year history in this market: IntraLinks. They’ve let us know what they do to provide a forward-thinking model for file and information sharing and collaboration in the future, complete with the ability to kick out what they call the “oops moment” when you’ve shared something by mistake – or if a file goes rogue.

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IntraLinks was founded by security specialists in the banking world and created for the security of investment banking, strategic transactions, and large multi-million deals. The Company’s platform was created to secure – and continue to secure – the sharing of non-public information. IntraLinks’s SVP of Product Marketing Wade Callison let us know the extent of their business in basic terms: “$19 trillion dollars in financial transactions and services have floated across our cloud over the course of the existence of the company.” 

That’s one whole heck of a lot of cash.

The company makes it their business to be the trusted third party between companies that want to connect securely. They do this with a scalable technology that has handled everything from Life Sciences clinical trials to investor reports. They’ve done so well that Gartner has rated IntraLinks as the leading vendor in the Team Platforms and Social Software Suites category based on revenue for the 6th year in a row.

“How does one “UNshare” a file?”

The Company’s newest product, IntraLinks VIA, launched last month and includes two major features that’ll allow it to be future ready and secure for the next generation. One of these features is a “Snapchat for the Enterprise”, the other – the ability to “UNshare” Your Files.

The “Snapchat for the Enterprise” function will allow you to set a self-destruct expiration date for your files, thus allowing you to keep a close eye on what’s visible to who and for how long. This as well as the UNshare feature work hand-in-hand to keep your files under your control.

UNshare is a feature that’s relatively new to the digital universe, appearing at first to be impossible due to the extremely fluid nature of the web and computers in general. However, IntraLinks VIA employs Information Rights Management with every document you share, allowing you to remotely revoke access to files at any time. 

““If it’s something I’d rather you not forward, I’ll make it more difficult for you to forward.””

As Callison made clear: “The key is that the amount of control you need to put in place should reflect the sensitivity of the transaction. If it’s something I’d rather you not forward, I’ll make it more difficult for you to forward.” Digital watermarks in files shared with IntraLinks VIA apply themselves based on the location of the file, the name of the computer, the name of the person downloading the file, the time, the date, and more.

You’ll be able to set multiple passwords for the same file that only work on single machines. You’ll be able to block printing, block screen capture, block copy and paste – with many more controls on the way soon. 

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IntraLinks is currently looking at integration with a few vendors and a few key partners right this minute, aiming in the end to erase that crucial step between product availability and customers actually using the product. Taking away barriers for adoption for new users is a key point in getting them to proactively use the product’s features. Callison let us know that VIA’s mix of intuitive user interfaces and the deep security features under the hood are tackling this challenge. He said, “If you try to be another service that people need to think about to use, they’re not going to. Making the product an organic part of a user’s workflow is important.”

IntraLinks also aims to be a vendor that’s able to work with any company, pushing past the struggles that technology and security compliance present across the globe (and even inside companies themselves). With IntraLinks VIA, professional groups will be able to work with an extra layer of guidance and expertise that enterprise companies wouldn’t otherwise have. And with that, we’ll be share-friendly safe once more – and sooner rather than later!


IntraLinks VIA introduces the “UNshare” for information security is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

More Data Showing iOS, Especially The iPhone, Still Killing It In The Enterprise, At Android’s Expense

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Apple’s iOS is consolidating its grip on the enterprise market and taking share from Android, according to customer data from enterprise file sharing and hybrid cloud storage company Egnyte, which offers cloud back-up and storage services for a mix of customers, from large corporates with thousands of seats to SMEs with just a handful.

Of course different enterprises have very different needs and requirements when it comes to mobile devices. Take a look at governments, for instance, and you’d be convinced BlackBerry is still killing it. But as a snapshot of the mobile OSes being favoured by different sized companies, mostly U.S.-based (80 percent of the data, with the other 20 percent pertaining to European businesses), this data is an interesting subset to add to the pile.

The data, shared directly with TechCrunch, covers 100,000 of Egnyte’s paying customers over the last year-and-a-half+, tracking which OS they are using to access its services on mobile devices and also splitting out iPhone and iPad use. The numbers look strong for Apple, with the iPhone especially growing its proportion of users since the second half of 2011 to-date — perhaps helped by the halo effect of iPads arriving in the enterprise and persuading business folk to trade their BlackBerrys for iPhones. Egnyte’s data doesn’t specifically refer to BlackBerrys but does show Apple taking share away from Android.

“Apple seems to have at least temporarily won the hearts and minds of business users with its products accounting for about 70 percent of our traffic,” Egnyte told TechCrunch.

In Q3/Q4 2011, Egnyte’s data shows the following device breakdown — giving iOS a 68 percent majority of Egnyte’s enterprise user-base:

  • iPhone 28%
  • iPad 40%
  • Android 30%  (phones and tablets)
  • other 2%

In 2012, the iPhone grew its proportion, while the iPad’s very sizeable share shrank to below a third — suggesting iPhone usage cannibalised iPad usage to an extent. Overall, though, Apple’s percentage rose to 69 percent:

  • iPhone 42%
  • iPad 27%
  • Android 30% (phones and tablets)
  • other 1%

Egnyte has also scraped some early data for Q1 2013, which shows both iPhone and iPad usage rising — this time apparently at the expense of Android phones and tablets, which had previously held a steady share of 30 percent. There is also no sign as yet of a Microsoft enterprise mobile resurgence with its Windows Phone OS (the ‘other’ catch-all category doesn’t yet figure in the 2013 data). Apple holds a whopping, ‘Pacman-shaped’ 78 percent share of the user base as of Q1 2013:

  • iPhone 48%
  • iPad 30%
  • Android 22% (phones and tablets)

Egnyte’s data on enterprise users’ preference for iPhones tallies broadly with data from mobile device management company Good Technology, covered recently by CITEworld. Good reported even higher percentages for iOS — with nearly 77 percent of devices activated by its corporate customers in Q4 2012 powered by iOS, up from 71 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011. Good also found Android’s enterprise mobile shared declining, dropping to 22.7 percent in Q4 2012, down from 29 percent in Q4 2011. (It also tracked a 0.5 percent rise for Windows Phone.)

Returning to Egnyte’s data for 2012, almost a fifth (19 percent) of the Android traffic was generated using a Nook tablet — so despite the iPad’s popularity with business users, some enterprises are evidently not immune to the lure of using cheaper tablet hardware.

The company also breaks out Wi-Fi access by device for 2012. It found that 40 percent of iPad sessions occurred over Wi-Fi, while just 31 percent of iPhone sessions did — suggesting the iPhone still prevails as the device of choice in the most mobile situations, ie when users are moving around a lot or aren’t in range of a Wi-Fi network (perhaps because businesses have purchased Wi-Fi only iPads to keep ongoing costs down).

Egnyte speculates that smartphones are fractionally quicker to begin using than tablets, typically sitting within easy reach, so tend to be the device of choice for viewing files on the fly, with users waiting for a more comfortable environment before getting out the tablet to do some editing.  ”Overall, tablet use in the corporate marketplace hasn’t been as high as we would expect, but… we think this may be more due to people’s love affairs with their phones, than for any lack in the capabilities of a tablet,” the company said.

Commenting generally on the data, Egnyte told TechCrunch:

While initially iPads dominated our use, iPhones have taken over.  2011 use showed the iPad accounting for 40 percent of our usage, in 2012 iPhones are now 42 percent of usage, and Android has remained constant at about 30 percent of use. There are two interesting points here, first, Apple seems to have at least temporarily won the hearts and minds of business users with its products accounting for about 70 percent of our traffic. This is important because it’s a flip-flop from the days of old, where Apple products were rarely seen in the corporate landscape.   It’s also an indication that when BYOD wrested control over what devices consumers used from IT, they overwhelmingly chose an easy to use product that focused on UI and usability, perhaps even at times over depth.

The second interesting point is that while tablets are certainly hot, iPhones are driving most of the traffic. This may be due to the fact that the iPad doesn’t replace a laptop yet as the corporate device of choice, but try and take a business person’s smartphone away from them, and you may not have a hand left.  Smartphones are a must have, and we suspect that since people are already checking email on such a phone while they are working remotely, it’s an extra step to get out and bootup your tablet, so if you have a great phone app that does the same thing, just use it to view your files. Most editing we think still happens on the laptop/desktop.  This ‘on the go’ access is further confirmed by the fact that only 31 percent of iPhone sessions occurred over Wi-Fi, that means over three-quarters of access happens via cellular services.