Skytap, the leading provider of cloud automation solutions, today announced it will be showcasing its award-winning Skytap Cloud service at several upcoming industry events, including STAREAST, Interop and HP Discover.

Skytap experts will be on hand at each event to provide a product demonstration and an overview of how Skytap Cloud is used by more than 150 customers for development and testing, software demos and evaluations, and virtual training. In addition, Nate Odell, director of marketing at Skytap, will be discussing software development methodologies at the Agile Development Practices West conference on Thursday, June 14, in Las Vegas.

STAREAST

Interop

When: May 6-10, 2012
Where: Mandalay Bay Convention Center Las Vegas, Nevada, Booth #509
Details: Interop, the extensive business technology event, gives a comprehensive understanding to the latest innovations — including cloud computing, virtualization, security, mobility, and data center advances. The conference provides knowledge and insight to help IT and corporate decision makers achieve business success.

HP Discover

Agile Development Practices West

What: Cloud-enabled Development: Putting the Agile into the Infrastructure
When: Thurs., June 14, 2012 at 10:15 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.
Where: Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada, Booth #13
Who: Nate Odell, director of marketing, Skytap
Details: At the event, Nate Odell, director of marketing at Skytap, will give a presentation on the latest in agile methods, technologies, tools and leadership principles as companies increasingly embrace cloud computing. Session attendees will come away with a wealth of ideas to enhance development and testing productivity and boost software quality.

About Skytap, Inc.

Skytap is the leading provider of self-service cloud automation solutions for dynamic workloads. Skytap Cloud gives businesses a fast, easy, and secure way to create complex computing environments in the cloud. Customers can run enterprise applications unchanged in the cloud, collaborate securely with global teams, and gain unparalleled business productivity.

Additionally, IT organizations maintain full visibility and control over cloud projects, align capacity with demand, and reduce costs. Enterprises can securely connect Skytap Cloud to their data centers and create hybrid clouds. Skytap is ideal for any dynamic workload including development and testing, software demos and evaluations, and virtual training. To try Skytap Cloud and learn more, visit www.skytap.com.

ShareFEST 2012, the premier Microsoft SharePoint conference for life sciences, announced today the speakers who will deliver the keynote address and present a live demo of new Microsoft technologies.

Microsoft senior executives Steve Aylward, General Manager, U.S. Commercial Health and Life Sciences at Microsoft, and Mike Gannotti, Technical Solution Professional, Malvern Technology Center, will detail the advantages of using Microsoft SharePoint in life sciences today with a preview into how Microsoft cloud computing and SharePoint will impact life sciences in the future. The conference will be held on April 19- 20, 2012 at The Loews Philadelphia Hotel.

“Our keynote speakers will outline how the industry will build a bridge from today to the future through a compelling product roadmap,” says Zikria Syed, Chief Executive Officer of NextDocs, which is hosting ShareFEST 2012.

“This year’s keynote rounds out a compelling conference filled with experts and proven leaders who will share innovations that demonstrate how SharePoint and related technologies drive quality, efficient, and compliant business processes.”

Aylward and Gannotti will deliver their opening keynote, titled “Microsoft’s Role in Today’s Life Sciences Ecosystem: SharePoint, the Cloud, and Beyond,” on Thursday, April 19, 2012 at 8:30 a.m. The joint session will detail how Microsoft technologies, especially SharePoint, are being used to drive innovation in healthcare delivery, regulatory compliance, and collaboration.

In the second ShareFEST keynote, Ken Lownie, Vice President Global Services of NextDocs, and Fabien Jolly, Vice President Clinical Technology and Information Management of Sanofi-Aventis, will follow the opening keynote with a presentation titled, “SharePoint in Life Sciences: Current Uses, Future Plans.”

The presentation will highlight patterns of SharePoint adoption in life sciences companies and the emerging areas that companies are starting to focus on now with SharePoint. Jolly will join Ken’s presentation and share his insights from Sanofi’s adoption of SharePoint for managing core clinical trial processes.

During the conference, ShareFEST 2012 will also release the findings of a new “Use of SharePoint in Life Sciences” research report. The report details the results of a recent survey to provide further insight into how life sciences professionals are using SharePoint and what applications are delivering the biggest rewards for life sciences teams. Life sciences professionals still have time to participate by answering questions about SharePoint’s impact on their business, and by doing so, have a chance to win an ASUS Ultrabook computer. Winners will be announced on Friday, April 20, 2012, during the conference.

To find out more information about ShareFEST, visit the conference website at http://sharefestconference.com/ and the ShareFEST blog at http://sharefestconference.com/blog. To register, visit the registration page: http://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=987038.

About NextDocs Corporation

NextDocs is the global leader in providing Microsoft SharePoint-based compliance software solutions including quality management software, regulatory document management, and clinical portals. Our solutions enable businesses in regulated industries to achieve compliance with FDA and other agencies while automating processes, improving efficiency, and dramatically reducing costs.

NextDocs customers include pharmaceutical companies, bio-techs, medical device companies, and CROs. For more information on NextDocs Corporation and its software solutions visit www.nextdocs.com.

Contacts

NextDocs Media Contact:
Matt McLoughlin, 610-228-2123
[email protected]

Global interactive marketing provider ExactTarget (NYSE:ET) launched its new Field Guide to Facebook Marketing today, providing marketers practical advice on building and optimizing their brand’s presence on Facebook.

Featuring field-tested recommendations and examples, the guide offers proven techniques to create high-performing, engaging content and best practices for integrating Facebook Tabs, Fan Pages, and content into cross-channel campaigns across email, social media and Websites.

Highlights of the guide include tips on how to:

• Leverage the new Facebook Timeline by “Pinning” and “Starring” engaging content;
• Use Facebook to build an email marketing program;
• Improve Facebook EdgeRank with polls, surveys and updates; and
• Access Facebook Insight analytics to measure page performance and return on investment.

To download the complimentary Field Guide to Facebook Marketing, visit www.ExactTarget.com/FacebookGuide.

“After years of aimlessly chasing fans, it’s time marketers start driving real business results from Facebook,” wrote Nate Elliott, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research, Inc. in his November 2011 report entitled It’s Time To Make Facebook Marketing Work. “This requires building a Facebook page that has a clear focus and offers value to customers, leveraging the entire Facebook tool kit and integrating Facebook into a broader marketing strategy.”

The launch of ExactTarget’s new Field Guide to Facebook Marketing follows the introduction of ExactTarget’s SocialPages application. Built as an application on the ExactTarget Interactive Marketing Hub, SocialPages provides a drag and drop interface that allows marketers to create and manage branded Facebook tabs and monitor real-time performance and cross-channel engagement across email, mobile, social media and the Web.

“SocialPages provides marketers a powerful solution to bridge the chasm that exists between Facebook and cross-channel marketing campaigns,” said Tim Kopp, ExactTarget’s chief marketing officer. “By fully integrating Facebook page creation and management into the Interactive Marketing Hub, marketers can unlock the value of Facebook and integrate the channel into interactive campaigns alongside email, mobile, social and the Web.”

More than 70 percent of online Americans use Facebook at least weekly, and 20 percent of those have made a purchase after receiving a marketing message on Facebook, according to ExactTarget’s recently released 2012 Channel Preference Survey. The survey of nearly 1,500 consumers found nearly a third (32 percent) of teens (ages 15-17) have made a purchase after receiving a marketing message on Facebook. To download the research, click here.

SocialPages is generally available for ExactTarget’s clients in North America, Europe, South America and Australia. The application is also available through the company’s network of more than 500 marketing service providers worldwide.

About ExactTarget

ExactTarget is a leading global provider of email marketing and cross-channel interactive marketing software-as-a-service solutions that empower organizations of all sizes to communicate with their customers through email, mobile, social media and websites. ExactTarget’s powerful suite of integrated applications enable marketers to plan, automate, deliver and optimize data-driven interactive marketing and real-time communications to drive customer engagement, increase sales and improve return on marketing investment.

Headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana with offices across North America and in Europe, South America and Australia, ExactTarget trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “ET.” For more information, visit www.ExactTarget.com.

Contacts

Acronis Inc., a leading provider of disaster recovery and data protection solutions for physical, virtual, and cloud environments, today announced the appointment of Mr. Blaine Raddon as General Manager, Americas.

In this role, Mr. Raddon has overall leadership responsibility for Acronis’ sales and channel programs in Canada, the United States and throughout the emerging markets in Latin America.

“I am very pleased to have the opportunity to join the talented team at Acronis, especially at a time when the widespread adoption of virtualization is accelerating change in the backup and disaster recovery industry,” said Mr. Raddon.

“Acronis has a strong reputation for innovation in the data protection and virtualization markets, and I look forward to driving to its sales programs, impressive partner ecosystem and providing customers with the next generation solutions they need.”

Mr. Raddon joins Acronis from Juniper Networks Inc., where he served as Vice President, Channel Sales and General Business. In this role, Mr. Raddon leveraged his 25 years of enterprise sales leadership and channel management experience to build and launch an inside sales organization, which grew annually. Prior to Juniper Networks, Mr. Raddon held several key leadership positions during his 20-year career at IBM. While at IBM, Mr. Raddon was responsible for the company’s global relationship with Ingram Micro, one of IBM’s largest distribution partners.

“Blaine joins Acronis at an important time in Acronis’ history. We are well positioned for the next stage of the Company’s growth, and we are taking our proven enterprise-class technology into larger accounts,” said Laurent Dedenis, president & general manager, sales & marketing, Acronis.

“Blaine will be an integral component of the long term plan to strengthen existing enterprise partnerships and to develop new opportunities to accelerate our reach to these customers. His solid enterprise, sales and channel background from Juniper Networks and IBM will bring a new focus to the sales strategy across the region.”

About Acronis

Acronis is a leading provider of easy-to-use disaster recovery and data protection solutions for physical, virtual and cloud environments. Its patented disk imaging technology enables corporations, SMBs and consumers to protect their digital assets. With Acronis’ disaster recovery, deployment and migration software, users protect their digital information, maintain business continuity and reduce downtime.

Acronis software is sold in more than 90 countries and available in up to 14 languages. For additional information, please visit www.acronis.com. Follow Acronis on Twitter: http://twitter.com/acronis

Acronis^®, Acronis Backup & Recovery^®, vmProtect™ and the Acronis logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Acronis Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.

Exinda, a global provider of next generation WAN optimization solutions incorporating Unified Performance Management, today announced that Texas A&M University at Galveston is the latest top higher education institution in the U.S. to deploy its WAN optimization solution.

The campus uses Exinda to assure performance in its student dormitory network by monitoring traffic, eliminating illegal file sharing, prioritizing specific applications and application types, and optimizing bandwidth usage of its busy 100 Mbps Internet connection.

“Thanks to the Exinda appliance, we’ve brought fair Internet access back to our dormitories with full visibility as to what applications are traversing the network,” said John Kovacevich, systems analyst for Texas A&M at Galveston.

“Previously we were getting complaints from students who couldn’t get online or who had very poor web browsing performance. With Exinda we’ve prioritized real-time web surfing and e-learning as top priorities, made any kind of videoconferencing like Skype a high priority, allowed reasonable bandwidth for Netflix and YouTube, and then put peer-to-peer at the bottom with a bandwidth limit of 200 Kbps.”

Within a short period of deploying Exinda, Kovacevich and his team could for the first time visualize exactly how just a few students were taking an ‘unfair’ share of the network, choking performance over its 100 Mbps link. Via the same easy to use console, Texas A&M was immediately able to control every aspect of network traffic, even enforcing maximum download quotas on performance robbing peer-to-peer applications.

“When students choose an educational environment, they want the optimum resources for learning, collaborating and also to express themselves socially. Institutions like Texas A&M are equipped with the visibility and control to enable that for all their students, not just the bandwidth hogs,” said Nolan Rosen, Chief Marketing Officer at Exinda.

“In addition, the university is making use of Exinda’s Edge Cache, which accelerates Internet access to e-learning and video content which are strategic to its operations.”

About Exinda®

Exinda is a proven global supplier of next-generation WAN Optimization and Application Acceleration products. The company has helped over 2,500 organizations in over 80 countries worldwide improve the end user experience, manage application performance,manage congestion over the WAN and reduce network operating costs for the IT executive. For more information, please visithttp://www.exinda.com.

About TAMUG

Texas A&M University at Galveston is a special-purpose institution of higher education for undergraduate and graduate instruction in marine and maritime studies in science, engineering and business and for research and public service related to the general field of marine resources. The institution is under the management and control of the Board of Regents of The Texas A&M University System, with degrees offered under the name and authority of Texas A&M University at College Station.

Exinda and the Exinda logo are trademarks of Exinda. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Contacts

A new study released today by global interactive marketing provider ExactTarget (NYSE:ET) found two thirds of online Americans have made a purchase as a result of email, nearly twice the percentage who have purchased after receiving marketing messages delivered via both Facebook and text messaging.

Based on a survey of 1,481 U.S. online consumers, ExactTarget’s 2012 Channel Preference Survey asked how Americans communicate online with brands and with friends and found a growing divide between personal communications preferences and how consumers want to receive marketing messages.

“Americans are changing the way they interact online,” said Jeff Rohrs, ExactTarget’s vice president of marketing. “Our 2012 Channel Preference Survey provides new data that identifies how today’s hyper-connected consumers are engaging with brands and offers exclusive advice on how to avoid the pitfalls of using personal communications preferences as a proxy for marketing communications.”

The study found consumers’ preferences vary significantly for communications with brands and friends. 77 percent of consumers surveyed said they prefer to receive marketing messages via email, while only 45 percent prefer email for personal communications. Five percent said they prefer to receive marketing messages via social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn), while 13 percent prefer social media for personal communications.

Key findings of the research include:

• Email
  • 96 percent of online consumers use email at least weekly.
  • 66 percent have made a purchase after receiving an email marketing message.
  • 76 percent prefer email over all other channels for customer service messages.
  • 66 percent of teens (ages 15-17) prefer email over all other channels for permission-based marketing.
• Text Messaging
  • 68 percent of online consumers use text messaging at least weekly.
  • 16 percent have made a purchase after receiving a text (SMS) marketing message.
  • 25 percent prefer text messaging over all other channels for real-time travel alerts.
  • 9 percent of consumers ages 25-34 prefer text messaging over all other channels for delivery of tickets to an event purchased online.
• Social Media
  • 70 percent of online consumers use Facebook at least weekly.
  • 20 percent use Twitter at least weekly.
  • 20 percent have made a purchase after receiving a marketing message on Facebook.
  • 32 percent of teens (ages 15-17) have made a purchase after receiving a marketing message on Facebook.
  • 16 percent of teens (ages 15-17) have made a purchase after receiving a marketing message on Twitter.
  • 4 percent prefer Facebook over all other channels for permission-based marketing.

The 2012 Channel Preference Survey research is the 14^th report in ExactTarget’s Subscribers, Fans & Followers research series. The study is a follow up to ExactTarget’s 2008 Channel Preferences Survey and includes comparisons between the 2008 data and 2012 results throughout this year’s report. To download the report, click here.

The launch of the research follows Forrester Research naming ExactTarget a “consistent leader” in email marketing in “The Forrester Wave™: Email Marketing Vendors, Q1 2012” report. The report awarded ExactTarget’s current product offering perfect scores for its usability, triggered messaging capabilities, dynamic content, and ability to automate multichannel analytics. To download The Forrester Wave: Email Marketing Vendors, Q1 2012 report, visit www.ExactTarget.com/EmailWave.

About ExactTarget

ExactTarget is a leading global provider of email marketing and cross-channel interactive marketing software-as-a-service solutions that empower organizations of all sizes to communicate with their customers through email, mobile, social media and websites. ExactTarget’s powerful suite of integrated applications enable marketers to plan, automate, deliver and optimize data-driven interactive marketing and real-time communications to drive customer engagement, increase sales and improve return on marketing investment.

Headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana with offices in Europe, South America and Australia, ExactTarget trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “ET.” For more information, visit www.ExactTarget.com.

Contacts