Agile Advantage™ today announced the availability of automated data imports from the industry’s leading Agile Lifecycle Management (ALM) tools, Rally® and VersionOne®. The new import capability saves time and enables better strategic decisions, better software, and better business results.

Large-scale software projects inherently carry huge risk for software development organizations. One major challenge is obtaining timely data on team performance so that issues can be identified and addressed early. In an Agile environment, iteration task lists are too detailed to derive actionable strategic decisions. The outcomes from each iteration provide valuable information and early warning indicators but may be time-consuming to enter and prepare for decision-makers. Now AgileEVM, the Agile decision support application from Agile Advantage, automatically imports release data and iteration outcomes from the two most popular ALM tools.

AgileEVM is a decision-support application designed for managing Agile software portfolios. It bridges the gap between Agile methods and traditional business planning, project, and portfolio management processes. AgileEVM helps companies examine quality, cost, schedule, and scope metrics. With this information, companies can identify and mitigate risks, and focus on value delivery.

“Integration with AgileEVM adds an important dimension to Rally’s Agile ALM platform,” stated Keith Boswell, Director of Business Development at Rally. “Technical leaders and business stakeholders can easily see project and portfolio-level views that highlight areas of schedule and budget risk, as well as opportunities for early release – all based on current data delivered from Rally.”

AgileEVM first imports release information from Rally or VersionOne. Customers can group multiple releases in AgileEVM so that iteration data can be aggregated for management review. At the close of each iteration, AgileEVM imports iteration outcomes. AgileEVM then forecasts release dates, computes EVM cost and schedule metrics, and highlights opportunities for early release and process improvement. AgileEVM also provides rollups by project, product, and portfolio, providing better visibility for strategic planning, and leading to improved business results.

Skytap, the leading provider of self-service cloud automation solutions, today announced new cloud orchestration and configuration routing features that enable enterprises to create high fidelity virtual environments in the cloud with self-service simplicity. With this release, development and test teams can easily replicate their in-house environments in the cloud while sharing server resources such as Microsoft Team Foundation servers, HP Application Life-cycle Management servers or MySQL database servers. In addition, users can easily orchestrate the start-up, shutdown and suspend sequence of virtual data centers that include shared server resources without requiring additional IT support. Taken together, these features dramatically reduce the time it takes to move enterprise workloads to the cloud and deliver significant cost savings.

Businesses are increasingly moving complex data center environments and IT operational systems to the cloud. These systems often require the use of centralized servers that share information across many applications. While this model works well in physical data centers, replicating it in the cloud can create challenges and higher usage costs. At the same time, users are faced with properly orchestrating the start-up and shutdown sequence of multi-machine virtual data centers. Skytap addresses these challenges by providing functional users, such as development and test managers, with an automated approach to perform these tasks.

“As cloud services mature, enterprises will expect the cloud to more closely mirror traditional data center processes,” said Rachel Chalmers, research director at The 451 Group. “To achieve this, cloud providers must offer sophisticated automation capabilities that drive new levels of agility and that lift the support burden from the IT team. End-users will benefit more from cloud services that automate the networking and workflow processes already used in their data center environments.”

Configuration Routing — Creating a Hub-and-Spoke Model

Skytap’s Configuration Routing feature allows users to re-create a traditional “server hub / spoke” model in the cloud. Users can connect any number of server configurations to a centralized server configuration and leverage it as a shared resource. For example, a development manager may need the ability to use a centralized server such as Microsoft Team Foundation server (the ‘hub’) and have it connect to multiple development and test environments (the “nodes”), while also configuring network routes (the “spokes”) between them.

With the Configuration Routing feature, development managers can automate the process of connecting multiple user environments to the centralized hub using Skytap’s simple, self-service user interface. As a result, businesses can easily move in-house environments to the cloud, avoid server set-up errors, accelerate release cycles and reduce cloud usage costs.

Self-Service Cloud Orchestration

As enterprise users look to move complex, multi-tier applications to the cloud, orchestrating the start-up and shutdown of multi-machine virtual data center configurations is critical for successful operations. Skytap’s Cloud Orchestration feature eliminates the need for complicated scripts or costly data center automation software.

For example, a configuration may require an Active Directory server to power up first, followed by the database server, the Team Foundation server, then the load balancer and finally the web servers. Skytap’s new self-service Cloud Orchestration feature simplifies this task by enabling users to specify the sequence and scheduling dependencies through the Skytap user interface. Once specified, these rules are automatically enforced during the start-up, suspend and shutdown processes.

“Enterprises are demanding the same type of automation and workflow processes they rely on in their physical data centers as part of their cloud deployments,” said Brian White, vice president of products at Skytap. “With this release, Skytap empowers organizations with the same level of control and automation found in a traditional data center, while allowing them to benefit from the low cost and scalability of the cloud model.”

Exinda, a global provider of WAN optimization solutions incorporating Unified Performance Management, today announced that Ball State University has selected Exinda’s solutions to improve the user experience of the more than 20,000 students, faculty and administrators on its wide area network (WAN). The Exinda solutions have given the University’s IT team improved visibility, reporting, and control of its network infrastructure, and increased its bandwidth management capacity by 250 percent.

Ball State University selected Exinda’s 10060 series WAN optimization solution that supports up to 20 Gbps worth of traffic and up to 250,000 users. The Exinda 10060 incorporates the ExOS 6.1 software, which supports Exinda Edge Cache, a single-sided caching feature that significantly improves the performance of video applications, while reducing the impact of video traffic on the WAN.

“We recently increased the bandwidth in our network to accommodate students and faculty who are increasingly accessing and sharing video applications across the network. After a thorough review of available solutions, we determined that Exinda offered the greatest throughput per dollar, and the quality of the product exceeded other solutions. In addition, the licensing structure offered by Exinda made sense to our business,” said Christopher Cahoe, Network Engineer, Ball State University.

The integration of Exinda’s 10060 with the Ball State University network was completed in less than four hours, and has provided increased visibility and monitoring of application performance on the network. “Another benefit of the Exinda solution is its Unified Performance Management approach, which has provided visibility, control and optimization of the applications and users on our network, all with a single solution. With Exinda, we have the ability to support more users on our network, without the need for additional bandwidth upgrades,” said Cahoe.

Global interactive marketing provider ExactTarget announced today that Stan Lee, co-creator of Spider-Man, Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk will headline the final day of ExactTarget Connections ’11, the world’s largest interactive marketing conference.

“Stan Lee is pioneer who has revolutionized an entire industry by bringing iconic super heroes to life through his groundbreaking work at Marvel Comics”

Lee, who will discuss the power of creativity in business, joins previously announced conference speakers, including Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, CNN’s Soledad O’Brien, Best Buy Global Chief Marketing Officer Barry Judge, Best Buy Chief Technology Officer Robert Stephens, author Aron Ralston, Facebook Vice President Tom Arrix and eMarketer Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder Geoff Ramsey.

“Stan Lee is pioneer who has revolutionized an entire industry by bringing iconic super heroes to life through his groundbreaking work at Marvel Comics,” said Tim Kopp, ExactTarget’s chief marketing officer. “Stan’s personal story and his passion for creativity are a perfect addition to our lineup of world renowned speakers for Connections ’11.”

In addition to Lee, ExactTarget announced today that it has also added an Author Panel to the three-day event that is expected to attract marketers from around the globe. Authors slated to speak at Connections ’11 include:

• Chris Baggott, CEO and Cofounder, Compendium and author of Email Marketing by the Numbers
• Jay Baer, President, Convince and Convert and author of The Now Revolution
• C.C. Chapman, Founder of Digital Dads and co-author of Content Rules
• Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer, MarketingProfs and co-author of Content Rules
• Simms Jenkins, Founder and CEO, BrightWave Marketing, and author of The Truth About Email Marketing
• Jim Kukral, Founder, DigitalBookLaunch.com and author of Attention! This Book Will Make You Money
• Trey Pennington, Author of Be the Hero
• Joe Pulizzi, Founder of Content Marketing Institute and author of Get Content, Get Customers
• Aaron Strout, Author of Location-Based Marketing for Dummies

Registration is available online at Connections ’11. Marketers who register before Aug. 10 will receive $200 off the $995 registration fee. Marketers attending Connections ’11 may also register for ExactTarget’s certification session Sept. 12 in Indianapolis. The day-long program offers registrants the opportunity to earn certification in three levels – Professional, Marketer and Partner. To register or to learn more, visit www.Connections2011.com.

Connections ’11 follows ExactTarget Connections ‘10, which welcomed more than 2,000 marketers to Indianapolis and featured a lineup of industry titans including Virgin Group Founder and Chairman Sir Richard Branson, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo and a private concert from Grammy Award-winning band Train.

Skytap, a provider of cloud automation software, this week unveiled orchestration and configuration products designed to enable enterprises to easily create virtual environments in the cloud.

This release of new Skytap software features — Configuration Routing and Self-Service Cloud Orchestration — allows development and test teams to replicate their in-house environments in the cloud while sharing server resources, such as a Microsoft Team Foundation Server, HP Application Life-cycle Management server or MySQL database, the company says. Users can coordinate the startup, shutdown and suspend sequence of virtual data centers that include shared server resources without requiring IT support, Skytap says.

BACKGROUND: Startup pushes virtual labs as a service

As a result, enterprises can reduce the time it takes to move workloads to the cloud, the company says.

Data centers often require the use of centralized servers that share information across many applications, Skytap says. Trying to replicate this model in the cloud can create redundant servers and higher usage costs, and users are then faced with coordinating the startup and shutdown sequence of virtual data centers with scores, or even hundreds, or virtual machines processing complicated applications.

Skytap attempts to automate this process on behalf of development and test managers.

Configuration Routing is designed to allow users to re-create a traditional “server hub/spoke” model in the cloud. It allows users to connect any number of server configurations to a centralized server configuration and set up custom DNS services.

For example, a centralized server “hub” such as Microsoft Team Foundation might be configured to connect to multiple development and test environments, while also configuring network routes — the “spokes” — between them.

Configuration Routing allows development managers to automate this process through a “self-service” user interface that Skytap says allows them to more easily move in-house environments to the cloud, avoid server set-up errors, accelerate release cycles and reduce costs.

The Skytap Self-Service Cloud Orchestration feature is intended to eliminate the need for complicated scripts and data center automation software. For example, if a configuration requires an Active Directory server to power up first, followed by the Team Foundation server, the database server, the load balancer and the web servers, Cloud Orchestration can simplify this task by enabling users to specify the sequence and scheduling dependencies through the Skytap user interface.

Once specified, these rules are automatically enforced during the startup, suspend and shutdown processes, Skytap says.

Configuration Routing and Self-Service Cloud Orchestration are offered to existing customers free of charge. Pricing for the Skytap software starts at $250 per month, which includes support for five users, five Skytap virtual machines — a Skytap virtual machine equals 1/CPU/1 GB RAM computing — 500 Skytap virtual machine hours and 200GB of storage.

Skytap has more than 160 global enterprise and ISV customers, and its software specializes in the construction of public and hybrid clouds. Skytap software is meant to bridge isolated VLANs established within clouds, which can introduce challenges in establishing centralized resources, routing between environments and resource sharing.

Then company supports VMware and Citrix hypervisors, and partnerships with server vendors Dell, HP and IBM. Skytap also competes with VMware and other companies that develop and market virtual data center and cloud management products.

Acronis, a leading provider of easy-to-use disaster recovery and data protection solutions for physical, virtual and cloud environments, today announced that the first two dates of its five city tour across Latin America were sold out due to a hugely positive response from the reseller community. Acronis is introducing Acronis Backup & Recovery^® 11, the new product which allows organizations to simplify their disaster recovery and data protection needs, to the channel community. Resellers from across the region are invited to join Acronis Executives and experts on the remaining dates:

Resellers interested in learning more about the latest developments in data protection and disaster recovery solutions are invited to register for their local city at the following website addresses:

For Spanish language – http://promo.acronis.com/Partner-Roadshow-ES.html
For Portuguese language – http://promo.acronis.com/Partner-Roadshow-PT.html

“We’ve had a tremendous response from the resellers in Argentina and Chile,” commented Xavier Aguirre, regional manager for Acronis, Latin America. “Businesses are looking for a simple, affordable solution for their data protection and recovery needs, and Acronis can deliver that in one solution that provides the market’s first affordable integrated solution for physical, virtual and cloud environments. We are looking forward to the next three events and welcome resellers to join our Partner Program.”

Audience Buying Impact

In The New York Times, Randall Stross covers the move towards audience buying and how it has negatively affected Yahoo!’s display ad revenue performance. Towards the end of the article, we hear from Yahoo! sales exec Ross Levinsohn who says that “marketplaces” are on the march and adds “that more of Yahoo’s choicest display ad space was being filled in online ad marketplaces. ‘Commoditization,’ as he called it, ‘has been far more aggressive than most people would have thought.'” according to The NYT. Read more. This is another indication that unsold display inventory in Q2 likely ended up sold through Right Media Exchange auctions or Yahoo!’s own ad network.

Money For Monetate

There are quite a few startups working on serving the eCommerce community and website personalization tech company Monetate (AdExchanger.com Q&A) appears to be one that is succeeding if a new round of funding is any indication. The company announced last week that it has landed a $15 million venture financing round led by OpenView Venture Partners. Read more. CEO David Brussin tells TechCrunch that “many of the brands the team is currently working with have added hundreds of millions in revenue, thanks to Monetate cutting the need for businesses to hire specialized teams, as well as decreasing bounce rates and shopping cart abandonment.” Read more.

Ad Network Market Maker

On ClickZ, 24/7 Real Media SVP of Product Nicolle Pangis provides her view (and her company’s) about the following question – “Ad Networks: Middleman or Market Maker?” Middleman!? No, Pangis says, “While some critics may marginalize the ad network as a middleman, it continues to prove itself as a ‘market maker,’ i.e., an intermediary that buys and sells. For example, direct response advertisers still want to buy from ad networks with proprietary technology because of their ability to use their data in a way that offers more value than a demand-side platform.” Read more.

Publisher R&D-ing

Here’s some/more innovation on the publisher side as The New York Times continues to take R&D into its own hands with the public unveiling of Beta 620. See the site. According to PaidContent’s David Kaplan, “The promotion of Beta620 is an acknowledgement that even with the growth of its tablet and mobile versions of the newspaper, the website is still the largest venue for the NYT’s readership. The move also recognizes that in order to get users excited about new features, it has to take a more hands off approach and invite as many ideas as possible.” Read more.

Annual Pivot

AdXpose chairman of the board Matt Hulett explores the various pivots of the company before it was acquired by comScore last week. Of the AdXpose precursor WidgetBucks he says, “WidgetBucks exposed massive amounts of data that publishers and ad networks had never seen before. (…) This being the fourth and final one. (We internally joked that we changed the name every year so that we would win industry awards).” Read more.

The Jobless Future

Jeff Jarvis sees no joy in the most recent U.S. jobs report and writes on his Buzz Machine blog, “When at least a tenth of Americans are out of work, for Wall Street to get momentarily giddy at the creation of 117k jobs is cognitive dissonance at its best. No one can make jobs out of thin air. Jobs will not come back. A few new jobs reappearing won’t fix anything. Our new economy is shrinking because technology leads to efficiency over growth.” Is there any hope other than the online ad ecosystem which can’t fill it’s listings?

Roundtable: VC legends give their best advice for founders and CEOs – OpenView Partners surveyed several venture capitalists, asking them to share the advice to they most often give to (and the mistakes they most often see from) the CEOs and founders in their portfolios. Hear thoughts from Phin Barnes, Brad Feld, Rob Go and Alex Taussig in this roundtable discussion.

5 skills entrepreneurs can learn from engineers – Engineers and entrepreneurs might seem to be widely different career paths, but Sasha Gurke, senior vice president & co-founder of Knovel (and a former engineer himself) says they’re really not dissimilar. He lists five traits the two professions have in common.

Note to CEO’s: Decisions come from you, not the board – It’s easy for CEOS to blame risky or unpopular decisions on the board of directors, but as early stage investor Brad Feld points out, the board ultimately only has the ability to make one decision: To keep or fire the CEO. And hiding behind the board shows poor leadership skills.

Luck – and other keys for surviving the startup phase – Getting a company into the startup phase is simple. Moving it beyond that is where things get challenging. Geoff Perlman, founder and CEO of Real Software, shares 5 tips he has learned in building that company to profitability over the past 15 years.

3 ways to become more likeable – A good product can take you a long way, but if your social skills are lacking, you’re going to have a hard time succeeding as a startup owner. Entrepreneur and author Guy Kawasaki lays out three ways to become more likeable in this Entrepreneur Thought Leader Lecture given at Stanford University.