A survey of more than 3,000 small to medium-size businesses (SMB) conducted by the Ponemon Institute revealed that while attitudes towards backup and recovery differ widely around the world, businesses everywhere want a single backup and recovery solution for physical, virtual and cloud environments. The vast majority (68 percent) of IT managers agree that their greatest challenge in a hybrid environment is moving data between the three environments, yet the average business currently uses at least two or three separate backup solutions making disaster recovery (DR) more complicated.

On the global scale, U.S.-based SMBs fell short of the international average, ranking 10th overall for backup and DR readiness. Approximately a third of U.S. businesses reported having no backup and DR strategy in place, citing lack of budget and resources as the primary reasons.

Without these resources and technologies to fortify a DR strategy, more than half (62 percent) reported they were concerned about their ability to avoid substantial downtime in the event of a serious incident. Only 40 percent of respondents said they were confident in recovering quickly, and 38 percent said they believed their IT staffs were qualified to handle DR operations in response to an event or disaster. Overall, the findings revealed that the U.S. spent consistently less (10 percent) on backup and DR than other countries.

Sponsored by Acronis, a provider of backup and recovery solutions for physical, virtual and cloud environments, the Global Disaster Recovery index serves as a barometer to measures IT managers’ confidence in their backup and recovery operations. To create the Index, each country was ranked based on its average responses from 11 questions about their confidence in backup and DR readiness, capabilities and practices. Questions covered technology, resources, procedures and executive buy-in.

The survey found Germany, Netherlands and Switzerland to be the most confident on matters of DR: This group of countries has the best boardroom buy-in, controls and procedures and documented policies for their backup and DR operations. “As a result they have the highest confidence that they can recover quickly in the event of system downtime, more than 50 percent more confident than the average,” the report stated.

Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan had the best qualified staff in place to execute backup and DR operations in the wake of a serious incident, according to survey results, although the report also noted they are the most likely to use separate backup solutions for physical and virtual environments (67 percent, 66 percent and 70 percent of organizations respectively).

Businesses in the UK, Australia and the US all scored poorly on their confidence in their ability to avoid downtime in the event of a serious incident (27 percent, 44 percent and 38 percent of businesses respectively). When it comes to successfully recovering from a serious incident, the Australians were the least confident. Just 22 percent of Australian businesses said they felt that they would be able to recover quickly in the event of downtime, compared to a global average of 50 percent.

“It’s not surprising that IT managers across the world differ so much with regards to their attitudes towards backup and DR,” said Jason Donahue, CEO of Acronis. “However, it is clear that what SMBs are looking for, regardless of location is one reliable, easy-to-use solution which spans across physical, virtual and cloud platforms. By launching this Index, we hope businesses will benefit from comparing their backup practices against national and global benchmarks.”

Andover, MA – Exinda, a global provider of WAN optimization solutions, today announced the availability of WAN technology and information resources to help networking and IT professionals manage the mobile traffic on their Wide Area Networks (WANs).

“With the onslaught of new mobile devices such as Apple’s iPAD®, and the upcoming launch of the RIM Playbook® tablets are sure to quickly become commonplace in organizations around the world, and further fuel the mobile workforce trend,” said Kevin Suitor, Exinda’s vice president of marketing. “Network and IT managers will need to re-examine WAN bandwidth and application controls to ensure they can optimize their network to provide a high quality end-user experience for their business-critical applications for their mobile workers.”

Exinda’s WAN Optimization solutions, combined with the Replify Accelerator Suite mobile client optimization, have enabled network operators to significantly reduce bandwidth consumption by mobile device applications. The solution has reduced bandwidth usage by applications incorporating FTP and CIFS protocols by more than 85%, and those incorporating HTTP by more than 95%.

“Exinda’s x60 appliances enable IT managers to prepare their WANs to deliver a high quality end user experience for traditional hardwired or wireless mobile or tablet users. The solutions enable reduced packet loss, reduced latency, support of various usage models, and ensure a superior user experience even when the user is connecting over a poor quality network,” added Suitor.

Exinda’s has published a new executive solution brief entitled “Meeting the Needs of a Mobile Workforce,” which is now available at the website.

WAN Optimization for the mobile workforce

Exinda’s WAN Optimization solutions deliver the three pillars required for true Application Delivery Optimization, which include visibility, control and acceleration, within a single device. This approach has allowed thousands of Exinda’s customers to improve application performance, reduce network operating costs, defer costly bandwidth upgrades and increase productivity by ensuring optimal performance of critical business applications.

About Exinda

Exinda is a proven global supplier of WAN Optimization and Application Acceleration products. Its Unified Performance Management (UPM) solution encompasses application visibility, control, optimization and intelligent acceleration—all within a single network appliance that is affordable and easy to manage. Founded in 2002, Exinda is headquartered in Andover, MA and has offices in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom to support the growing global demand for its products and services. For more information, please visit the website.

BOSTON, MA – Intronis, the leading cloud backup and disaster recovery solution for IT service for providers serving small businesses, announces today the appointment of Carol Ferrari as Vice President of Marketing.

Ferrari joins Intronis from Salary.com, a Nasdaq-listed company, where she was a major contributor in helping the company achieve significant growth. Salary.com is the SaaS compensation management leader that was acquired by Kenexa in October, 2010. Prior to Salary.com, she was the Vice President of Marketing for SaaS–based configuration and quoting leader, Firepond.

When asked why she wanted to join Intronis, Ferrari responded, “I wanted to be part of a successful, fast-paced company. The Intronis cloud solution is the best product and service solution for MSP’s serving small businesses. I also wanted to work at Intronis because of its winning culture that is exciting to be a part of. The people here are second to none.”

Intronis CEO Kent Plunkett commented, “I had the privilege of working with Carol while I was CEO at Salary.com, and she is a world class SaaS marketing VP. Carol implements marketing and lead generation processes that are highly metrics-driven and creates repeatable and scalable marketing programs. Intronis is already winning the category and I am pleased that we now have Carol to drive both our growth and revenue for our MSP channel partners to even higher levels,” he continued.

About Intronis

Intronis is a cloud provider of backup and disaster recovery services for managed service providers. Intronis utilizes 256-bit AES security and multiple data centers located on opposite coasts to ensure data protection and availability. Intronis offers IT service providers a secure data solution combined with a robust partner program, the convenience of online account management, and an industry leading technical support team. For more information, visit our website.

Carol Ferrari, formerly of Salary.com, joins Intronis as VP of Marketing

“I had the privilege of working with Carol while I was CEO at Salary.com, and she is a world class SaaS marketing VP. Carol implements marketing and lead generation processes that are highly metrics-driven and creates repeatable and scalable marketing programs. Intronis is already winning the category and I am pleased that we now have Carol to drive both our growth and revenue for our MSP channel partners to even higher levels,” he continued.

Tafford.com, a retailer of nursing uniforms and scrubs, boosted the average value by more than 10% for a targeted group of orders by testing and refining its upsells at checkout. The initiative enabled the retailer to determine which upsells would boost consumers’ order size.

The testing and optimization exercise was part of a larger effort in which Tafford has tested and revamped hundreds of its web pages and campaigns. The result has been a “massive” increase in  conversion, decrease in abandoned carts and increase in purchase frequency, according to vice president of marketing David Kaplan.

Using the service of vendor Monetate, Tafford increased the average value of the targeted orders without using  promotions such as discounts or free shipping that would have erode its margins on the orders, according to the retailer. Monetate host the testing software and Tafford accesses it via the Internet, a delivery model known as software as a service.

Known for the colorful prints on some of its uniforms and scrubs, Tafford first tested a message that displayed the availability of a selected print—an item that already was on clearance—to any visitor about to check out with less than $25 worth of items in the cart.

The Monetate technology displayed the message to some shoppers in this group and not to others. Results of the test showed no difference in average order value between those who saw the offer and those who did not. That led Tafford to try a different order criteria and attempt to upsell shoppers who were about to check out with a cart holding less than $25 of goods and containing a scrub top, by offering a matching T-shirt.

When this test did not boost order value, Tafford tried a third time.

Shoppers poised to check out with less than $25 of merchandise and whose carts contained a scrub top but not scrub pants were shown a message reminding them the matching pants were available. Over several weeks this test increased the value of the targeted orders by more than 10% on average, proving so successful it was added to the site as a regular merchandising element.

Tafford says it’s also used Monetate’s testing and optimization service to determine whether the e-commerce technologies it was considering worked to increase sales. Those tests helped the retailer avoid investing in technologies that did not deliver significant new sales.

What problem is Monetate solving?

DB: Monetate is helping companies realize some of the fundamental promises of eCommerce. For years, companies have been hearing about the great potential of agile, focused, one-to-one marketing on the Internet. Yet achieving that potential has been very difficult, largely due to some very real IT challenges. At Monetate we have developed technology that finally makes it quick and easy for marketers and merchandisers to test, target, and personalize content and features, anywhere on their websites, without consulting the IT department. The result is a personalized and compelling site experience for each visitor that dramatically improves conversion and revenue.

How does it work?

Commercial websites work better, and make more money, when you customize the site experience for visitors based on everything you know about them. Our software-as-a-service solution learns a lot about each new and returning customer on your site and displays targeted content and features based on that information. For example, someone in Seattle visiting your apparel site for the first time via the Google search term “cheap shirts for men” should see different content from a returning New York shopper who has made numerous purchases of high-end women’s clothing.

In today’s highly competitive market, online retailers and marketers of all kinds must offer each visitor the best possible site experience, or consumers will go elsewhere. As Forrester analyst Joseph Stanhope said recently: “A great website is no longer optional, therefore optimization is mission critical for cultivating great customer experiences and maximizing marketing ROI.”

Monetate provides everything you need to offer a personalized site experience. Our Shadow CRM feature collects massive amounts of data about your visitors and what they are doing on your site. Our Catalog Intelligence feature learns everything there is to know about what you’re selling, while our SalesMap feature highlights traffic segments ripe for targeting. Monetate’s Dashboard makes it very easy to design a test or targeted promotion based on criteria than can be as simple as “new versus returning”, or as complex as a promotion based on business rules such as: “Offer free shipping on all orders over $100 for Columbia brand Winter footwear to visitors in locations less than 100 miles from our nearest warehouse if the current temperature is under 30 degrees and it is snowing.”

Have you considered layering media buying services on your platform? Offering retargeting perhaps?

Right now we’re focused on delivering the best website testing, targeting, and personalization technology on the market. In the future, we may well explore applying our technology to advertising, for example when there is a need to target ads within a site based on what the visitor has been looking at, either on that visit or on previous visits. That’s data we collect for our customers right now, and we are always looking at ways to help customers leverage their Monetate data for greater ROI.

What is the target market for Monetate?

Our technology can be used on any website where there is a conversion event to be monetized. Right now, we are getting a lot of interest from large retailers who face unprecedented competition for sales in a challenging economic environment. As consumers become more and more savvy about price comparison, shopping for deals, and demanding the best possible site experience and customer service, retailers are fighting it out to attract and keep customers. One way for a retailer to rise above the competition is to offer a superior, highly personalized, one-to-one shopping experience for each visitor. Monetate enables them to do this.

Monetate works with many of the world’s top online retailers, including QVC, PETCO, The Sports Authority, ModCloth, Casual Male XL, Urban Outfitters, Sheplers, Free People, L’Occitane, and Tafford Uniforms, to help them increase conversion rates on their websites and maximize website ROI. To give you an example, QVC used Monetate to test and optimize its site to boost online sales on Cyber Monday 2010. They used Monetate to first test and then implement things like event-driven pricing, targeted free shipping, “while supplies last” messaging, and other features. We were not surprised when QVC reported record traffic on Cyber Monday and the best one-day performance in the 14-year history of QVC.com.

Are most publishers ready for this solution? Is integration daunting?

Implementing testing and targeting on any enterprise-level website involves action on three fronts: culture, resources, and technology. We designed Monetate so to ease the way on all three fronts. On the technology first, we integrate with just one line of JavaScript. It’s a simple cut-n-paste into the footer of each page of the website that you only have to do once and you’re set. That tag enables CRM data collection, automated catalog integration, dynamic display of creatives, and integration of offers and discounts into the shopping cart on the back-end. And you can do all of that without the IT department (which is exactly what QVC did).

This one-tag integration also puts you ahead on the resources front. There’s not need to wait in the IT queue to get started or to run your first tests. Our dynamic content rendering means you don’t have to burn up resources from the design department. And when you do start running tests and people see the value of data-driven marketing decisions, a culture of optimization can quickly take root.

Who’s in your competitive set? And how do you differentiate from them?

Our most direct competitor, indeed our only real competitor, is Omniture Test&Target, which is now part of Adobe. However, Monetate has a completely different architecture from that of legacy products like Test&Target, and an approach that is both more agile and less of a burden on internal resources. One company that also has a fresh approach is Optimizely, and other competitors will emerge as marketers begin to more clearly understand the critical importance of conversion rate optimization.

How does pricing work? Any performance pricing?

Unlike most site testing and optimization vendors, we don’t charge by the number of campaigns, the number of tags, server calls, or site visits. We give our customers one price for the entire site implementation, for the year, based on traffic in the previous 12 months. We find that’s much simpler for our customers. They can quickly see the ROI and easily calculate how much incremental revenue their Monetate campaigns are generating. In fact, that’s something we report in our dashboard.

Is there an application for the brand marketer seeking to raise awareness with Monetate’s product line?

Definitely! Monetate was built for marketers and understands brands. Our software tracks all visitor activity that relates to things like brand preference, as well as enables brand-focused tests and promotions. A brand marketer with no IT training can log into Monetate’s simple, browser-based dashboard and easily select the exact site content they want to test, see real time results for each test, and launch targeted site campaigns based on those results. Brand marketers use Monetate to dramatically improve the customer experience on their websites, thereby increasing brand loyalty and the number of repeat customers.

In general, what is the most common misconception publishers have about maximizing yield for their website -whether it’s eCommerce or not?

A common mistake we see is spending most of the marketing dollars on getting people to a website – but failing to offer a compelling, personalized, one-to-one shopping experience when they get there. Customers come to the site but leave without making a purchase. Suppose you want to double the revenue from your website. Doubling the conversion rate from your existing traffic is a lot less expensive than pulling in twice as much traffic

How many employees today? Profitable?  Any funding needs?

We have over 30 employees right now and are hiring more. We became cash flow positive less than 18 months after we began shipping product. In December of 2010, we closed a $5.1M financing round that included First Round Capital, FLOODGATE Fund, and other institution investors such as Ben Franklin Technology Partners.

A year from now, what milestones would you like the company to have achieved?

Our goals are to continue serving our great customer base, sign up lots of new customers, and grow the company through aggressive hiring and business development. We have some new product features we will be rolling out this quarter that will help power this growth. We will continue to sign up world-class retail brands and a growing percentage of the Internet Retailer Top 500. But I wouldn’t be surprised if, by the end of the year, you see us in some other markets.

Orem, UT – AtTask, creators of the first true social work management platform and worldwide leader in on-demand project and portfolio management software, announced today it has been selected as a finalist for the 2010 Red Herring 100 Global Awards, a prestigious list honoring the most promising private technology ventures in the world.

“Red Herring is known for its dedication to identifying the companies and technologies that are shaping the future,” said Scott Johnson, CEO of AtTask. “To be recognized not once, but twice by Red Herring is truly an honor.”

The Red Herring 100 Global is the culmination of a year’s work of scouring thousands of privately held companies from around the world—the finalists from its Red Herring Asia, Europe and North America Awards. The nominees were evaluated on both quantitative and qualitative criteria, such as financial performance, technology innovation, quality of management, execution of strategy and standing in their respective industries.

As a finalist, AtTask is recognized for using innovation as a fast-track to success and for demonstrating how innovation is creating business opportunities in the marketplace.

The winners of the Red Herring 100 Global will be announced at a special awards ceremony at the Red Herring Global forum in Los Angeles, January 26, 2011.

For more information about AtTask including details on their upcoming Work Management Summit—WorkOut 2011—please visit the website.

About AtTask, Inc.

AtTask increases workplace harmony by enfranchising workers and informing executives. The company’s social Work Management software gives people at all levels of the organization tools to help them better understand and organize their work. Going social facilitates deeper worker buy-in, and delivers executives conversational insights into the work environment. Over 1,000 organizations of all sizes, including Apple, Cisco, GE, Key Bank, HBO, Johnson & Johnson, Newsweek, Nike, Toyota and Whirlpool, have turned to AtTask to manage work of all levels of complexity. Its on-demand work management solution is available in 7 languages.

Last week, Seattle-based Skytap announced another round of funding, $10M in a Series C funding, for the firm’s cloud automation software efforts. To hear more about the company, we spoke with Scott Roza, CEO of the firm, along with Sundar Raghavan, Chief Product and Marketing Officer.

How does Skytap fit into the cloud automation software market?

Sundar Raghavan: The cloud computing market is a broad term, and there are lots of companies playing different roles. The particular area we focus on is helping companies to make their IT operations very agile. We serve two audiences. One, is functional users like you and me, who can use Skytap to create virtual environments for any number of purposes—for developing new applications, or running existing applications in the cloud without any changes. You can also use it for development, developing new applications, running existing applications, training end users and customers, and for sales demonstrations. We also help IT organizations, helping them to offload the pressure points in their data center to the cloud, so they can use the cloud as an extension of their data center.

Do you provide and run your own cloud or do you use other cloud providers?

Sundar Raghavan: We fundamentally focus on the solution value. Our primary value is how we help users with our self service web interface, which is very easy to use, which we run on our own infrastructure. We’re also capable of running in other partner infrastructure, and CSC, our partner, also runs their own version of Skytap.

There are lots of cloud software firms—how you are different, and are you just providing virtual PC environments or is this something more?

Sundar Raghavan: We are a lot more solution oriented. We can certainly do individual PCs, but our customers tend to focus on creating complex, multiple machine data centers. They really look at Skytap as an extension of their data center. It’s not just about managing a single PC. There are a variety of application use cases, including building new applications, migraing from existing applications, or using us for SharePoint migration or SAP migration. We’re about creating a complete, virtual data center, with storage virtualization added, network virtualization added, and with the entire cloud automated.

Let’s switch over to finances. What will you be using the funding round for?

Scott Roza: It’s a $10M round, led by a new investor, Openview Venture Partners out of Boston. Also participating were all our former guys involved with our Series A and B funding, including Madrona, Ignition, and Washington Research Foundation (WRF). What we’re going to be doing with that funding, is continuing to grow. We’ve been growing at a pretty rapid clip over the last twelve months. If you look at our capital spending and budget, it’s probably 60 to 65 percent in sales and marketing, and the remaining 35 to 40 percent around engineering and product development.

How did you connect with OpenView?

Scott Roza: These guys had actually been doing research over the last year around emerging cloud computing companies. They focus is really on expansion stage capital. They’re not looking for companies doing a seed or Series A, or where they product is only in beta with no customers. They’re looking for ventures that have proven themselves, have delivered, and are growing. Based on their analysis of the market and firms like Gartner and the 451 Group, they came across us and reached out. Over the last half of the year, we got serious about fundraising and re-engaged with them. They were one of many firms we talked with, and they emerged as the winner.

Talking with investors, did you find that investors are now finally understanding the cloud market?

Scott Roza: All investors are now fascinated and interested in the cloud market. But, I do think there is still a little head scratching as investors try to figure out what are going to be the models that emerge, trying to figure out the model that is a winning solution and strategy, and which may not. At the same time, there is lots of media hype around the cloud. Talking with investors, there is a lot of money being poured into cloud ventures. That said, I think it’s in the early days in terms of customer spending, and moving money from internal data centers to the cloud.

Are there any things you think will shift that, and might help trigger growth for you and others in the market?

Scott Roza: The key thing that will trigger it—and has been triggering it—is overall acceptance that companies can focus on things they do well, and move away from managing infrastructure for infrastructure’s sake. They can maintain focus on their core business—pharma for a pharmacy company, or building airplanes for an aerospace company—with solutions delivered via the cloud, better provided by someone else. They have to become more comfortable about security, integrity, and performance of those cloud options.

How do you get past those issues with your customers?

Scott Roza: From the selling perspective, we’re looking for companies asking the question of “Why Not?” rather than “Why?”. If the company has the mindset of “Why Not?” and they’re learning towards the cloud, this should make sense. That is where we want to validate that, from a use case perspective and a security perspective. But, if you have a company basically saying “why should I ever do this?” — they’re just looking for a reason to say no.

Finally, what’s next for the company?

Scott Roza: The big goals we have for the next year is to continue to grow the business rapidly, and double the customer base and revenue. We also want to continue to grow on the sales and marketing, and engineering side. Just like we have a very large partnership with Computer Sciences Corp., we’re hoping to have another large partnership in place in the first half of this year. Thanks!