According to a recent survey from Acronis, conducted by Redmond Magazine, 59 percent of organizations recognize the dangers of maintaining just one form of backup, and many are looking to the cloud to eliminate a single point of failure.

In fact, nearly a quarter already back up to the cloud as a secure off-site solution.

It’s no surprise that organizations are seeking more secure data protection option, as 75 percent of survey respondents experienced tape failure in the last year, and 22 percent see phasing out of legacy backups as a future challenge. IT departments see the cloud as a highly beneficial off-site storage solution to resolve such issues, with 43 percent of survey respondents cited the extra layer of data protection as the primary benefit of cloud, while 24 percent were most attracted to the underlying cost savings.

“Organizations no longer have to incur the risk of a tape failure when staging to cloud can provide the simple added layer of protection that organizations need. Old tape options are still used by many organizations despite the high failure rates, and it is fast losing its reputation as an effective technology with tolerance for downtime reaching near-zero and the velocity of critical data is only increasing. Forward looking IT organizations should be thinking ‘cloud first’ when assessing effective recovery strategies,” commented Scott Crenshaw, Acronis senior vice president of strategy and CMO.

In order to avoid a system relying on a single point of failure and ensure data protection, Acronis recommends organizations adopt a 3-2-1 backup strategy: Keep three copies of data, one primary and two backups; store backups on two types of media; and keep one copy of data off-site. The cloud clearly plays an essential role in the 3-2-1 strategy as a highly secure and cost-effective off-site storage solution, and cloud backup adoption is quickly gaining ground. Now, organizations must focus on integrating personal devices into their backup strategy to ensure availability, accessibility and protection of data, regardless of where it resides.

But, in order to develop a truly comprehensive data protection strategy, companies must also incorporate personal device backup and protection. Bring-your-own-device (BYOD) remains an obstacle for IT departments, and a quarter see personal device integration as their biggest backup and data recovery challenge. While the cloud is becoming an increasingly viable form of off-site backup, 65 percent of organizations admit to not backing up personal devices to the cloud.

“Protecting personal devices cannot be a grey area in a data protection strategy that is only tested and maintained for data on desktop or corporate laptops. Legacy backup and recovery policies simply won’t stretch to meet today’s always-on demands. CEO’s are some of the biggest users of the personal iPad for business use — they need to be sure their data is safe.”

To view Acronis’ survey infographic, visit: http://www.acronis.com/promo/cloud/.

About Acronis

Acronis is leading the next wave of data availability, accessibility and protection solutions to simplify today’s complex IT environments. Acronis technology enables organizations of all sizes to manage the always-on anywhere data access demands of users, reducing risk against the loss of valuable corporate data, and controlling management and storage costs. With proven technology for data migration and disaster recovery for physical, virtual and cloud environments, and secure enterprise file-sharing and synchronization regardless of type or platform, Acronis is enabling organizations to embrace new IT strategies and options such as BYOD and Mac in the enterprise.

Media Contact

Meredith L. Eaton
March Communications
Tel: +1 617-960-9877
Email: [email protected]

Online everywhere, consumers demand smarter and more relevant experiences regardless of where they’re located or the devices they use.

In an upcoming webinar, featured speaker Rob Brosnan, Senior Analyst, Forrester Research and Kurt Heinemann, CMO, Monetate, will discuss how marketing professionals can learn how to use both historical Big Data and real-time online consumer interactions to increase revenue and drive brand loyalty. The webinar will be held on Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013 from 2 – 3 p.m. EST.

Topics that will be discussed by Brosnan and Heinemann include:

• Turning data into adaptable segmentation to create marketing campaigns based on visitor insights across channels, devices and media
• Leveraging actionable analytics to breathe new life into behavioral targeting campaigns that reach the consumer “in the moment”
• Driving innovation through effective targeting A/B and multivariate testing programs

“Online marketers are still mystified by Big Data and how to use it to create a more relevant, customer-centric online experience,” said Heinemann. “Part of what we’ll discuss in this session is how marketers can leverage Big Data to create targeted campaigns that are designed to reach a particular customer segment, resulting in a more timely and engaging customer experience that drives conversions.”

The “Big Data Demystified” Webinar is free and open to all online marketers with an interest in the topic.  To register, please visit our website.

About Monetate

Monetate powers marketers to leverage Big Data to create more personalized and engaging online customer experiences. By providing more relevant web interactions, leading brands are able to anticipate and react to consumer preferences to generate stronger customer relationships and significantly increase profits.

Monetate drives billions of dollars of revenue every year for some of the best-known brands in the world, including Best Buy, Frontier Airlines, Aeropostale, The Sports Authority, and PETCO. The company’s comprehensive product suite and conversion expertise enable marketers to deliver a more relevant customer experience with unprecedented agility.

Leading marketers rely on Monetate’s cloud-based browser technology to achieve a new level of speed and control, allowing them to run 16 times more optimization campaigns compared to industry averages. The Monetate technology includes advanced products for testing, merchandising, targeting and cross-channel consistency, providing an opportunity to bypass IT restraints and react in real time to customer demands. Monetate also helps marketers implement best practices and drive online revenue through its expert strategic services and content publishing teams.

Instructure, the company that develops the Canvas learning platform, tripled the number of customers it serves by adding 200 new educational institutions to its customer base in 2012. Today more than 300 colleges, universities and school districts use Canvas as their learning management system.

In 2012 Instructure also welcomed Cisco Networking Academy to its Canvas platform. The academy provides IT courses and certifications to 1 million students from colleges, universities and high schools in 165 countries.

“The number of institutions that have adopted Canvas in such a short period of time is impressive, but even more remarkable is the breadth of institutions using Canvas,” said Brian Whitmer , Instructure’s co-founder and chief product officer. “Our client base includes Ivy League institutions, state universities, community and technical colleges and a growing number of K-12 schools and districts.”

New higher education customers added by Instructure in 2012 include the following:

• Alamo State Colleges
• Juilliard School of Music
• University of Maryland
• University of Texas at Austin
• University of Washington
• Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges

Instructure also added 50 new K-12 school districts in 2012, including the following:

• Naperville Community Unit School District 203 in Illinois
• Penn- Harris-Madison Schools in Indiana
• Sweetwater Union High School District in California

Instructure expanded the Canvas platform in 2012 by adding Canvas Analytics, Canvas for iOS and Canvas for Android. In November, Instructure responded to the MOOC phenomenon by releasing Canvas Network, an index of open online courses offered by institutions ranging from Ivy Leagues to community colleges.

Instructure hired 120 employees in 2012, bringing its total employee headcount to more than 200. It also recently announced plans to hire 600 more employees over the next five years to keep pace with projected growth.

To keep learning, visit www.instructure.com.

About Instructure:

Instructure is a technology company committed to improving education. We provide instructors and students modern tools and resources to empower the learning experience. Instructure offers Canvas – the open, easy-to-use, cloud-native learning management system. We also provide Canvas Network, an index of open, online courses from Ivy Leagues to community colleges. To keep learning, visit www.instructure.com.

Copyright © 2013, Instructure, Inc. All rights reserved. Instructure, Canvas and their respective logos are registered trademarks or trademarks of Instructure, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Other brands and names may be claimed as the property of others.

Contact:

Devin Knighton , Director of Public Relations
(801) 722-8187  |  [email protected]
Twitter: @devinknighton  |  www.instructure.com

Kareo, the cloud-based medical office software provider for small practices, today announced that Rob Pickell has joined the company as its first Chief Marketing Officer.

With his proven leadership in helping companies exponentially grow their customer base, Pickell will be responsible for marketing, sales and strategic alliances reporting to CEO, Dan Rodrigues .

Small practices are a place for building relationships with patients and providing the most meaningful care. Kareo enables these small medical practices to run a successful business while focusing more of their time with patients, not paperwork. Pickell’s appointment to Kareo follows a record-breaking year for the company ending 2012 with more than 16,000 providers and 6,000 customers while doubling its revenue and number of employees.

“We are excited to continue building our team with top talent to accelerate our growth among small medical practices so that we can help even more physicians run productive and profitable businesses,” said Dan Rodrigues , founder and CEO of Kareo. “Rob’s experience in software technology and marketing as well as creating and implementing growth strategies is perfectly aligned with our goals for 2013.”

Previously, Pickell was CMO and SVP of Strategy for HireRight, a human capital management SaaS and services provider. Pickell drove the company’s growth strategies, helping HireRight achieve the number one global market share position in its industry.Prior to joining HireRight, Pickell was Vice President of Worldwide Marketing at Quantum Corp.Earlier, he served in a variety of leadership positions, including Executive Vice President of Escrow.com, Vice President of Partner Marketing for Stamps.com and Group Director of Marketing for Verizon Wireless (then AirTouch). Pickell holds a BA in Economics with department honors from Pomona College and an MBA with distinction from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

“Kareo’s focus on helping small medical practices succeed is the key driver of its rapid growth and success,” said Pickell. “The company had a stellar year in 2012, and in 2013 we’ll continue to position the company’s software and services to help small practices prosper through excellent patient care and effective business management. I’m proud to join a team and company that is driving healthcare innovation that benefits small practices and their patients.”

In 2012, Kareo was recognized as the fastest growing medical office software company by Inc. Magazine. In addition, the company was named a fastest growing company by the Orange County Business Journal and a Top Workplace in Orange County by the Orange County Register.

About Kareo

Kareo is the only medical office software provider dedicated to serving the small practice.  Kareo believes that, with the right tools and support, small practices can do big things.  Over 16,000 medical professionals count on Kareo to manage their offices intuitively and affordably.  Quick to set up and simple to use, Kareo’s cloud-based software helps doctors get paid faster, keep cash flowing, and see the financial big picture through medical billing and practice management tools.  Founded in 2004, Kareo’s mission is to free doctors’ hands for important work of patient care.  For more information on Kareo, visit www.kareo.com.

Media Contact:

Christine Quern
Feinstein Kean Healthcare | an Ogilvy Company
P 617.761.6791
[email protected]

At the 2013 National Retail Federation (NRF) Expo, Monetate (NRF booth # 2711) will showcase how retailers can leverage big data to drive real-time, personalized experiences on digital retail sites that generate increased customer engagement and revenue.

The Monetate team will demonstrate how to create a dynamic web experience that is shaped by insights from Big Data, including customer purchase history, device, demographics, in-session browsing behavior and more.

(Click here to watch an overview of the Monetate technology)

Fresh on the heels of a holiday shopping season that saw a 15 percent increase¹ in online sales when compared to 2011, retailers are looking for new ways to improve online customer experiences or risk a competitive disadvantage in their digital marketplaces.

“This holiday season demonstrated that we are entering a new era of the customer,” said David Brussin, CEO and founder of Monetate. “The new online shopper is sophisticated, engaging with brands on-the-fly, across channels and devices. Being able to adapt the web experience to anticipate the customer’s preferences is critical to ecommerce success in the year ahead. At NRF, Monetate will share with retailers strategies to engage and react to the preferences of the consumer, based on Big Data insights.”

( Monetate Influences Over $1 Billion of Ecommerce Sales During Black Friday/Cyber Monday Week )

The National Retail Federation Expo will be held in New York City, January 13-15, 2013. To request a meeting with Monetate at NRF Expo, click here or email [email protected].

About Monetate

Monetate powers marketers to leverage Big Data to create more personalized and engaging online customer experiences. By providing a more relevant web experience, leading brands are able to anticipate and react to consumer preferences to generate stronger customer relationships and significantly increase profits.

Monetate drives billions of dollars of revenue every year for some of the best-known brands in the world, including Best Buy, Frontier Airlines, Aeropostale, The Sports Authority, and PETCO. The company’s comprehensive product suite and conversion expertise enable marketers to deliver a more relevant customer experience with unprecedented agility.

Leading marketers rely on Monetate’s cloud-based browser technology to achieve a new level of speed and control, allowing them to run 16 times more optimization campaigns compared to industry averages. The Monetate technology includes advanced products for testing, merchandising, targeting and cross-channel consistency, providing an opportunity to bypass IT restraints and react in real time to customer demands. Monetate also helps marketers implement best practices and drive online revenue through its expert strategic services and content publishing teams

Webster University chose Canvas by Instructure to replace Blackboard Vista as the learning platform for its WorldClassRoom that serves online programs and traditional courses offered at more than 100 campus locations worldwide.

The university also conducted a learning management system evaluation with Blackboard and Desire2Learn.

“With campus locations on three continents, Webster University needed an LMS that would allow us to maintain our tradition of providing highly personal, student-centered education,” said Dan Viele, associate vice president for academic affairs and director of the Online Learning Center at Webster University. “After a thorough evaluation process, we feel confident that Canvas will do just that.”

Webster selected Canvas after conducting a survey and focus group involving students, faculty, administrators and support staff. The survey showed that students and faculty valued ease of use, mobile access and tools that facilitate communication and collaboration.

Focus group participants, who were appointed by the Provost’s Office, spent several weeks testing and evaluating Blackboard, Desire2Learn and Canvas. Ultimately, 88 percent of participants selected Canvas.

“Canvas acts more like a tool to build a teaching and learning experience than an LMS that you have to fit teaching and learning activities into,” said Brian Merkel, technical manager in the Online Learning Center at Webster University. “Everything from the user interface to the open source ethic gives Canvas and Instructure its quiet strength.”

In addition to its main campus in St. Louis, Missouri, Webster University’s network of more than 100 global campuses includes metropolitan, military and corporate locations, as well as traditional campuses in Asia, Europe and North America. The university has offered fully online undergraduate and graduate courses, alongside traditional courses, since 1999. The university’s current total enrollment is 21,479.

Webster will begin using Canvas for all of its courses beginning in summer 2013. Pilot courses and student and faculty training will begin in spring 2013.

“We’re excited to welcome Webster University to the Canvas Community of nearly 300 universities, colleges and school districts,” said Devlin Daley, co-founder and chief technology officer. “Canvas is well-suited to Webster’s global reach and focus on the individual learning experience.”

For more information about Canvas and to keep learning, visit www.instructure.com.

About Webster University:

Founded in 1915, Webster University is the only Tier I, private, non-profit U.S.-based university providing a network of international residential campuses. The university is committed to delivering high-quality learning experiences that transform students for global citizenship and individual excellence.

About Instructure:

Instructure is a technology company committed to improving education. We provide instructors and students modern tools and resources to empower the learning experience. Instructure offers Canvas – the open, easy-to-use, cloud-native learning management system. We also provide Canvas Network, an index of open, online courses from Ivy Leagues to community colleges. To keep learning, visit www.instructure.com.

Skytap, Inc., the leading provider of self-service cloud automation solutions, today announced that Serena Software, the leader in orchestrated IT management solutions, is using Skytap Cloud to run dynamic workloads in the cloud — including its Agile software development and testing initiatives across 13 countries.

The Silicon Valley-based software provider has transitioned its most dynamic workloads into Skytap Cloud, providing its IT department with a powerful solution that enables self-service for hundreds of users across multiple business units within the organization, including teams collaborating across the United States, Ukraine, and United Kingdom. As a result, Serena has shortened its software test and development cycles, streamlined its internal and external training processes, and increased the quality of its next generation software products.

Prior to adopting Skytap Cloud, Serena was limited by the constraints of its existing on-premise infrastructure. Tasks such as provisioning machines, setting up test environments and configuring instances required several man-hours to complete and created potential bottlenecks. Serena also needed to create specific software versions to perform proof of concepts for different customers, requiring time-consuming builds that were not easily duplicated on user machines. Additionally, Serena Software was challenged with providing significant computing and storage capacity so the company could transition the delivery of its software from individual applications to bundled suites, which were significantly larger in size.

“We initially used Skytap Cloud for our research and development teams, but quickly found that the solution had other applications outside of our software development and test organization,” said Ken Sims, senior systems administrator at Serena Software. “By using Skytap Cloud across the business, we significantly reduced our go-to-market timeline and can now demonstrate our products directly through Skytap Cloud to shorten sales cycles.”

Skytap Cloud is purpose-built for distributed teams that frequently collaborate on dynamic workloads and complex computing environments. By using the self-service functionality of Skytap, Serena was able to dramatically reduce provisioning times for complex environments, removing potential bottlenecks and accelerating workflow. Serena’s Agile development and testing cycles were accelerated by using a standard “golden template,” which allows users to easily replicate and share these environments across distributed teams. When the company began to integrate its software solutions into complete suites, Skytap empowered Serena with the ability to scale its computing and storage capacity as much as five times on a short lead time, or on-demand basis. This greatly improved IT’s responsiveness and agility to respond to the changing needs of their internal customers. Currently, Serena Software has nearly 300 Skytap users across 13 countries, and together they have created over 1,000 complex computing environments for testing and development.

What initially started as a research and development project for Serena, quickly evolved into a company-wide implementation of Skytap Cloud. After experiencing the many benefits of Skytap Cloud, Serena’s IT department implemented the solution for software demonstrations and customer enablement scenarios. Using Skytap, field sales engineers are able to spin up complete computing environments where they can run interactive application demonstrations for prospective and existing customers. The IT team has also implemented Skytap for customer support, allowing the company to quickly reproduce a customer environment to debug software, collaborate directly with customers within a shared environment, or provide consulting services directly within Skytap Cloud.

Skytap’s flexibility is also showcased through Serena’s training program. Training managers utilize Skytap to administer last-minute, large-scale training sessions, taking advantage of Skytap’s ability to quickly provision virtual classroom environments. Based on its experiences, Serena is evaluating moving its entire training program to Skytap Cloud to cut the cost and time needed to set up classroom environments.

“As a truly global company, Serena Software required a highly flexible and collaborative cloud solution to develop and test its software, and configure training classes for internal and external use,” said Brett Goodwin, vice president of marketing and business development at Skytap. “With Skytap Cloud, Serena benefits from a powerful solution that can help improve responsiveness to a variety of user needs across a diverse set of business units. Serena can now cost-effectively match its computing capacity with its dynamic workload needs, and scale resources to support complex computing environments around the globe.”

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.

While a small percentage of national brands that rely on local distribution channels are able to intentionally impact sales at the local level – where consumers most often buy – the majority are not able to. Competing priorities and a plethora of new media channels and digital tactics continue to get in their way. Further, a lack of focus on new processes, tools and technologies keep national brands from capturing the vast opportunity in local markets.

“I’m shocked by how many national brands have yet to realize the strategic importance of enabling effective local marketing”

This lack of attention on local marketing is a detriment to the success of national brands, according to Balihoo (www.Balihoo.com) and is why the company is releasing its “Five Essential Strategies for Local Marketing Success” today. They are designed to help national marketers increase top-line business growth in 2013 and will be rolled out in more detail via Balihoo’s blog.

Balihoo’s “Five Essential Strategies for Local Marketing Success” include:

1) Demand Generation is the Last Thing to Consider

Many national brands jump directly to demand generation activities when engaging in local marketing, in particular to capture new audiences. However, lack of demand is typically not the issue; the issue is capturing the customers who are already looking for the brand’s products in the local marketplace but instead buying from a competitor. National brands should first help their affiliates capture current demand and nurture existing customers. Simultaneously, they should build the infrastructure needed to scale local efforts across multiple markets and give them access to aggregated tracking. Only then should investments be made for capturing new audience demand.

2) Stop Building Programs for the Biggest Players

Most national brands focus on their top-tier resellers when building marketing programs, yet this group typically neither needs nor wants this support, as they have in-house marketing resources and their own brand objectives. National brands need to provide the most marketing support to the 75 percent of affiliates in the “meaty middle” of their revenue base. This is a large group of resellers or agents who, while they may not individually make a large revenue contribution, together represent a real opportunity to grow the top line. They are desperate for help from their national brands, especially in digital channels that require significant technical knowledge.

3) Modify Outdated Co-Op Programs

As a strategic marketing investment, co-op programs require partnership between the national brand and the local affiliate. The days of “set it and forget it” co-op marketing programs are over. National brands are not keeping pace with the evolving marketing landscape and are missing opportunities to capture their fair share of local market demand via co-op programs. It’s time to add digital tactics, educate local affiliates on how to use them, incentivize and build measurable programs that are right for the brand and deliver ROI.

4) Make Local Websites the Hub for Successful Local Marketing

Brands need a local online presence because consumers are looking for them there. A local website is the hub for all local marketing and SEO efforts. It captures consumer demand, streamlines marketing efforts and provides metrics for future campaign optimization, which is extremely important when a national brand is relying on thousands of local websites. And then when the brand is ready to execute a local social media or PPC campaign, they’re ready and waiting to give customers what they want: local business name, address, phone number, products carried, store hours, or even a photo of the business owner or storefront.

5) Value the Phone

The facts around phone call effectiveness and use are astounding, yet most national marketers rarely think about enabling local call tracking numbers when expanding campaigns to local markets. With the exploding use of mobile phones and the fact that consumers actually want to make purchases with local businesses via the phone, incorporating trackable phone numbers specific to local affiliates into all marketing activities is critical to the success – and measurement – of campaigns.

“I’m shocked by how many national brands have yet to realize the strategic importance of enabling effective local marketing,” commented Shane Vaughan, CMO of Balihoo. “With the ability that consumers have to search for your brand’s local retailers, dealers, agents and the like – and instead come across a competitor who has out-marketed you at the local level – there is simply no excuse for not building a concerted infrastructure to capture demand at the local level. It’s one of the most observable, necessary ways to increase top-line growth without significantly increasing marketing dollars.”

Balihoo’s “Five Essential Tactics for Local Marketing Success” will be explained in more detail over the next few weeks on the company’s blog: http://marketing.balihoo.com/. To receive the information on your desktop, please subscribe to the blog via email or RSS feed.

About Balihoo

Balihoo is the premier provider of Local Marketing Automation (LMA) technology and services to national brands with local marketing needs. By automating local marketing, Balihoo gives national brands unprecedented control over local marketing execution and the ability to control the customer experience closer to the point of purchase. Additional information about Balihoo is available at www.balihoo.com.

Contacts