The new solution enables enterprises and managed service providers to offer automated self-service delivery of Infrastructure as a Service.

CA Technologies Announces CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platforms
CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platforms drives Business Service Innovation by enabling IT to provide rapid, predictable and secure provisioning and delivery of cloud infrastructure and critical IT and business services.
“We continue to work with VCE to help customers improve business agility, reduce risk and lower the costs of operating private clouds,” said Anna Gong, Vice President, Coud, Virtualization & Service Automation, Asia Pacific, CA Technologies. “CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platforms can help enterprises and MSPs rapidly deliver services in a private cloud environment, maximizing their investment in VCE Vblock Platforms and driving Business Service Innovation to deliver speed, performance and improved cost efficiencies.”This is the company’s fifth solution certified for use with VCE Vblock Infrastructure Platforms, all of which are based on CA Technologies Unified Automation solutions.
Enterprises and managed service providers (MSPs) use cloud management software to enable their Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offerings.
Many organizations are evaluating and testing converged private cloud architectures, such as Vblock Platforms, that allow IT resources to be dynamically pooled and shared across multiple physical and virtual computing environments.
CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platforms promises to offer standardization, a rapid provisioning process and performance predictability.
CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platforms leverages CA Process Automation and CA Service Catalog to provide customers with a single, unified view and point of control across virtual and private cloud resources.
Out-of-the-box standardized processes allow IT organizations to deliver Vblock Infrastructure Platforms as a service.
CA Service Catalog, accessed through a secure, online portal, empowers users to quickly select and provision the resources they need.
“The latest CA Technologies integration with Vblock platforms enables IT to transform its converged infrastructure into a true platform for delivering private cloud services,” said John Ross, CTO, GreenPages. “By combining our Integration and Managed Services with CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platforms, customers can enable private cloud capabilities in days versus months, and realize a rapid return on their VCE investment.”CA Process Automation helps ensure that pooled resources are provisioned quickly, with minimal effort.
Service usage is metered and associated to departments, cost centers, or users for billing or chargeback.
Every organization is different when it comes to process.
CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platforms is built on top of an extensible platform that allows IT to easily customize the solution to meet its needs and provide the flexibility to respond dynamically to changing business requirements.
CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platforms is available today from CA Technologies and its partners, including GreenPages Technology Solutions, a national IT consulting and integration company.
Management shakeup at RIM
Tuesday, January 24th, 2012BlackBerry maker – Research In Motion (RIM) – has named Thorsten Heins as President and CEO of the company.
Mike Lazaridis remains Vice Chair of the Board while Jim Balsillie takes on a Director role at the company. This is effective immediately.
Outgoing Co-chairs and Co-CEOs Jim Basillie and Mike Lazaridis
Heins was also appointed to RIM’s Board. He joined RIM from Siemens Communications Group in December 2007 as Senior Vice President for Hardware Engineering and became Chief Operating Officer for Product and Sales in August 2011.
I believe Heins does not have time on his side, given BlackBerry’s rapid loss of market share to rival Android devices and Apple iOS products.
“We have a strong balance sheet with approximately $1.5 billion in cash at the end of the last quarter and negligible debt. We reported revenue of $5.2 billion in our last quarter, up 24% from the prior quarter, and a 35% year-to-year increase in the BlackBerry subscriber base, which is now over 75 million.” – Thorsten Heins, new President and CEO of RIM.RIM’s market share of smartphones in the US declined from a market leading 44% in 2009 to 10% in 2011, according to market researcher NPD Group.
BlackBerry has been growing outside of America but it is facing similar challenges from its competitors in those markets as well.
Coming from within RIM instead of outside, the natural question will be whether Heins will be doling out “more of the same” at RIM.
I’m not sure having been in RIM since 2007 is necessarily something that will be seen as positive for Heins.
Investors will be keen to know if he had his own ideas but could not act on them because he was not the CEO.
Heins will have a very short time to show how different he is from his predecessors, that he has his own vision and roadmap to bring RIM back to its previous success.
Thorsten Heins, new President and CEO at RIM
I’m hoping his “I don’t think that there is a drastic change needed” spiel during his first press conference as CEO is merely paying due respect to his predecessors.
The succession plan was submitted by the two Co-Chairs and co-CEOs, Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie. RIM’s Board of Directors acted on their recommendations after conducting its own own due diligence.
Investors had forced RIM to consider a change in company leadership in 2011 and was stalled with the company’s promise to study the matter.
RIM promised a resolution in January 2012 and I’ve been wondering if they were going to make the move, after their closed-door meeting in mid December.
Mike Lazaridis, who co-founded RIM with Doug Fregin in 1984, has become Vice Chair of RIM’s Board and Chair of the Board’s new Innovation Committee.
As Vice Chair, he will work closely with Mr. Heins to offer strategic counsel, provide a smooth transition and continue to promote the BlackBerry brand worldwide.
Barbara Stymiest, who formerly served as a member of Royal Bank of Canada’s Group Executive and has been a member of RIM’s Board since 2007, has been named the independent Board Chair.
John Richardson, formerly Lead Director, will remain on the Board.
Prem Watsa, Chief Executive Officer of Fairfax Financial Holdings, also was named to the Board, expanding it to 11 members.
Tags:BlackBerry, Playbook, RIM, smartphone, tablets
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