Citrix has taken another step towards enabling enterprises to deliver applications and services to their workers on any device anywhere, with new releases of XenDesktop, XenMobile and ShareFile.

Announced at the firm’s Citrix Synergy event in Los Angeles, XenDesktop 7 is the first release of Project Avalon, an initiative to deliver Windows as a cloud service. Meanwhile, a new XenMobile Enterprise edition combines device, app and data management, while ShareFile can now deliver mobile access to data inside the corporate firewall.

XenDesktop 7 now integrates Citrix’s XenApp application delivery platform with XenDesktop’s existing virtual desktop capabilities. This provides app and desktop delivery from a unified framework with a single management console, according to Citrix.

Project Avalon, first discussed at Synergy in San Francisco last year, is an ambitious project to take Windows and enable it to be delivered as a scalable cloud service that can be accessed on any endpoint device.

With XenDesktop 7, Citrix is delivering the first portions of this, in a release codenamed Excalibur. The second release, codenamed Merlin, will be available as a technical preview next year and will focus on automating deployment and management in private and public cloud infrastructure while providing self-service provisioning, Citrix said.

Citrix chief marketing officer Steve Daheb said that the firm is following this strategy to help customers adapt to the changing technology landscape and the way that IT services will be delivered in the future.

“IT decision-making is being shaped by the forces of BYOD and personal cloud services,” he said. “By providing powerful cloud solutions, we are helping our customers embrace mobile workstyles to succeed in a dynamic and mobile world.”

In a similar vein, XenMobile Enterprise edition now combines device, app and data management into one platform, according to Citrix. It updates the XenMobile MDM platform Citrix released earlier this year, which is based on technology gained through its acquisition of Zenprise.

In addition to a corporate app store, XenMobile Enterprise edition includes an updated mobile device client that provides help desk support as well as app and data access, along with new Worx Mobile productivity apps, comprising WorxMail for secure e-mail, WorxWeb for secure web browsing, and ShareFile for data sharing.

ShareFile itself has now been updated with the ability to link to network shares and SharePoint sites behind the corporate firewall. ShareFile StorageZone Connectors creates a direct and secure connection to the data from mobile endpoints rather than synchronising it elsewhere, Citrix said.

Publishing and education company Pearson has taken a unique approach to the ongoing enterprise cloud apps battle between Microsoft and Google: it is offering its 40,000-strong workforce the choice of either.

Pearson owns several well-known brands, including the Financial Times Group, the Penguin Group and Pearson Education, and its IT team serves staff in over 1,000 locations worldwide. 

The firm has overhauled its IT estate from Microsoft Office 2003 in the past two years, in order to ensure it maintained relevance with the new ways of working that its staff were embracing.

After evaluation it decided to offer its businesses units a choice of either Google or Microsoft Office applications, integrated together so they could be used between business units on a single platform, managed by the IT team.

To date 33,000 staff from just over 40,000 have been migrated to this new platform and Google’s services have been the overwhelming favourite, securing around 80 percent use over Microsoft’s offerings.

Graham Calder, chief technology officer for global platforms and services at Pearson, said numerous aspects of the Google technology have proved enticing to business units.

“We didn’t recommend what people chose, but it’s been interesting to see most have moved to Google after assessing the offering” he said. “There were a couple of swing factors that we’ve seen. One was cost, but another factor was the ability to transform the way people could work.”

One feature in this area of Google’s offerings – its video collaboration tool Hangouts – has been particularly popular. “Hangouts have gone viral. You rarely see people doing voice calls you just see Hangouts. They love the collaboration,” explained Calder.

Calder also said the firm is fully committed to a bring your own device (BYOD) strategy supporting all major platforms, although only two are used to any real extent. “Our primary base for BYOD is iOS, but the Android base has risen incredibly fast over the last year or so.”

The news comes on the same day that Orion Media has moved to Google Apps for Business, using cloud firm Ancoris to bring 200 staff over to its services.

“The key drivers were the need for more storage and more collaboration,” explained Jonathan Dean, IT manager at Orion Media. “There was no question Google was the best, most cost-effective solution. Google offered us much more storage than we could economically provide in-house.”

While this is good news for Google, last week Microsoft rolled out a number of customers that had ditched Google for its own service, as the two firms continue to battle for customers in the enterprise space.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has cleared a major compliance hurdle which could allow the company to strike new deals with US government agencies.

The company on Tuesday revealed it has achieved compliance with the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP.) The standard will allow the company to host “moderate” level cloud initiatives for some 300 agencies in the US Federal government.

“Today most government computing systems require built-to-order platforms and applications to meet government security and compliance requirements, which involve time-consuming and costly evaluations,” said AWS worldwide public sector vice president Teresa Carlson.

“With this FedRAMP compliance, agencies can now utilize a streamlined process from AWS when moving applications to the cloud to meet their unique business and mission requirements.”

With the certification, the AWS platform can now be cleared for higher-level security and secrecy projects, opening the door for new cloud initiatives. Groups impacted by the ruling include the US Navy, Treasury Department and NASA.

AWS said that in meeting the FedRAMP requirements it had to comply with standards for security, monitoring and safe storage policies. The certification and compliance are being co-managed by HHS.

With governments both at the local and federal level looking to develop sweeping cloud initiatives in order to save money and reduce capital expenditures, achieving compliance with government regulations has been an important step for hosting firms looking to land the lucrative government contracts.

Last week, Box made a point of announcing that it had cleared a federal government hurdle by complying with the ISO 27001 standard for secure storage.

The Home Office has completed the largest order to date for the government’s G-Cloud framework, and signed a contract with hosting provider Skyscape worth £1.5m for the next year.

Skyscape will host the Home Office recruitment Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checking services, more officially known as the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). The service will go live early next year.

Members of the government’s G-Cloud team, including Denise McDonagh, who leads the G-Cloud programme and is also the IT director at the Home Office, refused to comment on the contract, despite its notable size.

Phil Dawson, Skyscape’s chief executive, said: “Our platform as a service offering will help the Home Office to dramatically reduce capital expenditure, and also facilitate savings in operational costs and time.”

So far, sales to the government using the G-Cloud have topped £18m and this has included 911 different contracts being signed with 700 suppliers, offering more than 5,000 services. G-Cloud sales have particularly skyrocketed this year, increasing by £14m since January, partly due to the government’s Cloud First policy.

The G-Cloud programme was launched in February 2012 with the aim of driving the uptake of cloud computing in the public sector. The online system allows the public sector to rent the use of services as needed and do away with lengthy contracts.

The system also allows SMBs to sell to government departments in equal capacity to larger enterprises.

Microsoft is entering an agreement with the UK’s Janet research and education network to deliver a speedier and more secure connection to services such as the Azure cloud computing platform for students and researchers. Education institutions will also get access to Office 365 under pre-agreed terms and conditions as part of the deal.

The agreement will see the establishment of a peering arrangement between the networks of the two organisations, Microsoft said. This means that traffic to Microsoft services from educational sites will not have to traverse the public internet, cutting latency and enabling a high bandwidth connection for students and researchers.

While the move will benefit students by providing faster access to resources, it will also benefit Microsoft by potentially making services such as Azure more attractive for infrastructure and websites, virtual learning environments and research projects.

Oxford University chief information officer, professor Anne Trefethen, said: “The capability afforded by Janet’s peering with Microsoft’s Azure Cloud with high-bandwidth secure connections creates new opportunities for researchers and the University community as a whole.”

As part of the agreement, any UK education institution can also gain access to Microsoft’s cloud-based Office 365 suite under standard terms and conditions negotiated by Janet. This eliminates the need for each site to negotiate individually with Microsoft for terms and conditions applicable for the education market, according to Janet.

The two parties did disclose whether the agreement also included a discount on Office 365 pricing for educational organisations.

Microsoft UK’s director of education Steve Beswick said: “We are delighted to be working with Janet to provide additional value-added products and services to the research and education community. We have a long-standing relationship with this sector and are looking forward to more collaborative working with Janet to grow our offering.”

Janet, formerly the Joint Academic Network, provides services for further and higher education organisations in the UK, including a dedicated network that connects them all.

There are three basic steps in setting up a website, and to help make you more aware of what’s to come if you’re a complete newbie.

Firstly you will need to purchase a domain name. This should ideally be relevant in terms of key worse. For instance if you was selling cakes and your name was Paul Morison, and you were targeting your products specifically to a UK audience, a good domain name would be paulmorisoncakes.co.uk.

The next step would be to chose a web host and set up an account. This is of course an important step, and it’s probably not the most interesting. There are many providers out there and it’s important to do your homework on each one. Things to consider include the amount of web space you’re allowed, file types, and disk space. A good provider will have technical support available when it’s needed.

The next step is designing a website and you can either have it created for you by a designer, or do it yourself with WYSIWYG web editors. There are free version available and perhaps more professional paid pieces of software, but once your site is designed you can test it, add details, such as a payment method, and begin working on your website to get it noticed.

Once the process is broken down into stages it makes it seem a lot easier, so good luck!

Microsoft finally revealed the UK pricing and shipping date for its overdue Microsoft Surface Pro tablet last week, and V3 managed to get its hands on one ahead of the 23 May release date to give it a thorough test. We were impressed with the performance and ability to run core business apps, but at £719, minus keyboard and Office, this could be offputting for many looking at this for a bring your own device option.

Last week several technology firms came under the spotlight for their low tax payments. The latest V3 column explained why, despite government pressure, it’s unlikely companies like Google and Amazon will be landed with large bills anytime soon.

Dell also took a little time off from questions over its buyout future to unveil its additions to its Precision workstation family, which will ship in early June running Intel’s latest Haswell processor.

Free WiFi was also a hot topic last week, as Camden Council announced plans to offer residents and visitors to the borough 30 minutes of free WiFi access per day. V3 broke the news that two other London councils, Newham and Havering, had ditched their free WiFi plans, while Barnet, Hounslow and Islington all signed up.

Microsoft Surface Pro with Windows 8 review
A decent business tablet that can run everything you’d find on a PC, but high price tag compared to standard laptops, iPads and Android tablets 

Amazon, Google and Apple won’t need to pay tax, despite government threats
Governments won’t have the courage or power to get a fair deal from big tech companies, argues V3 editor Madeline Bennett

Dell reveals Precision workstation line-up running Intel Haswell
Precision T1700 mini workstation and R7610 2U rackmount added to the family

Bitcoins are being traded for hack tools
Criminals now accepting digital currency on cyber black market

IBM updates COBOL to extend System/z into the cloud
Mainframe platform looks to transition with z/OS update

Microsoft Surface Pro priced from £719 in UK, ships 23 May
Windows tablet aims to be full PC but lacks in-built Office

Google I/O: Google Glass, Nexus tablets and Google+ set to dominate
Commentators say show will focus on software for existing products, rather than new hardware releases

Google Android malware levels rocket as spam threats grow
F-Secure warns platform being hit with evolved targeted attacks

Ipsos Mori denies trying to sell 27 million EE customers’ data to Metropolitan Police
Ipsos Mori fights back as Bloomberg reporters caught out for snooping on data

London councils Newham and Havering exit free WiFi plans as Barnet and Islington sign up
Five London councils have pulled out of plans to provide London residents with free WiFi access

Virtualisation specialist Veeam is aiming to make backups of virtual machines more efficient with Veeam Backup & Replication v7, which adds support for tape storage, built-in WAN acceleration for remote backups and can use SAN snapshots as a backup source.

Due to be available in the third quarter of this year, Backup & Replication v7 adds a number of new features. Many of these are aimed at making it easier for administrators to move some virtual machine backups to less costly storage, freeing up space and enabling more efficient use of resources.

However, some of the high-end features of Backup & Replication v7 will only be available under a new Enterprise Plus licence, which Veeam is also introducing with this release.

Veeam’s EMEA evangelist Hans De Leenheer told V3 that Backup & Replication v7 includes features that rivals only offer as optional extras, and also makes backing up virtual infrastructure as simple as possible.

To this end, new capabilities include support for tape storage and built-in WAN acceleration to optimise copying of backups to off-site locations, effectively enabling tiered levels of backup where long-term data can be moved to cheaper storage.

“What we’re not doing is supporting backing up virtual machines to tape, what we are enabling is use of tape as a secondary location for long-term retention of backup files, allowing customers to move long-term data to a cheaper form of storage,” De Leenheer explained.

Likewise, the built-in WAN acceleration feature in Backup & Replication v7 is purely to optimise the movement of backup data to the cloud or to another off-site location, according to Veeam.

“We’re not getting into the generic WAN acceleration market. It is built-in acceleration for our backup process only. When you do a copy job to an offsite location, that’s where the WAN acceleration kicks in,” De Leenheer said.

The exact technology is being kept under wraps, but it works at the block level and the network level and involves some caching at either end of the connection, according to Veeam.

Another key feature is support for backup from SAN snapshots, but this currently supports only HP StoreVirtual and HP 3PAR StoreServ storage arrays, although Veeam is looking to extend this in future.

Backing up from the snapshot rather than the virtual machine itself allows Veeam to dramatically shorten the time taken to perform the backup, according to De Leenheer.

“If you can do a backup from a SAN snapshot you’re not doing it from the production data store, and it will take about two to three minutes maximum,” he said.

Veeam also now supports Hyper-V with its virtual labs capability, which allows customers to spin up a virtual machine in a test environment directly from a backup. Previously, this was only supported on VMware.

Veeam is also looking to add grandfather-father-son retention for backups in the future, according to De Leenheer. He said this will do away with the need to perform a regular full backup every month or quarter.

“You can then do incremental forever. You will only have to do a full backup once, and every other backup afterwards can be incremental,” he said.

Veeam Backup & Replication v7 will be available as an upgrade for customers with a maintenance subscription. But Veeam is introducing a new Enterprise Plus licence that sits above its current Enterprise level. The WAN acceleration and SAN snapshot capabilities will only be available to customers who licence Backup & Replication v7 at this level, according to Veeam.

Existing Entperise level customers will be able to move up to Enterprise Plus for no extra charge when they upgrade to Backup & Replication v7, according to De Leenheer, or they can stay on the current licence going forwards.

Many people believe that the location of your web hoster does not matter, but the fact is it does, especially in terms of SEO.

Search engine results depend on the national version of Google, and particularly when you have a country domain extension, Google recognises your nationality, meaning you may not perform as well in the UK if you have a .be extension.

If you’re thinking about starting a website directed to a UK audience, it could be beneficial to purchase a .co.uk domain, or perhaps a .com/. The only issue is that more domains are taken each day, and whenever a suitable domain name for the UK come available, you should always snap it up while you can. Or you may end up paying over the odds.

IBM has updated its COBOL server software platform in hopes of extending its mainframe platform into the cloud and web applications space.

The company said that its System/z COBOL software update would look to add Java 7 and XML server capabilities to the platform, allowing the mainframe line to host cloud computing applications and services.

The update is part of what IBM sees as an effort to extend the lifespan of COBOL into the cloud computing era. The company estimates that there are currently some 200 billion lines of code and 15 percent of enterprise applications.

“COBOL powers many of the critical systems people rely on everyday,” said IBM fellow and Rational chief technology officer Kevin Stoodley.

“With this new software, IBM is helping companies reduce operating costs and processing time associated with these applications while delivering new capabilities to take advantage of cloud, Web and mobile devices.”

In updating its COBOL software, the company hopes to modernise the platform without the need for dramatically re-writing applications. The company said that the mainframe platform will be able to power mobile and web applications for fields ranging from finance to insurance and retail applications.

Additionally, IBM said that its new software will speed up the performance of applications with a compiler which is said to increase the performance of code by some 10 to 20 percent.