Serena Software Launches First Mashup Exchange

STMicroelectronics to Demonstrate Leading-Edge Automotive Technology at ITS 2009

2009-09-18T10:23:02+02:00

Bangalore, September 18, 2009 – At the 16th ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems) World Congress and Exhibition, STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM), a leading supplier of semiconductors for infotainment, powertrain, safety and telematics systems, will present successful solutions benefiting from its automotive-focused ICs. These ICs include navigation processors, the EyeQ2 high-performance vision-processing engine, and safety microcontrollers. ST is working with its customers in a number of application sectors, contributing semiconductor expertise to increase road safety and deliver extra value for vehicle owners.

At its booth, ST will feature a demonstration of the Navteq Map and Position Engine (MPE), which is based on ST’s GPS processing ICs, which won the Frost & Sullivan European Automotive Safety Systems Product Innovation of the Year Award 2009. The MPE provides a basis for enhanced vehicle safety through map-based driver assistance, such as advanced warning of road hazards or speed limits. ST will also highlight its involvement in security- and insurance-focused telematics projects with partners worldwide, such as Brazil’s mandatory tracking-based anti-theft system ‘Rasteador,’ developed in conjunction with Magnetti Marelli.

At the heart of ST’s solutions for driver assistance and telematics is a range of processors based on the industry-standard ARM7, ARM9 and ARM11 cores. Among these, ST’s Cartesio automotive navigation processor delivers performance and integration advantages for developers. The latest Cartesio IP introduces enhancements such as improved GPS sensitivity and advanced development tools. Visitors to the booth will be able to learn more about these processors, as well as ST’s standalone GPS receiver, Teseo.

In addition, ST will be demonstrating car-to-car communications using IEEE802.11p dedicated short-range communication technology, to show how tomorrow’s vehicles could exchange information autonomously to improve safety around hazards, such as approaches to road intersections or when overtaking. This demonstration, developed with Cohda Wireless, uses Cohda’s radio technology, as well as ST’s Cartesio navigation processor.

ST is also supporting projects with market-leading partners to create active safety systems based on machine vision and radar. A presentation with MobilEye, on the booth, will highlight the role of ST’s EyeQ2 processor in enabling advanced driver-assist features such as pedestrian protection that offer substantial improvements over first-generation collision-avoidance features and lane-departure warning systems. EyeQ2 is by far the most powerful processor dedicated to automotive vision, with multiple cores and seven dedicated vision-processing units enabling greatly increased performance for future active-safety capabilities. ST and MobilEye are working with multiple leading tier-one suppliers that are developing machine vision for world-leading vehicle brands.

ST will also be showing its latest automotive camera module for vision-based ADAS (Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems). ST is leveraging its camera technologies developed for mobile handsets to create tailored products for vision-based ADAS. The demonstration will highlight in-house production processes for CMOS cameras achieving the best sensitivity and dynamic range among devices currently on the market.

Other demonstrations will include ST’s solutions for radar-based ADAS, including 24/26GHz radar for short-range and side-mounted applications and 77GHz radar for long-range, forward-looking systems such as Active Cruise Control (ACC) and autonomous braking. ST offers a complete portfolio, including sensors, ASICs and processors, for this fast growing application.

In addition, visitors to the booth will be able to assess important new microcontrollers for safety-critical applications, developed in collaboration with Freescale Semiconductor and using the Power Architecture. These automotive-MCUs, which are designed for safety applications, contain ST’s leading-edge embedded Flash technology for non-volatile data storage.

A further presentation will highlight ST’s offering for hybrid and electric vehicle development, including IGBTs with high current density enabling cost-effective power handling for electric traction applications.

About STMicroelectronics
STMicroelectronics is a global leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications with innovative semiconductor solutions. ST aims to be the undisputed leader in multimedia convergence and power applications leveraging its vast array of technologies, design expertise and combination of intellectual property portfolio, strategic partnerships and manufacturing strength. In 2008, the Company’s net revenues were $9.84 billion. Further information on ST can be found at www.st.com.

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New YAHOO!® MOBILE for Web Launched Across More than 300 devices around the World

2009-04-01T10:31:30+02:00

Bangalore, India, April 1st, 2009 – Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) today announced the availability of Yahoo! Mobile, an open and highly-personalized mobile starting point to the Internet, on both the mobile Web and as an Apple® iPhone app, allowing consumers to discover, stay connected and stay informed through their mobile devices.

Announced at Mobile World Congress* in February, Yahoo! Mobile for the Web is now available across more than 300 devices with HTML-enabled mobile browsers by visiting http://in.new.m.yahoo.com, while the Yahoo! Mobile iPhone app is now available in the Apple iPhone App Store. Both are currently available in eight countries across Europe, Asia and the Americas, including the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Germany, France, India, Indonesia and the Philippines, with additional localized versions expected to launch over the next several months.

“Consumers around the globe are demanding compelling mobile Internet services that offer increased personalization,” said David Ko, senior vice president, Yahoo! Mobile. “To further capitalize on the market potential and continue our mobile leadership, we created Yahoo! Mobile, a dynamic starting point enabling consumers to discover the world around them, stay connected through a variety of communication services, and customize content to define their Internet experience on mobile devices.”

Yahoo! Mobile – the starting point on mobile devices

With a feature-rich design and interactivity that maximizes the capabilities of today's mobile devices, Yahoo! Mobile offers an open environment within which consumers can bring together their favorite content and services from across the Internet. Consumers can now make their Internet experience on mobile personally relevant through the ability to:

· Discover: via results from Yahoo!'s award-winning mobile search and editor-selected content;

· Stay Connected: through access to email and social network accounts from the most popular Web providers, as well as instant messaging, address book and calendar tools;

· Stay Informed: by bringing together favorite content - websites, sports teams, news sources, RSS feeds, weather, stocks, horoscopes and more - into a single location.

Enabling the growth of mobile advertising

Yahoo! Mobile for Web will feature display advertising from leading brands. Consumers can interact with these rich media ads through functions such as send to a friend, locate a dealer, clicking to call the advertiser directly or the ability to learn more information about the advertiser's offer. With some of the highest quality inventory available and a highly-engaged user base, Yahoo! is focused on creating scale for advertisers by helping them reach their targeted audience wherever they are.

About Yahoo!

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) is a leading global Internet brand and one of the most trafficked Internet destinations worldwide. Yahoo! is focused on powering its communities of users, advertisers, publishers, and developers by creating indispensable experiences built on trust. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. (YHOO -- M)

For more on Yahoo!'s mobile news please visit http://in.mobile.yahoo.com/newsroom.

Yahoo!, the Yahoo! logo, Yahoo! Mobile, and Yahoo! Messenger are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Yahoo! Inc. All other names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties concerning Yahoo! Mobile (including without limitation the statements contained in the quotations from management in this press release), as well as Yahoo!'s strategic and operational plans. Actual events or results may differ materially from those described in this press release due to a number of risks and uncertainties. The potential risks and uncertainties include, among others, the possibility that the expected implementation of Yahoo! Mobile, including its planned features and platforms, described may be delayed, may not ultimately be implemented, or if implemented may not be successful; consumers may not accept or respond as positively to Yahoo! Mobile as anticipated; and competitors may offer similar competing services. Yahoo! does not intend, and undertakes no duty, to update this information to reflect future events or circumstances. More information about potential factors that could affect the Company's business and financial results is included under the captions "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2008, which is on file with the SEC and available at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov.

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Serena Software Asks: Do You Have What it Takes to Go the “Agile” Mile?

2009-03-06T11:47:59+01:00

Bangalore, — March 6th, 2009 — Are you an Agile enthusiast wondering how to take the software development process to the next level within your organization? Or maybe you suffer from “Agile envy” and wonder how to convince your boss that Agile is the future of application development. Look no further, Agile friends. Serena Software has the answer.

Be the Agile hero at your organization by referring your organization to participate in Serena’s Agile Product Preview. If your organization is selected and participates in the Agile Product Preview, you will receive a $50 Visa gift card. To register, visit Serena’s Web site and answer a brief questionnaire about the current development practices within your organization. Up to 150 organizations will be selected to participate in the Agile Product Preview based upon evaluation by Serena, and eligible participants will be entitled to use Serena’s Agile Product without charge through May 31, 2009. Those who want to take advantage of the full, free 90-day trial should enter immediately.

“Serena is introducing this product preview as a way to collaborate with developers and their management on the front lines of Agile practices. Use of Agile is on the rise in IT shops around the world, and Serena is here to help developers embrace the future of application development,” said René Bonvanie, senior vice president of Marketing, Information Technology, and Serena On Demand at Serena Software.

According to Forrester Research senior analyst, Jeffrey Hammond, one-third of application development professionals registered at forrester.com said their shops use Agile.[1]

Still Not Sure? More Reasons to Go Agile with Serena

· Pure Agile: Serena is the first major application development tools vendor to deliver a 100 percent pure Agile solution -- built by Agilistas (including the co-creators of Scrum) for Agilistas.

· Multi-Project, Multi-Team: Serena’s Agile solution is ready for the enterprise. It can manage multiple projects worked on by multiple teams in multiple locations.

· Lean Yet Enterprise Scale: With today's economic reality, Serena delivers an enterprise-class solution that's lean all the way from purchase to implementation. You can be up and running in minutes with our secure On-Demand service.

· Agile Coach: Serena offers a new approach to adopting Agile practices by coupling the developer tool with Agile adoption and training services from Valtech, an industry-leading Agile services provider and Serena partner.

“Agile is here to stay, but it’s not always easy to make the transformation or adopt it alongside your existing methodologies,” Bonvanie said. “Serena’s tools make adopting Agile practices easier and faster, and also help to lower costs regardless of the size and complexity of your projects. With 28 years’ experience building application development tools, there is no one better than Serena to help with your move to Agile.”

Serena Software, Inc. Serena is a privately owned company, headquartered in Redwood City, California, with 29 offices in 14 countries and approximately 800 employees. Serena provides software on premise and on demand to over 15,000 customers including 96 of the Fortune 100. Serena enables teams of programmers to become more efficient by standardizing and automating development processes across both mainframe and distributed environments. Serena enables IT business analysts and power users to improve productivity with Lean Business Process Management (BPM) solutions such as Serena Business Mashups. Serena also provides tools that enable IT executives to gain visibility into their projects, resources and costs (in waterfall and agile). .. For more information on Serena, visit http://www.serena.com.

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Top creative minds come together to judge Yahoo! ‘UnCANNIES’

2009-03-05T12:20:29+01:00

Bangalore, 05th March 2009: Yahoo! India, the leading Internet company has roped in some of the top creative minds in the advertising industry as its elite panel of judges for Uncannies, an online portal designed to identify the most creative work in the field of advertising (www.uncannies.com)

Cyrus Oshidar, Creative head – BBC, Pushpendra Misra from Flying Saucer Films, Malvika Mehra, Group Creative Director – Ogilvy & Mather Advertising and Karl Gomes, National Creative Director, Digital Rediffusion | Y&R constitute the elite panel of judges for Uncannies.

Creative agencies as well as individuals from print, television, radio, outdoor and the online medium have already posted over 300 of their best work on the Uncannies website www.uncannies.com in less than three weeks of Launch. Till date, creatives on print seem to have dominated most entries followed by outdoor, radio and TV.

“We are delighted to have top creative minds of the industry as panel of judges for Uncannies. It’s a great validation of our efforts to reward creativity and surface the best and brightest talent in our industry said Nitin Mathur, Director – Marketing, Yahoo! India”

According to Malvika Mehra, Group Creative Director – Ogilvy & Mather Advertising, “Yahoo! has always been associated with great ideas. Uncannies is a platform to showcase creative talent as well as Yahoo!’s faith in great ideas. I personally think it's a grand gesture for a corporate to applaud talent, akin to a 'Corporate social responsibility' campaign in a way. By sending the winners to Cannes, Yahoo! has truly demonstrated that they believe in putting their money where their mouth is. This initiative truly celebrates great ideas.”

Says Karl Gomes, National Creative Director, Digital Rediffusion | Y&R, “We are at a time where the consumer is consuming content at his own terms and therefore we need a lot of fresh talent with newer, better and more engaging ideas. The need of the hour is fresh ideas & perspectives, thinking for brands and their marketing objective. Uncannies will be a great way to groom potential and existing talent by offering an excellent platform.”

“Congratulations to Yahoo! for creating this unique platform. It’s encouraging to know that this award gives the winners a trip to Cannes, much nicer than a cheap gold plated man with wings,” said Cyrus Oshidar, Creative head – BBC.

Pushpendra Misra from Flying Saucer Films said, “We are in the business of celebrating ideas. I am excited that we would be judging over a body of unreleased creative work as well. Unburdened creative is often sharp and edgy.”

In order to take part in this contest, participants must submit their individual entries directly onto the contest website www.uncannies.com. The deadline to submit entries has now been extended to close on 15th March 2009.

Consumers will also get a chance to rate the shortlisted creative. However, the expert panel’s decision would be final. Besides one grand winner who will get a free trip to Cannes, the next Top 3 winners will walk away with an Apple iPhone each. There is also interesting Yahoo! merchandise as consolation prizes for the next top 100 participants.

About Yahoo! India:

Yahoo! India (www.yahoo.in), launched in June 2000, has established itself as the pioneering and leading Internet portal providing value added services for Web users in India and users abroad with special interest in India.

Yahoo! India seeks to provide a compelling web experience to Internet users. A full range of tools and marketing solutions from Yahoo! India help businesses connect with Internet users and make it a ‘must-buy’ partner of choice for advertisers, globally. Yahoo! India also offers an array of communications, commerce and content services that serve as a starting point for online needs of Internet users.

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Rollout to 5,000 Schools Completed in Just 4 Months with NComputing

2009-02-27T07:47:36+01:00

Bangalore, February 27th 2009: NComputing, the world’s leading provider of ultra low-cost computing, today announced that the company and its technology partners have completed the installation of a massive computerization project for Andhra Pradesh government schools in just four months. This remarkably fast achievement affirms the decision by the Andhra Pradesh government to adopt a shared-computing model using NComputing’s desktop virtualization technology. The accomplishment also demonstrates the success of the government’s Public – Private Partnership to achieve transparency, accountability and efficiency in the education segment.

The ambitious project was funded jointly by the Central and State government under the ICT@Schools scheme. The goal was to bring computer training and e-learning to 5,000 government schools with 1.8 million students and was commissioned in November 2008 after a competitive tender process. Four months later, the schools have each been equipped with an up-to-date computer lab with the latest computer hardware, Microsoft software, trained instructors, and reliable power-supply solutions.

“The government’s goal is to accelerate computing access to the millions of students in its system, but to do it in an economical, eco-friendly way. NComputing plays an important role in achieving that goal,” said Mr. Suresh Chanda, IT Secretary of Andhra Pradesh. "We are pleased that this first milestone has been met and that computing access has been created for 1.8 million students around the state – most of whom have never had the opportunity to even touch a computer.”

“The students and their parents are very happy. The computer is becoming a part of their today and tomorrow,”said Mrs. Pushpavati, Principal, Zilla Parishad High School, Medak.

The computerization project has been successful due to two key factors. First, the government was determined to provide maximum number of computer seats at a minimum cost and chose the NComputing desktop virtualization technology. The NComputing solution is based on a simple fact: today’s PCs are so powerful that the vast majority of students only use a small fraction of the computer’s capacity. NComputing’s desktop virtualization solution taps this unused capacity so that it can be simultaneously used by many students. Each student connects their own monitor, keyboard and mouse to an NComputing device which is then connected to the shared PC. Each student gets a full PC experience. The NComputing devices are easy to deploy, rugged, and only use 1 watt of electricity. The low electricity usage is critical because electricity in India can be expensive and often unreliable. With NComputing, the Andhra Pradesh government will use 90% less electricity compared to a traditional all-PC lab.

The second element of the project success is the Public-Private Partnership model wherein the Government of Andhra Pradesh has awarded turnkey contracts to Education Service Providers (ESPs) like NIIT. This scheme was implemented through a transparent open tendering process and the contracts signed with 8 such ESPs for:

- System integration
- Site preparation
- Facilities creation
- Faculty
- Teaching to students as part of syllabus
- Courseware support
- Facilities management

“We are honored that NComputing was selected for this very strategic initiative as it will teach and empower the next generation of Andhra Pradesh’s workforce,” said Mr. Raj Shah, Chief Marketing Officer, NComputing.“We believe that NComputing’s low cost and energy efficiency makes it the ideal computing platform for the public and private sector, especially in these difficult economic times. In just 2 years, over 40,000 organizations around the world have installed NComputing to expand computing access at an affordable cost. ”

“The Government of Andhra Pradesh has shown a great deal of vision and foresight in designing a model for enhancing the education of the next generation, and the early success is very positive,“ said Mr. L. Balasubramanian, President of NIIT’s School Learning Solutions division.“NIIT has been involved in bringing this cost-effective technology for computerization of schools in Andhra Pradesh. We are happy that the shared-computing technology has been scaled up to 5,000 schools. We feel that this can be a suitable model for schools in other States.”

The computing labs are being used to teach computer skills, office productivity (such as spreadsheets and word processing), as well as subjects like reading and math. The systems run on the Microsoft Windows Server operating system and Microsoft Office Suite. Commenting on the initiative, Ravi Venkatesan, Chairman, Microsoft India, said, “Under our global effort of Microsoft Unlimited Potential, we are committed to support relevant and affordable technology solutions that reach the benefits of technology to the underserved. Education remains an area of priority in India - and one where technology can really bring about a transformation – so it is good to see the success of innovative solutions like NComputing.”

According to Mr. Sankalp Shrie, Senior Manager of Computing Products Research at IDC India, “With CIOs becoming more aware of the need to minimise the cost of power and cooling, 'Green Computing' is graduating from being just a buzzword to the central theme of IT strategy. Desktop Virtualization/Thin Clients could be the answer to many of the questions and issues facing corporate IT managers.

Sankalp further added, "Desktop virtualization as a technology is expected to see more and more takers across a range of applications and environments, as thin-clients witness increased deployment. This kind of scenario may be a boon for knowledge based verticals like Pharmaceuticals, R&D institutions, design firms and other related end-user industries. Desktop Virtualization also potentially offers advantages for verticals like ITeS (BPO, KPO), Travel & Hospitality and Telecommunications where the high cost of real estate space has become an

NComputing began operations in India in 2007 and has been recognized for its role in bringing truly affordable computing to schools, hospitals, factories and business. NComputing is working with nearly 15 states in India to pilot or implement the shared computing solution.

About NComputing, Inc.
NComputing was founded with the vision of making computing affordable for everyone. Headquartered in Redwood City, California, the company's patented technology enables schools, governments and businesses to dramatically lower computing costs, energy consumption and e-waste. NComputing has offices around the world. For more information please log on to www.ncomputing.com

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Legal eagles soar as markets crash

2008-12-01T10:14:45+01:00

NEW DELHI: While BPO companies are feeling the heat of the global meltdown and resorting to layoffs and other cost cutting measures, their LPO (legal process outsourcing) counterparts are thriving like never before because of the legal activity that has been generated by the sub-prime crisis in US. What is more, the LPO segment reflects the prevailing boom in the legal services industry in India.

Law firms dealing with foreign companies operating in India have also seen an increase in their turnover, even if their work is now more about post-meltdown issues like restructuring, downsizing, layoffs, closure of branches, winding up of subsidiaries and termination notices to collaborators and franchisees.

Take the example of Delhi-based Titus & Co, whose clientele consists almost entirely of foreign companies and governments. Its managing partner Diljeet Titus said, "We have had at least a 50% rise in the volume of transactional work ever since Lehman Brothers imploded two months ago." Since these transactions are mostly related to cost-cutting measures, Titus did his bit for his clients by offering a 20% discount in his fee. "The reduction in our fee is made up for by the increase in the quantum of work as well as the dollar rate," he added.

Fox Mandal Little, the largest law firm in the country, displays more signs of it being business-as-usual. In the last two months, it has recruited 27 more lawyers at various levels, opened its 13th office (which is in Kochi) and forged ahead with negotiations to acquire another law firm. It is poised to recruit more lawyers for its recently launched LPO subsidiary, Legal Circle. The firm's managing partner Som Mandal said, "We are most bullish about our LPO because of the sheer deluge of enquiries we have received from US to do litigation support from India."

The timing of the meltdown could not have been better for LPO companies as the e-discovery law, governing the storage and management of electronic data that might be relevant to litigation, came into effect in US only two years ago. The meltdown has forced more American companies to turn to LPO set-ups in India for help because of the enormous cost differential. For performing document review, a key aspect of the e-discovery process, a senior associate in US is paid $200-300 per hour while an LPO based in India charges barely $25-30 per hour for the same work, according to Mandal's estimate.

Not surprisingly, Pangea3, one of India's largest LPO companies, claims to have registered 100% increase in volumes in the last six months. "We are witnessing an extraordinary influx of work directly or indirectly related to the sub-prime crisis," said CEO Sanjay Kamlani. The surge in Pangea3's e-discovery work involves court disputes among investors, lenders, borrowers, homeowners and banks. Post-meltdown, it is also cashing in on the demand for greater scrutiny of financial transactions and corporate governance.

As Pangea3 CEO Sanjay Kamlani put it, "cost cutting measures have spared budgets only for non-discretionary items like legal services related to litigations and regulatory compliance. While BPOs must deal with delayed decision making, uncertainty and wait for new government policies in US, LPOs grow business almost as a function of the slowdown."

For all the surge in business for LPOs and law firms, there is one part of the legal services industry that seems to have remained relatively unaffected: the vast majority of individual lawyers involved in litigation within the country. P H Parekh, president of Supreme Court bar association, dismissed the suggestion that senior advocates like him were under pressure to accept a fee cut in view of the economic slump. "The demand for top lawyers is so high and the supply of them so little, the worst that may happen is that the number of briefs we return for want of time may come down," Parekh said.

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NComputing Provides 1.8M Andhra Pradesh Students With Computer Access

2008-10-30T10:25:27+01:00

NComputing has been chosen to supply a massive 5,000-school educational computing initiative in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The initiative will provide computing access to 1.8 million children throughout the state. Andhra Pradesh is the largest and most populous state in South India. Andhra Pradesh will contract leading education IT firms to build the computer labs in 5,000 schools totaling 50,000 computing seats over the coming few months. The win marks the largest single deployment of NComputing’s solution in India. The decision to deploy NComputing’s low-cost and eco-friendly solution establishes the government of Andhra Pradesh as an innovator in educational computing and provides a blueprint for other governments and institutions considering similar projects.

By leveraging NComputing, the government will save $20 million in up-front and ongoing costs. The government will also use 90% less electricity compared to a traditional all-PC solution. “NComputing is proud to have been chosen by Andhra Pradesh to fulfill its vision to improve learning and computer literacy throughout the state,” said Stephen Dukker, chairman and CEO of NComputing. “At about $70 per seat, our solution is the ideal platform to enable schools, businesses, and governments to maximize their PC investment. We are the world leader in desktop virtualization and the scale of this deployment further extends our leadership position.”

The NComputing solution is based on a simple fact: today’s PCs are so powerful that the vast majority of applications only use a small fraction of the computer’s capacity. NComputing technology creates multiple virtual desktops on a single PC so that many users can tap the unused capacity and share it as if each person had their own computer. Andhra Pradesh chose the NComputing X300 solution, which enables up to seven users to simultaneously share one PC.

The computing labs will be used to teach computer skills and office productivity (spreadsheets, word processing) as well as subjects like reading and math. The entire system will run on the Microsoft Windows Server operating system and use Microsoft Office Suite. "India holds a strong position in the knowledge economy today due to the country's consistent investment in education over the years," said Javier Arrupea Gitlin, director, Microsoft Unlimited Potential Group. "In India and around the globe, Microsoft is committed to enabling affordable access to computing for education. Through Microsoft's Unlimited Potential commitment, we are continually looking for innovative and affordable technology solutions that can sustain social and economic progress. Initiatives such as this announced today that leverage the value to educational computing provided by the Windows Server platform represent yet another solution that can help move us towards this goal."

“With the modernization of India’s economy, students are eager to learn the computer skills that will prepare them for the digital workplace – but most government school students have never even had the chance to type on a keyboard or click a mouse,” said Mr. Raj Shah, chief marketing officer of NComputing, “This computerization project shows how forward thinking governments can use proven and practical technologies like NComputing to bridge the digital divide.”

The project is based on an innovative outsourcing model. The Andhra Pradesh government will outsource the entire project for five years to leading educational IT companies, including Educomp, Everonn, NIIT, and Social Computers. The model is referred to as Build, Operate, and Transfer (BOT) and requires the companies to install, staff, and manage the labs. This arrangement helps ensure that the labs are installed quickly and performance benchmarks are met. The five-year period also enables school staff to develop their own competencies in managing the labs and computer-aided teaching.

NComputing’s technology is used by 20,000 organizations in more than 90 countries. In the United States, NComputing has been deployed by over 4,000 school districts in classrooms, computer labs, and libraries. Although smaller in scale than Andhra Pradesh, school districts in North America face many of the same challenges including tight budgets, demand for wider computing access, limited IT support staff, and a desire to use “green” technology.

NComputing uses just 1 watt of electricity (compared to 110 watts or more for stand-alone PCs). “Our students are learning about global warming and increasingly engaged in school initiatives to lower the carbon footprint,” said Richard Potter of Medicine Hat School District. “We rebuilt our computer lab with NComputing and a few PCs and the students planted a hundred trees to create a carbon-neutral computer lab.”

NComputing recently announced that Will Poole, former corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Unlimited Potential Group, has joined as co-chairman.

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Serena Software Joins Valtech in Agile Software Development Services Partnership

2008-08-12T10:59:30+02:00

Bangalore, 12th August, 2008 — A new partnership announced today between application lifecycle management (ALM) leader Serena Software and Valtech, a global provider of strategic software consulting, lean and agile-focused software engineering, skills training and coaching, promises to usher in a new era of Agile software development in the enterprise. Building on its commitment to support the exponential growth of Agile methodologies in the enterprise, Serena is combining its enterprise IT tool-making expertise with Valtech’s transformation, coaching and education techniques to help corporate employees make use of Agile processes quickly and on-demand, without extensive prior training.

Agile is an iterative software development methodology that promotes team collaboration and adaptability throughout a project lifecycle. It’s faster and more responsive than the traditional waterfall model, which takes a purely sequential approach to creating software. As a result, Agile developers deliver software that more closely matches actual customer needs more quickly, since “user stories” replace “specs” in the application development process.

“Agile development methodologies are seeing tremendous adoption in ISVs and IT departments of all sizes,” said Jeremy Burton, CEO of Serena. “We are committed to delivering a pure-Agile toolset via SaaS later this year and are delighted to have Valtech as our partner of choice as we roll that toolset out to market.”

Attendees of the Agile 2008 conference in Toronto (http://www.agile2008.org/) will be able to experience the new partnership firsthand at the “Agile Story Corps Booth,” where conference goers can record personal stories about their Agile experiences. These stories will influence support for Agile in Serena products and services. An extension of the Agile methodology Serena uses to develop products, Agile Story Corps is a way to incorporate users as a part of the development team. This allows Serena products to better meet the needs of its users.

Serena will also be sponsoring free Agile training at the Serena TAG conference taking place September 10-11 in Santa Clara, California.

“Valtech enables organizations to leapfrog the endemic challenges that early Agile and Lean adopters have encountered when attempting to catalyze strategic organizational and personal change within the software and product development lifecycle. A focus on developer adoption without an equal focus on corporate and business alignment has consistently proved ineffective,” said Brad Murphy, CEO of Valtech North America.”

“Valtech’s OnDemand Learning, Training and Organizational change programs identify only those Agile and Lean outcomes that organizations can and should adopt--and do so in ways that lead to quick wins crucial to winning support for sustaining the outcomes that Agile and Lean can provide,” Murphy said. “Together, Serena and Valtech will ensure that business stakeholders, product owners and engineering teams can all equally succeed at acquiring the skill and value that Agile tools and best practices offer across the entire software and product development team while moving quickly to adoption and showing a compelling business return.”

Serena and Valtech jointly will support Serena Agile development tools with training and documentation delivered in a variety of flexible formats, including:

· On Demand: tools and process training for individuals over the Web through the Serena community at http://community.serena.com

· Just in time: 10-minute task-specific training for individuals to help beef up skills before taking a specific step; and

· Traditional training: available as needed.

About Valtech

Valtech is a global provider of high performance enterprise software development, outsourcing, and organizational transformation services. Valtech offers strategic software consulting, lean and agile-focused software engineering, skills training and coaching. The company partners with customers as no development company dares to, by sharing the risk and return of development. Valtech’s OnDemand services are focused on one single outcome: Delivering business agility. Serving customers across a variety of industries, including finance, travel, energy, media, high-tech and online, Valtech OnDemand offerings result in priority business ideas and products converted to working, tested and deployable software every two weeks. Headquartered in Dallas, Valtech North America is a leading member of the Agile Alliance and Agile Project Leadership Network. For more information, please visit http://www.valtech.us/us/index.html

About Serena Software, Inc.
Serena is a privately owned company, headquartered in Redwood City, California, with 29 offices in 14 countries and almost 1,000 employees. Serena provides software on premise and on demand to over 15,000 customers including 96 of the Fortune 100. Serena enables teams of programmers to become more efficient by standardizing and automating development processes across both mainframe and distributed environments. Serena enables IT business analysts and power users to improve productivity with a new generation of Web 2.0 tools to build Business Mashups. Business Mashups automate common, everyday processes, are visual and do not require coding. Serena also enables IT executives to gain visibility into their projects, resources and costs – CIO’s should have access to the same quality of information about IT as the CFO has about Finance. For more information on Serena, visit http://www.serena.com/

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New Serena Mariner Makes Project and Portfolio Management More Intuitive, Accessible, and Secure

2008-07-31T11:49:12+02:00

Bangalore, July 31st, 2008 — The second release of Serena Software’s on-demand Project and Portfolio Management tool is now available as Software as a Service (SaaS). Serena® Mariner® 2008 R2 gives IT and business users a way to manage their entire project portfolio quickly and easily without creating unwieldy spreadsheets in Excel. The improved interface makes common tasks more intuitive and project data more accessible and secure, helping companies (and individual departments within them) of every size – from small- and mid-size businesses to the enterprise – benefit from the SaaS advantage.

Named a Leader in Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) tools by Forrester[1], Serena Mariner provides total visibility into project status and metrics to ensure the right people are on the right projects at the right time, ultimately delivering more value to the business. Delivered as a service, Mariner further benefits companies large and small by eliminating the need to manage infrastructure or install software, while also providing faster time to value and simple subscription pricing.

“Serena’s commitment to SaaS means we are always looking for better ways to deliver software to our customers. We also look to our customers for ways to make our software better,” said René Bonvanie, senior vice-president of worldwide marketing, partners & online services. “Customers made these Mariner enhancements real, from retuning the user interface around the workflow needs of their businesses, to the specific tasks rolled up into the summary views on the datasheets.”

Like all Serena products delivered via SaaS, Mariner has published pricing and discount schedules. Mariner prices are as low as $18 per user per month, bringing the power of enterprise IT tools within reach of every business, regardless of size.

What’s New in Mariner 2008 R2

Enhancements include:

Improved user experience

· The new Mariner interface is Web 2.0-like to make it easier for users to read and quickly discover important information.

· Widget Space extends the project workspace by adding reports, data, and other content from outside of Mariner.

More accessible platform for all project-related data

· Mariner XceleratorTM: To jumpstart working with Mariner, users can now import resource and project data directly from Excel – a convenient and familiar tool. Using the Xcelerator template, users can quickly and easily add resource teams, roles, rates, and individual team members.

· Updated Microsoft Project Connector: Mariner provides native project scheduling capabilities as well as the option to integrate with Microsoft Project.

· Custom Reporting: Now users can download out-of-the-box report templates, customize them and upload new or customized report templates into Mariner.

Mariner 2008 R2 can be freely trialed here .

About Serena Software, Inc.
Serena is a privately owned company, headquartered in Redwood City, California, with 29 offices in 14 countries and almost 1000 employees. Serena provides software on premise and on demand to over 15,000 customers including 96 of the Fortune 100. Serena enables teams of programmers to become more efficient by standardizing and automating development processes across both mainframe and distributed environments. Serena enables IT business analysts and power users to improve productivity with a new generation of Web 2.0 tools to build Business Mashups. Business Mashups automate common everyday, processes, are visual and do not require coding. Serena also enables IT executives to gain visibility into their projects, resources and costs – CIO’s should have access to the same quality of information about IT as the CFO has about Finance. For more information on Serena, visit www.serena.com.

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Serena Expands Partnership with HCL Technologies

2008-07-29T09:33:41+02:00

Bangalore, 29th July, 2008 - Serena Software today announced, it has further expanded its long term partnership with HCL Technologies Ltd. ("HCL"), India's leading global IT services company. As the largest outsourcing partner for Serena, providing product engineering and support for the past seven years, HCL has now implemented Serena® PVCS® Professional, Serena® Dimensions® RM and Team Track to reduce errors, track and manage change in requirements during a project’s lifecycle, thereby improving quality and reducing the time to develop and deploy solutions for HCL customers.

“We at HCL wanted a solution that would ease the work of developers, reduce delivery cycles and help projects have better control over changes to various work products created during the development and enhancement of software solutions. Serena’s products have helped us meet these objectives and achieve cost saving benefits across the organization. We have consolidated all projects/ engagement specific licenses and initiated enablement of HCL teams on various Serena products in order to reduce future cost of support and increase the productivity of teams.” said S. Sivaguru, AVP, Engineering Excellence Group, HCL Technologies.

“As a worldwide leader in developing innovative products and solutions for its customers, HCL recognized the need for, and value of, implementing industry’s best change management software,” said Munindra Kumar Bharatee, Managing Director for Serena Software in India. “Serena bridges the gap between the developer’s vision and management’s perspective to provide visibility across the organization.”

PVCS Professional is one of the most widely adopted solutions in the software configuration management (SCM) industry. PVCS is a comprehensive suite that delivers version, defect, build and issue management, and helps customers reduce development errors, establish repeatable builds and predictable development schedules, and deliver solutions to market faster.

Dimensions RM ensures that project teams effectively collect and refine project requirements by allowing enterprises to effectively manage change in requirements during the project lifecycle.

TeamTrack is a process management application that provides visibility into and repeatability across, all operational processes. Unlike other process management applications that are difficult for end users to adopt and are limited to specific IT functions, TeamTrack provides a simple web interface that controls processes across any set of operational changes.

About Serena Software, Inc.

Serena Software, Inc. provides services to make Enterprises and the business people within them more productive. More than 15,000 organizations around the world, including 96 of the Fortune 100, rely on Serena solutions delivered either on premise or on demand, to provide visibility and efficiency to the application development process. The company provides software services such as Serena Mariner (Project Portfolio Management), Serena Business Mashups, and Serena® Dimensions® (Change & Requirements Management), and will be providing Agile Lifecycle Management tools in the near future. Serena is headquartered in Redwood City, California, and has offices throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia Pacific. For more information on Serena solutions and services, visit www.serena.com.

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Serena Software Unveils Dimensions RM 10.1.4 for Streamlined Requirements Definition

2008-07-23T09:03:25+02:00

Bangalore, July 23rd, 2008 — Serena Software announces the latest version of its enterprise-ready software solution for managing and tracking requirements through a project’s lifecycle, Serena® Dimensions® RM 10.1.4. The new version further streamlines requirements definition activities that many business analysts and project managers find tedious and cumbersome, yet are critical for application development teams.

Serena (Dimensions), named to the Leaders Quadrant by Gartner, Inc. (Magic Quadrant for Software Change and Configuration Management for Distributed Platforms, 2008 by Jim Duggan and Daniel Stang, January 23, 2008), helps corporations keep product development on track and deliver new software solutions that are timely and within the original project scope. With Dimensions RM, development teams can gather requirements at the beginning of planning, track their integration into products and manage them throughout the application development lifecycle.

“Serena has an ongoing commitment to continue to upgrade and update our product offerings, and deliver the most visionary and leading products in requirements management,” said Carl Theobald, Senior Vice President, Products for Serena.

According to Gartner's report, “Gartner estimates that market revenue growth for SCCM occurred at an average of 10% to 13% annually during the past several years. The escalation of needs to achieve faster, along with more successful deployment of changes to software, make it likely that this sector will continue to grow at a rate of 10% annually during the next five years.” (Magic Quadrant for Software Change and Configuration Management for Distributed Platforms, 2008 by Jim Duggan and Daniel Stang, January 23, 2008)

What’s New in Dimensions 10.1.4:

Requirement Templates: improved re-use of requirements
Publishing Templates: publish requirements using custom layouts
Category Management: improved handling for enterprise solutions
Attribute Descriptions: provides guidance and process support when defining requirements
Data Masking Tool: allows Serena Support to investigate issues while protecting data privacy
URL to Requirement: access requirements from everywhere by only activating a direct link
Web Services Integration to Dimensions CM: latest technology avoiding data redundancy and ready for business mashups

Dimensions RM 10.1.4 can be downloaded from its page on the Serena Support site at http://www.serena.com/pages/downloads/index.html.

The Gartner Magic Quadrant is copyrighted January 23, 2008 by Gartner, Inc., and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner’s analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the “Leaders” quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About Serena Software

Serena is a privately owned company, headquartered in Redwood City, California, with 29 offices in 14 countries and almost 1000 employees. Serena provides software on premise and on demand to over 15,000 customers including 96 of the Fortune 100. Serena enables teams of programmers to become more efficient by standardizing and automating development processes across both mainframe and distributed environments. Serena enables IT business analysts and power users to improve productivity with a new generation of Web 2.0 tools to build Business Mashups. Business Mashups automate common everyday, processes, are visual and do not require coding. Serena also enables IT executives to gain visibility into their projects, resources and costs – CIO’s should have access to the same quality of information about IT as the CFO has about Finance. For more information on Serena, visit www.serena.com.

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QUEST SOFTWARE RELEASES NEW predictive TECHNOLOGY FOR ORACLE DATABASES

2008-07-22T11:58:42+02:00

Bangalore, July 22, 2008 – Quest Software, Inc. (Nasdaq: QSFT) today announced the addition of predictive diagnostics to its Spotlight on Oracle® product, which thousands of customers use to find and fix database performance bottlenecks in real time. The new predictive capabilities extend Spotlight’s value and allow users to predict the future performance of SQL statements.

Spotlight on Oracle analyzes SQL performance to determine which statements will have the most performance degradation given trends in execution rates and overall database load. Spotlight reports the anticipated growth in resource consumption and the percentage of the total load a particular statement will consume. By finding problematic SQL statements before performance is impacted, corrective actions can be taken without disrupting end users and organizations can more effectively meet end user Service Level Agreements (SLAs).

“In virtually every organization, the database is core to critical applications, processes and user activities. Therefore, IT must be as proactive as possible when it comes to database performance management,” said Guy Harrison, Oracle expert, Quest Software. “The traditional approach of fixing problems as they occur fails to adequately ensure business service levels.”

Spotlight on Oracle also has expanded diagnostic capabilities for Oracle Real Application Cluster (RAC) environments. Increasingly, organizations running RAC use services to define and control how workload is distributed across the cluster. With new RAC service diagnostics in Spotlight, DBAs can clearly see how each service is distributed across the cluster’s nodes and what resources are being consumed on each node by the various services.

Pricing and Availability
Spotlight on Oracle is available today with North American pricing beginning at $595 (USD) per CPU socket. For more information about Spotlight on Oracle, including a technical brief and white paper on predictive diagnostics, please visit www.quest.com/spotlight-on-oracle.

About Quest Software, Inc.

Quest Software, Inc., a leading enterprise systems management vendor, delivers innovative products that help organizations get more performance and productivity from their applications, databases, Windows infrastructure and virtual environments. Through a deep expertise in IT operations and a continued focus on what works best, Quest helps more than 90,000 customers worldwide meet higher expectations for enterprise IT. Quest provides customers with client management as well as server and desktop virtualization solutions through its subsidiaries, ScriptLogic and Vizioncore. Quest Software can be found in offices around the globe and at www.quest.com.

# # #

Quest, Quest Software and the Quest logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Quest Software in the United States and certain other countries. All other names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

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Safe Multi-tenancy and Logical Partitioning

2008-07-16T10:13:37+02:00

Safe multi-tenancy, is a term that few people seem to understand. I was observing a focus session recently, and when that term was used, no one in the four sessions that I observed seemed to know what it meant.
Multi-tenancy, means that multiple users can share the same resources.. A hotel provides beds for many users or tenants. Safe multi-tenancy would be a hotel where each tenant had their own room with a lock on the door, versus a youth hostel where tenants share a common room and safety is dependent on the good behavior of the tenants.
In the same way, safe multi-tenancy is required for storage users who share the same storage resources, like a SAN. Unlike DAS or Direct Attach Storage, where a user’s storage is directly attached to the user’s host server and is separated from other servers by an air gap, SAN’s create a network where any server can get to any storage that is connected to the same SAN. Safe multi-tenancy is provided by SAN zoning in the switch and LUN masking in the storage systems. This type of protection is limited and makes LUN address assignments difficult since one user may get access to LUN 0, 1, 3; and the next user would get LUN 4, 5, but not LUN 0 which is needed as a boot address.
Hitachi solved that problem by assigning each user its own virtual port address with its own address space (Host Storage Domain), so that each user could assign LUNs from LUN 0 on up, even if they shared the same physical storage port. Hitachi storage systems can assign up to 1024 virtual ports to each physical port. The address space associated with each port is separate unless it is specifically assigned to be shared by multiple virtual ports for alternate path redundancy.
Safe multi-tenancy becomes even more important when virtualization is layered on top of the SAN. While switch zoning still works, LUN masking is difficult since that is done in the storage controller and not in the SAN based virtualization appliance. Hitachi avoids this problem by implementing storage virtualization in the storage controller where Host Storage domains provide the protection for safe multi-tenancy.
While safe multi-tenancy can protect users from accessing each other’ data, it is not enough. There is still the danger that one user may dominate the use of shared resources and impact the performance of other users. For instance one user may kick off a data base reorganization which will suck up the shared cache, rippling through rows and tables, just as another user is trying to service a high performance transaction.
In order for users to get the right Quality of Service, QoS, when they need it, there must be a way to logically partition the use of common resources like cache and be able to change that partition dynamically based on policies that are triggered by time or events. Since Hitachi does storage virtualization in a storage controller, it has control of the storage cache, and other storage resources like storage spindles, in order to provide partitioning of these resources. Other storage virtualization systems that sit outside of the storage control unit are not able to provide partitioning of storage resources.
Logical partitioning goes hand in hand with safe multi-tenancy and is important when many users are sharing the same physical storage resources. This is true for a SAN, but is especially true when this sharing is done through a virtual abstraction. If you are considering storage virtualization, ask the vendor how they provide safe multi-tenancy and logical partitioning before you commit.
About the Writer:
Hu Yoshida, the CTO of Hitachi Data Systems, provides his insight into industry issues, discusses in his own words storage best practices, and provides realistic solutions to real storage needs in today. Yoshida is well known within the storage industry, and his blog was recently ranked among the “top 10 most influential” within the storage industry by Network World. In 2006, he was named “CTO of the Year” by Jon Toigo, and in October of 2006, Byte and Switch named him one of “Storage Networking’s Heaviest Hitters.”

Check out Hu’s blog at: http://blogs.hds.com/hu/

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Eka Software Solutions announces its President for Americas

2008-07-14T12:27:10+02:00

Bangalore : 14th July, 2008 - Eka Software Solutions is pleased to welcome on board Mr. Ramachandran Narayanan, who has joined as President, Americas. He will be managing our operations in North and South America covering USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Chile.

Ramachandran brings over twenty years of significant experience in Corporate Strategy, Business Unit Operations, Consultative Sales and Delivery to Eka. He has held several executive leadership positions as CIO, Business Unit Head, Vice President, and Senior Director with premier management & technology consulting organizations in US (Accenture, Sapient, Oracle, and Cognizant) and India (The Times Group of Companies).

Ramachandran has chiefly consulted with Media & Publishing, Hi-Tech, Retail, and Energy companies on Business Strategy, IT Business Management, IT Strategy & Architecture, Enterprise Applications, Infrastructure and Business Process Outsourcing.

He holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from NIT Raurkela, India. He has attended Executive General Management Program from IIM Lucknow, India and Graduate MBA courses from Wayne State University, Michigan.

About Eka Software:

Eka is a leading provider of commodity trade and risk management software. Global players in the Agriculture and Metals commodity markets have deployed our solution for managing their physical trading, position, PnL, risk, logistics and finance operations. Eka is derived from the word “EKAM”, which means ‘unified’ or ‘integrated’ in Sanskrit, the ancient Indian language. It signifies our organizational intent to provide a single-platform solution for managing trade and risk across commodities, industry verticals and business segments.

Our 100+ team comprising domain consultants, product specialists and technical experts are single mindedly focused towards delivering the maximum possible value to our customers, which we believe is not limited to the products and services we provide, but extends to the quality of our engagement and the nature of the relationship. For more details, visit www.ekaplus.com

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Serena Software Drives ALM Innovation with New Mashup for Application Release Management

2008-07-08T08:30:20+02:00

Bangalore, July 8th, 2008 — Serena Software, the company recognized as a leader in Gartner, Inc.’s January 2008 Magic Quadrant for Software Change and Configuration Management, has launched a new Business Mashup designed specifically for the application release process. This is the first Business Mashup to solve the classic problem associated with traditional application release – it provides an automated way for application developers, IT operations, and business users to communicate and collaborate with each other during the release process. Now, with Serena® Application Release Manager (ARM), there is closed-loop coordination between all the stakeholders to ensure that more applications are released on schedule and with no surprises.

“Serena’s investments in Business Mashups – and the tremendous interest of Mashups in the enterprise – have enabled us to deliver unique innovations in the ALM market,” said Serena CEO Jeremy Burton. “The new Application Release Manager Mashup demonstrates our commitment to standardizing and automating ALM processes in the enterprise regardless of whether systems live in the mainframe or distributed world. And there’s a lot more to come. Our goal is to continue to be the leading independent provider of ALM software.”

Automated Release Management for Mainframe Software Development

Serena Application Release Manager combines Web 2.0-based workflow capabilities with ChangeMan® ZMF, the most advanced Software Change and Configuration Management (SCCM) application for the mainframe, to provide a powerful, efficient way to manage the application release process, from initial change requests through final deployment into the production environment.

As with any Serena Business Mashup, the Application Release Manager includes a visual process designer with out-of-the-box process templates that can be easily customized to suit individual needs. As a result, all of the project stakeholders can coordinate their activities, including application developers, IT operations teams, and even business users who traditionally had no visibility into mainframe applications.

The power to track and approve projects over a Web-enabled mobile device means participants can keep tabs on the process from any where at any time, reducing the risk of having to roll back a critical release.

More Mashups – For ALM and Other Business Workflows

Application Release Manager joins a host of other pre-built Business Mashups introduced by Serena for ALM, including:

· Issue Tracking

· Request to Test

· Agile Backlog

· Change requests

· Hardware and Software Changes

· Demand Management.

These and many other Mashups for Human Resources, Sales and Customer Support are available online at the Serena Mashup Exchange. The power of Business Mashups is shown in their ability to solve business problems ranging from simple vacation requests and sales discount approvals all the way to mission-critical application release processes.

Serena’s ALM Leadership

In addition to today’s ARM announcement, Serena has continued to make other investments to grow its ALM business. The company claims more ALM application developers and more representatives selling ALM worldwide today than ever before in its history, as well as a greater services capacity for ALM implementations. Later this year, Serena will unveil its new Agile application development solution. And, in its sixth consecutive showing, Serena was recognized as a 2008 SD Times 100 award winner in the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) category.

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INVENSYS PROCESS SYSTEMS APPOINTS SHERIE NG AS MARKETING VICE PRESIDENT OF ASIA PACIFIC

2008-06-30T13:05:52+02:00

30th June 2008 Bangalore - Invensys Process Systems (IPS), a global technology, software and consulting firm, today announced that it has appointed industry veteran Sherie Ng as Marketing Vice President for the Asia Pacific region.

In her new role, Ng’s responsibility will span the entire marketing field, including strategic planning, research and intelligence, marketing and business development strategies, communications programs, demand generation (business and market development), solutions marketing and media and analyst relations across Asia Pacific. With the appointment, Ng will be a key member of IPS’ senior management team in Asia Pacific, as well as member of IPS’ Global Senior Leadership Team. She will also represent IPS as a spokesperson with media, trade associations, customers and analyst, as well as in trade forums.

“Sherie has an impressive track record of successful global brand transformation and growing regional businesses across various technology verticals. Her vast experience demonstrated through previous senior leadership and regional marketing roles positions her as an invaluable asset and a key driver of IPS’ growth and expansion in Asia,” said Lawrence Wee, President, IPS Asia Pacific.

Prior to IPS, Ng was responsible for regional brand leadership and business development at Comverse, Asia Pacific as Vice President, Marketing. Before that, as SingTel’s Director, Brand Experience, she led major branding campaigns, including strategic sponsorship activities around F1 Racing. She also held senior regional leadership positions in marketing for technology heavyweights CSG Systems and Lucent.

Ng holds a bachelor’s degree in Business (Specializing in Marketing) from Nanyang Technological University – Nanyang Business School.

About IPS (Invensys Process Systems)

Invensys Process Systems (IPS), headquartered in Plano, Texas, is a global technology, software and consulting firm leading significant change in process manufacturing, plant optimization, business operations and enterprise performance. IPS clients are some of the world’s most important industrial organizations — companies that operate large oil refineries; plants that process chemicals, gas, LNG, power, pharmaceutical and minerals; and pulp and paper mills. IPS solutions, used at over 50,000 locations across the globe, include field devices and controls from Foxboro and Triconex, advanced applications from SimSci-Esscor, operations management from Avantis, and the world’s first truly open enterprise control system, Infusion™.

IPS’ nearly 7,000 employees integrate these capabilities to create solutions that impact and increase efficiency, boost productivity, and accelerate performance. These results help industrial companies run safer, operate more efficiently, and extract useful knowledge from their operations to make faster, better decisions. To learn more about IPS visit us at www.ips.invensys.com.

In Asia Pacific, IPS serves more than 2,400 customers across 21 countries in 10 major industries, providing Safety and Automation Solutions, Manufacturing Operations and Optimization Software and Plant-to-Business Intelligence Solutions.

The Invensys Group (www.invensys.com) is headquartered in London and is listed on the London Stock Exchange (ISYS.L), with approximately 25,000 employees working in 60 countries.

Media Contact

Mr. Swetank Kumar / Mr. Satyapriya Verma

skumar@mutualpr.com / sverma@mutualpr.com

Mutual PR

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INVENSYS PROCESS SYSTEMS APPOINTS LAWRENCE WEE AS PRESIDENT OF ASIA PACIFIC REGION

2008-06-25T14:41:10+02:00

25th June 2008 / Bangalore - Invensys Process Systems (IPS), a global technology, software and consulting firm, today announced that it has appointed Lawrence Wee as President of the company’s Asia Pacific region, one of the fastest growing region, to drive the dynamic growth and expansion of its business.

“IPS is confident that Lawrence’s wealth of experience in growing businesses in Asia Pacific and his experience in senior leadership, sales, e-commerce, and both product and services businesses will serve IPS well as we continue to develop in this rapidly growing region,” said Paulett Eberhart, President and Chief Executive Officer of IPS.

Wee most recently served as President of Asia Pacific for McAfee, responsible for all business operations in the region, including North Asia, South East Asia, India, Australia and New Zealand

Prior to that, he served as Senior Vice President of Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) Asia and held senior leadership roles in the Asia Pacific region for Ariba and IBM.

He graduated from the University of Singapore with Bachelor of Social Science Honors (Second Class Upper), majoring in Economics, and participated in Columbia Business School’s Senior Executive Program.

About IPS (Invensys Process Systems)

The Invensys Group (www.invensys.com) is headquartered in London and is listed on the London Stock Exchange (ISYS.L), with approximately 25,000 employees working in 60 countries.

Media Contact

Mr. Satyapriya Verma / Mr. Swetank Kumar

sverma@mutualpr.com / skumar@mutualpr.com

09312784185 / 09312077498

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Mashups Meet Widgets in New Serena Mashup Composer

2008-06-12T11:48:38+02:00

Bangalore, June 12th, 2008 — Mashups are an increasingly popular enterprise tool. In fact, Forrester projects that the enterprise mashup market will reach nearly $700 million by 2013 in a May 2008 report called “The Mashup Opportunity.” To capitalize on this momentum, business users are now looking to blend more consumer information and easy-to-use widgets into their workplace mashups. Serena Software is responding to this demand with a new version of Serena® Mashup Composer™ that lets users simply drag and drop widgets, RSS feeds, Flash components and more into their Business Mashups. The resulting Rich Interface Mashups™ (RIMs) show that consumer data and social graphs are finally finding their niche in the workplace.
Imagine a scenario where a sales rep is preparing for a big meeting with a new customer. The rep might start with the customer’s record in salesforce.com, and have the mashup fetch related information like a photo and details from the customer’s LinkedIn [one word] or Facebook profile, external news feeds showing the company’s latest stock price, credit report information from a Dun & Bradstreet Web service, and widgets showing local weather and traffic in the customer’s location. Soon the rep has all the information needed for the meeting. It’s as easy as personalizing a Yahoo! home page.

The best part is that this mashup can be reused for other meetings, saving users the time and effort of visiting multiple data sources again and again for the same information. The mashup is a visual representation that stays the same while the data is dynamic and changes according to specific user needs (like which customer the rep is visiting in which city, in the scenario above).

“Consumer data, widgets, social graphs and mashups have finally found a legitimate purpose in the enterprise,” said Rene Bonvanie, SVP, Global Marketing, Partnerships and Online Services, Serena Software. “With Serena Mashup Composer, any data from any source – whether it has SOA hooks or not – is now mashable. We’re entering a brave new work world where individuals are empowered to create new business applications that work for them and that make their lives easier.”

The Last Mile of Customization

Serena Mashup Composer will consume and mix any kind of widget or Rich Internet Application (RIA), including: Adobe Flash, Amazon Search, Flickr, Microsoft Silverlight, RSS feeds, YouTube, any of the 30,000 Google Gadgets (such as calendars and maps), and more.

These can be mashed with business processes and data from internal applications (such as salesforce.com, Siebel, Oracle, and more) and any Web-based services to create Rich Interface Mashups that can be delivered on demand with a single click.

Serena Rich Interface Mashups are a boon for business users and IT professionals alike. While business workers benefit from being able to quickly build the mashups they need to do their jobs more effectively, IT pros are no longer burdened with countless requests for new applications. With Serena’s proven governance framework that provides the reliability, security and compliance that IT requires, IT is free to focus on the core infrastructure and architecture needs of the company.

Pricing and Availability

The latest iteration of Serena Mashup Composer, with services and support, will be available free of charge as part of Serena’s on-demand release in the third quarter of 2008.

Online Demos and Materials

· Flash demo of Serena Rich Interface Mashups: http://video.serena.marketbright.com/mashups/AR-PR/RIM_quick_demo.htm

· Video interview with Tim Zonca, director of product marketing for Serena Business Mashups: http://video.serena.com/mashups/AR-PR/TZ.6jun2008.render2.wmv

· Screen shot of Serena Mashup Composer: http://www.serena.com/mashups/AR-PR/RIM-Mashup-Composer.png

· Screen shot of Rich Interface Mashup: http://www.serena.com/mashups/AR-PR/RIM-Mashup-Preview.png

About Serena Software, Inc.
Serena Software, Inc. provides services to make Enterprises and the business people within them more productive. More than 15,000 organizations around the world, including 96 of the Fortune 100, rely on Serena solutions delivered either on premise or on demand, to provide visibility and efficiency to the application development process. The company provides software services such as Serena® Mariner® (Project Portfolio Management), Serena Business Mashups, and Serena Dimensions® (Change & Requirements Management), and will be providing Agile Lifecycle Management tools in the near future. Serena is headquartered in Redwood City, California, and has offices throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia Pacific. For more information on Serena solutions and services, visit http://www.serena.com/.

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QUEST SOFTWARE SUPPORTS MICROSOFT WITH THE RELEASE OF ENHANCED PRODUCTS TO MANAGE SQL SERVER ENVIRONMENTS

2008-06-11T10:34:37+02:00

Bangalore, June 10, 2008 – Quest Software, Inc. (Nasdaq: QSFT), today announced the release of two products that will enable customers to manage growth and change in SQL Server environments. Capacity Manager for SQL Server 2.5 enables better control of disk space, growth rates and database performance, while Change Director for SQL Server permits easier implementation and control of enterprise-wide changes.

“In many organizations, SQL Server professionals are charged with both developing and managing their environments,” said Billy Bosworth, vice president and general manager of Quest’s SQL Server business unit. “The latest releases of these tools, along with other Quest SQL Server solutions, help organizations maximize return on investment while lowering total cost of ownership.”

Capacity Manager for SQL Server 2.5 offers capacity planning for SQL Server databases and the applications they support, such as SharePoint. Database administrators (DBAs) now have a centralized console that provides a holistic view of capacity across the database so they can see past and present events, and predict future growth trends.

-more-

In addition, Capacity Manager offers intelligent index maintenance to ensure rebuilding takes place during appropriate windows of time so performance is not impacted, and simplifies table partitioning to improve the performance of the database. It also collects data constantly through integration with Spotlight on SQL Server Enterprise’s data repository to make sure that information is on hand for consolidation projects, and offers advice as to which servers would be good candidates for consolidation. For more information about consolidation and details on

Quest’s recently published consolidation guide (see related release), visit: www.quest.com/consolidate.

“Capacity Manager from Quest Software is a valuable tool for anyone involved with capacity planning, forecasting and trend analysis,” said Thomas LaRock, database engineering team lead, ING Investment Management. “As a database administrator, I am responsible for over one hundred servers in addition to other daily tasks. Capacity Manager saves time by allowing me to quickly see which servers need my immediate attention.”

Quest’s latest release of Change Director for SQL Server – a solution that allows DBAs to automate the deployment and migration of database schema changes – can now more easily implement enterprise-wide changes by using optional middle-tier architecture. The introduction of a middle tier affords more flexibility and scalability by offloading schema comparisons, impact analyses, script generation and job scheduling to a persistent processing tier. In addition, Change Director offers clustered environment support for both passive/active and active/active clusters and new compare and sync functions that perform comparisons between DDL scripts, previous database snapshots and live databases. This new release allows DBAs to better manage, control, and track schema changes across even the most dynamic of enterprises.

Pricing and Availability

Capacity Manager for SQL Server is available now with North American pricing starting at $995 (USD) per server; more information is available at http://www.quest.com/capacity-manager-for-sql-server. Change Director for SQL Server is available now with North American pricing starting at $995 (USD) per server; more information can be found at www.quest.com/change-director-for-sql-server.

About Quest Software, Inc.

Quest Software, Inc., a leading enterprise systems management vendor, delivers innovative products that help organizations get more performance and productivity from their applications, databases, Windows infrastructure and virtual environments. Through a deep expertise in IT operations and a continued focus on what works best, Quest helps more than 90,000 customers worldwide meet higher expectations for enterprise IT. Quest provides customers with client management as well as server and desktop virtualization solutions through its subsidiaries, ScriptLogic, Vizioncore and Provision Networks. Quest Software helps organizations deliver, manage and control complex database environments through award-winning products for

Oracle, SQL Server, IBM DB2, Sybase and MySQL. Quest Software can be found in offices around the globe and at www.quest.com.

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Technology Skills, Attitude Give Edge to Gen Y Women Entering Workplace, Says Serena Software Masher Survey

2008-05-23T09:46:53+02:00

Bangalore, May 23rd, 2008 — Young millennial women translate social networking skills and technology-friendly attitudes into a workplace advantage as “Accidental” Mashers, one of five Masher profiles defining the essential characteristics of technology early adopters in a new survey sponsored by Serena Software. The company interviewed 700 early adopters in the U.S. to identify key themes among their approaches to technology, work, lifestyle, personalities and demographics. According to Serena, as a result of the survey findings, a Masher is a person who is able to use technology to be more productive in their personal life and at work. Anyone can take the free quiz (available at http://apps.facebook.com/masher_quiz) to see how they use technology in their everyday life.

Serena Software, the Enterprise ALM leader known for its Business Mashups and employee Facebook Fridays, decided to sponsor the study out of its conviction that social networking skills learned by Generation Y online will be as important to their success in the new workplace as their classroom experience. A recent poll conducted by global outplacement firm Challenger Gray & Christmas found that despite the downturn, many employers still plan to hire college graduates this year: 22 percent of U.S. companies plan to hire more graduates than they did in 2007; and 46 percent will hire the same number of graduates as a year ago. Mashed up with recent Forrester analysis (“Youth and Social Networks,” Forrester Research, Inc., January 2008) indicating young women are more likely than young men to express their personality on social network sites (44 percent versus 35 percent), Serena suggests that Gen Y women, in particular, will be the ones who buck the “techie” stereotype to find new ways to collaborate for success.

“Women no longer need to have an engineering degree or be in the IT department to make a technology impact at work,” says Christina Johnson, a 25-year-old marketing coordinator at Serena. “Consumer technologies like social networks and online collaboration tools are becoming standard business tools, so I can build software applications and collaborate with colleagues across the country, even though I’m not a techie.” At Serena, Johnson gets paid to use Facebook every day to connect with customers and colleagues, and even counts CEO Jeremy Burton among her Facebook friends.

Johnson stands as an example of the Accidental Masher profile: predominantly younger females who, although less technology focused than other profiles like Alpha Mashers, strive to get ahead and break through a glass ceiling and see technology as a way to do just that. Accidental Mashers identified in the survey are:

· Extremely early adopters – 53 percent identify themselves as the first to try new technologies, even before they become mainstream, ranking higher than any other profile.

· Workaholics – 26 percent identify themselves as workaholics, more than any other profile.

· Reinventing processes/Breaking the mold – nearly 20 percent are working in roles that were newly created to address an emerging need in their organization, but reinvention governs their style, on the job and off. This profile also has the largest segment not currently employed, with 20 percent not currently working.

Masher Profiles

The survey results identify common trends across all participants, who tended to:

· Agree that technology not only plays a significant role in their lives but is also critical to the advancement of society

· Work most often in IT departments, but within diverse industries ranging from healthcare to financial services

· Enjoy jogging more than any other sport

· Prefer a structured and planned approach when dealing with the outside world

· Consider themselves politically moderate

Through cluster analysis, five unique segments, or “Mashers,” were identified among technology early adopters based on their differentiated responses to key questions.

· The Alpha Masher – The tech elite, drenched in technology, Alpha Mashers see it as having significant positive impact on their lives and ability to communicate. At work they are delegators, developing solutions to hand off (think: senior director, consulting firm). The most likely to agree that technology has a positive impact on the world (94 percent) and to be working full-time (91 percent). Predominantly white males 35-44.

· The Accidental Masher – Not as comfortable with technology as Alphas, Accidental Mashers still have a deep understanding of how technology can improve their lives. With a less direct approach at work, they consider technology a tool to solve problems, but not the key to everything (think: software project manager, healthcare). Similar to Balanced Mashers, but more focused on work and enthusiastic toward technology. Predominantly white females 25-54.

· The Practical Masher – Using all the technology that most Mashers are excited about, they are less enthusiastic about the devices. They typically report to the Alphas and Accidentals at work, but are focused on implementation (think: Web designer, high-end retail). The most hesitant to agree that technology has a positive impact on the world (only 50 percent) or their lives (20 percent). Predominantly white males 25-44.

· The Balanced Masher – Although similar to Accidental Mashers, they do not place technology or work at the center of their lives. Approaching their job as a means to fund other things they enjoy, Balanced Mashers lead more relaxed lives than other types, and are hesitant to adopt emerging technology until they see how it relates to their personal lives (think: IT project manager, financial services). The most likely to be students (9 percent) and the least likely to be workaholics (9 percent). Predominantly white females 25-44.

· The Masher Lite – The most resistant to adopting new technologies before they are mainstream, they are less likely to take risks, actively solve problems or create efficiency. At work, they may adopt a new process once it is proven effective in another department (think: IT manager, department of Transportation). The most risk averse segment in relationship to technology (only 1 percent are the first to try new technology), their work life (only 7 percent take frequent workplace risks) and at home (only 4 percent take frequent risks in their personal lives). Predominantly white males 35-54.

Survey Methodology
Marketing research consultancy Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates conducted the "Serena Software Masher Profile Exploratory Research Study" in March 2008 by conducting 700 online interviews of U.S. consumers. Each respondent was a PC and Internet user, who is an early adopter and heavily reliant on technology and decision-maker on all tech purchases. The survey was designed to gain insights from Serena Software employees and clients into what it means to be a Masher, and to identify unique segments within the Masher audience. More information about Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates is available at http://www.psbresearch.com/.

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QUEST SOFTWARE JOINS WITH SAGE SOFTWARE AS AN EXCLUSIVE ENDORSED DEVELOPMENT PARTNER FOR BUSINESS MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS

2008-05-22T13:14:32+02:00

Bangalore, May 22nd, 2008 – Quest Software, Inc. (Nasdaq: QSFT) today announced it has signed an agreement to become an Endorsed Development Partner in Sage Software’s Business Management Division (BMD). As part of the agreement, Sage Software will market Quest’s SQL Server Management solutions with its Sage MAS 500 and Sage MAS 200 ERP solutions. With the Endorsed Development Partner designation, Sage recognizes Quest Software as a preferred systems management software solution for SQL Server.

As a leading provider of scalable and customizable software and services, Sage Software serves a variety of industries. The BMD Development Partner Program is designed to help ISVs (Independent Software Vendors) successfully develop, test and market applications that enhance and extend the functionality of Sage Software’s BMD solutions.

“Candidates must meet stringent criteria in order to be invited to the Endorsed Development Partners program,” said Alan Bryant, senior vice president ISV Programs and Developer Relations for Sage Software’s BMD. “Quest's best-of-breed SQL Server solutions certainly meet all of our requirements and are the same caliber of IT management products that we offer our customers."

“Sage uses Quest tools both internally to develop products and externally to support customer usage issues,” continued Bryant. “We know that our customers rely on Sage MAS 500 and

Sage MAS 200 as critical components of their businesses and Quest’s tools make it possible to find a resolution to SQL Server-related issues in a few hours instead of days or even weeks.”

Billy Bosworth, vice president and general manager of Quest’s SQL Server business unit, noted that companies depend on Sage’s MAS ERP systems for continued growth and success. According to Bosworth, “Any availability issues can have a significant impact on a company’s ability to do business. We are excited to partner with Sage to deliver SQL Server management and performance solutions that increase customers’ ability to stay competitive in an evolving market.”

“The relationship with Sage Software further highlights the proven abilities of Quest Software to deliver Availability & Performance tools to organizations that develop & run mission critical applications on SQL Server,” said Krishnan Thyagarajan, MD, Quest Software, India. “This partnership will help Sage customers in India to get more value out of their investments in Sage solutions & SQL Server,” he added.

Quest offers a comprehensive suite of SQL Server solutions including Spotlight® on SQL Server Enterprise which enables users to easily identify and resolve performance problems, LiteSpeed® for SQL Server that allows for fast and flexible backup and recovery and centralized reporting, and Quest® Capacity Manager for SQL Server that solves problems associated with managing disk space and server resources.

Pricing and Availability

To learn more about Quest’s SQL Server Management solutions visit: www.quest.com/aboutquestandsage/.

About Sage Software’s BMD Development Partner Program
The BMD (Business Management Division) Development Partner Program is designed to help ISVs (Independent Software Vendors) successfully develop, test and market applications that enhance and extend the functionality of Sage Software’s BMD solutions. The program provides extensive development resources, technical services, strategic product and marketing benefits that help maximize Development Partner revenue opportunities. Endorsed Development Partners, the highest achievable designation in the program, receive the greatest benefits by meeting rigorous strategic, technology and integration criteria. Sage Software supports the needs, challenges and dreams of nearly 2.8 million small and mid-sized business customers in North America through easy-to-use, scalable and customizable business management solutions. For more information on the Sage Software BMD Partner Development Program, please visit http://sagesoftware.com/partners/development_program/index.cfm

About Quest Software, Inc.

Quest Software, Inc., a leading enterprise systems management vendor, delivers innovative products that help organizations get more performance and productivity from their applications, databases, Windows infrastructure and virtual environments. Through a deep expertise in IT operations and a continued focus on what works best, Quest helps more than 90,000 customers worldwide meet higher expectations for enterprise IT. Quest provides customers with client management as well as server and desktop virtualization solutions through its subsidiaries, ScriptLogic, Vizioncore and Provision Networks. Quest Software helps organizations deliver, manage and control complex database environments through award-winning products for Oracle, SQL Server, IBM DB2, Sybase and MySQL. Quest Software can be found in offices around the globe and at www.quest.com.

# # #

Web Links Used in this Release:

Sage Software – www.sagesoftware.com

Resolve performance problems – http://www.quest.com/spotlight-on-sql-server-enterprise

Backup and recovery – www.quest.com/litespeed-for-sql-server

Managing disk space and server resources – www.quest.com/capacity-manager-for-sql-server

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QUEST SOFTWARE UNLEASHES THE POWER OF MICROSOFT SYSTEM CENTER

2008-05-02T10:49:51+02:00

Bangalore, April 29, 2008 – Quest Software, Inc. (Nasdaq: QSFT) has expanded its set of solutions to help organizations plan, deploy and manage their IT infrastructures by maximizing their investment in the Microsoft System Center Platform.

This week, Quest will unveil its comprehensive solutions at the Microsoft Management Summit in Las Vegas, including the availability of Quest Management Extensions – Configuration Manager 2007 Edition and the Quest Management Pack for Oracle – Operations Manager 2007 Edition. Quest is also announcing dedicated initiatives supporting Microsoft’s System Center Operations Manager 2007 Cross-Platform Management Extensions and System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 Performance & Resource Optimization (PRO) feature.

Quest solutions augment the following core System Center capability sets:

Monitoring and Diagnostics – Extends the capabilities of System Center Operations Manager 2007 to heterogeneous OS, applications, databases, hardware, security components and network devices through native integration into the Operations Manager infrastructure. In addition, offers advanced management packs for Oracle, .NET, AS 400, z/OS and Cisco.
Change and Configuration – Extends the capabilities of System Center Configuration Manager 2007 to heterogeneous OS, network and mobile devices through native integration into the Configuration Manager infrastructure
Backup and Recovery – Ensures 24 x 7 granular level backup and recovery for Active Directory and Exchange Server by integrating Quest Recovery Manager for Active Directory and Quest Recovery Manager for Exchange with System Center Data Protection Manager 2007.
Provisioning and Virtualization – Delivers an advanced Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solution by using System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 in combination with Provision Networks’ Virtual Access Suite as well as capabilities that allow for Virtual Machine tuning based on the load and health of Oracle instances.

“In many organizations today, IT professionals are charged with managing both physical and virtual environments that are segmented and difficult to run efficiently because of the lack of integration,” said Joe Gare, Windows Management Technical Specialist, Quest Software India. “The Microsoft System Center Family helps IT maximize return on investment while helping to lower total cost of ownership with a comprehensive management platform. Quest is committed to helping organizations maximize the capabilities of System Center, truly giving them a holistic approach to IT management.”

Quest’s continued commitment for System Center includes:

New Offerings for Configuration Manager – Support for the newest System Center offering, Configuration Manager, including heterogeneous OS platforms, hardware and network devices.
New Offering for Extending Operations Manager to Monitor Oracle Databases - Supports management of Oracle database instances deployed on Windows, Unix and Linux hosts through the native Operations Manager agent.
Management Extensions Online Community Forum – The launch of www.management-extensions.org provides a user-friendly forum specifically dedicated to addressing the needs of IT professionals regarding their specific management requirements.
Quest has been working closely with Microsoft to support the recently announced Operations Manager 2007 Cross-Platform Management Extensions, as well as the Virtual Machine Manager 2008 Performance & Resource Optimization (PRO) feature included in the recently announced beta. Quest is taking advantage of Microsoft’s new cross-platform monitoring platform and management packs enabled for PRO to enhance the existing Quest Management Pack for Oracle.

“System Center now delivers broad heterogeneous support to help our customers proactively manage and optimize their physical and virtual IT environments and our partners, such as Quest, are an important part of the overall solution, “said Robert Reynolds, director of System Center product management at Microsoft Corp. “Quest’s support of our announced

heterogeneous extensions to Operations Manager and Virtual Machine Manager will help our mutual customers realize the benefits of System Center across their end-to-end IT environment.”

Availability

Quest Management Xtensions - Configuration Manager 2007 Edition and the Quest Management Pack for Oracle are now available. Within the Management Pack for Oracle, support for the Microsoft Cross-Platform Extensions is in beta and expected to be available in late Q2. The Management Extensions Community Forum is available and membership is free at www.management-extensions.org. For more information and to download free evaluation copies please visit: www.quest.com/system-center

About Quest Software, Inc.

Quest Software, Inc., a leading enterprise systems management vendor, delivers innovative products that help organizations get more performance and productivity from their applications, databases, Windows infrastructure and virtual environments. Through a deep expertise in IT operations and a continued focus on what works best, Quest helps more than 90,000 customers worldwide meet higher expectations for enterprise IT. Quest provides customers with client management as well as server and desktop virtualization solutions through its subsidiaries, ScriptLogic, Vizioncore and Provision Networks. Quest Software can be found in offices around the globe and at www.quest.com.

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Serena Software Launches First Mashup Exchange

2008-04-29T13:05:37+02:00

Bangalore, April 29th, 2008 — Serena Software today announced that it has launched Serena® Mashup Exchange™ (http://www.mashupexchange.com), an online marketplace to accelerate the creation and use of Business Mashups. Business users and internal IT departments as well as consulting and channel partners will be able to find, buy, and sell pre-packaged Mashups, Web services, and professional services—without incurring any fees or commissions from Serena.

Serena is providing this online marketplace to change the way businesses confront the “long tail” of IT applications -- projects that individually are too small to warrant IT support yet, when taken collectively, represent a market opportunity.

"The Thomas Howe Company, an award winning voice Mashup consultancy, is excited about partnering with Serena in the Mashup Exchange," said Tom Howe, CEO of The Thomas Howe Company. "We can see that Serena is prepared to provide a winning combination of technology platform, developer support, and go to market strategy. As a result, we are building a very lucrative business using this online marketplace to buy and sell Mashups."

“The combination of Serena Mashup Exchange and StrikeIron’s Marketplace Web Services makes it easy for any business to access critical business information quickly and on-demand,” said David Linthicum, CEO of StrikeIron. “Now developers, business users, and Serena partners have easier access to live data and a better way to acquire critical business information. Serena has effectively leveraged Data as a Service to drive their marketplace, opening up even more development opportunities for developers and partners in the future.”

MicroExchanges: Multiple Levels of Private and Public Access

Serena Mashup Exchange enables users to create on-demand communities around software offerings or practice areas so they find the Mashups and resources they need. Companies can create private MicroExchanges for secured internal interchange between IT and business units; for example, IT can help business users by publishing Mashup-enabled access to an internal SAP system in a secured, private MicroExchange. Companies can also create open communities for public access for debate, collaboration, and crowd-sourcing. By using HiveLive’s LiveConnect Community Platform, Serena can allow its customers to build virtually any combination of private or public MicroExchange.

The Mashup Exchange gives users an easy way to automate business processes by:

· Bringing together a community of power users who are eager to connect on the Mashup Exchange, and start mashing simple applications themselves.

· Providing “Mashables” or building blocks such as template workflows, Mashup parts, and Web services needed to build their own Mashups.

· Fostering online collaboration between Lines-of-Business and IT, with the best balance of control and self-service.

“Serena Mashup Exchange encourages innovation and collaboration among business users to solve everyday business problems, while also ensuring that IT governance standards are upheld,” said René Bonvanie, SVP, Global Marketing, Partnerships and Online Services, Serena Software.

The launch of the online marketplace represents another milestone in Serena’s plan to reinvent its business around Web 2.0 technologies and user-driven transformations taking place within the enterprise. The company last fall unveiled its free Serena® Mashup Composer™ for the point-and-click creation of Business Mashups to make it easy for business users to visually design simple applications, while freeing up the scarce resources of development. For a monthly subscription fee, these Mashups can be deployed and run on Serena’s on-demand platform, or hosted on premise behind the firewall.

Serena has already created a number of Business Mashups that are available to users for no charge under Creative Commons licenses. Similarly, Serena recommends that small partners give away their Mashups to build notoriety.

About Serena Software, Inc.
Serena Software, Inc. provides services to make Enterprises and the business people within them more productive. More than 15,000 organizations around the world, including 96 of the Fortune 100, rely on Serena solutions delivered either on premise or on demand, to provide visibility and efficiency to the application development process. The company provides software services such as Serena® Mariner® (Project & Portfolio Management), Serena Business Mashups and Serena® Dimensions® (Change & Requirements Management), and will be providing Agile Lifecycle Management tools in the near future. Serena is headquartered in Redwood City, California, and has offices throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia Pacific. For more information on Serena solutions and services, visit www.serena.com.

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Hitachi Data Systems Announces the Industry’s Greenest Enterprise-Class Data Center

2008-04-22T13:18:35+02:00

Bangalore, April 22nd, 2008—Breaking new ground in data center design and development, Hitachi Data Systems Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT) and the only provider of Services Oriented Storage Solutions, today announced the world’s most eco-friendly and power-efficient data center—designed to achieve a 1.6 PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) rating by The Green Grid—the lowest power usage index of any data center in its class. Together, Hitachi Data Systems and Hitachi, Ltd. are establishing a new industry standard for next-generation green data center implementations around the globe.

Located in Yokohama, Japan, the new state-of-the-art data center brings together the collective product innovations of the Hitachi Information & Technology Systems Group (ITSG) companies including industry-leading storage systems, server and networking equipment. This sophisticated architecture is designed to offer the highest levels of energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions by 20 percent, while also lowering IT management costs.

Optimized to deliver even greater power efficiencies, the facility also features cutting-edge products that take advantage of Hitachi’s world-famous R&D expertise in other key areas of technology. Thermal hydraulic cooling devices, uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems and highly advanced power supply converters are designed to work in concert to contribute significant power, cooling and space benefits throughout. Leading-edge patented Hitachi Finger Vein authentication and other RFID technologies have also been integrated into the facility for state-of-the-art security.

"Within the IT industry, the Wikibon community believes that Hitachi, Ltd. has the most comprehensive and fully implemented corporate green plan in place," says David Vellante, president and CEO of IT Centrix and co-founder of the Wikibon Project. "Hitachi's progress on its emission neutral strategy is impressive and genuine. Initiatives such as the collaboration of various Hitachi groups for a new datacenter design in Yokohama underscore the firm’s commitment and are great drivers for change. Within storage the USP V controller re-designs and the implementation of virtualization, thin provisioning and support for external devices that spin down, have helped improve utilization and reduce power consumption by 63% over previous generations, a substantial milestone that sets an example of leadership for the industry."

Environmental issues continue to escalate IT budget discussions, impact data center designs, and shape corporate social responsibility. Today’s announcement showcases the combined vision of Hitachi Data Systems and Hitachi Ltd. for enabling a greener data center through the use of Hitachi technology—and curbing the significant environmental burdens these facilities have been known to create for customers of all sizes. Furthermore, the new data center marks another chief milestone in support of Hitachi’s Harmonious Green Plan and Project CoolCenter50 corporate initiatives which are aimed at reducing 330,000 tons of carbon emissions and cutting down power consumption by as much as 50 percent by 2012. It is the company’s charter to apply these targets to the product development process across the entire IT solutions portfolio—chief among which include Hitachi Data Systems’ services-oriented storage solutions.

“In today’s climate, we have found that the cost of energy and power has quickly emerged as a growing concern, driving companies to take a deeper look at the efficiency of their data centers,” said Hu Yoshida, vice president and CTO, Hitachi Data Systems. “IT organizations need to take a holistic approach and carefully examine how every facet of their data center can play a role in improving their environmental impact—and lowering escalating power consumption levels. By leveraging Hitachi green technology, this breakthrough data center architecture provides a best practices approach for driving better efficiencies and utilization in customer environments now and in the future.”

Hitachi the Green Giant: Over 30 Years of Eco-Friendly History

Hitachi Data Systems, along with Hitachi, Ltd. has enjoyed a long history and proven track record for supplying environmentally friendly storage solutions to companies worldwide—a legacy that spans from the supply chain through to the manufacturing process. It is this core competency and heritage in storage system and technology design that has enabled Hitachi to not only infuse eco-friendly innovation across the entire line-up of storage products, but to also cement its position at the forefront of the green data center movement.

The Hitachi Universal Storage Platform V and its modular version, the Universal Storage Platform VM, are the only services-oriented storage platform that can equip customers’ existing heterogeneous storage assets with important capabilities they were never designed to deliver in the first place, such as external storage virtualization and thin provisioning. Not only does the combination of Hitachi Dynamic Provisioning and virtualization provide significant improvements in capacity utilization, but it also lowers customers’ power and cooling consumption rates. Organizations therefore require fewer storage devices and ultimately, less electricity and space, which results in immediate improvements to overall storage economics.

The Hitachi Adaptable Modular Storage and Workgroup Modular Storage midrange systems deliver breakthrough Power Savings capabilities that enable disc drives to be powered up and powered down as needed—creating a 20 percent cost of operation advantage against competitors. Additionally, the Power Savings storage service also reduces the number of kilowatt hours (KWH) a storage array consumes which contributes to reducing cooling costs within a data center or distributed computing environment. The Hitachi AMS and WMS systems complement the Hitachi USP V and USP VM systems as tiered or archive storage, especially when configured with SATA disk for lower costs.

Helping customers manage explosive growth of data volumes, the Hitachi Content Archive Platform is a sophisticated active archive solution that provides an archive tier of storage that meets customers’ scalability, data retention and protection requirements. Furthermore, customers benefit by being able to leverage existing storage infrastructure and consolidate the number of footprints in order to achieve a decrease in heat emissions, a reduction in power consumption, while also simplifying management.

For more information on Hitachi Data Systems green storage, please visit http://www.hds.com/green.

About Hitachi Data Systems

Hitachi Data Systems Corporation provides Services Oriented Storage Solutions that enable heterogeneous storage to be dynamically provisioned according to business needs and centrally managed via industry-leading Hitachi storage virtualization software. As an integral part of the Hitachi Storage Solutions Group, Hitachi Data Systems delivers storage infrastructure platforms, storage management software, and storage consulting services through direct and indirect channels in over 170 countries and regions. Its customers include nearly 60-percent of Fortune 100 companies. For more information, visit the company's Web site at http://www.hds.com.

About Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi, Ltd., (NYSE: HIT / TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company with approximately 384,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2006 (ended March 31, 2007) consolidated revenues totaled 10,247 billion yen ($86.8 billion). The company offers a wide range of systems, products and services in market sectors including information systems, electronic devices, power and industrial systems, consumer products, materials and financial services. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at http://www.hitachi.com.

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QUEST SOFTWARE LAUNCHES SOLUTION SET TO SUPPORT UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS

2008-04-08T14:10:46+02:00

Bangalore, April 8th, 2008 – Quest Software, Inc. (Nasdaq: QSFT) today announced two products that will expand its growing portfolio of unified communications support products. Both MessageStats and Active Roles Server now include support for Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007.

“Quest is committed to providing innovative products that help customers get more value from their existing Microsoft unified communications investments,” says Yancey Smith, director, Office Communications Server Product Management at Microsoft Corp. “These new additions are no exception. Both enhance the administration and management experience and give people a deeper view into their unified communications solutions.”

Quest MessageStats is the first and only full unified communications reporting tool on the market. In addition to Microsoft Exchange Server, MessageStats now can report about Office Communications Server 2007 via a new report pack. The report pack provides information about instant messaging, web conferencing and voice calls by department, reports top calls per user and conducts charge backs for voice calls. Other key benefits include a common reporting console and format for Exchange Server and Office Communications Server 2007, and business-focused reports that verify how Office Communications Server 2007 contributes to overall corporate objectives.

Quest Active Roles Server now includes rules and workflow controls that format and monitor changes to personal information in Active Directory. This ensures that unified communications applications can work effectively. It is important because if Office Communications Server 2007 tries to make a call based off an incorrect phone number in Active Directory, the call will fail.

Active Roles Server is also able to provision and de-provision Office Communications Server users, which makes rolling out unified communications faster and less error-prone.

“The single biggest factor for IT decision-makers to make their businesses more responsive is getting people to work together more effectively and collaboratively. On the software side, Microsoft is trying to get enterprise software makers to embed its presence technology in their products,” says Joe Gare, Windows Management Technical Specialist, Quest Software India. “Quest is aggressively moving into this market and re-developing our popular Exchange Server products to include support for Office Communications Server.”

Quest’s Unified Communications solution set recently won a “Product of the Year Award” in Unified Communications Magazine.

About Quest Software, Inc.

Quest Software, Inc., a leading enterprise systems management vendor, delivers innovative products that help organizations get more performance and productivity from their applications, databases, Windows infrastructure and virtual environments. Through a deep expertise in IT operations and a continued focus on what works best, Quest helps more than 90,000 customers worldwide meet higher expectations for enterprise IT. Quest provides customers with client management as well as server and desktop virtualization solutions through its subsidiaries, ScriptLogic, Vizioncore and Provision Networks. Quest’s Windows Management solutions simplify, automate and secure Active Directory, Exchange Server, SharePoint, SQL Server, .NET and Windows Server as well as integrate Unix, Linux and Java into the managed environment. Quest Software can be found in offices around the globe and at www.quest.com.

¹ Forrester Research, “Insight Inquiry, Unified Communications” 2007

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Forward Looking Statements
This release may include predictions, estimates and other information that might be considered forward-looking statements, including statements concerning the release of new versions of Quest products supporting Microsoft Office Communications Server. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ from those anticipated as a result of various factors, including: the impact of adverse changes in general economic conditions on our relationships with customers, strategic partners and vendors; reductions or delays in information technology spending; variations in demand or the size and timing of customer orders; competitive conditions in our various product areas; rapid technological change; risks associated with the development and market acceptance of new products and product strategies; disruptions caused by acquisitions of companies and/or technologies; fluctuating currency exchange rates and risks associated with international operations; the need to attract and retain qualified employees; and other risks inherent in software businesses. For a discussion of these and other related risks, please refer to our recent SEC filings, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date thereof. We undertake no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date thereof.

Web Links Referenced in this Release:

Quest Software – www.quest.com

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Serena Software Delivers SaaS Solution for Project Portfolio Management

2008-04-02T13:19:52+02:00

Bangalore, April 2nd, 2008 — Serena Software today achieved the first milestone of its on demand strategy by delivering one of its key offerings, Serena® Mariner® 2008, via Software as a Service (SaaS). Available now, the new SaaS version of Mariner gives business and IT managers the most functional on demand Project Portfolio Management (PPM) tool with no infrastructure to manage, no software to install, and simple subscription pricing.

“The success of any department is hinged upon a manager’s ability to understand where resources are going, make decisions quickly, and show value to the business,” said René Bonvanie, senior vice president of worldwide marketing, partner programs, and online services at Serena. “The SaaS version of Mariner will allow our customers to start using the software right away – eliminating installation, hardware issues, and the cost of having to maintain the software – to achieve a faster path to value.”

Named a Leader in Project Portfolio Management (PPM) tools by Forrester[1], Serena Mariner helps organizations more effectively plan, manage, and deliver a greater return on business activities by bringing total visibility into projects, people, and costs. Unlike ad hoc approaches and products that only give partial visibility, Mariner delivers total visibility and a straightforward, flexible approach. It provides improved alignment with business priorities, powerful dashboard reporting for real-time monitoring and issue resolution, and robust resource management to help balance demand and supply for projects. Customers also experience fast time to value by matching their organization’s PPM maturity with Mariner’s functionality through solution accelerators, free assessment and training, and Quick Start service offerings.

“We looked at the competitors and chose Mariner for its intuitive nature, full functionality and better vision,” said Cortney Edwards, PMO Support Engineer at PHNS, which provides information technology services for hospitals, healthcare providers and businesses. “Mariner will help us better manage our demand flow, provide more detail around rank and prioritization, and a central repository improving standardization in decision making. The on demand version is ideal as it allows us to adopt Mariner fast, with lower cost and less risk.”

A Trio of SaaS Solutions

Serena Mariner is the first of three on demand offerings that the company plans to make available in 2008, with Serena Business Mashups and a full suite of Agile Lifecycle Management tools on deck later this year.

Transparent Pricing

Customers will be able to try Mariner On Demand for free for 30 days and can purchase a subscription on Serena’s web site. Introductory pricing of 50% off for the first six months makes Mariner On Demand available for as little as $18 per user per month (based on workgroup). Pricing is available in three currencies depending on country of purchase, with list prices shown below. Details about the Introductory Discount pricing are available on the Mariner web site. The table below shows pricing per user for group, team, workgroup and departmental implementations.

Subscription Plan
Group
Team
Workgroup
Department
Division

Included Users
5 – 24
25 – 49
50 – 99
100 – 199
200+

USD Pricing
$45
$41
$36
$33
Call Serena

GBP Pricing
£23
£21
£18
£17
Call Serena

Euro Pricing
€31
€28
€25
€23
Call Serena

For more information on Serena Mariner, visit www.serena.com/products/mariner.

About Serena Software, Inc.
Serena Software, Inc. provides services to make Enterprises and the business people within them more productive. More than 15,000 organizations around the world, including 96 of the Fortune 100, rely on Serena solutions delivered either on premise or on demand, to provide visibility and efficiency to the application development process. The company provides software services such as Serena Mariner (Project Portfolio Management), Serena Business Mashups, and Serena® Dimensions® (Change & Requirements Management), and will be providing Agile Lifecycle Management tools in the near future. Serena is headquartered in Redwood City, California, and has offices throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia Pacific. For more information on Serena solutions and services, visit www.serena.com.

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Hitachi Data Systems Delivers Industry’s First Integrated File Services Platform to Ease Data Management

2008-03-20T04:08:50+01:00

Bangalore, March 19th, 2008 — Hitachi Data Systems, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT) and the only provider of Services Oriented Storage Solutions (SOSS), today introduced all new file and content services that dramatically simplify data management. The announcements include the Hitachi Data Discovery Suite, a new line-up of advanced network attached storage (NAS) services with the introduction of the Hitachi Essential NAS Platform and Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform 3000 Series and a new version of the Hitachi Content Archive Platform.

Cost continues to be a huge issue for Chief Information Officers (CIOs) in Asia Pacific today. Managing siloed unstructured data has become more difficult due to IT infrastructures becoming more complex. CIOs are demanding technology that can help them manage the complexity cost effectively. Managing cost with one consolidated platform is the primary business benefit of the new services. With today’s announcement, Hitachi delivers common search, retention, movement and protection of data — extending its proven capabilities in block storage data management to file services with in an integrated services oriented platform.

“We are taking our proven experience in storing and managing block storage environments and extending that strength to file services—reducing the risk of rogue data, while improving operating efficiencies. The launch also helps us to fulfill our promise of helping companies in the Asia Pacific region to reduce IT costs and complexity, manage risk, increase operational efficiency and deliver more value through our integrated services oriented storage solutions platform,” said Srini Rao, Chief Technical Manager, India, Hitachi Data Systems.

Introducing the Hitachi Data Discovery Suite

The newly unveiled Hitachi Data Discovery Suite delivers powerful content index and search services across NAS and content archive environments with a single query — an industry first that breaks through the traditional barriers of stovepipe storage infrastructures and mitigates the risk of unmanaged or rogue data. The Hitachi Data Discovery Suite also empowers users to do file restores themselves as well as archiving files directly from SharePoint — saving Help Desk resources while at the same time promoting data privacy.

Unlike competitors that force customers and partners to haggle with disparate and closed storage infrastructures, the Hitachi Data Discovery Suite will enable enterprise content management, e-mail archiving and other third-party applications to write directly to the Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform and migrate that data to the Hitachi Content Archive Platform for long-term data preservation — allowing secure, seamless data discovery and migration across tiers of storage. These capabilities can be extended to ISV partners or custom applications.

Introducing All New Hitachi Network Attached Storage Platforms

Hitachi is leveraging its proven best-in-class availability and scalability in SAN or block storage environments and is extending this capability to NAS with two new products that lower customers’ total cost of ownership through file server or NAS consolidation. The Hitachi Essential NAS Platform and the Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform 3000 deliver best-in-class NAS services to medium-sized businesses and large enterprises.

The Hitachi Essential NAS Platform is for medium-sized businesses or enterprises with remote or branch offices that require reliable and cost-effective solutions that deliver file service, backup and server consolidation services. The Hitachi Essential NAS Platform consolidates and manages up to 512 terabytes of data in a 2-node cluster with access to data from Common Internet File System (CIFS) and Network File Systems (NFS).

Available as a NAS gateway or standalone NAS filer, the Hitachi Essential NAS Platform comes with identical features and functionalities in both form factors—delivering the ultimate in flexibility for customers.

The Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform, powered by BlueArc, is being successfully used by many organizations to deliver large-scale consolidation, leading-edge performance, enterprise-class data protection, reliability and scalability. Hitachi is continuing to build on its lead over the competition with the introduction of the Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform 3000 Series. With significant performance and capacity enhancements over its predecessor, the Hitachi High-performance NAS Platform 3000 Series is ideal for large enterprises focused on consolidation and companies requiring intensive file processing.

Introducing the Hitachi Content Archive Platform 2.4

As the growth of unstructured data continues to skyrocket and new regulations require quick access to archived data, advanced, federated search capabilities across this disparate content is becoming increasingly important. The enhanced Hitachi Content Archive Platform is an integral component of the Hitachi Services Oriented Storage Solutions strategy and features new authentication services to ensure the secure, long-term preservation and retrieval of valuable information ensuring that the right people get immediate access to the right information at the right time.

Hitachi’s Services Oriented Platform Simplifies the Entire Storage Infrastructure

With today’s announcements of the Hitachi Data Discovery Suite and expanded and enhanced Hitachi NAS and Content Archive services, Hitachi is once again delivering customers more value on an integrated services oriented platform. Building on this platform, Hitachi also unveiled today Hitachi Data Discovery Suite for Microsoft SharePoint. Working with the Hitachi Content Archive Platform, Hitachi Data Discovery for Microsoft SharePoint gives users a simple way to archive files to the Content Archive Platform. Additionally, the Hitachi Data Discovery Suite for Microsoft SharePoint provides administrative searching across all content stored within the Hitachi Content Archive Platform. The software can span across many SharePoint sites allowing fully authenticated and authorized ubiquitous access. With Hitachi Data Discovery for Microsoft SharePoint, users can also set up proactive RSS feeds that can detect rogue data or information relevant to a discovery request.

About Hitachi Data Systems

About Hitachi, Ltd.

© 2008, Hitachi is a registered trademark of Hitachi, Ltd. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries. Hitachi Data Systems is a registered trademark and service mark of Hitachi, Ltd. in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks, services marks, company names are properties of their respective owners.

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Serena Software Goes SaaS

2008-03-04T10:43:12+01:00

Bangalore, March 4th, 2008 — Serena Software will score a “hat trick” this year by providing three solutions via Software as a Service (SaaS) – Serena® Mariner® (Project and Portfolio Management), Serena Business Mashups, and Agile Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) tools. SaaS provides significant benefits for companies with no infrastructure to manage, no software to install, faster time to value, subscription pricing, better support, and immediate access to upgrades as they become available.

Serena Mariner First Product to Go SaaS

In the first of many steps toward delivering a complete line of SaaS-enabled products, Serena will make one of its key offerings, Serena Mariner, available on demand within the next 30 days. Named a Leader in Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) tools by Forrester[1], Serena Mariner provides total visibility into project status and metrics to ensure the right people are on the right projects at the right time, ultimately delivering more value to the business. With prices starting as low as $18 per user per month, Serena Mariner gives business people a way to manage projects quickly and easily without creating unwieldy spreadsheets in Excel. All Serena products delivered via SaaS will have published pricing and discount schedules.

Up Next from Serena On Demand: Business Mashups

Serena’s on-demand offerings have the potential to provide immense value to individual departments as well as the globally distributed enterprise. Serena Business Mashups are already available on premise; now, the next logical step is to give customers additional choice by offering Business Mashups through SaaS.

As consumer and Web 2.0 technologies move into the workplace, companies are switching from traditional installed software to on-demand offerings—and Serena aims to be at the forefront driving business value with products that help companies and business people within them become more productive.

Jeremy Burton, Serena CEO, said, “The Internet simply provides a better way to deliver software to our customers. There is no infrastructure for them to manage, they are up and running more quickly, and they pay for the value received through a monthly subscription. This is the future of the software industry, so we are starting to migrate all of our internal systems to the SaaS model – Salesforce.com, Marketbright, Postini, and Facebook are just the start for us.”

Serena (the Company) Goes SaaS

Serena itself is committed to putting the SaaS model to use internally and is truly walking the “on demand” walk. Serena has successfully implemented a variety of on-demand systems, including:

· OpSource for infrastructure services

· Aria Systems for billing

· MarketBright for marketing automation

· Salesforce.com for sales force optimization

· Omniture for web analytics

· Postini for anti-spam

· Facebook for the corporate intranet

· Brightcove for our proprietary marketing tool, MashupTV

· Mediaroom for our press room

· LucidEra for business analytics

· HiveLive for online communities

More information will be available from Serena in the coming weeks about SaaS-based Business Mashups and Agile ALM software tools. In the meantime, further information is available at www.serena.com.

About Serena Software, Inc.
Serena Software, Inc. is the leading global independent software company focused on Business Mashups and Application Lifecycle Management (ALM). More than 15,000 organizations around the world, including 96 of the Fortune 100, rely on Serena solutions to automate the application development process and effectively manage their IT portfolio. Serena is headquartered in San Mateo, California, and has offices throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia Pacific. For more information on Serena solutions and services, visit www.serena.com.

# # #

Serena and Mariner are registered trademarks of Serena Software, Inc. All other product or company names may be trademarks of their respective owners, and their use is intended for identification purposes only and not in association with or as sponsorship or endorsement by such owners. Copyright © 2008 Serena Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Soma Biswas joins Guruji.com as Vice President Marketing

2008-03-01T11:27:02+01:00

Bangalore, 1st March, 2008 — Guruji.com, India's first internet search engine today announced the appointment of Ms. Soma Biswas as Vice President, Marketing. Soma will be responsible for all marketing initiatives with specific focus on customer acquisition.

Soma has over 12 years of work experience in the consumer marketing domain. Before joining Guruji.com, Soma spent 8 years in Silicon Valley, California, developing and marketing internet-based services.

"We are very excited to have Soma on-board," said Anurag Dod, CEO and co-founder of Guruji.com, "As we launch new products and increase our user base, Soma's expertise will help us implement new marketing and customer acquisition initiatives to achieve our business goals.” he added.

An MBA from IIM Bangalore and B.Sc Statistics from Fergusson College, Soma has worked with leading companies like Leo Burnett, GE, Indya.com and iVillage.com, USA. Her areas of specialization include customer acquisition and revenue generation in the online space.

About Guruji.com

Guruji.com is India's first internet search engine. Founded by two IIT Delhi graduates, and backed by Sequoia Capital, the company focuses on developing search products for enhancing the Indian user experience. Crawl Technology, used by guruji.com, is a complex computing system that crawls the web identifying Indian content using sophisticated algorithms.

The technology is built on a distributed architecture that can scale with the growing needs of the users. It crawls the web, indexes the data that it gathers and provides the user with a simple keyword based interface to get to the data quickly and efficiently. The company has assembled a farm of servers to index the entire universe of Indian websites and is using propriety algorithms to go deep into the Indian internet domain and fetch locally relevant results to search queries of Indian consumers.

To learn more about Guruji.com, please visit www.guruji.com.

For more information please contact:

Sonali P.S.
9844489854
Mutual PR

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Guruji.com announces Gujarati language search

2008-02-20T13:54:39+01:00

Bangalore, 21st February, 2008 : Guruji.com, India’s first search engine announces the launch of its Gujarati language search. Having gained popularity with their other language searches in Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, and Telugu, this vernacular regional search will make the user search easier and enable better searches for terms typical to the Gujarati dialect. This search engine provides a simple but very effective language interface. Guruji.com provides a comprehensive Indian language search, covering a range of specific content – news, entertainment, travel, astrology, literature, business, education and more.

Spoken by about 46 million people worldwide, Gujarati is the twenty third most spoken language in the world and is one of the fifteen official languages of India.

“With internet usage gaining rapid popularity in India, removal of language barrier will further hasten the growth of regional language search in the country. The increasing adoption of Internet in B and C cities, are causing more and more Indians to adopt and explore newer opportunities by participating in this growing medium,” said Anurag Dod, Co-Founder & CEO, Guruji.com.

“Search is no longer viewed from a macroscopic level. The current trend is vertical search, which gets down to a microscopic level, whether it is a local content search or local language search. With the Gujarati launch, we aim to fulfill the information needs of the western region”, added Gaurav Mishra, Co-Founder & COO, Guruji.com.

About Guruji.com

The company has assembled a farm of servers to index the entire universe of Indian websites and is using propriety algorithms to go deep into the Indian internet domain and fetch locally relevant results to search queries of Indian consumers.

To learn more about Guruji.com, please visit www.guruji.com.

For more information, please contact:

Sonali P.S. / Narendra Singh

Mutual PR

9844489854/ narendra@mutualpr.com

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