Cloudy Days at vForum

This week I was at the vmware virtualisation forum in Sydney where there was much talk of "the cloud". vmware must have been pleased with the weather, because it was also cloudy (with added rain) when I arrived - which was disappointing.

Generally it was a good event - and it was also free to attend!  Every presenter from every large organisation represented seemed intent on defining what the "cloud" really means, this got kind of boring after a while.

Virtualisation technology is now mainstream, and the key virtualisation technology provided by vendors such as vmware, Microsoft and Citrix has enabled service providers to effectively offer what is often now termed as Infrastructure as a service. At EMS we are working hard on our own virtual datacenter offering, this has now been deployed into several customers.  The core benefits of the Cortex platform mean that our customers can very quickly offer Infrastructure as a service.

Watch this space, we will be releasing more information soon on this product.

First code drop of Cortex 8.4 has been delivered into our test environments

We have now started our system integration testing on the new 8.4 Cortex release. The scope of this release is focused on extending the control panel’s support for BlackBerry 5 & Exchange 2010 and introducing the management and permission delegation of organizational structures in Cortex.

There are also some exciting changes to the end user experience. Users can now reset their passwords if they have forgotten their old one by answering some personal verification questions before the password is saved. This empowers the end user to take responsibility of their account.

Future enhancement requests raised by our customers include a trial customer feature where prospective customers can set up a trial customer account for a period of time to trial the services that a Service Provider may host. 8.4 will introduce such a system where Service Providers will be able to manage demo customers and users.

The Cortex Test Team will be testing the new code over the next month with the 8.4 release being tentatively available for customer implementations from the end of November 2009.

Watch this space for more details on the features that will be implemented as part of 8.4.

Cortex Hosted Exchange: Contacts Pagination

With every new version of Cortex, the Development Team not only work on new features for Cortex, they strive to make improvements to existing functionality. In Cortex 8.3 they have made a number of performance improvements, some as a result of requests from our customer base. One of these improvements was to adjust the pagination rules for a users Hosted Exchange contacts limiting the number of contacts per page in Cortex to 20.

This is a change from the way Cortex previously worked as the View-All button used to display all the contacts on the one page. This was problematic for many customers because if they had hundreds of contacts (like lots of us do) it meant the page could take a long time to load. The change has caught a few users out who liked to load all their contacts up on one page and then use search functions to look for contacts – the search function only works with the displayed page.

If you wish to maintain the previous functionality you can do so by increasing (or even decreasing) the contacts per page limit. To make this change you need to access the file system on your Cortex Web Server and edit the following file:

C:\EMS\Cortex\CortexWebRoot\CortexDotNet\Web.config

If you search for the term ContactsRecordsPerPage you will come across the following entry:

add key="ContactsRecordsPerPage" value="20"

If you change the number against the value attribute and save the file, this will immediately update the number of contacts per page displayed in Cortex (no need to restart any services).

Upgrading to Cortex from an HMC Control Panel

Since Microsoft announced HMC was being retired, we have had an increasing number of questions around migration, the most common one being, I use HMC, How can we move from our HMC Control Panel to Cortex?

Migration is never straightforward, however the good news about HMC is that it automated provisioning - which makes migration somewhat easier. At Cortex we've been migrating users onto the platform for some time, and in a number of cases we've had to deal with a beast uglier and more complex than HMC.... yes, the "Manomatic" provisioning system - a home made system that has typically been through several unpleasant and painful levels of evolution. Often, by the time we're involved we're fighting to tame a three headed monster.

The problem with manual provisioning is:
(a) Humans aren't very good at repetitive tasks, they forget things and don't follow instructions well.
(b) After the first couple of times, manual provisioning gets kind of boring, so corners get cut.
(c) Smart engineers delegate the task to a trainee - who gets lost and makes more mistakes.

So in conclusion - automagic provisioning is the way to go, and if you've already been using HMC the migration process once proven, can be easily repeated across all of your hosted customers.  (we've also done lots of them, which makes it easier)

HMC Control Panel Migration Process
HMC stores it's user and service information in Active Directory and in a small SQL database.  In order to ensure best accuracy of data, Cortex tries to base the core migration from the Active Directory. 
1. Extract user data from AD
We use LDIFDE to make a quick extract of the directory into a text file.  This separation means that we can use the same process for moving users from one directory to another.
2. Import data into the Cortex migration tool
The file is loaded into the migration tool - this can then be used to identify resellers, customers and users.
3. Determine services provisioned to users
As the file is parsed, much information about the user and their HMC services can be gathered from the AD data.  This is used to determine the appropriate Cortex plan for each user.
4. Determine services provisioned to customers
By determining which services a user has consumed, we can determine which services and plans a customer should have... and similar for the reseller.
5. Provision
Provisioning sends requests to the Cortex API, the customers, users and services are provisioned into Cortex, the end result is users that can be managed with Cortex.

Minimising impact on the end-user
Provided migration tools are configured correctly and good sample tests are completed, the migration should not affect the end-users consumed service in any way.  The biggest impact is in the change of control panel and in communicating this well to your end users.

EMS-Cortex partners with implement.com to deliver next-generation Cloud services

Auckland. 9 October 2009. EMS-Cortex today announced a strategic partnership agreement with Seattle-based implement.com Corporation. The agreement will see implement.com provide implementation and consulting services to Cortex customers worldwide.

implement.com is the leading worldwide systems integrator of Microsoft-based provisioning systems and infrastructure to hosted service providers and telecommunications companies. implement.com has a close working relationship with Microsoft, offering consultancy, training and services to both Microsoft and its customers.

implement.com President Steve Schwartz says the partnership is logical in that it combines complementary skill sets and software: “Cortex provides a comprehensive control panel capability that enables hosted services to be set up and managed through a single interface. implement.com specializes in the infrastructure itself, so it’s a perfect match,” he says.

“Cortex has a number of unique strengths. The software delivers a highly self-reliant provisioning engine, with architecture flexible enough to allow us to expand capabilities for clients – without modifying the platform itself,” says Schwartz.

“We are delighted to be partnering with EMS-Cortex, especially as we start to enter into the 2010 release cycle from Microsoft where our respective assets will be critical to the success of our mutual customers.”

EMS-Cortex General Manager Colin Williams says the partnership agreement formalizes an existing relationship with implement.com. The two companies have worked together in the past on Cloud implementations for tier-1 companies, including global telecommunications companies and systems integrators.

“implement.com will help us bring our cloud solutions to market by expanding our implementation capability, especially for larger projects and high market demand areas such as Exchange 2010, server virtualization, Office Communications Server and hosted voice systems,” he says.

“The partnership with implement.com is highly strategic for us. It means we can support the explosive growth in demand for our software with the highest quality implementation and consulting services.”

Williams says global demand for the Cortex platform has been accelerated by Microsoft’s discontinuing development of its own provisioning services engine. EMS-Cortex has increased customer numbers by more than 40 percent over the past 12 months, with sales in Australia, Europe, the UK and the US.

The implement.com partnership announcement closely follows a global purchase of EMS-Cortex’s provisioning and management software by Unisys Corporation. Unisys made the purchase to support and bring clear differentiation to its Unified Communication as a Service offering. The Unisys strategy enables clients to choose the type of data center computing services that best meet their business objectives, from self-managed private clouds to Unisys-managed cloud services as well as hybrid solutions.

Colin Williams says the Unisys deal helps illustrate the rapid evolution of ‘next generation’ Cloud services. “Inside the Cloud we’re seeing trends towards virtualization, customer self management, virtual private clouds, and an ever wider choice of applications,” he says. “There is huge demand for customer-specific integration of hosted applications, specialized implementations of virtual private clouds, and support of business and billing systems.

“The Cloud revolution is just beginning. We’re excited to be at the forefront of that revolution - supported by partners of the caliber of implement.com.”

Unisys selects EMS-Cortex for Cloud Computing Service

Auckland. 12 October 2009. EMS-Cortex today announced that global IT services company Unisys Corporation has selected the New Zealand-developed EMS-Cortex provisioning and management software to support and bring clear differentiation to the Unisys Unified Communication as a Service offering.

This Unisys offering enables secure communication and collaboration in Microsoft Outlook, SharePoint and Office Communication Services environments. It is a software as a service (SaaS) offering provided through the Unisys Secure Cloud Solution, which enables enterprise clients to securely move conventional business applications – including those with secure or sensitive data – into a managed, shared cloud service without costly, time-consuming rewrites or other alterations.

Unisys New Zealand managing director, Brett Hodgson, said Cortex had been selected following a competitive evaluation between the Cortex software and software from other vendors worldwide.

“Unisys selected EMS-Cortex for its combination of functionality and value. Its feature set matched our requirements to be the provisioning and management portal for the Unisys Secure Unified Communication as a Service offering in data centres that support the Unisys Secure Cloud Solution. The first implementation will be in North America.

“Unisys has supported businesses and government organisations in New Zealand for more than 40 years, and we are delighted to play a role in the international growth of EMS-Cortex as an innovative New Zealand software developer,” Hodgson said.

Cortex software provides a comprehensive control panel capability which enables hosted services to be set up and managed through a single interface. A key differentiator for Cortex is its ability to allow end customers to perform day-to-day administration themselves, as well as the breadth of applications it supported – including key Microsoft applications, Blackberry and Citrix.

EMS Cortex CEO Mark Loveys said the selection of Cortex by Unisys to support one of its global cloud services offerings was a major sales milestone for the Cortex product.

“We’re delighted that Unisys has selected Cortex to support its unique cloud offering. Our success in winning this business is evidence of our leadership in provisioning and managing large enterprise level customers, as well as smaller companies. That speaks to our technical strengths around customer self management, multi-tenanting, and the breadth and depth of applications we support,” Loveys said.

Loveys also said the Unisys sale was part of a strong increase in market demand from large international providers of hosted services as the Cloud computing model gains momentum. This demand has seen EMS Cortex increase its customer numbers by more than 40 percent over the past 12 months, with sales in Australia, Europe, the UK and the US. Flagship customers include Telecom New Zealand and Australia’s largest web and application hosting company, WebCentral.
Unisys unveiled its cloud computing strategy – with the Secure Cloud Solution as a core component – on 30 June 2009 . The Unisys strategy enables clients to choose the type of data center computing services that best meet their business objectives, from self-managed private clouds to Unisys-managed cloud services as well as hybrid solutions.

SaaS: 10 Ways to Fail – Part 1

There's some good food for thought in this article for anyone working on SaaS software (read the part 2 as well)
SaaS: 10 Ways to Fail – Part 1

Unisys/Cortex Press Release from Computerworld

Control Panel for HMC

The term "HMC" refers to the Microsoft solution for "Hosted Messaging and Collaboration" - essentially, HMC includes a hosting solution for Exchange, SharePoint and OCS. Release 4.5 was the last release of HMC and there will be no more.

The HMC solution only included a sample control panel, HMC did provide a code level abstraction layer to each of the hosted applications, this was called MPS - the Microsoft Provisioning Server. The sample control panel demonstrated how a control panel could be connected to MPS in order to automate provisioning and administration.

MPS along with HMC has reached end of life. Cortex is not built around MPS but still adds value to any HMC based environment. As an HMC control panel, Cortex can be brought in to manage an existing HMC infrastructure. Cortex has a proprietary provisioning engine that gives transparency to what it's doing, the ability to build custom provisioning processes, an easier route to adding more hosted services and much more flexibility around how you sell and manage your hosted services. It's flexibility and simplicity mean that if you choose Cortex now, you will be well placed for the changes coming with the new range of hosted Microsoft products.

Note that as a solution, much of HMC was about ensuring that an environment was suitably engineered to cope with scalable hosting - i.e. high volumes of users operating in a shared hosting environment. This was good work, it was well designed and tested and is still applicable. If an environment has been built following the HMC guidelines this will provide a sound platform for hosting.

Cortex is well proven in this field, we are a Microsoft Gold partner and have been working in the area of provisioning for 10+ years, Cortex has been selectd after in-depth technical comparisons by an increasing number of the worlds largest hosting providers over MPS based solutions.

In conclusion, if you are considering deploying an HMC solution, you will still need a control panel, but take a look at Cortex before investing in an MPS based solution that could need replacement in the next 12 months and will not have any more investment.