Category: News

The use of shadow IT — storing and sharing files on non-sanctioned clouds from Box, Dropbox and others, partly propelled by the bring-your-own-device trend — is not news, because it’s been going on for years despite the compliance and security problems it can pose. But IT leaders are fighting back, and new investment in security startup Skyhigh Networks suggests that they’re hungry for tools that reveal the use of cloud services and quantify the potential for data breaches and other risks.

The company announced a $20 million Series B venture funding on Wednesday, bringing the total raised to more than $26 million. Sequoia Capital led the new round, which also contains a contribution from Greylock Partners.

Along with highlighting problematic use across multiple cloud services, the Skyhigh software also lets IT administrators take steps to minimize impact of the rogue behavior by controlling access to certain clouds and encrypting data, which could make activity more secure. Cisco and Equinix use the Skyhigh product. Skyhigh wants to add more customers and also invest in marketing and engineering with the new funding.

The news falls in line with an increase in investments in security recently. In addition to the Skyhigh investment, Blue Coat Systems has announced plans to acquire Solera Networks, and McAfee said it would buy Stonesoft.

But shadow IT is just one challenge facing CIOs these days, along with the push to try cloud services and implement big data projects. My colleague Barb Darrow will discuss challenges like these with the CIOs of the Clorox Co. and the Pabst Brewing Co. at GigaOM’s Structure conference in San Francisco on June 19.

Feature image courtesy of Shutterstock user alexmillos.

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Samsung is a brand that prides itself on bringing innovative technology to its devices, so it should come as no surprise that it is bringing fingerprint technology to its devices. The gang at SamMobile got a tip from a Sammy insider showcasing some Galaxy S III firmware from the SecSettings .apk file. Within the file is clearly the early components of some sort of fingerprint tracking system. When Samsung plans on releasing its newfound technology remains to be seen, but there will be no doubt it’ll certainly generate excitement and buzz in the meantime.

source: SamMobile

Come comment on this article: Surprise!!! Samsung secretly working on fingerprint protection technology behind the scenes

You may be aware that Samsung has been spending more on marketing lately than they have on research and development. Their latest video released to YouTube is another example of how that strategy is playing out. The 5-minute video titled “Hi Hey Hello” is based on a song by the same name from The Chicharones and follows the budding romance of a young couple. Director Joseph Kahn clearly had a directive from Samsung in producing the video – highlight the Samsung Galaxy S 4. He does this by putting the device in the hands of male lead who uses many of Samsung’s latest features like Dual Shot, Smart Pause, Drama Shot, Sound & Shot, Air Gesture, and Group Play/Share Music to attract his female lead’s attention. You can check out the video, which includes astronauts, after the break.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Come comment on this article: Hi Hey Hello musical short film from Samsung released

Farrah Abraham, former “Teen Mom” star, is working on getting her own reality show soon and is moving to L.A. to focus on her career.

The 21-year old just released a hugely successful sex tape to boost her career and now says she’s got big plans in the works. She tweeted the news recently, saying, “Get ready for better TV. The news is true.”

“There are a lot of meetings for a spin off show with me right now, so I just need to see what I like. I have had other leads in the past when I got out of my contract with MTV, but I haven’t found anything I agree with yet but when the time is right I’ll be OK with that,” she says.

But her goals are much bigger than just a reality show. After being arrested on suspicion of DUI in March, she said she wants to help others avoid her mistakes. She also said she’s not planning on getting into the sex biz just because she put out a video with porn star James Deen.

“I’m not choosing that life. I’m getting an online master’s in business communication and I want to open a modern fusion restaurant in Austin that has a drunk driving campaign to help people make good choices,” she says. “I really want to change the world.”

Image: SplashNews

Be honest. Since the advent of Forza Motorsports, you just haven’t been as excited about anything that has to do with the Gran Turismo series – I know I haven’t. Sony however is now getting ready to release Gran Turismo 6, and by the looks of the trailer, it seems to be pretty damn good. I’m just wondering how much farther they’ll be able to push the existing PS3 platform without sacrificing game play or graphics. Unfortunately we’re going to have to wait awhile to find out because Sony is saying we’re not going to see GT6 until around the time that Santa comes a calling. Check out the trailer after the jump.

Source: Youtube.com

Mformation® Software Technologies said on Wednesday that it has named Kevin A. Wood as its president and CEO. Wood succeeds Todd DeLaughter, who will remain on as strategic advisor. A global provider of mobility management solutions, Mformation is a portfolio company of Clearlake Capital Partners.

PRESS RELEASE

EDISON, N.J.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Mformation® Software Technologies Inc., the leading global provider of mobility management solutions, today announced the appointment of Kevin A. Wood as President and CEO to lead the company through its next stage of growth. Kevin succeeds Todd DeLaughter, who will remain a strategic advisor to the company.
“We want to thank Todd DeLaughter, who led Mformation for the last four years, and who will continue to be involved in the company’s expansion in his role as a strategic advisor and Clearlake executive council member.”
“We are very excited to have Kevin as the CEO of Mformation. We believe Kevin’s combination of operating skill, mobile technology experience, and market knowledge make him a fantastic choice to lead Mformation as it capitalizes on the rapid expansion of the enterprise managed mobility market,” said Behdad Eghbali, founding partner of Clearlake Capital Partners, which owns Mformation. “We want to thank Todd DeLaughter, who led Mformation for the last four years, and who will continue to be involved in the company’s expansion in his role as a strategic advisor and Clearlake executive council member.”
“I am excited by the opportunity to lead Mformation,” said Wood. “We have amazing assets, tremendous talent, and an unmatched legacy of innovation and execution. I look forward to executing on Mformation’s compelling vision for delivering the next generation of solutions for managing mobility. With Clearlake’s backing, and the growing market demand for more robust mobility management solutions that can scale to handle millions of mobile endpoints, Mformation has a superb opportunity to seize market share. We will work to retain and expand the company’s installed base of premiere customers, and to ensure that all of our customers continue to get strategic value from Mformation’s solutions for managing the mobile experience.”
“Mformation is an outstanding company with extremely driven, world-class, talented employees, and it has been an honor to serve as the company’s CEO,” said DeLaughter. “I am proud of what we have accomplished together, and am excited about working with Kevin and Clearlake to take the company into its next phase of innovation and growth.”
Kevin brings more than 20 years of executive leadership to Mformation. He was previously President and CEO of Airwide Solutions, a leader in mobile data, messaging, security and content solutions, where he led the company to dramatic growth, profitability and market leadership, and ultimately a successful exit. Prior to Airwide Solutions, Kevin was President, Americas for Comverse Network Systems. During his tenure at Comverse and its predecessor company Boston Technology, he was part of the management team that grew Comverse from the first few million dollars to over $1.2 billion in revenues, establishing it as a global leader in the communications enhanced services market. Most recently, Kevin was the founder and CEO of Cambria Technology Group, an advisory firm working with private equity firms focusing on mobile-enabled services, including enterprise mobility, mobile security, mobile applications and M2M services.
About Mformation
Mformation Software Technologies Inc. is the pioneer and leading global provider of management solutions for wirelessly connected devices. A private company, Mformation is owned by Clearlake Capital Partners, a middle-market private equity firm. Since 1999, Mformation’s solutions have been deployed by the largest mobile operators and managed service providers worldwide. With over 500 million devices under management, Mformation enables operators, service providers and enterprises to manage and secure wirelessly connected devices and the applications and services on them over any wireless network. Mformation’s award-winning Mformation Service Manager™ and Mformation Enterprise Manager™ software platforms provide solutions for next-generation service enablement, smart customer interaction, M2M device management and enterprise mobility management for operators, managed service providers and enterprises. For more information visit www.mformation.com.

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Kim Kardashian and her family have been accused in the past of doing things just for media attention and for show ratings; her 72-day marriage to basketball player Kris Humphries was highly publicized because of the huge, extravagant wedding which was trumped up for an episode of “Keeping Up With The Kardashians”. Many thought she only went through with the wedding for the show.

While there’s no proof that’s true, sometimes Kim does things that seem specifically targeted to get the most attention in the media. Regular old paper baby shower invites? Not for her. She opted for a music box that plays beau Kanye West’s “Hey Mama” and features a twirling ballerina that looks suspiciously like her.

Kim is due this summer; no word yet on whether the baby’s name will fit the “K” scheme.

TowerBrook Capital Partners L.P. said on Wednesday that it has made a majority investment in Kaporal, a French-based wholesaler and retailer of men and women’s fashion. No financial terms were disclosed. The transaction is expected to close in July 2013.

PRESS RELEASE

London, 21st May 2013 – TowerBrook Capital Partners L.P. (“TowerBrook”) has made a majority investment in Kaporal (“Kaporal” or the “Company”), a French-based wholesaler and retailer of men and women’s fashion.
TowerBrook had been in talks with Laurent Emsellem, the founder and majority owner of Kaporal, since the middle of 2012. The transaction was signed on an exclusive basis, demonstrating our mutual understanding of the exciting future of the Company.
Founded in 2003 by Laurent Emsellem, Kaporal began as a Marseille-based denim supplier and has grown into a well-recognised lifestyle brand in France. Kaporal has expertise across both wholesale and retail channels and is known for its quality, fashionable, well-priced products. More recently, the Company has made a number of key strategic hires including the current CEO, Santiago Cuchy, and CFO, Bénédicte Weimar.
Laurent has been integral to the success of the business and will continue as an investor in the Company under TowerBrook’s ownership and in his capacity as board member. He will be joined on the board by the CEO, Santiago Cuchy, as well as Daniel Bernard and Michael Rahamim, newly appointed as Executive Chairman and non-executive director respectively. MBO Partenaires, the existing minority shareholder, will re-invest in the Company following a successful period of ownership since 2008.
TowerBrook has significant retail experience and international expertise to support the Kaporal management team in continuing to expand the business over the next few years. There are particularly attractive opportunities in product development and greater focus across all current channels of distribution including an expansion of the Company’s retail and wholesale strategies and further growth in the online channel. The Company has made important steps recently to support its current management team through key hires across the organisation.
Laurent Emsellem, Founder Kaporal, commented:
“We have worked hard over the years to build our Company and I look forward to taking its growth to the next level with the support of TowerBrook. I strongly believe that TowerBrook, with its extensive retail experience, is the perfect partner to develop specific areas of the business, such as our retail and online strategies, with longer-term potential for expansion outside of our core markets today.”
Karim Saddi, TowerBrook Managing Director, said:
“We have developed a clear plan of operational and strategic improvements for both the retail and wholesale businesses. Our relationship with the Kaporal management team is absolutely fundamental and it is with great confidence that we move forward together.”
Winston Ginsberg, TowerBrook Managing Director, said:
“We are delighted to be able to make a significant investment in Kaporal. As one of the leading French retail clothing brands with a very well established heritage we believe it has strong growth opportunities.”
The transaction is expected to close in July 2013.

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iOS may well have a halfway decent keyboard, but it is still far slower to use than a regular desktop or laptop keyboard. Anything that can be done to reduce the amount of typing that has to be done on a daily basis is to be welcomed, and this is something that TextExpander has offered for some time. Type a few letters and they can be expanded into longer words or even entire sentences. With version 2.0 things just got a whole lot better.

There are a couple of key enhancements to be found in this latest release, not least of which is support for formatting. The context menu can now be used to add richly formatted text so you can save even more time.

But the killer feature here has to be fill-in snippets. While regular snippets comprise static text, fill-in snippets can include input fields such as drop down menus, check boxes and more. This is great if you want to have a stock email on hand, but need the option to easily change a few key words or details here and there — just call up the relevant snippet and make the changes with a few taps.

Another key new feature is a new Insert menu item which can be used in the creation of new snippets. It makes it much easier to include elements such as date, time and clipboard contents and brings the iOS version of the app more in line with the Mac edition. Snippets can be synced between the desktop and mobile apps so you always have access to the same snippets without the need to recreate them.

Of course, all of this comes at a price. The app will set you back $4.99 and can be purchased from the App Store.

A project called CoolEmAll has revealed prototype tools to aid the design of energy-efficient data centers. The European Commission-funded scheme wants data center designers and operators to test these tools ahead of a full release next year.

CoolEmAll hopes to come up with a simulation, visualization and decision support (SVD) toolkit, which could be used to simulate data centers while taking various factors into account. These include the types of applications that are being run, different hardware configurations, the intensity of workloads and specific management policies, as well as airflow. This would be represented through dashboards and 3D visualizations.

The project, which got funding as part of the Commission’s high-performance computing (HPC) drive, also aims to create a set of hardware and thermodynamic models that can be plugged into these simulations. These so-called Data Center Efficiency Building Blocks (DEBBs) will be made available in an open repository.

The analyst house 451 Research is taking part in the project. According to 451 analyst Andrew Donoghue:

“Factors such as rising fuel prices, stricter environmental legislation and constrained credit amid the financial crisis are contributing to higher capital and operational costs for data centre owners and operators. The tools and research that will result from the CoolEmAll project will help the data centre industry to meet some of these challenges, and develop more efficient and sustainable facilities.”

The prototype tools can be downloaded now. CoolEmAll is looking for people to test them, and also to potentially work with the consortium if they have something to offer.

In the meantime, here’s a video demonstrating the user interface for CoolEmAll’s under-construction Module Operation Platform:

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Machines are giving us better and better suggestions for things to read, restaurants to eat at and people to date. Behind the curtains, some of the ways these services are being delivered are also being automated.

An article out Wednesday from Data Center Knowledge envisions the next few steps for automating operations inside the data centers. Robots can move literally higher up the stack than humans and still be safe, which means data center builders can build vertically instead of horizontally. That could bring better use of data center floor space.

If robots do all the work on the floor, lights might become unnecessary, and poof: just like that, a line item can be nixed from the budget. Deploying robots could also lead to less downtime, as they could act with more certainty than people when it comes to replacing a server or another hardware component.

Using robots to grab equipment is “becoming quite feasible,” and Google does it to get backup storage tapes, according to the article. Most gear isn’t really made for machines to handle, though, so this area might be in need of tinkering before it can get widely adopted.

The article also makes mention of unmanned data centers, including one operated by AOL. Apple revealed plans last year to build one of these facilities in Prineville, Ore., before saying it would expand the site to add data centers where some people would work. As more companies move in that direction, prices will drop, leading to further market penetration.

Despite this, the article suggests that data centers will still need administrators, so not everyone working inside data centers will lose their jobs as this wave of automation carries through — for now.

Meanwhile, data center admins can also optimize their facilities by changing out hardware and software to match use cases. Pat Gelsinger, CEO of VMware, will talk about his vision for the software-defined data center, and Andrew Feldman, general manager and corporate vice president of AMD, will talk about how companies can do these things at GigaOM’s Structure Conference in San Francisco on June 19.

With these sorts of upgrades, while the initial capital expenditures might be high, they could bring operating expenses down for public, private and hybrid cloud providers, resulting in price drops for customers in time.

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If you ever happen to get an invite to one of Justin Bieber’s house parties (you won’t, but you can keep on reading), just make sure you don’t tweet about it or post any photos to Instagram. If you do, Bieber reserves the right to sue the absolute hell out of you.

TMZ obtained a copy of a waiver that guests must sign upon admittance to his Calabasas, California home.

There, in plain writing, it reads that “”under no circumstances will you divulge the details of you entering and being on the Property or engaging in the Activities by any means or through any media whatsoever, including without limitation, through photographs, video, blogging, texting, ‘Tweeting’ or posting any such information on any social media site.”

The waiver also forbids guests from discussing “all information concerning [Bieber and company’s] business and personal activities, including, without limitation, their legal and financial affairs, physical health, or the philosophical, spiritual or other views or characteristics.”

The document stipulates damages of up to $5 million for violation of the terms.

TMZ notes that this is hardly news in the celebrity community – other celebs also make guests sign these types of waivers.

Google has launched an update to Google Drive for Android with a few new features.

For one, files are now displayed in a new card-style, and you can swipe between them to see large previews. You can also now download copies to your Android device from within the actions menu in settings.

“The updated Drive for Android app also gives you to a way to keep track of important paper documents like receipts, letters, and billing statements,” says Google software engineer Denis Teplyashin. “Simply click ‘Scan’ from the Add New menu, snap a photo of your document, and Drive will turn the document into a PDF that’s stored for safekeeping.”

“And because Drive can recognize text in scanned documents using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology, a simple search will retrieve the scanned document later,” adds Teplyashin. “No more frantic scrambling through drawers looking for a receipt or digging through your pockets to find that business card — just scan, upload and search in Drive.”

The Google Sheets editor now lets you adjust font types and sizes for spreadsheets, and change the cell text colors and cell alignment from the app.

The app also comes with Cloud Print support.

Being a ghostbuster isn’t easy. You may stumble upon some rather scary things, including your son having sex with your wife.

The Mercury reports that a 28-year-old woman recently pled guilty to five counts of sexual intercourse with a minor. What makes this particular case a bit weirder isn’t the fact that the minor was her stepson, but rather, how they were caught.

It all started when the father set up a camera in the house hoping to find evidence of ghosts. He forgot to turn off the camera when he left for work and came back to a surprise. On the tape was footage of his wife having sex with her stepson.

In the following days, she confessed to police that she had sex with her stepson twice. She also said that she knew he was 16-years-old. She tried to play off the latter by saying that she thought the age of consent was 16.

Even after being separated from the boy, the prosecution stated that she had traveled to a remote hotel room to engage in more sexual activities with her stepson.

Obviously, the events put quite the damper on the relationship between the woman and her husband. She is now working to repair their relationship.

She will be sentenced on Monday.

According to a report from Philadelphia news station ABC 6, Zakia Clark and her sisters were booted from the Philadelphia-area King of Prussia Mall on Sunday. The women were reportedly wearing hats emblazoned with the words “FUCK CANCER” in pink type, though not quite, as the letter c in the word fuck was replaced by a pink ribbon – a well-known symbol of the breast cancer awareness movement. Mall security reportedly asked them to leave, and began arguing with Clark before kicking them out.

The hats were a reference to Clark’s mother, 51-year-old Jackie Underwood, who had just died after a four-year battle with breast cancer. The sisters were reportedly shopping for funeral dresses when they were kicked out of the mall.

Mall management released a statement to ABC 6, saying that the King of Prussia Mall is a “family destination” and that some words, even just suggested ones, “are considered profane and can offend many people.” One of Underwood’s daughters, Makia Underwood, pointed out that clothing with profanity – both explicit and implicit – can be bought within the mall. The mall has since apologized to Clark and her sisters, offering to donate money to a cancer charity.

Scan to Text is a BlackBerry 10 app by Yuri Salnikov that uses Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to turn words on paper into an editable document on your BlackBerry.

Ideal for scanning a whole page of text in one go, the app responds particularly well to high contrast text. The OCR processing happens on your device and the photos of the pages of text get deleted after scanning so they don’t get mixed up with your photos.

The app works with flash or without, you’ll get better results with higher contrast so use your judgment. Scan to Text can also correct for rotation and skew so you don’t have to make sure you’re 100% dead on with your camera.

Combine a number of pages and send them via email, copy the text to the clipboard to bounce around to other apps or share them with your BBM contacts.

The App supports mostly European languages: Bulgarian, Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Tagalog andTurkish.

Click here to download the demo version of Scan to Text.

Click here to buy Scan to Text for $2.99 for BlackBerry 10.

First Aid Shot Therapy (“F.A.S.T.”) said on Wednesday that it has completed a Series A financing round. No financial terms were disclosed. Sofinnova Ventures led the round. According to F.A.S.T., the funds will be used for the company’s U.S. product launch beginning this summer. F.A.S.T, which is headquartered in Burlingame, Calif., is a consumer healthcare company focused on over-the-counter therapies in liquid form.

PRESS RELEASE

BURLINGAME, Calif., May 21, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — First Aid Shot Therapy®, Inc. (“F.A.S.T.”), a consumer healthcare company focused on over-the-counter (OTC) therapies in liquid ‘shot’ (40ml / 1.35oz.) form, today announced it has completed a Series A financing round. New investor Sofinnova Ventures led the round.
The funds will be used to support the company’s U.S. product launch beginning in the summer of 2013.
“We are pleased to welcome premier healthcare investor Sofinnova Ventures, who shares F.A.S.T.’s excitement around the rapidly growing consumer healthcare market,” said Mary Page Platerink, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of F.A.S.T. “Since our seed round of funding, we have developed our launch products, set our go-to-market strategy and built a world class team. We look forward to launching our products this summer with leading retailers.”
F.A.S.T.’s products are OTC pharmaceutical based single serve liquids that meet the applicable OTC monograph and are intended to treat everyday conditions such as pain and upset stomach. Additional products aimed at a broad range of consumer needs are being developed and will be launched in due course. F.A.S.T.’s product portfolio addresses common health conditions that affect tens of millions of Americans every day.
“We are delighted to support F.A.S.T. in commercializing their initial products this summer,” said Garheng Kong, M.D., Ph.D., General Partner of Sofinnova Ventures. “We believe the consumer healthcare segment to be a vital growth area for healthcare investment today, and F.A.S.T. is well positioned to be one of the leaders in this field.”
About First Aid Shot Therapy®, Inc.
Headquartered in Burlingame, California, privately held First Aid Shot Therapy®, Inc. is focused on the development and commercialization of a comprehensive portfolio of OTC pharmaceutical products in liquid ‘shot’ (40ml / 1.35oz.) format. The F.A.S.T. team is comprised of consumer product executives that have been responsible for the launch and commercial success of products such as VitaminWater and Pretzel Crisps. F.A.S.T.’s products are formulated by the Company’s proprietary research and development organization, F.A.S.T. Labs ™. F.A.S.T. was co-founded by Professor Jay Pasricha , M.D., Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins Medicine. In addition, F.A.S.T. has assembled an Advisory Board comprising some of the leading regulatory advisors and consumer marketing executives in the world including Mary Minnick , Partner at Lion Capital and former President of Marketing, Strategy and Innovation at The Coca-Cola Company and Peter Barton Hutt , former General Counsel of the Food and Drug Administration.
About Sofinnova Ventures
Sofinnova Ventures has over 40 years of experience building healthcare companies into market leaders. With $1.4 billion in committed capital, the firm applies capital and expertise to take companies from inception to exit. Sofinnova closed its life science-focused $440M fund, SVP VIII, in late 2011. The firm’s investment team of MDs and PhDs has significant scientific, operational and strategic experience, and specializes in financing later stage clinical products and growth companies. Our team partners with entrepreneurs to address patients’ unmet medical needs and develop innovative products. Sofinnova Ventures has offices in Menlo Park and La Jolla, California. For more information, please visit www.sofinnova.com.
For more information, please visit www.firstaidshottherapy.com

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Tanzania’s founding father Mwalimu (Swahili teacher) Julius Nyerere was certainly both erudite and multi-lingual; as he guided his country to independence in the 1960s he translated Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice and Julius Caesar into Swahili in his spare time. He was also a passionate believer that all Tanzanians should speak and be literate in Swahili, it has been suggested that the ability to adequately express such rich works as Shakespeare in Swahili, gave him the strength to resist pressure to adopt English as the national language.

Swahili since then has been used as the language of instruction through pre-school and seven years of primary education, leaving students with a difficult transition to English medium instruction as they enter Form I of secondary school around the age of 14. As I’ve recently posted the rapid expansion of secondary schooling in Tanzania (enrolment tripled in the past 7 years) has exacerbated this problem with many new secondary schools, teachers and students unable to cope.

The large drop in secondary Form IV examination results for 2012 led to the Prime Minister establishing a special probe (commission) into the reasons why; the nation awaits with interest the findings. The standard of English in teaching is a factor likely to be cited in the report, together with complaints about a dysfunctional system that has over-expanded and has under qualified, demotivated teachers. Tanzanians were surprised however that prior to the probe reporting fully, the first concrete action taken by government on the matter was to annul all Form IV candidates’ results and demand that the exam board NECTA re-grade them according to the system used previously, which puts greater emphasis on continuous assessment marks that many believe are inflated.

Minister launches UK Development project

This topic is likely to remain hot for some time, but meanwhile it was pleasing last week to join Tanzanian Minister of Education, Dr. Shukuru Kawambwa at the launch of a new English Language Training programme that DFID is funding. Being implemented by two of our most trusted partners: the British Council and VSO, we hope this can have a lasting impact on improving English language competencies and  the ability of secondary school students in Tanzania to effectively learn. Expert tutors and volunteers will directly work with all of the 34 Tanzanian public teacher colleges to improve tutors and trainee teachers’ pedagogic skills and ensure that each year all 400,000+ new Form 1 students starting secondary school receive a foundation English language readiness course – Baseline.

Switching to use of a second language is daunting, I managed to fumble my way through a self-introduction in Swahili at the launch, but nobody expects me to use it fluently in my regular work, as many Tanzanians must try to. Minister Kawambwa was pleased to meet student teachers from nearby Vikindu College at the launch, they were already eager to showcase their confidence in English as they described their hopes and ambitions for the future.

As language skills improve, Shakespeare’s classic insult of Gratianio in the Merchant of Venice, “You speak an infinite deal of nothing”, will hopefully never be a relevant description of the classrooms of Tanzania!

Minister Kawambwa, ELT Launch, Tanzania Int. Of Education May 2013 (courtesy British Council)

Skyhigh Networks said on Wednesday that it has received $20 million in Series B financing. The lead investor was Sequoia Capital. Greylock Partners, an existing investor, also participated in the round. Also, Aaref Hilaly, a partner at Sequoia Capital, has joined Skyhigh Networks’ board of directors. Skyhigh Networks, a provider of cloud solutions, is based is Cupertino, Calif.

PRESS RELEASE

CUPERTINO, Calif. — May 22, 2013 — Skyhigh Networks, the cloud visibility and control company, today announced that it has received $20M in Series B financing. The round was led by Sequoia Capital, with participation from existing investor Greylock Partners. Aaref Hilaly, partner at Sequoia Capital, has joined has joined Greylock’s Asheem Chandna on Skyhigh Networks’ Board of Directors. The company also unveiled the “30-in-30 Challenge,” which guarantees participants that Skyhigh will uncover at least 30 unknown cloud services in use by their organization in 30 minutes.
“Sequoia Capital’s investment provides significant validation of our ground-breaking approach to addressing the previously ignored issue of shadow IT,” said Rajiv Gupta, co-founder and CEO, Skyhigh Networks. “Customer demand since our launch has been tremendous, and partnering with Greylock and Sequoia will enable us to accelerate our strong growth and build the leading company in the cloud visibility and control market.”
“The rapid spread of BYOD and cloud computing has led to vast numbers of cloud services being adopted, often with no involvement from corporate IT,” said Hilaly. “Skyhigh sets itself apart from other security companies by giving IT a unique ‘searchlight’ to find these cloud services, assess the risks involved in using them, and control the confidential data stored in them — all in a way that’s respectful of the end user. We are thrilled to partner with Rajiv and his exceptional team who have a long history of delighting customers with innovative products.”
“Business users expose organizations to security and compliance risks when they adopt new cloud services without IT involvement,” said Asheem Chandna, partner at Greylock Partners and Skyhigh Networks board member. “Skyhigh enables IT teams to reduce these risks and accelerate the safe adoption of cloud services, allowing CIOs to once again become chief enablers of their businesses.”
With Skyhigh, IT departments discover, analyze, and control the cloud services used by employees on any device and from any network. In typical engagements, Skyhigh identifies over 10 times more cloud services in use than IT was aware of.
“We had no comprehensive way of knowing which services were in use, where outgoing data was headed, and what risks these cloud services implied for our business,” said Steve Martino, vice president, Information Security, at Cisco. “The number of cloud providers we were using was definitely an eyebrow raiser. We knew there would be a number of them, but we were surprised by exactly how many showed up.”
In order to shine a light on shadow IT, Skyhigh also announced the 30-in-30 Challenge. “Give us 30 minutes, and we’re confident we’ll find at least 30 cloud services in use by your organization that you didn’t know about,” said Kamal Shah, VP Products & Marketing, Skyhigh Networks. “If we don’t, you’ll enjoy 30 months of Netflix on us.”
Interested companies can sign up for the 30-in-30 Challenge at: http://www.skyhighnetworks.com/product/evaluation/30-in-30/
The Skyhigh Networks Cloud Services Manager is a zero footprint, multi-tenant service that discovers, analyzes, and controls cloud services in use within an organization:
Discover: See all cloud services in use and their associated security, legal, and business risks.
Analyze: Identify anomalous behavior and opportunities for consolidating subscriptions.
Control: Enforce key security and usage policies such as access control, data encryption, and data loss prevention.
Skyhigh Networks joins a distinguished set of companies, such as LinkedIn Corporation and Palo Alto Networks (NYSE: PANW), where Greylock and Sequoia have partnered with world-class entrepreneurs to build market-leading enterprises. This latest round brings the total investment in the company to more than $26M. Skyhigh will use the new capital to expand its sales, marketing, and engineering teams to meet the increasing demand for its services and to extend its leadership in the cloud visibility and control market.
About Skyhigh Networks
Skyhigh Networks, the cloud visibility and control company, enables companies to embrace cloud services with appropriate levels of security, compliance, and governance while lowering overall risk and cost. With customers including Cisco, Equinix, and Torrance Memorial Medical Center, the company was a finalist for the RSA Conference 2013 Most Innovative Company award and was recently named a “Cool Vendor” by Gartner, Inc. Headquartered in Cupertino, CA, Skyhigh is led by an experienced team and is venture-backed by Greylock Partners and Sequoia Capital. For more information, visit us at http://www.skyhighnetworks.com or follow us on Twitter @skyhighnetworks.

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