One of the newer startups in the Enterprise 2.0 community has been acquired by SuccessFactors, a SaaS provider that focuses on employee productivity.

SuccessFactors is acquiring CubeTree for $20 million in stock plus a contingent cash payment after three years, bringing the total value to $50 million.

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CubeTree is a real-time collaborative work space that provides a platform for cross-functional productivity. When we looked at the company last Fall, CubeTree had just launched its social business platform.

Video is a bit grainy but the video I shot at Enterprise 2.0 lat Fall will give you a picture of what the company does.

Its core features came with its ability to easily create profiles for leveraging a company’s contact information. It also has a unique micro-commenting system that give users the capability to comment on power point slides and spreadsheets for instance, down to the cell on the financial document.

SuccessFactors will integrate CubeTree into its Business Execution software.

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What is not a service these days? We start to wonder when we hear the latest incantation: “virtualization as a service.” But after closer look, perhaps it makes sense, especially considering now that VMware and Salesforce.com are working on a partnership and joint product dubbed VMForce.

So, we ask you: “What does virtualization as a service really mean?

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What does Virtualization as a Service Really Mean?polls

Last week, we asked: “How does the iPad affect cloud computing?”

Once again, seeing from our responses, it’s virtualization that plays a key role in the way cloud computing evolves. Plus, people agree that the tablet is the next step to the embedded computer on any object.

For Salesforce.com, a partnership with VMware could mean it gets a foot inside the data center with the capability to provide its technology in a private cloud environment, leveraging its installed base.

For VMware, the potential is to take a big step into the cloud, packaging its virtual infrastructure with Zimbra and the technology suite provided by Salesforce.com.

So, what do you think?

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The enterprise may now have what they have wanted for the iPhone. But now they have to decide if such a locked down device is control they want secede to Apple

We expect that Apple’s tight control over its hardware, software and content will not stop an enterprise from purchasing the device. But it may cause some to pause and consider a smartphone with the Android OS – built on an open-source model with many of the same enterprise features that will come with the iPhone OS 4.

In our post last week, we spoke with Ken Westin, CEO of ActiveTrak, who said the iPhone OS lacked multi-processing, SSL VPN, an and relied too much on MobileMe, making it troublesome for IT administrators. ActiveTrak allows for devices to be tracked if lost or stolen.

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It looks like Apple checked most of the items off Westin’s list except for one caveat. Multitasking work on the iPhone 3GS, its latest device but not the iPhone 3G.

That actually may help sell a lot more phones into the enterprise. IT will want the multitasking feature, primarily for security purposes. As Westin points out, it’s the multitasking that makes it possible for the ActiveTrak service to run in the background.

With multitasking, ActiveTrak would not have to do any social engineering as is required wit the current OS. Currently, ActiveTrak is disguised as a Safari icon on the iPhone. The application activates when the user accesses the Internet from the iPhone. If it is not accessed, the device can not be tracked.

But the Android has had multitasking capability since its inception so in this respect, it is not revolutionary for the iPhone to get such a feature.

As for control, could an enterprise lose access to iPhone apps? This is not likely but as we have seen with Flash, Apple will make uniform decisions about what content it allows. The Android offers an open marketplace that has none of the restrictions that Apple imposes.

Here’s what is included in the iPhone OS 4:

Multitasking

ReadWriteWeb’s Mike Melanson says the purists may not consider it multitasking but for most uses, it is close enough. He writes that multitasking, “for the most part, is handled by a double click on the home button, which pulls up a screen showing icons of all the apps currently hanging out in the background. Some, like Skype or Pandora, will actually be running, while others will simply be in a frozen state.”

Is that enough for an app like ActiveTrak? He said that from what he has seen so far, yes, it will suffice. Bit it is not something that puts it ahead of the Android.

SSL VPN

SSL VPN is now supported in iPhone OS 4. Apps are expected from Juniper and Cisco that will support SSL VPN, which allows for better way to securely access the enterprise from a browser across any device.

Microsoft Exchange

Email on the iPhone is now up to speed with the rest of the market. The iPhone allows a user to set up multiple Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync accounts. It also works with Microsoft Exchange Server 2010. Multiple email accounts may be pulled into one account or accounts may be viewed separately.

Data Wiping and Mobile Admin Control

IT administrators may now configure devices to update wirelessly. The device may be monitored to abide by corporate policies. It may be locked down if lost or the data may be wiped.

Wireless App Configuration

This would allow the control over what apps someone places on their device. According to Apple: “The iPhone OS 4 enables enterprises to securely host and wirelessly distribute in-house apps to employees over Wi-Fi and 3G. Apps can be updated without requiring users to connect to their computers.

One thing we don’t hear mentioned much is the lock down of the iPhone. Is it a major issue? It does mix into the whole scope of the app platform. So, we argue that it does. But, overall, we have to agree with the NextWeb. The difference between the iPhone and the Android in the enterprise might be best considered a draw:

“Wireless delivery of applications, great data encryption, Exchange Server support. When you’re in a business world, with today’s technology, these things become expected. These are no longer seen as value-added features of any OS, mobile or otherwise. Now, in fairness, Android OS is not at the top of the Enterprise game. But neither is Apple. For years, RIM has set the standard. Even today, other companies have a lot of work to do in order to catch up. I have to call this an even draw.”

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The App store for iPad is live and it includes a number of apps for business use.It’s a mixed bag, with media publications alongside apps from Cisco, LinekdIn and Box.net.

We got a demo of the Box.net app, and it provides a glimpse into how the iPad changes the customer experience, compared to the iPhone or a laptop.

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We’re not sure how a customer may actually use the app. The Box.net team says it may have an impact when a salesperson brings it to a sales meeting. They say the “business meeting” use case is there. But we agree with them when they also say that there will be a lot of use cases they did not anticipate.

Box.net focused on taking advantage of the larger screen and so it can be used in a number of orientations.

Initally, people will have the capability to view and share documents . Eventually, we can expect to see some of the new features that Box.net introduced in the past few months, including its viewer for watching videos in the Box.net environment. That would be interesting if no other reason than to see an enterprise-focused company adopt HTML5, as the iPad does not support Adobe Flash.

In the next few weeks, the company will add more features for the app:

• Download files from Box.net to the iPad
• Upload files from the iPad to Box.net
• Work with iWorks suite
• Ability to open third-party apps to edit certain files
• Launch the Box.net Ipad app from third-party apps

The iPad is not designed for creating documents. It looks like it better for viewing and sharing more than anything else. The keyboard is a shift that will take time to adjust to. Is the keyboard going extinct? If so, we still have a long way to go with the multi-touch experience.

The app is available for free from the App Store on the iPad or at www.itunes.com/appstore/.

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Update: YouTube is reportedly making the new design live on all YouTube video pages today.

Original Article: YouTube has unveiled a new version of its video pages. They are not rolled out as the default at this point, but users can opt-in to view them in the new format (they can easily opt out as well).

"In the coming weeks, we’ll be eager to hear what the community thinks and, as with many things in this newly designed user experience, we’ll incorporate their feedback in future iterations," a representative for YouTube tells WebProNews.

"YouTube is about creating and watching the world’s biggest video collection; therefore, the design should make the video the star," says YouTube. "To that end, the new look is more subdued, stripped down and simple than before. The design should help ease users into advanced features, while providing power users with all the functionality they want."

Here is a look at the design before and after (respectively):

The new page includes a "next up" video list. Other videos in the queue on the right side of the page will be based on information about how you found the video. If you get to the video through search, the rest of the search results will end up on the video page. If you arrive on a video from a playlist or recommendation, that will also be reflected in the queue.

More specific info about the video is featured under the video, with the description and stats in one place. A new expand capability is included to reduce clutter. Actions like sharing, rating, saving or flagging a video are also now all grouped in one button bar.

YouTube has replaced the five-star rating system with a like/dislike system. According to the company people pretty much just used the one star and five star options anyway. "Liking" a video will save it to your favorites.

The new design comes with some new size and quality controls in the player. "When you pick the size, we’ll serve you the ideal quality," says YouTube. "For those of you hungry for more control, you can pick the specific video quality (for example, SD, HD or 1080p) in an associated drop-down menu. We’ll warn you when we think there may be a better quality choice, but the control is in your hands."

Users will be able to search for other videos while a video is still playing, and the results will show on that same page. That will be a very nice addition.

Also, there is more prominent placement of channel/subscriber information, a new "see more videos" feature, and a change in channel banner placement. YouTube says that you may notice an absence of the "more from [your channel]" feature, but this is only temporary. It will be back.

Right now, YouTube is just letting users opt-in for the new design by clicking this link, but says the opt-in process will be made more accessible soon. If you have opted in, but wish to revert back to the old style, there is an opt-out link at the top of the new video page.
 

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> Will YouTube Be the Place to Rent Movies?

> YouTube To Experiment With Live Sports Coverage

> Google Gets Patent For YouTube Gaming

Google just announced a small but useful update to the chat feature in iGoogle and Orkut, Google’s social network. You can now use the chat feature to send photos, documents and other files directly to your contacts. More importantly, though, Google also announced that it plans to finally bring this file transfer functionality to Gmail’s built-in chat feature. Right now, if you want to transfer a file to your Google contacts, you either have to email them the file or use the Google Talk desktop app or a compatible instant messaging client.

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To use this feature, simply go to your chat widget in iGoogle or Orkut, start a chat and click on “Send a file…” in the “Actions” menu. The recipient will be able to either accept the incoming file or politely decline the transfer.

Chat in Gmail already features video and voice chat, but the file transfer feature is currently still missing. It always seemed rather strange to us that some of Google’s instant messaging services like the Google Talk desktop client already had this capability. Now, there isn’t even feature parity among the web-based version of Google Talk anymore. Hopefully Google will soon fulfill its promise and bring this feature to Gmail as well.

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Google introduced a new security feature for Gmail today. It notifies the user when a suspicious log-in activity is detected on their account. This notification will come in the form of a message saying ""Warning: We believe your account was last accessed from…" along with the geographic region that Google can best associate with the access. Engineering Director Pavni Diwanji explains on the Gmail Blog:

To determine when to display this message, our automated system matches the relevant IP address, logged per the Gmail privacy policy, to a broad geographical location. While we don’t have the capability to determine the specific location from which an account is accessed, a login appearing to come from one country and occurring a few hours after a login from another country may trigger an alert.

By clicking on the "Details" link next to the message, you’ll see the last account activity window that you’re used to, along with the most recent access points.

Gmail will allow users to change their passwords from the same window if they choose, or they can click "dismiss" if they are sure the log-in activity was legitimate.

Google intends to extend the feature into Google Apps after enough feedback is gathered.

Google Apps is offering migration for Microsoft Exchange. The service is free with Google Apps Premiere or Google Apps Education.

Last July, Google Apps began offering migration from IBM’s Lotus Notes. Most enterprises are standardized on either Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Notes, which means that Google now pretty much can migrate any organization to the cloud. Google also offers connection to Blackberry Enterprise Server.Google Apps is providing migration for Microsoft Exchange 2003 and 2007.

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Microsoft has very limited capability to offer a cloud-based email environment. Most of the offerings it provides are locally installed, single-hosting services. Concerns will wane about cloud security. The ability to offer a cloud-based email environment for easy access will be the norm, not the exception. But even though Google has a jump, Microsoft will have its own offering. In the meantime, Google has an opportunity to make another leap into the enterprise.

This does represent a tipping point for many companies shedding IT assets. The question about email often comes up when companies consider moving to the cloud. It’s an important part of the migration. In recent weeks, we have seen how email is becoming a foundation for the evolution of a web oriented, social enterprise. Google Apps Marketplace offers the capability to offer third party applications that integrate with Google Apps. Email is a critical part of the equation in this Google ecosystem. It provides a backbone for companies to connect its employees with Google Apps and the associated third-parties.

The process to migrate looks relatively simple. Through Google Apps, a customer enters their Microsoft Exchange user name and what it calls “two-legged OAuth,” consisting of a consumer user key and a consumer “secret”. They then upload a .CSV file consisting of the email adresses, calendar and contact information. It is optional what to migrate. For example, an IT administrator may upload email addresses and contact data but not the calendar. Email service does not get interrupted during the migration.

This is a compelling offering for companies moving to the cloud. But it’s only part of the equation. Google still needs to prove it is robust enough for the enterprise to migrate to Google Apps. In the meantime, Microsoft needs to act fast and provide a cloud offering that at least gives its own community the option to move Microsoft Exchange to the cloud.

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The IBM Cloud is a prototype of the ecosystem we expect to see emerge in the world of cloud services. It has the flavor of other platform environments, with the primary goal of integrating IBM with third-party applications to serve developers and end customers.

It is the partners that tie into the larger ecosystems, often existing on multiple platforms. The healthy platforms will resemble coral reefs in which the partners are important to the cloud ecosystem as the platform itself.

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But what is the importance of these third-party applications and what do they say about the future of IBM Cloud?

RightScale

RightScale http://rightscale.com is becoming a power in its own right. The San Diego-based company provides a sought after need. The capability to port applications to the cloud. RightScale is playing across the market. It has served as an important partner for Amazon Web Services in helping companies deploy cloud-based applications in the cloud. As part of an IBM ecosystem, the company will be one of those go to services that helps manage the cloud’s inherent complexities.

Kaavo

Kaavo is another cloud management application that leverages its position as a service that according to the web site, provides “middleware on demand.”That’s a fascinating example of how entire infrastructures are moving off premise and into cloud environments. For instance, Kaavo makes the claim that it can bring online one or multiple server systems, configure middleware and deploy applications The result being that people may use the IBM platform to set up and tear down test and and development environments within minutes. Again, we see how IBM is seeking to provide services that serve the needs of the developer or IT manager looking for more efficient and powerful ways t leverage its assets in a private cloud environment or in a public cloud.

Silanis

Silanis fits in the e-signature market. In January, the company announced services that integrate with IBM’s LotusLive. The service allows companies to work with customers in an extranet environment where contracts may be reviewed, modified and electronically signed. The service would seem to fit with IBM’s efforts to create a transaction environment within IBM Cloud.

Aviarc

IBM is partnering with several application developers, including Aviarc, a custom software application developer for on-premise, private cloud, appliances or the multi-tenant environment of IBM Cloud.

These are just samplings of the ecosystem that IBM is developing. You can tell that IBM is following its strategy to serve hybrid environments and establish its platform as a place where developers may build, test, sell and distribute applications.

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The Windows Phone 7 news kind of threw us a bit this week. It had almost no mention about how it would serve the enterprise. It almost seemed like Microsoft had given up.

Now we are starting to see some reports about how Windows Phone 7 would fit for the mobile enterprise. And it makes us wonder. Will the Windows Phone 7 better serve the enterprise than the iPhone?

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The Blackberry is the leader in the market. For our purposes, we are looking at how the challengers compare to each other. Android may become the biggest rival to the Blackberry with its tight integration into Google’s enterprise suite and the ability to use multiple applications at the same time.

I’s the iPhone that looks a bit vulnerable. Without a doubt, the iPhone is showing success in the enterprise. Apple had a robust earnings report for the fourth quarter thanks in good part to sales of the iPhone to people who use it for work.

But here’s the catch. We really have not seen any bona fide use of mobile collaboration tools as of yet across any device. People are using smartphones to check messages and use applications. The applications they do use are services like Twitter.

When mobile collaboration does find its place in the market, it’s not going to be a one application world. It will require the ability to mashup data, pulling information from multiple sources. Our daily work requires us to use multiple applications simultaneously. That’s not possible with the iPhone. And it will not be possible with the iPad. This issue will become even more pronounced as more enterprise applications enter the mobile market.

In comparison, Windows Phone 7 is an information centric device. Information is stored in hubs and you can view the different hubs as a panorama on the device screen. That makes it potentially better than the iPhone or the Nexus One, which do not have that capability.

People want to see the information without having to go from application to application. A panorama is more akin to the experience we get on a device like a laptop. That’s far more suitable for the enterprise.

Gizmodo:

“Out of the box, this information is organized into areas called hubs, which follow the user’s areas of interest. Accessible through live tiles in the home screen, the Me (the user), people, pictures and video, music, and games–plus the omnipresent search–hubs give views into several data sources, connecting and presenting them into an interweaved panoramic stream. These hubs dig heavily into many databases, both locally and into the cloud.”

Ironically, Microsoft often get labeled as a company that creates silo environments. From our view, the mobile applications of today have a certain silo effect. Windows Phone 7 and its hub structure means that it can draw from deep databases from on-premise and the cloud. That to us seems like a powerful combination that is well suited to an enterprise world.

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Google Apps is making it a bit more enticing for companies of all sizes to adopt its service for the Blackberry smart phone.

In a post this morning on the Google Enterprise blog, the group announced Google Apps Connector for Blackberry Enterprise Server has doubled the number of Blackberry phones it can support. This effectively allows larger enterprises to place more users on fewer servers.

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Google is also offering the capability to host multiple Google App accounts, broadening the number of users that can be supported.

In August, Google Apps launched its integration with Blackberry. The most significant aspect of the integration is the syncing capabilities. Google Apps Connector provides access to Google Apps email, calendar, and contacts from the built-in BlackBerry applications.

Email, folders and contacts are all synchronized between Google Apps and the Blackberry application.

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