Category: Uncategorized

On the AJAX-driven Web, Plain Old Semantic HTML Can Help

  • Posted on: December 10, 2012
  • Author: Skytap
For those of us working in specialized industries, investing in the strict microformat standardization process for most of the data we trade in is a lofty goal, with little reward. Microformats are standardized to encourage the browser and other software to apply behavior to the marked-up data (say, extracting a vCard and adding it to

User Support Series: Getting Started

  • Posted on: December 7, 2012
  • Author: Skytap
In the Skytap Cloud User Support series, we are taking a close look at sections of Skytap Help documentation. In this entry, we’ll look at the Getting Starting area, which contains guides for new users. You can reach this section by navigating to https://cloud.skytap.com/docs/index.php/GettingStarted, or selecting Getting Started from the Help Wiki sidebar: This page

Balancing Public and Private with a Hybrid Cloud Strategy

  • Posted on: December 5, 2012
  • Author: Skytap
In a new article, Network World has named 2013 the year of the hybrid cloud. The article also includes 10 predictions by industry analysts, and two in particular caught my eye. Prediction #1: Hybrid clouds will take off. That is, in fact, exactly what we are seeing happen on the front lines here at Skytap.

Top 3 Conversations We Had at the Recent Gartner Summit

  • Posted on: December 3, 2012
  • Author: Skytap
Our team recently returned from the Gartner Application Architecture, Development & Integration Summit in Las Vegas. This year, the summit featured a new mobile track, deep coverage of cloud recommendations, and a complete track on innovation for developers and another on growth and innovation—all designed to help IT professionals stay competitive and deliver the new

Skytap Cloud Help Documentation: An Overview

  • Posted on: December 3, 2012
  • Author: Skytap
Skytap Cloud has been designed from the ground up to be easy to use, with an intuitive interface that guides the user through the process of managing a virtual environment. That said, Skytap Cloud has an array of specialized features, as well as some unique concepts that should be learned to take full advantage of

New Windows 8 Enterprise Template

  • Posted on: November 29, 2012
  • Author: Skytap
Microsoft Windows 8 announced yesterday that they have sold 40 million upgrade licenses since October 26. This puts it well on track to exceed Windows 7 sales, which sold 60 million in its first two months. To support the new Windows 8, we’ve replaced our Windows 8 Preview template with a shiny new Windows 8

Adding Cloud Infrastructure to Your Automated Dev/Test Environment

  • Posted on: November 28, 2012
  • Author: Skytap
When most people think about using a public infrastructure cloud, it’s usually for an Internet-facing application like a company web server. And if you’ve ever considered a public infrastructure cloud for a training or dev/test environment, you might picture end users having to use some kind of remote access client, connecting via a client-based VPN,

White Paper: Putting the Agile into the Infrastructure

  • Posted on: November 28, 2012
  • Author: Skytap
Today we released our latest white paper: Cloud-Enabled Software Development and Testing: Putting the Agile into the Infrastructure. In the paper, we examine ways in which organizations can implement cloud-enabled software development by adopting an Agile IT strategy. The following is an excerpt from the paper: Agile software development is winning the hearts and minds

Gartner Application Architecture, Development & Integration Summit

  • Posted on: November 26, 2012
  • Author: Skytap
Skytap is a Silver Sponsor of the Gartner Application Architecture, Development & Integration Summit that runs from November 27 to 29 in Las Vegas. Keynote speakers include Michael Abbott, Patrick Lencioni, Andy Kyte, and Jeff Schulmann. About the conference: Cloud and mobile technologies are maturing quickly. It’s time to rebuild your application strategy now to

Considering Your Lab Manager Replacement

  • Posted on: November 20, 2012
  • Author: Skytap
In my first post of this series I discussed how important it is to replace the deprecated VMware Lab Manager with a new solution. This is especially true with Lab Manager support ending on May 1, 2013. In my second post, I talked about the various options available to you as a replacement. One of

Top 4 Questions We Heard at SharePoint Conference 2012

  • Posted on: November 19, 2012
  • Author: Skytap
Last week, our team was on the ground at the 2012 SharePoint Conference in Las Vegas. It was an ideal forum for professionals looking to increase productivity, learn how to better use SharePoint 2010, and become familiar with the latest features and functionality in the new SharePoint. We met a lot of people and fielded a

Networking Perspectives: Nicira, VMware, and Open Source

  • Posted on: November 15, 2012
  • Author: Skytap
In July, VMware acquired Nicira in what was, to many, a shocking move (or at least at a shocking price point), but in fairly quick retrospect it was understood to be exactly the right move. VMware did what any company sitting on a big pile of cash and in a strong market position would do: