Category: Uncategorized

Predicting Technology: Gartner’s Top 10 Strategic Trends for 2013

  • Posted on: October 26, 2012
  • Author: Skytap
‘Tis the season for peering into the crystal ball—and in the realm of industry—it’s time for the annual Gartner strategic technologies prediction. Earlier this week in a Gartner Symposium IT Expo session, analysts spelled out 10 strategic technology trends that they say will have significant impact on IT in 2013. It’s worth reviewing. If you

New GitLab, Jenkins, and Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS Server Templates

  • Posted on: October 26, 2012
  • Author: Skytap
This week, we added a few new templates to the Skytap Cloud public template library. Our first template is the Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS Server x64 Linux OS. Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS is the latest “long-term support” version of Ubuntu. You can read all about it in the Ubuntu release notes. The template has been set up

Virtual Training Success Stories in the Cloud

  • Posted on: October 24, 2012
  • Author: Skytap
Last week in the blog piece Are We There Yet? Getting from Traditional to Virtual Training, I talked about how the on-demand nature of cloud computing has given instructors access to large, shared pools of virtual machines that can be accessed whenever and wherever they are required. Using self-service classroom management applications, instructors and lab

Brian White to Speak at Agile Dev East This Fall

  • Posted on: October 24, 2012
  • Author: Skytap
Next month, our Vice President of Products, Brian White, will be at the Agile Dev East/Better Software Conference in Orlando, Florida. On November 7, Brian will talk about Cloud Computing: Powering the Future of Development and Testing. Developers and testers are under constant pressure to operate more efficiently, cut costs, and deliver on time. Without

New Exchange Server 2013 Preview Public Template

  • Posted on: October 18, 2012
  • Author: Skytap
This week we have added another multi-VM template to our library. It consists of a Microsoft Windows Active Directory Server and a Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 Preview. This template will allow you to start using the latest version of Exchange in a matter of minutes. We have already prepared the Active Directory for you by

The Cloud and Its Technological Spring

  • Posted on: October 15, 2012
  • Author: Skytap
Back in April 2010, Steve Jobs wrote an open letter called Thoughts on Flash. From the time the original iPhone was released in 2007, Apple had been quiet as to why they decided to exclude Flash from the most technologically advanced phone on the planet. Partners and customers alike were up in arms because Flash

Are We There Yet? Getting from Traditional to Virtual Training.

  • Posted on: October 9, 2012
  • Author: Skytap
As the challenges facing training organizations continue to grow, companies must find ways to provide software and technical training for employees and customers with significantly reduced budgets. To address these pressures, many training organizations have looked to online learning to solve cost and location challenges. However, implementing effective distance learning and reducing costs isn’t simple.

Skytap Team Returns from STARWEST

  • Posted on: October 5, 2012
  • Author: Skytap
The Skytap team just returned from STARWEST (Software Testing Analysis & Review West Conference)—the premier software testing conference that showcases the most up-to-date information, tools, and technologies available in the industry today. Over the course of the event, our team had several conversations with QA managers who expressed an interest in moving QA and development

Taking the Cloud from Wall Street to Main Street

  • Posted on: October 2, 2012
  • Author: Skytap
In the recent article Taking the Cloud from Wall Street to Main Street, I discussed how cloud technologies that were once only accessible to high tech Wall Street firms can now be leveraged by the majority of enterprises to manage development, testing, and production environments. The following is an excerpt from the article: “In 2011,

New Skytap Cloud SharePoint 2013 Template

  • Posted on: October 1, 2012
  • Author: Skytap
By now you’ve likely heard that we have a new Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013 Preview template. If you’re a seasoned SharePoint user, you’ll probably just jump in and get to work, or even cruise over to the Microsoft SharePoint Team Blog for examples of some cool things you can do with SharePoint 2013 Preview. For

New SharePoint and CentOS 6.3 Public Templates Launched in Skytap Cloud

  • Posted on: September 26, 2012
  • Author: Skytap
This week, we added two new templates to the Skytap Cloud public template library. Our first template is the CentOS 6.3 x64 OS. CentOS 6.3 is the latest version, and you can read all about it in the CentOS release notes. The template has been set up for a nice out-of-the-box experience and will prompt

Do VMware’s Hands-on Labs Spell the End of Home Labs?

  • Posted on: September 24, 2012
  • Author: Skytap
Last week, VMware expert Edward Grigson produced a blog entitled, Online virtualisation labs come of age that poses the question: Will VMware’s Hands-on Labs spell the end of home labs? In his piece he discusses the fact that, until recently, there were no public cloud services that allowed users to experiment with the hypervisor layer.