July 11, 2013 News Thursday: Team Y-Nots Wins Imagine Cup Windows Azure Challenge and more Server and Tools News…

by STB Blogger

 

Team Y-Nots Wins Windows Azure Challenge at Imagine Cup 2013
Imagine using the cloud to connect to your contacts’ physical location by updating your status. That’s what the Imagine Cup-winning app, Zoik It! does. The India-based Team Y-Nots won the Imagine Cup 2013 in St. Petersburg, Russia, in the Windows Azure Challenge and received $10,000. The local social networking app, Zoik It! uses Windows Azure and connects users in the same city who have similar interests and availability. The app allows users to quickly and easily connect with each other at physical locations by sharing status updates.

Team nLife from Ukraine received second place for their social platform called onQuests. Team LetssGo from China finished third for their cloud-powered app Get&Put.

Additionally, Windows 8 Challenge winner Team TeamNameException developed an interactive tour guide app using Windows Azure. Windows Phone Challenge winner Team vSoftStudio used Windows Azure for their Speak Reminder app.
 
To learn more about this year’s winners and the world’s premier student technology competition, go to the Imagine Cup website.

Enterprise Cloud Technologies Showcased at Microsoft Partner Conference
At the annual Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC), new enterprise cloud programs and technologies were the center of attention, as partners announced business solutions to help customers realize the benefits of cloud computing and big data. Several exciting announcements were made in support of the event.

  • Cisco, NetApp, and Hitachi, and others announced their participation in the Microsoft Cloud OS Accelerate program, which helps partners offset customer costs, accelerate wins, and deliver thousands of private and hybrid cloud solutions.
    • Cisco highlighted how alignment of the Cisco and Microsoft sales channels will help the companies’ mutual customers implement proven private and hybrid cloud solutions and improve their datacenter operations.
    • NetApp announced plans to invest up to $15 million in new ecosystem sales collaboration and continued technology integration with Microsoft to accelerate the adoption of enterprise cloud deployments.
    • Hitachi Data Systems announced a joint initiative with Microsoft and Hitachi’s Channel and System Integrator Partners to provide customer incentives for purchasing and deploying new Hitachi Unified Compute Platform Select for Microsoft Private Cloud infrastructures.
  • In other areas:
    • Dell showcased their Dell PowerEdge VRTX and Active Infrastructure 1.1 converged Infrastructure solutions and demonstrated how they are working with Microsoft to help customers deliver and manage private and hybrid clouds.
    • Dell announced the release of the latest version of Dell Wyse WSM desktop and application virtualization software, designed help organizations harness the benefits of virtualization and cloud computing, while simplifying management and deployment processes and reducing costs.
    • Barracuda highlighted integration of their Web Application Firewall with Windows Azure, building on Microsoft’s strong focus on keeping customers’ data safe and secure.
    • Socrata announced the global availability of their suite of open data solutions on Windows Azure to help public sector organizations capitalize on the full value of data resources.
    • Secunia announced that its vulnerability intelligence and patch management solution, the Corporate Software Inspector (Secunia CSI 6.0) will be available to businesses for testing at Microsoft Technology Centers.

For additional information on the news coming out of WPC, visit the Microsoft Partner Network Virtual Press Room.