Jeff Jaffe’s Blog

By far, the major obsession of Novell’s engineering team is to deliver products with the enterprise level quality that customers demand and deserve for mission-critical usage.

It is useful to review our comprehensive approach to quality. Quality is not a single process. It is baked into everything we do: before and during development; after products are shipped in the field; with maintenance provided to customers well after products have been shipped. Due to this breadth I will “fishbone” our activities and address this topic over several postings.

In this posting we define quality, provide key tenets, and outline future posts.

Quality Defined

There are numerous definitions of quality—the most general being “the degree to which the product meets customer expectations”. This can be interpreted as—choosing the right features to meet market needs—and in the past I have described our Integrated Product Development (IPD) process that has that goal. By the way, we are broadening IPD to include a new Requirements Management System which allows customers and partners to directly input their needs to Novell’s product management. But, that is a story for a different day.

Colloquially, when people talk about product quality however, they refer to product defects or bugs. We address bugs throughout the lifecycle of a product by preventing defects in the first place, testing and debugging to remove them, and patching and fixing problems in customer installations. This definition is akin to a classical Six Sigma focus on defects and this is the aspect of product quality that I will discuss.

Philosophy

Herein are basic tenets or beliefs about product quality. Many of these are common in the industry; some are unique to Novell.

1. We are in business to provide mission critical software. Accordingly, we hold ourselves to high standards for initial product quality and strive to correct defects found by our customers.
2. Quality must be built in prior to customer shipment. The cost for Novell and our customers alike grows exponentially the later in the deployment process one finds a bug.
3. The practice of software development has not been perfected. There is no such thing as bug free software. We strive for excellence, but recognize that defects will occur.
4. The response to these defects is modulated by severity. Critical defects found in a customer’s production environment get the most immediate attention.
5. We make mistakes. And we fix them. If a defect occurs, we patch it. If a product has too many bugs, we redouble our efforts to restore quality to that product as soon as possible.
6. Consequence of 5—we try really hard not to make the same mistake twice!
7. Our employees respond to management’s attention. Hence we carefully measure our quality, review it on a regular basis, and won’t ship products that do not hit quality criteria. This ensures that we will build quality in.
8. There are different methodologies for developing software including agile, waterfall, and open source (community). Our customers expect and deserve equal quality regardless of the methodology.
9. Consequence of 8—although there might be different methods to develop software; the software quality metrics and release criteria must be the same.
10. Quality is a continuous learning process. Time is set aside for our engineers to continue to grow and learn to improve their skills.

The Fishbone

This is a broad topic and it is already running a bit long. Let me summarize my intentions by listing the key aspects that I will discuss in future blog entries:

• Building in quality from the ground up: In the development of a product, how do we build with as few defects as possible. For agile, waterfall, and open source.
• Metrics: What are the common metrics we track to ensure that we release with quality.
• Testing tools: Methodologies, laboratories, cross-product testing, defect management process.
• Product introduction: How do we manage that very challenging time when a new product is first introduced into the field. Readiness criteria.
• Continuous improvement: Engineering Excellence Steering Committee. Learning Initiative.
• Cadence between product development and Novell services: How we work together and hold each other accountable within Novell to take care of our customers.

We’ve been talking about security and access control management—most recently as part of “securing the cloud“. Securing the cloud is based on technology that Novell has developed for securing the enterprise. As we design for the future of securing the cloud—today’s enterprises also require continued enhancement to secure their enterprise.

Some recent notes.

SAP Partnership for IT Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) Programs

For enterprise needs our recent focus has been on the creation of a compliance platform. Compliance has emerged as a key customer issue. IT systems are the window into how businesses are governed. Much of our attention is on integrating with partners; such as our April announcement to certify to SAP’s NetWeaver platform.

We took this to the next level with today’s tight announcement with SAP. SAP’s Business Objects GRC solutions are outstanding, and by integrating with Novell’s compliance and identity management capabilities we add to the value proposition for customers. Specifically, the integration improves performance, automation of controls, simplification, and risk reduction. Overall, it makes it easy for customers to manage security and compliance policies.

Novell Secure Login

Customers require Enterprise Single-Sign On for enterprise applications. Earlier this year, we intensified our focus in this critical area, so we acquired some technology from ActiveIdentity.

Last month, we strengthened what customers can achieve with Novell SecureLogin. Two major focus areas: Interoperability and Scripting. The interoperability enhancements ensure that customers can use our solution irrespective of their compute platforms. The automated Scripting is more critical than ever. As access control, security, and compliance play a deeper role in enterprises, Single-Sign On needs to be integrated across a broader set of applications. The Scripting enhancements automate a customers’ ability to use Novell SecureLogin.

Recognition

It is not only Novell that touts the importance of this product. Novell SecureLogin was recognized in Gartner Inc.’s 2008 ESSO Magic Quadrant report. Last month, Gartner released their MarketScope for Enterprise Single Sign-On and gave our product a Strong Positive rating.

NYC

On a personal note, I was born and bred in New York. While I now live in Massachusetts—once a New Yorker; always a New Yorker.

So I was delighted to see that New York City has recently announced adoption of Novell’s Compliance Management Platform. I enjoyed seeing that my hometown was leveraging Novell’s technology depth, automation, ease-of-use, and interoperability in the Security and Compliance area—to simplify access to city services and better integrate across city departments.

Final in a series about Novell’s comprehensive approach to cloud computing.

Reprise

In The Cloud, we identified five cloud infrastructure priorities:

• Connect
• Secure
• Manage
• Develop
• Collaborate

We’ve elaborated about Connect, Develop, Secure, and Collaborating in the Cloud, and here we complete the discussion.

Choice

A key value provided by cloud computing is choice.

• Customer choice to obtain capacity. Historically, users received capacity for tasks via dedicated physical servers. With virtualization the focus shifted to optimizing performance by consolidating workloads. While this improves data center efficiency it does not necessarily optimize for an individual user. Going forward, users will have many methods of executing workloads:
  • Physical server
  • Integrated into a physical appliance
  • Virtualized
  • A virtual appliance that is deployed in an enterprise or in a cloud.
  • Directly in the cloud

  For the last—there are numerous models to executing workloads in the cloud ranging from Software as a Service, to running an application in the cloud (with the cloud providing Infrastructure as a Service), to hybrids—such as an application running within an enterprise—leveraging cloud resources (such as storage or processing) for a piece of the application.

• Agility. Classically, when users need capacity they go through their company’s procurement cycle. Even if the user has budget they rarely get capacity on demand. They go through the company’s procurement or allocation cycles to get capacity ordered or assigned. There is greater agility to get resources if they can be procured on-demand from the cloud.

• Scale. For applications with a disparity between peak resource needs and average needs there is a challenge to determine how much capacity to allocate. Procuring for the peak is expensive—procuring for the average does not provide adequate capacity for peak times. Cloud resources—whether available as part of a private cloud within an enterprise (that allows sharing of resources within the enterprise)—or available through public vendors allows for dynamic scale. Scale has value at different points in the lifecycle. On the one hand, it is useful for applications being tested or trialed as it can provide resource for a limited amount of time. But it is also useful for production applications where capacity needs can be quite dynamic.

Management

When one considers the choices available, and the dynamic range of application needs—it is challenging for an enterprise to have a comprehensive approach to manage their “owned” resources in conjunction with cloud resources. How does an enterprise decide whether to use a physical or virtual server; to allocate based on peak or average case; to optimize for latency or utilization; to use an appliance; to use a public cloud? This optimization has always been a challenge but has gotten more challenging with virtualization and cloud computing. Add to that different policies that customers have about where to assign their workloads, heterogeneity in underlying platform technologies, and the diversity in cloud computing models—you have an area of considerable confusion for customers and opportunity for a vendor.

Challenges of management of resources in a cloud environment are not limited to enterprises that are interfacing to the cloud. There is an analogous challenge for cloud providers to effectively manage their resources and to guide their users to effectively leverage cloud resources.

A Living Laboratory

Cloud management is a multi-faceted challenge. An enterprise deals with a multiplicity of cloud models and integrates with enterprise management. Companies that are providing services require tailored management solutions. We are in a period of great ferment, all of the models are changing and underlying assumptions are being tested.

The best way to learn about cloud management is to develop solutions in conjunction with a leading provider of IT services. An IT service provider is both an enterprise as well as a provider of services to other enterprises. This is why I mentioned in “Progress on Systems Management and the Service Driven Data Center” that our partnership with ACS—providing technology for the ACS Management Platform—is key. Specifically, to repeat from three months ago:

• The partnership allows us to explore advanced management features in a demanding environment. This includes workload management, automation, and virtualization. We instantiate these ideas in a fully integrated fashion.
• The partnership allows us to explore emerging operating environments. Not only are physical and virtual deployments of relevance but we have also included cloud computing as a focus area.
• To address critical security needs, identity management and security solutions will be prominently featured.

Fifth in a series about Novell’s comprehensive approach to cloud computing.

Reprise

In “The Cloud”, we identified five cloud infrastructure priorities:

• Connect
• Secure
• Manage
• Develop
• Collaborate

We’ve elaborated about Connect, Develop, and Secure and here we will talk about Collaborating in the Cloud.

Modern Collaboration

I’ve previously discussed the revolutionary changes in collaboration that have arisen from social networking. There are two simultaneous changes in support of each other.

• The nature of collaboration. Modes of interaction between people and modes of broadcasting information are changing. This is impactful in personal, business, and political dimensions. A glance at the impact of Twitter—to true-up reporting of events in Iran confirms this.
• The technology to support collaboration is changing. In “Acquisitioin of SiteScape” we discussed the mechanisms to support the change in the nature of collaboration.

Collaboration in the Cloud

As the twin changes—nature of collaboration and technology to support it—bootstrap each other, we move to the next breakthrough technology of cloud computing. A cloud computing collaboration infrastructure increases the facilities for ad hoc teams of people to work together in an informal, opportunistic fashion. These people are distributed across enterprises and may fuse enterprise needs with personal needs. Key new properties of an infrastructure to collaborate in the cloud include:

• Collaboration at “chat speed”. Teams can instantly form or break-up. It is easy for individuals to join or depart team collaborations and be apprised of the history of communications of this team. Many are calling this the real-time web.
• Unification. A difficulty with today’s collaboration techniques is that there are too many of them. Cloud based collaboration can make this worse by adding more modes. Cloud communication infrastructure must create a unified dashboard for the multiple approaches to collaboration.
• Real-time awareness. Cloud computing’s instant-on nature will raise the awareness of what others are doing to a new level. Instead of a static view of whether individuals are on-line we create a dynamic view of the “properties” of what groups are doing.
• Security. We must find a way to secure the collaboration—when it is used for business needs, without sacrificing the ease-of-use required for personal or consumer needs.

Novell Teaming

Novell has been investing in collaboration technology. Our strategy is to provide the infrastructure for computing and collaboration for our customers. With that in mind, we were gratified last week when Forrester recognized Novell as having a “solid position as a collaborative platform vendor” as a consequence of our Novell Teaming product.

The Next Step—the Integrated Cockpit

Building on our success in Teaming, we will take collaboration to the next level for the cloud. In “Innovation Culture” I mentioned our breakout move initiative that identifies revolutions in our industry and innovative solutions to address these revolutions. One project that we funded was the Cockpit project. This provides an integrated “cockpit” for users to view all of their collaboration paradigms. It has the cloud computing support mentioned above: collaboration at chat speed and real-time awareness with security. In this way, it supports ad hoc collaboration as never before. It has other outstanding capabilities such as social message flow and co-editing; which we will elaborate on as the project reaches greater degrees of maturity.

Fourth in a series about Novell’s comprehensive approach to cloud computing.

Recent Events

The summer has seen numerous announcements with the proof points of our cloud infrastructure contributions. These announcements are transformative. They are not merely new products. They address issues that the industry has not totally addressed, with innovative solutions.

Last week was especially exciting. As foreshadowed in Software Appliances and Cloud Computing we launched SUSE Studio a key tool in our overall appliance program and in developing for the cloud. The press reaction was breathtaking with some saying that this was Novell’s most important announcement in decades.

Also last week we provided our cloud security demo at the Burton conference. More about that below.

The previous week saw Microsoft releasing 20,000 lines of GPL code to the Linux kernel. Interesting times.

Reprise

In mid-June, we identified five cloud infrastructure priorities:

• Connect
• Secure
• Manage
• Develop
• Collaborate

We’ve elaborated about Connect and Develop and here we will talk about Securing the Cloud.

Cloud Security

Many studies have documented that enterprises are concerned about cloud computing security.

This is not surprising. Many events have heightened concerns about security. Information leakage, viruses, and lost laptops are examples of security lapses. Cloud computing exacerbates concerns. Data and applications are placed outside of the enterprise, outside the firewall, and outside the adminstrative domain of the IT organization.

The security fears are dramatic enough. Sometimes, the fix is worse than the fear. A cloud computing vendor might propose a new security model to assure wary users that their data is safe. However, even if this new model is theoretically secure—it does not immediately address the practical problem. The IT organization must incorporate the model deeply enough to be secure. They must be able to explain it to survive a corporate audit about data protection. After the IT organization appreciates the security of the new model there is complexity to introduce the new model and security holes that arise from lack of training or misuse

Annexation

With so many barriers the best way to secure the cloud is to use existing security models. The IT organization should use the same security and access control technology for the cloud as they use in the enterprise. The interfaces must be the same. The user model must be the same. If passwords are used the actual password must be the same.

We call this idea annexation of the cloud. In this model we provide transparency in usage and security model so that the IT organization does not use a new access control paradigm. Rather, they feel that the cloud has become an extended part of their enterprise.

Novell Cloud Security Service

This is the essence of the Novell cloud security service that we demonstrated together with PivotLink at the Burton conference last week. By federating a SaaS vendor’s access control mechanism with existing enterprise mechanisms we provide cloud security within the existing model of an enterprise.

Another key piece of the cloud infrastructure provided by Novell!

Log Management

Also last week, we announced our Sentinel Log Management product. This has immediate value to today’s enterprises as they struggle with masses of data that need to be processed to assure compliance. With respect to cloud computing, we can only imagine that these compliance needs will become more demanding, data sources more disparate, and organization of this data more critical. Sentinel Log Management is focused on today’s compliance needs but this asset will also provide value to secure the cloud.

Earlier today, Microsoft released 20,000 lines of device driver code to the Linux community under GPL.

There are many angles to reflect on. The growth and broadening of the open source community. Microsoft’s increasing embrace of open source. Corporate strategies. The effectiveness of Greg Kroah-Hartman’s Linux driver project. I’m sure many people will comment and will applaud this continued progress. Hopefully the knee-jerk naysayers will appreciate the progress as well.

These broad perspectives refer to the transformation of software development models and transformative industry developments. As a refresher from these intergalactic discussions, I’ll try a more prosaic approach.

Focus on the Customer

Novell and Microsoft created our partnership primarily to focus on customer needs. We heard from customers that there was a need for greater interoperability between Linux and Windows. We launched a broad partnership collaborating in technology and business to meet customer needs. This was often misunderstood—we were criticized for it—but both companies stuck to our guns because the customer need was the overarching consideration.

The thread called “customer need” continues to pull us in our partnership. A byproduct is that Microsoft finds that it needs to participate more intimately in the open source community.

I’ve blogged often about this. In November of 2007, I outlined how Novell and Microsoft extended our partnership to include accessibility. The Moonlight project saw a greater embrace by Microsoft of the open source Mono project, and has enabled Microsoft to add value to the Linux desktop.

Linux Drivers

Part of our original partnership was to ensure that in virtual environments Windows is optimized to run as a guest under SLES, and SLES is optimized to be a Windows guest. Clearly optimization is a customer requirement! Noone can afford performance penalties running virtual. In time, we have found that optimization is best achieved by the creation of additional Linux driver code. Microsoft recognized the performance opportunity and recognized the obligation to release the code using GPLv2.

I’m proud of Novell’s role in this. I’m proud that our partnership brought clarity on the technical optimization need. I’m proud of the personal role played by Novell Fellow Greg Kroah-Hartman and the Linux driver project.

But with all of the broad implications for open source, and my pride at the milestone—I’m most proud to see how the main mantra—satisfy the customer—remains the primary driver.

Third in a series about Novell’s comprehensive approach to cloud computing.

Reprise

In the June 15th posting, “The Cloud“, we identified five cloud infrastructure priorities:

• Connect
• Secure
• Manage
• Develop
• Collaborate

Developing for the Cloud

There will be many cloud platform interfaces that developers will choose from. Some providers will provide unique interfaces to allow developers to optimize for their platform. Others will take a standard approach. Some providers will focus on proprietary interfaces. Others will be open. Taken together, this new model—cloud computing—creates a new playing field and stimulates innovators to explore different ideas to exploit the opportunity.

This expansion of possibilities also creates an expansion of confusion for the developer. Which cloud am I optimizing for? Am I focused on clouds, physical devices, or virtual devices? Which hypervisor? Which management interfaces?

I would prefer if this were not a concern for the developer. What if there were a toolset which made it possible for the developer to develop once and run everywhere?

Novell and Appliances

Fifteen months ago Novell announced its appliance program. We stated a simple purpose—simplify application development for ISVs by allowing them to create software or virtual appliances using our toolset. A key approach is to allow ISVs to use less than the full operating system—such as our JeOS (Just Enough Operating System) and still carry certification.

Also important to developers is the ability to create appliances that can run as images for a variety of hypervisors. In our April 2008 announcement, we did just that. This was a Novell announcement —but we are more effective when we work with key infrastructure partners. So, we announced in February of this year that we are working closely with VMWare to ensure that the virtual appliances that customers build with SLES are VMWare Ready. This reflects the partnership approach we’ve talked about consistently for virtualization.

The Cloud

As mentioned above, ISVs and developers would like their code to run everywhere. How can they achieve this? Simple. Build an appliance on an appliance building platform that allows them to deploy anywhere.

With our existing approach to create software appliances and virtual appliances it is not a big leap for us to focus our toolset to allow developers to target applications for a variety of clouds. So our appliance program is precisely the right basis for Novell to be the company that enables “develop for the cloud”.

In my last posting, I outlined the significance of cloud computing and Novell’s architecture to provide infrastructure for the cloud. Herein I will provide some detail for the piece called connecting to the cloud via devices enabled by Moblin.

Novell’s Cloud Architecture

To reprise our cloud architecture, we discussed five key elements.

• Connect
• Secure
• Manage
• Develop
• Collaborate

Connecting to the Cloud

Everything will connect to the cloud. Every client will need services from the cloud and every server will interact with the compute cloud. So when we talk about connecting to the cloud, we are not referring to a unique new communications protocol or specialized device.

Rather, we are focused on the operating environment for a device whose primary function is to access services from the network; the Web; or the compute cloud. That is why we refer to Moblin as the key component for connecting to the cloud.

The cloud introduces the need for a new family of devices to be used by consumers and enterprise users alike. These devices have as their primary role to connect to these services. Some of these devices are more capable—approaching PC class in nature, others are strict communicators.

Intel has taken the lead in designing the operating environment most suited for these devices. Logically, they are leveraging Linux since key ingredients such as openness and low cost are critical. Intel’s variation of Linux—Moblin—further optimizes for devices whose primary role is connectivity. Optimization helps drive lower power chip sets and small screen sizes. It allows simplification of the user interface since it is not a general desktop.

Travel in Asia—Feel the Excitement

I spent the last two weeks in Asia—Taiwan, China, and India—and being in a different part of the world focused my attention on the value of cloud computing. You can see the potential. Powerful communicators / computers will open up computing to a new class of users. In these new “segments”—people will get their first introduction to computing via services from the cloud. In our industry, every time that we open up computers to a new class of users it drives change in our system design. Thus, desktop Linux will succeed in this new environment because it can flex to this design point.

No wonder that it was at Computex in Taipei earlier this month that Moblin made such a big hit.

Novell and Moblin

Novell has announced that we will support a SUSE version of Moblin and make it available on netbooks. We announced our Taiwan laboratory in May and followed it up with our Computex demo in June. We are contributing to Moblin and leveraging it. Moblin is a key infrastructure for cloud computing where Novell will play a large role as part of our cloud infrastructure strategy.

Much has been written about computing in the “cloud”. Within these pages references include “Software delivery models and SAP” and “Service-Driven Data Center“. Today is the first of several blogs where I give a comprehensive view of Novell’s approach.

The Significance of the Cloud for IT

Every so often there are sufficient changes in technology and customer buying patterns that the entire industry turns on its end.

In the 1960s, mainframes dominated and provided the first broad platform for computing.

In the 1970s, minicomputers proliferated. Computing became available for small businesses and departments. New companies rose to take advantage; new languages were popularized; and there was an explosion in professionals in the industry.

After the introduction of personal computing in the 1970s the 1980s saw mass adoption of PCs. New applications such as personal productivity and consumer related applications resulted from this shift. The paradigm of client/server and sharing within departments became prominent. Novell’s NetWare played a key role (which continues with Open Enterprise Server).

As we rolled into the 1990s the Internet and World Wide Web became the model for public access to data, and related intranet technologies were used inside of companies. Wide access to information became commonplace and programming technologies adapted to feeding information into people’s browsers.

Cloud computing is next. It will be equally transformational. The web provided clicking for “information” and cloud computing will provide clicking for “information resources”. Over time this will revolutionize every part of IT.

Within the rubric of cloud computing, IT organizations have different attitudes about how to optimize information technology. To address this, there are variations on cloud computing, including Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). Each has their own value and solves its own problem. A user that needs instant access to a capability may employ SaaS, a developer looking for a platform may employ PaaS, and someone in search of capacity may employ IaaS.

Novell and the Compute Cloud

With Novell’s position in core infrastructure, Novell intends to play a major role in cloud computing. Several technology choices for the cloud are favorable to Novell— Linux is the favored operating system used by cloud providers; XEN—which we have discussed often— is the favored virtualization technique. Moreover, Novell’s strength in technology areas such as management and security is relevant.

Novell has key technologies but also has the right attitude. The compute cloud will democratize computing by utilizing open interfaces and avoiding platform lock-in. This is harmonious with our brand promise of “Making IT Work as One”. It is also characteristic of Novell as a company who is passionate about Open Source, yet willing to work on interoperability with vendors who are committed to proprietary platforms. No surprise that Novell is a supporter of the Open Cloud Manifesto.

The potential of cloud computing is great, but it won’t happen overnight—just as the other paradigm changes did not happen overnight. There will be many participants in this all playing different roles. For example there will be companies that provide cloud computing, and others -like Novell—that provide infrastructure software that are used by cloud providers or enterprises. Many layers of the compute stack will change to support the move to the cloud. Novell will not invest in all of them—no one vendor can have that impact. However, in the cloud infrastructure Novell will play a key role.

Novell’s Cloud Architecture

There are numerous components that are required for the cloud. Some of the key components were mentioned above—the Linux operating system and virtualization. Many of the other key components intersect areas of Novell focus.

We have been investing in these areas leveraging the ideas of our technical leaders and looking at market input. Many of the most outstanding ideas came from our breakout move initiative, while others came from activities in and across our business units; listening to customers and partners. Here are some of the key areas. With space running out I will only itemize the areas here—look to future postings for elaboration:

• Connect. The first part of our architecture is to connect to the cloud. The nature of client devices and their appropriate operating environment will change as we move to the cloud. Our work in operating systems, including our work in Moblin will be critical here.
• Secure. This access must be done with security. We will leverage the technologies of our Identity and Security Management business unit.
• Manage. Clouds have a different paradigm for resource utilization so they need a different paradigm of managing these resources. Each previous revolution in computing also revolutionized how resources are managed. We will leverage our Service Driven Data Center approach.
• Develop. Applications needs to be developed for the cloud. The key technology stacks will continue to be based on Java and .Net. We will leverage our unique combination of skills—the LAMP stack available with Suse Linux and Mono for .Net to play an enabling role here.
• Collaborate. Novell has a strong portfolio of collaboration technologies. This will enable us to play a role here as well.

Part of Novell’s focus within IT Management Services is an intense focus on Data Center Management; particularly our Build, Manage, and Measure approach. Three recent events are proof points of both the broad IT Management Services as well as the Data Center focus.

1. Strategic Initiative with ACS

Last week Novell announced a strategic initiative with ACS. It is a broad partnership with benefits for each company.

Working with ACS in building out their ACS Management Platform (AMP) is advantageous for Novell. It allows us to validate our Service Driven Data Center (SDDC) vision. Recall the three key elements of SDDC:

• The Build component. We have included in this agreement that Suse Linux Enterprise is a key operating system platform.
• The Manage component. We have included PlateSpin to manage workloads in a heterogeneous, virtualized environment.
• The Measure component. We have included a Business Services Management capability.

Our benefits go beyond the inclusion of the three basic building blocks.

• The partnership allows us to explore advanced management features in a demanding environment. This includes workload management [link workload blog], automation, and virtualization. We instantiate these ideas in a fully integrated fashion.
• The partnership allows us to explore emerging operating environments. Not only are physical and virtual deployments of relevance but we have also included cloud computing as a focus area.
• To address critical security needs, identity management and security solutions will be prominently featured.

2. Codie awards

The agreement with ACS represents a key validation of our vision and strategy with customers and partners. Our systems management strategy also enjoys validation in industry groups.

• Last month, ZENworks Asset Management was recognized by the Software Industry and Information Association (SIIA) as the Best Asset Management Solution.
• Also, ZENworks Endpoint Security Management was recognized by SIIA in the Best Security Solution category.

3. ZENworks Configuration Management 10 SP 2

Less than one year ago we released ZCM SP1. Recall that this is dedicated to managing desktops in an interoperable environment with integration to Active Directory. For SP2, we are listening to what customers need to complete their migration to ZCM, and have addressed this. Included:

• Improved migration services
• Improved installability
• Broader platform support to reaffirm the ZCM commitment to interoperability.

Summary

This past month has been hugely successful in terms of validating all pieces of our management strategy. For long-time ZENworks customers, ZCM 10 SP 2 represents yet another demonstration of continued commitment to this platform. Elements of our desktop solution: asset management and endpoint security are recognized as award winners. Our Data Center management strategy has received a huge endorsement from ACS which will help us further develop and validate our strategy in the marketplace.