Cloud CeBIT Australia

Gomi Australian Cloud Video Encoding Service Launched at CeBIT

Posted on June 7, 2012 by Neerav Bhatt

For many companies, dealing with big data is a significant challenge. Already the largest component of online traffic, the explosive growth in online video is expected to continue.

The most recent Cisco Visual Network Index reported that:

“The combination of all forms of video will continue to exceed 90% of all global consumer internet traffic and by 2014 nearly half of it will be high-definition video…” and “Video-on-demand traffic will triple by 2015. The amount of VoD traffic in 2015 will be equivalent to 3 billion DVDs per month.”

Spyk Software is an Australian based software development & consulting company. Founded in 2008, the company consults to the media industry with experience developing large scale web and mobile applications. Clients include the Seven Network and Pacific Magazines.

During CeBIT Australia 2012, Spyk Software announced the global availability of Gomi, the first Australian-developed cloud video encoding service. Gomi is a scalable encoding platform capable of converting large quantities of video into the ideal formats for delivery to web and mobile devices.

Gomi will allow customers to get their video content to market faster. Using highly optimised encoding formats, it will reduce subsequent delivery costs and improve end-user experience.

Gomi CEO Tim Kremer told us that:

“For the best experience, online video needs to be converted into multiple versions, tailored to the devices and connection speed of your users”

Featuring a powerful developer API, Gomi allows you to automate your video encoding work?ows. Media can be securely transferred over the internet or delivered on hard drives; quickly encoded, and delivered to customer’s servers or CDN ready for delivery. Cloud video encoding is cheaper and gets the job done faster

According to Tim Kremer:
“Most companies find video encoding internally is technically challenging and very expensive. Often specialists babysit the encoding process and infrastructure that is underutilized today can’t keep up with demand tomorrow”.

“If you are receiving video from users or other 3rd parties you want to keep it up in the cloud rather than downloading it to internal infrastructure and re-uploading it. Meanwhile internal content only needs to be uploaded once, and then additional versions can be created in the cloud”.

Gomi’s cloud-based distributed encoding technology quickly responds to demand, automatically provisioning additional processing power as needed. Companies most likely to benefit from the Gomi service include Online Video Platforms, OTT Broadcasters, IPTV providers, CDNs & anyone publishing their own video.

For Australian customers, cloud video encoding is expected to bene?t from the rollout of the National Broadband Network.

Tagged 2012, Australia, CeBIT, Cloud, gomi | Leave a reply

Small Business Cloud Accounting Provider Wins CeBIT.AU Awards 2012

Posted on May 23, 2012 by Neerav Bhatt

Technology awards attracts record number of high quality entries

An online platform that lets small business owners collaborate more easily with their accountants and book-keeping partners has won the top prize for innovation at the CeBIT.AU Business Technology Awards.

The New Zealand-listed multinational developer Xero won the top prize at the CeBIT.AU ICT Excellence for a software accounting system – also called Xero – that simplifies the book-keeping process for small businesses, letting them focus instead on their core competencies.

The CeBIT.AU Business Technology Awards are held annually at the giant CeBIT Australia event at Darling Harbour. The 2012 edition of the awards attracted a record number of entries.

The winners at the CeBIT.AU Business Technology Awards for 2012 were:

1. CeBIT.AU Business Award for Service Distinction:
AAPT for its Customer Charter service platform. The Customer Charter lets AAPT’s business customers get complete access to the same service and reporting documentation as its own client-services personnel, giving them much greater visibility of their network usage and improving customer relations.

2. CeBIT.AU Business Award for Innovation:
CSIRO for its Patient Admission and Prediction Tool (PAPT). This hospital forecasting platform has been successfully implemented across Australia, and allows Health care administrators to accurately predict service demands in Emergency department services – a life saving optimisation.

3. CeBIT.AU Business Award for Outstanding Project:
The Department of Human Services for its Corporate Processes and System Integration project

4. CeBIT.AU Business Award for Top Business Solution:
Xero for its online small business accounting system.

Having accumulated the most number of points for its winning entry among the CeBIT.AU judging panel, Xero was further awarded the overall prize with the CeBIT.AU ICT Excellence Award for 2012.

Chris Ridd from Xero accepting CeBIT.AU business award

Hannover Fairs Australia managing director Jackie Taranto congratulated all of the award winners and said the record number of entries in the 2012 CeBIT.AU awards demonstrated a new vibrancy in the local technology sector.

“There is a new energy in the technology sector in this country, and we have seen that reflected in the quality of the entries for this year’s CeBIT.AU awards,” Ms Taranto said. “It is encouraging to see the local industry doing so well, and that the products and services being created here are among the best in the world.”

The CeBIT.AU Awards Finalists per category for 2012 are:

The CeBIT.AU Business Award for Service Distinction recognises organisations that have delivered a specific service to customers. The service should be an official service offered to all customers with defined deliverables.

BigTinCan – BTC Dashboard
Deputy – Deputy.com
Impact Management Group – GovReports

The CeBIT.AU Business Award for Top Business Solutions recognises excellence in the provision of a product or solution to customers. The award focuses on Products and/or Solutions with a proven track record of success.

LeadMaster Australia – LeadMaster
Dell – KACE
Rittal – Rittal Data Centre Container (RDCC)
Datalicious – SuperTag
e-Zest – Lantana

The CeBIT.AU Business Award for Outstanding Project recognises the very best in IT project management that has taken place within either Public or Private sector. The award highlights Project Management that demonstrates an overall superior service offering to competitors.

goCatch Project
CentreLink – CentreLink Debt
Pronto – Pronto Software & Nike, Retail Prodigy Group
LeadMaster Australia – Summit Implementations

The CeBIT.AU Business Award for Innovation recognises organisations that have made significant contributions to their industry through the introduction of a new idea, method, technology, process or application resulting in social, environmental and / or economic benefits.

Tapit – Tapit
DesignCrowd – DesignCrowd
Household Technology – Invoxia
Parrasync – Parrasync

CeBIT Australia 2012 is the largest business technology event in the region, attracting more than 30,000 business visitors through its doors each May. Now in its 11th year, CeBIT Australia has become an integral part of the Australian technology sector.

The CeBIT.AU Business Awards recognise excellence, innovation and achievement in the information and communication technology industry.

CeBIT Australia – Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre, Darling Harbour, Sydney – May 22-24

Tagged 2012, Australia, CeBIT, Cloud, xero | Leave a reply

Survivor: CIO Edition

Posted on April 27, 2012 by Neerav Bhatt

CA technologies recently released a report ‘The Future Role of the CIO’ which highlights that Australian CIOs believe cloud computing can position them to be CEOs.

Interestingly 57% of Australian CIO’s surveyed believe that cloud computing is shifting their focus away from technology onto vital business services, increasing their chances of promotion to CEO.

However on a cautionary note, although 70% of Australian CIOs feel ideally positioned to move specifically to the CEO role the reality is 4% of current global CEOs have risen to this role after previously being a CIO.

“There’s no doubt that cloud computing is revolutionising business particularly in these strained economic times. But it’s also breeding a new type of technology leader – one who understands that by using the cloud to innovate, increase speed to market and reduce costs in providing strategic business services, he or she will be in a position to make a significant impact on the business and potentially be positioned to lead it,” said Bill McMurray, Managing Director at CA Technologies Australia & New Zealand.

Martin Retschko, National Practice Director, Hudson ICT commented on the report stating that the:

“Role of the CIO is no longer purely about technology. In Australia, we are seeing that this position is evolving from the traditionally technical role of a CIO to one that is more strategic and business focused.”

“CIOs that show an understanding of, and commitment to developing the business, are much more likely to evolve beyond their traditional role”.

Andi Mann, vice president of Strategic Solutions at CA Technologies has an interesting related perspective, feeling that CIO’s need to become a trusted advisor because companies today are quick to eliminate positions that don't add value.

By Andi Mann, vice president of Strategic Solutions at CA Technologies

I keep hearing how cloud computing will kill the CIO. Articles, posts, and tweets claim "the CIO is dead," done in by SaaS, IaaS, PaaS, virtualization, and the increasing commoditization of IT resources. IT budgets are being cut (again!), but IT spending overall is going up, according to both IDC and Gartner.

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Tagged 2012, CIO, Cloud, innovation | Leave a reply

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