TECHNOLOGY

WSO2 closes $ 6.5m investment deal

WSO2 recently closed a $6.5 million growth financing investment deal, said its CEO Dr. Sanjeewa Weerawarna. The funding round was led by Quest Software Inc. and joined by g investor-Intel Capital.

WSO2 will use the funds to expand its global operations; grow its Silicon Valley based marketing, sales and support teams; and extend its Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offerings to support the rapid increase in global demand for its open source middleware platforms.

It is moving to new office facilities in Palo Alto, this month to accommodate the growth of the Silicon Valley team, said Weerawarna.

It will also launch an aggressive marketing campaign all over the world by appointing a marketing team with a vice president of marketing.

The company does its marketing through the web Dr. Weerawarna said that aninnovative marketing strategy is essential to compete with global players such as IBM.

WSO2 is growing fast. We have 125 professionals in Sri Lanka which will be increased by 50 this year.

As the number of investors increases the composition of the organisation becomes complex.

It is the nature of investment companies. Intel Capital can nominate a director and other investors can appoint board observers. However, as investment in the company grows the value of the company grows too.

Over the past few years the Open Source software market grew fast.

Today the technology is considered less risky.

People are educated on the OS technology and their mindset has changed.

The global recession created opportunities for open source software because companies do not have money to throw around. They only invest money on better values, Dr.Weerawarna said.

The funding round comes on the heels of accelerating market traction for WSO2 and its innovative middleware platforms.

These include the award-winning 100 percent open source WSO2 Carbon, the industry's first fully componentised middleware platform, and WSO2 Stratos, the first 100 percent open source cloud platform for enterprise applications available as a cloud-enabled application platform (CEAP) and PaaS. Dr. Weerawarna said that in 2010, WSO2's revenue grew by 95 percent over 2009, and the rate of new customer acquisitions increased by 175 percent.

More than 500 billion customer transactions per year now run through WSO2's enterprise middleware with one leading commerce site running up to 800 million messages per day through the WSO2 Enterprise Service Bus (WSO2 ESB).

WSO2 has a renewal rate of more than 90 percent among WSO2 Carbon production support customers.

The strong revenue, customer adoption, and scale of deployments worldwide are powerful validation of our vision to bring agility to enterprises through a next-generation lean middleware platform based on open software standards, Dr. Weerawarana said.

Dr. Weerawarna said that WikiLeaks is not a result of cloud computing. The information had leaked from a traditional internal computer system.

This has proved that the weakest link is the human being and not software.

Cloud computing is still at an early stage and experiments are being done on better models. It will take some time to to use in business. WSO2 has a cloud computing platform and all our middleware is on the platform.

We are at aninnovation stage and it does not bring much revenue. It will take time to generate revenue from cloud computing.

-GW

Abans launches dual-core Android smartphone

Abans Office Automation, sole agent for LG mobile phones in Sri Lanka, has launched the new LG Optimus 2X phone with Android 2.2 Froyo operating system.

It is the world's first Android phone with a Tegra 2 dual-core processor for faster and smoother web browsing and applications allowing users to multi-task with virtually no screen lag.

As the first smartphone which enables hyper-speed and seamless multi-tasking abilities, the LG Optimus 2X is proof of LG's commitment to high-end smartphones.

The NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core processor is the most powerful mobile processor available. Two processors work together to give twice the power and twice the speed to ensure that all applications run at maximum velocity, unleashing the power of multimedia with enhanced graphics and the most sophisticated data intensive mobile games.

The phone boasts a stunning 4-inch WVGA capacitive touch screen, 8GB of internal memory expandable up to 32GB with microSD.

The LG Optimus 2X with Android 2.2 (Froyo) offers access to over 100.000 apps through Google's Android Market and full HD Video with 1080p resolution. Full HD recording and playback provides the most vivid and life-like video, capturing every detail with astonishing clarity and precision.

Encoding your own video is not necessary as multiple codecs are supported. HDMI Mirroring expands viewing options with connectivity to any HDMI supported device. Web, video, and games can all be viewed on a larger display. The smartphone platform enables sharing content.

The LG Optimus 2X is the first mobile device with 7.1 multi-channel surround sound that enfolds in a rich aural experience.

Listening can be via earphones, speakers, Bluetooth headset or any device with HDMI connectivity.

Theatre quality audio can be enjoyed breaking the sound barrier with advanced mobile multimedia.

The phone is equipped with play console-quality mobile games with exceptionally responsive motion controls powered by a gyro-sensor.

There's plenty of power to manage advanced graphics and demanding visuals. Gaming experience can be enhanced with HDMI connectivity to larger screens unleashing the power of mobile gaming.

The LG Optimus 2X has an autofocus, high-resolution 8MP camera with LED flash to capture and preserve memories. It also permits video calling with 1.3MP front-facing secondary camera.

LG's partnership with Ennio Morricano enables users to enjoy exclusive access to preloaded ringtones, music and videos that are optimised for LG.

The phone also enables wireless streaming of contents to any DLNA equipped TV or PC through Smart Share.

New media to help SMES

International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, and global partners are exploring the use of new media to promote better business practices though the SME Toolkit, an online resource that provides training and management tools that help small and medium enterprises strengthen productivity and increase access to new markets.

IFC and its local partner Dialog Axiata PLC hosted the SME Toolkit global Partners Conference in Colombo, from May 30 to June 3. The conference focused on how to better reach entrepreneurs though mobile and social media.

"The use of innovative models to support local entrepreneurs and helping their businesses become sustainable is a major focus of IFC's work," said General Manager for IFC Advisory Services in for South Asia, Anil Sinha. "Our collaboration with Dialog Axiata has been instrumental in expanding the SME Toolkit across Sri Lanka using their delivery channels."

IFC's SME Toolkit was launched in 2002. globally, IBM has supported the product since 2006.

The Toolkit is available in 18 languages in 32 countries and allows SMEs to do their businesses, create web pages, and participate in multilingual community forums. In many places it is the largest online business support resource in the local language.

CICRA to train cyber soldiers

The CICRA Institute of Education has been accredited to train cyber soldiers to fight against the newest forms of cyber terrorism that could cripple national security interests and corporate network structures following a partnership with the US based International Council of E-Commerce Consultants (EC-Council).

The EC Council is endorsed by the US Department of Defence and the National Security Agency (NSA).

Under this partnership, CICRA will retain EC-Council accredited international trainers to coach and certify individuals in the specific network security discipline including security officers, auditors, security professionals, site administrators, and anyone who is concerned about the integrity of the network infrastructure in Sri Lanka.

CICRA will run EC-Council certified combo training programs in Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH), Computer Hacking Forensic Investigator (CHFI), Licensed Penetrating Tester (LPT) and Advanced Security Training in Advanced Penetration Testing (APT), Digital Mobile Forensics Deep Dive, Advanced Application Security (AAS), Advanced Network Defense and Cryptography Deep Dive.

HPIPG appoints New Sun Trading as sub-distributor

HP Imaging & Printing Group (HPIPG) Sri Lanka recently appointed New Sun Trading (NST) as a sub-distributor for HP's range of printers, scanners and ink and toner cartridges.

"NST with over 100 re-sellers in all key provinces in the country has the capacity and dynamism to achieve greater growth for HPIPG products," said Country Business Manager- HPIPG Sri Lanka, Shamal De Silva.