LAS VEGAS — April 16, 2012 — At the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) 2012 conference today, Microsoft Corp. announced new media services and guidance to enable content providers and customers to realize the power of cloud computing. The new cloud-based Windows Azure Media Services is designed to make creating, managing and delivering media to any device easier than ever by offering a comprehensive set of ready-to-use first- and third-party media technologies. Microsoft also published a new Broadcast Reference Architecture that offers prescriptive guidance on how media companies can architect their solutions to improve systems performance management as they move toward the cloud.

Windows Azure Media Services

Taking advantage of the worldwide Windows Azure cloud infrastructure, Windows Azure Media Services gives content providers and media partners the nearly unlimited capacity of the cloud to cost-effectively handle a huge volume of digital media and make it available in the format that customers want, when they want it. Windows Azure Media Services’ ready-to-use services allow customers to simplify the creation of complex media workflows built on Microsoft Media Platform and third-party technologies.

“Our internal research shows that more than one-third of today’s Internet traffic is devoted to video consumption, and we expect that to grow to 80 percent by the end of 2015,” said Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president, Windows Azure application platform. “Not everyone has the expertise or capital required to build a media infrastructure, so Windows Azure Media Services enables companies everywhere to build custom media solutions that easily scale and adapt to meet consumers’ needs, wherever or however they consume it.”

Highlighting the diversity of solutions enabled by Windows Azure Media Services is a broad ecosystem of media partners, with many already integrating their technologies for customers to use in their own media solutions. These include high-speed transfers from Aspera Inc., content encoding from Digital Rapids Corp., ATEME and Dolby Laboratories Inc., content security from BuyDRM and Civolution, and video-on-demand streaming from Wowza Media Systems Inc. In addition, Windows Azure Media Services enables full-service media companies such as iStreamPlanet Co. and Movideo Pty. Ltd. to host and offer complete workflow solutions to customers.

Windows Azure Media Services will also support an entire ecosystem of connected devices from some of the largest consumer electronics and manufacturers in the world. With support for Microsoft Smooth Streaming, HTTP Live Streaming and Flash media formats, Windows Azure Media Services will enable customers to reach almost any connected device, from Xbox 360, Windows Phone and Windows-based PCs to non-Microsoft platforms such as smart TVs, set-top boxes, MacOS, iOS and Android. To further enable true interoperability between media technologies from different vendors, Windows Azure Media Services will also include native support for MPEG-DASH (Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP), the International Organization for Standardization and Interoperability Executive Customer Council standards developed by Microsoft and other industry leaders that deliver an exceptional video experience for end users by automatically adapting to varying client and network conditions during playback.

To further showcase the capabilities of Windows Azure Media Services, Microsoft is working with Akamai and deltatre to deliver high-definition streaming video of the London 2012 Olympic Games across multiple countries through major rights holders in Europe, North America, Central America and South America. This will be the first time an event of this scale will be hosted and broadcast from a cloud platform to millions of viewers around the globe.

“Consumers now watch video anywhere, anytime and on any device,” said Bill Wheaton, senior vice president and general manager of Media at Akamai. “Working with partners such as Microsoft and deltatre, we’re eager for the Olympic Games to start and for the powerful combination of Windows Azure Media Services and Akamai’s SOLA Media Solutions to deliver a high-quality viewing experience on a global scale.” Customers can visit http://www.windowsazure.com/media to sign up for the preview of Windows Azure Media Services.

Broadcast Reference Architecture

Microsoft’s goal is to provide media and cable companies with the necessary tools and guidance to make decisions and deliver technologies that enable powerful business transformation. The Broadcast Reference Architecture provides the way forward for media organizations to assess current technology, resources and processes; to lay the foundation for future success; and to provide flexibility to allow businesses to grow, adapt and innovate quickly and in a cost-efficient manner.

Microsoft published the Broadcast Reference Architecture for the first time today and has worked with several partners, including Harris Corp., Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. and Decentrix Inc., to roll out this reference architecture. The Broadcast Reference Architecture white paper is available at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/presskits/telecom/docs/BroadcastReferenceArchitecture.pdf. More information about Microsoft’s products and services for media and cable companies is available at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/presskits/telecom/media.aspx.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

PostGIS is an extension that adds support for geographic objects to the PostgreSQL object-relational database. The version 2.0.0 is now complete and available for download here :

Download PostGIS

The development process for 2.0 has been very long, but has resulted in a release with a number of exciting new features.

• Raster data and raster/vector analysis in the database
• Topological models to handle objects with shared boundaries
• PostgreSQL typmod integration, for an automagical geometry_columns table
• 3D and 4D indexing
• Index-based high performance nearest-neighbour searching
• Many more vector functions including
• ST_Split
• ST_Node
• ST_MakeValid
• ST_OffsetCurve
• ST_ConcaveHull
• ST_AsX3D
• ST_GeomFromGeoJSON
• ST_3DDistance
• Integration with the PostgreSQL 9.1 extension system
• Improved commandline shapefile loader/dumper
• Multi-file import support in the shapefile GUI
• Multi-table export support in the shapefile GUI
• A geo-coder optimized for free US Census TIGER (2010) data
  

More Details

REDMOND, Wash. — April 13, 2012 — Microsoft Corp. today announced several changes to the leadership team of Microsoft International, including changes to the top leaders in Microsoft Greater China Region (GCR), Microsoft United Kingdom (U.K.) and Microsoft Germany.

Ralph Haupter, currently serving as area vice president (AVP) for Microsoft Germany, has been promoted to corporate vice president and named CEO for Microsoft GCR. Haupter is replacing Simon Leung who has decided to leave Microsoft for personal and family reasons. Gordon Frazer, currently serving as managing director (MD) for Microsoft U.K., has been named chief operating officer (COO) for Microsoft GCR. He is replacing Michel van der Bel, who will assume the role of MD for Microsoft U.K. Haupter and van der Bel will report to Jean-Philippe Courtois, president of Microsoft International, and Frazer will report to Haupter.

“As Microsoft looks forward to our next wave of growth and innovation, we consider these new leaders for the Greater China team as a great complement to our very strong existing team. These changes reflect a deep commitment to both the region and to creating new opportunities and challenges for our most talented people,” Courtois said. “China represents an unprecedented opportunity for growth across the breadth of our business, and I am confident in the leadership abilities of Ralph, Gordon and the extended Greater China leadership team to help us execute on those opportunities and deliver the benefits of technology to many more of the 1 billion-plus people of Greater China.”

Haupter is a seven-year veteran of Microsoft, having delivered excellent and sustainable results in growth and profitability and repeatedly proving his ability to build and grow high-performing, diverse organizations. He previously served as head of the partner division for Europe, Middle East and Africa and general manager (GM) of Microsoft’s Small and Midmarket Solutions & Partners Group for Western Europe, both based in Paris, and served as COO for Microsoft Germany before becoming the German AVP. Before that, he worked for IBM both in Germany and internationally.

Frazer is a 16-year veteran of Microsoft, having served as the GM for Microsoft South Africa for four years and most recently as the Microsoft U.K. MD for the past six years. He brings a tremendous amount of operational expertise to the Microsoft GCR team from his various roles across both developed and emerging markets. His leadership in managing the full breadth and depth of Microsoft’s business in the U.K. will serve as a strong asset in helping take Microsoft China’s operations to the next level of efficiency and growth.

A 13-year veteran of Microsoft, van der Bel previously served as COO of Microsoft GCR, as VP of public sector for Microsoft International and as GM of the Netherlands. While in China, he helped transform that business to grow faster than the market and drove significant improvements in employee satisfaction and key initiatives, including compliance and licensing. He brings to Microsoft U.K. proven expertise in building strong teams, as well as sales, marketing and services excellence.

“I am incredibly optimistic about the deep expertise, discipline and energy Michel will bring to Microsoft U.K. and am committed to finding an excellent leader for Microsoft Germany,” Courtois said. “Germany and the U.K. are among our largest and most strategic markets outside the United States, and we are deeply invested in ensuring the ongoing growth of those businesses and exceeding the expectations of our customers there.”

Microsoft International comprises all of Microsoft’s operations outside North America. Microsoft GCR comprises the businesses in the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan and Hong Kong SAR, and includes deep and ongoing investments across sales, marketing, services, research and development. Microsoft is celebrating its 20th anniversary of operations in China in 2012.

Courtois concluded by saying, “I’d like to thank Simon and Michel for their contributions to Greater China, including strong performance over the past 11 quarters of consecutive growth, and their dedication to designing and laying the foundation for our next phase of growth, which Ralph and Gordon will now carry forward.”

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

Surging demand drives EnterpriseDB to release a new version of Postgres Enterprise Manager with SNMP and email alerts, an audit manager and user access controls, dramatically expanding its enterprise-class feature set

BEDFORD, Mass. EnterpriseDB, the leading worldwide provider of PostgreSQL and Oracle database compatibility products and services, today announced the growing interest in Postgres among larger enterprises has driven the number of installations of its Postgres Enterprise Manager (PEM) to more than 2,000 in just six months. In response to the outpouring of interest and demand, EnterpriseDB has released Postgres Enterprise Manager 2.1 with a collection of new features designed to further address the more complex needs of managers with very large-scale Postgres deployments.

PEM 2.1 adds a series of highly configurable dashboards, new features for scheduling and organizing management tasks and enhanced alerting capabilities. The new version further eases the management of large-scale PostgreSQL deployments by giving managers the ability to control user access on a per-server basis.

Postgres Enterprise Manager was released in August to equip users with an enterprise-class tool designed for managing large-scale deployments of PostgreSQL or Postgres Plus Advanced Server. The tool provides database administrators with a single console to monitor, manage and tune multiple Postgres installments simultaneously.

“More big companies are coming to us as the reliability and performance of Postgres achieves greater recognition among the Fortune 500. We’re keeping pace by making the tools that these power users need to manage vast deployments,” Ed Boyajian, president and CEO of EnterpriseDB, said. “Combining end user feedback and input from the developer community, we developed Postgres Enterprise Manager 2.1 to give users greater insight into their installations and greater flexibility to manage them. And we will continue to innovate in keeping with our mission to provide the enterprise with a powerful database to rival traditional, proprietary databases but at a fraction of the price.”

"We've recently worked with clients who have deployed Postgres Enterprise Manager to manage their large, multi-instance deployments of Postgres," Joseph Conway, President and CEO of credativ Group LLC, said. "PEM is an excellent visual tool that greatly simplifies the management, monitoring and tuning of these instances, and clients have reported they've achieved significant time savings in a very short amount of time."

Enhanced Alerts, New Dashboards and More

Postgres Enterprise Manager 2.1 – the only management tool of its kind for PostgreSQL and Postgres Plus Advanced Server – includes the following enterprise-class enhancements:

SMTP and SNMP Alerting – The management tool may now be configured to send alerts over regular email, using Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), or through complementary software solutions, using Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). PEM 2.1 further enables end users to designate the delivery mechanism on a per-alert basis and includes “flap detection” so users aren’t flooded with unnecessary alert messages. PEM 2.1 also significantly expands the ability to configure alert definitions.

Audit Manager – End users now have the power to perform bulk configurations of audit features on the servers hosting Postgres Plus Advanced Server. They can schedule when the database gathers log information, which is stored centrally. Further, users can review the logs using a new dashboard that is visually comparable to social networking tools and loads the log files on-demand as the end user scrolls.

Role-based User Designations – Administrators now have the power to define or limit visibility of specific servers using role-defined controls. Enhancing flexibility and easing overall administration, this ability gives administrators the mechanisms they need to efficiently use Postgres Enterprise Manager in multi-team environments.

Expanded Dashboards – The dashboards now use Ajax to load charts and graphs and therefore can auto-refresh on a configurable, per-item interval. End users will find enhanced navigation within the dashboards, and expanded tables in other dashboards. Users may also configure alerts directly from the dashboards by clicking on the alert name.

High-Availability Support – Administrators may link Postgres Enterprise Manager to high-availability systems so that server monitoring can be moved automatically to the standby host in the event that a server is failed over. SQL Profiler – Feature enhancements allow filtering on any field giving users insight into server activity and helping diagnose and fix poorly performing SQL statements.

Server and Agent Installers – The server installer enables the end user to install PEM database server and web services on different machines; the agent installer has been enhanced to allow users to specify alternate locations for storing certificates used for authentication.

To download Postgres Enterprise Manager, please visit our Postgres Enterprise Manager page for more details.

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About EnterpriseDB Corporation

EnterpriseDB, the Enterprise PostgreSQL Company, provides enterprise-class PostgreSQL products and PostgreSQL services to help IT organizations be successful with the world's most advanced open source database. The company's Postgres Plus products are ideally suited for transaction-intensive applications requiring superior performance, massive scalability and compatibility with proprietary database products to reduce overall database costs. EnterpriseDB has offices in North America, Europe and Asia. The company was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Bedford, MA. For more information, please call +1-781-357-3390, or visit www.enterprisedb.com

EnterpriseDB, Postgres Plus and Postgres Enterprise Manager are trademarks of EnterpriseDB Corporation. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

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• Renee Deger
• Phone: 415-432-2439
• Email: renee.deger@lewispulse.com