May 9, 2012

Using PR to Build Thought Leadership and Drive Market Leadership – Part 3 of 3 – CommPRO.biz

By Jason Cormier, Co-founder, Room 214

Need to know the latest social media trends and techniques? Curious about how your colleagues are driving results in social? We have the answers for you, right here.

http://www.commpro.biz/corporate-communications/media-relations-corporate-communications/using-pr-to-build-thought-leadership-and-drive-market-leadership-part-3-of-3/

May 7, 2012

AGILE ALLIANCE ANNOUNCES CONFERENCE PROGRAM FOR AGILE2012

Agile2012 conference program includes more than 200 presentations and workshops that cover the complete spectrum of Agile best practices and methodologies

PORTLAND, Ore., May 7, 2012 – The Agile Alliance, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting the advancement of Agile software development principles and practices, today announced its full conference program for Agile2012. The finalized schedule is available for review at (http://agile2012.agilealliance.org/program/schedule/). Agile2012, the world’s largest conference for Agile teams, developers, managers and executives, will take place Aug. 13-17 in Grapevine (Dallas area), Texas (www.agile2012.com).

“Building on the momentum of 11 years of Agile adoption and maturity, Agile2012 will offer more than 200 sessions, ranging from introductory to highly advanced topics,” said Mitch Lacey, Agile2012 conference chair. “One of my goals was to increase the technical content at the conference, and I believe we did that, taking technical content from under 15 percent in 2011 to over 25 percent in 2012. Across the board, each session aims to help practitioners and organizations capture the value of Agile software development. This year, we had more than 800 session proposals submitted. Our extremely selective peer-review process resulted in a program of esteemed Agile practitioners and developers – quite possibly our best one yet. As Agile processes are increasingly becoming widespread across the enterprise, the Agile Conference continues to deliver the most cutting-edge conference program in the industry. I am very excited.”

Agile2012 offers multiple ‘stages’ to attract audiences with different interests. The stages within the program are proven to provide participants with a focused area of interest while offering attendees a wide choice of topics to choose from. Agile2012 will host a number of exciting and beneficial stages, including: adoption and transformation, Agile boot camp, business value/working with stakeholders, coaching and mentoring, collaboration culture and teams, development practices and craftsmanship, distributed Agile, enterprise Agile, insights, leadership, no-bull know-how, open jam, research in practice and user experience.

Agile2012 attendees have the opportunity to explore the latest Agile development methodologies, technologies, tools, leadership principles, management philosophies and processes. The conference program provides insights into new and practical approaches for Agile success that attendees can immediately put into practice within their organizations.

For more information about Agile2012, its conference program and to register for the event, please visit (www.agile2012.com).

About the Agile Alliance

The Agile Alliance is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the concepts of Agile software development, as outlined in the (http://www.agilemanifesto.org/). With nearly 6,000 members located around the globe, the Agile Alliance is driven by the principles of Agile methodologies and the value delivered to developers, organizations and end users. The Agile Alliance organizes the annual Agile Conference, the industry’s leading event that attracts practitioners, academia, business and vendor-partner community members from around the globe. The Agile2012 Conference (http://agile2012.agilealliance.org/) is scheduled for August 13-17 in Grapevine (Dallas area). For more information about the organization, visit (http://www.agilealliance.org/).

Agile Alliance Media Contact:  

Catapult PR-IR

Christie Denniston

Office: 303-581-7760 ext.  13

Cell: 303-827-5164

cdenniston@catapultpr-ir.com

SparkFun + Engineering TV

SparkFun isn’t just a great source for your next electronics project – they encourage you to let your geek shine! Engineering TV and Electronic Design’s Bill Wong visited the SparkFun offices in Boulder, CO. The team started the tour off with the founder and CEO, Nate Seidle, discussing a brief history of the company, their upcoming Autonomous Vehicle Competition, and more.

SparkFun Electronics: Let your geek shine!

Hosted by: Bill Wong Videography by: Curtis Ellzey Edited by: Curtis Ellzey

May 4, 2012

Rep. Jared Polis Visits FreeWave Technologies, Sees Private Equity at Work

FreeWave’s Wulchin: ‘Our investment by private equity firm TA Associates provided us with the resources to further our growth, leading to a positive impact on our local community and economy.’

BOULDER, Colo., May 4, 2012 – Today Representative Jared Polis (D-CO-2) visited FreeWave Technologies’ headquarters in Boulder, Colorado.  FreeWave Technologies (http://www.freewave.com) manufactures the most reliable, high-performance spread spectrum and licensed radios for critical data transmission.

“FreeWave Technologies is yet another example of a Boulder area company successfully attracting capital,” said Rep. Jared Polis. “As FreeWave Technologies demonstrates, private equity investments in Colorado companies have strengthened local businesses and brought good jobs to the region by providing needed investments for growth and to help companies succeed in the global economy,” Rep. Polis concluded.

FreeWave received a $113 million investment by private equity firm, TA Associates, in 2007.  This investment has been instrumental in FreeWave continuing to grow its workforce, further its research and development efforts and expand into several new markets over the past five years. During this time, FreeWave increased its employee headcount by 76 percent and achieved record revenue last year. Its Boulder, Colo. facility supplies essential, cutting-edge wireless communications technology to government, defense, utility, energy and private sector customers.

“Our investment by private equity firm TA Associates provided us with the resources to further our growth, leading to a positive impact on our local community and economy,” said FreeWave Technologies CEO Steve Wulchin. “TA Associates has been instrumental in our company’s development over the past several years and we look forward to continuing our success for years to come.”

The $113 million investment is an excellent example of how private equity has the potential to benefit a community as a whole, as FreeWave, in turn, gave $9 million to its employees, which allowed them to also help stimulate the local economy.

As part of an ongoing program to introduce lawmakers to private equity-backed businesses in their districts, the Private Equity Growth Capital Council (PEGCC) arranged for Rep. Polis to meet FreeWave employees and tour its facility.  The PEGCC recently launched a new website, (http://www.PrivateEquityAtWork.com), to highlight the importance of private equity to the U.S. economy.  In 2010 alone, private equity firms invested nearly $150 billion in U.S.-based companies.  Private equity firms invested an estimated $23.4 billion in Colorado-based companies over the last 10 years, and there are approximately 60 private equity-backed companies headquartered in the state.

“Private equity-owned companies are important job creators in Colorado and in all 50 states,” said Steve Judge, PEGCC president and CEO.  “It is important to highlight the successes of companies, like FreeWave Technologies, and educate the public, policy makers, and the media about the benefits of private equity investment for the U.S. economy,” Judge concluded.

About FreeWave Technologies

Founded in 1993, FreeWave Technologies manufactures the most reliable, high performing, lowest power consumption, spread spectrum and licensed radios for mission-critical data transmission. Through engineering excellence and a relentless commitment to best-in-class manufacturing, FreeWave customers enjoy superior radio up-time, range and the lowest cost of ownership available. Based in Boulder, Colorado, FreeWave designs and manufactures radios that are the leading choice for oil and gas, utility, military and numerous other industrial applications. Organizations that count on radio data communications for operational success where failure and down-time are not an option – trust FreeWave for custom network design, system engineering and customer support that are unparalleled in the market. For additional information, contact FreeWave directly at 866.399.4930 or at newsinfo@freewave.com. Visit the company’s website at (http://www.freewave.com).

About Private Equity at Work

Private Equity at Work is a new initiative by the Private Equity Growth Capital Council aimed at educating media, policy makers and the public about the private equity industry and its positive contributions to the American economy. The campaign is anchored by a new website and resource center, (http://www.PrivateEquityAtWork.com), and features educational content, industry data and an in-depth look at specific private equity investments that are driving growth and creating jobs.

About the Private Equity Growth Capital Council

The Private Equity Growth Capital Council (PEGCC) is an advocacy, communications and research organization and resource center established to develop, analyze and distribute information about the private equity and growth capital investment industry and its contributions to the national and global economy.  Established in 2007 and formerly known as the Private Equity Council, the PEGCC is based in Washington, D.C.  The members of the PEGCC are 34 of the world’s leading private equity and growth capital firms united by their commitment to growing and strengthening the businesses in which they invest.  More information about the PEGCC can be found at (http://www.pegcc.org).

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April 30, 2012

COLLABNET LAUNCHES CLOUDFORGE, INDUSTRY’S FIRST ENTERPRISE-GRADE DEVELOPMENT-PLATFORM-AS-A-SERVICE (dPaaS)

CloudForge enables software development teams to develop and deploy in seconds, using a hybrid mix of tools, application frameworks and deployment clouds

BRISBANE, Calif., April 30, 2012 – CollabNet® (www.collab.net), a global leader for Enterprise Cloud Development and Agile ALM products and services, today announced CloudForge™, a new development-Platform-as-a-Service (dPaaS) that helps distributed teams and enterprise IT organizations adopt, manage and scale cloud-based development activities using a hybrid mix of tools, application frameworks and deployment clouds. For teams, CloudForge provides ease-of-use, instant access to popular development tools, integrations with cloud services and one-click deployment to public PaaS or private datacenters. For IT organizations, it provides centralized role-based security, automated backups, visibility and compliance needed to code, connect and deploy software applications within a hybrid mix of public, private and on-premise cloud environments. CollabNet also announced that its on-premise TeamForge® and Subversion Edge installations seamlessly integrate into CloudForge.

“Rapid developer adoption of cloud-based services has enabled companies of all sizes to build and release new categories of software, including mobile, local and cloud-based applications, without assuming the upfront capital costs associated with supporting requisite new IT,” said Guy Marion, vice president and general manager for CollabNet Cloud Services. “As cloud development matures, CloudForge addresses the glaring need for a secure, flexible and scalable platform to help enterprises gain control of and benefit from hybrid cloud development.”

CloudForge represents the industry’s first enterprise-grade dPaaS offering, and underpins CollabNet’s strategy to lead the adoption and growth of Enterprise Cloud Development. It provides code repository hosting (Subversion and Git), access to hosted and third-party Agile tools, and facilitates the deployment of applications to public and private cloud environments. It uniquely extends to and integrates with on-premise applications like TeamForge, Subversion Edge and leading commercial and open source tools, or to affiliated cloud platforms like Cloud Foundry and SOASTA. This mix of hybrid cloud and lifecycle capabilities enables development teams to leverage the power of Agile processes and DevOps initiatives – while providing the enterprise with a centralized view of productivity, cost management and compliance.

“Having a flexible platform to quickly build and ramp up a cloud development program has helped our company become more agile and responsive to the market,” said Rahul Subramanian, managing director for DevFactory, a Trilogy company. “CollabNet and its CloudForge platform provide a much needed development and deployment front-end to the IaaS and PaaS offerings that are available today – our developers love it and it provides the visibility and control we need to run the business.”

CloudForge is an entirely new platform that is built upon the industry leading Codesion® cloud development framework that more than 4,000 global customers use daily. It is more than a year in the making and leverages CollabNet’s extensive experience building development communities and helping enterprise IT organizations manage complex distributed team environments. While CloudForge offers an easy, flexible and low-cost “on-ramp” to cloud development, it is 100 percent enterprise-ready, with the high availability, backup, compliance, security, user management and support expected from a world-class cloud offering.

“By partnering with CollabNet, CloudForge provides a front-end development platform that provides easy access to the Cloud Foundry™ PaaS environment – whether hosted in the public cloud, private cloud, or on-premise environment,” said Jerry Chen, vice president, Cloud and Application Services at VMware. “With CloudForge, CollabNet is bringing cloud development and Cloud Foundry to the enterprise in a way that makes sense for development and operations teams, and provides a centralized platform for executives.”

Starting today, CollabNet is making CloudForge Cloud Services accessible from within all of its products, including its TeamForge ALM and Subversion Edge SCM platforms. Initially, the new Subversion Edge CloudBackup service provides seamless Subversion data archiving, redundancy and migration capabilities for any on-premise user of Subversion Edge or TeamForge, without leaving their own desktop environment. Future hybrid cloud services will become available later in 2012 within Subversion and TeamForge, and may range from elastic server provisioning for build and test, to data analytics services and access to knowledge communities.

The CloudForge hybrid cloud development platform includes the following capabilities:

• Collaborative UI: A newly designed user interface that promotes open, collaborative development in the cloud and for the cloud, with an emphasis on sharing, speed, simplicity and built-in training.
• Developer Feed: Aggregates development activities in real time through a streaming, searchable dashboard for easy reference and data access.
• Reporting Center: Provides centralized visibility for development managers and IT administrators with a focus on project performance against milestones, coding progress and system/access logs.
• CollabNet App Center: Building and managing a cloud development platform is easy through  two “App Zones,”
  • My Services – provides easy-to-provision development services included within the CloudForge Public Hosting plan, including SCM (Subversion, Git and CVS), trackers (Trac, Bugzilla and DAV) and Agile ALM (ScrumWorks® Pro and TeamForge) tools. Integrated services include basic (Basecamp, Pivotal, FogBuzz and Lighthouse) and premium (JIRA, Rally and VersionOne) levels.
  • Marketplace – additional add-on services may be purchased through the CollabNet partner ecosystem, including: Cornerstone, ALMWorks, BrainEngine, SOASTA, New Relic and Zendesk.
  • Hybrid Cloud Deployment – Includes one-click deployment to public PaaS or private datacenters

Share this story via Twitter: @CollabNet launches @CloudForge to drive #cloud #software #development in the #enterprise. Learn more today at www.collab.net/ecd

Availability

CloudForge is being rolled out as part of CollabNet’s corporate re-launch and alignment to support Enterprise Cloud Development. It is currently available for free public beta by visiting http://cloudforge.com/try. CloudForge will be commercially available, with full enterprise support, starting later in the second quarter of this year.

About CollabNet

CollabNet is a leading provider of Enterprise Cloud Development and Agile ALM products and services for software-driven organizations. With more than 10,000 global customers, the company provides a suite of platforms and services to address three major trends disrupting the software industry: Agile, DevOps and hybrid cloud development. Its CloudForge™ development-Platform-as-a-Service (dPaaS) enables cloud development through a flexible platform that is team friendly, enterprise ready and integrated to support leading third party tools. The CollabNet TeamForge® ALM, ScrumWorks® Pro project management and Subversion Edge source code management platforms can be deployed separately or together, in the cloud or on-premise. CollabNet complements its technical offerings with industry leading consulting and training services for Agile and cloud development transformations. Many CollabNet customers improve productivity by as much as 70 percent, while reducing costs by 80 percent. For more information, please visit (www.collab.net).

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CollabNet, TeamForge and ScrumWorks are registered trademarks of CollabNet, Inc.  CloudForge is a trademark of CollabNet, Inc.  Subversion is a registered trademark of the Apache Software Foundation.  Other names may be trademarks of their respective holders.

Contact:

Christie Denniston

Catapult PR-IR

O: 303-581-7760

M: 303-827-5164

cdenniston@catapultpr-ir.com