Grazed from TalkinCloud. Author: Chris Talbot.

Barracuda Networks is continuing the expansion of its cloud data storage initiatives. This time, the company has acquired mobile signing and document storage platform provider SignNow, which recently grew to more than 1 million users and represents more than 100,000 small businesses and half of the Fortune 500. It's an interesting acquisition, as there's a bit of a niche here. It may very well be a big niche, but it's far from a traditional cloud storage offering. According to Barracuda, this acquisition brings significant expansion and expertise that the security and storage vendor will use to boost its own cloud data storage growth.

"The SignNow acquisition strengthens our offering in cloud data storage and continues our focus on providing simple, yet powerful and affordable IT solutions," said BJ Jenkins, CEO of Barracuda Networks, in a prepared statement. "SignNow has experienced phenomenal growth, and we are looking forward to bringing it into our fully integrated suite of cloud and on-premise security and storage solutions."...

Grazed from NewsWire. Author: Editorial Staff.

SolarWinds Inc. (SWI) has agreed to buy N-able Technologies for $120 million in cash to expand its offerings into cloud-based information technology services for managed service providers.
Kevin Thompson, SolarWinds' president and chief executive, said small businesses are increasingly looking for ways to deploy and efficiently manage IT and SaaS-based technologies and the acquisition helps the company better serve such needs.

Privately held N-able Technologies provides network monitoring and remote systems management software and counts companies such as Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and Intel Corp. (INTC) as among its strategic partners...

Grazed from Reuters. Author: Alexei Oreskovic and Jennifer Saba.

Yahoo Inc(YHOO.O) will buy blogging service Tumblr for $1.1 billion cash, giving the Internet pioneer a much-needed social media platform to reach a younger generation of users and breathe new life into its ailing brand.

The deal, announced on Monday, is a bold bet by Yahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer to revitalize the company by co-opting a Web property with strong visitor traffic but little revenue.
The combination of Yahoo and Tumblr creates an online powerhouse with roughly one billion users, which will draw in more advertisers and help Yahoo keep visitors on its properties for longer periods of time, Mayer told Reuters in an interview...

Grazed from ZDNet. Author: Zack Whittaker.

Dell announced on Monday it will acquire Enstratius, an enterprise cloud management software firm, for an undisclosed amount. Founded in 2008, Enstratius offers cloud management services to hybrid and single-cloud customers as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering that sits either as a hosted service or within the network. By embracing a "cloud agnostic" platform, the technology works with both Dell and non-Dell customers, including OpenStack, Microsoft's Azure, Amazon Web Services, VMware and Rackspace, just to name a few.

The firm's software cloud management capabilities allow administrators and IT staff to quickly and easily deploy multi-component applications across one or multiple clouds. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Dell said it will retain Enstratius' staff and continue to invest in its engineering and sales divisions to help grow the business...

Grazed from Application Development Trends. Author: Jeffrey Schwartz.

At last week's CA World conference in Las Vegas, the company made clear it's not stepping back from expanding its cloud focus on a number of levels. That's no surprise considering the company tapped former Taleo chief Michael Gregoire as its new CEO late last year. Taleo, was a software as a service based provider sold to Oracle for $1.9 billion.

Adding to its cloud focus, the company also announced at the conference that it has acquired Layer 7, whose secure API offering will bolster its identity and access management suite, which includes SiteMinder, with the aim of providing added cloud security services. CA said it would also tie Layer 7 into its DevOps offerings, notably the LISA suite...

Grazed from Business2Community. Author: Matthew Ramsey.

As enterprises seek the best in cloud services, numerous changes are occurring in the cloud market. Picking the best each provider has to offer is not uncommon, leaving businesses with multiple services to manage. Solvedirect, an Austrian firm providing software and services for cloud systems, pioneered the ServiceGrid platform. It was designed to monitor services across multiple partners, no matter what systems the enterprise has implemented. This has caught the attention of Cisco, a world leader in network and computing systems. The corporation recently bought the cloud services management company.

What SolveDirect Adds to the Equation

The acquisition may have huge implications for the enterprise cloud computing industry. SolveDirect is known for its operational efficiency and skill set for engineering. The capacity for managing multiple services is critical. Enterprises are often tasked with managing up to 15 external IT service providers, leaving staff with an endless flow of emails, phone calls, and online interactions for support. These interactions tend to drive down efficiency, but ServiceGrid has streamlined the process to address the multi-provider IT models modern enterprise are finding themselves left to manage...

Grazed from CBR. Author: Editorial Staff.

Despite deals increasing 3% in the quarter The transaction value of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the online and mobile industry decreased 50% in the first quarter of 2013 to $7.9bn, according to the latest report from Berkery Noyes. According to the report, the deal volume however increased 3% during the quarter compared to the corresponding quarter a year earlier.

Berkery Noyes said that the SaaS/ASP segment experienced the largest quarterly rise in volume, improving 16%. The transaction volume in the e-commerce segment increased 6% in Q1 2013 with Google's acquisition of Channel Intelligence for $125m being the segment's highest value deal. M&A involving transactions with a large mobile component grew 33% over the past three months...

Grazed from SCMagazine. Author: Editorial Staff.

Proofpoint has acquired Maildistiller, a provider of SaaS email security solutions to bolster its cloud architecture. As part of a plan to expand its Proofpoint Essentials suite of software-as-a-service (SaaS) security and compliance solutions, it acquired the Northern Ireland-based company, which is specifically designed for channel distribution through multi-level distribution and managed service providers (MSPs).

According to Proofpoint, the technology will enable Proofpoint Essentials to combine the security and threat detection capabilities with ease of use, multi-level channel management and modern SaaS architecture required to serve the mid-to-small enterprise market...

Grazed from The Register. Author: Phil Muncaster.

Japanese ICT giant Fujitsu has announced plans to build out its cloud business with the acquisition of little-known French PaaS vendor RunMyProcess (RMP) and the development of a new Global Software Center in Silicon Valley. RunMyProcess, a member of the Cloud Alliance for Google Apps, essentially allows customers to build and deploy workflow apps in the cloud using simple drag and drop functionality.

A major selling point of the firm, which Fujitsu describes as providing “integration Platform as a Service” (iPaaS), is in allowing customers to integrate their processes with a range of both SaaS and on-premise apps, thanks to over 1,000 so-called “connectors”...