JFrog Unveils New Software Distribution Capabilities to Handle Rising Volume and Frequency of Edge Updates

JFrog, the Universal DevOps technology leader known for enabling liquid software via continuous update flows, has unveiled new capabilities to address the growing problem of software distribution bottlenecks. The newly introduced CDN-based and Peer-to-Peer software package distribution mechanisms empower companies to overcome the challenge of frequently delivering large volumes of artifacts to internal teams and external clients. The announcements took place at JFrog’s annual swampUP user conference.

The explosion of both hybrid and edge infrastructure, and the increased adoption of cloud-native apps that rely on compounded artifacts can create a “firehose” distribution problem, increasingly clogging networks with a stream of software updates. Distribution challenges will continue to grow, with IDC predicting there will be more than 520 million brand new digital apps and services added by 2024.[1]

Peer-to-Peer and Cloud-Based Distribution Enable Digital-First Economy

Unveiling the new Peer-to-Peer artifact download capability, JFrog is serving companies that need to distribute coordinated software updates for hundreds and thousands of connected machines that are updated in parallel but cannot sacrifice speed and security. By breaking the artifact down into smaller pieces and allowing those pieces to be shared between peers on the same network, JFrog can accelerate download speeds by orders of magnitude and increase resilience by expanding beyond a single point of failure.

JFrog has also delivered a new CDN-based package distribution function that solves the challenge of distributing software to large communities of external users or partners. This mechanism works in cases where companies need a simple, SaaS-managed solution to enable external downloads, such as distributing software that can be downloaded by anyone including drivers, plugins, and commercial software products, or updates for partners and users.

“DevOps in a digital-first economy demands the need for speed and security throughout the entire software release cycle all the way to the edge. We provided our community with the first purely hybrid, end-to-end DevOps and DevSecOps platform, and now we’re extending all the way to EdgeOps,” said Shlomi Ben Haim, co-founder and CEO of JFrog. 

Kavita Viswanath, General Manager JFrog India said “Major enterprises are facing a clear challenge in distributing packages quickly and fearlessly across their organizations, as well as to clients and partners. The DevOps revolution will not be completed without providing a comprehensive, powerful binary distribution mechanism; this is our commitment to developers, and it is developers’ responsibility to their organizations.”

New Upgrades Streamline Pipeline Assembly and Build Testing

In a massive upgrade to their Binary Operations (or “BinOps”) toolset, JFrog has also announced new features for its JFrog Pipelines solution that encompasses continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD). JFrog has expanded on its existing selection of pre-built common functions, known as “Native Steps,” by allowing users to build their own library of reusable pipeline steps via an Extensions Development Kit (EDK). Now DevOps teams can encapsulate frequent and common actions in their pipelines, offering a much simpler solution than traditional approaches which often involve plugins that conflict with each other, creating a “plugin hell” for users. Extensions can be run in parallel, allowing pipelines to run with multiple extension versions simultaneously.

“As the world continues to move towards massive delivery of software, the ‘BinOps’ path of managing your software releases becomes more critical than ever,” said Yoav Landman, CTO and co-founder of JFrog. “Shifting binaries to the left and using immutable release binaries as early as possible in the software delivery pipeline is the only way to achieve robust, trusted and secure releases and maintain stable metadata that relates to these releases. We are proud to lead the way of BinOps with the JFrog Platform.”

The First Free, Security-Focused Central Repository of Helm Charts Is Now Available for the Community

Lastly, JFrog has added to their portfolio of public artifact centers with a fresh offering focused on managing the increasing volume of microservices-based and containerized applications. Dubbed “ChartCenter,” the free service from JFrog will provide immutable Helm Chart management for developers, who face increasing complexity in managing Helm, Docker and Kubernetes deployments as they grow in the enterprise. The all-new, free ChartCenter is available at https://chartcenter.io/.

 

OMRON India Enters Telemedicine Segment via Partnership with PhableCare

Healthcare monitoring equipment maker OMRON Healthcare India on Tuesday announced its foray into the telemedicine segment through a partnership with PhableCare to provide remote hypertension management services at home.

PhableCare is an artificial intelligence (AI) enabled healthcare management player.

Through the partnership, the company will provide a digital platform that enables hypertensive patients to avail all kinds of services right from diagnosis to monitoring to treatment under one roof, OMRON Healthcare India said in a statement.

With autonomous and AI-based healthcare becoming a reality in the new normal, the association will usher in remote hypertension management service, OMRON Healthcare India Managing Director Masanori Matsubara said.

"So far, OMRON has been contributing towards empowering people to keep track of their heart health by providing quality digital blood pressure (BP) home monitoring solutions. However, with the merging of our synergies with PhableCare, we will be able to make millions of patients utilise the monitoring services efficiently under the supervision of doctors from the comfort of their homes," he added.

The patients will get access to an accurate monitoring device, proper diagnosis, prescription, real-time tracking and monitoring, and even efficient drug delivery and risk analysis under this solution, Matsubara said.

Commenting on the partnership, PhableCare CEO and Co-Founder Sumit Sinha said, "The effort is to bring about a fundamental change in how healthcare is accessed and outcomes are driven for hypertensive patients."

The last few months have brought a major shift in consumer behaviour where a large population is accessing their basic needs through smartphones, he added.

In order to avail of the services, users would have to download the app 'PHABLE' on their mobile devices and choose the right subscription packages, the company said.

Social Networking sites surface from Mumbai ashes

Bloggers across Mumbai fed live updates of the unfolding action after terrorists launched waves of attacks in the heart of India's financial capital, bringing the emergence of citizen journalism in news coverage to the fore in India.

Social networking sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, were instantly updated with on-the-scene information by people. Minute-by-minute updates on social networking and micro-blogging sites not just satiated the writers’ hunger for expressing themselves, but also gave people more diverse news.

In fact, instead of switching on the television, many followed the action live on microblogging Twitter by searching the site for Bombay and Mumbai. In certain cases, Twitter updates reportedly appeared hours before the first TV stories.

The minute the news of the terrorist attacks broke out, sites like Twitter were inundated with a huge volume of messages. Twitter seemed to be the most popular choice among other social media sites. Just minutes after the first shots were fired; Tweeters (Twitter users) in Mumbai gave instant eyewitness accounts of the unfolding drama.

Messages, known as `tweets', were being posted to the site at a rate of around 80 tweets every five seconds when the news of the tragedy first broke, according to some estimates. Some bloggers provided running descriptions and commentaries from near the action, while others gave vent to their emotions.

"I've been tweeting almost all night from Mumbai. Upset and angry and bereft," said businesswoman Dina Mehta on her blog, http://www.dinamehta.com/blog.

Images of the attacks also surfaced on photo-sharing website Flickr. The site proved a useful source of haunting images chronicling the aftermath of the attacks.

Photographer Vinukumar Ranganathan has attracted hundreds of thousands of visits to his Flickr photo page where he has published a chilling slideshow depicting the aftermath of the attacks.

Twitter came in for some criticism as well in the blogosphere for divulging too many details that could prove helpful to the gunmen holed up in the hotels with their hostages and who may have been monitoring blog sites.

"It's a terrorist strike. Not entertainment. So tweeters, please be responsible with your tweets," said one blogger identified as primaveron@mumbai.

Unfortunately, the site also contained misleading threads, some of it purporting to be from intelligence services. In fact, many of the posts on Twitter amounted to unsubstantiated rumours and wild inaccuracies.

According to CNN, a rumour that the Indian government was asking Tweeters to stop live updates to avoid compromising its security efforts was published and republished on the site.

This was reportedly fueled by certain news websites, which posted the Tweet on their live update. It read: "Indian government asks for live Twitter updates from Mumbai to cease immediately. ALL LIVE UPDATES - PLEASE STOP TWEETING."

Several local Indian news channels were reported to have carried a live feed of the Twitter updates on the Mumbai attacks.

Twitter's contributors also questioned the veracity of certain TV news reports, pointing out contradictions and errors. When Indian reporters announced an end to Taj hotel siege time and again, Tweeters contended that gunfights were continuing. "Locals say gunfire still happening at Taj," said one feed, hours after fighting was said to have finished.

Many social network users also sent pleas for blood donors to make their way to specific hospitals in Mumbai where doctors were faced with blood shortage and rising casualties. Throughout the night, bloggers were active compiling news reports and contact information and information on blogging sites like mumbaihelp.blogspot.com.

Tweeters were also mobilised to help with transcribing a list of the dead and injured from hospitals, which were quickly posted online. mumbaihelp.blogspot.com also offered advice to those with friends and family in the city. "Suggest you avoid calling. Lines are bound to be jammed."

Other websites also quickly filled up with information: Wikipedia had a page up on the attacks by early Thursday morning. A Google map was created just hours after the explosions to mark the locations that had been hit.

Dozens of videos of the attacks have flooded the YouTube too. Gauravanomics has an exhaustive list of online coverage of the attacks. Slained Anti-Terrosism Squad (ATS) chief, Hemant Karkare, was reportedly the most searched topic on Google for nearly an hour after his death was declared.

Even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s address to the nation on Thursday was highly viewed, followed by angry comments.

Source: Indiatimes Infotech

Chandrayaan-1 inches closer to moon

The fourth orbit-raising manoeuvre of Chandrayaan-1 was carried out which took the lunar spacecraft closer to the moon, the Indian Space Research Organisation said.

During this operation at 0738 hours, the spacecraft's 440 Newton liquid engine was fired for about three minutes, the Bangalore-headquartered space agency said in a statement.

"With this, Chandrayaan-1 entered into a more elliptical orbit whose apogee (farthest point to earth) lies at 2,67,000 km while the perigee (nearest point to earth) lies at 465 km. Thus, Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft's present orbit extends more than half the way to the moon," ISRO said.

In this orbit, the spacecraft takes about six days to go round the earth once.

The health of the spacecraft is being continuously monitored from the Spacecraft Control Centre at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) here with support from Indian Deep Space Network antennas at Byalalu near Bangalore.

ISRO said all systems on board the spacecraft are performing normally.

One more orbit raising manoeuvre is scheduled to send the spacecraft to the vicinity of he moon at a distance of about 3,84,000 km from the earth, it said.