Amazon Adds Edge Locations in Taiwan, Brazil

Amazon expands edge locations to Taipei and Rio de Janeiro, Dell helps customers use Salesforce.com, ScaleOut Software extends its in-memory data grid, and PlanSource raises $12 million to continue to innovate its insurance exchange and benefits administration cloud offering.

Amazon adds Taipei and Rio de Janeiro Edge locations.  Amazon Web Services announced that it is launching its first edge location in Taiwan, at Taipei, and a second edge location in Brazil at Rio de Janeiro. These new locations will improve performance and availability for end users of your applications being served by Amazon CloudFront and Amazon Route 53, and they bring the total number of AWS edge locations to 51 worldwide. The new sites will also support all Amazon Route 53 functionality including health checks, DNS failover, and latency-based routing.

Dell provides application services on Salesforce platform. Dell announced that it will provide its customers a complete portfolio of services to enable development and migration of applications to the Salesforce Platform. For customers looking to develop applications on the Salesforce Platform, Dell offers expert advisory and application migration services and also acts as a single point of contact for design, delivery and ongoing application management. “This collaboration helps Dell customers develop new applications using the cloud, on the platform that works best for their business. Customers will benefit not only from our strong Salesforce advisory services but also from Dell’s own successful implementation of the Salesforce Platform. Offering customers this type of choice and flexibility is at the heart of Dell’s overarching Cloud strategy,” said Raman Sapra, Executive Director and global head, Strategy and Business Innovation Services, Dell Services.

ScaleOut Software extends in-memory Data Grid.  ScaleOut Software announced the availability of ScaleOut StateServer Version 5.1. The latest version includes C++ APIs, additional solutions on Amazon Web Services, a Windows version of ScaleOut hServer, performance improvements in data management, and SSL support for enhanced security. The addition of C++ APIs enables C++ applications to take advantage of the full range of its feature set, and ScaleOut GeoServer and ScaleOut hServer, will now be available in the AWS Marketplace. Version 5.1 releases major enhancements to the underlying IMDG architecture, including a 5X faster transport for load-balancing data between servers and a new implementation of adaptive heart beating for greater resiliency in virtual server environments. “With this release, C++ developers now can easily integrate ScaleOut’s IMDG into their applications to provide scalable performance, as well as parallel query and integrated real-time analytics for applications written in C++,” said Bill Bain, ScaleOut’s CEO. “The added capabilities in Version 5.1 also introduce significant enhancements to ScaleOut StateServer’s features and performance and broaden its availability in the cloud.”

PlanSource raises $12 million Series B Round.  Cloud-based benefits administration provider PlanSource announced  that it has completed a $12 million Series B Investment Round with its existing investors Lemhi Ventures and Timucuan Asset Management. "As a leading provider of healthcare technology and employee benefits administration, our business is rapidly evolving and expanding in the areas of insurance exchanges and SaaS platform solutions for carriers/payers,” said Dayne Williams, CEO of PlanSource. “Hundreds of brokers and carriers, including some of the largest health plans in the U.S., use PlanSource for our proven ability to increase distribution and product participation with our sophisticated functionality. This investment allows us to stay on the leading edge of innovation and product development as we launch several exciting new products over the next year."