Snowflake Targets Secure Data Warehousing in the Cloud

Snowflake Computing, a start-up based in San Mateo, California, has achieved HIPAA compliance with its cloud data warehousing service. Specifically, Snowflake has received key third-party validations of its service and processes, including a Service Organization Control (SOC) 2 Type II report and HIPAA compliance. SOC 2 is an industry standard that validates the security of infrastructures and services for cloud-based service providers.

"With organizations increasingly looking to the cloud, security has become a focal point of today's data storage conversation and concern," said Bob Muglia, CEO of Snowflake Computing. "To date, database offerings have put the burden of security on the customer, leaving them to configure, manage, and monitor infrastructure, data, and application security. Snowflake has brought world-class security expertise to designing security into our service from the start, going above and beyond other offerings to relieve users of this burden so that they can focus on solving business problems rather than suffer the headaches of security management."

Snowflake's key feature set:

• Always-on Enterprise grade encryption. Snowflake automatically encrypts all customer data by default, in transit and at rest, using the latest security standards and best practices at no additional cost.
• Multi-factor authentication. Snowflake offers integrated multi-factor authentication, to further control access to the Snowflake service, and to reduce the threat of brute force attacks.
• Federated Services. Snowflake offers federated services for organizations that want to leverage their existing SAML 2.0 investments. 
• Automatic key management. Snowflake rotates account and table keys on a regular basis, entirely transparent to the customer and requiring no configuration or management.
• Intrusion Detection. Integrated SIEM services for monitoring and notifying customers of potential suspicious activities to help them thwart attacks.
• Role based access. Snowflake allows role based access and control for both data access and operation.
• Dedicated Instances. For customers with sensitive data who need added security including compliance requirements in a virtualized environment, Snowflake offers the option of dedicated compute resources.

http://www.snowflake.net

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Supermicro Sees Revenue at Low End of Range

Super Micro Computer said it now anticipates that it will report revenue for its third quarter of fiscal 2016 (ended 31-Mar-2016) in the range of $530 million to $533 million -- at the low end of the company's previous guidance range of $530 million to $580 million.

Non-GAAP gross margin is expected to be approximately 14.8% to 14.9% primarily due to lower demand with some large customers and the channel which led to lower cost absorption based on lower utilization as well as product mix.

“While we saw the market slow down a little in the March quarter, Supermicro revenue continued to grow at an industry leading pace by growing 12% to 13% year over year. However, results for this quarter were weaker than forecasted due to weaker demand with some large customers and the channel than we anticipated. January and February were particularly soft while March showed improved momentum. Storage and datacenter continued to grow,” said Charles Liang, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “We are confident that Supermicro will continue to gain market share consistently and grow multiple times the industry growth rate in the upcoming quarter and year. We will provide more details on the third quarter financial performance at the time of our earnings call later this month.”

http://www.Supermicro.com

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