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CENTEROS DCIM News Blog 29 November 2021

CENTEROS DCIM News Blog 29 November 2021

CENTEROS DCIM Version 3.0 has been Released!

We’re pleased to announce the Release of CENTEROS Version 3.0.  We’ve been working on this release for a while as we wanted to make it as fast and as easy to use as possible. 

Our customers have been very supportive and have added their ideas for changes to this Version and we thank them for their input.

The goals of this update were to;

Update the CENTEROS Desktop Application to be run with the new Version 3.0 software, and include additional security for the Application using an EV Code Signing Certificate.  The EV Code Signing Certificate allows software publishers to digitally sign their code, including applications, executables, scripts and programs, to confirm that the software has not been tampered with by any outside source.

One of the more important goals for the new Version was to re-engineer the backend of the software to be written in C#.  At the same time, we modified the database to be more intuitive to provide us with more flexibility for future development.  This has also enhanced database access and has made working with the product faster.

In the front-end of the product we’ve improved a large number of features, including working with connections, connection path, searching for assets and enhanced paging of data.  We’ve also enhanced some of the Jobs processes and eliminated unnecessary steps in the Job Tasks form.  Searching has been enhanced, and in the Jobs form, we’ve added a quick select to select all tasks for quicker completion of the job.  The Importer has been updated to run with the new Version 3.0 database.

The Reporting engine has also had a complete re-write to run with HTML5 with the addition of several new reports.  In addition to the above we’ve worked to fix some major and minor bugs and spent time upgrading how the software works in regard to cancelling jobs and deleting assets from the database.  We believe this has made CENTEROS Data Center Infrastructure Management software more secure and more intuitive.

This software upgrade will be free upgrade for current customers that are up-to-date with their Annual Support, however there may be a cost for the work time required to migrate the software to the new version.  This upgrade will require migration of the current database to the Version 3.0 format and also require upgrading of the Desktop Application, Software, Reporting, Schedulers and SNMP Data collector for those using the Monitoring module.

If you have any questions please contact me directly via email on kate.crossley@centeros.com or by phone on the below numbers.

NZ PH: 09 486-3855 
Aust PH: +61 7 3107 1700
MOB: +61 406 505 575

CENTEROS DCIM News Blog 21 May 2021

CENTEROS DCIM News Blog 21 May 2021

CENTEROS DCIM AIR Application is nearly here!

We’ve been acutely aware of the impact that the End-of-Life of the Flash plugin has had on our customers and even though we offered a temporary solution we wanted a more permanent option and a more secure offering. As you know we looked at many different options and translating the CENTEROS DCIM front-end into an Adobe AIR application ended up being the best. This would turn CENTEROS DCIM into a Desktop Application using Adobe ActionScript so that there was no need to run the Flash plugin or use a web browser.

The definition of Adobe AIR is, that it is a cross-platform runtime system which is now currently developed by Harman International, an independent subsidiary of Samsung, for building desktop applications and mobile applications, programmed using Adobe Animate, ActionScript, and optionally Apache Flex.

adobe-air-logo

As a DCIM software vendor we have been spending many hours researching this remedy and in the last Blog we let you know that we had engaged the right developer to head up the project. We were estimating that we would have this solution available by the end of April or early May 2021.

What really happened was that the upgrade of the current version of CENTEROS Data Center Infrastructure Management software involved much more work than we realized. To this end we can now say that the current version of CENTEROS DCIM V2.3 being translated into an AIR app will now be available in mid-June 2021.

The CENTEROS DCIM AIR Application will incorporate an EV Code Signing Certificate which is a file containing a digital signature that can be used to sign executables and scripts in order to verify a developer’s identity and ensure that the code has not been tampered with since it was signed. This will help users to verify that the software can be trusted and reduces the risk of unauthorized access which provides much more security. A Private Key will be held separately on a physical token by the developer.

cyber security image on desktop

This upgrade will provide a more secure application that will install from a Windows installer and run CENTEROS as a desktop application. When the installer is first run it will ask for the path to your CENTEROS web application and add a CENTEROS DCIM icon to your desktop. From then on CENTEROS DCIM will be accessed through this icon and will automatically start CENTEROS from the correct web path.

man using laptop and customer satisfaction guaranteed

As it’s taken more time and resources, and as it is an upgrade of the front-end of the product, not an update, there will be a charge for this Application as per the Customer Software Support Agreement.

This charge will also include the AIR Application for the new version of CENTEROS DCIM Version 3.0 once it has been Beta tested, so you will be getting two apps for the price of one. The cost for this upgrade will be NZ$995.00 and quotes will be provided to each customer once the application has been completed.

If you have any questions please contact me directly: kate.crossley@centeros.com or PH: 09 486-3855 MOB: 021 656-478

CENTEROS News Blog 16 March 2021

CENTEROS News Blog 16 March 2021

Well it’s been an interesting time here at CENTEROS DCIM with the COVID 19 virus in Queensland, Australia and with many people in businesses now working from home.  We believe we have been very fortunate because of where we live and life for the last year has been reasonably normal.  The only time we were in any sort of lockdown was from March 2020 for about 4 months when we were in Level 3 lock down.  Luckily, we were still able to get a takeaway coffee thank goodness!

So, what have we been up to?  Of course, our top priority has been supporting our customers in whatever they need with regards to their Data Center software requirements.  We’ve provided new equipment templates, worked on some modifications to Reports, and helped them with any questions they may have had.  We believe our personal relationship with our customers is a top priority, as many of our customers have been working with CENTEROS DCIM for over 13 years, since the very early days of Data Center Infrastructure Management software.  We have really appreciated their support over the last few years!

handshake with block chain overlay

We’ve been involved in a project for one of our customers, to make it easier to track drives in servers and disk farms by adding Properties to CENTEROS DCIM.  This will allow the Data Center manager and staff to add details of when drives are removed, dates of destruction and how they were destroyed.  Once the data has been collected in CENTEROS DCIM this can also be reported on, using a Report specifically designed for this process. 

finger pressing power switch

We’ve also spent some of our time working on refreshing our website which we are incredibly pleased with and looks great!  Many thanks to Robert and his team at Headway Information Services for all their hard work on the new website and for the SEO work they are doing now.  The new website went live just over a month ago.  We’d love you to have a look at it www.centeros.com. 

You will be aware that CENTEROS DCIM runs with the Flash plugin and that this was End-of-Life at the end of 2020.  According to our research the best option is to translate CENTEROS DCIM into an AIR application.  We’ve been so very fortunate to find the right developer to head up this project and are estimating that we will have this solution available by the end of April or early May 2021.  We’ve decided that this will be a free update to all our current customers, so will be connecting with them to install this as soon as it is completed.

CENTEROS in Datacom’s Kapua Datacentre

Thursday, June 20, 2013

We congratulate our customer Datacom on the opening of their new Kapua Datacentre near Hamilton.  

The Kapua datacentre has been quietly operating for a couple of months now, but they only hosted their offical opening ceremony at their newest facility earlier last month.

Their innovative design in both their Kapua and Orbit datacentres have made Datacom a market leader in co-location and managed services in New Zealand.  

We’re proud to say that Datacom is a user of CENTEROS DCIM.

See the following link for more detail.

http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/inside-datacoms-kapua-datacentre

This entry was written by Kate Crossley, posted on Thursday, June 20, 2013

RIP Shirley Zhou

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Last Wednesday, James and I attended a memorial for Shirley Zhou at one of our customers, the University of Auckland.  It was a very sad and moving event. 

Shirley was the CENTEROS administrator for the University and a valued member of the data centre operations team. Shirley and her husband George were murdered while in Toronto, Canada visiting family.

We had a lot of dealings with Shirley.  Not only did we like her as a person.  We found her awesome to work with.  To our delight, she took to CENTEROS like a fish to water. 

Despite a heavy workload, nothing seemed to faze her.  “Undocumented features”, especially in early releases, held up her work but she took it all in her stride with good humour. 

Shirley was well liked and very highly regarded.  She will be missed. 

Why do terrible things happen to good people?

Our condolences to Shirley’s family and friends.

This entry was written by Kate Crossley, posted on Wednesday, May 1, 2013