Oracle has made some strong boasts about its cloud ambitions, but has yet to produce any real muscle. This acquisition gives Oracle new team members with real insight into what’s happening behind the scenes at OpenStack, as well as a unique tool that can plug into a data center and make any platform ubiquitous, a key advantage for an enterprise company selling a variety of technologies to a diversity of infrastructures.

When Amazon goes down, so does everyone else. Outages last October and June caused the disruption of Flipboard, Foursquare, Netflix, Pinterest, Instagram and others.

So why put all your cloud data in one basket?

With the release of version 3.0 of the TransLattice Elastic Database (TED), you no longer have to. TransLattice now provides the world’s first geographically distributed Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) to deploy on multiple public cloud provider networks at the same time, as well as on virtual machines (VMs), physical hardware or any combination thereof. No longer do you have to trust your database to a single cloud, but can instead have it span several clouds, distributed around the world, which makes surviving the next mega hurricane practically a breeze.

“TransLattice provides the world’s first and only cross-cloud database, and we control the data within all availability zones in those clouds,” TransLattice’s CEO Frank Huerta told Red Herring. “We can be in Amazon East, but not West, or not in Amazon Europe, or only in Amazon Europe. What’s unique about what we do now is we can tie multiple clouds together for redundancy, to avoid vendor lock in.”

The company’s latest version of TED also features upgraded monitoring capabilities to become a stronger, more robust product, Huerta said. Along with the release of the new version of TED, the company also announced a new partnership with Amazon to use its infrastructure.

TransLattice effectively geographically distributes the data through multiple clouds, but keeps it all under one unique database. Companies no longer need to federate systems or run isolated databases, which can be very costly and cumbersome.

“We can handle transactions from all over the globe, in and out of cloud, and globally resolve those, all in the right order, through one unique data base,” Huerta explained.

Most centralized databases in a geographically distributed world rely on a single backup source, which can be difficult to scale geographically and compliance is often an issue, as certain data can’t be sent to China, while data in German data centers can’t leave the country, for example. And the backup is often not reliable due to increasing complexity. TransLattice can provide multiple backup from multiple locations and can control the data, so that German data remains in Germany or guarantying sensitive data is never stored in China. “Nobody else can do that,” Huerta said.

Plus, TransLattice can distribute data locally so “the speed of light works in your favor,” Huerta said. The company can instantly move data closer to where it is being requested. If a travelling Palo Alto executive requests data in New York or Europe, for example, that data will be instantly transferred to data centers local to her location to ensure the greatest speed.

“We provide redundancy, but through one global database, not isolated databases as the industry operates today,” Huerta said.

TransLattice provides such elastic infrastructure at a fraction of the industry standard. Based on the company’s own internal estimates, it can save customers 50 to 70 percent of the cost of deploying a database. “We price by the node, not users, and our system is very easy to scale,” Huerta said.

“When you need more memory or storage, you can just add nodes as you need like Lego bricks.”
Further savings come from a simpler approach.

“We really started from scratch with the architecture, so it’s much simpler, more elegant and fundamentally much better,” said Louise Funke, VP of Marketing for TransLattice. “There are no expensive SANs to replicate data or synchronize data. Customers can combine it with existing infrastructure or existing clouds in other regions. It makes it very easy for enterprises to dip their toe in the water. We help accelerate moving to the cloud.”

TransLattice’s technology provides the financial services industry multi-site redundancy delivered with 24×7 availability with no single point of failure, as well as global visibility of data. Content development and mobile infrastructure entities can distribute data at the point closest to users to minimize latency. Military intelligence agencies can distribute computing infrastructure closer to the front, without individual node failure affecting availability. Cloud providers are guaranteed their cloud database will keep running even if major infrastructure goes down.

Naturally, there will be competition, and Huerta admits that he maintains a healthy sense of paranoia. Nevertheless, most competing vendors are deeply wedded to older models, which will make the transition difficult, according to Huerta. “We have important IP that won’t be easy to replicate,” Huerta said.

This technology is the future, one in which TransLattice hopes to lead, Huerta maintained.
“In the next three to five years, 30 to 40 percent of networks will run this way with distributed architecture,” Huerta predicted. “It’s an emerging trend that will keep growing. We’re not going to unseat every database today, but this type of technology is going to have a big seat at the table, and hopefully TransLattice will be at the forefront.”

The company will use the new funding for “fueling our product development, accelerating marketing and sales, and growing our partner and education programs in the U.S. and internationally,” explained Clate Mask, the CEO and Co-Founder of Infusionsoft in the company’s blog. “This ultimately means we will reach more small businesses around the globe and enable them to succeed with our all-in-one sales and marketing software, services and education.”

The company provides a customizable, end to end platform that integrates CRM, email, and social marketing, and sales tools. It offers a solution along the lines of Salesforce, Hubspot, or Marketo, but specifically specializes in businesses of two to 25 employees that earn more than $100,000 in annual sales.

“Goldman Sachs shares our belief that successful small businesses are the engine behind the economy. But, the sad truth is that running a small business is hard,” Mask stated in the blog. “More often than not small business success comes at a price. Entrepreneurs end up giving up their lives to make the business work. We aren’t okay with this—we think you should be able to run a successful business and still have a life. We empower entrepreneurs. And we believe in people and their dreams. That’s what we do.”

The company’s clients include Internet startups, veterianarians, wedding planners, and exercise gyms. It serves over 12,000 customers with 50 percent growth over the past year.

This latest round brings the company’s total financing to $71 million, including a $9 million round Mohr Davidow Ventures in 2007, plus an $8 million from vSpring Capital in 2008, with Mohr Davidow participating.

Based in Chandler, Ari., the company has 350 employees.

“We believe Infusionsoft is the market leader in delivering an all-in-one sales and marketing software solution for true small businesses,” says Raheel Zia, managing director for Goldman Sachs Group. “Infusionsoft is a proven partner in working with small businesses and Goldman Sachs is pleased to be an investor in this highly innovative and unique company in the software as a service industry.”

In-Q-Tel, the venture capital firm of the Central Intelligence Agency, made a strategic investment backed by a technology development agreement in cloud mobile security provider Tyfone for its “proven capabilities” in secure ID and NFC. An independent nonprofit, the firm’s primary purpose is to identify “innovative technology solutions to support the U.S. Government,” according to the press release.

The size of the investment is undisclosed.

Based in Portland, Oregon, Tyfone specializes in mobile financial transaction security and identity solutions. In a world going to the cloud, the company’s technology enables distributed authentication and cloud security on any network. The company produces a mobile banking platform, a mobile wallet, contactless NFC, marketing tools, and hardware products. Founded in 2004, the company serves several US credit unions as customers. It has over 300 issued invention claims along with 50 issued and pending patents in the U.S., Taiwan and Patent Cooperating Treaty countries.

“Tyfone has an impressive patent portfolio and history of innovation in mobile financial, secure ID management, and NFC solutions,” said Jay Emmanuel, Technology VP at IQT. “We believe that Tyfone’s technology has the potential to address a wide range of complex government and commercial secure identity challenges.”

Though there’s no guaranty the US government will pick up Tyfone’s technology, it’s likely expecting something for its money. Cyber terror has been identified by the US government as a crucial terror threat, so it makes sense that the government is putting its money behind its press releases.

“A key benefit of our strategic partnership with IQT is the ability to take our innovative mobile security and NFC platform to the U.S. government,” said Siva Narendra, CEO and co-founder of Tyfone. “Our platform includes high volume manufactured hardware that brings smartcard security and NFC to virtually any mobile phone, tablet or PC. In addition, our mobile platform’s software has processed over 7 million secure financial transactions, and we look forward to extending it to IQT’s government customers.”

Unveiled last month, cloud storage provider TwinStrata’s CloudArray 4.0 takes the world of cloud storage up a notch, enabling both Network Attached Storage (NAS) and Storage Area Network (SAN) protocols so that both data blocks and files can be uploaded for a fully empowered cloud. “Essentially, any application can work seamlessly in the cloud,” explained Nicos Vekiarides, CEO of TwinStrata. “Anything that can be done with on-premise storage can now easily be done in the cloud without a local storage footprint.”

The company has prided itself on making “cloud storage look and feel like local storage,” Vekiarides explained, but until now had only accommodated storage for block data and not the actual programs that powered a business. Its newly released product is the first cloud-integrated storage product to natively support NAS and SAN storage.

By putting all storage needs in the cloud, TwinStrata is able to provide continuous data access, which is where the product truly becomes “revolutionary,” Vekiarides explained. It is a tremendous advantage for backup and archiving. On a data center floor, enterprises continually struggle to upgrade and backup their storage. Twinstrata provides a data storage appliance with a very small footprint up to 2U that stores up to 50 petabytes of data, enough to fill a large room of disk drives. Plus, the capacity can serve as disaster recovery with the cloud functioning as the remote site, saving hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars in expenses. Enterprises pay only for what they need, spending essentially nothing on disaster recovery if no disaster occurs.

“Our appliance has virtually unlimited capacity that never needs to be replaced,” Vekiarides said. “It makes life easier for IT administrators, not to mention saving millions of dollars when it comes to disaster recovery.”

The new product also features new management functions that deliver better visibility against historic and present operations. A new dashboard provides easier visual access, monitoring and reporting on data stored in the cloud.

The company’s cloud solution is now supported by more than 20 cloud storage providers, with the addition of Dell, Google, HP Cloud Services, IBM SmartCloud, SoftLayer and others this year.

“CloudArray 4.0 provides a viable alternative to replacing enterprise class or mid range storage,” Vekiarides said. “You can upload any data and push it into the cloud without changing any applications. That’s the key. Whether you buy storage in a file or in a block storage array, you now have an option that can sit alongside it and significantly reduce the maintenance expense of doing it yourself.”

Panetta made his case in a speech last week at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York, the New York Times reported.

Though Panetta did not specifically blame Iran for a series of cyber attacks that erased vaults of data at US banks and a Middle Eastern oil company, he did say that Tehran has“undertaken a concerted effort to use cyberspace to its advantage.” The AP cited a state official who reported that Washington knew who launched the attacks and that it was a nation state.

Panetta said there has been increased technological aggression against the United States and US businesses by China, Russia, Iran and militant groups. The dire picture he painted went far beyond databases, financial systems and tech infrastructure typically targeted by hackers.

“An aggressor nation or extremist group could use these kinds of cyber tools to gain control of critical switches,” Panetta said. “They could derail passenger trains, or even more dangerous, derail passenger trains loaded with lethal chemicals. They could contaminate the water supply in major cities, or shut down the power grid across large parts of the country.”

In sounding the alarm, Panetta also called for legislation that would mandate new cyber security standards at critical private-infrastructure facilities such as pipelines, power facilities and water treatment plants where a cyber attack could cause widespread devastation and panic. A cyber security bill was blocked last August by a group of Republicans including John McCain, who sided with the US Chamber of Commerce, which argued that such regulation would stifle private businesses already struggling in the recession. President Obama is said to be weighing the possibility of an executive order to promote the sharing of cyber security information between the government and the private sector.

Cyber attacks in the form of the Shamoon virus wiped out database files at the the Saudi Arabian state oil company Aramco and Qatari natural gas producer RasGas. Service of denial attacks have also been launched against US banks to over run their systems and take them offline.

“They have been going after everyone—financial services, Wall Street,” a senior defense official told the Wall St. Journal. “Is there a cyberwar going on? It depends on how you define ‘war.’”

Iran isn’t the only country potentially waging a hack war. Last week, the House Intelligence Committee warned US firms against doing business with Huawei and ZTE, two prominent Chinese tech companies, because of cyber spying concerns.

Security companies warn against cyber crime as often as most people talk about the weather. When the War Department takes a stand, however, somebody had better listen.

The deal is the largest contract in the history of the mega-cloud software provider’s history.

Founded in 2007, Buddy Media has been connecting brands to their consumers and fans in a socially connected world since the early days when Facebook’s audience was a “mere” 20 million members. The company today works eight of the top 10 global advertisers in the world, including L’Oreal ,Virgin Mobile, and HP. The company manages engagement with more than a billion customers across Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and other social platforms.

The sale fits salesforce.com’s recent shopping spree in the social media space, having bought Stypi, the collaboration tool company, last May, and Radian6, a monitoring platform for social media, in March of 2011.

“With the rapid growth in technology spending by CMOs projected over the next five years, our Marketing Cloud leadership will allow us to capitalize on this massive opportunity,” said Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO, salesforce.com.

The sale was first announced last June, with the final paperwork filed this week.

Salesforce’s inclusion of Buddy Media creates a social powerhouse of considerable advantage in the $1.3 trillion social technologies market, Michael Lazerow, Buddy’s Media’s CEO, wrote in a blog about the finalization of the deal.

“Marketing is really the intersection of paid media (advertising), owned and earned media (PR, social publishing, content marketing, etc.), sales efforts and customer service,” Lazerow stated. “The largest platforms, like Facebook and Twitter, are offering solutions that bridge all of these functions. The combination of Buddy Media, Radian6 and salesforce.com presents a single, powerful partner who can make marketers heroes.”

But it was the specialness of salesforce.com that sealed the deal.

“Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff is not just another executive, and Salesforce.com is not just another company,” Lazerow told Mashable. “It was clear that Marc had studied Buddy Media and the space we operate in. His questions were direct. And when he saw our software on his computer, he immediately got it.”

Following the finalization, shares of Salesforce rose 3.8 percent to $145.15, the highest since May 29, according to Bloomberg data.