Israel Innovation 2.0

Cleantech news from Israel is heating up as Israel’s first solar farm became functional and an Israel Corp investment of $10 million into solar power company HelioFocus was announced during the week of August 24, 2008. Software optimizer, Replay Solutions received an $11 million investment and Aternity Inc announced its strategic partnership with Ness Technologies. The clothing design process is about to get revolutionized with Optitex software that “replicates fabrics so realistically that clothing designers can see what fashions will look and act like on people before garments are made.” For these full stories and more, check below for the 14 Israel-related technology headlines from the week of August 24, 2008

Cleantech
Israel says hi to hybrids

Israel’s first solar power station up and running in Negev

Israel ‘on verge of becoming world leader in cleantech’

M&A and Investments
Israel Corp unit invests $10m in solar power co HelioFocus

Jasmine Holdco Submits Request to Aladdin Knowledge Systems to Call Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders

Aladdin to Vector: Access Denied for $13 a Share

Replay Solutions Receives $11 Million Investment From Sigma Partners, Hummer Winblad and Partech International

Information Technology
Japan’s Fuji Television Network Selects Imperva for Database Monitoring and J-SOX Compliance

WorkLight: Bringing Enterprise 2.0 to a Widget Near You

Breaking News: Aternity and Ness Technologies Form Strategic Partnership

adCore™ Announces Full Yahoo! Search API Implementation

Miscellaneous
Robo-skeleton lets paralysed walk

A Boom in Israel’s Exports to India

Eyes turn to dawn of ‘visual computing’

About the author: Lisa Damast is the Membership Manager of ebizQ.net and currently resides in Israel. Any questions or inquiries regarding this blog or ebizQ membership services can be directed to her via email at ldamast (at) ebizq (dot) net. She can also be followed on Twitter, where she covers additional Israeli technology companies and Israel-related headlines and topics.

*About the Weekly Headlines image: The Star of David in the image was found on Flickr and is used under the Creative Commons license. It was originally uploaded by Flickr member, zeevveez. The overall Weekly Headlines image was designed by Lisa Damast.

Israel Innovation 2.0 has received word that Aternity Inc. and Ness Technologies have formed a partnership in which Ness Technologies, a global provider of end-to-end IT services and
solutions, will sell, implement, train and support the Aternity Frontline Performance Intelligence (FPI) Platform in Israel.

In the news release announcing this, Shahar Efal, President of Ness Israel, explains,

“Enterprise-class organizations realize that they need to monitor and measure application performance, usage, and usability not just from the data center perspective, but from the end user perspective. Aternity delivers a unique and extremely effective approach with its Frontline Performance Intelligence platform which represents the next-generation of application performance management technology. We are committed to the successful deployment and implementation of Aternity as the ubiquitous platform for delivering end-to-end visibility into real end user experience for our clients.”

This news follows Aternity’s two-fold announcement back in June of its first set of packaged Frontline Performance Intelligence (FPI) solutions tailored for specific enterprise applications and the launch of its worldwide Partner Program.

In an Israel Innovation 2.0 interview with Aternity at the time, CEO Trevor Matz stated that

“Aternity’s platform uniquely monitors the end-user experience in real time by analyzing, aggregating and correlating desktop performance, application performance and user productivity to help determine and resolve in less time the root cause of any problems. Using the FPI Platform, companies can become proactive in capacity planning, application licensing optimization, and desktop virtualization and orchestration.”

While this partnership will allow Aternity to enter into a new market and help improve the performance of Israeli companies in the process, it can also give Ness – which is “facing intense competition form large players in the IT industry” – the edge it needs.

Related Entries
Aternity in the spotlight
Aternity continues to make the proactive enterprise a reality (Interview with Trevor Matz)
Aternity Headlines
Ness Technologies Headlines

About the author: Lisa Damast currently resides in Israel. Any questions or inquiries regarding this blog can be directed to her via email at lisa (at) israelinnovation20 (dot) com. She can also be followed on Twitter, where she covers additional Israeli technology companies and headlines among other topics.

Recently, Aladdin Knowledge Systems,
an information security company specializing in authentication, software
DRM and content security, announced that West Coast Labs awarded the Aladdin eSafe with Checkmark Premium Level Anti-Spam Certification.

According to Aladdin’s website, Aladdin eSafe

protects against Web-based malware and zero-day threats through an in-line, wire-speed secure Web gateway featuring powerful anti-spyware, application level controls, and URL filtering. eSafe also controls spam and inspects SMTP and POP3 traffic though a proactive email security gateway.

West Coast Labs, an independent test facility for information security products and services, included in its report some of the highlights of the test including:

Virtual Appliance performed exceptionally well in all aspects of testing during the course of the anti-spam and URL filtering, and so the solution has been awarded the Premium Level Anti-Spam Certification. — Overall, the solution performed extremely well, achieving a 99 percent cumulative [spam] detection rate. — Thanks to the wide range of settings available, the administrator can fine-tune [eSafe] Virtual Appliance to a high degree.

Israel is a hotbed for innovative information security. Other Israeli security companies besides Aladdin include, Check Point, PineApp, Sentrigo and Commtouch, among many others.

Company Facts
Founded in 1985.

Headquarters in Petach Tikva, Israel.

Yanki Margalit, Co-Founder and CEO.

Dany Margalit, Co-Founder & Director.

Tsion Gonen, Vice President eSafe.

Products: HASP, eToken, eSafe.

Website: www.aladdin.com.

About the author: Lisa Damast currently resides in Israel. Any questions or inquiries regarding this blog can be directed to her via email at lisa (at) israelinnovation (dot) com. She can also be followed on Twitter, where she covers additional Israeli technology companies and headlines among other topics.

During the week of August 10, 2008 investors and professionals from Massachusetts received attention for their interest in using their current relationships with Israeli technology companies to enter cleantech. Israeli air-conditioning company, Agam Energy Systems Ltd., announced plans to expand its operations to include developing fuel-efficience technology for car engines. Siano Mobile, a mobile TV chip maker raised $17.5 million and there was a call for more international conferences. VoIP companies, Spikko and Skuku, and several other companies also make up this week’s 14 Israel-related technology headlines. See the complete list below.

Cleantech
Mass. looks to strengthen clean-tech ties with Israel

IDE Technologies Signs Contract Worth Over 100 Million Euros to Supply a Desalination Plant to Australia

Agam to develop fuel-efficient car engines

Former Ormat VP joins solar start-up: Advanced Solar Power is developing thermosolar energy technology and has a prototype

M&A and Investments
Mobile TV Chipmaker Siano Mobile Silicon Lands $17.5 Million

Hi-tech companies raise $291 million in second quarter

Information Technology
IBM’s XIV storage lacks high-end features, analyst says

Numonyx may close California Technology Center

Haier to recruit over 100 for Israeli development center

Mon: Aladdin leads technology sector to gains

Miscellaneous
Combined Technologies From Continental and Mobileye Support the New Speed Limit Information of the New BMW 7 Series

Wanted: More International Conferences in Israel

Tired Of Mobile Phone Bills: Check Out This Israeli Start-up

Skuku – where mobile phones meets VoIP

Bonus
Also during the week of August 10, 2008, Israel Innovation 2.0 was included in Jacob Share’s JobMob blog entry featuring a visual list of Digital Eve Israel members who blog. Digital Eve Israel is a listserv for hi-tech professionals in Israel and is widely considered to be the best resource for English speakers looking for work and advice in the field. JobMob is the top blog with advice on getting a job in Israel in any field.

Related Posts
Company in Focus: Walla Communications Ltd.
Blogging platforms, Israeli professionals and the lack of Israeli company blogs
Company in Focus: XIV
Rumors of IBM being in talks to purchase Diligent Technologies Corp.

*About the Weekly Headlines image: The Star of David in the image was found on Flickr and is used under the Creative Commons license. It was originally uploaded by Flickr member, zeevveez. The overall Weekly Headlines image was designed by Lisa Damast.

PineApp, an e-mail and content systems security provider, announced recently that

“North Florida Women’s Care (NFWC) has utilized PineApp’s Mail-SeCure perimeter security appliance to provide the organization with secure email while eliminating a massive amount of spam attacks.”

According to the PineApp website, Mail-SeCure is an

“advanced anti-spam and email security appliance that combats evolving email-based threats such as botnets, image and MP3-based spam and sophisticated virus attacks.”

Mail-Secure, which claims to block 98.5% of spam, also provides multi anti-virus engines with multi layered anti-spam protection.

Just how prevalent is the threat of spam to companies (of any size)? Here are some numbers about spam over the past few years:

In 2005, fewer than 5 out of 100 e-mails were image spam. (CSO Online)
In 2006, 40 percent of e-mails were image spam. (CSO Online)
In December 2007, over 80 percent of emails were unsolicited. (ciol.com)
In 2007, 84 percent of companies had been affected by malware introduced via email. (ciol.com)

If your current spam protection program isn’t doing enough to protect your company and you’re looking for other solutions, you should add PineApp to your list of companies with products to consider.

Company Facts
Founded in 2002.

Headquarters in Nesher, Israel.

Hezi Erez, CEO.

Gabriel M. Mizrahi, Co-Founder and CTO.

Products: Mail-SeCure, Surf-SeCure and Secure SoHo.

Website: www.pineapp.com.

About the author: Lisa Damast currently resides in Israel. Any questions or inquiries regarding this blog can be directed to her via email at lisa (at) israelinnovation20 (dot) com. She can also be followed on Twitter, where she covers additional Israeli technology companies and headlines among other topics.

The week of August 3, 2008 was a good one for Israeli companies announcing funds raised. Israeli-Chinese social networking company, Koolanoo raised $25 million, and Confidela, software-as-a-service document security and control company that’s still in stealth mode raised $5 million in second-round funding. Water management companies, Tahal and Environmental Energy Resources Ltd. (EER) made headlines with their projects while VoIP company, JaJah made headlines with its new translation services. For Information Technology news and more, check below for the complete 17 Israeil-related technology headlines from the week of August 3, 2008.

Cleantech
Tahal obtains financing for €41m Ghana water project

UK to use Israeli waste-disposal technology

M&A and Investments
Koolanoo Group raises $25M

WAN optimization co Expand raises $10m

Confidela raises $5MM, completes second round of financing led by seasoned entrepreneur, Shlomo Kramer and Gemini Israel Funds

YouLicense.com Secures Funding From Ofer Media and Logia Group

Carl Zeiss SMT to Acquire Israeli Start-Up Pixer Technology

Telecommunications
Micronet to expand its presence in the North American Mobile Resource Management Market

Jacada Signs Material Contract with New Telecommunications Customer in North America

New Translation Services Come to MS Office and JaJah

Information Technology
Shunra Software Joins the VMware Technology Alliance Partner Program

PineApp’s Mail-SeCure Provides North Florida Women’s Care with Unparalleled Spam Blocking and Secure Email Communications

ClickSoftware Products Excel in the Preliminaries, Now Ready for Prime Time During 2008 Beijing Olympics

Crescendo Scales to Meet Web Applications’ Need for Speed

Miscellaneous
Applied Materials Promotes Gilad Almogy to Senior Vice President

From Silicon Valley to Silicon Wadi

N-trig Announces Availability of Multi-touch Gestures Software Development Kit

The week of July 27, 2008, started off with an opinion piece by NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman about T. Boone Pickens and Shai Agassi leading the energy revolution. Meanwhile, rivals in Agassi’s former field, IBM and Microsoft are moving forward with integrating their recent Israeli acquisitions and Adobe is now seeking its own Israeli technology. Of course, politically, the big news was that Israeli PM, Ehud Olmert, will be resigning in September. How this will impact peace in the region and Israel’s economy, if at all, is yet to be seen. These weren’t the only big headlines from the past week though. The full 16 Israel-related technology headlines from the week of July 27, 2008 are right below.

Cleantech
Texas to Tel Aviv

Luz II parent in Phoenix solar talks

M&A and Investments
Chief Scientist budget not cut – but dry

Multimedia file storage startup raises cash

Information Technology
Penguins in Tel Aviv? It Must Be the Annual Open-Source Convention

IBM Bulks Up Data Protection

Adobe seeks Israeli technology

Microsoft zooms into data quality

Telecommunications
iPoint in Sri Lankan Move

Cisco invests in Israeli multimedia WiFi startup

ClickSoftware Extends Major Contract for Mobile Workforce Management in Germany

Miscellaneous
My ads aren’t your ads

Metacafe pays to profit

Website allows employee recommendations for pay

Olmert to Quit After Elections in September

MADE IN IBM LABS: IBM Research Develops Technology to Aid Human Memory

About the author: Lisa Damast is the Membership
Manager of ebizQ.net and currently resides in Israel. Any questions or
inquiries regarding this blog or ebizQ membership services can be
directed to her via email at ldamast (at) ebizq (dot) net. She can also be followed on Twitter, where she covers additional Israeli technology companies and Israel-related headlines and topics.