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|By Stackify Blog
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|May 26, 2017 09:15 PM EDT
Best Cloud Tools for Infrastructure Automation
By Angela Stringfellow
There are two main reasons for infrastructure automation. First, system administrators, IT professionals and DevOps engineers need to automate as many routine tasks as possible. That's why we build tools at Stackify to help developers automate processes like application performance management, error monitoring, and log management; automation means you have more time for mission-critical tasks. Second, automation makes the management of complex, diverse environments possible and allows rapid scaling.
Whether you are using a public cloud, private cloud or hybrid cloud, infrastructure automation tools will come in handy. The following is a look at the 50 best cloud infrastructure automation tools available today, which we've listed below in alphabetical order.
Ansible is a relatively simple infrastructure automation engine that automates application deployment, configuration management, cloud provisioning and intra-service orchestration. It has hundreds of modules that ensure the support of multiple integrations including Google Cloud Platform, Amazon Web Services, Splunk, and NetApp. Ansible allows you to centralize your infrastructure through a role-based permissions, job scheduling, and a visual dashboard.
Key Features:
- Designed for multi-tier deployments
- Uses simple language that approaches everyday English
- Does not require additional security infrastructure
- Ansible Tower Self Support - Ideal for smaller deployments. Costs $5,000 a year for up to 100 nodes and $10,000 for up to 250 nodes
- Ansible Tower Enterprise - Perfect for Enterprises and includes 8to5 support. Costs $10,000 per annum for up to 100 nodes. Contact for a price quote if more than 100 nodes
- Ansible Tower Premium - Best for mission-critical DevOps and provides 24×7 support. $14,000 per year for up to 100 nodes. Contact for a price quote if more than 100 nodes
Appcore is a comprehensive cloud management tool that simplifies resource management, automated provisioning, and cloud infrastructure configuration.
Key Features:
- Simple user interface provides an insightful view of the cloud
- Functionality that ensures true on-demand capability
- Provides telemetry and event data for both virtual and physical devices
Request a quote
Automate delivers desktop and server automation that builds on years of experience across thousands of customers. It integrates with cloud-based and virtual computing environments and is both flexible and cost friendly. It makes easy work of schedule management, trigger management, and task scheduling.
Key Features:
- Dynamic, drag-and-drop and easy-to-deploy tasks
- Friendly interface
- Multi-document support, efficient action search, stack viewer support
- Event-driven task triggering
- Automate Trial Version - Free (expires after 30 days)
- Automate Premium - Request a quote
Bcfg2 allows system administrators to create verifiable, reproducible and consistent descriptions of their infrastructure environment. It has reporting and visualization tools to support everyday administrative tasks.
Key Features:
- Runs on multiple environments including Mac OS X, Solaris, FreeBSD, AIX, and Ubuntu
- Allows a client's response to provide an objective assessment of a specification' completeness
- Facilitates manual system modification
- Enables complex deployment and change management strategies
BladeLogic Server Automation eases the speedy and secure provision, configuration, patching and maintenance of cloud, virtual and physical servers.
Key Features:
- Integrates access control and pre-configured policies for SCAP, NIST, SOX, PCI, HIPAA, DISA and CIS, remediation and documentation
- Supports automated installs as well as template-based, script-based and image-based provisioning
- Manage configuration and change activities across a wide range of server environments using a single tool
- Multi-dashboard views
- Embed maintenance window recommendations to ensure timely patching
Request a quote
CA's automation solutions simplify and accelerate the transition from manual to automated service delivery. It ensures full capability across both physical and virtual infrastructure, services and applications. The automation drives innovation, reduces costs and speeds up business processes.
Key Features:
- Intelligent technological automation that adapts to ever-changing business requirements
- Accelerate and streamline transition to the cloud
- Exceptional control, visibility, productivity and speed
- Industry-tested scalability to manage complex workloads
- Continuous compliance via automated configuration error remediation
Request a quote
One of the oldest configuration engines in the market, CFEngine was first rolled out in 1993. It automates complex, large-scale and mission critical infrastructure. Global changes are made consistently and securely while ensuring compliance. It is used by major brands including Intel, LinkedIn, Panasonic, Samsung, Chevron, Comcast and Deutsche Telekom.
Key Features:
- Written in C which ensures one of the leanest and fastest executing tools available. A configuration change can be deployed across 50,000 servers in just 5 minutes
- Stable, mature solution tested in a diverse range of large enterprise environments
- Compliance reports and real-time dashboard
- Encrypted communication
- CFEngine Community Edition (Free) - Includes compliance & reporting function
- CFEngine Enterprise Edition (Request a quote) - The Community Edition plus support and a graphical user interface
Chef is one of oldest and best-known infrastructure automation tools out there. It scales easily and can be used to manage 5 servers or 5,000. It facilitates continuous delivery and configuration management. By converting infrastructure to code, Chef enables IT professionals and cloud engineers to automate the building, deployment, and management of infrastructure.
Key Features:
- Automation of tasks by employing reusable definitions
- You can use the predefined resources as building blocks or define your own
- Test code on a local workstation or isolated environment before deploying into production
- Automated testing for security and compliance
- Dashboards for infrastructure management, auditing, and troubleshooting
- Chef Basics - Free. Comes with Chef Server, Client and Development Kit, Supermarket Content and 8-to-5 support for the first 30 days
- Hosted Chef - $72 per node per year (minimum of 20 nodes). Chef Basics plus Chef Server hosting services, Supported Content, High Availability and unlimited 8-5 support
- Chef Automate - $137 per node per year. Hosted Chef plus workflow, compliance, visibility and 24-7 support (excludes server hosting services)
Cirba provides several options for cloud environment integration, routing automation, densification, and reservation. It enables smart, automated demand management whether through the analysis of existing applications or integration with third-party portals.
Key Features:
- Provides complete picture of the network, storage and compute resources available including current workloads
- Allows balancing of resources to meet service levels, and match compliance requirements
- Multidimensional analysis to ensure capacity reservation and accurate forecasting
Request a quote
Cisco Intelligent Automation for Cloud delivers operational efficiency, responsiveness, speed and user satisfaction. Whereas this solution blends well with other Cisco products and technological solutions, it can be integrated into an enterprise's existing non-Cisco infrastructure, systems, operational processes and service management tools.
Key Features:
- User-friendly portal and service catalog
- Convenient dashboard for lifecycle management, resource status, and consumption control
- Enhanced visibility and discovery means a greater ability to make real-time changes
- Simplified provisioning for complex cloud environments
Request a quote
Citrix CloudPortal Services Manager is a detailed control panel used to simplify scaling and provisioning of hosted workspaces, improve operational efficiency and minimize management costs.
Key Features:
- Manage hosted services at scale including cloud desktops and business applications
- Single interface to simplify scaling, provision services and see customers
- Delegate routine cloud-based administration
- Customize views and functions for diverse business needs or specific users
- Streamlined processes via workflow approval while controlling costs and retaining approval rights
Request a quote
Cloudify allows you to manage your complete application lifecycle using hybrid infrastructure via a single pane. It monitors applications in the cloud and scales them as required.
Key Features:
- Cloud native support for containerized and non-containerized workloads
- Out of the box integration with leading infrastructure, clouds, and tools
- Event-driven workflows
- Automatic triggering and reaction to predefined events including intelligent auto-scaling and auto-healing
- Cloudify Community - Free
- Cloudify Premium - Request a quote
Cobbler is an installation server that allows the quick setup of installation environments. It joins and automates numerous tasks, so network administrators do not need to jump between multiple applications and commands when deploying or changing systems. It may be used for configuration orchestration, power management, package updates, DHCP, DNS and overall installation.
Key Features:
- Interacts with koan for virtualization and re-installation support
- Installation profiles that can be applied to one or thousands of machines
- Combination of snippets, profiles, and ksmeta ensures high flexibility
Commando is a distributed online SSH platform that provides a simple way to manage servers. It enables users to improve their workflow, increase efficiency and eliminate uncertainty over server provisioning, deployment, and maintenance.
Key Features:
- Github integration
- Import servers across multiple infrastructure providers
- Native SSH means quick setup with no external dependencies
- Pico Plan ($12 per month) - Add up to 3 servers and 2 users
- Nano Plan ($24 per month) - Add up to 5 servers and 3 users
- Micro Plan ($49 per month) - Add up to 10 servers and 4 users
- Mega Plan ($99 per month) - Add up to 20 servers and 5 users
- Giga Plan ($199 per month) - Add up to 40 servers and 6 users
Crowbar is an Apache-2 licensed tool that allows one to build complete and easy-to-use operational deployments. Groups of network nodes can be converted into a production-ready cluster in a matter of hours.
Key Features:
- Completely automated deployment
- Extensible and mature architecture
- Scalable and well suited for large organizations
- Supports wide range of cloud environments including Ceph, OpenStack, and CloudFoundry
Fabric's functions are fairly basic. If you need greater and more sophisticated functionality running on Fabric, Cuisine is what you might want to look at.
Key Features:
- It consists of several high-level functions such as upgrade/installation packages, addition/removal of users/groups as well as broader file and directory operations than are possible using basic Fabric.
- A single file API that's not only small but also easy to read
Distelli enables the rapid deployment of applications to any server. Releases are created automatically each time you deploy using Distelli.
Key Features:
- Create new clusters on any cloud or connect existing clusters
- Group servers based on cloud provider, geography, role, and more
- View on a single dashboard
- Automated build and deploy pipelines
- Free Plan - 5 concurrent builds, 1 user and 1 Distelli agent
- Developer Plan ($7 per month) - 10 concurrent builds, 1 user, and 10 Distelli agents
- Team Plan ($39 per month) - 25 concurrent builds, 10 users, and 10 Distelli agents
- Start Up Plan ($79 per month) - 25 concurrent builds, 20 users, and 20 Distelli agents
- Business Plan ($119 per month) - 100 concurrent builds, 30 users, and 30 Distelli agents
- Enterprise Plan (Request a quote)
DivvyCloud BotFactory is an engine for automated policy enforcement on cloud infrastructure. It works on the principle of pervasive cloud discovery. It connects to cloud APIs to extract data on cloud resources irrespective of how they're provisioned or where they're running. It ensures a near real-time inventory of infrastructure via a single pane of glass.
Key Features:
- Security rule audit by inspecting access lists for insecure protocols/ports and non-compliant rules
- Identification and deletion of orphaned resources
- Cost savings by scheduling instances to stop on holidays, weekends and at night when not in use
- Inspect global root cloud accounts to ensure multi-factor authentication
- Delete stale compute volume snapshots
- Hosted (Free) - Unlimited instances, 500 actions, 1 cloud account, 1 user
- On-premise ($999 per month) - Up to 125 instances, unlimited actions, unlimited cloud accounts, unlimited users
- On-premise ($3,150 per month) - Up to 500 instances, unlimited actions, unlimited cloud accounts, unlimited users
Dynatrace monitors the virtualized environment of your private data center. Technology professionals can see the complete picture of their infrastructure in real time and keep up with the changes including machine migration.
Key Features:
- Interactive map of network environment showing applications, processes, and dependencies
- Keep tabs on critical metrics including throughput and read/write
- Pinpoint and analyze application and virtualization performance problems
Request a quote
Fabric streamlines SSH use in system administrator tasks and application deployment. It is a command line tool and Python library that provides a suite of basic operations for the execution of remote or local shell commands. Fabric is most often used for the upload and download of files.
Key Features:
- Execute Python functions through the command line
- A library of subroutines that make the execution of shell commands easy
Foreman is a server lifecycle management tool. It makes it easier for system administrators to automate routine tasks, deploy applications quickly and proactively manage virtual or physical servers.
Key Features:
- Compatible with a wide range of environments including Google Compute Engine, Libvirt, OpenStack, VMware, oVirt and Amazon EC2.
- Dashboard showing which nodes are healthy and which ones are out of date
- Has a comprehensive, interactive interface
- Extensive plugin library
Glu is an open source monitoring and deployment automation engine.
Key Features:
- Deployment and monitoring of applications across a large and arbitrary set of nodes
- Efficient, secure, reproducible and little/no need for human interaction
- Consistency over the long-term
- Quick troubleshooting of problems when they arise
- Compute actions to upgrade/deploy applications
HP Cloud Service Automation suite makes it easy for businesses to benefit from compliant, secure cloud services. IT professionals can simplify and automate the management and deployment of hybrid infrastructure environment. Jumpstart hybrid or private cloud implementations with several quick options.
Key Features:
- Self-service, intuitive and customizable portal with mash up capabilities and modern shopping experience
- Unified, comprehensive and highly automated lifecycle management
- Extensible, open architecture with one-touch provisioning of applications, operating systems, and infrastructure
- Reduced risk and increased deployment quality with HPE Cloud Maps
Request a quote
CloudController delivers consistency and coherence to back office and customer-facing technology infrastructure operations. Standardized workflows mean significant improvements in operations efficiency. It flawlessly integrates existing cloud infrastructure.
Key Features:
- Flexible, hands-free deployment and configuration
- Single pane of glass dashboard
- Control, monitor and manage multi-vendor cloud environments
- 6-level account permissions ranging from End-User to Cloud Administrator
- Rapid, automatic decommissioning or deployment of data protection agents, private nested VLANs, virtual storage, streaming applications and VMs
Request a quote
ISconf is a tool for managing infrastructure configuration and build. It is somewhat a cross between sudo and Git, Bitkeeper or other distributed version control tool. All changes made via ISconf are not only journaled but also added to a repository where they are queued for execution on target machines.
Key Features:
- Target machines do not need to be online or built at the time of queuing the changes. Once the machine is turned on and built, ISconf will consult the journal and execute the required changes in the set order.
- Peer-to-peer. No single point of failure such as a central server.
- Manages hosts over their lifecycle
Using just a few commands, Juju enables the modeling, configuration, and management of deployments to all major private and public clouds.
Key Features:
- 'Charms' (a charm is a set of scripts meant for the deployment and management of services) available for more than 300 services
- Create your own charms. Charms can be written in any language and may adapt existing scripts
MagniComp RDist is an open source application for maintaining identical copies of files across multiple hosts. It preserves details of the file including owner, mode, group and mtime. MagniComp RDist differs from older rdist versions in that the server and client portions are separated into two programs.
Key Features:
- Instead of making the connection to remote hosts directly, it uses ssh or rsh thus eliminating the need to setuid to root
- Can perform encrypted and secure updates
- Supports automated system configuration and therefore works on many Linux/Unix based systems
The ManageEngine Applications Manager allows you to run your business applications confidently as well as find and fix any arising issues.
Key Features:
- Single, integrated tool to monitor application ecosystem including end users, servers, applications, databases, middleware, data stores, web services, cloud resources and virtual systems
- Single database and installation architecture
- Use custom scripts to monitor homegrown applications
- User-friendly interface
- Visualize dependencies and auto-discover software and infrastructure topology
Request a quote
Mist.io is a secure cloud management engine for orchestration and automation, as well as usage and cost monitoring. It targets system administrators, developers and any IT professionals engaged in remote, on-premise or hybrid computing.
Key Features:
- Simplifies cloud management by abstracting infrastructure layer to ease replication across multiple providers
- Supports private clouds, public clouds, bare metal machines and Docker containers
- Unified interface for automation, orchestration, monitoring and provisioning
- Easily integrates into existing workflow
- Free - Up to 5 machines
- Small ($150 per month) - Up to 50 machines
- Medium ($400 per month) - Up to 150 machines
- Large ($750 per month) - Up to 300 machines
- Enterprise (Request a quote) - More than 300 machines
NexentaStor is an easy to use, full-featured, and unified storage solution. It allows the execution, management, and analysis of routine storage tasks. NexentaStor has an impressive track record of deployment across a wide range of industries. It helps enterprises increase performance, flexibility, and agility while lowering overall costs by 50% or more.
Key Features:
- Unified File and Block Services
- Enterprise-grade performance and data integrity that includes the ability to scale from tens of terabytes to petabytes
- Unlimited file system sizes
- Cost savings via inline data reduction
- Unlimited space optimized clones and snapshots
- Continuous or periodic long-distance asynchronous replication
Request a quote
NixOS is a Linux distribution that provides a unique approach to configuration and package management. The operating system is built from a description in a wholly functional build language. Wholly functional means new configuration builds cannot overwrite previous ones.
Key Features:
- Reliable upgrades
- Atomic upgrades means system remains in a consistent state if upgrade is interrupted e.g. due to a power interruption
- Fast atomic rollback to a previous configuration
- Easily reproducible system configuration
- Safe testing of potential system changes
Openfiler converts x86_64 architecture to full-fledged SAN/NAS appliance of IP storage gateway. It is a powerful tool for storage administrators to cope with rapidly growing storage demands. It addresses all the key data storage indicators i.e. availability, reliability, scalability, and performance. Openfiler ensures administrators make the most use of storage capacity and system performance resources when managing and allocating storage on a multi-platform network.
Key Features:
- Block storage visualization
- Extensive share management functionality
- In-depth account management
- Resource/Quota allocation
- Complete industry-standard protocol suite
Request a quote
Pallet is an open source DevOps platform for agile and programmatic infrastructure automation. Well-known brands already using Pallet include Twitter, EMI Music, and WalmartLabs.
Key Features:
- Supports a wide range of infrastructure providers
- By ensuring operating system and cloud provider independence, Pallet provides a deep level of customization.
Pconsole is a system administration tool for working with machine clusters. It allows one to simultaneously connect to multiple nodes of a cluster. Administrative commands typed in a specialized window are 'multiplied' to each opened connection. It can be run in either X Windows or in console mode and need only be installed on one machine in the cluster.
Key Features:
- Parallel access to each node in the cluster
- Unlimited simultaneous connections
- Secure access by using SSH by default
- Easy install (only needs to be on one machine)
- Friendly user interface
PIKT is short for "Problem Informant/Killer Tool". It is a multipurpose, cross-categorical software for configuring and monitoring computer systems, organizing security, administering networks and plenty more. Whereas it is primarily meant for system monitoring and configuration management, its extensibility and versatility mean it has numerous other uses. It excels at handling a diverse set of machines, saving time and eliminating repetition.
Key Features:
- Feature-rich, sophisticated macro preprocessor
- Scripting language with unique, innovative labor-saving features
- Centrally-directed and flexible process scheduler
- Customizing file installer
- Command line extensions for remote and local execution
PontusVision Thread Manager reduces the time required for system performance improvement from several weeks of unpredictable experiments to just seconds of simulations. It banks on industry-tested templates to automate software and hardware deployment.
Key Features:
- Improves performance by as much as 270%
- Simulation results can be applied to any modern multi-CPU server, operating system, and computer language
- Optimal thread allocation
- Can be run in passive-modeling mode or self-tuning mode
- PontusVision Trial Edition - Free
- PontusVision Enterprise Edition - Request a quote
ProfitBricks Data Center Designer (DCD) is a graphical user interface or API that makes it easy for system and network administrators to manage, configure and design virtual data centers in the cloud.
Key Features:
- Click, drag and drop to configure and deploy cloud servers, cloud networks, and cloud storage
- DCD is built on the ProfitBricks API ensuring deployment customization
- Attach one or many server load distributions to the virtual data center
Free with a ProfitBricks cloud account
A major player in the automation marketplace, Puppet's client list features some big names including NASA, Salesforce, Intel, Gettyimages, Verizon, Uber, and Sony. Puppet provides a standard means of delivering and operating software. Its easy-to-read language simplifies the process of defining what your infrastructure and apps should look like.
Key Features:
- Write your own code or select from the thousands of freely available modules
- Manage the control, visibility, and automation of changes to your applications and infrastructure
- Puppet Enterprise Free - Limited to 10 nodes. Includes access to product updates and numerous pre-built modules
- Puppet Enterprise Standard - Starts at $120 per node per year. Puppet Enterprise Free plus bug fixes and private knowledge base
- Puppet Enterprise Premium - Contact Puppet for pricing. Puppet Enterprise Standard plus free training and 24/7 support
Cloudshell Cloud Sandboxing solution is designed to speed up the development of hybrid applications for the cloud. Automate cloud environments testing and deployment to production on both public and private cloud infrastructure. It provides a common working environment for even the most complex hybrid cloud setups.
Key Features:
- Application blueprints and templates are cloud agnostic
- Can contain all cloud components including infrastructure, applications, network components, databases and virtual services
- Cost optimization and efficient resource utilization
- Visual interface with drag and drop capability simplifies the process
- Dashboards and reports provide comprehensive business intelligence
Request a quote
Qualys Policy Compliance (QPC) is a cloud management tool that facilitates the automation of IT security configuration assessment. It reduces risk and ensures continuous compliance with external regulations and internal policies.
Key Features:
- Automated high volume identification, tracking, and scanning of network assets
- Assessment goes beyond just the operating system and includes databases, applications, and network devices
- Interactive controls library and policy editor
- Detailed non-compliance evidence and exception documentation
- Automated ticketing for efficient risk management
Request a quote
Quattor is a system administration platform that provides a modular, portable and powerful tool set for the automated management, configuration, and installation of clouds, grids, farms, and clusters. Quattor has three key building blocks: Configuration Management Database (CMDB) server, the Automated Installation Infrastructure (AII) server, and Managed Clients.
Key Features:
- Clearly defined tool interfaces allow flexible integration with existing tools
- Proven scalability in large-scale enterprise environments with more than 30,000 systems
- Comprehensive system description validation features ensure configuration errors are caught before deployment
Quest Cloud Manager is an enterprise solution that provides choice, governance, and agility in cloud management. The manager serves as a single portal for the control and implementation of governance policies.
Key Features:
- API facilitates integration of automation tools and back-end systems
- Can be implemented as SaaS for the management of public clouds
- Supports multiple cloud environments and instances
Request a quote
Rex is a server orchestration engine that uses SSH to execute commands. Perl knowledge is not necessary at the beginning though knowing at least the basics can help later on.
Key Features:
- Uses SSH meaning no agent is required
- User friendly
Rudder by Normation is a tool for infrastructure automation and compliance verification. It seamlessly handles machine deployment (cloud, virtual, physical instances), configuration management and compliance monitoring (including ISO 27001, PCI-DSS, Corporate Policy, etc.).
Key Features:
- The only open source automation tool with a web management interface
- An extensive library of ready to use rules
- Easy to use, codeless graphical creation module
- Comprehensive compliance dashboard
- Highly scalable and can manage networks with 100,000 machines
- Low resource utilization (developed in C)
Rundeck is open source software that automates routine and ad-hoc procedures for cloud environments. It is used by organizations keen on improving control of daily operations, reduce errors and improve auditability/visibility. Standardize operating procedures, define access controls and view activity reports on a single dashboard.
Key Features:
- Jobs can be on-demand via API or web interface or triggered by a scheduler
- End-to-end infrastructure orchestration across servers by using queries, filters, tags, and attributes
- Can be executed across Unix and Windows platforms
- Interested parties are automatically notified of the start, success or failure of a job
- Rundeck Community Edition - Free
- Rundeck Pro - Starts at $8,000 per year
SaltStack is an established name in infrastructure automation. It approaches IT management by creating software that is easy to use, fast and scalable. SaltStack provides a dynamic communication bus for orchestration, configuration management, and remote execution. Since it was launched in 2011, SaltStack is one of the most active and fastest growing infrastructure automation projects in the world.
Key Features:
- Multi-cloud orchestration
- Instant audit of security policies
- Continuous code integration and deployment
- Data filtering and event aggregation ensures efficient data management
- Can run agentless or with a resilient agent
- Salt Open - Free
- SaltStack Enterprise - Request a quote
Scalr is an enterprise cloud management tool that facilitates the successful delivery of a standardized, automated, and cost-effective enterprise cloud. It uses a top-down, hierarchical approach that equips administrators with the requisite tools to balance development, security and finance needs.
Key Features:
- Builds hierarchical process where provisioning is put through a policy layer. The policy layer incorporates orchestration, placement, security, permissions, cost management and integration
- Application-level visibility into budgeting reports, tools and cloud spend
- Automate cleanup and waste reduction by identifying unutilized resources and preventing needless spending
- Modular and plugable means easy integration with a wide range of existing systems
- Open Source Scalr - Free
- Hosted Scalr - Starts at $99 per month
- Enterprise Scalr - Request a quote
ServiceNow Cloud Management simplifies and automates the full cloud services lifecycle. It creates an environment that optimizes resource utilization and drives down costs. Accelerate provisioning, approval and service requests. Manage cloud environment efficiently and consistently, while ensuring security and compliance.
Key Features:
- Cloud-agnostic and can be extended to manage multiple private and public cloud environments
- Full control of cloud services and resources including key metrics, business costs, and usage visibility
- Single system of record for consistent configuration of cloud resources, business services, and data
- Users can self-manage and self-provision predefined configurations
Request a quote
Sprinkle is a scalable, provisioning tool for building remote servers.
Key Features:
- State-based approach specifies provisioning of remote systems
- Intelligent support of dependencies, remote installation and multiple types of installers
Tstconfig allows system administrators to automatically test a large set of configuration files. It provides assurance on a system's level of integrity.
Key Features:
- Enforce good configuration standards across multiple systems
- It examines the existing configuration and confirms that specified attributes have the expected values
- Notifies SysAdmins of discrepancies
Remember that this list is in alphabetical order and is not ranked in terms of importance. Note that the same tool will have different importance and relevance from one organization to another. It will all depend on the complexity of the infrastructure environment the tool is meant for, the ease of integrating with existing systems and the acquiring organization's budget.
@DevOpsSummit at Cloud Expo taking place June 6-8, 2017, at Javits Center, New York City, and is co-located with the 20th International Cloud Expo and will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading industry players in the world.
DevOps at Cloud Expo / @ThingsExpo 2017 New York
(June 6-8, 2017, Javits Center, Manhattan)
DevOps at Cloud Expo / @ThingsExpo 2017 Silicon Valley
(October 31 - November 2, 2017, Santa Clara Convention Center, CA)
Download Show Prospectus ▸ Here
The widespread success of cloud computing is driving the DevOps revolution in enterprise IT. Now as never before, development teams must communicate and collaborate in a dynamic, 24/7/365 environment. There is no time to wait for long development cycles that produce software that is obsolete at launch. DevOps may be disruptive, but it is essential.
@DevOpsSummit will expand the DevOps community, enable a wide sharing of knowledge, and educate delegates and technology providers alike. Recent research has shown that DevOps dramatically reduces development time, the amount of enterprise IT professionals put out fires, and support time generally. Time spent on infrastructure development is significantly increased, and DevOps practitioners report more software releases and higher quality. Sponsors of @DevOpsSummit will benefit from unmatched branding, profile building and lead generation opportunities through:
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For more information on sponsorship, exhibit, and keynote opportunities, contact Carmen Gonzalez by email at events (at) sys-con.com, or by phone 201 802-3021.
The World's Largest "Cloud Digital Transformation" Event
@CloudExpo / @ThingsExpo 2017 New York
(June 6-8, 2017, Javits Center, Manhattan)
@CloudExpo / @ThingsExpo 2017 Silicon Valley
(Oct. 31 - Nov. 2, 2017, Santa Clara Convention Center, CA)
Full Conference Registration Gold Pass and Exhibit Hall ▸ Here
Register For @CloudExpo ▸ Here via EventBrite
Register For @ThingsExpo ▸ Here via EventBrite
Register For @DevOpsSummit ▸ Here via EventBrite
Sponsorship Opportunities
Sponsors of Cloud Expo / @ThingsExpo will benefit from unmatched branding, profile building and lead generation opportunities through:
- Featured on-site presentation and ongoing on-demand webcast exposure to a captive audience of industry decision-makers
- Showcase exhibition during our new extended dedicated expo hours
- Breakout Session Priority scheduling for Sponsors that have been guaranteed a 35 minute technical session
- Online targeted advertising in SYS-CON's i-Technology Publications
- Capitalize on our Comprehensive Marketing efforts leading up to the show with print mailings, e-newsletters and extensive online media coverage
- Unprecedented Marketing Coverage: Editorial Coverage on ITweetup to over 100,000 plus followers, press releases sent on major wire services to over 500 industry analysts
For more information on sponsorship, exhibit, and keynote opportunities, contact Carmen Gonzalez (@GonzalezCarmen) today by email at events (at) sys-con.com, or by phone 201 802-3021.
Secrets of Sponsors and Exhibitors ▸ Here
Secrets of Cloud Expo Speakers ▸ Here
All major researchers estimate there will be tens of billions devices - computers, smartphones, tablets, and sensors - connected to the Internet by 2020. This number will continue to grow at a rapid pace for the next several decades.
With major technology companies and startups seriously embracing Cloud strategies, now is the perfect time to attend @CloudExpo | @ThingsExpo, June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY and October 31 - November 2, 2017, Santa Clara Convention Center, CA. Learn what is going on, contribute to the discussions, and ensure that your enterprise is on the right path to Digital Transformation.
Track 1. FinTech
Track 2. Enterprise Cloud | Digital Transformation
Track 3. DevOps, Containers & Microservices
Track 4. Big Data | Analytics
Track 5. Industrial IoT
Track 6. IoT Dev & Deploy | Mobility
Track 7. APIs | Cloud Security
Track 8. AI | ML | DL | Cognitive Computing
Delegates to Cloud Expo / @ThingsExpo will be able to attend 8 simultaneous, information-packed education tracks.
There are over 120 breakout sessions in all, with Keynotes, General Sessions, and Power Panels adding to three days of incredibly rich presentations and content.
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Financial Technology - or FinTech - Is Now Part of the @CloudExpo Program!
Accordingly, attendees at the upcoming 20th Cloud Expo / @ThingsExpo June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY and October 31 - November 2, 2017, Santa Clara Convention Center, CA will find fresh new content in a new track called FinTech, which will incorporate machine learning, artificial intelligence, deep learning, and blockchain into one track.
Financial enterprises in New York City, London, Singapore, and other world financial capitals are embracing a new generation of smart, automated FinTech that eliminates many cumbersome, slow, and expensive intermediate processes from their businesses.
FinTech brings efficiency as well as the ability to deliver new services and a much improved customer experience throughout the global financial services industry. FinTech is a natural fit with cloud computing, as new services are quickly developed, deployed, and scaled on public, private, and hybrid clouds.
More than US$20 billion in venture capital is being invested in FinTech this year. @CloudExpo is pleased to bring you the latest FinTech developments as an integral part of our program, starting at the 20th International Cloud Expo June 6-8, 2017 in New York City and October 31 - November 2, 2017 in Silicon Valley.
@CloudExpo is accepting submissions for this new track, so please visit www.CloudComputingExpo.com for the latest information.
Speaking Opportunities
The upcoming 20th International @CloudExpo | @ThingsExpo, June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY and October 31 - November 2, 2017, Santa Clara Convention Center, CA announces that its Call For Papers for speaking opportunities is open.
Submit your speaking proposal today! ▸ Here
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About SYS-CON Media & Events
SYS-CON Media (www.sys-con.com) has since 1994 been connecting technology companies and customers through a comprehensive content stream - featuring over forty focused subject areas, from Cloud Computing to Web Security - interwoven with market-leading full-scale conferences produced by SYS-CON Events. The company's internationally recognized brands include among others Cloud Expo® (@CloudExpo), Big Data Expo® (@BigDataExpo), DevOps Summit (@DevOpsSummit), @ThingsExpo® (@ThingsExpo), Containers Expo (@ContainersExpo) and Microservices Expo (@MicroservicesE).
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The platform combines the strengths of Singtel's extensive, intelligent network capabilities with Microsoft's cloud expertise to create a unique solution that sets new standards for IoT applications," said Mr Diomedes Kastanis, Head of IoT at Singtel. "Our solution provides speed, transparency and flexibility, paving the way for a more pervasive use of IoT to accelerate enterprises' digitalisation efforts. AI-powered intelligent connectivity over Microsoft Azure will be the fastest connected path for IoT innovators to scale globally, and the smartest path to cross-device synergy in an instrumented, connected world.
Jul. 1, 2019 07:30 AM EDT
There are many examples of disruption in consumer space – Uber disrupting the cab industry, Airbnb disrupting the hospitality industry and so on; but have you wondered who is disrupting support and operations? AISERA helps make businesses and customers successful by offering consumer-like user experience for support and operations. We have built the world's first AI-driven IT / HR / Cloud / Customer Support and Operations solution.
Jun. 27, 2019 08:00 AM EDT
ScaleMP is presenting at CloudEXPO 2019, held June 24-26 in Santa Clara, and we'd love to see you there. At the conference, we'll demonstrate how ScaleMP is solving one of the most vexing challenges for cloud — memory cost and limit of scale — and how our innovative vSMP MemoryONE solution provides affordable larger server memory for the private and public cloud. Please visit us at Booth No. 519 to connect with our experts and learn more about vSMP MemoryONE and how it is already serving some of the world's largest data centers. Click here to schedule a meeting with our experts and executives.
Jun. 25, 2019 07:15 AM EDT
Codete accelerates their clients growth through technological expertise and experience. Codite team works with organizations to meet the challenges that digitalization presents. Their clients include digital start-ups as well as established enterprises in the IT industry. To stay competitive in a highly innovative IT industry, strong R&D departments and bold spin-off initiatives is a must. Codete Data Science and Software Architects teams help corporate clients to stay up to date with the modern business digitalization solutions. Achieve up to 50% early-stage technological process development cost cutdown with science and R&D-driven investment strategy with Codete's support.
Jun. 24, 2019 06:00 AM EDT
As you know, enterprise IT conversation over the past year have often centered upon the open-source Kubernetes container orchestration system. In fact, Kubernetes has emerged as the key technology -- and even primary platform -- of cloud migrations for a wide variety of organizations. Kubernetes is critical to forward-looking enterprises that continue to push their IT infrastructures toward maximum functionality, scalability, and flexibility. As they do so, IT professionals are also embracing the reality of Serverless architectures, which are critical to developing and operating real-time applications and services. Serverless is particularly important as enterprises of all sizes develop and deploy Internet of Things (IoT) initiatives.
Jun. 21, 2019 11:00 AM EDT


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Great Basin Institute / Nevada Conservation Corps, Arid Land Restoration and Native Seed Technician, Application Deadline, BTT Gateway Job ID 7214
Fri, July 12, 2013
The Great Basin Institute is working cooperatively with the Bureau of Land Management Southern Nevada District Office to conduct seed collecting and ecological restoration activities throughout BLM Southern Nevada District lands. Two Technicians will be hired to support current, on-going, and future restoration efforts. Specific tasks include:
• Scouting and identifying populations of target native plant species suitable for the program;
• GPS mapping populations of plants, disturbance areas, and other features;
• Monitoring the phenology of plant populations to identify optimal seed collection times;
• Collecting seed from plant populations and completing data forms in accordance with the Seeds of Success (SOS) Technical Protocol;
• Taking herbarium vouchers, and processing and shipping seed as necessary.
• Recording data electronically and on paper data forms, entering and editing data related to restoration activities;
• Participating in restoration projects, including planting native plants, watering plants, repairing fences, removing non-native plants;
• Assisting with the coordination of volunteer seed collection and restoration events;
• Assisting with the coordination of conservation crew work;
• Provide support for arid land restoration projects;
• Reporting accomplishments and providing recommendations for program improvements, priorities, and future projects.
Compensation and Timeline:
• Rate of Pay: $3500 living allowance + $1,468 education award;
• 3 month renewable contracts beginning July 1, 2013 – September 30, 2013 or upon availability;
• Full time, 40 hours per week (overtime may be required occasionally).
The technicians will be based out of the BLM Southern Nevada District office, which is located in northwest Las Vegas, NV. The Southern Nevada District Office manages more than three million acres of Mojave Desert in Clark and Nye counties. The scenery varies from dramatically colorful geologic landforms and largely unspoiled panoramic vistas of Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area to remote and rugged wild landscapes of Gold Butte Back Country Byway. Recreation opportunities abound and viewing sites for desert plants and animals are easily accessible.
• Bachelor's degree with coursework and field experience related to biology, botany, plant science, or related field;
• Experience identifying plants using taxonomic keys or familiarity with Mojave Desert plants;
• Experience using hand-held GPS equipment for data collection and navigation;
• Ability to read and navigate using topographic maps and a compass;
• Understanding and/or experience using ArcView GIS software, helpful;
• Willingness and ability to work in harsh, ever-changing desert conditions, including extreme temperatures, independently or as part of a team;
• Ability to bend and stoop for long periods of time while collecting seed, and to use hand tools, and occasionally lift buckets of water and other heavy loads;
• Ability to work a non-standard schedule, such as beginning at 5 am, to avoid heat-related issues, or for coordination with team members.
• Ability to communicate effectively, both written and orally, with a diverse audience;
• Willingness to camp in remote, undeveloped sites for multiple days;
• Valid, state-issued driver's license and familiarity driving 4WD vehicles on- and off-road;
• Experience operating All Terrain Vehicles (ATV) on difficult terrain helpful; and
• Meet AmeriCorps eligibility requirements: (1) U.S. citizenship or legal resident alien status, (2) must be at least 17 years of age and a US citizen that has received a high school diploma or GED (or be willing to achieve this before using education award), (3) eligible to receive an AmeriCorps Education Award (limit of four in a lifetime, or equivalent of two full-time terms of service), and (4) pass National Sex Offender Public Registry (NSOPR) and federal criminal background checks.
To apply, see BTT Gateway Job ID 7214. Application Deadline is 7/12/2013.

subset: commoncrawl


text: 2019 November Beverage Industry's November issue highlights the 100-year advocacy of the American Beverage Association and what's next for CEO Katherine Lugar and a new plastics initiative, Every Bottle Back. This issue includes a special report on craft beer, an Up Close With feature on PRESS hard cider and what is sparking innovation in natural colors. Read more about how protein is powering up beverages and how warehouses are using WMS and WCS systems to streamline operations. As usual, the latest trends in new products, packaging and ingredients are highlighted. Check back throughout the month for additional content. View More Create Account


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ALEX Toys Craft Eco Crafts 2 Birdie Banks
by ALEX Toys
Please check your favorite toy retailer for availability. Prices may vary.
Buy Online:
Product Description
Birdie banks are so fun to make and colorful to display, kids wont even know they're learning to count and save money! Includes everything needed for creating 2 colorful coin bank: 2 recycled paperboard coin slot molds, lids, sponge brush and glaze, paper tape, dispenser and over 150 stickers! Get creative while being green! Our Birdie Bank paper molds are made from eco-friendly recycled paperboard. This craft was named Best Green Toy by Dr. Toy.
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Senior LunchName: Senior LunchDate: December 23, 2019Time: 12:00 PM - 12:30 PM PSTEvent Description:Senior Nutrition Program
Big Bear Valley Parks and Rec Department, in conjunction with the Senior Club, offer lunches to seniors 60+
The Senior Club makes a monthly donation of $400-$500 to BBVPRD and supplies volunteers to set-up tables,serve and clean-up .
Sign-up sheets are located in the Senior Center. Guests are asked to please sign-in to provide us with an accurate count of meals to order.


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SHAHRIAR RAHMANZADEH, JENNIFER LEONG, SANTINA LEUCI and RHONDA SCHWARTZ
ABC News
April 18, 2013
Comment: The media is still completely ignoring the photos of numerous private military security men wearing heavy black backpacks before and after the bombing.
The teenage boy authorities once investigated as possibly being connected to the Boston Marathon bombing told ABC News today he was shocked to see his face pop up on television and all over social media.
Salah Barhoun, 17, said he went to the police yesterday to clear his name after he found himself tagged in pictures online. He had just gone to watch the race, he said, but soon after the explosions, he was singled out by internet sleuths as looking suspicious. Federal authorities passed around images of Barhoun, attempting to learn more information about him, sources told ABC News.
Today The New York Post ran a story featuring a picture of Barhoun and another man circled in red, but said it was unclear if they were the same as two potential suspects spotted by law enforcement Wednesday.
ABC News producers found Barhoun through social media and spoke to him today at his home. He said he had actually wanted to run the race and when he couldn't, decided to watch.
This article was posted: Thursday, April 18, 2013 at 2:08 pm


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Soon that jolly, white-haired man dressed in red will visit your house at night and deliver some treats to the children that have been good. In fact, the night he comes is tonight! Wait, did you think I meant Santa Claus? No, it's time for the visit from St. Nicholas!
St. Nicholas lived during the 4th Century in a Greek territory that today is Turkey. Many legends exist about his life. Most agree that he came from a wealthy family. After becoming orphaned, Nicholas used his wealth to help the poor and needy. He devoted his life to God and became a bishop in the Church. He continued to perform acts of charity, usually in secret, and he was known throughout the region for his goodness. In giving gifts, he asked that the recipients do the same to those in need. By the time Bishop Nicholas died, he was known as a miracle-worker, gift-giver, and a true man of God who cared about others.
There are many stories associated with St. Nicholas and the good dees he performed. One of my favorites involves a poor man with three daughters. The father was too poor to provide a dowry for any of his daughters much less all three – without a dowry, the woman likely would never marry and possibly be sold into slavery. The bishop Nicholas secretly threw a bag of gold in the home's open window on three nights. The bag landed in a stocking or boot prompting a tradition that exists to this day of either setting out boots on St. Nicholas' Eve to receive gifts or hanging stockings by the fireplace for Santa Claus to fill.
St. Nicholas died on December 6 in the year 343 A.D. One of the most fascinating facts about Nicholas is that his bones which were buried in the cathedral church exude a watery substance – to this day. The substance is called "manna" and is believed to have healing properties.
It became customary around the world to celebrate the feast of St. Nicholas, December 6th, by doing what he had done. On the evening of December 5th, gifts would be left in secret to those in need, presumably left by the saint himself. He would wander throughout the country and leave gifts for children. In fact, some children would leave food for St. Nicholas' means of travel, a donkey.
Many countries continue the celebration of St. Nicholas Day. In Germany, the area of Bavaria where my great-grandparents came from celebrated the arrival of Sankt Nikolaus. He would arrive in his bishop's regalia with a miter and crozier and ask the children if they had been good. Families cleaned the house and children cleaned their rooms in anticipation of his arrival! Boots were left out, and the kindly saint would leave a gift to those who were good – or coal to those who were not.
In Poland, St. Nicholas was called Sw. Mikołaj. He also visited dressed as a bishop and an angel to help him with his sleigh full of goodies, which were usually sweets such as cookies or fruit. He also encouraged children to be on their best behavior. He sometimes returned on Christmas Eve with gifts the children requested in letters.
I laughed when I learned that Italy celebrates San Nicola by recalling the time they stole his earthly remains in the 11th Century and brought them to Italy. It's not like it sounds though, for they had a good reason! (Though relic stealing was quite popular back then…) The celebration of his "arrival" to Bari is celebrated in May, but he also visits children with goodies on the evening of December 5th.
So, what happened to St. Nicholas and the celebration of his life? Did Nicholas "become" Santa Claus? Or did Santa "replace" the bishop-saint? In America, the blame gets distributed on the usual suspects: the Puritans, the advertising industry, and the media. One could argue that he slowly evolved into Santa. I don't have anything against Santa – in fact, he's been quite good to me over the years! But in reading about St. Nicholas and the traditions that our ancestors celebrated made me wish he had the same PR man as Mr. Claus. What parent wouldn't admire a guy who gets children to clean their rooms and be good? Sure, Santa wants you to be good, too, but St. Nicholas was more about helping those in need and sharing what we have with others – compassion vs. consumption.
Over the years the religious aspects of the man and the events surrounding the gift-giving seemed to have disappeared as well. But, we can always revive the St. Nicholas tradition in our own families by spreading the news and telling the stories about him. Nick's stories are even more fascinating than Santa's stories! Many countries have similar celebrations and traditions of the saint's arrival. If you have young children in your family, I encourage you to learn the St. Nicholas tradition from your ancestors' countries and celebrate the day as they did.
For more information on Saint Nicholas, his history, the evolution of Santa Claus, and how St. Nicholas Day is celebrated throughout the world, visit the wonderful site called The Saint Nicholas Center – discovering the truth about Santa Claus. In fact, they have reconstructed what he probably looked like — familiar-looking, isn't he?
St. Nicholas, pray for us!
O God, Who didst adorn blessed Nicholas, the bishop, with miracles unnumbered, grant, we beseech Thee, that by his merits and prayer we may be delivered from the fire of hell. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
~ Collect from the Mass of St. Nicholas


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February is the month of birthdays in our family. Two of my nephews, my older son and I all have birthdays between the 4th and 15th. Our family is a bit crazy with the parties and insists that we each have our own cake. So, we have been partying like crazy. I actually had two cakes (Thanks, Lisha. You're the best.) But, I have been stitching some. I stitched a model piece for Theresa of Shakespeare's Peddler and Raise the Roof. It is called "Official Crazy Cat Lady" and is too cute. She released it at market this past weekend. In addition to that I finished another block on the Blackbird Designs Anniversaries of the Heart series. Isn't it just too pretty? I can't wait to finish this, frame it and hang it on the wall.
I have also finished a third block in the LK Green Flip Its series. This one was very easy.
Finally, I participated in the Reindeer ornament exchange. I was so lucky to receive an ornament stitched by Edgar. Isn't it pretty? The finishing is wonderful. Can't wait to hang this one of the tree. Thanks so much, Edgar.
Here is the ornament I sent to my partner. Not sure if she has received it yet, but I hope she likes it.


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The Pyle PLMRMP3A is a compact and waterproof 4-Channel Marine Amplifier designed for mounting possibilities in numerous applications and makes it simple to expand the audio system capabilities for your vehicle - perfect for your boat, ATV or RV.
The Hydra Series Amplifier System comes with everything you need to give your sound system a serious boost while providing protection against the elements. Add up to 400 Watt Max power (200 watt power on each of the 2 channels). Create a fitting and truly custom installation with this sound system.
This amplifier kit comes with a waterproof poly bag with 3.5mm jack so you can enjoy playing your favorite audio files from your iPod/MP3 player. The system includes RCA line inputs and the kit comes with a 3.5mm-to-RCA adaptor so you can connect your device. You can also connect standard high and low level inputs from a marine head-unit or car stereo/radio.
The switches and gain settings are located behind a watertight plug, which also lights up when the amplifier is on. Customize your audio settings and make it sound just the way you want. Make adjustments to:
Built-in mounting brackets and included hardware allow for easy and convenient installation. Attach the amplifier to a compartment or panel with just a few screws.
This amp is equipped with power protection circuitry and soft turn on/off preventing damage to your speaker equipment.
Kit comes with 4-channel waterproof marine amp, iPod/MP3 waterproof 3.5mm stereo to RCA adaptor, remote control for volume gain and waterproof poly bag.
With any quality marine audio system, you will need an amp to power your high powered marine audio system. With the Hydra Series Amplifiers you will have all the power you need to run even the highest rating marine system. All Pyle Hydra amplifiers are specially engineered for marine applications.


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looking for a gift?
Derived from the Arabic word 'Sumou' meaning elevation or splendour, the Sama line is named as such for the fact that the pieces represent a 'higher stage' of opulence. The unique pieces in Sama are high-end masterpieces with dazzling designs of natural and untreated precious gemstones that have been magnificently manufactured using the purest of gold and the most exquisite of jewels.
SAMA was created on the basis that no two women are alike and so the jewellery they wear should be as unique as they are. It offers discerning customers artfully crafted, exclusive, one-of-a-kind masterpieces that are so rare, there is only one piece of each in existence.
The SAMA collection comprises of a fantastic array of evening sets perfectly handcrafted for the most special of occasions. The range also features a wide variety of exceptional rings. SAMA also carries exquisite white diamond bridal sets designed to offer the bride an unmatched element of brilliance and beauty on her special day.
Heavenly Halo
Blue Sapphire and Diamond Suite
The mesmerizing blue hues of the oval sapphires, nestled in a halo of pear and marquise shaped diamonds, exude a serene beauty and elegance, captivating the gaze of all those in the wearer's presence. The Heavenly Halo set accentuates the angelic charm of the woman whose allure rivals that of the heavens above.BROWSE SAMA CATALOGUE
Garden of Eden
Emerald and Diamond Suite
Lavishly adorned with stunning Colombian emeralds, this set is reminiscent of wandering through an enchanted garden, beckoning all who lay their gaze on it to enter. Embedded within an array of pear shaped diamonds, the emeralds' radiant green color exudes everlasting life, spreading hope and harmony from an exceptional woman, the only one allowed to enter the Garden of Eden.BROWSE SAMA CATALOGUE
Winter's Dream
Diamond Suite
In all of its brilliant splendor, 63.45 Carats of immaculate diamonds recall the magic and joy of a beautiful winter night. An ode to the ice princess at heart, 287 diamonds are crafted to resemble a crown of ice crystals, setting the scene for a Winter's Dream fairytale in a magical world.BROWSE SAMA CATALOGUE
Infinite Blossom
Ruby and Diamond Set
The scent of sweet perfume simply oozes from the delicate flowers in the Infinite Blossom set, every petal reflecting nature's work of art. The combination of deep red rubies springing from a collection of diamonds resembling blossoms grants the perfect expression of love, femininity, and romance.BROWSE SAMA CATALOGUE
Yellow and White Diamond Necklace
40.92 Carats of exquisite diamonds, featuring a unique selection of rare and fancy yellow diamonds come together to form the epitome of glamour, beauty, and luxury. The enticing combination of two-toned diamonds manifests an unsurpassed elegance and sophistication, perfectly gracing the neck of its owner, culminating in the personification of magnificence.BROWSE SAMA CATALOGUE
Regal Jewel
Blue Sapphire and Diamond Suite
Inspired by the lavish jewels of European Royal families, the regal sapphire has a long history of use in the jewelry of the rich, royal, and revered. Reminiscent of the tiaras found in the crowning ceremonies of Queens, oval sapphires of deep blue color, accented with an exquisite array of pear, marquise, and round cut diamonds make the Regal Jewel a treasure for the modern day Queen.BROWSE SAMA CATALOGUE
The Muse
Ruby and Diamond Suite
Each of the twelve un-heated Burmese rubies flicker with an eternal flame, daring to tell a story of passion, power, and love. Be inspired by 72.66 carats of the world's rarest and purest rubies, set amidst hundreds of intricately assembled diamonds, boasting the natural beauty of the wearer, who is a true source of artistic creation.BROWSE SAMA CATALOGUE
Emerald Envy
Emerald and Diamond Suite
So vivid in color, so bright with light, the 38.39 Carat Colombian emeralds in this set naturally evoke an air of envy and admiration about the wearer. Hundreds of hand-set diamonds complement the captivating emerald green shade, making it worthy of a truly one-of-a-kind woman, whose splendor leaves everyone else desiring and aspiring.BROWSE SAMA CATALOGUE
The Essence of Elegance
Diamond Set
There is nothing more captivating than the elegance of this tear-drop diamond set, fully encrusted with diamonds on a bed of 18K white gold. The arrangement of the diamonds in this design resembles the beauty and sophistication of a diamond chandelier, perfectly adorning the wearer's neck, and effortlessly evoking elegance and glamour.BROWSE SAMA CATALOGUE
Eternal Sunshine
Yellow and White Diamond Suite
Rivalled only by the rays of the morning sun, feel the warmth from the intense color of the fancy yellow diamonds in the Eternal Sunshine set. Bursting with radiance and light in every stone, this set allows the wearer to emanate warmth, happiness, and life to all those around her, truly captivating everyone in her presence.BROWSE SAMA CATALOGUE


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By completing your order, you understand that the products(s) you are purchasing are U.S. models and may have power / voltage requirements different from that of your country.
Prices shown in currencies other than US Dollars are estimates based on current exchange rates. We will charge your credit card in US Dollars on the day your order is shipped, and the conversion to your local currency will be done at the prevailing rate by your credit card issuer.
PSSL will not mark your parcel as a "gift", declare a value lower than the actual price paid, or otherwise prepare false customs information.
The Dave Smith ob-6 cover features Soft-Fit technology, providing extra protection to vulnerable wooden cheek panels that often adorn synthesizers. The studio elements of dust, smoke and liquid have taken many a good analogue synth down over the years. This is where Decksaver steps in. Precision trimmed for perfect fit whilst accommodating cables, the OB-6 can sit ready for operation. Slides straight into a flight or soft case for maximum protection during transportation. Shields delicate controls and internal components from damage at home, on the road and on stage.


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This section explores the complex map of sound art from a variety of points of view, structured into different series and curated programs. VARIATIONS, led by Jon Leidecker reconstructs the history of sound appropriationism by looking at examples from 20th century composition, popular art and commercial media, and the convergence of all these trends today. Meanwhile, LINES OF SIGHT, curated by Barbara Held and Pilar Subirà, explores different ideas linked to transmission as a means of creative expression and in PARASOL ELEKTRONICZNY. RUMOURS FROM THE EASTERN UNDERGROUND, Felix Kubin leads us on a tour of underground sound production in Eastern Europe. Finally, PROBES by Chris Cutler examines the side-effects of the collapse of tonality in the 20th century and INTERRUPTIONS intermittently "interrupts"" the Curatorial series in order to explore the many possibilities of music-on-demand and mix formats.
PROBES #26 looks at the pioneers who drew the soundscape of the world into the realm of music and, in so doing, eased the way for the emancipation - or aestheticisation - of noise, which led to the inclusion of everything from helicopters to roofing felt, ice to polystyrene, scrap-metal to fax machines in (non-electronic) music compositions and performances.
PROBES #25 continues to trace the importation of non-instruments into compositions and performances as, in their search for new sonorities, early jazz and blues musicians, contemporary composers, film composers, rock groups, sound artists and improvisers hit the toyshop and the hardware store.
This auxiliary follows a variety of toys as they strut their stuff on rock stages, movie soundtracks, concert halls, galleries and recordings.
The convergence of mainstream and social media platforms sidelines traditional record labels and sparks new sub-genres from mashups to vaporwave, but also reinforces the perception of music as consumable entertainment. How are we being retrained to our new environment by an aesthetic that has become so pervasive as to turn itself nearly invisible? Never conclude a historical narrative in present time.
In PROBES #24, toys, music boxes and balloons find new roles in contemporary compositions, pop performances, film scores and jazz improvisation, as composers explore alternative acoustic sources for extended, non-electronic, sounds.
This auxilliary digs deeper into the many faces of the toy piano and introduces the fiendish dactylion.
This show, curated by Wave Farm, presents an international look at works that explore the sonics of the shortwave radio spectrum (2-30 mHz), and the experience of long distance listening. It features works by Patrick Harrop, Ed Osborn, Javier Suarez Quiros, Mark Vernon, William Basinski, Nicholas Knouf, Edward Ruchalski, Sally Ann Mcintyre, Stephen Bradley, Pietro Bonanno, Linda Dusman & Alan Wonneberger, Jeff Gburek, Jed Miner, Amanda Dawn Christie and Lee Rosevere.
Chris Cutler tackles the issue of noise - and what we mean by it – before examining the toy symphonies and the musical career of the infamous toy piano.
In this auxiliary Western forms, in their hunt for timbre - and sometimes meaning - raid, amongst others, the musical resources of Australia, China, Mexico, The Alps, Turkey, Japan, Brasil, Korea, Peru, and Armenia.
Chris Cutler finishes his survey of the importation of exotic instruments, looking past their sonorous and timbral values, to the way they are deployed as vectors of meaning, language and symbolic representation.
In this auxiliary, Asian instruments find their way into all sorts of unexpected situations, both at home and abroad.
Chris Cutler's survey of the incorporation of exotic instruments into western musical vocabularies moves from the Caribbean to East Asia, considering, en route, the curious case of world music as a commercial and ideological category.
In this auxiliary, Indian classical instruments make the most of their access-all-areas pass to visit every genre and sprinkle kharmic dust.
Chris Cutler traces the immense impact Indian instruments and aesthetics had on both thinking and playing, across all forms of western music from Messiaen and La Monte Young to John Coltrane and the Beatles.
In this auxiliary Chris Cutler meets more repurposed African instruments in several fields, and takes one glimpse at the reverse traffic. Interestingly, for the first time, there's hardly any adoption in contemporary classical circles. Answers on a postcard, please.
In PROBES #19 Chris Cutler continues to look at the importation of exotic instruments, in this case from Africa, in pursuit of a specifically non-American American expression of culture and politics.
In this auxilliary, bachelor pad hi-fi stereo exotica whips off its kitschy disguise to reveal a revolutionary core, abandoning boring documentation for a hyperreal exploration of novel timbres, impossible spatialities and radical fragmentation. This is where recording technology finally becomes aware of itself as an aesthetic rather than as a purely technical medium.
In PROBES #18, Chris Cutler raises lowly percussion high and introduces us in the hyperreal world of hi-fi stereo, pure listening and exotica.
In this new auxiliary Chris Cutler follows the gamelan, falls into further experiments with percussion and slides inexorably into exotic appropriation.
In PROBES #17, we trace how the gamelan collided with western notions of music and exotic percussion spread like a virus into every field.
In PROBES #16.2, we wonder how far you can go with banjos, mandolins, balalaikas, jew's harps and ensembles of folk instruments. And it's pretty far.
PROBES #16 concludes the four programmes that investigate the repurposing of folk instruments. This time it's banjos, mandolins, balalaikas, jew's harps and ensembles of folk instruments are extracted from their proper contexts and made to do strange and unnatural things.
In this new auxiliary, bagpipes, zithers, harmonicas and hurdy-gurdys do things they aren't supposed to do in contexts in which they aren't supposed to do them... rather brillantly.
Anna Friz's mix and text present a collage exploring the environment, morphology and taxonomy of the little people inside the radio.
In PROBES #15 we look at experimental uses of the more intractable folk instruments: bagpipes, hurdy gurdy and harmonica. Is nothing sacred?
In PROBES #14 we take a detour to show how a collision of folk mechanisms, social upheaval, sound recording and electrification underpinned the growth of a new polyglot musical language, and a new aesthetic constituency.
This new auxiliary by Chris Cutler digs into new sounds made with long-forgotten instruments.
Chris Cutler's PROBES #13 tracks the recovery and reassignment of ancient and folk instruments in unfamiliar contexts.
Morten J. Olsen's mix for the INTERRUPTIONS series presents an extreme, complex and long journey into drumming, to discuss out loud Olsen's most personal theories coming from his very own personal experience and background. As Morten puts it, possibly, 'a long and painful listening experience of percussion oriented music'.
This is the auxiliary in which harpsichords boldly go.
In Chris Cutler's PROBES #12 harpsichords return from the dead; a spectre is haunting music: the harpsichord.
This auxiliary by Chris Cutler listens to voices, mostly in groups, doing extraordinary things.
PROBES #11 goes oral: everything your mother wouldn't tell you about what people can do with their mouths, and a little bit of spit.
This auxiliary by Chris Culter wonders what the human voice can't do.
In this tenth instalment, Chris Cutler looks at the human voice and its aesthetic reinventions. To be continued in episode 11.
This auxiliary explores extended techniques for percussion and winds.
In this instalment, we capture some of the infinite instances of voice and repetition in Eduard Escoffet's sound poetry collection.
In this ninth instalment, Chris Cutler investigates some extraordinary extended techniques for wind instruments and percussion and how they have been used.
This auxiliary explores extended techniques for strings.
In this eighth instalment, Chris Cutler presents modifications of string instruments that seek to move away from tonality while maintaining coherence.
This mix is a comprehensive introduction and a tribute to the legacy of Italian library music.
This auxiliary investigates preparations for percussion and extended techniques for piano.
PROBES #7 examines some of the preparations applied to percussion and voice before beginning to look at the recovery and invention of extended performance techniques; starting with the piano.
Dave Phillips' mix is a true assault on the senses that reflects on extreme durations in music and our relationship with the temporality of sound.
Cumulative Tails is a pun upon the 'cumulative tale', where each part of a story relates to that which just preceded and followed it. This radio mix, curated by Vicki Bennett, has been created using that process – a succession of audio tracks picked in conceptual relation only to that which was previously played.
This music selection investigates further preparations of stringed and brass instruments, in the quest for novel sounds.
There's no end of things that have been laid on, tied to, screwed into or otherwise attached to alter the sound of conventional instruments. This sixth programme draws a map and explores some of the outer reaches of string and wind preparations.
This music selection investigates further ways of piano preparations: will the torture never end?
This fifth programme sets the scene for a wide range of very different approaches to the exploration of timbre and looks at ways of modifying or preparing the traditional piano.
Carl Michael von Hausswolf opens our ears to the most obscure side of the radiowaves: a very strange place in the electromagnetic spectrum, where energy turns into sounding matter.
In this music selection we look further into sliding pitches, concentrating this time on their use in popular music, before moving on to wholly unpitched probes that begin to map the many aspects of differentiated noise.
Since the late eighteenth century, speech therapists, linguists, entrepreneurs, artists and musicians have nurtured the dream of emulating human speech. In this mix, Genís Segarra offers a personal overview of a subject that fascinates him, with the story of voice synthesis as a narrative thread.
This fourth programme looks at another dimension of portamenti, and moves on into early twentieth century ideas of colour, timbre and the contested territory of noise.
This show takes a listen to techno-pop of the seventies and early eighties as a brief yet deliberate interruption into the realms of pop, rock, soul and R&B.
In this music selection we look further at probes into pitch, this time through its effective obliteration through ceaseless movement, sliding tones, and radical portamenti which defy all quantisation.
This mix explores how the use of aural phenomena can manifest in its many forms to become the key element in a compositional practice. By engaging in the use of such expanded sonic techniques the composer can act to create a recalibration of the listeners sense of hearing and by so doing, allow for a reconsideration of what constitutes sonic composition.
This is where pitch becomes weightless and all that is solid melts into air: futurism, noise, electricity, ecstasy and uncertainty. We look at the lure and power of sliding tones.
In this project Alan Bishop vindicates the use of radio as an electronic instrument in a journey through time and space that unearths old recordings from the AM and FM airwaves made during his first trip to Spain and Morocco in 1983.
In this music selection we look further at alternative tuning systems based on the naturally occurring harmonic series, opening up a potentially infinite series of customised Just Intonation scales.
All the 'normal' music we listen to is out of tune, especially when it's 'in tune'. So, should music be in harmony with the laws of physics, or adjusted to fit the wishful thinking of stave notation?
A selection of records that mention, replicate, utilise or study the phenomena of vinyl, the record player and/or recordings.
In this music selection we look further at microtonal divisons based on equal temperament.
PROBES #1 sets the scene and investigates early reconsiderations of pitch: probes that postulate new scales to be constructed through the ever-greater subdivision of the inherited intervals of equal temperament.
If sampling had seemed an inherently revolutionary practice in the eighties that called into question the definition and the authority of the composer, the proliferation of artists in the decade that followed reasserted that authority. Mainstream audiences finally recognized appropriation as a legitimate form of creativity once artists became comfortable practicing it as a form of self-expression.
A selection of field recordings from environments that are currently in the midst of a process of irreversible change.
The small but active experimental music scene in Latvia is starting to turn a page and break free of the stigmas that have plagued their cultural life for almost twenty years.
The mix presented here investigates the artistic use of breath.
This mix revises some of the exciting contemporary musical works utilizing a notion of mathematics and number. These compositions represent what could be called perceptive or sensual mathematics.
ZickZack label founder Alfred Hilsberg and author Frank Apunkt Schneider talk about the cultural, social and political conditions in Germany at the end of the seventies that gave rise to a radical new type of music, which Schneider describes as 'the undirected aggression of the freed noises'.
Florian Hecker suggests an amalgamation of two seminal collections of psychoacoustic works, which demand from its audience a selective piecing-together of distinct units into an overall Gestalt, one that culminates in a chimerical auditory experience.
A decade after the end of the communist regime, Czech and Slovakian underground musicians began channeling the national legacy of progressive dissident rock to virgin soil.
Sound libraries are collections of sounds explicitly designed or collected for further use, presented as unfinished ingredients. Sounds increasingly detach from their sources and are used by new authors less as references than as simple objects.
Felix Kubin brings us back the vitality of the Neue Deutsche Welle through lost tracks published on tape between 1981 and 1993.
A spaghetti western about experimental music on the West Coast in the 1980s.
Isolated by its remote geography and unusual Finno-Ugric language, Estonia is a borderland between the East and the West. It resembles the surreal zone in Andrei Tarkovsky's film "Stalker", a place full of secrets, where nature meets science fiction.
As art and industrial practitioners formally map out the discipline, hip-hop's discovery of digital sampling technology in the mid-80's provided a reintroduction to its original roots in block party DJ collage.
This layered 60 minute DJ set by Jon Leidecker underlines the history of those classic works of electronic and concrète music which sought to mimic and extend the voices and sounds of our pastoral landscape.
An overview as the art music tradition of collage music is joined by the popular culture tradition of hip-hop, which would establish many of the same aesthetics and practices solidly in the mainstream.
In the seventies the avant-garde finally crosses the line into wholesale plundering of commercial pop music, and the pop disciplines of disco and dub become increasingly comfortable with manipulating released music into new forms, narrowing the divide between art and pop practices.
The second episode of this series presents an overview of the sixties, starting with the world music collages of Richard Maxfield, Teiji Ito and Karlheinz Stockhausen, and following through to the impact of John Cage and Marshall McLuhan on the Beatles.
As recording supplanted sheet music in the 20th century, the presence of communal influence became unavoidably obvious once again as composers began to use recordings to make new recordings. From the beginning, recordings have been instruments.
Collaboration by philosopher and pioneer of mini FM radio, Tetsuo Kogawa, and sound artist Yasunao Tone, based on an email exchange on radioart.
Brenda Hutchinson converses with San Francisco composer and performer Jon Brumit about the thread of "collaborating with strangers" that runs through their work.
The recording, as memory/archive, as instrument, as transcription of a perfect performance, and as sound art using field recordings.
Transmission Art encompasses a diversity of practices and media working with the idea of transmission or the physical properties of the electromagnetic spectrum. These practices are generally participatory live-art or time-based art, and often manifests as radio art, video art, light sculpture, installation, and performance.
This programme transmits "Pillars", a new piece for radio by Robert Ashley, pioneer of opera-for-television and the use of language in a musical setting.
We investigate concepts of time, non-linear and non-Western, the latency of transmission or the use of acoustic and electronic delay, daily rituals and nature, a recorded slice of time and networked collaborations.
Musical, sociological, biological explorations of how our minds and intuition translate and transmit music.


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- Feature Links
- Assessor
- Value Review Program
Value Review Program
The Assessor annually reviews and adjusts property tax assessments to ensure property in Placer County is assessed correctly. The assessed value is based on the lower of two values: the Proposition 13 value or the market value as of January 1st. The Proposition 13 value is based on the market value of property when it was acquired, plus new construction (if applicable), and adjusted for inflation by no more than 2% per year. By using the lower of these two values, property owners are provided tax relief during times of increasing and decreasing property values.
In recent years, many of these reviews have resulted in lower property tax assessments. However, the condition of the economy this year is improving, and a large number of property owners may see their property tax assessment increase. If your assessed value has been temporarily reduced to its market value, your value may increase more than 2%. Just as there is no limit to the amount of your property tax reduction, there is also no limit on the amount of increase when recovering from a reduction. These annual adjustments will continue until your market value exceeds the Proposition 13 value. When this occurs, the Proposition 13 value will be restored, and your assessed value increases will be limited to 2% per year.
If you believe the market value on January 1st of each year is less than the amount shown on your July value notice, you may request a review of your assessment. There is no charge for this service. The filing period for a value review is July 1st through December 31st.
|Residential Value Review Application
Your property tax payments are still due by the indicated due date. If a value adjustment is warranted, a notice of correction and revised tax bill or refund will be issued.
Please review the diagram (PDF) below for further explanation on how market declines and recovery may affect your value.
Related Information
- Frequently Asked Questions - Scroll to Value Review Program Section
- State Board of Equalization's Proposition 8 / Decline in Value FAQs
- Property Tax Reduction to Diminish as Housing Market Improves (PDF)
- Value Review Examples (PDF)
- CalTax News Extract - Proposition 8 Reassessments (PDF)
- Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association
- Please watch our video explaining how property is valued:


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12 seconds left, game on the line. In whose hands do you want the ball? Definitely not Jamaal Magloire, who sealed a Pacers win by airballing his first free throw and bricking (but at least catching rim) on the second. [TSN]
Jamaal Magloire Airballed A Free Throw In Spectacular Fashion