We’ve been following serial entrepreneur Daren Klum‘s CRAM adventures for some time now. As such we were quite pleased to see that CIO Review just named CRAM as one of the “20 Most Promising Enterprise Security Companies.” This list is compromised of organizations CIO Review says this about: “We believe these companies have achieved significant momentum and will rise above the rest.”

This is an incredibly tough list to be named to since CIOs have a no-foolin’-around stance when it comes to data security.

Daren Klum

CRAM was first positioned as a media storage device but with a very smart pivot some time ago, Klum and crew have created the perfect security product at exactly the right time…the hallmark of a great startup and a visionary founder.

In a time of government infiltration of corporate and personal data, an acceleration in black hat hacking, and other ways in which our vital data can be compromised, having a cloud storage solution that is as close to foolproof as possible is why CRAM’s timing is so spot-on.

What is CRAM? Their website says it best, “A new approach to cloud storage and data security. Multi-Cloud is the modern-day paper shredder for digital information. We shred your data, encrypt and backup into multiple cloud locations. Providing the most secure end-to-end data backup solution.”

Daren has walked me through the underlying security technology and it is stunning in its elegance and randomized, distributed, “shredding” security model. If you care about data security and an approach that will make it essentially impossible to reconstruct your randomly cloud-stored data, you owe it to yourself to check out CRAM.

The crew at Mobile March is donating a large portion of their proceeds in memory of  local technologist Farhan Muhammad….  [Read More…]

…from Apple’s New Mass Device Deployment Program.

One of Minnesota’s fastest growing tech firms, downtown Minneapolis-based JAMF Software, has been on a tear for the past few years, and a recent product launch by Apple promises to fuel even more growth. Here’s a look at what JAMF does: Enterprise Mobility Management for iPad, Mac, iPhone, and Apple TV.

iOS 7.1, just introduced, incorporates the functionality of Apple’s mass deployment initiative, part of a mobile device management (MDM) overhaul by the company. Apple announced on its IT website at around the beginning of March that the company was rolling out this large-scale iOS device deployment and management service for enterprise and educational institutions. (See coverage here and here).

This new program, called ‘Zero Touch Support’ internally at Apple, has been one enthusiastically embraced by the business field team. One of our sources at Apple in the business group is really excited to be able to rollout a program that enables easy enrollment of an organization’s devices (though he didn’t explicitly say it, he sort of implied that previous enrollment of devices wasn’t, um, simple). This new initiative, called the Device Enrollment Program (DEP) (here is Apple’s PDF guide), allows businesses and educational institutions to streamline the process to enroll devices into a management platform, like JAMF.

This Apple source also outlined some of the advantages of DEP and how a mobile device management (MDM) program is necessary to take advantage of Apple’s DEP—and Apple is not delivering high level MDM software like that delivered by JAMF. In fact, Apple sees this program as being very helpful to JAMF and other MDM providers. Apple has long promoted the use of a management utility for any organization that has 25 or more devices, but this new DEP will provide significantly easier deployment and reduce the barrier to entry for both businesses and educational organizations.

JAMF and other MDM’s will compliment, and be able to leverage, this new program from Apple, and our source was very enthusiastic about the opportunities that lie ahead for JAMF.

Jason Wudi

We asked Jason Wudi, CTO of JAMF Software, to elaborate on this recent news.

Minnov8: What does this program mean to JAMF?

Jason: “The two enterprise programs that Apple has made available to their customers and vendors like JAMF are huge benefit to the end user, and a significant simplification for IT staff and departments who are looking to get devices configured to best meet their specific user and organizational needs. The type of magical experience that you get when you unbox a new Apple device, and have your e-mail, applications, and media show up was something that only the ecosystem they have built really can deliver, and now they have extended that opportunity to have IT help bridge the user experience to the organization’s resources.”

Minnov8: What is the general reaction you’ve been hearing from your enterprise and educational customers so far? What percentage of them do you expect will adopt the Device Enrollment Program?

Jason: “The reactions have been overwhelmingly positive, in almost every conversation we’ve had with customers. I think the bar has been raised, and organizations are talking about how they can utilize the capabilities introduced. If there have been any questions raised, it’s always in a genuine interest of how and when the program will expand outside of the U.S., and what happens with devices that users already have. Going forward, I have not heard any organization that has institutionally owned devices that will not be taking advantage of at least one aspect of the new capabilities.”

Minnov8: How will this DEP program affect your MDM business? What percentage of the Apple MDM market does JAMF currently have? Do you even have any serious competition?

Jason: “The Device Enrollment Program (DEP) and the Volume Purchase Programs (VPP) that Apple has put forward are all about allowing organizations to continue to close gaps in their users’ experiences that typically existed when organizations needed to customize or configure the device to meet their specific needs. The positive impact it has is not just about management of the device, or the experience, but another step for the platform to continue to grow. The more users that choose the Apple platform and ecosystem, and organizations that rely on those device to accomplish their unique vision, the more JAMF’s business grows.”

Minnov8: Do you expect more of a take-up in the education market initially as opposed to the corporate/enterprise market? If so, why?

Jason: “Initially, education will likely be the biggest early adopters of these solutions, but more due to the timing and nature of their cycles than anything to do with the technology itself. In the U.S., which is where the programs are initially available, the education technology cycle and the ability to implement change is concentrated around the summer months, whereas we expect corporate and government entities to adopt the solutions around their own schedules and procurement needs. In all reality, it will not be very long before everyone managing an Apple deployment will be utilizing the additional abilities to provision, configure, and deploy that have been exposed with DEP and VPP.”

Minnov8: How large of an organization (number of mobile devices) can your MDM software handle? What is the minimum number a customer should have in order to justify the cost of your software?

Jason: “We have organizations that have deployed well over 100,000 devices in a single instance of our software, and we also provide options to run the solution in a hosted environment as well. Those that typically get the most value out of JAMF Software solutions have 50 devices or more.”

Minnov8: Finally, what kind of growth do you see ahead for JAMF in the next year? In what areas are you hiring, and what kind of growth do you see in employment? Will you expand more in your Eau Claire, Minneapolis, or Cupertino locations? What about other locations?

Jason: “When I look at our 30+ open job postings, we’re hiring in every area at JAMF. We now number more than 275 employees in our global workforce, and are also very fortunate to have a number of great partners that we work with every day. We’ve always been a very customer-centric organization, and while Minneapolis is still our headquarters, and we have a significant presence in Eau Claire, WI, we’ll continue to hire the right people in the areas where our customers are, on order to be in the best situation possible to help solve their needs. Many of the open positions we have listed right now are about international locations that we have been expanding into over the last 24 months, and the great thing about the Apple platform is that there are really no limits to where you can find an iPad or a Mac.”

For more information, here is an article JAMF posted on its web site for its customers: 6 ways to get ready for the new Device Enrollment Program and Volume Purchase Program.

Attention anyone buying or selling a home in the Twin Cities metro, or who may be someday: a new alternative is available starting today — and techies will especially appreciate it.  Redfin is in town.

Based in Seattle and founded in 2004, Redfin was actually the first company to put homes for sale on a searchable map online. It represents people either buying and selling a home. Founded and run by technologists, it has a team of experienced, full-service real estate agents who are advocates, not salespeople. Get this: they earn customer-satisfaction bonuses, not commissions.

“We selected the Twin Cities as our first new market to open in 2014,” said Bridget Frey, Redfin VP-Seattle Engineering. “We chose it because of the strength of the economy there, the concentration of universities, and a population that knows technology.’

Redfin’s web site features not only all the broker-listed homes for sale, but for-sale-by-owner properties as well — the ones that don’t pay brokers a commission. The other cool thing is Redfin has a variety of online tools and mobile apps that make the entire process of buying or selling a home “easier and more fun.” The company serves 23 U.S. markets (see map) and has closed some $13 billion in home sales since its founding.

On its web site, the company says “Technology is why our agents get you into a hot property faster.” And “it’s how we promote your listing to the most buyers.” But what really got my attention is how it promises to “put money back into the pockets of both buying and selling customers.” Redfin refunds homebuyers a portion of the buyer’s agent commission. For a $500,000 home, a Redfin homebuyer in the Twin Cities would save more than $4,000. For listing clients, Redfin agents charge 1.5 percent rather than the typical 3.3 percent of a traditional agent, “while providing the full listing service, from pricing and staging advice and professional photography through the negotiation and closing processes.” For someone selling a $500,000 home, that equals a savings of $9,000.

Redfin has many online and mobile technology tools. For example:

• Home Value Tool – lets customers estimate the value of their home based on up-to-date home sale prices, details, and photos used by real estate agents.

• Search by School – shows all homes for sale within the boundaries of a particular school with one easy search.

• Instant Updates – immediately alert home-buyers about new listings and price drops. People using Redfin to search for listings in a given area will get an alert 15-30 minutes after a real estate agent lists a home for sale. Users of any other major real estate website have to wait till the next day. Either smartphone or email notifications are sent when new homes are listed or when the status or price of a “favorited” home changes.

For its debut in the Twin Cities market, the company said more than one million homes have been added today to its searchable database of active listings and sold homes in parts of Hennepin, Ramsey, Anoka, Washington, Dakota, Scott, Carver, and Wright, counties that make the largest portion of the Twin Cities metro area by population. For parts of these counties that Redfin doesn’t service directly, customers can work with Redfin’s partner agents. The company will expand its direct service to include the entire 13-county metro area as its business here grows. It is actively recruiting more agents. In addition, the company just told me, hours before their debut today, that “we have now successfully enabled state-wide search for Minnesota. That means that you can see and search for all the homes for sale anywhere throughout the state.”

I asked software VP Bridget Frey to describe further how her team works. “Our model is very different. We break down every step of the process. It’s all based on continual conversations between agents and developers. We make sure they work closely together.” She said Redfin’s product managers and software engineers both regularly travel throughout the country to “shadow” agents in their daily work. “It’s all about getting an optimal experience for the buyer or seller. The best solutions are often not what the developer first envisioned, and in many cases what neither the agent nor developer would have thought.”

The company employs hundred of engineers in Seattle and the Bay Area, as well as hundreds of agents throughout the U.S. The Redfin model is different from that of other brokerages in the way it “aligns agent and customer interests.” Unlike traditional real estate agents, Redfin agents are paid a salary and benefits, with customer satisfaction ratings – not transactions – determining the agents bonus.  All reviews for all Redfin agents are published online. More about the Redfin model here.  And about its data quality here — which it says is a major differentiator: “We make it our business to have the most accurate data out there, updated every 15 to 30 minutes so you’ll never miss out.” Other sites that provide online listings nationally include Zillow and Trulia, but they have very different models, said Redfin’s Frey.

“We are a ‘real world’ real estate brokerage,” she said, “which means we have a local presence where we operate — local people, who know the local market.” To that end, Redfin hired Chris Prescott as its Minnesota market manager. “When I heard Redfin was coming to Minnesota, I knew I had to be part of their mission to change real estate here in the Twin Cities,” he said. “After being in the business for 20-plus years, I am very excited about the opportunity to change the way real estate is done and make it better for buyers, sellers and agents.”

Redfin is recruiting more agents in the Twin Cities metro area. Its pitch: “We believe real estate should be built on exceptional client service and advocacy, and we need passionate agents like you to advance our vision. Motivated clients come directly to you through our website, so you can focus on providing impeccable service — not selling yourself. Come hungry: Redfin Agents close an average of three deals per month versus the industry average of six deals per year.”

Here’s the full news release about Redfin’s Twin Cities launch.