Schakra Home

Application Tier

In order to effectively deploy Service Oriented Architectures you need a great deal of experience and insight into the constantly changing landscape of services platforms.

We here at Schakra excel in this area and have proven experience delivering solutions that solve real problems in this space. Our project history is as diverse as our company employee set. From Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) to the AppFabric Service Bus, to Windows Workflow Foundation (WF), BizTalk & the Connected Services Framework (CSF), we have intimate knowledge of the technologies to do the job.

We have several key accomplishments to mention in this area. Microsoft recognized our leadership here and so chose to include us on the Connected Technology Advisory Board. We provide a solution guide for Service Delivery Platforms (SDP) using BizTalk and help CSF customers to migrate to BizTalk server. Schakra has experience bringing together telecom and innovative service platforms seamlessly.

Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing is a new model for distributed application deployment that provides greater flexibility and scalability for internet applications and services.

Platforms like Windows Azure and Amazon Web Services provide new capabilities for organizations to increase capacity on demand and reduce or replace the growing costs of self-hosted data centers. Because you can pay for as little or as much of the service as you need, and because the service is fully managed by Schakra, it is a clear solution for increasing IT efficiency and cutting costs.

We were a cloud computing company before cloud computing became a popular business solution and because of this our vast expertise stands head and shoulders above the rest.

We will work closely with you to determine your individual needs so that we can deliver to you the precise level of service your current business operations require. This way you are never paying for excess services, nor will your company ever find itself short on resources. You will have exactly what you need exactly when you need it.

We have worked on projects from Microsoft Azure to Amazon AWS and have released products which allow a developer to use a similar API set to communicate to either platform “ClearBelow.”

Mobile Computing

As the mobile market continues to grow and faster network access becomes available, the importance of powerful and reliable solutions for mobile devices is greater. We at Schakra are well positioned to help you tackle the mobile world. With extensive expertise on the Windows Mobile platform and proven experience using RIM Blackberry, Apple iPhone, and Google Android to create native applications for compatible devices, we can deliver compelling user experiences to reach out to any user base.

Case Study

When Windows Phone 7 was launched, one of the major challenges faced by Microsoft in ensuring its broad acceptance is to be able to provide tools and documentation to developers for porting existing apps, click here to learn more about how Schakra worked with Microsoft to create the Windows Phone 7 API Mapping Tool to facilitate this.

BPOS

Does your company want to take advantage of Microsoft's BPOS service?

Are you wanting to implement a hosted email service and don't know where to start?

Are you trying to get your on-premise mail system collaborating with the Microsoft Exchange Online?

Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Standard Suite is comprised of messaging and collaboration tools delivered as a subscription service; meeting your business needs without being required to deploy and maintain software and hardware on-premise. These Microsoft hosted cloud services are designed to help meet your needs for security, reliability, and employee productivity. This suite includes Microsoft Exchange Online for email and calendaring; Microsoft SharePoint Online for portals and document sharing; Microsoft Office Communications Online for internet chat and presence as well as peer-to-peer audio calls; and Office Live Meeting for web and video conferencing.

At Schakra, we specialize in customizing your company's access experience and even tie your on-premise credentials to that of the BPOS service! We've worked with several institutions and businesses already to optimize their experience with Microsoft’s hosted services. We also have the inside track with Schakra personnel who have worked or are still working directly within Microsoft's Exchange Product Group and Microsoft's BPOS Support Team.

Top Concerns of Companies and Institutions:

Legal/Governmental Compliance

We have expertise in implementing features to ensure you are in compliance. For example, leveraging the right mailbox plan can help satisfy some of the privacy and compliance requirements of acts such as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) in the United States or the Data Protection Act in Europe. If you have other requirements requiring adherence, we will review and help determine the best way to implement the various BPOS services.

Service Status

We have expertise in implementing features to keep you informed of any potential issues as well as the inside track to get you the latest information on issue resolution.

Account Migration

There are several solutions available for account migration depending on your needs. Although we have no application we’ve built to address the end-to-end need, we do have several scripts written by and leveraged by our many field consultants. We have expertise with Microsoft’s tools as well as 3rd party tools for mail migration. We’ve participated in several pilots for Microsoft’s tools including IMAP migration and Simple Exchange Migration. We can help you migrate from on-premise to the Outlook Live or BPOS mail services, whatever the need.

Education

Are you an educational institution that wants to take advantage of Microsoft's Live@edu program?

Are you wanting to implement Outlook Live email service and don't know where to start?

Are you trying to get your on-premise mail system collaborating with Outlook Live?

Live@edu is a cutting edge free email, communication and collaboration service that includes access from anywhere to your 10 GB mailboxes on Microsoft's Outlook Live e-mail experience across the desktop, web and mobile devices, 25 GB of free file storage on SkyDrive, document sharing & editing through Office Web Apps, instant messaging, video chat, and much more! Even better, this is all accessible via a single user ID & password! At Schakra, we specialize in customizing your school's access experience and even tie your on-premise credentials to that of the Live@edu service!

We've worked with several institutions already to optimize their experience with Live@edu. We also have the inside track with Schakra personnel who have worked or are still working directly within Microsoft's Exchange Product Group and Microsoft's Live@edu Team.

Top Concerns of Educational Institutions:

Legal/Governmental Compliance

We have expertise in implementing features to ensure you are in compliance. For example, leveraging the right mailbox plan can help satisfy some of the privacy and compliance requirements of acts such as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) in the United States or the Data Protection Act in Europe. If you have other requirements requiring adherence, we will review and help determine the best way to implement the various Live@edu services.

Enrollment

The enrollment tools have been updated to Live@edu Service Management Portal (SMP). If you need help with your enrollment and want to avoid any complications to do this right the first time, we have collectively enrolled 100s of schools. We have the expertise to help you plan your new Live@edu service engagement end-to-end.

Service Status

We have expertise in implementing features to keep you informed of any potential issues as well as the inside track to get you the latest information on issue resolution.

http://outlookliveanswers.com/servicestatus.aspx

Account Migration

There are several solutions available for account migration depending on your needs. Although we have no application we’ve built to address the end-to-end need, we do have several scripts written by and leveraged by our many field consultants. We have expertise with Microsoft’s tools as well as 3rd party tools for mail migration. We’ve participated in several pilots for Microsoft’s tools including IMAP migration and Simple Exchange Migration. We can help you migrate from on-premise to the Outlook Live or BPOS mail services, whatever the need.

Rich Internet Applications

Schakra designs and builds simple, useful, and innovative rich internet applications at any scale out of the latest and greatest web technologies.

The term “rich internet application” may apply to many types of software, but the common thread among them is they allow people to connect and collaborate in real-time.

Whether this is achieved by AJAX using JavaScript from a web browser, a Silverlight application running inside or outside of the browser, a native mobile application on a Windows Mobile or Android device communicating over the wireless network, or a WPF application communicating with WCF REST-based web services, rich internet applications allow people to interactively share and receive information and data.

On the other side of the wire, server components may be running on Microsoft Internet Information Services or Windows Azure. All of these components are part of “rich internet applications”, and we can create them.

Users have come to expect responsive and engaging experiences accessible from any device or location that help them swiftly achieve their goals. Why not bring us in to create an amazing internet experience for your users?

Benefits

If you provide any service online or are serious about internet marketing, then providing a rich internet application to your customers is a necessity.

With the explosion of social networking, most people have come to expect your business to be as well connected as they are, with presences on multiple sites and an integrated and interesting site of your own. Whether it is tools for communication, e-commerce, entertainment or anything else – you must reach your users.

Business Intelligence

Schakra creates powerful BI solutions that allow you to visualize, understand, and act upon the events and trends that are critical to the continued success of your business.

Data is often spread amongst multiple, disparate sources that rarely use the same taxonomies, formats or interfaces. Bringing that data together to form a picture of the current state of things, or better yet to predict where things are headed, is an enormous challenge.

Finding a way to overcome this challenge effectively is our Specialty. Schakra can help you see the big picture of your company which will benefit you greatly now, and exponentially in the future as your business continues to grow.

Our business intelligence solutions address the needs of business users to summarize, analyze, drill into, and extrapolate scenarios regardless of their level of skill with a particular tool or which technologies are required to get at the source of the data. We simply make your business make sense.

Whether you need an automated ETL process, data warehouse with cubes designed for your analysis needs, or intuitive visualizations - we can do it.

Foresight is a force multiplier for both your organization and your investments, and to have it you need deep and accurate insight into your business operations.

Benefits

Like comedy, business is all about timing.

Having the capability to take advantage of opportunities when they are available and respond to threats when they arise, or even before, is key to long-term success.

While members of your organization probably have a great understanding of specific aspects of your business, or possibly the entirety of your operations, nothing is as effective at promoting acumen and agility as presenting the combined knowledge of the business in the form of visualizable, undisputed facts that only quantitative measurement and analysis can provide.

Technologies

We specialize in providing solutions built on the best-of-breed platform and tools provided by the newest Microsoft SQL Server.

• SQL Server Integration Services
• SQL Server Analysis Services
• SQL Server Reporting Services

Using the above services we can provide systems that solve the problems of today with the guarantee that they will be able to solve the problems of tomorrow. Combined with our keen insight into the meaning and value of business data, we deliver a great and residual return on your investment in the future.

Identity Management

Managing data in a way that it remains secure, protected, and compliant is a necessity in the business world.

Mixing disparate security systems, services, and business process modeling is a challenge to do effectively. However, solving these complex identity and security problems with knowledge of powerful applications proves to reduce risk, cost, and the opportunity for error.

Our team at Schakra can provide solutions for complex identity and security problems, as we have already for numerous educational institutions across the country.

Allowing Schakra to help you with your transition to the cloud will ultimately result in a cheaper, higher quality, and more easily accessible infrastructure.

Utilizing identity management and security from the cloud is free from Microsoft for Universities. It will also make your system more easily accessible. It both cuts costs and increases quality to outsource management of your infrastructure. Schakra can help you achieve full account administration automation.

We can:

Automate the life cycle of user accounts within your enterprise.

Provide custom deployments for your organization.

Move your user accounts, identity, and security to the cloud.

Benefits

Here at Schakra our staff has proven experience working with the best software applications to complete your identity management and security projects. We are also embracing open authentication and identity standards, including OpenID and OAuth. This, along with our ability to predict, absorb and evangelize technology trends, gives us a unique ability to create solutions that are robust, scalable and dependable.

Application Mastery

Application Expertise Includes: Microsoft Windows CardSpace, Geneva, Forefront Identity Manager(FIM), Active Directory

Social Media

Social media is quickly becoming one of the primary ways people and consumers interact with each other.

Today it is becoming standard for companies and consumers to participate in social media networking. The ease of communication and wide variety of marketing and interaction opportunities makes becoming social media savvy a must.

Implementing social media applications that are effective as well as user friendly can be the difference between blending into the competition and standing out. Schakra can help you design and execute applications that utilize media channels that your customers are already using.

Schakra has extensive experience working with and integrating the following sites, services, tools, and applications:

• Windows live messenger
• Myspace
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Netflix
• Photoshare Support
• Google
• API
• Sharepoint

Interoperability

Schakra has considerable experience in building applications and platforms that enable interoperability (of non-Microsoft technologies such as Java, PHP, Joomla, Drupal etc.) with Microsoft technologies.

Joomla Modules: WindowsLiveID module for Joomla will allow Joomla sites to have authentication using Windows Live. Using this plugin a WindowsLiveID can be associated with Joomla user account, once done user would be able to login to the Joomla site using the WindowsLiveID credentials. Active Directory Login module for Joomla will allow Joomla sites to have Authentication using an Active Directory Federation Service (ADFS) 2.0 enabled server using the WS Federation Protocol.

Drupal Modules: WindowsLiveID module for Drupal will allow Drupal sites to have authentication using Windows Live. A Windows Live account needs to have an associated user account in Drupal to be able to login. Active Directory module for Drupal will allow Drupal sites to have Single Sign On authentication using an ADFS 2.0 enabled server using the WS Federation Protocol.

AppFabric SDK: We have developed the initial version (M1-CTP) of the AppFabric SDK for Java Developers. Java Developers will be able to leverage the AppFabric to extend their applications by using the Microsoft cloud services platform to build, deploy and manage reliable, internet-scale applications.