Showing How Developer Tools Should Be Done, Twilio Rolls Out New Product And Enhancements.


Twilio is a rocketship of a vendor. The company offers a broad communications platform that third-party application developers can build into their apps. What that means is that say, for example, you’re building the next Uber, and you want to allow your customers and suppliers to communicate via SMS, voice and other means. Rather than trying to build in all of that functionality yourself, you simply “plug in” Twilio, and it takes care of it all for you. For a company like Uber that not only scales incredibly quickly in terms of load, but also in terms of geographical spread, the benefits through using a developer tool are immense.

Twilio was only founded in 2008, and yet it has grown impressively rapidly. It now has over 400 employees in San Francisco, Mountain View, New York, London, Munich, Dublin, Tallinn, and Bogota. Fuelling that incredible growth is over $200 million in venture funding from investors such as Fidelity, T. Rowe Price, Bessemer, Redpoint and Union Square. Twilio is adding an astounding 1,000 new developers on its platform every day and thus far around 700,000 developers have built something on top of Twilio.
Twilio is something of a poster child in the space – its CEO Jeff Lawson is a living, breathing embodiment of a new way of working. Back in 2011 I took the opportunity to sit down with Lawson and record a video, not so much about what Twilio does from a technology viewpoint, but rather how it looks and acts as a business.
Anyway, Twilio is this week holding its user conference, SIGNAL, in San Francisco. I am unable to attend but prior to the event I took some time out to speak with Lawson about the event and, in particular, the product innovations that are being announced there. At the highest of levels, it seems that we see Twilio introduce some horizontal offerings that tie together the discrete offerings that they have. The Twilio that I see post-conference feels far more like a broad platform than the one before it. Anyway, on to the specific product news. Being announced today are:
Twilio IP Messaging – Twilio IP Messaging enables in-app chat between multiple parties across Web and mobile applications. The service supports message synchronization so that users can access chat history and engage in conversations from different devices. Based on the same globally distributed infrastructure as the rest of the Twilio platform, Twilio IP Messaging uses the same software development kit as the recently announced Twilio video offering.
New Messaging Copilot – One of the pieces of technology that builds out Twilio’s breadth, Copilot adds advanced delivery and localization intelligence to SMS and MMS applications. Copilot capabilities include:
  • Sending a high volume of messages by dynamically using multiple Twilio Phone Numbers and shortcodes.
  • Sending messages across the globe with a local number that is familiar to the recipient.
  • Intelligently rerouting messages through different phone numbers when delivery via short codes is not possible.
Advanced Monitoring Capabilities – Another horizontal offering, new enhancements to Twilio Monitor provide visibility into every operational detail of Twilio accounts including Twilio Voice, Video and Messaging applications. With Monitor, developer operations and IT operations teams now have the tools to actively prevent security holes, audit for compliance and investigate application issues caused by human error and application behavior. Twilio Monitor is now generally available.
Increased Global Scale – Twilio also introduced additional capabilities to increase its ability to scale. Both scaling in terms of sheer size (massively attended teleconferences for example) as well as geographical scale (mobile numbers as well as alphanumeric numbers offered in a host of new locales).
Additional Announcements by Authy – Authy, a service Twilio recently acquired offers mobile and Web access security solutions. Authy announced two new products at SIGNAL. Authy OneTouch streamlines two-factor authentication (2FA) for users by making it a simple “yes” or “no” approval of a push notification initiated request on an authorized mobile device — there are no one-time password codes for users to enter or manage. Authy for Apple Watch provides wearables-based 2FA.
MyPOV
What’s not to like? Twilio goes from strength to strength. It is both increasing the depth of its offering (providing for ever-larger use cases) as well as increasing the breadth (more services, more geographies). This is one company that is an exemplar for a new way of doing things, this week’s announcements only increases that.

forbes.

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Sandhurst's sheikhs: Why do so many Gulf royals receive military training in the UK? A parade outside the building at Sandhurst Continue reading the main story In today's Magazine The death list that names 5,000 victims Is this woman an apostate? Voices from a WW1 prison camp The Swiss selfie scandal Generations of foreign royals - particularly from the Middle East - have learned to be military leaders at the UK's Sandhurst officer training academy. But is that still a good idea, asks Matthew Teller. Since 1812, the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, on the Surrey/Berkshire border, has been where the British Army trains its officers. It has a gruelling 44-week course testing the physical and intellectual skills of officer cadets and imbuing them with the values of the British Army. Alongside would-be British officers, Sandhurst has a tradition of drawing cadets from overseas. Many of the elite families of the Middle East have sent their sons and daughters. 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The Emir of Dubai Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum with his son after his Passing Out Parade at Sandhurst in 2006 Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Emir of Dubai, with his son in uniform at Sandhurst in 2006 Her Majesty The Queen's Representative His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, The Emir of Qatar inspects soldiers during the 144th Sovereign's Parade held at The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst on April 8, 2004 in Camberley, England. Some 470 Officer cadets took part of which 219 were commissioned into the British Army Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, the Emir of Qatar until 2013, inspects soldiers at Sandhurst in 2004 Emotion doesn't always deliver. In 2013, despite the personal intervention of David Cameron, the UAE decided against buying the UK's Typhoon fighter jets. But elsewhere fellow feeling is paying dividends. 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