Mes: febrero 2021

BALTIMORE, Feb. 10, 2021 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — «Our newly updated Caribbean island report at InternationalLiving.com has seen a spike in web traffic of 225% over the last month. And that traffic is up 184% over the same period last year,» says Jennifer Stevens, Executive Editor, International Living.

«Interest in the Caribbean has increased, which is not surprising considering the cold weather that’s plagued much of the States of late. Even though most folks are largely hunkered down, I think people are using this time at home to plan for where they’ll go once the world opens up again—and the idea of sun, sand, and not-too-long a plane ride has its appeal.

«Just say the word ‘Caribbean‘ and you conjure images of turquoise waters, leaning palms, and cocktails on the sand,» says Stevens. «And that’s about right—it’s hard to beat the sunny skies and warm, clear waters; the fishing, diving, snorkeling, sailing. A laidback life in flip flops and a sun hat sounds pretty good when you’re shoveling snow in below-zero temperatures.

«But most people assume that Caribbean dream comes with a steep price tag. And that’s not necessarily so. On the five good-value Caribbean islands our International Living team has pinpointed, a couple could live comfortably in the sun for around $2,500 a month—and even less in some places.»

Belize, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Panama, and Mexico all offer islands off their Caribbean coasts—islands that share the same turquoise-blue waters and powder-white beaches as more expensive Caribbean destinations and are much, much more affordable.

International Living editors have identified five of the best Caribbean islands that won’t break the bank…and two that just might—in their report, 5 Best Caribbean Islands to Live On…and 2 to Avoid.

Ambergris Caye, Belize

English-speaking Ambergris Caye is the largest island in Belize at 25 miles long and a little over a mile wide, and San Pedro is its only town. About 30 years ago, Ambergris became a hotspot for divers and fishermen thanks to the Belize Barrier Reef, just a half-mile offshore. This natural wonderland of living coral supports a dizzying array of marine life, and it’s the main reason Ambergris has seen its recent (and significant) growth.

Until just a few years ago, San Pedro was a little fishing village that catered to adventure tourists coming for the scuba-diving and deep-sea fishing. The main motorized transportation on Ambergris Caye at that time was golf carts (which remain popular, though there are many more cars on the island today). San Pedro is now the second-largest town in Belize District with more than 15,000 people, surpassed in size only by the former capital, Belize City.

Expats give up little living on Ambergris Caye. Power, water, cell phone coverage, and internet are reliable…and most necessities for daily living are readily available on the island. Regular water taxis and flights make it easy to take a quick shopping trip in Belize City, or Chetumal, Mexico. The selection of quality restaurants and bars is constantly expanding.

How much?

For between $2,950 to $3,150 per month, a couple can enjoy a comfortable retirement in Ambergris Caye—a budget that includes the cost of a house or apartment rental. Own your own home on the island outright and it’s possible for a couple to live quite comfortably on less than $2,000 a month.

Belize is currently open to international travel, with some COVID restrictions.

Roatan, Honduras

Roatán, one of the Bay Islands, has quietly graduated from secret divers’ getaway to a livable island haven. Just 50 square miles, this green, hilly island off Honduras’ northern coast is long and skinny, fringed by a reef rich with sea life and garnished by white-sand beaches.

The beaches here are quiet and pristine. Life is laidback, lived in rhythm with the sun and the surf. No big-name resorts. No «spring break» strips. No high-rise developments. This is old-school Caribbean…though fitted out with modern conveniences. And English is commonly spoken.

This is an island where «normal» people can buy a vacation home or permanent digs to live out their sunny, low-cost, and comfortable retirement. The infrastructure is good and getting better all the time, with a new power plant online and the recent opening of a hospital with specialist care and a 24-hour emergency room.

How much?

Less than $175,000 buys a two-bedroom Caribbean home right on the water in a quiet neighborhood with no tourists. Life on an island is often more expensive than mainland living—almost everything has to be imported, after all. But relative to the rest of the Caribbean, Roatán offers excellent value.

The monthly cost of living for a couple, including rent, is $2,000 to $2,500.

Roatan is currently open to international travel, with some COVID restrictions.

Isla Mujeres, Mexico

Isla Mujeres is about eight miles from Cancún in Mexico, but this laidback island is a world away from the hustle and bustle of its more tourist-developed older sister. Before Cancún existed, Mexicans and a few adventurous foreigners went to Isla Mujeres for some of the best beaches and water sports in the world—diving for coral, swimming with dolphins, and sailing on a crystal blue sea.

The island enjoys a warm tropical climate (low to mid-80s F for most of the year) and a laidback vibe; golf carts are preferred to cars as the main means of transport.

How much?

Clear, azure waters and white-sand beaches are never far away, and the cost of living is far lower than a similar lifestyle would cost back in the States. A one-bedroom, two-bathroom penthouse condo goes from $230,000, and a one-bedroom place rents for $700 to $1000 a month.

A couple can live a very nice life on Isla Mujeres for $2,500–$3,000 a month, including rent.

Mexico is currently open to international travel, with some COVID restrictions.

Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic

Columbus knew he was on to something good when he spotted a beautiful, coral-rimmed island in 1492. «This is the fairest land under heaven,» the explorer is reported to have said.

The Dominican Republic has great weather and world-class beaches, not to mention a low cost of living and a stable government—plus it’s just three-and-a-half hours from New York.

The north coast of the island has some of the finest beaches in the Caribbean, the east coast is a sportsman’s paradise with some of the newest designer golf courses in the region.

This isn’t all-inclusive resort territory, and thanks to strict planning laws it should stay that way. The beach hotels here are small and family-run rather than sprawling, faceless chains.

The beaches around Las Terrenas are some of the most pristine in the Dominican Republic.

How much?

The most incredible thing about it, though, is the real estate prices. A one-bedroom, one-bathroom loft apartment can be had for as little as $92,000.

A couple can live in this tropical haven for around $2,000 a month, although most choose to spend closer to $3,000 a month.

The Dominican Republic is currently open to international travel, with some COVID restrictions.

Isla Colon, Panama

Not many people know that Panama has its own tropical archipelagos. Set on the Caribbean coast, close to the border with Costa Rica, Bocas del Toro is a group of nine main islands and a few hundred smaller cayos and islets, dotting calm turquoise waters.

The main hub is bustling Bocas Town, on the large island of Isla Colon, which sits below the hurricane belt. It’s a ramshackle seaside town of brightly painted buildings—many on stilts over the water. It’s the home base for most visitors and where the majority of expats live.

Bocas, as it is known, is all about water. Water sports, fishing, and whale watching are just some of the popular pastimes for locals. The small city is tourist driven but with a laidback feel.

How much?

Depending on the lifestyle expats choose, a couple can live here on as little $2,000 a month, renting a simple, snug, island-style home. Bocas is home to a great deal of untitled or right of possession (ROP) property. It’s best to rent and familiarize yourself with the unique landscape before contemplating a property purchase here.

Panama is currently open to international travel, with some COVID restrictions.

Two to Avoid…Because Costs Are High

St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands

Located in the Caribbean, the U.S. Virgin Islands is made up of over 60 islands…most of them uninhabited. The three most populated, and most visited, are St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix. The U.S. Virgin Islands are an organized, unincorporated United States territory and their people are U.S. citizens.

St. Thomas is the island on which most of the population of the U.S. Virgin Island lives. It is also the most commercialized of the islands and a regular stopping off point for Caribbean cruise ships. This 30-square-mile island has jungle cliffs that soar high into the sky and the turquoise sea is dotted with yachts of all shapes and sizes. St. Thomas, and in particular the capital of Charlotte Amalie, can get overrun by tourists.

While St. Thomas may be a nice place to live, apartments rent for about $2,000 a month, and to buy a two-bedroom house in a good neighborhood will cost about $285,000-plus.

Grand Bahama Island, Bahamas

What do Nicolas Cage, Johnny Depp, Oprah Winfrey, Sean Connery, Bill Gates, and Tiger Woods have in common? Apart from being celebrities, they’re among thousands of North Americans and Europeans who own second homes in the Bahamas.

Like other expats who live there for all or part of the year, these stars often think of the Bahamas as a paradise—an upscale group of islands with some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. The Bahamas are friendly to newcomers, there’s no foreign language to cope with, crime is relatively low, and the islands are positioned just off the Florida coast.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that property on the islands usually isn’t cheap. Medium-size residences in exclusive gated communities with ocean views often cost more than $2 million.

Grand Bahama Island has become a haven for beach-lovers as well as divers, fishermen, golfers, and sports enthusiasts of all kinds. It’s also a prime destination for people who enjoy world-class shopping. But living here costs a premium as it’s between 30% and 50% more expensive than in the U.S.

For more information on the Caribbean’s most affordable islands, including interviews with expats living and working there, go to 5 Best Caribbean Islands to Live On… and 2 to Avoid.

International Living’s complete 2021 Annual Global Retirement Index can be found at: The World’s Best Places to Retire in 2021.

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About International Living

Since 1979, InternationalLiving.com has been the leading authority for anyone looking for global retirement or relocation opportunities. Through its monthly magazine and related e-letters, extensive website, podcasts, online bookstore, and events held around the world, InternationalLiving.com provides information and services to help its readers live better, travel farther, have more fun, save more money, and find better business opportunities when they expand their world beyond their own shores. InternationalLiving.com has contributors traveling the globe, investigating the best opportunities for travel, retirement, real estate, and investment.

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Marita Kelly, www.internationalliving.com, +001 667 312 3532, mkelly@internationalliving.com

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SOURCE InternationalLiving.com

BOSTON, Feb. 10, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — StormForge, the leader in cloud-native performance testing and resource optimization, announced today a new initiative to help companies that are utilizing cloud services reduce cloud waste and curb the cloud’s growing carbon footprint. Starting today, companies managing and releasing cloud-native applications can join in this pledge to reduce waste by visiting the StormForge website.

As a part of this pledge, StormForge is guaranteeing that they can reduce your Kubernetes application cloud waste by 30% or more and if they fail to do so CEO Matt Provo has agreed to pay the difference toward your cloud bill for one month (up to $50,000/customer) and donate the same amount to a green charity of your choice.

The cloud industry is one of climate change’s biggest challenges and most overlooked contributors. In a matter of years, data centers became one of the largest annual energy consumers and emitters of carbon pollution, representing roughly 3% of the world’s total energy consumption and emitting nearly 100 million metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere per year. Behind the rising energy consumption and carbon emissions is an unchecked cloud waste crisis. Last year, companies wasted over $17 billion in cloud spend on idle resources. Some organizations are finding that as much as 40% of their cloud spend is wasted on over-provisioned and unused infrastructure, and 49% of companies are using less than 30% of their requested CPU and memory resources.

«There are proactive and accessible options for companies to explore if they want to curb their own cloud usage — and contributions to the carbon emissions crisis — right away,» said Matt Provo, co-founder and CEO of StormForge. «Simply put, much of the cloud waste surge stems back to poor resource utilization. But with cloud spend predicted to cross the $300 billion mark this year, we can’t wait around and hope that the waste magically goes away. The fastest way to cut cloud carbon emissions is to improve resource efficiency. So not only are we pledging to reduce our own cloud waste by 30% this year, but we’re challenging others who rely on the cloud to run their business to join us in this pledge, pop the hood, and explore immediate waste reduction opportunities.» 

Resource optimization and efficiency are core drivers of cloud waste reduction, so if you’re interested in learning more about how you can play a part in cutting waste and reducing carbon emissions, visit the StormForge website to learn more about the pledge and StormForge’s 30% Cloud Waste Reduction Guarantee.

About StormForge

StormForge brings together world-class data scientists and software engineers to enable businesses to drive breakthrough IT and operations efficiency. The StormForge Platform is set apart by its unwavering focus on building AI-powered software products that are designed to help people, not replace them. The StormForge Platform uses enterprise-grade performance testing coupled with machine learning to drive major application performance gains and cost reductions in complex environments. In February 2020, StormForge announced funding from Insight Partners to accelerate the growth of its Platform. StormForge was founded in 2015 and is based in Boston and Washington, DC. Learn more at https://www.stormforge.io.

Media Contact:
Josh Tammaro
860-306-3683
291253@email4pr.com 

View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/stormforge-announces-cloud-waste-reduction-challenge-pledging-to-reduce-cloud-waste-by-100-million-in-2021-or-they-will-pay-your-cloud-bill-301226104.html

SOURCE StormForge

TORONTO, Feb. 10, 2021 /PRNewswire/ – Nulogy, a leading provider of agile supply chain solutions, today announced the release of Just-In-Time Line Replenishment, a new capability to empower contract packagers, contract manufacturers, and value-added third-party logistics providers to fulfill customer orders with less labor overhead and line downtime, resulting in higher levels of operational efficiency, profitability, and customer service.

With the rapid pace and constant demands associated with contract packaging and manufacturing operations, labor costs and line downtime due to material shortages can hinder business growth and customer service levels. Nulogy’s new capability helps automate the flow of materials on the production floor, solving these issues and delivering concrete value to customers.

«Nulogy’s Just-In-Time Line Replenishment capability is the latest innovation in our mission to bring agility and automation to contract packaging and manufacturing operations,» said Jason Tham, CEO, Nulogy. «These efficiencies on the floor translate into reduced costs, increased profitability, and stronger, healthier supply chains—which are needed now more than ever.»

This capability automatically triggers pallet pick requests based on space available in the line staging area, inventory on the line, and line consumption rate. With this new capability, contract packagers, contract manufacturers and value-added third-party logistics providers can:

• Reduce line downtime due to material shortages
• Reduce overhead labor
• Increase floor space available for revenue-generating activities
• Prioritize forklift traffic and work queues

By leveraging Nulogy’s Just-in-Time Line Replenishment capability, external supply chain providers can efficiently manage their resources for more streamlined operations and greater business growth.

About Nulogy

Nulogy, a leading supplier of agile supply chain solutions, allows consumer brands to respond with ease and speed to a volatile retail and consumer environment while reducing waste and costs. Designed to optimize contract packaging and manufacturing operations and enhance supply chain collaboration, Nulogy’s cloud-based software solution allows consumer brands and their external suppliers to unleash innovation in the consumer products value chain and accelerate brand growth.

Learn more about Nulogy at nulogy.com.

View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nulogy-releases-new-capability-to-automate-materials-replenishment-on-co-packing-and-manufacturing-production-lines-301226006.html

SOURCE Nulogy Corporation

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 10, 2021 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — Metrus Energy has announced a $6.4 million project with Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA), the first in the Sustainable Energy Service Agreement (SESA) program. The work will take place at DTNA’s truck manufacturing plant in Cleveland, North Carolina; improvements include LED lighting retrofits, chiller replacements, cooling tower replacements and chilled water plant control system upgrades.

«Our SESA is all about addressing the whole sustainability ecosystem for our customers and we are thrilled to kick-off this important new program with Daimler,» said Anastasia Beckett, Metrus’ SVP of Sales. «We look forward to rolling out added comprehensive retrofits across their portfolio that lower operating expenses and improve the sustainability of DTNA’s operations.»

The upgrades will be implemented across seven buildings and generate roughly $1 million in average annual savings over a 12-year SESA term. There will be an annual CO2 reduction of approximately 6,104 tons resulting from an 8.6 million annual kWh reduction.

«We appreciate Metrus’ collaboration in helping our Cleveland facility come one step closer to achieving our CO₂-neutral manufacturing goals,» said Erik Johnson, Cleveland Truck Manufacturing Plant manager, DTNA. «Collaborating with outside partners like Metrus is an important component of our overall strategy and we look forward to working with their team in the years ahead.»

Metrus partnered with KeyBank Equipment Finance and Centrica Business Solutions, which will provide engineering, construction, and ongoing measurement and verification services.

About Metrus Energy
Metrus Energy develops and finances sustainable energy projects at commercial, industrial, and institutional facilities. Our comprehensive climate-positive financing solution pays for all upfront and ongoing project costs, using our Sustainable Energy Services Agreement (SESA). Our projects upgrade the built environment, improve equipment resiliency and lower carbon emissions. Metrus bundles energy efficiency and clean energy measures into one simplified contract, tailoring each project to provide a turnkey solution for each of our customers.

About Daimler Trucks North America

Daimler Trucks North America LLC, headquartered in Portland, Ore., is the leading heavy-duty truck manufacturer in North America. It manufactures, sells, and services commercial vehicles under the Freightliner, Western Star, Detroit, and Thomas Built Buses nameplates. Daimler Trucks North America is a Daimler company.

Media Contact

Sadie Mae Palmatier, Metrus Energy, +1 406-241-4501, palmatier@metrusenergy.com

SOURCE Metrus Energy