News Desk

Is IBM XIV Still Relevant?

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 00:45:00 EST

Given the time, money as well as effort IBM has poured into promoting and generating awareness around XIV, it must be relevant to someone. IBM recently released another round of momentum news, customer testimonials and product enhancements while making a point that there are now over 1,000 XIV systems installed around the world. 1,000 systems installed (regardless of if revenue or trial) in the just under 2 years since IBM bought XIV would be a triumph for most startups. However for a major player with the resources of IBM, I would have expected the number of installed systems to be more in the 5,000 to perhaps 10,000 systems when looking at the progress of Dell (EqualLogic), HP (LeftHand) or others.

CSC Signs Cloud Computing Agreement With UK Royal Mail Group

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 15:45:00 EST

The new contract is an industry first, with CSC being the first Microsoft partner to lead and win a cloud computing services agreement of this scale. Under terms of the contract, CSC will provide Royal Mail Group's 30,000 employees with access to new IT services using Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), part of Microsoft Online Services. CSC will also provide first line helpdesk support. CSC's cloud services are designed to help businesses easily and securely adopt cloud computing solutions, allowing them to reduce the costs of managing and maintaining business systems while giving them access to the latest Microsoft Online Services including Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Office Communications Online and Microsoft Office Live Meeting.

Insider Trading’s Poster Boy Seeks To Suppress Wire Taps

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 14:45:00 EST

Lawyers for Raj Rajaratnam, the alleged billionaire kingpin behind the insider trading scandal that brought down ex-AMD CEO and Globalfoundries chairman Hector Ruiz and IBM server chief Robert Moffat, filed papers with the US District Court in New York Tuesday denying that he got insider information or that he traded AMD, IBM, Sun and Intel stock among others based on it.

Hard Drive Data Recovery Service- When Is It Necessary?

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 14:30:00 EST

You need not to opt for recovery service, if your hard drive is physically intact and working properly. If all the hard drive internals are working properly, you would be able to start your system and access data from it. However, the the internal components of your computer hard drive gets damaged, you can not retrieve data from it and you need to opt for data recovery services for easy and quick accessing of your valuable and mission critical data. Each file that you store on your computer hard drive is crucial from your business point of view. When you lose even a single file, you might feel lost. Particularly for the businesses, loss of valuable files might prove a real disaster. Although, the manufacturers might give you guarantee of the hardware, but when a problem occurs in your drive, you can not retrieve data from it. Manufacturers can only replace the damaged hard drive if it is in guarantee period, but could not help you to get your data back.

CA & BMC To Support Salesforce.com

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 14:15:00 EST

CA is going to put its Agile Planner software on salesforce.com’s Force.com platform in the first half to accelerate development time and give users visibility over their development initiatives to reduce time-to-market. Customers are supposed to be able to accelerate the deployment of Salesforce CRM within their organization. The software will include CA Clarity PPM On Demand, Federation Manager and CA Wily Application Performance Management to monitor and manage cloud-based composite applications. BMC will be putting a new cloud-based service desk offering on Force.com for self-service and inventory management in Q2.

Third World Meets the Mainframe

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 14:00:00 EST

IBM has sold its very first mainframes in Namibia to the First National Bank of Namibia, two z10s Business Class machines. The bank was under government instructions to get its systems out of neighboring South Africa. Big Blue says the mainframe’s next frontier is emerging markets. It sold its first System z in India in April to the Housing Development Finance Corporation Limited Bank and it’s been pushing the beasts into China, Russia and Korea.

Brocade Claims It’s Not For Sale

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 13:45:00 EST

Brocade CEO Michael Klayko said Monday that the company’s not being shopped, labeling a widely quoted story some weeks back in the Wall Street Journal claiming it was and that Oracle and HP were interested “just false.” Oracle immediately denied any interest and HP just bought 3Com. Klayko means to grow Brocade through partnerships. Brocade’s remarks were made when it posted its latest results. Sales in the October quarter were up 31% to $522 million but profits slipped a couple of million.

New ePortfolio, Skills and Competency Management Solutions

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 13:30:00 EST

Standards, tools and techniques for competency and skills based learning content personalisation are beginning to emerge – which is just as well because they can help organisations perform better in the increasingly competitive global labour marketplace and world economy.

EMC Re-orgs

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 13:15:00 EST

EMC has cut its 2009 guidance because it’s going to take a $100 million to restructure its international operations into a single existing international holding company that’s supposed to be cheaper to run. It’s not anticipating any layoffs but it cut projected Q4 earnings from 21 cents to 16 cents and took a nickel off the full-year’s earnings now expected to be 50 cents.

Mozilla Opens its Books

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 12:45:00 EST

Mozilla’s revenues – that’s the Mozilla Foundation and all subsidiaries – did $78.6 million last year, up 5%. As a gauge, its 2007 over 2006 was up 12%. Most of the money comes from Google of course though now it has its own browser, plus Yahoo, Amazon and eBay. Its deal with Google runs through 2011. Mozilla’s total assets at the end of last year were $116 million, up 17%. The IRS is still auditing Mozilla’s books from ’04-’07.

Corel To Go Private Again

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 12:45:00 EST

Corel, the Canadian company that acquired the once great WordPerfect and Quattro Pro from Novell intending to take on Microsoft, is going private again. Vector Capital, the private equity house that owns over 68% of the company is offering $4 a share cash, nearly a 28% premium, for the rest of it, having upped the offer from $3.50 to get management’s backing.

Windows 7 Selling

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 12:45:00 EST

Windows 7 has sold at an unprecedented rate in the few weeks it’s been out, double any previous version of the operating system according to what Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told the company’s annual stockholders meeting the other day. He was reportedly counting both boxed and OEM copies but did not offer any numbers. Windows 7 officially went on sale October 22.

Navigating the Telecom Supply Chain with Matt Hiles at Mosaic Networx

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 10:45:00 EST

I first met Matt Hiles while he was director of business development with Looking Glass Networks in Los Angeles. As a customer looking for telecom services, navigating the providers, technologies, and deal structures can be confusing. Matt took the time to explain all aspects of the business, cost structures, and how he would get us a great deal – while still making money for his company. Matt stood out alone from a world of “wheeling and dealing” telecom sales people, unique in providing the customer a level of confidence they were getting the best product, for the best price, with the best service.

OpenAir Powers Business Systems Consolidation

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:45:00 EST

OpenAir, Inc., a NetSuite Inc. company and a provider of cloud computing professional services automation (PSA) and services resource planning (SRP) software announced that BearingPoint, a provider of management and technology consulting, has gone live with OpenAir to streamline services delivery processes and consolidate multiple point solutions into one, unified business system. With OpenAir, BearingPoint is already realizing significant benefits through more accurate and timely visibility of staff utilization and its opportunity pipeline. BearingPoint joins a growing list of OpenAir customers recently added in the Asia-Pacific region, including AIPEX, ClearPoint, Assurity, and Fronde. These customer wins are a testament to OpenAir's global expansion initiative as well as its unparalleled customer support infrastructure. By selecting OpenAir for its professional services automation needs, BearingPoint has reduced its dependency on Microsoft Project and Excel, and replaced its legacy timesheet application.

Merge Healthcare and InSite Use New Archiving Technology

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:30:00 EST

“Our continued innovation in imaging software allows us to change the healthcare information distribution paradigm by the intuitive inclusion of images and radiology reports. We are thrilled to work with InSite One, a long-time partner, to bring this innovative solution to the market,” said Antonia Wells, President of Merge’s OEM division. The new zero-footprint technology provides clinicians and CIOs with a solution that overcomes the challenges associated with the distribution of images over a wide area network. Image distribution solutions typically involve expensive hardware, high IT support/deployment costs, platform compatibility issues and high bandwidth requirements. Using InDex Web, with integrated Cedara WebAccess technology from Merge, physicians are able to obtain patient information via a web browser at the point-of-care through their laptops, tablets and smart phones such as Apple iPhone and Blackberry Bold.

Tecan Integrates SAP R/3 and Salesforce.com

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:00:00 EST

With their CRM and ERP data systems integrated, Tecan AG's staff and management will benefit from a real-time view of their corporate and customer information. The iBOLT business integration suite integrates and orchestrates the data between diverse business processes and applications. Featuring a code-free approach, iBOLT enables simple and complex business processes to be designed and implemented easily, without working through pages of hard code.

Monitis’ Universal Cloud Monitoring Framework

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:45:00 EST

Until today, Monitis was providing monitoring only for Amazon’s EC2 and S3 services. With the release of its Universal Cloud Monitoring Framework, Monitis can now sync to other Cloud computing providers very quickly - from Rackspace, GoGrid, Softlayer, and more. Monitis’ Universal Cloud Monitoring Framework will automate monitoring in highly dynamic cloud environments, where customers’ servers maybe added and terminated according to the load by management software or manually. Given this dynamism, setting up end-user experience monitoring can become a tedious, resource intensive and error-prone process. Monitis’ Universal Cloud Monitoring Framework automates the configuration of external monitoring and server monitoring tools every time a new installation is called for - saving IT managers and system administrators around the world enormous time and hassle.

Sun Releases New Update for Solaris 10 Operating System

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:00:00 EST

Solaris 10 10/09 provides new features, fixes and hardware support in an easy-to-install manner, preserving full compatibility with over 11,000 third-party products and customer applications, including Oracle database and application software. With over two decades of Sun/Oracle collaboration, there are more Oracle database deployments on the SPARC/Solaris combination than any other OS and Sun is leading the way to bring high-performance solutions for the entire range of Oracle products. Solaris 10 10/09 also leverages the innovation and contributions of the OpenSolaris(TM) community, including investments by third-party companies such as Intel and AMD, to add more capabilities to Solaris 10's award-winning portfolio of enterprise features. This release also builds on Solaris' proven track record as a highly secure deployment platform, including enterprise-grade security features such as Solaris Trusted Extensions, and support for the built-in cryptographic acceleration features of Sun's UltraSPARC(R) CMT processors.

New All-in-One MGV FlashStreamer

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:45:00 EST

Optibase announced a new release of its MGW FlashStreamer encoding and streaming platform, introducing the innovative feature of capturing VGA and composite analog feeds and streaming them live as a single split-screen video. The “all-in-one” compact MGW FlashStreamer offers real-time video encoding and streaming over organizational networks and the Internet as well as on-demand streaming of stored content. It is fully compatible with the latest versions of Adobe Flash Player, the Internet’s leading browser-based media player. Video encoded by MGW FlashStreamer can be utilized for a wide range of applications such as live or on-demand broadcast lectures, conferences and meetings, training programs, courses, sports, live events and Internet TV.

PrismTech and Nextel to Provide Real-Time Data and Messaging Solutions

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 10:19:00 EST

PrismTech is joining forces with Nextel Engineering Systems to deliver much-needed, highly-reliable and Real-Time data management solutions. As part of its software and services offerings, Nextel Engineering will now deliver and support PrismTech’s best-in-class suite of middleware products.

Windows Vista Service Pack Installation Fails with Error 0XC0190036

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:45:00 EST

Microsoft releases various Service Packs for its already existing Windows operating system versions. These include several patches and refinements over earlier version that help improving its performance and stability.

DeVry University to Examine the Demand for Information Security

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:15:00 EST

As more business is conducted online and additional files are stored on remote servers rather than in local filing cabinets, keeping private information secure has become increasingly more complex and complicated. The migration of data online and career opportunities, for those with a background in information security, continues to grow despite the slowing economy. DeVry University explores this topic in an online roundtable with three noted information security experts. They will discuss the current trends in information security, specifically: its role in the marketplace, career outlook, impact of new threats on the latest innovations, and government regulation, among many others.

Lightweight SOA for Rapid SaaS Deployment

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:45:00 EST

As part of its continual push to embrace state-of-the-art technology, EON Reality, the world's leading interactive 3D software provider, is proud to join the ranks of top software architects of the industry at Microsoft's The Architecture Journal (October 2009) with their presentation on "Lightweight SOA for Rapid SaaS Development." In this presentation, EON Reality's Technical Director, Gabriyel Wong from Singapore explains the benefits of delivering 3D software as a service, challenges that his team faced when developing the EON Human community site and their approach to deliver a scalable solution by using a service-oriented architecture within a short turnaround time.

Top500 news: The Rise of the GPU

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:45:00 EST

This week, the latest list of the world’s top 500 supercomputers was announced. What I find interesting about it is that at number 5 is a new Chinese design that marries Intel Xeon CPU chips with AMD/ATI graphics chips. There are thousands of clusters that contain a pair of CPUs and GPUs connected via Infiniband switches. And perhaps the most interesting thing of all is that they built this hybrid design by underclocking the GPUs: the frequency of GPU core was decreased from 750MHz to 575MHz and the frequency of GPU’s memory was also decreased from 900MHz to 650MHz. Showing the power of gaming processors even further, six systems use IBMs advanced Sony PlayStation 3 Cell processor with 9 cores in their CPUs.

Qwisk Socializes Web Browsing

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:00:00 EST

The ability to effortlessly share cool things you discover on the Web in real time, with friends, family and business colleagues without ever leaving your browser, just became a reality with today's introduction of Qwisk by WebWean, Inc. at the Realtime CrunchUp conference here in San Francisco. Compatible with all web browsers, Qwisk enables web discovery and social engagement to coexist within everyone's browser with no special downloads - creating a natural, free-flowing space for web exploration and sharing by eliminating the need to jump between applications for even simple communication.

'Cannot Find the Path Specified' Error Accessing Clustered Volume

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:45:00 EST

Windows clustering gives a unique way to employ fail over support for demanding applications and services. With clustering, applications and data can be made available on different servers, which are linked together as clusters.

How to Tackle the Disastrous Effects of Hard Drive Damage?

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:45:00 EST

A hard disk is a primary memory storage device that stores all the data of the system. It stores a large amount of data on an electromagnetically charged surface. Earlier, hard disks were used as a data storage device for general purpose computers.

RightScale To Support Azure

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:45:00 EST

RightScale, the cloud manager, plans to support Windows Azure and let customers deploy RightScale-managed applications and take advantage of Azure’s particular properties. It said it would support Azure infrastructure-level services through its new Service Management API like it does Amazon and Rackspace and give Azure users access to other cloud platforms. It didn’t say when.

Intel Invests in Joyent’s Cloud

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:45:00 EST

Joyent, whose customers include ABC Disney, CNN, The Gap, Facebook, LinkedIn and Yahoo, developed its own custom OS and data center virtualization technology, which creates a multi-tenant cloud. It’s supposed to deliver more than 70% utilization, which is eight times more than industry averages according to Gartner.

Salesforce To Let Companies Chatter Away

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:45:00 EST

Salesforce.com is going the way of Facebook and Twitter with a reportedly secure private social networking application called Chatter that companies are supposed to use internally so their people can “collaborate” in real-time, but potentially the techzoid equivalent of the old-fashioned water cooler. In a statement trying to explain Chatter’s aetiology, CEO Marc Benioff said, “Why do I know more about strangers on Facebook than my own employees? Now, through Salesforce Chatter, my business is tweeting me.”

Get Time Tracker Source Code in SproutCore

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:45:00 EST

Bruz Marzolf is writing a series of blog posts implementing a simple time tracking app in various client-side rich web app frameworks. He just finished his example in SproutCore and including some source code.

Intel & AMD Called in a Mediator

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:15:00 EST

AMD wanted to be paid for its antitrust claims. Intel wanted to be paid to let AMD’s joint venture make x86 chips. Months of negotiation had been futile. Intel’s former CFO, now chief administrative officer Andy Bryant, who was recruited in September to fill in for general counsel Bruce Sewell – who disappeared in the middle of things first to go on sabbatical then to become Apple’s general counsel – reportedly persuaded the negotiators to bring in a mediator.

Infobright & Talend Combine on Free Virtual Data Warehouse

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:15:00 EST

They say nobody else can hand you everything you need in minutes. There’s nothing comparable. Still they’re expecting only the usual single-digit percentage upgrades to their paid software. Infobright’s self-managing software is supposed to reduce administrative effort by up to 90%, leverages standard servers, and reportedly needs less storage than rival products because of data compression and the elimination of indexes, data partitioning or data duplication.

Egenera Changes CEOs Again

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:00:00 EST

Egenera, the very first company to build a blade system meant to handle peaks and valleys, has reportedly had another purge. It’s now on its fourth CEO with CTO and EVP of engineering Pete Manca replacing Mike Thompson and product marketer Ken Oestreich in as its latest marketing VP. A Twitter tweet claims the company is shy a bunch of other folks. It did not return a call. Egenera has been trying to morph from a hardware company into an ISV based on PAN, its infrastructure management and orchestration software, which Dell OEMs for its blade-based Datacenter-in-a-Box and its Pan System.

Nexsan Expands Highly Efficient Storage with 84TB SATABeast

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:27:00 EST

The Nexsan SATABeast is an enterprise-class RAID system designed to deliver exceptional performance, reliability and simplified operation in a very dense storage footprint. With a customer reported system reliability rating of more than 99.9%, the high density SATABeast is the premier option for both primary and secondary storage applications, including content archiving, disaster recovery and disk-based backup. The system's chassis design reduces hard drive stress with unique anti-accumulative rotational vibration and horizontal midplane cooling technology supporting one of the lowest storage system maintenance rates in the industry. As with all of the company's storage systems, the Nexsan SATABeast features AutoMAID (Automatic Massive Array of Idle Disks) technology for policy-based power management that cuts energy demands up to 70% without impacting storage performance.

Dell: "It’s the Net Cost, Stupid"

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:15:00 EST

Dell, which hasn’t been involved in the litigation except as a witness and source of discovery, has featured large in AMD’s suit against Intel over rebates, the European Commission’s action against Intel and now in the new antitrust suit lodged by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. When asked about the “elephant in the room” during its earnings conference call Thursday, CFO Brian Gladden remarked that “The issues that have been raised in these proceedings miss an important point – that the net cost is what matters.”

Intel Ups Dividend

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:00:00 EST

Fresh from agreeing to pay AMD $1.25 billion in hush money, Intel upped its dividend 12.5% to 63 cents a share annualized, beginning with the first quarter next year. The company said it was a sign of its “confidence in business prospects going forward.”

Things Get Better; Dell Tanks Anyway

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:00:00 EST

Dell’s fiscal Q3 profits plunged 54% to $337 million, or 17 cents a share, on revenues of $12.9 billion down 15%, but the company says demand is improving and, if looked at sequentially, revenues were up 1%. Wall Street expected it to show up with at least $13.2 in revenues. HP, by contrast, pre-announced its quarter last week flaunting profits that exceeded all expectations and raising its 2010 forecast.

Egypt Applies for First Non-Roman Web Domain

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:00:00 EST

Now that ICANN has relaxed its rules on domain names in non-Roman characters, Egypt Monday became the first country to request a web address in Arabic script. .Egypt will be .masr but in Arabic script. The move is meant to open the Internet to all the folks largely in emerging markets who speak languages written in a non-Roman script such as Chinese and Korean.

AIR 2, Flash Player 10.1 in Beta

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:45:00 EST

Adobe’s AIR 2 and Flash Player 10.1 for Windows, Mac and Linux have been sent out to beta. Flash Player 10.1, advertised as the first “consistent browser runtime release of the Open Screen Project that will enable uncompromised web browsing of expressive applications, content and high-definition videos across the desktop and devices,” supports x86-based notebooks and should turn up on smartphones and other Internet-connected widgetry next year. It should eat less battery power and deliver better video playback. AIR 2 has enhanced support for mass storage devices and native application processes.