Data Center Management Articles
IBM announced the public beta of Smart Business Development and Test on the IBM Cloud, also known as 'Developer Cloud.' The solution includes Software Delivery Services from Rational Software and is designed to accelerate organizations' development and test cycles.
Posted November 02, 2009
IBM announced an expansion of its enterprise mashup portfolio that incorporates the latest version of IBM Mashup Center and a new offering called IBM Cognos 8 Mashup Service.
Posted November 02, 2009
Progress Software Corporation, a provider of enterprise infrastructure software, recently announced the latest release for managing the complexity of interconnected distributed applications, and enabling users to detect and resolve problems between applications and their interactions, thereby ensuring100% transaction success.
Posted November 02, 2009
Just days after Rocket Software completed the purchase of the UniData and UniVerse Servers and Tools assets from IBM, Susie Siegesmund, now vice president and general manager for the U2 brand under Rocket, took time to talk about why the timing was right for this move and what customers and partners can expect under the new ownership. Here, some excerpts from that interview. Read the full interview in the December issue of Database Trends and Applications.
Posted October 28, 2009
EnterpriseDB, the commercial software company supporting the PostgreSQL open source database, said on Tuesday that Red Hat has made a financial investment in EnterpriseDB. With this new partnership, EnterpriseDB and Red Hat said they will continue to promote open source infrastructure solutions that emphasize the advantages of using Red Hat Enterprise Linux, JBoss and Postgres Plus to deliver lower total-cost-of-ownership.
Posted October 27, 2009
At least in the view of Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, a nonprofit consortium dedicated to fostering the growth of Linux, it's really not an issue. "In the end, if we are patient, they always will [contribute]. Nobody wants to maintain their own separate version of the Linux kernel," Zemlin says.
Posted October 27, 2009
SpringSource, a division of VMware, Inc. and a provider of Java application infrastructure and management software, has introduced SpringSource tc Server Developer Edition, an Apache Tomcat-compatible platform that gives developers deep visibility and relevant information for debugging and improving the performance of their Spring applications.
Posted October 27, 2009
CA, Inc. has announced new products designed to help strengthen IT security, lower costs of managing compliance, and improve enterprise-wide IT risk management.
Posted October 26, 2009
IBM is introducing new software for managing data centers, which, according to the company, has the potential to cut the cost of operations while speeding the deployment of new applications from weeks to minutes. IBM's VMControl is intended to help companies that have turned to virtualization to reduce infrastructure costs, but have actually wound up with new challenges as they try to manage enterprises made up of disparate platforms, each with their own virtualization technology.
Posted October 26, 2009
IBM announced updated software designed to help companies manage the costs brought on by the proliferation of IT assets such as mobile devices, laptops, printers, switches, sensors and billions of interconnected devices. IBM's IT Asset Management software enables business users to track and manage IT assets to help companies discover and eliminate overlapping and unnecessary IT costs. It also helps mitigate legal and financial risks by supporting regulatory and compliance requirements such as Sarbanes-Oxley. The software also helps control the complexity of software licensing, and increased pace of compliance audits, IBM says.
Posted October 26, 2009
Appian, a provider of business process management technology, and MEGA, a provider of business process analysis (BPA) and enterprise architecture solutions, have teamed up to introduce Appian Process Architect by MEGA. The new solution enables organizations to use the methodology of the MEGA Suite for process analysis and pass the results directly into the Appian Business Process Management Suite and the software-as-a-service-delivered Appian Anywhere platforms for execution and direct management of daily operations. The new integration provides organizations with an end to end business process management and improvement solution.
Posted October 26, 2009
At Oracle OpenWorld, HP announced new HP BladeSystem Matrix provisioning templates, as well as reference configurations for Oracle solutions on HP infrastructure, and a broadened storage portfolio for Oracle environments.
Posted October 21, 2009
The Linux Foundation's second annual End User Summit will take place November 9-10, 2009 at the Hyatt Jersey City on the Hudson, providing end users and kernel developers a direct connection to one another for advancing the features most critical to using Linux in the enterprise. Located just off the Exchange Place PATH Station, corporate Linux users from financial services, healthcare, energy, and government will have quick access to the event from east coast hubs. By bringing together sophisticated end users and senior Linux developers, the Linux Foundation hopes to accelerate innovation and adoption of Linux in the most cutting-edge environments.
Posted October 21, 2009
Addressing the needs of organizations of all sizes to lower costs and help their workers operate more efficiently, IBM announced that IBM Client for Smart Work is available in the U.S. IBM Client for Smart Work, in partnership with Canonical and Red Hat, and through a variety of Business Partners, offers a complete and security-rich Microsoft desktop-alternative that can lower the total cost of ownership by up to 50%.
Posted October 21, 2009
In June of this year, IBM unveiled its cross-company strategy to capture the enterprise cloud computing market, helping clients attack rising costs and complexity by workload. Since then many products and services from the portfolio have entered the market, including Smart Business Development and Test on the IBM Cloud, which began its public beta on October 1, 2009. Smart Business Development and Test on the IBM Cloud includes Software Delivery Services from Rational Software and is designed to accelerate organizations' development and test cycles.
Posted October 21, 2009
Banco Pastor, the seventh largest Spanish banking group with 650 branch offices in Spain and a presence in the U.S., Europe and Latin America, has migrated its critical human resources and corporate emailing systems running SAP NetWeaver and SAP ERP and IBM Lotus Notes for Collaboration software to Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Posted October 21, 2009
Addressing the needs of organizations of all sizes to lower costs and help their workers operate more efficiently, IBM announced that IBM Client for Smart Work is available in the U.S. IBM Client for Smart Work, in partnership with Canonical and Red Hat, and through a variety of Business Partners, offers a complete and security-rich Microsoft desktop-alternative that can lower the total cost of ownership by up to 50%.
Posted October 21, 2009
In June of this year, IBM unveiled its cross-company strategy to capture the enterprise cloud computing market, helping clients attack rising costs and complexity by workload. Since then many products and services from the portfolio have entered the market, including Smart Business Development and Test on the IBM Cloud, which began its public beta on October 1, 2009. Smart Business Development and Test on the IBM Cloud includes Software Delivery Services from Rational Software and is designed to accelerate organizations' development and test cycles.
Posted October 21, 2009
Banco Pastor, the seventh largest Spanish banking group with 650 branch offices in Spain and a presence in the U.S., Europe and Latin America, has migrated its critical human resources and corporate emailing systems running SAP NetWeaver and SAP ERP and IBM Lotus Notes for Collaboration software to Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Posted October 21, 2009
The Linux Foundation is a nonprofit consortium dedicated to fostering the growth of Linux. In this issue, Jim Zemlin, executive director, talks with the IBM LinuxLine about the mission of the Linux Foundation, common misconceptions, and the unique value proposition the open source operating system provides in the enterprise.
Posted October 21, 2009
The Linux Foundation is a nonprofit consortium dedicated to fostering the growth of Linux. In this issue, Jim Zemlin, executive director, talks with the Linux Executive Report from IBM about the mission of the Linux Foundation, common misconceptions, and the unique value proposition the open source operating system provides in the enterprise.
Posted October 21, 2009
Progress Software Corporation, a provider of enterprise infrastructure software, recently announced the release of the Progress Actional 8.1 Business Transaction Management platform. The Actional platform can be used to manage the complexity of interconnected distributed applications, and allows users to detect and resolve problems between applications and their interactions, thereby ensuring 100% transaction success.
Posted October 20, 2009
IBM announced that it set a new technology benchmark for the financial services industry, delivering the company's fastest recorded throughput performance and lowest network latency on Reuters Market Data System.
Posted October 19, 2009
BMC Software announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held Tideway Systems Limited, a provider of IT discovery solutions. The acquisition is intended to enhance BMC's Business Service Management (BSM) platform and help organizations minimize the risks associated with business-critical initiatives such as data center consolidation, virtualization and compliance. BMC expects the transaction to close within the week.
Posted October 19, 2009
AES has announced a new version of CleverView for TCP/IP, a z/OS-based TCP/IP performance monitor, with enhancements for accelerated virtualization deployment.
Posted October 19, 2009
iTKO has formed a strategic partnership with Harris Corporation, a Fortune 200 IT provider, to provide automated enterprise testing, validation and virtualization solutions for Harris' Defense and Federal Program businesses. The agreement is intended to enable Harris to deliver higher quality and more collaborative command-and-control systems, net-centric operation centers, and enterprise services to its government customer base.
Posted October 19, 2009
IBM had mixed news for the most recent earnings quarter—some segments were down, and others keep growing. Overall, the company grew slightly from last quarter, but was down from a year ago. Total revenues for the third quarter of 2009 were $23.6 billion, up a percent from the second quarter of 2009, and down 7% from the third quarter of 2008.
Posted October 19, 2009
Attachmate Corporation announced that Attachmate INFOConnect as well as the Attachmate Reflection 2008 and Attachmate EXTRA! solutions have received the "Compatible with Microsoft Windows 7" logo. This certification enables Attachmate to offer its customers a seamless, easy-to-manage IT environment, robust desktop security features and enhanced end-user productivity.
Posted October 14, 2009
Unisys Corporation has introduced Unisys End-User Productivity Services, a suite of services designed to provide organizations with the ability to support an increasingly mobile workforce that values integration of consumer technologies into the workplace. The new Unisys services will enable CIOs to reduce end-user costs by providing support for devices, desktops, applications and mobility through a flexible mixture of traditional, virtualized and secure cloud-based service delivery models.
Posted October 14, 2009
The idea of "virtual" reality—immersive computer simulations almost indistinguishable from reality—has been a mainstay of modern "cyberpunk" science fiction since the early 1980s, popularized in movies such as The Thirteenth Floor and The Matrix. Typically, a virtual reality environment produces computer simulated sensory inputs which include at least sight and sound, and, perhaps, touch, taste and smell. These inputs are presented to the user through goggles, earphones and gloves or—in the true cyberpunk sci-fi—via direct brain interfaces.
Posted October 13, 2009
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) can be considered the most significant compliance standard of our time. Since the passing of the legislation 7 years ago, companies have had to rethink the way they use technology to store company data. This transformation has been anything but an easy ride for companies today, and has significantly impacted the role of the CIO within an organization.
Posted October 13, 2009
High-profile data breaches at major corporations and the usual assortment of state government agencies and educational institutions have highlighted the value of encrypting data. Yet, breach numbers continue to spike and big losses are becoming more common; according to Verizon's 2009 Data Breach Investigations Report, which looks only at breaches that resulted in stolen data being used in a crime, the total number of records breached in Verizon's 2008 caseload—more than 285 million—exceeded the combined total from 2004 to 2007. Apparently the market is now so saturated with stolen data that the price of each record has dropped from a high of $16 in 2007 to less than 50 cents today. But the intensifying number of successful attacks isn't the most distressing part of data breach reports: the Identity Theft Resource Center reports that only 2.4% of the companies involved in all reported breaches utilized encryption.
Posted October 13, 2009
The rising popularity of web 2.0 and cloud computing services has prompted a reexamination of the infrastructure that supports them. More and more people are using web-based communities, hosted services, and applications such as social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis and blogs. And the number of businesses adopting cloud computing applications such as software as a service and hosted services is climbing swiftly.With all this growth, internet data centers are struggling to handle unprecedented workloads, spiraling power costs, and the limitations of the legacy architectures that support these services. The industry has responded by moving towards a "data center 2.0" model where new approaches to data management, scaling, and power consumption enable data center infrastructures to support this growth.
Posted October 13, 2009
In art, the expression "less is more" implies that simplicity of line and composition allow a viewer to better appreciate the individual elements of a piece and their relationship to each other to make a whole. In engineering, "less is more" when you accomplish the same work with fewer moving parts. And when dining out, "less is more" when the portions may be smaller, but the food is so much better and satisfying. In IT, the adage is more accurately stated today as "less does more." As IT increases in complexity, mainframe organizations are being asked to handle greater workloads, bigger databases, more applications, more system resources, and new initiatives. All this, without adding—and sometimes while cutting—staff. In addition, IT is undergoing a serious "mainframe brain drain," as the most experienced technicians retire, taking with them their skills and detailed knowledge of the mainframes' idiosyncrasies.
Posted October 13, 2009
Progress DataDirect, the data-infrastructure division of Progress Software Corporation, has entered into a strategic partnership with Mainline Information Systems, Inc., a provider of IBM servers, storage and software solutions, to offer mainframe data integration solutions.
Posted October 12, 2009
Compuware Corporation has announced the release of Hiperstation 7.8, which the vendor considers to be the centerpiece of its Application Auditing solution. This latest version expands Hiperstation's capabilities with the integration of Vantage, Compuware's application performance management solution, and the addition of WebSphere MQ and TCP/IP protocols. The new functionality enables organizations to more effectively protect against internal data breaches-across platforms-averting monetary losses and meeting regulations such as PCI DSS and HIPAA.
Posted October 12, 2009
Bus-Tech, Inc., a provider of modular, scalable Virtual Tape Library (VTL) controllers for IBM and compatible mainframes, announced it has partnered with Hitachi Data Systems to provide support for IBM's Transaction Processing Facility (TPF). When coupled with Bus-Tech's Mainframe Data Library (MDL), the Hitachi Adaptable Modular Storage 2000 family and Hitachi High-Performance Network Attached Storage (NAS) Platform, powered by BlueArc, will provide high-capacity storage systems for the virtual tape volumes.
Posted October 12, 2009
OpTier, a provider of business transaction management tools, launched OpTier Experience Manager, a product that measures the volume, performance, service levels and availability of all business transactions, alerts IT in real time to developing issues and provides ongoing reporting and analysis of the user experience. With a real-time view of the IT environment, organizations can ensure that the level of service delivered to the business is meeting expectations.
Posted October 12, 2009
SHARE recently announced its 2009-2010 Board of Directors, following elections which took place during its summer conference in Denver, Colo.
Posted October 12, 2009
Extending the Oracle Enterprise Sign-On Suite, Oracle announced Enterprise Single Sign-On (ESSO) Anywhere, a comprehensive offering that lets enterprises host single tenant ESSO in a private cloud to provide users with secure access to heterogeneous enterprise resources from anywhere, anytime.
Posted October 08, 2009
Zmanda, a provider of open source backup and recovery software, has introduced the second generation of its Zmanda Cloud Backup (ZCB) product, which provides new features such as cloud backup of MySQL and SharePoint; geography control; selective restore; and security and performance enhancements.
Posted October 08, 2009
Craig Mullins, a longtime contributor to Database Trends and Applications magazine and highly regarded authority in data management issues, says IBM's mainframe specialty processors—the zIIP and zAAP engines—are great solutions for shifting workloads to lower-cost platforms. Specialty processor workloads are not subject to mainframe-based IBM or ISV licensing charges. But the question that has been on everyone's mind is: "Why doesn't IBM just decrease the price of the hardware instead of introducing new processors that only run certain workloads?"
Posted October 05, 2009
Alchemy Solutions, a provider of legacy modernization solutions, today announced the general availability of NeoServices, a Windows-based system for service-enabling mainframe business logic and integrating with modern application and web environments.
Posted October 05, 2009
Attachmate Corporation announced that Attachmate Reflection 2008 along with Attachmate EXTRA! and INFOConnect solutions have received the Compatible with Microsoft Windows 7 logo. This certification enables Attachmate to offer its customers a seamless, easy-to-manage IT environment, robust desktop security features and enhanced end-user productivity.
Posted October 05, 2009
Micro Focus, a provider of enterprise application modernization, testing and management solutions, announced the signing of the 75th academic institution in the U.S. to its Academic ConnecTION (ACTION) program. Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., became the latest American university to join the ACTION program, which is designed to ensure that future generations of IT workers are equipped with the vital COBOL-programming and core IT skills required by major corporations, both in the U.S. and across the globe.
Posted October 05, 2009
IBM announced the launch of its New York-based IBM Business Analytics Solution Center, part of a network of global analytics centers addressing the growing demand for the complex capabilities needed to build smarter cities and help clients optimize all manner of business processes and business decisions.
Posted October 05, 2009
Clerity, a provider of mainframe modernization solutions, announced a complimentary, on-demand webinar entitled "Adabas Natural Migration: Map the Right Path Forward for Your Valuable Mainframe Assets." Available now, this webinar discusses how organizations can evaluate and execute comprehensive, low-risk migration and modernization solutions to enhance IT flexibility and lower maintenance costs by as much as 70% in a 12- to 18-month period.
Posted October 05, 2009
Progress Data Direct, a division of Progress Software Corporation, announced the latest release of its Progress DataDirect Shadow mainframe integration platform, which includes an enhanced engine for relational to non-relational data processing on IBM's System z Integrated Information Processor (zIIP). The new release addresses the issue of cost-effective access to mainframe data that continues to be a key requirement for organizations and technology providers that rely on, or integrate with, legacy data stores.
Posted September 29, 2009
Sonasoft Corp. recently announced the availability of its email archiving solution for Microsoft Exchange server. The new offering is an affordable and easy to use solution specifically designed for addressing the pain points of SMB customers.
Posted September 29, 2009
Xerox Corporation announced today that it intends to acquire Affiliated Computer Services, Inc., a business process outsourcing provider, in a cash and stock transaction valued at $6.4 billion. With this acquisition, Xerox says it will position itself for a leading role in document and business process management.
Posted September 28, 2009