Data Center Management Articles
The Oracle Linux team has announced the availability of Oracle Linux 6.4, the fourth update release for Oracle Linux 6. The individual RPM packages have already been published from the public yum repository and ISO images will be available from the Oracle Software Delivery Cloud. The new release includes new features and improvements, including, most importantly, a new version of the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel.
Posted March 06, 2013
Heirloom Computing Inc. announced a scheduler designed to run batch jobs on ELPaaS, Heirloom's Platform-as-a-Service for moving mission-critical enterprise applications to the cloud. The Heirloom Job Scheduler works with Heirloom's Job Entry Subsystem (JES) to enable IT managers to manage legacy applications in the cloud.
Posted March 04, 2013
CA Technologies has added new features to its CA ARCserve data protection solution in order to simplify backup and disaster recovery for physical and virtual server environments
Posted March 04, 2013
Rackspace Hosting has acquired ObjectRocket, a MongoDB database as a service (DBaaS) provider. Through the acquisition, Rackspace says it will broaden its OpenStack-based open cloud platform to provide a NoSQL DBaaS, and establish a strong presence within the high-growth NoSQL database market.
Posted March 04, 2013
Oracle has posted the certification of the Oracle Database 11g Release 2 on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.2 on the IBM System z platform, Red Hat announced. The certification of Oracle 11gR2 on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.2 for IBM System z allows Red Hat, Oracle, and IBM to extend the ecosystems they are able to support and provide to their customers, offering them a full range of options for their enterprise software needs.
Posted March 04, 2013
Cisco introduced a wave of data product announcements covering a wide spectrum of needs within data center and cloud environments. New products include Cisco Nexus 6000 Series Switches, a high-density 40 Gigabit Layer2/Layer 3 fixed switch, and Cisco Nexus 1000V InterCloud for connecting private enterprise and service provider clouds. The vendor also says it is shipping a network- programmable controller as part of the expanded Cisco Open Network Environment (ONE) portfolio.
Posted March 04, 2013
Micro Focus International recently announced it would be acquiring intellectual property and other assets and the assumption of liabilities associated with Progress Software's Orbix, Orbacus and Artix software product lines. How does this fit into Micro Focus' philosophy of moving mainframe environments to commodity platforms? "This is not so much a new direction as a continuation of current Micro Focus corporate direction," Neil Fowler, director of development of COBOL and mainframe solutions at Micro Focus, tells 5 Minute Briefing.
Posted March 04, 2013
In a new blog, Kelly Beavers, vice president and business line executive, IBM Systems Software, writes about IBM SmartCloud Entry, which now supports the open source KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) hypervisor. The result, she explains, is that with just one product, customers can support virtual machines that are running on KVM, VMware, and/or PowerVM: Cloud computing is one of those technologies for which people have differing definitions, but SmartCloud Entry does the most basic things that just about everyone expects from a cloud solution: web-based provisioning for a cloud, and a pay-as-you go model. SmartCloud Entry supports those two critical capabilities with a couple of key attributes that decrease risk to organizations. First, it makes it really simple for a company that is new to the cloud to get started with a private cloud safely and behind their own firewall, and second, it does so with pricing that is completely affordable for the mid-market.
Posted February 28, 2013
The continued expansion of structured and unstructured data storage seems to be never-ending. At the same time, database administrators' need to reduce their storage consumption is accelerating as its cost becomes more visible. Today, however, there are data optimization technologies available that can help with the continued data growth.
Posted February 27, 2013
DataCore Software, a provider of storage virtualization software, has made enhancements to its SANsymphony-V Storage Hypervisor. The new capabilities are intended to support customers who are facing high data growth, as well as the need to enable faster response times and provide continuous availability for business-critical applications.
Posted February 27, 2013
HP announced two new software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions intended to speed application delivery and improve visibility, collaboration and agility across often siloed or geographically dispersed application development and operations teams. HP Agile Manager accelerates application time to market with an intuitive, web-based experience that offers visibility for planning, executing and tracking Agile development projects; and HP Performance Anywhere helps resolve application performance issues before they impact business services by providing visibility and predictive analytics.
Posted February 27, 2013
Oracle has added a new utility to its storage software portfolio that is designed to streamline and automate critical tasks for customers using Oracle Database with Oracle's Sun ZFS Storage Appliance.
Posted February 20, 2013
IBM has introduced entry-level and midrange Power Systems based on its recently introduced POWER7+ processors. The new systems are optimized for IBM's analytics software including Cognos and SPSS, and use underlying technologies from the Watson system including POWER processors and big data analytics.
Posted February 19, 2013
INNOVATION Data Processing is teaming with storage infrastructure vendor EMC to support customers installing or migrating to the EMC Disk Library for mainframe (Dlm) virtual tape libraries. As part of this arrangement, EMC will offer INNOVATION's FATSCOPY Tape Migration Utility.
Posted February 19, 2013
STORServer, a provider of data backup solutions, has released a downloadable virtual machine designed to use VMware Consolidated Backup. The new solution, Virtual Appliance (VA), provides organizations the ability to use existing infrastructure with STORServer's software and solutions, without the hardware typically required. Instead, VA is a downloadable VMDK file that provides the same backup capabilities.
Posted February 19, 2013
IBM says it has completed the acquisition of StoredIQ, a privately held company based in Austin, Texas. The acquisition is intended to help expand IBM's offerings to give organizations tools for more effective governance of the vast majority of information, including its timely disposal to eliminate unnecessary data that consumes infrastructure and elevates risk.
Posted February 19, 2013
Tributary Systems, a data protection solutions provider, has signed an agreement with Sirius Computer Solutions, an IT infrastructure vendor, to sell its solutions across a range of IBM platforms. Sirius will distribute Tributary's Storage Director data protection solution for IBM System z mainframes and IBM Power Systems running IBM i, AIX and Linux.
Posted February 19, 2013
CA Technologies has begun shipping a new version of its identity and access management (IAM) service solution that extends its reach across multiple vendor cloud platforms. CA CloudMinder now provides support for social identities and additional on-premise and cloud applications such as Microsoft Office 365.
Posted February 19, 2013
Open-E, a data storage provider, announced that its Open-E Data Storage Software Version 7 (DSS V7) has achieved "VMware Ready" status. This means that after a detailed validation process, DSS V7 has achieved VMware's "highest level of endorsement," the vendor says, and is available through the VMware Solution Exchange.
Posted February 19, 2013
Expanding its cloud portfolio, Oracle has unveiled Oracle Infrastructure as a Service (Oracle IaaS) with "Capacity on Demand." "For the first time, you can get Oracle engineered systems deployed on premise behind your firewall for a monthly fee," said Oracle president Mark Hurd, during a live webcast that presented details of the offering. Announced by Oracle CEO Larry Ellison at Oracle OpenWorld in 2012, Oracle IaaS enables organizations to deploy fully integrated engineered systems, including Oracle Exadata Database Machine, Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud, Oracle SPARC SuperCluster, Oracle Exalytics In-Memory Machine and Oracle Sun ZFS Storage Appliance in their data centers.
Posted February 13, 2013
FAIR Health has chosen the Oracle Exadata Database Machine with a cluster of Oracle's Sun ZFS Storage 7420 appliances for backup to support its database of more than 15 billion claims. An additional Sun ZFS Storage Appliance supports remote disaster recovery and development. FAIR Health, which is an independent not-for-profit corporation committed to bringing transparency to healthcare costs and out-of-network reimbursement, sought a solution to streamline performance and eliminate the storage bottlenecks in its existing environment. With Oracle Exadata, the organization achieved substantial performance improvements, including a 5x reduction in claims processing time and a 10x faster average performance improvement in applying complex statistical methodologies.
Posted February 13, 2013
Attunity Ltd. and KOM Networks have formed a technology alliance to provide managed file transfer capabilities and archive storage for organizations with rigorous compliance and regulatory requirements through the integration of the Attunity Managed File Transfer (MFT) and KOM Network's KOMpliance. The alliance answers an emerging market need, Matt Benati, vice president of global marketing, Attunity, tells 5 Minute Briefing.
Posted February 12, 2013
Zetta.net.net, a provider of backup, disaster recovery and archiving technology, has released Zetta.net DataProtect for NetApp, a new solution for cloud-based offsite backup, replication and disaster recovery for environments that use NetApp filers. According to the company, DataProtect for NetApp does not require any additional hardware, tapes or third-party software, and can deploy an offsite backup solution in less than 30 minutes.
Posted February 12, 2013
Oracle VM Release 3.2, a key component in Oracle's desktop to data center virtualization portfolio, is now available. There are two main themes to the new release, Adam Hawley, senior director of desktop and server virtualization product management at Oracle, tells 5 Minute Briefing. One main area of emphasis is to provide a richer, more diverse set of deployment options for customers. The second major collection of enhancements is around allowing users to more easily and efficiently manage larger environments.
Posted February 06, 2013
Dell Inc. announced it has signed a definitive merger agreement under which it will be acquired by Michael Dell, Dell's founder, chairman and CEO, in partnership with global technology investment firm Silver Lake. The transaction will be financed through a combination of cash and equity contributed by Michael Dell, cash funded by investment funds affiliated with Silver Lake, cash invested by MSD Capital, L.P., a $2 billion loan from Microsoft, as well as financing from other sources. The transaction is expected to close before the end of the second quarter of Dell's FY2014.
Posted February 05, 2013
Attachmate announced MobileNow, the company's new mobile strategy that is intended to optimize the company's line of enterprise software products so that mainframe and legacy applications can be extended to mobile devices. Attachmate MobileNow delivers corporate data while providing tools for encrypting data, controlling access and monitoring for fraudulent use. The MobileNow approach does not require critical mainframe and legacy applications to be re-factored for mobile, resulting in quicker time-to-market and lower costs, according to Tom Bice, vice president of marketing and product management at Attachmate.
Posted February 04, 2013
IBM reports a surge in mainframe sales in the most recent quarter, surpassing all previous quarters. This announcement was part of the company's release of quarterly and annual results. Overall, total quarterly revenue was down 1% from last year, and down 2% for the year.
Posted February 04, 2013
William Data Systems (WDS) will showcase the latest release of ZEN TRACE & SOLVE (ZTS) for z/OS mainframe networks at SHARE in San Francisco this week. ZTS, formerly known as EXIGENCE, provides new features to help z/OS sites deliver more, in a shorter time, using fewer resources and with less cost. According to the company, the main advantage of ZTS's latest release is its advanced web-browser interface with flexible data presentation for easier use and more intuitive ways of working. In addition to helping more experienced technicians to solve network problems even faster, ZTS also short-cuts the network tracing learning curve for less experienced technicians. The biggest challenge for less experienced technicians is knowing what part of a network to trace and then interpreting the results of the trace so a problem can be averted or network bandwidth restored, Graham Storey, vice president of marketing, at William Data Systems, tells 5 Minute Briefing.
Posted February 04, 2013
GT Software, a provider of enterprise modernization solutions, announced the general availability of its NEO Suite family of products. The release features updates that improve user experience and includes splash screens, user interfaces and documentation enhancements. With the release of NEObatch v3.2, NEOkicks v3.2, and NEOdata v2.1, the NEO suite of products is now compatible with Microsoft Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, SQL Server 2012, and the .NET 4.0 and 4.5 frameworks. The new product versions are also compatible with the recently released Fujitsu NetCOBOL for .NET v5.0 compiler and runtime, which allows customers to also take advantage of Microsoft Visual Studio 2012.
Posted February 04, 2013
Compuware Corporation, a technology performance tools company, has made enhancements to the Compuware Workbench, a standardized point-and-click mainframe application development interface. The Workbench is now configured to deliver faster and more efficient file and data management capabilities, the vendor says. This includes the ability to edit complex IMS databases, as well as debugging functionality, all designed to significantly boost developer productivit
Posted February 04, 2013
Heirloom Computing Inc. has formed a new partnership with Java Platform as a Service (PaaS) provider CloudBees to speed the transition of mainframe workloads to the CloudBees PaaS. With the partnership, Heirloom will deploy COBOL-based mainframe workloads to the cloud, using Heirloom Elastic COBOL and the CloudBees Platform.
Posted February 04, 2013
SilverSky, a provider of information security solutions, is combining the assets of Perimeter E-Security and USA.NET into a unified brand focused on delivering an advanced security-as-a-service platform. SilverSky manages, secures and monitors corporate information assets with a portfolio of software and managed services, delivered through its unified policy-aware platform.
Posted February 04, 2013
TransLattice has joined the Cisco Developer Network as a registered developer within the Physical Infrastructure technology category. In addition, two products, TransLattice Application Platform v.2.5 and TransLattice Elastic Database v.2.5, have successfully completed interoperability testing with Blades (B-series). The TransLattice Application Platform (TAP) creates a high-performance computing fabric from a cluster of affordable commodity servers that work cooperatively to ensure applications and associated data are always available.
Posted February 04, 2013
SHARE in San Francisco kicked off yesterday and will continue through Friday. If you were not able to travel to the event, you can still be a part of the audience with SHARE Live!, the virtual event option.
Posted February 04, 2013
IBM has announced that IBM SmartCloud for SAP Applications, an enterprise service unique to IBM, is available globally. The new service, IBM SmartCloud for SAP Applications, aims to automate and standardize provisioning of IT environments, and can accelerate service delivery with expert certified staff. According to the companies, SmartCloud services for SAP applications delivers 99.7% availability based on a global delivery model to support cloud-based systems around the clock. This service is available for SAP Business Suite software and the SAP BusinessObjects solution portfolio as an enterprise-class, fully managed Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offering for running SAP solutions in a production environment.
Posted January 30, 2013
SAP announced a new option for SAP Business Suite customers — SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA — providing an integrated family of business applications that captures and analyzes transactional data in real time on a single in-memory platform. With Business Suite on HANA, "SAP has reinvented the software that reinvented businesses," stated Rob Enslin, member of the Global Executive Board and SAP head of sales, as part of his presentation during the company's recent launch event.
Posted January 30, 2013
Software AG has agreed to sell its SAP-service operations in Canada and the USA to itelligence, a full-service provider of IT solutions for the SAP market with approximately 2,700 employees in 21 countries. Its headquarters are in Bielefeld, Germany. The transaction closing is scheduled for January 16 and according to the companies the purchase price will not be disclosed. The transaction includes all of Software AG's SAP product-specific services in Canada and the U.S., which are coordinated from Toronto and Reston, Virginia respectively. In addition, itelligence plans to acquire the majority of around 80 employees as of January 16.
Posted January 30, 2013
The explosion of big data has presented many challenges for today's database administrators (DBAs), who are responsible for managing far more data than ever before. And with more programs being developed and tested, more tools are needed to help optimize data and efficiency efforts. Using techniques such as DB2's Multi-Row Fetch (MRF), DBAs are able to cut down on CPU time - and improve application efficiency. MRF was introduced in DB2 version 8 in 2004. Stated simply, it is the ability for DB2 to send multiple rows back to a requesting program at once, rather than one row at a time.
Posted January 29, 2013
Server virtualization will remain a top priority for many IT organizations and vendor go-to-market strategies 2013, writes senior analyst Mark Bowker in a blog on the Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) website. However, organizations will not be relying on a single hypervisor, says Bowker, who points to an ESG research brief, Multiple Hypervisor Usage Trends, in which nearly-two thirds (65%) of respondent organizations report using more than one hypervisor,
Posted January 24, 2013
Canonical has announced a smart phone interface for its operating system, Ubuntu. The Linux-based software will allow users to run desktop apps on their handsets, so that they double for PCs when docked to monitors, writes Leo Kelion in an article for BBC News. According to Kelion, the code will initially be released as a file which can be installed on Samsung's Galaxy Nexus phone, replacing Android. Kelion also reports that Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Ubuntu and vice president, products, at Canonical, says he is talking with manufacturers about devices to be sold with the system pre-installed within the year.
Posted January 24, 2013
Red Hat announced the next minor release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.9. The release, which marks the beginning of Production Phase 2 of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, maintains Red Hat's commitment to a 10-year lifecycle through the introduction of several new features, including hardware enablement, security, standards and certifications, developer tools, and virtualization.
Posted January 24, 2013