Data Center Management Articles
Join SUSE and IBM for a North American road show, Linux Days, in which SUSE technical experts will present and demonstrate the latest open source technologies from SUSE that benefit a data center. IBM, a premier sponsor of this event, will also participate in the events, showcasing System z, System x and Power solutions. The road show starts this week and continues through the end of June.
Posted May 24, 2012
More than 50% of all software purchased within 5 years will be open source, writes Libby Clark in a blog featured on The Linux Foundation website highlighting the results of a new survey. According to Clark, this year's Linux Foundation survey, "Future of Open Source Survey," which included responses from 740 companies, signals a tipping point in terms of open source technology adoption in the enterprise and non-technical industries, including automotive, healthcare, and finance. In the auto industry, Clark points out, 59% of respondents to The Linux Foundation survey use open source software now, and 35% say they are evaluating it.
Posted May 24, 2012
The Linux Professional Institute (LPI), a Linux organization, has announced revisions to its LPIC-1 and LPIC-2 certification exam objectives and subsequent exam question updates. The LPI provides a global framework, industry leadership and other services to enhance, develop and further lifelong professional careers in Linux and open source technologies.
Posted May 24, 2012
Google has announced that Google BigQuery, a web service that lets users do interactive analysis of massive data sets, is now available to the public. Billed as enabling customers to "analyze terabytes of data with just a click of a button," the company says the data is secured, replicated across data centers, and can be easily exported.
Posted May 23, 2012
Oracle has introduced new desktop virtualization software, including new releases of three products. The new product versions are Oracle Virtual Desktop Infrastructure 3.4, Sun Ray Software 5.3 and Oracle Virtual Desktop Client 3.1.The desktop virtualization solutions enable organizations to provision access for employees to personal desktop computing environments, enterprise applications, and data without being tied to a particular physical client device. The benefits of this approach include user mobility, data security, and enhanced centralized administration - key issues for organizations involved in the public sector, healthcare field, financial sector, and call center operations, where centralized control is important for compliance and security reasons, Monika Kumar, senior director, product marketing at Oracle, tells 5 Minute Briefing.
Posted May 23, 2012
Unstructured data is on the rise, and ready to engulf current data management systems, a new survey shows. In addition, many corporate managers do not understand the challenge that is looming, and are failing to recognize the significance of unstructured data assets to the business. These are the findings of a newly released survey of 264 data managers and professionals who are subscribers to Database Trends and Applications. The survey was conducted by Unisphere Research, a division of Information Today, Inc., in partnership with MarkLogic earlier this year.
Posted May 23, 2012
Embarcadero Technologies has introduced a new version of its database management and development platform, DB Power Studio XE3, which offers enhancements to further improve the performance and availability of databases. The new release offers increased coverage across database platforms by delivering multiple feature enhancements for each product in the suite, including DB Artisan, Rapid SQL, and DB Optimizer, as well as direct access to Embarcadero's support team. In addition, DBArtisan and Rapid SQL also introduce support for Sybase IQ, which is initially available as a technical preview, Scott Walz, senior director of product management at Embarcardero, tells 5 Minute Briefing.
Posted May 22, 2012
SAP AG has announced a range of innovations. The announcements put heavy emphasis on SAP HANA, and focus on three main areas, David Jonker, director of product marketing - Data Management & Analytics, SAP, tells 5 Minute Briefing. One is working with customers to accelerate their existing investment in the SAP landscape, a second emphasis is big data and analytics, and the third is around sparking new innovation by working with customers, partners and startups to leverage real-time analytics to rethink how business gets done.
Posted May 22, 2012
Today, at Informatica World in Las Vegas, Informatica, a provider of data integration software, unveiled Informatica 9.5. This new release addresses the big data challenges customers are facing as a result of the explosion of data volumes in the enterprise, fueled by social media, cloud computing, and mobile computing data, Ivan Chong, executive vice president and general manager of Data Quality product division at Informatica, tells 5 Minute Briefing. Describing it as a major release of the Informatica Platform, Chong says Informatica 9.5 includes a wide range of new features to help customers extract more value from their big data assets.
Posted May 15, 2012
Software AG has launched Data Masking for Adabas, a solution created to enable Adabas customers to design and test applications using actual production data that has been altered to ensure the privacy and security of the data itself. "By being able to mask this data they will be able to comply with data protection regulations such as HIPAA and the EU Data Protection Directive and others that basically say you can't put sensitive data out there for people to work with, even in non-production environments," Bruce Beaman, senior director, product marketing, at Software AG, tells 5 Minute Briefing.
Posted May 14, 2012
At IBM's recent Impact conference in Las Vegas, the company announced new business integration software capabilities designed to help organizations incorporate the collaborative and intelligent capabilities of social media, mobile computing and cloud computing into enterprise applications. The cornerstone of enabling enterprises to embrace these critical technologies is the new version of IBM WebSphere Application Server (v8.5). The latest release now provides companies with support for embedded deployments and, is ready for cloud with built-in virtualization. IBM released two editions - a new developer friendly light-weight web app server for mobile and embedded environments called WAS v8.5-Liberty Profile, and WAS Network Deployment (ND) for traditional enterprise settings.
Posted May 14, 2012
BMC Software, a provider of business service management solutions, announced that its cloud-based offerings have seen record sales. More than 300 enterprises have adopted its cloud-based IT service management solutions. This includes the BMC Remedyforce Service Desk solution, which has doubled its customer base in less than 6 months.
Posted May 14, 2012
IBM and Red Hat, Inc. announced that Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 with the KVM hypervisor on IBM Systems has been awarded Common Criteria Certification at Evaluation Assurance Level 4+ (EAL4+). The Common Criteria is an internationally recognized set of standards used by the federal government and other organizations to assess the security and assurance of technology products. This security certification is the first of its kind for an open source virtualization solution.
Posted May 14, 2012
Cisco announced its intent to acquire privately held Truviso, Inc. Based in Foster City, Calif., Truviso provides scalable, real-time network data analysis and reporting software. The companies' combined solutions will provide more rapid access and visibility into network use and services, Cisco says.
Posted May 14, 2012
Big data has become a big topic for 2012. It's not only the size, but also the complexity of formats and speed of delivery of data that is starting to exceed the capabilities of traditional data management technologies, requiring the use of new or exotic technologies simply to manage the volume alone. In recent years, the democratization of analytics and business intelligence (BI) solutions has become a major driving force for data warehousing, resulting in the use of self-service data marts. One major implication of big data is that in the future, users will not be able to put all useful information into a single data warehouse. Logical data warehouses bringing together information from multiple sources as needed is replacing the single data warehouse model. Combined with the fact that enterprise IT departments are continually moving towards distributed computing environments, the need for IT process automation to automate and execute the integration and movement of data between these disparate sources is more important than ever.
Posted May 09, 2012
CA Technologies is kicking off May Mainframe Madness 2012 (MMM 2012), this week. The event is a free, virtual trade show intended to deliver educational presentations to customers around the globe throughout the month. The fourth-annual event leverages cloud and social media technologies, and is delivered as a SaaS cloud offering. "Our virtual event encourages participation in a wide range of sessions and discussions designed to further mainframe expertise," explains Dayton Semerjian, general manager, Mainframe, CA Technologies.
Posted May 03, 2012
Scott Handy, vice president, STG Strategy and Business Development, PowerLinux, IBM, lays out the value proposition for IBM PowerLinux solutions in his new blog post: On April 24, IBM announced IBM PowerLinux solutions, built on a new Linux-only family of servers. These two-socket servers - one rack-mount and one compute node - run industry standard Linux, and have been tuned to run key emerging workloads like big data and open source network infrastructure. With these new offerings, IBM is taking Power's well-known strengths in scalability, flexibility, and security and making them available to customers that might not previously have thought of Power as an option. Now, quite simply, IBM is taking pricing off the table.
Posted April 30, 2012
IBM introduced a series of new Linux-based systems and solutions intended to help companies exploit the cost efficiency of Linux and virtualization for business-critical workloads. The new offerings, dubbed IBM PowerLinux Systems and Solutions, offer integration of new Linux-specific POWER7 processor-based hardware with Linux software from Red Hat and SUSE for analyzing big data, managing industry-specific applications and delivering open source infrastructure services.
Posted April 30, 2012
FalconStor Software, a provider of disk-based data protection, released the latest version of its virtual tape library (VTL) offering, which includes an expanded set of deduplication methods and improved performance. FalconStor VTL 7.5 is intended to provide customers the flexibility to optimize backup for speed and efficiency by tailoring deduplication processes to the needs of their environment while delivering twice the deduplication rate of any competing solution.
Posted April 30, 2012
STORServer, a provider of data backup solutions for the mid-market, announced four major product upgrades to its line of data backup appliances. The company has introduced a new BA Series Backup Appliance; updated the Enterprise Backup Appliance (EBA) line; enhanced pricing on Instant Restore (IR) Appliances; and is offering stand-alone sales of STORServer Console (SSC). As a result, the company, which sells exclusively through a reseller channel, says it now offers a backup appliance for every budget and environment.
Posted April 30, 2012
Advanced Systems Concepts, Inc. (ASCI) unveiled the latest version of its IT automation software, which includes capabilities to join both reactive and predictive forms of resource management to optimize Service Level Agreements (SLAs). Version 9.0 of ASCI's ActiveBatch Workload Automation and Job Scheduling Software is expected to ship in June.
Posted April 30, 2012
Progress Software Corporation announced a new strategic focus in which it will become a provider of a next-generation, context-aware application development and deployment platform in the cloud for the application platform-as-a-service (aPaaS) market, by beefing up investments in its core OpenEdge, DataDirect Connect, and Apama Analytics and Decisions products and integrating them into a single offering. As part of the plan, Progress says it will divest multiple product lines that are not core to the new vision and launch immediate operational restructuring initiatives to significantly reduce annual costs.
Posted April 30, 2012
BMC Software, a provider of business service management solutions), released what it calls one of the industry's first application performance "management-as-a-service" solutions for cloud applications. BMC End User Experience Management OnDemand measures and monitors individual user performance, errors and availability of web applications and provides a more accurate and actionable approach to service-level assurance for the cloud.
Posted April 30, 2012
IBM announced an overall 7% jump in profitability in the first quarter of 2012 over the previous year, but hardware and server revenues lagged. The company's net income for the quarter was $3.1 billion, compared with $2.9 billion in the first quarter of 2011. Total revenues for the first quarter of 2012 of $24.7 billion were flat (up 1%, adjusting for currency) from the first quarter of 2011.
Posted April 30, 2012
The vibe surrounding cloud computing at SHARE in Atlanta was all about forgetting the hype and dealing with reality. Attendees came looking for results after hearing for years about the computing model that reduces costs while increasing flexibility and scalability. Veteran tech journalist Pedro Pereira discusses the cloud computing content at SHARE in Atlanta in the SHARE's President's Corner.
Posted April 30, 2012
Scott Handy, vice president, STG Strategy and Business Development, PowerLinux, IBM, lays out the value proposition for IBM PowerLinux solutions in his new blog post: On April 24, IBM announced IBM PowerLinux solutions, built on a new Linux-only family of servers. These two-socket servers - one rack-mount and one compute node - run industry standard Linux, and have been tuned to run key emerging workloads like big data and open source network infrastructure. With these new offerings, IBM is taking Power's well-known strengths in scalability, flexibility, and security and making them available to customers that might not previously have thought of Power as an option. Now, quite simply, IBM is taking pricing off the table.
Posted April 25, 2012
IBM has introduced new value-priced Power Systems and PureFlex System offerings to help customers exploit the cost efficiency of Linux and virtualization for business-critical workloads. IBM PowerLinux Solutions offer deep integration of new Linux-specific POWER7 processor-based hardware with industry-standard Linux software from Red Hat and SUSE for analyzing Big Data, managing industry-specific applications, and delivering open source infrastructure services.
Posted April 25, 2012
2012 will be a big year for KVM, Jean Staten Healy, director, WW cross-IBM Linux and Open Virtualization, writes in a new blog: There is a tipping point at which a disruptive technology takes off in the marketplace, displacing other technologies that may have previously been believed to be firmly entrenched. For open source solutions, this occurs when there is a compelling reason, such as cost, to switch from proprietary technologies, after it has been proven that the new technology delivers enterprise compatibility, ecosystem support, and the high quality and reliability required for enterprise adoption. We have already witnessed that tipping point with Linux - and we are seeing that same story play out now with KVM.
Posted April 25, 2012
IBM introduced a new family of "expert integrated systems" called IBM PureSystems, which features built-in expertise based on IBM's collective experience running customers' IT operations. IBM PureSystems' scale-in design integrates and optimizes all of the critical components required in a data center - system networking, storage, compute, management, etc. - and provides for a single-view management system. Out of the box, all PureSystems family members are built for the cloud, enabling corporations to quickly create private, self-service cloud offerings that can scale up and down automatically.
Posted April 25, 2012
The Linux Foundation, the non-profit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, released its latest report on kernel development. The report covers work completed through the Linux kernel 3.2 release, with an emphasis on the releases made since the last update to the report in December 2010 (2.6.36 to 3.2). The report was authored by Jonathan Corbet, LWN.net; Greg Kroah-Hartman, The Linux Foundation; and Amanda McPherson, The Linux Foundation.
Posted April 25, 2012
Nineteen leading technology companies have announced their plans to become Platinum or Gold members of the OpenStack Foundation, an independent and long-term home for OpenStack, the open source cloud operating system. IBM, Red Hat, SUSE, Canonical, as well as others based on the principles outlined in the published mission and framework.
Posted April 25, 2012
The Open Virtualization Alliance (OVA) is a gold sponsor of the Open Source Business Conference (OSBC) 2012, which will take place May 21-22 in San Francisco.
Posted April 25, 2012
Linux and Android are separate operating systems now, but that may change since Android code has been re-admitted to a staging area for inclusion the Linux kernel, according to an article by Cade Metz for Wired Enterprise, "Android and Linux Reunite After Two-Year Separation."
Posted April 25, 2012
Scott Handy, vice president, STG Strategy and Business Development, PowerLinux, IBM, lays out the value proposition for IBM PowerLinux solutions in his new blog post: On April 24, IBM announced IBM PowerLinux solutions, built on a new Linux-only family of servers. These two-socket servers - one rack-mount and one compute node - run industry standard Linux, and have been tuned to run key emerging workloads like big data and open source network infrastructure. With these new offerings, IBM is taking Power's well-known strengths in scalability, flexibility, and security and making them available to customers that might not previously have thought of Power as an option. Now, quite simply, IBM is taking pricing off the table.
Posted April 25, 2012
IBM has introduced new value-priced Power Systems and PureFlex System offerings to help customers exploit the cost efficiency of Linux and virtualization for business-critical workloads. IBM PowerLinux Solutions offer deep integration of new Linux-specific POWER7 processor-based hardware with industry-standard Linux software from Red Hat and SUSE for analyzing Big Data, managing industry-specific applications, and delivering open source infrastructure services.
Posted April 25, 2012
2012 will be a big year for KVM, Jean Staten Healy, director, WW cross-IBM Linux and Open Virtualization, writes in a new blog: There is a tipping point at which a disruptive technology takes off in the marketplace, displacing other technologies that may have previously been believed to be firmly entrenched. For open source solutions, this occurs when there is a compelling reason, such as cost, to switch from proprietary technologies, after it has been proven that the new technology delivers enterprise compatibility, ecosystem support, and the high quality and reliability required for enterprise adoption. We have already witnessed that tipping point with Linux - and we are seeing that same story play out now with KVM.
Posted April 25, 2012
IBM introduced a new family of "expert integrated systems" called IBM PureSystems, which features built-in expertise based on IBM's collective experience running customers' IT operations. IBM PureSystems' scale-in design integrates and optimizes all of the critical components required in a data center - system networking, storage, compute, management, etc. - and provides for a single-view management system. Out of the box, all PureSystems family members are built for the cloud, enabling corporations to quickly create private, self-service cloud offerings that can scale up and down automatically.
Posted April 25, 2012
The Linux Foundation, the non-profit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, released its latest report on kernel development. The report covers work completed through the Linux kernel 3.2 release, with an emphasis on the releases made since the last update to the report in December 2010 (2.6.36 to 3.2). The report was authored by Jonathan Corbet, LWN.net; Greg Kroah-Hartman, The Linux Foundation; and Amanda McPherson, The Linux Foundation.
Posted April 25, 2012
Nineteen leading technology companies have announced their plans to become Platinum or Gold members of the OpenStack Foundation, an independent and long-term home for OpenStack, the open source cloud operating system. IBM, Red Hat, SUSE, Canonical, as well as others based on the principles outlined in the published mission and framework.
Posted April 25, 2012
The Open Virtualization Alliance (OVA) is a gold sponsor of the Open Source Business Conference (OSBC) 2012, which will take place May 21-22 in San Francisco.
Posted April 25, 2012
The Linux Foundation will hold its Enterprise End User Summit April 30-May 1 at the New York Stock Exchange in New York City. The event will bring together high-performance end users with the highest level Linux community developers CTOs, architects, IT representatives, and kernel developers to advance the features most critical to using Linux in the enterprise.
Posted April 25, 2012