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Data Center Management

Mainframes continue to represent the strong core of Data Center technology, while Virtualization and Cloud are also emerging as important technologies to support efficiency, scalability, and cost containment. Topics critical to Data Center Operations and Computing including hardware and software for Storage, Consolidation, High Availability, Backup & Recovery, and IT Optimization, as well as automated tools that help compensate for the growing Mainframe Skills Shortage.



Data Center Management Articles

BMC has added an IT service management package that is designed to upgrade IT service desk operations with mobility and collaboration features.

Posted October 27, 2014

IBM announced that the third quarter of 2014 was a difficult one for the company, buffeted by both economic and technology forces. Net income for the period was down 17% from the same period in 2013, $3.5 billion compared with $4.1 billion. The declines were seen across all of IBM's product lines, including mainframes.

Posted October 27, 2014

Worksoft has introduced an enhanced version of Certify Execution Manager, an offering in support of SAP solutions that will allow business users to perform daily business process validation across the enterprise. Worksoft, an SAP partner, is a provider of business process validation software for packaged enterprise applications. Scheduled to be available in the fourth quarter of 2014, the enhanced solution will provide a faster, more seamless and user-friendly automated business process validation solution for thousands of entities, enabling around-the-clock coverage and support.

Posted October 22, 2014

SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer 9.0 (formerly Confio Ignite) provides database administrators and their IT teams with visibility across the application stack, and now covers storage resources, in addition to database, server, and virtualization resources, to speed identification of application performance bottlenecks and improve end user experience.

Posted October 22, 2014

The opportunity and imperative to optimize energy use in the data center industry is at an all-time high. In the modern digital era, data centers are as essential as power plants, a massive and critical infrastructure upon which our social, business, retail, healthcare, and government services are run. Gathering good data streams — metrics that matter to both business and IT — and correlating them through powerful analytics will amplify bottom line results. Here are 5 key ways more efficient power utilization can enable data centers to be more effective and efficient.

Posted October 22, 2014

Companies are facing the "big squeeze" created by IT budgets that are relatively flat, growing by only 3% to 4% a year, versus data growth that is averaging 30% to 40%, and a consensus that data is a valuable commodity that cannot be thrown away, said Monte Zweben, CEO and co-founder of Splice Machine in his presentation at the Strata + Hadoop World conference.

Posted October 21, 2014

The new Dell In-Memory Appliance for Cloudera Enterprise is designed to provide customers with a processing engine combined with interactive analytics in a preconfigured and scalable solution, and will begin shipping Oct. 15, 2014.

Posted October 14, 2014

In its first server announcement since completing the IBM System x server acquisition, Lenovo has announced plans to collaborate with VMware. This alliance extends the 16-year development relationship between System x and VMware and broadens the partnership to include the full range of Lenovo's expanded server business.

Posted October 14, 2014

MongoDB has introduced enhancements to MongoDB Management Service (MMS), a cloud service to simplify operations for MongoDB deployments and reduce operational overhead.

Posted October 14, 2014

To help IT organizations extend the agility provided by continuous integration into continuous delivery, VMware also unveiled a major update of VMware vRealize Operations (formerly VMware vCenterOperations Management Suite. The new VMware vRealize Code Stream enables DevOps teams to deliver frequent, reliable software releases.

Posted October 14, 2014

It is no secret that companies are embracing analytics as one of the key drivers of future growth. During the Global Technology Outlook at SHARE® in Pittsburgh this August, IBM Watson's Donna Dillenberger further noted that new mainframe technologies are enabling organizations to harness increasingly meaningful results from data gathered from disparate sources.

Posted October 13, 2014

IBM is adding new analytics capabilities to the mainframe platform, helping enable better data security and providing clients with the ability to integrate Hadoop big data. By applying analytic tools to business transactions as they are occurring, mainframe systems can enable clients to have true real-time insights. With the analytics on the System z platform, clients can also incorporate social media into their real-time analytic.

Posted October 13, 2014

GT Software has added enhancements to its flagship Ivory Service Suite line, incorporating greater support for big data elements and messaging formats.

Posted October 13, 2014

DBI Software has introduced pureFeat V6.1 Performance Management Suite for IBM DB2 LUW which adds new capabilities for Stored Procedure Visibility and insight into Current Activity Functions. With Stored Procedure Visibility, DBI is "taking the lid off" the black box, and, with insight into Current Activity Functions, DBI allows users to quickly answer the question, "What's happening right now?" said Scott Hayes, president and founder of DBI Software.

Posted October 13, 2014

One feature of the big data revolution is the acknowledgement that a single database management system architecture cannot meet all needs. However, the Lambda Architecture provides a useful pattern for combining multiple big data technologies to achieve multiple enterprise objectives. First proposed by Nathan Marz, it attempts to provide a combination of technologies that together can provide the characteristics of a web-scale system that can satisfy requirements for availability, maintainability, and fault-tolerance.

Posted October 08, 2014

Check constraints are supported in all of the major DBMS products, including DB2, Oracle, and SQL Server. But they are too-often ignored and not implemented in production databases. Properly defined, check constraints can provide enhanced data integrity without requiring procedural logic.

Posted October 08, 2014

Organizations have been collecting data for years, but never before has there been such urgency to have it immediately available. The business need is pressing—decision makers need up-to-the-minute situational awareness in a volatile global economy.

Posted October 08, 2014

A goal at many organizations is to make the data that matters more broadly accessible to more users in a timely fashion. However, at the same time, enterprise data environments are becoming more complex and costly, running on many platforms, supporting many applications, and handling growing volumes of data. IT is expected to respond quickly to new initiatives that can support the business but as IT environments become more unwieldy, agility is an elusive concept.

Posted October 08, 2014

EnterpriseDB, a provider of enterprise-class Postgres products and database compatibility solutions, today introduced Enterprise DB (EDB) Backup and Recovery Tool (BART), a single tool to set up, manage and automate processes for backup and recovery. The new product is intended to replace the series of complex steps and coding that Postgres users have had to deploy in order to ensure databases back up on schedule, and can be rebuilt.

Posted October 07, 2014

Approaching the fourth year of its planned five-year turnaround, HP today announced its intention to separate into two new publicly traded companies. One will include HP's enterprise technology infrastructure, software and services businesses, which will do business as Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, and the other will include HP's personal systems and printing businesses, which will operate as HP Inc. and retain the current logo.

Posted October 06, 2014

Mainframes represent some of the most important log data available, since they host the most mission-critical applications. However, according to the companies, the terabytes of data in more than 200 different log types produced by a typical mainframe system were previously inaccessible to Splunk software without significant work. Delivering on the technology alliance recently announced by Splunk and Syncsort to pull mainframe data into Splunk Enterprise and Splunk Cloud, Syncsort has introduced Ironstream.

Posted October 02, 2014

GridGain Systems, a provider of open source in-memory computing solutions, has launched the GridGain In-Memory Data Fabric. According to the company, the GridGain In-Memory Data Fabric is designed to serve the emerging needs of the real-time enterprise, which does not view datasets as historical events, but instead as actionable intelligence for immediate decision-making, and as a way to deal with changing market forces. Although analytics and transactional data functions have traditionally operated separately, companies now need to view them as part of the same "data fabric," and should implement strategies that are able to connect enterprise-wide data from all sources.

Posted September 30, 2014

During his SHARE in Pittsburgh presentation, Bryan Foley, IBM program director for System z strategy and Linux business line manager, noted the answer to this burning question: the mainframe."It's the ultimate virtualized system," said Foley. "You can throw all of your workload in, and it runs better as you do that."

Posted September 29, 2014

IBM and AT&T are jointly working on extending AT&T NetBond services to the SoftLayer platform to offer customers a combined security and performance solution. This alliance is intended to help enable businesses to create hybrid-computing solutions. AT&T Virtual Private Network (VPN) customers can use AT&T NetBond to connect their IT infrastructure to SoftLayer's cloud services.

Posted September 29, 2014

Phoenix Software, a provider of System z management tools, has begun shipping the latest version of its z/OS monitoring tool. The new release, product, (E)JES V5R4, includes (E)JES Web, a Java-based web interface that is engineered to sync to the response time characteristics of (E)JES under ISPF. All (E)JES displays are supported, including time-oriented browsers like OPERLOG. "Our intent is for (E)JES Web to be the de facto (E)JES interactive interface for users that are uncomfortable navigating traditional 3270 interfaces." said Ed Jaffe, chief technology officer for Phoenix Software International.

Posted September 29, 2014

HP plans to open a software-defined networking (SDN) App Store to support innovation within enterprises. The HP SDN App Store is intended to provide HP's partners a platform together with consulting and support services that will enable customers to uncover the business value of SDN. The HP SDN App Store will be generally available on Oct. 1.

Posted September 29, 2014

Brocade is beefing up its routers with capabilities to address the bandwidth, scale, and performance needed for emerging software defined networks. The Brocade MLX Series routers will include new hardware modules and software. As part of the update, Brocade is delivering software enhancements to the Brocade MLXe carrier-class routing platform, including support for OpenFlow 1.3 with significant features to help organizations deploy new application- and user-specific services in a secure manner.

Posted September 29, 2014

"Digital disruption" driven by technology is having an impact on the decisions IT organizations are making, Mark Hurd told the audience at the Moscone Center in his first OpenWorld keynote as Oracle CEO. Hurd described the dramatic impact cloud, exploding data volumes, social, business, consumer sophistication, and mobility are having on IT organizations, and then interviewed executives about the individual challenges faced by each, including Yael Cosset of dunnhumby; Stephen Little of Xerox; Jamie Miller of GE; Filippo Passerini of P&G; Kimberly S. Stevenson of Intel Corporation; and Tim Theriault of Walgreen Co.

Posted September 29, 2014

Attunity recently introduced the next generation of Attunity Maestro, its global-scale information flow management platform, to enable management and monitoring of its updated Attunity Replicate for Oracle.

Posted September 29, 2014

In what is being heralded as an epic change at Oracle, Larry Ellison, the charismatic CEO of Oracle, is stepping down and will be succeeded by Safra Catz and Mark Hurd who will share the CEO position. Despite the widespread pronouncements that this is the end of an era and that Ellison is relinquishing his membership in the exclusive club of rock-star tech leaders that has included Apple's Steve Jobs and Microsoft's Bill Gates, some industry insiders believe that is simply not the case. Ellison, they say, will remain a force to be reckoned with at Oracle.

Posted September 25, 2014

In simpler times, businesses kept their data in one place. That made the data easy to access and control. Today, many large enterprises have a global component to daily business transactions, with customers, partners and employees located around the world. Given the distributed nature of an organization's users and increasing data location regulations, the traditional method of storing data on a central server to support worldwide stakeholders no longer meets business needs.

Posted September 25, 2014

The expectations for technology in business have never been higher—thanks to the consumerization of IT, disruptions across the tech stack, and the emergence of new technology-based business models. And the pressures facing corporate IT departments been greater. So, how can business leaders and CIOs maximize the value of their technology investments to drive competitive business advantage? By tackling three important areas.

Posted September 25, 2014

Oracle made two new announcements around NoSQL. It is extending Oracle Enterprise Manager capabilities to MySQL databases. With this new offering, customers can manage complex deployments of Oracle technologies that include MySQL, either on-premise or in a cloud. In addition, Oracle announced a new development milestone release for MySQL 5.7 which extends performance, scalability, reliability and management capabilities. The company also announced several MySQL product releases and early access features, as well as the availability of MySQL source code on GitHub.com.

Posted September 25, 2014

The Attachmate Group a privately-held software holding company owned by an investment group led by Francisco Partners, Golden Gate Capital, Elliott Management and Thoma Bravo, has entered into a definitive agreement to merge with Micro Focus. The principal holdings of the Attachmate Group are Principal holdings include SUSE, Novell, Attachmate, and NetIQ.

Posted September 24, 2014

A new virtual appliance for Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform enables organizations with VMware-based infrastructures to easily deploy and evaluate Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform for proof-of-concept deployments. Designed to meet growing interest in Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform from users, Open Virtual Appliance for Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform is designed to enable users to have a working deployment of OpenStack in minutes.

Posted September 24, 2014

IBM Enterprise Linux Server (ELS) can help save software licensing costs, while consolidating different kinds of workloads onto a single server, supporting CIOs in their today's budget challenges. ELS also helps to overcome server sprawl, by requiring less physical servers, less floor space, less energy, with increased flexibility due to IBM z/VM virtualization and simplified management based on IBM Wave for z/VM.

Posted September 24, 2014

IBM designed the Enterprise Linux Server from the ground up to add real business value without increasing IT costs. The Enterprise Linux Server's integrated combination of industry leading server and virtualization technologies provide a simple, efficient and trusted infrastructure foundation for businesses with growing Linux workloads.

Posted September 24, 2014

IBM Research and SCA are partnering to create a shared service cloud for the municipalities of New York that is predicted to eliminate 25% of government's IT budget by streamlining applications and connecting siloed municipalities. The IBM mainframe is the platform that New York trusts to host that cloud. In addition to its time-tested scalability, reliability and security, it offers the lowest total cost of ownership — supporting the state as it strives for reduced spending and a smarter, future-ready IT infrastructure.

Posted September 24, 2014

Challenged to do more with less, Dundee City Council identified IT as an area in which it could cut costs. The council consolidated its Oracle Database environment supporting critical services from distributed servers to an IBM zEnterprise BC12 platform, dramatically improving efficiency.

Posted September 24, 2014

IBM Business Partner L3C LLP focuses on three ways to help businesses across the UK increase profitability and reduce costs: consultancy, managed services and complementary IT resources. L3C deployed IBM System z servers running Linux to provide companies of any size — including small, midsized and very large enterprises — with scalable, cost-effective, high-performance cloud services.

Posted September 24, 2014

EVERTEC, Inc., based in Puerto Rico, offers a comprehensive suite of services for core bank processing, cash processing and technology outsourcing. EVERTEC relies on IBM zEnterprise EC12 system running SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for System z to support key financial systems and Oracle databases.

Posted September 24, 2014

A new IBM blog by Adam Jollans, Program Director, Cross-IBM Linux Strategy, IBM explains how new workload demands and greater hardware heterogeneity are placing Linux at the heart of IT innovation. Linux used to be the commodity play, doing the same for less to help improve the bottom line, Jollans notes. But today, more than ever, Linux not only offers a price advantage but is a major force fueling innovation. That is why IBM continues to vigorously support Linux.

Posted September 24, 2014

Mayo Clinic and IBM are planning to use a specially designed version of Watson, the IBM's Linux-powered cognitive computer, to match patients more quickly with appropriate clinical trials. A proof-of-concept phase is currently underway, with the intent to introduce it into clinical use in early 2015.

Posted September 24, 2014

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.11, the final minor release of the mature Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Platform, is now available. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.11 reiterates Red Hat's commitment to a 10-year product lifecycle for all major Red Hat Enterprise Linux releases and offers a secure, stable, and reliable platform for critical enterprise applications.

Posted September 24, 2014

A new IBM research report provides a performance comparison of virtual machines, specifically KVM, and Linux containers, specifically Docker. As expected, Linux containers offer less overhead than full virtualization with KVM, but the difference is surprisingly small in many cases especially for CPU and memory-intensive workloads.

Posted September 24, 2014

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