Archive for September, 2007
September 26, 2007 at 10:06 pm · Filed under Other things
http://www.news.com/Analysts-Virtualization-to-save-businesses-millions/2100-1016_3-6210085.html
Virtualization could save companies millions of dollars and be the dominant data center technology within the next two to three years, according to analysts.
Virtualization can reduce energy consumption and cut operating costs for companies adopting the technology, according to a Butler Group report released this week on infrastructure virtualization.
The report estimates a company currently operating 250 dual-core servers can save $4 million over the next three years by adopting virtualization technology.
Butler also estimates that a power savings on the order of $157,500 for every 1,000 PCs per year can be achieved by businesses moving from a full desktop PC infrastructure to a server-hosted desktop virtualization setup.
It’s not just the direct costs, the cost of buying the pc, of paying the electricity for the pc, it’s all those indirect or difficult to quantify costs, that using VMWare to virtualize the desktop I reduce my hardware support costs - fewer pc rebuilds, failing components, that I can deploy a pc more quickly - Jim from accounts need not wait for sign off for that new pc, IT simply cut another slice, activate it and re-claim the old one - there’s less physical activity with all the associated barriers to success. The end of the “Sorry your hard drive has failed, you’ve lost your data, and we don’t stock 10GB drives, can you buy a new pc please.” the kind of statements that simply upset the end user on several levels. That we can deliver a reliable and scalable infrastructure. A great article, do check it out.
September 26, 2007 at 10:01 pm · Filed under Grid
http://www.finextra.com/fullstory.asp?id=17494
The bank is using the vendor’s Platform Symphony software to extend its Grid environment to encompass all areas of credit risk management and Grid-enable applications used for calculations over a virtualised computing environment.
As part of this process, Platform Computing says it developed a seamless integration to SG CIB’s existing risk management application from Algorithmics.
Platform says the bank has also been able to greatly reduce capital costs through eliminating SMP servers in exchange for low-cost, standards-based IBM Linux clusters.
Very cool, check out this article, it’s showing how this bank has used Platform software to expand its grid use in the risk areas. Implementing a grid solution can be a very effective way of improving application performance, to be more efficient with the IT infrastructure you have, most importantly though, it can be a real business enabler, that you can more accurately price, or quote a price to your client can be the difference between deal and no deal.
September 26, 2007 at 7:21 pm · Filed under Other things
http://www.vnunet.com/computing/news/2199524/ryanair-numara
Budget airline carrier Ryanair has achieved 99 per cent user satisfaction with its IT helpdesk after implementing an internal service desk management system.
The helpdesk system was rolled out across Ryanair’s 135 European locations supporting more than 1,000 users.
The key benefit of the Footprints system, supplied by software firm Numara, is having a clear, visible central system for assessing IT problems, said Ryanair IT director Eric Neville
“The system records every email interaction and all historical information on a query and even if an email is sent to a third-party supplier the correspondence is still captured,†he said.
Very cool, this is particularly effective from a service delivery angle and lets IT show the customers the full audit trail of the call, that we’ve escalated to a vendor/support provider to assist, that the issue is being dealt with, this is even more so in terms of the service level agreemtn aspects of running a help desk. An interesting read, check it out.
September 26, 2007 at 7:15 pm · Filed under Other things
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,136842-c,thinandlightnotebooks/article.html
Lenovo Group Ltd. Wednesday unveiled a laptop bound in hand-stitched brown leather to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the ThinkPad line. It will sell for US$5,000.
Each laptop in the Lenovo ThinkPad Reserve Edition line will be individually numbered, Lenovo said. Only 5,000 will be sold.
For the price, buyers will receive 36 months of “executive class” services that include a one-on-one setup call between the customer and a dedicated service representative, Lenovo said. The same service rep will stay with the customer throughout the laptop’s life. Around-the-clock access to service reps will be available, and Lenovo is even promising access via a toll-free number that will be answered before the fourth ring. If an in-person support call is necessary, the service rep will reach the customer’s location within four hours, and a replacement machine can be shipped overnight if required, Lenovo said.
Very cool, I’ve been reading up about them, they do look very cool, I like the tan leather, I’ve been a big fan of the ThinkPad laptop, I’ve actually just bought a X60s this week for work, and I’ll be doing a post on that later, but the executive support sounds very cool as does the initial setup etc - they’re all things some (granted not everyone) people would be happy to pay for - just like the Vertu mobile phone.
September 26, 2007 at 1:25 pm · Filed under Abn Amro merger
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c7892efa-6bbe-11dc-863b-0000779fd2ac,dwp_uuid=e8477cc4-c820-11db-b0dc-000b5df10621.html
The Royal Bank of Scotland-led consortium nearing success in its break-up bid for ABN Amro has doubled its stake in the Dutch bank through a series of complex derivatives trades.
The consortium, which includes Fortis, the Belgo-Dutch group, and Santander of Spain, disclosed in a US regulatory filing that it had swaps and options over more than 76m ABN shares.
The exposure, which represents more than 4 per cent of ABN’s share capital, is on top of the consortium’s existing 4 per cent stake in the Dutch bank, which it acquired last month.
Very interesting, I wonder if this has any affect on the transaction, we’ll need to see until the announcement about who wins the contract is made.
September 26, 2007 at 1:22 pm · Filed under Other things, rackmounts
http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/pr/2007-09/sunflash.20070925.1.xml
New Family of Intel Xeon Processor-Based Servers, Powered by the Solaris OS, Melds Innovative Design with Industry-Leading Performance, Density and Energy Efficiency
SANTA CLARA, Calif. September 25, 2007 Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA) today introduced its first quad-core x64 (x86, 64-bit) systems, including the world’s smallest four-socket x64 server — which delivers up to twice the expandability and compute power as other servers, yet is half the size. The Sun Fire X4450 and Sun Fire X4150 servers, powered by Quad-Core Intel Xeon processors, enable customers to solve critical problems in the datacenter by offering more performance, higher density, and better power efficiency than competitive systems in the market today. Both servers also give customers a choice of operating systems, running the Solaris Operating System (OS), Windows, Linux or VMware, with the flexibility to deploy a broad range of applications.
The Sun Fire X4450 server, powered by the Quad-Core Intel Xeon processor 7300 series, is the first and only four-socket quad-core system in a 2U form factor on the market from a tier-one vendor. It is the best four-socket x64 server in terms of performance, density and power efficiency. It offers up to twice the compute power and memory capacity, and as much as 50 percent lower energy consumption than competitive servers, resulting in lower energy and cooling costs.
These new servers from Sun do sound very cool, and I love the energy efficency aspect, I’ll need to read up more about them, couple that with VMWare and you could have an energy efficient solution. The more options there are in the market place, the more likely it is that we’ll find a solution that works for me and my business.
September 25, 2007 at 9:46 pm · Filed under datacenter, environment
http://www.silicon.com/retailandleisure/0,3800011842,39168542,00.htm?r=1
Tesco is reducing air conditioning in data centres and checking the energy consumption of new equipment as part of the supermarket giant’s plans to reduce its carbon footprint.
Tesco has pledged to halve carbon emissions from existing stores by 2020 and encourage customers to buy more energy-efficient goods.
In an exclusive interview with silicon.com, Colin Cobain, group IT director at Tesco, said the IT department is already looking at ways to reduce energy consumption and is in the process of developing a green strategy to help meet these goals. He said: “We are trying to do the right things and we’re developing our plans at the moment.”
This includes reducing energy consumption at Tesco’s data centres. Cobain said: “We are looking at various things to do with how is IT actually affecting the environment so we’ve done things in the past few months like increasing the average ambient temperature in the data centres to try and reduce the amount of air-conditioning.”
Very cool, reducing air conditioning requirements can be a great way of instantly having an impact on your energy/operational costs. Coupling that with DC power, or energy efficient servers and you could have an effective way of providing the infrastructure in a way that contains your energy costs and therefore your operating costs.
September 25, 2007 at 9:43 pm · Filed under Other things
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/security/0,1000000189,39289620,00.htm
Security experts have discovered TIFF-based buffer overflow vulnerabilities in OpenOffice.org that could allow attackers to remotely execute code on Linux, Windows or Apple Mac-based computers.
OpenOffice version 2.0.4 and prior are vulnerable to maliciously crafted TIFF files, which can be delivered in an email attachment, published on a website or shared using P2P software. The next version of OpenOffice (version 2.3) arrived on 17 September and is not affected by the flaw.
The vulnerability was discovered by researchers at iDefense, who claim that the OpenOffice TIFF parsing code is flawed.
Patching your applications is just as important as patching the operating system and just because an application/operating system is open source should not be used as a way of limiting your liability/patching due diligence.
September 25, 2007 at 9:32 pm · Filed under Apple type things
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/09/25/mac_os_x_leopard_wont_work_on_4yearold_macs.html
Latest developer notes on the (still beta) next version of OS X, codenamed “Leopard”, used to say that it’s for “an Intel processor or a PowerPC G4 (800MHz or faster) or G5 processor”, according to AppleInsider.
An interesting post about the support for the next version of OS X on the older Apple hardware. I have to agree with the comments below, for the time being the existing versions of OS X will do on the older hardware and still provide the functionality most users will be happy with.
September 25, 2007 at 12:05 pm · Filed under Other things
http://www.huliq.com/35326/hp-closes-opsware-acquisition
HP today announced that it has completed its acquisition of Opsware Inc., the leader in data center automation, which is one of the fastest growing segments in IT operations.
The deal combines Opsware’s industry-leading IT automation offerings with HP Software’s business and IT service management capabilities to boost HP’s Business Technology Optimization portfolio of enterprise IT management software.
BTO is a category of software and services that enable chief information officers to enhance the value and optimize business outcomes from their IT investments.
Very cool, it will be interesting to see what services, products/product enhancements bringing Opsware into the HP business will bring, does this mean it can be tied into the SmartStart/BladeSystem solutions to make managing the asset, the server easier?
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