Finextra

A US man who writes a critical blog about Goldman Sachs has filed a lawsuit against the investment bank after it threatened legal action over his use of the goldmansachs666.com domain name.

Investment advisor Mike Morgan registered the domain name goldmansachs666.com in March and is using it to post blogs that are highly critical of the bank.

At the top of his site Morgan states that it “has NOT been approved by Goldman Sachs” or has any affiliation with the firm.

It also says: “I believe this company is evil and should not exist, We need to begin to break up companies that have as much control over world finances as Goldman Sachs.”

On 8 April, law firm Chadbourne & Park sent Morgan a cease-and-desist letter on behalf of Goldman, accusing him of violating intellectual property rights in relation to the domain name and demanding he stop using it.

The blogging concept can be a good thing and a bad thing, the article above highlights some excitement between a blogger and this organization. The problem with any media is that if you say the same message for long enough, it can become the default, the truth. As a blogger, I need to be responsible with my posts, to publish in context and be prepared to respond to any statements or questions about said posts.  At the same time, organizations need to understand how to respond to this new activity, how to embrace it and work with it, and understand that with new media, it’s not so much controlling the message to driving it and responding to criticism. From a PR standpoint is the organization not better in saying in effect, thank you for your invaluable publication, next and distance itself? By recognizing, responding to it, they give the blog recognition, fuel to the fire? There must be a reason that they dislike it, should I read it kind of thing.

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Sun

SANTA CLARA, Calif. April 14, 2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA) — in conjunction with its Open Network Systems launch — today announced new servers, integrated open storage and high-performance networking that bring scale, simplicity and savings to the HPC market, making Sun’s high performance technology capabilities available to a broader customer segment than ever before. Sun’s scalable new HPC systems, including the next-generation Sun Constellation System, are expected to power some of the world’s leading HPC facilities, and can address a broad range of HPC applications requiring high performance, high throughput, large memory and fast I/O. For more information on the Sun Constellation System and HPC solutions for clusters, storage and archive, please visit: http://www.sun.com/hpc

Sun is taking integration to a new level and providing leadership scalability, flexibility and compute density in a no-compromise HPC design, by combining the new dual-node Sun Blade X6275 server module powered by the ground-breaking Intel Xeon processor 5500 series, with the new Sun Blade 6048 InfiniBand (IB) Quad Data Rate (QDR) Network Express Module (NEM), the Sun Blade 6048 chassis, the Sun Cooling Door system, the Lustre file system and Sun’s Open Storage portfolio. This scalable, efficient Sun Constellation System leverages advanced Sun technologies including next-generation Flash-based system performance design, IB QDR networking, an integrated Linux-based HPC software stack, and advanced cooling technologies to provide the highest level of integration and performance across computing, storage, networking and software. In addition, Sun Blade server nodes can be separately provisioned to run Linux, Windows, Solaris or OpenSolaris operating systems, while also giving users the flexibility to migrate nodes from one operating system to another as needed.

Very cool, Sun have announced a series of platform innovations to aid with Sun in HPC solutions, anything we can do to reduce the power consumption, increase server connectivity and scalability has to be a good thing. Do check it out.

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Emulex

LONDON, 7 April 2009 –
What:

• Emulex Corporation (NYSE:ELX) today announced that its LightPulse® Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapters (HBAs) were awarded the 2009 Hardware Product of the Year Award by Network Computing.
• Voted for by the readers of the magazine, the awards recognise the products, service and companies, which have impressed them throughout the last year.
• Emulex was presented with this award at a ceremony on 19 March 2009 for the enterprise scalability, maximum SAN performance and superior quality and reliability of its LightPulse HBAs.
• Emulex HBAs draw from eight generations of advanced, field-proven technologies to deliver a distinctive set of benefits that are relied upon by the world’s largest enterprises.
• Coverage of the 2009 Network Computing Awards can be found in this month’s issue of the publication and at www.networkcomputingawards.co.uk.

Well done to Emulex for this recognition, that they continue to evolve their products both in terms of functionality and scalability has to be a good thing.

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Sun

SANTA CLARA, Calif. April 14, 2009 Leading the market convergence of open computing, networking, software and storage systems, Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA) today launched new products and technologies in its Open Network Systems strategy that deliver huge gains in application performance, with massive efficiency and scalability to maximize the economics of computing for data centers and clouds. To view the launch Webcast live or on-demand, and for more product information, go to http://www.sun.com/launch.

Unveiled at its North American Partner Summit today in Las Vegas, Sun’s broad roll-out of new offerings spans the data center and includes a new advanced blades architecture, new networking technologies and seven new systems based on the Intel Xeon processor 5500 series. To take advantage of special offers and promotions for Sun’s new blades and x64 servers, including Sun’s Try and Buy program, visit http://www.sun.com/tryandbuy.

“Today’s IT customer is looking for three things – speed, simplicity and savings. With Sun’s Open Network Systems approach, we’re combining our networking advancements, our system expertise, our core IP and innovative designs to transform commodity components into new platforms with breakthrough application performance, efficiency and scale,” said John Fowler, executive vice president, Systems Group, Sun Microsystems. “Our new x64 systems with integrated networking technologies, advanced thermal management, open software and Open Storage enhancements will give the data center an extreme makeover, boosting efficiency and maximizing IT investment.”

The new Sun servers based on Inte’s Xeon 5500 processors do look very cool, and it was interesting to watch the launch video and to find out more about their new blade and rack servers.

I’m off to read up about the new Sun servers, the X2270, X4170 and X4270 ones look particularly cool, I love the small form factor format of the X2270 coupled with it’s processor and memory support, it might make an ideal grid/hpc or web server. Do check out the presentation, it was very cool.

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BBC

Anyone buying a PC with Windows 7 pre-installed will be able to swap it for XP or Vista.

Microsoft has confirmed that the licence conditions under which the software will be sold will allow people to downgrade.

The conditions will apply to both businesses that buy licences for Windows in bulk and consumers that get the operating system on a PC or laptop.

No firm date has been given for the release of Windows 7′s final version.

New life

Downgrade rights are common in Microsoft licensing terms and conditions and customers who buy large volumes of Windows operating systems have always been able to roll back to previous versions.

Microsoft has twice granted Windows XP a reprieve to allow computer makers to get licences for it for far longer than was originally planned.

Windows XP, released to consumers in 2001, was also granted a lifeline to ensure that it could be used on so-called netbooks – cut-down net-capable laptops that are proving very popular.

This will give extra life and options for the end user community which has to be a good thing, the terms of the license will need to be checked of course, but it’s good news for anyone concerned about upgrading and then rolling back.

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Apple Insider

Hoping to persuade possible Mac buyers that Apple charges an arbitrary “tax” for its computers, Microsoft has paid one analyst to create a report that portrays Windows PCs as less expensive — even if it has to artificially pad the Mac’s price and hide Windows’ costs to get there.
Analyst Roger Kay of technology research firm Endpoint Technologies was told to produce a paper that shows the “hidden tax” of buying Macs, both in the cost of the systems themselves as well as in the software and services to accompany them.

In the study, Kay claims that Apple has marginalized itself and its market share by producing a closed ecosystem that only allows users to buy Mac OS systems from Apple and thus prevents them from buying models that are potentially cheaper or in more appropriate configurations. The company has deliberately chosen to ask a premium for a small range of computers and, as a consequence, locked itself out of the wider market — a boon when the economy was doing well and Windows Vista poorly, but not in the current financial climate, the analyst says.

A great article, and I remember Stephen Fry talking about Macs and comparing them with Windows computers. This is a debate that is set to continue, the new adverts could be seen as effective dependent on your point of view, they hit home a message about Apple’s pricing strategy. But then, I’ve always thought when you buy a mac, you’re buying into a digital support platform, I accept the associated terms, but then I know nine times out of ten it will just work. The pc, due to the very nature that it’s open, open to hardware and software vendors, means that Microsoft have to accommodate, the very best and most affordable ends of the market.

There seems to have been an increase of colleagues I know that run a mac, but also use VMware or Parallels to run a Windows virtual machine, indeed, I have my Mac Pro and my Dell Optiplex simply because it’s nice to have the pc, to test things, to run apps that just work better on the mac or on the pc.

At the same time, I wonder if Apple aren’t missing out a market share by not providing a lower cost platform? Continuing to support the PowerPC processor machines in a Mac OS X Foundation form? The PowerPC machines are here to stay, they’re fast enough for many users, it seems a shame therefore to say goodbye to them?

Apple runs a challenging product line though, ship a slow, low spec mac and it could damage the ‘multimedia/super cool’ image, that the other vendors just don’t have to worry about – here’s a pc, we’ll put 512MB in it, last year’s processor, 40gb disk and Windows Vista Basic and sell it for $400. But then, isn’t that the very thing that in effect de-railed the Vista message? By offering Vista did we not encourage the onboarding of users that really shouldn’t be running it? The old Windows XP will run on a Pentium 233, yes technically, but from an end user multi click I demand everything now, it wont.

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Emulex

COSTA MESA, Calif., April 13, 2009 – Emulex Corporation (NYSE:ELX) today announced that its LightPulse® 8Gb/s Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapters (HBAs) are optimized for use with the new generation of IBM System x Intel® Xeon® processor 5500 series-based servers. Emulex 8Gb/s HBAs, working with IBM System x3650 M2 and IBM System x3550 M2 equipped with Intel QuickPath Interconnect technology (QPI), provide customers with the increased performance, I/O bandwidth and the scalability necessary for their virtualized server environments.

“With greater transaction rates and more effective CPU utilization than other market offerings, Emulex 8Gb/s HBAs are best positioned to handle the mission-critical and I/O-intensive applications of next-generation data centers,” said Steve Daheb, chief marketing officer and senior vice president of business development, Emulex. “By working closely with IBM and other industry leaders, we will continue to deliver best-in-class HBA and connectivity technologies that meet the demanding requirements of rapidly-growing virtualized server environments.”

I remain a fan of the Emulex cards, I’ve been using them (since the LP8000s) for years to connect storage by fibre, their HBA software/drivers are really quite good. Bringing extra functionality and bandwidth has to be a good thing. That they’ve been optimized for use with the new generation Intel Xeon 5500 series servers is good news as is their work with IBM to further enhance their functionality and scalability, anything that can be done to further virtualization as a platform has to be a good thing. I’m off to check out more.

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Cisco

SAN JOSE, Calif. – April 14, 2009 –One month after the announcement of its groundbreaking Unified Computing System for virtualized data centers, Cisco executives will host a live Internet TV broadcast and Q&A session to disclose additional architectural and product details.

The discussion will highlight new data on Cisco Unified Computing System, including:

· Implications for the virtualization and the data center market;

· Cisco Unified Computing System role supporting the company’s Data Center 3.0 strategy;

· Performance Metrics, including recent test results on the system’s performance;

· Pricing and total cost of ownership details.

Who: Soni Jiandani vice president of marketing for the Cisco Server Access Virtualization Group  and David Lawler, vice president of product marketing for the Cisco Server Access Virtualization Group.

When: Thursday, April 16, 9:00 – 10:00 a.m. PDT

Where: The broadcast can be accessed at the URL below. No registration required.

Go to the URL at 9:00 a.m. PDT and select “Play” to launch the live presentation. http://tools.cisco.com/cmn/jsp/index.jsp?id=85953

Very cool, it will be interesting to see what further news they have about their Unified Computing System, the announcements have been welcome developments in the virtualization arena, how this works within their data center strategy and discussions on performance will certainly be interesting. I look forward to attending the announcement on Thursday!

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Business Wire

ISLANDIA, N.Y.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–CA, Inc. (NASDAQ: CA) today announced that CA Advanced Systems Management (CA ASM) is VMware Readyâ„¢ Optimized. Enterprise and cloud computing customers can now use CA ASM?a centrally managed, platform-neutral solution?to discover, monitor, track, and optimize physical and virtual system resources in VMware Virtual Datacenter Operating System (VDC-OS) environments.

“CA ASM’s qualification as VMware Ready Optimized is the next step in our ongoing effort with VMware to enable organizations to effectively deploy, optimize and manage physical and virtual environments,” said Roger Pilc, corporate senior vice president and general manager of CA’s Infrastructure Management and Data Center Automation business unit. “Integrating with and complementing the VMware vCenterTM management product portfolio helps customers to reduce costs, mitigate risks, and improve efficiency, service quality and agility.”

Achieving VMware Ready Optimized status means that VMware has validated CA ASM as being architected, tuned or integrated to optimize VMware functionality for mutual customers. As part of the process, CA ASM passed a series of automated and manual compatibility tests.

Anything we can do to aid or improve the monitoring of the virtual server estate has to be a good thing, I wonder if we can use NSM combined with metrics to carry out automated tasks or alerting when an ESX server or virtual machine gets busy? I’ll need to check it out.

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R Web

Prestigious award given out yearly to company with highest growth in Intel® server product sales

San Jose, CA (PRWEB) April 6, 2009 — iXsystems topped off its biggest revenue-producing year in history by taking home the Intel® Server Growth Award for 2008. iXsystems beat out a field of nearly 300 companies with an 82% increase in Intel® server sales over the previous year. On March 16, 2009, President and CEO Michael Lauth took the stage at the 2009 Intel Solutions Summit to accept the prestigious award on behalf of iXsystems.

States Lauth, “I am very proud of the iXsystems team for their performance in 2008. Intel®’s recognition of our growth exemplifies the dedication we have to quality, customer service, professionalism, and knowledge. Each person at iXsystems adds a unique quality to the customer’s experience. Our expert sales team consults with the customer to tailor an exact system to their unique specifications. The iXsystems professional production crew performs each detailed task with precision and care. Our knowledgeable support staff personalizes the support experience and makes each customer feel that their success is as important to us as it is to them.”

Well done to iXsystems for this recognition, I’m off to read up about iXsystems, it’s always good to hear about other vendors, to see what they have to offer whether it’s for research, or to simply ask my vendor/service provider, when will you do that?

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