Bladewatch.com

HP.com

I’ve been re-building a DL380G3 for a local small business as part of this I was downloading the driver pack including the firmware and noticed that there is now firmware for the ILO version 1.94. This update includes some fixes which are on the HP site.

Updating the server/ilo/array firmware is often the first thing your vendor will require when logging a call. I’m off to try it now, the information about the fixes is below:

• Fixed an issue where iLO used to stop servicing a port when specially formatted network packet was sent.
• Fixed an issue with where nested group user failed to login to iLO.
• Fixed an issue where iLO was crashing when firmware upgrade was initiated simultaneously by multiple SSH/Telnet clients

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Dell.com

Dell commemorated World Environment Day today by joining The Prince’s Rainforests Project (PRP), an environmental initiative established by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales in 2007 to raise awareness for the link between rainforests and climate change and the need to stop deforestation.

On behalf of Dell employees worldwide, Michael Dell signed this pledge: “My company supports The Prince’s Rainforests Project’s call for emergency action to help combat climate change by addressing rainforest destruction.”

Dell joined a number of sustainability-focused companies lending their support to PRP, including Google, Marriott, Virgin, Barclays and National Geographic. Mr. Dell joined company leaders and global celebrities in discussing their interest in rainforest preservation in a new video released worldwide by PRP today at www.rainforestSOS.org.

The world’s tropical rainforests help regulate our climate, store vast amounts of carbon and generate rainfall. According to PRP, the Amazon forests alone provide storage for more than half the Earth’s fresh water, releasing 20 billion metric tons of water into the atmosphere every day.

Great news, the more vendors, service providers and communities we bring towards this initiative the more we can manage our environmental costs, improve our delivery and reduce our operations costs through more right purchasing and right sizing of the IT. Simple steps combining end user and vendor activities and best practice can make a significant difference on the way we do business and the impact we have, reducing our energy consumption, increasing recycling and reducing packaging can from a part of an overall movement to reduce impact.

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Search Networking

Virtualization is coming to a network near you, but what do networking professionals really need to know about data center virtualization and virtual server networks? With budgets tight all around, network administrators must think long and hard about how virtualization plays into network planning and how soon they will see a return on investment (ROI) from possible purchases.

It is not even clear that all enterprises will see a net benefit from virtual servers.

“There are cases where you can prove a positive ROI for sure for server virtualization,” said Peter Fetterolf, a partner with networking consultancy Network Strategy Partners LLC. “I’m sure there are also many, many cases where you cannot. It really depends on the situation and the enterprise. With server virtualization, there are a lot [of] issues that need to be analyzed.”

Unfortunately, Fetterolf said, many of those issues are hidden network costs that are tough to gauge pre-deployment: How will the move affect staffing requirements, and what will be the cost of added complexity, such as increased downtime?

While there might be fewer physical switches and routers, a virtualization strategy often means more logical, virtual devices that also have to be managed. But now, many traditional networking tools, such as probes, may not spot problems unless specifically created for a virtual environment.

Just because a networking professional cannot see the problem, in other words, does not mean it’s not there and in need of some creative responses.

If these changes are not properly accounted for, the network could possibly even see greater, not reduced, network downtime as networking professionals struggle to get a grip on virtualization.

We need to be looking at the whole infrastructure when we look at virtualization, we also need to include those back-up, backoffice networks used for failing over workloads,  backing up the virtual machines or high availability. With this inmind we need to think about the different applications being virtualized, what their individual network requirements are, whether they are currently supported, that the network infrastructure and cabling are in place and presented to the ESX server. An interesting read do check it out.

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PRNewswire

ARMONK, N.Y. June 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — IBM today announced new System z software to enable companies to drive down IT costs while increasing business flexibility and improving service. IBM announced it plans to release approximately 30 new software technology enhancements in 2009 that extend the advantages of using System z as a platform for developing, deploying and running today’s applications and business data.

The announcement is part of IBM’s ongoing pursuit to help customers simplify their environment and reduce costs by migrating scattered applications and data onto a lower cost, more scalable and manageable platform.

The software initiative spans IBM’s branded product lines for application architecture, development, and delivery; business intelligence and database management; transaction management and IT service management.

Market adoption of System z as a platform for new applications is demonstrated by the growth in ISV interest in the IBM mainframe. Over the last year, more than 150 new ISVs have embraced the platform, and more than 1,000 new vendor applications were added.

ISVs recently deploying applications on System z include SAP, Chordiant, Temenos, i-flex, ACI, and Norkom.

Any opportunities for reducing costs, for achieving more with less has to be a good thing for those organizations already using System Z as a platform, I’m off to read up more.

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VNUnet

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Dell blog

Our friends at Google yesterday introduced its new Google Search Appliance (GSA) 6.0, which we’re pleased to tell you is powered by Dell PowerEdge servers from Dell’s OEM Industry Solutions Group (Dell OEM). Specifically, the new search appliances leverage Dell’s PowerEdge R710 servers, part of Dell’s 11th generation of PowerEdge servers that were introduced earlier this year.

Google is selling the search appliance to corporations as a server with enterprise search software to enable companies to index and retrieve data stored on their corporate Web systems. According to Google, the new appliance can index up to 30 million documents, which when connected with other appliances, can now search billions of corporate documents.

Check out this post talking about Google’s Search Appliance which is powered by Dell PowerEdge servers, interestingly they seem to be based on Dell’s PowerEdge R710 – very cool, I’ll need to read up more about the R710, I do wonder how one of the Google Search Appliances would work in the enterprise? Wouldn’t they be great in terms of finding the information you need within the enterprise, even on a simple level – that documentation for building a server etc, or the standards documentation? An interesting post, do check it out.

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ServerWatch

Not so long ago when green computing was considered hype. Or vaporware. Or something in between. But now, whether you attribute it to climate change, increased energy costs or looming cap and trade legislation, green computing is coming. Even those that scoff at very notion of “green” as a feel-good movement will find it unavoidable, as OEMs are taking carbon emissions and power and cooling into account with new and future product releases.

It is also being positioned as a way to save money. Think about it, if you consume less power, you’re paying less for power, so it’s a win all around. A recent survey, commissioned by Symantec and performed by Applied Research confirms this. It found Green IT is no longer the wish list item, it was 12 months ago, Jose Iglesias, vice president of Global Solutions at Symantec told ServerWatch.

Of the 1,052 worldwide respondents (only about one-third of which were in the United States), 97 percent are discussing their green IT strategies, while 45 percent have already implemented one.

Check out this article talking about Green Computing, which continues to be a topic for discussion. Green IT is not necessarily something we implement overnight, however making small changes in your consumption, in your server provisioning coupled with virtualization can be the start towards a ‘Green IT’ operation. We need to be looking at all the elements of the IT from the data center, to the assets and the services, simple things like printing – could we reduce the amount of printing and internal corporate literature we publish, can we change the way we do business, the way we communicate ever so slightly in doing so transform our operating costs and improve the corporate social responsibility results?

Some quick thoughts in the office in the Green IT space:

• Switching off the pcs and printers at night – more thin client low energy/virtualized desktop offerings
• Energy efficient printing – can we use lower power printers, with printer management tools to reduce waste
• Data center design, power and air flow distribution
• Energy efficient servers (including the components), storage and networking
• Application coding with efficiency in compute and resource requirements
• Storage mapping and analysis – do we need that much data ‘online’ and available on demand – the need to architect applications, infrastructure and data to the most efficient platform – archive all log files older than a month to tape etc.

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Asankya

ATLANTA – June 3, 2009 – Asankya today announced that it has extended its parallel networking technology to solve key performance challenges inhibiting the growth and global scale of cloud- and SaaS-based applications.  Asankya’s parallel networking algorithms deliver 40X throughput improvement for Internet-based applications, including real-time collaboration, interactive video and cloud storage/backup/archival, while maintaining the security, reliability and global consistency of private dedicated connections.  With its breakthrough performance advancements, Asankya enables customers to take advantage of the economics of using the Internet backbone for the secure delivery of applications and removes the barriers for broad cloud computing adoption.

Asankya’s core technology is a set of patented parallel networking algorithms that deliver up to 40X bi-directional Internet Protocol (IP) performance improvement and accelerate encrypted traffic (IPsec and SSL) delivery regardless of application type (TCP- and UDP-based).  The parallel networking technology solves transport inefficiencies inherent in TCP, increases aggregate throughput across the Internet by using multiple available pathways and removes duplicate packet transmission (packet dedupe) for dynamic content to save bandwidth costs.  The breakthrough algorithms were first funded through grants by the National Science Foundation to Dr. Ragupathy Sivakumar, Chair of the wireless computing lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Asankya co-founder and CTO.  The technology was then commercialized by Asankya and first deployed by the U.S. government for real-time, interactive video applications delivered over wired and wireless IP networks.  Asankya’s technology has been recognized for its pioneering contribution to wireless and mobile computing research, winning awards from Association of Computing Machinery (ACM SIGMOBILE) and Motorola.

Check out this article from Asankya talking about their movements to improve the performance and reduce the barriers to entry with cloud computing, anything the different service providers can do to make cloud easier, to make it more accessible, will create opportunities in cloud and further the cloud platform which has to be a good thing for the end user community and the technology.

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HP

EDS, an HP company, today announced it has signed a $61 million (AU$96 million) agreement to manage the technology infrastructure for the Australia Department of Agriculture, Fishery and Forestry, providing expanded technology services across the department’s key locations and increased economic value to the Commonwealth.

Under the five-year agreement, EDS will provide desktop, server, storage and architecture services.

“This agreement will help the Australian federal government meet its business and policy objectives and deliver better return on investment to the Australian people,” said David Caspari, managing director for Australia and New Zealand at EDS, an HP company. “It builds on existing services we provide to the government and strengthens EDS’ position as the No. 1 government supplier in the country.”

EDS will manage and provide help and service desk support to approximately 5,000 employees across the department’s 300 locations, as well as provide the overall storage and IT architecture and design services in a multivendor agency environment.

The demand for outsourcing services/projects continues whether it’s as a result of an effort to reduce costs, to add value to a specific project requirement or to transform the way IT is funded and provisioned. That I can transform my IT to a more fixed cost, to let me focus on delivering my services and have someone else focus on delivering the platforms and IT services I need for my business or organization, the only issue I have is that everything becomes billable, but interestingly, this can do two things, focus the mind on what it is we actually need in terms of IT, and it can actually work out cheaper or more affordable – for example on the desktop, one of the service providers quoted me £900 a year for a user with Office and a PC supported, they replaced the pc every year because it made the support cheaper for them. If you compare that cost, with how much it might cost you to provision and support a pc using your internal processes with the three year operation way of doing business and you can see the business benefit.

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PEER1

Southampton, UK – June 4, 2009 – PEER 1 Network Enterprises, Inc. (TSX:PIX), a global online IT hosting provider, is offering UK hosting customers a 30% cost-saving guarantee by switching to PEER 1’s UK hosting services*.

PEER 1 recently launched its managed hosting operations in the UK and is using the power of its global SuperNetwork^TM through 21 POPs and 16 data centres worldwide to deliver cost-savings of up to 30% for hosting customers.

The offer includes a free consultation with a PEER 1 Solutions Engineer to review the customer’s current hosting plan and a one-hour consultation with a migration expert to provide planning and analysis if needed. To take-up the offer, which is available until the end of June 2009, hosting customers should call 0800 840 7490 and present a recent invoice from their current hosting provider.

Dominic Monkhouse, UK MD at PEER 1 said: “PEER 1 does hosting differently – we don’t believe customers should be locked into expensive contracts with server capacity they don’t need and SLAs that offer no protection against downtime. For many web businesses, hosting uses over half of their operating IT cost; cutting this back by 30% delivers a serious saving through a straightforward switchover.

“We’re more than happy to put our service where our mouth is,” Monkhouse continues, “PEER 1 is able to make efficiency savings through green servers, we own our own content delivery network and through our extensive peering agreements worldwide, we can offer customers the best terms for hosting in the industry, backed up with our standard 100% uptime guarantee.”

Hosting costs can be an expensive part of your IT services, anything the vendors and service providers can do to reduce the complexity of owning and managing servers as well as reduce the cost has to be a good thing for the end user community.

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