Bladewatch.com

I’ve been reading up on the Cisco blades, they do look cool, during this research, I noticed that there has been a firmware update, I’ve listed the details below, so if you’re testing/running their blades, the B200 M1 blade server for example, the latest firmware is listed below: (as we’ve discussed many a time, firmware/drivers are the first thing vendors ask when logging a call). The hyperlinks below take you to the release notes on the Cisco site.

• System firmware: 0036-191
• Baseboard Management Controller: 1.0(1e)
• Server RAID Controller: 28_06.28_03.12

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Just a quick note about the blog. If you google bladewatch.com, you get:

Bladewatch -tracking blades, grids and virtualization

This site may harm your computer.
Thanks to all who came to bladewatch drinks last night 2009/09/25; Announcement on northern rock bank on sky news check it out 2009/09/23; Finished blogging …
www.bladewatch.com/ – Similar –

The ‘this site may harm your computer” happened today. I got a call from our development team about it, they’ve gone through the source code, the hyperlinks and the content to check it all and everything is fine. We’ve resubmitted the site to google for analysis and this rating should be removed shortly. Apologies, in the meantime the content will continue.

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Video

Our first ever video has been published, it was filmed outside our second round of bladewatch drinks in the city, it features me talking about the blog, why we’ve done the meet-ups and a little introduction to the venue location.

Bladewatch TV – Episode 1 from Mobile Industry Review on Vimeo.

Do check it out. It’s the first of a series of videos that we’ve started to do, under the bladewatch tv category, we’re hoping to start doing interviews/reviews and analysis going forward – this includes some videos of our Dell R710.

We’re thinking of doing a series on virtualization, for that we’ll keep you updated, in the meantime check out episode 1, it was totally un-rehearsed/planned and standing outside where we had our last meet up.

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Cisco

SÃO PAULO, Brazil, September 25, 2009 – Cisco today announced that Ativas Data Center, an Asamar Group company, has invested in a Cisco Nexus^TM 5000 Series switch-based solution to underpin its next-generation data center architecture. Ativas will deploy one of the first data centers in Brazil and in Latin America to adopt one of the most advanced technologies in terms of data center virtualization and connectivity. The facility is planned to start operations in early 2010, in the Minas Gerais Brazilian state.

It’s great to see Cisco continue the innovation of their Nexus range of products, anything they can do to continue reducing latency and enhance functionality has to be a good thing and that it is set to be available for integration with other blade vendors enclosures, brings further choice in connectivity, exciting news, I’m off to read up more about it.

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HP

HP today introduced solutions to help small and midsize businesses (SMBs) improve data security, maximize productivity and minimize business risk while significantly reducing costs and energy use.

The new offerings expand the HP Total Care portfolio, which helps SMBs manage, protect and grow their businesses. “By investing in new IT solutions now, SMBs will be in a stronger position to seize growth opportunities and thrive as the economy rebounds,” said Kathy Chou, vice president, Worldwide Small and Midsize Business Strategy, HP. “With today’s announcement, HP continues to enrich its Total Care offerings to meet the evolving needs of our SMB customers.”

“AMI has surveyed thousands of SMBs in over a dozen countries over the last four quarters, and noted that the current economy has greatly changed the way they purchase technology products and services,” said Anil Miglani, senior vice president, AMI-Partners. “As we exit the global recession, SMBs will try to protect their existing technology investments while making new investments to grow their business and strengthen customer relationships. HP is well-prepared to help SMB customers achieve this balanced growth through its comprehensive Total Care portfolio.”

Anything the vendors can do to lower the cost and improve the accessibility of the technologies has to be a good thing, both in terms of innovation, choice and in onboarding new users and revenue. That small start-up/business could be a very significant business partner in years to come. I’m off to read up about the technologies and solutions, HP have announced as part of this release, which includes storage solutions, financial promotions as well as their HP ProCurve switches, very cool.

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Cisco

SAN JOSE, Calif. – September 25, 2009 – Cisco will host a live Internet TV broadcast and Q&A session to discuss its vision for Data Center 3.0 and how the company’s core technologies and new solutions are mapping to its overall corporate business strategy. As IT organizations strive to cope with rising power requirements, consolidation and mobility issues, Cisco continues to innovate in core technologies such as storage networking and to deliver new solutions such as unified fabrics to help IT organizations solve pressing data center challenges.

Check out this internet broadcast about Data Center 3.0, should be interesting, I’ll need to check it out today, it’s always great to see what’s being spoken about in the data center space.

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SGI

SGI to Debut Octaneâ„¢ III Personal Supercomputer at Intel Developer Forum 2009

Demonstrations of Newly Launched Octane III and CloudRackâ„¢ C2 in Booth #718; SGI Customers Nominated for Itanium Innovation Awards

FREMONT, Calif. — September 22, 2009 — SGI (NASDAQ: SGI) announced today that it will showcase Octaneâ„¢ III, the company’s newly announced personal supercomputer for high-performance computing (HPC) in office environments, and CloudRackâ„¢ C2, its leading data center solution for cluster computing at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) 2009 from September 22 – 24 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

Very cool, it would be great to take a look at these new products, they’d be great for HPC solutions, anything the vendors can do to further the innovation in the HPC/Grid space has to be a good thing, the personal supercomputer sounds very cool, I wonder if that might not be something to look at for that developer hpc platform or where we want to try out concepts and technologies without necessarily subscribing to the corporate grid or hpc platform. I’m off to read up more.

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HPC  Wire

HOPKINTON, Mass., Sept. 14 — EMC Corporation, the world leader in information infrastructure solutions, today expanded its lineup of Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) technology with the introduction of the EMC Connectrix MP-8000B (FCoE) switch. The newest addition to EMC’s Connectrix family of switches and directors enables server and cable consolidation by utilizing the FCoE and Converged Enhanced Ethernet (CEE) standards to transfer data between physical and virtual servers and storage systems over high speed, lossless 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) networks.

An interesting announcement, that the innovation continues as does the competition in the Fibre Channel over Ethernet space has to be a good thing for the end user community and vendors alike not only in terms of revenue, but of innovation of the platform and in business specific solutions. I’m off to check out the news at EMC.

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HP

HP Proliant Support Pack for Microsoft Windows Server 2003
Version: 8.30 (14 Sep 2009)
Enhancements
The release notes for this version of PSP are available at: ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softlib2/software1/doc/p1207614087/v53767

I was looking for drivers for my DL380 G5, and noted that there’s a new Proliant Support Pack (their driver pack) for the server, I’ll install it later today, remember though that firmware, drivers and hot fixes are the first things vendors will ask when logging a call. I noted that there is also new firmware, so I’ll update the spreadsheet later this week, do check out their site for more information.

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Faronics

SAN RAMON, CA, September 17, 2009 – Faronics, an established leader in PC power management software solutions, announced today they will be co-hosting a free webinar next Tuesday, September 22nd at 1:00PM EDT/10:00AM PDT to discuss the potential financial and environmental savings from reducing computer energy consumption. The webinar, hosted in partnership with New Star Energy Services, a Faronics Preferred Partner, will feature guest speaker Doug Washburn, an independent analyst and industry expert with Forrester Research, Inc.

The hour long webinar will further discuss the trends driving PC power management, barriers that impede it, as well as common myths surrounding computer energy conservation. Executives seeking fresh alternatives on saving money without impacting business operations are encouraged to register and participate in this interactive forum, where Washburn will describe the compelling return on investment of PC power management.

Over 1,000 Faronics Power Save customers have already dramatically reduced operating costs by eliminating up to 70% of their computer energy consumption. These savings equate to up to $75,000 annually for every 1,000 computers. With the creation of its PC power management software, Faronics has become a recognized industry leader in reducing enterprise IT energy waste.  Faronics Power Save provides organizations with centralized computer energy management and real-time savings reports, allowing companies to continuously maximize their savings by powering IT down daily.

It’s always great to read about how organizations have saved money using more effective power management and green technology solutions, I’m off to read up about the webinar, it will be interesting to see what Faronics are talking about in this space.

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