Bladewatch.com

CNET

Oracle isn’t letting a pesky EU investigation stand in the way of its planned acquisition of Sun Microsystems.

Larry Ellison, the software giant’s chief executive, is joining Sun’s server chief, John Fowler, to show off some new Sun hardware running Oracle’s software on Tuesday. The companies are touting their “partnership” with a jointly branded “Exadata” system shown in a Webcast invitation sent to press and published by both Oracle and Sun.

“You are invited to attend an exclusive webcast event where Oracle CEO Larry Ellison will unveil an innovative new product, the world’s first OLTP (online transaction processing) database machine with Sun’s brand new FlashFire technology,” the invitation said. “Don’t miss this opportunity to learn firsthand how the partnership between Oracle and Sun can benefit your business now and in the future.”

Check out this article talking about Oracle and Sun announcing some innovations in their product/solution space, very cool, It will be exciting to hear what updates they have, and great news for Sun/Oracle customers and their competitors alike. The more we innovate, the more we can deploy intelligent and innovative systems to meet our clients requirements.

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Reuters

Uncertainty over adequate security and data privacy outweighs other barriers by a wide margin BLUE BELL, Pa.–(Business Wire)– According to an online poll recently conducted by Unisys Corporation (NYSE:UIS), security and data privacy concerns remain the most significant impediment to the adoption of cloud computing among enterprise users.

Of the 312 respondents, 51 percent cited security and data privacy concerns when answering the question, “What do you see as your greatest barrier to moving to cloud?” The next-highest barrier to adoption of cloud computing, cited by 21 percent of the respondents, was integration of cloud-based applications with existing systems.

Concerns about the ability to bring systems back in-house and regulatory/compliance issues were cited by 18 percent and 10 percent of respondents, respectively.

Security will be part of it, though I wonder how much of the security, the operational and cost issues floated will actually be political. Replace me with a service provider, a bought in application or service?

Realistically, abstracting the emotion, the loyalty and any other issues, there is no reason that I can’t buy in the specific services and applications that I need, the virtual machine down the wire from the Internet or a cloud service.  In the EU there are some rules about data which we need to observe, and there will be the corporate sensitivity nature of data, but with the right levels of due diligence coupled with ‘acceptance of the risk’, it becomes more about your willingness to buy-in a service and willingness to pay.

It need not be difficult to buy in a desktop service, or file and print with the right settings and processes in place, but a trading system or an email system, that’s a few steps away from the ‘comfort zone’ of doing everything in house. By internalizing it, I control the cost, I control what is an acceptable operational risk, and I control what is a change, what is a business as usual update to the application code. 

I wonder if for these reasons we might not find internal cloud the way forward, that India runs the world wide desktop and email platform, New York runs the backoffice applications and infrastructure, with London doing middle office and Paris Front office? Could we in essence not have regional/departmental cloud/application services, where I as a business unit commit to the applications and services that I need?

This requires  a change in mind set, not just technically but operationally, all those times I’ve met someone at an American bank, “oh we can’t decide on that, we’ll have to ask New York..”, but when it’s Albert from Ohio that runs your Exchange email platform, how does New York feel about that? Who controls standards and levels of support? What’s urgent in New York, what’s production standard, what’s a core activity is easy when your in the same building, but as we disperse geographically, it’s that bit harder not only to enforce the same standards, but to appreciate what works here might not work in the real world over there. We need to consider technology based service delivery moving away from a chargeback customer driven model, to one based on a service delivery based model – what are your requirements, we’ll provide a platform for that, your code/application or service neeeds to meet these standards for development/tier3/tier2/tier support.

So in future could it be IT.bankname.com which provides your default IT services, file and print/network and storage, with applicationdev.bankname.com doing your support, and bank.com buying services from these companies? Who’s leading who and what would a technology driven infrastructure be like?

Interestingly, it’s the small/medium businesses, those smaller businesses where everyone does everything that are likely to be the quick users, whether it’s grid on demand, a VMware cloud, or just handing ‘those troublesome’ backups over to a provider, they have the flexibility the freedom to say, this isn’t working, let’s see who can do it and move on. In essence, they haven’t the organizational barriers to success in delivery that an enterprise might – “…Have security, Jane from accounts and Nigel from arc welding approved this?”

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Dell.com

Dell announced an Electronic Medical Records (EMR) solution for hospital-affiliated physician practices to accelerate the sharing and meaningful use of digital patient information among hospitals and physician practices. Dell’s EMR solution is sponsored by hospitals for their affiliated physicians and is designed to make it affordable and practical for many more physician practices to transition from paper to electronic records. The EMR solution will also connect the community of physicians and their sponsoring hospitals so that they can harness the power of electronic patient information to improve and coordinate care, help reduce costs and streamline administration across their local healthcare system.

Less than 10 percent of U.S. physicians – many of whom are affiliated with a local hospital– have a fully-functional electronic records system that provides real-time access to patient histories and streamlines practice management with electronic patient registration, scheduling and billing. The potential of EMR to reduce healthcare costs for consumers, employers and the government has made its adoption a foundational plank in the federal government’s plan to reform healthcare and stimulate the U.S. economy. Healthcare providers who adopt EMR and achieve “meaningful use” by 2011 are eligible for bonus payments under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

With the debate on patient care, on being able to get treatment from your General Practioner regardless of where you live (here in the UK), it was at this point I heard discussions about needing linked record systems, an adaptable technical platform to enable doctors/nurses to access records on demand. At the same time, I was on the Dell site seeing what was in the news and came across this post, illustrating how they have announced a new EMR solution, an interesting read do check it out.

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3Tera

Aliso Viejo , CA — September 14, 2009 — 3Tera ®, Inc., the leading innovator of cloud computing technology and utility computing services, announces today thatthat KDDI, Japan’s second largest telecommunications carrier, is using 3Tera’s AppLogic cloud computing platform to deliver the next generation IT platform through their new “KDDI Cloud Server Service” offering.

“Cloud Computing technology is quickly transforming computing into a utility, making Telcos logical providers for cloud services,” said Barry X Lynn, Chairman and CEO, 3Tera, Inc. “KDDI has a reputation of technology innovation and leadership, so being at the core of their cloud service is a big recognition for the capability of 3Tera’s AppLogic cloud computing platform.”

IDC Japan’s Senior Communications Market Analyst, Akiko Kawakami, points out in her report, ‘KDDI’s Next Generation IT Infrastructure “Cloud Server Service”: Will It Accelerate User Migration to Managed Services?’ (IDC. August, 2009): “The field of Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) is receiving much momentum from the fact that no IT assets are needed and it alleviates the work involved in the procurement and introduction of IT infrastructure. IDC believes that KDDI’s new service has what it takes to fulfill the expectations of user companies embracing cloud services.”

I remain a fan of 3Tera and was on their site when I read this, check out this article talking about how this telecommunications company is using their platform for a next generation IT offering. It’s always great to see how the technologies are being used, for what business purpose and at the same time, see an illustration of cloud computing in production (so to speak), so do check it out.

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PRNewswire

PITTSBURGH, Sept. 14 /PRNewswire/ — Avere Systems, a startup company focused on delivering Demand-Driven Storage solutions, announced it has secured $15 million in Series A funding from Menlo Ventures and Norwest Venture Partners. Avere is pioneering the use of multiple storage media in a new scalable architecture that provides enterprise storage customers with breakthrough reductions in cost, space and power.

(Logo:http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090914/LA74693LOGO)

Avere founders were members of the visionary team that created Spinnaker Networks, an innovator in scalable grid storage solutions, acquired by NetApp, Inc. in 2004 for $300 million. Avere’s founder and CEO Ron Bianchini, most recently Senior Vice President, Scalable Systems at NetApp and CEO of Spinnaker Networks, reunited with CTO Michael Kazar and VP of Engineering Daniel Nydick to form Avere in January 2008. Joining these three to round out the management team are: CFO John Dean, another Spinnaker alumni; VP Sales Brian Gladden, storage veteran and former NetApp colleague; and VP Marketing Rebecca Thompson.

Very interesting, I’ll need to check out Avere Systems, anything that can be done to further what we can do with the storage both in terms of functionality, efficiency or price has to be a good thing.

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HP.com

HP today unveiled new PC designs that reflect its design philosophy of balancing material selection, product usability and sensory input to deliver a superior PC experience.

Among the new products announced:

• The HP Mini 110 by Studio Tord Boontje, the first companion PC from the critically acclaimed Dutch designer, features the industry’s first three-dimensional PC surface technology.
• The HP ENVY series is a new line of hand-crafted premium notebooks that is designed to delight even the most demanding consumers.
• The HP Pavilion dm3 entertainment notebook gives consumers the perfect balance of mobility and performance in an affordable “thin and light” notebook PC. Its meticulously clean design and iconic keyboard are enhanced by the brushed aluminum-magnesium alloy case. Select dm3 configurations deliver up to 10 hours of battery life.⁽¹⁾
• World-renowned designer Vivienne Tam and HP unveiled the design of her spring 2010 digital clutch on the catwalk during New York’s Fashion Week at Bryant Park on Sept. 12.
• The HP ProBook 5310m, the world’s thinnest full-performance notebook⁽²⁾ combines durable, black-anodized aluminum with a magnesium frame, wrapped in soft-touch paint that offers its sophisticated design at an affordable price.

“Design is not just about what the computer looks like or even what it does for us. It’s also about the experience of using the PC and ultimately what the computer says about us,” said Stacy Wolff, director of notebook design, Personal Systems Group, HP. “We look at every opportunity to design the ‘wow’ that people value in a PC – that surprises, delights and fulfills.”

Very cool, I’ll need to check out these notebooks, when I last went to a Dell event, I got to play with their Adamo and I loved it, it reminded me of the Titanium PowerBook, the build quality and finish were outstanding, I wonder what the HP ones will be like?

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Finextra

US Bank is rolling out IBM’s Lotus Web 2.0 collaboration technology in a bid to improve staff communication and promote innovation.

The bank has already begun deploying Lotus Quickr, a file-sharing repository with social networking capabilities that allows employees to find and share insight through a variety of communication channels, including e-mails, instant messages, blogs, and wikis.

When the installation is complete in 2010, Quickr will help US Bank’s 58,000 employees more easily find and share intelligence in the digital haystack, says IBM.

Using collaboration tools and new technologies to improve internal communication can transform the way the enterprise interacts and communicates, how we can transform the user experience from one of departmental ownership and direct lines of communication, to partnerships, information exchange and empowerment, very cool, I’m off to read more.

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Finextra

Citi has enlisted the services of Microsoft for the development of its new online corporate banking service, which was launched at the annual Sibos event in Hong Kong.

The CitiDirect BE platform will be based on Microsoft’s Office SharePoint Server 2007 and will serve the bank’s corporate and public sector clients. It will also be available as a white labelled service for Citi’s banking customers.

Following its launch, Citi plans to phase in a series of subsequent releases over the next 18 to 24 months that will feature an array of Microsoft services and applications.

It’s interesting to note that the platform is based on Microsoft’s Office SharePoint Server 2007, and that it will also be white labelled for it’s existing customers, do check it out.

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Thales Group

Weston, FL and Long Crendon, UK – 15 September 2009: Thales, leader in information systems and communications security, announces that its Datacryptor high-speed SONET/SDH and Ethernet Layer 2 hardware-based network encryptors have received Common Criteria Evaluation Assurance Level (EAL) 3 certification, ensuring customers have the utmost confidence in the range of advanced cryptographic solutions.

“Governments and enterprise businesses face unprecedented challenges in ensuring the confidentiality of data as it is processed and exchanged across data centers and the use of cryptography in the form of encryption offers the most convenient way to protect sensitive data in transit over high-speed backhaul and backbone connections,” says Franck Greverie, Vice President, Managing Director for the information systems security activities of Thales. “Thales has long championed best practices and industry standards and Common Criteria certification for our Datacryptor products demonstrates our commitment to achieving internationally recognized standards and compliance requirements. It is vital that our customers have a high level of confidence in the products they buy and independent review of a product’s security properties is a powerful tool in building that confidence.”

Anything we can do to improve the security of the network and the other parts of the infrastructure has to be a good thing for the end user community, managing the need for such security will depend on the nature of your businesses and applications, but the more we innovate in this space, the more opportunities that can be realized in securing the relevant parts of the network in line with the business need.

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Reuters

LONDON and SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — 15 September 2009 — ScanSafe, the pioneer and leading provider of SaaS Web security, today announced that going forward Orange Business Services will offer ScanSafe’s best-of-breed technology to its customers.

“We are delighted to work with such a well regarded and forward thinking business as Orange.  The channel has always been a strong component of our business and this new distribution agreement will accelerate our continued growth into the enterprise space”, comments Eldar Tuvey, CEO at ScanSafe.  “Security is an increasingly critical issue and delivering Web security as a SaaS service ensures that Orange customers are protected from the growing number of Web threats at an affordable and predictable cost.”

ScanSafe’s agreement with Orange Business Services has already proved successful with a multi-national chemical corporation choosing to implement the most scalable SaaS Web security solution.  With 45,000 employees dispersed across 80 countries, the organisation required an effective solution which was completely scalable and easily deployed and maintained across the global spread of its businesses.

The security of your data, your business is integrated to that of your web platforms, let us not forget that a site going down can not only be the difference between earning revenue and not, it can also lead to a loss of faith or trust in your business, particularly as you start involving credit card/debit card payment transactions. The ScanSafe solution sounds interesting, I’m off to read more.

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