Bladewatch.com

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dell-names-john-swainson-president-of-new-software-group-2012-02-02

ROUND ROCK, Texas, Feb 02, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) — –Expanded software focus will extend Dell ability to improve customers’ productivity

Dell today announced the appointment of John Swainson to serve as President, Software Group, effective March 5, 2012. Mr. Swainson will report to Michael Dell, chairman and CEO of Dell.

The Software Group will build on Dell’s software capabilities and provide greater innovation and organizational support to create a more competitive position in delivering end-to-end IT solutions to customers. The organization will add to Dell’s enterprise solutions capability, accelerate profitable growth and further differentiate the company from competitors by increasing its solutions portfolio with Dell-owned intellectual property.

I look forward to seeing what this will bring to Dell’s software offering and what innovations we will see in the market place, anything Dell can do to reduce complexity, improve systems management and make the technology more accessible to customers has to be a good thing. I’m off to read up more.

http://www.itworldcanada.com/news/clues-about-hps-gen8-servers-leaked/144826

NEW YORK — Hewlett-Packard has let slip some details on its website about its upcoming Proliant Gen8 servers ahead of their official launch.

The pages list basic details of single- and dual-socket BL, ML and DL Gen8 servers, which will be based on Intel’s upcoming Xeon E5 processors.

One system, the single-socket ProLiant BL460c, is a small-form-factor server based on Intel’s E5-2650L processor.

Some servers will have HP’s latest networking, I/O, storage and management capabilities, according to results that show up during a search of HP’s website. The pages the results are supposed to lead to have been removed from the site.

HP declined to comment about the servers or their potential launch date. The company is holding a big event in Las Vegas Feb. 13 to share news about “ground-breaking, new enterprise technology and services that redefine customer data center experiences and economics,” according to an invite. Dave Donatelli, executive vice president and general manager of HP Enterprise Servers, Storage, Networking and Technology Services, is expected to speak at the event.

The Gen8 servers will eventually replace the Proliant G7 family, which was introduced in March 2010 and is based on x86 processors from Intel and Advanced Micro Devices.

As a self confessed HP Proliant fan (having been using them since 2002), it’s always interesting to hear what news we will see from the announcement and release of the Generation 8 Proliant servers, this article has some hints. Anything the vendors can do to improve the connectivity, the energy efficiency and reduce the complexity of day to day management has to be some key drivers for me.

http://www.cio.co.uk/news/3335263/government-sets-up-48bn-it-hardware-framework/

The Government Procurement Service has announced its plans to create a £4.8 billion framework contract for IT hardware and solutions.

The framework is intended for use across government, including central government, local government, UK public sector bodies and NHS bodies.

Under the two-year contract, the government expects to sign up suppliers to provide a range of hardware and solutions, including desktop devices, laptop devices, tablet devices, printer devices, server and storage hardware and services and other ICT related equipment.

Managing and delivering an IT infrastructure across government agencies, locations and lines of business or budgets and requirements is always going to be a challenge. It will be interesting to read about these plans and see where savings and service improvements can be made, ideally we want to be going for the following set of principles:

• Commodity in terms of hardware, using industry standard components and solutions to enable automation
• Common platforms, middleware and standards, a move towards standard tools and technologies to achieve common goals
• Data frameworks and common application design standards for the easy exchange of information between systems and applications, XML, database etc
• Support and rules of engagement – virtual desktop, renew and refresh rather than long term ownership to avoid the ‘dependent on’ Windows XP type scenarios.

http://www.broadcom.com/press/release.php?id=s646274

Broadcom Introduces World’s First Microwave Outdoor Unit on a Chip

Delivers Unparalleled Performance and Integration to Microwave Backhaul

IRVINE, Calif., Feb. 6, 2012  /PRNewswire/ –

News Highlights:

• Combines functionality of up to 10 standard products
• Single chip solution for both microwave split-mount and full/all outdoor units
• Dramatically reduces size, complexity, production cost and power consumption

Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM), a global innovation leader in semiconductor solutions for wired and wireless communications, today introduced the world’s first microwave outdoor unit (ODU) on a chip. With unparalleled integration, the BCM85810 combines the functionality of up to 10 off-the-shelf chips, dramatically reducing the size, complexity, production cost and power consumption of microwave radio frequency units (RFUs). See how Broadcom is powering the mobile network at Mobile World Congress 2012 February 27 to March 1 at Fira Montjuic in Barcelona. Visit www.broadcom.com to learn more.

This does sound cool interesting, I’m going to check out the announcement on the Broadcom site, I wonder what range of technologies and products we might see as a result of this announcement.

http://www.loginvsi.com/en/product-overview

Performance is one of the most important aspects of a good user infrastructure. But are you able to predict the impact of necessary updates and upgrades in advance? How do you select the SBC or VDI product that offers the best performance in your environment? Do you find out the maximum capacity of your current systems? And how do you know for sure if your new system is powerful enough for your needs?

Login Virtual Session Indexer (Login VSI) is a unique benchmarking tool to measure the performance and scalability of centralized desktop environments such as Server Based Computing (SBC) and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI).

Performance and service level agreements are an important concept and consideration in managing users expectations as we move to a more virtualized and centralized desktop offering, I came across this offering from Login VSI, I’m off to read up more, do check it out.

We bought using the company credit card a HP MicroServer from ServersPlus.com in a bundle which included a 4GB memory chip in the box as well as a USB stick with VMware ESXi 4.1 and a DVD writer drive for £320, a virtualisation or smb bundle so it had everything you need to get started either with virtualization or as a file server.

The specifications are as follows:

Processor – AMD Athlon™ II NEO N36L
Memory support 8 GB with two slots
Expansion slots
1 half-height, half-length PCIe x16 Gen 2
1 half-height, half-length PCIe x1 Gen 2
Network Controller – 1GbE NC107i 1 Port
Storage – Maximum drive bays (4) LFF SATA
Supported drives – Non-hot plug 3.5-inch SATA
Storage Controller – Integrated 4 port SATA RAID

Also for Marjorie, our MicroServer we added as above:

4GB memory upgrade

DVD writer drive

ESXi on a USB stick

I love the HP MicroServer, I like the form factor and the fact that a remote management card is available. The specification with it’s on board RAID controller support, the four drive bays gives ample room for upgrading capacity or enabling RAID. The standard machine (the one we purchased) came with a 250GB drive which is enough to get started if we keep in mind the atypical usage scenario a file/print server, or small application or virtualization test bed.  The processor is not the fastest though adequate, 1GB RAM is getting rather low these days, but the memory can be easily upgraded and is not very expensive. Crucially though we do have to appreciate usage and the target market and features deliverable at a certain price point.

I started quite a debate with a few colleagues when asking their opinions and stating that I felt that the DVD drive should be standard, I got both responses of agreement and me missing the point completely. For the first server for that SMB using a desktop as a server absolutely migrating them, they will probably need to load their linux or Windows CD/DVD and install the operating system, but as my architect friend said, for everyone else doing VMware ESX, I have the USB on a stick I don’t want to pay for an optical drive that I probably wont use or need.

It remains a great start, it creates opportunities both as a server, as a network storage device running a range of operating systems from Microsoft Windows XP through to Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Foundation or Linux, I praise HP for the concept, for the innovation and will continue to praise the concept of a user accessible (both on price and features) server, the more entrants and innovation we have, the better as we saw recently with Fujitsu’s entrance to the market with their alternative.

With that we will award the MicroServer 8 out of 10, it does exactly what it says on the box and for many users and small businesses where a desktop is the server, this represents a great start which we here at Bladewatch are happy to recognize, well done.

Going forward for all those looking for a virtualization in a box solution, we hope and dream that version two includes maybe a more powerful processor and an optical drive? We’ll have to wait and see..

HP MicroServer likes:

• Small form factor and Quiet
• Specification is good and supports several drives
• Support for lights out with their separate PCI slot card
• Many USB ports and support for eSATA
• On board support for ESXi is fantastic and makes it an ideal test lab

HP MicroServer hesitations:

• DVD drive should be included in the base model even if it’s only a reader (some colleagues thought I was missing the point when I mentioned this)
• Form factor is great but could it put people off working on it or upgrading it in the ultra SMB space? Though fitting disks is relatively easy

Fujitsu Primergy MX130 S1 likes:

• I love the fact that a keyboard is included sure in the office, we would typically have one, but it just shows attention to detail – here’s your server get started
• Quite powerful processor, more so than the MicroServer
• Familiar form factor – getting your desktop guy to fit a disk or do maintenance should not be too hard, it looks very similar
• Many USB ports and DVI which will work with your atypical desktop purchased recently

Fujitsu Primergy MX130 S1 hesitations::

Rather desktop looking in some respects I want it more server based – but does that target market?

Lack of remote management features – again does that target market need that option?

Hard drive is extra on base model – again colleagues told me that I was missing the point when I mentioned this.

It could be easier to fit hard drives, in the HP you just slot them into the custom made bays

http://www.dell.co.uk

BRACKNELL, UK, April 14, 2011 – Small and medium businesses today are deluged with data that is overwhelming their existing technology infrastructures.  To help these growing businesses thrive in the “Virtual Era” where multi-media content, multiple access points and devices are the norm, Dell today introduced new server, storage and networking offerings.

First Server —Dell’s PowerEdge T110 II and R210 II

Dell today introduced a guide to servers made easy – a roadmap for entrepreneurs as they contemplate purchasing either their first server or expanding their IT infrastructure with new servers.  In addition to online resources, Dell is introducing refreshed value servers with the right balance of performance, flexible features and business value to meet the needs of small to midsized businesses and branch offices – the entry-level PowerEdge T110 II and mid-level PowerEdge R210 II.

Both have the performance and features to run business applications that facilitate data coordination and sharing, protection, management and scalability to support business growth with features such as choice of processors to meet performance needs with new Intel® Xeon® processor E3-1200 product family, the Intel® Core™ i3-2100 product family and Intel® Pentium® processors, 4 DIMM slots with enough memory to handle common applications and the full Dell OpenManage suite of systems management for ease of maintenance.

Storage Within Reach – The PowerVault NX3500 / MD3600i

According to IDC, the capacity of storage systems shipped in the fourth quarter of 2010 grew more than 55 percent from a year earlier with demand for bytes growing even during the recession.¹ With this data explosion in mind, Dell today unveiled two new storage offerings that help customers reduce complexity and increase the availability of their data to help their businesses run smarter.

The PowerVault NX3500, featuring the Dell Scalable File System, provides affordable scale-up Network Attached Storage (NAS) functionality for smaller scale, high availability deployments. The system works with PowerVault MD32x0i and MD36x0i storage arrays to help provide affordable unified storage with iSCSI, CIFS and NFS access to block and file data. With no architectural limits to file-system size, it is designed to give customers more flexibility than traditional unified storage. Integrating next-generation high performance, highly optimized file system technology from Exanet, Dell Scalable File System, delivers the first unified storage solution in Dell’s PowerVault iSCSI storage array product series. The NX3500 also offers affordable data protection features, including snapshots, replication and NDMP backup support.

The PowerVault MD3600i is an Ethernet-based (10GbE) storage device that is designed to deliver exceptional storage capacity to small and midsize businesses without sacrificing performance or flexibility. With an intuitive multi-generational management interface the MD3600i can be installed in under 30 minutes. Growing businesses with limited technical and financial resources can keep up with data growth, Web and media demands while reducing server sprawl by virtualizing infrastructure applications. The system also provides medium-sized businesses with remote offices a cost-effective way to support virtualized infrastructures leveraging 10GbE Ethernet to improve limited or slow data migration between home and remote office locations. Lastly, the MD3600i continues to maintain the uncompromising value of being able to share common components with our PowerEdge server line (i.e. hard drives) expediting installation and deployments for our SMB customers.

Networking

To help supplement Dell’s new server and storage offerings, the company recently launched new 5500 and 7000 PowerConnect switch families to enable technology infrastructures where scalability, flexibility and value are key requirements. Both families implement innovative technology features to streamline deployment, simplify management and help reduce operating costs with power-saving Energy Efficient Ethernet (IEEE 802.3az) design and Power-over-Ethernet operation.

The PowerConnect 7000 family is designed to deliver scalable performance and enhanced functionality for midsized business deployments, distributed offices and large server farms. Businesses benefit from high availability wire-speed performance and simplified management of multiple switches with a single IP address, enabling them to power business applications while maintaining flexibility and control of the network. The 7000 series delivers the connectivity to support the new PowerEdge R210 servers in addition to seamless, automated provisioning and iSCSI operation with Dell’s EqualLogic storage arrays.

The PowerConnect 5500 series enables a superb solution to basic, non-managed Gigabit Ethernet switches deployed in small-to-medium offices and remote locations, which require rapid wire-speed deployment with flexible features. Efficient energy operation and simplified switch configuration can reduce operating costs while providing customers cost-effective performance they need to scale with their growing business needs.

Anything the vendors can do to improve the accessibility to platforms such as virtualization or the ability to deploy new technologies to empower their business has to be a good thing. Making the technology more accessible not only in terms of finance but in operations, in management and support remains key to on boarding new customers, not only for businesses themselves but the vendor and their eco-systems alike, the service providers and partners. The more we on board the small businesses, the more range of opportunities for revenue generation we create, the more different end user requirements we come across remembering that an issue affecting one small business could equally be of value to the next enterprise we encounter albeit in possibly a different footprint or package. Great news from Dell, I’m off to read up more, particularly about their storage and networking solutions as well as their servers.

http://www.thegreengrid.org/ or

London, 05 April 2011 – The Green Grid has given its endorsement to the Green Award for Sustainability in Data Centres, to be presented at the annual Data Centres in Europe Awards which takes place on June 2nd in London (www.datacentres.com/awards2011).

Now in its fourth year, the Awards ceremony and dinner provides another exceptional platform for the data centre industry which is expanding exponentially across locations in Europe, eastern and central Europe. In 2011, the European awards will again provide new benchmarks of aspiration for the companies nominated, and world class recognition for winners.

Winners achieve significant marketing differentiation and credibility because of the independence of the panel of Judges, robust scrutiny of awards nominations, and their relevance to today’s changing conditions in a continually evolving market.

Mark Munroe, the Green Grid’s Executive Director will present the Award on 2nd June. In 2011, the European awards ceremony will be held this year in London, and will offer an international event to celebrate the technical and commercial success of the data centre industry in Europe in the following award categories:

• New Data Centre Award 2011
• Enterprise Data Centre Award 2011
• Colocation Award 2011
• Wholesale Data Centre Award 2011
• Facilities Management for Data Centres Award 2011
• Cloud Services Award 2011 Managed Services Award 2011
• The Green Grid Award for Sustainability European Award for Energy Efficiency in Data Centres
• Data Centre Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2011
• The Data Centre Award for Change and Innovation 2011

“Efficiency in data centres is now a critical requirement for all businesses. However, the Green Grid also considers resource efficiency and increasing the sustainability of natural resources in developing enterprise infrastructure as a wider objective. In endorsing the Green Award for Sustainability at this year’s Data Centres in Europe Awards, we hope to encourage companies to aspire to achieve these exemplary goals.”

These award events are interesting in the respect that its great to hear which vendors or service providers are gaining recognition or award and for what, whether its in specific areas, how they are making achievements in efficiency and continuing to keep the lights on so to speak. Keeping that balance of energy efficiency with business empowerment remains a challenge for many either directly for the IT teams managing data center capacity with business needs, the facilities teams managing power distribution and load, or the corporate social responsibilities teams trying to illustrate, document and manage the corporate message within this space. The more we discuss the challenges, the more we discuss opportunities for savings for better work practices or a new way of thinking.

http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2011/110411a.html

HP today announced the HP ePrint service App for iPhone is now available on the App Store.

Now millions of iPhone users can search for and download the app to unlock the power of the HP ePrint Enterprise solution on their device. The HP ePrint Enterprise solution allows users to print within their enterprise network via an HP Managed Print Services engagement, and users can also download the HP ePrint service App to print at thousands of HP ePrint Mobile Print Locations worldwide, including FedEx Office® and Hilton Worldwide.⁽¹⁾

“By 2014, 90 percent of global Fortune 1000 companies will implement cloud printing services for mobile personnel,⁽²⁾ showing what HP has known for years – mobility is not a trend, it’s a way of life,” said Bruce Dahlgren, senior vice president, Managed Enterprise Solutions, Imaging and Printing Group, HP. “We are committed to anticipating our customer needs and delivering innovative solutions like HP ePrint Enterprise for our enterprise customers that need simple, secure mobile access to printing.”

This is very cool, anything we can do to join up the dots, free users to support a range of devices whilst keeping them within the corporate framework for compliance and security has to be good news, I wonder what will be coming up next on the horizon.