Servers

More than 250 mainframe customers have switched in last two years, says HP

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:21:07 -0500

Hewlett Packard announced that it has helped more than 250 customers, from around the world, to switch from mainframe to its own Integrity-based servers. While not a huge figure, the dollars represented by these numbers do stack up over the years--especially since there are only about 10,000 mainframes in use in the world today. Indeed, HP has been giving away free NonStop-Integrity blade to interested companies who run mainframes since June this year. HP contents that customers can save up to 70 percent by getting away from the mainframe to its Integrity-based servers. No doubt it hopes to grab the attention of organizations who might be reevaluating their hardware line up in these hard times.

To read more about this story:
- check out this article at The Register

Survey: One in four DNS servers still vulnerable to Kaminsky hack

Paul Mah — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 05:09:14 -0500

A survey by Infoblox shows that a staggering 10 percent of DNS servers, or one in ten, are still vulnerable to the cache-poisoning hack discovered by security researcher Dan Kaminsky. Another 1.3 million nameservers are shown to be trivially vulnerable. Article

Rejection of $700B Wall Street bailout slows house server to a crawl

Paul Mah — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 01:23:11 -0400

As the House of Representative narrowly rejected the $700 billion Wall Street bailout bill on Monday, another kind of carnage occurred amid the ensuing stock market plunges around the world; millions of visitors seeking pertinent information slowed the 10 servers running the House's official website to a crawl. A spokesman for these servers noted that technicians will be working through the night to handle the massive increase in traffic. Indeed, some other sites that monitor U.S. legislation, such as GovTrack.us, have taken such a beating that they were shut down temporarily. Other sites, such as those for the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, also saw traffic surge immediately following the rejection of the bailout bill.

To read up more about this story:
- check out this article from The Register

Dell sees IT market softening

Judi Hasson — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 21:03:41 -0400

The news was not good from Dell. The company this week warned that demand for its computers and servers is down, reflecting the soft market for technology equipment worldwide. "We saw a very weak August," Dell's chief financial officer, Brian T. Gladden, said this week at a Bank of America investors conference in San Francisco. Prior to this announcement, Dell said last month that weakness in spending in the United States had carried over to Europe and Asia.

The New York Times reported that only about 20 percent of Dell's revenue comes from consumers. Gladden said a big hit has come from a decline in purchases by small and medium-size businesses and the federal government. Dell also reported weaknesses in Britain and southern Europe, and problems selling in China.

For more on Dell's market analysis:
- check out the New York Times article

Servers going green save energy

Judi Hasson — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 15:24:48 -0400

With energy prices on the rise, every CIO of a small and medium sized business wants to cut power and cooling costs, and PCWorld.com reports that it's no farther away than the electrical outlets in your server room. Most offices operate on 120 volt outlets, which has become standard for severs. But simply running equipment on 208 volts produces less current, is more efficient and allows more power to enter the server.

"Once an IT manager recognizes that 208V is an option, the next step is to call in an electrician in to rewire the office space to support 208V in selected locations,'' said Katie Mroczka of PCWorld. "Moving to 208V eliminates the need to purchase a transformer to step down load of high capacity equipment to 120V which not only saves money, but also space in the server rack. Existing servers with 120V can easily be upgraded to 208V just by purchasing an inexpensive power cord.''

For more on saving energy:
- check out this PCWorld.com article

Home Depot snags eBay's CTO

Judi Hasson — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:05:50 -0400

Home improvement retailer Home Depot has gone outside its ranks to hire a new CIO, Matt Carey, to replace Bob DeRodes. Carey will will join the Atlanta-based home improvement retailer on Sept. 8, following a stint as eBay's chief technology officer. He's moving from one giant to the other, and although the title is slightly different, the mission is the same: Keep technology moving.

Prior to his time at eBay, Carey spent more than 20 years with Wal-Mart, where he managed the rollout of their wireless RF infrastructure, was responsible for the company's mainframe large systems and data warehouse, and led the implementation and integration of wal-mart.com and samsclub.com.

For more on this surprise move:
- see this Atlanta Business Chronicle article

Developing a wise technology strategy

Judi Hasson — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 16:55:55 -0400

A technology strategy is just not about determining what servers or networks should be deployed. It requires a framework to deploy a set of business applications. CIOupdate.com advises that there are three things CIOs need to know when developing a technology strategy: An in-depth understanding of the business strategies the company is pursuing; a vision of how technology will add value to business processes; and technology use principles.

Business strategy is key, with the publication noting that "building a technology strategy without understanding the business strategy is like building a dam in a dry gully and hoping it will rain. You might get a lake, but more likely you'll get a muddy pond.''

It is important to choose technology that is efficient, meets the needs of the user and provides a competitive advantage. And the technology principles chosen must be understood by technical and non-technical users, and focused on reliability, consistency, and maintainability.

For more advice:
- see this CIOupdate.com article

How to avoid server remorse

Judi Hasson — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 23:15:26 -0400

Purchasing a new server or servers is a key business decision for IT professionals. You need to know how much processing power and storage capacity is required, and must be able to provide the right infrastructure for your company. But it is easy to slip up, spending huge sums on technology that either doesn't work the way you anticipated or is quickly outmoded. Inc.com has some basic tips to avoid server purchasing mistakes, and to help you prepare to make that big purchase pay off.

One key piece of advice: Don't think short-term by underestimating capacity and buying too small. Another suggestion: Be aware, in advance, of what people, tools and processes will be key to keeping the server running. The experts also suggest not loading up essential data on one server in the event of a breakdown, knowing your server's power needs and planning for environmental requirements, including temperature controls.

For details on purchasing pitfalls:
- Check out this Inc.com article

IBM turning to water for cooling its processors

Paul Mah — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 04:55:05 -0400

IBM, this week, demonstrated how it uses water to cool three-dimensional stacks of processors. While still years away from production, this technology could well be implemented for its multicore servers as early as 2013. This method is heralded as being able to reduce power consumption as well as dramatically improve performance, but brings along with it intractable heating and cooling issues. By creating 50-micron channels between stacked chips, IBM is able to cool down the stack at a rate of 180 watts per layer.

The company obviously believes that water cooling is the ideal solution to stacking processors together. In fact, IBM's paper on this topic, "Forced convective interlayer cooling in vertically integrated packages," received a Best Paper award at an IEEE conference.

For more on water-cooled processors:
- check out this The Register article

Olympics IT in final stages

Thu, 15 May 2008 06:59:59 -0400

The Beijing Olympics are a massive undertaking, and IT services to support the event are a big part of the effort. Atos Origin is the worldwide IT partner for the Olympic Games, overseeing the infrastructure that features 10,000 PCs, 1,000 servers and 5,000 results systems terminals. The system includes a suite of applications for managing the games and publishing the results of events, and is protected by state-of-the-art security.

The IT experts and their teams now are moving from the development of the technology to the testing and operational phases with the games less than 100 days away.

To read more about tech and the China games:
- see this silicon.com article