emc

Cisco CEO: We don’t need to own VMware

Paul Mah — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 05:16:08 -0400

At a round-table discussion, Cisco CEO John Chambers declared that "Our ideal acquisition is 100 engineers with a product just about to come to market." He said that in reaction to questions posed by reporters on whether Cisco would try to acquire either storage giant EMC or virtualization leader VMware, of which EMC already owns a majority stake. He further elaborated that the margins "aren't good" when it comes to storage devices, probably lending fuel to opponents who have long decried Cisco hardware for being overpriced. Still, Cisco will continue broadening its relationship with key players in the data center such as EMC, VMware and even IBM.

For more about what James Chamber said:
- check out this Network World article

Google adds experimental options to Gmail; Second release candidate of Firefox3 out;

Paul Mah — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 01:01:55 -0400

> Virtualizing onto a mainframe. Article
> IBM adds in-memory database option to DB2 and Informix. Article
> Sun, EMC adopt different strategies in SSD battle. Article
> Google adds experimental options to Gmail. Article
> Intel fined by South Korea's antitrust regulator for $25.4M. Article
> Second release candidate of Firefox3 out. Article

And Finally... Panasonic launches new range of plasma TVs with web connectivity. Article

Intel to sell Home Server, sans Windows

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 06:59:53 -0500

If you've been following Windows Home Server hardware closely, you've likely noticed by now that the Home Server models from Velocity Micro and Fujitsu Siemens look suspiciously similar. That's because they're both based on a Home Server reference design that Intel developed and made available to other OEMs. As it turns out, Intel has decided to get in on the Home Server action as well and will offer this same hardware to consumers, under the name Intel Entry Storage System. There will be two models: the SS2400-E is an EMC-powered fully functioning NAS with included software while the SS2400-EHW is a hardware-only product. Both machines should be able to serve as more than adequate Windows Home Servers, should you decide to supply your own copy of the OS. According to Intel, these black boxes will ship in December, starting at $500.

For more on the Intel Entry Storage System:
- see this press release

IT Consortium Explores Need for Service Innovation

Sun, 03 Jun 2007 20:01:39 -0400

A new IT consortium was recently launched to raise awareness of the need for service innovation and to increase the level of funding for services research. Dubbed the Services Research and Innovation Initiative, participating companies include IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and EMC, among others. The consortium held its first symposium last week in Santa Clara, CA with approximately 200 IT professionals attending. Speakers included Geoffrey Moore, author of "Crossing the Chasm" and "Dealing with Darwin"; Sophie Vandebroek, president of Xerox Innovation; and Irving Wladawsky-Berger, vice president of Technical Strategy and Innovation for IBM. J.B. Wood, president and CEO of the Technology Professional Services Association, one of the key sponsors of SRII, told attendees that over the last eight years, the U.S. IT sector has become significantly more service-oriented, rather than product-oriented.

For more on the symposium:
- see this eWeek article

Managing content

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 20:01:38 -0400

In most companies, information is scattered everywhere--in databases, in applications used by one or two divisions, in individual documents, and in a variety of spreadsheets. The sheer amount of content streaming through midmarket firms is creating a need for managing it, and enterprise content management (ECM) is one way to do that. Not only does an ECM system help facilitate content reuse and sharing among department, but it has implications for compliance, legal discovery and cost savings. But it's not cheap. Companies can spend from $2 to $10 on professional services for each $1 they spend on software. Organizations that spend $100,000 on a moderately priced ECM package can expect to spend considerably more to get the software up and running. They also tend to be complex. To make it work, define business goals and tie projects to money-making opportunities. Linking projects to specific benefits is a way to limit the size of projects so that they don't quickly spiral out of control. ECM vendors include Open Text, Interwoven, Oracle, EMC, Microsoft, Alfresco Software, Nuxeo, Docubase Systems, Hyland Software, Laserfiche and Perceptive Software.

To get more about enterprise content management:
- read the article at CIO Decisions

Related Article:
How ECM can cure multiple tech ills. Report

Industry backs XML spec for IT management

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 20:01:39 -0400

Web specs come and go, but it's not often that you see a laundry list of industry heavyweights getting behind a spec for IT management. But that's exactly what's brewing: Microsoft, IBM, Cisco Systems, Dell, EMC, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Sun and others are throwing their collective weight behind the Service Modeling Language, or SML--a W3C-authored XML spec that's designed to help IT departments track machines and services on the corporate network. Here's how it works: IT managers use chunks of XML data to build a schema of their network and since that data is standardized through SML, third-party developers can provide the user with any number of tools to aid in managing that data. What's more, the companies involved have been kind enough to grant the W3C "perpetual, nonexclusive, royalty-free, world-wide right and license" to the spec, meaning that it should remain nice and open for the conceivable future.

For more in-depth info on how the SML spec works:
- see this Ars Technica article

Cisco acquires WebEx for $3.2B

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 20:01:39 -0400

Flush with cash and confidence, Cisco today took the wraps of a deal to buy online conferencing company WebEx for $3.2 billion in a bid to secure the hearts and minds of the SMB market. During a press conference this morning, Cisco executives said the WebEx service is a key product for small and medium-size businesses. While Cisco already offers collaboration tools for the high-end of the market, WebEx's hosted service provides collaboration tools to smaller organizations that do not want to buy expensive software and hardware required to host on their own network.

The Webex news comes on the heels of an announcement yesterday to purchase NeoPath, Cisco's sixth storage company acquisition. Cisco plans to incorporate NeoPath's technology into its Services Oriented Network Architecture. It is seen by observers as another Cisco step to develop the growing "file-virtualization market." Other vendors, including Brocade and EMC have acquired file-virtualization vendors and integrated the capabilities into already existing product sets.

For more:
- check out this report
- and this article from NetworkWorld

Look out for SML

Sun, 04 Feb 2007 19:01:38 -0500

SML may be the most useful standard you've never heard of. The Service Modeling Language standard, an XML-based schema to define information about hardware, software, applications and services, aims to improve information-sharing among third-party IT management products. Backed by many large vendors including Cisco, IBM, Dell, EMC, Microsoft and Sun, SML will make it easier to share information between disparate IT tools and will provide a foundation for automating common tasks like configuration management, asset monitoring and application positioning. The only thing left to do is to get the standard approved, and it's only a matter of time now.

Read more about SML:
- read the article at Network Computing

StorageConsole 6.0 has backups covered

Mon, 30 Oct 2006 19:01:35 -0500

Aptare has announced version 6.0 of its backup reporting tool, StorageConsole, which adds support for EMC NetWorker, Symantec NetBackup and IBM Tivoli Storage Manager. StorageConsole now supports 90 percent of the backup software on the market, making it, essentially, a catch-all solution for backup reporting. "Typically, enterprises use one vendor for disk to disk and another for tape. They might be using NetApp for D2D and EMC NetWorker to go from the NetApp system to a tape system, for example," said Marc Staimer, president of Dragon Slayer Consulting. "In that case, something like this could be useful to standardize and provide a window into the entire process."

For more on StorageConsole's new features:
- see this article in eWeek

EMC updates application mapping tools

Thu, 28 Sep 2006 20:01:35 -0400

EMC's Smarts division will update its Application Discovery Manager software to version 5.0 next week. ADM is designed to find problems with your software and infrastructure, and now it's being merged with the IT mapping software of recent EMC acquisition nLayers, officials explained. There are also some new database features, integration with BEA and Oracle software and new programming interfaces. ADM 5.0 starts at $50,000 and will ship immediately.

For more on EMC:
- read this eWeek article