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  15 March 2012

EMC Leads External Disk Storage Systems Market for 15th Consecutive Year—Gains Market Share

Achieves 2X the Revenue and Captures 2X the Market Share of the Next Vendor, Analyst Firm Reports

EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) is the #1 worldwide storage software market leader in total revenue for the 10th consecutive year, according to the latest IDC Worldwide Quarterly Storage Software QView, March 2012. EMC outpaced the storage software market growth and gained market share during the fourth quarter and full calendar year of 2011. EMC also recently announced its position as the leading provider of external disk storage systems for the 15th consecutive year in factory revenue, according to the latest IDC Worldwide Quarterly Disk Storage Systems Tracker, March 2012.

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  27 February 2012

CommVault Strengthens Its Case for being the Enterprise One-Stop-Shop for Managing Physical and Virtual Backup and Recovery

Today's defining characteristics of enterprise backup software are not whether they support VMware backups or use VMware's APIs for Data Protection (VADP). Those features should be a given. The new hallmarks of enterprise backup software are how well they manage physical and virtual environments from a single console and accelerate and simplify virtual machine (VM) restores. It is these enhancements that users will find natively included with CommVault® Simpana® 9.

Even two or three years ago it was unusual to find enterprise backup software solutions providing extensive support for VMware environments. Yes, you could install their agents on individual VMs and run client backups in the traditional sense, but, even then, many began to see this approach was flawed.


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  15 February 2012

EMC Extends VNXe Simplicity and Efficiency to Remote or Branch Office Deployments

Configure Five VNXe Systems Per Minute for Remote Monitoring; Manage Over 1,000 Remote VNXe Systems with New Unisphere Remote


News Summary:

EMC is extending the simplicity and efficiency of its award-winning EMC® VNXe™ unified storage system to remote or branch office deployments with a new feature, Unisphere™ Remote, for EMC Unisphere software for VNXe.
Customers can configure and add five remote VNXe storage systems per minute to Unisphere Remote, and monitor over 1,000 remote VNXe storage systems from a single console.
The new remote feature for EMC Unisphere is free and available to any VNXe customer, facilitating management of remote VNXe storage system deployments – whether they have a dozen remote systems or a 1,000 or more.

Full Story:

EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC) today extended the simplicity of its award-winning EMC VNXe unified storage systems for remote or branch office deployments with a new central monitoring capability for EMC Unisphere software, enabling the simple management of over 1,000 remote VNXe storage systems. Unisphere Remote is designed for simplicity, enabling IT generalists monitoring remote sites to simply install at its central facility and monitor their remote VNXe storage. This further extends the management efficiencies of the EMC VNXe, and is designed to manage medium to large scale remote VNXe environments.

It's typical for most remote or branch office deployments to have minimal, if any, storage expertise at remote sites. Unisphere Remote enables users to monitor remote VNXe's from a central location and add five VNXe's per minute to the central monitoring console during initial deployment without any remote, manual intervention.


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  6 February 2012

Oracle Sun ZFS appliances earn top marks

Oracle has announced its Sun ZFS Storage Appliances have earned the highest overall scores in the six-year history of Storage magazine’s Quality Awards for NAS, for both enterprise and midrange NAS. Oracle bested the competition in initial product quality, features, reliability and technical support, and received high marks for sales force competence.
In its analysis of the results, Storage magazine says, “Oracle storage users are apparently the most satisfied among the legions of NAS users”, and reported that 97% of Oracle enterprise NAS users surveyed would buy again.

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  6 February 2012

IBM buys mobile software vendor

In a move that will help expand the enterprise mobile capabilities it offers to clients, IBM has announced a definitive agreement to acquire Worklight, a privately held Israeli-based provider of mobile software for smartphones and tablets.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

With this acquisition, IBM’s mobile offerings will span mobile application development, integration, security and management. Worklight will become an important piece of IBM’s mobility strategy, offering clients an open platform that helps speed the delivery of existing and new mobile applications to multiple devices. It also helps enable secure connections between smartphone and tablet applications with enterprise IT systems.

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16 January 2012

IBM Research Determines Atomic Limits of Magnetic Memory

Punctuating 30 years of nanotechnology research, scientists from IBM Research (NYSE: IBM) have successfully demonstrated the ability to store information in as few as 12 magnetic atoms. This is significantly less than today’s disk drives, which use about one million atoms to store a single bit of information. The ability to manipulate matter by its most basic components – atom by atom – could lead to the vital understanding necessary to build smaller, faster and more energy-efficient devices.

While silicon transistor technology has become cheaper, denser and more efficient, fundamental physical limitations suggest this path of conventional scaling is unsustainable. Alternative approaches are needed to continue the rapid pace of computing innovation.


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20 December 2011

Mind reading machines on their way: IBM

San Francisco - Century-old technology colossus IBM on Monday depicted a near future in which machines read minds and recognise who they are dealing with.

The "IBM 5 in 5" predictions were based on societal trends and research which the New York state-based company expected to begin bearing fruit by the year 2017.

"From Houdini to Skywalker to X-Men, mind reading has merely been wishful thinking for science fiction fans for decades, but their wish may soon come true," IBM said in its annual assessment of innovations on the horizon.


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  16 November 2011

Lanamark Suite 2012 Delivers Services-Oriented Analytics™

Empowers IT Solution Providers with Asset Intelligence™ and Multipoint Data Access™ for Desktop and Data Center Environments

TORONTO – Lanamark Inc., a global provider of agent-less, Services-Oriented Analytics software for IT solution providers delivering cross-vendor desktop and data center solutions across physical and virtual infrastructure, today announced availability of Lanamark Suite 2012.

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4 October 2011

IBM Leapfrogs Microsoft in Market Value for First Time in 15 Years

Walk past an IBM board room and you might hear cries of "Huzzah!" Big Blue has reason to celebrate as it just became the second highest valued technology company in the world. IBM had to step over Microsoft to claim the No. 2 spot, something it hasn't been able to do for the past 15 years.

According to Bloomberg's figures, IBM's market value jumped to $214 billion yesterday. Microsoft moved in the opposite direction and was worth $213.2 billion at the closing bell.


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30 September 2011

Intel, IBM to invest $4.4 billion in chip manufacturing

Intel, IBM and several other major tech players will collectively invest $4.4 billion into two research and development projects in upstate New York. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the five-year investment plans yesterday.

The first project will be led by IBM and will focus on creating two generations of computer chips. The second project will be a joint effort between Intel, IBM, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, Globalfoundaries and Samsung. This project will move existing 300mm wafer manufacturing technology to a more efficient 450mm process. The larger wafers are capable of producing about twice as many chips as current 300mm technology which is said to make production cheaper and faster.


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15 August 2011

IBM Sets TPC-C Benchmark Record for x86 Servers

It was 30 years ago to the day when IBM released it's first personal computer, the IBM PC 5150. Two days ago, an IBM executive essentially declared the PC a fossil, saying he recently made the switch to a tablet as his primary computer (good luck with that). And today? IBM made a splash in the server sector by announcing it just recorded the highest TPC-C benchmark score ever achieved for an x86 server.

IBM scored three million transactions per minute using a single rack non-clustered IBM System x running DB2, the same system it set a record with eight months ago.


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8 July 2011

CommVault named Microsoft Server Platform Partner of the Year


CommVault has announced that it has won the 2011 Microsoft Server Platform Partner of the Year Award. The company was honoured among a global field of top Microsoft partners for demonstrating excellence in innovation and implementation of customer solutions based on Microsoft technology.

This award, chosen by Microsoft judges, reflects CommVault’s long history of aligning efforts with Microsoft and its commitment to, and success with, helping Microsoft customers better manage data in Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint Server, SQL Server, Azure and Hyper-V environments.

"Microsoft is pleased to distinguish CommVault as Server Platform Partner of the Year," says Bob Kelly, corporate VP of infrastructure and server marketing at Microsoft.

"Utilising Microsoft’s Windows Server 2008 platform, technologies and solution accelerators, CommVault has transformed customer server infrastructures by enabling more effective data management, increasing efficiency, reducing costs, and amplifying both consistency and flexibility of the overall system architecture.”


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Happy 100th Birthday IBM!

IBM (NYSE: IBM) is marking the 100th anniversary of its founding on June 16, 1911. To celebrate the milestone, the company is releasing a book, "Making the World Work Better: The Ideas That Shaped a Century and a Company," debuting a new film, "Wild Ducks," and ringing the Opening Bell at the New York Stock Exchange.

During its first century, IBM has played a leading role in transforming business, science and society. The company's history can be seen as a succession of key milestones – from investing in a research lab in the depths of the Great Depression, to developing the first hard disk drive that created the data storage industry, to working with the U.S. government to develop the Social Security System. It continued with such "big bets" as a radical new computing model, the System/360 mainframe; the invention of the UPC code; the invention of the IBM Personal Computer that launched the PC revolution; and the recent development of Watson, the computer that triumphed on the TV game show Jeopardy!.

Chairman of the Board, President and CEO Samuel J. Palmisano identified the key lesson IBM has learned over 100 years: In order to succeed for the long term, you must manage for the long term.


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21 June 2011

IBM Accelerates Social Business Initiative with New Software

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced an expansion of its software portfolio to help organizations embrace the power of social business. As part of today's news IBM is delivering IBM Connections, the industry's first social networking platform with real-time compliance capabilities.

The new IBM Connections software allows organizations to track and trace data on the fly throughout their organizations. This information can be analyzed and is discoverable in real-time using the IBM Connections active compliance service versus waiting until day end for analysis.

The adoption of social software is on the rise and rapidly becoming a vital business tool, enabling organizations to transform virtually every part of their business operations from marketing, customer service and sales, to product development and human resources. The market opportunity for social platforms is expected to grow by a factor of nearly two billion worldwide by 2014, according to IDC*.


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10 June 2011

IBM Microprocessors to Power the New Wii U System from Nintendo


IBM today announced that it will provide the microprocessors that will serve as the heart of the new Wii U system from Nintendo. Unveiled today at the E3 trade show, Nintendo plans for its new console to hit store shelves in 2012.

The all-new, Power-based microprocessor will pack some of IBM's most advanced technology into an energy-saving silicon package that will power Nintendo's brand new entertainment experience for consumers worldwide. IBM's unique embedded DRAM, for example, is capable of feeding the multi-core processor large chunks of data to make for a smooth entertainment experience.

IBM plans to produce millions of chips for Nintendo featuring IBM Silicon on Insulator (SOI) technology at 45 nanometers (45 billionths of a meter). The custom-designed chips will be made at IBM's state-of-the-art 300mm semiconductor development and manufacturing facility in East Fishkill, N.Y.


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  First Distribution wins, Distributor of the year award

The Managing Director of First Distribution, Debbie Abrahall received an early birthday present as First Distribution was awarded the title of Distributor of the Year, at the Annual VMware Channel Awards Dinner held in Johannesburg on 26th May 2011. Having only been appointed as a distributor for VMware twelve months ago, First Distribution has managed to gain significant market share and has helped VMware grow it's virtualisation market leadership position in South Africa by aggressively driving the VMware brand in the channel.


In an incredibly short period of time, First Distribution has rolled out the infrastructure and expertise to build the reputation as the go-to company for the best VMware service. The award confirms this new found reputation and is a clear indication of the value which First Distribution is passing on to its partner base.


“The award is recognition that First Distribution’s expansion strategy is paying off, that we can rapidly create efficient structures within our business and employ the best expertise  to bring a new vendor into the market in such a short period of time. It does however make it a lot easier when working with a world class vendor like VMware”, says Abrahall. "I would really like to thank our Business Partners for their support and confidence shown in First Distribution."


First Distribution’s VMware brand team makes sure the transactional and operational accuracy is maintained at the highest possible level. The recognition of receiving this award confirms this. "The award is not only based on revenue but also on quote accuracy, efficient order loading and overall product understanding" says Ian Russell the Brand Manager for VMware at First Distribution. "It's about First Distribution understanding our Business Partners and how we can best add value to their business."




By First Distribution Marketing 27th May 2011
  24 March 2011

Apple iPad Means Business with VMware View™ Virtual Desktops

Available on Apple App Store, New VMware View Client for iPad lets enterprise and government users access their virtual desktops from anywhere

VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), the global leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure, today announced the availability of VMware View™ Client for iPad on the Apple App Store for free. Enabling Apple iPad users to access their virtual Windows  1  desktops, applications and data from anywhere, the new VMware View Client, in combination with VMware View, delivers a modern desktop optimized for the iPad’s high-resolution Multi-Touch display.

“The growing popularity of the iPad in business presents a new opportunity for enterprise IT organizations to empower their mobile workforces by providing users with anytime access to business critical apps on the go,” said Christopher Young, vice president and general manager, End-User Computing, VMware. “With VMware View™ Client for iPad, employees and enterprises get a win-win combination – a complete, secure virtual desktop solution they trust, paired with the unique touch interface of the iPad employees have come to love in their consumer lives.”

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  18 February 2011

Watson on Jeopardy: Watson Wins!

If you missed the round one and two recaps, shame on you. Catch up on the action here and here.

Let's be honest: Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter had slim chances of winning the IBM Jeopardy Challenge after the bludgeoning they suffered at the hands of the IBM supercomputer Watson last night (their final score is the combined total from the first two rounds). But they did have their pride to play for. We covered the match as it happened, so I won't bore you with a second play-by-play, but a few things stood out in this round.

Ken Jennings was thirsty for blood (silicon?) tonight. After struggling to buzz in faster than Watson during in the first match, Jennings was noticeably quicker in this match, buzzing in first and thinking about the correct response after. As a result, he finished with over 18,200 going into Final Jeopardy, just a few thousand dollars behind Watson's 23,440. Rutter meanwhile, was mostly invisible during this round much like Jennings was last round. But he still managed to rack up 5,600.

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14 February 2011

Lanamark Powers Citrix, Microsoft and VMware Partners through VAccelerate Partner Program Enables Virtualization Solution Providers to Accelerate Professional and Managed Virtualization Services

ORLANDO, Fla. – Lanamark Inc., a global provider of agent-less IT-as-a-Service software for desktop and data center optimization across physical and virtual infrastructure, today announced its next-generation VAccelerate Partner Program . The program enables Citrix, Microsoft and VMware partners to accelerate design and delivery of desktop virtualization, server virtualization and virtual infrastructure optimization solutions and services. Lanamark is showcasing the Lanamark Suite Services Edition and meeting current and prospective partners in Booth 109 at the VMware Partner Exchange in Orlando, Florida.

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1 February 2011

IBM Takes Its Office Suite Into Cloud with LotusLive Symphony

IBM is bringing its Lotus Symphony productivity suite to the cloud with the launch of LotusLive Symphony, a cloud-based office productivity suite. IBM believes that LotusLive Symphony, along with other software and services launched today, will help “businesses embrace the social business models through cloud computing.”

Currently at the technology preview stage, the new cloud-based office productivity suite will square off against comparable products like Google Apps, Microsoft Office Web Apps, Zoho Office Suite and Oracle Cloud Office. It will be widely available in the second half of 2011.

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27 January 2011

IBM to Build a Big Cloud Computing Data Center in China

IBM is taking the American attitude of 'Go big or go home' over to China where it plans to open Asia's largest cloud computing data center, the company announced on Tuesday.

"The data center offers the world-class infrastructure capabilities and advanced network based services to support the business growth of our clients," said Madam Zhou Chaonan, Chairman, Range Technology Development Co., Ltd., which is collaborating with IBM on the project. "This initiative plays a critical role in the economic development of China in light of the pressing demand for managed hosting in the areas of cloud computing and mobile devices."

IBM says the new data center will take up more than 620,000 square meters (about 6.1 million square feet) and will be built to IBM specifications and international green building standards. It will offer services like data backup, disaster recovery, and server leases.


14 January 2011

IBM and Samsung Announce Joint Research into New Semiconductor Technology.

IBM and Samsung today announced they will collaborate on basic research into new semiconductor materials, manufacturing processes and other technologies. The agreement calls for the two companies to jointly develop new semiconductor process technology that can be used in a broad range of applications -- from smart phone handsets to communications infrastructure.

For the first time, Samsung researchers will join IBM scientists in the Semiconductor Research Alliance at the Albany Nanotech Complex, Albany, N.Y., where researchers will investigate new materials and transistor structures, as well as innovative interconnect and packaging solutions for next-generation technology nodes. The research developments from this joint activity are planned to enable the delivery of industry leading silicon solutions that are optimized for performance, power consumption and size.

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13 Januarry 2011

As a leading name in the planning, production, equipment and servicing of data centres and IT infrastructures, Rittal has been among the companies supporting the EU's Code of Conduct on Data Centres Energy Efficiency (EU CoC) since early 2010.
This will particularly benefit all clients of the Herborn-based company.


At 8.67 Terawatt hours, the annual consumption of data centres was already equivalent to that of 2.5 million German households back in 2006 (source: Borderstep Institute 2007). Energy consumption has doubled in the past five years, a development that looks set to continue in future. In order to reduce the energy consumption of data centres, in 2008 the European Commission adopted the EU CoC.

The code aims to promote a better understanding of the volume of energy used, while at the same time providing "best practices" and targets for energy efficiency. Data centre operators as well as manufacturers of IT hardware and infrastructure may voluntarily sign up to the code and thereby significantly improve their energy balance sheet. Not least, this is an excellent way of reducing running costs.

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13 January 2011

Rittal, from Hessen in Germany, will be presenting its latest solutions for railway technology at InnoTrans (at Stand 142 in Hall 15.1).

The focus will be on "Rittal - the System". For example, Rittal's modular IT infrastructure solution is used for equipping IT backbones. Rittal offers railway operators and rail infrastructure companies a complete range of consulting and planning products, such as security rooms, server racks, as well as IT cooling, UPS and monitoring systems, through to prime contractor services for turnkey data centres, and as maintenance and service.

After the attacks in London and Madrid at the latest, security and safety have been playing a central role in railway operations. For one thing, increased security requirements have led to a significant increase in demand for IT performance. In addition, processes that had previously been managed manually or mechanically are now largely being run with IT assistance. Maximum availability and minimum susceptibility are thus vital. The "IT backbones" of different sizes that handle the important control and safety systems, need to be designed for redundant operation. In the worst case, if these key nodes break down, rail traffic may come to a complete standstill. Comprehensive security and high availability can be specifically achieved by a flexible, scalable, IT infrastructure that can be expanded as required.

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13 January 2011

Nowadays, efficiency and mobility go hand in hand.

With its Rittal Data Center Container, Rittal is presenting an operational "Plug & Play" data centre with a PUE (power usage effectiveness) of less than 1.2. The mobile facility is housed inside a very roomy and robust 20-foot container. It has enough space for up to seven racks fitted with 329 U, and is equipped with a power supply and emergency power back-up, as well as fire detection and extinguishing system. The Rittal Data Center Container uses an integrated direct free cooling system, reducing the energy required for climate control by up to 40 percent compared to conventional air conditioning systems for data centres. Rittal has already used the portable data centre in more than ten projects worldwide over the last six months.

Data centre provider Rittal now presents its fully functional Data Center Container. This "Plug & Play" solution has a complete IT infrastructure, and it can be erected on any available free space. It can be individually configured: Depending on requirements, customers can install their own racks and equipment simply to move their servers in. The basic version already comes with built-in power distribution, a cable compartment, an access system and efficient climate control. The latter is available with a cooling output of up to 20 kW and with 2+1 redundancy.

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13 January 2011

Rittal YouTube Links

Rittal Data Centre Container

Rittal Liquid Cooling Package (High Performance Cooling for your Data Centre)

Rittal Cebit Messe Exhibition 2010

11 January 2011

TrendNet Updates

CNET was excited about TRENDnet’s first-to-market 450Mbps Wireless N Gaming Adapter (model TEW-687GA) stating, “The TEW-687GA, however, differentiates itself from the rest by being one of the first, if not the first, to offer a ceiling speed of up to 450Mbps, as opposed to its peers' cap of 300Mbps. Like other 450Mbps wireless networking devices from TRENDnet, the TEW-687GA can offer this faster speed because it supports three spatial streams per antenna.”

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CNET compared the launch of TRENDnet’s TEW-692GR router, with Netgear’s WNDR4000 router stating, “It's been getting more and more exciting in the wireless networking world recently since TRENDnet shipped the first 450Mbps single-band Wireless-N router, the TEW-691GR, and announced yesterday the first 450Mbps true-dual band Wireless N router (model TEW-692GR). Netgear today joined the party by announcing its first 450Mbps dual-band router, the N750 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router (model WNDR4000)…The WNDR4000, however, unlike the TEW-692GR from TRENDnet, offers the high 450Mbps speed only on the 5GHz frequency band, while the 2.4GHz band remains at the traditional dual-stream 300Mbps speed.”

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CNET reviewed the CES 2011 launch of TRENDnet’s first-to-market 450Mbps Concurrent Dual Band Wireless N Router (model TEW-692GR) stating, “This is the first router for general consumers that offers the ceiling speed of 450Mbps in both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz wireless bands. The true dual-band notion means that the router can sustain separate 2.4GHz and 5GHz wireless networks at the same time.”

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CNET commented on the CES 2011 launch of TRENDnet’s first-to-market 500Mbps Powerline AV Wireless N Access Point (model TPL-410AP) stating, “It's a 500Mbps power-line adapter that can also work as a Wi-Fi extender…This higher speed will significantly help media streaming over a power-line connection to wireless clients at the far end, where the wireless signal of the original network can't reach.”

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CNET covered the CES 2011 launch of TRENDnet’s 200Mbps Powerline AV Wireless N Access Point (model TPL-310AP) stating, “…all you have to do is plug the device into a power outlet at the corner that you want to extend both the power-line connection and the wireless network to, and the TPL-310AP will take care of the job.”

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CNET covered the CES 2011 launch of TRENDnet’s first-to-market GREENwifi technology, stating, “GREENwifi is designed specifically for wireless networking products…this would result in the reduction of power consumption in its applicable wireless routers, access points, and adapters by up to 50 percent.”

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CNET covered TRENDnet’s first-to-market products in their CES networking and storage wrap up.

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22 November 2010

IBM announces the new IBM System Storage EXP2500 storage enclosure.

This is an new offering allowing for the direct connection of external storage capacity to IBM System x servers.

The EXP2500 is supported for direct connection to IBM System x servers which are compatible with the IBM ServeRAID M5025 SAS/SATA Controller (Part No 46M0830).  This product is orderable through the System x channel.


IBM EXP2500 Overview

IBM System Storage EXP2500 Express storage enclosures enable flexible, low-cost storage capacity expansion of IBM System x servers to address growing storage needs.

EXP2500 delivers next-generation 6 Gbps SAS disk storage technology in a compact 2U, 19-inch rack mount enclosure that connects directly to selected System x servers using the IBM ServeRAID M5025 SAS/SATA Controller. Storage capacity can be easily scaled by daisy-chain connection of multiple EXP2500 enclosures from a single ServeRAID M5025 controller port.


EXP2500 is available in two models:

EXP2512 Express with twelve 3.5-inch SAS drive bays
EXP2524 Express with twenty-four 2.5-inch (small form factor) SAS drive bays


Both models support dual-port, 6 Gbps SAS high-performance and high-capacity nearline drives. Disk drives of the same form factor can be intermixed within the appropriate enclosure, and EXP2512 and EXP2524 enclosures may be intermixed in a daisy-chain configuration.

RAID technology and other advanced functions are provided through the ServeRAID M5025 controller.

Click to download announcement letter...

29 September 2010

Lanamark Optimizes Citrix XenApp, XenDesktop and Microsoft Remote Desktop Services Environments

Terminal Services Analysis Pack Extends Application, Desktop and User Analytics to Hosted Applications and Hosted Shared Desktops

TORONTO - Lanamark Inc., a global provider of IT-as-a-Service software for desktop and data center optimization across physical and virtual infrastructure, today announced Terminal Services Analysis Pack for Lanamark Suite Services Edition. This new analysis pack, available through IT services delivered by Lanamark partners, is designed to help enterprises optimize application and desktop delivery while ensuring licensing compliance of Citrix and Microsoft terminal server environments.

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