Technology News: Data Center

Pumping Up Performance in Densely Packed Data Centers
November 08, 2009

Data center consolidation and modernization of IT systems help enterprises reduce cost, cut labor, slash energy use, and become more agile. Infrastructure advancements, standardization, performance density, and network services efficiencies are all allowing for bigger and fewer data centers and strategically architected and located facilities that can efficiently carry more of the total IT requirements load.

Pre-integration is the Ticket With Cisco-EMC Cloud Venture
November 04, 2009

Cisco is broadening its footprint with a major move into the cloud computing space. The company has formed a far-reaching partnership with EMC -- a joint venture in which VMware, a majority owned subsidiary of EMC, will also play a large role. Called "Acadia," the new entity is marketing vBlock infrastructure packages, aka "vBlocks."

Privacy in the Public Cloud: Q&A With Terremark Exec Jason Lochhead
October 12, 2009

When Amazon began offering cheap pay-as-you-go access to computing resources in the cloud to the public, it broke new ground. Independent developers, small businesses and individual departments of large businesses leaped at the chance to work on projects while keeping infrastructure costs down.

Bolstering BI With Web Data Services
September 27, 2009

The explosion of information from across the Web, from mobile devices, inside of social networks, and from the extended business processes that organizations are now employing, all provide an opportunity, but they also provide a challenge. This information can play a critical role in allowing organizations to gather and refine analytics into new market strategies and better buying decisions.

5 Keys for Full Recovery in the Cloud
September 21, 2009

While cloud computing is a familiar term, its definitions can vary greatly. So when it comes to online backup, the cloud is an important feature that can play a large role in securing and protecting during a disaster, which I like to refer to as "cloud recovery." In order to be worthy of this cloud recovery title, a solution should have the following five features.

Keys to an Even Greener Data Center
August 05, 2009

In today's world of hybrid cars and wind farms, consuming energy wisely is on every individual's agenda. Companies and their IT departments should be no different. Statistics aside, there is no doubt that collectively data centers have a huge "carbon footprint" and are the biggest or one of the biggest consumers of energy in every company.

Microsoft Tries Something New With Azure Pricing
July 14, 2009

Microsoft is taking a new pricing approach with its upcoming Windows Azure cloud operating system: It will allow customers to pay on a per-use basis rather than calculating license fees according to number of processors or some other traditional measure.

Dell Drums Up Virtualization-in-a-Box
June 18, 2009

Less than three months after announcing a slew of products and services to propel its thrust into the data center market, Dell on Wednesday released several out-of-the-box virtualization solutions targeting both enterprises and SMBs. These are aimed at simplifying virtualization and helping customers cut their costs.

HP Gives Scale-Out Architecture Extreme Makeover
June 11, 2009

HP on Wednesday announced its Extreme Scale-Out portfolio, intended to cut data center costs for businesses involved in heavy Web 2.0, cloud computing and high-performance computing activities. Such companies typically have data centers with thousands of servers. The HP ExSO portfolio includes a lightweight modular system architecture, as well as services and support.

The Mainframe Bridge to the Cloud
June 08, 2009

How can mainframes can help enterprises reach cloud-computing benefits faster? Let's look at what defines cloud computing, with an emphasis on private clouds or those computing models that enterprises can control on-premises, but that also favor and provide cloud-like efficiency with lower-end costs and a heightened ability to deliver services that support agile business processes.

vSphere 4: Forerunner to a Data Center Revolution?
May 05, 2009

Cloud computing has been a central subject and strategy for IT vendors of every sort, but the actual meaning of "cloud" remains hazy. VMware has its own cloud vision: Rather than seeing a mechanism for simply delivering new or emerging service offerings, VMware imagines the enterprise data center as a highly flexible, scalable and changeable environment in which virtualization plays the central role.

Oracle Ropes In Sun for $7.4B
April 20, 2009

Oracle's announcement Monday that it is buying Sun Microsystems for $7.4 billion in cash has the potential to rock the hardware and software markets. Oracle expects the deal will boost its earnings considerably over the next few years. The two companies' technologies will likely mesh to make Oracle an even bigger powerhouse.

The X2X Factor and the Future of Data Center Migration
April 15, 2009

Whether server, storage or virtual, migrations have never been easy. The difficulty has always been the downtime required to move physical or virtual workloads from one platform to another. Virtualization technology from VMware VMotion to Microsoft Hyper-V live migration has significantly helped because they can move live workloads between virtual infrastructures, greatly reducing the impact to production systems.

Dell Dives Deep Into Data Center Market
March 26, 2009

Dell on Wednesday announced a slew of products and services to underscore its thrust into the data center market. These include servers and workstations, lifecycle and system management software, storage, virtualization, and data center consulting services. It is offering 11th-generation PowerEdge servers and its Precision workstations, both based on the Intel Nehalem chip.

The Way Forward for Personal and Electronic Medical Records
February 13, 2009

It should come as no surprise that Maurice Ramirez -- an emergency room attending physician with Florida Hospital's Flagler division -- is in favor of widespread adoption of automated personal health records, or PHRs. Ramirez was once chief medical officer for a company that was developing such an application, but that's not his only reference point.

VMware Rolls Out Open Source Virtual Desktop Client
February 04, 2009

VMware is introducing an open source version of its View product -- specifically, an open source client for virtual desktop infrastructure aimed at the data center. Called "VMware View Open Client," this release is largely a partner or ecosystem play for the company, pushing out the VMware View source code to partners to make it easier for them to customize their own applications or build new devices around the VMware source code.