Archive for the ‘Enterprise IT’ Category

Encompass celebrates launch of 100th channel from Singapore facility

Thursday, November 8th, 2012

Encompass Digital Media now has the largest independent playout and Teleport facility in Asia, boosting Singapore’s goal to become a global media hub.

Encompass Digital Media has 24/7/365 Teleport facilities and technical personnel in USA, UK and Singapore.

Encompass Digital Media has 24/7/365 Teleport facilities and technical personnel in USA, UK and Singapore.

Encompass had aimed to reach the 100-channel (from Singapore) origination/transmission milestone in 24 months. Instead it achieved the target six months earlier – within 18 months.

“Over the next few months, we plan to add seven more channels, making it easier for content owners to expand their reach into Asia on multiple platforms,” divulged Deepakjit Singh, managing director for Encompass Asia.

In the last 12 months, it has launched one channel every three weeks.

In a climate when players in the industry are folding or struggling with difficult economic outlooks, Deepakjit Singh is brimming with confidence that Encompass will “ride the wave” of growth through its aggressive embracing of digitalisation.

Deepakjit is the Managing Director of Asia for Encompass Digital Media, one of the world’s top digital media services providers and a leader in global satellite and terrestrial connectivity.

“Providing our clients with the ability to expand their business models and further monetize their assets through the vast range of innovative services we offer is what differentiates us from our competitors,” said Deepakjit.

The company’s mission-critical media services provides broadcasters, cable networks, corporations and government agencies with customized solutions for the management and distribution of content globally.

Currently, the Singapore facilities is capable of supporting up to 250 channels, but the constant upgrading of infrastructure ensures that it will always have more than enough capacity to cater to rapid growth.

Encompass is investing US$20 million over five years into its Singapore operations for technology and infrastructure upgrading, employee up-skilling and community engagement initiatives.

Almost half of that has already been invested on technology upgrading in order to increase productivity and to reduce the marginal cost of launching a new channel.

This enables Singapore to compete effectively with China and India.

In the last two years, the number of channels that Encompass Asia provides end-to-end services to has increased threefold.

About Encompass Asia

Encompass Asia is a leading provider of content management and distribution services with more than 30 per cent share in the market.

“People in Asian countries like Vietnam, India and China, are becoming increasingly mobile and are demanding for content in different languages and formats,” observed Deepakjit.

“At our Singapore facility, we have the capability to convert content into over 200 formats for nearly every type of platform and delivery model.”

In Singapore, Encompass Asia have the largest digital media facility in the region from where content is played out to the rest of Asia, reaching as far as South Korea, Japan, New Zealand and India.

The 88,000 sq. ft. facility with 16 satellite uplinks is designed to offer a robust, redundant infrastructure providing playout, distribution, digital media manipulation, creative, technical and global archival services.

In addition, the facility also houses a cutting-edge post-production operation and production studio giving its clients an end-to-end solution when creating and delivering content.

Its parent, Encompass Digital Media has 24/7/365 Teleport facilities and technical personnel in USA, UK and Singapore.

Virtualisation demand drives rapid growth for Veeam Software in APAC

Wednesday, November 7th, 2012

Veeam has reported 67% (Q3 2012) year-on-year growth in APAC and has 50,000 customers around the world.

Veeam Software develops solutions for VMware backup, Hyper-V backup, and virtualisation management.

Veeam Software develops solutions for VMware backup, Hyper-V backup, and virtualisation management.

Veeam Software is a provider of backup, replication and virtualisation management solutions for VMware vSphere and Windows Server Hyper-V.

“What makes Veeam so successful is that it’s been built from the ground up specifically for virtualised environments, and hence is designed with the ability to innovate at an extremely fast rate while meeting the most stringent data recovery and protection objectives,” said Don Williams, Regional Director APAC, Veeam Software.

The company has capitalised on market opportunities for virtualisation, disaster recovery and cloud technologies in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region.

This is consistent with the findings of the VMware Cloud Index 2012 which underscored the importance and growth of cloud computing in the region.

Strong demand in APAC has resulted in a year-on-year revenue growth of 48% in Q3 2012 from new licenses.

Veeam’s cloud services business has seen a particularly strong uptake this year, having grown 58% in the last quarter alone. Veeam’s customer base has increased by 28% in the region this year.

Veeam’s presence in Pan Singapore has seen a 110% YoY increase in revenue growth and 86% YoY growth in new licenses revenue in the third quarter.

Simple and speedy data restoration in times of recovery.

Simple and speedy data restoration in times of recovery.

Veeam has recently opened new offices in Singapore and plans to expand further across the region in 2013, having already doubled the headcount in the Singapore team.

Veeam at VMware’s vForum

Raymond Goh, Senior Systems Engineer at Veeam in Singapore.

Raymond Goh, Senior Systems Engineer at Veeam in Singapore.

I had a chat with Raymond Goh, Senior Systems Engineer at Veeam in Singapore, during VMware’s vForum in Singapore.

Raymond gave me a rundown of Veeam’s solutions for data protection and comprehensive systems management for virtualisation.

Two aspects of Veeam’s offerings impressed me during our conversation.

The scalability and flexibility of its solutions means that it can cater to both large enterprises and organisations, as well as smaller SMBs.

The ability of Veeam’s solutions to work simultaneously with both VMware and Hyper-V solutions translate to cost savings for customers who operate both in a mixed virtual environment, since Veeam does not charge separately for catering to two environments.

Solutions from Veeam Software

Veeam Backup & Replication is Veeam’s solution for VMBackup, while Veeam ONE is a single solution for real-time monitoring, resource optimisation and management reporting for VMware and Hyper-V.

Veeam Software develops solutions for VMware backup, Hyper-V backup, and virtualisation management.

Veeam also provides free virtualisation tools.

The Veeam Management Pack (MP) and Smart Plug-in (SPI) extend enterprise monitoring to VMware through Microsoft System Center and HP Operations Manager.

VMware Cloud Index 2012 underscores cloud importance in Asia Pacific

Wednesday, November 7th, 2012

The 3rd annual study by VMware shows cloud computing entering a new stage of evolution in the region as it highlights the growth and importance of cloud as a business enabler.

Infographic showing the findings for APJ from the VMware Cloud Index 2012.

Infographic showing the findings for APJ from the VMware Cloud Index 2012. Click to enlarge.

The results of the study was presented at the annual vForums in Asia. Here are several key trends revealed by the VMware Cloud Index.

Key trends for APJ

  • Despite global economic concerns, nearly 80% of respondents in Asia Pacific indicates that their companies’ business outlooks for 2012 and 2013 include some growth and/or expansion.

    VMware Cloud Index 2012 findings for Singapore.

    VMware Cloud Index 2012 findings for Singapore. Click to enlarge.

  • Cloud computing is seen by respondents as enabling the business to optimise IT (85%), reduce costs (80%), and supporting a more mobile and flexible workforce (81%).
  • The CIO is increasingly empowered, with 44% of them cited as a final cloud decision maker. CEOs remain the top decision maker at 52%, but this is down 6% compared to 2011.
  • 71% of respondents state that cloud computing has made their jobs less complex.
  • Top barriers to cloud adoption are data privacy, residency, or “loss of control” (69%); security (64%); and cost (62%).

Businesses in APJ (Japan and Asia Pacific region) are forecasting business growth and see cloud computing as an integral part of their strategy.

“There is a transformation taking place in the industry and the datacenter has become a more automated place,” observed Andrew Dutton, senior vice president and general manager, VMware Asia Pacific and Japan.

There is an increased readiness for cloud and indication that it can provide competitive advantage, with 67% of APJ organisations believing that they currently have the skills and infrastructure necessary to manage a private cloud.

68% stated that without pursuing cloud initiatives, they could fall behind the competition.

With 83% of organisations stating that cloud can empower their businesses by simplifying access to IT resources, companies are looking to leverage cloud computing as a business enabler.

“VMware’s software defined approach to the datacenter not only helps organisations address concerns about integration, hybrid management and security, but also allows business leaders to leverage cloud computing in a way that aligns to their business needs,” Dutton added.

On the other hand, IT today is struggling to impose governance, control, access and self-service over heterogeneous cloud services.

VMware is working to solve this challenge – with the introduction of the software defined datacenter as the tenet to cloud computing.

IT has also evolved from its traditional role as a builder of services to become a broker of services and infrastructure capacity.

In the era of the enterprise hybrid cloud, there are new and increased responsibilities for IT, and CIOs will need to be at the helm to bridge the gap between business and IT and manage this transformation.

About the VMware Cloud Index

The 3rd VMware Cloud Index in 2012 is the largest regional cloud-related study in Asia Pacific.

Forrester Consulting and ITR (for Japan only) were commissioned to conduct the annual research in September and October 2012.

Approximately 6,500 senior IT practitioners across the APJ (in eleven countries/regions: Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand) were surveyed this year.

Check out the infographics for your region here.

Seminar: i.luminate 2012 by SingTel at RWS – Powering the Future

Tuesday, November 6th, 2012

The future landscape of technology will be VUCA – Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous. That’s according to Peter Hinssen, one of Europe’s thought leaders on the impact of technology on our society.

Bill Chang, CEO of SingTel Group Enterprise, concurred as he outlined how his group is already developing the essential building blocks to equip businesses, education, transportation and healthcare in an increasingly urbanised future.

i.luminate 2012 by SingTel is now ongoing at the Resorts World Sentosa Convention Centre

i.luminate 2012 by SingTel is now ongoing at the Resorts World Sentosa Convention Centre

The biennial i.Luminate business innovations forum is being held right now at the Resorts World Sentosa Convention Centre in Singapore.

Bill Chang, CEO, Group Enterprise, SingTel

Bill Chang, CEO, Group Enterprise, SingTel

More than 6,000 key IT managers and CIOs applied for 3,000 seats at the seminar which was put together by SingTel Group Enterprise and its “ecosystem” of partners for enterprise ICT solutions.

The forward-looking event examines the challenges and opportunities created by rapidly changing technologies and workforce trends which are redefining the business and technology landscape.

Peter Hinssen, Managing Partner, Across Technology

Peter Hinssen, Managing Partner, Across Technology

It also puts forth the real-world intelligent and scalable information & communications technology (ICT) breakthroughs that are critical to drive growth.

These ICT solutions will help businesses, consumers and governments sustain growth, enhance agility, increase productivity, lower costs and improve profitability.

The morning session has just ended, and what I’ve heard so far have been informative and refreshing.

There were more than 60 renowned business and thought leaders at the keynotes this morning.

In the afternoon, there will be 16 discussion tracks and workshops, with an exhibition of some 200 ICT innovations at the many demo booths.

Architecture diagram for SURF (click to enlarge)

Architecture diagram for SURF (click to enlarge)

SMU and StarHub launch 2 new platforms in consumer and social analytics

Monday, November 5th, 2012

“LiveLabs Urban Lifestyle Innovation Platform“ (LiveLabs) and “SmartHub“ are two complementary innovation platforms in consumer and social analytics that will strengthen Singapore’s capabilities in Interactive Digital Media (IDM) Research & Development (R&D).

LiveLabs director, SMU Associate Professor Archan Misra (3rd from right) explaining to Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean (2nd from left) how location and context data would be collected from consumers’ mobile devices. Looking on were SMU President, Professor Arnoud De Meyer (1st from left); StarHub CEO Neil Montefiore (2nd from right); and LiveLabs director, SMU Assistant Professor Rajesh Balan (1st from right).

LiveLabs director, SMU Associate Professor Archan Misra (3rd from right) explaining to Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean (2nd from left) how location and context data would be collected from consumers’ mobile devices. Looking on were SMU President, Professor Arnoud De Meyer (1st from left); StarHub CEO Neil Montefiore (2nd from right); and LiveLabs director, SMU Assistant Professor Rajesh Balan (1st from right).

These two National Research Foundation (NRF)-supported innovation platforms will provide city-scale test-beds where home-grown and global players can jointly develop, test and launch their IDM-based products and services, not just for Singapore, but for the region.

“Through the launch of LiveLabs, SMU hopes to help businesses, particularly those in the retail, tourism and hospitality sectors, gather useful, context-based consumer and social insights based on the behavioural patterns of real-world users. This will enable participating companies in Singapore to tap high-value opportunities,” said SMU President, Professor Arnoud De Meyer.

With an investment of some $50 million, the two innovation platforms are expected to help speed up the commercialisation process of R&D, increase the quality and quantity of IDM innovations, help businesses gain useful insights into consumer behaviours, as well as catalyse more collaborations between the academia, industry and public-sector organisations in developing IDM innovation.

Together, the launch of SMU’s “LiveLabs“ and StarHub’s “SmartHub“ will help to sharpen the competitive edge of Singapore companies and position Singapore strongly and favourably as a regional hub for consumer and social analytics.

Deputy Prime Minister, Coordinating Minister for National Security, Minister for Home Affairs and Chairman of National Research Foundation (NRF), Mr Teo Chee Hean graced the “LiveAnalytics@SG: Launch of LiveLabs & SmartHub” event held at SMU as the Guest-of-Honour.

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A*STAR DSI launches world thinnest 5mm hybrid hard drive in Singapore

Thursday, November 1st, 2012

The “A-Drive” is one of the world’s thinnest 5mm hybrid hard drive in a 2.5-inch form factor. Increased storage capacity, reduced power consumption, and at a lower cost of manufacture.

A*STAR’s Data Storage Institute (DSI) launches next generation 5mm hybrid hard disk drive.

A*STAR’s Data Storage Institute (DSI) launches next generation 5mm hybrid hard disk drive.

S. Iswaran launched the drive to commemorate 20 years of R&D by the Data Storage Institute (DSI) into data storage capabilities.

“We have managed to fit an amazing amount of innovation and advanced technology into a thinner, cheaper, and faster design, and we think the consumer and enterprise impact will be significant,” said Dr. Pantelis Alexopoulos, Executive Director of DSI.

“We have managed to fit an amazing amount of innovation and advanced technology into a thinner, cheaper, and faster design, and we think the consumer and enterprise impact will be significant,” said Dr. Pantelis Alexopoulos, Executive Director of DSI.

Iswaran is a Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office and Second Minister for Home Affairs and Trade & Industry.

The “A-Drive” has capacities of up to 1TB Hard Disk Drive (HDD) with 32 GB Solid State Drive (SSD), allowing it to store over 250,000 songs.

The “A-Drive” addresses limitations of the popular and fast but expensive flash-based SSD, as well as the conventional HDD for the consumer and business industry.

DSI’s “A-Drive” is targeted at tablets, ultrabooks, and future data centres.

With its slim form factor, the “A-Drive” could fit into tablet devices, greatly expanding its storage space while extending battery life by up to 30%.

The innovations for the HDD portion of the A-Drive should be applicable to the manufacture of conventional hard disk drives as low-hanging fruits for monetising the research investments.

The innovations for the HDD portion of this A-Drive should be applicable to the manufacture of conventional hard disk drives as low-hanging fruits for monetising the research investments.

The “A-Drive” will be a cheaper alternative to the SSDs currently used in ultrabooks, offering the same instant-on capability but with larger storage capacity.

For enterprise storage applications, the “A-Drive” reduces power consumption by up to 50%, resulting in greener and more efficient data centres with better optimisation of the already limited rack space.

One of the main challenges in reducing the thickness of current 7mm hard disk drives by almost 30% without compromising on its performance and stability is its spindle motor design.

“Our capabilities today have been the result of two decades of collaboration with industry partners around the world …We look forward to future partnerships as we continue our drive towards new innovations that will shape the data storage landscape,” said Dr. Alexopoulos.

To achieve a reduction in size, DSI researchers developed a proprietary axial field motor which runs smoother, quieter, and more efficiently – lowering power consumption by up to 70% – but costing only a fraction of the cost of SSDs.

The motor’s design has been patented, along with 30 other unique designs for the “A-Drive”.

In addition, DSI has collaborated with multinational corporations and local companies, such as Seiko Instruments, Miyoshi, and Unisteel, to develop key components for the “A-Drive”.

Why is DSI developing this technology?

Data storage manufacturing is an important sector for Singapore’s economy.

DSI’s research into data storage innovation enables Singapore to shift from assembly of hard disk drive components towards higher value-added activities such as hard disk drive design and hard media research.

In the 20 years since its founding, DSI has enabled data storage companies in Singapore to move up the value chain, creating high-value jobs and refining job skills in the process.

OpenNet completes initial rollout of Singapore Nationwide Fibre Network

Monday, October 15th, 2012

With the completion of the initial rollout, OpenNet has achieved 95 percent coverage of Singapore’s residential and non-residential premises (as at 30 June 2012) in three and a half years.

95% of Singapore's residential and non-residential have met their friendly neighbourhood. Photo from OpenNet.

95% of Singapore’s residential and non-residential have met their friendly neighbourhood. Photo from OpenNet.

OpenNet’s focus for Singapore’s Next Generation Nationwide Broadband Network (Next Gen NBN) is now on the remaining 5% and new premises.

While roll-out to 95% of Singaporean premises was on schedule, there have been some delays in reaching the remaining premises.

OpenNet has, however, recently reached an agreement with its Key Sub-contractor to roll-out fibre to the balance 5% premises by mid-2013.

“As users enjoy a richer and smoother broadband experience, OpenNet is proud to be a contributor to the transformation of Singapore into an intelligent nation and global city,” said Mark Blake, CEO, OpenNet.

The coverage information is being updated and from 1st November 2012 premise owners may check OpenNet’s portal at www.opennet.com.sg for specific coverage details.

A letter will also be sent to homeowners when fibre roll-out to their building has been completed.

Homeowners may then approach their preferred Internet Service Provider to subscribe to fibre broadband services, including a free first pass installation of the fibre termination point.

New company byte: OpenNet

Wednesday, September 26th, 2012

Here’s a new Company Byte – for OpenNet, the Singapore company responsible for the building, managing and operating of the fibre-optic platform for Singapore’s Next Generation Nationwide Broadband Network (Next Gen NBN).

OpenNet is responsible for the building, managing and operating of Singapore’s Next Generation Nationwide Broadband Network (Next Gen NBN).

Read a byte-sized profile and background information of OpenNetfor quick reference here.

You can also read articles related to OpenNet on tech4tea.com here.

Polycom gains significant market share 1H 2012

Tuesday, September 11th, 2012

Polycom gains significant market share in the global video collaboration market in both Q1 and Q2 to gain an additional 8 percent of the total market in 1H 2012, controlling roughly one-third of the market.

Polycom has taken an additional 8% of the global video collaboration market over the past half a year to control roughly one-third of the market.

Polycom has taken an additional 8% of the global video collaboration market over the past half a year to control roughly one-third of the market.

Polycom has announced significant, sequential quarter-over-quarter market share gains in the video collaboration industry for the first half of 2012, at the cost of some of its biggest competitors.

According to new quarterly market share research reports from IDC, Synergy Research Group and Wainhouse Research, Polycom gained between 4.4 and 5.7 percentage points in revenue market share quarter-over-quarter in Q2 2012.

Based on reports from all three firms, Polycom’s Q2 gains build on the company’s market share gains of up to 2.2 percent in the first quarter of the year.

Polycom has gained an additional 8 percent of the total market in 1H 2012, controlling roughly one-third of the market.

On the whole, Polycom now holds more than 32 percent global market share at the end of the second quarter of 2012, and gained nearly 8 percent global video collaboration market share in the first half of 2012, reports Wainhouse Research.

New switches: Dell PowerConnect 8100 Series

Monday, September 10th, 2012

Dell expands networking portfolio to accelerate productivity and performance for enterprise campus and small business core networks.

Available from today starting from S$15,600.

New Dell PowerConnect 8100 Series switches offer streamlined efficiency and flexibility to scale campus networks.

New Dell PowerConnect 8100 Series switches offer streamlined efficiency and flexibility to scale campus networks.

Dell today announced the Dell PowerConnect 8100 managed 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) switch family offering customers building blocks to deploy applications quickly, scale operations and reduce costs.

Dell PowerConnect 8100 SeriesThe new additions to the PowerConnect family are high-density, high-performance switch solutions designed to streamline deployments for enterprise campus and small core, mid-market network infrastructures.

“We’re investing significantly in our networking portfolio, including PowerConnect and Force10, to provide customers a full 10 and 40GbE networking solution from the campus to the data center,” said Ho Chye Soon, general manager, Commercial Business, Dell Singapore.

With the rapid growth of rich media, communications and heavy business workloads, campus and small business networks are under increased pressure to improve productivity, maximize efficiency and simplify management.

Dell designed the new PowerConnect 8100 Series to meet customer demand for networking solutions that deliver a combination of scalability, performance, operational simplicity, and cost-effectiveness in 24/7 operations.

Built for today’s enterprise

Dell PowerConnect 8100 Series

Dell PowerConnect 8100 Series

Customers can replace older core and aggregation layers with scalable, higher-density solutions for the flexibility to step up to 10GbE and 40GbE infrastructures.

The new switches enable a complete end-to-end 10GbE solution, featuring Dell PowerEdge 12th generation servers with 10GbE onboard, as well as Dell EqualLogic and Dell Compellent 10GbE storage arrays.

Key functionality includes:

  • Network performance: The 8100 delivers line-rate, low-latency 10GbE performance and up to four 40GbE ports. The switches are optimized for video conferencing, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), and unified communications and collaboration (UCC) for mid-market unified campus aggregation.
  • Scalable Density: Up to six switches can be stacked and managed simply, enabling businesses to quickly add capacity while delivering a reliable infrastructure that just works.
  • Efficient operation: The 8100 series simplifies integration for mid-size storage area networks with iSCSI traffic flow optimization and automated configuration with Dell EqualLogic storage arrays while enabling loss-less data operations across converged (DCB) networks

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