Posts Tagged ‘enterprise IT’

New Hitachi Accelerated Flash storage unveiled for enterprises

Saturday, November 10th, 2012

Hitachi Data Systems promises superior performance, capacity and reliability from the new flash module for demanding enterprise workloads.

Hitachi Accelerated Flash storage for demanding enterprise workloads.

Hitachi Accelerated Flash storage for demanding enterprise workloads.

The Hitachi Accelerated Flash storage features a new custom-designed rack-optimized form factor and new flash memory controller technology from Hitachi.

These offer higher performance, lowest cost per bit, and greater capacity compared to conventional solid-state drives (SSDs) on the market today.

Flash technology has become more pervasive in the data center over the past few years.

However, its widespread adoption as a mainstream storage option has been hampered by high costs, limited endurance and sub-optimal write performance.

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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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Progress Software collaborates with SingTel to launch cloud platform for application development

Saturday, September 1st, 2012

Progress Software is collaborating with SingTel to launch cloud-based infrastructure for ISVs to build, test, manage and deploy cloud-based applications.

MoU signing. Keith Budge, Vice President and Managing Director (Asia Pacific & Japan), Progress Software (Left) with Alvin Kok, Head of Infocomm Services, SingTel (right).

MoU signing. Keith Budge, Vice President and Managing Director (Asia Pacific & Japan), Progress Software (Left) with Alvin Kok, Head of Infocomm Services, SingTel (right).

From the brief that Budge and Kok gave me, I can see how the collaboration will enable ISVs to mature from providing on-premise one-to-one solutions; to cloud-enabled, single-source, multi-tenanted, pay-per-use solutions.

Essentially, SingTel will provide the foundation with its PowerON IaaS, Progress Software will provide the enabler in the form of OpenEdge PaaS, so that ISVs can quickly and cost-effectively deploy cloud-based applications for their clients’ businesses.

Progress Software Corporation is a global software company that aims to be a leading platform provider for the next-generation, context-aware applications in the Cloud.

“… this [collaboration with SingTel] bolsters our strategy to provide new and existing application partners a singular, unified platform to build and deploy applications in the cloud,” said Keith Budge, Vice President and Managing Director for Asia Pacific and Japan, Progress Software.

Its collaboration with Singapore Telecommunications Ltd (SingTel) will enable software developers from Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) to deploy, access and analyze applications in the Cloud using the Progress OpenEdge application development platform.

The Asia Pacific Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) market is attracting considerable interest from businesses due to the flexibility it brings to application development and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).

Frost & Sullivan projects that the market will grow to reach $523 million in 2016.

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Trend Micro CloudSec 2012 in Singapore

Wednesday, August 15th, 2012

This year’s theme is “Have a safe journey” and features thought leaders such as Jim Reavis from CSA and Tim Grance from NIST, in a full day’s programme bringing CXO attendees through security issues surrounding Cloud Computing.

CloudSec 2012 was held at Raffles City Convention Centre in Singapore on 15 August.

CloudSec 2012 was held at Raffles City Convention Centre in Singapore on 15 August.

I sat through a panel discussion over lunch that shed some light on the thoughts that Reavis, Grance and Nicholas Tan (VMware) had on cloud security.

Jim Reavis, Co-founder & Executive Director Cloud Security Alliance (CSA)

Jim Reavis, Co-founder & Executive Director Cloud Security Alliance (CSA)

One opinion that may come as a surprise to many people is Reaves’ belief that the choice of whether a company should adopt a private, public or hybrid cloud should not be driven by security alone, which is what most people would use as the immediate and main consideration, if not the sole determinant for their decision.

He felt that security could be a red herring in deciding between the different types of cloud implementation.

Instead, the decision should be based on compliance (regulations on cloud use and location of data centres), performance (whether on-premise servers are needed to reduce latency) and legacy support (transition from existing IT architecture).

Timothy Grance, Senior Computer Scientist, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

Timothy Grance, Senior Computer Scientist, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

Grance added that all the models are viable and the choice also involved the need for scale, which has to be balanced with the risk appetite of the organisation making the choice.

All the panelists were unanimous that, in reality, the considerations for security for cloud is no different from traditional systems, although the specific technology employed may be different.

Whether your systems are on a cloud or not, you would be facing threats, you still need to be vigilant, you still need to be rigorous about security, and you’d still need quality people to design and operate the system.

Last year’s CloudSec 2011 at The Sheraton Towers saw more than 300 participants examining the theme of “Have a vision not clouded by fear”.

This year, Trend Micro made the event bigger with more than 500 showing up at the Raffles City Convention Centre on 15 August.

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SolarWinds Web Help Desk to boost IT management

Thursday, July 26th, 2012

SolarWinds has announced today that it is launching the SolarWinds Web Help Desk. Prices for the IT Help Desk solution start at US$495.

SolarWinds has announced today the launch of the SolarWinds Web Help Desk.

SolarWinds has announced today the launch of the SolarWinds Web Help Desk.

SolarWinds Web Help Desk is a boost to the growing portfolio of IT Management products from SolarWinds, which provides powerful and affordable IT management software for companies.

SolarWinds Web Help Desk highlights:

  • Easily perform help desk ticketing support and management operations from a single, centralized web-console, purpose-built for IT processes and organizations.
  • Automate change management operations with powerful and customizable change management functionality.
  • Simplify asset management for both hardware and software assets through a centralized IT Asset Repository.
  • Leverage the extensive KnowledgeBase Engine for capturing and sharing ITSM best practices and solutions.

SolarWinds Web Help Desk is a cross-platform, web-based solution that allows IT professionals to remove complexity from their IT service processes and to improve service to their end-users through practical, flexible tools.

Read the press release below for more details.

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Key findings from RSA Archer GRC Executive Forum

Friday, July 20th, 2012

RSA, The Security Division of EMC, recently released key findings from the RSA Archer GRC Executive Forum held in June, during which governance, risk and compliance (GRC) leaders from 34 leading corporations discussed enterprise risk management strategies and best practices.

Key Findings of the RSA Archer GRC Executive Forum

Key Findings of the RSA Archer GRC Executive Forum

Top executives say GRC Programs must better align to strategic priorities to meet board needs. The results affirm the earlier Carnegie Mellon CyLab 2012 Governance Report.

Some key findings

  • Mounting and multiplied business risks due to growing regulatory requirements and greater business complexity.
  • The need to align GRC to business priorities to get organizational leaders on board.
  • Moving away from a siloed GRC program to one which is unified to make enterprise-wide risk assessment.

It was noted that the shift towards increased regulatory and compliance requirements is being observed across Asia Pacific and Japan as well, with organizations looking to better calibrate their risk assessment frameworks and set guidelines for assessing organisation risks.

The need for business continuity management programs is also gaining traction, with the occurrence of natural disasters in Japan and Thailand prompting organizations to reassess their risk environment.

Read the press release below for more details.

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BlackBerry Mobile Fusion available in Singapore

Friday, July 20th, 2012

BlackBerry Mobile Fusion is RIM’s next-generation mobile device management solution for Government and Business Customers in Singapore.

It promises to be a secure, reliable, and scalable solution to easily manage BlackBerry, iOS and Android devices.

From left, Ian Gardner, Director, Enterprise Sales, RIM; and Charles Dufourcq, Director, Singapore, RIM sharing the advantages of BlackBerry Mobile Fusion

From left, Ian Gardner, Director, Enterprise Sales, RIM; and Charles Dufourcq, Director, Singapore, RIM sharing the advantages of BlackBerry Mobile Fusion

BlackBerry Mobile Fusion consolidates the management of smartphones and tablets running BlackBerry OS (which includes BlackBerry PlayBook and future BlackBerry 10 devices) as well as Android and iOS.

“For businesses and government, managing a mix of mobile devices on any scale is chaotic. Organizations face pressure to allow employees to bring their own devices into the workplace,” said Charles Dufourcq, Director for Singapore at Research In Motion.

BlackBerry Mobile Fusion provides a single, unified, web–based console to manage the wide range of mobile devices that the employees of an organisation may bring and use for work.

BlackBerry Mobile Fusion integrates the market-leading features and security architecture of BlackBerry Enterprise Server (version 5.0.3), providing advanced IT management and controls, a single outbound security connection (256-bit AES encrypted “BlackBerry VPN”), enforceable IT policies, support for BlackBerry Balance technology, and over-the-air app and software installation capabilities for the management of BlackBerry smartphones and PlayBook tablets (as well as future BlackBerry 10 devices).
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Nimsoft Monitor Certified on VCE Vblock Infrastructure Platforms

Friday, April 20th, 2012

Nimsoft has announced that Nimsoft Monitor has attained the VCE Vblock Ready certification.

Nimsoft Monitor is a component of Nimsoft Unified Manager, a multi-tenant IT Management as-a-Service solution.

Nimsoft Monitor is a component of Nimsoft Unified Manager, a multi-tenant IT Management as-a-Service solution.

This enables users to confidently leverage Nimsoft IT Management-as-a-Service capabilities to rapidly and cost-efficiently gain full visibility into their Vblock infrastructure—along with the rest of their cloud and non-cloud environments.

“Vblock Infrastructure Platforms offer the ability to substantially drive down technology ownership costs while dramatically improving technology value,” said Sumal Karunanayake, Vice President, Nimsoft, Asia Pacific & Japan.Nimsoft Monitor delivers end-to-end performance and availability monitoring of Vblock Infrastructure Platforms at the hardware, network, storage, computing and application layers.

By addressing the Vblock Infrastructure Platform as a whole—rather than as individual components—Nimsoft Monitor enables enterprises and service providers to quickly discover and address the root causes of issues that can adversely affect critical IT services.

SolarWinds Mobile Admin lets IT staff BYOD

Monday, April 16th, 2012

If you can’t beat them, join them! After years of fighting the tide of consumerisation of corporate IT, IT staff can now cross over to the “Dark Side” and  – bring THEIR own device to work.

Pricing for SolarWinds Mobile Admin software starts at US$695 per license and includes the first year of maintenance. Download the free 30-day evaluation trial online to try it out.

SolarWinds Mobile Admin Version 7

SolarWinds Mobile Admin Version 7

With the consumerisation of IT, employees and (more significantly) CXOs are banging down the doors of the IT departments to be allowed to bring their choice of personal devices to work and to access the Enterprise IT systems with these gadgets.

IT staff can now "Bring Your Own Device" too!

IT staff can now "Bring Your Own Device" too!

A strict No-No in the past, mane enterprises and organisations have given in to the pressure and allowed BYOD (Bring Your Own Devices) into their IT policies.

Now, the IT personnel too can jump on the bandwagon too.

SolarWinds, a provider of IT management software, has acquired Rove and released version 7 of the latter’s Mobile Admin software.

SolarWinds Mobile Admin software is designed specifically for mobile devices, with native applications for the most common mobile operating systems, and an extensive list of remote fix capabilities.

Now IT staff can also work with any device, from anywhere, anytime of the day (or night).

Mobile Admin works on iOS, Android and BlackBerry mobile devices.

Mobile Admin works on iOS, Android and BlackBerry mobile devices.

From the queues of a grocery store, or at the cafe with friends, an IT staff can manage a server on the other side of the world – resetting passwords and rebooting servers.

Mobile Admin is used by thousands of customers to monitor and manage their corporate IT infrastructure from their iPhone, iPad, Android smartphones and tablets, BlackBerry smartphones and PlayBook (OS2), and Kindle Fire.

In addition to dozens of third party systems and services, the latest version of Mobile Admin now adds support for Amazon EC2, Microsoft Active Sync, and SolarWinds network and server management products.

Some of the main features of SolarWinds Mobile Admin 7.0 are listed below.

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CA Technologies announces CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platforms

Wednesday, February 1st, 2012

The new solution enables enterprises and managed service providers to offer automated self-service delivery of Infrastructure as a Service.

CA Technologies Announces CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platforms

CA Technologies Announces CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platforms

CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platforms drives Business Service Innovation by enabling IT to provide rapid, predictable and secure provisioning and delivery of cloud infrastructure and critical IT and business services.

“We continue to work with VCE to help customers improve business agility, reduce risk and lower the costs of operating private clouds,” said Anna Gong, Vice President, Coud, Virtualization & Service Automation, Asia Pacific, CA Technologies. “CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platforms can help enterprises and MSPs rapidly deliver services in a private cloud environment, maximizing their investment in VCE Vblock Platforms and driving Business Service Innovation to deliver speed, performance and improved cost efficiencies.”This is the company’s fifth solution certified for use with VCE Vblock Infrastructure Platforms, all of which are based on CA Technologies Unified Automation solutions.

Enterprises and managed service providers (MSPs) use cloud management software to enable their Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offerings.

Many organizations are evaluating and testing converged private cloud architectures, such as Vblock Platforms, that allow IT resources to be dynamically pooled and shared across multiple physical and virtual computing environments.

CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platforms promises to offer standardization, a rapid provisioning process and performance predictability.

CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platforms leverages CA Process Automation and CA Service Catalog to provide customers with a single, unified view and point of control across virtual and private cloud resources.

CA Technologies Vblock platformsOut-of-the-box standardized processes allow IT organizations to deliver Vblock Infrastructure Platforms as a service.

CA Service Catalog, accessed through a secure, online portal, empowers users to quickly select and provision the resources they need.

“The latest CA Technologies integration with Vblock platforms enables IT to transform its converged infrastructure into a true platform for delivering private cloud services,” said John Ross, CTO, GreenPages. “By combining our Integration and Managed Services with CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platforms, customers can enable private cloud capabilities in days versus months, and realize a rapid return on their VCE investment.”CA Process Automation helps ensure that pooled resources are provisioned quickly, with minimal effort.

Service usage is metered and associated to departments, cost centers, or users for billing or chargeback.

Every organization is different when it comes to process.

CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platforms is built on top of an extensible platform that allows IT to easily customize the solution to meet its needs and provide the flexibility to respond dynamically to changing business requirements.

CA Private Cloud Accelerator for Vblock Platforms is available today from CA Technologies and its partners, including GreenPages Technology Solutions, a national IT consulting and integration company.