Tech talk shows it's a scalable enterprise. Say what?
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SEATTLE -- High-tech companies don't release products anymore, they provide solutions. And those solutions don't simply run a program. They enable experiences, optimize agility, or make passions come alive. Say what?
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Don't expect to see a Dell Labs that focuses on fundamental research or a major move into highly bespoke "Big Iron" servers. But we are seeing a Dell that is showing some flexibility on what were once all-or-nothing principles.
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It's got the right stuff to be king of the software jungle.
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What is inherent to all or most Saas applications that makes the model so appealing to midsize and larger companies?
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Without question, open source is one of the most important forces in enterprise IT. Apache is still the reigning champion of Web server software.
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IT vendors are championing highly integrated and flexible systems through offerings such as IBM's 'on-demand computing' initiative and HP's 'adaptive enterprise' strategy. But what's really important, users say, is support for open standards.
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On tap for the new database management system: improvements in high availability, performance, scalability, manageability and what Oracle dubs "diagnosability."
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Cisco Systems wants to turn the enterprise data network into an electricity meter.Using open standards, the company wants to get server and storage vendors to collect and share information about their equipment and send it to Cisco routers and switches. The data could include power consumption, operating temperature and more. It&#39;s becoming a critical job, and because the network touches all IT resources across the enterprise, data collection should happen there, according to Paul Marcoux, vice president of green engineering.Marcoux joined Cisco from American Power Conversion only about six weeks ago after Cisco created the position to overlook energy issues across all parts of the company. Networking gear itself makes up a much smaller portion of IT power consumption than do servers or storage, but Cisco plans to go beyond just making its own products more efficient.Power is a growing issue in datacenters as the cost of energy rises and concerns about global climate change increase. Being able to collect and analyze information about power usage is a big part of the battle and becoming more crucial in the age of virtualization, according to Marcoux. Distributing storage and processing cycles without regard for power issues is not just inefficient, it&#39;s dangerous, he said.If virtualization software looks at a process that requires more computing power or storage space, then enlists servers or storage devices that are near to overheating or running out of power, it could send a rack of servers over the edge and shut it down, Marcoux said. For that reason, the virtualization system needs to know the power status of all the resources it may call upon, he said.By the same token, consolidated datacenters typically serve many departments of an enterprise and consume a lot of power, but those groups generally don&#39;t have to pay for their part of the power. In fact, the electricity bill often bypasses even the IT department, going to building management instead, Marcoux said. Collecting data about the power consumed by each device, and eventually by individual transactions, would allow enterprises to bill each department for the power it uses, he said.Software on routers and switches would collect the information and then take actions or forward it on to separate building management, energy management or virtualization control systems, Marcoux said. Given the large amount of energy data to be processed, Cisco may introduce daughtercards for its platforms to provide extra computing power, he said. He hopes the technology will be in place and collecting information in enterprises within three years.Because datacenters contain gear from so many vendors, open standards are the only way to make such a system work, according to Cisco. Fortunately, there already are several available standards, Marcoux said. Having standards already in place will help speed up adoption, Marcoux said.&quot;We&#39;re not trying to reinvent the wheel, we&#39;re just trying now to utilize the wheel,&quot; Marcoux said.Cisco&#39;s proposal would represent a whole new role for networks beyond communications, said Burton Group analyst Dave Passmore. Server vendors might go along with the plan, but Cisco can&#39;t count on smooth sailing, he said. Centralized power regulation would play a role in overall management of the datacenter, an area where Cisco is attempting to make inroads with other initiatives as well.&quot;Who controls virtualization in the data center is going to be the new battleground,&quot; Passmore said.
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Open-source software and off-the-shelf hardware make strong showing among the best of the biggest.
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VMware isn't the only vendor unveiling technology at its annual conference.
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By Dwight Silverman, Houston Chronicle  Dec. 19--If you talk to a hard-core techie who's a user of the Linux operating system or one of the zealots who worship Apple's Macintosh, you won't hear many nice things said about Microsoft.
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The growth of supercomputing as an enterprise IT option is one of the highlights of this week's SC2004 Supercomputing Conference, which kicks off tomorrow in Pittsburgh.
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Outsourcing is a word we hear more and more these days, but according to EMC Chairman and CEO Joe Tucci, it&#39;s one that&#39;s used too much.&quot;I think outsourcing is an over-used word. I think what you are going to see more of is companies willing to outsource a business process. So for instance, in EMC we outsource all our payroll but we outsource the entire process, not just the IT process. So I think you are going to see a lot more of that. I think you are not going to see wholesale take everything. I think that market is slowing down,&quot; he said.Tucci was speaking during a news conference on the sidelines of his company&#39;s EMC Forum event.He said outsourcing of specific functions, such as PC backup which EMC offers through its Berkeley Data Systems unit, is where he sees success in outsourcing.&quot;I see business process outsourcing speeding up, I see a slowdown in wholesale &#39;take my whole datacenter, take my applications and you do it for me.&#39; I think that market is not going to be a robust market,&quot; he said.Last week the data-storage company reported a&#160;third quarter net income&#160;of $493 million, up more than $200 million over the same period last year. Revenue jumped to $3.3 billion from $2.8 billion. The company was helped during the quarter by the&#160;sale of a partial stake&#160;in virtualization software maker VMware to Cisco Systems.&#160;EMC acquired VMware&#160;in 2003.Tucci said EMC might look at further acquisitions but is now focused on companies that will help grow its existing businesses.&quot;My philosophy is that I want to stay focused on what I call these eight spheres of technology, so acquisitions that we do would basically make some of these spheres stronger rather than put another sphere on the board,&quot; he said. The eight areas he referred to are: intelligent information management, enterprise content management, virtualization, resource management, storage, availability, security, and archiving.&quot;That being said, eventually we will add a new sphere but that&#39;s not my immediate attention,&quot; Tucci said.During the news conference Tucci also confirmed that Mark Lewis has become president of the company&#39;s Documentum unit. Lewis was previously chief development officer for EMC.
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New technology could mean superfast data transfer inside the computer.
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IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced expanded scalability enhancements to the industry's most powerful virtualization technology z/VM.
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At a gathering this week, talk was about how to improve the energy use of data centers by taking a more holistic approach.
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PC Magazine - The result is Enterprise 2.0, where productivity is increased, solutions are more flexible and the user is empowered.