Search This Blog

Saturday, June 30, 2012

VMware Named a Leader in Magic Quadrant for x86 Server Virtualization Infrastructure


VMware Named a Leader in Magic Quadrant for x86 Server Virtualization Infrastructure

PALO ALTO, Calif., June 29, 2012 – VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), the global leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure, today announced that it has been positioned by Gartner, Inc. in the Leaders Quadrant of the 2012 Magic Quadrant for x86 Server Virtualization Infrastructure. (1) 
According to Gartner, “Virtualization penetration has surpassed 50 percent of all server workloads, and it continues to grow.” The report continues: “The x86 server virtualization infrastructure market is the foundation for two extremely important market trends that relate and overlap: infrastructure modernization and cloud computing. Virtualization is a fundamental enabler to IaaS, and will be used to establish private cloud services, public cloud services and interoperable hybrid cloud services.”
"VMware customers of all sizes are leveraging a decade of virtualization investments to build cloud operations that will allow them to achieve the peak in automation, flexibility and efficiency," said Rick Jackson, VMware CMO. "We believe our placement in the Leaders Quadrant underscores that VMware has the vision, strategy and offerings to help customers transform IT and deliver on the promise of cloud computing."
Industry Momentum and Recognition
VMware vSphere® is the most widely deployed virtualization platform in the world, broadly utilized by enterprises, small and midsize businesses (SMBs), public cloud service providers and as a foundation for the growing virtual desktop (VDI) market.
  • In the past year, VMware's customer base has grown to more than 350,000 customers worldwide, including 100 percent of the Fortune 100.
  • There are now more than 125 verified VMware vCloud® public clouds across 26 countries.
  • More than 2,000 Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) support more than 3,600 applications running on VMware vSphere.
To access the 2012 Magic Quadrant for x86 Server Virtualization Infrastructure, go to:http://www.gartner.com/reprints/vmware?id=1-1B2IRYF&ct=120626&st=sg
About the Magic Quadrant
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
About VMware
VMware is the leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure solutions that enable businesses to thrive in the Cloud Era. Customers rely on VMware to help them transform the way they build, deliver and consume Information Technology resources in a manner that is evolutionary and based on their specific needs. With 2011 revenues of $3.77 billion, VMware has more than 350,000 customers and 50,000 partners. The company is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the world and can be found online at www.vmware.com.
# # #
VMware, VMware vSphere and VMware vCloud are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions.  All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies.
(1) Gartner “Magic Quadrant for x86 Server Virtualization Infrastructure,” by Thomas J. Bittman, George J. Weiss, Mark A. Margevicius, Philip Dawson, June 11, 2012

SAP Named a Leader in Application Infrastructure Magic Quadrants

Press release:


SAP Named a Leader in Application Infrastructure Magic Quadrants

SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced that it has been positioned by Gartner, Inc. in the leaders quadrant of the "Magic Quadrant for Application Infrastructure for Systematic SOA Infrastructure Projects" report1 and the "Magic Quadrant for Application Infrastructure for Systematic Application Integration Projects" report.2 The products examined in the reports are part of the 7.3 version of the SAP NetWeaver technology platform.
SAP NetWeaver is a comprehensive application infrastructure technology stack, designed to efficiently develop, run and extend SAP, customer and partner applications on premise and in the cloud. The platform supports open standards and open source technologies, as well as seamless integration with core processes and data in SAP business applications. It has been renewed for simplicity and enabled for next generation platform requirements. SAP NetWeaver helps regular business applications to make use of technological advances such as in-memory data management, mobile access and cloud deployment.
According to the "Gartner Magic Quadrant for Application Infrastructure for Systematic Application Integration Projects" report, "Leaders in infrastructure that supports systematic application integration provide a comprehensive ESB suite offering and the ability to integrate that offering with other relevant technologies, including community management, data integration, governance and BPMS products. This is combined with a strong commitment to this market expressed through focused value propositions and go-to market strategies (for example, by packaging platforms and/or by providing integrated product and services offerings specific for this market), support for the most relevant industry standards — for example, support for SOAP-based and representational state transfer (REST) Web services, Business Process Execution Language (BPEL), BPMN and OSGi — and a well-defined road map addressing most emerging requirements such as cloud/SaaS integration."2
Companies classified as leaders in the "Gartner Magic Quadrant for Application Infrastructure for Systematic SOA Infrastructure Projects" report "combine the ability to provide a comprehensive application infrastructure offering with a strong commitment to this market, which is expressed through focused value propositions and go-to-market strategies (for example, by packaging product suites and/or by providing integrated product and service offerings specific for this market); support for the most relevant industry standards (e.g., BPEL, BPMN and OSGi); and a well-defined road map addressing most of the emerging requirements (such as federated SOA, cloud/SaaS integration, support for mobile application and PaaS support)."1
"We are delighted about this placement," said Björn Goerke, executive vice president, Technology & Innovation Platform Core, SAP. "We believe it acknowledges the very good progress and strong adoption of SAP NetWeaver Process Orchestration and SAP NetWeaver Gateway and the platform as a whole. It is also another proof-point that service-oriented architecture patterns become mainstream, allowing for different implementation styles. We will continue to co-innovate with customers and partners to expand the value and footprint of SAP NetWeaver further along with SAP HANA and into the cloud."
For more information, visit the SAP Newsroom. Follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnews.
1 Gartner, "Magic Quadrant for Application Infrastructure for Systematic SOA Infrastructure Projects," Massimo Pezzini, Yefim V. Natis, Jess Thompson, Daniel Sholler, Ross Altman, Kimihiko Iijima, 20 June 2012 2 Gartner, "Magic Quadrant for Application Infrastructure for Systematic Application Integration Projects," Jess Thompson, Yefim V. Natis, Massimo Pezzini, Daniel Sholler, Ross Altman, Kimihiki Iijima, 20 June 2012
About the Magic Quadrant
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Red Hat | Red Hat Honors Sean Millichamp as 2012 Worldwide Red Hat Certified Professional of the Year

Red Hat | Red Hat Honors Sean Millichamp as 2012 Worldwide Red Hat Certified Professional of the Year

Red Hat | Red Hat Announces Dates for Red Hat Summit 2013

Red Hat | Red Hat Announces Dates for Red Hat Summit 2013

Friday, June 29, 2012

Nuance Dragon Dictation and Dragon Search Apps Now Available in Slovakia

Press release:

http://www.nuance.com/company/news-room/press-releases/dragonappsslovakia.doc

San Diego County Throws the Book at Inefficiency With Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010

Press release:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/Press/2012/Jun12/06-29SanDiegoPR.aspx

IBM Announces New Virtual Desktop Flexible Workplace Solutions

Press release:

http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/38189.wss

Best Buy to Offer Samsung Galaxy S III on Sprint in Marble White Color

Press release:


Best Buy to Offer Samsung Galaxy S III on Sprint in Marble White Color
Best Buy today announced the launch of national retail exclusive marble white version of the popular Samsung Galaxy S® III on Sprint. The phone is available in Best Buy and Best Buy Mobile stores nationwide, as well as BestBuy.com, beginning July 1.

Samsung Galaxy S III features Android™ 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), has a 4.8-inch HD Super AMOLED™ touchscreen, a Qualcomm Snapdragon™ S4 1.5 GHz dual core CPU and 2GB of internal RAM.

Best Buy offers consumers the choice of any carrier, any phone, any plan with lots of unbiased advice at all of the Best Buy and Best Buy Mobile stores. In addition, it features an array of services aimed at improving customers' experience, including Walk Out Working, Upgrade Checker, Happy 24 and a full array of accessories for customers to protect and personalize their new mobile devices.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Press Release: RSA Achieves Leading Market Share for Identity and Access Management According to Analyst Firm

Press Release: RSA Achieves Leading Market Share for Identity and Access Management According to Analyst Firm

Red Hat | Red Hat Cloud Ecosystem Gains Global Momentum

Red Hat | Red Hat Cloud Ecosystem Gains Global Momentum

Red Hat | Red Hat Launches The JBoss Way Initiative Designed to Improve Developer Productivity

Red Hat | Red Hat Launches The JBoss Way Initiative Designed to Improve Developer Productivity

Oracle Introduces Oracle FLEXCUBE 12.0 to Help Banks Meet the Needs of Gen Y Customers

Oracle Introduces Oracle FLEXCUBE 12.0 to Help Banks Meet the Needs of Gen Y Customers

UNS Energy Corporation Selects Oracle WebLogic Server and Oracle SOA Suite for Comprehensive Customer Self-Service

UNS Energy Corporation Selects Oracle WebLogic Server and Oracle SOA Suite for Comprehensive Customer Self-Service

Win32/Gataka: a banking Trojan ready to take off? | ESET ThreatBlog

Win32/Gataka: a banking Trojan ready to take off? | ESET ThreatBlog

ZeroAccess? Much too much access... | ESET ThreatBlog

ZeroAccess? Much too much access... | ESET ThreatBlog

Cisco Carrier-Grade IPv6 Solution Hits Prime Time

Cisco Carrier-Grade IPv6 Solution Hits Prime Time

Russia's Largest Car Manufacturer Chooses Cisco to Enhance Effective Collaboration

Russia's Largest Car Manufacturer Chooses Cisco to Enhance Effective Collaboration

Nexica chooses Cisco infrastructure technology to power cloud service

Nexica chooses Cisco infrastructure technology to power cloud service

DEMO: SDN Controller

06/27/2012

Campus network slicing using Cisco 's SDN Controller.

Tags:Demo Thursdays, Data Center

For video, click the link below:

DEMO: SDN Controller

Sprint to launch latest 4G high-speed service in Kansas City on July 15 - KansasCity.com

Sprint to launch latest 4G high-speed service in Kansas City on July 15 - KansasCity.com

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Press Release: RFID Leader Zebra Technologies Transforms Its Oracle Environment Using EMC VMAX Enterprise Storage

Press Release: RFID Leader Zebra Technologies Transforms Its Oracle Environment Using EMC VMAX Enterprise Storage

Red Hat | Red Hat to Acquire FuseSource

Red Hat | Red Hat to Acquire FuseSource

Red Hat | Red Hat Introduces Comprehensive Open Hybrid Cloud Solutions Portfolio

Red Hat | Red Hat Introduces Comprehensive Open Hybrid Cloud Solutions Portfolio

Red Hat | Industry Heavyweights Join Red Hat Storage Ecosystem

Red Hat | Industry Heavyweights Join Red Hat Storage Ecosystem

Red Hat | Red Hat Redefines Enterprise and Hybrid Cloud Storage

Red Hat | Red Hat Redefines Enterprise and Hybrid Cloud Storage

Two-Thirds of Study Respondents See an Average of $250,000 in Annual Value from Executive Dashboard Usage - CA Technologies

Two-Thirds of Study Respondents See an Average of $250,000 in Annual Value from Executive Dashboard Usage - CA Technologies

Oracle Introduces Oracle Retail Customer Analytics

Oracle Introduces Oracle Retail Customer Analytics

Cisco Announces First Linksys Smart Wi-Fi Router and Universal Media Connector Powered by Industry's Next-Generation Wireless Technology – 802.11ac

Cisco Announces First Linksys Smart Wi-Fi Router and Universal Media Connector Powered by Industry's Next-Generation Wireless Technology – 802.11ac

Cisco Welcomes Developers to Design New Apps and Servicesfor Linksys Smart Wi-Fi Routers

Cisco Welcomes Developers to Design New Apps and Services
for Linksys Smart Wi-Fi Routers

Cisco Announces Availability of New Cloud Platform for Linksys Smart Wi-Fi Routers That Transforms and Powers the New ‘Connected' Home

Cisco Announces Availability of New Cloud Platform for Linksys Smart Wi-Fi Routers That Transforms and Powers the New ‘Connected' Home

Cloud usage now mainstream as benefits and barriers evolve – a third of businesses now see cloud as ‘critical'

Cloud usage now mainstream as benefits and barriers evolve – a third of businesses now see cloud as ‘critical'

Accenture to Host Conference Call Tomorrow, Thursday, June 28, to Discuss Third-Quarter Fiscal Year 2012 Results

Accenture to Host Conference Call Tomorrow, Thursday, June 28, to Discuss Third-Quarter Fiscal Year 2012 Results

Accenture Launches Innovation Centre for SAP® Solutions in Australia with Telstra

Accenture Launches Innovation Centre for SAP® Solutions in Australia with Telstra

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Red Hat | Casio Strengthens Its Core IT Infrastructure with Open Virtualization Technology in Collaboration with Red Hat

Red Hat | Casio Strengthens Its Core IT Infrastructure with Open Virtualization Technology in Collaboration with Red Hat

Red Hat | Red Hat Expands Collaboration with SAP on Virtualization Projects

Red Hat | Red Hat Expands Collaboration with SAP on Virtualization Projects

Red Hat | OpenShift is the First PaaS to Support Java EE 6 Full Profile in the Cloud

Red Hat | OpenShift is the First PaaS to Support Java EE 6 Full Profile in the Cloud

Red Hat | Red Hat Helps Enterprises Transform Culture and Processes to Realize Open Source Business Value

Red Hat | Red Hat Helps Enterprises Transform Culture and Processes to Realize Open Source Business Value

Red Hat | Red Hat'

Red Hat | Red Hat'

MICROS Systems, Inc. - Press Release - Aston Hotels Resorts

MICROS Systems, Inc. - Press Release - Aston Hotels Resorts

Oracle Announces the Oracle Customer Experience Summit @ OpenWorld in San Francisco During Oracle OpenWorld 2012

Oracle Announces the Oracle Customer Experience Summit @ OpenWorld in San Francisco During Oracle OpenWorld 2012

Partners Rapidly Achieving Oracle Exastack Optimized Certification through Oracle PartnerNetwork

Partners Rapidly Achieving Oracle Exastack Optimized Certification through Oracle PartnerNetwork

Angie’s List Improves Customer Experience with Oracle RightNow CX Cloud Service

Angie’s List Improves Customer Experience with Oracle RightNow CX Cloud Service

ZeroAccess: code injection chronicles | ESET ThreatBlog

ZeroAccess: code injection chronicles | ESET ThreatBlog

AVI-SPL, Cisco and TELUS Join Open Visual Communications Consortium

AVI-SPL, Cisco and TELUS Join Open Visual Communications Consortium

Cisco Unified Communications Release 9.0 Gives Users Access to Premium Collaboration Tools from Unlikely Places and More Devices

Cisco Unified Communications Release 9.0 Gives Users Access to Premium Collaboration Tools from Unlikely Places and More Devices

Small Business Owners Get Ready for Summer…But Plan to Stay Connected to the Office Wherever They Are

Small Business Owners Get Ready for Summer…But Plan to Stay Connected to the Office Wherever They Are

Four BYOD Challenges Small Businesses Face

Four BYOD Challenges Small Businesses Face

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Now Available in Creative Cloud

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Now Available in Creative Cloud

Monday, June 25, 2012

Red Hat | Red Hat Customers Highlight Transformative Technology Deployments in Sixth Annual Innovation Awards

Red Hat | Red Hat Customers Highlight Transformative Technology Deployments in Sixth Annual Innovation Awards

Red Hat | New Versions of JBoss Enterprise SOA and Enterprise Data Services Platforms Power Intelligent, Integrated Ente

Red Hat | New Versions of JBoss Enterprise SOA and Enterprise Data Services Platforms Power Intelligent, Integrated Ente

Red Hat | JBoss Enterprise BRMS 5.3 Optimizes the Intelligent, Integrated Shipping Company

Red Hat | JBoss Enterprise BRMS 5.3 Optimizes the Intelligent, Integrated Shipping Company

Red Hat | Red Hat Helps Customers Build Intelligent, Integrated Enterprises With New Version of JBoss Enterpise Business

Red Hat | Red Hat Helps Customers Build Intelligent, Integrated Enterprises With New Version of JBoss Enterpise Business

CA Technologies Extends Global Partner Program to Include Mainframe Modernization Solutions - CA Technologies

CA Technologies Extends Global Partner Program to Include Mainframe Modernization Solutions - CA Technologies

Oracle Unveils Oracle Health Sciences Network

Oracle Unveils Oracle Health Sciences Network

Oracle Exhibits Oracle Customer Experience Strategy

Oracle Exhibits Oracle Customer Experience Strategy

Sharing versus Security: Driving without Brakes | ESET ThreatBlog

Sharing versus Security: Driving without Brakes | ESET ThreatBlog

Cisco and Citrix Simplify Go-to-Marketwith New Partner Accelerator Initiative

Cisco and Citrix Simplify Go-to-Market
with New Partner Accelerator Initiative

RBC and Cisco to Host Conference Call on Next Generation Wireless Networks built on Unified Access

RBC and Cisco to Host Conference Call on Next Generation Wireless Networks built on Unified Access

Cisco Communications Manager Recalls Olympic Memories in L.A.

Cisco Communications Manager Recalls Olympic Memories in L.A.

Spain’s Guardia Civil Selects Accenture to Enhance Information Sharing Across Police Systems

Spain’s Guardia Civil Selects Accenture to Enhance Information Sharing Across Police Systems

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Federal judge tosses Apple patent suit against Motorola

Federal judge tosses Apple patent suit against Motorola

Broadcom's 5G WiFi Chip Family Wins R&D 100 Award

Press release:


Broadcom's 5G WiFi Chip Family Wins R&D 100 Award

5G WiFi Recognized by R&D Magazine as One of the "Most Technologically Significant Products" of the Year

IRVINE, Calif.June 22, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM), a global innovation leader in semiconductor solutions for wired and wireless communications, today announced that its family of 5G WiFi chips (based on the IEEE 802.11ac standard) won a prestigious R&D 100 Award. Selected by an independent judging panel and the editors of R&D Magazine, the R&D 100 Awards represent the 100 most technologically significant products of the past year. For more news, visit Broadcom's Newsroom.
Broadcom's new 5G WiFi SoCs, introduced in January 2012 at CES, are designed to address the increased reliance on wireless networks and growing demand for more reliable connectivity. 5G WiFi is three times faster and up to six times more power efficient than previous generations of Wi-Fi. Products powered by 5G WiFi provide broader coverage and allow consumers to experience faster video streaming and connect multiple devices simultaneously all while extending battery life. For more information, please visit www.5GWiFi.org.
Over the past 50 years, the R&D 100 Awards have honored some of the most revolutionary technologies newly introduced to the market across industry sectors as diverse as telecommunications, high-energy physics, software, manufacturing, and biotechnology. The winners represent a cross-section of industry, academia, private research firms, and government labs.
"5G WiFi is the most significant wireless innovation of the year. Broadcom recognized the importance of the 802.11ac standard early, invested accordingly and committed to driving adoption across the entire ecosystem. The flawless execution speaks to Broadcom's engineering excellence and quality and talent of the team devoted to this effort. To be recognized by an awards program with such a tremendous history and track record of identifying real innovation and excellence is a true honor." Michael Hurlston, Sr. Vice President & General ManagerWireless Connectivity Combo Group
About Broadcom
Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM), a FORTUNE 500® company, is a global leader and innovator in semiconductor solutions for wired and wireless communications. Broadcom® products seamlessly deliver voice, video, data and multimedia connectivity in the home, office and mobile environments.  With the industry's broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art system-on-a-chip and embedded software solutions, Broadcom is changing the world by connecting everything®. For more information, go to www.broadcom.com.
Broadcom®, the pulse logo, Connecting everything®, and the Connecting everything logo are among the trademarks ofBroadcom Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States, certain other countries and/or the EU.  Any other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

Red Hat | Red Hat Offering Free JBoss Certification for the First 8 Exam Registrants at JUDCon 2012: Boston

Red Hat | Red Hat Offering Free JBoss Certification for the First 8 Exam Registrants at JUDCon 2012: Boston

Friday, June 22, 2012

Lenovo Expands U.S. Global Headquarters, NC Footprint

Lenovo Expands U.S. Global Headquarters, NC Footprint

Skyfoundry and Streetlight Data Win IBM Smartcamp Boston

http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/38117.wss

General Electric - Press Releases - GE Healthcare IT Showcases its Latest Innovations at UKRC - GE

General Electric - Press Releases - GE Healthcare IT Showcases its Latest Innovations at UKRC - GE

The Network Week In Review June 18-22

News release from Cisco:

The Network Week In Review June 18-22

Windows Phone 8's Great Start Screen: A Closer Look

http://www.pcworld.com/article/258037/windows_phone_8s_great_start_screen_a_closer_look.html#tk.nl_bdx_h_crawl

Is Hiding the Wireless SSID All the Network Security You Need?

http://infosecisland.com/blogview/21693-Is-Hiding-the-Wireless-SSID-All-the-Network-Security-You-Need.html

Thursday, June 21, 2012

SAP Named Hottest Vendor in Ventana Research 2012 Value Index for Financial Performance Management

Press release:


SAP Named Hottest Vendor in Ventana Research 2012 Value Index for Financial Performance Management

SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced it has been ranked by Ventana Research, a leading benchmark research and advisory services firm, as the hottest vendor in its "2012 Value Index for Financial Performance Management (FPM)."
For the second time, SAP earned the highest overall "Hot Vendor" rating, which is certified by Ventana Research as the best representation of buyer value. SAP led the overall ranking in the Value Index compared to other vendors such as IBM, Infor and Oracle in the Value Index, which can help organizations to accurately match their specific business needs to vendors' products.
The Value Index evaluates software in the context of seven key categories. Five are product-related: usability, manageability, reliability, capability and adaptability. Additionally, two customer assurance categories assess total cost of ownership (TCO) plus return on investment (ROI), as well as validation.
This evaluation framework provides an assessment of how well vendors' offerings meet buyers' requirements for software designed to support FPM. The Value Index captures the value offered by a vendor and its products via a clear, accessible graphical representation, as well as a precise index percentage. Using the Value Index, organizations can evaluate vendors and their products to ascertain the value of applications to address their business-critical requirements.
"Ventana Research's recognition of our leadership in the financial performance management applications market acknowledges that SAP is helping its customers truly revolutionize the decision-making process," said Bryan Katis, group vice president and general manager, EPM Solutions Management, SAP. "Enterprise performance management solutions from SAP help finance professionals gain real-time visibility into performance metrics, quickly adapt to changing business conditions and drive savvier decision-making"
Visit the Ventana Research site to access the executive summary of the Financial Performance Management Value Index.
For more information, visit the SAP Newsroom. Follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnews and@businessobjects.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.3 Globally Available

Press release:


Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.3 Globally Available

June 21, 2012

The Red Hat Enterprise Linux Team

Red Hat is proud to announce the global availability of the next minor release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system platform, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.3. The rich array of features in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.3 originates from many sources including Red Hat engineers, partners, and customers, as well as the open source community. Through the innovation harnessed through a strong and vibrant ecosystem, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.3 provides enterprises with mature, stable technology supported by its award-winning worldwide support organization.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux continues to reinforce its position as a leading operating system within hybrid environments – where customers expect consistency, stability, yet flexibility – to create standard infrastructure patterns across physical, virtual, and cloud environments. This is demonstrated by features including secure disk wiping, and live volume re-sizing of virtual guests. They represent the marriage of key capabilities, such as security and storage resource management, with next-generation architectures including cloud and virtualization.
With minor releases of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, enhancements are made to take advantage of the most recent advancement from hardware OEMs. This includes updated device drivers for a multitude of peripherals, and also various features like compiler optimization for the Intel Xeon E5 processor family.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.3 includes enhancements and new capabilities providing rich functionality particularly in the areas of developer tools, virtualization, security, scalability, file systems, and storage. Highlighted below is a small subset of the new features and enhancements in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.3.
Developer Tools: In addition to OpenJDK6 support in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, the newly introduced OpenJDK7 allows customers running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.3 to develop and test with the latest version of open source Java. The Red Hat Developer Day is scheduled for June 26th at the 2012 Red Hat Summit & JBoss World. More about this and other capabilities will be presented, including the Red Hat Enterprise Linux toolset (updated GCC), performance optimization, thread programming and NUMA. For more information about developer day, please visit here.
Virtualization: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.3 helps smooth migration to a virtualized environment. This is achieved with the help of new Virt-P2V tools that can easily convert a Red Hat Enterprise Linux or Microsoft Windows system running on physical hardware to run as KVM guests. This release implements a more robust mechanism to protect data associated with defunct virtual machines. The method by which virtual disk images are securely wiped has been enhanced to allow greater security and stronger compliance with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI-DSS).
Security: Users can now use two-factor authentication for securely accessing their Red Hat Enterprise Linux environment. This type of authentication mechanism is more secure than simple password based authentication. Two-factor authentication is being adopted into enterprise environments and is often referenced in industry standards. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.3 also includes advanced encryption capabilities so data blocks can be encrypted in parallel by taking advantage of underlying multi-processor capabilities. This is supported by the introduction of AES-CTR (Advanced Encryption Standard Counter Mode) cipher for OpenSSH. AES-CTR is well suited for high-speed networking environments.
Scalability: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.3 continues to test the outer bounds of scalability for an operating system platform by increasing the maximum number of virtual CPUs (vCPUs) per guest to 160 from 64. This is significantly higher than the 32 vCPU per guest limit for VMware ESX 5.0. The maximum supported memory configuration for KVM guests has also been increased from 512GB to 2TB.
File Systems: File system improvements include O_DIRECT support in FUSE (File system in user space). When enabled, all FUSE reads and writes go directly to storage, bypassing the server cache. This capability can lead to more consistent response times and predictable access to data by multiple accessors for certain use-cases, including database writes and deduplication. GFS2 (shared storage file system) can now read and write data to the disks faster than in previous releases for certain use-cases. In addition, file system check utilities for GFS2 can now be used to check the integrity of the older GFS1 file system.
Storage: The Logical Volume Manager (LVM) now provides support for RAID levels 4, 5, and 6 to simplify overall storage administration by consolidating all management functions, such as creating and re-sizing volumes, deploying RAID, and taking snapshots into a single interface. It is now possible to deploy Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 as a FCoE based storage target server providing the high level of reliability and performance available with native Fibre Channel but at a significantly lower cost. This feature complements the FCoE Initiator support that was delivered in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.0.
Subscription Management: With Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.3, by default customers can use Red Hat Subscription Management (SAM), an enhanced subscription management capability using X.509 certificates that allows customers to effectively manage subscriptions locally and report on subscription distribution and utilization. This helps facilitate compliance, upgrades, and long-term planning. Customers register their systems using Red Hat Subscription Manager to the Red Hat award-winning customer portal or an instance of Red Hat Enterprise Linux SAM. Customers who used RHN Classic subscription management with prior releases of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, can continue to use it or migrate to Red Hat Subscription Management.
More information about Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.3 can be found here.

Nimsoft Adds Support for Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization


Press Releases

Nimsoft Adds Support for Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization

Unified Visibility Helps Customers Achieve Optimal Performance Across Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization and Heterogeneous Virtualization Environments
Campbell, Calif.—June 21, 2012—Nimsoft today announced that its Nimsoft Monitor solution now features robust support for Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization, providing customers with unified, end-to-end visibility into their Red Hat and non-Red Hat resources so they can more effectively and efficiently deliver IT services to their business.
Click to tweetNimsoft Adds Support for Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization http://bit.ly/MM3Inn #ITSM#RedHat
Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization is a comprehensive open source virtualization management solution for servers and desktops. It is differentiated from other virtualization solutions by lower total cost of ownership, faster return on investment and freedom from vendor lock-in.
Nimsoft Monitor for Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization streamlines administration in heterogeneous virtualized environments by efficiently managing multiple virtualization technologies from a single platform.
"We've expanded the scope of our monitoring coverage to include Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization, giving customers more choice in virtualization technology," said Mark Frost, general manager of the Nimsoft Solutions Group. “This can help our customers achieve optimum IT infrastructure performance and uptime.”
Nimsoft Monitor for Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization automates many monitoring tasks, and streamlines the administration of the physical and virtualized elements in dynamic Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization-enabled environments. Key capabilities include:
• Auto-discovery of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization hypervisors.
• Granular, correlated views of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization and the underlying physical systems.
• Real-time performance and availability of data.
• Proactive alerts based on customer-defined thresholds.
• Automation of common RHEV configuration and data collection tasks.
“Red Hat customers want management tools that are easy to deploy, easy to operate and provide the functionality they need to keep their critical business services up and running at peak performance,” said Geert Jansen, senior product marketing manager, Virtualization at Red Hat. “Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization combined with Nimsoft Monitor provides our joint customers with the performance, reliability, scalability and cost-effectiveness they need for their IT infrastructures.”
Nimsoft will demonstrate its support for Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization in the partner pavilion at the 2012 Red Hat Summit/JBoss World, June 27-28 in Boston.
About Nimsoft
Nimsoft provides leading IT Management-as-a-Service solutions within the CA Technologies portfolio. Companies and service providers of all sizes use Nimsoft to rapidly and easily implement essential monitoring and service desk capabilities necessary to manage today’s dynamic computing environments. Learn more at www.nimsoft.com.

Panda Internet Security 2012 Ranks as Best-Performing Antivirus in Recent AV-Comparatives Evaluation


  2

Panda Internet Security 2012 Ranks as Best-Performing Antivirus in Recent AV-Comparatives Evaluation

  • Panda Security’s consumer antivirus solution achieves highest Advanced+ rating in the Performance tests
Panda Security, The Cloud Security Company, today announced that Panda Internet Security 2012 has achieved the Advanced+ rating in the latest “Performance” test from AV-Comparatives.org, the independent review lab. These results showcase the solution’s powerful protection capabilities and minimum resource consumption.
The tests were conducted in May and consisted of several subtests that judged the speed of file copying, archiving/unarchiving, installing/uninstalling, downloading and launching applications. Panda Internet Security 2012 achieved excellent results in nine out of the ten tests.
“This certification proves the excellent work done by Panda Security to minimize resource consumption, leveraging our Collective Intelligence technologies, while delivering maximum protection for users’ PCs”, said Pedro Bustamante, senior research advisor at Panda Security.
For more information about Panda Internet Security 2012, please visit:http://www.pandasecurity.com/spain/homeusers/solutions/internet-security/

Microsoft Reveals Worldwide Finalists of Inaugural BlueHat Prize


Microsoft Reveals Worldwide Finalists of Inaugural BlueHat Prize
June 21, 2012
Grand prize of $200,000 will be awarded for best defensive security technology at Microsoft’s Researcher Appreciation Party following the Black Hat briefings in Las Vegas.
REDMOND, Wash. — June 21, 2012 — Microsoft Corp.’s Trustworthy Computing Group today announced the top three finalists of its BlueHat Prize, a competition that awards researchers more than $250,000 in cash and prizes for developing new, innovative computer security protection technologies. Microsoft will announce the grand prize winner at its Researcher Appreciation Party on July 26, 2012, following the Black Hat briefings in Las Vegas.
In an effort to mitigate entire classes of vulnerabilities, Microsoft presented this challenge to the industry last August, spurring some of the brightest security minds across the globe. Microsoft was happy to see participation from across the research community and academia. After in-depth evaluation of the entries, Microsoft selected three finalists who each developed unique solutions that hinder attacks that leverage Return Oriented Programming (ROP). ROP is an advanced technique that attackers use to combine short pieces of benign code, already present in a system, for a malicious purpose.
The following, in alphabetical order, are the three finalists:
  • Jared DeMott. DeMott is a researcher well-known for teaching a course titled “Application Security: For Hackers and Developers” at security conferences. DeMott submitted a BlueHat Prize entry called /ROP that checks to ensure that target addresses of return instructions, which ROP exploits use, are safe.
  • Ivan Fratric. Fratric earned a Ph.D. in computer science and is a researcher at the University of Zagreb in Zagreb, Croatia. Fratric’s entry, named ROPGuard, defines a set of checks that can be used to detect when certain functions are being called in the context of malicious ROP code.
  • Vasilis Pappas. Pappas is a Ph.D. student at Columbia University in the City of New York who actively researches information security. Pappas’ submission, called kBouncer, is a ROP mitigation technique that detects abnormal control transfers using common hardware features.
“Microsoft applauds these researchers who met the challenge and developed defensive solutions that go above and beyond conventional security practices focused on discovering individual issues,” said Mike Reavey, senior director, Microsoft Security Response Center. “We can’t wait to see how this initiative will inspire others to explore defensive technology research in order to potentially mitigate entire classes of vulnerabilities.”
Microsoft will reveal more information on the entries at the company’s Researcher Appreciation Party. The company will award one finalist $200,000 for the grand prize, while the first runner-up will win $50,000 and the second runner-up will win an MSDN Universal subscription valued at $10,000.
“Historically, the security industry has focused on rewarding researchers for identifying and reporting individual vulnerabilities,” said Brad Arkin, senior director, security, Adobe products and services. “The BlueHat Prize represents a new and exciting approach that motivates researchers to come up with solutions that will help mitigate entire classes of attacks against customers.”
The official BlueHat Prize competition rules and guidelines are available athttp://www.BlueHatPrize.com. Microsoft accepted 20 contest entries from Aug. 3, 2011, until April 1, 2012, with the final entry being received just eight minutes before the deadline. After all the entries were submitted, a panel of Microsoft security engineers judged the submissions based on the following criteria: practicality and functionality (30 percent); robustness — how easy it would be to bypass the proposed solution (30 percent); and impact (40 percent). 
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential. 

Super 8 Hotels (China) Selects SQL Server 2012

Press release:


Super 8 Hotels (China) Selects SQL Server 2012
June 21, 2012
Hotel chain chooses business intelligence tools from Microsoft to guide rapid growth across China.
REDMOND, Wash. — June 21, 2012 — Super 8 Hotels (China) Co. Ltd, partner of Super 8 Worldwide in China, chose the powerful business analysis capabilities of Microsoft SQL Server 2012. Super 8 Worldwide is one of the largest operators of budget hotels around the world and operates more than 2,300 hotels globally. Super 8 Hotels (China) manages more than 500 opened and to-be-opened hotels inside of China. The decision to deploy SQL Server 2012 in China enables Super 8 Hotels (China) management to analyze the performance of individual properties and the Chinese business as a whole while also determining the best growth opportunities within the region.
“Our rapid growth in China can be traced to the superior market and business insights we have gained from Microsoft SQL Server 2012,” said Joe Xu, senior vice president of distribution, Super 8 Hotels (China). “We can better determine our long-term development strategy.”
In order to better analyze increasing customer and staff information following the expansion goal of 1,000 hotels in China, Super 8 Hotels (China) deployed SQL Server 2012 to create a centralized information-sharing and business intelligence platform, aiming to lower total cost of ownership while improving availability, scalability and business insights for its mission-critical environment. Previous solutions forced management to manually gather data from each hotel, which was time-consuming and susceptible to human error. Super 8 Hotels (China) determined that SQL Server 2012 was the security-enhanced, reliable and cost-efficient cloud-ready solution it needed to improve its data management software, which allows managers to collaborate with one another for improved business insight.
SQL Server 2012 offers several valuable features that help address the company’s concerns. For example, SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn helps ensure high availability of business systems; SQL Server 2012 support of cloud computing allows it to run databases on-premises or in a cloud environment to meet changing business needs; and SQL Server Master Data Services enables the company to create, maintain, store and access the master data structure used for object mapping, data referencing and metadata management.
More information on Super 8 Hotels (China) choosing SQL Server 2012 is available in the case study, and more information about how organizations are turning to Microsoft technology is available on the Microsoft Customer Spotlight newsroom.
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential. 

IBM survey reveals marketers face tech dilemma in reaching the connected consumer

Press release:


IBM survey reveals marketers face tech dilemma in reaching the connected consumer

Marketers to reach customers through new mobile device ads; IT a hurdle
Armonk, N.Y. - 21 Jun 2012: IBM’s (NYSE: IBM) new survey of the marketing industry finds that chief marketing officers (CMO) and chief information officers (CIO) must join forces in order to connect with today’s consumer across new channels including mobile devices and social networks. Fully 60 percent of marketers point to their lack of alignment with the company's IT department as the biggest obstacle to reaching today's consumers. 
One key new finding of the survey shows that with mobile marketing working well, marketers are now preparing to go beyond coupons and deliver mobile advertising that reaches customers on their smart phone and tablets. According to the study, 34 percent of respondents stated that in less than 12 months, they intend to deliver mobile ads, the highest rate of new marketing tactic adoption in the five-year history of the study. Overall, 46 percent of respondents are currently using mobile web sites followed by 45 percent mobile applications, up from 40 percent and 44 percent respectively since last year. 
While the mobile channel is thriving, marketers lack this same clear consensus on how to best utilize social media which will result in ongoing experimentation with these channels. For example, when looking toward the remainder of the year, 26 percent intend to launch applications on 3rd party social network sites, 24 percent plan to incorporate user-generated content into their social media efforts and 23 percent are looking to launch social media ads or share links in email and web offers. 
IBM's “State of Marketing 2012” surveyed more than 350 marketing professionals across a wide range of industries and geographies. In the study, 51 percent of respondents who identified their companies as high-performing indicated they have good relationships between marketing and IT, 10 percent higher than other companies. This figure validates the importance of the marketing and IT alliance which gives top performers greater responsibilities for the products and services, price, place and promotion (the 4Ps), and communication across the purchasing cycle. As a result, marketers from these higher performing companies are nearly three times more likely to be pro-active leaders in driving their organization's customer experience across all channels. 
“This research indicates that as new channels continue to mature and consumer habits evolve, marketing and IT have no alternative but to emerge from their traditional silos and form a strong partnership that puts the business in a position to succeed,” said Yuchun Lee, Vice President, IBM Enterprise Marketing Management Group. “CMOs and CIOs, an 'odd couple' in some respects, will be the catalysts in forging this union and enabling the types of personalized multichannel brand relationships that today’s customers demand.” 
Additional results from the survey include: 
Marketing and IT Lack Integration:
·     While 48 percent of respondents believe that improved technology infrastructure or software will enable them to do more, nearly 60 percent indicated that lack of IT alignment and integration are significant barriers to the adoption of technology. This void further reinforces the notion that CMOs and CIOs must forge stronger, more aligned relationships that put the business in a position to succeed.  
Marketing and IT Lack Unified Vision:
·     While 71 percent believe integration across owned, earned and paid channels is important, only 29 percent are effectively integrating these different channels. When asked why, 59 percent said that existing systems are too disparate to integrate these channels. This is most evident in areas such as mobile and social where only 21 percent and 22 percent of respondents run these tactics as part of integrated campaigns with the remainder conducting them in silos, discretely and on an ad hoc basis, a practice which inhibits their ability to deliver effective cross-channel campaigns. 
Marketers State Social and Mobile are Biggest Challenges Moving Forward
·     While new social media and mobile devices are vital, 41 percent stated that keeping pace with the growth of these channels and device choices will be their biggest challenge over the next three to five years. This finding follows IBMs 2011 CMO study where 65 percent of CMOs stated that they are under prepared for the growth of social and online channels such as Facebook and Twitter and new device choices including smart phones and tablets. 
Marketers Ignore Social Media Insights:
·     While marketers continue to experiment with social media channels, 51 percent are not using this data to inform decisions about marketing offers and messages. This may represent a missed opportunity for marketers looking to best meet the needs of today’s customer. 
Marketers Fail to Turn Data into Action
·     When asked how they are using online visitor data, 65 percent of respondents are doing the basics, reporting and analyzing their data. Despite that number, only one third are using this data to target one-to-one offers or messages in digital channels and less than 20 percent are using this online data to make one-to-one offers in traditional channels.
To view the complete survey results, please click here.
To read a Smarter Planet blog post, "The Dog Ate My Integrated Marketing Solution…What’s Your Excuse?" click here