New G8 Servers, not available as yet but some exciting new features...
I've been out of the game for a week or so due to holiday, but boy did I miss some exciting announcements. Unfortunately, my time out wasn't spent in Las Vegas for HP's Global Partner Conference but given the choice I'd love to have taken a look at the new G8 systems which were announced.
HP didn't spend a great deal of time boasting about new hardware features, however this might have had something to do with Intel kicking their heels with an announcement on their new line of E5 processors.
None-the-less, features were announced. 150 of them to be exact, all created on the back of extensive research carried out by HP through engagement with their customers. My favourite of these is the 'Location Discovery Services'
Location Discovery Services gives the server a sense of location within a new HP iSeries rack, gathering details such as U location, power, and temperature data.
Compiling detailed server information can be a real pain in the backside for admins, having to feed this data back to boring spreadsheets. A real time, auto - populating data stream could be just what the doctor ordered.
I'm unsure as yet of the ship dates of the HP G8 boxes, I have heard rumours that it could be as early as next month.
Wednesday 22 February 2012
Thursday 2 February 2012
Is the tablet really a PC?
Say yes, you'll make Apple happy...
I've seen lots of bits and pieces on twitter and other social networking sites this week claiming that Apple have wiped the floor with HP, pushing them into second place and that they are now the #1 PC manufacturer. Does it really count though?
Apple sold 15 million iPads in the 4th quarter of last year. In comparison, they sold 5 million Macs giving them a total market share of 17 percent (nearest competitor was HP with 12.7 percent) I'm not certain of HP's tablet to 'pc' ratio but I'm willing to bet that it's no where near Apple's 25/75% split.
For me, there's still a couple of areas where the tablet is at a disadvantage to warrant being compared directly to the PC, couple of my big groans:
Print Support - Unless your updating or syncing, a tablet like the iPad for example is attached to nothing. Yes, certain updates have been made to allow wireless printing but that's about as helpful as a chocolate fireguard if you've only got a USB printer!
Multimedia - Ok, so the iPad doesn't support flash but some tablet O/S do - Android have integrated it into their last couple of releases but it's nothing like the experience I get sat infront of my notebook, it's like the O/S picks and chooses its way through which sites it will and won't let flash work on!
Windows 8 tablets are due later this year with support for Intel, ARM and AMD chips. I'll be interested to see if any provoke a change in tides...
I've seen lots of bits and pieces on twitter and other social networking sites this week claiming that Apple have wiped the floor with HP, pushing them into second place and that they are now the #1 PC manufacturer. Does it really count though?
Apple sold 15 million iPads in the 4th quarter of last year. In comparison, they sold 5 million Macs giving them a total market share of 17 percent (nearest competitor was HP with 12.7 percent) I'm not certain of HP's tablet to 'pc' ratio but I'm willing to bet that it's no where near Apple's 25/75% split.
For me, there's still a couple of areas where the tablet is at a disadvantage to warrant being compared directly to the PC, couple of my big groans:
Print Support - Unless your updating or syncing, a tablet like the iPad for example is attached to nothing. Yes, certain updates have been made to allow wireless printing but that's about as helpful as a chocolate fireguard if you've only got a USB printer!
Multimedia - Ok, so the iPad doesn't support flash but some tablet O/S do - Android have integrated it into their last couple of releases but it's nothing like the experience I get sat infront of my notebook, it's like the O/S picks and chooses its way through which sites it will and won't let flash work on!
Windows 8 tablets are due later this year with support for Intel, ARM and AMD chips. I'll be interested to see if any provoke a change in tides...
Wednesday 18 January 2012
Centralising with IBM Cloudburst
Of the IT pro's that I speak to, many are still somewhat dubious about cloud offerings and what it can do for their business, refusing to be too inspired by 2011/2012's biggest tech buzz.
A common gripe that I'm hearing seems to be worries around security and I can kind of understand this, I mean having confidential data stored on hardware that isn't yours and is probably in a different timezone is about as scary entering a quiz with the cast of TOWIE....
It's worth remembering though, just because the IT dept hasn't got the cash or doesn't feel that it's right for the business, doesn't mean that all of your users will feel the same. With some of the big everyday names involved, cloud's had alot of exposure, individual departments will be asking the question of what cloud can do for them, let them explore alone at your peril!
Individual departments bypassing IT and deploying their own cloud strategies because they believe it to be easy is a big information security risk. IBM Cloudburst offerings for System X can help IT managers centralise cloud services and provide proper policies for its usage.
There's a really good PDF available that gives a good overview of some usage scenarios on the IBM system X platform, it can be found at:
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpieces/abstracts/sg247981.html?Open&sf2939813=1
A common gripe that I'm hearing seems to be worries around security and I can kind of understand this, I mean having confidential data stored on hardware that isn't yours and is probably in a different timezone is about as scary entering a quiz with the cast of TOWIE....
It's worth remembering though, just because the IT dept hasn't got the cash or doesn't feel that it's right for the business, doesn't mean that all of your users will feel the same. With some of the big everyday names involved, cloud's had alot of exposure, individual departments will be asking the question of what cloud can do for them, let them explore alone at your peril!
Individual departments bypassing IT and deploying their own cloud strategies because they believe it to be easy is a big information security risk. IBM Cloudburst offerings for System X can help IT managers centralise cloud services and provide proper policies for its usage.
There's a really good PDF available that gives a good overview of some usage scenarios on the IBM system X platform, it can be found at:
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpieces/abstracts/sg247981.html?Open&sf2939813=1
Thursday 12 January 2012
Which platform?
IBM System X will benefit from leading cluster, grid and cloud management software.
IBM have recently acquired the Canadian software company Platform Computing who address the challenge of supplying appropriate IT resources to applications and users in any given environment.
With 19 years of steady growth and a client base of over 2000 of the worlds most demanding client organisations, it's no wonder that IBM have snapped up the market leader to improve their distributed computing offerings.
The technology will be applied to IBM's System X, intelligent cluster solutions which should see them extend their high performance computing reach in the segment of technical computing (a segment which appears to be growing larger by the day)
IBM have recently acquired the Canadian software company Platform Computing who address the challenge of supplying appropriate IT resources to applications and users in any given environment.
With 19 years of steady growth and a client base of over 2000 of the worlds most demanding client organisations, it's no wonder that IBM have snapped up the market leader to improve their distributed computing offerings.
The technology will be applied to IBM's System X, intelligent cluster solutions which should see them extend their high performance computing reach in the segment of technical computing (a segment which appears to be growing larger by the day)
Tuesday 20 December 2011
IBM's 2007 '5 in 5'
As we head into 2012 it's been nearly 5 years since IBM's 2007 '5 in 5' selections. How close to the mark were they?
In December 2007 IBM announced their second annual selection of 5 innovations their brightest sparks felt would change the way we work, live and play over the next 5 years. The selections were based upon societal trends and emerging technologies.
Wednesday 14 December 2011
Money is the route of all e-val
At the click of a button IBM now offers clients the ability to analyse the costs involved with running their infrastructures.
Do busy CIO's have enough time to identify potential savings? IBM obviously thinks not as they've introduced a new smarter computing simulator which demonstrates both areas of better efficiency and potential savings.
Layman's terms are often the best way to lay out areas of improvement. The simulator does just this providing both charts but also in-depth analysis of the data generated.
The simulator takes into consideration a host of factors, asking the visitor to select either an IBM power system or IBM system z whilst considering workload, the clients industry and their current infrastructure. This can be x86, Itanium or Sun.
IBM Smarter computing simulator is great for those who might have heard the phrase 'smarter computing' but have yet to fully investigate the message, as it shows exactly how it'll be delivered in any given environment.
The simulator can be found at the link below:
http://www.ibm.com/common/sc/simulator/
Wednesday 30 November 2011
New System X Models
IBM Announce M4 Systems
IBM have announced new entry level boxes to the System X portfolio. The systems are aimed at SMB organisations but promise enterprise class performance.
The IBM X3100 M4 becomes the newest member of the tower range, It's a single socket server powered by the Intel Xeon E3-1200 series, which offers performance 30% higher than any other single socket server on the market.
IBM's newest rack offering has also been announced, the IBM x3250 M4. Aimed at workloads such as archiving, web serving and printing the system is perfect for the small enterprise infrastructure. Exciting new features include redundant power, optional HW RAID and server-level memory with error correction giving businesses 24 x 7 reliability.
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