Data Center Management Articles
At the recent Oracle users conference COLLABORATE 13, IOUG hosted an evening hands-on lab for attendees. The turnout was great—even after a full day of conference sessions. What topic drew such a dedicated crowd? Two words: Performance Tuning.
Posted June 13, 2013
There is an emerging field of companies looking to take on the challenges presented by the roiling tide of big data. While their visions vary, each has identified a market need that it believes its technology uniquely addresses. Here, DBTA highlights the approaches of 10 companies we think are worth watching.
Posted June 13, 2013
The result of collaboration between hundreds of engineers from more than 30 companies within the Java Community Process (JCP) and the GlassFish Community, the new Java Platform, Enterprise Edition 7 (Java EE 7) as well as the Java EE 7 Software Development Kit (SDK) was announced by Oracle and JCP members at a launch webcast. The new release has three main themes, said Cameron Purdy, vice president for development at Oracle. They are support for building HTML5 applications, enhancements for greater developer productivity, and new features that address enterprise requirements.
Posted June 12, 2013
Dell and Oracle have announced an expanded worldwide alliance, through which the two companies will introduce a new x86 infrastructure offering that combines Dell's hardware with Oracle's software. As part of the agreement, Oracle has named Dell a preferred x86 partner, and Dell has named Oracle a preferred enterprise infrastructure partner, including Oracle Linux. The expanded partnership represents an extension of Oracle's engineered systems strategy, said Oracle president Mark Hurd.
Posted June 12, 2013
Progress Software Corporation announced a new platform for building and managing applications on any cloud, mobile or social platform. The new software, Progress Pacific, is the foundation of a major PaaS (platform-as-a-service) transformation Progress previously announced. As part of this new platform, which will ship in the third quarter of 2013, Progress acquired Rollbase, Inc., a privately held independent software vendor, which provides point-and-click, drag-and-drop application-building tools in a standard browser.
Posted June 10, 2013
IBM announced new software, training and resources to help organizations create, test and deliver mobile and cloud applications aimed at enabling organizations' DevOps capabilities. The new initiatives expand the development capabilities of IBM's SmartCloud and IBM MobileFirst offerings. "We are getting a very clear message from our clients. The business and technical pressures they are facing to innovate, stay ahead of their competition and deliver better quality products to their clients is immense," Eric Naiburg, program director for ALM, DevOps and Agile Solutions, IBM, tells 5 Minute Briefing.
Posted June 10, 2013
To address the increasing power requirements of mission-critical facilities, GE recently introduced its new TLE Series uninterruptible power supply (UPS) global platform. The TLE Series transformer-less, three-phase UPS applies GE's technology to provide facilities with operating efficiencies. The cost of power is a very big concern for data centers, Harry Handlin, director of Critical Power Applications for GE, tells 5 Minute Briefing.
Posted June 10, 2013
Brandon Systems, a mainframe modernization tools vendor, recently acquired Jolly Giant Software Inc., a developer of terminal emulation software. This acquisition complements WIRE (Web Interface Rules Engine), Brandon's existing mainframe modernization product. Jolly Giant's flagship product, the QWS3270 PLUS emulator, will increase the breadth of Brandon's software line, Seth Hemley, president of Brandon Systems, tells 5 Minute Briefing.
Posted June 10, 2013
PMC, a semiconductor producer, announced a 24-port, PCIe Gen3 6Gb/s SAS/SATA RAID adapter, enabling new dense architectures for scale-out or space-limited data centers. The Adaptec 78165's 24-port native connectivity triples storage connectivity by replacing up to three eight-port RAID adapters, the vendor claims
Posted June 10, 2013
Expanding its position in the cloud computing market segment, IBM announced plans to acquire SoftLayer Technologies, Inc., a privately held cloud computing infrastructure provider headquartered in Dallas, Texas. IBM also announced the formation of a new Cloud Services division. Following the close of the acquisition of SoftLayer, which is expected in 3Q 2013, the new division will combine SoftLayer with IBM SmartCloud into a global platform.
Posted June 10, 2013
SHARE is pleased to announce that the technical session schedule for SHARE in Boston is now available. Explore the line-up of user-focused technical sessions including a number of hands-on labs.
Posted June 10, 2013
SunGard Availability Services, a provider of information availability and disaster recovery services, has introduced support for virtualized platforms for its SunGard Managed Oracle Services. Sungard's managed Oracle services are designed to run ERP applications and Oracle Databases with pre-certified Oracle server and storage hardware and software, known as Oracle Red Stack. Extending its Oracle management services to virtualized platforms will allow customers to leverage the benefits of scale and agility while also enabling application managers to focus their time on the core business, the company says.
Posted June 05, 2013
Oracle has introduced the latest release of Oracle Service Cloud that includes Oracle RightNow and also launches the new Oracle RightNow Mobile Agent App for the iPad. With new capabilities to support servicing customers when agents are away from their desks, Oracle Service Cloud now leverages the power of Oracle Fusion Tap, a native application for iPad. The new release of Oracle Service Cloud with Oracle RightNow Mobile Agent App aims to specifically address pain points for mobile employees, helping them stay connected and productive.
Posted June 05, 2013
Development and production teams often work in silos, with separate tools and measures of success, and warring tensions between change and stability. Many of us have experienced firsthand how this fundamental tension underlies—and often undermines—IT initiatives. Development wants continuous change and enhancement. Production and operations want stability and controlled change. Finding a way to focus all IT teams on working together toward the common goal of business success is critical.
Posted June 03, 2013
You can't hide from complexity. It's everywhere—from new technologies and rapidly evolving consumer expectations, to the shifting role IT plays in every business.
Posted June 03, 2013
At CA Technologies, we've been supporting data management professionals for over twenty years with our CA ERwin® data modeling products, and we feel privileged to have been an active part of the rapid transformation in the field of data management during this time. One of the more exciting changes I've seen is the increased interest and participation from the business side of customer organizations.
Posted June 03, 2013
Today's on-the-go workforce is driving us all to connect more data to more people on more devices. And there's no shortage of "newer and better" ways to help you do that. But despite the persistent buzz about emerging technologies, keep this simple principle in mind: The fastest way to get results is to build on what you have.
Posted June 03, 2013
IBM announced new software designed to help organizations extend business applications running on System z mainframes to web, cloud and mobile environments. IBM Enterprise COBOL for z/OS is intended to enable developers to deliver performance improvements in enterprise mainframe applications.
Posted May 28, 2013
IBM has added new IBM SmartCloud capabilities, including DB2 with BLU Acceleration that can result in as much as 25 times faster reporting and analytics, and SmartCloud availability for SAP's in-memory database SAP HANA. The new BLU Acceleration technology from IBM Research and Development labs adds dynamic in-memory analytics to DB2 database software on IBM SmartCloud, making it simpler, faster and more economical to analyze massive amounts of data. The new SAP HANA support includes a physical HANA appliance on IBM SmartCloud for SAP Applications, hosted on SmartCloud Enterprise+. A virtual HANA appliance is available on IBM SmartCloud Enterprise (SCE) for early stage development and test.
Posted May 28, 2013
Dell Software announced the release of a solution that enables IT administrators to see each step of a transaction, to better understand end users' experiences with applications. Foglight APM 5.9 allows managers to view exact execution paths and other details through the entire application stack - from the code and middleware all the way down through the operating system and hypervisor.
Posted May 28, 2013
Data backup solutions provider STORServer has begun shipping a new version of its virtual machine backup software, which now includes IBM Tivoli Storage Manager for Virtual Environments (TSM for VE). STORServer VMB v5.0 provides access to the many of the features of TSM for VE, including block-level full and incremental backups based on VMware changed block tracking. Virtual machine and individual file recovery from both full and incremental backups, and block-level incremental backups of virtual machines running on non-Windows operating systems.
Posted May 28, 2013
Software AG has launched a cloud-based Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) suite, intended to support the building of cloud-based applications. The Software AG Live suite, now available, includes integration and business process management capabilities. In addition, Software AG says it will be releasing a new version of Software AG's webMethods Integration Server that supports elastic scaling across hybrid deployments - public cloud, private cloud and on-premise. The new release, branded as Dynamic Cloud Scaling, will be available in the second half of 2013.
Posted May 28, 2013
HP announced software enhancements and new unified communication support for thin clients such as mobile devices. HP's network performance management software for thin clients, and extended support for Citrix, aim to solve connectivity, security and compatibility issues faced by mobile users. Citrix virtualization and networking technologies, coupled with HP Velocity, are now configured to enable applications such as video streaming, file transfer and VoIP to operate more reliably, even over challenging networks.
Posted May 28, 2013
HostBridge Technology, a provider of web services integration software for CICS and System z, released a new version of software designed to help organizations increase efficiency and service agility when using CICS, CICS socket applications, and DB2 in enterprise integration.
Posted May 28, 2013
Database Plugins, a provider of data-centric computing solutions, has announced the addition of a secure transcoding framework to its line of media management software. The solution, "dbTranscoder," addresses the storing, streaming and transcoding of media data in an Oracle database. "This mechanism allows you to store your multimedia data in the database but still manipulate it through common file-based semantics by programs that are expecting that multimedia data to exist in a file somewhere," Steve Guilford, founder and CEO of Database Plugins, tells 5 Minute Briefing.
Posted May 22, 2013
At SAPPHIRE NOW in Orlando, SAP AG unveiled SAP HANA service pack 6 (SP6). In a key new capability, HANA now enables real-time insights across heterogeneous systems - including Hadoop. In addition, there are new geospatial capabilities, as well as a new open hardware architecture deployment model for tailored integration with customers' existing data centers. The added capabilities are part of a continued expansion of HANA as platform, and will be available by the end of this quarter, David Jonker, senior director of Big Data Marketing, SAP, tells 5 Minute Briefing.
Posted May 16, 2013
IBM unveiled new business process and integration software and services that will help organizations accelerate adoption of big data, cloud, mobile and social business technologies. At the cornerstone of this strategy is IBM MessageSight, a new appliance designed to help organizations manage and communicate with the billions of mobile devices and sensors found in systems such as automobiles, traffic management systems, smart buildings and household appliances.
Posted May 13, 2013
IBM announced new enhancements to its PureSystems family of expert integrated systems. New capabilities enable organizations that are simplifying and accelerating cloud deployments using IBM PureApplication System to get disaster recovery services up and running in four clicks. Additional enhancements include increased security capabilities with advanced encryption options, greater system scalability and significantly reduced application response times during unplanned spikes in demand, and new support for Microsoft Windows applications.
Posted May 13, 2013
Dell Software has announced the release of Foglight for Virtualization, Enterprise Edition (formerly vFoglight Pro). Building on the success of the Quest vFoglight Pro virtualization management solution, Dell has re-branded vFoglight to Foglight for Virtualization to better align the solution as a core component of the Foglight family, and has added performance monitoring support for VMware View to the product.
Posted May 13, 2013
Array Networks Inc., a provider of application delivery networking, announced it is shipping an enhanced line of application delivery controller appliances. The new appliances, the APV 2600, 5600, 10600 and 10650, support 10-Gigabit Ethernet interfaces and multi-core processing and multi-core SSL acceleration.
Posted May 13, 2013
The latest benchmark testing by Heirloom Computing revealed that the company's "ELPaaS" (Enterprise Legacy Platform-as-a-Service) offering now surpasses most mainframe computing alternatives - with costs that are 90% lower, according to the company.
Posted May 13, 2013
New offerings from HP are aimed at helping small and midsize businesses and government agencies to maximize storage investments. The products include the next generation of its MSA entry disk array, enhancements to the HP StoreEasy Storage portfolio, and a new program for HP channel partners. "We have seen more and more data center needs start to apply to smaller environments," Brad Parks, a senior manager focused on go-to-market strategies at HP Storage, tells 5 Minute Briefing.
Posted May 13, 2013
BMC Software has signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by a private investor group led by Bain Capital and Golden Gate Capital together with GIC Special Investments Pte Ltd and Insight Venture Partners.
Posted May 08, 2013
OpTier, an application performance management (APM) and big data analytics provider, has launched OpTier SaaS, a lightweight, cloud-based version of its on-premise APM and ITOA solution. OpTier SaaS features advanced operations analytics capabilities, leveraging end-to-end transaction tracing capabilities to provide problem resolution that is easy to deploy and use.
Posted May 01, 2013
IBM's first-quarter 2013 revenues slipped across many categories, but its mainframe sales were healthy. The vendor's net income for the quarter was $3.0 billion, down 1% from the first quarter of 2012. Total revenues for the first quarter totaled $23.4 billion, down 5%. While total systems revenues decreased 13%, revenues from System z mainframe server products increased 7% compared with the year-ago period - and total delivery of System z computing power, as measured in MIPS (millions of instructions per second), increased 27%.
Posted April 29, 2013
Serena Software, a provider of orchestrated IT solutions, announced impending new change and release management capabilities for its Orchestrated IT solution set, intended to provide tooling for IT shops that are embracing the devops movement.
Posted April 29, 2013
Troux, a provider of enterprise architecture software, launched a new set of tools aimed at helping companies "gain clear line of sight" into how current and future business and technology strategy decisions impact an organization before they are implemented.
Posted April 29, 2013
Cloudmeter has rolled out Cloudmeter Stream and a beta release of Cloudmeter Insight - new solutions that are intended to provide a simple, effective way for companies to transform real-time network data into meaningful, actionable information for business and IT users.
Posted April 29, 2013
CA Technologies announced a strategic direction intended to help mainframe customers embrace the next-generation data center. At its recent partner conference, the company says it made "significant" new investments in mainframe solutions to provide customers with the tools to manage data centers with reliability, security and speed.
Posted April 29, 2013
Neebula Systems' ServiceWatch has integrated with CA Nimsoft Service Desk, providing a combined solution that enables IT administrators to quickly understand the impact of incident and change management activities on business, which minimizes disruptions and optimizes uptime. The combined Neebula ServiceWatch and CA Nimsoft Service Desk offering is being delivered as software-as-a-service.
Posted April 29, 2013
Hemoco, a networking solutions provider, announced a new tool for software and network inventory audits, intended to provide agent-free scanning of network clients for changes in hardware inventory and compliance of software with license policies, retrieving event logs and managing product license keys.
Posted April 29, 2013
IBM announced it has enhanced the Tivoli System Automation family with a product focused on helping smaller zEnterprise customers. The IBM Automation Control for z/OS (IACz) product is targeted at single System z customers looking to move from manual scripting to policy-based automation.
Posted April 25, 2013
Memory-based storage system provider Violin Memory Inc. and SAP AG have announced that Violin 6000 Series Flash Memory Arrays are now certified for interoperability with SAP Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise (SAP Sybase ASE), providing reliability and increased performance across a range of enterprise applications. Together, these solutions will provide enhanced and simplified solutions that leverage the power of Violin Flash Memory Arrays and business-critical SAP applications to accelerate transaction-driven environments.
Posted April 24, 2013
A new version of SAP Sybase Replication Server is planned to provide high-performance, secure and reliable delivery of data across the enterprise. SAP Sybase Replication Server satisfies a range of mission-critical needs, including gathering real-time business intelligence and recovering from disaster. The latest release will replicate data in real time from multiple sources into multiple instances of SAP HANA — without disrupting or slowing the production applications at the source — while transactional consistency is preserved.
Posted April 24, 2013
SAP rolled out three new enterprise resource planning (ERP) rapid-deployment solutions to speed and simplify adoption of SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA. Rapid-deployment solutions include preconfigured software, implementation services, best-practices content and end-user enablement. The new SAP ERP for Finance and Controlling, SAP ERP for Manufacturing and SAP ERP for Trading SAP Rapid Deployment solutions come with a fixed price.
Posted April 24, 2013