Microsoft’s Virtual Machine Manager Release in September
Microsoft’s answer to VMware’s systems-management product will be released commercially in September according to Kevin Turner, Microsoft’s chief operating officer.
These remarks are in contrast to those made by Diane Prescott, product manager for System Center. She said on the team blog that Virtual Machine Manager 2008 would be released in the fourth quarter of 2008. This however contradicted what Microsoft said back in April, that VMM would ship 30-60 days after Hyper-V, which was released on June 26th.
Virtual Machine Manager 2008 is Microsoft’s long-awaited answer to VMware’s systems management product. VMM is the management companion piece to Microsoft’s Hyper-V hypervisor. Not only will VMM support Hyper-V, but also hypervisor technology from VMware and Xen.
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Top 5 IT Management Challenges in 2008
Aternity Inc. announced today the results of its survey, “IT Management: Key Drivers and Challenges in 2008.” More than 70 senior IT and Line-of-Business (LOB) professionals participated in the survey, ranking their key IT priorities for 2008 and sharing their perspective on end user experience management strategies and best practices.
The top five priorities and key IT challenges for 2008 according to survey respondents in order of importance:
Proactive Problem Detection (35.6 percent)
Gaining a more proactive handle on IT problems before the impact is felt by end users or upon business productivity and performance. This is a key function of proactive management and one of the most beneficial aspects to it. Investment in monitoring software and services is expected to grow 45 percent between 2005 and 2011.
Server Virtualization (21.9 percent)
With a constant need to increase do more with less; server virtualization is a growing industry. With server virtualization, you can consolidate workloads of underutilized server machines onto a smaller number of fully utilized machines. Fewer physical machines can lead to reduced costs through lower hardware, energy, and management overhead, plus the creation of a more dynamic IT infrastructure.
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HP ProLiant BL2×220c G5 - 2-in-1 Blade Server
HP today announced the world’s first two-in-one server blade. The HP ProLiant BL2×220c G5 combines two independent servers in a single blade. This offers customers with scale-out environments improved data center performance, reduced floor space and lower power usage.
The HP ProLiant BL2×220c G5 offers three times the density of traditional 1U rack-mount servers. This addresses the data growth facing companies with cloud computing, Web 2.0 and HPC deployments. It also delivers a 60 percent better performance per watt than similar configurations which minimizes cooling and power costs.
Pricing starts at $6,349 and can go up to more than $20,000. The HP ProLiant BL2×220c G5 comes with either dual or quad-core Intel Xeon processors. It archives speeds up to 12.3 teraflops for a 42U rack.
With up to 32 server nodes in a single 10U blade chassis, the new BladeSystem can scale up to 128 servers, 1,024 CPU cores and 2TB of RAM in one standard-sized rack consisting of four enclosures.
Key features
- Supplying up to 1,024 central processing unit (CPU) cores in a single 42U rack, the BL2×220c is the industry’s first server blade to offer more than three times the density of traditional 1U rack-mount servers. Additionally, the new server blade leverages HP’s award-winning management and configuration tools that help drive down costs and mitigate risk.
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IT Finds Valuable Business Tools In Unified Communications
Gartner listed unified communications (UC) as 2nd in their top ten technology areas of 2008. Driven by voice over IP (VoIP), call centers and phone services are leading the way, but other areas of IT such as storage networks, video from security cameras and sensors will soon follow.
Unified communications refers to a group of technologies, many of which are already used in the business world today. Instant messaging allows workers to chat with each other in real-time. This is a useful tool for team members that are separated by feet or miles and need to collaborate. Jabber offers a real-time communications solution with its Jabber XCP package.
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HP Offers A Petabytes Data Storage Solution
IT managers are being challenged to develop a strategy to handle the increasing demands for data storage. Applications are becoming more complex and storage needs typically double every 18-24 months.
You may want to look at the new HP StorageWorks 9100 Extreme Data Storage System.
Extreme is just what it offers.
- The platform consists of an HP BladeSystem chassis with room for 16 blade servers.
- The rack that also accommodates storage controllers and high-density “storage blocks” with as many as 82 hard drives.
- An out-of-the-box base configuration consists of four blade servers and three storage blocks, with 246T bytes of storage.
- Customers will be able to add either type of capacity independently of the other. One rack will hold as much as 820T bytes, but an extra rack of storage can be added for a total of 1.64 petabytes.
- The performance block can easily be scaled up to a maximum configuration of 16 blades with up to 12.8 cores per unit – for astounding raw performance of 3.2 GB per second.
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IT Services Virtual Call Center Strategy
As IT systems and services grow so does the need for an expanded IT Help Desk to support them. If you find you are outgrowing your present call support system one solution is a virtual call center software suite such as the one by Five9. It allows you to operate a best-in-class call center without the expense of in-house equipment.
USCB a medical and financial receivables company recently implemented Five9’s hosted virtual call center software. “Flexibility is key,” said IT Manager, Pedro Guijarro. “At any given time, we run multiple campaigns in several departments. Patients contact our call centers for account inquiries and invoice questions. We broadcast payment alerts and account status. Five9 is very effective and reliable for our operations. With management reporting tools, we measure our productivity each day. By analyzing call volume data, we re-direct agent queues to follow-up on the most critical collections. Delivering positive cash flow early in the account cycle impacts our clients’ bottom-lines.”
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IT Should Spend More On Disaster Recovery
IT Operations professionals are faced with the constant worry of threats such as IT outages, power failures, and disasters. During challenging financial times IT Operations is finding it more difficult to secure the funding needed for disaster recovery from management.
Disaster recovery preparedness can run into millions of dollars depending of the level of continuity you desire and the size of your company. Since the ROI is often seen as how to avoid what might happen, management is often unwilling to properly fund these efforts.
Given the potential loss to the business should such disaster or even a power outage occur IT operations should approach management with facts and cost effective solutions.
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Retailers Look to Virtualization
Close to 71 percent of U.S. retailers are turning to a broad set of virtualization solutions as way to save money, maximize space and gain better control of their IT infrastructures according to Microsoft’s “Virtualization in Retail Survey 2008″.
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Green IT Guide
The editorial staff at Computerworld has released a guide “Get Up to Speed on Green IT”. The guide gives an overview of three areas that IT can save energy and money by going green.
Data centers are large users of energy. Rising energy costs and data center expansions have IT departments looking at green options. The guide list seven steps to a green data center.
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Service-Now - ITIL Based IT Service Management
Service-Now.com is an impressive marriage of IT Service Management based on the ITIL v3 framework and Internet technology. For IT departments looking for a quick jump into ITIL based Service Management their service may be just what you are looking for.
Service-now.com is an On Demand IT Service Management solution licensed by subscription. Combining ITIL version 3 recommendations with Web 2.0 technology we offer a solution that is thoroughly modern in its delivery, price, and value. Approachable and attractive, integrated and complete, you’ve never seen IT management done like this before.
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