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Market Roundup IBM Announces new POWER6 Blade and Energy Efficiency Software |
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IBM Announces new POWER6 Blade and Energy Efficiency Software
For POWER blade
aficionados, this announcement will likely be welcomed with open arms. While
POWER blades are not new, this is the first POWER6 blade and more importantly,
the first blade equipped with APV and Live Partition Mobility. For
organizations that are seriously undertaking UNIX and Linux consolidation
strategies, the enhanced performance of the JS22 proffers greater consolidation
efficacy while the partition mobility delivers flexibility that a scant few
years ago would have only been an IT pipedream. Taken in conjunction with the
EnergyScale capabilities, this gives IT professionals considerably more
flexibility in where they house applications, a potential increase in the
headroom for dynamic peaks, and as loads are shed during off hours the ability
to reduce peak performance in favor of power thriftiness if not reduction in
the total number of servers operating. For many, this is simply cool, and an
achievement of which Big Blue can be rightly proud. Further, the availability
of Systems Director
As we have said before, to us the POWER6 is more than an incremental improvement on a venerable architecture, it has enabled organizations to revisit their assumptions about the limits of their physical infrastructure as well as environmental/energy footprints. With support for the BladeCenter H and HT chassis now in hand, the ability to physically consolidate and simplify workloads is even greater. The improvements in reporting and hence the managing and allocation of resource consumption of the POWER6 processor may prove attractive to organizations that are seeking to squeeze every bit of efficiency from their IT investments while simultaneously reducing their energy expense and increasing the number of workloads that can be supported within the physically constraints of the existing datacenter. Combined with the Availability Factory, the new capabilities of the POWER6 blades, APV, and Partition/Application mobility, this latest announcement may well entice even the most reticent IT professional to consider the potential of POWER6 platform as part of their organization’s strategic IT roadmap.
HP has refreshed its Integrity server line with the latest processor technology and new software to help customers reduce costs through enhanced automation and improved energy efficiency. The Integrity systems family of servers and server blades are now powered by the latest Itanium 9100 series processor formerly known by code name Montvale which according to the company offer up to a 20% price/performance increase over previous generations. HP is extending its common remote management solution for BladeSystem, ProLiant servers, and entry-class Integrity servers to include HP Integrity cell-based servers. HP Integrity Integrated Lights-Out 2 (iLO 2) is now available for Integrity servers and the company has standardized on the iLO GUI for both ProLiant and Integrity servers. In addition, HP Integrity servers are adding new power monitoring and regulation capabilities with tools that allow customers to monitor remotely actual power consumption and thermal output on Integrity entry-class and blade servers. This in combination with HP Thermal Logic for HP Integrity servers, these new Integrity iLO 2 and HP Insight Power Manager tools enable customers to monitor and regulate server power and switch power states as needed to effect reduce power and cooling overhead across the data center.
November seems to be
shaping up as the new processor upgrade month, with this announcement from HP
regarding its Itanium systems, and
Overall, we see this announcement as evidence of HP’s continued march along its strategic path of making IT technologies that represent the state of the art from an engineering perspective, but also its continued investment in adding value to raw technology through enhanced management software, tools, and new system-level features. For organizations that have embraced HP as a strategic vendor for their datacenter, these latest improvements will likely be well received and further bolster HP’s solutions oriented vision for the datacenter.
Novell Enhanced Single Sign-On Includes Vista Support
Novell has announced enhancements to its single sign-on solution, including support for Windows Vista, improved authentication capabilities, easier administration, and expanded applications support. An integral part of Novell’s portfolio of identity and security management solutions, Novell SecureLogin is a scalable and comprehensive enterprise single sign-on solution, featuring advanced security capabilities to help customers meet compliance mandates for multi-factor authentication, automate and simplify password management, and lower IT administration costs. Novell SecureLogin works with existing directories and can be deployed in less than ten minutes. When deployed with Novell Identity Manager, Novell Access Manager, and Novell Sentinel, Novell SecureLogin gives enterprise customers a complete, integrated identity and security management stack for supporting IT compliance, risk management, and governance requirements.
In addition to Windows
Vista support, Novell SecureLogin supports other popular operating systems and Web
browsers, including Windows XP, Internet Explorer, and Mozilla Firefox. Strong
authentication features help organizations comply with new regulations, such as
Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council guidelines for online
banking that require more than one factor of authentication, by enabling
integration with smart cards, biometrics, and proximity cards in conjunction
with user names and passwords. An updated centralized administration interface
simplifies installation and provides integration with Novell identity and
security management solutions to allow IT staff to centrally manage
credentials, policies, and single sign-on activities on Microsoft Active
Directory, Novell eDirectory, or a generic LDAP directory. SecureLogin also
provides streamlined access to enterprise applications including
It appears likely that 2008 will see a dramatic uptick in the Identity Management Market, as many organizations become highly motivated to employ IDM as a means to help thwart unauthorized attempts at obtaining protected data. Recent publicity and litigation associated with the TJ Maxx credit card breach combined with other embarrassments to government and private enterprises are pushing end-user organizations to seek out and implement identity-oriented security measures. We believe that SecureLogin’s ability to employ single sign-on in conjunction with Microsoft Active Directory and other LDAP directors, and its and central administration are both critically important to managing large or even medium-scale IDM projects.
It is clear to us that the costs associated with the disclosure laws already implemented in forty states will continue to increase and that IDM and encryption will see increased sales in 2008 as a result. Furthermore, we believe that the middle market especially will turn to trusted brand names for these products which puts Novell in an excellent position to capitalize on its existing penetration and reputation.
Fujitsu Siemens Computers Updates x10sure Virtualization
Fujitsu Siemens
Computers has announced enhanced consolidation flexibility in its
second-generation x10sure server, which now features x10sure support for VMware
server virtualization, as well as an iSCSI storage option and enhanced storage
redundancy. x10sure version two offers a stepped
approach to incorporating VMware virtualization into server configurations
where a few virtual servers can be added to an x10sure configuration, using the
entry-level VMware Server product. For environments where there is an increased
need for system utilization, additional virtual servers are supported through
the mid-range VMware ESX Standard Edition product, which allows a fixed
allocation of system resources between virtual machines. For high-end
virtualization requirements, x10sure has an ESX Server Enterprise Edition,
which combines the VMware Virtual Infrastructure 3 package, allowing automated
migration of virtual servers for high availability or load balancing. New
support for iSCSI storage, fully redundant
This latest release
from FSC broadens the capabilities, and appeal, of the x10sure product line.
For small organizations that are seeking clustering or advanced virtualization
and failover without a gold-plated price tag, the level of High Availability
that x10sure provides would likely qualify as “good enough” for many
organizations. With its new VMware support and iSCSI, the x10sure now supports
two of the more popular features that are attractive to the midsize and smaller
marketplace. For the entry-level segment of the market, VMware has become
almost an expected part of server solutions, in part due to its cost-effective
approach to leverage IT assets and enhance efficiencies, but more importantly
due to its well understood, straightforward approach to management and
deployment. When taken with iSCSI and/or redundant
This centralized
approach to storage offers smaller organizations an opportunity to enhance
their operational approach to storage, which at present is probably not very
strategic and carries the attendant risk that much of the corporate data may
reside in storage silos, not being centrally catalogued and backed up. The new
storage connectivity options may encourage some organizations to bring a
departmental x10sure into “the big picture” through interconnection into the
main corporate