Servers and business storage

At first blush, private clouds can look a lot like virtualization. But first looks can be deceiving. While it's certainly true that we see virtualization management products extended--for example, with self-service portals--in ways that make them look superficially like clouds, we're really talking about different categories of software.

There are two ways to think about these differences. The first is in terms of different mindsets and approaches to IT operations. The other is to consider specific features and capabilities.

Consider the "big picture" aspect first. Mary Johnston Turner, research vice president of enterprise system management software, … Read more

Oracle yesterday deployed 78 different security fixes aimed at patching holes throughout its various database products.

As part of the company's January critical patch update, 16 of the 78 fixes were considered critical, meaning they could be exploited remotely. The fixes stretched across much of Oracle's product lineup, including Oracle Database Server, Fusion Middleware, E-Business Suite, Oracle Sun products, MySQL, VirtualBox, and PeopleSoft.

One of the patches addresses a major flaw that could compromise the security of Oracle database systems. Initially researched by InfoWorld, the flaw was shared with Oracle before the tech publication went live with the … Read more

Like newspapers to the Web, many business software vendors are now reluctantly dragging themselves into the cloud-based enterprise. If they aren't nimble enough, a new generation of companies is ready to take their place.

While major enterprise IT vendors continue to deliver so-called features that keep users tied to their desks and legacy software, companies like Box and others have figured out that the industry is changing right before our eyes. The new enterprise takes the best aspects of consumer applications to make business-critical data available anywhere, anytime.

The majority of the fawning stories about startups that come out … Read more

Microsoft is switching to the Resilient File System for Windows 8, but only the server edition will support the new and more robust file system.

ReFS is built on the foundation of the current and almost 20-year-old NTFS file system. But it's been designed from the ground floor to offer several advantages, particularly for servers.

As described in the latest Building Windows 8 blog by Surendra Verma, a development manager on Microsoft's Storage and File System team, ReFS will be unveiled and phased in as part of Windows Server 8, so IT administrators will be able to give … Read more

The outlook for IT spending this year isn't quite as rosy as Gartner previously predicted.

Spending on IT products and services is expected to reach $3.8 trillion in 2012, a 3.7 percent rise from last year when spending totaled $3.7 trillion and had climbed by 6.9 percent from 2010.

Released today, the new forecast is a dip from Gartner's prior projection of 4.6 percent growth for this year. The market researcher now believes that all major tech sectors will witness slower gains in spending for 2012.

Spending on telecom equipment will see the … Read more

Google is tapping Santa Clara, Calif.-based Marvell to power its new TV, which will debut next week at CES.

Marvell's ARMADA 1500 HD Media System-on-a-Chip (SoC) has been designed into the next generation of Google TVs debuting at CES 2012, the chip supplier said Thursday. That chip is based on a design from U.K.-based ARM.

"Marvell and Google have teamed up to...[transform] the TV into the command center for our connected lifestyle," Marvell co-founder Weili Dai said in a statement.

The two companies have collaborated on software and chip technologies to grow the … Read more

Hard disk drive supplier Seagate Technology provided a financial update today, reiterating that demand for HDD units will exceed supply in 2012 in the wake of flooding last year in Thailand.

Seagate updated its financial outlook for fiscal second quarter 2012 on Wednesday afternoon, stating it shipped approximately 47 million disk drives, which included approximately 700,000 Samsung disk drives.

Revenue is expected to be between $3.1 billion and $3.2 billion, the company said. Analysts had projected revenue of $2.79 billion on average, according to Bloomberg. Seagate completed the acquisition of Samsung's hard disk drive business … Read more

You may not need to use the 42nd fastest supercomputer on Earth, but if you want to, you can for just $1,279 per hour.

As reported by Wired, Amazon Web Services latest salvo into the computing on demand landscape is a platform known as the Elastic Cloud Computer, which at $1279 per hour, or $11 million a year if run full time, is probably on par in comparison to the time, effort and expense of procuring the same level of compute power in your own data center.

Amazon's virtual super computer is capable of running 240 trillion calculations … Read more

While tablet sales are passing Intel by, server sales are not, allowing the chipmaker to keep a healthy chunk of the global processor market.

Intel in the third quarter accounted for 83.7 percent of global microprocessor revenue, up about 3 percentage points from the same quarter last year and widening its lead over Advanced Micro Devices, which lost more than a percentage point, according to IHS iSuppli.

"The boom in media tablet sales has...both upsides and downsides for Intel--hurting its business in netbook microprocessors--but boosting its sales of chips used in data centers to support cloud computing,&… Read more