Andy Patrizio
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Andy Patrizio
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HPE gives up the battle for tier 1 data center customers
A few weeks back I told you how white box vendors, those Chinese-made, unbranded server vendors that compete with HP Enterprise and Dell EMC, were taking a sizable chunk of the business from the brand-name vendors.Well, now HPE has made it official and announced it will no longer try to sell commodity hardware — the cheap, low-end servers used in abundance in public-facing data centers — to tier 1 customers like Amazon, Facebook, Google and Microsoft. Also on Network World: How HPE plans to spin out its software assets HPE president Antonio Neri made the announcement at HPE’s analyst day event last week. He added that HPE would continue to sell higher-end servers to those vendors.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Intel introduces an AI-oriented processor
There are a number of efforts involving artificial intelligence (AI) and neural network-oriented processors from vendors such as IBM, Qualcomm and Google. Now, you can add Intel to that list. The company has formally introduced the Nervana Neural Network processor (NNP) for AI projects and tasks. This isn’t a new Intel design. The chips come out of Intel’s $400 million acquisition of a deep learning startup called Nervana Systems last year. After the acquisition, Nervana CEO Naveen Rao was put in charge of Intel’s AI products group. RELATED: Artificial intelligence in the enterprise: It’s on “The Intel Nervana NNP is a purpose-built architecture for deep learning,” Rao said in a blog post formally announcing the chip. “The goal of this new architecture is to provide the needed flexibility to support all deep learning primitives while making core hardware components as efficient as possible.” To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Intel introduces an AI-oriented processor
There are a number of efforts involving artificial intelligence (AI) and neural network-oriented processors from vendors such as IBM, Qualcomm and Google. Now, you can add Intel to that list. The company has formally introduced the Nervana Neural Network processor (NNP) for AI projects and tasks. This isn’t a new Intel design. The chips come out of Intel’s $400 million acquisition of a deep learning startup called Nervana Systems last year. After the acquisition, Nervana CEO Naveen Rao was put in charge of Intel’s AI products group. RELATED: Artificial intelligence in the enterprise: It’s on “The Intel Nervana NNP is a purpose-built architecture for deep learning,” Rao said in a blog post formally announcing the chip. “The goal of this new architecture is to provide the needed flexibility to support all deep learning primitives while making core hardware components as efficient as possible.” To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Western Digital plans 40TB drives, but it’s still not enough
Hard disk makers are using capacity as their chief bulwark against the rise of solid-state drives (SSDs), since they certainly can’t argue on performance, and Western Digital — the king of the hard drive vendors — has shown off a new technology that could lead to 40TB drives.Western Digital already has the largest-capacity drive on the market. It recently introduced a 14TB drive, filled with helium to reduce drag on the spinning platters. But thanks to a new technology called microwave-assisted magnetic recording (MAMR), the company hopes to reach 40TB by 2025. The company promised engineering samples of drive by mid-2018.Also on Network World: Get ready for new storage technologies and media MAMR technology is a new method of cramming more data onto the disk. Western Digital’s chief rival, Seagate, is working on a competitive product called HAMR, or heat-assisted magnetic recording. I’ll leave it to propeller heads like AnandTech to explain the electrical engineering of it all. What matters to the end user is that it should ship sometime in 2019, and that’s after 13 years of research and development. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Western Digital plans 40TB drives, but it’s still not enough
Hard disk makers are using capacity as their chief bulwark against the rise of solid-state drives (SSDs), since they certainly can’t argue on performance, and Western Digital — the king of the hard drive vendors — has shown off a new technology that could lead to 40TB drives.Western Digital already has the largest-capacity drive on the market. It recently introduced a 14TB drive, filled with helium to reduce drag on the spinning platters. But thanks to a new technology called microwave-assisted magnetic recording (MAMR), the company hopes to reach 40TB by 2025. The company promised engineering samples of drive by mid-2018.Also on Network World: Get ready for new storage technologies and media MAMR technology is a new method of cramming more data onto the disk. Western Digital’s chief rival, Seagate, is working on a competitive product called HAMR, or heat-assisted magnetic recording. I’ll leave it to propeller heads like AnandTech to explain the electrical engineering of it all. What matters to the end user is that it should ship sometime in 2019, and that’s after 13 years of research and development. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Oracle leverages machine learning to manage, secure enterprise systems
Oracle is not the first company that comes to mind when you think of enterprise security, but the company announced at its recent OpenWorld conference new products with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning capabilities to quickly identify security threats.The company introduced two new sets of integrated suites called Oracle Identity Security Operations Center (SOC) and Oracle Management Cloud. It claims they will help enterprises forecast, reduce, detect and resolve cybersecurity threats in minutes rather than days and assist remediation of application and infrastructure performance issues.It makes sense for Oracle to jump into this field even if it is full of established players like Symantec, Sophos, Tripwire and far more. Since Oracle’s databases are often a target of hacker attacks, who better to secure an Oracle database than Oracle? To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Oracle leverages machine learning to manage, secure enterprise systems
Oracle is not the first company that comes to mind when you think of enterprise security, but the company announced at its recent OpenWorld conference new products with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning capabilities to quickly identify security threats.The company introduced two new sets of integrated suites called Oracle Identity Security Operations Center (SOC) and Oracle Management Cloud. It claims they will help enterprises forecast, reduce, detect and resolve cybersecurity threats in minutes rather than days and assist remediation of application and infrastructure performance issues.It makes sense for Oracle to jump into this field even if it is full of established players like Symantec, Sophos, Tripwire and far more. Since Oracle’s databases are often a target of hacker attacks, who better to secure an Oracle database than Oracle? To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Oracle leverages machine learning to manage, secure enterprise systems
Oracle is not the first company that comes to mind when you think of enterprise security, but the company announced at its recent OpenWorld conference new products with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning capabilities to quickly identify security threats.The company introduced two new sets of integrated suites called Oracle Identity Security Operations Center (SOC) and Oracle Management Cloud. It claims they will help enterprises forecast, reduce, detect and resolve cybersecurity threats in minutes rather than days and assist remediation of application and infrastructure performance issues.It makes sense for Oracle to jump into this field even if it is full of established players like Symantec, Sophos, Tripwire and far more. Since Oracle’s databases are often a target of hacker attacks, who better to secure an Oracle database than Oracle? To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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IT spending increases for software-defined storage, on-demand services
Two new spending reports paint a rosy picture for some IT vendors, but it isn’t looking so great for the traditional players.At Gartner’s Symposium & ITxpo last week, the firm released a report stating the global IT market is expected to reach $3.7 trillion next year, a 4.3 percent increase over the $3.5 billion expected for this year.Spending on traditional data center hardware and systems is expected to stay flat, continuing a trend we’ve seen for a while now as businesses ramp up spending on three on-demand services: infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and communication as a service (CaaS).Also on Network World: Report confirms on-premises data center spending declined "The IT buying landscape is changing: Digital business transformation is an effort to create connected, platforms and new industry revenue streams," analyst John-David Lovelock wrote in the report. "Organizations that are not creating new digital business models or new ways to engage constituents or customers are falling behind. Those vendors that do not move more quickly than their clients will be left behind." To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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IT spending increases for software-defined storage, on-demand services
Two new spending reports paint a rosy picture for some IT vendors, but it isn’t looking so great for the traditional players.At Gartner’s Symposium & ITxpo last week, the firm released a report stating the global IT market is expected to reach $3.7 trillion next year, a 4.3 percent increase over the $3.5 billion expected for this year.Spending on traditional data center hardware and systems is expected to stay flat, continuing a trend we’ve seen for a while now as businesses ramp up spending on three on-demand services: infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and communication as a service (CaaS).Also on Network World: Report confirms on-premises data center spending declined "The IT buying landscape is changing: Digital business transformation is an effort to create connected, platforms and new industry revenue streams," analyst John-David Lovelock wrote in the report. "Organizations that are not creating new digital business models or new ways to engage constituents or customers are falling behind. Those vendors that do not move more quickly than their clients will be left behind." To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Intel plans hybrid CPU-FPGA chips
Two years ago, Intel spent $16.7 billion to acquire FPGA chip vendor Altera. So, what’s it going to do with that big purchase? The company is finally ready to say. A field-programmable gate array, or FPGA, is an integrated circuit that can be customized to perform specific functions. Whereas the x86 executes only the x86 instruction sets, an FPGA can be reprogrammed on the fly to perform specified tasks. That’s why x86s are considered general compute processors and FPGAs are viewed as customizable. Also on Network World: What you need when the big breakout for the Internet of Things arrives The company’s strategy is interesting in that it effectively puts Intel in competition with itself. If you want to do massive floating-point computation, Intel has the Xeon Phi line of add-in cards that compete with Nvidia and AMD GPUs. Now the FPGAs are also targeting those use cases. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Intel plans hybrid CPU-FPGA chips
Two years ago, Intel spent $16.7 billion to acquire FPGA chip vendor Altera. So, what’s it going to do with that big purchase? The company is finally ready to say. A field-programmable gate array, or FPGA, is an integrated circuit that can be customized to perform specific functions. Whereas the x86 executes only the x86 instruction sets, an FPGA can be reprogrammed on the fly to perform specified tasks. That’s why x86s are considered general compute processors and FPGAs are viewed as customizable. Also on Network World: What you need when the big breakout for the Internet of Things arrives The company’s strategy is interesting in that it effectively puts Intel in competition with itself. If you want to do massive floating-point computation, Intel has the Xeon Phi line of add-in cards that compete with Nvidia and AMD GPUs. Now the FPGAs are also targeting those use cases. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Former Intel CEO Paul Otellini remembered
Former Intel CEO Paul Otellini died in his sleep on Monday at the age of 66. His tenure was marked by a significant comeback for the company, dealing with a number of business and technological issues, making the company a massive player in the data center but a fumbled opportunity for the mobile market. Unlike his predecessors, Otellini was not an engineer but had a MBA from the University of California, Berkeley. He joined Intel in 1974 right out of Berkeley and spent his entire career at Intel, eventually becoming chief operating officer in 2002 and CEO in 2005, a position he held until his retirement in 2012. "We are deeply saddened by Paul’s passing,” CEO Brian Krzanich said in a statement. “He was the relentless voice of the customer in a sea of engineers, and he taught us that we only win when we put the customer first." To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Former Intel CEO Paul Otellini remembered
Former Intel CEO Paul Otellini died in his sleep on Monday at the age of 66. His tenure was marked by a significant comeback for the company, dealing with a number of business and technological issues, making the company a massive player in the data center but a fumbled opportunity for the mobile market. Unlike his predecessors, Otellini was not an engineer but had a MBA from the University of California, Berkeley. He joined Intel in 1974 right out of Berkeley and spent his entire career at Intel, eventually becoming chief operating officer in 2002 and CEO in 2005, a position he held until his retirement in 2012. "We are deeply saddened by Paul’s passing,” CEO Brian Krzanich said in a statement. “He was the relentless voice of the customer in a sea of engineers, and he taught us that we only win when we put the customer first." To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Google, Scale Computing partner for easier hybrid cloud deployment
Google has partnered with Scale Computing, developer of infrastructure software for hyper-converged systems, to make it easier to deploy Google Cloud Platform as a backup for your own data center. The two companies have created a platform called Cloud Unity, which integrates Scale’s HC3 software environment with Google Compute Engine. HC3 is a cluster software product that merges server, storage and virtualization into a single appliance for easier converged infrastructure. Also on Network World: Google develops high-capacity cloud data transfer device With HC3, you can build a cluster using Google's infrastructure instead of buying your own, thus creating a backup of your own data center in Google’s data centers. Cloud Unity creates a SD-WAN connection to your existing Scale environment, so the Google-hosted cloud version of your data center appears as just another cluster on the same LAN. It uses a VXLAN encryption between your site and Google’s data center. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Google, Scale Computing partner for easier hybrid cloud deployment
Google has partnered with Scale Computing, developer of infrastructure software for hyper-converged systems, to make it easier to deploy Google Cloud Platform as a backup for your own data center. The two companies have created a platform called Cloud Unity, which integrates Scale’s HC3 software environment with Google Compute Engine. HC3 is a cluster software product that merges server, storage and virtualization into a single appliance for easier converged infrastructure. Also on Network World: Google develops high-capacity cloud data transfer device With HC3, you can build a cluster using Google's infrastructure instead of buying your own, thus creating a backup of your own data center in Google’s data centers. Cloud Unity creates a SD-WAN connection to your existing Scale environment, so the Google-hosted cloud version of your data center appears as just another cluster on the same LAN. It uses a VXLAN encryption between your site and Google’s data center. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Few IT departments engage in future planning
It’s an old cliché: If you fail to plan, you better plan to fail. That seems to apply to a new study by CompTIA that finds only 34 percent of businesses surveyed plan their IT infrastructure beyond one year.The reasons are legitimate: the disruption brought about by the migration to cloud computing and Internet of Things (IoT) deployments. Both are seriously disruptive and can make long-term planning a challenge. To stay flexible to changes as they undergo a digital transformation, businesses are reticent to plan beyond one year out. + Also on Network World: Cost optimization gains ground in IT infrastructure decisions + The report, titled "Planning a Modern IT Architecture," also found some of the usual problems dogging IT shops. Four in 10 companies said they lacked the budget for heavy investment in new architecture, and one-third said they don’t have the knowledge on emerging technologies and new trends to formulate an integration plan. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Few IT departments engage in future planning
It’s an old cliché: If you fail to plan, you better plan to fail. That seems to apply to a new study by CompTIA that finds only 34 percent of businesses surveyed plan their IT infrastructure beyond one year.The reasons are legitimate: the disruption brought about by the migration to cloud computing and Internet of Things (IoT) deployments. Both are seriously disruptive and can make long-term planning a challenge. To stay flexible to changes as they undergo a digital transformation, businesses are reticent to plan beyond one year out. + Also on Network World: Cost optimization gains ground in IT infrastructure decisions + The report, titled "Planning a Modern IT Architecture," also found some of the usual problems dogging IT shops. Four in 10 companies said they lacked the budget for heavy investment in new architecture, and one-third said they don’t have the knowledge on emerging technologies and new trends to formulate an integration plan. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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America’s first exascale supercomputer set for 2021 debut
The next step up in supercomputer performance is exaflops, and there is something of an arms race between nations to get there first — although it’s much more benign than the nuclear arms race of the last century. If anything, it’s beneficial because these monster machines will allow all kinds of advanced scientific research. An exascale computer is capable of processing one exaflop, one quintillion (1,000,000,000,000,000,000) calculations of floating point operations per second. That’s about a trillion times more powerful than a consumer laptop. + Also on Network World: Texas goes big with 18-petaflop supercomputer + China has said it will have an exascale computer by 2020, one year sooner than the U.S.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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America’s first exascale supercomputer set for 2021 debut
The next step up in supercomputer performance is exaflops, and there is something of an arms race between nations to get there first — although it’s much more benign than the nuclear arms race of the last century. If anything, it’s beneficial because these monster machines will allow all kinds of advanced scientific research. An exascale computer is capable of processing one exaflop, one quintillion (1,000,000,000,000,000,000) calculations of floating point operations per second. That’s about a trillion times more powerful than a consumer laptop. + Also on Network World: Texas goes big with 18-petaflop supercomputer + China has said it will have an exascale computer by 2020, one year sooner than the U.S.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here