Nearly 70% of the 500 fastests supercomputers in the world as announced at the Supercomputing 20 conference this week are powered by Nvidia, including eight of the top 10.Among them was one named Selene that Nvidia built itself and that debuted at Number 5 on the semi-annual TOP500 list of the fastest machines. With top-end systems requiring 10,000 or more CPUs and GPUs, they are enormously expensive, so government or research institutions own the majority of them.That makes Selene all the more rare. It was built by and is based at Nvidia's Santa Clara, California, headquarters. (It’s widely believed there are many supercomputers in private industry that are not reported for competitive reasons.)To read this article in full, please click here
The latest semiannual TOP500 list of the world's fastest supercomputers is topped by Fugaku, the same machine that won in June. Built by Fujitsu, Fugaku is three times as fast as its nearest rival.TOP500 says that competition for its list seems to be lessening, with the full list of 500 systems having the fewest number of new entries since the organization started its tracking. The list is updated every June and November and has tracked the development of supercomputer performance and architecture since 1993. Nevertheless, two brand new systems managed to break into the top 10 list on their first try.To read this article in full, please click here
VMware is extending its core virtual networking product family in an effort to help companies build infrastructure that can stand up to today's challenges, including the shift to remote work and the need to securely move applications across the distributed enterprise.The enhancements span VMware's Tanzu, NSX and SD-WAN products, which fall under the company's Virtual Cloud Network (VCN) architecture. VCN defines how customers can built and control network connectivity and security from the data center across the WAN to multi-cloud environments. The company's core networking software, VMware NSX, underpins the VCN architecture, which also includes analytics capabilities.To read this article in full, please click here
Sensor power loss is the scourge of IoT.Deploying millions of sensors is pretty much a useless endeavor if the devices continually run out of power. IoT sensors can't collect or transmit data without power.That's one reason researchers are exploring ambient energy harvesting. Numerous projects have shown that small amounts of power can be generated by converting ambient energy in the environment – from stray magnetic fields, humidity, waste heat, and even unwanted wireless radio noise, for example – into usable electrical energy to power the IoT.To read this article in full, please click here
The Millennial generation is becoming a driving force behind the circular economy of used IT equipment.IT shops have typically bought used gear if they needed to replace old equipment and couldn't get parts from the vendor. But the idea of buying a low-mileage server with one or two years of use wasn't very popular. Companies typically bought new.But that's changing. IT shops of all sizes are increasingly buying used gear, both brand name and white box brands from China, according to IDC. The research firm puts the CAGR at 5% and estimates sales of used IT infrastructure gear will reach $36 billion by 2024. The deals are being done through the major OEMs as well as resellers like ITRenew, which buys servers from hyperscalers, refreshes them, certifies they are functioning, and resells them.To read this article in full, please click here
Ceridian is betting on hybrid cloud, network virtualization and automation as it aims to improve IT service delivery, weed out inefficiencies and bolster security.The human capital management (HCM) company recently completed its transition to a cloud architecture, shuttering its on-premises data centers and migrating its applications and back-office systems to multiple clouds. "We are a true consumer of hybrid cloud technology," says CIO Warren Perlman. "We have operations in both [VMware Cloud on AWS] as well as native AWS, and also native Azure."To read this article in full, please click here
Ceridian is betting on hybrid cloud, network virtualization and automation as it aims to improve IT service delivery, weed out inefficiencies and bolster security.The human capital management (HCM) company recently completed its transition to a cloud architecture, shuttering its on-premises data centers and migrating its applications and back-office systems to multiple clouds. "We are a true consumer of hybrid cloud technology," says CIO Warren Perlman. "We have operations in both [VMware Cloud on AWS] as well as native AWS, and also native Azure."To read this article in full, please click here
Xilinx may be in the middle of an acquisition by AMD, but the partnerships and deals continue.Most recently, Samsung and Xilinx have partnered to deliver the SmartSSD CSD flash drive, a compute-on-storage SSD device that uses a Xilinx FPGA to offload the processing work.
READ MORE: Folding@home supercomputer targets COVID-19 cureTo read this article in full, please click here
With the COVID-19 pandemic showing no signs of abating, migration to the cloud is expected to accelerate as enterprises choose to let someone else worry about their server gear.In its global IT outlook for 2021 and beyond, IDC predicts the continued migration of enterprise IT equipment out of on-premises data centers and into data centers operated by cloud service providers (such as AWS and Microsoft) and colocation specialists (such as Equinix and Digital Realty).The research firm expects that by the end of 2021, 80% of enterprises will put a mechanism in place to shift to cloud-centric infrastructure and applications twice as fast as before the pandemic. CIOs must accelerate the transition to a cloud-centric IT model to maintain competitive parity and to make the organization more digitally resilient, the firm said.To read this article in full, please click here
Nvidia's plan to buy British chip powerhouse Arm Ltd. for a cool $40 billion is just the latest move in the company's evolution from a gaming chip maker to a game changer in enterprise data centers.Nvidia's goal is to take its high-powered processor technology and, through innovation, high-profile acquisitions (Mellanox, Cumulus and Arm) and strategic alliances (VMware, Check Point and Red Hat), provide a full-stack, hardware/software offering that brings the power of AI to companies that are modernizing their data centers.
READ MORE: The 10 most powerful companies in enterprise networking To read this article in full, please click here
A data center is a physical facility that enterprises use to house their business-critical applications and information. As they evolve, it’s important to think long-term about how to maintain their reliability and security.What is a data center?
Data centers are often referred to as a singular thing, but in actuality they are composed of a number of technical elements. These can be broken down into three categories:
Compute: The memory and processing power to run the applications, generally provided by high-end servers
Storage: Important enterprise data is generally housed in a data center, on media ranging from tape to solid-state drives, with multiple backups
Networking: Interconnections between data center components and to the outside world, including routers, switches, application-delivery controllers, and more
These are the components that IT needs to store and manage the most critical systems that are vital to the continuous operations of a company. Because of this, the reliability, efficiency, security and constant evolution of data centers are typically a top priority. Both software and hardware security measures are a must.To read this article in full, please click here
A data center is a physical facility that enterprises use to house their business-critical applications and information. As they evolve, it’s important to think long-term about how to maintain their reliability and security.What is a data center?
Data centers are often referred to as a singular thing, but in actuality they are composed of a number of technical elements. These can be broken down into three categories:
Compute: The memory and processing power to run the applications, generally provided by high-end servers
Storage: Important enterprise data is generally housed in a data center, on media ranging from tape to solid-state drives, with multiple backups
Networking: Interconnections between data center components and to the outside world, including routers, switches, application-delivery controllers, and more
These are the components that IT needs to store and manage the most critical systems that are vital to the continuous operations of a company. Because of this, the reliability, efficiency, security and constant evolution of data centers are typically a top priority. Both software and hardware security measures are a must.To read this article in full, please click here
A data center is a physical facility that enterprises use to house their business-critical applications and information. As they evolve, it’s important to think long-term about how to maintain their reliability and security.What is a data center?
Data centers are often referred to as a singular thing, but in actuality they are composed of a number of technical elements. These can be broken down into three categories:
Compute: The memory and processing power to run the applications, generally provided by high-end servers
Storage: Important enterprise data is generally housed in a data center, on media ranging from tape to solid-state drives, with multiple backups
Networking: Interconnections between data center components and to the outside world, including routers, switches, application-delivery controllers, and more
These are the components that IT needs to store and manage the most critical systems that are vital to the continuous operations of a company. Because of this, the reliability, efficiency, security and constant evolution of data centers are typically a top priority. Both software and hardware security measures are a must.To read this article in full, please click here
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced the general availability of a new GPU-powered instance called Amazon P4d that is based on Nvidia’s new Ampere architecture, and the two firms are making big performance claims.AWS has offered GPU-powered instances for a decade now, the most current generation called P3. AWS and Nvidia are both claiming that P4d instances offer three times faster performance, up to 60% lower cost, and 2.5 times more GPU memory for machine learning training and high-performance computing workloads when compared to P3 instances.To read this article in full, please click here
The rumors were true, only the price was off. AMD formally announced this week it intends to acquire FPGA maker Xilinx for $35 billion, not $30 billion as originally rumored.Xilinx is the biggest maker of field-programmable gate array (FPGA) chips, a class of chips that can be reconfigured for a variety of specialized tasks by the end user. They are especially popular in vertical markets like automotive and cellular base stations, where a chip can be reprogrammed for a new or special task.Analysts see Xilinx as an AI play for AMD, which has lagged behind Nvidia in the race for machine learning (ML) and inference.To read this article in full, please click here
Cisco has upgraded some of its core software packages to help customers manage, control and automate functions in hybrid and multicloud data-center environments.With the needs of the pandemic-driven, highly distributed workforce as a backdrop, Cisco is looking to provide visibility and insights into what’s happening across customers’ cloud infrastructure. At the same time it's busting the siloed IT operations many customers have that hold back agile digital-application development, said Prashanth Shenoy, Cisco vice president of marketing. “Businesses are rethinking their IT platforms for multicloud operations, and we are providing the tools to help them transform faster with insights and automation,” Shenoy said.To read this article in full, please click here
The data center industry continues to grow. Amazon, Google, Equinix, Digital Reality Trust, and numerous other providers can't build their data centers fast enough, spurring investments in startups and a hefty amount of M&A activity. The sector was hot before the COVID-19 pandemic, and the crisis has only increased interest as companies accelerate their migrations to the cloud.Goldman Sachs is the latest to make a big play in the data center market. The firm's Merchant Banking Division is partnering with a management team led by Digital Reality co-founder and former chief investment officer Scott Peterson to form a new company, Global Compute Infrastructure LP.To read this article in full, please click here
Analysts had expected 2020 to be a year of rising NAND flash prices after a supply glut in 2019. The reasoning, backed by years of repeating patterns, was that after an oversupply, vendors like SK Hynix and Micron would slow production to drive prices up.Cue COVID-19 and the ensuing chaos.TrendForce, a market research firm that follows the memory market, said there has been a general decline in contract prices starting last quarter due to oversupply. This oversupply situation is attributed to the accumulation of inventory caused by the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Gartner is taking a swing at predicting future trends in IT, flagging neuromorphic computing and DNA storage technologies, and an expanded responsibility for CIOs to deliver digital-business outcomes.Future technologies are resetting everything as current technologies are being stressed to their limits, and conventional computing is hitting a wall, Daryl Plummer, distinguished research vice president and Gartner fellow told the virtual audience at the firm’s IT Symposium/Xpo Americas.The industry is on a roller-coaster ride that will lead the "reset of everything," Plummer said. The future technologies Gartner forecasts will impact the industry the most have three key common threads: they promote greater innovation and efficiency in the enterprise; they are more effective than the technologies that they are replacing; and they have a transformational impact on society, Plummer said.To read this article in full, please click here