According to Gartner, more than $1 trillion in IT spending will be directly or indirectly affected by the shift to cloud over the next five years. Many research firms point to hybrid cloud as a fastest-growing segment, including MarketsandMarkets, which predicts that demand will increase at a compound annual growth rate of 27 percent through 2019, outpacing the IT market overall.There’s no question that cloud technologies have improved time to market, lowered operational and capital expenditures, and provided organizations with the ability to dynamically adjust provisioning to meet changing needs globally. And yet, as many businesses shift from on-premise, private clouds to public or hybrid models, a myriad of technical questions and business concerns come into play as compute, network and storage resources are further virtualized.To read this article in full, please click here
HPE is adding an AI-based recommendation engine to the InfoSight predictive analytics platform for flash storage, taking another step toward what it calls the autonomous data center, where systems modify themselves to run more efficiently.The ultimate goal is to simplify and automate infrastructure management in order to cut operation expenses.[ Check out our What is hyperconvergence? and learn whether your network and team are up to hyperconverged storage. ]
HPE acquired InfoSight as part of its $1 billion deal earlier this year for Nimble Software, a maker of all-flash and hybrid flash storage products. Along with the announcement of the new recommendation engine, HPE Tuesday also said it is extending InfoSight to work with 3Par high-end storage technology it acquired in 2010.To read this article in full, please click here
It’s been said that the industry dislikes too many choices, but HPE is offering more choices for server products with new ARM- and AMD Epyc-based servers. And in both cases, HPE is touting price-performance efficiency.The company today announced new ProLiant DL385 Gen10 servers running AMD’s Epyc processor, the server version of its Zen-based core that has shot the company back into serious competitiveness with Intel.Also on Network World: REVIEW: How rack servers from HPE, Dell and IBM stack up
HPE claims that with the Epyc chips, customers can have more virtual machines per server and the ability to process more data in parallel, thanks to the 32 cores with two threads per core in the Epyc processor. The result, it says, is up to 50 percent lower cost per virtual machine than “traditional” servers.To read this article in full, please click here
HPE and Rackspace have partnered to offer pay-as-you-go services similar to the public cloud but located in private data centers. The OpenStack-based services can have the systems installed in users' own data centers, in a colocation facility, or in Rackspace’s data centers.The move is meant to counter the growing popularity of public cloud services where you pay as you go rather than make the up-front massive investment and then have to maintain and eventually dispose of the systems when they are old.Also on Network World: 6 steps for a future-ready cloud storage strategy
And in case you haven’t noticed, this idea is gaining traction. Microsoft offers Azure Stack, which puts Azure in your private data center, Oracle has Cloud at Customer, and Google and Cisco plan to bring Google Cloud Platform to on-premises users in the near future.To read this article in full, please click here
In separate announcements, Microsoft Corp. and Daimler indicated that hydrogen fuel cells could provide significantly better energy solutions for data centers than existing electrical grid and backup power technology.Daimler, best known for its Mercedes-Benz automobile brand, presented this week its latest-generation fuel cell technology, which is 30 percent smaller, has 40 percent more power and is small enough to fit into the engine compartment of Mercedes-Benz passenger vehicles. The company plans to expand the use of that technology in a hydrogen-powered data center power plant, collaborating with HPE, Power Innovations (PI) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).To read this article in full, please click here
Cray has picked Cavium’s ThunderX2 processor for its first ARM-based supercomputer, quite a win for the little guy coming just a week after the 800-pound gorilla that is Qualcomm formally introduced its ARM-based server processor, the Centriq.The Cavium ThunderX2 processor is based on 64-bit Armv8-A architecture and will be used in the Cray XC50 supercomputer. Cray customers will have a complete ARM-based supercomputer with all of the company’s software tools, including the Cray Linux Environment, the Cray Programming Environment, and Arm-optimized compilers, libraries, and tools for running today’s supercomputing workloads.To read this article in full, please click here
After years of watching its presence shrink on the Top 500 supercomputer list, AMD is battling back with a new set of EPYC-based server processors and specially-tuned GPUs for high-performance computing (HPC) in a complete server system.The company and its partners announced new servers with the EPYC 7601 processor, which it claims is three times more performance-efficient than Intel’s best Xeon server processors, the Xeon Platinum 8180M1, as measured by SPECfp[i] benchmark. The news came at the Supercomputing ’17 show taking place in Denver.Target workloads for AMD solutions include machine learning, weather modeling, computational fluid dynamics, simulation and crash analysis in aviation and automotive manufacturing, and oil and gas exploration, according to the company.To read this article in full, please click here
Supercomputing is becoming super-efficient. The highest climber in the latest Top500 list of the world's fastest supercomputers is also one of the highest scorers on the Green500 ranking of the world's most efficient.But the November 2017 edition of the Top500 and Green500 is also remarkable in other ways, as it marks a tipping point in U.S. dominance of the list.[ See these top supercomputers at our slideshow 10 of the world’s fastest supercomputers. ]Chinese systems now outnumber U.S. systems on the list by 202 to 144, a reversal of the situation just six months ago, when the U.S. had 169 systems in the Top500 vs China's 160. It will still be a long while before third-placed Japan overtakes the U.S.: It has 35 systems in the list, followed by Germany with 20, France with 18, and the UK with 15.To read this article in full, please click here
When Cisco announced its intent-based networking (IBN) strategy this summer, CEO Chuck Robbins called it the company’s biggest announcement in years.To read this article in full, please click here(Insider Story)
Qualcomm's much-anticipated ARM-based Centriq 2400 product line, which started shipping commercially this week, is a worthy contender to break Intel's virtual monopoly in the server processor arena, where data center operators are thirsting to see competition to help bring down costs.An unsolicited acquisition bid for Qualcomm from Broadcom, emerging server-chip competitors and legal wrangles involving Apple and other vendors, however, cast a bit of a shadow on prospects for the new chip.[ Check out this review: How rack servers from HPE, Dell and IBM stack up . ]To read this article in full, please click here
Qualcomm's much-anticipated ARM-based Centriq 2400 product line, which started shipping commercially this week, is a worthy contender to break Intel's virtual monopoly in the server processor arena, where data center operators are thirsting to see competition to help bring down costs.An unsolicited acquisition bid for Qualcomm from Broadcom, emerging server-chip competitors and legal wrangles involving Apple and other vendors, however, cast a bit of a shadow on prospects for the new chip.Qualcomm revealed some impressive specs at an industry event in San Diego Wednesday, bringing out a a variety of big-time cloud, hardware and software providers to show support.To read this article in full, please click here
Can two old technologies make it in the brave new world of cloud computing? Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) thinks yes with its updates to the Superdome servers featuring its recently acquired SGI technology.HPE bought SGI in late 2016, ending for good the name and company that was once a Hollywood darling. The company enjoyed almost celebrity status around 1993 when its computers were credited for creating the realistic dinosaurs in the movie Jurassic Park.Also on Network World: REVIEW: How rack servers from HPE, Dell and IBM stack up
After that, though, it fell on hard times as the environment zigged and poor management zagged, blowing one opportunity after another. In 2009, Rackable Systems acquired SGI’s assets and changed its name to SGI because it thought there was some value in the name — for some inexplicable reason.To read this article in full, please click here
Servers should be stored in vats of cooling, non-conductive oil instead of elaborate, outfitted structures, say engineers who are working on a radical, building-free, data center concept.French company Horizon Computing is one of the developers behind the project and provides support. It proposes using stacks of 10-gallon barrels filled with Shell DIALA dielectric mineral oil or natural equivalent. Dielectric oil doesn’t have any water in it, so it won’t conduct electricity, but it cools just like water. The computers function as normal and aren’t subject to rust either.Benefits of RuggedPOD containers
The idea is that common servers are fully submerged in the barrels where they are chilled by the immersion. Expensive humidity control and air conditioning thus become irrelevant, as do buildings.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Rack servers are data center workhorses – efficient, flexible and expandable. A rack lets IT pros fit many servers into a relatively small footprint, and built-in cable-management components allow for expansion while keeping the installation tidy.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
Smaller players in the IT hardware space can often be overlooked because dominant players cast such a long shadow. So as someone who roots for the underdog, I do enjoy shining a little light on an overlooked bit of news.Fujitsu is not the first name in data center hardware here in the U.S. Its primary place of business is its native Japan. For example, it built the RIKEN supercomputer, one of the 10 fastest in the world. But it has some good hardware offerings, such as its Primergy and Primequest server line. Well, now the company has partnered with NetApp to offer them converged and hyperconverged systems.Also on Network World: Hyperconvergence: What’s all the hype about?
Converged and hyperconverged infrastructure (CI/HCI) is a fancy way of saying tightly integrated systems that combine compute, networking and storage into pre-tested and pre-configured stacks for a single turnkey solution rather than buying and assembling one.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
What if you could flip a switch and turn your stodgy old data center full of legacy apps into a cloud-enabled one capable of migrating apps and data to the public cloud with ease by containerizing your legacy apps?IBM says it has just such an offering in IBM Cloud Private, a platform focused on assisting private data centers looking for a relatively simple way to move into the cloud. The idea is to offer a consistent way of managing your application stack, regardless of where they reside. Also on Network World: IBM’s latest private cloud is built on Kubernetes, and is aimed at Microsoft
IBM Cloud Private takes middleware and other legacy applications, places them inside Kubernetes containers and transforms them into contemporary applications using Kubernetes container orchestration. The software itself is already containerized, including IBM tools and most major open source databases. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Take a look at your desktop computer. What operating system is it currently running? Now take a look in your data center — at all of your servers. What operating system are they running? Linux? Microsoft Windows? Mac OS X? You could be running any of those three — or one of countless others. But here’s the crazy part: That’s not the only operating system you’re running. If you have a modern Intel CPU (released in the last few years) with Intel’s Management Engine built in, you’ve got another complete operating system running that you might not have had any clue was in there: MINIX. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
AMD has staged quite the comeback with its Zen architecture, sold under the Ryzen brand for desktops and Epyc brand for server processors. After years as an also-ran, the Zen architecture is showing true competitiveness with Intel’s best, and at a far cheaper price tag.AMD just introduced its Epyc server processor line as the successor to its Opteron brand, but it is already reportedly working on the next wave of chips. Canard PC Hardware, a French hardware site with a good track record of accuracy, claims to have obtained specifications for AMD's next generation of Epyc processors.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
What do the peaking colors of fall foliage, the nighttime appearance of the hunter’s moon, and escalating college football and NFL rivalries indicate? That autumn has officially arrived, and Thanksgiving is right around the corner.Thanksgiving is primarily associated with family and friends gathering together, enjoying an uncomfortable amount of turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie, and then lapsing into a tryptophan and sugar-induced state of semi-consciousness. While Americans may also associate Thanksgiving with the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians, the holiday actually spans cultures, continents and millennia. In ancient times, the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans all feasted and paid tribute to their deities as an annual celebration of the harvest and its bounty.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Telepresence has become a very intelligent business strategy, especially for companies that are spread across multiple sites or those with clients in many locations that they need to deal with on a fairly regular basis. Using what is in essence a fairly simple robot, anyone can transport himself to another location, move around through offices and interact face-to-face with people they might not otherwise ever meet. Granted they’re going to look something like large iPads held up by a couple metal rods riding on top of self-propelled vacuum cleaners, the experience is still surprisingly effective.I’ve recently had a chance to transport myself using one of the Beam presence systems built by Suitable Technologies. I sat in my office in the mountains in Virginia while being transported to an office suite in Palo Alto, California and interacted with two members of the staff. I had previously spoken with one of the same company’s customers at yet another location to get a feel for how they were using their Beams.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here