XSi's Blog: The Alternative in IT Maintenance Services

Oracle Acquires Sun = Big Mistake

Thu, 24 May 2012 15:09:00 GMT

After more than a week of deliberations, the jury in Oracle v. Google finally came back with a verdict over patent infringement on Wednesday. Oracle claimed Googles Android tramples on its intellectual property rights to the Java programming language, but the jury disagreed and ruled that Google has not infringed Oracle Corps patents, putting an indefinite hold on Oracles quest for damages in a fight between the two Silicon Valley giants over smartphone technology. But this is all a distraction from the real disaster at the heart of the company.

Buying Sun Microsystems was a historic mistake, and in another Oracle lawsuit HP claims in their filing that according to internal communications Oracle executives thought that the Sun acquisition was a huge mistake.

Oracle claims that it acquired Sun because it was a software company providing Oracle with Java, Solararis, and MySQL. In all actuality, Sun was predominately a hardware company selling computers and computer components - primarily Sun servers. Sun’s server business has always outdone Sun’s software business.

What Oracle was really after was a bigger share of it’s customers’ wallets. Oracle hoped the combination of its own database software with Sun hardware would provide just that. There was substantial sales acceleration last year after the deal closed, but the current quarter would have to be a blow-out to match last year's $35.6 billion in revenue -- and so far they're just over $26 billion.

Not that this is anything new. Many companies lose their customer mandate and seem to die a rather quick death. Take a look at companies like Compaq, Wang Labs, Silicon Graphics or Data General. These companies tend to loose share and support becomes harder to come by. After spending a hefty price on an acquisition, balance sheets can be killed for years.

Oracle's server share is down to 5.6% and it looks as if the trend will continue for the foreseeable future. And at what point does that share reach the vanishing point, as Palm has in Data Organization?

By saying Oracle bought Sun to get its software, management seems to have seen this coming.

Oracle replaced Project Harmony, with OpenJDK, another open source project under its control. Then they took Google to court claiming they had "stolen" Oracle’s property (obtained while Sun owned Java and had it under the general public license), knowing that if you don't have header information (the only bit Google "stole") you can't build a compatible system.

While the press might have a heyday with all this and Larry Ellison, Oracle's cofounder and CEO, appears to be all distraught over the whole thing, the real investors see what’s going on.

In this case, it's hardware. Ellison is promising a turnaround, but if you’re a betting man money says he can't deliver.

XSi has been refurbishing and reselling Sun SPARC servers and workstations since 1990, when we pioneered the aftermarket for Sun equipment. Since then we've sold and maintained thousands of Sun systems including SPARC, Enterprise, UltraSPARC, Sun Fire, Sun Blade, StoreEdge and STK storage systems. To find out how to get Sun Products or Oracle/Sun Maintenance at significant cost reduction, contact us today.

3rd Party Maintainers are Tired of OEM Anti-Competitive Tactics and You Should be Too!

Fri, 18 May 2012 13:36:00 GMT

CONTINUANT WINS ANOTHER VICTORY IN AVAYA LAWSUIT; ANTITRUST CLAIMS TO BE ALLOWED AT TRIAL

Trenton, NJ—Continuant, the nation’s leading independent provider of maintenance and support services for enterprise communications systems, has won another legal victory in its five-year battle with Avaya for consumer choice.

Continuant maintains that Avaya’s business practices violate US antitrust laws. In January of this year New Jersey Federal District Court Judge Garrett E. Brown, in a single ruling, denied Avaya’s two Motions for Summary Judgment seeking to dismiss Continuant’s claims, paving the way for the issue to be decided at trial.

Avaya subsequently filed two Motions for Reconsideration, asking the Court to reverse Judge Brown’s ruling as to each of the summary judgment motions, as well as a motion seeking interlocutory appeal of one aspect of Judge Brown’s ruling.

On April 27, New Jersey Federal District Court Judge Joseph E. Irenas denied all three motions in a single ruling.

Judge Irenas’s ruling is the fourth time (covering seven motions) since Continuant filed its federal antitrust counter-complaint in 2006 that the Court has ruled in favor of Continuant and allowed the bulk of its antitrust claims to proceed. As a result, Continuant will have the opportunity to present to a jury its claim that Avaya has “aggressively sought and maintained a monopolistic stranglehold” on purchasers of its telecom equipment by denying their right to select the service provider of their choice.

Continuant Chief Sales Office Bruce Shelby said, “We are pleased at the Court’s ruling and look forward to presenting our case to a jury. Avaya has taken every possible step to keep our antitrust claims from going to trial and I believe these latest unsuccessful motions were Avaya’s last hope of keeping our case from going before a jury.”

About Continuant:
Founded in 1996, Continuant is the nation’s leading independent provider of maintenance and support services for voice and data communications systems, with an unsurpassed record of extraordinary customer service. More information about Continuant can be found at www.continuant.com.

Silicon Graphic (SGI) Stocks Plummet

Wed, 16 May 2012 17:36:00 GMT

On Wednesday afternoon, SGI stocks plunged a whopping 12% and were down $1.09. They continued to fall and reached a low Thursday night at $8 a share. The stock has continued to drop and is now around $5.50 a share, an all-time low for the year. This comes just a few short months after they had reached an all-time high of $21.72 as SGI announced the selling of two of its shared memory Altix UV Systems to Atomic Weapons Establishment of UK.

The chaos hit after the Silicon Valley Computer Company announced cuts to its fiscal-year sales and profit forecasts. The company said a large deal originally expected to generate revenue in the fourth quarter slipped to the next quarter causing their profit margin to shrink. They also stated that other customers have not placed orders because they are waiting for the company to launch new products.

Interestingly enough, the company reported a loss for the third quarter that narrowed from last year which reflected double-digit revenue growth. Both adjusted earnings per share and quarterly revenues came in higher than analysts’ expectations.

As you may recall, over the past several months we have been following SGI as they have gone through some major restructuring. In late February SGI appointed Jorge Luis Titinger as the new president and CEO. Just less than a month later SGI Annouced Plans to Slash European Workforce by 25%, saying most of its financial problems were a result of a weak European economy and the high cost of doing business on the continent. SGI said they expect the European restructuring to save them $7.5 million a year. At the beginning of this month we blogged, Silicon Graphics International CFO Hangs His Shoes, and SGI named Robert Nikl as their executive vice president and chief financial officer effective May 15, 2012.

With all the restructuring and stocks plummeting, it begs the question; can SGI hold on, break through the funk, and get things moving in the right direction? Titinger reported, “Since Joining SGI, I have been working with management and the Board conducting a thorough review of the company’s business and operations. It is clear to me that SGI is in the right markets with the right products.”

Well, so far it appears they might be headed in the right direction. They reported a net loss of $1.16 million or $0.04 per share for the third quarter, but that was narrower than the $1.67 million or $0.05 per share in the prior-year quarter. They actually reported revenue of $199.4 million, up 39 percent from the third quarter of 2011.

The company now expects to report $750 million to $770 million in annual revenue, including $177 million to $197 million in the fourth quarter. Silicon Graphics had forecast revenue of $770 million to $800 million for the full year. According to their FactSet, analysts on average were expecting $208.9 million in revenue for the fourth quarter and $772.9 million for fiscal 2012 which is still up from the $629.6 million for 2011.

"In the coming months, we will finalize SGI's long-term strategic plan with the goal of driving profitable growth. While we will continue to invest in technology innovation and differentiation, we will also seek ways to streamline our operations and add more rigor to our processes," Titinger added.

XSi has been the largest Independent reseller of SGI® equipment and SGI Maintenance Provider for 20 years, selling over 5,000 systems worldwide since 1991. If you're looking for a way to attack your SGI® operating costs by up to 70% without sacrificing on quality, click here to contact us today.

Cisco Raises the Roof at the 2012 Summer Olympics

Wed, 09 May 2012 16:21:00 GMT

We are often found ragging on Cisco for its dirty big business antics, but this time the tables are turned and we applaud them. Cisco will be alive and well at the Olympics this summer in London. Cisco is a key sponsor and the proud supporter and network infrastructure provider for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. And from the looks of what they’ve accomplished so far, Cisco has been hard at work for a while getting London ready for the games.

But just what does Cisco have up their sleeve? Incredibly, from a technological point-of-view there will be over 30 live sites, 1,800 wireless access points (so, YES, you can bring your own iPad), 2,220 switches, 10,000 cable TV sockets, 16,500 telephones/ IP handsets, 65,000 active network ports and 80,000 connections across 94 locations, all of which will prove crucial to the communications infrastructure for the Games.

Why so much stuff?? In all, the network infrastructure which supports BT Network will ultimately connect people in 205 countries, 6000 LOCOG employees, 21,800 athletes and team officials, 22,000 media personnel and 70,000 volunteers. That's excluding the 10.8 million tickets available to, the 10 million people connecting to mylondon2012.com or the 4 billion people watching around the world.

What else will Cisco have going on at the Olympics? Actually, Cisco has already started to spark the Olympic fire with their Cisco House. The Cisco House will be open for 5 months starting back in April and ending in August, and is a highly engaging, interactive, multimedia walk-through experience. Cisco expects over 11,000 guests in the next five months to visit the Cisco House. It sits on the roof of the Westfield Stratford shopping center, Europe’s largest shopping mall some 295 feet in the sky providing breath-taking views of London’s Olympic Village. The Cisco structure is a uniquely sleek and modern building full of technology and innovation.

The groundfloor is filled with interactive experiences such as a walkthrough look at how businesses are using the Cisco network. There are touchscreens displaying Cisco case studies, kinetic technology where you can try on items of clothing from local retail stores, communication pods, plasma display screens, and Cisco’s own TelePresence technology all on show. The focus is not on what Cisco makes, but what they make possible.

As part of the Cisco House experience all guests have the opportunity to go on a trip called the “Business Transformation Experience.” You will be taken through to a tube carriage at Cisco House station, where you will take a seat and put on 3D glasses. Stephen Fry, one of the most subscribed to celebrities on Twitter with nearly 4.5M followers and counting, will greet travelers. Stephen will take you on a journey illustrating Cisco’s fresh thinking and ground-breaking technology, delivering competitive advantage to change the way we live, learn, work and play across the globe!

Could there possibly be more? Yes, indeed! Cisco has committed to improving Britain for the long haul through a project they call BIG, British Innovation Gateway. Cisco pledged $500m over 5 years to help foster an environment of entrepreneurship within the UK, ensuring a long lasting legacy from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The Cisco-driven initiative is expected to boost entrepreneurship, innovation and economic growth in the UK.

There are currently three streams of activity:

Innovation centres – facilities and resources that bring business and innovation together.
National Virtual Incubator – connecting innovators, entrepreneurs, academic research and business experts together via an open, collaborative and global IT infrastructure.
BIG Awards – five annual awards to businesses and individuals who devise the most innovative, high-tech and commercially-applicable ideas.

And beyond that? As the Official Network Infrastructure Provider for the Games, Cisco is looking to assist the OPLC in transforming Olympic Park into a state-of-the-art community and model for innovation once the Games are complete. Cisco has proposed a concept called Smart+Connected Communities initiative which is built on IP-based infrastructure. This means that all of the critical components of a city infrastructure (such as utility, transportation, healthcare, commercial buildings and emergency response systems) connect via an IP-based network. Phil Smith, vice president and CEO of Cisco UK & Ireland, explains the importance of this approach:

"The creation of Smart+Connected Communities will be an important societal transformation over the next 10 years; with governments and communities around the world creating new possibilities for the way their populations, live, work, play and learn...it is a keystone to improving the delivery of healthcare, education and utilities, achieving environmental targets and addressing social needs."

Cisco suggests that by turning Olympic Park into a Smart+Connected Community, they can establish:

Integrated city management for London.
A centre for technical excellence and development.
A showcase for ways in which technology can continue to transform local businesses and communities.

The Olympic Cisco experience will not only be remembered for delivering an engaging and seamless Olympics, but it will convey an experience that lives and breathes the message of the 2012 Olympic message - Inspiring a Generation.

Find out more about how Cisco can better meet your business needs for the future. XSi has 10 years of experience with Cisco equipment and, as a former Cisco Business Partner, we understand the ins-and-outs of working with Cisco. XSi is now an independent reseller of Cisco products and also provides an alternative to Cisco SMARTnet®.

HP / Oracle Lawsuit Saga Continues…

Mon, 07 May 2012 15:13:00 GMT

In what seems to be a battle to the end, Oracle and HP are going to trial in the Itanium lawsuit at the end of this month. Both sides attempted to convince Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge, James Kleinberg, to hand them a win before trial. But Kleinberg denied those motions in a tentative ruling on Tuesday, May 1st. He urged both sides to “give serious consideration to settlement,” and called the case, “extremely challenging,” adding that he did not know how it would turn out. Oracle lawyer Dan Wall said at a court hearing that a settlement “isn’t going to happen.”

The suit centers on Intel’s Itanium microprocessor, which HP uses in many of its products. It all started up in late 2010, relations between HP and Oracle deteriorated rapidly when Oracle quickly hired Hurd after he left HP amid questions about his relationship with a female contractor, with Oracle CEO Larry Ellison publicly criticizing HP's handling of the matter. The saga continued when HP turned around and later hired Ellison’s arch –rival Leo Apotheker as CEO.

The debate is over the settlement of the Hurd lawsuit and whether or not it included some language that committed Oracle to continue to build software that would support Intel’s exotic Itanium server chip, as many HP products would become unusable without the technology. HP argued at the time of the Hurd settlement, Oracle General Counsel Dorian Daley had said the deal meant that the companies "would continue to work together" as they had. Oracle claims that Daley never intended the Hurd agreement to be anything more than a symbolic statement, as opposed to a legal commitment. Oracle attorney Dan Wall said in a statement, "We don't believe, nor do we think HP really believes, that a settlement agreement relating to Mark Hurd's employment could possibly obligate Oracle to write new software for a platform that is clearly (at the) end of life."

In March of last year, Oracle said that it would cease developing versions of its software that would work on Itanium-based systems. HP was outraged and said "…Oracle's March 2011 announcement to no longer develop software for Itanium servers was part of a calculated business strategy to drive hardware sales from Itanium to inferior Sun servers. This further demonstrates the fact that Oracle breached its contractual commitment to HP and ignored its repeated promises of support to our shared customers." Oracle claims that their decision had nothing to do with winning the market share and was based solely on the fact that Intel had plans to end manufacturing of the Itanium chip. Intel said it had no such plans. Oracle claims that for HP, the Itanium business is all about the billions in support and service fees it charges its customers, fees without which HP is “strategically screwed.”

HP is suing Oracle for $4 billion in damages and Oracle countersued HP for hiding the terms of its contract with Intel. The trial is scheduled to begin May 31. A mandatory settlement conference also is set for later this month.

Oracle continues to support our theory that it is a big business bully like so many other OEM’s. It’s stunts like these that drive support costs up and make perfectly good equipment become obsolete before it’s time. Stunts that create monopolies, giving too much power and dominance to OEM’s in the marketplace and make it increasingly difficult for third party maintenance providers to compete. If Oracle can cease support whenever they feel like it in an effort to drive up their own Sun hardware sales, what’s to stop other OEMs from limiting access to software updates, patches, etc and requiring you to be contractually bound to their overpriced maintenance and support. To find out more read our previous article HP Takes Another Blow From Oracle.

If you would like to stop paying inflated prices for OEM maintenance find out more about XSi’s IT Maintenance Services.

Silicon Graphics International CFO Hangs His Shoes

Thu, 03 May 2012 14:38:00 GMT

Silicon Valley’s own SGI (Silicon Graphics International) announced that CFO, Jim Wheat, has turned in his resignation papers and will be leaving SGI. This major change comes just less than 90 days from SGI hiring new CEO and President Jorge Titinger. The company has been going through a reorganization since Titinger came in as CEO and announced, "I am excited to be part of the new SGI, building on one of Silicon Valley's great brands and fully exploiting the opportunities in HPC, Big Data and the Cloud."

Wheat says he is leaving for personal reasons, but will stay on through June 1^st to facilitate the transition to new executive vice president and CFO, Robert J. "Bob" Nikl. Nikl, 57, will be assuming the CFO position starting May 15^th.

With more than 35 years of experience Mr. Nikl is a seasoned global financial executive who was the previous CFO of Verigy Ltd. Nikl was CFO of Verigy from 2006 until late 2011 where he worked alongside Titinger. Titinger is not the only SGI employee that Nikl has previously worked with. He also worked for Asyst Technologies, Inc. with Wheat prior to becoming the CFO for Verigy.

Nikl’s salary at SGI will be $350,000, and he’ll be eligible for a “quarterly target bonus” of $56,875. He’ll also get options for 125,000 shares of SGI stock. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, Wheat received a total calculated compensation of $670,316 for 2011.

Jorge Titinger had this to say about Nikl, “While I am still in my first 90 days and reviewing the company's operations I can clearly say that SGI will benefit from Bob's experience. Having worked with him in the past I value his expertise, integrity and ability to make a difference. He will contribute substantially to setting clear expectations, providing transparency, driving functional excellence and work the levers to ensure profitable growth.”

Mr. Nikl is a seasoned global financial executive with experience in all financial and internal control activities, including financial planning and reporting, accounting, internal audit, investor relations, tax, treasury and risk management. Mr. Nikl earned an MBA from the University of Connecticut, a Bachelor of Business Administration from Pace University in New York, and is a Certified Public Accountant with active licenses in California and New York.

He had this to say about working at SGI, “I am looking forward to working with Jorge and the SGI executive team to return the company to sustained profitability and growth. We have a bright future ahead of us as SGI is expanding beyond High Performance Computing into the Big Data market."

Cisco "Industrializes the Internet" with IE 2000 Switch Series

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 15:27:00 GMT

Cisco this week unveiled an updated line of Ethernet switches at the Hanover Messe Industrial Automation trade fair in Germany this week. Cisco has reinforced its commitment to the industrialization of the Internet with this new series of switches aimed squarely at the industrial market. The IE 2000 series is an extension of Cisco's current industrial Ethernet product lines, the Catalyst 2955 and the IE 3000 series. They are intended to address the expansion of machine-to-machine communications on factory floors and in other industrial environments.

"Major sectors of the economy Relevant Products/Services are undergoing a transformation driven by new requirements around production and factory automation, traffic management, data analytics and machine Relevant Products/Services-to-machine communication," said Maciej Kranz, vice president and general manager, Connected Industries business unit.

Cisco believes that by 2016 there will be nearly 2 billion machine-to-machine wireless connections -- including GPS systems in cars and asset tracking systems in shipping and manufacturing sectors. Thus the need to more tightly connect and integrate devices, machines and vehicles with traditional enterprise networks, the networking giant says.

The new switches are designed to enhance the communication between the industrial environments and enterprise business applications by providing consistent network services between the two. They enhance security and manageability by providing secure remote access and monitoring of automated systems. According to Cisco, they also have the capability to manage and monitor energy usage with visibility into machine performance as well as, deliver video and other corporate applications to manufacturing plant floors. Over all, these improvements should help Cisco customers manage costs better.

Cisco predicts that this “Industrialization of the Internet” as they refer to it, will accelerate the networking industry in industries such as manufacturing and transportation. Zeus Kerravala, principal analyst at ZK Research said, “It’s a niche for sure. It's still probably about a $1 billion market. That's nothing to sneeze at. When you look at factory environments, they are connecting far more to the network than just users of PCs and IP phones. Cisco's got the scale to afford to put a lot of investment dollars into this niche whereas companies like Juniper are fighting to grow their overall share."

He went on to say, "There's a lot of automation systems and environmental systems in buildings. For Cisco, it's an important part of their overall story as the network-as-a-platform. They are trying to show that the network can do more than just connect people to the Internet. A lot of the things it connects aren't mobile, so the wired connection becomes very important."

XSi has 10 years of experience with Cisco equipment and, as a former Cisco Business Partner, we understand the ins-and-outs of working with Cisco. XSi is now an independent reseller of Cisco products and also provides an alternative to Cisco SMARTnet®. To find out more visit Cisco Products or Cisco Maintenance.

Brocade Partners with 49ers as Network Provider for New Stadium

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 15:11:00 GMT

Brocade Communications Systems is known as an IT networking company, but that may all change. Thanks to a deal with the San Francisco 49ers, they may quickly become better known to football fans! Brocade, based in San Jose, has signed a deal to provide the wireless technology for the new 49ers stadium, which is to be built on Tasman Drive in the heart of Silicon Valley’s Santa Clara.

49ers CEO Jed York announced the deal to a pack of reporters at the team's ceremonial ground breaking April 19^th. York did not provide specifics at the groundbreaking, but he said Brocade would make sure the "backbone is in place" for in-stadium technology. York said he wants to build a "complete mobile application" at the stadium that would let gridiron football fans use their smartphones and tablets "the same way that you would in a normal setting, in a coffee shop."

This is not the first time Brocade CEO Mike Klayko and 49ers President and CEO Jed York have been in the lime light together. The two helped raise $11.3 million and 1.6 million pounds of food last year as they co-chaired the Second Harvest Food Bank last fall. York did say they had spoken with a number of other companies about potentially providing the technology, but in the end York said, “We've talked to a lot of folks, but the deal's with Brocade." This is a huge loss for networking vendor competitor Cisco Systems, whose main campus is right down the street from the new stadium site. Cisco has been trying to find a place at the forefront of Bay Area sports (you may remember Cisco’s failed efforts to help build a new stadium for the Oakland A’s in the East Bay city of Fremont) and has a special business group dedicated to building out in-stadium networks.

There’s been no word yet whether or not Brocade will be the title sponsor of the stadium, but as a "founding partner," the team will have in-stadium sponsorship. This will include Brocade-branded areas of the 68,500-seat building.

The 49ers have hired Kunal Malik to be the Chief Technology Officer, a newly created position, as of May 1^st. Kunal is best known for starting Facebook’s IT department, and will be managing the installation of the Brocade equipment and it’s usage by fans.

The stadium is expected to cost $1.2 billion and open in time for the 2014 National Football League season. No further details are known at this time, according to 49er spokesman, Steve Weakland, who said the deal had just been finalized and that he didn’t yet have any details to release. As well as Brocade spokeswoman, Katie Bromley, who also said she did not yet have the details of the deal.

For Brocade, this is a huge opportunity as they bridge the tech / sports fanatic gap and pioneer the way for tech savvy stadiums. Stadiums that will make it possible to watch the 49ers game on your iPad while you’re at the stadium, just in case the live version just isn’t cutting it!

XSi is a provider of Brocade equipment and Brocade maintenance services. If you would like to find out more about how Brocade solutions can improve your network visit our Brocade Products and Brocade Maintenance pages.

Facebook Opens Second Data Center

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 17:43:00 GMT

Facebook opened their second data center yesterday, April 19^th, in red carpet style in Forest City, North Carolina. Facebook’s Vice President of Site Operations Tom Furlong and Data Center Manager George Henry joined NC Deputy Commerce Secretary Dale Carroll, members of the legislative delegation, Rutherford County Commission Chair Julius Owens, Forest City Mayor Dennis Tarlton, and more than 300 “friends” for a celebration at the facility.

The site is now online and serving live traffic just 16 short months after the initial ground breaking in November of 2010. Tom Furlong, Facebook’s vice president of site operations, announced that the data center has arrived two months ahead of the original schedule. “We took two months out of the construction window because from a business stance, we needed it,” he said. Facebook began construction on Building 2 at the same site in the fall of 2011, and it is expected to be complete later this year.

The project involved nearly 2000 people (most coming from Rutherford County and the surrounding region) and took more than 1.2 million hours to complete the new data center. Furlong said of the project, "We want to thank the thousands of people involved, in North Carolina and beyond, for coming together to build and staff a world-class facility in less than a year and a half. This is an amazing accomplishment, and it wouldn’t have been possible if we hadn’t worked so well together."

Currently more than 60 people are employed in the facility itself, and an average of 600 construction personnel are on site every day. North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue said, "The data center has come together with remarkable speed, thanks to the strong relationship between the company and our state and local resources. The investment and jobs at the data center is a boon to that region of the state, and helps confirm North Carolina’s distinction as a global business destination.”

The new server farm houses tens of thousands of servers that will provide Facebook with additional IT capacity to support its growing audience of more than 850 million users around the world.

Back in October 2011, Facebook formed a foundation for the Open Compute Project (OCP) to drive more innovation and a greater focus on energy efficiency in the data center industry. A Facebook spokeswoman said, “We are also committed to keep evolving the technologies and designs at the facility, and are excited to be growing one of the world’s most energy efficient data centers…”

Facebook has also designed its own servers as part of its effort to reduce power consumption in the data center. The North Carolina facility marks the debut of its second generation of web server designs, which the company is sharing with the rest of the world through the Open Compute Project. Unlike other web giants such as Google and Amazon, Facebook does not view its hardware as a competitive advantage, believing that if it shares its designs with the rest of the world, it can improve them — and drive down the cost.

The new data center has a number of technical accomplishments at the facility that Facebook says it is proud of.

Forest City is the first major deployment of the v2 OCP web servers, which in turn are some of the first to use Intel’s Sandy Bridge processor in production.
Forest City is expected to join Facebook’s facility in Prineville, Oregon, as one of the most energy efficient in the world, with a projected power utilization effectiveness (PuE) measurement for the entire facility of 1.06 to 1.08.

The Open Compute Projects designs have proven to be 38 percent more energy efficient than the technologies Facebook had previously employed in its leased data center facilities.

The facility is the first test of the Open Compute Project’s outdoor-air cooling designs in an environment where temperature and humidity conditions are considered outside the range of typical data center operations. In other words, North Carolina gets much steamier in the summer than the Oregonian high desert. “The real question is whether we could make it work in a more humid environment,” Furlong says. “This will be proof of concept that we can run an outside-air economizing system in a humid location.”

As power, management, and administration costs continue to rise, data center consolidation and relocation remains an ongoing project for many organizations like Facebook. Visit XSi to find out more about Data Centers and Data Center Relocation for your organization.

Cisco Tangos with another Spin-In for $750 Million

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 16:46:00 GMT

Cisco notified by memo its employees that it has funded yet another advanced networking startup. Cisco funded the startup, Insieme, for $100 million with the right to buy the company for as much as $750 million in the future. Insieme is led by three Cisco engineers: Mario Mazzola, Luca Cafiero and Prem Jain. The three have deep roots in Cisco's Ethernet switching business, dating back to 1993, and they were all involved in two other Cisco spin-in start-ups - Andiamo Systems, which made storage-area network switches, and Nuova Systems, which developed Cisco's Nexus 5000 series data center switches. These companies were designed to be purchased by Cisco, a creation known as a “spin in” company.

The Cisco spin-in is purportedly developing what are essentially the next generation Nexus platforms, and has been granted all intellectual property for the Nexus 5000 and 5500 lines, including the ASIC and software engineers. Insieme has also been granted full source code licenses to Cisco's NX-OS data center network operating system. According to the New York Times, Insieme will develop Cisco’s software-defined networking product line. Software-defined networking (SDN) allows an external controller to act as the brains of the switching and/or routing infrastructure, enabling software programmability and configurability without manual intervention on each and every network element.

The spin-ins can create disruptive products quickly, but also risk hurting company morale by making some star employees multimillionaires with little risk, while others are left behind. While Cisco had entirely valid business and technology reasons for instituting its spin-in model, the practice has generated much internal discord and friction. Cisco employees not chosen to participate in the spin-in ventures have been known to become alienated and invidious. Former Cisco executive Jayshree Ullal, who now serves as CEO of Arista Networks, made the following comment to Forbes about the malignant consequences of spin-in ventures:

“Spin-ins are a creative model to accelerate innovation and bring in engineers you couldn’t normally recruit–and financial gains go to entrepreneurs, not venture capitalists,” says Jayshree Ullal, a 15-year Cisco veteran who built the 7000, then left last May as the Nuova people came back in. “But it’s a nightmare when the guy in the next cubicle is a multimillionaire and you aren’t, because you weren’t chosen.” She left Cisco for personal reasons, she says, adding that she had to deal with a lot of unhappy employees over the spin-in structure.

The practice led to the departures of these engineers who then started up their own companies to compete with Cisco, sources said.

None the less, despite the naysayers, Cisco is back at it again in full “spin in” force. Reportedly, they have already recruited Tom Edsall, a Cisco Fellow and lead ASIC arvhitect of the company’s Nexus and MDS switching lines (from the Nuova and Andiamo spin-ins). Also on the docket is Ronak Desai, the architect of Cisco’s NX-OS FabricPath and Virtual Device Context software, and of the MDS SAN switch operating system. Rumor has it, that Michael Smith may also be recruited, a top-notch engineer who worked on Cisco’s Nexus 1000v virtual switch.

In the memo sent out to Cisco’s employees David McCulloch, Cisco’s director of corporate communications, tried to help employees understand Cisco’s position in S.D.N. Cisco’s CEO, John Chambers, assured employees that the product Insieme is developing will complement and not overlap with Cisco's existing products. McCulloch noted, “This is one of the ways, certainly not the entire way, Cisco will address network programmability.” He went on to say S.D.N. “promises to make the network more agile, scalable, and cost-effective,” and that “Cisco is operating from established positions of strength, which include the scale of its operating systems, superior ASICS, unique embedded intelligence, experienced engineering expertise, and an expansive installed base—most of which has no interest in completely replacing what it has already invested in so heavily.”

From the outside, people are wondering why Cisco is again reaching outside of its usual operational process to create new technology if its assets are so superior. None the less, Cisco’s capabilities continue to rise as seventy percent of the world’s networks are Cisco. They continue to get support from the outside as they are deemed likely to be among the leading players in S.D.N.

XSi provides Cisco Maintenance and Cisco Products at deep discounts off the OEM pricing. Our Cisco goods and services are supported by our team of Cisco Authorized Partners. The result is a network of relationships allowing us to provide new, remanufactured and refurbished Cisco goods and services.

IBM Launches PureSystems and Lowers the Cost of IT Operations

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 14:18:00 GMT

IBM rolled out a game changer in the IT arena this week with the unveiling a new line of integrated systems called PureSystems. PureSystems is designed to centralize the management of IT infrastructure. This is IBM’s first offering in a brand new system category from IBM — a new class of systems known as "Expert Integrated Systems."

IBM reportedly invested $2 billion in research and development, acquisitions spread over three years, and put in millions of development hours across 37 laboratories in 17 countries.

The first two systems to be launched in the PureSystems line are PureFlex, an infrastructure foundation component, and PureApplications, a software layer. These systems combine servers, storage, network, software and applications in one box that would not only be ready for deployment within hours, but have built-in expertise garnered over the years and also are cloud-ready.

The new platform has three major components: System Integration, Task Automation, and Cloud Integration. First, the new system design integrates server, storage, and networking into one machine. Not only does this allow for increased density, but will also be able to handle twice as many applications as previous IBM systems. It result is double the computing power per square foot of data center space. Second, the integrated software will automatically handle the basic IT management tasks of configurations, updates, and app requirements reducing IT management time. Finally, the systems are cloud ready and organizations will be able to integrate private clouds that can quickly be scaled up or down.

If you know anything about IT you know that the majority of projects encounter frequent delays and therefore, many projects are deployed late. In fact, as you can see below a survey by Forrester on behalf of IBM suggests 23 per cent of new IT projects (worldwide) are deployed late. According to Barbara Cain, vice-president at IBM's software group, since the system has codified best practices, new application deployment is faster by as much as 20-30 times. "The time of provisioning also reduces from 45 days to a few minutes," she claimed.

IBM claims the technology is designed to get IT organizations up and running in as little as four hours. This would significantly reduce the typical “months” of time that are usually required to deploy new applications. In fact, Helena Armitage, general manager at IBM's systems & technology group said, "In a managed services environment where there are 30 Unix servers, 22 storage devices and 200 x86 servers and if we consolidate this into one PureFlex, the company will save $2.6 million on operations and almost $2 million savings on management time over three years."

IBM said the launch was one of the biggest from the company, as it could change the way IT was being procured and deployed.

IBM’s Virginia Rometty…Most Talked About Issue At Masters

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 14:45:00 GMT

IBM who pioneered the way of computing with their IBM mainframes and supercomputers seems to be on the horizon of revolution again. This time it won’t be the world of computing that is impacted, but rather the world of golf. Virginia Rometty, IBM’s new female CEO, attended the Augusta Masters in a pink jacket, not a green one. She watched from the gallery on the 18^th green Sunday, April 8, 2012 and knew enough about golf to applaud several good shots in the final hole.

Her pink jacket was not the predominate topic of discussion, but whether or not she would be receiving a “green jacket”, which is the traditional attire of club members, seemed to be the central theme. Rometty’s four previous predecessors have all been invited to be members at the Augusta Nationals as IBM has been a longstanding sponsor of the tournament.

Prior to the tournament Billy Payne, Chairman of Augusta National Golf Club, repeatedly dodged questions about whether a woman would become a member at the home of the Masters. "As has been the case whenever that question is asked, all issues of membership have been and are subject to private deliberations of the members," Payne said. "That statement remains accurate and that remains my statement."

The issue of female membership first became a hot topic back in 2002. Martha Burk of the National Council of Women’s Organizations fought for Augusta National to end its all-male membership. She threatened to boycott companies whose executives were members, but Johnson, Payne’s predecessor responded by cutting loose corporate backers and the Masters was televised without commercials for the next two years. A planned protest before the 2003 Masters was a dud and the issue slowly receded.

When Payne was asked to expand on his refusal to comment, he gave two reasons: "Number One, we don't talk about our private deliberations. Number Two, we especially don't talk about them when a named candidate is part of the question."

He did not say whether Rometty was that specific "named candidate." Payne went on to say that there was "no specific timetable" for admitting women.

Last week, CBSports.com senior golf columnist Steve Elling said Rometty provides Augusta National the perfect opportunity to end its policy for good. He predicted that Payne might offer Rometty a membership -- a few days after the Masters ends.

"She shows up at the tournament in 2013 in green, after the gender issue has died down," Elling wrote. "That way, the club avoids the appearance that Payne has been backed into a corner or forced into making an accommodation."

While there’s no way to tell what the outcome will be, it’s possible that IBM once again will lead the way in revolutionizing how things are done. To find out more about how IBM can revolutionize the way you do business you can learn about IBM Products & Storage by clicking the link.

Myth Busting: Is the Manufacturer the “Best” at providing Hardware Break‐Fix Support?

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 17:42:00 GMT

How many times have you heard vendors claim that they are the “Best” at supporting their own equipment? Seems logical ‐ after all they built the box, so would know that box best. True at the design level , but irrelevant for field‐based hardware maintenance. Field repair is a push‐pull business. Hardware today is designed to be easily repaired by the lowest paid technicians possible. Parts are cheap by design. The largest real differentiation is over terms and conditions and not parts or labor.

Competition on quality in all areas is healthy for the industry, but is feared by manufacturers as a limit on their sales of high‐margin services. De‐bunking the myths surround Third Party Maintenance (TPM) allows equipment owners to improve their service quality without mythical risk.

Consider how a vendor can be the “Best” at delivery of hardware break‐fix. To be the “Best” requires that the vendor be best at hiring and training technicians, be “Best” with systems to support the logistics behind dispatching the right technician with the correct part, and be “Best” at working with customers to deliver the type of service contract desired by the customer.

At the heart of the labor myth is the concept that the manufacturer has truly unique services to offer that cannot be performed by an alternative provider. For this to be true, it must be the case that the skills needed to repair of one brand of computers is beyond the skill of those that are already skilled to repair all other brands. This would be akin to refusing to use a mechanic trained by BMW to repair a Ford. It must also be the case that such uniquely trained technicians never leave their employer and take their skills with them. Nor could there be any manuals, conferences or schools.

Not only is this implausible, but the majority of manufacturers make extensive use of “Flexible” labor resources to support their equipment under their name. These technicians are the very same independent technicians disparaged as being unskilled yet are operating as trusted sub‐contractors. In these situations, the only truly unique part of the service process is the T‐Shirt or ID Badge.

It is true that service parts for new machines can be difficult to acquire if the manufacturer does not cooperate. This is an aggravation at best. Most brand new equipment in this category is still covered by the 12 month warranty. Following the warranty, TPMs are not at the mercy of a “Parts Desk” at the last minute to locate a spare. Most equipment, even the most elaborate, is available on the used market within the first year. Most all assembled equipment use common parts which can be easily purchased on the open market. Manufacturers use these same resources to stock parts when their own parts are difficult to locate.

Manufacturers must therefore claim they are the “Best” in the above areas because they do not wish to compete in the areas of flexibility, innovation, and price‐performance. It has been the case that the larger and more dominant the manufacturer, the less likely they are to offer custom programs, to collaborate with the equipment owner on ways to keep older equipment in service, and to willingly support equipment provided by competitors. These are areas where the TPM has tremendous advantages and when given the opportunity, will continue to excel.

So the next time you buy or renew your IT maintenance services from Cisco, Juniper, Brocade, IBM, HP, Oracle/Sun and others, think about whether they specialize in maintenance services and if they don’t, who they may be outsourcing this service to. You may be able to go direct with the “Best” provider.

Gay Gordon-Byrne is a contributing blogger and has worked for over 30 years as an OEM, Authorized Business Partner, Lessor, and Used Equipment Dealer representing most all major OEMs for both hardware sales and associated break-fix.

What’s Left of Silicon Graphics Sues Apple and Other Phone Makers

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 11:00:00 GMT

What’s left of Silicon Graphics have filed suit against several phone makers alleging they have made infringements on a patent held by Silicon Graphics. The lawsuit includes Apple, Japan-based Sony, Taiwan-based HTC, South Korea-based LG Electronics and Samsung, as well as BlackBerry maker Research In Motion. The patent is owned by Graphics Properties Holdings, which is all that remains of the graphics pioneer Silicon Graphics, whose workstations were used to create the CGI dinosaurs for Jurassic Park and the entire Toy Story Pixar film.

Silicon Graphics was unable to adapt to the changing technology landscape and filed for Chapter 11 in 2009. The majority of the business was sold to Rackable Systems for $25 million—a small amount for a company that at one time sold individual systems for millions of dollars. Rackable took on Silicon Graphics’ name and became Silicon Graphics International Corp., or more commonly SGI.

Graphics Properties Holding is now based in New York and run by investors, including private equity firms. It continues to license some of its intellectual property assets, and now is contending one of its patents has been violated. The patent at issue relates to a computer graphics process that turns text and images into pixels to be displayed on screens, and is registered as patent number 8,144,158 with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

The smartphones at issue include Apple’s iPhone, HTC’s Evo4G, LG’s Thrill, RIM’s BlackBerry Torch, Samsung’s Galaxy S and Galaxy S II, and Sony’s Xperia Play.

In November of 2011, Graphics Properties filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission, seeking to block import of phones and other devices from HTC, Sony, Apple, Samsung, RIM, and LG, among others. Those companies allegedly infringed on three GPH patents, including a "liquid crystal flat panel display monitor with a wide aspect ratio that is particularly well suited for the display of text, graphics, and other types of still and/or motion audio/visual works." That patent, plus another concerning a display system that used floating-point rasterization, were originally assigned to Silicon Graphics.

In its suit, Graphics Properties said that unless the alleged infringements are halted, it will suffer irreparable harm, Reuters reported. The lawsuits seek to stop the sale of infringing products and also seek reasonable royalties and other damages.

Cisco Offered $1 for WebEx in Marketing Stunt

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 12:53:00 GMT

Many couldn't help but chuckle when venture backed, two-year-old startup SalesCruch recently offered Cisco $1 - yes, you read that correctly, that's one dollar - plus 15 percent in the online meeting platform to take WebEx off its hands. SalesCrunch officials submitted this unsolicited bid on March 13th in an effort to "help" the networking giant further focus on its core business and stated that Cisco and WebEx's more than 5 million users will all benefit. Cisco didn't take the offer very seriously, however, releasing a brief statement in response that said, "This is a cute publicity stunt from SalesCrunch, and we appreciate that they like our technology, but we have no intention of selling WebEx."

The offer is low-risk and possibly high rewards as it improves SalesCrunch visibility, which, again, could help secure additional funding while it builds out technology and builds up a customer base. The New York-based SalesCrunch was founded in 2010 and is backed by Accel Partners, First Round Capital, NextView Ventures, and AOL Ventures. SalesCrunch Chief Executive Officer Sean Black said that WebEx was not part of Cisco's core business and that integration with his company would allow for better features and pricing.

Cisco bought WebEx in 2007 for $2.9 billion in its efforts to expand beyond its core business of Cisco routers and Cisco switches that direct Internet traffic. SalesCrunch points out that since Cisco acquired WebEx in 2007, it has sold or closed a few of its other "non-core" businesses, most notably the Flip video camera and Umi Telepresence.

Cisco decided to shut down its Flip video camera division last year rather than sell it as part of a major company reorganization. It had bought the video camera operation for $590 million in 2009 in an acquisition spree to build a stronger consumer business. In addition to ending several programs, Cisco laid off hundreds of employees as it looks to shrink operations. “Although WebEx doesn’t fit into Cisco’s core business, it doesn’t have to suffer the same fate as Flip,” Black said in a statement.

Sean Black went on to say, “At SalesCrunch, we deliver a far superior technology platform—optimized for sales and meetings efficiency—at a fraction of the cost attainable by WebEx and its competitors who have massive legacy infrastructure costs.” SalesCrunch has made it clear that the offer stems from its desire to gain all of Webex's engineers and other personnel, and put them to work on SalesCrunch's own products.

A successful acquisition by SalesCrunch would aim to migrate current WebEx customers to the SalesCrunch platform as quickly and easily as possible. SalesCrunch offers an online browser-based collaboration platform that includes online meetings, analytics, sales delivery, training and other collaboration capabilities, and integrates the platform with others, such as Salesforce.com and LinkedIn, according to its Website. The system can do everything from set up personal meeting rooms and dedicated conference numbers to letting meeting organizers know whether attendees are listening or answering email. All of which WebEx cannot do. If nothing else, SalesCrunch's offer may sway disappointed WebEx customers away from Cisco and towards SalesCrunch.

SalesCrunch’s Black said that his company made a bid for WebEx last year, but that Cisco officials were not interested.

"We met with them about six months ago in San Francisco. It quickly became clear that the only way to get them to take our offer seriously is to bring it to the attention of the shareholders," he said.

That’s where the 15 percent stake comes in. Black reportedly said that with an offer that includes a stake in SalesCrunch, Cisco’s board of directors would have to at least discuss the offer. SalesCrunch appears unfazed by Cisco’s baulk at their offer, and says they do expect talks with Cisco to ensue. Knowing there is interest in WebEx, if Cisco does intend to shutter the brand, SalesCrunch will likely have to pay a modest sum that will be above $1.

Go Green – Consider IT Asset Recovery/Recycling

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 16:20:00 GMT

As legislation cracks down on the disposal of older, outdated network and data center assets, many executives are asking why it’s important to consider IT asset recycling. The majority of businesses don't have the necessary resources or know how to carry out disposal of their IT equipment in a reliable and secure manner, they are considering IT asset recycling services. These services can make sure that important data is disposed of in a secure manner and your equipment is disposed of in an environmentally correct way.

Most IT assets or computer equipment can pose environmental risks and cause legal liability issues, if not disposed of properly. An estimated 50 million tons of e-waste are produced each year with about 30 million computers coming from the USA alone. To dispose of e-waste responsibly involves dismantling, CRT glass separation, shredding, final sorting, commodity sales and reporting. It is becoming increasingly regulated and more difficult to be in compliance with proper disposal and documentation of outdated IT assets.

To avoid the headache and legal implications involved in the disposal of IT assets, asset recovery companies will update the computer networks, transferring important data and disposing of the old equipment. These companies can dismantle, remove, de-install, recover, and recycle IT network and data center material such as old computer servers, terminals, and other data center equipment. They will also control the chain of custody to help reduce liability risks.

Information needs to go through asset recovery logistics, tracking, test and audit, data erasure and destruction, as part of the IT asset recycling, to manage the retired assets efficiently and securely. It takes a wide range of services in IT asset recycling to ensure that you are in compliance and the data contained on the old equipment is secured and erased for security reasons.

Eliminating old and outdated network equipment is more complicated than just throwing it in a dumpster or deleting files and worksheets. The data is burned onto the hard drive of computers, and some hard drives make a backup copy of data, even when the drive has been wiped clean and reformatted; therefore, it is possible for a person to retrieve data that you thought had been deleted. That is how law enforcement is able to retrieve previously deleted information on criminal computers. So, beyond ensuring that nothing will go to landfill, be incinerated or shipped abroad, asset recovery and recycling companies can ensure that no prison labor or other criminal is used in processing your equipment.

IT asset recovery and recycling companies are regulated and subject to strict laws on compliance for data destruction and disposal of equipment. These companies know how to safely dispose or transfer the data in the best and most cost efficient way. Because the legal ramifications on compromised data can be extreme and compliance on environmental regulations have steep penalties, it behooves most businesses to hire an IT asset recovery/recycling company to take the headache out of the whole process. They will handle all of the necessary tracking to be sure you are in compliance and that you can rest assured that your confidential information is kept secure.

Go here to find out more about IT Asset recovery and recycling process or you can click to download a FREE IT Asset Recovery Whitepaper.

SGI Announces Plans to Slash European Workforce by 25%

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 14:22:00 GMT

Fremont-based Silicon Graphics International has decided to cut 25% of its workforce in Europe in a quest to reduce operating expenses in the economically struggling European region. This announcement comes just less than a month after the appointment of Jorge Titinger as SGI’s president and chief executive officer. Along with the 25% of their European workforce that’s reduced will be certain legal entities and SGI offices which will allow for a realignment of staff and operations.

The California computer company has about 1,500 employees worldwide, according to the SGI's web site, but the number of jobs involved in the layoff wasn't immediately available. "We believe our restructuring plan is of the right size and scope to navigate a course through the European economic situation with the goal of achieving profitability in that region," said CEO Jorge Titinger. "This new organization and structure will put us in a better position to provide all of our customers the world-class levels of solutions and services they deserve and expect while improving our profitability."

Companies in almost every sector have been hammered by the debt crises that forced three nations within the European Union to take bailouts. SGI felt the impact as well last month when the company reported a loss for its most recent quarter. SGI executives traced most of the problems back to Europe, citing the continent's fragile economy amid government debt woes and the high cost of doing business there. About 48 percent of SGI's revenue comes from outside the U.S. Titinger also stated that, “This was a difficult decision for our management team and Board given the significant contributions made by all of our European employees. “ SGI has employees working in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic.

The restructuring should take 18 months, and could result in pretax charges of $14 million to $17 million; which will for the most part be absorbed before the third quarter of fiscal 2013. These charges will primarily be a result of employee termination benefits. Upon completion of these restructuring actions, SGI hopes to save about $7.5 million a year from these changes.

The Company expects the restructuring to have limited impact on SGI's customers in Europe. During Titinger’s announcement to the board he also said, “The actions we are taking are necessary as we look to improve the Company's operational efficiency and profitability going forward. SGI is committed to Europe for the long term and we expect that we will continue to grow our business in the region, continuing to win new customers and building business with existing customers."

XSi has been the largest Independent reseller of SGI equipment and SGI Maintenance Services for 20 years, selling over 5,000 systems worldwide since 1991. We provide high-performance clusters and scalable visualization systems to federal agencies, federal prime contractors, universities and scientific, manufacturing, energy, entertainment and post-production facilities.

If you're looking for a way to attack your SGI operating costs by up to 70% without sacrificing on quality, click here to contact us today.

IBM Making 33 Cities around the Globe Smarter in 2012

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 15:23:00 GMT

On March 15th, IBM announced 33 cities around the globe that were selected to receive their IBM Smarter Cities Challenge grants during 2012. The program was tested and developed by IBM Citizenship with 7 pilot cities back in 2010. It was then launched in 2011 as a three-year, 100-city $50 million program. The Smarter Cities Challenge is IBM’s largest philanthropic initiative yet.

Following are the cities that earned IBM Smarter Cities Challenge grants in 2012:

Accra, Ghana	Ahmedabad, India	Atlanta, Georgia	Birmingham, UK
Boston, Massachusetts	Cheongju, Korea	Chonburi, Thailand	Curitiba, Brazil
Da Nang, Vietnam	Dortmund, Germany	Durham, North Carolina	Toluca, Mexico
Geraldton, Australia	Houston, Texas	Ishinomaki, Japan	Jacksonville, Florida
Rosario, Argentina	Louisville, Kentucky	Malaga, Spain	Medellin, Colombia
New Taipei City, Taiwan	Nanjing, China	Nairobi, Kenya	Omaha, Nebraska
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada	Siracusa, Italy	Pune, India	Rabat, Morocco
Jurong Lake District, Singapore	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania	Surrey, British Columbia, Canada	Tshwane, South Africa
Eindhoven, Netherlands

IMB’s goal for the grant program is to improve urban life in the selected cities. As a major multinational corporation, IBM is big on public and private partnerships that will advance the environment and the geopolitical landscape throughout the world.

IBM does this by contributing the time and expertise of their top experts from different business units and geographies. They put them on the ground for three weeks to work closely with city leaders and deliver recommendations on how to make the city smarter and more effective. IBM stated that they have learned a tremendous amount about the challenges facing today's cities and how IBM, through the expertise of its employees, can add value as city leaders look for solutions.

Cities around the globe once again competed vigorously to benefit from IBM's human talent and technology, for year-two of the Smarter Cities Challenge. The winning cities proposed intriguing projects and areas of focus for IBM experts. These initiatives include ideas for Economic and Workforce Development , Transportation, Sustainability, Health , Education, and Urban Planning. Ideas that range from integrating bus, rail, bicycle, car and pedestrian modes of transportation to using inhaler and air quality data to identify and reduce asthma outbreaks.

IBM stated that the common denominator between all the cities that were chosen was their willingness to exchange ideas and data freely between citizens, elected officials, non-profits, businesses, and city agencies. This allows for the cities to make more informed and collaborative decisions.

Already the cities that were chosen in 2011 have seen significant results from IBM’s work. With the announcement of the 2012 grant recipients, 2011 recipient, Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel, reflected on his cities experience stating, “We welcomed the Smarter Cities team to Edmonton for three intense weeks in June 2011. The IBM team immersed themselves in our culture which gave them the best opportunity to understand our city, the environment, and the people. I think this insight was a critical piece in the success of the partnership between IBM and City leaders to provide recommendations for our project: an integrated and safer transportation network through the smarter utilization of transportation data.”

He went on to say, “The experience has been absolutely phenomenal for our staff. It was exciting, challenging, and rewarding for everyone involved. It enabled us, as a City, to have greater confidence in the decisions we make each day. And I think that our citizens have seen the difference as well.

For instance, our work with IBM has helped us implement a better communication plan during the winter months which has previously been a challenge. Now we are reaching out through our website and social media, making sure Edmontonians know what to expect in real time. This has reduced frustration, increased safety, and generally made our city more accessible.”

At XSi we are proud to see these types of initiatives being taken by the companies we have worked so closely with for nearly 20 years now. XSi has helped government, educational, and commercial entities around the globe meet all their IBM solution needs. To find out more about how we can help you with your IBM needs go to our IBM products or IBM maintenance pages.

Cisco Reigns as Supreme Ultra-Lord of the Router Universe

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 15:09:00 GMT

With the announcement today of yet another Cisco acquisition, Cisco solidifies its spot as Supreme Ultra-Lord of the Router Universe. Cisco Systems Inc. will acquire digital-television company NDS Ltd. in a deal valued at roughly $5 billion and set to close the second half of this year. Under the terms of the agreement Cisco will dish out $4 billion for the acquisition, as well as, assume about $1 billion of NDS’s debt.

The U.K.-based video software and content security company specializes in how service providers and media companies deliver their video content. According to Cisco, NDS uses a software platform and various services to enable subscribers to view, search and navigate digital content from various devices at any location. Cisco said in a statement that it expects the acquisition to accelerate delivery of its Videoscape platform.

NDS has more than 5,000 employees and is owned by News Corp and private-equity firm Permira. Late last year the company indicated that its intentions were to take the company public with an initial public offering expected this year. But, it seems that Cisco wasn’t willing to let that happen which begs the question, “Is Cisco running a monopoly?”

NDS is definitely not the first company to be taken over by Cisco. In fact, it’s the latest in a long line of acquisitions, and the second announced for 2012 already. Acquisitions seem to be a way of life in “Cisco World”, with totals nearing 150 acquisitions since its birth in the early 90’s. Something Cisco seems to take pride in as all 150 are listed on their website and can be sorted alphabetically or chronologically!

Cisco's market dominance and breadth (and especially its aggressive habit of acquiring potential competitors) ultimately justifies suspicion that it has some of the traits of a monopolistic company. Cisco's habit of acquiring new companies generates speculation that its position is not only one of a genuine monopoly, but that it uses its position to stifle competition. Many feel that speculation is accurate.

It has proven such a successful and frequent procedure that Cisco executives acknowledge monitoring the networking market to identify targets, which they call "Cisco Kids"--small companies that might have the potential to grow as rapidly as Cisco, had they not been acquired. While some at Cisco use the term “Cisco Kids” to imply a paternalistic relationship, purchasing rising new companies can easily be described as a way to buy out competition.

This acquisition frenzy began back in 1993 with Cisco’s initial acquisition of Crescendo Communications. The circumstances surrounding this acquisition definitely question Cisco’s intent. Crescendo was an innovator in the development of switches, which were more cost-effective as Ethernet LAN hubs than Cisco's routers. Cisco was competing with Crescendo for two lucrative network-equipment contracts in 1993, but both of the potential customers, Boeing and Ford, informed Cisco that they would likely buy Crescendo's switches. Before either deal was completed, Cisco purchased Crescendo in its entirety.

Some estimates give Cisco as high as 85 percent of the network router market, which is ultra-critical to computer operations within large corporations, as well as to Internet function. The runner-up, Lucent, has only a 5 percent share. Cisco expects the NDS acquisition will help grow the tech giant's capabilities in the service-provider market and expand its reach into emerging markets, such as China and India. So need there be any doubt that Cisco is Supreme Ultra-Lord of the Router Universe??? I think not!

There's More to Buying IBM Servers than Processing Capabilities

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 14:54:00 GMT

Your business may be defined as small, or you may be a Fortune 500 company, either way your IT needs are more than likely anything but small if you’re considering a server. Dropping hardware costs have made server technology available to even the smallest businesses, offering centralized data storage and the ability to run complex business applications.

The IBM server you choose should reflect the number and type of applications you want to run on it. Some applications impose such light processing demands that a single server may be able to handle an entire company with ease while others, like hosting image libraries, require more robust processing horsepower.

When buying an IBM server there are three considerations:

1. Server type: Tower, Rack or Blade?

2. Hardware configuration

3. Server software

Traditional stand-alone tower servers are feasible and economical for many IT environments, such as small offices, remote locations or those with ample floor space. However, as the number of servers increase, energy consumption, cooling requirements and space utilization become major concerns and can limit growth. Rack-mounted and bladed servers are often more practical solutions for increasing IT capacity within an already-crowded computing environment. Although they share many similarities, there are essential differences between these types of servers that may make one a better solution for your particular environment. While blade servers are the most compact of the three, they require a more extensive integration process with a higher IT learning curve and cannot operate as efficiently as racks when multiple manufacturer brands are present. Racks have centralized cabling, improved management capabilities and an increased amount of scalability while blades have power, cooling and ventilation, networking and other interconnects removed from the servers and are shared among servers within an enclosure.

All three types of servers offer hot-swappable components that you can replace without disruption to other units or their services in a load-balancing arrangement. However, rack servers are generally designed to work as a logical and cohesive whole but without the tight integration found with server blades, which makes rack servers more flexible in some situations. In addition, you can run servers from different manufacturers in the same rack enclosure because the servers don't share proprietary components.

IBM Servers use the same basic architecture or configuration as your desktop computer. However, a server has enhanced hardware features such as:

Multiple multicore processors
Faster memory options for increased application performance
Multiple hard drives for increased data capacity and redundancy
Specialized networking cards

The question these days is not whether businesses should buy a server, it’s what kind of software do they need to run on it? Many companies using Microsoft desktop operating systems and standard business applications such as Outlook choose to go with Windows Server products because of their built-in integration and support options. On the other hand, there is still a big groundswell of support for the open source Linux operating system, which is offered for enterprise use. IBM has the flexibility to customize hardware and software to easily fit their customer’s needs.

The best thing to do when shopping around for IBM servers is to consider your needs and the time and involvement you're willing to put into setting up and maintaining your system. If you have questions about which server will most accurately fit your needs or if you would like to find out how you can save money with refurbished servers you can contact us by calling our sales team at 1.770.740.0040 or email us at NAsales@xsnet.com.

Simplify your Campus LAN with Brocade’s “The Effortless Network”

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 16:42:00 GMT

On March 6^th, Brocade, an industry leader in providing reliable, high-performance network solutions, introduced two new campus LAN switches, the ICX 6430 Switch and ICX 6450 Switch, filling out what the company can offer businesses with campus networks. They are designed to simplify the campus network edge by easing operations and management.

The components of what Brocade calls an “effortless network” break down like this:

HyperEdge Technology - Aims to enhance LAN applications such as unified communications and security with the ability to add new software such as virtual desktops.
Single Point Management - HyperEdge treats the switching layer as if it were a single device. The aim is to deliver software upgrades and monitoring more easily.
The ability to mix and match premium and entry-level edge switches to save money.

Sufian Dweik, Regional Manager – Middle East and North Africa (MENA) at Brocade says, "The world has moved to mobile devices. This places huge pressure on corporate networks as they are the entry point for users to access applications and information. Increased performance and reduced complexity in these corporate networks supports the fast adoption and effective delivery of cloud-enabled applications, virtualization, unified communications and BYOD. Brocade's HyperEdge technology is a revolutionary new approach to corporate networks that reduces complexity and cost while increasing performance. We believe that these products will enable us to capitalize on the huge growth potential of the campus LAN market".

The goal of the Effortless Network strategy and HyperEdge technology according to company officials is to reduce the amount of network downtime caused by human error by making the network more automated and easier to manage.

According to Zeus Kerravala, principal analyst at ZK Research, 37 percent of network downtime is caused by human error—the largest cause of downtime—which, in turn, is the result of the growing number of manual processes required in modern networks. According to Brocade, HyperEdge will ease that problem when it becomes available in 2013.

Brocade's Effortless Network goal is to simplify and automate networks while providing easy scalability allowing for an extended network infrastructure lifecycle.

HyperEdge reportedly will unify a campus’ wired network and give businesses a single point from which to manage the network. The technology will let businesses manage all their switches as though they were a single device, from initial deployment to software upgrades to monitoring. The aim is to reduce the time and cost of managing the LAN.

Customers buying HyperEdge ICX switches can mix and match premium and entry-level switches making it possible for campus LANs can run high-end and entry-level switches within the same rack. By doing this, the lower-end switches will share many of the rich features of the higher-end devices, which will enable businesses to build switch racks at a lower cost than they can currently. It also will protect businesses from having to rip and replace future switch stacks, saving money and protecting the investment in the network, according to Brocade officials.

HyperEdge technology will be available on the stackable switch portfolio, including the Brocade ICX and Brocade FCX switch families, through a simple software upgrade when it becomes available next year, according to Brocade.

5 Network Companies Set To Soar With Increasing Technology Spending

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 17:37:00 GMT

With Wall Street having a strong rally in stocks that began in October, there is now renewed optimism that technology spending has also returned. According to IDC (International Data Corporation), the giant technology intelligence firm, tech spending rose 5% in 2011, and is expected to rise another 5% in 2012. When IT budgets start to increase, very few companies beyond those directly involved in networking are more deserving of those dollars. Undoubtedly, the increased spending will produce resurgence in some of the technology sector's biggest names.

As companies strive to grow, network enterprises tend to scale larger as well as require increased bandwidth to support the demand for higher traffic. Networking isn’t on the front lines where technology is used, but rather in the back where it is managed. Implementing increased spending in technology generally has a prerequisite: more networking gear. Therefore, the one sector that is prepared to handle the increased stress on corporate backbones is the networking group. But one thing investors have to realize when making investment decisions is that not all networking firms are created equal.

Some technology names will begin to see increased orders for their equipment as well as services throughout the rest of the year. Specifically, there are five networking companies who are poised to soar due to technology spending. Investors should consider looking closely at some of the following names as they still present some tremendous value.

Cisco

Networking giant Cisco for quite some time now has been considered the gold standard among networking companies, but continues to have its share of critics on Wall Street. In its most recent quarter which ended January 28, Cisco reported net income that climbed 44% and arrived at $2.2 billion, or 40 cents per share. This compares with earnings of $1.5 billion, or 27 cents per share year-over-year. Total revenue was $11.5 billion, up 11% from $10.4 billion a year ago and compares favorably with the $11.2 that was projected. Its results clearly demonstrate that the company is keen in improving its margins as the metric improved a full point from the previous year while also exceeding analyst estimates. Their stock currently sits right at its 52-week high with three consecutive earnings beats. Nonetheless, there are many analysts who continue to ask, where is the value? So the challenge for Cisco is convincing the market that it can get there.

Brocade

Brocade, another great story, with its recent announcement of fourth quarter earnings that not only beat its projected numbers but it also raised guidance. Even so, Brocades fourth quarter earnings were far from stellar. Its network storage service was down 4% from the previous year which was offset with an 11% growth from smaller areas of its business, but profitability was a huge plus. Regardless of how it looks, one thing is for certain, don’t underestimate Brocade. After acquiring Foundry in 2008 it didn’t look like Brocade would be able to make it pay off. Management seemed to foresee the future and wanted to be able to sell networking gear to its existing customer base. A strategy that now seems to be heading in the right direction. Brocade continues to prove that it can do just fine with a smaller piece of the market for now, but there is no denying that it is hungry for more and with shares selling at $5.67 it might be worth keeping an eye on.

F5 Networks

The safe and stable one of the bunch, F5 always seems to have its act together. It is by far the most expensive stock of the 5, but remarkably it has yet to give investors a reason to doubt that they can be reached. The company reported a 2% increase in revenue from the prior quarter while netting an increase of 20% from the previous year. Even so, the stock continues to be a tough one to figure out with a 52 week high of $130.27 and low of $69.01 it currently sits around $124. As well as the company is performing and has been performing, it is hard to recommend the stock at these levels.

Hewlett-Packard

In the three months that ended January 31, HP posted net income of $1.47 billion, or 73 cents per share, which is down from the $2.6 billion or $1.17 per share a year ago. However, HP managed to beat Wall Street profit expectations for the first quarter. CEO Meg Whitman, who took over HP operations just a few months ago, asked for patience with the company's operational challenges and internal problems as it goes through a transition. She called the turnaround effort a "multiyear journey." The company said its lost revenue opportunities for the quarter stemmed from weak consumer demand and supply shortages due to the Thailand floodings. Amidst the turnover chaos and Thailand flooding, recently, an analyst from Sterne Agee raised its rating on the stock from Neutral to Buy and said it sees an upside price target at $34 per share as it sees uncertainty lifted and the stock as widely oversold. Whitman seems to have restored some stability, direction and focus as evidenced by what the company has been able to do in a relatively short period of time under her tenure.

Juniper

In January, the company announced that fourth-quarter results were going to fall short of Wall Street expectations. The unfortunate thing for Juniper was that this was the third consecutive quarter of shareholder disappointment. At this point the overall question continues to surround the health of its business. Nonetheless, while fourth quarter numbers decreased by 6% from the previous year Q4, its total revenue increased 9% from 2010 to 2011 posting a GAAP net income of $96.2 million.

There is cause for optimism however. The company has a variety of new products coming out as it continues to position itself to steal market share from the rest of the group. One of these products is called the EX6200, a line of Ethernet switches that according to the current reviews, has the potential to be a game-changer for the Juniper. It consolidates various intelligent features into one and is designed to support a variety of highly flexible network configurations. As great as that product can potentially be, Juniper's challenge will continue to be finding ways to grow and creating the sort of momentum needed by tech companies to inspire investors to believe.

Server Virtualization Project Risks

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 18:46:00 GMT

Organizationally, the ability to “go virtual” brings increased productivity and opportunity. Clearly, more and more of the world we live in is turning virtual. But, virtualization can be problematic and, as with any project, server virtualization projects have inherent risks associated with them that are no different. Server virtualization project risks range anywhere from management to security to implementation.

Implementing virtual servers can be a management nightmare. Typically, virtual servers host multiple applications and therefore their failures have a much larger impact across an organization than a non-virtual server would. This can be mitigated by exploiting VM (Virtual Machine) mobility. This ensures that when a server fails it triggers the automatic live migration of hosted VMs to another server so that there is no disruption.

But, with VMs comes the need to require strong control processes to be put in place in order to limit the number of virtual machines that can be created and who can create them. Otherwise you may have users creating their own VM on their local PC’s with unauthorized operating systems and a lack of security patches on those VM’s.

Consumer IT, including easily downloaded Web applications, will not go away anytime soon. IT departments can set policies banning specific apps of course, but now users have another tool at their disposal. It's not unusual to find business and IT staffers using VMs to run and disguise unauthorized applications.

Not only can it be a nightmare in terms of controlling unauthorized VM’s with virtualization servers comes a new set of products and technologies that the admiration staff has less experience on. There will be a learning curve involved in running the virtual servers now software layer, the Virtual Machine Monitor.

The introduction of virtualization does not affect only the server administration team, but the network and storage administration teams as well. This is a step forward in the process started with the introduction of blade servers. Blades chassis, like IBM BladeCenter are not simply enclosures hosting servers, they are actually the consolidation of an entire server farm. Indeed they contain management devices, networking devices and storage devices. The introduction of blade servers mandates better integration and cooperation among administration teams.

Virtualization requires administrators to go a step further. The fact that you can create virtual adapters, virtual switches, etc. makes it necessary to share the virtual server among multiple administration teams. As with anything, the more hands in the pot the more chances for something to go a-rye. It’s important to plan ahead and think about implementation process beforehand. For example, logical naming process, production environment borders, administration authorization processes, etc. You don’t want to end up with pre-production VMs (say for application development work, or software upgrade preparation) and production VMs running at the same time in the same environment!

HP Takes Another Blow From Oracle

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 15:26:00 GMT

Upon reviewing Hewlett-Packard’s financials, it’s easy to see why the company turned around and sued Oracle last year after the database vendor decided to pull support for HP’s Itanium systems.

HP released its first fiscal quarter ended January 31, 2012 earnings last Wednesday disclosing that revenue for the company’s Business Critical Systems Group (which means their Itanium division) dropped a whopping 27 percent for the quarter. That’s roughly $400 million worth of Itanium hardware sold this past quarter compared to the $560 million sold in the same quarter a year ago.

During a call after the financial earning numbers were released HP’s CFO, Catherine Lesjak said, “We will continue to see headwinds in business critical systems due to the Itanium challenges.”

HP and Oracle have been in a lawsuit for nearly a year now concerning Oracle's decision to cease support for their software running on HP’s Itanium systems after the $7.4 billion purchase of HP’s competitor Sun Microsystems.

In a statement, HP wrote, "…Oracle's March 2011 announcement to no longer develop software for Itanium servers was part of a calculated business strategy to drive hardware sales from Itanium to inferior Sun servers. This further demonstrates the fact that Oracle breached its contractual commitment to HP and ignored its repeated promises of support to our shared customers."

Last year when Oracle said that it would cease to develop software for Intel Itanium processors and would concentrate on creation of applications for its own Sun SPARC- based machines, they said it was motivated by the fact that Intel Xeon processors can easily serve mission-critical applications. It is believed that the move was more likely motivated by the company's intention to improve positions of Sun SPARC servers on the market of mission-critical systems.

Oracle is a Big Business Bully whose strategies for now seem to be working in their favor. Largely in part due to its acquisition of Sun Microsystems in 2009 profits have risen from $5.6 billion in 2009 to $8.5 billion in 2011, showing the real impact of the assimilation of Sun for Oracle. Clearly Oracle is competing for dominance in the database and enterprise IT services markets and they don’t care who they take down in the process.

Even amidst all the drama and financial losses, HP stands behind their statement, "In business critical systems, we firmly believe that HP Itanium-based server platform is by far the best in the industry, and we are fully committed to its future. In fact, it is the strength of this platform that is likely behind all those approaches to drive customers away from HP technology. We are doing everything we can, including pursuing legal actions, to protect our customers and our business against all anti-customer behavior.”

Juniper Meets the Needs of High-Performance Business

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 16:58:00 GMT

Today’s business environment is becoming more dynamic and competitive with the increases in information technology. The pace of change has accelerated and is fundamentally altering today’s business models. With corporate expansions, IT departments are being asked to support a more distributed enterprise, enable new business processes to improve employee efficiency, and lower infrastructure costs.

Juniper Networks enterprise solutions help businesses implement a high-performance network infrastructure that provides fast, secure, and reliable delivery of the applications that drive business processes, while containing costs and increasing operational efficiency.

Juniper’s fully redundant hardware ensures networks are always up and running. By providing the highest level of redundancy businesses can breathe easy knowing that critical services and applications are available 24x7 allowing their customers to stay connected. This also increases productivity within the enterprise as network down time is minimized.

Juniper’s industry leading performance is due to three specialties in network infrastructure -silicon design, unique network operation system, and architecture. Juniper offers a wide variety of products in various specialties, including:

o application acceleration

o identity policy and control

o management

o Juniper routers

o security

o switching

Another big advantage to using Juniper Networks is their ability to create a streamlined network design, by reducing the number of devices and connections within the network. This allows the applications within the network’s infrastructure to be implemented faster and more effectively.

Juniper is an optimal pick for businesses that are looking for a powerful solution to network a wide geographical area with a centralized infrastructure. Juniper Networks branch system delivers switching, routing, security and applications capabilities at a price that is affordable. Juniper Networks SRX series service gateways support ranges from 650 Mbps firewall to over 120 Gbps firewall as well as 350,000 connections per second and an industry record-breaking 10 million concurrent user sessions allowing for a wide range of user needs to be met.

As Juniper raises the bar for the networking industry, companies are choosing Juniper to ensure their IT networks can span across geographical regions with more reliable hardware, increased security, and ease of application implementation all the while lowering infrastructure costs.

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