Microsoft Expands Its Cloud Big Data Analytics Lineup

During last year's #Strata + #Hadoop World conference, #Microsoft embraced #Linux in its push to lure enterprises onto its growing portfolio of cloud-based big data offerings.

This year, Microsoft is banking on extensive support for R, the statistical computing language that's popular among data scientists and developers for big data application integration and self-service data discovery.

Microsoft announced on March 29 a preview version of R Server for Azure HDInsight, Microsoft cloud-based distribution of the Hadoop big data processing platform. After last year's acquisition of Revolution Analytics, the leading commercial sponsor for the open-source R language, Microsoft R Server has effectively replaced Revolution R Enterprise.

http://mobile.eweek.com/cloud/microsoft-expands-its-cloud-big-data-analytics-lineup.html

Lenovo and Nexenta Announce Strategic Partnership to Drive Global Market Adoption of Open Software-Defined Storage (OpenSDS)

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--#Nexenta (@Nexenta), the global leader in Open Source-driven Software-Defined Storage (OpenSDS), in association with Intel’s Storage Builders Program, today announced a strategic partnership with #Lenovo, the world’s number one PC maker and third largest worldwide x86 server provider, to drive broader adoption of next-generation software storage solutions.

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160330005393/en/Lenovo-Nexenta-Announce-Strategic-Partnership-Drive-Global

Fidelity cuts valuations of Dropbox and Cloudera

#Fidelity Investments again took a hatchet to the valuations of its private technology shares in February, cutting bellwether software startups like #Dropbox Inc., #Cloudera Inc. and #Zenefits by as much as 38%.

The largest Fidelity markdown was enterprise-software company Cloudera, which Fidelity cut by 38% compared with January to a per-share price that is in line with other mutual fund marks for the company.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/fidelity-cuts-valuations-of-dropbox-and-cloudera-while-raising-airbnb-2016-03-30

EMC Extends Reach of ScaleIO Storage PlatformWednesday Mar 30th 2016 by Mike Vizard

As a general rule, IT environments are a lot more diverse than ever, which results in storage systems being accessed by a much broader array of applications and servers than ever before. To keep pace with that growing diversity, #EMC today announced that the software in its #ScaleIO storage systems has been updated to add full support for the #OpenStack cloud management framework, while at the same time adding support for more traditional enterprise IT technologies such as #Microsoft Active Directory and LDAP:    

While most of the initial adoption of ScaleIO has been among traditional EMC customers, EMC is seeing a sharp spike in adoption of OpenStack for what are known as cloud-native application workloads.

As a general rule, IT environments are a lot more diverse than ever, which results in storage systems being accessed by a much broader array of applications and servers than ever before. To keep pace with that growing diversity, EMC today announced that the software in its ScaleIO storage systems has been updated to add full support for the OpenStack cloud management framework, while at the same time adding support for more traditional enterprise IT technologies such as Microsoft Active Directory and LDAP.

In addition, version 2.0 of ScaleIO softwarebrings with it support for IP6 and the ability to determine whether data is corrupted while running inflight on an EMC array.

In general, David Noy, vice president of product management for the Emerging Technologies Division at EMC, says adoption of ScaleIO has been running high as IT organizations move to build private clouds. Noy says ScaleIO systems, based on a scale-out architecture, allow IT organizations to mix and match Flash and magnetic storage or deploy an all-Flash environment as they see fit. The end result is a degree of flexibility combined with scale that most IT organizations have never been able to achieve using another storage platform, says Noy.

While most of the initial adoption of ScaleIO has been among traditional EMC customers, Noy says that EMC is seeing a sharp spike in adoption of OpenStack for what are known as cloud-native application workloads. ScaleIO is specifically designed to allow IT organizations to leverage a common storage platform across legacy and emerging data center platforms, says Noy.

Naturally, as EMC gets closer to merging with Dell, competition across the storage landscape has never been fiercer. In the meantime, however, EMC is also signaling the fact that long after that merger is completed, ScaleIO will be one of the storage platforms that IT organizations can be assured the combined companies will continue to invest in for some time to come.

http://mobile.itbusinessedge.com/blogs/it-unmasked/emc-extends-reach-of-scaleio-storage-platform.html

Dell Releases SonicOS 6.2.5

Today #DellSecurity announced the release of the latest OS for its #SonicWALL line of firewalls, #SonicOS 6.2.5. This latest update is centered around making management easier while enhancing security. The update extends security to Dell switches, wireless access points and firewalls while also advancing capabilities associated with inspecting encrypted traffic. SonicOS 6.2.5 meets the strict certification requirements of the US Department of Defense.

http://www.storagereview.com/dell_releases_sonicos_625

SimpliVity CEO Feels No Heat From HPE, Cisco, AWS Competition

#SimpliVity CEO Doron Kempel addressed the growing investments from Hewlett Packard Enterprise (#HPE)and #Cisco in the hyper-converged space, saying the entrance of the two big vendors did not concern him.

“We welcome the fact that more large vendors are validating the space,” Kempel said. “And we haven’t run into those competitors yet, so it’s hard for me to say how good their products are.”

http://m.crn.com/news/channel-programs/video/300080174/simplivity-ceo-feels-no-heat-from-hpe-aws-emc-competition.htm

SanDisk and Red Hat Form Strategic Alliance to Deliver High-Performance Flash-based Ceph Storage Solutions

(NASDAQ: SNDK), a global leader in flash storage solutions, today announced a strategic alliance aimed at bringing combined benefits of #Ceph and flash storage to enterprise customers. #SanDisk ’s award winning InfiniFlash™ flash storage system, paired with #RedHat Ceph Storage, offers world-class performance and efficient data management that can significantly reduce operational and capital expenditures.

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160329005922/en/SanDisk-Red-Hat-Form-Strategic-Alliance-Deliver

ODPi runtime spec aims to defrag Hadoop

The Open Data Platform initiative ( #ODPi )has announced its first Runtime Specification, and associated test suite, for #Hadoop. Aimed at creating a universal spec for the core components in a Hadoop distribution, in order to standardize, reduce fragmentation and maximize compatibility, the ODPi Runtime makes its debut today after much fanfare, going back over a year.

Derived from #Apache Hadoop 2.7, the runtime specification features #HDFS, #YARN, and #MapReduce components and is part of the common reference platform ODPi Core.

Initial controversy
When it started, the ODPi was somewhat hampered by a conspiracy theory -- that the organization was a vehicle for Hortonworks (a dominant founding member, along with Pivotal) to standardize Hadoop around its own distro, the Hortonworks Data Platform (HDP). ODP was in fact based on the core of HDP (and only one letter off from it), and even included Apache Ambariwhich, although an Apache open source project, was and is nonetheless Hortonworks' technology, and not used by Cloudera or MapR.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/odpi-runtime-spec-aims-to-defrag-hadoop/

ManageEngine Expands Big Data Monitoring to Hadoop, Oracle Coherence at Strata+Hadoop World 2016

SAN JOSE & PLEASANTON, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- #ManageEngine, the real-time IT management company, today announced the availability of performance monitoring for new big data platforms, such as #Hadoop and #Oracle Coherence, in Applications Manager, its application performance monitoring solution. The move enables IT operations teams in enterprises to gain operational intelligence into big data platforms such as Hadoop and Oracle Coherence as well as the business-critical applications relying on these platforms.

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160329005344/en/ManageEngine-Expands-Big-Data-Monitoring-Hadoop-Oracle

IBM wants to accelerate AI learning with new processor tech"Resistive" chips could speed up neural network training 30,000 times.

Deep neural networks (# DNNs ) can be taught nearly anything, including how to beat us at our own games. The problem is that training AI systemsties up big-ticket supercomputers or data centers for days at a time. Scientists from #IBM 's T.J. Watson Research Center think they can cut the horsepower and learning times drastically using "resistive processing units," theoretical chips that combine CPU and non-volatile memory. Those could accelerate data speeds exponentially, resulting in systems that can do tasks like "natural speech recognition and translation between all world languages," according to the team.

So why does it take so much computing power and time to teach AI? The problem is that modern neural networks like #Google 's #DeepMind or IBM Watson must perform billions of tasks in in parallel. That requires numerous CPU memory calls, which quickly adds up over billions of cycles. The researchers debated using new storage tech likeresistive RAM that can permanently store data with DRAM-like speeds. However, they eventually came up with the idea for a new type of chip called a resistive processing unit (RPU) that puts large amounts of resistive RAM directly onto a CPU.

http://www.engadget.com/2016/03/28/ibm-resistive-processing-deep-learning/

Dell could announce the sale of its IT services unit to Japan’s NTT for $3.5 billion as soon as Monday

Capping a process that began late last year, #Dell could announce as early as Monday the sale of the company’s IT services unit to Japan’s telecom conglomerate #NTT for $3.5 billion, sources briefed on the process tellRe/code.

Dell has been shopping the division — previously known as #PerotServices — since last fall as part of a wider effort toraise as much as $10 billion selling assets that aren’t a core part of its business.

The company wants to use those funds to help pay down part of the $50 billion in debt it will incur when it closes on its $67 billion acquisition of data storage company EMC, which would stand as the largest technology deal of all time if it goes through. The sale to NTT is seen as an important signal to the debt markets that Dell will be able to rapidly pay down that debt.

http://recode.net/2016/03/27/dell-sale-services-unit-japan-ntt/

Google Loves Machine Learning, Cloudera Acquires Startup: Big Data Roundup

This week in big data we've got an acquisition by #Hadoop distributor #Cloudera, what #Nvidia 's CEO thinks of the state of AI, news out of the Adobe Summit 2016, #Google 's machine learning pitch, and more. Plus, we've got a quick look at a new book about applying statistics and analytics to college basketball.

Let's start with the news from Cloudera. This week the company quietly acquired Sense, a big data cloud platform that lets data scientists collaborate with each other.

"We launched Sense with the mission of helping data scientists and data engineers focus on what's important -- extracting value rather than managing infrastructure," wrote Sense founders Tristan Zajonc and Anand Patil in a blog post. "As the quantity of data explodes and machine learning pushes computing to new limits, this mission has only become more important."

http://www.informationweek.com/big-data/big-data-analytics/google-loves-machine-learning-cloudera-acquires-startup-big-data-roundup/d/d-id/1324845

Dell leads client device market with 1.3 mn units ahead of HP in 2015

#Dell continues to lead the enterprise client device market with 1.3 million unit shipments in 2015 ahead of 1.27 million by #HP.

IT market research agency IDC said both Dell and HP were affected by an overall softness of the market last year.

Dell has 25.6 percent share in the enterprise client device market, while HP has 25 percent share.

NComputing has achieved above 12 percent growth in volume. Centerm was the beneficiary of some major financial project wins in China, said IDC.

The enterprise client device market in Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) grew over 10 percent in 2015, the only region to see positive growth for the year.

The global enterprise client device market — thin and terminal clients — fell 6.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015. Shipments declined 6.9 percent in 2015 as many projects saw cutbacks or delays in the face of a faltering economic outlook and reduced public budgets.

http://www.infotechlead.com/it-statistics/dell-leads-client-device-market-1-3-mn-units-ahead-hp-2015-39021

Q&A: Channel Chief Bill Lipsin On NetApp's Plans For SolidFire's Channel -- And Beer

#NetApp 's acquisition of all-flash storage vendor #SolidFire gave it a scalable flash storage solution to complement NetApp's original All Flash FAS enterprise and EF high-performance flash storage offerings.

But SolidFire is more than technology. The flash storage-focused startup brought to NetApp a channel-only sales focus that Bill Lipsin, NetApp's vice president of global channels, said can teach his company a thing or two about simplicity.

Lipsin also told CRN he is looking forward to trying beer made by a SolidFire channel exec who also happens to be a master brewer.

http://m.crn.com/slide-shows/storage/300080153/qa-channel-chief-bill-lipsin-on-netapps-plans-for-solidfires-channel-and-beer.htm

Five Things to Watch for At This Year’s Strata + Hadoop Conference

With the #Strata + #Hadoop World conference kicking off Monday, I would like to offer my perspective to help attendees who are at risk of being overwhelmed by all the noise and hype that are sure to follow.

Last year, at Strata + Hadoop World in New York, conference goers were dazzled by #Apache #Spark. Now, Spark has established itself in many circles as the next logical step in the evolution of big data analytics. However, there is still a disconnect between the potential opportunity for Spark and its immediate practical appeal.

There is no doubt that Spark, as a supercharged processing engine, offers tremendous gains and brings new capabilities to big data initiatives. But in some cases, Spark solves a problem that many organizations don’t yet know they have. Before organizations can optimize their big data initiatives, they need to figure out exactly what those initiatives are first. When I speak to companies, I often hear that they are stuck at the stage of considering whether to add Spark to their proverbial big data quiver. They know what Spark is, but not why they need it.

This year, conference goers should expect a change of pace, as exhibitors and speakers accept the challenge of building the business case of when, where, and why Spark fits into your big data future.

- See more at: http://data-informed.com/five-things-to-watch-for-at-this-years-strata-hadoop-conference/#.dpuf

Dell Services Builds Momentum with Multiple $100M+ Deals

PLANO, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--#DellServices, recognized for its breadth and quality of offerings, recently signed ground-breaking deals with @DubaiHealthAuthority (DHA) and @BlueCross&BlueShield of Rhode Island (BCBSRI) as part of an impressive streak of customer wins. In addition, Dell Services beat well-entrenched competitors to sign wins with marquee brands including American Express Global Business Travel, Bombardier, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Markit and Thermo Fisher Scientific.

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160325005180/en/Dell-Services-Builds-Momentum-Multiple-100M-Deals

Gartner Recognizes Dell Boomi as a Leader, Positioned Highest for Ability to Execute and Furthest for Completeness of Vision in 2016 Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Integration Platform as a Service

#DellBoomi today announced that #Dell #Boomi has been positioned by Gartner, Inc. for its #AtomSphere ® solution in the Leaders quadrant of the Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Integration Platform as a Service.¹

“We believe that being recognized as a Leader, positioned the highest and furthest for ability to execute and completeness of vision, reflects both the value our iPaaS brings to our customers and our ability to deliver innovative, scalable solutions to the market,” said Chris McNabb, general manager of Dell Boomi. “Digital transformation requires companies to create end-to-end business processes by developing, managing, and rapidly deploying various types of integration flows across their best-of-breed cloud, on-premises and mobile applications. Dell Boomi AtomSphere makes this process much faster and easier to accomplish for our customers and partners.”

Since launching the industry's first complete on-demand integration service in 2007, Dell Boomi has continued to drive innovation inIntegration-Platform-as-a-Service (iPaaS) and meet the needs of more than 4,000 customers seeking the benefits of a cloud-based integration platform. The Dell Boomi platform has changed to serve the expanding market requirements for a broader range of use cases. Five years ago, the Boomi platform primarily enabled businesses to connect their new cloud solutions to their on-premises enterprise applications. Today, Dell Boomi has expanded iPaaS to serve an extensive range of needs, including event-based workloads, electronic data interchange (EDI), enterprise workloads, and the Internet of Things.

According to Gartner, “A Leader's vision is typically focused on incrementally improving existing capabilities and addressing emerging requirements, while aggressively expanding market share via new channels and through industry or geographic expansion strategies. They have the financial resources to pursue their technology and market vision. Leaders understand what is required to drive the enterprise iPaaS market in terms of technology, adoption patterns, use cases and industry impact. Most of them have already demonstrated these abilities by playing a crucial role (along with other pioneers) in shaping the market into its present form and showing an understanding of emerging requirements such as API management, citizen integrator, IoT and analytics.”

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160325005185/en/Gartner-Recognizes-Dell-Boomi-%E2%80%9CLeader%E2%80%9D-Positioned-Highest

Newcomer Galactic Exchange can spin up a Hadoop cluster in five minutes

A new company with a cool name, #GalacticExchange, came out of stealth today with a great idea. It claims it can spin up a #Hadoop cluster for you in five minutes, ready to go. That’s no small feat if it works as advertised and greatly simplifies what has traditionally been a process wrought with complexity.

The new product called #ClusterGX is being released in Beta this week at Strata+HadoopWorld in San Jose. It still requires that you bring your own data and application to run on top of the cluster.

As though the prospect of almost instant Hadoop clusters weren’t enough to make a big data geek smile from ear to ear, it gets better. That’s because the tool is actually open source and it’s free to use. That’s right, it doesn’t cost anything. The company is paying for the required cloud infrastructure  for now, which is a brave prospect because Hadoop does involve big data by its nature — and big data means lots and lots of data.

Galactic Exchange is not completely altruistic though. It does actually intend to make money at some point when it releases an enterprise version of the product complete with better security, support and all the kinds of features businesses tend to pay for if they like your product.

The product is actually geared toward small to medium businesses, the ones that can’t afford to hire dedicated teams to spin up and manage Hadoop clusters, company CEO Rob Mustarde explained to me.

How simple is it? It’s as easy as installing a smartphone app according to Mustarde. What’s more, you can install it as you like on Windows, Linux or OSX (or even bare metal — a fancy word for a dedicated cloud server).

Over the long term, the company plans to expand beyond Hadoop and Spark, which is really only a part of what they hope to do moving forward. “Our long term plan is to allow all of your applications and compute and virtualized storage to work together in hyper-converged environment,” Mustarde said.

For now, launching with an open source product seems like a smart approach, and Nik Rouda an analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group has the data to back up that notion. “In our research, more than 90% of those responsible for big data strategies said they valued their vendors’ active participation in open source, and 24% said they wanted a purely open source distribution for Hadoop environments.”

http://techcrunch.com/2016/03/24/newcomer-galactic-exchange-can-spin-up-a-hadoop-cluster-in-five-minutes/

Cloudera acquires data science collaboration tool Sense

Big data software company #Cloudera has acquired #Sense, a startup that built a cloud service enabling multiple data scientists to collaborate and share self-service analytics reports, which their colleagues can then use anytime.

Cloudera hasn’t issued a press release, but Sense did publish a little-noticed blog post about the news on Tuesday.

“Cloudera is the clear leader when it comes to modern data management and analytics,” Sense founders Tristan Zajonc and Anand Patil wrote. “They share our vision for a world where data helps solve the world’s biggest problems. By joining Cloudera, we believe we can accelerate this task.”

http://venturebeat.com/2016/03/24/cloudera-sense/

Disaggregated hyper-convergence thinks storage outside the box

If you thought #hyperconvergence is all about putting everything in one box, think again: some users are now asking for disaggregated hyper-convergence that sees the storage put back out on the network.

So says Michael Hay, #Hitachi Data Systems' (HDS') veep and chief engineer, who tells The Register he's seeing customers who like the idea of hyper-convergence but strike situations where it makes no sense to have storage inside the server.

Hay says disaggregated hyper-convergence isn't for mainstream applications – he's seen it used for things like Hadoop when certain jobs are so processor-intensive it's useful to “move the storage process off the server.” In such situations, a pool of data and a storage fabric can suffice, he feels, even though users like to retain the software-defined view of their infrastructure.

How's this different from private cloud? The distinctions are wafer-thin but lie in disaggregated hyper-convergence being happy to work with an appliance model. It's just that sometimes you choose not to use the appliance for everything. “Classic” private clouds assume heterogeneous servers and networked storage from the get-go.

Vendors of hyper-converged appliances aren't going to take this road: Hay reckons it's an exotic option for those who need very high database performance, but also thinks there's enough interest in it that hardware-accelerated database companies are currently sucking in serious quantities of venture capital.

HDS is also moving on its own hyper-converged wars. Hay said “you'll see us do more” with the company's Hyper Scale-Out Platform before too much time has passed.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/03/24/disaggregated_hyper_convergence/

Verizon SDN, NFV plans look to open source to counter challenges

Telecom operators moving towards software solutions using software-defined networking and network functions virtualization technologies are finding a challenging environment. Traditional vendor support for such moves are being hindered by internal business models that are being overhauled by the move away from traditional hardware to commodity white boxes powered by software, which is forcing many telecom operators to search outside their usual vendor channels for support or turn internally to develop their own platforms.

#Verizon Communications is one of the leading firms in terms of integrating SDN- and #NFV-based software solutions into their network operations. The carrier last year announced #SDN plans with five vendors: #Alcatel-Lucent, #Cisco, #Ericsson, #Juniper Networks and #Nokia Networks. As part of the announcement, Verizon said it had been working on the move toward virtualized platforms over the past several years, including the creation of live lab environments in San Jose, Calif.; Tampa, Fla.; and Waltham, Mass., and claims to have commercial data center environments on both coasts.

The carrier later in the year launched a software-defined WAN service using Cisco’s Intelligent WAN technology and targeting enterprise customers. Verizon said the platform supports a better user experience by integrated application optimization designed for faster application performance; enabling secure and certified routing platforms; the use of intelligent path control to fully utilize MPLS and the Internet to lower operational costs; and can provision new sites and services faster with a “hybrid WAN to support key business initiatives.”

http://www.rcrwireless.com/20160324/telecom-software/verizon-sdn-nfv-plans-look-open-source-counter-challenges-tag2-tag99

IDC Forecasts Strong Growth for Software-Defined WAN As Enterprises Seek to Optimize Their Cloud Strategies

FRAMINGHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Software-defined networking ( #SDN) has already arrived in the datacenter, providing the agility and responsiveness that datacenter networks need to meet the demands of cloud computing. Now the focus is shifting toward wide area networks (WANs), which can also be optimized to meet the requirements of cloud applications and services. In its first forecast of the software-defined wide area network ( #SD-WAN ) market, International Data Corporation (IDC) estimates that worldwide SD-WAN revenues will exceed $6 billion in 2020 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 90% over the 2015-2020 forecast period.

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160324005269/en/IDC-Forecasts-Strong-Growth-Software-Defined-WAN-Enterprises

Hewlett Packard Enterprise wants to 'fast forward' Dell customers

Ever since the #Dell and #EMC merger was announced it has put Hewlett Packard Enterprise (#HPE) on the defensive, leading to the firm robustly attacking its rival.

Earlier this month, Meg Whitman, CEO of HPE, used the firm's Q1 results to talk to analysts about how it was reacting to the Dell/EMC merger, arguing that it was in a prime position to take advantage of any disruption in the market that it would create.

Whitman said that it was already experienced exploiting customer unrest with the #IBM sale of its x86 business to Lenovo and was making channel plans. 

“We have a focused channel play called Smart Choice and we have a big opportunity to take Dell and EMC business – much as we took a lot of the #Lenovo business that would have gone to Lenovo. So, we’re seeing good results in the marketplace. We’re rolling out our full sales efforts," she told analysts.

Readers of some national newspapers yesterday will have seen the latest broadside from HPE, with the firm taking out full page adverts to raise concerns about its rival.

"Don't let the EMC/Dell merger put your business on pause" proclaimed the ad in bold letters before going on to highlight the alternative for concerned customers.

"in today's business environment driven by rapid change, you can't afford to miss a beat. Soon EMC and Dell will be forced to turn their attention to integrating two separate organisations with different product lines and services. Will this distraction take their focus off your business?" asked the ad.

http://www.microscope.co.uk/news/450279868/Hewlett-Packard-Enterprise-wants-to-fast-forward-Dell-customers

QUANTUM COMPUTING BREAKTHROUGH PAVES WAY FOR ULTRA-POWERFUL MACHINES

A crucial hurdle in the development of ultra-powerful #quantumcomputers has been overcome through the development of the world’s first programmable system that can be scaled.

Researchers at the University of Maryland College Park built a quantum computer module that can be linked to other modules to perform simultaneous quantum algorithms.

http://www.newsweek.com/quantum-computing-breakthrough-paves-way-ultra-powerful-machines-440444

Hadoop Market Is Expected to Reach USD 37,759.0 Million in 2023 Read more: http://m.digitaljournal.com/pr/2879532#ixzz43scbMjgA

#Hadoop Market (By Type - Software, Hardware and Services, By End Use Industry - BFSI, Retail, Telecommunication, Media Entertainment, Manufacturing, Natural Resources, Trade and Transport, Government, IT & ITES and Others) - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2015 - 2023

This press release was orginally distributed by SBWire

Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/23/2016 -- According to a new market report published by Transparency Market Research "Hadoop Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2015 - 2023," global hadoop market was valued at USD 4,120.0 million in 2014, growing at a CAGR of 28.4% from 2015 to 2023 to account for USD 37,759.0 million in 2023.

Read more: http://m.digitaljournal.com/pr/2879532#ixzz43scLmJFV

Hyperconvergence: a new revenue path for the channel

For many of us in the IT industry, hype bubbles tend to form quickly and dissipate just as fast. Today’s next big thing may not always end up as such.

A good way to gauge a technology’s potential is to look at the sales growth numbers when compared to the decline of technologies that a new innovation is replacing. For those that watched the meteoric rise of #VMware, hyperconvergence is exhibiting clear similarities. With year-on-year growth of over 100 percent according to IDC - all the while traditional server and storage markets remain stagnant – it’s clear that hyperconvergence and the move to the enterprise cloud is the way forward, and not just a fad.

In a decade where much of the channel has switched from selling tin to offering services, it may seem odd that the convergence of compute, storage and networking within an effective appliance model should be so resurgent. The reality is that #hyperconverged solves an inherent problem for customers that are desperate to reduce the cost and complexity of ‘plumbing’ needed to support virtualisation and cloud.

The days of channel making a comfortable living wiring up servers and storage are not over, but are certainly numbered. Yet hyperconvergence as just a way of reducing physical infrastructure costs and complexity is not just why the channel is embracing the concept. The rational is simple; if customers can reduce the cost of hardware and related implementation and maintenance, these budgets can be shifted to higher value activities, above the hypervisor, which can aid the core business drivers of the wider organisation.

That could be building more innovative mobile applications to enhance customer experience, resilient disaster recovery, or apps that improve employee productivity, or the shift from physical to virtual desktops improving the user experience or even putting more budget towards strengthening security to meet more virulent cyber security threats. What the channel is grasping is that hyperconverged systems are not a threat but an opportunity to get higher up the value stack and reaffirm relationships with clients in their journey to digital business.

If, as a partner, you read this article and you don’t have a hyperconvergence strategy, I can guarantee at some point your customers will press you about deploying such a system. Stalling is a not a long term option. The reality is that as the inevitable server upgrade comes around, or your customers’ virtualisation moves from test and dev to full production systems, the attractiveness of hyperconverged systems as an alternative to build-your-own is incredibly seductive. And it’s not just the big customers. Hyperconverged infrastructure projects can start small and can grow in small increments, in line with the IT and business needs. What normally happens is that this first encounter with hyperconvergence quickly leads to expansion. On average 50 percent of customers will buy more after six months, and more than 70 percent buys more after 12 months. Most customers double hyperconverged infrastructure spending within a year, driven by the high satisfaction and simple way of expanding capacity and performance as they see fit.

http://www.channelpartnersonline.com/news/2016/03/hedvig-opens-cloudscale-partner-program-to-global.aspx

Dell Services today announced the opening of its new Digital Experience Studio in Plano, Texas - Dell.com.

The studio will be an integral part of enabling customers to determine their digital transformation strategy and help guide them through their digital journey.

"Our customers are investing more in digital transformation and activity," said Suresh Vaswani, president, #DellServices. "This studio creates a collaborative space for our customers that will ultimately help them take advantage of these advances and understand what is possible for their digital journey."

Designed to provide an environment of ideation and collaboration, the studio allows customers to experience real-world demonstrations, view digital use cases and collaborate with Dell experts to create their digital strategy. Immersive workspaces in the studio are designed to make content more engaging, meetings more productive and allow for increased collaboration.

Featuring five different zones, customers can experience all aspects of digital transformation starting from hands-on concept design and realization, real time journey maps and associated touchpoints, the IoT and usability testing, mobile first approach to digital, imagine experiences as well as digital marketing, social media listening and command center.

"In the digital world, customer experience is the key to a successful digital transformation," said Raman Sapra, executive director and global head, Digital Business Services, Dell. "The studio will help render the art of the possible for our customers by helping them realize ways to undertake digital transformation and cutting-edge innovation. Successful digital transformation enables our customers to improve efficiencies across business operations, enhance their customers’ experience, improve employee engagement, create new revenue channels and increase profitability."

Dell Services’ continued leadership in digital business services is the result of nearly 20 years of experience backed by strong, integrated business domain knowledge, global delivery and center of excellence teams, as well as Dell’s deep heritage as a digital pioneer. Dell Services’ leadership is regularly recognized by customers and analysts and was recently positioned as a Leader in the Digital Focus market segment in the recently released NelsonHall Digital Transformation Services NEAT evaluation.

Dell Digital Business Services enables digital transformation for customers by taking a business-first approach and uses a robust consulting methodology to create digital strategy roadmaps for organizations through using digital technologies, such as business intelligence and analytics, mobile, social media, cloud, omni commerce, BPM, CRM and IoT, to deliver end-to-end customer solutions. Dell offers industry-specific services and solutions for healthcare, banking, insurance, retail, manufacturing and education to effectively address these verticals’ own priorities for digital adoption.

http://www.newswiretoday.com/news/157944/

Inside AT&T's open source, software-defined transformation

John Donovan, Chief Strategy Officer and Group President, Technology and Operations at #AT&T said during his keynote at #OpenNetworking Summitearlier this month that they are going through a data explosion at AT&T. The has been more than 150,000% growth in data traffic on AT&T’s wireless network from 2007 through 2015. Out of all this traffic, over 60% is video. And virtual reality (VR) promises to push networks to their limits.

To address these changing market dynamics, companies like AT&T need more agile, scalable networks. Donovan told the audience that the “traditional hardware approach is too slow. The only way to stay ahead of that kind of demand curve is software. We are all in in virtualizing our network.”

http://www.cio.com/article/3047268/open-source-tools/inside-atandts-open-source-software-defined-transformation.html

Technavio Expects the Global Storage Services Market to Exceed USD 91 Billion by 2019

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--According to the latest market research study released by #Technavio, the global storage services marketis expected to exceed USD 91 billion by 2019, growing at a CAGR of over 7% during the forecast period.

This research report titled ‘Global Storage Services Market 2015-2019’, provides an in-depth analysis of the market in terms of revenue and emerging market trends. This market research report also includes an up to date analysis and forecast for various market segments and all geographical regions.

The report segments the global storage services market by services and can be divided into four broad segments:

Storage managementStorage deployment and supportStorage integrationStorage consulting

Storage management services

Storage management is the process of enhancing the efficiency and speed of electronic data storage. It monitors and tracks the performance of a storage area, which enables the optimization and proactive management of storage devices.

In addition, it maximizes the capacity of storage systems with which the available drive space is utilized in a storage area. Therefore, storage management helps enterprises discover unused storage space and invalid data so that the latter can be shifted to media alternatives. The technology also helps streamline future storage requirements.

According to Amit Sharma, lead analyst at Technavio for IT professional servicesresearch, “The importance of storage management is increasing significantly among enterprises as computing has become more complex and enterprise data has become more valuable. For instance, enterprise data is growing at over 60% annually, and this burgeoning growth requires new approaches to address the growing complexity.”

Storage deployment and support services

The storage deployment and support segment accounted for 30%-35% of the global storage service market in 2014. The deployment of storage infrastructure in enterprise data centers is driven by the on-demand requirement. With the growing digital data and business demands, faster deployments of storage systems have become essential.

Initial deployment of storage infrastructure follows a set of designs that includes the storage that supports the attached server infrastructure in the data center. The most commonly offered storage systems by vendors are SAN and NAS. These systems are offered by vendors such as Dell, HP, and IBM. There are also continuous innovations by vendors to improve the efficiency, performance, reliability, and durability of storage systems.

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160323005062/en/Technavio-Expects-Global-Storage-Services-Market-Exceed

Flash-only arrays replacing hybrids for primary storage

Judging by the recent flood of flash-only storage launches, you can expect to soon see the primary storage hybrid array on the endangered species list -- right alongside the black rhino and blue whale.

Almost all of the new primary storage launches these days are all-flash arrays. Since the start of 2016, #EMC, #Hitachi Data Systems, #Pure Storage, #Nimble Storage, #Tegile, #IBM and #X-IO Technologies have launched flash-only primary storage arrays. That doesn't count #NetApp 's acquisition of #SolidFire 's all-flash platform. Most of the large storage vendors have several all-flash products, and it's become difficult to find a storage array vendorwithout any flash-only platforms.

Of course, storage and IT technologies die hard. Tape and mainframe are exhibits A and B of that. But recent product launches make you think the entire world is going all-flash. And it is, for primary storage. The fastest hard disk drives are already disappearing from primary storage arrays. It will probably take at least a few years, but it's more a question of when than if HDDs will disappear from arrays, except for bulk storage.

http://searchsolidstatestorage.techtarget.com/news/4500279797/Flash-only-arrays-replacing-hybrids-for-primary-storage

PC rivalry extends to servers: Lenovo aims to topple HPE, Dell

A few years ago, #Lenovo toppled rivals #HP and #Dell to become the world's top PC maker. It now wants to do the same in servers.

It hopes to do so through the newly formed Data Center Group, previously known as the Enterprise Business Group. The group is getting more financial resources, expertise and flexibility to chase new hardware designs and software partnerships.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/3047071/pc-rivalry-extends-to-servers-lenovo-aims-to-topple-hpe-dell.html

OSNEXUS Announces Hyperscale File, Block and Object Software Defined Storage Solution for Enterprise and Cloud Deployments

BELLEVUE, Wash., March 22, 2016/PRNewswire/ -- #OSNEXUS, the leading developer of Software Defined Storage ( #SDS ) solutions, announced today the availability of #QuantaStor v4, a #hyperscale SDS platform that enables organizations to turn commodity hardware into globally scalable storage grids with file, block and object protocol access.

Supporting up to 64 storage appliances and petabytes in a single grid, QuantaStor v4 dynamically provides encrypted storage across all standard protocols, with support for all major server vendors (#HP, #Dell, #Cisco, #IBM / #Lenovo and #SuperMicro ), all managed as a single grid storage system.

"With the release of QuantaStor v4 our goal is to help enterprises reach new levels of efficiency.  QuantaStor enables deployment, allocation and management of their storage assets worldwide and addresses the needs for encryption and hyperscale," said Steve Umbehocker, CEO of OSNEXUS. "QuantaStor v4's use of open technologies and our hardware neutral approach enables OSNEXUS to offer a unified SDS solution on a heterogeneous mix of enterprise server hardware with a rich software feature set bundled into one solution."

QuantaStor v4 allows IT generalists to take advantage of complex open source file, block and object SDS technologies with only a few mouse clicks for use cases including high-performance computing, media and entertainment, life sciences, financial services, Big Data and virtualization.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/osnexus-announces-hyperscale-file-block-and-object-software-defined-storage-solution-for-enterprise-and-cloud-deployments-300239118.html

EMC mulled a Pure Storage buyout amid patent sueball tennisInternal emails reveal more of Chad Sakac and Vaughn Stewart's rivalry

Three months before #EMC bought #DSSD in May 2014, the storage goliath was thinking about buying #Pure Storage. EMC even admitted in emails that its rival would always win out in head-to-head proof-of-concept de-dupe battles.

This is according to internal emails disclosed during EMC's patent infringement lawsuitagainst Pure Storage and obtained by The Register. That lawsuit rumbled to a halt this month with a small judgment against the upstart. Pure plans to appeal against the verdict.

Let's wind back the clock and build a timeline of events.

In 2012, for its entry into the all-flash array market, EMC bought startup XtremIO and its all-flash array technology for $430m. TheXtremIO array launched in March 2013 while EMC was fighting Pure to be king of the solid-state array market.

Pure upgraded its product set to the FA-400line in May 2013.

The rivalry with Pure Storage became bitter, with EMC accusing Pure of poaching its staffin October 2013. The next month, EMCaccused Pure of ripping off its deduplication and RAID patents.

This action may have been triggered by Pure winning bids against EMC's XtremIO product due to Pure’s data-reduction technology.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/03/22/emc_pondered_purchasing_pure_storage/

The Last Hadoop Data Management Tool You’ll Ever Buy?

The rise of big data has shaken up the data warehousing market, and one of the established vendors still looking to regain its footing is Informatica, which last year was taken private in a $5.3-billion leveraged buy-out. With today’s launch of #BigDataManagement10.1, the company is betting that #Hadoop customers will spring for an end-to-end tool that checks off multiple boxes.

There’s no shortage of tools for managing data in a Hadoop environment. That’s not necessarily a good thing, according to Informatica’s Vice President of Marketing for Enterprise Software Ash Parikh. Instead, of picking from a wide diversity of open source and vendor-supplied tools, Parikh says Hadoop users would be better off buying a single unified toolset that does everything they need.

“The new [big data] world is very different. But still, the principals of data management are the same,” Parikh tells Datanami. “You still need to make sure you have data that can be trusted, that you can access to all the data that’s being thrown at you, that you can transform it and do everything you need to do with it.”

Most companies that are using Hadoop accomplish this data management in a manual fashion, often with a lot of hand coding, he says. That approach may work for a while, but it falls apart when the scale of the big data initiatives grows, or the pace of the work picks up.

Automation and repeatability are clearly in Hadoop’s future. The question is whether Informatica can regain its standing as the gold-standard for data management in the enterprise. The company is placing its bets on its singular Big Data Management suite, which attempts to hit multiple data birds with a single stone.

http://www.datanami.com/2016/03/21/last-hadoop-data-management-tool-youll-ever-buy/

Morgan Stanley Acquires 121,368 Shares of Nimble Storage Inc (NMBL)

(NASDAQ:NMBL) by 90.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 255,773 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 121,368 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley owned 0.32% of #Nimble Storage worth $2,353,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Hershey Trust Company acquired a new position in Nimble Storage during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $289,000. ING Groep raised its position in Nimble Storage by 19.4% in the third quarter. ING Groep now owns 98,411 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,373,000 after buying an additional 15,959 shares in the last quarter. Boulegeris Investments Inc. raised its position in Nimble Storage by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. Boulegeris Investments Inc. now owns 73,305 shares of the company’s stock valued at $674,000 after buying an additional 2,740 shares in the last quarter. Oxford Asset Management acquired a new position in Nimble Storage during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,966,000. Finally, Retirement Systems of Alabama raised its position in Nimble Storage by 103.4% in the fourth quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 590,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,428,000 after buying an additional 300,000 shares in the last quarter.

Shares of Nimble Storage Inc (NASDAQ:NMBL) opened at 7.74 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $7.00 and its 200-day moving average is $14.24. Nimble Storage Inc has a 1-year low of $5.64 and a 1-year high of $32.16. The company’s market capitalization is $625.39 million.

http://www.financial-market-news.com/morgan-stanley-acquires-121368-shares-of-nimble-storage-inc-nmbl/984056/

What Is NetApp's Presence In The Storage Systems Market?

#NetApp has been a major player in the storage systems market over the years. NetApp’s hardware-independent single operating system for storage products (Data #ONTAP ), ease of deployment and an active sales channel helped it gain share in the market. As a result, NetApp’s market share in the external storage systems market rose from 11.1% in 2010 to about 12.8% in 2014. Correspondingly, the revenue generated by sales of storage systems grew at a CAGR of over 7% in the same period to $3.1 billion in 2014.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2016/03/21/what-is-netapps-presence-in-the-storage-systems-market/#352f60b183fd

Winners announced for NetEvents Cloud Innovation Awards 2016

This year’s leading Cloud/Datacenter Solution, Cloud Security Solution, #SDN Solution for the Enterprise and Cloud Service for the Enterprise were announced at the Rome #NetEvents EMEA Summit.

The NetEvents Cloud Innovation Awards celebrate the very best in technology and business, by recognizing and rewarding exceptional innovation and performance in the cloud sector and are judged by an independent panel of highly respected international technology press and industry analysts from around the world.

Four categories were awarded. The top Cloud/Datacenter Solution was from NaviSite Europe – with runners up #DellNetworking and #MorpheusData.  Cylance took first place for the Cloud Security Solution, ahead of runners up #Darktrace and #Aruba - a #HewlettPackardEnterprise company. The top SDN Solution for the Enterprise was by #Sonus networks, ahead of #Arista Networks, and #BigSwitch Networks. For the Cloud Services for the Enterprise there was a tie between Symphony and #DellBoomi, followed by runner up #RedHat.

http://www.cloudcomputingintelligence.com/news/item/2854-winners-announced-for-netevents-cloud-innovation-awards-2016

Rival unfazed by Dell’s move

#Dell ’s $91 billion acquisition of storage firm #EMC may be the largest deal in tech history but its rival #Commvault is unfazed, describing the purchase as an ­opportunity to steal market share while the competition is “distracted”.

Commvault global chief marketing officer Chris Powell, speaking exclusively to The Australian, said Dell’s blockbuster deal 
And opened up a can of worms when it came to integration.

“With Dell buying EMC, the first thing you think of, what’s Michael Dell known for? Is it efficiency, or innovation? I think we all know it’s about efficiency,” Mr Powell said.

His confidence stems from completing a significant overhaul of internal operations that show the US-based data and information management firm is well placed to capitalise on a market that demands reliability.

“A few years back there was a big recognition from our senior leadership and our CEO that we had to change a number of things across our organisation,” Mr Powell said. “We were being hit by huge shifts in the market around pricing, major changes with key partners, and there was a fear that we were losing focus on our core business.”

http://www.businessspectator.com.au/news/2016/3/21/technology/rival-unfazed-dells-move

Juniper: SunTrust Says Sell on Cisco, SDN Threat in Telecom

Shares of networking equipment maker #Juniper Networks (JNPR) are down 56 cents, or 2%, at $25.84, after SunTrust Robinson Humphrey‘s Inder Singh this morning cut his rating on the stock to “Reduce” from Neutral, and cut his price target to $22 from $25, arguing that its valuation is expensive, that it faces increased competition for service provider dollars from #Cisco Systems (CSCO), whose shares he rates a Buy, and that it is threatened by the continual movement of companies to so-called software defined networking.

http://www.barrons.com/articles/BL-TB-51033

Cue another Silicon Valley CEO bowing out - Cumulus Networks sees a change

News this morning that #Cumulus Networks' CEO and co-founder is stepping aside to give someone else a go at the role. JR Rivers, the incumbent CEO and one of the most respected people in the networking industry, has decided to step back to the CTO role and focus on technical direction.

Cumulus Networks produces Cumulus #Linux, a network operating system that aims to recreate the impact that Linux has upon data center computation. With #CumulusLinux, organizations can radically simplify the cost of operating their networking equipment and gain greater agility from their existing and future assets.

Cumulus is something of a poster child for the Software Defined Networking ( #SDN ) crowd. Indeed Martin Casado, the founder of Nicira Networks, itself a networking company that was acquired by #VMware for over a billion dollars, is a bit of a fan of both Cumulus and its founder. Interesting then that Cumulus' founders include Andreessen Horovitz, the Venture Capital firm that Casado recently joined after leaving his role as head of all things interesting at VMware.

http://www.networkworld.com/article/3045832/software-defined-networking/cue-another-silicon-valley-ceo-bowing-out-cumulus-networks-sees-a-change.html

Flash will send hyper-convergence to hyper-speed

If you listen to all-flash array vendors's shiniest, happiest, propaganda, you'll learn that moving from disk to solid state storage will more or less immediately turn your organisation into a white-hot innovator. Flash puts you in with a chance of both becoming the Uber of [insert your industry here] and avoiding an Uber-reaming by some new competitor where not a single employee has ever owned a suit.

Just add Flash, the story goes, and habitual suit-wearers and shareholders alike will sail away into the sunset on yachts they bought courtesy of a soaring share price.

What they're not saying in public is that flash arrays can also make a royal mess of your current rigs, in two ways.

The first mess Flash can create is on your network, which almost certainly wasn't built to handle the kind of input/output per second (IOPS) Flash arrays can deliver. Networks may therefore choke/stutter/collapse once asked to handle more data than they've seen in years. Hardened IT pros know this. Folks who read about Flash in an airline magazine, or a business magazine in an airline lounge, are going to need some education about adopting all-Flash arrays requiring a bit more work than is required to wield an RJ45 clip.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/03/21/flash_will_send_hyperconvergence_to_hyperspeed/

Software-defined everything -- from SDN and NFV to software-defined storage -- has been in use in some forms for decades. It's not as revolutionary as it seems.

Software-defined networking. Network functions virtualization. Virtual storage. These are the new buzzwords of the channel today. But are these trends actually as novel as they seem? Viewed from an historical perspective, not really.

#SDN, #NFV and scale-out storage -- which we can collectively call software-defined everything, or #SDx if you like acronyms -- offer lots of benefits for data centers and the cloud. They abstract operations from underlying infrastructure, making workloads more portable, scalable and platform-agnostic. They also create new opportunities for building more secure infrastructure. And they can lower costs by letting you get next-generation functionality out of cheap commodity hardware.

http://m.thevarguy.com/open-source-application-software-companies/are-software-defined-data-centers-really-new-idea-no

Converged Data Platforms: Part of a Larger Trend

The modern computing paradigm began with a completely converged data center: the mainframe. As soon as the required compute capacity exceeded the largest mainframe, distributed computing was born. What started as #SunMicrosystem’s notion that “the network is the computer” now implies that the cloud—public, private or hybrid—is the computer; a fantastically complex, powerful, and mammoth computer. But that computer is incomplete, because it is not yet the completely integrated, boundless, or frictionless application and data platform that one would get from a “limitless mainframe.”

That is the direction the software industry, and open source software movement, has been heading since the network became the computer: the converged (virtual) data center. You can tick off a progression of technologies that enable the converged data center: a common microprocessor architecture (x86), an open source server operating system ( #Linux ), an open source way to converge server instances (Xen/KVM hypervisor), an open source containerization of applications (Docker/Mesos) and a way to store and manage data at a vast scale ( #Hadoop ). You can add software-defined networking, database services (SQL/NoSQL), application execution engines (#Spark, #Elastic, #MapReduce), and a management harness ( #OpenStack ) to more or less complete the picture.

http://insidebigdata.com/2016/03/21/converged-data-platforms-part-of-a-larger-trend/

Cloudera Recognized for Delivering World Class Service and Support

PALO ALTO, Calif., March 21, 2016 --#Cloudera, the global provider of the fastest, easiest, and most secure data management and analytics platform built on #Apache #Hadoop and the latest open source technologies, today announced that it has achieved certification in accordanc

http://www.econotimes.com/Cloudera-Recognized-for-Delivering-World-Class-Service-and-Support-182042

CoAdna recasts Optical Virtual Switch systems for data center interconnect

@CoAdnaPhotonics, Inc. says it has added features to its Optical Virtual Switch ( #OVS ) systems to enhance their applicability todata center interconnect ( #DCI ) links.

The 1RU OVS systems, based on the company's LightFlow wavelength selective switch (WSS) expertise, can enable suchROADM-related functions as wavelength cross connect, directionless add/drop, broadcasting, drop and continue, and others in a much smaller, less expensive package than traditional #ROADM systems, CoAdna asserts. The OVS platforms are designed to support pay-as-you-grow deployment in up to 4 degree mesh networks in a metro or regional area and provide built-in fiber protection and wavelength restoration features. The OVS software enables compatibility with software-defined networking ( #SDN ) architectures through support of OpenFlow 1.3/1.5 as well as traditional SNMP, CLI communication protocols.

http://www.lightwaveonline.com/articles/2016/03/coadna-recasts-optical-virtual-switch-systems-for-data-center-interconnect.html

Developers, Open Source Software Changing the Face of Networking

SANTA CLARA, Calf.—It's been five years since Marc Andreessen wrote an essay published in the Wall Street Journal that proclaimed "software is eating the world." By now, we can consider networking just about chewed and swallowed.

We are beginning to realize how much software-defined networking is changing everything. As ON.Lab Executive Director Guru Parulkar puts it, the "softwarization" of networking is not only changing how users manage networks, but everything the network touches.

More precisely, it is open-source software that is leading this movement. Open-source projects like the OpenDaylight and #ONOS (Open Network Operating System) controllers and #OPNFV (Open Platform for Platform for NFV) are driving new business, service and technology models, especially for telecommunications vendors.

http://mobile.eweek.com/networking/developers-open-source-software-changing-the-face-of-networking.html

10 ways graphene is about to change your life

#Graphene is strong, it's flexible, and it's here. After a long time cooking in the labs, the first graphene-based products are beginning to trickle out into the world of smartphones, wearables, batteries, virtual reality, sports equipment, super-capacitors and supercars.

It's a material that some believe has been coerced from abandoned space ships, left on earth by distant races years ago. While that's a little unlikely, the power of this super thin, strong, conductive and all-round amazing material is deserving of such a conspiracy.

It's been over 60 years coming as scientists and manufacturers alike have struggled to harness the power of this awesome material - but it's closing in on revolutionising so many things we're using day to day.

http://www.techradar.com/news/world-of-tech/10-ways-graphene-is-about-to-change-your-life-1317247

Google Shares Details of Its Software-Defined Load Balancer

As it's already done with other areas of its massive datacenter infrastructure, #Google this week gave enterprises a peek at #Maglev, the software-defined network ( #SDN ) load balancer the company has been using since 2008 to handle traffic to Google services.

Maglev, like most of Google's networking systems, was built internally. But unlike Jupiter, the custom network fabric connecting Google's data centers, Maglev runs on commodity Linux servers and does not require any specialized rack deployment, Google said in a blog post describing the technology.

According to Google, Maglev uses an approach known as Equal Cost Multipath (ECMP) to distribute network packets evenly to all Maglev machines in a cluster. Each Maglev system then uses hashing and connection tracking techniques to ensure that all packets it receives are forwarded to the right destination. If a Maglev system becomes unavailable, other Maglev units in the cluster are designed to carry the extra load.

http://mobile.eweek.com/networking/google-shares-details-of-its-software-defined-load-balancer.html

5 things you need to know about EMC's DSSD storage announcement

#EMC recently announces its new #DSSD D5 rack-scale flash appliance. Keith Townsend provides the five critical data points that IT professionals need to know.

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/5-things-you-need-to-know-about-emcs-dssd-storage-announcement/

The Storage Engine

An engine is a machine with moving parts that converts power into motion. Hard disk drives are a storage engine with moving parts and electronics that converts motion into information. At the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California a group of people with a long history in the hard disk drive industry meet and work to preserve the history of information storage technology. They have created a web site that is called The Storage Engine, http://www.computerhistory.org/storageengine/.

The Storage Engine is a companion to the Computer History Museum popular online exhibit “The Silicon Engine: A Timeline of Semiconductors in Computers.” The Storage Engine tells the stories of the people, processes and products that have contributed to some of the most important advances in computer data storage. The Storage Engine features content developed by volunteers in the Storage Special Interest Group (Storage SIG).

http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomcoughlin/2016/03/18/1850/#392155103dc8

Nimble: Pure the only one confused about storage market

#Nimble Storage has hit back at comments made by #Pure Storage at Pure//Accelerate in San Francisco this week.

In response to Pure VP of products Matt Kixmoeller telling delegates at the partner event "what I see right now is a lot of confusion in other vendors", Nimble's senior director of strategy and market development Gavin Cohen told Channelnomics that the confusion lies with Pure and not the market.

http://www.channelnomics.com/channelnomics-us/news/2451510/nimble-pure-the-only-one-confused-about-storage-market

NetApp to cut 376 Sunnyvale jobs by end of April

SUNNYVALE -- #NetApp has dropped the other shoe in the wake of its disclosure it would sell eight South Bay buildings to #Google: The company is laying off hundreds of people in Sunnyvale, according to an official filing with state labor officials.

The shrinking footprint of NetApp is being underscored by the data storage company's decision to eliminate 376 jobs in Sunnyvale, a filing with the state Employment Development Department shows. NetApp filed the document, known as a WARN notice, with the EDD earlier this month.

The job cuts will be effective April 30. NetApp notified employees being affected by the staff reduction on March 1.

"NetApp has committed to a restructuring and reduction in workforce to streamline its core business and reduce operating costs," NetApp said in a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company expects to reduce its worldwide head count by approximately 12 percent, according to the filing.

http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_29652467/netapp-cut-376-sunnyale-jobs-by-end-april

REGISTER: Virtual Desktop Virtualization And Cloud Client ComputingApril 7, 2016

Empower your people and IT with secure, reliable desktop virtualization.

Protect vital content, support a vast array of clients and efficiently manage desktops and remote offices for your workforce. For secure, easy-to-manage, scalable desktop virtualization, rely on #Dell cloud client-computing. Only Dell offers an end-to-end virtual desktop infrastructure ( #VDI ) solution designed to transform your data center.

Register this webinar to learn about:

Empower your people and IT with secure, reliable desktop virtualization.How Dell Blueprints for VDI can help you efficiently manage desktops and remote offices for your workforce.How to simplify VDI planning, deployment and management.Our VDI offerings and Solutions.How you can build your own solution, customize with #DellBlueprints or let Dell experts do it all for you.

April 7, 2016
2:00pm to 3:00pm CST2

Register

http://events.dell.com/event/virtual-desktop-virtualization-and-cloud-client-computing/?lang=en