Dell announces three new cloud deployments

The integrations for @Cinesite, @Aubert and @Nspyre combined #Dell 's technology and expertise @Dell has announced three new cloud-centric installations that combine workload-ready, virtual-ready, big data-ready and cloud-ready technologies. The company revealed it has been working with htree clients, #Cinesite, #Aubert and #Nspyre, in three very different ways, to help them embrace the cloud, while "future-proofing" their organisations to ensure their systems are always up to date and ready for growth. VFX company Cinesite wanted to move away from a traditional on-premise datacentre that had limited capabilities, to something more flexible and scalable. Dell deployed servers, networking and workstation solutions via co-location facilities to ensure staff always have access to systems and the IT department could concentrate on creativity rather than the backend infrastructure. Dutch automation services company Nyspyre needed grow its business, while also addressing productivity issues among the workforce because they didn't have the most up to date systems to meet demand. "Performance was falling," John Schouten, ICT manager at Nspyre, said. "This was mainly to do with the age of the technology. Plus, people were beginning to complain about key applications running slowly.

http://www.cloudpro.co.uk/cloud-essentials/hybrid-cloud/6129/dell-announces-three-new-cloud-deployments

Nutanix fortifies partner program with technical, marketing resources

Enterprise cloud provider @Nutanix has fortified its Elevate Technology Alliance partner program with new technical designs, joint marketing initiatives and enablement resources aimed at strengthening its partner ecosystem. Nutanix, which previewed the upgrades with partners at its .Next conference earlier in June, said the Elevate program now includes 50 technology alliance partners, featuring about 100 partner solutions verified as #Nutanix Ready. The vendor's partner strategy revolves around a deeper dive into the hyperconverged datacenter market for SMBs.

http://www.channelnomics.com/channelnomics-us/news/2463598/nutanix-fortifies-partner-program-with-technical-marketing-resources

AT&T Might Make Apple's TV Dreams Come True

FCC Chairman @TomWheeler 's set-top cable box proposal may not come to fruition, but it may result in a good compromise. In June, @AT&T (NYSE:T) submitted a proposal to the FCC providing a solution to the lack of consumer choice when it comes to the hardware cable subscribers use to watch TV. It proposes an industry standard for an app that could run on third-party hardware like an @Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) TV or @Roku box. Pay-TV providers would retain control over the content delivery, but would allow customers to choose their own hardware instead of requiring them to rent a set-top box. @Google, the @Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) subsidiary, has said AT&T's proposal is a "constructive effort" in its fight to open the set-top box to all hardware makers. Some cable companies are already ready to go Last fall, @TimeWarner Cable (NYSE:TWC) experimented with letting subscribers use a Roku as their main set-top box instead of Time Warner's hardware. The cable company simply ported its existing TV Everywhere app, which allowed users to stream most networks from within their homes via smartphone and tablets, and made it available on the Roku app store. Most other pay-TV providers have similar apps and policies, and could quickly launch a similar app for Roku, Apple, and Google, among others. While the technical capabilities are there for all the major pay-TV providers, many will still hesitate to enact any changes. Renting set-top boxes to customers produces an average revenue stream of $231 per household every year. That's exactly the type of problem the FCC is looking to solve by opening up hardware to third parties and allowing customers to own devices outright.

http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/07/03/att-might-make-apples-tv-dreams-come-true.aspx

President Obama Enlists Google, Goldman Sachs to Support Syrian Refugees in the U.S.

Thousands of Syrian refugees living on U.S. soil will now receive more support from major tech companies like #Google, #HP and #IBM. U.S. President Barack Obama has recruited at least 15 companies to pledge money and services to support Syrian refugees, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. Goldman Sachs says it will underwrite programs to help refugees learn English and employment skills. Google, which will provide consulting and technology to non-profits, says its efforts will touch more than a million refugees. Last year, both firms invested a collective $4.5 million to European relief programs, including nonprofits that provide food, shelter and clothing, as well as the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. Independently, Google.org -- Google's philanthropic arm -- has given more than $13 million to aid refugees since September of 2015, a spokeswoman for the company tells Inc.

http://www.inc.com/zoe-henry/obama-recruits-google-goldman-sachs-support-syrian-refugees.html

Airtel Adopts Cloudera To Gain Customer Insights

@Airtel today said it has deployed data analytics platform #Cloudera to get customer insights in order to help the operators serve its customers in a better way. The adoption of Cloudera Enterprise, that is built on #Apache #Hadoop, will Airtel in having a 360-degree view of their customers in India, enabling them to better leverage customer data to execute successful omni-channel campaigns and influence buyers in a highly competitive market. “As part of our digital journey at Airtel, our main focus is on providing the best customer experience with our new Business Intelligence (BI) and analytics platform, powered by Cloudera. Now, we are able to gain an even greater technical edge, empowering our marketers with intelligent data and analytics to make better decisions and improve the entire customer lifecycle with customized offerings.” said Harmeen Mehta, Group CIO for Bharti Airtel. Communications service providers (CSPs) are amongst the world’s biggest aggregators of consumer information and have to keep pace in order to gain insights into their customers’ preferences and networks. Many CSPs, like Airtel, are utilizing Cloudera Enterprise to securely bring together user, network, device, business and social data to drive customer intimacy, improve network performance and drive new revenue streams, reports M2MCafe.

http://www.teleanalysis.com/news/airtel-adopts-cloudera-to-gain-customer-insights-22709.html

MongoDB Delivers Connector for Apache Spark

#MongoDB this week announced a new connector for #Apache #Spark and got it certified by #Databricks, the company behind @ApacheSpark. This week at its MongoDB World conference in New York, MongoDB announced the MongoDB Connector for Apache Spark, which enables developers and data scientists to get real-time analytics from fast-moving data. The product is now available for users to run analytics and glean insights from live, operational and streaming data. MongoDB worked closely with Databricks, the company founded by the team that created Apache Spark. And the MongoDB Connector has received Databricks Certified Application status for Spark. The certification means Databricks has ensured that the connector provides integration and API compatibility between Spark processes and MongoDB. The new Spark connector follows the pattern of MongoDB's existing connector for Hadoop.

http://mobile.eweek.com/database/mongodb-delivers-connector-for-apache-spark.html

IBM storage has a new boss: The same one it had six years ago

IBM has a new storage boss, Ed Walsh, Storage Division General Manager, replacing interim GM Greg Lotko who keeps his VP development slot in the unit. Walsh had been CEO and president of copy data management company Catalogic since July 2014. He joined Big Blue for the first time in 2010 when it bought Storwize, a storage array startup with compression technology. After leaving IBM in September 2013 he became a strategy consultant at ESG, taking on the Catalogic CEO post the following year. Before that, he was CEO at server virtualisation company Virtual Iron between 2007 and 2009. The company was bought by Oracle in May 2009. Ten years ago Walsh was CEO of deduping backup startup Avamar (between June 2005 and November 2006). That firm was bought by EMC. He then became Avamar GM and VP at EMC, leaving to run Virtual Iron.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/01/ibm_storage_new_boss_ed_walsh/

NVMe Brings Performance to Software-Defined Storage

TORONTO—NVM Express ( #NVMe ) has begun to gather steam in the market, with many vendors releasing NVMe SSDs over the past year or so, while the supporting ecosystem has matured. In the meantime, @SamsungElectronics Co., Ltd. and @RedHat are collaborating to give the emerging technology an extra push. At the recent #RedHat Summit, #Samsung announced its NVMe (SSD) Reference Design platform, which can be used with Red Hat #Ceph Storage, a software-defined storage platform. Red Hat Ceph/Samsung Reference Architecture is essentially a recipe to build unified storage for enterprise IT or cloud environments that handle transactional databases, machine-generated data and unstructured data.

http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1330028

Former Dell CTO Perez Takes Top Tech Job With JPMorgan

@PaulPerez, the tech visionary hired by @Dell to build an architecture to do battle with archrival @Cisco, has taken a job as managing director of global technology at @JPMorganChase & Co., one of the banks providing debt financing for Dell’s acquisition of @EMC. Perez quietly left #Dell and took the job at #JPMorgan last month, according to his LinkedIn profile.  Perez became enterprise chief technology officer at Dell in March 2015, lured to the Round Rock, Texas-based company after a little more than three years at #Cisco Systems, where he ran the #UCS server business, and oversaw development of the ill-fated Invicta all-flash line. Perez spent 1984-2011 at @HewlettPackiard, ending as vice president and chief technologist in the company's server business.

http://m.crn.com/news/data-center/300081223/former-dell-cto-perez-takes-top-tech-job-with-jpmorgan.htm

Oracle To Pay HP Enterprise $3 Billion in Itanium Case

California jury awarded @HewlettPackardEnterprise ( #HPE ) $3 billion in damages from @Oracle Corp. yesterday. The jury found that #Oracle breached a contract between the two companies resulting in lost revenues for HPE’s Itanium server line. The decision gave HPE the full amount in had sought in restitution from Oracle. Jurors in state court in San Jose, California, arrived at the unanimous verdict after only five hours of deliberation, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal. Oracle, meanwhile, has said it plans to appeal the judgment. The case stems from a 2011 decision by Oracle to end support for HP servers running the HP-UX operating system on Intel’s Itanium chips, including support for the company’s database and Linux distribution. The companies first went to court over the matter in 2012, at which time a judge determined that a contract had existed between them and ordered Oracle to resume support for the software.

http://www.toptechnews.com/article/index.php?story_id=0010003OTUWL

Sources: Nutanix poised to gobble PernixData

Four independent sources say hyper-converged poster child @Nutanix is buying hypervisor flash-cacher @PernixData, thus gaining crucial technology to speed up its appliances. #Nutanix spokesman Declan Waters told us: "No comment." A #PernixData spokesperson added: "We are not commenting at this time." A PernixData insider told The Register: "Everything is in a state of flux right now." That's the scoop. Here's the background information. PernixData was founded by CEO Poojan Kumar and CTO Satyam Vaghani in 2012. It received a $7 million A‑round that year, $20 million in a 2013 B‑round, and $35 million in a C‑round in 2014, giving it $62 million in total. The main product is FVP, with a recent Architect product providing infrastructure analytics in virtual environments. The company has had some employee attrition, and here is a 2015 round-up of some of that. Kirk Arrowood, director of northeast sales until November when he left and went to Zerto as regional sales manager, northeast. Michael Foy, ex-channel sales manager who left in August to be director of partner sales at DataCore and is now channel account manager at Silver Peak. Brian Gagnon, ex-channel and technology evangelist who left in August to join HGST as a principal engineer. James White, ex-A/C exec who left in October to join Sentieo as head of enterprise growth. Cory Barnard, currently in sales at Interana, who left his director of corporate sales post at PernixData in September. David Schneider, now systems engineering manager at Veeam, who left a systems engineer post at PernixData in October. Taka Yamada, who left his regional sales manager position in October and is now a regional director at Silver Peak. Jeff Germscheid, middle Atlantic regional sales manager who left in May and is now sales director at DataCore. Rob Bergin, system engineer, who left in October and is now at Springpath. Kiet Duong, currently director of customer success at Netskope, who left his post as director of support in November. Todd Mace, FVP product manager, now tech evangelist at DataCore.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/01/hyperconverged_nutanix_could_be_buying_vmcare_cacher_pernixdata/

Big Switch Adds Use Cases to SDN Fabric

@BigSwitch Networks Inc. updated its software-defined networking ( #SDN ) solutions with new use cases and support for more open networking switches, along with other enhancements to help enterprises transform their networks with next-generation technology. One of those next-gen techs is SDN's cousin, network functions virtualization ( #NFV ), which happens to be one of the new use cases supported by the company's SDN-based #BigCloudFabric platform, which was updated along with its #BigMonitoringFabric. Big Monitoring Fabric is a network packet broker ( #NPB ) that uses SDN principles, Open Networking switches and an x86-based DPDK service node for its datacenter monitoring functionality. Big Cloud Fabric provides a leaf/spine SDN fabric supporting open networking switches in #OpenStack cloud implementations or #VMware virtualization environments. That makes it a good fit for NFV, which is defined by Wikipedia as "a network architecture concept that uses the technologies of IT virtualization to virtualize entire classes of network node functions into building blocks that may connect, or chain together, to create communication services."

https://virtualizationreview.com/articles/2016/06/30/big-switch-updates.aspx?m=1

New Enterprise Data Lake Management Platform Delivers Enterprise-Grade Hadoop

LOWELL, Mass., June 29, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Organizations can now efficiently and securely set up, deploy and manage a #Hadoop-based data lake with the new version of #Podium, the enterprise-ready management platform from Podium Data. The new version of Podium meets real-world requirements of enterprises planning to use a data lake to establish "Data as a Platform" within their organizations through three business-critical capabilities: advanced security, the data development lifecycle and accessibility. “At @CIGNA, we are building an enterprise data lake as a next generation data management platform that will allow us to exponentially expand data delivery to the business,” said Don Gray, Chief Data Officer, CIGNA. “Nothing is more important to us than ensuring the security of data in the lake and we place a huge premium on those data lake technologies that are both committed and capable of delivering truly hardened enterprise ready security measures.” Enterprise-Grade Security Hadoop is a powerful tool for building a big data platform but it was not designed to securely manage enterprise data with the controlled access, encryption, and obfuscation required by the modern and secure enterprise. Podium delivers a single, end-to-end security framework around the data in Hadoop that runs from authentication to data protection, including: Active Directory Synchronization Kerberos and Active Directory Authentication Entity-level authorization via Podium impersonation in combination with Sentry/Ranger policies and/or HDFS ACLs

http://virtual-strategy.com/2016/06/29/new-enterprise-data-lake-management-platform-delivers-enterprise-grade-hadoop/

InterCloud Secures Purchase Orders for Software Defined Networking (SDN) Virtual Network Function Validation Services Valued at Over $4.0 Million in annualized revenue

SHREWSBURY, N.J., June 30, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — @InterCloud Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:ICLD) a leading provider of cloud networking orchestration and automation solutions and services, announced today that it received over $4.0 million in purchase orders since the beginning of 2016 for Software Defined Networking ( #SDN ) and Virtual Network Function ( #VNF ) Validation services for a Global networking company. The work involves SDN training, SDN integration services and the utilization of InterCloud’s state of the art, multi-vendor virtual network function validation services platform, NFVGrid. Mark Munro, CEO of InterCloud Systems stated: “This is one of the most significant announcements InterCloud has ever released. InterCloud is now an active participant in complex multi-vendor SDN deployments. InterCloud is not only generating new revenue around SDN and VNF validation but more importantly we are gaining incredibly valuable experience and knowledge in this early stage SDN market expansion. We believe this experience will give us a competitive advantage as more carriers and enterprise customers begin to migrate their networks to the virtualized world of SDN.”

http://investingnews.com/daily/tech-investing/cloud-investing/intercloud-secures-purchase-orders-software-defined-networking-sdn-virtual-network-function-validation-services-valued-4-0-million-annualized-revenue/

Ingram Micro Earns International Honors From Dell

Marketwired) -- 07/01/16 -- @IngramMicro Inc. (NYSE: IM) today announced it has earned numerous honors from #DellInc. in Latin America and Turkey. #IngramMicro received the awards recently at Dell's Partner Direct Summit in Miami and included: Distributor of the Year, Latin America Top Growth Partner, Brazil Distributor of the Year, Mexico Top Growth Partner, Northern Latin America In addition to these honors, Dell has recognized Armada, an Ingram Micro company, as the highest revenue distributor for the year in Turkey. This is the eighth consecutive year Armada has earned recognition from Dell. "Ingram Micro is one of Dell's largest partners worldwide, and our accelerated support has led to significant double-digit growth year-over-year," said John Soumbasakis, executive vice president, Business Development and Strategy, Ingram Micro Inc. "Our goal is to help our approximately 200,000 partners leverage our deep Dell connection to get the most out of Ingram Micro's unmatched, unique offerings in business intelligence, Cloud and advanced solutions."

Toshiba HK4R SSD Review

Back in February, @Toshiba announced the latest addition to its high-performance, enterprise SSDs, the HK4. The HK4 series comes in two models a value endurance model and a read intensive model. Toshiba has double the maximum capacity of the drives running all the way up to a maximum of 1.92TB (the HK3s topped out at 960GB). As with the previous model, the HK4 is a 2.5” form factor that supports SATA 6Gb/s interface. The HK4 also features vital enterprise functionality, including full power loss and to-end protection as well as proprietary QSBC (Quadruple Swing-By Code) error-correction technology, the latter which helps to protect and secure data from corruption caused by NAND flash memory media wear.

http://www.storagereview.com/toshiba_hk4r_ssd_review

VMware CEO Says It’s a ‘Good Time’ to Be Looking at Acquisitions

@VMware CEO Says It’s a ‘Good Time’ to Be Looking at Acquisitions  Gelsinger seeing a drop in “ #unicorn valuations," "arrogance" Company is able to look at deals “into the billions”  #VMware Inc. Chief Executive Officer @PatGelsinger, whose parent company is in the midst of being acquired by #Dell Inc., is mulling his own shopping expedition. A decline in both “unicorn valuations" and “unicorn arrogance” means the virtualization-software company has more attractive opportunities for acquisitions, he said in an interview. Gelsinger joins Silicon Valley executives like Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co.’s CEO @MegWhitman, and @Alphabet Inc’s corporate development chief @DavidDrummond in welcoming the opportunity for deals. @Apple Inc.’s CEO @TimCook and @Salesforce.com Inc.’s CEO @MarcBenioff have also commented on the potential for acquisitions in the new environment.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-01/vmware-ceo-says-it-s-a-good-time-to-be-looking-at-acquisitions

Ingram Micro Earns International Honors From Dell

Marketwired) -- 07/01/16 -- @IngramMicro Inc. (NYSE: IM) today announced it has earned numerous honors from @Dell Inc. in Latin America and Turkey. #IngramMicro received the awards recently at #Dell 's Partner Direct Summit in Miami and included: Distributor of the Year, Latin America Top Growth Partner, Brazil Distributor of the Year, Mexico Top Growth Partner, Northern Latin America In addition to these honors, Dell has recognized Armada, an Ingram Micro company, as the highest revenue distributor for the year in Turkey. This is the eighth consecutive year Armada has earned recognition from Dell. "Ingram Micro is one of Dell's largest partners worldwide, and our accelerated support has led to significant double-digit growth year-over-year," said John Soumbasakis, executive vice president, Business Development and Strategy, Ingram Micro Inc. "Our goal is to help our approximately 200,000 partners leverage our deep Dell connection to get the most out of Ingram Micro's unmatched, unique offerings in business intelligence, Cloud and advanced solutions." "Ingram Micro is a global strategic partner and a key part of our go-to-market strategy," said Frank Vitagliano, Global Distribution Sales & Strategy at Dell. "We look forward to continued growth and leveraging Ingram Micro's strengths to bring Dell's end-to-end portfolio of products and solutions to customers throughout Latin America, the Middle East, and globally."

http://news.sys-con.com/node/3863265

I think [the EU] will become nonfunctional," Ron Paul told CNBC's " Futures Now "

The historic U.K. vote to leave the European Union is a sign of a major global meltdown, not just a watershed that marks the end of a unified continent, former Rep. @RonPaul says. "I think [the EU] will become nonfunctional," Paul told CNBC's " Futures Now " on Tuesday. "It really is coming to an end. It doesn't mean tomorrow or the next day, but people are going to be really unhappy. The end is coming, but it isn't coming because of the breakup," he added. Paul attributed the fallout to "bad fiscal policies" around the globe. He said that as long as interest rates remain low, the markets will remain in bubble territory. "I think what everyone is looking at is there was a vote, an important vote and it went differently than expected and it sent shock waves through the markets, but I think the concentration is on the wrong issue," the former Libertarian and Republican Party presidential candidate said. Instead, he said, what has caused so much turmoil is what happened before the recent declines. "What has been preceding this situation that we have throughout the world and this country as well is artificially low interest rates. It causes people to make mistakes in buying bonds," he said. All major U.S. indexes fell back into negative territory for 2016 on Friday and Monday after the Brexit vote, getting a twinge of relief on Tuesday. Still, Paul expects a heap of market weakness to come. "Catastrophe doesn't come unless there's something that precedes it, and what sets the stage is monetary policy, artificially low interest rates, zero interest rates," he said. "There's a lot of instability still out there, and this hasn't been corrected yet. I don't think it's going to correct easily," he said. "We are running out of steam."

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/end-coming-says-ron-paul-120949480.html

NBC and Samsung Want to Broadcast the Olympics in Virtual Reality

But only @Samsung smartphone owners will revel in the glory. The upcoming summer Olympics could be coming your way, three-dimensionally speaking. NBC said on Thursday that it would broadcast 85 hours of the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 360-degree virtual reality to owners of Samsung smartphones who also have compatible Samsung Gear VR headsets. The Olympic Broadcasting Services, a broadcasting arm of the International Olympic Committee, will film the games in 360 degrees and send it off to NBC to broadcast internationally. The Peacock Network NBC 0.00% said that the 85 hours of VR video will include the opening and closing ceremonies as well as an assortment of competitions, such as men’s basketball, gymnastics, track and field, and fencing

http://fortune.com/2016/06/30/nbc-samsung-olympics-virtual-reality/