Is Spinning Disk Going Extinct? Experts Weigh In

There’s no doubt about it: Spinning disk is getting squeezed. As fast solid state drives ( #SSD s) get cheaper and tape drives get bigger, the sweet spot where spinning hard disk drives (HDDs) make sense gets smaller every year. But will spinning disks be totally extinct in five years, as some storage experts predict? The jury is still out. You can find backers of the “Spinning Disk is Dying” camp in many places in the IT landscape, including executives and managers with prominent storage vendors like #IBM (NYSE: IBM), #Dell #EMC, and #NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP). “I believe the increasing density and steadily dropping cost of SSD technology will quickly outperform mechanical drives from a $/GB perspective in the next couple of years,” Eduardo Rivera, a senior storage architect at NetApp, wrote earlier this year. “When this comes to pass, there will be no incentive to buy HDDs anymore.” “15k RPM drives are going away,” Gary Albert, business line executive for IBM Storage, tells Datanami. “There’s going to be one more generation [of 15K RPM drives], but we’re not even going to qualify it, because the cost differential between buying that and buying Flash is minimal. Why would anybody buy a spinning disk that has moving parts and is destined to fail, when you can buy something that has no moving parts and is proven to be more reliable, and uses less power?” “I don’t see much in the way of spinning disk anymore,” says Ed Fabiszewski, an IBM i practice manager with Dell EMC, which recently launched its first entry-level all-Flash #VMAX array. “I’m not saying we’re not going to have spinning disk for [VMAX]. But I think what it comes down to, is what you see being configured in the field for customers” is Flash. The popularity of Flash storage in the consumer electronics space is changing the economics of storage for the enterprise, and that means that spinning disk doesn’t make as much sense as it used to, according to Jeff Barber, the vice president of high storage at IBM.
https://www.datanami.com/2016/10/25/spinning-disk-going-extinct-experts-weigh/

India Enterprise Network LAN Equipment Market to Cross $ 2.5 Billion by 2021: TechSci Research Report

NEW YORK, October 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Strong demand for internet-enabled devices, expansion of Cloud networking and proliferation of Wi-Fi technology to drive India enterprise network LAN equipment market through 2021 According to TechSci Research report, "India Enterprise Network LAN Equipment Market By Type, By End Use Competition Forecast and Opportunities, 2011 - 2021", the India enterprise network LAN equipment market is anticipated to cross $ 2.5 Billion by the end of 2021. Growing demand to improve the overall efficiency and productivity in an organisation, Surging bandwidth requirements, growing data security concerns and escalating adoption and integration of LAN network equipment in large business setups and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are some of the major factors expected to aid the growth of India enterprise network LAN equipment market during 2016-2021. Moreover, launch of 4G services and expansion of Cloud networking are anticipated to further aid the enterprise network LAN equipment market in the country over the span of next five years.

http://news.sys-con.com/node/3939960

Enterprise Performance 15K HDD v6 is fastest yet, claims Seagate

Storage solutions company, #Seagate Technology, claims to have launched the industry’s fastest and highest-performing hard drive, the Seagate Enterprise Performance 15K HDD v6. According to the company, the hard drive features capacities up to 900GB and optimizes mission critical workloads by delivering data performance up to 315MB/s sustained transfer rate. How will it help? Seagate states that the drive will enable enterprises and cloud customers to move critical data fast to ensure smooth and seamless connected experiences for business, organization and consumer users. It will also lower the total cost of ownership through high reliability, security and easy data center integration. John Morris, Vice President, Global HDD Products, Seagate said, “With Seagate’s broad portfolio of both HDDs and SSDs, we’re able to cover the full range of storage solutions, delivering high performance and capacity with affordable versatility to meet the needs of today’s and tomorrow’s data centers.” “Seagate is once again driving innovation to meet the needs of today’s data-driven economy. Our new Enterprise Performance 15K HDD ensures that the data is secure, available on demand and always bringing more value to our customers.” How does it work? According to the company the demand for 15K HDD technology in servers continues to meet the needs of data center managers aiming to manage costs while addressing mission critical workloads, performance bottlenecks and network complexity. The drive also provides the ability to address more workloads with less complexity. It also provides robust drive-level data security and data integrity while the drive is at rest, recording or retired, as well as proven quality and field reliability, protecting from data loss and unneeded expense.

http://techseen.com/2016/10/25/enterprise-15k-hdd-v6-seagate/

Veritas Advances Enterprise Data Management with Support for Google Cloud Storage Coldline

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--#Veritas Technologies, the leader in information management, today announced that it is expanding its #GoogleCloud Platform integration with support for Google Cloud Storage Coldline. By combining #InformationMap, #NetBackup and #GoogleCloudPlatform, customers can take advantage of frictionless information governance with complete visibility, insight and greater control of their data.

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161025005268/en/Veritas-Advances-Enterprise-Data-Management-Support-Google

SUSE: Question. What do you call second-place in ARM enterprise server linux? Answer: Red Hat

ARM TechCon #SUSE is claiming victory over #RedHat by announcing – and these caveats are all crucial – "the first commercial enterprise #Linux distribution optimized for ARM AArch64 architecture servers." In plainer English, SUSE has developed an enterprise-grade Linux distribution that runs on 64-bit ARM servers (should you happen to ever find one). SUSE claims this software is a world first because it is a finished commercial product, thus beating Red Hat to the punch: Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server for ARM is still only available as a beta-like development preview. But wait a minute, this new SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for ARM "will be available by the end of the year," according to the official announcement. So, Red Hat, there is still time – you can still win this race. Hare and the tortoise and all that. SUSE's boast is also a little dismissive of Canonical, which announced earlier this month that "Ubuntu OpenStack and Ceph are now commercially available" on 64-bit ARM-powered servers. SUSE doesn't think #Ubuntu #OpenStack and #Ceph count as an "enterprise Linux distribution" nor "optimized for ARM AArch64 architecture servers." Whatever happened to peace and love in the free software world? Germany-based open-source giant SUSE is aiming its new distro at "large-scale storage, high performance computing and networking systems," and the code will work on boxes powered by Cavium chips and presumably other ARM server-grade chipsets (like AMD's and Applied Micro's and Qualcomm's and so on). The distribution will try to bring features found in SUSE's x86, Power and z Systems enterprise products to the world of 64-bit ARMv8. We're told these key features include: Tools to compile, package, and deploy software for ARM AArch64 servers. Software to exploit system-on-chip acceleration features to speed up storage systems – we're thinking on-die deduplication acceleration and things like that. Similarly, software to make the most of networking, encryption and compression engines built into chips as well as functions provided by FPGAs. In the other corner, Red Hat's RHEL Server for ARM entered its development preview in June 2015, and popped up on Qualcomm's server-grade ARMv8-compatible silicon in March this year. This presentation [PDF] at LinuxCon Japan in July gives an overview of where the project is at. There's also the Linaro Enterprise Group, which Red Hat is a member of, that seeks to create a foundation of software for ARM-powered servers, plus the usual Debian, CentOS, Ubuntu and other distros that support 64-bit ARM to varying degrees. Critically, SUSE doesn't believe these rivals can each describe themselves as a "commercial enterprise Linux distribution," which leaves the door open to SUSE to claim a victory today – well, unless it's pipped at the post before the year is out, of course. Meanwhile, "64-bit ARM support for SUSE Enterprise Storage," which was announced in 2015, will be arriving by the end, we're told. ®

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/10/25/suse_arm_linux_servers/

Time Warner ruined AOL, says ex-AOL exec Ted Leonsis

#AT&T is planning to buy #TimeWarner for $85 billion, which has given several folks in the media world a heavy dose of déjà vu. Back in 2000, a $164 billion deal created #AOL Time Warner, unifying distribution and content along very similar lines to those now being preached by AT&T’s leadership. The results were disastrous. And one of the guys who was there — longtime AOL executive Ted Leonsis — said in hindsight that buying Time Warner wrecked the company’s momentum. “There was friction in the system, even though the base idea [was right:] Convergence, that everything on paper, everything on plastic would become Xs and Os and would be delivered on a platform if you had everyone’s credit card,” Leonsis recalled on the latest episode of Recode Decode, hosted by Kara Swisher. “And you could stream things, because AOL was a private internet. We were the original cloud-based service. But it was just such a big merger and it became so distracting.” For example, after buying instant messaging company ICQ, AOL had been planning to build telephony features into a future messaging product. However, Time Warner put the kibosh on that. “The cable company had its triple play going, so, ‘Oh, you can’t do that,’” he said. “All of a sudden, we went from being young, nimble, playing offense, to really being a defender. And I didn’t like that.” Leonsis was interviewed in September, before the AT&T-Time Warner deal was announced. Now a majority owner of several sports teams and investor in tech companies around the country on behalf of Revolution Growth, he acknowledged that one of AOL’s big mistakes was deciding to become a next-generation media company instead of buying up other nascent internet startups like Amazon, Yahoo or Google.

http://www.recode.net/2016/10/26/13413444/ted-leonsis-aol-time-warner-acquisition-recode-decode-podcast

AT&T’s web TV plan will have more than 100 channels, but CBS isn’t on board yet

Add #AT&T to the list of companies that want to sell you TV over the internet: AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson says his online-only #DirecTV Now package will cost $35 a month and offer more than 100 channels when it launches next month. DirecTV Now will join Dish’s #Sling and #Sony ’s #Vue, which have been on the market for a while and may have around 800,000 subscribers so far. Next year, #Hulu, the service owned by #Disney, #21stCenturyFox and #Comcast, will launch its own live TV service. #Google, among others, is working on one as well. One selling point AT&T will have, for now, is that AT&T mobile subscribers who sign up for DirectTV Now will be able to watch on their devices without having the data usage count against their caps. The bulk of long-form video viewing happens on Wi-Fi networks, not mobile, but that’s still a differentiating feature.

http://www.recode.net/2016/10/25/13408984/att-directv-now-cbs-web-tv

The Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit

The #MicrosoftCognitiveToolkit—previously known as #CNTK—empowers you to harness the intelligence within massive datasets through deep learning by providing uncompromised scaling, speed and accuracy with commercial-grade quality and compatibility with the programming languages and algorithms you already use. Hear about the team that developed the Cognitive Toolkit, or read more below.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/product/cognitive-toolkit/

Supersonic phenomena, the key to extremely low heat loss nanoelectronics Read more: Supersonic phenomena, the key to extremely low heat loss nanoelectronics

Freak waves, as well as other less striking localised excitations, occur in nature at every scale. The current theory and models of such waves can be applied to physics and, among others, to oceanography, nonlinear optics and lasers, acoustics, plasmas, cosmological relativity and neuro-dynamics. However, they could also play a significant role at the quantum scale in #nanoelectronics. In a recent study, Manuel G. Velarde from the Pluridisciplinary Institute of the University Complutense of Madrid, Spain, and colleagues, performed computer simulations to compare two types of localised excitations in nano-electronics. Their findings, published in a recent study in EPJ B ("From solitons to discrete breathers"), confirm that such localised excitations are natural candidates for energy storage and transport. These, in turn, could lead to applications such as transistors with extremely low heat dissipation not using silicon. Spontaneously localised excitations may either be pinned to the crystal lattice--known as discrete breathers--or alternatively may travel, and are then referred to as solitons or spontaneous solitary excitation waves. To further clarify the differences between the two types of excitations, the authors developed a computer simulation. They relied on the direct integration of their dynamics (using an approach known as the standard Runge-Kutta methodology), following a strong initial external pulse on a single lattice unit. The authors focused on the relative influence of the forces leading to these excitations as a result of on-site and inter-site vibrations (corresponding to individual lattice units and relative displacements of units, respectively). Under certain conditions, they found that the discrete breathers evolve into a genuine soliton, moving at supersonic speed within the lattice. These findings confirm that solitons can be used as natural carriers of energy, matter or electric charge--in the latter case, by transferring the soliton-like motion to the charges, allowing them to 'surf' on the soliton wave. Meanwhile, discrete breathers are natural energy traps for energy and can also be used as electric charge carriers under certain conditions.

http://www.nanowerk.com/nanotechnology-news/newsid=44912.php

How often do quantum systems violate the second law of thermodynamics? Read more: How often do quantum systems violate the second law of thermodynamics?

The likelihood of seeing #quantumsystems violating the second law of thermodynamics has been calculated by UCL scientists. In two papers, published in this week's issue of Physical Review X ("Fluctuating States: What is the Probability of a Thermodynamical Transition?" and "Fluctuating Work: From Quantum Thermodynamical Identities to a Second Law Equality") and funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the team determined a more precise version of a basic law of physics - which says that disorder tends to increase with time unless acted on by an outside force - and applied it to the smallest quantum systems. "The vast majority of the time, the second law of thermodynamics is obeyed. It says that a cup of hot coffee in a cold room will cool down rather than heat up, and a collection of coins all initially heads up will likely produce a mixture of heads and tails when given a shake. In fact, it is thanks to the second law of thermodynamics that we instantly recognise when we are watching a movie backwards," explained PhD student Alvaro M. Alhambra (UCL Physics & Astronomy). The team say that situations which break the second law of thermodynamics are not ruled out in principle, but are rare. "We wanted to find out by how much disorder increases, and if disorder sometimes decrease with some probability. These questions become important for small quantum systems where violations of the second law can happen with a significant probability," added co-author Professor Jonathan Oppenheim (UCL Physics & Astronomy).

http://www.nanowerk.com/nanotechnology-news/newsid=44909.php

Google’s Dart programming language returns to the spotlight

Once upon a time, #Google ’s #Dart programming language seemed ready to take on JavaScript as the default language of the web. Google was even going to give it equal billing with #JavaScript in its Chrome browser. But by the time Dart was ready for prime time, JavaScript — and the massive ecosystem around it — was already miles ahead. About a year and a half ago, Google gave up on the idea of Dart as a direct JavaScript competitor and instead repositioned it as a compile-to-JavaScript language along the lines of #TypeScript or #CoffeeScript.

https://techcrunch.com/2016/10/26/googles-dart-programming-language-returns-to-the-spotlight/

Google Snaps Up Startup To Make Virtual Reality Better

#Google GOOG -1.00% is buying #Eyefluence, a company that specializes in eye-tracking technology that in its commercial form helps users navigate inside augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality ( #VR ) applications. Terms were not disclosed. Three-year-old Eyefluence, which is based in Milpitas, Calif., disclosed the news on its website where it was first spotted by Mattermark. Eyefluence had raised about $21.6 million in funding from the venture capital arms of Intel INTC -0.51% , #Motorola MSI -0.78% , and others. The company is working on software that can be incorporated into AR/VR headgear and smart glasses like #GoogleGlass .

http://fortune.com/2016/10/25/google-buys-eyefluence-vr-ar/

Dell President Marius Haas Sees Explosive $40B Channel Growth Opportunity, Pledges Most Profitable Channel Program In The Industry

#Dell #EMC President and Chief Commercial Officer Marius Haas is fired up about going to market with channel partners for one simple reason: he sees no bigger growth opportunity anywhere else in the industry. Haas, a fierce channel advocate who has ultimate responsibility Dell EMC's combined channel sales, said that the vendor, working together with its channel partners, has the potential to add billions in revenues to its coffers.

http://m.crn.com/news/channel-programs/300082600/dell-president-marius-haas-sees-explosive-40b-channel-growth-opportunity-pledges-most-profitable-channel-program-in-the-industry.htm

"Humble" Dell Technologies aims to rebuild channel partnerships

With the dust still settling following the formation of #DellTechnologies, the channel waits with bated breath as the industry's biggest technology merger begins to take shape. Following the merger of #Dell and #EMC, the new-look vendor is aiming to redefine itself in the channel, increasing partner engagement as a result. Dell Technologies cloud client computing solutions global vice-president, Rance Poehler, told ARN that the tech giant is planning to "humble" its approach to the channel, rebuilding partnerships alongside EMC. "The channel is going to see a new day with Dell Technologies," he said. "I’ve been on board with Dell-EMC only 90 days and it’s evident that we need the channel. We didn’t really have a global channel strategy in the past – we didn’t have a distribution strategy or a focused integrator strategy. Each region was working independently. "So what we’re trying to do now is create a global strategy around the channels. I work within a VDI specialty team. Now, with EMC and VMware, we sit in the middle of it all - we’re like the glue because we’re providing virtualisation as a service to all these channels internally."
http://www.arnnet.com.au/article/609152/dell-technologies-humble-its-approach-rebuild-partnerships/

Dell EMC Participates As Platinum Partner At IDC IT Forum 2016

KUWAIT CITY: Dell EMC yesterday announced their participation as a Platinum partner at the IDC IT Forum 2016 being held at Radisson Blu in Kuwait. Through this enabling platform, #Dell #EMC aims to help organizations and IT professionals develop a clearer understanding of digital transformation and create a trusted IT foundation to modernize, automate, and transform their business. With more than 100 IT professionals in attendance, this event brings together world’s leading IT vendors showcasing their pioneering products and services that address the challenges faced by organizations when transitioning to a digital model of business. In addition, visionary enterprise heads and decision makers will share best practices to harness and embrace digital transformation enabling organizations and IT professionals to explore strategies for improving efficiency, fostering innovation, reducing costs, and increasing business competitiveness. With the digital age creating game-changing opportunities at an accelerated pace, IT professionals are tasked with developing new IT efficiencies that enable new ideas to be integrated with existing systems and architecture without disrupting business operations. In line with this objective, Dell EMC’s participation as a Platinum Partner is aimed at helping IT professionals drive innovation and optimization across the scale and breadth of an organization by leveraging its industry-leading converged infrastructure, servers, storage, and data protection technologies. At the event, Samer Saber, ?Country Manager for Kuwait at Dell EMC will partake in a panel discussion titled “Digital Transformation: Leveraging IT to Future Proof Your Business” highlighting the need to embark on the digital transformation journey. Samer Saber will also exchange insights to enable organizations take their first step in meeting their IT vision by leveraging Dell EMC’s best-in-class, easy-to-deploy infrastructure platforms to deliver IT as a service. Also, Ezzat Adhami, Senior Systems Engineer for Kuwait at Dell EMC will engage in an insightful session to help organizations understand the importance of modernizing their data center and leveraging Dell EMC’s best-in-class converged infrastructure platforms to add more value to their IT investments.

http://news.kuwaittimes.net/website/dell-emc-participates-platinum-partner-idc-forum-2016/

BoB Conference Exclusive: NetApp's George Kurian On The Pitfalls of Dell EMC, Flawed Hyper-Converged Technology And How His Mom Was A Decade Ahead Of Her Time

There's a major transformation underway in the storage industry, with the cloud, #hyperconverged infrastructure and other factors driving major industry shifts. While some companies, like #Dell and #EMC, are looking to consolidate, #NetApp CEO George Kurian said the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based storage vendor is positioned to win as an independent company, with a focused strategy that makes calculated decisions to drive leading technology and partnerships in the market. In a keynote interview with The Channel Company CEO Robert Faletra at the 2016 Best of Breed Conference in Atlanta, Kurian talked about the Dell-EMC deal, why hyper-converged is overrated, the future of the cloud, the upcoming presidential election and much more. Here are edited excerpts of the conversation.
http://m.crn.com/slide-shows/storage/300082557/bob-conference-exclusive-netapps-george-kurian-on-the-pitfalls-of-dell-emc-flawed-hyper-converged-technology-and-how-his-mom-was-a-decade-ahead-of-her-time.htm

Who is most likely to buy Avaya’s networking business?

Earlier this year Forbes posted an article speculating that #Avaya ’s private equity firm, #SilverLake was exploring a sale of the company or at least parts of it. Private equity companies typically hold its portfolio companies for three to five years and then divest themselves of it through an IPO or a sale to another organization. The Avaya situation is somewhat of a rarity because it’s coming up on 10 years since Silver Lake took ownership of it. Avaya is a strong company with good products that has been trying to transform itself into more of a software and services company, but it is saddled with debt. A sale of its contact center and/or networking business could help offset that debt and put the rest of Avaya in a much better position.

http://www.networkworld.com/article/3134489/software-defined-networking/who-is-most-likely-to-buy-avayas-networking-business.html

Nexenta CEO to Present the How Digital Transformation Is Influencing Software-Defined Infrastructures at NASSCOM Product Conclave 2016

SANTA CLARA, CA--(Marketwired - October 25, 2016) -  #Nexenta (@Nexenta), the global leader in Open Source-driven Software-Defined Storage ( #OpenSDS ), today announced that Nexenta Chairman and CEO, Tarkan Maner, will be a keynote speaker at the NASSCOM Product Conclave (NPC) 2016 (@NASSCOM_Product, #NPC2016). In its thirteenth year, NPC 2016 brings together emerging and seasoned entrepreneurs for a 2 day conference in Bangalore, India. This year's event will focus on "Navigating Turbulent Times" and will deliver a platform to drive conversations with global leaders allowing you to capture opportunities yet to be tapped. During his keynote, Tarkan will be joined by #Nutanix Founder and CEO, Dheeraj Pandey. These Silicon Valley #Unicorns will discuss how "Everything is Software." Following Dheeraj's IPO story, Tarkan will offer his unique perspective of navigating startups, gained through years of experience as an entrepreneur and industry leader. With MR Rangaswami as host, they'll discuss in a technology era where software is everything: What are the new opportunities for entrepreneurs? What is the next wave for cloud? How are data analytics reshaping the landscape? Why is Silicon Valley the hotbed for innovation? "We are thrilled to have Tarkan Maner back to speak at NPC 2016," said MR Rangaswami. "His insight on the global ecosystem and how to stay disruptive with technology will be extremely valuable to the experts, investors, founders and mentors attending this year." NPC will take place October 26 & 27, 2016 at The VIVANTA by Taj hotel in Bangalore.
http://m.marketwired.com/press-release/nexenta-ceo-present-how-digital-transformation-is-influencing-software-defined-infrastructures-2169324.htm

VMware Joins Dell and Dell EMC's Membership on the Steering Committee of the Industrial Internet Consortium

PALO ALTO, CA--(Marketwired - October 25, 2016) -  #VMware, Inc. (VMW) today announced that it is participating in the Industrial Internet Consortium ( #IIC ), an open membership, international not-for-profit consortium that is setting architectural frameworks and direction for the Industrial Internet of Things ( #IIoT ). VMware will participate in the IIC as a voting member through the steering committee, as a component of the membership seat currently held by Dell and #Dell #EMC. Collectively, VMware, Dell and Dell EMC have committed to serve three years on the committee, joining #IBM, #SAP, #GeneralElectric, #Fujitsu, #Intel, The #MITRE Corporation, #RTI, and #SchneiderElectric to align standards and innovation in the Internet of Things ( #IoT ) space. As members of the steering committee, VMware, in conjunction with Dell and Dell EMC, will be heavily involved in providing input, guidance and direction to the organization around standards for IoT and participating in test beds and studies to maximize contributions to the IIC and the rapidly expanding IIoT. 

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/vmware-joins-dell-dell-emcs-120000630.html

Cloud firm VMware to soon have broader coverage in India: Top official

 With an enhanced line of products like Hybrid Cloud which gives customers the full software-defined data centre ( #SDDC ) experience, #VMware will soon have a much broader coverage in India, a top executive of the company — a leader in cloud infrastructure and mobility — said here on Tuesday. “VMware has been a very strong player in the enterprise space. We have covered the small and medium businesses (SMBs) market strategically and for us. It is not only tier I cities as we wish to cover tier II and tier III cities as well,” Arun Kumar Parameswaran, Managing Director of VMware India, told IANS on the sidelines of the annual “vFORUM 2016” event here.
http://www.financialexpress.com/industry/companies/cloud-firm-vmware-to-soon-have-broader-coverage-in-india-top-official/429744/