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This is part 2. If you missed part 1, then you may read that here.
Red Hat launches initiative to drive enterprise adoption of OpenStack
Red Hat, Inc. announced a new initiative called On-Ramp to Enterprise OpenStack to drive enterprise adoption of OpenStack, the popular framework for building and managing private, public, and hybrid Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) clouds. Red Hat is closely collaborating with Intel on the On-Ramp to Enterprise OpenStack program, educating customers on the benefits and capabilities of Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform running on Intel® Architecture and making it easier for organizations to evaluate and validate Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform for their private and hybrid cloud initiatives.
"Red Hat's longstanding relationship with Intel has played a key role in the adoption of Linux as the strong enterprise platform we see today," Radhesh Balakrishnan, general manager, Virtualization, Red Hat. "Like Linux in its early days, collaboration among technology industry leaders can help foster enterprise adoption of OpenStack. As Red Hat’s OpenStack vision and solutions gain momentum, On-Ramp to Enterprise OpenStack represents the next level of our collaboration with Intel, and I am excited about the opportunity we mutually face to help demystify OpenStack and show enterprise organizations its true potential."
"The On-Ramp to Enterprise OpenStack program for private, public, and hybrid cloud deployments is a natural extension of Intel and Red Hat's long-standing collaboration in enterprise Linux," said Imad Sousou, vice president and general manager of Intel's Open Source Technology Center.
"The combination of Intel Architecture and Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform helps form a secure, trusted, high-performance platform for these cloud deployments and provides end users a quick and easy way to evaluate, learn about, and deploy important use cases like trusted compute pools."
For more than a decade, Red Hat has collaborated with technology industry leaders, including Intel, to bring enterprise-grade features, including security, reliability, scalability, and performance, to Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Red Hat has also worked with Intel to optimize kernel-based virtual machine (KVM) since its inception and to enhance KVM virtualization management in oVirt and Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization. Most recently, Red Hat has enhanced the security of open hybrid clouds with trusted compute pools using Intel® Trusted Execution Technology (Intel® TXT). Trusted compute pools with Intel TXT help protect servers from BIOS and firmware attacks and provide hardware-based verification for use in meeting enterprise compliance requirements.
In June 2013, Red Hat announced its OpenStack-powered product offerings, including Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform, a solution that serves as the foundation for advanced cloud users who are seeking to build an OpenStack-powered cloud, and Red Hat Cloud Infrastructure, a comprehensive offering designed to support organizations on their journey from traditional datacenter virtualization to OpenStack-powered clouds.
Through the new On-Ramp to Enterprise OpenStack program, organizations can build their open hybrid cloud strategy via education and easily evaluate Red Hat's OpenStack solutions.
The On-Ramp to Enterprise OpenStack program has two specific components, including:
Scality announces immediate release of Scality RING 4.2, the first object storage solution with native NFS
Scality announced the immediate release of Scality RING 4.2. Release 4.2 expands support for universal data access with the introduction of new file sharing protocols including NFS and CIFS.
Beyond seamless access to these standard file systems, Release 4.2 extends the RING’s data protection capabilities to NFS and CIFS thanks to Scality’s GeoSync, which provides file-level synchronization between data centers.
NFS, CIFS and AFP Expand Scality’s Open Cloud Access Support for Industry Standard File Systems
Release 4.2 expands Scality’s Open Cloud Access initiative with the inclusion of native NFS version 3, CIFS with Samba 3.5 support, AppleTalk Filing Protocol (AFP) based on Netatalk 3.x and open source or commercial FTP. Unlike other object storage products, which can only be accessed through REST API or, only support file protocols with ad-hoc gateways, the release of RING 4.2 demonstrates Scality’s commitment to native interoperability with the most widely adopted industry-standard file systems. Furthermore, using RING Release 4.2, a file can be stored by an application using NFS, and read by another application using a REST API.
“Our Open Cloud Access strategy, first announced in September 2012, seeks to offer universal, ubiquitous and unified access to data stored in the RING—a single means of providing native local and remote and file and object data access. Today Scality supports REST/HTTP protocols such as Amazon’s S3 API, CDMI, NFS, CIFS, AFP and FTP as well as FUSE. All data written through the REST API or file interface can be read through any of the other interfaces, and can be analyzed in place using Hadoop framework. In addition, Scality RING supports block storage for OpenStack via Cinder. Release 4.2 offers customers the broadest range of native information access available from any object storage provider,” said Jérôme Lecat, CEO of Scality.
GeoSync Data Protection Extended to NFS and Other File Systems
In addition to expanded support for standard file access protocols, RING Release 4.2 brings a data copy facility. GeoSync supports synchronous and asynchronous block-level and file-level replication across datacenters. Now files can enjoy the same level of data protection as object-based data.
“Thanks to GeoSync, Scality can replicate object, file system and block environments across data centers. This brings the cost and data protection efficiency of object storage to traditional applications which cannot be easily transformed to handle a REST API. RING 4.2 is the most comprehensive solution to store and protect petabyte-scale data on a global scale. It enables traditional datacenters to benefit from object storage right now, while having a path towards a software defined datacenter architecture,” said Philippe Nicolas, Director of Product Strategy at Scality.
Tarmin signs distribution agreement with Ingram Micro
Tarmin Inc. has signed a U.S. distribution agreement with Ingram Micro Inc. (NYSE: IM), the world's largest wholesale technology distributor and a global leader in IT supply-chain, mobile device lifecycle services and logistics solutions. Tarmin plans to leverage Ingram Micro to distribute its GridBank solution and build on its leadership in the new market of Data Defined Storage, a revolutionary industry category that is gaining traction among organizations that have outgrown traditional storage methodologies.
“With the explosive growth in data storage requirements, Data Defined Storage represents new opportunities for our channel partners who are well positioned to turn data into a strategic business asset for their customers,” said Bill Brandel, senior director, Advanced Computing Division, Ingram Micro U.S. “We look forward to working together with Tarmin to help our channel partners solve end-user business problems such as managing and protecting big data”.
As a distributor of Tarmin GridBank, Ingram Micro is providing its channel partners with a solution that is designed to consolidate unstructured data across desktops, laptops, intelligent portable devices, network file shares, collaboration applications, messaging environments – virtually any semi or unstructured data stores - into a single realm of control to finally unlock the true potential value of enterprise data.
“Data Defined Storage is poised to deliver enormous opportunity to Ingram Micro's channel and across-the-board improvements in how end users scale, secure and derive value from information,” said Shahbaz Ali, President and CEO of Tarmin. “Expanding our market presence will allow us to reach new markets and assist channel partners who are hungry for solutions that overcome the limitations of traditional storage architectures and focus on the value of data as a strategic business enabler.”
Tarmin also revealed that it has signed BMR, a value added reseller (VAR) in Turkey. By joining Tarmin’s OverDrive Program (TOP), BMR expands the growing ecosystem of distributors and resellers offering Data Defined Storage. With the partnership, BMR and Tarmin are delivering Data Defined Storage solutions to help regional customers gain understanding and value from data and information assets, reduce regulatory and compliance risks, and lower the total cost of ownership of data storage requirements.
As a leading business IT infrastructure solution provider, BMR will resell Tarmin GridBank solutions to satisfy big data management and archiving needs of companies in the capital city of Ankara, the Anatolia region and throughout the Republic of Turkey. Tarmin GridBank, the premier Data Defined Storage solution will join BMR’s portfolio of complementary technologies including server, data storage, virtualization, backup, archiving and high availability products and services offered to customers in the public, general, holding, finance and telecom sectors.
“We are excited to be the first to bring Data Defined Storage solutions to Turkey. Tarmin GridBank fulfills a wide range of critical storage and data management objectives for our clients and is a critical piece of our solutions portfolio,” said Burak Çetinay, general manager of BMR. “This partnership is the foundation of a mutually beneficial relationship as Turkey is a thriving marketplace for revolutionary solutions that target the needs of new government-created IT companies, local ministries and departments, Telcos, universities, hospitals, banks, insurance companies and others.”
Through TOP Tarmin provides support to partners who focus on addressing clients' data management and storage challenges allowing them to maximize the value of their unique expertise by leveraging the GridBank platform. Designed to restore structure and control over the management of data and information, GridBank provides customers innovation and value in a flexible, secure and cost-effective offering.
“Since launching the Tarmin OverDrive Program, we have signed leading resellers around the world , extending GridBank’s market availability to customers throughout the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, the Netherlands and now Turkey,” said Shahbaz Ali, president and CEO of Tarmin. “Working closely with global partners allows Tarmin to share its success with resellers who leverage GridBank for the benefit of their customers. We look forward to a prosperous relationship with BMR and are pleased to be part of their portfolio of leading-edge solutions.”
Tarmin's TOP partners receive a dedicated channel representative, co-marketing activities, market development funds, intensive sales training, pre- and post-sales technical resources and support, and pre-qualified leads to help maximize business opportunities.
Tarmin also gave details of how, working with Queen Mary University of London, advance departmental collaboration has initiated phase one of a Data Defined Storage project. Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), one of the UK’s preeminent research universities continues to pursue technological innovation by embracing Tarmin’s state of the art software platform, GridBank. QMUL is spearheading the use of Data Defined Storage in academia with Tarmin’s data centric methodology that is without comparison in the uniqueness of what it offers. QMUL is working to satisfy the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) expectations for Research Data Management (http://Tarm.in/EPSRCInfo).
The need for a robust data management solution was a result of the EPSRC’s new policy that mandates research funded by the institution is archived and made available to the public. Organizations such as QMUL are required to act in accordance with the principles set forth by the EPSRC, or they may possibly face sanctions, including loss of public funding. Ranked 11th in the UK for research by The Guardian newspaper, QMUL is continuously on the cusp of the latest technology, identifying ways to maximize opportunity and deliver superior research. To deliver on this reputation, and continue to be a valuable resource for the public by adhering to the EPSRC expectations, QMUL has collaborated with Tarmin to provide a consolidated storage platform for research data.
The Tarmin GridBank solution was tailored for the education market, allowing QMUL to provide a comprehensive storage and data management solution for their researchers. Tarmin has worked very closely with QMUL IT Services to fine tune the system to fit the complex requirements of the University in meeting the EPSRC mandates. Phase two will consist of a complete product deployment, where the solution will grant researchers a high performance, centralized and scalable repository for live data with long term retention for archived projects.
“After a thorough evaluation, we have determined that data centricity is instrumental to our success in meeting the ESPRC expectations and providing easy collaboration around research data.” said Richard Christie, Assistant Director for Research, IT Services at QMUL. “GridBank will allow us to rise up to the challenge of meeting the EPSRC expectations, and provides a robust solution that exceeds our expectations, consolidates our storage and facilitates heightened cooperation of research across the university and the community as a whole.”
“Data Defined Storage represents ample opportunity for Queen Mary University of London as they continue to raise the bar, and set the expectations for other universities to follow”, said Shahbaz Ali, president and CEO of Tarmin. “We look forward to this continued relationship as QMUL progresses with Data Defined Storage, evolving into a true data visionary, thriving on the unparalleled capabilities in managing, scaling, and gaining actionable insights from GridBank in the education industry.”
Veeam announces record Q3 2013 results
Veeam® Software revealed record results for the third quarter of 2013 (Q3 13), continuing its expansion in all major global markets as the company drives toward its goal of $1 billion in revenue within five years. Total bookings revenue increased 41 percent in Q3 13 compared to the same period in 2012, and new license bookings revenue grew 36 percent over the same period. Total bookings growth increased 60 percent year-over-year for the first three quarters of 2013. This also marks the 29th consecutive quarter of revenue growth for Veeam.
With customers in 175 countries worldwide, Veeam saw particularly strong growth in the large enterprise market segment in EMEA: from Q3 12 to Q3 13, the Northern EMEA region posted 227 percent growth; Southern EMEA saw 95 percent growth and Eastern Europe and MEA [Middle East / Africa] experienced 223 percent growth.
“The success of the recent release of Veeam Backup & Replication v7 once again raised the standard for Modern Data Protection™ for enterprise customers. This well-earned reputation for constant innovation has made us one of the fastest growing software companies in the world,” said Ratmir Timashev, CEO of Veeam. “In fact, we feel so strongly about the value and capabilities of our solutions that this quarter, we have rolled out a new “Upgrade Your Backup” competitive replacement (available only in North America) program that enables IT organizations to put Veeam in their modern datacenter for the same price as – or often much less than – the annual renewal cost of their existing legacy backup solution.”
AirWatch earns three MobITS Awards
AirWatch announced that it won three MobITS Awards for its Mobile Device Management (MDM), Mobile Application Management (MAM) and Secure Content Locker™ (SCL) solutions. The awards were presented by CTIA-The Wireless Association®® at MobileCON® 2013 in San Jose.
The MobITS Awards recognize the most innovative solutions that help IT professionals manage and leverage mobility for more success, effectiveness and efficiency.
At MobileCON 2013, CTIA presented AirWatch with the following awards:
“CTIA was proud to announce AirWatch won MobITS Awards in three different categories,” said Robert Mesirow, vice president and show director, CTIA.
“Our panel of judges felt that AirWatch’s solutions for mobile device management, mobile application management and cloud collaboration exemplified the solutions that help IT professionals enhance their job performance.”
The three winning solutions from AirWatch –MDM, MAM and SCL – enable businesses to address challenges associated with mobility through the integrated EMM platform or as a standalone solution. AirWatch MDM allows organizations to manage, configure and update device settings seamlessly over-the-air, enforce security policies and secure mobile access to corporate resources. AirWatch MAM enables IT administrators to distribute, secure and track mobile applications from a single management console. Secure Content Locker provides the ability for organizations to protect sensitive content in a corporate container for employees to securely access the latest corporate materials.
“The most security-conscious organizations in the world rely on our solutions for mobile device, application and content management,” said John Marshall, president and CEO, AirWatch. “We’ve developed our solutions from the ground up to provide an integrated mobile security platform. Receiving recognition for major components of the AirWatch platform cements our position as the market leader in enterprise mobility.”
C7 Data Centers adopts Dot Hill
Dot Hill Systems Corp. announced that C7 Data Centers, a leader in outsourced IT solutions, has selected Dot Hill's AssuredSAN Pro 5000 Series 100 terabyte offering, with real-time automated tiering for single tenant private cloud solutions. C7 Data Centers is incorporating the AssuredSAN Pro 5000 Series into its recently introduced private cloud configuration which provides affordable cloud-based redundancy for physical and virtual production environments.
"Many companies are looking at cloud implementations to grow IT resources without increasing support and hardware costs," said Jim Jonez, senior director of marketing, Dot Hill. "C7 Data Centers and Dot Hill are working together to provide a responsive, reliable, and cost-effective infrastructure. The Dot Hill AssuredSAN Pro 5000 Series allows cloud customers to increase capacity without having to purchase additional licenses, providing savings to their bottom line."
"We're confident that in our FuseApp Private Cloud and Private Cloud Suite solutions we've found the right mix of technologies to provide a robust, affordable failover solution for physical and virtual production environments that is easy to scale," said Wes Swenson, CEO, C7 Data Centers. "The Dot Hill AssuredSAN Pro 5000 Series provides 99.999 percent availability and real-time tiering — features that meet the performance requirements of a production site."
The AssuredSAN Pro 5000 Series features built-in intelligence that responds to data access needs autonomically, or without human intervention or policy setting. The AssuredSAN Pro Series, with RealStor™ software takes tiered storage to a new level — beyond other automated tiered storage systems using off-hours batch migration, and into a new era of autonomic, real-time data tiering.
The AssuredSAN Pro 5000 Series is a high-performance, highly available and reliable integrated storage array that delivers consistently faster access to current data with built-in, real-time autonomic tiered storage and virtualization. The AssuredSAN Pro Series detects priorities for data access immediately to optimize the delivery of priority/high demand data in real time. Faster I/O is achieved in part through real-time, automated data tiering, which prioritizes data files, volumes or blocks between tiered storage using built-in analysis and data scoring.
Methode’s Data Solutions Group showcases DCIM and cabling
Methode’s Data Solutions Group recently announced its collaboration to provide a turn-key DCIM solution that integrates Methode hardware with Norlinx software. The Methode and Norlinx DCIM solution combines monitoring and analytics into a single, easy-to-install tool suite, allowing customers to achieve rapid return on investment and immediate benefits.
“Our comprehensive DCIM product equips data centers with immediate monitoring, reporting and control,” said Tim Hazzard, president of Methode Electronics Data Solutions Group. “Data center managers are apprised of environmental measurements—such as temperature, airflow and humidity—as well as operations and security details in real time. This strategic relationship between Methode and Norlinx gives our customers comprehensive data center intelligence.”
The Quantum™ Cabling Solution maximizes valuable rack space, while saving time and improving troubleshooting and MAC (move-add-change) activities when compared to traditional cabling methods. It is capable of handling the highest port count hardware on the market and is simple to install and easy to manage.
“We know data center managers are looking for ways to increase port density in enterprise data center applications, but that can present challenges for technicians managing the cabling. Methode’s Quantum™ Cabling Solution streamlines and simplifies installation and maintenance, saving our customers time and money,” Hazzard said.
Toshiba launches Embedded NAND Flash Memory Modules using 19nm second generation process technology
Toshiba Corporation announced the launch of new embedded NAND flash memory modules integrating NAND chips fabricated with 19nm second generation process technology. The module is fully compliant with the latest e•MMCTM [1] standard, and is designed for application in a wide range of digital consumer products, including smartphones, tablet PCs and digital video cameras. Mass production will start from the end of November.
Demand continues to grow for large density NAND flash memory chips that can support high resolution video and deliver enhanced storage. This is particularly true in the area of embedded memories with a controller function, which minimize development requirements and ease integration into system designs. Toshiba is meeting this demand by reinforcing its line-up of high density memory products.
The company’s new 32-gigabyte (GB) embedded device integrates four 64Gbit (equal to 8GB) NAND chips fabricated with Toshiba's cutting-edge 19nm second generation process technology and a dedicated controller into a small package measuring only 11.5 x 13 x 1.0mm. It is compliant with JEDEC Version 5.0, published by JEDEC in September, and achieves a high read/write performance by applying the new HS400 high speed interface standard.
Toshiba will bring the NAND chips to a line-up of single-package embedded NAND flash memories in densities from 4GB to 128GB. All will integrate a controller to manage basic control functions for NAND applications.
That completes the Powering the Cloud 2013 review.
