IBM
IBM spins ultrasharp nanomanufacturing tool 100,000X smaller than a pencil tip
IBM says it has developed a silicon carbide tip for nanomanufacturing applications that it claims is a thousand times more wear-resistant than current tool bits and 100,000 times smaller than a pencil tip.
IBM scientists say the the new tip can be used to fabricate all manner of bio sensors, for example for managing glucose levels in diabetic patients or monitoring pollution levels in water. Read more
Software-Defined Networking Evolution (Not Revolution) Under Way
Is it too early or too late to declare 2012 the year of SDN? A few weeks ago, IBM and NEC introduced integrated technologies around OpenFlow for enterprise data centers. Last week, HP announced OpenFlow support with 16 switch models. Finally, early this week, Nicira went public with its Distributed Virtual Network Infrastructure (DVNI).
F5 Shakes Up the Firewall Market
The high-end of the firewall market has really been dominated by two companies: Crossbeam Systems (with Check Point Software) and Juniper Networks. Over the past few years, these two firms won most of the high revenue/high margin enterprise and service provider deals.
Of course, others took notice and wanted their own piece of the pie. Cisco came out with its ASA 5580 a few years back. Network security guru Sourcefire introduced a high-end hardware architecture and a firewall in 2011. Finally, Check Point jumped in with its own high-end hardware as well. Read more
My Thoughts on IBM, NEC, and OpenFlow
IBM and NEC announced this week that the two companies will work together to offer networking solutions based upon SDN and OpenFlow. IBM provides the switches which are integrated with the NEC Programmable Flow Controller.
To me, this is bigger than just a press release and some joint marketing programs. Here’s why:
Information Security Budgets Will Increase in 2012
Submitted by joltsik on Tue, 01/24/12 - 10:56am.As part of our annual IT Spending Intentions survey, ESG asks IT professionals about overall spending trends for the coming year. Like other analyst firms, ESG found that IT budgets will increase in 2012, albeit at a modest rate. Read more
Information Security Budgets Will Increase in 2012
Submitted by joltsik on Tue, 01/24/12 - 10:56am.As part of our annual IT Spending Intentions survey, ESG asks IT professionals about overall spending trends for the coming year. Like other analyst firms, ESG found that IT budgets will increase in 2012, albeit at a modest rate. Read more
Data Center Networking Discontinuity
Why did dinosaurs become extinct? I’m no paleontologist but allow me to provide an over-simplified explanation: When the environment went through radical alterations, dinosaurs couldn’t adequately adapt to these changes. In a binary, “adapt or die” world, the dinosaurs died.
A similar binary situation is developing with data center networks. On the one hand, the environment is going through some radical changes. According to ESG Research:
A quick look at the creation of computer-language translation efforts -- 58 years ago this month
Hard to imagine but it has been 58 years since IBM and Georgetown University teamed up to run what they said was at the time the first English-to-Russian language computer translation program.
Perhaps even more interesting is that the individual phrases they that were plugged into punch cards and run on the big IBM 701 mainframe in 1954, can now be typed into Google Translate on my smartphone and handled in about 10 seconds. Read more
Privacy Freaks Rejoice: Privacy to be a 'Hot Job Skill' in 2012
Unlike, from the Captain Obvious department, when the FBI warned hacktivists are breaking the law.... IBM did go "out on a limb to predict the next five big things" but to quote Richi Jennings those IBM predictions are "full of FAIL." Read more
IBM goes out on a limb to predict next 5 big things
IBM today issued its sixth annual look at what Big Blue thinks will be the five biggest technologies for the next five years. In past prediction packages the company has had some success in predicting the future with telemedicine and nanotechnology.
This year IBM thinks very soon people will never need passwords; mind reading will happen; the so-called digital divide will cease to exist and junk mail will become important. Read more
Automated Security Remediation On The Rise
APTs and other types of sophisticated attacks are undoubtedly changing information security processes, technologies, and skills, but ESG found another interesting transition in progress: Given the volume, sophistication, and surreptitious nature of APTs, large organizations are apparently willing to adopt more automated security technologies as a means for attack remediation. Read more
Automated Security Remediation On The Rise
Submitted by joltsik on Mon, 12/05/11 - 12:00pm. APTs and other types of sophisticated attacks are undoubtedly changing information security processes, technologies, and skills, but ESG found another interesting transition in progress: Given the volume, sophistication, and surreptitious nature of APTs, large organizations are apparently willing to adopt more automated security technologies as a means for attack remediation.Read more
Cisco a no show in 40G Ethernet market report
Market research firm Dell'Oro Group recently began tracking the 40G Ethernet market as 10G takes hold and grows, necessitating 40G uplinks, aggregation switches and core modules. And the market leaders are IBM and Extreme Networks. Read more
The IBM Security Systems Division
I spent the last few days at IBM's "Software Analyst Connect 2011" event. Before attending this event, I was pretty clear on why IBM bought Q1 Labs and why it formed a new security division. After attending this event, I have some further thoughts about this move: Read more
Cyber Monday sales climb 33%
Online sales jumped 33% yesterday compared to last year's Cyber Monday tally. In addition, average order size increased 2.6% from $193.24 to $198.26, according to data from IBM.
HOLIDAY PREP: Target's website woes getting fixed, CEO says Read more
Heavy online shopping took a toll on website performance
U.S. consumers shopped big on Thanksgiving and the day after the holiday, but many retailers' websites couldn't keep up with the heavy loads.
HOLIDAY PREP: Geekiest holiday cards Read more
Mobile shoppers help drive online sales surge on Thanksgiving
What did U.S. consumers do in between servings of turkey, stuffing and pie? Surfed the web and shopped big. Online retail sales jumped 39.3% on Thanksgiving, compared to last year's single-day holiday total.
The online shopping feast continued the day after Thanksgiving, driving online sales up 24.3% on Black Friday compared to the same period last year, according to IBM.
HOLIDAY PREP: Geekiest holiday cards Read more
Data Security and APTs
As part of our recent APT research, ESG asked security professionals working at U.S.-based enterprise organizations (i.e. more than 1,000 employees) if APTs had caused their organizations to purchase and deploy new information security technologies. About 40% are doing so.
What's interesting is the types of investments they are making in order to protect sensitive data. For example:
* 54% of organizations that purchased new tools as a result of APTs are investing in data encryption technologies Read more
IBM: Analytics, mobile, cloud, social applications will drive future IT development
It's clear by the increasing use of analytics software that companies are struggling to get their hands around the huge amounts of data it takes to run a successful business. But developing social, mobile, cloud computing and other applications are also driving the need for new technical skills. Read more
Windows Comes to the Mainframe Mountain
A CA exec once told me if a mainframe crashes three times in year, that is an unreliable computer. If your PC crashes three times in one day, it's been a good day. Ok, so this was in the days of Windows 3.1, but the joke always stuck with me.
One thing that hasn't changed is mainframe reliability. They are still the gold standard for uptime and reliability, and with 40 years of development, there isn't much for alternatives. Maybe that's why despite repeated declarations that the mainframe, it continues to survive, thrive, and see significant updates from IBM. Read more
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