Monday, June 30, 2008

Stamp of Approval

In the latest edition of the German Network Computing magazine, they tested the Smart 116 IP in a small-medium size business environment: a local user and a remote user (100m distant) operating 4 PS/2 servers (windows 2003 and linux based), connected to a 100 mbit/s-switch.



Only eight manufacturers sent a solution for this scenario: Aten , Avocent, Belkin, Raritan, Daxten, D-link, Gutermann & Drunk and Lindy. The first four companies (and Minicom) used UTP cable solutions, and the rest, KVM cable. The test concluded that UTP is better because it is easier to find at resellers, it doesn’t need a special adapter and it goes longer distances.

Test result: On a scale of 0-5, the Smart 116IP got 4. This was the same as the Avocent AutoView3100 solution. Top marks went to the Lindy KVM-Switch U8-Modular (using a KVM extender instead of KVM IP) which got 4.68 points. The positive points of the Smart 116IP were the security functions and the KVM.net.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

MultiMedia

SearchDataCenter.Com has a number of different webcasts, podcasts and videocasts which are defintely worth having a look at. They cover a wide range of topics such as data center efficiency and protecting your virtual environment.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Cisco 3.0

Did you see the interesting announcements about the vision Cisco has for their data centers.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Real Needs™ Webinar Today

We are going to be having a webinar today at 2pm EDT titled:
Cost Effective Solutions for Remote Data Center Access.

If there are still spaces available you can reserve your place here.

In today's unstable economy, many companies are slashing their IT budgets leaving little or no money for Data Center technology upgrades. Organizations needs Remote Access to increase efficiency and reduce those late night trips to the office.
Thanks to the webinar you can learn how you can give your Data Center’s KVM infrastructure a facelift and transform it into a remotely accessible IP system without replacing your legacy KVM switches.

Best of all, you can accomplish this upgrade at a fraction of the cost without sacrificing your Real Needs. Not only will you be paying less by just adding on, it is the greener way to do it.

The webinar will focus on:
• Why we suggest not throwing out perfectly good KVM switches and serial devices just because you need to upgrade to an IP environment
• How you save time, money, and training headaches by concentrating on your Real Needs
• What our competitors do not want you to know ---how to extend the lives of your products.

System Requirements:
PC-based attendees - Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista
Macintosh®-based attendees - Mac OS® X 10.3.9 (Panther®) or newer

Thursday, June 19, 2008

IBM's Green Data Center

Yesterday we posted about the opening of IBM's new green data center. Now see a short clip about it. Take a look - it's well worth watching.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Greenier

There is news today that IBM just opened its Greenest Data Center in North America. IBM is serious about its committment to being green and it would be great if a lot of companies followed suit.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Real Needs Webinar

We are going to be having a webinar on June 25 2pm EDT titled: Cost Effective Solutions for Remote Data Center Access.

Space is limited so reserve your place here to avoid missing out.

In today's unstable economy, many companies are slashing their IT budgets leaving little or no money for Data Center technology upgrades. Organizations needs Remote Access to increase efficiency and reduce those late night trips to the office.
Thanks to the webinar you can learn how you can give your Data Center’s KVM infrastructure a facelift and transform it into a remotely accessible IP system without replacing your legacy KVM switches.

Best of all, you can accomplish this upgrade at a fraction of the cost without sacrificing your Real Needs. Not only will you be paying less by just adding on, it is the greener way to do it.

The webinar will focus on:
• Why we suggest not throwing out perfectly good KVM switches and serial devices just because you need to upgrade to an IP environment
• How you save time, money, and training headaches by concentrating on your Real Needs
• What our competitors do not want you to know ---how to extend the lives of your products.

System Requirements:
PC-based attendees - Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista
Macintosh®-based attendees - Mac OS® X 10.3.9 (Panther®) or newer

Monday, June 16, 2008

Real Needs

Today we launched the KVM.net® II centralized remote access system. It empowers IT administrators to remotely access all their distributed IT assets such as KVM, serial, power and network devices via a single IP address.

Today’s IT departments must work with multiple interfaces, user names and passwords. KVM.net® II radically simplifies life for these IT managers by providing centralized, unified secure access to all their globally distributed services and network devices via a single click of a link on the portal.

KVM.net® II’s powerful Access Services™ feature supports a wide range of remote access technologies including KVM, Serial, RDP, VNC, SSH, Telnet, VMware, HP ILO and web services.
IT managers are excited about the auto login feature that bypasses the login pages of the predefined access services providing a seamless expedited access experience.

Minicom designed an intuitive graphical user interface that makes configuration so simple; the entire system can be learned in a day. Minicom has also responded to the budgetary restrictions on IT departments by offering a unique Real Needs™ approach. As the only centralized remote access system to offer 3rd party switch support, KVM.net® II rejuvenates your existing KVM infrastructure.

With Minicom’s unique Real Needs™ approach you simply add a technology layer on top of your analog KVM switches, safeguarding your investment and maximizing ROI. This cost-effective solution, where you buy only what you need, costs less than half the price of competing systems. It also provides the market’s most environmentally friendly solution, as it “recycles” your existing KVM infrastructure. KVM.net® II’s open architecture even keeps your future options open, by allowing you to add the equipment that best suits you when the need arises.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Bank of America Doubles Up

Bank of America is planning a $90 million expansion to its data center in Kansas City. According to the proposal, the data center would be 140,000 square feet on two levels. Expect to see and hear more data center news about banks.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

The Data Center Journal

Not sure if you know about this but the Data Center Journal is a fantastic resource.

It has oodles of information about data centers such as White Papers devoted to data centers, a data center glossary and a data center forum.
Keep an eye on it.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Going Green

IBM is launching an expanded line of data centers that use a modular design to significantly reduce cut energy consumption in half. According to experts, data centers account for about 2 percent of global energy consumption.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

The IBM Way

Forbes.com has an interesting interview with Bernard Meyerson, chief technologist for IBM's systems and technology group. He makes some good points on ways to boost performance in a data center.

Sunday, June 08, 2008

Olympic Data Center

Would you like to see something impressive? How about the Data Center which will be used for the Beijing Olympics?

Thursday, June 05, 2008

Infocomm 2008

Infocomm 2008 is now just a few weeks away. Should be a fantastic couple of days. Check back here for everything you need to know about Infocomm 08.

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Being Green Saving Green

Here is an interesting article about turning your data center being green. Reality doesn't always mirror want people want. The surveys reveal that nearly 75 percent said green computing was “at least somewhat of a priority,” but only 44 percent said they had any specific plans in place.
And as Symantec’s 2007 Green Data Center Report found - only one in seven data center managers either started or had begun to lay plans to have a green data center.
It's not easy to turn everything upside in the pursuit of being green but the rewards are well worth it. The significant cost savings alone!

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Lonely Planet

There are more articles speaking about the fire at the Planet Data Center. ComputerWorld and Mashable both put in their two cents worth.

Monday, June 02, 2008

Fire Up

Fires seem to be in the news first with Universal Studios and with The Planet. They have six large data centers in Texas, one of which had a fire. Apparently the damage wasn't to the servers but causing the power to go out. You can follow the play by play on The Planet's Forum. The poor people who now have no internet are probably going out of their mind. We've growned so used to having 24/7 access that as soon as it goes down we feel at a loose end.

Sunday, June 01, 2008

Doing It Like Google

Here is an interesting article about Google and its data centers. As you can imagine these data centers are mission critical and processing billions of queries every day.
Jeff Dean say something which is absolutely spot on: "Our view is it's better to have twice as much hardware that's not as reliable than half as much that's more reliable," Dean said. "You have to provide reliability on a software level. If you're running 10,000 machines, something is going to die every day."