Neudesic announced the release of version 2.0 of Neuron-ESB. Neuron-ESB is an Enterprise Service Bus that extends the Microsoft Platform by providing real-time messaging, integration and web service management. Neuron-ESB accelerates SOA adoption by helping companies successfully implement real-time integration across their enterprise, allowing timely response to changing events within their business.
Desktone announced that the Desktone Virtual-D Platform will support System Center, including System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 (SCVMM), and Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V. The company also announced that it has joined the Microsoft Startup Accelerator Program, an invitation-only initiative.
Quest Software announced that the Provision Networks Virtual Access Suite supports Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, the next-generation hypervisor-based server virtualization platform. Provision Networks’ Virtual Access Suite version 5.10 is a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solution that supports Hyper-V with full integration for brokering, desktop lifecycle management and power management. With this development, the Provision Networks division is further extending Quest’s standing in Windows infrastructure management from the desktop to the datacenter.
Emulex announced that its LightPulse family of 8Gb/s and 4Gb/s Host Bus Adapters (HBAs) support Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 and its new Performance and Resource Optimization (PRO) feature. PRO, coupled with Emulex’s management pack for PRO, enables administrators to monitor and control the allocation of virtualized servers connected to a storage area network (SAN). This enables customers to manage the performance of their virtualized infrastructure. Emulex’s management pack for PRO provides Virtual Machine Manager with the I/O connectivity information needed to improve the placement and migration of virtual machines based on storage requirements and available resources.
Quest Software has expanded its set of solutions to help organizations plan, deploy and manage their IT infrastructures by maximizing their investment in the Microsoft System Center Platform. Quest will unveil its comprehensive solutions, including the availability of Quest Management Extensions - Configuration Manager 2007 Edition and the Quest Management Pack for Oracle - Operations Manager 2007 Edition. Quest is also announcing dedicated initiatives supporting Microsoft’s System Center Operations Manager 2007 Cross-Platform Management Extensions and System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 Performance & Resource Optimization (PRO) feature.
NetEffect announced that it has joined the VMware Community Source program. NetEffect joins other industry partners in collaborating with VMware on a source-code level, ultimately enabling NetEffect to maximize the performance and functionality of its power-efficient 1Gb and 10Gb accelerated Ethernet adapters for VMware virtualization.
cgh4be writes “I have been working in the IT industry for about 12 years and have had various jobs as a consultant and systems engineer. Over that time I’ve had the chance to do a little bit of everything: programming, networking, SAN, Linux/AIX/UNIX, Windows, sales, support, and on and on. However, over the last couple of months I have become a little disillusioned with the IT industry as a whole. Occasionally, I will get interested in some new technology, but for the most part I’m starting to find it all very tedious, repetitive, and boring and I’m no longer really interested in the hands-on aspect of the business. I suppose going the management route is one option, but I would still be dealing with a lot of the same frustrating technology issues. The other route I had in mind was a complete career change; take something I really enjoy doing outside of work now and try to make a career out of it. The only problem is that I have a wife and kid to support and my current job pays very well. Have any of you been through this kind of career ‘mid-life crisis?’ What did you do to get out of the rut? Is making a complete career change at this point a bad idea?”
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goombah99 writes “Princeton Professor, Ed Felton, has posted a series of blog entries in which he shows the printed tapes he obtained from the NJ voting machines don’t report the ballots correctly. In response to the first one, Sequoia admitted that the machines had a known software design error that did not correctly record which kind of ballots were cast (republican or democratic primary ballots) but insisted the vote totals were correct. Then, further tapes showed this explanation to be insufficient. In response, State officials insisted that the (poorly printed) tapes were misread by Felton. Again further tapes showed this not to be a sufficient explanation. However all those did not foreclose the optimistic assessment that the errors were benign — that is, the possibility that vote totals might really be correct even though the ballot totals were wrong and the origin of the errors had not been explained. Now he has found (well-printed) tapes that show what appears to be hard proof that it’s the vote totals that are wrong, since two different readout methods don’t agree. Sequoia has made trade-secret legal threats against those wishing to mount an independent examination of the equipment. One small hat-tip to Sequoia: at least they are reporting enough raw data in different formats that these kinds of errors can come to light — that lesson should be kept in mind when writing future requirements for voting machines.”
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Lucas123 writes “Computerworld compared four disks, two popular solid state drives and two Seagate mechanical drives, for read/write performance, bootup speed, CPU utilization and other metrics. The question asked by the reviewer is whether it’s worth spending an additional $550 for a SSD in your PC/laptop or to plunk down the extra $1,300 for an SSD-equipped MacBook Air? The answer is a resounding No. From the story: “Neither of the SSDs fared very well when having data copied to them. Crucial (SSD) needed 243 seconds and Ridata (SSD) took 264.5 seconds. The Momentus and Barracuda hard drives shaved nearly a full minute from those times at 185 seconds. In the other direction, copying the data from the drives, Crucial sprinted ahead at 130.7 seconds, but the mechanical Momentus drive wasn’t far behind at 144.7 seconds.”
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IGnatius T Foobar writes “Microsoft has developed a small plug-in device that investigators can use to quickly extract forensic data from computers that “may have been used in crimes.” It basically bypasses all of the Windows security (decrypting passwords, etc.) in order to eliminate all that pesky privacy when the police have physical access to your computer. Just one more reason not to run Windows on your computer.”
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