Tag Archive for Dell

| March 27, 2012
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186Gbps Transfer Sets Real-World Speed Record

186Gbps Transfer Sets a Real-World Fiber Speed RecordResearchers have set a new world record for data transfer. The new record was set at the SuperComputing 2011 (SC11) conference in Seattle, Washington. PhysOrg.com reports the international team set the speed record when they transferred 186 gigabits per second (Gbps) of data across 134 miles of an optical network for 11 hours.

Commercially available circuits

SuperComputing 2011The record-setting connection used a commercially available 100 Gbps circuit. The circuit was set up by Canada’s Advanced Research and Innovation Network (CANARIE) and BCNET, a non-profit, shared IT services organization. PhysOrg says the team was able to reach transfer rates of 98 Gbps between the University of Victoria Computing Center in Victoria, BC, and the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle. With a simultaneous data rate of 88 Gbps in the opposite direction, the team reached a sustained two-way data rate of 186 Gbps between two data centers. This broke the team’s previous peak-rate record of 119 Gbps set in 2009.

California Institute of Technology (Caltech) led the team of high-energy physicists, computer scientists, and network engineers from the University of Victoria, the University of Michigan, the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN), and other partners.

transport large quantities of data across global networks of optical fibersAccording to PhysOrg, the achievement will help set up new ways to transport increasingly large quantities of data. More and more data traverse continents and oceans via global networks of optical fibers. The next generation of network technology needs new methods to transfer rates of 40 and 100 Gbps—that will be built in the next couple of years.

“Our group and its partners are showing how massive amounts of data will be handled and transported in the future,” Harvey Newman, professor of physics and head of the high-energy physics (HEP) team told PhysOrg. “Having these tools in our hands allows us to engage in realizable visions others do not have.”

“The 100 Gbps demonstration at SC11 is pushing the limits of network technology by showing that it is possible to transfer petascale particle physics data in a matter of hours to anywhere around the world,” adds Randall Sobie, a research scientist at the Institute of Particle Physics in Canada and team member told PhysOrg.

The speed record equipment was not sexy

memorex guyExtremeTech points out that the achievement is quite significant. It is significant because the scientists used a commercially available 100 Gbps link and not “over private networks under laboratory/testbed conditions.” The equipment was not particularly sexy either. ExtremeTech lists Dell (DELL) servers with Intel (INTC) Sandy Bridge-based server motherboards with PCIe 2.0 and 3.0 solid-state drives. They used 10 and 40 Gbps LAN connections, and Force10 Z9000 and Brocade (BRCD) MLXe-4 switch-routers. The gear was able to achieve a disk to disk transfer rate of 60 Gbps, around 7.5 gigabytes per second. The 186 Gbps record was a memory-to-memory transfer between the servers. The max per-computer speed was 35 Gbps. Tested.com calculates that 4.42 petabytes traveled across the network during the transfer test.

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So why does anyone need to move two million gigabytes per day? This is fast enough to transfer nearly 100,000 full Blu-ray disks—each with a complete movie and all the extras—in a day.

CERN needs faster transfer rates. CERN needs to move the huge amounts of data coming from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The LHC has already generated more than 100 petabytes of data. The data is processed, distributed, and analyzed at 300 computing and storage facilities at laboratories and universities around the world. Scientists believe the data volume will rise a thousand-fold as physicists crank up the collision rates and energies at the LHC in their attempt to cause the end of the world (Not)

FierceTelecom predicts that service providers will deploy 100Gig when the price of 100Gig is double the price of 40Gig. They believe that will take place in 2013.

This massive amount of bandwidth running on commodity Internet pipes with available hardware seems to spit in the eye of current bandwidth providers who can’t seem to provide a 10 Mbps circuit reliably.

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| January 24, 2012
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Tablet Info

The Tablet PC has long been a pet project for Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who showed the first Tablet PC prototype in 2000 at Comdex. Mr. Gates described the device, which featured input via stylus only, as an evolutionary step in PC functionality and usability. For the next ten years leading up to CEO Steve Ballmer‘s introduction of the new “slates”, which support Windows 7 touchscreen features, the company has tried to make the Tablet catch on but with little success according to PCWorld.

MSFT Office Coming To iPad Next Year – Report

Microsoft Office for the MacMicrosoft may be bringing Office to the iPad next year, according to a report in The Daily. The report cites unnamed sources and says that Microsoft (MSFT) will also update its version of Office for the Mac next year.

On a business level, it might make sense the Apple (AAPL) iPad is making inroads into the enterprise, and having some sort of Office client available for it would let Microsoft earn at least some money from these Apple invaders. It would also help make sure that Office 365 the company’s cloud-based business services would work on the iPad according to the BusinessInsider,

Microsoft might even do this at the risk of driving some enterprise customers to stick with iPads instead of adopting Windows 8 tablets. After all, Office and related back-end products have been driving Microsoft’s growth for the last year, while Windows sales have been pretty stagnant (I wrote about Office’s profitability here).

The BusinessInsider points out that Microsoft has NEVER released Office for the Mac in the same year (or before) Office for Windows. Microsoft is building Office 15 for Windows. It’s going to be a ton of work to revamp it to work with the Windows 8 tablet interface, or risk having it relegated to traditional PCs only (and having one less reason for customers to choose Windows 8 tablets). The Mac version of Office almost always comes a year after the Windows version. It COULD be different this time, but that would require a diversion of resources to a minority platform (the Mac still has less than 5% market share for personal computers).

Microsoft said through a spokesperson: “We already deliver Office on multiple platforms and devices and are committed to expanding in the future, but have nothing further to share today.”

BI says that expanding Office to the iPad is not crazy.

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Dell Streak Discontinued

DellThe Dell Streak 7 tablet won’t even get to turn one year old. The BusinessInsider noted that Dell (DELL) is pulling the plug on its unremarkable tablet, as indicated on its site.

This is only shortly after discontinuing the Dell Streak 5 as well.

BI recalled Walt Mossberg‘s February 2011 AllThingsD review of the tablet, he sums it all up with one sentence: “I found the compromises Dell made to get to that low price make it impossible for me to recommend the Streak 7.”

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I wrote about hardware companies abandoning the tablet market in 2012 here. Does this move make Dell a market leader?

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Proof That The PC Is Dying

Proof That The PC Is DyingThe BusinessInsider noted this excellent chart from Horace Dediu @asymco as proof that the PC is dying a slow, painful death. Mr. Dediu’s chart shows PC sales, including Google (GOOG) Android and Apple (AAPL) iOS devices, from the dawn of time to today.

As you can see, PC sales have started to go flat. Based on recent numbers from last quarter, they may have already hit their peak.

proof that the PC is dyingMeanwhile, Macs are gaining steady momentum while Android and iOS tablet devices are blowing up.

One thing BI thinks could break the trend is all those fancy new Ultrabooks displayed at CES. Those could give PC sales a major boost considering how cheap and efficient they are.

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Apple Sues Chinese Outfit for Heresy

Apple Sues Chinese Outfit for HeresyApple (AAPL) is suing a Chinese company for making graven idols of its founder Steve Jobs reports TechEye. Chinese company In Icons created an “eerily realistic” 12-inch action figure of Steve Jobs. TechEye says the model comes with the clothes and accessories such as the black faux turtleneck, blue jeans and sneakers. It was being sold in a box that looks like Walter Isaacson‘s “Steve Jobs” biography cover and comes with a chair, a “One More Thing…” backdrop, as well as two red apples, including one with a bite in it.

Apple sees this as an affront and has told In Icons that using Apple’s logo or products, or Jobs’ name or appearance, is a “criminal offense.” The article points out that the Pope and Elvis have similar deals on their merchandise.

But it is clear that its threat is going nowhere In Icons is not giving up.

Tandy Cheung, the entrepreneur behind In Icons told TechEye said that he was an Apple fanboy, and a lot of people like him want to have Jobs’ action figure. Cheung spoke with several lawyers from Hong Kong who told him that he wasn’t in violation unless he decided to brand any of his designs with Apple products or logos. He told IB Times that Steve Jobs was not an actor, he’s just a celebrity. There is no copyright protection for a normal person. Steve Jobs is not a product.

BuzzFeed updates that the promo pics from toy company In Icons might suggest that the late Apple co-founder comes with cool accessories, like an iPad tablet, but alas. For $99 all you get is the black turtleneck-clad 12” action figure, no assembly required. Due to U.S. release in late February.

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| October 13, 2011
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Cloud Computing Risks

Cloud Computing RisksCloud computing is a term even non-IT folks would have heard about at least once by now fueled by the concept of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and virtualization. The idea is that IT services and processing capabilities could be more efficiently housed in a data center and delivered over the Internet based on demand.

Google logoDr. Dobb’s, editor-in-chief Andrew Binstock told FierceCIO that the primary advantage of relying on cloud providers is that their combined expertise on the security and reliability front is in all likelihood better than that of most SMBs and even some larger IT shops.

Bob Violino at Internet Evolution writes that cloud computing offers some clear benefits for organizations: lower costs, automated software updates, greater flexibility, and the ability for IT staff to focus on more strategic projects and not day-to-day maintenance tasks.

Apple logoIt’s easy to get caught up in the cloud excitement with major IT vendors such as Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), Dell (DELL), Google (GOOG), HP (HPQ), IBM (IBM), and Microsoft (MSFT) pushing the concept and rolling out cloud offerings. But organizations looking into cloud computing need to consider some key risks as well.

Larry Ellison, the chief executive of Oracle, told shareholders in 2008 that Cloud technology is a fad that lacks a clear business model. “I think it’s ludicrous that cloud computing is taking over the world,” Ellison said. “It’s the Webvan of computing.”

Microsoft logoRichard Stallman, the founder of the Free Software Foundation, sees cloud computing as a trap that will result in people being forced to buy into locked and proprietary systems that will only cost more over time. He told The Guardian: “It’s stupidity. It’s worse than stupidity: it’s a marketing hype campaign.”

Some of the cloud risks are well documented, but as the push for cloud services continues, a few risk points are starting to come into focus:

Data privacyData Privacy. When it comes to the U.S., the Fourth Amendment states that people should “be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures…” But web-hosted applications and cloud services are too new for the courts to have been able to offer far-reaching guidance on data privacy online. Data stored outside of the country makes data privacy issues even more complex.

Information security. A report from the World Privacy Forum discusses the issues related to cloud computing and the privacy and confidentiality of information. According to the report, “for some information and for some business users, sharing may be illegal, may be limited in some ways, or may affect the status or protections of the information shared.”

Even when no laws prevent a user from disclosing information to a cloud provider, the report says, disclosure may still not be free of consequences. “Information stored by a business or an individual with a third-party may have fewer or weaker privacy or other protections than information in the possession of the creator of the information.” A cloud provider’s terms of service, privacy policy, and location may significantly affect a user’s privacy and confidentiality interests, the report states.

Data Security. There are many threats to data online. The application or service provider could go belly up, hackers could attack or just be locked out of your account. The good news is that data portability and security policies are being scrutinized closely by several organizations.

intensely naïve

Mr. Binstock observed that no cloud storage provider will promise that they will not access your data under any circumstances. It is also common to find explicit clauses that allow law enforcement agencies access to your data.

Believing that this is acceptable because there is nothing incriminating in one’s data storage, is, in his words, “intensely naïve.” The obvious problem, notes Mr. Binstock, is that any government agency examining your data is under no contractual obligation to you to keep them safe, or even delete copies that were created.

Neophobia

Chenxi Wang at Forrester noted that an effective assessment strategy must cover data protection, compliance, privacy, identity management, and other related legal issues. “In an age when the consequences and potential costs of mistakes are rising fast for companies that handle confidential and private customer data, IT security professionals must develop better ways of evaluating the security and privacy practices of the cloud services.”

Network. The idea of putting the network health in the hands of the ISPs is very troubling. Have you ever tried to work with an ISP to find out why your round-trip latency times are so high? can your organization confidently define: The bandwidth requirements of your apps? The end-to-end throughput needs? Where will your data really be? Will it take the same path today and tomorrow? Who will pick up the phone when you call to say “the cloud is slow?” Will you be able to understand them?

Complexity. As cloud computing evolves, “combinations of cloud services will be too complex and untrustworthy for end consumers to handle their integration,” according to a report from Gartner Inc.. Daryl Plummer, chief Gartner fellow notes:

ComplexityUnfortunately, using [cloud] services created by others and ensuring that they’ll work — not only separately, but also together — are complicated tasks, rife with data integration issues, integrity problems and the need for relationship management

Finances. Cloud computing changes the way software is purchased. The model for purchasing software one time and then choose to opt to buy the newer version a few years later maybe on the way out.  With cloud computing, the vendor can just raise the prices the following month. It requires a different mindset, of subscription fees as opposed to purchase. We will see how the public takes it.

These are some of the issues that must be addressed if companies are to decide that cloud computing offers benefits that exceed the ROI of providing similar services in-house without increasing risk.

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Sure, “the cloud” will work for most people most of the time, but if there are a lot of users, there will be a lot of errors. With 100,000 users, 10% having problems over 10 years is 10,000 unhappy users.

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| September 20, 2011
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Super-Fi OK’d by IEEE

Super-Fi OK'd by IEEEI usually don’t have a problem getting a wireless signal where in my Bach Seat. However, there are some areas where I coordinate technical services that don’t get wired or wireless Internet. In these rural areas, where AT&T (T), Verizon (VZ), Sprint Nextel (S), and Comcast (CMCSA) and their fellow travelers fear to tread because they can’t make a buck in these areas, some help may be on the way from the IEEE.

IEEE logoIn 2009, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) started the development of IEEE standard 802.22, which addressed the need for broadband wireless access in rural areas, those where it is not economical to deploy a wired infrastructure. In July 2011, the IEEE announced that it has published the standard titled: “IEEE 802.22-2011 Standard for Wireless Regional Area Networks in TV Whitespaces” (PDF).

The IEEE press release states: “This new standard for Wireless Regional Area Networks (WRANs) takes advantage of the favorable transmission characteristics of the VHF and UHF TV bands to provide broadband wireless access over a large area up to 100 km (60 miles) from the transmitter. Each WRAN will deliver up to 22 Mbps per channel without interfering with reception of existing TV broadcast stations, using the so-called white spaces between the occupied TV channels.”That part of the spectrum, known as white spaces, sits between broadcast TV channels and will become available when broadcast TV stations switch from analog to digital in 2009.

VHF and UHF TV bands to provide broadband wireless accessThe White Space Coalition led by Microsoft (MSFT), Google (GOOG), Dell (DELL), and other tech titans strongly support the use of the white spaces in the U.S., going up against strong opposition lead by Michigan’s own John Dingell and big media like the NFL, MLB, NASCAR, NBA, NHL, NCAA, PGA Tour and ESPN who say unlicensed devices in the TV bands would interfere with their signals.IEEE 802.22 reportedly will not interfere with TV broadcasts, because it incorporates advanced cognitive radio capabilities including:

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I met Mr. Dingell about a dozen years ago, at a school to encourage the politician to support schools when the USF started the eRate program for schools. I recall Mr. Dingell telling me he could not support eRate because he did not trust the FCC to get it right. At least he is consistent.

I believe there is a very good chance this technology will never be a commercial success. The wireless carriers will squash this technology like they have squashed municipal wi-fi and community fiber networks. The improved speeds and coverage areas are a threat to their limited 4G coverage and they would lose out on their monthly pound of flesh capped rate-limited data plan.

It will be up to us in the public sector to implement this technology for our clients.

What do you think?

Will Super-Fi ever see the light of day?

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| July 19, 2011
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Most Firms Don’t Know Why They Use the iPad

Most Firms Don't Know Why They Use the iPadDespite the widespread success of the Apple (AAPL) iPad more than half of companies lack a clear iPad tablet strategy according to a recent survey by Dimensional Research. CNET’s Stephen Shankland points out the survey which found that “Most participants, 51 percent, indicated that they did not have a clearly articulated strategy.”

iPadThe survey of 448 businesses found that:

  • 22% have already deployed tablets.
  • 22% plan to do so this year
  • 24% plan to next year
  • 20% have no plans to deploy tablets

Dimensional Research polled the firms on whose tablet they intend to deploy and found:

Ann All at ITBusinessEdge.com says the survey is an affirmation that the BYOT (Bring Your Own Technology) trend is not hype, 41% of survey respondents said individual employees were using tablets they had purchased themselves.

The research firm also found that 82% of firms will use tablets to complement, and not replace, laptops. This fact is not lost on IT Pros. 42% of IT staff said business stakeholders do not understand the need for more development like new front pages specifically for the iPad.

Many of the companies I’ve spoken with seem to discover multiple use cases they hadn’t imagined for tablets when they begin putting them into users’ hands. And new applications continue to emerge all the time.

What do you think?

What tablet has your firm deployed?

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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