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  • Nimbuzz Offers VoIP Calling Without 3G or WiFi


    Nimbuzz is partnering with Voxbone to offer its VoIP calling service using local DID access numbers – without the need for 3G or Wi-Fi connectivity.

    The arrangement means that users can make voice calls to contacts using most of the popular IM and VoIP services, including Gizmo5 and Skype, in over 50 countries.

    The Nimbuzz service, which runs on all Internet-capable mobile phones, detects when the handset is out of Wi-Fi or 3G range and steps in.

    It requests permission to automatically dial a local access number and route the call over the Internet.

    With most mobile plans, such calls are free except for a low charge (if any) to the local access number.

    The Nimbuzz software client determines the correct access number to dial from the user’s Nimbuzz profile.

    Headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, Voxbone provides worldwide local and toll-free phone numbers over its own private intercontinental VoIP network.

    Tobias Kemper, Nimbuzz head of communications, said the intention is to make Nimbuzz a truly mass-market application.

    "Not one limited to this mobile platform, or that chat/calling network, or a particular click sequence," he said.

    "By adding the DID numbers supplied by Voxbone, we can provide reliable mobile VoIP outside of Internet range and over 2G networks in over 50 countries, with any Internet-enabled handset and no change in user behavior."

    Currently growing at a rate of over 750,000 sign-ups per month and operating in 200 countries, Nimbuzz offers mobile VoIP, chat, location, file sharing and MMS services under one application.

    It works across popular communities and social networks, including Skype, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, ICQ, GoogleTalk, AIM, Facebook and MySpace.

    Nimbuzz VoIP also reaches PSTN phones through Skype-Out, using any of 10 VoIP third-party VoIP services (including Skype).

    A full phone keypad is part of its interface, along with the multi-service buddy list.

  • OnRelay Releases Open Source Mobile PBX


    OnRelay has released its mobile PBX solution following successful trials in Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East.

    Unified MBX is a software-only IP business communication system built for mobile phones.

    The Cellular Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) provider said the solution provides Unified Communications (UC) without the expense of proprietary telephony hardware or IP PBX licenses.

    It does so by pre-integrating cellular FMC software with an open source IP PBX.

    The result is that Unified MBX can be deployed on-premises, or hosted in the cloud to provide mobile business communications as Software as a Service (SaaS).

    OnRelay said customers across ten countries have so far self-installed the solution with only remote OnRelay support.

    It is built around OnRelay’s Telephony Internetworking Protocol (TINP).

    TINP uses voice and data signalling to bring full IP PBX functionality to the mobile phone, over any cellular network – 3G/GSM, EVDO and Low Power GSM.

    In an interview with smartphone.biz-news earlier this year, Ivar Plahte, CEO and co-founder of OnRelay, said he had no doubt that mobile PBX is the future – with smartphones increasingly replacing desktop phones to become the sole business phone.

  • WiMAX MENA: Gulf Offers "Real Opportunity" For WiMAX


    Richard Jones has just overseen the largest WiMAX deployment in Europe, Africa and the Middle East for a telecom startup in Saudi Arabia.

    Yet the managing partner of Ventura Team said his biggest concern is whether WiMAX will make it as a technology.

    "LTE is coming. The difficulty is can WiMAX be in service before LTE arrives?"

    Jones told smartphone.biz-news that WiMAX is suffering from not having a "poster boy" to accelerate its adoption, perhaps a contributing factor to why it has failed to take off so far in India and the US.

    Another is cost.

    He said that despite there being plenty of WiMAX development around the world, prices for base stations are still high.

    "Volumes are needed to get down the production price because WiMAX is still expensive," he said.

    "The economies of scale that could normally bring equipment costs down will not occur. It’s a real challenge."

    Richard Jones, managing partner of Ventura Team

    Jones said WiMAX has to succeed and the key to increasing the number of subscribers is a successful deployment.

    "If that happens, other people will get confidence in it."

    He is part of an expert panel at the this week’s WiMAX MENA Forum in Dubai discussing how WiMAX can create profitable opportunities for new entrants in the Middle East and North Africa.

    His 16-month stint as Chief Commercial Officer for the Saudi Arabia company making the WiMAX deployment makes him well qualified to comment.

    Jones said the Gulf does offer a real opportunity since it is a market with relatively low broadband penetration.

    The area’s mix of villas and apartments often means it is not possible to put fibre in economically.

    In addition, there is the presence of an incumbent and the fact the industry has been slow to de-regulate means prices remain relatively high.

    "DSL is very poor in the region as a whole," he said. "There’s a long distance between people’s houses and exchanges, so no-one is getting a reasonably fast DSL service from the incumbent."

    Earlier this month, ZTE announced that it has partnered with Etihad Atheeb Telecom (Atheeb), the largest WiMAX operator in Saudi Arabia.

    They have agreed to build the Kingdom’s first nationwide WiMAX network.

    What WiMAX offers, according to Jones, is coverage which is so far lacking.

    "WiMAX provides an interesting opportunity for companies to provide broadband in areas that are uneconomical for fibre and places where people would not get a DSL service," he said.

    The existing gap in the market has led to a rise in 3G services but Jones said the opportunities for WiMAX are considerable.

    "WiMAX is still there. There is still the potential for services based on WiMAX to cover lots of subscribers not covered by fixed and around the 1-2 meg broadband service," he said.

    Jones said that WiMAX has become the fast roll-out technology of choice.

    But he said it is also being exploited by fixed licence operators in the Gulf who currently have a very good 3G service.

    In this situation the operators may have a WiMAX license – obtained at a fraction of the cost of a mobile licence – that doesn’t allow them to do anything mobile with the technology.

    But when licences are unified to pave the way for fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) these carriers will be able to become good quality mobile providers.

    "What’s happening is that people are using WiMAX as part of a very innovative strategy," said Jones. "There are huge cost saving to be made."

  • WiMAX MENA: Roll-Out Strategy Key To WiMAX v LTE Debate


    Arguing that WiMAX is a better wireless 4G system than Long Term Evolution (LTE) – or vice versa – is a waste of time.

    That’s the view of Dr Hans-Peter Petry, head of radio access and transport at Detecon International, who is adamant that it’s pointless claiming either side in the 4G debate is superior to the other.

    "I would violently fight against those that say LTE is better than WiMAX," he said. "This is absolutely wrong.

    Even so, Petry, who is a speaker at this week’s WiMAX Forum Mena in Dubai, said that a key question in the WiMAX community is how it compares to other wireless technologies.

    He is addressing this in his presentation to the conference, which is entitled: Exploring The Capabilities Of Potential 4G Candidates And Understanding The Best Parameters For Benchmarking And A Successful Rollout.

    As part of this, Petry will "clarify the landscape" – essentially spelling out what makes a technology 2G, 3G or 4G.

    He told smartphone.biz-news this is necessary because many people are confused by what a technology has to offer before it can be classed as 4G.

    "There is a lot of confusion in the market," he said. "A lot of protagonists are confusing people with conflicting messages."

    "For 4G there are very clear pre-requisites and without them being implemented in the technology, you can not claim it is 4G."

    Dr Hans-Peter Petry, head of radio access and transport at Detecon International

    So WiMAX partly belongs to 3G – along with LTE and Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) – and only in certain circumstances can they claim to be 4G, according to Petry.

    He said Detecon had defined a metric that enabled each of the technologies to be evaluated in a fair way.

    This included: marketing, geography, services, tariffs, and technology inputs.

    "All these parameters are important for an evaluation," he said. "We have mapped these into a single Service Production Cost (SPC)."

    So it is possible to show the SPC for individual technologies under similar conditions.

    Petry said this has produced some "astonishing results", the outcome of which shows that the decision on which 4G technology to implement is not a question of the technology.

    "Under the same boundary conditions, the difference in the technology is minor."

    Where there are differences, according to Petry, they lie in the roll-out strategies.

    He said this came down to whether an operator is looking for coverage first, then capacity or vice versa.

    "The recommendation is that before you talk about the technology, talk about other things such as roll-out strategy," he said.

    So factors such as the kind of customer, whether the area is green field, brown field, rural or densely populated, all have to be considered.

    Petry said boundary questions then had to be dealt with before, finally, talking about the appropriate technology.

    "Then you can choose the right technology," he said. "Do not choose WiMAX because you think it is better than LTE."

    As a footnote, Petry said he believed LTE would ultimately capture a larger market share than WiMAX.

    That may prove correct, but as the performance and capabilities of WiMAX and LTE get better over time, the competition between them will become less important than that between wireless and wired broadband.

  • Storage Cost Savings and Dynamic Provisioning


    Hitachi Data Systems Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd.  and the only provider of Services Oriented Storage Solutions, has introduced unique capabilities across software and services to enable customers to reclaim underutilised storage capacity and increase the return on their assets.

    This announcement highlights the company’s strategic Global Services capabilities to further extend the economic and optimisation benefits customers can achieve leveraging Hitachi Dynamic Provisioning technology.

    Coupled with the recently announced Switch IT On programme, the enhancements can help customers improve the efficiency of their existing environments by reclaiming storage capacity across all storage tiers.

    Customers have realised up to 200 TB in reclaimed storage capacity and CAPEX savings upwards of $2M, thereby deferring future storage purchases. Specifically, Hitachi Data Systems today announced the following innovative capabilities:

    • Zero Page Reclaim – examines volumes of physical capacity on or on storage connected to the Hitachi Universal Storage Platform, returns unused storage blocks back to the storage pool and reclaims storage space
    • Industry-first Automatic Dynamic Rebalancing – improved automatic performance optimisation on the Universal Storage Platform by automatically rebalancing existing virtual volumes to take advantage of physical storage added later. Hitachi Data Systems is the only enterprise-class storage vendor that does this automatically upon a customer’s pool expansion.
    • Support for the Hitachi Adaptable Modular Storage 2000 family – brings the advantages of dynamic provisioning such as cost savings, automated performance optimisation and easy provisioning, to Hitachi midrange customers.
    • Storage Reclamation Service – assesses the customer’s environment, plans the new dynamic provisioned environment, migrates the data and reclaims unused capacity with Zero Page Reclaim without disruption to the application, thereby deferring CAPEX and increasing ROA.

    “Storage economics, our best practices for helping companies assess their storage requirements and investment returns through true ownership cost, has never been more critical to enterprises and thin provisioning can play an integral role in saving organisations money while improving operational efficiency,” said Hu Yoshida, Chief Technology Officer, Hitachi Data Systems.

    “Today’s software and services announcement is part of our focus to help our customers do more with less. Dynamic provisioning simplifies operations by replacing the management of hundreds of volumes with the management of one or two pools of virtual capacity.

    Dynamic provisioning can also reclaim capacity on existing open systems volumes without disruption for significant cost savings that go straight to customers’ bottom line.”

    New Hitachi Storage Reclamation Service

    Hitachi Data Systems has extensive experience helping customers take advantage of its dynamic provisioning technologies to increase utilisation, reduce the cost of storage growth and extend the life of storage assets. Through the Storage Reclamation Service, customers can gain the benefit of this experience to accelerate time to results with lower risk. Key aspects of the service include:

    • End-to-end Service – includes assessment, planning, design, migration and storage reclamation
    • Quick Analysis – to show the type of benefits that customers can expect, Hitachi Data Systems can perform a quick analysis of a sampling of a customer’s environment
    • Shared Risk – to lower the risk to customers, Hitachi Data Systems will perform the assessment in a shared risk model, where customers pay only if Hitachi Data Systems exceeds the pre-set customer expectations for storage to be reclaimed.

    "In today’s challenging economic conditions, enterprise customers are seeking to create highly-efficient storage environments that reduce cost and extend the value of existing investments," said Brad Nisbet, Program Manager, IDC Storage Services Research.

    “With the Storage Reclamation Service, Hitachi Data Systems is creating a services package built on a strong technology portfolio of storage virtualisation and dynamic provisioning, affording customers the opportunity to reduce capital and operational expenses more quickly and with less risk."

    Hitachi Dynamic Provisioning Customers

    Carter Lee, Vice President of Technology Operations, Overstock.com: "Hitachi Data Systems has quickly simplified the process of non-disruptively provisioning storage. With Hitachi virtualisation technologies, we’ve seen storage capacity savings of 50 percent on some arrays, now provision storage in 25 percent of the time, and have increased utilisation rates by over 30 percent. We’ve reduced data migration related down-time from several hours to less than 30 minutes. Overall, by using Hitachi virtualisation, dynamic provisioning and tiered storage, we’ve reduced our capital and operating costs for an improved return on our storage investment."

    Steve Carlberg, Principal Network Administrator, University HealthSystem Consortium: “University HealthSystem Consortium leverages Hitachi Data Systems for the functionality and scalability needed for a large and growing healthcare consortium, while providing an easy to manage system for IT staff.

    Hitachi virtualisation technologies give us the flexibility and cost efficiency to run many heterogeneous applications, databases and workloads concurrently off of a single virtualised storage pool.

    With Hitachi Dynamic Provisioning we have reclaimed 40 percent of our storage capacity, have increased storage utilisation rates and pushed out new storage acquisitions."

  • Samsung Reveals the First 32 Gigabyte DDR3 Memory Module, for Low-Power Server Operations


    Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced memory technology, has announced that it has developed the world’s first 32 Gigabyte (GB) DDR3 module – for use in server systems. The new module operates at 1.35-volts, in support of the global trend to cut power usage in mass storage computing environments.

    “Compared to the 8GB memory modules used in today’s servers, our new module packs an eco-sensitive wallop with four times the density at significantly reduced power levels and no increase in the overall footprint,” said Jim Elliott, vice president, memory marketing, Samsung Semiconductor, Inc. “For data centers, it’s a powerhouse in energy efficiency and performance,” he added.

    Based on Samsung’s 50 nanometer (nm)-class 4 Gigabit (Gb) DDR3, the 1.35V DDR3 DRAM improves throughput by 20 percent over a 1.5V DDR3. Its lower power consumption levels are in line with the pressing concern for more energy-efficient “green” systems and components. The development of low-power 4Gb DDR3 will be viewed as critical in reducing data center costs, improving server time management and increasing overall operational efficiency at higher densities.

    For the new generation of green servers, the 4Gb DDR3’s high density combined with its lower level of power consumption will not only reduce electricity bills, but also allow for a cutback on installment fees, maintenance fees and repair fees involving power suppliers and heat-emitting equipment.

    The new 32GB registered dual inline memory module (RDIMM) consists of 72 4Gb DDR3 chip dies produced using Samsung’s 50-nanometer class DRAM production technology. A row of nine quad-die package (QDP) 16Gb DDR3s are mounted on each side of the printed circuit board for a collective 32GB, highly compact configuration.

    According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), a market research and analysis firm, the worldwide DDR3 DRAM market will account for 29 percent of the total DRAM market in 2009 and 75 percent in 2011. In addition, IDC estimates that 2Gb-or-higher DDR3 DRAM will make up three percent of the total DRAM market in 2009 and 33 percent in 2011 (units in bits).

  • DTM Systems Achieves HP Virtualization Solutions Elite Partner Status for Advanced Virtualization Expertise


    DTM Systems Corporation has achieved HP Virtualization Solutions Elite Partner status for Advanced Virtualization Expertise.

    To be selected as an HP Virtualization Elite Partner, companies must provide expert service and support and offer clients complete virtualization solutions – from capacity planning assessments to design, installation, configuration, data migration, training, and post-installation services.

    DTM Systems is also a HP Storage Elite Partner, HP ProCurve Elite Partner and the #1 HP Enterprise Partner in B.C.

    Virtualization technology has quickly become the primary focus for many businesses; it not only provides consolidation for x86 servers but has now moved into every aspect of I.T., from servers and storage to desktops and applications. Virtualization lays the foundation for Cloud Computing and will continue to be the most important development in I.T. for the next decade.

    As Hewlett Packard continues to remain at the forefront of Virtualization solutions, they recognize the role of partnerships, like DTM Systems in bringing this concept to life to address real-world technology issues.

    As businesses increasingly demand adaptive, efficient I.T. infrastructures, HP remains our most important strategic partner," says Ted Smith, Vice President of Sales & Marketing for DTM Systems. "We’re honoured to be recognized for our virtualization expertise and our ability to build virtualization solutions around HP’s broad portfolio of technology offerings."

    In addition to being a HP Virtualization Solutions Elite Partner, DTM Systems is a VMware Enterprise, VIP Partner, Citrix Gold Partner and Microsoft Gold Partner with certifications and expertise with the three leading providers of Virtualization technology.

    DTM Systems has been in the technology industry for 30 years and has always been at the leading edge of its evolution.

    We design and implement solutions to help organizations adapt and thrive in the face of an ever changing economy and we pride ourselves on forming the best partnerships with companies that follow our core values of competency, integrity and trust.

  • DataSlide Announces Oracle's Embedded Berkeley Database Partnership


    DataSlide, the massively parallel green storage company, has announced their embedded architecture and Partnership Network agreement with Oracle.

    Oracle’s Berkeley Database embedded onto the DataSlide storage drive enables 3rd party developers the ability to implement next generation Business Intelligence right onto the storage system. This is a significant step for DataSlide as they move towards productizing Hard Rectangular Drives(TM) HRD(TM).

    DataSlide’s Hard DB fits Oracle’s Embedded Global Business Units OEM Charter by incorporating BerkeleyDB into the actual storage device itself (essentially a low energy, cool running, high performance, shock resistant hard drive) to make a ‘smart’ storage device.

    The potential applications are many and varied. Examples are TCP/IP based systems and video applications requiring multiple concurrent streams, media indexing, fast positioning, forward, back, skip, scene/track will have significant performance improvements with this winning architecture.

    "DataSlide’s Massively Parallel architecture with 64 heads per surface could saturate a 32 lane PCI express bus," said Charles Barnes, CEO of DataSlide. "The Hard Rectangular Drive(TM) HRD(TM) has the industry reliability and cost advantages of Hard Disk Drives with superior performance and lower power then Solid State Drives.

    The HRD(TM) is over 60% lower power then HDD and during idle the media has zero power dissipation making it the GREEN storage winner."

    Hard Rectangular Drives(TM) HRD(TM) Architecture

    DataSlide capitalizes on standard base process technologies to dramatically change how Hard Disk Drives are made. Leveraging mature cost-effective LCD and HDD processes to create an ultra thin massive 2D head array which enables symmetric read and write performance of 160,000 random R/W IOPS with transfer rate of 500MB/s.

    DataSlide’s revolutionary storage media architecture provides the performance, capacity, cost, power and reliability that Hard Disk Drives and Solid State Drives are striving to achieve. DataSlide’s HRD(TM) sets a new standard for IOPS/Watt.

    Hard Rectangular Drives(TM) HRD(TM) Availability

    DataSlide is currently in discussion with a number of Storage and System OEMs and can provide more details under a non disclosure agreement. DataSlide will be holding private meetings at the Santa Clara Hyatt Regency from June 22nd through 25th during the Memcon 2009 conference.

    DataSlide is focused on revolutionizing the storage industry. Bringing together innovation, using standards based mature manufacturing process technologies from LCD, HDD, and semiconductors, the company is developing ultra low power green storage drives with unmatched performance, capacity, reliability, and significant power reduction over traditional disk drive technologies.

    DataSlide has a seasoned management team from companies like Seagate, Connor, Quantum, Maxtor and HP. DataSlide is a privately held company with locations in United Kingdom, France and United States. DataSlide has affiliations with academia from Carnegie Mellon University/DSSC, Universities of Cambridge, Exeter, Sussex, Sheffield and Brighton in the UK and Paris-Sud in France, and is backed by Angel Investors.

  • Storage Class Memories – Changing the Face of Storage and Computing


    Vijay Karamcheti, CTO, Virident Systems to give Luncheon Address on the "Real World Challenges and Opportunities of Storage Class Memory in the Data Center" at 2009 NVM Conference

    Storage Class Memories (SCM) have been touted as the memory of the future – blending the high performance of DRAM with the persistence, high capacity, and low cost of solid state storage.

    Systems, sub-systems and software for these new memory hierarchies are just now coming to market using enterprise class Flash, and in the near future, new memory types like Phase Change Memory.

    The internet data center may represent an attractive new market for these new technologies.

    These new systems and memory approaches are clearly a very exciting development for the industry, but like all new technical innovation, it comes with a unique adoption curve that is a function of software, systems, semiconductors and customer requirements and expectations.

    At the 2009 NVM Conference, ‘Beyond Flash – Defining SCM’,  Karamcheti, also  Associate Professor of Computer Science at NYU has been invited to give a special luncheon keynote speech on the real world challenges of implementing Storage Class Memories now and for the future. Dr. Karamcheti will share key lessons from Virident’s experience building systems and software using the first generation of newly emerging storage class memory technologies, and highlight future challenges and untapped opportunities.

    The 2009 NVM Conference will also have two panel discussions. Session 4, the first panel is on the memory components for Storage Class Memories (SCM) either RAM-based or cross point storage-based components and what applications they can serve.

    Session 4 Panelists are:

    • IBM – Richard Freitas
    • Industry Memory and Storage Executive – Steffen Hellmold
    • Intel – Al Fazio
    • Numonyx – Sean Eilert
    • Qs Semiconductor – Bob Goodman
    • Unity Semiconductor – Darrell Rinerson

    Session 7, the second panel is on ‘Emerging Architectures for SSDs’ that illustrates new ways SSDs can be developed and architectured within the new storage hierarchy that uses SCM or further enhancements on NAND Flash.

    Session 7 Panelists are:

    • Fusion-io – David Flynn
    • IBM – Andy Walls
    • Intel – Sanjay Talreja
    • SandForce – Radoslav Danilak
    • STEC – Scott Stetzer
    • Virident – Vijay Karamcheti

    Attendees will be able to glean how to improve the design of their memory components whether it is Flash, DRAM, PCM, RRAM, or other technologies and to enhance their cache and SSD products.

    These issues with SCM and their likely candidates are being examined at the 2009 NVM Conference ‘Beyond Flash – Defining Storage Class Memories’ put on by Web-Feet Research and Denali Software.

    The 2009 NVM Conference will be held during Denali’s MemCon event on Wednesday, June 24th at the Santa Clara Hyatt.

  • iPhone 3GS Enters Smartphone Wars


    Apple launched has its new iPhone 3GS with demand expected to be strong for the handset in the US and seven other initial launch countries.

    However, with a smartphone market also offering new handsets from Palm, RIM and Nokia, to name but a few, the landscape has changed considerably since the original iPhone hit the market two years ago.

    For the third consecutive year, lines formed outside stores as people waited for the chance to buy the newest iPhone.

    Unveiled earlier this month at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), the iPhone 3GS is described by Apple as "faster and more responsive" than the original iPhone, with more battery life and close to double the storage.

    If the length of the lines was less than previous iPhone launches then Apple’s decision to allow for advanced iPhone 3G S orders with home delivery could have played a part in that.

    So too could the current economic climate – or maybe it’s just that people are spoilt for choice when it comes to buying a new smartphone?

    Among the iPhone 3GS’ rivals are Palm’s Pre, RIM’s BlackBerry Storm, Nokia’s N97 and upcoming phones powered by Google’s Android or Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating systems.

    But with the US smartphone market growing 68 per cent last year – and growth of 20 per cent projected for 2009 – consumer appetite for these high-end devices is still strong.

    A key differentiator is likely to be apps – and Apple already leads the field in that respect by a considerable distance.

    RIM captured a 55 per cent slice of the US smartphone market in the first quarter of this year, while Apple had around 20 per cent.

    However, Apple’s App Store has 50,000 applications available – far ahead of what’s on offer at BlackBerry’s App World, Palm’s App Catalog, Microsoft’s Windows Mobile Catalog and Google’s Android Market.