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  • EMC Unveils Virtual Data Centre With High End Storage


    EMC Symmetric VMax is the latest breakthrough technology from EMC. It provides for a virtual data center with high end storage and scales up to 2 PB of usable protected capacity, writes Samantha Sai for storage.biz-news.

    Unlike alternate arrays, it equips its customers with an ability to consolidate workloads with a comparatively small footprint.

    These systems will be available immediately.

    Joe Tucci, EMC Chairman, President and CEO said: "The shift from physical to virtual computing is being driven by efficiency gains too compelling to ignore.

    "Virtualization’s ability to maximize resources and automate complex and repetitive manual tasks is overtaking the server world and is now happening in the storage world.

    "EMC is leading the way with the biggest breakthrough in new high-end storage design in nearly two decades, enabling storage customers to deploy a flexible, dynamic, energy-efficient information infrastructure and get the maximum value for their investment."

    The new architecture can be deployed with flash, Fibre channel and Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) drives.
    Virtualized and physical servers are supported including open systems, mainframes and system hosts.

    The Virtual Logical unit number (LUN) technology moves data to the right tiers and redundant array of independent disks (RAID) types at the right time.

    Virtual provisioning efficiently allocates, grows and reclaims storage.

    The Extended distance protection replicates data over distances and achieves zero data loss protection.

    Information centric security systems with advanced RSA security technology have been built in to keep the data safe; reduce risk and improve compliance. The high end storage array uses multi core processors to lower power costs and IOPS per dollar.

  • WD Ships 2 TB Hard Drives With Greenpower Technology


    WD has expanded its enterprise family of hard drives to include the next-generation 2 TB capacity.

    The company says it is the largest and only 2 TB enterprise-class hard drive shipping today. Combining 64 MB cache, dual processors, and increased areal density, the RE4-GP hard drives yield twice the processing power – and produce a 25 per cent performance improvement – over the previous generation.

    Tom McDorman, vice president and general manager of WD’s enterprise storage solutions business unit, said its GreenPower technology platform is the first 3.5-inch hard drive platform designed with power savings as the primary attribute.

    He said the drives reduce average drive power consumption by up to 50 per cent over currently available competitors’ drives and are ultra-cool and quiet, all while delivering solid performance.

    "Energy efficiency is a primary concern for our customers who continue to look for ways to reduce their carbon footprint without compromising reliability or performance," he said.

    "WD’s RE-GP drives enable them to meet their customer’s system requirements for storage capacity, reliability, performance and cost by integrating an enterprise-class drive that simply consumes less power than traditional hard drives."

    The new WD RE4-GP 2 TB hard drive are intended for use with storage-hungry applications, such as:

    • cloud-computing infrastructure
    • large-scale data centres
    • data archive and tape replacement systems
    • commercial video surveillance
    • digital video editing houses

  • Sandisk Sees Growth In Mobile Devices


    Sandisk expects increased demand for its mobile storage products as a result of continued growth in the smartphone, MIDs and notebooks sectors.

    The flash memory provider said demand for its mobile solutions was actually increasing – as were prices.

    Eli Harari, Sandisk’s CEO, speaking in its first quarter earnings this week, said he expected demand for NAND to continue to grow particularly for mobile and portable computing platforms.

    He said this would help absorb the industry supply growth projected for second half of 2009 and ensure price stability.

    Pointing to the changes currently taking place in the mobile market, he compared them to those experienced by the Internet in its early days.

    He said these would also have important implications for Sandisk’s mobile storage business.

    Apple’s iPhone and its App Store, RIM’s Blackberry Market, the adoption of Android by smartphone makers, as well as Nokia and Microsoft’s plans were all mentioned as playing a role in fuelling the demand for flash memory.

    "The opportunity for us is these devices will have to be content with wireless bandwidth and coverage limitations, making off-line, local caching of increased amount of data, central to devices’ usability," he said.

    "Paradoxically, the promise of always-connected devices in cloud computing is resulting in the ever greater need for local storage on the devices themselves."

    Harai said Sandisk was seeing increasing demand from "major players" in the mobile ecosystem for its mobile storage solutions, including Mobile Card, embedded iNAND and solid state drives for notebook PC’s.

  • Skype Revenues Continue Growing in Q1


    Its future with parent eBay may be uncertain but that hasn’t prevented Skype from continuing to generate revenue.

    eBay’s Q1 financial statements published this week show the VoIP company is still increasing revenue, minutes and users.

    In the first quarter of 2009, Skype had revenues of USD $153.2 million, up from USD $145 million in Q4 of 2008.

    If trading continues in this vein the company is on target for USD $600 million in revenues for the year.

    Skype added 37.9 million registered users in Q1 – up from 35 million new users in Q4 2008.

    This takes its total tally to 443.2 million.

    In addition, it rang up 2.9 billion Skype Out minutes in the quarter – panning out to just over 6.5 minutes per user.

    Certainly a healthy position for a company that could be spun off from its parent.

  • Vopium Picks Up Innovation Award; Extends App to iPhone


    Vopium has become the latest mobile VoIP provider to introduce an iPhone application.

    The addition to its supported handsets comes as the company was named winner of this year’s European Mobile VoIP Technology Innovation Award by Frost & Sullivan.

    The annual award is presented by the growth consulting company to the company that has demonstrated technological superiority within its industry.

    Luke Thomas, programme manager with Frost & Sullivan, said that by offering a cost-effective service, Vopium was able to enhance customer loyalty and confidence in its applications.

    He said this had enabled the firm to create a sustainable competitive advantage over other mobile VoIP providers.

    "Considering that Wi-Fi is not as ubiquitous as cellular networks today, Vopium has also made provisions for users to automatically connect to a 3G network when Wi-Fi is not available within a particular location," he said.

    Vopium has expanded rapidly in the last six months, launching its free software programme using mobile VoIP and Wi-Fi technology to reduce the cost of international phone calls in 16 countries, including the UK, Germany, Switzerland, France and Spain.

    Tanveer Sharif, Vopium’s CEO

    The company also recently became the first mobile VoIP provider to offer mobile backup – a free service which allows Vopium customers to store their address book contacts and calendar securely online.

    Vopium’s iPhone app is now available in the App Store. Users will receive 30 minutes of free calls and 30 text messages to get started.

    Tanveer Sharif, Vopium’s CEO, said support was being extended to the iPhone to enable "millions of consumers and businesses to transform the powerful mobile device into the only solution they’ll ever need to call the world at a fraction of traditional mobile operator costs".

  • Apple Sold 3.8m iPhones in Q1 2009


    iPhone sales have boosted Apple’s quarterly profit by 15 per cent – despite economic woes and a new handset expected later this year.

    The company also said co-founder Steve Jobs intends to return from his medical leave as scheduled at the end of June.

    For the three months ended 28 March, Apple’s second-quarter net profits rose to USD $1.21 billion. In the same period last year Apple earned USD $1.05 billion.

    Apple said it sold 3.8 million iPhones worldwide in the quarter, more than twice as many as a year ago.

    iPhone revenues reached USD $2.2 billion for the quarter – a success that Apple’s Chief Operating Officer, Tim Cook, attributed to strong consumer interest in downloading applications. Apple expects to announce its one billionth app down load tomorrow.

    An estimated combined total of 37 million iPhone and iPod touch’s have created an enormous platform for developers, which he said "unleashes a whole new level of innovation that keeps Apple years ahead of everyone else".

    The popularity of the touchscreen smartphone has also helped the earnings of its exclusive US carrier, AT&T.

    Elsewhere, Apple sold 11 million iPods, up 3 per cent. However, its Macintosh computer line performed less well, with a 3 per cent fall in Mac sales and a 16 per cent drop in revenue.

    Overall, Apple’s average revenue per retail store sank 17 per cent in the quarter.

    Attention will now be focused on how the continuing economic situation – and the launch of Palm’s Pre and various other smartphones – impacts on the iPhone.

  • Bharti Telesoft Renamed "Comviva" In Market Drive


    Bharti Telesoft has been renamed Comviva Technologies Limited as part of a company-wide re-branding initiative.

    Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman and managing director of the Bharti Group, said the name change also signals its intent to be the leading integrated VAS solution provider for mobile operators in emerging markets.

    "The company has grown rapidly to achieve stature and scale," he said.

    Manoranjan (Mao) Mohapatra, CEO of Comviva

    "With a strong reputation in the market and a new vision reflecting its ambitions, it is the right time to adopt a new and unique identity."

    Manoranjan (Mao) Mohapatra, CEO of Comviva Technologies Limited, said the need for a powerful brand that resonates with customers globally has grown as the company extended its reach.

    It now has 100 plus customers across over 80 countries.

  • LG and DivX Announce First HDTVs With DivX HD 1080p Playback


    LG Electronics’ new range of HDTVs will be capable of playing full DivX HD 1080p videos.

    The company says the upcoming models will be the first device series capable of doing this – enabling consumers to play DivX HD videos from a PC or the Internet through a USB slot.

    With the DivX 7 software package, users can compress a full HD movie onto a USB stick or SD card, or several on a standard DVD.

    While HD video requires a plenty considerable of storage space, LG says the DivX technology allows approximately two hours of high-quality DivX HD video on an 8GB media card.

    Simon Kang, chief executive officer and president of LG Home Entertainment TVs Company, said that as people expand their DivX HD video collections they are looking for more convenient ways to watch them on their TVs.

    "We’ve given them the ultimate convenience by building support for DivX HD playback into our digital TVs," he said.

    More than 200 models of LG digital TVs have been DivX Certified, including the LH50, LH70, LH85, PS70 and PS80 series.

    In addition, a wider variety of innovative LG TVs are now DivX Certified for playback of full DivX HD.

    LG says its new line of TVs will be available in late May in the United States, and within the next eight days in Europe.

  • Warner Offers Blu-Ray For HD DVD Trade-in


    More than a year after the high-def format war ended Warner Bros has launched a new HD DVD trade-in program in the US that allows its HD DVD titles to be exchanged for the same film on Blu-ray for a small fee.

    Called Red2Blu, it allows consumers to get the Blu-ray titles for USD $4.9 (USD $9.95 for boxsets), without needing to trade in the actual HD DVD discs, just the cover art (with UPC code) from the red HD DVD cases.

    Shipping costs a flat rate – and hefty – USD $6.95 and the offer extends to a maximum of 25 films per household.

    Warner has all 128 titles available for "upgrade" and return delivery time is between 4-5 weeks.

    Warner is also launching its first Blu-ray Disc customer loyalty program.

    The WarnerBlu Get 5 Get 1 Free scheme enables consumers to receive a free Blu-ray movie for every five featured titles they buy up until 6 April, 2010.

    Among the first eligible titles counting towards the five purchases are Yes, Man, which was released this month, He’s Just Not That Into You and Gran Torino.

    The selection of free Blu-ray movies includes We Are Marshall, Rush Hour 3 and Pan’s Labyrinth.

  • Adobe Announces Plans For Flash on HDTVs


    Adobe has designed a new version of its Flash animation technology that will enable HDTVs, Blu-ray player and other electronics device to stream content directly.

    The development means that webcasters, such as Hulu, will be able to compete more evenly with traditional broadcasters.

    Flash video services are normally only accessible on a TV through game consoles, or by directly attaching a Flash-capable computer.

    And while YouTube can already be seen on a TV using services such as TiVo, Apple TV and Sony’s Bravia Internet TV Link, this is not the full site offering.

    Instead viewers get videos that have been made adapted for each of these products.

    With Flash supported directly in the device, viewers will be able to access the full YouTube selection.

    It will allow consumers to access their favorite Flash technology-based videos, applications, services and other rich Web content across screens.

    Called the Flash Platform for the Digital Home, Adobe’s technology is now being licensed to OEMs and should ship in products scheduled for the second half of 2009.

    Companies which have agreed to support the platform include Broadcom, Comcast, Disney, Intel, Netflix, Atlantic Records and the New York Times.

    No hardware details were released – although it’s understood that manufacturers are planning on holding their announcements when Flash-enabled product lineups are market ready.

    Adobe estimates that Flash is already installed on 98 per cent of all desktop computers and a host of mobile devices.

    David Wadhwani, general manager and vice president, Platform Business Unit at Adobe, said the new version would dramatically change the way content was viewed on televisions.

    Adobe has been running a preview of its Flash technology for digital home devices this week at its booth at the NAB Show 2009 in Las Vegas.

    It drew large crowds to its mock living room demo, complete with an easy chair to demonstrate the ground-breaking technology, which could finally bring IPTV into the mainstream.