Latest on EMC: News, Features, Opinions and More  CIOs need to rethink their roles
By now, it's become a tired old tech industry bromide: CIOs need to be business-savvy. The whole enchilada: Integrated compute platforms steamroll across IT
Vendors are rebuilding the mainframe with converged infrastructure, collapsed kit or integrated compute platforms -- whatever you want to call it. And customers are loving it. Review: HP 3PAR conjures powerful storage magic
HP 3PAR StoreServe 7400 combines high scalability, high performance, and a big bag of tricks for easing storage management Isilon OneFS software to expand scope of EMC's scale-out NAS
EMC will continue extending its Isilon OneFS network-attached storage operating system to new use cases later this year, adding deduplication, compliance auditing and object storage features. EMC's Syncplicity to gain hybrid-cloud storage capability
Only a year after acquiring Syncplicity, EMC is getting ready to make the company's enterprise file management system work with hybrid clouds. Software AG buys LongJump for cloud PaaS
Software AG has picked up cloud PaaS (platform-as-a-service) vendor LongJump in a bid to give small and medium-sized companies a way to rapidly develop applications with less involvement from IT. Terms of the deal, which was announced Thursday, were not disclosed. Pivotal launched from VMware, EMC technologies
Making good on a promise made in December, VMware and parent company EMC have launched a new company, called Pivotal, to offer an enterprise-ready data analysis platform as a service (PaaS) based on software from both companies. EMC storage business grows, profit shrinks
EMC reported first-quarter revenue rose 6% to $5.39 billion, while net income fell about 1% year-over year to $580 million as costs rose. Cisco lays off 734, or 1% of workforce
Cisco this week reduced its workforce by about 1% -- or 734 people - as the company realigns to face the advent of software-defined networking, cloud computing and its impact on routing and switching. Silver Peak announces virtual appliance for offsite replication
Silver Peak Systems announced a new virtual application designed to dramatically speed up data duplication for disaster recovery without the purchase of additional hardware. Oracle's storage business falters as market slows in Q4, says Gartner
Oracle suffered the most as growth in the storage market continued to slow during the end of 2012. Hewlett-Packard, Dell and IBM also struggled while EMC emerged as the big winner. Big data the security answer?
The recent RSA conference in San Francisco was awash in talk of big data, but it was clear there was some disagreement about what people mean by big data and some outright skepticism about it being the answer. Forget big data, the value is in 'big answers'
The CTO of Barack Obama's reelection campaign says we need to stop worrying about big data and turn our attention instead to the 'big answers' the data provides. EMC, which made big data news this week, is one tech company that plans to translate big answers into big customer wins. Microsoft, EMC, NetApp join Oracle's legal fight against Google on Java
Microsoft, EMC and NetApp have joined an appeal by Oracle against an earlier decision in a copyright and patent infringement lawsuit against Google over Android. VMware buying Virsto to bolster storage virtualization
VMware plans to acquire Virsto Software, maker of a "storage hypervisor" that will be added to VMware's popular virtualization lineup and licensed by EMC. VCE CEO says EMC, Cisco, VMware partnership unshaken by NetApp incursion
VCE said its partnership with Cisco has been unaffected by Cisco's strengthening a reseller agreement with NetApp to sell cloud architectures. Wall Street Beat: Earnings help boost tech as Dow closes above 14,000
Despite some caution about the fortunes of BlackBerry, Facebook and Apple, solid financial results from tech vendors coupled with positive reports about the economy are boosting confidence in IT, with share prices of computer, consumer electronics and Internet companies rising this week. Iomega px2-300d network-attached storage device
The Iomega px2-300d is a two-bay NAS box that delivers very good performance, excellent backup and surveillance features, and a helpful LCD that reports on the unit's status (IP address, current time, storage remaining, and so on). Its EMC LifeLine operating system is also one of the more feature-rich ones in the industry. But you should buy this box bare--Iomega populates it with enterprise-class hard drives that jack up the price. Cisco gets closer to NetApp, further from VCE
Appearing to further distance itself from VCE coalition partners EMC and VMware, Cisco this week expanded collaboration with storage titan NetApp to deepen integration and market reach. EMC Offers Online File Sharing With On-Premise Storage Product
EMC is building on its acquisition of the Syncplicity file-sharing and collaboration service by combining it with its Isilon scale-out NAS to provide the enterprise what the storage giant claims provides the convenience of a cloud-based file-sharing service with the administrative and governance capabilities of an on-premise solution. ExaGrid aces disk-to-disk backup
ExaGrid's unique scale-out grid architecture makes for powerful, scalable, and uncomplicated disk-based backup and deduplication Hitachi, EMC and Fujitsu winners as storage market weakens
Growth in the storage market slowed down during the third quarter, but vendors such as Hitachi, EMC and Fujitsu still had a good three months thanks in part to sales of high-end systems. By 2020, there will be 5,200 GB of data for every person on Earth
During the next eight years, the amount of digital data produced will exceed 40 zettabytes -- the equivalent of 5,200 GB of data for every man, woman and child on Earth, according to an updated Digital Universe study released today. VMware makes a play for developers
Pivotal Initiative lumps multiple app dev, big data and cloud efforts under a single umbrella IT shops will become consultants instead of tech managers, says EMC's CIO
An EMC executive said customers should have a sense of urgency about deploying IT as a service via a cloud infrastructure, but not everyone at the data storage company's user forum agreed with him. External disk storage shipments surpass 7 exabytes in Q3
IDC today released its Disk Storage Tracker, showing steady growth in external storage systems worldwide for the third quarter. EMC's Project X may have wide impact on data centers
EMC plans to sell flash storage for use across data centers and is developing software to tie all those components together. EMC and VMware spin out big data/cloud division
VMware and EMC today confirmed rumors that have been circulating for weeks that it would spin out its big data and platform as a service (PaaS) cloud products into a new division within the company named Pivotal Initiative, which will be led by former VMware chief Paul Maritz. Mobile device management vendors unveil a slate of new tools
IBM, Good Technology and several other mobile device and app management software vendors today separately announced a variety of new or enhanced products. EMC's Tucci: Global economy hinges on U.S. budget deal
EMC CEO Joe Tucci on Monday called for CEOs to put pressure on U.S. politicians to strike a budget deal, saying that the direction of the domestic and global economy depends on it. Hitachi releases new 1.6TB flash modules
HDS's new flash module is built specifically for enterprise-class workloads. The 1.6TB module fits in an 8U flash chassis. Each enclosure can scale from 6.4TB up to 76.8TB. EMC releases upgrades to its document content management line
EMC today unveiled upgrades across its Documentum content management and Captiva document capture product lines. Juniper trimming up for a sale?
Those layoffs happening at Juniper might be to dress the company up for a sale. HDS releases converged infrastructure platform
Hitachi Data Systems said that it is offering a pretested architecture that combines storage, servers, networking switches and virtualization software EMC names new CTO to oversee cloud, big data strategy
EMC appointed former Huawei Technologies executive John Roese as its new CTO. Roese will play a key role in shaping EMC's technology strategy. Roese replaces Jeff Nick, who has been EMC's CTO for eight years. 5 Enterprise Alternatives to Dropbox
The recent Dropbox data breach has many IT executives telling employees not to use it. These five products offer the administrative and security features that may restore their faith in cloud data storage. First look: Driving VMware vSphere 5.1
VMware's new, Flash-based Web management GUI is easy to like, but it comes with a few gotchas Dell, EMC, Cisco Tackle BYOD With Desktop Virtualization
As the Bring Your Own Device trend gains traction, Dell and EMC/Cisco are taking different approaches to desktop virtualization. Generally, Dell aims for PC users in the midmarket, while the EMC/Cisco partnership may work better for enterprises that have to consider the iPad. Both tacks are worth a look, though. Applied Micro shows 64-bit ARM server chip, ignites x86 debate
Applied Micro lifted the curtain on its 64-bit ARM-based server platform at the Hot Chips conference this week and ignited a debate about whether ARM is the right architecture for the data center. Zend, VMware partner on PHP cloud deployments
Integration between Zend Server PHP and VMware vFabric Application Director automates process of moving from virtualized to cloud environments VMware vSphere 5.1 includes backup, deduplication
VMware announced today that vSphere 5.1 includes backup capability complete with deduplication powered by EMC's Avamar software.
NASA rover Curiosity blasts first Martian rock with laser
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity successfully tested its laser on Sunday, blasting a fist-size Martian rock and analyzing its makeup. EMC rolls out Symmetrix disk library for mainframes
DLm8000 is the first EMC disk library for mainframe that will leverage its flagship VMAX storage teshnology. EMCs interest in China, servers continues to grow
Its new partnership with Lenovo takes EMC even further into the data center. With plans now to begin selling storage and servers in the Chinese market, could that partnership stress EMC's existing relationships? Lenovo, EMC join forces on storage, servers
Lenovo and EMC will team up to develop and sell server and storage technology, with an eye to the Chinese market, the companies said. Wall Street Beat: Tech results mixed, but show areas of strength
Quarterly earnings from some of the biggest tech companies in the world this week were decidedly mixed, but showed some signs of strength, particularly in enterprise IT spending. EMC confirms CEO change at VMware
Paul Maritz will step down from his role as CEO of VMware, to be replaced by EMC Chief Operating Officer Pat Gelsinger, EMC confirmed on Tuesday. MicroStrategy upgrades BI platform for visual analysis, Hadoop
MicroStrategy is set to unveil an array of enhancements to its BI (business intelligence) software platform, covering areas such as visual data-exploration and the open-source Hadoop data-processing framework, during the MicroStrategy World conference in Amsterdam on Tuesday. Nearly 10 years later, EMC's NetWorker hits Version 8.0
EMC is updating its NetWorker backup and recovery software on Tuesday with an eye to greater efficiency, tighter integration with other EMC products, and cloud computing. Don't get shortchanged by data center bundles
As top-tier infrastructure vendors bundle their hardware, the customer often comes out with less. Insider (registration required) Bye-bye, tapes: How to get the right disk backup appliance
Deduplicating backup appliances have become very popular, but choosing the right one means looking beyond deduplication. Insider (registration required) Worldwide disk storage system revenues grow 7%, NAS sales dip
Worldwide external disk storage systems factory revenues posted year-over-year growth of 7.1%, totaling just under $6 billion, in the first quarter of 2012, according to IDC. EMC-Terremark ink joint cloud agreement
Terremark, the cloud vendor owned by Verizon, has become a platinum member of EMC's cloud service provider program, solidifying a relationship between the two enterprise service providers. EMC acquires Syncplicity for cloud file management
EMC has acquired Syncplicity, an enterprise file-management service provider, for an undisclosed sum. EMC unveils slew of product upgrades, new VMAX array
EMC today announced upgrades across all of its product lines, including a doubling of capacity and performance in both its high-end VMAX array and a 50% performance boost to its midrange VNXe line. Why Israel is a hotbed for flash storage innovation
Israel is where the USB flash drive was invented and where innovative companies such as Anobit and XtremIO are drawing American companies to their shores in droves to get a piece of the intellectual property pie. EMC buys flash-array start-up XtremIO
EMC today confirmed that it is buying out XtremIO, the maker of flash devices, in a deal pegged at $430 million.
Hitachi announces new unified file, block storage array
HDS's new midrange Hitachi Unified Storage system, which is similar to EMC's VNX array and NetApp's Fabric Attached Storage, can serve up both file- and block-based data through a single management framework. EMC gives Oracle admins backup control, deduplication
EMC has announced a new Data Domain Boost integration with Oracle Recovery Manager, offering data deduplication on database servers and for Oracle administrators to have direct control of Oracle backup and disaster recovery operations. EMC reportedly in talks to buy flash maker XtremIO
EMC is in talks to buy flash array storage maker XtremIO for bteween $400 million and $450 million and is close to pulling the trigger on the deal, according to an Israeli publication. Wall Street Beat: Mixed tech earnings get tepid reaction
Some of the biggest names in IT reported mixed results this week for the first quarter, leading to a dip in tech stocks Friday even as some major indexes showed gains for other sectors. EMC sees ninth quarter of double-digit growth in Q1
EMC today reported another quarter of double-digit revenue in Q1, with revenues hitting $5.1 billion. VMware was, once again, a leader in product sales with 25% year-over-year revenue growth. EMC unveils preconfigured private cloud for partners
EMC, along with Cisco, Brocade, Intel, Citrix and others, announced a pre-configured private cloud architecture that it plans to sell exclusively through channel partners. Cisco, EMC, VMware unite behind big data, cloud training initiative
As the IT silos come down, tech pros need to beef up their skills to stay relevant and maximize the business benefits of cloud computing, virtualization, unified networking and big data, according to Cisco and EMC, which have teamed to offer training targeted at tech's hottest data center disciplines. EMC buys app development management firm Pivotal Labs
EMC plans to buy Pivotal Labs, an application development consultancy that focuses on helping users create applications to run in big data environments.
PCIe SSD consortium, product test lab created
The University of New Hampshire has created a consortium to develop a test suite to ensure interoperability between PCIe SSDs that conform to the Non-Volatile Memory Express specification. Storage software sales hit all-time record highs
The sales of storage software in 2011 produced record revenues of more than $14 billion, IDC said. Wall Street Beat: Tech rides market optimism
So far this year, the technology sector is off to its best start in the stock market since 2000, right before the dot-com bubble burst, and even though analysts have been forecasting just modest growth in IT spending, there appear to be reasons for continued optimism. EMC VNXe 3100: Sweet entry-level NAS and SAN
EMC delivers an all-purpose, unified storage array tailor made for the IT generalist and the small-business budget Disk storage system sales in Q4 top $8.5B, 6.279 petabytes
The fourth quarter of 2011 saw healthy external disk storage system growth, as did the year as a whole, with revenues growing by 10.6% to $23.5 billion. Industry heavies unite to float 'The Science Cloud'
More than a dozen international IT firms have partnered to create Helix Nebula - The Science Cloud, which will be used by European researchers to provide cloud-based computing support for scientific discoveries. Vatican secret archive opened in EMC-sponsored exhibition
Documents from the Vatican's secret archive are set to be opened in an exhibition in Rome, sponsored by IT vendor EMC. RSA teams to bolster security for Apple, Google, RIM devices
RSA, the security division of EMC, said it would collaborate with several mobile and virtualization platform vendors to integrate RSA two-factor authentication and risk-detection technologies. MIT event shows the many faces, challenges of big data
The burgeoning tech industry movement around big data is churning up a variety of new applications, but remains an evolving field that faces lingering challenges, judging from an event held Wednesday at a Microsoft research facility in Cambridge, Massachusetts. OCZ launches 16TB flash card
OCZ Technology released a PCIe-based NAND flash card that offers five times the capacity and three times the performance of its previous generation card. The product is aimed at cloud environments by speeding up I/O performance in servers.
EMC and VMware team with Atos to create European cloud company Canopy
EMC and VMware are teaming with French IT services company Atos to create a European cloud infrastructure provider, Canopy, the companies announced Wednesday. DOJ approves Google acquisition of Motorola Mobility
The U.S. Department of Justice has approved Google's acquisition of mobile-phone and tablet maker Motorola Mobility for about US$12.5 billion, following the European Commission's approval earlier in the day. Startup launches array tuned for unstructured, structured data
Startup Starboard Storage Systems came out of quiet mode with its first product: a storage array that discerns between structured and unstructured data in order to tailor I/O performance. It's also targeted at virtualized server environments. Oracle stakes claim in R with Advanced Analytics launch
Oracle is hoping to carve out a prominent place in the world of R, the open-source statistical modeling language with roots in academia but an increasingly high profile in enterprise IT shops. It announced a new Advanced Analytics product on Wednesday that ties R to its database and family of software-hardware appliances. EMC to flesh out VFCache with VMware integration, other additions
EMC has big plans this year for the VFCache flash storage it introduced on Monday, with the coming enhancements including SSDs, 1TB cards, integration with VMware and less expensive MLC flash media. EMC launches 'Project Lightning' PCIe cards
EMC today announced the availability of its 'Project Lightning' PCIe flash cards, dubbed VFCache, which install into application servers to increase I/O performance. EMC ramps up flash game with VFCache, 'Thunder' appliance
EMC is now shipping its long-awaited entry in the server-based flash storage market while laying the groundwork for a future appliance based on the same technology. 2012: The year storage becomes a celebrity
This promises to be a break-out year for storage technology with the use of more NAND flash in devices and smarter storage that can be tailored to applications. Wall Street Beat: Tech shines as earnings come in strong
This week's tsunami of tech earnings, led by Apple's jaw-dropping quarterly report, has given market watchers something to cheer about and also points to industry shifts around tablets and cloud computing. Mozy releases 'Stash' file syncing service
Mozy released the beta of a new file synchronization service called Stash, which allows photos, videos or documents to be uploaded automatically to the cloud and shared across any device. EMC lays out product roadmap, warns of disk shortages
During his company's year-end earnings call, EMC CEO Joe Tucci warned that hard disk drive supplies will be an issue through 2012 and said all major products will see refreshes this year. EMC's Tucci changes mind, to stay on as CEO into 2013
EMC reported record revenues totaling more than $20 billion in 2011, and said that Joe Tucci has changed his mind and will stay on as CEO through 2013. NetApp's Tom Georgens: How we got big, stayed nimble, and view storage today
In an exclusive interview, NetApp CEO Tom Georgens talks about virtualization, the private cloud, and how his company defines big data Your identity up for grabs
Security was a big issue in 2011 with more sophisticated and a wider range of threats than ever before wasting even more of everyone's time at a cost of billions of dollars. NetApp becomes latest vendor to raise disk drive prices
NetApp announced it will raise the price of disk drives in its storage systems by 5% to 15% in the wake of Thailand's flooding, which affected the world hard drive supply. 2012 tech predictions: From IDG's editors worldwide
Consumerization of IT is the consensus choice of the new year's major technology force, one that will manifest itself in several forms Apple's purchase of Anobit would give it a leg up on rivals
Having been the largest consumer of flash memory, Apple will gain a leg up on competitors with its purchase of Anobit, since the deal will enable the company to use the cheapest chips in its products while maintaining a high level of resilience and performance. 2012: Virtual desktops are all the rage
As budgets are locked in for 2012 it's time to aggressively expand server virtualization, and for those who have been held back by cost, to consider virtual desktops. Imation buys dedupe backup vendor Nine Technology
Imation today announced it has acquired deduplication technology from Nine Technology. EMC works to boost acceptance of public and private clouds
EMC has tied its fortunes to the future of cloud computing and is working hard to change the hearts and minds of IT executives so they will embrace the same vision, according to the firm's chief marketing officer. Big data has potential but requires care
The proliferation of large-scale data sets is just beginning to change business and science around the world, but enterprises need to prepare in order to gain the most advantage from their information, panelists said at a Silicon Valley event this week. EMC's Greenplum goes big in data analytics
The Greenplum division of EMC is building a single data analytics platform that can crunch both structured and unstructured data and give a broad range of users the tools to study an enterprise's information. Skip data tiering, go directly to all-SSD storage, Forrester says
A new class of all-SSD arrays that use compression and deduplication are challenging tiered storage infrastructures with better performance at about the same cost, according to Forrester Research. EMC adds Linux support, metering to Atmos cloud software
EMC today announced its first upgrade to the Atmos Cloud Delivery Platform, adding metering capabilities and support for Linux. One company's move to go virtual leads to I/O constraints
Austin Radiological Association has virtualized a quarter of its server and desktop infrastructure and hopes to hit 100% within a year. But the move has caused storage I/O bandwidth problems.
| Our bloggers on EMC VMware buys Nicira: Open-source threat or cloudy opportunity?
VMware (NYSE:VMW) is buying Nicira for $1.26 billion. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers wonder what the future holds for open-source software-defined networking and cloud-computing generally.
EMC/VMware cloudy spinoff rumors (and Maritz is out)
This is serious business: EMC (NYSE:EMC) and VMware (NYSE:VMW) are said to be spinning off their cloud computing assets into a new company. Those will include the Cloud Foundry PaaS, Greenplum, Chorus, DynamicOps, and the Project Rubicon IaaS, we're told. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers wonder if it could be true. And Paul Maritz may be the guy to run it [Update: or not!]
RSA SecurID: Egg meets face
 In the case of the SecurID hack three months ago, RSA's strategy -- to deny anything was worrisome -- has come back to bite it. Hard. The company is having to learn some of the oldest lessons in security -- and in PR. Find out more, in The Long View...
INSIDER (free registration required)
RSA SecurID hacked: 2FA fob and software compromise?
Egg meets face, as security company 'fesses up to security breach. Are your RSA SecurID keys safe? Or are we panicking too much?
EMC's RSA says its SecurID two-factor authentication system has been "impacted" thanks to a hack attack. It's not clear whether the company's fob or software 2FA tokens have been compromised. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers push the panic button. Not to mention The animated GIF staring competition...
(EMC)
Microsoft-led CPTN bid for Novell FLOSS patents is on/off/on
Novell's patent threat to Linux and other open source software: some bloggers thought that CPTN was no more, but that was  naive.
CPTN Holdings' plan to purchase the Novell open source patent portfolio has been withdrawn. At least, that's what some breathless reporting would have you believe. The consortium of Microsoft, Apple, EMC and Oracle has certainly withdrawn something, but does it really mean that FLOSS is safe? In IT Blogwatch, bloggers get to the truth of the matter. Not to mention Chris Ollis's appalling Star Wars pun...
(NOVL) (MSFT) (AAPL) (EMC) (ORCL)
The importance of technology partnerships in the storage industry
Unless you have been stranded on a deserted island the last few years, you know that the storage industry is rapidly consolidating. This is due in part to the recent contraction of the overall economy, but only in part. This primary cause of the contraction is that the storage industry is maturing.
Dell disrupts data-dedupe apple-cart with Ocarina (and gamer cake)
This will set the cat among the pigeons in the data-deduplication world: Dell is to acquire Ocarina Networks for its content-aware dedupe and compression technology. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers wonder how this will affect the rest of the industry. Not to mention a telling gamer wedding cake...
(DELL)
Power savings on a platter: How to save on storage
A single storage frame can suck down more than 2kW of power, adding to the power and cooling loads in you data center. These three steps can help you go green - and save money.
California court backs EMC: Former exec can't oversee HP's storage ops
A California judge ruled today that former EMC top executive David Donatelli cannot oversee storage operations at HP due to a noncompete clause with his former employer.
Finding a bone marrow match for Nick
EMC employee Nick Glasgow has Leukemia and efforts to cure the disease by transfusing blood platelets and antibiotic treatments have so far failed. What he needs is a bone marrow transplant. The technology community is rallying around the cause of getting as many possible donors to submit a simple sample to the national donor base.
VMware's VMworld is virtually cloudy
 In Monday's IT Blogwatch, we watch as VMware kicks off its user conference, while drooling competitors circle hungrily. Not to mention Trent Reznor, the Mac fanboi...
Patrick Thibodeau reports:
Celerra Man
While attending EMC World in Las Vegas this past week, I was confronted by Celerra Man, a guy dressed up in a foam costume to look like an EMC Celerra disk array.
The ultimate conspiracy theory
Did storage giant EMC intercept the e-mail correspondence of a professor whose research found a link between sexual arousal in men and a willingness to take financial risk? And was that information the basis for the reported practice of EMC salespeople taking clients to strip clubs? No, of course not. The very suggestion is absurd. But you name it, and somebody will suggest it.
EMC Mozy in the cloud (and a sanguine soliloquy)
It's clear skies at IT Blogwatch in which EMC provides a service solution. Not to mention nonsectarian orthography...
Thanksgiving gobblers
With Thanksgiving there are always thoughts of turkeys. Most of the security turkeys come from major vendors who could have done so much to raise the bar, but have squandered the opportunity to step up.
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