Latest on Dell: News, Features, Opinions and More  CIOs will soon blend non-tech, traditional IT roles
Next-generation CIOs will have to consider how technology affects other corporate departments as well as handle traditional IT management functions, especially those accompanying mobile device management and greater data analysis, according to panelists who spoke at the MIT Sloan CIO Symposium in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Windows 8 touchscreen devices to cost more, Dell says
Touchscreen laptops and tablets with the upcoming Windows 8 OS will be priced higher than their non-touchscreen counterparts, Dell's CEO said on Tuesday. Dell profit shrinks in the first quarter
Dell on Wednesday reported a drop in profits for the first quarter, weighed down by a revenue decrease and slower sales of consumer products. 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. Baidu unveils low-end smartphone with cloud platform
Baidu, which runs China's most popular search engine, unveiled a smartphone that features its own mobile platform. SAP lays out cloud strategy post-SuccessFactors deal
SAP announced a broad set of plans to become a player in cloud computing, spanning from a "loosely coupled suite" of business applications to data integration and PaaS (platform as a service) Tuesday during the Sapphire conference in Orlando. Dell, IBM announce servers with new Intel Xeon chips
Dell and IBM on Monday announced servers with Intel's latest Xeon server chips, which will bring faster throughput and memory allowing servers to take on more complex workloads while reducing data center costs. Apple's e-store satisfaction score jumps, thumps Microsoft's
Apple's online store scored the highest satisfaction rating of any computer-related company, and handily beat rival Microsoft, a consumer pollster said today. New from Dell: An Ubuntu Linux laptop aimed at developers
Dell has taken what you might call an on-again, off-again approach to offering Ubuntu-preloaded hardware over the years, but on Monday the company made an announcement that Linux fans are sure to cheer. Red Hat, Dell sign OEM pact
The announcement Tuesday of a new partnership between Dell and Red Hat could mark a further expansion of open-source software use in the enterprise. Dell unveils first Intel Ivy Bridge-based server
Dell on Tuesday announced a new microserver with Intel Xeon server processors based on the Ivy Bridge microarchitecture, which has not been officially announced by the chip maker yet. Extreme Networks adds heavy dose of copper to 10G switches
Extreme Networks Monday unveiled 10G Ethernet copper modules for its BlackDiamond X8 core switch and new fixed copper versions of its Summit X670 top-of-rack switch. Review: Dell EqualLogic SANs make the most of automated tiering
Dell EqualLogic SSD and SAS hybrids highlight no-muss, no-fuss, fast storage tiering across multiple arrays Facebook's open-source data-center project gains ground
Facebook's year-old project to develop open-source hardware designs with the aim to build efficient data centers gained momentum on Wednesday, with some top technology companies joining the effort and introducing server designs. Dell simplifies the blade server
Dell's PowerEdge C6220 squeezes four two-socket servers into 2RU, delivering blade server density at a rack-mount price. Insider (registration required) Dell brings 40-Gigabit Ethernet to PowerEdge blades
Dell will flesh out its new virtual networking strategy at Interop next month when it shows off a 40-Gigabit Ethernet switch for the PowerEdge M1000e blade system announced Tuesday. Fast-forwarding firewall faceoff
Next-generation firewalls claim to identify application-layer attacks and enforce application-specific policies while delivering top-notch performance, even with advanced security features turned on. Insider (registration required) Rackspace launches new OpenStack-based cloud portfolio
Company unveils array of new services, including a MySQL offering optimized for the cloud Dell says AppAssure now its premier backup product
Dell's first in a flurry of software acquisitions was backup vendor AppAssure, which Dell said will be its primary data protection application even as it still resells Symantec and CommVault products. Why 'Ultrabook' Doesn't Mean Much
If I use the term "Ultrabook," you picture a very particular kind of laptop, don't you? It's super thin, sleek, and light. It's small enough to fit in a small shoulder bag or large purse...something very much like the Macbook Air. This is the image Intel has tried to cultivate for its Ultrabook brand. If you go to Intel's own Ultrabook site, you see a rendered faux-laptop that could almost be mistaken for Apple's. What about a 15.6-inch laptop that weighs as much as a Macbook Air, iPad, and smartphone combined? Would you call that an Ultrabook? Intel would. Report: IBM, Red Hat to join OpenStack
IBM and Red Hat could soon be joining the ranks of OpenStack supporters, giving the open source cloud project a big boost. Dell to acquire modernization specialist Make Technologies
Dell plans to acquire Make Technologies, which specializes in helping businesses replace outdated IT systems, the company said Thursday, marking its third enterprise-related acquisition announcement this week. Dell buys application modernization firm Clerity
Dell said Tuesday it has purchased application modernization vendor Clerity Solutions, in its second enterprise software-related acquisition news this week. Dell's Wyse buy a hedge against slowing PC sales
Dell's plan to buy Wyse Technology is an effort to boost its client hardware portfolio and protect the company from the effects of the recent slowdown in PC sales, analysts said on Monday. Dell Buys Wyse to Continue Evolution to 'Not Really a PC Company'
Last month Michael Dell let the world know that Dell is "not really a PC company." Today, Dell announced that it has reached an agreement with Wyse that extends Dell's portfolio of products and services even further beyond the traditional PC market. The Best Deals on Printer Ink
If you buy a cheap inkjet printer, you're going to pay a small fortune for the ink to run it (assuming that you use the ink that its manufacturer specially designed for it). Even so, the size of the bill depends to a great extent on which brand of printer you buy. Some printer makers, like Kodak, work hard to keep their ink prices reasonable, while others, like Dell, consistently charge top dollar. Dell to buy thin-client company Wyse Technology
Dell has signed an agreement to acquire thin-client hardware and software company Wyse Technology, to expand its desktop virtualization offerings, Dell said Monday. Dell expands virtual desktops into the cloud
Dell said this week it is expanding its virtual desktop offerings into the cloud through a partnership with another company. Dell plans new smartphones in the U.S. later this year
Dell plans to introduce new smartphone models in the U.S. later this year, the company said on Thursday. Ethernet Alliance chair talks about key trends, what’s next
John D'Ambrosia, Chief Ethernet Evangelist in the CTO Office at Dell (he came onboard when Dell bought Force10), is a founder of the Ethernet Alliance and currently serving as its chairman. Network World Editor in Chief John Dix recently caught up with D'Ambrosia for an update on the Alliance and Ethernet advances. Insider (registration required) Dell ends smartphone sales in the US
Dell has stopped selling smartphones in the U.S. as it tweaks its mobile strategy to focus more on emerging markets and higher-margin products. Security firms disable second Kelihos botnet
A group of malware experts from security companies Kaspersky Lab, CrowdStrike, Dell SecureWorks and the Honeynet Project, have worked together to disable the second version of the Kelihos botnet, which is significantly bigger than the one shut down by Microsoft and its partners in September 2011. 7 Great All-in-One Desktop PCs
Traditional tower desktops have had a good run. All-in-one PCs--expensive upstarts just two or three years ago--have all but usurped the throne. New Dell PowerEdge: More power, deeper management
First look: 12-gen, 2U Dell PowerEdge R720xd pairs hardware heft with first-rate remote management tools 7 ways Alcatel-Lucent hopes to change the conversation
A favorite marketing tagline for Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise is "Change the Conversation." Dell plans over 20 data centers in Asia, as customers look to cloud
Dell plans to set up over 20 data centers in Asia to meet growing demand from customers for a mix of private and public clouds, the head of the company's Asia Pacific and Japan region said. 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. PC shipments expected to remain weak in 2012
Worldwide PC shipments are on track for a small increase, but will remain weak throughout 2012, according to industry analyst firm Gartner. New Apple iPad kicks PC industry while it's down
With the unveiling of Apple's latest iPad on Wednesday, PC makers must accelerate efforts to keep the tablet from taking a bigger slice of their business. Dell: U.S. job growth is in services, not manufacturing
Michael Dell, the chairman of the company that bears his name, does not see manufacturing as a big job creator for the U.S. To him, job growth will be in services and adoption of new technologies Servers are refreshed with Intel's new E5 chips
Top server makers on Tuesday announced major product upgrades with Intel's new Xeon E5 processors and technologies that deliver better performance and throughput for robust virtualization and cloud deployments in data centers. Disk storage system sales in Q4 top $8.5B, 6.2 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. Hands-on: Dell's XPS 13, a next-gen ultrabook
Dell has introduced its XPS 13 ultrabook, a light, well-designed laptop that offers an impressive balance of style and performance. Climate change or not, weather hurt tech
Scientists expect that climate change will increase the frequency and severity of extreme weather events, and last fall's flooding in Thailand fit the definition of extreme. Remains of the Day: Free for all
Apple's offering free developer IDs to programmers; hackers have found a way to get free ebooks from the iBookstore; and Dell is about to go PC-free. The remainders for Monday, February 27, 2012 are free and clear. Dell claims it has network virtualization architecture too
Dell this week is throwing its hat into the virtual networking ring with an architecture that initially is long on vision but short on specifics. Dell releases next-gen 10GbE storage arrays
Dell EqualLogic today unveiled the next generation of its mid-range storage arrays, which use 10GbE ports to create iSCSI storage networks using existing copper or fiber infrastructures. Perfect storm slams into HP
A bad global economy, poor market conditions and confusing management moves combined to create a perfect storm that slammed into Hewlett-Packard and staggered the PC maker in its first fiscal 2012 quarter. Wall Street Beat: Software results temper bad news on PC front
Disappointing earnings reports this week from Hewlett-Packard and Dell were offset by more encouraging results from software makers, confirming forecasts for general trends in IT spending this year. Dell buys AppAssure for software backup
Dell said Friday it has purchased backup software vendor AppAssure, in the first of an expected run of acquisitions following Dell's appointment of former CA CEO John Swainson as head of a new software division. Dell's first ultrabook, XPS 13, to ship next week
Dell will start shipping its first ultrabook, the XPS 13, in the U.S. and Canada starting next week, the company said on Thursday. Hard drive supply issues weigh on Dell's Q4 earnings
Dell's fourth-quarter earnings were weighed down by weak consumer PC sales and by pricing and supply issues caused by the floods in Thailand, Dell said on Tuesday. Rise of the 'phablet'
Sunday's launch of the Samsung Galaxy Note should be one of the biggest smartphone launches ever -- its screen is 5.3 in. diagonally. US falls behind in social-media race, expert says
The U.S. government is losing a race in cyberspace -- a social-networking race for the hearts and minds of Internet users, a computer security expert said Wednesday. Alienware X51: The little PC that could
Among built-to-order gaming PCs, Alienware is about as close as one gets to a household name, and the brand is largely synonymous with huge black boxes covered in garish blinking lights. The new Alienware X51 is a marked departure from that routine, cutting both costs and girth to deliver a machine that's palatable to the masses but doesn't lose any of that gamer cred. Systems management, cloud services likely in Dell's software acquisition plans
Dell's formation of a new software group, which was announced Thursday, could be the forerunner to a string of acquisitions by the vendor, with some observers predicting a focus on systems management and cloud services provisioning. Dell forms software group, names former CA CEO as head
Dell on Thursday said it is forming a Software Group, which will bring together disparate products under one roof as the company tries to sharpen its end-to-end enterprise offerings. Galaxy Note and S Pen: Can a tweener smartphone-tablet succeed?
The 5.3-in. Samsung Galaxy Note is called a smartphone, but its touchscreen and integrated S Pen stylus for drawing and taking notes elevates it into a somewhat harder to define category. 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. iPad sales beat HP, Lenovo, Dell PC numbers
Apple sold more iPad tablets last quarter than any single PC maker sold personal computers. 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 Apple drubs all rivals in U.S. system shipment gains
Apple was the only top-five computer maker to post shipment gains in the U.S. during the final quarter of 2011, a pair of research firms said this week. Dell launches dedupe appliance, VMware integration
Dell today announced its first deduplication appliance, along with an upgrade to its Compellent Storage Center management software that includes tighter integration with VMware. Dell announces XPS 13, its first ultrabook
Dell on Tuesday announced its first ultrabook, the XPS 13, making some noise amid a smaller presence at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas compared to previous years. Dell: PCs not under threat from tablets or smartphones
The PC is not likely to be challenged by the tablet or the smartphone, and many users of the Internet on these devices will turn to the PC for a better experience, Michael Dell said in Bangalore on Monday. Intel bets big on ultrabooks
Intel will get a strong indication at next week's Consumer Electronics Show whether its decision to bet heavily on ultrabooks is a good one -- or not. Ultrabooks, expected to be hot at CES, could be boon for enterprise IT
With ultrabooks poised to be the hottest devices to come out of this year's Consumer Electronics Show, analysts say the new hardware should be a boon for enterprise IT shops. 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 10 IT news stories to expect in 2012
Well, we erred in our 2011 predictions in not repeating a 2010 forecast that Carol Bartz would be ousted as Yahoo CEO -- it was bound to happen, we just called that one too early. Then again, we also predicted last year that Oracle would buy Salesforce.com and have decided not to repeat ourselves this year, so we'll see if we were just ahead on that one, too. Meanwhile, these are our predictions for the next 12 months: 2011: When cloud computing shook the data center
In a year of surging private cloud activity and major build-outs in public cloud capacity, the cloud's promised simplification remains elusive Ubuntu 11.10 'Oneiric Ocelot' to power new PC line
The vast majority of Linux users may get the operating system by downloading and installing it themselves, but there's no denying that there are distinct advantages to buying hardware with Linux preloaded instead. 12 IT Outsourcing Predictions for 2012
In 2011, the IT outsourcing industry was marked by smaller deals, leery customers, profit-squeezed IT service providers and a lot of cloud computing talk. Much of that could continue next year, but as our 12 predictions for 2012 indicate, you can expect some new IT outsourcing developments--maybe even a few firsts. Data center, cloud fabrics all the rage in 2012
There was a considerable amount of activity in the data center/cloud switching fabric arena in 2011. That is expected to continue in 2012, along with real world implementations of the next-generation IT technologies. Dell and China's Baidu launch new smartphone
Cisco impresses with UCS
If you're tempted to think of Cisco's Unified Computing System (UCS) as just another blade server — don't. In fact, if you just want a bunch of blades for your computer room, don't call Cisco — Dell, HP, and IBM all offer simpler and more cost-effective options. Dell pulls back from netbook market
Dell has confirmed that it has ceased production of its Inspiron Mini netbook computer, in effect ending its pursuit of the receding netbook market, at least for consumer sales. Online retailers turn to social networks for holiday profits
Retailers are going out of their way this year to integrate holiday season sales efforts with social networking sites to boost bottom line profits. Insider (registration required) Hitachi-LG Data Storage execs plead guilty to price fixing
Three executives at Hitachi-LG Data Storage (HLDS) have agreed to plead guilty and serve prison time in the U.S. for their participation in a series of conspiracies to rig bids and fix the prices of optical disk drives sold to large computer makers, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday. VDI shoot-out: Citrix XenDesktop 5.5
Citrix XenDesktop shines with unmatched flexibility and all the desktop virtualization bells and whistles. Insider (registration required) Impact of hard drive shortage to linger through 2013
Flooding in Thailand will affect hard disk drive supplies into 2013, but the most significant impact is being felt now and will continue well into 2012 by companies such as PC maker Lenovo, which is telling its customers there are no more 7200-rpm replacement drives. Image gallery: 'Cool stuff' 2011 holiday tech gift guide
From tablets and smartphones to HDTVs and a few surprises, we've rounded up the best tech gear to give and get this year. Cool stuff: Your 2011 holiday tech gift guide
From tablets and smartphones to laptops, HDTVs and a few surprises, we've rounded up the best tech gear to give and get this year. Dell, Salesforce.com deepen partnership around SMB cloud app delivery
Dell is rounding out its cloud CRM (customer relationship management) service with the addition of Salesforce.com's Service Cloud customer-service software, the companies announced Wednesday. Dell Streak is dead: Lessons for other tablets
Dell has announced that the "Streak 7 is no longer available." The death of Dell's Android tablet line doesn't come as much of a surprise, but it points to some lessons that other tablets might learn from to be stronger competitors. Lenovo surges, challenging HP in PC market
With Lenovo surging in the PC maker market, Hewlett-Packard (HP) is facing a serious challenge to its long-standing first-place position. RISC, Itanium lose out to x86 in Q3 server market, Gartner says
The worldwide server market grew by unit shipments and revenue in the third quarter this year, but the downward spiral of RISC and Itanium servers continued on the gains of x86 servers, Gartner said on Monday. Dell PowerEdge servers get AMD's new 16-core chips
Dell on Tuesday said it has upgraded its PowerEdge servers with the just-released 16-core Opteron processors from Advanced Micro Devices. Small PC makers hiking PC prices on hard-drive shortage
The early brunt of a hard-drive shortage resulting from widespread flooding in Thailand is falling on small PC makers, who are raising computer prices to stem losses. 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. Ultrabooks still trying to find their niche
Despite backing from the top PC makers, high prices and a disorganized software and hardware ecosystem could slow adoption of ultrabooks over the next few years, analysts said this week. Dell revenue drops slightly in Q3, but earnings rise
Dell on Tuesday reported a small dip in revenue for the third quarter, owing to weaker consumer demand for PCs, but recorded an increase in earnings. Server makers adopt AMD's new 16-core chips
Server vendors on Monday came out in support of Advanced Micro Devices' latest Opteron 6200 server chips, which advance chip technology to new highs with 16 processor cores. First look: Dell Opteron server cranks up the cores with AMD 'Interlagos'
New 16-core AMD Opteron 6200-series CPUs in the Dell R715 bring huge bang for the buck to wide virtualization workloads, but not until your OS supports it HP, Dell pass Nokia in new Greenpeace green IT guide
While some consumer electronics manufacturers have cleaned up their act, making more energy-efficient gadgets with fewer toxic materials, others are continuing to make fine promises but no changes, according to Greenpeace. In response, the environmental pressure group is changing the way it scores companies in its Guide to Greener Electronics, placing more emphasis on their actions than their words, and measuring new aspects of their operations. The Cloud, Day 2: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Cloud
The first step in spending 30 days relying on cloud-based tools and services is to explore my options and choose the ones I want to use to work and live online. Email and writing are the most crucial functions of my PC for me, so I am going to start by finding suitable online options for email and writing. Actually, I planned to start there, but I ran into a little hiccup--my PC won't cooperate. Why Today's CIO Must Foster IT Agility
Dell CIO Robin Johnson explains how a company's lack of agility, the inability of its IT infrastructure to quickly incorporate a new business process that would give it a competitive edge, can be costly. Johnson explains why the price of this lack of agility, what he refers to as the agility tax, is too high to pay. Cisco vs. HP vs. IBM vs. Dell
Cisco used to be a networking company, pure and simple. It built its dominance and influence on capturing a dominant market position in routers and switches, both in the enterprise and in service provider networks. Facebook-led foundation pushes for open data center tech
Facebook and several of its high-tech partners are rethinking how companies can handle big data with low-cost computing centers. Dell unveils Latitude ST business tablet
Dell will sell a new Latitude tablet for businesses with Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system, while it prepares to bring the OS's successor, Windows 8, to tablets. Dell Boomi cloud service adds business rules engine
In addition to using Dell's Boomi integration service to move data from one cloud to another, users of the service can now also create simple business rules to reroute data to different locations, the company announced Tuesday.
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A Dell marketing muckety-muck chucked muck at Apple's iPad 2
