IBM moves flash storage contained in the box — 12.8 TB of it — to work alongside RAM and cut data movement latencies. IBM Predicts Next 5 Life-Changing Tech Innovations (Click image for larger view.) IBM has unveiled what it calls its next generation of cloud and massive data servers, the X6 series. The x86-based line will run Intel’s latest Ivy Bridge processor in four- and 8-way configurations and should be full of flash memory. IBM has used flash or solid-state drives as adjuncts to spinning disks and RAID arrays outside the server. However, now it has migrated flash contained in the server case. To take action, it needed to redesign flash memory sticks to slot into the random access memory’s dual-inline memory slots on a server’s motherboard. It then designed motherboards with room for 12.8 TB of flash, in addition to 6 TB to twelve TB of RAM. That’s a primary for IBM and a primary for the industry, IBM spokesmen said. By redesigning... Read More »

Microsoft’s Surface 2 is a huge improvement, but it is not for everybody. I’ve been using Microsoft’s Surface 2 for just about a month, and it improves in literally every far more than its misbegotten predecessor, the outside RT. That isn’t necessarily saying much, given the low bar set by the unique, however the Surface 2 is essentially a beautiful satisfying device. I’m consequently disappointed that i will not wholeheartedly recommend the skin 2. It is a terrific device for specific groups of users, but given its cost and limitations, a lot of people it will likely be better served by other options. The Surface 2 is fun to apply, but with a $449 base price, it would be too compromised for many users. Still, progress is progress. The skin RT, which Microsoft still sells for $349, doesn’t warrant even a certified endorsement — its sales had been awful for a reason. Windows RT 8.1 adds some polish to the device’s OS, however the RT... Read More »

Oracle joins the cloud-integration party late, but says its wizard-driven SOA Suite will appeal where on-premises apps prevail. Oracle introduced the Oracle Cloud Adapter for Salesforce.com on Thursday, vowing that it won’t be too little, too late on the subject of cloud application integration. Oracle says its SOA Suite have been used to construct one-off, Web-services integrations into cloud-based applications for years. However the Adapter for Salesforce.com is the primary of many packaged integrations that the seller says will broaden its choice of greater than 300 pre-built adapters heretofore fascinated about on-premises application integration. “We’re making things easier so as opposed to having to read documentation and work out which APIs to name, we package all of it in a graphical, wizard-driven adapter,” Demed L’Her, VP of product management for Oracle integration products, said in an interview with InformationWeek. [Want more on cloud integration? Read Informatica Adds Integration Options As Cloud Demand Multiplies.] The Cloud Adapter for Salesforce.com works with the Oracle SOA Suite wizard-based... Read More »

Salesforce.com’s biggest announcement of Dreamforce ’13 is Salesforce1, but is it a branding exercise or a game changer? Salesforce1 is the massive story of Dreamforce 2013, but just how real is it and what’s going to it do for Salesforce.com customers? Unlike Dreamforce announcements of years past, Salesforce1 is shipping upon announcement, available within the type of dowloadable mobile apps. But there’s more work to be done if it’ll live as much as its billing as a “next-generation platform” which will connect partners, employees, customers, and customers’ customers through any device with “state-of-the-art, consumer-grade functionality.” It’s tough to boil the facts out of some whirlwind, buzzword-packed keynote presentations. But Q&A sessions with Salesforce executives and interviews with customers and partners helped us fill in the various fuzzier aspects of the platform. So here is a closer study what it brings and what it promises. As we’ve reported, Salesforce1 is a unifying, mobile-friendly, API-rich wrapper around everything Salesforce.com offers. The corporate is mobilizing everything, pointing to... Read More »

From Europe’s efforts to create regulations for data localization to worries over the protection of the cloud, the leaks of the past eight months have cast a shadow over cloud providers. RSA CONFERENCE — San Francisco — Last summer’s revelations of the level to which the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) collected data on American and foreign targets has caused rifts between global businesses which are hindering efforts to secure the cloud, said Richard Clarke, CEO of fine Harbor and a former US cyberczar, on the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) Summit on Monday. The steady leak of documents up to now eight months detailing the operations of the NSA intelligence collection activities has damaged both US policy efforts abroad and the business of plenty of multinational companies, especially cloud providers. Efforts to implement strong security guidelines for the cloud should overcome efforts by other nations to implement data residency restrictions to hinder competition, Clarke said. [For more from RSA, see RSA Conference 2014: Complete Coverage.]... Read More »