Upcoming Meeting Notice

The Association of Service and Computer Dealers International (ASCDI) is a 30 year old, worldwide non-profit organization made up of companies who provide technology solutions, technical support or value added services to the business community.

Members and non-members are invited to learn how to grow your business, find new business opportunities, hear from industry representatives and enjoy some fabulous networking events at our conferences:

REGIONAL MEETING: January 15, 2009
Gaylord Texan Hotel - DALLAS, TEXAS

WINTER CONFERENCE: March 4 - 6, 2009
Hard Rock Hotel - LAS VEGAS, NEVADA

EUROPEAN CONFERENCE: June 17 - 19, 2009
Prague, Czech Republic

Click here for more information on ALL ASCDI MEETINGS, to view the agendas, lodging details, attendee lists and to REGISTER AT THE EARLY BIRD RATE.

ASCDI in the news
At CIPTUG
Book review
Case study
Economy
HP
IBM
Leasing
Power
Sun

ASCDI in the news

Computer and telecom resellers band together to fight counterfeit IT equipment flow
ASCDI and NATD appear before US Government Hearing
The Association of Service and Computer Dealers, International (ASCDI) and the North American Association of Telecommunications Dealers (NATD) have banded together in an effort to work with IT manufacturers and law enforcement to eliminate the increased flow of counterfeit equipment into the IT supply chain.

Background: In 2008, the ASCDI established a Counterfeit Task Force to establish a plan to identify and attack the flow of counterfeit equipment into the computer resale industry.  They were joined by the likes of IBM and the FBI in this effort.  In an effort to broaden the coalition the ASCDI invited the NATD to join the effort.

Recent events: A public hearing on a proposed federal rule to require government agencies to only accept bids from manufacturers or their authorized agents shutting out thousands of secondary market resellers in the process was held on Thursday, December 12th in Washington D.C.  The proposed rule change represents a seismic shift in the federal government’s acquisition practice affecting thousands suppliers of goods and services to the federal government.  A copy of the proposed ruling can be found at http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/E8-27275.htm. Most of the 100 people were in attendance at the hearing held at NASA Headquarters were employees of the federal agencies promoting the proposed rule change.  Six presentations were made by the following agencies or organizations: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (“NASA”); The Society of Automotive Engineers (“SEA”); The Department of Defense (“DOD”); The Department of Commerce; World Data Products, Inc.; ASCDI & NATD.
 
During 6 hours of testimony, no one challenged the need to eliminate counterfeit products.  Rather, the question boiled down to whether, in order to avoid counterfeit products, is it necessary and appropriate to move the federal government to a policy of sole source acquisition for all IT products eliminating competition for price, quality and terms.  Read the ASCDI and NATD position.

The Civil Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council closed the Public Hearing expressing appreciation for the presentations and acknowledged the fact that the proposed rule change was too narrow in focus and did not meet the acquisition needs of all government constituents which may require secondary markets to continue to provide support.

Both ASCDI and NATD have been called upon to submit supplemental public comment by Tuesday, January 20, 2009 together with proposed language addressing the concerns expressed during the hearing.

Contact: For more information about the ASCDI and NATD please go to www.ascdi.com and www.natd.com or contact Joseph Marion at [email protected] or 561-266-9440.^Back To Top

At CIPTUG

CIPTUG 2008 Application Bake-off winners
At the 2008 Annual Conference, CIPTUG hosted an Application Bake-off Competition where end-users and vendors demonstrated their recently released or about-to-be released applications designed to solve unique, complex business problems across a variety of vertical markets.  The Application Bake-Off Competition provided attendees the opportunity to judge the applications’ applicability to their business needs while offering direct, valuable feedback to the developers. View this year’s award recipients.^Back To Top

Book review

Voice and Video Conferencing Fundamentals
This book is enough of an overview to appeal to those managers and analysts who need to get a sense of the technologies and protocols in short order. Yet it is deep enough to be of real value to more technical professionals charged with the responsibilities of designing, developing, selecting, deploying and supporting advanced IP-based audio and video conferencing systems. In large part, it is an agnostic treatment of the subject, focusing on generic concepts and standards-based technologies. The authors naturally, however, give special attention to a Cisco environment, but not so much as to detract from the overall value of the book to the general population.

Authors: Scott Firestone, Thiya Ramalingam and Steve Fry
Publisher: Cisco Press (March 2007)
ISBN-10: 1-58705-268-7
ISBN-13: 978-1-58705-268-2
Price: $55.00^Back To Top

Case study

System z at the heart of the new Region Calabria Information System
Region Calabria, one of the largest regions in all of Italy with more than 2 million people, announced that it has gone live with a new IBM information infrastructure of servers and storage as a means to transform its data processing center. Over the last few years, a strong modernization plan has been introduced, based upon a consolidation project that focuses on Open Source architectures and platforms, in particular Linux environments, while reducing costs. The plan involves a migration from the previous departmental systems to a centralized IBM structure, using the IBM z9 mainframe platform entirely based on the Linux for System z architecture. The new system is centered on a technological platform consisting of a z9 Business Class system, an IBM System Storage DS6800 sub-system and the IBM System Storage TS1130 Tape Drive. The system features a software architecture based on the Open Source Linux SUSE platform for System z, enhanced by IBM middleware software components such as Domino, WebSphere and Tivoli that help improve the whole system's performance and functionality.
Visit www.ibm.com.^Back To Top

Economy

Gray market swells as economy swoons
The number of businesses filing for bankruptcy climbed 42 percent to 33,822 in the year ended in June, according to U.S. federal courts. The so-called gray market — supplied by equipment from failed businesses and shuttered offices — could account for 14 percent of technology sales next year, up from 8 percent, said Zeus Kerravala, an analyst at the Yankee Group. And the $25 billion market for servers and networking devices may be among the hardest hit. Sales at Network Liquidators, a company based in Oldsmar, Fla., will increase more than 20 percent to $50 million this year, said Chief Executive Barry Shevlin. The amount of equipment offloaded by businesses has risen as much as threefold and much of it is relatively new, he said. Network Liquidators has seen a 50 percent rise in sales of products from San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco this quarter.  Used equipment could account for 30 percent of the total PC market by the end of the year, up from 10 percent, said Rob Enderle, president of the research firm Enderle Group in San Jose. Still, technology companies may gain customers from the secondhand market because it builds brand loyalty.

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HP

HP expands easy-to-use virtual protection tool
HP announced the expansion of its virtualized browsing solution across select business desktop products and its plans to introduce Linux as an operating system choice for business desktop customers. The first-of-its-kind Mozilla Firefox for HP Virtual Solution was developed with Symantec and Mozilla for HP customers. The solution uses the standard release of Mozilla Firefox with a Symantec Software Virtualization Solution layer that allows customers to use the Internet productively while keeping business PCs stable and easier to support. As customers surf the web, changes made to the PC are contained in a “virtual layer,” separate from the operating system, and do not permanently alter the machine.

To provide customers with more cost-effective and secure computing options, HP has introduced a new desktop offering with SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop from Novell on the HP Compaq dc5850. This joint solution delivers a tightly integrated suite of essential applications, including OpenOffice.org, web browser, multimedia tools and email, collaboration and instant messaging software to drive productivity for business customers. For education customers, HP is working with Novell to develop and maintain a repository of more than 40 applications, including math, art and word games, to improve student learning. In addition, applications for school administration and instruction will be available for teachers and administrators.
Visit www.hp.com.
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IBM

IBM to validate resiliency of cloud computing infrastructures
In a move that could spur the rise of the nascent computing model known as "cloud," IBM said it would introduce a program to validate the resiliency of any company delivering applications or services to clients in the cloud environment. As a result, customers can quickly and easily identify trustworthy providers that have passed a rigorous evaluation, enabling them to more quickly and confidently reap the business benefits of cloud services. Cloud computing is a model for network-delivered services, in which the user sees only the service and does not view the implementation or infrastructure required for its delivery. The success to date of cloud services like storage, data protection and enterprise applications has created a large influx of new providers. However, unpredictable performance and some high-profile downtime and recovery events with newer cloud services have created a challenge for customers evaluating the move to cloud. IBM's new "Resilient Cloud Validation" program will allow businesses who collaborate with IBM on a rigorous, consistent and proven program of benchmarking and design validation to use the IBM logo: "Resilient Cloud" when marketing their services.
Visit www.ibm.com/cloud.^Back To Top

Leasing

New HP software and zero percent lease financing help CIOs respond to tough economy
HP announced enhanced Business Technology Optimization (BTO) software solutions to help CIOs quickly adapt IT investments to drive down costs and strengthen competitive advantage. HP also announced zero percent lease financing for qualifying customers of its BTO and Information Management (IM) software through HP Financial Services, the company’s leasing and financing arm. The HP Financial Services zero percent promotion is available for licensing and support costs on HP BTO and IM software solutions for qualifying deals over $100,000 through Jan. 31, 2009. The promotion is available in Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Visit www.hp.com/software/financing. ^Back To Top

Power

New Emerson Network Power CTO expects new focus on business continuity in 2009
Emerson Network Power recently appointed Victor Lee chief technology officer to guide technology innovation across all of the business’s 12 centers of expertise. In this role, Lee brings increased focus and consistency to research and development platforms addressing continuity challenges in the most critical data center, telecommunications, alternative energy, systems integration and power conversion environments. Lee stresses that this focus will be vital amid a challenging economic climate where any downtime could have major ramifications. The conditions have created a renewed emphasis on business continuity and an increasing demand for energy efficient technologies and solutions. Additionally, any executives authorizing strategic technology investments must emphasize product dependability and flexibility to their vendor partners. Lee said Emerson Network Power products and solutions will meet these expectations while building on the strong commitment to innovation that defines the business.
Visit www.emersonnetworkpower.com.
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Sun

Sun Microsystems and IBM launch ODF Toolkit Union
Sun Microsystems, Inc. and IBM announced the launch of the OpenDocument Format (ODF) Toolkit Union, a new open-source software community project organized to make document software more innovative, versatile and useful for business. The ODF Toolkit will use an initial software code contribution from Sun to provide developers with an easy-to-use Application Programming Interface (API) for reading, writing and manipulating ODF documents while accelerating additional application development. One part of the initial code contribution is an ODF Validator, a tool that validates OpenDocument files and checks certain conformance criteria. Capitalizing on the open, elegant nature of ODF, the Toolkit targets developers who want to create new applications and solutions ranging from content management, business workflows and activities to Web-based document solutions.
Visit www.sun.com. ^Back To Top