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:


2010 WINTER CONFERENCE:
March 10 - 12, 2010
Orlando, FL - Walt Disney World Swan Resort


2010 EUROPEAN CONFERENCE:
June 23 - 25, 2010
Dublin, Ireland - Radisson Blu Royal Hotel


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.

Book review
Cloud
Data protection
HP
IBM
iSeries
Storage
Sun
Vendors

Book review

Deploying QoS for Cisco IP and Next-Generation Networks: The Definitive Guide
Reviewed by William A. Flanagan
President, Flanagan Consulting
[email protected]

The highly detailed content of this book shows every sign of being a definitive guide to Quality of Service (QoS), as advertised. If you work with Cisco equipment and perhaps other makes, as well, and want to understand exactly how a router handles packets and queues subject to different classes of service, then Chapter 2, "Introduction to Cisco's Quality-of-Service Architecture for IP Networks" may be worth the price of admission. How to use QoS takes up three chapters covering Quad-Play Networks (mixing voice and video with data), Next-Generation Networks (including the carrier's viewpoint), and Mobile Networks (as QoS applies to cellular networks from 1G to 4G). There are many sections that examine specific problems and offer solutions. Since the purpose of QoS is to ensure the services delivered on a network meet service level agreements, there is appropriate coverage of SLAs over three chapters. There's a ton—maybe two—of solid information in this volume. The information seems technically accurate throughout, but the organization of the materials makes it a tough "read."

Authors: Vinod Joseph and Brett Chapman
Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers (an imprint of Elsevier) (2009)
ISBN-10: 012374461X
ISBN 13: 978-0-12-374461-6
List Price: $59.95
Digital Guru Price: $53.96^Back To Top

Cloud

Orange Business Services sets out its ambitions in cloud computing
Orange Business Services, which has already rolled out successful cloud services such as IT Plan (desktop virtualization) and Flexible Computing (hosted virtualized infrastructure), will launch a dozen new cloud computing services in the coming 24 months.  These services cover six main areas including real-time applications, collaboration, security, infrastructure, cloud-ready networking and vertical solutions for specific industries. Orange already has solid expertise with cloud services, in part thanks to a strong existing portfolio and 150 cloud computing specialists. In addition to managing 12,000 servers for enterprise customers, Orange can design, build and operate private clouds for large multinational companies. Orange Business Services was voted Best Global Operator by the World Communications Awards for four consecutive years (most recently on November 25, 2009).
Visit www.orange-business.com.
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Data protection

Unitrends announces Recovery-7 Series data protection vault and cross-vault appliances
Unitrends announced the Recovery-7 Series data protection vault and cross-vault (replication) appliances. Offering the unique No Limits licensing model that isn’t limited on a protected storage or client basis, the new off-premise data protection appliances support advanced in-flight data deduplication for optimized WAN performance. Unitrends vaulting solutions are offered for two replication choices: vaulting and cross-vaulting. The Recovery-7 Series vault appliances automatically and seamlessly transfer data from an on-premise to an off-premise location for homogeneous small and medium replicated branch operations. The Recovery-7 Series cross-vault appliances provide a two-way transfer for heterogeneous small and medium branch operations. Both appliances feature advanced in-flight data deduplication to optimize WAN bandwidth between premises.
Visit www.unitrends.com.
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HP

HP announces enhancements to nonstop servers
HP announced enhancements to the HP Integrity NonStop portfolio that deliver increased capacity, improved performance and enhanced enterprise integration, enabling customers to drive business efficiency while providing greater service levels. New enhancements to the HP NonStop portfolio include:

• Enhanced performance of complex enterprise data center systems spanning a large geographic area and thousands of processors, with NonStop BladeCluster Express 1.2.

• Improved business decision-making by aggregating “islands” of information across an enterprise with NonStop SOAP 4.0, providing seamless integration with open source software such as Spring, Apache Axis2, MyFaces and Hibernate – all common elements of service-oriented architectures (SOA).

• Increased service levels through simplified software programming, improved application capacity and higher performance with the upgraded NonStop SQL 2.3 database.

HP Integrity NonStop customers worldwide can interact, share knowledge and exchange best practices through Connect, HP’s business technology user community.
Visit www.hp.com/go/nonstop35 or www.connect-community.org.

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IBM

Elie Tahari uses IBM technology to target new customers
Global fashion designer, Elie Tahari, announced that the company is using IBM business intelligence technology to help gain greater visibility into customer buying habits, merchandising and supply chain to make better use of information and become more responsive to customer needs. Since implementing the system, the retailer has been able to more effectively target new customers and boost sales by more than 10 percent, while cutting operating costs. The software helps identify best selling sizes across product lines, popularity and demand for a particular item, or colors in fashion for the season. In addition, the IBM software also helped reduce the risk of manual reporting errors by moving to a new electronic system. With the new technology - running on IBM Cognos BI and eServer iSeries - Elie Tahari is fulfilling its expansion goals to serve several key international markets. The new solution has enabled the global sales team to have instant access to unified and standardized reports to meet shifting customer needs.
Visit http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/.



CommScope and IBM join forces to bring Portable Modular Data Center solution to the enterprise
CommScope Enterprise Solutions is teaming up with IBM on its Fiber Transport System (FTS) S-Line solution—a pre-terminated fiber optic solution that can be integrated into IBM’s revolutionary Portable Modular Data Center (PMDC). Developed in tandem with CommScope and its SYSTIMAX brand, the IBM FTS S-Line solution capitalizes on CommScope’s 40-year heritage in the development and production of fiber optics. Leveraging SYSTIMAX’s InstaPATCH solution with the IBM suite of server (IBM zSeries) and storage area network products, the system expands productivity and scalability while lowering costs. In addition, its unique, pre-terminated hardware gives installers the ability to quickly connect system components together while safeguarding bandwidth needs within these portable data centers.
Visit www.ibm.com or www.commscope.com

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iSeries

First Option Inc. releases iSeries Watchdog 2.0
First Option announced the newest version of iSeries Watchdog by First Option, a new iSeries system monitoring solution that was originally developed to assist with First Option’s iSeries outsourcing business. It is now being marketed as software as a service (SaaS), where a secured connection will be established to the customer and client software installed to gather the key health statistics of the System i (AS400) server. A monthly fee is charged that includes rental of the client software and graphical front end. iSeries Watchdog collects key health indicators of System i servers and displays them in a color coded GUI interface. System problems, halt messages, tape drive status, DASD, CPU percentage and disk status are some of the indicators displayed.
Visit www.1stoption.com.
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Storage

Global Crossing selects HP to enhance unified communications platform
HP announced that Global Crossing has chosen HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA) solutions to improve storage utilization and better allocate storage capacity in support of important business initiatives. The EVA offers an easy-to-use management interface so Global Crossing can quickly assign available storage space as business needs change. It also adds elasticity to Global Crossing’s technology environment by helping consolidate underutilized storage capacity. To support the company’s unified communications strategy, the HP EVA is managing the storage needs of more than 5,000 internal mailboxes that offer up to 1 gigabyte of storage each. The EVA’s virtualization capabilities also support Global Crossing’s server virtualization and SAN strategies. Lastly, the HP EVA features HP StorageWorks Business Copy EVA software, which improves data recovery and availability, enabling Global Crossing to ensure critical information is always accessible through local replication and specialized backup.
Visit www.hp.com.
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Sun

Sun Microsystems unveils advanced cloud security tools
As part of its overall strategy to help customers and partners build public and private clouds that are open and interoperable, Sun Microsystems, Inc. unveiled innovative open source cloud security capabilities and announced support for the latest Security Guidance from the Cloud Security Alliance. The introduction of Sun's Cloud Security architectural building blocks will help deliver enterprise-grade cloud services that are highly secure, available and easily manageable when used in public, private or hybrid cloud environments. Leveraging the built-in security capabilities of Sun's Solaris Operating Systems, including Solaris ZFS and Solaris Containers, the security tools help in securing data in transit, data at rest, and data in use in the cloud, and work with cloud offerings from leading vendors including Amazon and Eucalyptus. Along with introducing new security tools, Sun also announced support for the Cloud Security Alliance's “Guidance for Critical Areas of Focus in Cloud Computing – Version 2.1.”
Visit www.sun.com/cloud/security or www.cloudsecurityalliance.org/guidance. ^Back To Top

Vendors

VendorRate announces top rated IT vendors
VendorRate announced that IBM Informix, ChemSW and 10ZiG Technology were the top rated vendors for overall customer satisfaction in 2009. IBM Informix’ score of 94.3 out of a possible 100 was the top overall mark for 2009. The company has placed first or second on VendorRate in each quarter since Q3 of 2008. ChemSW, last year’s top scoring vendor, was second with a 92.9 mark, while newcomer 10ZiG Technology placed third with an overall rating of 91.6. SAP/Business Objects trailed the 2009 field with a low mark of 53.6. Also among the bottom ten were four major wireless providers – AT&T Wireless, Verizon Communications, T-Mobile USA and Sprint Nextel – along with internet-related and telephone services from Cisco, Qwest and Bell Canada. As VendorRate nears completion of its second year, more than 5000 business-to-business IT professionals have now posted ratings on the company website and at trade shows, professional conferences and virtual events. VendorRate users rate vendors confidentially on ten specific performance criteria that include customer service, reliability, integrity, budget and effectiveness. The results produce a cumulative score up to 100. VendorRate is vendor neutral and accepts neither vendor sponsorship nor advertising.
Visit www.vendorrate.com.
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