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:

2011 USA WINTER RECEPTION
January 13, 2011
Atlanta, GA

2011 ASIA CONFERENCE
February 16 - 18, 2011
Singapore

2011 USA WINTER CONFERENCE
March 23 – 25, 2011
New Orleans, LA

2011 EUROPEAN SPRING RECEPTION
Thursday, 12 May 2011
London, England

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.

Cable
Cisco
Education
HP
IBM
Market news
Monitors
Power
Solutions

Cable

North American Cable Equipment, Inc. announces stimulus program
North American Cable Equipment, Inc. (NACE) announced the Winter HARP Stimulus Program - Headend Asset Relief Program - for qualified dealers. Under HARP dealers can purchase pre-built headends with deep discounts on assembly costs at $9.00 per channel and crating costs at $25.00 per rack. Further, NACE is offering an equipment stimulus in the form of a $200.00 discount for 20-channel systems and $350.000 for 35-channel systems. Incentives continue with a $100.00 activation bonus of qualified SMATV properties and a 3-year warranty on all Cabletronix products used in the headend build.  To participate in HARP all systems must be shipped and activated by January 31, 2011; all equipment in the system must be purchased from NACE; and the system must be activated through NACE.
Visit www.northamericancable.com.
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Cisco

Cisco announces intent to acquire LineSider
Cisco announced its intent to acquire privately held LineSider Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of network management software that helps customers build the network services necessary to securely create and deploy cloud computing infrastructure. LineSider's software is designed to enable customers to organize their network resources into a flexible cloud infrastructure that integrates the network with customers' existing IT operational tools and processes. This network abstraction layer allows customers to provision and deploy numerous individual network components much more quickly than previously possible, dramatically reducing network operations costs and accelerating service delivery.  A partner-centric approach remains a cornerstone of Cisco's strategy in the cloud computing space, and LineSider's technology will strengthen Cisco's ability to work with a broad community of software partners, particularly within the service management space. In addition to providing Cisco with advanced technology, the acquisition of LineSider will bring an industry-leading team of engineers to the company. Upon the close of the acquisition, the LineSider team will become part of Cisco's NMTG.
Visit www.cisco.com.
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Education

Springfield Schools select KEMP load balancers
KEMP Technologies announced that the Springfield public school system in Massachusetts has implemented KEMP LoadMasters in its data centers. Delivering high availability for web-based applications, the application delivery controllers (ADC) and server load balancers optimize and seamlessly distribute web traffic across servers. With KEMP’s load balancers, the school system is able to assure high availability and avoid congestion associated with accessing its new web-based student information system during such times as report-card day, when thousands of parents would require access. For the new school year, the district has implemented PowerSchool Management, the school’s first web-based student information system with all files now accessible from a centralized and online database. While implementing the new automated online system, Springfield’s goal was also to consolidate its server count and consequently needed an application delivery solution that enabled it to reduce server numbers while maintaining improved performance and availability. With the new server configuration, hardware load balancing was a necessity for the school system and Springfield chose KEMP’s LoadMaster 5500 application delivery controllers.
Visit www.kemptechnologies.com.
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HP

HP announces industry’s first unified system to manage application lifecycle
HP introduced the first unified system to accelerate the reliable, secure delivery of software applications and services across heterogeneous environments. HP Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) 11 unites and automates the critical activities of modernization applications – from requirements management to quality, performance and release. HP ALM 11 is a role-based system that supports stakeholders in the applications delivery process and integrates with major development tools. It automates workflow processes within and across applications teams, enforcing and accelerating best practice application lifecycle management. HP ALM 11 is a component of the HP Application Transformation portfolio, which helps businesses and governments in their pursuit of an Instant-On Enterprise in which technology is embedded in everything an organization does to serve customers, employees, partners and citizens with whatever they need, instantly.
Visit www.hp.com.
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IBM

IBM shatters world record on two-tier SAP SD standard application benchmark
IBM announced that a 256-core Power 795 system with DB2 nearly doubled last month's record to achieve the highest result ever published on the two-tier SAP Sales and Distribution (SD) standard application benchmark with a result of 126,063 SAP SD benchmark users. The IBM system easily eclipsed Oracle/Sun results on the two-tier SAP SD standard application, handling more than three times the number of SAP SD users than a 256-core Sun SPARC Enterprise M9000 (Oracle's largest system) and the 128-core Oracle result on the two-tier SAP SD-Parallel standard application benchmark published in September running four clustered 32-core Sun Fire X4470 servers with Intel's Xeon X7560 chip. The IBM benchmark is more than four times higher than HP's 128-core Integrity SD64B result (HP's largest) on the two-tier SAP SD standard application benchmark. The 256-core POWER7-based 795 running the AIX  7.1 operating system, DB2 9.7 information management software and IBM System Storage also surpassed its own world record result on the two-tier SAP SD standard application benchmark achieved last month on a 128-core Power 795, demonstrating impressive 90 percent, near-linear scaling. The result is also the first to break the 500,000 SAPS (SAP Application Performance Standard) level on a single system with more than 688,000 SAPS, a measure of system throughput of business deliverables, such as customer sales orders or invoices.
Visit www.ibm.com.



Mindfire launches AS/400 ILE RPG iSeries development services
Mindfire Solutions announced the launch of AS/400 ILE RPG iSeries development services as a part of their Middle Tier Technology. Mindfire Solutions has proved itself in the last eleven years by delivering exceptional software services.  After making a mark in most of the skill areas, now Mindfire Solutions is ready to provide AS/400 support to its global clients. Mindfire Solutions provides administration and support for third-party application packages in AS/400 such as JD Edwards and other retail packages. Its AS/400 team has years of experience in serving clients in various domains and also provides a range of services in offshore AS400 CMS Development. The services that Mindfire offers in AS400 application development are AS400 Development, Maintenance, Customization, Re-engineering, AS/400 Software development in RPG, COBOL, Java Web services applications in Java for Web Sphere Application Server and RPG CGI development. They have also worked on AS400 RPG ILE projects across industries like healthcare, insurance, manufacturing, sales & distribution and hospitality.
Visit www.mindfiresolutions.com.
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Market news

Worldwide server market revenues increase in third quarter
According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker, factory revenue in the worldwide server market increased 13.2% year over year to $11.8 billion in the third quarter of 2010 (3Q10). This is the third consecutive quarter of year-over-year revenue growth and the fastest quarterly revenue growth since 2000, as market demand continued to improve around the world. Server unit shipments increased 13.1% year over year in 3Q10; however, server shipment growth moderated slightly over the strong 23.1% year-over-year shipment growth reported in the second quarter of 2010. Volume systems experienced the sharpest improvement with year-over-year revenue increasing 22.8%, the fourth consecutive quarter of positive growth for the segment. Midrange server demand improved significantly with year-over-year growth of 19.8%, the segment's second consecutive quarter of positive growth following nine quarters of decline and a sign that server market conditions are improving more broadly beyond volume systems. Demand for high-end enterprise systems continued to be soft, as revenue declined 10.4% when compared to 3Q09. This is the eighth consecutive quarter of contraction in the high-end enterprise server segment of the server market.
Visit www.idc.com.
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Monitors

NEC MultiSync brand turns 25 years old, tops 40 million monitors shipped
NEC Display Solutions of America announced the 25th anniversary of its award-winning MultiSync monitor brand. Concurrent to its Silver Anniversary, MultiSync-branded displays have reached another milestone: 40 million units shipped. MultiSync-branded monitors have set the industry benchmark for display quality, reliability and durability as evidenced by the numerous Best of Show, Readers’ Choice and Editors’ Choice Awards received in its history. As a thank-you to its long-time customers as well as newcomers to the MultiSync legacy, NEC is extending its desktop monitor standard limited warranties to five years for only $25. From December 1, 2010, to March 31, 2011, users who purchase any new NEC MultiSync desktop monitor (between 17 inches and 30 inches) can take advantage of this offer.
Visit www.necdisplay.com.
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Power

Emerson Network Power introduces NetSure ITM
Emerson Network Power introduced the NetSure ITM uninterruptible power supply (UPS) system—the industry’s first row-based, integrated DC (Direct Current) UPS system specifically designed for the data center market. The NetSure ITM is a scalable and highly efficient 48V direct current output power system that includes battery backup and branch distribution for robust power protection in a compact footprint. Emerson Network Power has decades of experience providing DC power systems for telecommunications networks. Utilizing the same power conversion technology, the NetSure ITM is simple to deploy, operate and provides reduced total cost of ownership for data center applications. Initially available in North America, the NetSure ITM is designed for deployment directly on the server room floor and provides protected 48V power to nearby equipment racks.
Visit www.emersonnetworkpower.com.
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Solutions

Panasonic debuts 8-in-1 office & imaging communication center
Panasonic System Networks Company of America rolled out its groundbreaking KX-MB2061 "8-in-1" office and imaging communications system, the industry's only "solution-in-a-box" integrating laser printing, copying and faxing with five other essential document handling, telecommunications and Internet business functions. The first product developed from the ground up since the merger of Panasonic's document, communications and security divisions into Panasonic System Networks Company of America, the highly affordable KX-MB2061 is a perfect "all-in-one" solution for SOHO and other entrepreneurial businesses short on office space and long on workloads. Key features of the new 8-in-1 include high-speed laser printing (up to 24 ppm), Super G3 faxing and networked color scanning. The KX-MB2061 also incorporates a Panasonic DECT 6.0 telephone system for crystal clear, static-free conversations over as many as six cordless handsets and a digital answering system.
Visit www.panasonic.com/psna.
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