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 ASIA CONFERENCE
February 17 - 18, 2011
Singapore

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

2011 EUROPEAN SPRING RECEPTION
Thursday, 19 May 2011
London, England

2011 USA SUMMER RECEPTION
June 15, 2011
Chicago, IL

2011 USA FALL RECEPTION
September 14, 2011
Boston, MA

2011 EUROPEAN FALL CONFERENCE
October 26 - 28, 2011
Hamburg, Germany

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.

Cloud
Dell
HP
IBM
Looking ahead
People
Power
Printers
RFID
Storage
Technical support
Trends

Cloud

Ariba brings contract management to Cloud 2 on the Force.com platform
Ariba, Inc. announced that Ariba Contracts will be available on Force.com. A new application delivered entirely in the Cloud on Force.com, the enterprise computing platform, Ariba Contracts is designed to help companies accelerate sales and improve revenue through real-time collaboration and more efficient and effective contracting. With Ariba Contracts on Force.com, companies of all sizes will be able to streamline and manage their sales contracts and customer relationships from end-to-end by leveraging Ariba’s industry-leading contract management technology. And employees will be able to use the social capabilities of Salesforce Chatter like profiles, status updates, and real-time feeds available within Ariba Contracts to collaborate on the contract management process. Force.com’s mobile capabilities enable Ariba Contracts to be instantly mobile-enabled, so contracts can be accessed and approved on mobile devices such as the Android, Blackberry, iPad and iPhone. Ariba Contracts on Force.com is currently scheduled for limited release in the first half of 2011.
Visit www.ariba.com/commercecloud.


newScale reports dramatic increase in cloud computing adoption
newScale Inc. announced record financial results and a dramatic increase in cloud computing adoption among new and existing customers in 2010. newScale sales from cloud-related customer deployments grew by 162%, with a 133% increase in new cloud computing customers, during the calendar year. newScale’s growth was fueled by both new wins and expansion deals at customers including Ameriprise Financial, The Boeing Company, Capital BlueCross, Charles Schwab, Federal Reserve, Intel Corporation, Kimberly-Clark Corporation, Nokia Corporation, Siemens IT Solutions & Services, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and XL Group plc. Market research firm The 451 Group predicts that the infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) market will grow from $964 million in 2010 to $3.9 billion in 2013. Industry analysts and IT practitioners recognize that these cloud computing deployments require a service catalog for on-demand provisioning of applications, compute, storage and network resources. newScale's software provides this Web-based "menu" of standardized service options, with dynamic self-service provisioning and lifecycle management for easy, yet controlled, access to IT resources – instead of waiting days or weeks.
Visit www.newscale.com.
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Dell

Dell expands Dell Services, consolidates Public and Large Enterprise business units
Dell announced that Steve Schuckenbrock has been named president of Dell Services. Mr. Schuckenbrock succeeds Peter Altabef, who is leaving Dell after leading the successful integration of Perot Systems into Dell. The integration of Perot Systems has strengthened Dell Services, expanded its portfolio of capabilities and established a strong foundation for future growth. With more than 43,000 team members working in 90 countries, Dell Services operates 60 technology support centers around the world, 36 customer data centers and provides technical support for 14 million client systems and 10,000 Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) customers. In a related move, Dell will consolidate its Public and Large Enterprise business units into a single organization focused on supporting the needs of these customers. Paul Bell will serve as president of Dell’s newly combined Public-Large Enterprise business unit. Both Mr. Schuckenbrock and Mr. Bell report to Michael Dell, chairman and CEO.
Visit www.dell.com.
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HP

HP introduces interactive technologies for retailers
HP unveiled new offerings designed to help retailers meet the needs of shoppers in multichannel retailing environments. The products and solutions include the HP Imaging Barcode Scanner, which reads 1-D and 2-D barcodes printed or displayed on mobile devices, and captures images; HP LD4201, HP LD4210 and HP LD4710 LCD Digital Signage Displays, ranging from 42 to 47 inches diagonally with embedded HP Media Sign Player technology that enables plug-and-play convenience for dynamic digital advertising; and a new independent software vendor (ISV) program for large retailers in the enterprise digital signage and interactive in-store media markets, offered by HP with industry-leading software companies. HP showcased its latest technology for retailers at the National Retail Federation Convention and Expo at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York.
Visit www.hp.com.


HP launches Cisco trade-in promotion
HP announced the HP Networking "A Catalyst for Change" Cisco Trade-in Promotion for qualifying U.S. customers. HP estimates that nearly $9 billion in Cisco networking equipment is approaching end of life or service in 2011. The “A Catalyst for Change” program enables clients to upgrade from existing complex, proprietary and expensive Cisco network gear to simpler, open standards-based HP solutions that deliver up to 66 percent lower total cost of ownership. The “A Catalyst for Change” trade-in promotion is the first HP Networking program to deliver upfront savings with an additional 20 percent off the list price on HP A-Series and E-Series switches. The order must be accompanied with a trade-in of eligible Cisco Catalyst 2960/S Series, 3560/E Series/X Series, 3750/E Series/X Series, 4500 E Series, 4900 Series or 6500 Series, as well as Cisco Nexus 5000 Series or 7000 Series switches. More information about this promotion, including eligible products and requirements, is available through HP account managers, HP Enterprise Authorized Resellers and at www.hp.com/networking/CiscoTradeIn.
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IBM

IBM study: midsize businesses increasing IT budgets, investing in analytics and cloud computing
More than half of midsize companies are planning to increase their IT budgets over the next 12 to 18 months, according to an IBM global study of more than 2,000 midsize companies representing more than 20 countries. The study found 70% of midsize companies are actively pursuing analytics technology to better understand their customers, make better decisions and become more efficient. The study also shows growing adoption of cloud computing among midsize firms, with two-thirds either planning or currently deploying cloud-based technologies to improve IT systems management while lowering costs. Other key findings include:
--53% of respondents expect their IT budgets to increase over the next 12 to 18 months, 31% expect they will remain unchanged and 16% think they will decrease or are unsure.
--Security (63%), customer relationship management (62%) and analytics / information management (59%) were cited as their "Most Critical IT Priorities."
--75% plan to upgrade their core IT systems to improve performance, security and reliability.
--Top expected benefits from cloud computing include cost reduction, better manageability of IT, improved system redundancy and availability.
--To achieve their technology objectives, more than 70% plan to pursue a consultative (IT and business), versus purely transactional relationship with their primary IT provider.
--Top barriers to IT adoption cited were cost, difficulty in acquiring and deploying technology solutions, and lack of IT skills and resources.
To download the report, please visit: http://www.ibm.com/businesscenter/cpe/download0/212133
/Inside_the_Midmarket__Global_Report.pdf.
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Looking ahead

IBM, Oracle may gain on U.S. food-safety law’s tracking mandate
Changes to U.S. food-safety rules may generate sales for IBM, Oracle Corp. and other companies that can provide systems to track outbreaks of food-borne illness. The U.S. House of Representatives on Dec. 21 and the Senate in November passed a bill instructing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to establish over the next two years how the tracking is to be accomplished. The study may lead to FDA requirements that farms and manufacturers buy computer systems to monitor and track shipments, according to agriculture trade groups that have started work on tracking technology. The bill, which awaits President Barack Obama’s signature, may lead to hundreds of millions of dollars in annual sales for companies that produce the labels and scanning devices to enable tracking systems, said Ray Connelly, general manager of closely held Truetrac, a developer of agricultural product-tracking software in Salinas, California. An estimated 76 million people contract food-borne illnesses in the U.S. each year, with 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Those illnesses cost the U.S. economy $152 billion a year in health care and related expenses, a report by Georgetown University’s Produce Safety Project in Washington concluded.
Visit www.ibm.com and www.oracle.com.
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People

Avnet Technology Solutions names new sales and services executives for North American HP and IBM Solutions Groups
Avnet Technology Solutions appointed two IT industry veterans to executive roles within its IBM and HP Solutions Groups in North America. Gale Brown will serve as vice president of services, IBM Solutions group; and Phyllis McCullagh has been named vice president of field sales, HP Solutions group.

Brown joins Avnet with extensive IBM experience, which she will draw from to accelerate the sale of services through Avnet’s IBM partner channel. Most recently, she served as the vice president of business partner sales, general business at IBM. Her IBM career spanned numerous positions of leadership, including vice president of channel sales west region, global client executive for Avnet, director of operations channel management North America, and other sales management positions in software and services. Her achievements at IBM were recognized by CRN magazine in 2009, when she was named to their list of the 100 Most Powerful Women of the Channel.
 
McCullagh will use her years of experience in the technology industry to support Avnet’s HP partner channel in the U.S.  She was a senior executive with Compaq in both channel sales and marketing roles, and also spent two years at CompTIA - the Computer Technology Industry Association - creating membership programs and services for channel partner members. Most recently, she served as vice president of distribution and sales operations at D-Link Systems, Inc. Prior to D-Link Systems, she was the president, North America, for GN Netcom, Inc., a leading manufacturer of headsets for unified communications, offices and call centers. In that role she was recognized by the Boston Women’s Business Journal in their list of Women to Watch for 2009.
Visit www.avnet.com.
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Power

EC plug fans added to Liebert cooling systems to provide energy efficient precision cooling
In response to the increasing needs for data center and IT managers to both reduce costs and increase availability, Emerson Network Power has extended electrically commutated (EC) plug fans to all down-flow models of Liebert CW and Liebert DS precision cooling systems to allow data centers of all sizes to automatically adjust cooling unit capacities to match the IT server demands and improve energy savings and Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE). The product extension is available in North America, Central and Latin America, China, India and Asia-Pacific. EC plug fans are a backward-curved motorized impeller powered by a direct drive DC motor with integrated AC-DC conversion. The Emerson Network Power implementation of this technology allows the fan assembly to be lowered below the raised floor rather than remaining in its shipment configuration of being within the unit. This lowered condition reduces the energy consumption of the fan system an additional 10 percent by eliminating many internal system losses. 
Visit www.liebert.com.
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Printers

Toshiba Tec announces Toshiba B-EX4 industrial label printer
Toshiba Tec Corporation announced the newest evolution of Toshiba Tec heavy-duty industrial printers now brings unparalleled user-friendliness to the production line. And as well as increasing overall performance, advances in Toshiba Tec technology have enabled a dramatic reduction in operating costs. Every Toshiba label printer is equipped with the world-class Green technology ribbon saving function, with a nearly 40 % overall lower power consumption on stand-by power compared to its predecessor. The Toshiba B-EX4, at lower than 9W in stand-by, is the ecological industrial printer that qualifies for a New Energy Star rating, beating every other competitor in a recent benchmark test. The Toshiba B-EX4 has a real-world print speed of 14 ips compared to 10 ips for the B-SX4, increasing the printer's productivity by 40 %. Standard equipped with Ethernet and USB 2.0 and optional parallel port and wireless LAN capability, it is packed for fast-paced industrial printing applications with minimal need for maintenance.
Visit www.toshibatecusa.com.
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RFID

China’s RFID market set to double by 2014
After years of development, China’s radio-frequency identification (RFID) market has entered a phase of prodigious size and growth, with revenue set to more than double from 2009 to 2014, according to the China market research firm iSuppli, now part of IHS Inc. China’s RFID market - consisting of tags, readers and software/middleware - is estimated to have grown to $1.4 billion in 2010, up 22 percent from $1.1 billion in 2009. By 2014, the RFID market will reach $2.4 billion—more than double the total from 2009. Regarded by many as the successor to the ubiquitous universal product code (UPC) barcode system, RFID provides several advantages compared to UPC in logistical applications, such as eliminating the need for contact or line of sight in order to conduct the transfer of identification or tracking information. The cost of RFID remains a barrier to its acceptance, despite the technology’s many advantages compared to UPC. But thanks to the rapid development of integrated circuit manufacturing technology, RFID chip costs are continuing to decline, with the price for many Chinese high-frequency RFID cards now down to about one yuan. Overall, China’s RFID industry will be driven by the Chinese government’s extensive investments in the so called Internet of Things, which forms part of the country’s Twelfth Five-Year Plan.
Visit www.isuppli.com.
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Storage

Digital video applications propel hard disk drive market
The demand for gigabytes and terabytes of storage from PC users, game enthusiasts and TV entertainment folks is keeping the industry growing to the degree that In-Stat forecasts HDD unit shipments will increase to over 1 billion units by 2014. The main drivers of growth have been the notebook PC market, set top boxes and external storage. Recent research by In-Stat found the following:
--The top 5 HDD vendors include Hitachi, Samsung, Seagate, Toshiba and Western Digital.
--HDDs have maintained the stopping power against SSDs (Solid State Drives), providing storage at a tenth of the price on a cost/megabit basis.
--Drive capacities are growing at a rate of 40% per year.
--The industry is expected to cross the 1 Tb/sq. inch threshold in the 2012-2013 timeframe.  
--The demand for 2.5” mobile/portable drives keeps growing at a faster pace and has outstripped the TAM for desktop drives.
--Cloud storage shifts some of the requirements for massive storage on a PC device to one in the Cloud with a company such as Amazon, Microsoft, Google, etc. 
Visit www.in-stat.com.


DataDirect Networks surges behind growth of big data
DataDirect Networks (DDN) announced the company has been named one of the 100 fastest-growing private companies in the Los Angeles area -- the second largest metro in the United States -- by the Los Angeles Business Journal, and was one of only 20 companies on the list with more than $100M in annual revenue. The award marked the latest in a series of honors for the 12-year-old company. Recognition on the annual Los Angeles Business Journal list follows DDN's inclusion in both the Inc. 500|5000 and Deloitte's Technology Fast 500. DDN is the only data storage company to appear on both of the latter two lists in 2010. This year the company announced its expansion into the Middle East and secured major customer wins as it expands into Asia, with much of the new activity coming through a burgeoning network of partners that include Dell, HP, IBM and Sony.
Visit www.ddn.com.
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Technical support

ACOM IBM iTechnical support team performance hits 100 percent
ACOM Solutions, Inc. iSeries/System iTechnical support team consistently scores in the high 90th percentile in its customer satisfaction surveys, but when it hit 100 percent in fielding 396 support queries in November 2010, the team felt an exceptional and justified sense of pride, according to Director of Operations Brenda Bush. Led by Technical Support Supervisor Artie Blackburn, the team never scored lower than 96 percent during calendar year 2010, Bush said, handling as few as 344 calls in September to as many as 465 in October. Totals for those two months' results yielded a 99 percent satisfaction level. Product knowledge is fundamental to doing the job well, Blackburn noted, given that the team can be challenged with situations involving as many as 18 different products on a given day. These can include the EZeDocs System idocument/forms processing and EZPayManager payment solutions, an extensive suite of add-on modules, and the companion EZContentManager document management solution, a web-based system that runs in the Microsoft Windows environment.
Visit www.acom.com.
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Trends

IBM unveils 'Next Five in Five' innovations impacting societal trends
IBM formally unveiled the fifth annual "Next Five in Five" - a list of innovations that have the potential to change the way people work, live and play over the next five years. They are:

-- You'll beam up your friends in 3-D: In the next five years, 3-D interfaces - like those in the movies - will let you interact with 3-D holograms of your friends in real time.
-- Batteries will breathe air to power our devices:  Instead of the heavy lithium-ion batteries used today, scientists are working on batteries that use the air we breathe to react with energy-dense metal, eliminating a key inhibitor to longer lasting batteries. If successful, the result will be a lightweight, powerful and rechargeable battery capable of powering everything from electric cars to consumer devices.
-- You won't need to be a scientist to save the planet: In five years, sensors in your phone, your car, your wallet and even your tweets will collect data that will give scientists a real-time picture of your environment. You'll be able to contribute this data to fight global warming, save endangered species or track invasive plants or animals that threaten ecosystems around the world.
-- Your commute will be personalized: In the next five years, advanced analytics technologies will provide personalized recommendations that get commuters where they need to go in the fastest time. Adaptive traffic systems will intuitively learn traveler patterns and behavior to provide more dynamic travel safety and route information to travelers than is available today.
-- Computers will help energize your city:  Innovations in computers and data centers are enabling the excessive heat and energy that they give off to do things like heat buildings in the winter and power air conditioning in the summer.

The Next Five in Five is based on market and societal trends expected to transform our lives, as well as emerging technologies from IBM's Labs around the world that can make these innovations possible.
Visit www.ibm.com.
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