Chris Preimesberger

As each year passes, Intel’s frontline Xeon chips for x86 servers and personal computers add more cores and get more powerful. They also get smaller and use less electricity. They’re edging closer to high-performance capability all the time. This is right in line with IT trends in general. Components and systems alike are getting smaller, […]

Storage networking specialist iWave Software has launched an automation product that empowers line-of-business users to provision, extend and reclaim enterprise storage without having to bother the IT department. News of this nature is being welcomed more and more as a breath of fresh air in many enterprises, because businesspeople can do more on their own […]

In the 1960s, the first time-sharing IBM mainframes enabled scheduled one-at-a-time access to big-system computing. Later, application service providers and grid-computing systems allowed many more users online at the same time. Now, cloud systems using the multi-tenant distribution model to millions of users are commonplace. Next up? Multi-cloud management. This is the latest step in […]

Security management provider Absolute Software, which specializes in protecting data kept on notebooks, tablets and smartphones, said Nov. 5 that it is acquiring privately held LiveTime Software, a provider of cloud-based and on-premises help desk and IT service support management. Absolute wasn’t specific about the transaction details, saying only that the acquisition was made for […]

Like innovations that start in the U.S. space program—think freeze-dried food and temper foam—and eventually filter down into the commercial space, so operates the IT business. Functions that used to be found only in the system domains of high-performance computing at think-tank labs such as Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore are now commonplace in large […]

Sign of the Times Sun Microsystems, having no previous experience in designing and developing a microprocessor, launched its first SPARC chip in 1987. Twenty-five years later, it is still the No. 1 chip used in Unix systems worldwide and remains a multibillion dollar business for Oracle. Panel of Experts The principals at the “SPARC at […]

Data Snapshots to Protect Data Without snapshots (of all the data in a storage device), if a user accidentally deletes a file, the deletion is replicated three times and the data is lost. The same applies to application data corruption. Many Hadoop users have lost valuable data due to such incidents. With snapshots, users can […]

Apache Hadoop analytics provider MapR Technologies has expanded its enterprise-grade capabilities by adding the NoSQL database to its M7 distribution, creating a faster big data-crunching analytics platform. The company made the announcement at last week’s O’Reilly Strata Conference + Hadoop World 2012 in New York. The biggest advantage to adding NoSQL is that Hadoop, which […]

BMC Software, which has made business service management software for back-end systems for more than a generation, branched out into a new market Oct. 30 with the launch of its first end-user software product—one that smoothes out relations between the IT department and a company’s employees. BMC’s MyIT takes the help desk to a new […]

The Boss Closes the Deal Microsoft CEO and Chairman Steve Ballmer came out to summarize the Windows Phone 8 launch Oct. 29 at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco. Virtually all the major phone makers—except Apple, of course—will have a device that will run on Win 8 starting in the next few weeks. […]

On Sept. 19, 2012, seven days after it released the iPhone 5, Apple’s stock (AAPL) closed at a record high $702.10 on the Nasdaq. A mere five weeks later, on Oct. 26 — three days after launching the iPad Mini — the stock zoomed south and finished the trading week at $604.00, down a whopping […]

iMac Continues Its Evolution Since its launch in 1998 as Steve Jobs’ remedy for the company’s sales doldrums at the time, the iMac has morphed from a stubby, heavy, transparent-skinned PC into the elegant, relatively lightweight, wide-screen product that it is today. Apple unveiled 21- and 27-inch-monitor iMacs at the Oct. 23 launch. Star of […]