Jeff Burt

Oracle is planning to accelerate investments in Sun Microsystems’ SPARC and Solaris hardware business, both in innovating and selling the platform, according to executives of the now-unified company. Speaking during Oracle’s 5-hour presentation outlining how the company will use Sun’s product portfolio, Oracle President Charles Phillips and John Fowler, executive vice president of hardware engineering […]

The global microprocessor market ended up a difficult 2009 with a strong fourth quarter, according to two industry research firms. The numbers from IDC and Mercury Research indicate that the recovery in the IT industry is continuing and that OEMs are expecting increased user demand for PCs and corporate growth in spending on servers in […]

Extreme Networks officials are pushing forward on their strategy for the data center of the future, rolling out two new high-end switches that they say will offer the performance and scalability necessary for highly virtualized environments. The new BlackDiamond 8900-xl modules and Summit X480 stackable switches, introduced Jan. 26, bring high-end core switching offerings to […]

Voltaire is rolling out a 40 Gigabit-per-second InfiniBand switch that offers a built-in Ethernet gateway, the latest offering designed to address the growing demand for converged network fabrics. The Grid Director 4036E offers 34 40 Gbps InfiniBand ports and two 1 or 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports that can bridge network traffic in less than 2 […]

IBM is stepping up its push to lure Sun Microsystems customers in the wake of Oracle getting the go-ahead to buy the troubled technology vendor. IBM officials announced Jan. 26 that they are adding new software to their Migration Factory portfolio that will make it easy for businesses to move their workloads off of Sun […]

Cisco Systems is aiming to expand the reach of telepresence capabilities, releasing an interoperability protocol and pushing its own TelePresence product beyond virtual meeting rooms. The networking giant on Jan. 26 also unveiled two new TelePresence endpoints that are designed for easier installation and greater energy efficiency. The moves are part of a larger strategy […]

Juniper Networks and Polycom are joining forces to help drive down the cost and complexity of delivering video conferencing services. Juniper and Polycom officials on Jan. 25 announced plans to create a solution that will take advantage of technology from both companies that will enable service providers to offer video services over a converged network, […]

Advanced Micro Devices is continuing to roll out products in the under-$100 range. Less than two weeks after announcing a mainstream graphics card supporting Microsoft’s DirectX 11 that starts at $99, AMD is launching five desktop processors, including three with prices of less than $100. AMD on Jan. 25 released the 3.1GHz Athlon II X2 […]

Hewlett-Packard is wielding the strength gained from its $13.9 billion acquisition of EDS in creating an extensive package of security services that touches on everything from hardware to cloud computing to applications. The HP Security, Compliance and Continuity Services portfolio, announced Jan. 25, is aimed at helping businesses and government agencies create a comprehensive security […]

Former California Congressman Tom Campbell’s decision Jan. 14 to drop his candidacy for the state’s governor’s office and instead vie for the U.S. Senate seat has changed the face of both races, according to recent polls. The move has impacted the campaigns of two former CEOs of major IT companies who are seeking election in […]

How Facebook, Cloud, Mobility Are Changing Enterprise IT How Facebook, Cloud, Mobility Are Changing Enterprise IT By Jeffrey Burt No IT Assets By 2012, 20 percent of businesses will own no IT assets, a trend driven by such technologies as cloud computing, virtualization and employees using their personal PCs on their corporate networks. The need […]

In 2009, about 90 percent of the netbooks, smartbooks and other ultra-mobile devices were powered by x86 processors, particularly from Intel. However, analyst firm ABI Research is predicting that percentage will change dramatically over the next few years, with systems based on ARM chip designs outselling their x86-based counterparts by 2013. In report released Jan. […]