Daily Tech Briefing: June 13, 2014

IBM is opening new SoftLayer-based cloud data centers specifically for federal government workloads. They will feature IBM’s SoftLayer infrastructure, which has been designed to provide greater control and security of data, which is a high priority for federal government data centers.

Also, IBM will be opening the market for the SoftLayer ecosystem, allowing business partners to bring more than 100 applications and services such as security, desktop virtualization and geospatial services directly to government clients. The first center will come online June 16 and is located in Dallas, Texas, while a companion center in Ashburn, Virginia will open in the fall.

Hewlett-Packard’s Atalla division has introduced new encryption offerings aimed at making encryption easier and faster to deploy on-site and in the cloud.

The technology includes the HP Secure Encryption with HP Enterprise Secure Key Manager 4.0, which allows enterprises to manage the encryption keys across multiple server models, including HP’s ProLiant Gen8 server portfolio. What’s more, the technology now supports the OASIS Key Management Interoperability Protocol.

Intel has lost its bid to have $1.4 billion fine imposed by the European Union five years ago over anti-competitive practices overturned on appeal. The General Court of the European Union ruled that the European Commission was correct when it found that Intel used its dominant position in the x86 market to illegally persuade OEMs like Hewlett-Packard and Dell to use their processors over Advanced Micro Devices.

On June 12, Huawei Device USA began taking orders for the Ascend Mate2 4G, a phablet with a 6.1-inch IPS display protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3. The device runs Android 4.3, has a 13-megapixel rear camera and a 5-megapixel camera up-front with a battery that can last for three days and can even charge other devices.

Huawei is operating under the tagline “Unlocked, Unlimited,” meaning the company plans to offer unlocked services, unlocked devices, “unlocked specials” and “premium customer support.”