Daily Tech Briefing: June 11, 2014

Hewlett-Packard is releasing a new family of high-performance computing systems, HP Apollo, which will offer up to four times the performance of standard rack servers while boasting a smaller, more efficient energy package, according to John Gromala, senior director of hyperscale product management for HP Servers. The higher-end Apollo 8000 will feature an innovative water-cooled design, and along with the Apollo 6000, will be available for order starting June 10.

PayPal President David Marcus announced on June 9 that he is leaving the company to run Facebook’s Messaging Products division. Marcus will be primarily responsible for Messenger, Facebook’s separate chat application. The appointment shows CEO Mark Zuckerberg is serious about placing Facebook in the league of strong business players dealing with what he has called “private content.” Marcus will join the ranks of other exec recruits like Oculus Rift’s Palmer Luckey and WhatsApp’s Jan Koum.

Lenovo unveiled the ThinkServer RS140, a 1U rack system, on June 10, aimed at small and midsize businesses and remote offices. It’s equipped with a single Intel processor, with options ranging from a Xeon E3-1200 v3, a Core i3 or a Pentium–and Intel’s Advanced Management Technology 9.0 for remote manageability. At 16.2 inches deep, the system is especially useful for smaller data centers and is now available, starting at $549.

Finally, Red Hat announced yesterday that its long-awaited next-generation Red Hat Enterprise Linux Platform, RHEL 7, is now available. RHEL 7 features a new file system that can scale to 500 terabytes and support Docker container virtualization technology. It is the first major milestone update release for the company since RHEL 6 was officially launched in November 2010.