Tag Archives: SMB

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

SYNNEX Corporation Propels Channel Mobility Solutions with MOBILITYSolv

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By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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SYNNEX Corporation Propels Channel Mobility Solutions with MOBILITYSolv

New business model provides end-to-end mobile strategies for both SMB and Enterprise

FREMONT, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– The Global Mobility Solutions business unit of SYNNEX Corporation (NYS: SNX) , a leading distributor of IT products and services, has launched the Company’s comprehensive channel mobility strategy, MOBILITYSolv. Providing the roadmap for an entire mobility solution, MOBILITYSolv encompasses all angles needed to enable resellers to capture the complete sales opportunity in an increasingly mobile world.

Led by mobility-industry veteran Adnon Dow, MOBILITYSolv‘s “Connect, Move and Control” strategy provides end-to-end mobility and connectivity solutions, leveraging best-of-breed vendors to keep workforces connected and productive. SYNNEX resellers are able to deploy robust, scalable and secure mobility solutions, simplifying the management of remote devices, reducing costs and offering availability of mission critical applications.

“At SYNNEX, we embrace change, and at certain times we create new business models to address tipping point trends responsible for changing how businesses operate and how people consume information,” said Kevin Murai, President and Chief Executive Officer, SYNNEX Corporation. “With mobility and cloud reshaping the IT industry, MOBILITYSolv goes beyond products and infrastructure, resulting in a comprehensive, service oriented and value-added end-to-end mobile solution.”

“MOBILITYSolv gives SYNNEX resellers a unique opportunity to solve their customers’ mobility challenges beyond just controlling devices. It’s more about mobilizing the enterprise, while being able to analyze the data behind it and understand what to do with that data to make smart business decisions,” said Adnon Dow, Vice President, Global Mobility Solutions business unit, SYNNEX Corporation. “Connect, move and control is connecting people, devices and networks to anyone, to anything at any time.”

MOBILITYSolv bridges across the other technology solutions SYNNEX offers to the channel and encompasses Machine-2-Machine, productivity solutions, security and optimization, as well as support services. Through a series of MOBILITYSolv educational road shows, resellers can learn how collaborating with SYNNEX enables them to have a strong mobility practice.

To learn more about MOBILITYSolv, visit www.synnex.com/mobilitysolv, email mobilitysolv@synnex.com or call 800-456-4822, ext. 4042.

About SYNNEX Corporation

SYNNEX Corporation, a Fortune 500 corporation, is a leading business process services company, servicing resellers, retailers and original equipment manufacturers in multiple regions around the world. The Company provides services in IT distribution,

From: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/11/synnex-corporation-propels-channel-mobility-soluti/

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Fiserv to Offer PayChoice Payroll Platform via Online Commercial Cash Management Solutions

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By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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Fiserv to Offer PayChoice Payroll Platform via Online Commercial Cash Management Solutions

  • Agreement delivers the PayChoice payroll processing and tax administration service to financial institutions using cash management solutions from Fiserv
  • Single sign-on integration available to financial institutions utilizing Business Online from Fiserv
  • PayChoice service virtually eliminates the risk and expense of federal, state and local payroll tax penalties and late fees for small- to mid-sized businesses

BROOKFIELD, Wis.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Fiserv, Inc. (NAS: FISV) , a leading global provider of financial services technology solutions, today announced the availability of the PayChoice payroll product to financial institutions utilizing online business banking solutions from Fiserv. One of the largest independent payroll organizations in the U.S., PayChoice provides industry-leading payroll services to small- and mid-sized businesses. The strategic agreement will offer businesses multiple levels of service in a single technology platform by combining PayChoice online payroll, tax, human resources (HR) and employee benefit administration solutions with the strength of online banking solutions from Fiserv.

“Working with PayChoice, Fiserv is able to offer clients payroll, tax administration and employee management solutions to help their financial institutions grow revenue and improve customer retention rates,” said Teri Carstensen, president, Bank Solutions, Fiserv. “Adding a payroll service to enhance our online cash management offering is one more way in which Fiserv is helping financial institutions – and their business clients – succeed in an increasingly competitive marketplace.”

PayChoice payroll and HR administration services are delivered via a Software as a Service (SaaS) model. Although available to all Fiserv clients as a standalone solution, PayChoice will soon offer single sign-on integration to financial institutions utilizing Business Online™ from Fiserv. Business Online is a real-time, self-service online solution that offers comprehensive, intuitive banking tools for business accounts.

“In the same way PayChoice provides comprehensive payroll and employee management solutions to small- and mid-sized businesses, Fiserv provides comprehensive technology solutions that are cost-effective, secure and can be tailored to meet a financial institution’s specific needs,” said Robert Digby, CEO, PayChoice. “Together, we can help business owners using Fiserv business banking solutions to increase efficiencies and reduce operating expenses.”

About PayChoice

For more than 20 years, PayChoice has helped small- and medium-sized businesses (SMB) succeed by

From: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/11/fiserv-to-offer-paychoice-payroll-platform-via-onl/

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Pitney Bowes Reorganizing Operations; Shearer, Wright Named to Senior Roles

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By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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Pitney Bowes Reorganizing Operations; Shearer, Wright Named to Senior Roles

New Leadership for Mailing, Software Businesses

STAMFORD, Conn.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYS: PBI) today announced it is planning to reorganize its business operations and is making two leadership appointments in newly-constituted SMB Mailing and Software businesses. Mark Shearer is joining the company as Executive Vice President and President, Pitney Bowes SMB Mailing Solutions and Mark Wright is joining as Executive Vice President and President, Pitney Bowes Software Solutions. These appointments are a continuation of the reorganization of business operations that began with the previously-announced establishment of the Global Client Services organization and the appointment of Kevin Connolly last month.

Mark Shearer, newly-appointed EVP and President, Pitney Bowes SMB Mailing Solutions (Photo: Business Wire)

Shearer and Wright will join the company on April 15, and both will report directly to President and CEO Marc Lautenbach.

As president of Pitney Bowes SMB Mailing Solutions, Shearer takes on the leadership of an organization that will be focused on mailing products and technologies worldwide in the small and medium sized marketplace. Pitney Bowes has been a world leader in this business for 93 years. Shearer’s role is to drive an ever-improving client experience to this marketplace, to move best products and practices rapidly across national borders and markets, and to simplify the ways in which clients can interact with the company in the future.

Shearer had a 30-year career at IBM, where he held a broad range of general management, business and product strategy, and marketing senior leadership positions. He led both startup and mature businesses, with deep experience in the SMB space, and excelled at leading complex global organizations. Notable accomplishments at IBM included leading IBM‘s first pre-defined services package for small and medium size clients, leading worldwide sales relationships with large financial institutions and creating growth with telecom and media clients in Asia Pacific. He also held senior roles in marketing, which included the successful re-launch of the IBM mainframe, leading the $2B IBM System I business, and, in his last role at IBM, serving as VP of Marketing and Strategy for IBM‘s $20B hardware businesses.

As President of Pitney Bowes Software, Wright will take over an expanded portfolio that will bring into one organization a broader spectrum of the company’s software offerings. In addition to …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

QlikTech Announces Date of First Quarter 2013 Financial Results Release

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By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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QlikTech Announces Date of First Quarter 2013 Financial Results Release

RADNOR, Pa.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Qlik Technologies Inc. (“QlikTech”) (NAS: QLIK) , a leader in Business Discovery — user-driven Business Intelligence (BI), today announced it will report its first quarter 2013 financial results after the U.S. financial markets close on Thursday, April 25, 2013.

In conjunction with this announcement, QlikTech will host a conference call on Thursday, April 25, 2013 at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) to discuss the company’s first quarter financial results and its business outlook. To access this call, dial (877) 312-5507 (domestic) or (253) 237-1134 (international). The presentation will be webcast live and available under the “Events & Presentations” section on the Company’s investor relations website at http://investor.qlikview.com/.

Following the conference call, a replay will be available until April 28, 2013 at (855) 859-2056 (domestic) or (404) 537-3406 (international). The replay pass code is 31697741. An archived webcast of this conference call will also be available under the “Events & Presentations” section on the Company’s investor relations website at http://investor.qlikview.com/.

About QlikTech

QlikTech (NAS: QLIK) is a leader in Business Discovery—user-driven Business Intelligence (BI). Its QlikView Business Discovery solution bridges the gap between traditional BI solutions and inadequate spreadsheet applications. The in-memory associative search technology QlikTech pioneered created the self-service BI category, allowing users to explore information freely rather than being confined to a predefined path of questions. Appropriate from SMB to the largest global enterprise, QlikView’s self-service analysis can be deployed with data governance in days or weeks. The QlikView Business Discovery platform’s app-driven model works with existing BI solutions, offering an immersive mobile and social, collaborative experience. Headquartered in Radnor, Pennsylvania, QlikTech has offices around the world serving approximately 27,000 customers in over 100 countries.

QlikTech and QlikView are trademarks or registered trademarks of QlikTech or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and other countries. Other company names, product names and company logos mentioned herein are the trademarks, or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Investor Contact:
ICR
Staci Mortenson,+1-484-685-0578
IR@qliktech.com
or
Media Contact:
Qlik Technologies
Maria Scurry,+1-781-366-7617
Maria.Scurry@qliktech.com

KEYWORDS:   United States  North America  Pennsylvania

INDUSTRY KEYWORDS:

The article QlikTech Announces Date of First Quarter 2013 Financial Results …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Rackspace Hybrid Open Cloud Gives Buffalo Customers Continuous Access to Terabytes of Content Storag

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By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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Rackspace Hybrid Open Cloud Gives Buffalo Customers Continuous Access to Terabytes of Content Storage

OpenStack powered cloud platform provides massive cloud storage and data access via web connected devices for consumers and SMB customers

SAN ANTONIO–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Rackspace, the open cloud company, has been selected by Buffalo, a leading global provider of networking and storage solutions for the home and small business environments, to provide the open cloud infrastructure that will power its new product, BuffaloLink. This product will give Buffalo customers easy access to terabytes of content, using the cloud to access their data at their home or office from anywhere.

“Fanatical Support is the number one reason why we chose Rackspace. When you run a cloud, it should run smoothly. To give our customers connections 24x7x365 days a year is paramount,” said Daisuke Maki, General Manager, Buffalo. “In developing BuffaloLink, we were really dependent on the support and expertise of Rackspace, along with the technology behind its open cloud. We depend on Rackspace as a trusted technology partner to help us provide our customers with the best user experience possible.”

Cloud technology based on open, non-proprietary software code means it’s easier to create seamless access to data from anywhere with an internet connection. Buffalo considers OpenStack to be part of its solution and enables the company to deploy in new regions around the world.

Previously, remote access to data on office or home computers required sophisticated technical expertise or extensive helpdesk assistance to navigate through a maze of different formats and security protocols. Buffalo’s BuffaloLink uses a hybrid open cloud environment provided by Rackspace, via RackConnect® and Rackspace Private Cloud powered by OpenStack, to create a software engine that pushes data through that maze without delays, detours and dead ends.

With BuffaloLink, customers can remotely access digital content such as pictures, music and videos stored on the customer’s network attached storage appliance (NAS) from anywhere in the world using their PC, Mac, tablet, or smartphone. As a premier remote access service, BuffaloLink is:

  • Simple – Customers who are not familiar with computer networking or firewall protocols can use any Web-connected device to remotely access content on their NAS device at home or in the office, remotely, without having to be an IT expert, or use a help desk.
  • Affordable – …read more

    Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Computers

Belkin finalizes Linksys acquisition

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It’s official: Belkin announced today that it has completed its acquisition of Cisco’s Linksys division. In a pre-announcement briefing, executives from Belkin and Linksys emphasized that the two brands will remain distinct, but that Belkin is focused on developing a premium ecosystem for the connected home, as well as pursuing opportunities in the SMB market.

“This acquisition will help us realize our vision as being the global leader in the connected home market,” said Mike Chen, Belkin’s senior director of networking. “Linksys is a premium brand, due primarily to its dependability, reliability, and proven quality. It will be marketed for use in the home and in the small business environment.”

“Belkin will be more focused on the connected home, through its WeMo home-automation product line,” Chen continued. “Belkin also has great instincts as to what consumers want in terms of accessories for their mobile products and tablets.” Chen also emphasized, however, that Belkin plans to maintain two lines of routers—one under the Linksys brand and a second under the Belkin brand.

“Each brand has a distinct identity with different customers,” said Chen. “So we want to assure customers that anything either company announced at CES will be launched. Linksys will be maintained as a separate brand. Customer support will continue unchanged. There will be continuity. From a portfolio standpoint, Belkin remains committed to Linksys customers.”

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Broadvox Releases Call Bursting for SIP Trunking

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By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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Broadvox Releases Call Bursting for SIP Trunking

Broadvox implements new feature to increase SIP Trunking calling flexibility and reduce costs

DALLAS–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Broadvox, a leading provider of Managed Business VoIP services, announced today the release of Call Bursting, a new add-on feature available with its SIP Trunking solutions.

Call Bursting is a SIP Trunking feature that gives customers the ability to utilize additional call sessions beyond the amount purchased for peak calling times. This optional feature can be added to any SIP Trunking order and is helpful for businesses or organizations that occasionally see bursts of increased calling activity, such as the increased calling activity a school may see on a snow day.

Tony Brncich, CEO of Rival5 Technologies Corp., initially reached out to Broadvox about the need for a bursting solution. “Broadvox’s flexibility in adapting to our needs has been instrumental in Rival5’s success,” he said. “The Call Bursting add-on feature available for Broadvox SIP Trunking addressed our customers’ needs which resulted in securing new business.”

Other advantages of Broadvox SIP Trunking service include: business continuity options; security configuration to prevent fraud; open policies on IP-PBX interoperability; and network-based redundancy for maximum availability.

“Our robust SIP Trunking service provides unique features that improve system flexibility, control costs, and truly leverage our customer’s IP-PBX investment,” said Arnaud Gautier, EVP Product and Customer Experience at Broadvox. “We continue to work with our customers and partners to develop and deliver the most robust and flexible SIP Trunking service in the market, with options that make great business sense.”

In addition to Call Bursting, Broadvox has recently launched a 30-Day Customer Satisfaction Guarantee and a SIP demonstrator program that gives customers the opportunity to validate the Broadvox SIP Trunking service for their own use for free.

About Broadvox

Broadvox is a leader in providing customized integrated managed VoIP communication and collaboration solutions to support SMB, Enterprise and Carrier customers. It has deployed one of the largest, full-featured global VoIP networks and is trusted by over 300 telecommunications carriers, ASPs, ISPs and more than 10,000 businesses and 4,000 partners nationwide. Broadvox delivers SIP Trunking, SIP origination and termination services, broadband and Hosted Voice and UCCommunications. Broadvox is headquartered in Dallas, Texas. For more information, visit <a target=_blank …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Computers

WordPress unveils hosting package for small businesses

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For as long as I can remember, WordPress has been synonymous with blog hosting—mostly consumer blog hosting.

Although the company offered Pro plans for users who need more than the basics and enterprise options for the big boys, there was nothing in the middle for the SMB crowd.

There is now. The aptly named WordPress Business caters to small businesses needing a domain, storage, and a wide selection of themes for building a Web site.

Essentially a bundle of premium upgrades, WordPress business includes not only site hosting and a free domain, but also live support (via chat, or email when chat isn’t available), unlimited storage, and your choice of unlimited premium themes.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Simba Energy Boosts Its Technical Team

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By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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Simba Energy Boosts Its Technical Team

VANCOUVER, British Columbia–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Simba Energy Inc. (“Simba” or the “Company”) (TSXV: SMB; Frankfurt: GDA; OTCQX: SMBZF), the pan-African oil & gas explorer, is pleased to announce two key appointments to the Company’s technical team in London: Mr. Oleg-Serguei Schkoda as Vice President, Exploration & Project Management and Ms. Katia Russo, Geoscientist.

Mr. Schkoda, 42, is an upstream oil & gas executive with an 18 year career that has spanned the globe with postings in Europe, North America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. He has acquired a wide range of oil & gas expertise from the early stages of exploration to acquiring seismic to drilling to production. In particular, Oleg has extensive operational experience throughout Africa.

Holding a Masters in Mining Exploitation (Brussels) and Petroleum Geology (Nancy, France), Oleg first worked as a reservoir engineer for Petrofina’s exploration department before completing a Master of Petroleum Engineering at the IFP (Institut Français du Pétrole) in Paris.

He has also worked for Schlumberger and was a reservoir specialist for Baker Hughes. Most recently, Oleg was Vice President for Cougar Drilling Solutions, a Canadian directional drilling service company active in Africa.

Mr. Schkoda is fluent in several languages including English and French.

Ms. Katia Russo received a First Class BEng (Hons) in Petroleum Engineering from London South Bank University and is completing a MSc in Petroleum Engineering from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. She also holds a BA (Hons) in Management from West London University.

Katia has previously worked as a Reservoir Engineer for Petrophase’s Enhanced Oil Recovery Projects.

Mr. Hassan Hassan, Managing Director of Operations for Simba, remarked:

“These key additions to our technical management team put the Company in a better position to implement its aggressive exploration and farm-out strategy. Our primary objective is to develop further our Kenya and Chad concessions that continue to attract attention from a variety of international oil & gas companies.”

About Simba Energy:

Simba Energy Inc. is an international oil & gas exploration company focused on onshore Pan-African opportunities. The Company holds a diversified portfolio of 100% (or majority of) interests in six prospective oil & gas exploration concessions in Kenya, Chad, Guinea, Liberia, Ghana and Mali.

In addition to its 100% interest in Kenya‘s Block 2A, …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Linux

Jonathan Riddell: A Morning with Windows 8

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DSCF7257

Microsoft have decreed that every new Windows 8 computer has to come with UEFI, a new firmware to replace the old 80s BIOS. They’ve also decreed that every new Windows 8 computer has to come with SecureBoot which means it’ll only boot an operating system signed by MS. This is only for security of course, nothing to do with making it harder to make competing operating systems, oh no. So I had to hunt out a new laptop to test this on which means going to a real physical shop since no website will list which firmware a computer has it being a most uninteresting feature. My local Sony Centre found me the very last 13″ cheapo Vaio laptop in the country to use as a test machine.

So what is Windows 8 like? After a morning of using it I really can’t think of anything nice to say. It’s just full of poor UI and broken experience.

On first bootup it asks important things like to pick a colour you like (seriously) and then for your Microsoft account so it can “authorize” you. Except after going through the first run settings it still says I need to authorise it to be able to change the wallpaper.

It asks for more details to set up McAfee anti-virus crap, I choose to skip that but an hour later I wonder why the fan is running at full speed and it turns out McAfee is using 50% CPU anyway, whatever for?

Windows 8 has two interfaces and it never can decide which is best. One is the transitional desktop but it looks blocky and ugly because the theme is designed to be similar to a tablet theme. One is the Metro tablet UI which is just blocky and ugly and for the sake of simplicity doesn’t show you a lot of common UI elements like a busy cursor, so if a programme is taking ages to start up you get no feedback at all, just a blank screen.

There’s an app store so I installed the first free application it offered (a London underground map) but that didn’t seem to install so I gave up. An hour later I got a notification saying it had installed, why does it take an hour to install a simple application?

My router has an interesting feature where you can put a USB drive in it and share files with SMB. This works great with Kubuntu but despite SMB being Microsoft’s very own protocol it can see but not access the device.

I plug in my printer on Kubuntu and 20 seconds later it’s working. In Windows the same thing happens but it takes 5 minutes. What on earth is it doing for those 5 minutes?

Plug in a projector in Kubuntu Raring and the new kscreen tool does the right thing to bring up a second desktop. In Windows 8 …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Planet Ubuntu

Linux

Samba service not starting

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By solaris_1977

I have Solaris-10. On one of the zone, I am not able to start samba service, while configuration looks fine. Can somebody have a look at it ?

root@prt_oradb03:/# svcs -a svc:/network/samba:default
svcs: -a ignored when used with arguments.
STATE STIME FMRI
maintenance 11:35:16 svc:/network/samba:default
root@prt_oradb03:/# svcs -xv svc:/network/samba:default
svc:/network/samba:default (SMB file server)
State: maintenance since Tue Feb 05 11:35:16 2013
Reason: Start method failed repeatedly, last exited with status 1.
See: http://sun.com/msg/SMF-8000-KS
See: man -M /usr/share/man -s 1m smbd
See: man -M /usr/share/man -s 4 smb.conf
See: /var/svc/log/network-samba:default.log
Impact: This service is not running.
root@prt_oradb03:/# tail -10 /var/svc/log/network-samba:default.log
[ Sep 4 07:30:46 Rereading configuration. ]
[ Sep 4 07:52:28 Disabled. ]
[ Feb 5 11:35:16 Enabled. ]
[ Feb 5 11:35:16 Executing start method ("/usr/sbin/smbd -D") ]
[ Feb 5 11:35:16 Method "start" exited with status 1 ]
[ Feb 5 11:35:16 Executing start method ("/usr/sbin/smbd -D") ]
[ Feb 5 11:35:16 Method "start" exited with status 1 ]
[ Feb 5 11:35:16 Executing start method ("/usr/sbin/smbd -D") ]
[ Feb 5 11:35:16 Method "start" exited with status 1 ]
[ Feb 5 11:37:26 Rereading configuration. ]
root@prt_oradb03:/#
root@prt_oradb03:/# cat /etc/sfw/smb.conf
[global]
workgroup = T-SUITE
server string = Samba Server
log file = /var/adm/samba_log.%m
security = SHARE
[export_pub]
comment = export_pub
path = /t3/data/export_pub
force user = e3qa1
force group = t3
read only = No
guest ok = Yes
root@prt_oradb03:/#
root@prt_oradb03:/# df -h /t3/data/export_pub
Filesystem size used avail capacity Mounted on
/t3/data/export_pub 50G 627M 46G 2% /t3/data/export_pub
root@prt_oradb03:/# ls -ld /t3/data/export_pub
drwxr-xr-x 7 e3qa1 t3 1024 Oct 26 21:27 /t3/data/export_pub

Source: FULL ARTICLE at The UNIX and Linux Forums

Computers

IBM puts supercomputer Watson's smarts in SMB servers

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IBM‘s Watson supercomputer outperformed humans in the televised game show “Jeopardy.” Now the company is moving some of its underlying technologies from the supercomputer into new entry-level servers.

The company’s new Power Express servers announced on Tuesday will integrate some hardware and software elements derived from Watson. The servers start at US$5,947, and IBM is targeting the new products at businesses with over 100 employees.

The new Power Express 710, 720, 730 and 740 servers include IBM‘s Power7+ chips, which were introduced in October. By lowering the price of the servers, IBM hopes to take on rivals like Hewlett-Packard and Dell, which sell large volumes of commodity servers based on x86 chips.

With Watson technologies, companies can use the new servers to analyze warehouses of data, and to answer complex queries with high levels of confidence. The technologies will provide insights into structured and unstructured data at a cheaper cost, said Steve Sibley, director of Power Systems offering management at IBM.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld

Computers

Acquisition math: Belkin CTO predicts outcome of Linksys deal will be "1+1=3"

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News that Cisco intended to divest its Linksys home-networking business unit broke last December, but Belkin’s decision—announced last Thursday—to acquire that division came as a surprise. Belkin’s intentions are even more interesting: The company isn’t just buying a prestige brand to slap on its existing home-networking product line; it plans to market networking products under both brands.

When I asked Belkin’s Chief Technology Officer Brian Van Harlingen how that might benefit consumers, he replied that Belkin’s employees “strive to understand user needs, and deliver a good user experience. The philosophy at Linksys isn’t fundamentally different, but each company has different strengths. Linksys did [the cloud-based router administration software] Smart Wi-Fi, and we’ve done great work in terms of quality of service [QoS describes the ability to assign priorities to different data flows, so that gaming and video traffic are given priority over downloads]. Where do those things come together? We think the ultimate outcome of putting the two companies together will be ‘one plus one equals three.’”

According to Van Harlingen, Belkin “sees Linksys as a premier brand. They brought wireless networking into the home. But our intention is to maintain both brands in networking; each has a unique appeal to consumers, and we think we can create differentiation for the two product lines.”

Van Harlingen says Belkin also sees an opportunity to grab some market share in the small to medium-size business market, a market that Linksys had largely drifted away from while under Cisco’s control. “We’re still working on long-terms plans and product roadmaps, but Linksys goes back a ways and [the brand] had some real credibility in the SMB space. We see some opportunity there.”

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld

Computers

Western Digital acquires Arkeia to boost SMB storage offering

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Western Digital has acquired data protection company Arkeia Software as it looks to address growing storage demands among small and medium-size companies.

Arkeia specializes in network backup software and appliances for physical as well as virtual environments, and will expand Western Digital’s portfolio with a more feature-rich data-protection offering for larger SMBs.

The transaction, which closed in December, includes Arkeia’s technology, products and employees, Western Digital said Tuesday. It did not disclose other terms of the transaction.

The company will be integrated into Western Digital’s SMB unit. The products will initially retain the Arkeia name, and all customers on current maintenance plans will continue to receive support, according to Western Digital, which plans to retain Arkeia’s software and appliance product lines.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld