EMC and VMware Partner to Deliver New VMware vSphere® Data Protection™, Powered by EMC Avamar Technology

VMware News Releases

EMC and VMware Partner to Deliver New VMware vSphere® Data Protection™, Powered by EMC Avamar Technology

Integrated with VMware vSphere® 5.1, Jointly Developed Solution Delivers Simple and Efficient Virtual Machine Backups Based on Proven EMC® Technology

VMworld®, San Francisco– August 27, 2012

News Highlights:

• VMware vSphere® Data Protection™, powered by EMC® Avamar® software, is an all-new backup and recovery solution to be included with VMware vSphere 5.1. 
• VMware vSphere Data Protection is tightly integrated with vSphere, simple to set up and can be managed directly from the new vSphere Web Client.
• VMware vSphere Data  Protection is ideally suited to protect SMBs and department-level virtualized environments with industry-leading backup and deduplication capabilities.
• VMware selected EMC Avamar software to provide the underlying technology for VMware vSphere Data  Protection. 
• VMware continues to be fully committed to enabling a rich partner ecosystem for backup and recovery solutions through the vSphere Storage APIs for Data Protection.

Full Story:

EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) and VMware (NYSE: VMW) today announced a new backup and recovery solution for VMware vSphere® 5.1.  The new VMware vSphere Data Protection™ solution is built on industry-leading EMC Avamar deduplication backup software technology and is delivered as a part of VMware vSphere 5.1. VMware vSphere Data Protection replaces vSphere Data Recovery – previously available with vSphere - providing a more cost-effective, reliable and easy-to-use solution to protect VMware environments.

VMware vSphere Data Protection leverages EMC Avamar software’s leading technology including variable-length deduplication, full support of Changed Block Tracking and single-step restores to minimize storage resource consumption, reduce backup windows and enable fast recovery. VMware vSphere Data Protection can be managed directly from the vSphere Web Client and takes advantage of the vSphere Storage APIs for Data Protection to enable agent-less backup.

In addition to VMware vSphere Data Protection, VMware continues to foster innovation in the backup for virtual environments supporting a broad partner community. VMware plans to continue investment in the vSphere Storage APIs for Data Protection to enable seamless integration of third-party backup and recovery with the VMware vSphere platform.  

VMware Executive Quote:
Bogomil Balkansky, Senior Vice President, Cloud Infrastructure Products, VMware
“Backup and recovery is a critical element of virtualization implementations. Our selection of EMC Avamar technology enables us to deliver better backup and recovery capabilities directly from the VMware vSphere® platform.  VMware vSphere Data Protection™ represents a tremendous value-add for our customers and delivers yet another point of differentiation for vSphere 5.1.”

Industry Analyst Quote: 
David Vellante, Co-founder, The Wikibon Project
“The inclusion of Avamar technology into VMware vSphere® 5.1 delivers a robust and highly integrated virtual backup and recovery capability that’s easy to use.  Smaller businesses and departments within larger organizations are the primary beneficiaries of this initial release, as well those who are at the outset of their virtualization journey.   VMware has clearly taken virtual backup and recovery to the next level with this valuable addition to its platform.”

EMC Executive Quote:
William “BJ” Jenkins, President, EMC Backup Recovery Systems Division
“EMC has established a market leading pedigree in the backup and recovery space with its Avamar, Data Domain® and NetWorker® products. Avamar deduplication software and system has garnered tremendous acceptance in the VMware user community as an enterprise backup and recovery solution that’s specifically optimized for VMware environments. The inclusion of Avamar capabilities into VMware vSphere® Data Protection™ helps ensure that VMware users always have a highly effective tool for virtual machine protection today and into the future.”

Additional Resources

• For continuous news and event updates for EMC at VMworld®, follow EMC on Twitter at @CloudEMCand @EMCCorp and join the conversations using #EMC and #VMworld. 
• Follow EMC backup on Twitter: @EMCbackup.
• To view highlight videos, interviews and more, like EMC on Facebook.
• Like EMCBackup on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/EMCbackup .
• For continuous updates on VMworld news, follow VMware on Twitter @vmworld, VMworld Blog (vmworld.com/blogs/vmworld/), VMworld TV  (vmworld.com/community/vmworldtv/)
• For updates on backup and BCDR follow VMware @vmwareuptime and read VMware vSphere Uptime Blog (http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/uptime)
• Like VMware on Facebook at facebook.com/vmware

About EMC

EMC Corporation is a global leader in enabling businesses and service providers to transform their operations and deliver IT as a service. Fundamental to this transformation is cloud computing.  Through innovative products and services, EMC accelerates the journey to cloud computing, helping IT departments to store, manage, protect and analyze their most valuable asset — information — in a more agile, trusted and cost-efficient way. Additional information about EMC can be found at www.EMC.com.

About VMware
VMware is the leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure solutions that enable businesses to thrive in the Cloud Era. Customers rely on VMware to help them transform the way they build, deliver and consume Information Technology resources in a manner that is evolutionary and based on their specific needs. With 2011 revenues of $3.77 billion, VMware has more than 400,000 customers and 55,000 partners. The company is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the world and can be found online at www.vmware.com.
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EMC, Avamar, Data Domain and NetWorker are registered trademarks or trademarks of EMC Corporation in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks herein are the property of their respective holders.
VMware, VMware vSphere, VMware vSphere Data Protection and VMworld are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective organizations. The use of the word “partner” or “partnership” does not imply a legal partnership relationship with VMware or any other company.
All other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

UniCredit Bank In Hungary Selects Diebold As Exclusive ATM Provider

23 March 2012

UniCredit Bank In Hungary Selects Diebold As Exclusive ATM Provider

Bank is Hungary’s first financial institution to deploy deposit automation technology

BUDAPEST, Hungary – To enhance the consumer experience and streamline operations, UniCredit Bank Hungary Zrt. launched a service that enables consumers to deposit cash via an automated teller machine (ATM) to their bank accounts. UniCredit Bank also selected Diebold, Incorporated as its exclusive ATM provider to set-up the new ATMs. The new ATMs deployed by Diebold supported UniCredit Bank to be the first financial institution in Hungary offering automated deposit services.

A successful pilot of envelope-free transactions that authenticated and validated deposit of banknotes in real-time on approximately 10 Diebold Opteva^® ATMs was completed in early 2011. These ATMs were equipped with Diebold’s Agilis^® multi-vendor softwareapplication and enhanced banknote acceptor (ENA). Following the pilot, the bank ordered 25 additional terminals with ENA modules. The bank plans to continue the deployment of additional modules, with the goal to increase the number to 60 by the end of 2012. These cash deposit-enabled ATMs will help the bank improve efficiencies and provide new services for its customers.

The agreement also includes maintenance and professional services for approximately 180 Opteva ATMs deployed across the country. Additionally, UniCredit Bank is deploying personalized ATM marketing which will enable it to deliver targeted marketing campaigns to its customers, empower customers to personalize their ATM experience and extend the bank’s brand. UniCredit Bank is the first financial institution in Hungary to implement Diebold’s Agilis Campaign Office one-to-one marketing solution.

UniCredit Bank was recently named “The Most Innovative Bank of the Year” by MasterCard for integrating deposit automation into its self-service offerings to consumers.

“When we started envelope-free deposit transactions in February 2011 it was clear during the pilot period that customer demand is significant for this kind of service,” said Gyula Bunna, managing director of the retail marketing and segments, UniCredit. “Branches where these new types of ATMs are installed reported an increased percentage of terminal usage instead of cash-desk.”

Diebold has leveraged its strong deposit automation experience and technology expertise to design the ENA to deliver deposit automation improvements, such as simplified servicing and ease of operation. The ENA enables the deposit of up to 50 mixed-denomination notes in an easy, envelope-free transaction that authenticates and validates deposits quickly and accurately, which will continue to allow UniCredit Bank to make deposits available immediately to customers. Diebold’s ENA was certified to accept Hungarian currency by the local central bank.

“Deposit automation technology is key to transforming the branch’s role within the retail banking industry,” said Gerhard Gierer, area sales manager, Central Europe, Diebold EMEA.  “We are excited to partner with UniCredit Bank in Hungary to provide it with innovative products and services that will streamline operations and enhance the consumer experience.”

About UniCredit Bank Hungary Zrt.

UniCredit Bank Hungary Zrt. is a determining player in the Hungarian banking market, which offers comprehensive and flexible financial products and services under favourable conditions. It provides its customers with a wide range of state-of-the-art banking products and services from loans for private and corporate customers and factoring services to big development projects realized with supports from the European Union, from bank accounts and deposits through asset management to investment banking services. This offer is completed by the services of the Hungarian leasing company of UniCredit Group, UniCredit Leasing Hungary Zrt. and also of Pioneer Fund Management Ltd., and is also supported with financial resources by UniCredit Jelzálogbank Zrt.

UniCredit Bank has been awarded several times in recent years. It earned the title of “Superbrands” in 2008, 2009 and 2010, the title awarded to top brands of sectors by a jury consisting of Hungarian professionals. In addition it was also awarded the title of “Business Superbrands” in 2009. Moreover UniCredit Bank won the title of “The retail saving product of the year” in the competition of “The bank of the year” in 2008 and also in 2010, while 2011 brought an all time record for the bank. In the competition “The bank of the Year 2011” UniCredit Bank Hungary won first place in the categories of “The most innovative bank of the year 2011” and “The retail credit product of the year 2011”, while finished second in “The retail bank account of the year 2011” and in “The retail saving product of the year 2011” categories.

All these further strengthen UniCredit Bank’s commitment to providing customers with high-level services and to innovation, and supports the success of its strategy.

About DieboldDiebold, Incorporated is a global leader in providing integrated self-service delivery and security systems and services. Diebold employs more than 16,000 associates with representation in nearly 90 countries worldwide and is headquartered in the Canton, Ohio region, USA. Diebold is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ‘DBD.’ For more information, visit the company's website at www.diebold.com or follow the company on Twitter: http://twitter.com/diebold_inc.

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How Machines Are Learning To Make Up their Own Minds

A Spanish research team is working on a significant breakthrough in artificial intelligence.

By Jason Deign
View All Contributing Writers

March 19 , 2012

Mud swirls through water as an undersea robot tries to find the source of a leak from a deep-sea oil well. But something goes wrong: a piece of metal, unseen in the murk, prevents the ‘bot from reaching the damaged area. Unable to complete its objective, the machine gives up.

For machines such as this, which have to operate without orders from their human controllers, dealing with unforeseen circumstances is a problem. The default design solution is to get them to return to base for reprogramming, which costs time and money.

But that is set to change thanks to a team from the Carlos III Universityof Madrid, which is working on how artificial intelligence (AI) can help machines select and prioritize between different tasks, and move on to the next thing on the list if they cannot complete the first.

Disqus: How could thinking machines help us in the future?

In the case of an undersea robot, that means it might be able to complete other useful tasks on site before resurfacing, says Ángel García Olaya, assistant professor at the university. And the process can have applications in other areas, ranging from logistics to tourism.

The team's research, which is critical to the creation of artificial entities recognized as being one of the top 10 technology trendsof the next decade, builds on 20 years of work that has been honed by NASAsince 2004 because of its value for the Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers.

These machines follow programs that were originally devised before they travelled into space, and are now updated from earth via radio.

If a rover is unable to complete a task, its programming may allow it to come up with an alternative plan of action, but the plan would need to be verified by a human operator. NASA was keen to find out if it could improve upon this process.

The resulting branch of AI focuses creating a simplified plan of all actions, stripping out most of the variables.

The plan is nonsensical in a practical sense—it may assume you can be in two places at once, for example—but it provides a fair idea of the costs of each action, which can then be used to prioritize them.

It is also between three and seven times faster than looking at each action in detail, which makes it useful for situations where time is at a premium.

However, says García: "Until now this had only been done with plans that had achievable goals. We have added the capacity to use it for goal selection."

Besides helping underwater robots to come up with a ‘plan B', the process can help logistics systems to work out the best way to complete a complex schedule of deliveries. One of the team's early backers was a Spanish company with a large and complex distribution network.

The team's work has also attracted interest from IActive, a planning technology spinoff of Spain's University of Granada, which is interested in using AI to develop personalized city guidesthat take into account a user's interests and create an itinerary for them.

Last but not least, the European Space Agencyis keen to use the process to optimize the number of experiments its satellites can perform.

"We could have this up and running in experimental robots within a year," says García, "and in submarine robots between one and two years. In areas such as logistics, we could do it now if anyone wants to implement it."

Shift in Enterprise Cloud Adoption

IBM Addresses Next Shift in Enterprise Cloud Adoption

Study finds nearly 90 percent of businesses are moving beyond virtualization
New IBM SmartCloud software advances visibility, control and automation across cloud and traditional environments
IBM extends secure cloud management to Mobile devices and physical assets

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PULSE -- LAS VEGAS - 06 Mar 2012: Today, IBM (NYSE: IBM) unveiled new software that represents a significant advancement in the level of visibility, control and automation for organizations to securely manage and deploy cloud services.

A recent IBM Institute for Business Value study found that 90 percent of organizations expect to adopt or substantially deploy a cloud model in the next three years.  As organizations take the next step beyond virtualized data centers and expand their cloud environments, they are faced with what has become known as “virtual image sprawl.”  

Virtual images are typically between five to 20 gigabytes in size. Multiply that by the thousands of virtual images created today, with larger enterprises having five to twenty thousand virtual machines, making it costly and challenging for IT managers who are tasked with improving service levels. 

“Virtual images are tripling every two years, outpacing the doubling in compute power and essentially flat IT budgets. With current operating practices, every two years, you'd need 1.5 times the physical infrastructure to support cloud and twice the labor. That's an unsustainable cost and management problem which is the exact opposite of the promise of cloud," said Daniel Sabbah, general manager, IBM Tivoli Software. “We are delivering a much higher level of control over cloud service delivery allowing our customers to quickly, easily and affordably move to higher levels of value beyond virtualization.” 

IBM’s new SmartCloud Foundation offerings allow organizations to install, manage, configure and automate the creation of cloud services in private, public or hybrid environments with a higher level of control than previously available in the industry. Collectively, the new offerings will help clients speed delivery, lower risk and better control the move to deploy cloud alongside their existing production environments. 

Increasing Speed  

IBM is offering clients great value and flexibility by delivering best practice cloud services. Since deploying IBM SmartCloud Provisioning, Dutch Cloud has seen its client base expand significantly. However, the high degree of automation built into the IBM solution has greatly reduced Dutch Cloud’s administrative workload.  

Now the IT team spends 80 percent of its time on client migrations and only 20 percent of its time on administration—a more than 70 percent decrease in administrative time. Dutch Cloud’s monthly recurring revenue has tripled twice in the last six months but their operational costs have remained flat. 

“With our original tool, it could take almost an hour to provision an extra 200 virtual machines for a client,” says Martijn Van Zoeren, CEO, Dutch Cloud. “With IBM SmartCloud Provisioning, we can do it within five minutes. Previously, we had to keep changing our tool to support all new versions of VMware, KVM and Microsoft software coming out, and all the new storage versions,” added Van Zoeren. “It was easy to do that when we first started, but we couldn’t maintain it as we grew. We were spending 80 percent of our time maintaining the tool and 20 percent on supporting client requirements.” 

With IBM SmartCloud Provisioning, new services also can be deployed in minutes rather than hours. This places Dutch Cloud in an ideal position to respond rapidly to fluctuating client needs. The IaaS market is going to continue to mature and we’ll see more competition in the coming years. Our technology choices have given us the ability to thrive in this competitive market.” 

Improving Quality

As enterprises look to accelerate delivery and realize agility, many are starting their cloud implementation journey around their development, test and deployment operations. SunTrust bank is working with IBM’s DevOps solution to increase their business agility while increasing operational discipline, quality, customer satisfaction and governance. Utilizing a cloud environment, SunTrust developers have been able to achieve application build times up to five times faster. 

Building on that and other experiences with clients, IBM will be releasing new capabilities with IBM SmartCloud Continuous Delivery. The new software is a suite of best practice patterns for enabling integrated lifecycle management of cloud services, combining Rational Collaborative Lifecycle Management solutions with IBM SmartCloud Provsioning. The recent Green Hat acquisition will further extend these capabilities reducing development lifecycle times by streamlining test cycles as applications are transitioned to cloud deployments. 

Clients using the software have seen dramatic results, including: 

·   Shortened delivery time from months to days through end-to-end automation, standardization and repeatability 

·   20 percent reduction in resource costs while increasing predictability of deployments through low touch and self-service 

·   40 percent more agility by streamlining operation and development collaboration with in-context communication 

·   20 percent increases in application service availability and performance by improving stakeholder alignment of development, test and ops

Reducing Risk, Controlling Complexity

Enterprises view cloud computing as a way to improve responsiveness and change the economics of IT. At the same time, the envelope of IT is stretching way beyond the data center, networks and workstations to new classes of mobile assets with embedded intelligence. 

Clients need to exert the same control over this virtualized, distributed world as they would exert over prior models of IT. In order to address this IBM has launched new offerings, including: 

· IBM SmartCloud Control Desk provides organizations the ability to maintain configuration integrity in response to planned changes and unplanned incidents and problems occuring across a complex IT landscape to ensure continuity of service, speed of response, and efficiency of management.  

· IBM Endpoint Manager for Mobile Devices helps firms better manage and secure their mobile environments, including iPhone, iPad, Android-based phones and tablets, Windows Phone and Nokia Symbian devices. With the ability to install in minutes, organizations will quickly be able to remotely set policies, monitor employees’ devices to identify potential data compromise and wipe data off the devices if they are lost or stolen.  

By leveraging key innovations in cloud environment capacity analytics, storage utilization and optimization, operations teams can shift their focus from managing environment bottlenecks to delivering innovative best of breed services. IBM is offering:

· IBM SmartCloud Monitoring enables cloud administrators to maximize cloud availability and utilization by monitoring virtual infrastructures and applying analytics to optimize workload placement.

· IBM SmartCloud Virtual Storage Center improves the flexibility, cost, utilization and performance of storage with automated administration, management and provisioning controls.

About IBM Cloud Computing

IBM has helped thousands of clients adopt cloud models and manages millions of cloud based transactions every day. IBM assists clients in areas as diverse as banking, communications, healthcare and government to build their own clouds or securely tap into IBM cloud-based business and infrastructure services. IBM is unique in bringing together key cloud technologies, deep process knowledge, a broad portfolio of cloud solutions, and a network of global delivery centers. For more information about cloud offerings from IBM, visithttp://www.ibm.com/smartcloud.  Follow us on Twitter at @ibmcloud.