Oracle Press Release

Oracle Upgrades Analytics in Oracle Retail Data Model

Oracle Retail Business Intelligence Platform Delivers Advanced Analytics for Unique Retail Formats

Redwood Shores, Calif. – Aug. 29, 2012

News Facts

Oracle today announced enhancements to Oracle Retail Data Model, a standards-based, enterprise-class data warehouse that helps retailers gain the insight required to improve the customer experience, increase margins and drive profitability.

The latest version of the product incorporates several new forecasting features that provide retailers with actionable insight regarding price elasticity, workforce optimization, customer sentiment, customer segmentation.

To deliver insight and support for a full range of retailers, Oracle Retail Data Model now offers advanced analytics for a broader spectrum of subject areas. In addition to its existing capabilities for grocery, fashion, hardline and more, the latest release includes functionality to deliver insight into:

Quick serve restaurants and fine dining

Consumer goods

Wholesale and private label

Multi-channel

Franchise control

The newly enhanced Oracle Retail Data Model, has also been optimized for Oracle Database, Oracle Exadata Database Machine and Oracle Big Data Appliance to deliver extreme scalability and performance.

Retailers can use the standards-based, pre-built capabilities within Oracle Retail Data Model to accelerate the design, implementation and time-to-value of analytics applications from Oracle or third-parties.

Supporting Quotes

“Using Oracle Retail Data Model as the foundation for Gordman’s data warehousing and business intelligence platform will accelerate the deployment and our return on investment,” said Richard Heyman, chief information officer, Gordman’s. “The latest updates to the Oracle Retail Data Model will significantly improve the ability of our merchandising and planning teams to optimize operations and help Gordman’s grow profitably.”

“The enhancements to the Oracle Retail Data Model provide deeper and broader insight for a wider range of retailers,” said Mike Webster, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Oracle Retail. “By taking advantage of its new capabilities, retailers will have unparalleled access to information that is relevant, timely and actionable.”

Resources

About Oracle Retail Data Model

About Oracle Data Database

About Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition

Oracle Retail on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube

Oracle Insight-Driven Retailing Blog

Oracle Retail in the News

Oracle Retail Asset and Centralized Knowledge Portal

About Oracle Retail

Oracle provides retailers with a complete, open and integrated suite of business applications, server and storage solutions that are engineered to work together to optimize every aspect of their business. 20 of the top 20 retailers worldwide - including fashion, hardlines, grocery and specialty retailers - use Oracle solutions to drive performance, deliver critical insights and fuel growth across traditional, mobile and commerce channels. For more information, visit our Web site at http://www.oracle.com/goto/retail

About Oracle

Oracle engineers hardware and software to work together in the cloud and in your data center.  For more information about Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL), visit www.oracle.com.

About Oracle in Industries

Oracle industry solutions leverage the company's best-in-class portfolio of products to address complex business processes relevant to retail, helping speed time to market, reduce costs, and gain a competitive edge.

Trademark

Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

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U.S. Sets Much Higher Fuel Efficiency Standards

The following is an excerpt from an article in 

The New York Times
Wednesday, August 29, 2012

U.S. Sets Much Higher Fuel Efficiency Standards

By BILL VLASIC

DETROIT — The Obama administration issued on Tuesday the final version of new rules that require automakers to nearly double the average fuel economy of new cars and trucks by 2025.

The standards — which mandate an average fuel economy of 54.5 miles per gallon for the 2025 model year — will increase the pressure on auto manufacturers to step up development of electrified vehicles as well as sharply improve the mileage of their mass-market models through techniques like more efficient engines and lighter car bodies.

Current rules for the Corporate Average Fuel Economy, or CAFE, program mandate an average of about 29 miles per gallon, with gradual increases to 35.5 m.p.g. by 2016. The new rules represent a victory for environmentalists and advocates of fuel conservation, but were attacked by opponents, including the Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, as too costly for consumers.

While the regulations have been in development for more than a year, the White House’s decision to make them final on the first full day of the Republican National Convention seemed intended to highlight one of President Obama’s proudest accomplishments at a time when Mr. Romney has laid out a different energy and environmental agenda.

The administration called the new rules “historic,” and estimated that Americans would reduce their oil consumption by 12 billion barrels over the course of the program. “These fuel standards represent the single most important step we’ve ever taken to reduce our dependence on foreign oil,” Mr. Obama said in a statement.

But the Romney campaign has criticized the new rules as “extreme” and said the standards would limit the choices when consumers shop for a new car. “The president tells voters that his regulations will save them thousands of dollars at the pump, but always forgets to mention that the savings will be wiped out by having to pay thousands of dollars more upfront for unproven technology that they may not even want,” said Andrea Saul, a spokeswoman for the Romney campaign.

For more, visit www.nytimes.com.

News Release from NetApp

Note to visitors:  The Palo-Negro-Blog is no longer being actively maintained.  For more current posts, please visit:  http://JBK-BizTech.blogspot.com

Customers Rely on NetApp for the Highest Level of Excellence in Secure Solutions for their Missions

NetApp Data ONTAP 8.0 Earns Internationally Recognized Common Criteria Certification to Meet Stringent Government Standards

SUNNYVALE, Calif. — March 5, 2012 — NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP) this week announced that NetApp Data ONTAP® 8.0.0 operating in 7-Mode and Data ONTAP® 8.0.1 operating in 7-Mode have completed evaluation for an EAL2+ certification under the Communications Security Establishment Canada’s (CSEC) Common Criteria Evaluation and Certification Scheme (CCS). Government and commercial customers alike receive the best possible security solutions from NetApp as the company continues to commit to achieving the highest caliber in IT government security validations.

As the first storage vendor to meet Common Criteria Certification standards in 2005, NetApp set the bar for excellence in security features across the storage industry. Today’s Data ONTAP EAL2+ certification is evidence of NetApp’s continued commitment to help customers run their missions better, more cost effectively and securely.

“We are proud to be able to successfully continue to invest in securing our customers against attacks on their valuable data,” said Mark Weber, president and general manager of the U.S. Public Sector, NetApp. “It is that commitment to our customers that makes NetApp one of the best storage vendor to do business with in the U.S. Public Sector and in the world.”

In order to facilitate the prompt completion of the Common Criteria certification, NetApp partnered with Corsec Security, Inc., a consulting, documentation, and project management services firm.

“NetApp’s achievement of Common Criteria certification for Data ONTAP® 8.0.0 operating in 7-Mode and Data ONTAP® 8.0.1 operating in 7-Mode underscores their dedication to continuously providing security assurance in their technology,” said Matthew Appler, CEO, Corsec Security. “We were highly impressed with NetApp’s solution and with their commitment to the evaluation process.”

As befits an industry leader, the NetApp security story is much broader than achieving common criteria certification. NetApp offers multiple FIPS 140-2 validated data at rest encryption solutions, such as NetApp Storage Encryption using self-encrypting drives and Brocade FibreChannel Encryption Switches and blades. Upgraded NAS encryption appliances will be announced soon.

NetApp’s Secure Multi-Tenancy architecture, developed in concert with Cisco and VMware, is a unique service-oriented infrastructure that includes all server, storage, and networking hardware and software to facilitate secure sharing, reuse, and dynamic resource allocation for next-generation data centers and cloud service providers.

NetApp has also achieved ISO/IEC 27001, the global standard for Information Security Management Systems (ISMS). This provides NetApp customers, partners, vendors, and employees with the confidence that information in the hands of NetApp is protected in accordance with the ISO standard .

NetApp demonstrated NetApp Storage Encryption in the OASIS KMIP interoperability demo at the RSA Security Conference in San Francisco last week.

News Release from EPA - Fremont Facility

For Immediate Release: February 28, 2012

Contact: Margot Perez-Sullivan, perezsullivan.margot@epa.gov

U.S. EPA Fines Fremont facility $62,500 for Hazardous Waste Violations

SAN FRANCISCO—The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency fined Western Digital Corporation, a wafer fabrication facility that generates large quantities of hazardous wastes including solvents, acids and sulfates, $62,500 for the improper management of hazardous waste at its Fremont facility.

A 2010 inspection at Western Digital Corporation uncovered violations of federal standards governing the handling and storage of hazardous waste. In this case, the facility manufactures    components used to make hard drives, using a variety of hazardous materials.  Among the  violations were failure to properly label and seal containers, failure to control tank emissions, failure to adequately train personnel, failure to monitor equipment, failure to provide an adequate contingency plan, and failure to provide a leak detection system,

Under the EPA’s Resource Conservation and Recovery Act program, hazardous substances must be stored, handled and disposed of using measures that safeguard public health and the environment.

For more information on the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, please visit the EPA’s web site at:  http://www.epa.gov/compliance/civil/rcra/index.html