Oracle Delivers World Record x86 Performance on Industry Standard Java Middleware and Transactional Database Benchmarks

Oracle’s Software and Sun x86 Servers Outperform IBM’s Best Comparable Results

For more, click the link below:

http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/press/1570421

News Release from Dell - Improve IT Efficiency

Dell Helps Insteel Industries, Inc. Improve IT Efficiency While Reducing Costs

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Date : 3/7/2012

Round Rock, Texas

• Manufacturing company chooses Dell and Dell Services for solutions from the desktop to the data center
• Dell enables Insteel Industries, Inc. to increase IT flexibility and agility, allowing for a rapid, two-business-day systems transition during an acquisition
• Insteel moves from RISC architecture to Dell x86 standardized platforms

Dell is enabling Insteel Industries, Inc., one of the largest U.S. manufacturers of steel wire reinforcing products for concrete reinforcing, to drive IT efficiency while providing a flexible infrastructure that can adapt quickly to immediate and changing demands. By implementing Dell solutions and services, Insteel increased manageability and reliability across its data centers, and will save more than $70,000 on maintenance costs by replacing aging equipment with new servers.

Insteel relies on technology solutions in the manufacture of its products 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Faced with a client refresh cycle and integration of a recent acquisition, the company selected Dell to help drive technology standardization across its nine manufacturing facilities to have better control over manageability and reliability of IT assets.

The infrastructure consists of Dell™ PowerEdge™ servers, Dell PowerVault™ Storage, Dell Latitude™ laptops, Dell OptiPlex™ desktops and is complemented with deployment processes and onsite support from Dell Services.

Keeping facilities running 24/7
Viewing technology as delivering a competitive advantage, Insteel relies on Dell PowerEdge servers in all of its locations. The company deployed Dell PowerVault MD storage arrays and terminal servers to support flexible computing on the plant floor with easily expandable and high-performance infrastructure. Dell is also helping Insteel save time and increase efficiency as it transitions to Windows Server 2008r2. With new virtualized architecture, Insteel does not have to deploy new hardware as it moves off the Windows Server 2003 platform.

To support its ERP system, the company is transitioning from using PA-RISC platforms to Dell PowerEdge servers. This transition is expected to save the company about $70,000 on hardware maintenance costs over five years.

Insteel relies on Dell ProSupport™ for onsite service for its servers, desktops and laptops, helping to ensure mission-critical uptime in its plants. 

Maintaining remote client management
At the close of a recent acquisition, Insteel needed to bring new employees onto its network immediately. Through the Dell Ships Fast program, the company received Latitude laptops within 48 hours. Insteel then configured the systems, sent them out and created a mobile command post at each acquired facility. The acquisition closed on a Friday and by Monday each mobile command post was connected to Insteel’s network with its products shipped out of the company’s ERP system day one after the acquisition.

For the hardware refresh in the facilities, Insteel needed PCs with a small form factor due to limited space. After evaluating several options, the company selected Dell OptiPlex small form factor desktops. The OptiPlex desktops also offered the robust remote management capabilities Insteel required, enabling IT staff to resolve issues by remotely controlling client machines in multiple locations.

To accelerate deployment of the desktops, Insteel engaged Dell Deployment Services and used Dell Factory Image Load. The OptiPlex desktops were preconfigured with the company’s image, which saved 30 minutes of configuration time for each system. Dell Deployment Services managed the onsite installation of new PCs, enabling Insteel to get a complete facility up and running in eight to 12 hours. As a result, the company rolled out more than 80 Dell OptiPlex PCs in a four-week period and avoided having to add additional IT staff.

Quotes
“We look for a technology provider who can pretty much bring the complete solution to the table all at one time, and Dell was the natural choice for the business. The simpler we can keep our environment, the more easily our small staff can deploy packages, do operating system upgrades and troubleshoot problems. IT management is simplified and we feel like that gives us a competitive edge.” - Mark Coleman, Manager of Systems and Database Administration, Insteel Wire Products

“Our work with Insteel Industries is a true example of an end-to-end partnership,” said Bill Popp, Dell’s vice president of Manufacturing Sales. “From servers to storage, laptops to desktops and Dell Services at every point in between, our work with Insteel shows that making improvements throughout the entire IT infrastructure of a manufacturer can produce even greater results around efficiency and cost-savings. We have the expertise, solutions and hardware available to help at every step of a transition, which helped Insteel’s recent acquisition process take place faster and at a lower cost.”

“With a large scale deployment of several technologies as well as the integration of new employees from an acquisition, it could have been easy for a slight misstep to create major disruptions for Insteel,” said Doug Schmitt, vice president, Dell Services. “Dell Services provided deployment services and expertise to lower costs, avoid downtime and reduce installation times. Our onsite support helped ensure production was up throughout the transition and continues on an ongoing basis.”

News Release from IBM

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IBM Unveils New Solutions to Help Make Smarter Computing Real for x86 Users

Expanding analytics and cloud capabilities across the IBM System x product line

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ARMONK, N.Y. - 06 Mar 2012: IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced new server solutions designed to expand cloud and analytics capabilities across its entire portfolio, helping make Smarter Computing a reality for x86 clients.

The new offerings include high-performance systems, networking and software products aimed at helping clients optimize data center operations with flexible, easy-to-deploy solutions to help reduce complexity, lower costs and deliver rapid return on investments.

Today, clients are looking for solutions that help them handle specific business challenges and make better use of existing IT infrastructures.  More and more clients are turning to cloud computing, analytics and other smarter computing solutions to help their businesses grow.  Cloud computing deployments are expected to grow more than 19% per year, according to IDC (1), and a recent IBM CIO study (2) showed cloud implementations nearly doubling from 33% to 60% over the last two years.

"From the design of the servers, software and services, IBM solutions are created to help accelerate the journey to Smarter Computing," said Adalio Sanchez, general manager, IBM System x business. "IBM is delivering easy-to-deploy cloud and analytics products to help clients align their businesses to manage unprecedented amounts of data, and become much more efficient at turning that information into timely business insights."

Among the solutions introduced is a new version of IBM's BladeCenter Foundation for Cloud (BCFC), an integrated virtualization platform with built-in system management and preconfigured with servers, storage, and networking. BladeCenter Foundation for Cloud is now powered by the new generation of IBM BladeCenter HS23 systems that offer 62% more compute power, and comes integrated with the new 10GbE Virtual Fabric technology that enables clients to run 20% more virtual machines, creating an optimal environment for building and deploying advanced cloud applications. 

The increased bandwidth and up to four times more memory allows the HS23 to support faster data transfers that are essential to virtualized cloud and analytic workloads.  In addition, IBM FastSetup for BladeCenter, a cost and time-saving console application can help clients reduce from days to hours the time it takes to complete large deployments.  

Bytemobile and German Leibniz Supercomputer Center Bet on IBM Cloud and AnalyticsCalifornia-based Bytemobile (http://bit.ly/wwxyCC) and Germany's Leibniz Supercomputing Center in Munich are among the first customers to purchase IBM next generation x86 systems.  Santa Clara-based Bytemobile, a leading global provider of mobile Internet solutions for global wireless network operators, is using IBM BladeCenter HS23 servers as the foundation for its cloud computing implementation. 

"With the new performance capabilities of the BladeCenter HS23 combined with our software, we are able to achieve two-and-a-half times the performance over our previous infrastructure," said Chris Koopmans, chief operating officer, Bytemobile.  "The IBM solution allows us to process large amounts of network data more quickly and easily.  Given the way that video traffic is exploding on mobile networks around the world, this is crucial in being able to provide customers an optimal, seamless end-user experience."

The Leibniz Supercomputing center provides supercomputing services to scientists in Munich, Bavaria, Germany and other parts of Europe.  It is in the process of installing a new high-end supercomputer based on IBM System x iDataPlex technology, which will help scientists solve a broad range of challenging scientific problems.

"Our new iDataPlex-powered SuperMUC system will help enable the scientific community to test theories, design experiments and predict outcomes as never before," said Professor Dr. Arndt Bode, director of the LRZ supercomputing center.  "In addition, the new SuperMUC system will be able to provide previously unattainable energy efficiency along with sustained performance."

IBM SmartCloud Solutions for Mid-sized Business ClientsIBM also introduced new and affordable SmartCloud solutions powered by its latest IBM System x 3650 M4 server, the most expandable, upgradeable system of its kind.  The x3650 M4 demonstrated excellent performance on industry-standard benchmarks. It achieved a leadership two-processor score for SPECvirt_sc2010 benchmark (3), set a new record for two-processor server performance on TPC-E (4), more than 45% faster than the previous-generation result achieved by the HP ProLiant DL380 G7 server (5), and a leadership two-processor result on Windows on two-tier SAP SD standard application benchmark. (6)

The System x 3650 M4 also comes with IBM eXFlash solid-state storage technology, bringing exclusive IBM enterprise-class storage capability to a two-socket rack server. The SSD technology enables 30 times more performance and a 90% increase in performance per watt for consolidating collaboration and database workloads.  In addition, the new x3650 M4 system supports the IBM Smarter Analytics portfolio of offerings, a set of compact, integrated, single-analytics offerings supported by storage-dense System x two-socket systems running IBM InfoSphere Data Warehouse and Cognos business intelligence and performance management software.

IBM's new portfolio of x86 computing solutions also include:

• The IBM System x iDataPlex dx360 M4, which offers significant flexibility for supporting a wide range of high-performance computing workloads.  The system is designed for datacenters requiring high performance with limited floor space, and power and cooling infrastructure.  Available with specially designed exclusive IBM warm water-cooled technology, this iDataPlex system is up to 40 percent more energy efficient than air-cooled systems, recovering 90 percent of heat per nodes.
• The IBM System x 3550 M4, a dense, feature-rich 1U server designed for data and business critical workloads, and the IBM System x3500 M4 tower that provides data center performance in a desktop package.  The x3550 delivers four times more memory, more virtual machines, and improved networking performance in less space at a comparable price.  The x3500 also offers four times the memory, plus 33% more storage capacity than prior generations. It is designed for quiet operation and fits easily under a desk or rack, making it ideal for office environments.
• IBM Feature on Demand across the IBM System x product line. Feature on Demand allows clients to activate or unlock features in the firmware or software on demand, providing customers the ability to grow their systems as they grow their businesses without the need for costly rip and replace.

New Business Partner Incentives to Sell Client SolutionsThe IBM Solution Accelerator incentive is a new channel initiative to sell combined software and systems, and business solutions. It has two elements. First is a Software and Systems reward that amounts to a 5% incremental rebate for selling eligible IBM systems and a 15% percent incremental rebate for selling eligible software together to a single client. Secondly, a Business Solutions Reward offers an additional 10% rebate for selling a solution aimed at a particular IT challenge on eligible software content of the solution.  Eligible solutions cover client needs such as turning information into insights, managing risk, security and compliance and social business.  In addition, approximately 1% in fees can be earned when clients finance their solution through IBM Global Finance.

The new products will begin shipping worldwide by March 16, 2012.