I thought Blade servers that Cisco Systems, they must be joking; honestly I thought it was a crazy move from Cisco Systems. But they outperformed many of their competitors. In just two years, sales of the Unified Computing System are outpacing market growth for x86 blades, and Cisco has become the #3 player worldwide in x86 blade server factory revenue

Blades are forecast to be the fastest growing segment of the x86 server market and market data illustrates the impact of UCS innovation: businesses worldwide shifted over 10% of the x86 blade market to UCS, and in the U.S. nearly 20%. Cisco’s rapid growth underscores their leadership in the industry transition to fabric computing and converged infrastructure. Cisco reported 5,400 UCS customers and an annualized order run rate of $900M for UCS product orders.

According to IDC press release HP maintained the number 1 spot in the server blade market in 1Q11 with 50.0% revenue share, while IBM finished with 20.2% revenue share. Cisco and Dell rounded out the top 4 with 9.4% and 8.4% factory revenue share, respectively.

The newly announced Toner Cartridge Authentication software is comprised of three components working together. The smart chip technology contains authentication information which is collected by the Authentication software and transmitted to the authentication web service. That service then checks the data and once it is validated, it is sent back to the software, which shows the result in a pop-up box on a users’ screen. Guess what the whole process takes about a minute, amazing!

The software can be downloaded from HP for LaserJet printers, Inkjet printers already have the software embedded within the firmware. Currently  the 1000, 2000 and 3000 series LaserJet printers are supported and by 2012 HP hoping support all the HP products that comes under the ink segment.

“Either you get a message saying no risk detected, all packages are original or you get a big, bold risk detected message. If you get the risk detected message, we suggest you also click the link directly to the anti-counterfeit page,” said Andrea Gebhard, LaserJet Supplies, Imaging and Printing Group, Middle East, Mediterranean and Africa.

According to HP in the span of four years they discovered more than 30 million counterfeit products worldwide.

In addition to the Cartridge Authentication Software, HP advises that there are three basic steps that every user of HP supplies can take to identify the authenticity of an HP product, including checking for holographic security labels on the packaging tabs, checking the quality of the packaging and checking the quality and finish of the cartridge itself.

Fortify Software is company which creates software for security testing of application through all stages of the development process through development, Fortify is a privately held software security assurance company based in San Mateo, Calif.

Already HP and Fortify software  have collaborated on an advanced security analysis technology, ‘Hybrid 2.0′, and will HP says that it will now be able to accelerate development of this technology to give clients the accuracy and prioritization they need around security vulnerabilities to build scalable enterprise application security programs.

With the acquisition of Fortify Software, HP will offer a complete, market-leading solution that helps organizations reduce business risk, meet compliance regulations and protect against malicious application attacks by integrating security assurance seamlessly across the application life cycle.

“Businesses operate in a world of increasing security and compliance challenges, and the applications and services that they rely on are core to the problem and the solution,” said Bill Veghte, executive vice president, Software and Solutions, HP. “With Fortify’s leadership in static application security analysis combined with HP’s expertise in dynamic application security analysis, organizations will have a best-in-class solution to improve the security of their applications and services.”

For further info do read the new release from HP,

Cisco will not renew the reseller contract with HP which is due to end by April 2010. Which means HP will no longer be a Cisco Certified Channel Partner or Global Service Alliance Partner. The increased competition between two giants in the Data Center Sector is the main reason for this split, Keith Goodwin, Senior Vice President of Cisco’s Worldwide Partner Organization said on a webcast.

Keith Goodwin, senior vice president of Cisco’s worldwide partner organization said in a statement: “Being a Cisco Certified Channel Partner has numerous benefits including access to proprietary information (such as product roadmaps) and partner profitability initiatives. Given the evolution of our relationship it simply no longer makes sense to provide these benefits to HP.”

According to figures from Dell’Oro Group Cisco had more than two-third of the Ethernet Market Share in last third quarter, whereas HP and 3Com were at second and third place. HP is no shaping up to be not just a competitor to Cisco but also it might be Cisco’s biggest rival. With acquisition of 3Com, HP has a fair line up of both routing and switching product.

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According to the new study done tje by leading industry group, almost all Data Centers are cooled to a temperature lower than the required temperature for the normal operation of a Data Center.

The group comprised of representatives Intel, IBM, Liebert, HP and the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, found almost all Data Centers in a survey of the US Data Center Users Group were cooled much below temperature than the recommended temperature of 27°C.

The recommended temperature for the Data Centers of 27°C was proposed by American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE).

The study also estimates the potential energy savings that could be achieved if data centres could be operated closer to the recommended limit as being as high as 90% energy savings for CRAHs.

The report can be downloaded here.

I was just browsing the regional technical portal and came to know that HP is cutting another 6,000 jobs due to poor second quarter results.  The second quarter results dropped by 17% from the same quarter last year, to $1.7 billion. which forced the giant company like HP to axe 6000 more jobs. The economic crisis has forced many companies to cut down their investments, research plans etc. which is going to affect the industry in coming decade, if the world failed to come out of this economic crisis.

Mark Hurd, HP chairman and CEO commented: “Disciplined focus on operational efficiencies and execution drove record cash flow. Our services business continued to deliver strong profitability with an increased deal pipeline and the EDS integration tracking ahead of schedule.”

More at  http://www.itp.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=556313&newsletter=1  http://www.damiansaunders.net

Dear Friends GITEX happens to be the biggest technological exhibition or fair in this part of world. If you happen to be in Dubai I would strongly suggest to visit GITEX 2008.

More than 3,300 companies from 83 countries are exhibiting at this year, including major international companies such as Blackberry, Dell, Du, Etisalat, Google, HP, Microsoft, Oracle, Panasonic, Samsung, Sharp, Sun Microsystems and Symantec, according to organisers the Dubai World Trade Centre.

GITEX 2008 is open from 1pm to 7pm on Oct. 19, 10am to 7pm on Oct. 20-22 and 10am to 5pm on Oct. 23. The exhibition is open to trade and business professionals only.

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