Windows Server 2003 still used on many servers, despite approaching end-of-support
A large number of organizations are continuing to use Windows Server 2003, despite Microsoft announcing that support for the operating system will cease in less than a month.
According to a recent study by Softchoice, 21 percent of servers were still operating the OS in the first half of 2015, a fall of 11 percent compared with the same period twelve months ago.
Intel announces new fifth-generation 'Broadwell' Core i7, i5 processors
Computex 2015 is well underway. So far, we have talked about the most-interesting new products that ASUS and SanDisk have unveiled, taking a look at Transformer Book T100HA, EeeBook E403SA, ZenWatch 2, and the Extreme 900 portable SSDs.
And now it is Intel's turn to woo us with its new products. The US chip maker today announced 10 fifth-generation (more commonly known as Broadwell family) Core processors, for desktops and laptops -- part of the mid-range i5 and high-end i7 lines. Also new are five professional Xeon E3 solutions.
1&1 Cloud Server offers scalable computing for smaller companies
One of the problems for smaller businesses when specifying servers is that it's easy to be caught out by a sudden surge in traffic or need for extra capacity.
It can take time to ramp up capacity to cope during which you could be losing business. Hosting company 1&1 Internet has launched its new Cloud Server solution aimed at smaller businesses which offers flexibility and control along with a transparent pricing model.
HP wants to replace data centers with The Machine
The Machine is the name of a project HP is developing for data centers based on several novel technologies. At this distance, The Machine seems like a fantasy as it’s still at least two years from its launch as a unified product.
If the project is successful, it may replace what we consider computers now; the promised changes to server power draw alone would be revolutionary. It’s initially intended for data centre use, but established, expensive technologies tend to trickle down to individual consumers eventually. Examples of the trickle down effect of technologies first widely implemented on a business level are numerous, and include tech such as solid state disks, 64 bit operating systems, and multiple cores. It may be that the technologies HP is developing will become ubiquitous in the industry for both consumers and businesses.
Condusiv optimizes performance for network storage
If you've been around the PC world for a while you’ll no doubt have encountered Diskeeper, the unattended defrag tool. With modern server storage using RAID controllers and SSDs you may think that the need for this kind of software is over, but Condusiv, the company behind Diskeeper, believes otherwise.
It's launching Diskeeper 15 Server, a fragmentation prevention solution for storage area network (SAN) systems connected to physical servers to keep both servers and storage running like new.
Microsoft Q2 FY2015: The highlights
Microsoft has released its earnings report for Q2 FY2015 (that's Q4 CY2014 for everyone else), revealing figures that closely match analyst expectations. The software giant achieved $26.5 billion in revenue, with operating income coming in at $7.8 billion. Gross margin and diluted earnings per share were $16.3 billion and $0.71, respectively. However, in after-hours trading, Microsoft's shares dropped by $2, or 4.28 percent, to $45 per share.
Microsoft has delivered some good news through its earnings report concerning its Devices and Consumer part of the business. Surface revenue reached $1.1 billion at the end of the quarter, which translates to a healthy increase of 24 percent over Q2 FY2014. Lumia sales topped 10.5 million, which, again, is better than the same quarter from a year prior as well as the previous quarter, Q1 FY2015. And the list goes on.
Stanford University moves to Office 365 and Exchange
Stanford University is known for turning out some of the big names in the tech business. It's where two guys thought up the idea for a little search engine called Google. However, that doesn't tie the school to the service and Stanford is proving that with its move to a Microsoft platform.
It's certainly not the first educational institute (or business) to adopt Office 365 and Exchange. This latest move is slated to take place in the summer of 2015, though the work has already begun.
Why is Dell crippling its low end server RAID cards?
When scoping out new servers for customers, we usually look towards Dell, as their boxes have the right mix of price, performance, expandability, and quality that we strive for. RAID card options these days are fairly plentiful, with our sweet spot usually ending up on the PERC H700 series cards that Dell preinstalls with its midrange to higher end PowerEdge server offerings.
But recently we were forced into using one of its lower end RAID cards, the H200 PCIe offering. This internal card was one of the few dedicated RAID options certified to work in a refurbished server we had to put back into production, a Dell R210 1u rack unit. The specs looked fine and dandy in nearly all respects, except for one area that I like to avoid: the lack of dedicated battery backed flash cache.
Migrating from Windows Server 2003: 12 best practices straight from the trenches
Most of us have hopefully managed to get off the sinking ship that was Windows XP. As much of a recent memory as that has become, a new end of life is rearing its head, and it's approaching fervently for those who haven't started planning for it. Microsoft's Windows Server 2003, a solid server operating system that's now about eleven and a half years old, is heading for complete extinction in just under 300 days. Microsoft has a fashionable countdown timer already ticking.
Seeing as we just finished our second server migration in a single week (a personal record so far), sharing some of the finer aspects of how we are streamlining these transitions seems like a timely fit. This braindump of sorts is a collection of best practices that we are routinely following for our own customers, and they seem to be serving us well so far.
Lenovo introduces the EMC-based VNX5150 Storage Array
Lenovo hopes to put a smile on the face of penny-pinching small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) through a new storage area network (SAN) solution based on EMC's VNX unified storage family.
The Lenovo|EMC VNX5150 Storage Array is a dual-processor SAN that offers full redundancy for all major components as well as dual paths of connectivity throughout for a price that SMBs will be able to afford.
Microsoft's Q4 FY2014 earnings by the numbers
Microsoft has released its earnings results for the fourth fiscal quarter of the year (that is Q2 CY2014), posting revenue of $23.38 billion, gross margin of 15.79 billion and operating income of $6.48 billion. As a result, earnings per share (EPS) came in at $0.55 (below analyst expectations of $0.60).
Revenue, gross margin and operating income are higher than a year before, when they reached 19.89 billion, 14.29 billion and 6.07 billion, respectively. However, EPS is lower, dropping from $0.59. "We are galvanized around our core as a productivity and platform company for the mobile-first and cloud-first world, and we are driving growth with disciplined decisions, bold innovation, and focused execution", says Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. "I'm proud that our aggressive move to the cloud is paying off -- our commercial cloud revenue doubled again this year to a $4.4 billion annual run rate".
OpenSSL flaw unlocks the internet's 'crown jewels'
If all of your system adminstrator friends are looking worried today it isn't the usual post Patch Tuesday blues, it's because of a bug in something that you may never have heard of, but which almost certainly affects your everyday use of the web.
OpenSSL is a cryptographic library that is used to secure large chunks of the internet. If you use sites or apps that send and receive encrypted data then it’s very likely they use OpenSSL to do it. It's used by open source web servers like Apache as well as by mail protocols including SMTP, POP and IMAP.
Worldwide server shipments up in 2013 but revenues in decline
According to new research by Gartner worldwide server shipments were up 2.1 percent in 2013 whilst revenues declined by 4.5 percent.
Most of this shipment growth has taken place in the Asia/Pacific and Japan regions whilst the North American market has remained relatively flat. Vendor revenue declined everywhere except the Asia/Pacific region where it grew by just 0.6 percent.
Set up your own personal cloud for free with Tonido
There's a lot to like about cloud backup and sync -- security, for one, and the convenience of being able to access your files remotely for another. But cloud storage can be an expensive option, which is where Tonido comes in.
It provides a trio of tools -- Tonido Desktop and Tonido Sync for desktop, Tonido Mobile for mobile -- that lets you turn your home storage into a personal cloud. So long as your backup needs are catered elsewhere, you can access, share, stream and -- to a limited degree -- sync data without paying a single cent.
ScaleXtreme combines server and cloud management in a single platform
The growth in popularity of cloud-based applications has brought new challenges for system admins. Rather than a single set of systems in one place a company's computing may now be spread across a number of platforms and locations.
With the announcement of its new Advanced Cloud Management product ScaleXtreme aims to give its customers a broad set of server, application and service management tools on a single platform.
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