Microsoft, Facebook Announce Patent Agreement

Microsoft, Facebook Announce Patent Agreement
April 23, 2012
Companies strike deal to split patents secured by Microsoft from AOL Inc.
 

REDMOND, Wash. and MENLO PARK, Calif. — April 23, 2012 — 
Microsoft Corp. and Facebook announced today a definitive agreement under which Microsoft will assign to Facebook the right to purchase a portion of the patent portfolio it recently agreed to acquire from AOL Inc. Facebook has agreed to purchase this portion for $550 million in cash.

In the initial AOL auction, Microsoft secured the ability to own or assign approximately 925 U.S. patents and patent applications plus a license to AOL’s remaining patent portfolio, which contains approximately 300 additional patents that were not for sale.As a result of today’s agreement, Facebook will obtain ownership of approximately 650 AOL patents and patent applications, plus a license to the AOL patents and applications that Microsoft will purchase and own.

Upon closing of this transaction with Facebook, Microsoft will retain ownership of approximately 275 AOL patents and applications; a license to the approximately 650 AOL patents and applications that will now be owned by Facebook; and a license to approximately 300 patents that AOL did not sell in its auction.

“Today’s agreement with Facebook enables us to recoup over half of our costs while achieving our goals from the AOL auction,” said Brad Smith, executive vice president and general counsel, Microsoft. “As we said earlier this month, we had submitted the winning AOL bid in order to obtain a durable license to the full AOL portfolio and ownership of certain patents that complement our existing portfolio.”

“Today’s agreement with Microsoft represents an important acquisition for Facebook,” said Ted Ullyot, general counsel, Facebook. “This is another significant step in our ongoing process of building an intellectual property portfolio to protect Facebook’s interests over the long term.”The parties are evaluating the accounting treatment for these transactions. These transactions are also subject to customary closing conditions, including clearance under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, as amended.

About FacebookFounded in 2004, Facebook’s mission is to make the world more open and connected. People use Facebook to stay connected with friends and family, to discover what’s going on in the world, and to share and express what matters to them.Facebook® is a registered trademark of Facebook Inc. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

About MicrosoftFounded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news

. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed athttp://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

Acer's New AC100 Micro Server Brings the Data Center to the Desk; Now Shipping to Customers in Canada

Acer's New AC100 Micro Server Brings the Data Center to the Desk; Now Shipping to Customers in Canada

Small Tool-Less Chassis and High-Efficiency 80 PLUS(R) Power Supply Save Space, Energy and Capital for Businesses

MISSISSAUGA, ON, Apr 23, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- Editor's Summary:

-- Easy-to-configure micro-tower provides excellent expandability and enables quick upgrades, reducing the time and costs associated with maintenance -- High-efficiency 200W 80 PLUS(R) power supply makes it more than 80 percent energy efficient at 20, 50 and 100 percent rated loads, reducing electricity use and bills -- Houses up to 8TB of RAID storage and 16GB memory to provide data security and house large workloads efficiently -- Expands to meet the needs of a growing business with four 3.5-inch hot-pluggable hard drive bays, six USB ports, one PCIe x8 slot as well as video and eSATA ports -- Available now via resellers in Canada with a manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) of$999 CAD when configured with an Intel(R) Xeon(R) E3-1260L processor

Acer America, the number two PC provider in Canada,(1) today announced a new commercial offering, the Acer AC100 micro-server. It delivers the latest server-class features and utilities in a compact form factor to suit the needs of small and medium businesses.

Featuring an easy to configure micro-tower enabling quick upgrades, the new Acer AC100 not only reduces the time and costs associated with maintenance, but also provides excellent expandability in its class. In addition to Energy Star(R) certification, it boasts a high-efficiency 200W 80 PLUS(R) power supply, which makes the AC100 more than 80 percent energy efficient at 20, 50 and 100 percent rated loads, reducing electricity use and bills.

The AC100 is powered by an Intel(R) Xeon(R) E3-1200, Intel Core i3(TM) or Pentium(R) series processor and can house up to 8TB of RAID storage and 16GB memory to provide data security and house large workloads efficiently. It can also expand to meet the needs of a growing business with four 3.5-inch hot-pluggable hard drive bays, six USB ports, one PCIe x8 slot as well as video and eSATA ports.

"We're committed to helping organizations succeed by providing systems that are easy to set up, use and maintain without taking up a lot of space," said Michael O'Beirne, Acer senior director, commercial product marketing. "The AC100 provides plenty of power, security and expansion without requiring dedicated IT resources, which can be imperative for a small business. Plus, we assure superior technical service from North American call centres, so our customers can focus on what they do best, their core business."

Server Class Reliability and Security Pre-configured RAID 0, 1, 10 and 5 modes and automatic back-up protect critical data and enable secure remote access from the web. ECC memory protects the system from data corruption by detecting and correcting single bit errors on the fly, critical for financial and scientific computing. In addition, an integrated Gigabit Ethernet controller transmits files quickly and safely.

The AC100 micro-server can be configured with a variety of operating systems including Microsoft Small Business Server 2011 Essentials. Acer Dashboard and Acer ITSmart boast powerful utilities, such as Server Health Monitoring to ensure operations are functioning effectively. Select configurations come with Intel(R) vPro(TM) Management, a set of security and manageability capabilities to protect sensitive information as well as to streamline office operations and increase employee productivity. The server also has Client PC Power Saving, Printer Sharing, Fax Notification as well as pad and Kensington lock slots to deter theft.

The Acer AC100 server will be available via resellers in Canada now with a MSRP starting at $999 CAD when configured with an Intel(R) Xeon(R) E3-1260L processor. It comes with a one-year warranty(2) and customers can also choose from extended warranties and services.

In addition to the new Acer AC100 server, Acer provides a full line of award-winning commercial technology products to support businesses, schools and professional organizations. Acer's commercial product line includes the Acer F2 line of servers, the Acer TravelMate Timeline notebook PCs, Acer Veriton desktop PCs as well as a full line of LED and LCD displays, digital signage and projectors.

About Acer Since its founding in 1976, Acer has achieved the goal of breaking the barriers between people and technology. Globally, Acer ranks No. 2 for notebook PCs.(3) A profitable and sustainable Channel Business Model is instrumental to the company's continuing growth, while its multi-brand approach integrates Acer, Gateway, Packard Bell, and eMachines brands in worldwide markets. Acer designs environmentally friendly products and has established a green supply chain through collaboration with suppliers. Acer is proud to be a Worldwide Partner of the Olympic Movement, including supporting the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games and London 2012 Olympic Games. The Acer Group employs 8,000 people worldwide. Revenues for 2011 reached US$15.7 billion. Visit www.acer-group.com for more information.

Copyright 2012 Acer America Corp. All rights reserved. Acer and the Acer logo are registered trademarks of Acer Inc. Other trademarks, registered trademarks, and/or service marks, indicated or otherwise, are the property of their respective owners.

1) Source: Gartner data, FY 2011 2) Limited warranty agreement applies. For a copy, write to Acer Customer Service, P.O. Box 6137, Temple, TX 76503. 3) Source: Gartner data, FY 2011

Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=1956105

Media Contact: Erin Davern Phone: 949-471-7785 Erin_davern@acer.com

SOURCE: Acer America

Flowfinity Announces Mobile Business Workflows and Approvals Management

Flowfinity Announces Mobile Business Workflows and Approvals Management

Vancouver, BC - Flowfinity Wireless Inc., a proven provider of enterprise mobile apps for business process automation, today announced a solution for streamlining business workflows and approvals for access on smartphones and iPads.

Flowfinity allows companies to mobilize business approval processes such as pricing requests, special offers, timesheets, purchase orders and expenses, by replacing spreadsheets and ad-hoc emails with a streamlined system accessible from anywhere.

With Flowfinity, managers can be notified in real-time on their mobile devices when tasks or documents require their approval. Having access to detailed enterprise information from wherever they are allows managers to keep track of pending approval tasks, take action faster and reduce bottlenecks.

Flowfinity can either provide a stand-alone system for central storage of documents and approvals, or be used to create a flexible mobile front-end that integrates with existing in-house systems. State-based workflows and approvals for different processes can be easily defined with a point-and-click mobile app editor and published to users? smartphones or tablets.

"With Flowfinity, managers can make quick, informed decisions on-the-go, and submit approvals with a few taps on their smartphone or tablet," said Larry Wilson, VP of Sales and Marketing, Flowfinity. "Our customers across industries have seen significant improvements in productivity and customer service from faster approval cycles, and easy access to information stored in a structured way."

For more information about mobile approvals and workflows, visit www.flowfinity.com/apps/actions.aspx.

About Flowfinity
Flowfinity provides a proven, fully customizable solution for building enterprise mobile apps without programming. Since 2000, Flowfinity has helped leading companies across industries empower their mobile workforces in order to enhance productivity, engage management, and improve business insight through all areas of the organization. By making it easy and fast to mobilize day-to-day business processes on Android, iPhone, iPad and BlackBerry tablets and smartphones, Flowfinity enables mobile teams to access, report, and share information when and where they need to. Top global brands in CPG and other industries rely on Flowfinity software as the standard technology for automating critical business processes. For more information, visit http://www.flowfinity.com.

Dell Revolutionizes Design and Performance with New Line of Dell Precision Workstations

Dell Revolutionizes Design and Performance with New Line of Dell Precision Workstations

 

·         Redesigned tower workstations give creative and design professionals new levels of performance

·         New Dell patented technology eliminates nearly all memory errors, increasing the reliability of the workstation and maximizing uptime for the user

·         One of the only tower workstations to offer front accessible hard drives and externally removable power supply, providing superb access to essential components

  

TORONTO, April 23, 2012 —Dell’s newly redesigned portfolio of Dell Precision tower workstations announced today delivers superb performance, accessibility and best-in-class¹ chassis design to help creative and design professionals deliver results faster. Dell engineered its tower workstations to enable engineering, product design, animation, and other graphics and compute intensive professionals increased productivity and minimized downtime so they can focus on their innovations.

 

From creating the 854 stereo 3D VFX shots featured in the award-winning movie “Hugo” to designing unique architectural spaces to analyzing seismic data to accelerate exploration of natural reserves, companies around the world rely on Dell Precision workstations to design and deliver superb results fast.

 

“Dell Precision workstations are the number one recommendation I've made to other visual effects professionals over the years. We need cutting-edge technology and performance while working tough deadlines,” said Adam Watkins, Computer Graphics Supervisor, Pixomondo. “I have been delighted --and sometimes saved -- by every Dell workstation I've ever used for more than 20 shows!  It's one technology that I know I can consistently count on and I’m looking forward to the new design and performance of Dell’s new workstations."

 

Dell technology enables ToonBox Entertainment, a successful Toronto-based 3D animation studio to achieve high image quality. “When you’re on the cutting edge of what can be done in animation, you need a solid backbone. Selecting Dell as our hardware partner for servers, storage and Precision workstations was one of the best decisions ToonBox has made. We enjoy a fantastic relationship with Dell which contributes to the growth of our company,” said Thom Chapman, Vice President, ToonBox Entertainment, Ltd.

Innovative Design with a Purpose

Dell solicited input from hundreds of the top engineering, finance, software development, scientific, and media & entertainment companies to design the new chassis. This user feedback and testing drove the development of a sleek and efficient award-winning design with a re-organized interior and easier access to important components. The interior separates areas more commonly accessed by users, such as memory and hard drives, from more service accessed components, such as wiring harnesses and fans, thereby simplifying tasks and greatly reducing time required for service or upgrades. Additional innovations built into the new workstation family include: 

 

-          Externally Removable Power Supply – Dell is offering the industry’s only tool-less externally removable power supply on a mainstream tower workstation². The power supply is lockable and has a built-in handle that lights up green when functioning properly which decreases downtime spent detecting and servicing issues.

-          Front Accessible Hard Drives - The new efficient chassis design on the T7600 provides one of the only front accessible quick release hard drives on a tower workstation. Designed for customers in data intensive fields like video editing who need to swap out hard drives easily and military and research organizations who need to store sensitive data in a secure location at the end of the day, it comes with up to four 3.5-inch hard drives or eight 2.5-inch hard drives.

-          Remote Access – The Dell Precision T7600 easily converts to a rack solution, which can be mounted to any standard Dell PowerEdge server rack. By centrally locating the workstations, businesses can help maintain a clean and quiet work environment, keep hardware safe and give remote workers access via a Dell Precision FX100 zero client.

-          Reliable Memory Technology - Another industry first is Reliable Memory Technology (RMT), a Dell patented code programmed at the BIOS level that eliminates virtually all memory errors on high-end workstations. RMT extends the capability of ECC memory by detecting the location of the corrected memory error and prevents the system from writing to that spot again following a reboot.  Available on the T3600³, T5600 and T7600, RMT increases the reliability of the workstations and eliminates the need for extensive full memory tests, IT support calls and memory DIMM replacement.

 

This purpose driven innovation really pays off for our workstation customers. TACKLEBOX Architecture has relied on Dell Precision workstations to create unique architectural spaces for fashion and retail businesses since opening its office in 2006.  Founder Jeremy Barbour says,  "Our design process relies heavily on 3D modeling and by leveraging Dell's powerful workstations we've been able to reduce our rendering time by 66 per cent, from approximately 12 hours to 4 hours, enabling us to focus more energy on our creative work and deliver better projects on time and on budget."

 

Powerful New Line of Tower Workstations

Dell’s new best-in-class workstations¹ feature powerful technology and higher performance from new Intel® microarchitecture and eight core CPUs for multi-threaded applications; generation three PCIe I/O support for improved visualization performance with next generation graphics; and up to 512GB4  quad-channel memory for running large data sets in memory. The new workstations offer NVIDIA Maximus technology, which enables simultaneous visualization and rendering or simulation, and also feature a broad range of professional-class graphics cards from AMD and NVIDIA including up to an AMD FirePro V7900 and NVIDIA Quadro 6000.

 

The new Dell tower workstation portfolio includes:

-          Dell Precision T7600Engineered for the utmost in compute and visualization performance, Dell’s most powerful and expandable workstation is perfect for video, animation, engineering, simulation and financial and scientific analysis of massive data sets. The advanced architecture of the T7600 features one of the highest performing CPU stacks, power supplies and graphics power for a dual-socket system. It offers up to two Intel® Xeon® E5-2687W 150 watt processors with a total of 16 computational cores, a 1300 watt 90 per cent efficiency power supply, up to 600 watts of graphics, and up to four full x16 graphics slots which can power up to an NVIDIA Quadro ultra high-end 6000 professional graphics card and two NVIDIA Tesla C2075 processors at the same time.

-          Dell Precision T5600Designed for space-constrained environments that need substantial compute capability, Dell’s powerful and reliable dual-socket workstation is built for designing complex 3D models, creating film and video content and performing complex engineering and analysis work. It features up to two Intel® Xeon® processors each supporting eight processing cores, 128GB4 of quad-channel ECC memory, two power supply options of 635W or 825W and up to an NVIDIA Quadro 5000 high-end professional graphics card and NVIDIA Tesla C2075 processor.

-          Dell Precision T3600Built for performance for mid-range workstation workloads, Dell’s single socket workstation offers an excellent balance of performance and scalability for mainstream 3D, computer-aided-design (CAD), computer-aided-manufacturing (CAM) and digital content creation applications.  Key features include Intel Xeon processor E5-1600 or E5-2600 family, two power supply options, up to 64GB4  1600MHz ECC or non-ECC memory and up to a single NVIDIA Quadro 6000 or two NVIDIA Quadro 5000 professional graphics cards, and an NVIDIA Tesla C2075 processor.

-          Dell Precision T1650For demanding professional applications that push beyond a standard desktop, Dell’s entry-level tower workstation offers certified performance for professionals working with 2D and basic 3D models, editing photos, CAD drawings and web development. The T1650 will feature next generation Intel Xeon processors, up to 75W for graphics and new ISV and graphic certifications.

 

Cutting-Edge Dependability & Manageability

Dell works with the industry leading software providers to certify the top digital content creation, scientific, medical imaging, oil and gas, GIS and engineering applications on its full line of workstations. These vendors run a variety of tests to ensure the hardware platform and its individual components work without error, assuring customers that their Dell workstation will operate flawlessly for their crucial applications. The new line of desktop workstations will offer certified applications from the top software providers including Autodesk, Dassault Systemes, PTC, Siemens PLM, Adobe, Avid, Grass Valley, Landmark, Schlumberger, ESRI, Barco and many others.

 

With the recent order of a Precision T3500, beyond the great quality and value this presented to us, we appreciated the ease of submitting and tracking the order via the Dell web-site.  As always, I knew I could count on great pre- and post-order support from the Dell Staff,” said Barry St. Denis, Administrative Information and Communications Technologist with the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing at the University of Toronto.

 

Dell Precision workstations continue to lead in efficiency and low cost of ownership. The Dell Precision T3600, T5600 and T7600 workstations are all EPEAT®-registered and offer ENERGY STAR® 5.2 configurations, including 80 PLUS®-registered Gold power supplies, helping to reduce the impact on the environment and operating energy costs.

 

Dell ensures digital assets are safe with state-of-the-art security services like Dell Data Protection | Encryption, which helps keeps data safe wherever it goes. The new tower workstations also provide optional Intel vPro™ technology, lockable ports and the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) that offers security for network-based client computing. Dell’s optional ProSupport5 services provide end users and IT professionals with remote and on-site technical support solutions for all of their Dell and non-Dell hardware and software needs, allowing for simple deployment of new workstations and devices.

 

Dell and Partner Quotes:

“We’re extremely proud to unveil Dell’s new line of workstations that have been completely redesigned based on hundreds of customer conversations,” said Kirk Schell, vice president of Computing Products, Dell. “We know our workstation customers depend on technology to bring their innovations to life, and with these new Dell Precision Tower workstations, we are giving them the tools to provide a competitive edge with the best technology available.”

“Dell’s new Precision workstations, based on the recently announced Intel® Xeon® processor E5-1600/2600 product families, will provide artist, animators, engineers, analysts and scientists the performance they need to inspire their creativity,” said Frank Soqui, general manager Workstation Product Group, Intel Corporation. “With our new processors, groundbreaking I/O infrastructure and our advanced software tools, we are helping users and ISV’s enhance software applications that scale with their compute resources - turning ideas into innovation faster than ever before.”

“These new Dell Precision workstations deliver on the promise of a new era of speed and productivity for millions of design and creative professionals, with an outstanding range of NVIDIA Quadro and Tesla professional GPUs to choose from,” said Jeff Brown, general manager, Professional Solutions Group, NVIDIA. With NVIDIA Maximus technology, which revolutionized the workstation last fall with simultaneous visualization and rendering or simulation, professionals are empowered to design and create like never before with these latest workstations from Dell.”

“We congratulate Dell on their strong new line-up of performance workstations and look forward to providing Dell customers with the brilliant graphics they have come to expect from the AMD FirePro™ line of professional graphics products,” said Bahman Dara, director of AMD FirePro Graphics.  “AMD’s high-performance graphics processors, with support for AMD EyeFinity multi-screen display technology, are an ideal complement to Dell’s workstation offering and reflect AMD’s commitment to creating focused solutions designed to best meet the needs of Dell’s clients.”

Pricing and Availability:

The Dell Precision T1650, T3600, T5600 and T7600 workstations will be available for purchase worldwide starting in May. Pricing for the T1650 will be available in May.

 

·         The Dell Precision T7600 pricing starts at $2,149 CAD

·         The Dell Precision T5600 pricing starts at $1,919 CAD

·         The Dell Precision T3600 pricing starts at $1,129 CAD

 

Additional information:

·         Dell Image Gallery

·         Blog

·         Dell Precision

·         Dell Services

·         Dell Data Protection | Encryption

 

About Dell:

Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) listens to customers and delivers innovative technology and services that give them the power to do more. For more information, visit www.dell.ca.

 

Dell and Dell Precision are trademarks of Dell Inc. Dell disclaims any proprietary interest in the marks and names of others.

 

¹ The all new Dell Precision T3600, T5600, T7600 tower workstations offer best-in-class chassis design and award-winning product design

² The all new Dell Precision T3600, T5600 and T7600s are the only mainstream tower workstations with an externally removable power supply 

³ Reliable Memory Technology on the T3600 is only available with the ECC memory option.

4GB means 1 billion bytes and TB equals 1 trillion bytes; significant system memory may be used to support graphics, depending on system memory size and other factors

5 Availability and terms of Dell Services vary by region. For more information, visit Dell Services.

 

Contact Information

Media Contacts:

Janet Fabri

Dell

(416) 758-3398

Janet_fabri@dell.com

Melissa Lee

Cohn & Wolfe

(647) 259-3266

Melissa.lee@cohnwolfe.ca

 

# # #

 

 

 

 

 

A new kind of quantum junction

A new kind of quantum junction

*** For immediate use April 19, 2012


Long predicted but never observed, coherent quantum phase slip can be harnessed to develop a novel class of quantum devices

A new type of quantum bit called a "phase-slip qubit", devised by researchers at the RIKEN Advanced Science Institute and their collaborators, has enabled the world's first-ever experimental demonstration of coherent quantum phase slip (CQPS). The groundbreaking result sheds light on an elusive phenomenon whose existence, a natural outcome of the hundred-year-old theory of superconductivity, has long been speculated, but never actually observed.

Band gap in energy curve of flux states in phase-slip qubit.Band gap in energy curve of flux states in phase-slip qubit.

Superconductivity describes a phenomenon in which electrons pass through certain types of materials without any resistance when cooled below a given temperature. Among the most important applications of superconductivity is the Josephson junction, named after physicist Brian Josephson, who in 1962 predicted that a superconducting current could tunnel between superconductors separated by a thin insulating layer. This phenomenon, the Josephson effect, has been applied in a variety of areas including magnetometer design, voltage standardization, and quantum computing.

Researchers have long known of an intriguing theoretical parallel to the Josephson effect in which insulator and superconductor are reversed: rather than electric charges jumping from one superconducting layer to another across an insulating layer, magnetic flux quanta jump from one insulator to another across a superconducting layer (Figure 1). Quantum tunneling of electrons in the Josephson junction is replaced in this parallel by the coherent "slip" of the phase, a quantum variable that, in superconducting circuits, plays a dual role to that of electric charge.

Coherent quantum phase slip (CQPS), as this phenomenon is known, has long been limited to theory-but no more. In a paper in Nature, Oleg Astafiev and colleagues at the RIKEN Advanced Science Institute (ASI) and NEC Smart Energy Research Laboratories report on the first direct observation of CQPS in a narrow superconducting wire of indium-oxide (InOx). The wire is inserted into a larger superconducting loop to form a new device called a phase-slip qubit, with the superconducting layer (the thin wire) sandwiched between insulating layers of empty space (Figure 2).

By tuning the magnetic flux penetrating this loop while scanning microwave frequencies, the researchers detected a band gap in the energy curves for the two flux states of the system (Figure 3), just as theory predicts. This gap is a result of quantum mechanics, which prevents the two states from occupying the same energy level, forcing them to tunnel across the superconducting layer-and through a quantum phase-slip in the narrow wire-to avoid it. While demonstrating conclusively the existence of CQPS, the successful experiment also ushers in a novel class of devices that exploit the unique functionality of quantum phase-slip to forge a new path in superconducting electronics.

For more information, please contact:

Tsai Jaw-Shen
Macroscopic Quantum Coherence Team
RIKEN Advanced Science Institute
Tel: +81-(0)29-850-1161 / Fax: +81-(0)29-850-2624

Global Relations Office
RIKEN
Tel: +81-(0)48-462-1225 / Fax: +81-(0)48-463-3687
Email: koho@riken.jp

Reach us on Twitter: @rikenresearch

Reference

O. V. Astafiev, L. B. Ioffe, S. Kafanov, Yu. A. Pashkin, K. Yu. Arutyunov, D. Shahar, O. Cohen, & J. S. Tsai. "Coherent quantum phase slip." Nature, 2012, DOI: 10.1038/nature10930

***

[ Attachment ]  Figure 1-3


About RIKEN

RIKEN is Japan's flagship research institute devoted to basic and applied research. Over 2500 papers by RIKEN researchers are published every year in reputable scientific and technical journals, covering topics ranging across a broad spectrum of disciplines including physics, chemistry, biology, medical science and engineering. RIKEN's advanced research environment and strong emphasis on interdisciplinary collaboration has earned itself an unparalleled reputation for scientific excellence in Japan and around the world.

About the Advanced Science Institute.

The RIKEN Advanced Science Institute (ASI) is an interdisciplinary research institute devoted to fostering creative, curiosity-driven basic research and sowing the seeds for innovative new projects. With more than 700 full-time researchers, the ASI acts as RIKEN's research core, supporting inter-institutional and international collaboration and integrating diverse scientific fields including physics, chemistry, engineering, biology and medical science.

About NEC

NEC Corporation is a leader in the integration of IT and network technologies that benefit businesses and people around the world. By providing a combination of products and solutions that cross utilize the company's experience and global resources, NEC's advanced technologies meet the complex and ever-changing needs of its customers. NEC brings more than 100 years of expertise in technological innovation to empower people, businesses and society.  For more information, visit NEC at
http://www.nec.com.

Protecting Our Children from Internet Abuse & Exploitation

Protecting Our Children from Internet Abuse & Exploitation

Kids' Internet Safety Alliance Hosts 2nd Annual Spring for Kids Gala

TORONTO, April 20, 2012 /CNW/ - On May 3, 2012, the Kids' Internet Safety Alliance (Kinsa) will host the second annual Spring for Kids Gala at Waddington's Auction House.

The Gala is Kinsa's largest fundraising event through the year, providing the organization with important funds needed to protect and rescue child victims of online abuse. Because the Internet works globally, so does Kinsa which educates police forces in multiple countries to track, identify and arrest child pornographers.

"The recent arrests of 60 Canadian men on charges of child pornography, exemplifies the need for immediate action and advocacy on behalf of the victimized children," said Paul Gillespie, former Toronto Police Sergeant and head of the Child Exploitation Unit. "Support provided by Canadian individuals and companies are fundamental to Kinsa's success and we thank each and every donor."

The black tie Spring for Kids Gala raises awareness and funds for the charity by bringing together Toronto's business and financial communities. Hosted by Gemini award winning journalist, Allison Vuchnich, the Gala will feature the Toronto culinary artists at North 44, and renowned Toronto chefs Brad Long, Corey Vitiello and Marc Thuet.

The evening will also include a live auction with unique items including a week-long trip to Capetown, South Africa, a 7-night stay at a private villa in the British Virgin Islands and a fabulous in-home dinner party for 10 catered by Presidential Gourmet and planned by Bassett Events.

This year's sponsors include The Entertainment Software Association of Canada, Microsoft, Bank of Montreal and Cisco. Generous contributions have also been made from a wide variety of companies and individuals including the Polar Foundation, Essence du Papier, Stikeman Elliott LLP, Canadian Tire, Mill Street Breweries and Hobbs and Company Wine Merchants.

All funds raised from the Spring for Kids Gala will go directly towards Kinsa programs.
For more information or to purchase tickets online, please visit http://www.kinsa.net/current_events.

About Kinsa
The Kids' Internet Safety Alliance, a registered Canadian charity founded in 2004, helps to protect, rescue and heal child victims of abuse whose images are shared on the Internet. These are children in our neighbourhoods, across the country, and around the world. Kinsa works with Canadian law enforcement agencies and other partners to train police officers in developing countries, giving them the expertise to find and rescue these unidentified children. You can learn more about Kinsa at www.kinsa.net. Follow us on Twitter (@KINSAfoundation) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/kinsafoundation).

For further information:

Contact:

Carolyn Schulz
W: 416-486-7272
C: 647-216-4092
Carolyn.schulz@gcicanada.com

Customers Achieve $25 Billion in Average Annual Cost Savings with NetApp Efficiency Technologies

Customers Achieve $25 Billion in Average Annual Cost Savings with NetApp Efficiency Technologies

Customers Save More Than Five Exabytes of Data and Move Millions of Dollars from Storage Maintenance to Business Innovation with NetApp

SUNNYVALE, Calif. — April 17, 2012 — Organizations are under pressure to accelerate business results and rely on IT to help them lower operating costs, drive innovation, and outpace the competition. These organizations continue to invest a significant amount of IT dollars on day-to-day operations, hindering their ability to free up resources to implement strategic initiatives to further business success. To cope with these challenges, many organizations have turned to storage efficiency technologies from NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP) to maximize their existing investments, reduce costs, and free up resources to invest in projects to drive business growth.

NetApp customers are saving a combined total of more than five exabytes of storage capacity[1] through the use of NetApp’s leading efficiency technologies. With these technologies, customers save on average $25 billion in storage costs[2]. According to Gartner, Inc., organizations today invest 63% of their IT budgets on projects to run their business, 21% to grow their business and only 16% to transform their business[3]. Customers rely on NetApp’s game changing efficiency technologies to overcome the challenges of managing explosive data growth and maximize existing storage investments. The combined strengths of NetApp’s nine integrated efficiency technologies help customers lower costs, do more with less, and improve their return on investment.

The following customers worldwide are maximizing NetApp® storage efficiency technologies to free up resources for innovation as they implement cloud computing models, virtual desktop integration (VDI), and strategic business applications to provide higher service levels to their organizations:

Iowa Workforce Development

  • The Iowa Workforce Development (IWD) decreased costs and continued to support the communities they serve to run public-facing virtual desktops across the state from a centralized NetApp storage platform. This innovative approach to delivering workforce services has enabled the IWD to provide services to a greater number of communities even though budget cuts forced the elimination of the majority of its physical offices.
  • With a flexible and efficient NetApp storage infrastructure, the agency is now able to deliver more services to Iowa state residents and has seen the rate of services the agency provides increase by an average of 40% per month. NetApp storage efficiency technologies such as deduplication and thin provisioning have helped reduced storage requirements by nearly 50%.

Tuscon Electric Power

  • Tucson Electric Power Company (TEP) managed growing data volumes resulting from the expansion of its geographical information system with more high-resolution photographs, which required large amounts of storage space. These GIS applications and high-resolution images are used throughout the utility enterprise for inspections, lightning-strike assessment, field force management, outage visualization, and emergency management. In addition, storage demands were being driven by roughly 60 new or upgrade-application projects each year.
  • Over the last six years, TEP’s has saved the organization approximately $7.3 million in hardware and labor costs due to exceptional storage efficiencies from NetApp. These savings are now invested into innovative new application projects such as a renewable energy program and meter data management.

ExamWorks

  • ExamWorks addressed new requirements stemming from accelerated business growth and achieve greater efficiencies through more streamlined, centralized storage management, and server and desktop virtualization strategies.
  • ExamWorks achieved $2 million in IT opex cost avoidance and gained a centralized, efficient and flexible IT infrastructure that easily accommodates growth.
  • ExamWorks has reduced storage and IT staffing costs with NetApp virtualization and efficiency technologies. The company has decreased storage requirements by 300% with NetApp deduplication on virtual desktop images.

Scheffknecht Transporte

  • A global hauling and logistics provider, Scheffknecht renewed the IT infrastructure for three sites and 50 office workplaces focusing on accelerated data access, stability, and cost saving. NetApp provided unified storage as a central shared data platform for the virtualized environment, business and industry solutions.
  • Scheffknecht was able to reduce expenditure for operations, decrease administration time by more than 80%, and save several thousand Euros on maintenance. The new efficient and flexible infrastructure released resources for optimizing business processes such as electronic accounting or telematics for its truck fleet. Instead of wasting time and money rectifying IT problems, Scheffknecht is now able to generate uninterrupted sales.

Supporting Quote

  • Chris Cummings, vice president, Products and Solutions Marketing at NetApp
    "Today, organizations spend a substantial amount of their budget just keeping systems running," said Chris Cummings, vice president, Products and Solutions Marketing at NetApp. "Efficiency in IT is needed now more than ever as customers seek new approaches to manage growing data volumes, reduce costs and improve business responsiveness. Our success in helping customers achieve significant savings with the NetApp portfolio of storage efficiency technologies demonstrates our commitment to deliver powerful innovations that help our customers succeed."

Additional Resources

About NetApp
NetApp creates innovative storage and data management solutions that deliver outstanding cost efficiency and accelerate business breakthroughs. Our commitment to living our core values and consistently being recognized as a great place to work around the world are fundamental to our long-term growth and success, as well as the success of our pathway partners and customers. Discover our passion for helping companies around the world go further, faster at www.netapp.com.

Press Contact:
Jessica Johannes
NetApp
(408) 822-6551
jessica.johannes@netapp.com

NetApp, the NetApp logo, and Go further, faster are trademarks or registered trademarks of NetApp, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. All other brands or products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and should be treated as such.

[1] Data from My AutoSupportTM, a Web-based tool, when enabled, offers a comprehensive view into the health, performance, and storage efficiency of any NetApp storage system.
[2] Dollar savings based on NetAop MyAutoSupport data and annual cost per TB based on the Gartner report: “IT Key Metrics Data 2012: Key Infrastructure Measures: Storage Analysis: Current Year,” Jamie K. Guevara, Linda Hall, and Eric Stegman, December 15, 2011 report #G00226857
[3] “IT Metrics: IT Spending and Staffing Report, 2012,” by Kurt Potter, Michael Smith, Jim McGittigan, Jamie K. Guevara, Linda Hall, Eric Stegman, January 16, 2012

Oracle and Infosys Introduce Oracle Project Driven Supply Chain for High Technology Companies

Oracle and Infosys Introduce Oracle Project Driven Supply Chain for High Technology Companies

New Product Helps Improve Financial Forecast Accuracy

Redwood Shores and Bridgewater, NJ – April 18, 2012

News Facts

Oracle and Infosys, a Diamond level member of Oracle Partner Network (OPN), today announced Oracle Project Driven Supply Chain for High Technology Companies to extend Oracle’s complete and integrated stack of software and hardware solutions for the technology industry.
The solution is designed to increase supply chain performance on a single, unified platform by leveraging Infosys’ industry-leading technology business and systems integration expertise with Oracle’s integrated applications. Customers can experience this solution first-hand at the Infosys-Oracle Innovation Centers in Redwood Shores, California and Shanghai, China. 
The solution can enable enterprises to:
Reduce project-related inventory by helping ensure parts and components are delivered to project sites and clients at the right place and time
Improve financial forecast accuracy by providing real-time billing execution for supply revenue recognition, predictable revenue planning for reliable cash flow, and risk analysis capabilities
Increase installation project efficiencies by delivering increased visibility into global resources, streamlining the management of key components within the project schedule
Automate complex billing processes, reducing project related inventory, increasing installation project efficiencies and improving financial forecast accuracy.
Integrate project management and supply management to provide real-time “what if” scenarios which promote the efficient use of materials and resources.

Supporting Quotes

“As high technology companies look to increase service revenues by directly providing installation and implementation services to their customers, they require integrated and comprehensive solutions that deliver world-class supply and project management capabilities,” said Jonathan Oomrigar, solution specialist vice president, Oracle. “With Oracle Project Driven Supply Chain for High Technology Companies, Oracle is addressing this need by expanding its comprehensive range of hardware and software solutions designed for the high technology industry.”
“The Oracle Supply Chain leverages Infosys industry-leading technology business and systems integration expertise with Oracle’s integrated applications to increase supply chain performance on a single unified, platform,” said Ravi Kumar, Global Head – Consulting & System Integration Manufacturing Industry Group, Infosys. “This solution ties together multiple operational layers to help achieve increased precision, financial controls and cost improvement across the supply chain.” 

Supporting Resources

About Oracle Applications

Over 65,000 customers worldwide rely on Oracle's complete, open and integrated enterprise applications to achieve superior results. Oracle provides a secure path for customers to benefit from the latest technology advances that improve the customer software experience and drive better business performance. Oracle Applications Unlimited is Oracle's commitment to customer choice through continuous investment and innovation in current applications offerings. Oracle's next-generation Fusion Applications build upon that commitment, and are designed to work with and evolve Oracle's Applications Unlimited offerings. Oracle's lifetime support policy helps ensure customers will continue to have a choice in upgrade paths, based on their enterprise needs. For more information on the latest Oracle Applications releases go to: www.oracle.com/applications.

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 Infosys

Many of the world’s most successful organizations rely on the 150,000 people of Infosys to deliver measurable business value. Infosys provides business consulting, technology, engineering and outsourcing services to help clients in over 30 countries build tomorrow’s enterprise. For more information about Infosys (NASDAQ: INFY), visit www.infosys.com

Safe Harbor

Certain statements in this release concerning our future growth prospects are forward-looking statements, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding fluctuations in earnings, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, industry segment concentration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks or system failures, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which Infosys has made strategic investments, withdrawal or expiration of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability and regional conflicts, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, and unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2011 and on Form 6-K for the quarter ended June 30, 2011 September 30, 2011 and December 31, 2011.These filings are available at www.sec.gov. Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. The company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the company.

Trademarks

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

Contact Information

For Oracle

Carla Foster
Oracle
+1.650.506.8611
carla.croghan@oracle.com

For Infosys
Ted Bockius
Infosys
+1.510.759.9432

Ted_Bockius@Infosys.com

HP Research Identifies New Era of Security Risk, Shifting Vulnerability Landscape

HP Research Identifies New Era of Security Risk, Shifting Vulnerability Landscape

Cybersecurity report helps enterprises prioritize and reduce risks

 

PALO ALTO, Calif., April 19, 2012 – HP today published the 2011 Top Cyber Security Risks Report, which identifies the growing sophistication and severity of security attacks and the resulting risks.

 

The report provides the information to help enterprises and governments understand the threat landscape and assess their security posture.

 

The report also indicates that hacker motivations are continuously changing due to the growing presence of “hacktivist” groups, such as Anonymous and LulzSec, which perform highly organized attacks in retaliation for perceived wrongdoing. In addition to changing motivation, advances in attack techniques have led to the increased “success” rate of security breaches. As a result, enterprises and governments are faced with new challenges in assessing and remediating risks.

 

Historically, the number of vulnerabilities disclosed in a year indicated the current state of the security industry and helped organizations prioritize their defenses. According to the report, pure vulnerability volume is no longer a valid indicator of the security risk landscape. While newly reported vulnerabilities in commercial applications continue to decline, a large number of vulnerabilities are unaccounted for, and are therefore undisclosed to the broader security industry.

 

“To protect organizations against a wide range of attacks, HP has established a global network of security researchers who look for vulnerabilities that were not publicly disclosed,” said Michael Callahan, vice president, Worldwide Product and Solution Marketing, Enterprise Security Products, HP. “The intelligence gained from this research group is built into HP enterprise security solutions in an effort to proactively reduce risk.” 

 

Shifting vulnerability landscape

Disclosure of new vulnerabilities in commercial applications has slowly declined since 2006, dropping nearly 20 percent in 2011 from the previous year. However, data from the report demonstrates that this decline does not signify decreased risk.

 

This decline is due to several factors, including the advent of a private market for sharing vulnerabilities. In addition, the proliferation of custom-built web applications, such as retail web sites, has created a market for unique vulnerability exploits that require advanced expertise to locate and address.

 

Key findings from the report include:

 

·    Although vulnerability reports have declined, attacks have more than doubled as measured by HP TippingPoint Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS) in the second half of 2011.

·    Nearly 24 percent of new vulnerabilities disclosed in commercial applications in 2011 have a severity rating of 8 to 10. These vulnerabilities can result in a remote code execution, the most dangerous type of attack.

·    Roughly 36 percent of all vulnerabilities are in commercial web applications.

·    Approximately 86 percent of web applications are vulnerable to an injection attack, which is when hackers access internal databases through a website.

·    Due to a high success rate, web exploit toolkits continued to be popular in 2011. These “packaged” attack frameworks are traded or sold online, enabling hackers to access enterprise IT systems and steal sensitive data. For example, the Blackhole Exploit Kit is used by most cybercriminals, and reached an unusually high infection rate of more than 80 percent in late November 2011.

 

To combat changing security risks, HP offers the HP Security Intelligence and Risk Management (SIRM) platform, an integrated platform of risk-driven security solutions. HP SIRM delivers visibility across traditional, mobile and cloud environments enabling enterprises to apply adaptive security defenses based on specific organizational risk.

 

Methodology

The Cyber Security Risks Report has been published every six months since 2009 by HP DVLabs, a premier research organization for vulnerability analysis and discovery. HP DVLabs analyzed security exploit data from thousands of deployed HP TippingPoint Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS). The data was then correlated with information from the following sources:

 

·    The Zero Day Initiative, a research program managed by HP DVLabs that is designed to improve security by identifying software flaws which have led to cyber attacks and security breaches.

·    Open Source Vulnerability Database, an independent and open source database created by and for the security-vulnerabilities community.

·    Web application data from the HP Fortify Application Security Center (ASC) Web Security Research Group, which helps security professionals, quality assurance (QA) specialists and developers facilitate the security of web applications across the enterprise, HP Software Professional Services and HP Fortify on Demand.

 

Data from HP DVLabs is also fed into HP Information Security Pulse, a free mobile application that enables IT security professionals to monitor current cyberthreat trends in real time. The application is currently available for the HP webOS ecosystem and will soon be available on iOS and Android mobile tablet devices.

 

On Wednesday, May 2, at 11 a.m. CT, Jason Jones, engineer, Advanced Security Intelligence, HP DVLabs, and Adam Hils, senior product manager, HP Fortify, will present the Top Security Threats and Trends: 2011 Cyber Security Risks Report webinar.

 

HP’s premier client event, HP Discover, will take place June 4-7 in Las Vegas.

 

HP’s annual enterprise security event, HP Protect, will take place Sept. 10-12 in Nashville, Tenn.

 

About HP

HP creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people, businesses, governments and society. The world’s largest technology company, HP brings together a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure to solve customer problems. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at http://www.hp.com.

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ABBYY USA Awarded Supply Arrangement by Government of Canada


ABBYY USA Awarded Supply Arrangement by Government of Canada


Supply Arrangement Makes ABBYY's Leading OCR and Data Capture Solutions Available to Federal Government Departments and Agencies

MILPITAS, Calif., April 19, 2012 /CNW/ - ABBYY®, a leading provider of document recognition, document and data capture, linguistic technologies and professional services, today announced that it has been awarded with a Software Licensing Supply Arrangement (SLSA) by Public Works and Government Services Canada. With the arrangement, ABBYY's industry-leading FineReader®, FlexiCapture® and Recognition Server™ solutions have been pre-qualified for use by all Government of Canada Federal departments and agencies.

"Government departments and agencies are being pushed to meet growing service requirements while revenue inflows are shrinking. Without a better way of managing information and data, this quickly becomes a losing battle," said Dean Tang, CEO at ABBYY USA. "Our solutions help Government of Canada departments and agencies capture, translate and transform data into useful, digital information, enabling them to eliminate outdated manual paper and workflow operations while reducing overall costs. Being awarded the SLSA by Public Works and Government Services Canada validates ABBYY's growing leadership position in the country, and shows confidence in our ability to meet their document recognition and data capture needs."

Taking over for the Departmental Individual Standing Offers (DISO) program in January 2012, the new SLSA program provides Government of Canada Federal agencies with a list of pre-qualified technologies in a variety of software and shared systems categories. Having completed the first phase, ABBYY's award-winning OCR and data capture solutions are now listed in the SLSA Catalogue, under the Document Scanning and Image Recognition Software category.

Pre-qualified by the Government of Canada, ABBYY FineReader easily turns document scans, PDFs and digital photographs into searchable and editable digital formats, eliminating time consuming manual data entry and reformatting. Designed for larger organizations, ABBYY Recognition Server automates document capture and conversion processes through a robust and powerful server-based OCR solution, improving business processes by making information more readily available across departments. An intelligent, accurate and highly scalable data capture and document processing software, ABBYY FlexiCapture provides a single entry point to automatically transform different forms and documents with complex fixed or unstructured data structure into business-ready data automatically, increasing efficiency and reducing employee time on data entry. With the ability to recognize and work in more than 190 languages, ABBYY's complete lines of solutions enable the Government of Canada departments and agencies to serve their full constituencies.

About ABBYY
ABBYY is a leading provider of document recognition, data capture, and linguistic technologies and services. Its products include the ABBYY FineReader line of optical character recognition (OCR) applications, ABBYY FlexiCapture line of data capture solutions, ABBYY Lingvo dictionary software, and development tools. ABBYY Language Services provides comprehensive linguistic solutions to corporate customers. Paper-intensive organizations from all over the world use ABBYY solutions to automate time- and labour-consuming tasks and to streamline business processes. ABBYY products are used in large-scale government projects such as those of Australian Taxation Office, Lithuanian Tax Inspectorate, Ministry of Education of Russia, Ministry of Education of Ukraine, and Montgomery County Government of the USA, Government of Canada. Companies that license ABBYY technologies include BancTec, Canon, EMC/Captiva, Hewlett-Packard, KnowledgeLake, Microsoft, NewSoft, Notable Solutions, Samsung Electronics and more. ABBYY OCR applications are shipped with equipment from the world's top manufacturers such as Epson, Fujitsu, Fuji Xerox, Microtek, Panasonic, Plustek, Ricoh, Toshiba, and Xerox. ABBYY is headquartered in Moscow, Russia, with offices in Germany, the UK, the United States, Canada, Ukraine, Cyprus, Australia, Japan and Taiwan. For more information, visit www.ABBYY.com.

ABBYY, the ABBYY Logo, FineReader, ADRT, Lingvo and FlexiCapture are either registered trademarks or trademarks of ABBYY Software Ltd. All other trademarks are the sole property of their respective owners.

Contact:

ABBYY USA

Derek James, McGrath/Power

+1-408-727-0351

derekj@mcgrathpower.com

SOURCE ABBYY

For further information:

http://www.ABBYY.com