Trend Micro Makes Secure Password Management Easy with DirectPass™


Trend Micro Makes Secure Password Management Easy with DirectPass™

Synchronize online credentials across PCs, mobile phones and tablets

OTTAWA, March 13, 2012 /CNW/ - Trend Micro Incorporated (TYO: 4704; TSE: 4704), a global cloud security leader, today announced DirectPass, a new password management solution. Designed to organize and manage passwords, DirectPass provides consumers with a fast and efficient way to manage their online activities, while offering extra security measures to keep credentials safe.  Trend Micro DirectPass uses cloud technology to sync online credentials across multiple devices, allowing users to experience the benefits of DirectPass anytime, anywhere.

The average online user has multiple accounts; however, the majority of people fail to manage their passwords in a secure manner.  According to a recent Trend Micro survey, 75 percent of consumers have 10 accounts or more, yet only 20 percent say they use third-party software to manage their passwords.

"Most security threats arise when passwords are forgotten or because users try to remember them by writing them down or worse, making them weak in order to easily commit them to memory," said Jim Short, general manager of Trend Micro Canada. "With the introduction of DirectPass, Trend Micro's goal is to lower users' risks of running into malicious intent by heightening the security of their passwords in an easy way that also doesn't interfere with their day-to-day digital life."

The benefits of DirectPass include:

Password Management

  • Manage all passwords and login IDs in one secure location
  • Seamlessly login to web sites without the need to re-enter credentials - users only have to remember one password
  • Automatically fill personal information into web forms accurately and safely

Online Security

  • A secure browser for banking or financial websites
  • Mitigation against key logging malware
  • A text-entry feature to store private information that is completely protected

Sync & Access

  • Synchronize online credentials across multiple devices (PCs, mobile phones and tablets)
  • Leverage the security and convenience of DirectPass from anywhere, on any device with a secure Internet connection

"One of the best ways to prevent identity thieves from accessing private accounts and personal information is to only use strong passwords with multiple letters, characters and numbers. "We know there's a need to protect consumers from ID theft, which continues to be one of the most widespread Internet threats," adds Short, "DirectPass provides consumers with a preventative measure to help avoid these types of threats."

Canadian pricing and availability DirectPass is available immediately in Canada. A free version (up to five passwords) can be downloaded online. The premium version, which includes support for unlimited passwords, is also available online for $14.95 for a 1-year subscription.  More information can be found at DirectPass.com.

About Trend Micro

Trend Micro Incorporated (TYO: 4704; TSE: 4704), a global cloud security leader, creates a world safe for exchanging digital information with its Internet content security and threat management solutions for businesses and consumers.

For further information:

Media Contact: Claire M. Tallarico, 416 616 9940

EMC ProSphere Transforms Storage Management Across Physical and VMware Virtualized Environments

EMC ProSphere Transforms Storage Management Across Physical and VMware
Virtualized Environments

ProSphere Enables Customers to Visualize, Analyze and Optimize Storage
in Just Two Clicks

News Summary:

* Today EMC announced enhancements to EMC® ProSphere™ storage resource
management software. Now – in just two clicks – EMC ProSphere
enables IT organizations to understand capacity usage and trends,
identify issues and assess impact, and analyze performance across
physical and VMware virtualized environments.
* EMC ProSphere now supports EMC FAST VP™ (Fully Automated Storage
Tiering for Virtual Pools), enabling customers to improve storage
utilization through intuitive capacity dashboards and reporting, while
proactively monitoring capacity consumption and service levels.
* EMC ProSphere has extended its monitoring and alerting capabilities,
which now aggregates alerts from EMC Symmetrix VMAX/VMAXe and EMC VNX
unified storage arrays, and displays the context required to quickly
assess the impact to meet storage service levels.
* EMC ProSphere enables administrators to visualize, analyze and
optimize the storage environment to easily transform storage management
and ensure consistent, timely and cost-effective access to information.

Full Story:

HOPKINTON, Mass. – March 13, 2012 – EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC)
today announced enhancements to EMC ProSphere storage resource
management software, enabling customers to understand how capacity is
being used, track consumption trends to know when more storage will be
required, and receive automated alerts across the storage environment to
identify issues and quickly assess their impact– in just two clicks.
The new capacity dashboards and reporting capabilities also feature new
integration with EMC FAST VP. As enterprises remain focused on
controlling the cost of rapid data growth, technologies like EMC
ProSphere and EMC FAST VP help increase utilization, reduce storage
costs, improve performance levels, and create a more agile IT
environment.

ProSphere enables IT Transformation in both physical and virtual
worlds, allowing customers to manage IT-as-a-Service by monitoring and
analyzing service levels from end-to-end. ProSphere enables customers
to:

* Visualize relationships and application dependencies across physical
and virtual environment: ProSphere enables users to understand the
complex relationships and dependencies between applications and storage
services. This includes the ability to quickly spot performance,
availability and configuration issues to identify situations that could
impact service levels. ProSphere’s federated architecture consolidates
the view to a single pane of glass across data centre sites.
* Analyze storage services to improve services levels: ProSphere helps
customers quickly analyze and troubleshoot performance issues from the
virtual guest down through the storage layers. It automatically tracks
changes and analyzes compliance with configuration best practices and
interoperability guidelines to ensure the environment is always
configured to meet service level expectations. It also enables users to
analyze alerts to quickly assess impact and take action.
* Optimize the storage infrastructure: ProSphere provides customers
with the tools to optimize their storage infrastructure to better
control storage costs. It tracks where and how capacity is consumed by
service level, location and array. It helps administrators find
available and reclaimable capacity to increase utilization. Trending
analysis improves planning processes to ensure the right tier of
capacity, at the right time, in the right location to meet business
objectives. Tight integration with FAST VP allows customers to expand
their use of this technology to further optimize their investments in
EMC storage.

New Integration with FAST VP

EMC FAST VP allows IT to take a policy-based approach toward delivering

IT as a service. With data growing rapidly, FAST VP is being adopted
(see related news release
(http://www.emc.com/about/news/press/2012/20120206-02.htm)) by EMC
customers because of its ability to improve performance and efficiency.
New integration between ProSphere and FAST VP automatically tracks the
consumption of virtual pools to identify when new capacity will be
required. This facilitates just-in-time purchasing to lower storage
acquisition costs. It also displays performance trends from the virtual
or physical host to virtual storage devices to identify the impact of
FAST VP at the application level, enabling organizations to make more
effective storage tiering decisions. This significantly enhances IT’s
ability to lower costs while meeting or exceeding service level
objectives.

ProSphere’s federated and scalable architecture – with the ability
to manage more than 1.1 million volumes, 36,000 SAN ports, and 18,000
hosts – is designed to scale to meet the needs of small enterprises to
the world’s largest data centres. ProSphere’s intuitive user
interface is optimized to improve productivity in growing environments
that are rapidly adopting virtualization. Extensive end-to-end
visualization in physical and virtual environments helps storage teams
understand application to storage dependencies across their data centre.


Customer Quotes

Sarel Theron, Storage Administrator, Internet Solutions
“ProSphere’s user interface is clean, simple to navigate and
relevant. You experience this at first logon with a dashboard that
presents you with a Storage Administrator’s most important information
at his finger tips.”

George Nye, Storage & Data Protection Services Engineer III, Hospital
of Saint Raphael
“The capacity views are extensive, they let me know exactly what I
have, how it’s used, and with the trending analysis clearly shows when
I need to make the next storage purchase.”

Partner Quote

Hatem Naguib, Vice President, Alliances, VMware
“ProSphere’s integration with VMware vSphere® provides storage
administrators with a holistic view of their storage infrastructure.
Being able to quickly understand application dependencies, resource
utilization and service levels – and take action in just a few clicks
– is important. ProSphere in a VMware environment will enable
customers to control the cost of storage while improving storage
levels.”

Industry Analyst Quote

Bob Laliberte, Senior Analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group
“As enterprise customers’ virtual environments flourish, they need
an SRM solution – like EMC ProSphere – that assures storage service
levels across the virtual infrastructure, controls the cost of capacity
growth, and optimizes storage services to align with business
objectives.”

EMC Executive Quote

Jay Mastaj, Senior Vice President and General Manager, EMC
Infrastructure Management Group
“Our customers’ biggest challenge today is controlling the costs of
rapid data growth, while ensuring consistent service levels in both
physical and virtual environments. EMC is committed to helping customers
transform their IT infrastructures, and a huge piece of this is managing
growth while reducing complexity. The new capacity dashboards and
reporting in ProSphere will enhance customers’ ability to control the
costs of rapid data growth. Integration with VMware and FAST VP will
help organizations get the most of their investments in EMC storage as
they expand their use of virtualization. And, the new monitoring
capabilities will allow organizations to understand the health and
performance of their storage infrastructure.”

Additional Resources:

* Read the ProSphere data sheet
(http://www.emc.com/collateral/software/data-sheet/h8810-prosphere-ds.pdf)
* Hear the EMC video
(http://www.emc.com/collateral/demos/microsites/mediaplayer-video/jay-mastaj-emc-prosphere-1.5-announcement.htm)
* Read the Enterprise Strategy Group paper
(http://www.emc.com/collateral/analyst-r
eports/esg-prosphere-storagemngtcloud-ar.pdf%20)
* Read the Managed View blog (http://bit.ly/xelzsV)
* Watch the Enterprise Strategy Group video
(http://www.emc.com/collateral/demos/microsites/mediaplayer-video/esg-prosphere-cloud-video.htm)

About EMC

EMC Corporation is a global leader in enabling businesses and service
providers to transform their operations and deliver IT as a service.
Fundamental to this transformation is cloud computing. Through
innovative products and services, EMC accelerates the journey to cloud
computing, helping IT departments to store, manage, protect and analyze
their most valuable asset –information –in a more agile, trusted and
cost-efficient way. Additional information about EMC can be found
atwww.EMC.com.

EMC Canada (www.EMC2.ca), headquartered in Toronto with nine offices
from coast to coast, is a wholly owned subsidiary of EMC Corporation.

- 30 -

For more information contact:
Mike Martin/Michelle Chang
StrategicAmpersand
416-961-5595
mike@stratamp.com
michelle@stratamp.com

Symantec Announces Global Availability of NetBackup 7.5 and Backup Exec 2012

 Symantec Announces Global Availability of NetBackup 7.5 and Backup Exec 2012

NetApp to Resell Symantec’s Replication Director Option to Unify Snapshot and Backup Management

 

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – March 13, 2012 – Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC) today announced that Symantec NetBackup 7.5 and Backup Exec 2012 are now available worldwide to help businesses of any size seamlessly transform and modernize their outdated, complex and resource-intensive backup strategy.  Symantec is also announcing an agreement with NetApp to resell the new NetBackup Replication Director option, enabling customers to unify Snapshot and replication management within NetBackup, and remove the cost and risk associated with multiple backup and recovery tools. Replication Director enables organizations to reduce management costs and complexity by recovering and managing backup and replicated snapshots from a single NetBackup management console.

 

Click to Tweet: Symantec Announces Global Availability of NetBackup 7.5 and Backup Exec 2012: http://bit.ly/wvbnkd

 

With the global availability of Backup Exec 2012 and NetBackup 7.5, Symantec is providing customers and partners with a set of best-in-breed solutions that eliminate the problems that have plagued traditional backup in the past – complexity, time and resources required to manage the backup process, and the need for multiple point products to ensure a successful backup and recovery process. A recent Symantec survey of 1,400 IT professionals worldwide further demonstrates the industry-wide need for a newer and faster approach to backup, with 28 percent stating that they have too many backup tools and 72 percent citing their willingness to switch backup products if their speed doubled.

 

News Highlights

·         NetBackup 7.5 increases backup speeds up to 100 times, improves the ability to recover and makes it possible to integrate NetApp® Snapshots™ with backup. It also simplifies the search and recovery of files for legal holds.

·         Backup Exec 2012 has revolutionized its management console, setting a new standard for intuitive design, reduced complexity across physical and virtual environments, and highly comprehensive disaster recovery. More than 1,000 partners participated in the Backup Exec 2012 Partner Beta program and more than 2,000 customers and partners participated in the First Availability Early Adopters program, allowing them to install the final build prior to the general availability of Backup Exec 2012.

·         Symantec also announced an expanded agreement with NetApp to resell NetBackup Replication Director to enable IT administrators to centralize the management of NetBackup and NetApp Snapshots and replication (SnapVault® and SnapMirror®) for faster backup and recovery. The partnership enables NetApp and Symantec to provide customers with a powerful combination of features and benefits delivered by these two technology leaders.

·         Symantec is listed as a Champion in Info-Tech Research Group’s “Enterprise Backup Software Vendor Landscape” report, which helps enterprise IT decision-makers identify a short list of vendors for their IT programs depending on their needs. According to the report, “On a relative basis, Symantec maintained the highest Info-Tech Value Score of the vendor group. Vendors were indexed against Symantec’s performance to provide a complete, relative view of their product offerings.”

·         Backup Exec 2012 is also VMware Ready Data Protection certified for vSphere 5.0.  This certification includes support for new features in vSphere 5.0 including the Hardware Version 8 format of virtual machines, datastore clusters, vSphere Storage DRS, and Storage vMotion.

·         Symantec offers an array of delivery models including software, appliance and cloud solutions to seamlessly integrate into any IT infrastructure. In addition to integration with Nirvanix, NetBackup now supports cloud storage from AT&T, Amazon Web Services and Rackspace. The new Backup Exec Cloud DR Option powered by Doyenz, the leading recovery as a service provider – is expected to be available in Q1 FY13 and enable cloud-based application recovery in less than 15 minutes. Symantec’s Backup Exec also includes backup to the cloud through Nirvanix.

·         Symantec's SaaS-based backup and recovery service Backup Exec.cloud is also available in the United States, Canada and Europe for purchase directly from Symantec partners or direct from Symantec. 

·         Symantec is the only leading backup provider to offer converged backup and deduplication appliances that seamlessly support disk, tape, and cloud storage targets and offer a single contact for support.  The NetBackup 5220 appliance, introduced in October 2011, recently won an award in the “2011 Backup Hardware of the Year” category from the SearchStorage.com Product of the Year awards, beating out a number of established backup hardware competitors.

·         Symantec’s breadth of backup products helps customers realize significant cost savings while better protecting their business information. Symantec is committed to driving out 80 percent of the operating costs associated with backup over the next five years.

 

Supporting Quotes

“With Symantec solutions, backup has never been simpler,” confirmed Deepak Mohan, senior vice president, Information Management Group, Symantec. “We are committed to providing businesses with the tools they need to manage their information now and as the explosion in data continues. With NetBackup 7.5 and Backup Exec 2012, we are leading the way in the fight against complex and time consuming processes and mitigate the risk of data loss.”

 

"BackupExec 2012 has become an integral part of our IT infrastructure as it supports our virtualization strategy and allows us to keep six months of data online without having to go to tape— saving us a considerable amount in storage costs,” said Scott Gould, senior network & systems analyst, Gynecologic Oncology Group Statistical & Data Center. “Plus, BackupExec 2012 is extremely easy to use so everyone on our IT staff can set up backups, manage backup policies and perform disaster recoveries, which is ideal for smaller IT departments.”

 

“We use Symantec NetBackup to protect more than 800 Exchange databases—over two petabytes of data in seven datacenters, with 99 percent accuracy on backups and 99 percent success rate on recoveries. And we use it for 20 to 30 recoveries a week,” said Jonathan McCormick, COO of leading cloud service provider and hosted Exchange provider, Intermedia. “Symantec NetBackup 7.5 provides us with a single integrated appliance to simplify all of our backup deployment and operations. The confidence we get from Symantec NetBackup is a good feeling.

 

“We have been looking forward to NetBackup 7.5, due to its support for vSphere 5. We’ve been using NetBackup 7’s innovative integration with VMware vSphere for a couple of years, and we have dramatically improved the protection for our rapidly-growing virtual environment by moving the agents “out of the guest” with NetBackup,” said Seth H. Bokelman, senior systems administrator, University of Northern Iowa. “We’re also looking forward to implementing the NetBackup Accelerator technology, as it will make backups much faster on some of our large file servers.”

 

Related

·         Infographic: What Causes Data Protection C.O.S.T.S. to Increase

·         Press Kit: Symantec Delivers Better Backup for All  

·         Webcast: Better Backup for All

·         Webcast: NetBackup 7.5 Technical Deep Dive

·         Webcast: What’s new with Backup Exec 2012

·         Download Free Backup Exec 2012 Trialware

·         SlideShare: Better Backup for All

·         Blog Post: Virtual Visibility: Why you need X-Ray Vision to Backup Virtual Machines

·         Blog Post: NetApp Storage Efficiency Insights

·         Survey: Broken Backup Environments Need New Approach

·         Website: Countdown to Better Backup

·         Video: Managing and Reducing Costs of Enterprise Data Protection Video featuring Dave Russell, Gartner and Brian Dye, Symantec

 

Connect with Symantec

·         Follow Symantec on Twitter

·         Follow NetBackup on Twitter

·         Follow BackupExec on Twitter

·         Join Symantec on Facebook

·         View Symantec’s SlideShare Channel

·         Subscribe to Symantec News RSS Feed

·         Visit Symantec Connect Business Community

 

About Storage from Symantec

Symantec helps organizations secure and manage their information-driven world with storage management,  archiving, eDiscovery, backup & recovery solutions. 

 

About Symantec

Symantec’s Canadian operations are headquartered in Toronto with offices in Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary and Vancouver.  For more information on Symantec products or current promotions, access Symantec’s Canadian Web site at www.symantec.ca. Symantec is an active member of the Business Software Alliance (BSA). Symantec is a global leader in providing security, storage and systems management solutions to help consumers and organizations secure and manage their information-driven world.  Our software and services protect against more risks at more points, more completely and efficiently, enabling confidence wherever information is used or stored. More information is available at www.symantec.com.

  

###

 

NOTE TO EDITORS: If you would like additional information on Symantec Corporation and its products, please visit the Symantec News Room at http://www.symantec.com/news. All prices noted are in U.S. dollars and are valid only in the United States.

 

Symantec and the Symantec Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Symantec Corporation or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. NetApp, the NetApp logo, Go further, faster, SnapMirror, Snapshot, and SnapVault are trademarks or registered trademarks of NetApp, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. The use of the word “partner” or “partnership” does not imply a legal partnership between NetApp and any other company. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

 

Forward-looking Statements: Any forward-looking indication of plans for products is preliminary and all future release dates are tentative and are subject to change. Any future release of the product or planned modifications to product capability, functionality, or feature are subject to ongoing evaluation by Symantec, and may or may not be implemented and should not be considered firm commitments by Symantec and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions.

 

Technorati Tags

Symantec, backup, recovery, virtualization, backup appliance, Backup and recovery, cloud storage, information management, data protection, data retention, Backup Exec, NetBackup, deduplication 

IBM Study: Cloud Computing to Rewrite Corporate Business Models

IBM Study: Cloud Computing to Rewrite Corporate Business Models

Percentage of companies innovating with cloud expected to double by 2015

LAS VEGAS - 06 Mar 2012: The number of enterprises turning to cloud computing to revamp existing business models will more than double in the next three years, as business leaders move to capitalize on the rapid availability of data and the growing popularity of social media, according to a new study released today by IBM (NYSE: IBM). Businesses that embrace the transformative power of cloud will have a significant advantage in the race to introduce new products and services and capture new markets and revenue streams. 

To better understand the shift in how organizations use cloud today and how they plan to employ it in the future IBM, in conjunction with the Economist Intelligence Unit, surveyed more than 500 business and technology executives worldwide. The findings were compiled in a new study, titled "The Power of Cloud: Driving business model innovation." 

“Companies are starting to understand -- cloud isn’t just about gaining efficiencies and cost savings; it’s about driving the kind of fundamental innovation that provides lasting marketplace advantage,” said Saul Berman, IBM global strategy consulting leader and co-author of the study.  

IBM's Saul Berman discusses top factors influencing cloud's growing role as business model enabler

Changing Motivations for Cloud Adoption  

According to the study, as they strive to better meet customers' needs and drive future growth, business leaders will increasingly tap cloud to develop new business models that can exploit the capabilities resulting from these digital trends. While 16 percent of the executives surveyed indicate they are already using cloud capabilities for sweeping innovation, such as entering new lines of business or reshaping an existing industry, by 2015, 35 percent intend to use it to transform their business models.  

What is the Main Impact of Cloud on Your Customer Value Position?

While a little more than half of the respondents indicated "improving organizational efficiency" as a top business challenge today, only 31 percent anticipate it will be a top challenge in three years. Instead the study indicates that their focus is shifting to growth and competitive initiatives in the future. The objectives cited by survey respondents for adopting cloud are in line with these business goals, indicating that business needs will soon rival IT motivations for cloud adoption: 

·    62  percent of survey respondents said increased collaboration with external partners is a key objective for adopting cloud;  

·    57 percent cited competitive cost advantages through vertical integration as a major motivation; and  

·    56 percent pointed to opening new delivery channels and markets as an important objective.  

Examples cited in the report showcasing how cloud is being tapped to drive new revenue streams and enhance business models include an online marketplace for handmade goods that has taken advantage of cloud’s cost flexibility to gain access to more powerful analytics online. The company is able to cost-effectively analyze data from the approximately one billion monthly views of its Web site and use the information to create product recommendations, providing it with access to tools and computing power that might typically only be affordable for larger retailers.  

The study also cites an online health information network that enables the exchange of health information and transactions among healthcare providers, employers, payers, practitioners, third-party administrators and patients in India. By connecting more than 1,100 hospitals and 10,000 doctors, cloud computing’s capabilities are facilitating better collaboration and information sharing -- helping the network to pursue a more collaborative business model and deliver improved care at a low cost. 

The study’s authors point to cloud's capabilities to mask complexity and enable user-defined experiences, as well as its overall scalability and cost flexibility as key reasons companies are planning to move it into front office operations in the near future.    

"Cloud has the power to open doors to more efficient, responsive and innovative ways of doing business, and we believe the companies that will come out on top will be the ones that find ways to leverage it as a key point of differentiation in driving business value,” Berman said. “Whether they choose to tap cloud to optimize, innovate or even disrupt their business models, they need to start working on it now."   

For more information on the study, visit: www.ibm.com/gbs/powerofcloud

For more information on IBM, visit www.ibm.com

Contact(s) information

Steve Tomasco
IBM Media Relations
1-917-687-4588
stomasc@us.ibm.com
Twitter: @SteveTomasco

Linda Hanson Hunt
IBM Media Relations
1-914-766-2015
lindah@us.ibm.com

Gartner Says the Personal Cloud Will Replace the Personal Computer as the Center of Users' Digital Lives by 2014

Gartner Says the Personal Cloud Will Replace the Personal Computer as the Center of Users' Digital Lives by 2014

Gartner Special Report Examines How Businesses Must Meet Consumers' Cloud Expectations in Order to Win Customers

STAMFORD, Conn., March 12, 2012—      The reign of the personal computer as the sole corporate access device is coming to a close, and by 2014, the personal cloud will replace the personal computer at the center of users' digital lives, according to Gartner, Inc.

Gartner analysts said the personal cloud will begin a new era that will provide users with a new level of flexibility with the devices they use for daily activities, while leveraging the strengths of each device, ultimately enabling new levels of user satisfaction and productivity. However, it will require enterprises to fundamentally rethink how they deliver applications and services to users.

"Major trends in client computing have shifted the market away from a focus on personal computers to a broader device perspective that includes smartphones, tablets and other consumer devices," said Steve Kleynhans, research vice president at Gartner. "Emerging cloud services will become the glue that connects the web of devices that users choose to access during the different aspects of their daily life."

The past two years have been a whirlwind in the client computing space, leaving many enterprises asking what comes next and what the environment will look like in five years.

"Many call this era the post-PC era, but it isn't really about being 'after' the PC, but rather about a new style of personal computing that frees individuals to use computing in fundamentally new ways to improve multiple aspects of their work and personal lives," Mr. Kleynhans said.

Several driving forces are combining to create this new era. These megatrends have roots that extend back through the past decade but are aligning in a new way.

Megatrend No. 1: Consumerization — You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet
Gartner has discussed the consumerization of IT for the better part of a decade, and has seen the impact of it across various aspects of the corporate IT world. However, much of this has simply been a precursor to the major wave that is starting to take hold across all aspects of information technology as several key factors come together:

  • Users are more technologically savvy and have very different expectations of technology.
  • The Internet and social media have empowered and emboldened users.
  • The rise of powerful, affordable mobile devices changes the equation for users.
  • Users have become innovators.
  • Through the democratization of technology, users of all types and status within organizations can now have similar technology available to them.

Megatrend No. 2: Virtualization — Changing How the Game Is Played
Virtualization has improved flexibility and increased the options for how IT organizations can implement client environments. Virtualization has, to some extent, freed applications from the peculiarities of individual devices, operating systems or even processor architectures. Virtualization provides a way to move the legacy of applications and processes developed in the PC era forward into the new emerging world. This provides low-power devices access to much-greater processing power, thus expanding their utility and increasing the reach of processor-intensive applications.

Megatrend No. 3: "App-ification" — From Applications to Apps
When the way that applications are designed, delivered and consumed by users changes, it has a dramatic impact on all other aspects of the market. These changes will have a profound impact on how applications are written and managed in corporate environments. They also raise the prospect of greater cross-platform portability as small user experience (UX) apps are used to adjust a server- or cloud-resident application to the unique characteristics of a specific device or scenario. One application can now be exposed in multiple ways and used in varying situations by the user.

Megatrend No. 4: The Ever-Available Self-Service Cloud
The advent of the cloud for servicing individual users opens a whole new level of opportunity. Every user can now have a scalable and nearly infinite set of resources available for whatever they need to do. The impacts for IT infrastructures are stunning, but when this is applied to the individual, there are some specific benefits that emerge. Users' digital activities are far more self-directed than ever before. Users demand to make their own choices about applications, services and content, selecting from a nearly limitless collection on the Internet. This encourages a culture of self-service that users expect in all aspects of their digital experience. Users can now store their virtual workspace or digital personality online.

Megatrend No. 5: The Mobility Shift — Wherever and Whenever You Want
Today, mobile devices combined with the cloud can fulfill most computing tasks, and any tradeoffs are outweighed in the minds of the user by the convenience and flexibility provided by the mobile devices. The emergence of more-natural user interface experiences is making mobility practical. Touch- and gesture-based user experiences, coupled with speech and contextual awareness, are enabling rich interaction with devices and a much greater level of freedom. At any point in time, and depending on the scenario, any given device will take on the role of the user's primary device — the one at the center of the user's constellation of devices.

"The combination of these megatrends, coupled with advances in new enabling technologies, is ushering in the era of the personal cloud," said Mr. Kleynhans. "In this new world, the specifics of devices will become less important for the organization to worry about. Users will use a collection of devices, with the PC remaining one of many options, but no one device will be the primary hub. Rather, the personal cloud will take on that role. Access to the cloud and the content stored or shared in the cloud will be managed and secured, rather than solely focusing on the device itself."

Additional information is available in the Gartner report "The New PC Era: The Personal Cloud." The report is available on Gartner's website at http://www.gartner.com/resId=1890215. The research is part of the Gartner Special Report, "Consumer Research: Personal Cloud" at http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/personal-cloud/. The special report includes links to reports examine the impact of the personal cloud on enterprises, as well as video commentary.

Gartner analysts will provide additional analysis during the Gartner webinar, "Personal Cloud and the $2T Consumer Market" on March 27 at 11 a.m. EDT. To register for this complimentary webinar, please visit http://my.gartner.com/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=202&mode=2&PageID=5553&ref=webinar-rss&resId=1923415&prm=WB_PCDR.

Contacts:

Christy Pettey
Gartner
+1 408 468 8312
christy.pettey@gartner.com

Rob van der Meulen
Gartner
+44 0 1784 267892
rob.vandermeulen@gartner.com


About Gartner:
Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) is the world's leading information technology research and advisory company. Gartner delivers the technology-related insight necessary for its clients to make the right decisions, every day. From CIOs and senior IT leaders in corporations and government agencies, to business leaders in high-tech and telecom enterprises and professional services firms, to technology investors, Gartner is a valuable partner to 60,000 clients in 11,500 distinct organizations. Through the resources of Gartner Research, Gartner Executive Programs, Gartner Consulting and Gartner Events, Gartner works with every client to research, analyze and interpret the business of IT within the context of their individual role. Founded in 1979, Gartner is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, U.S.A., and has 4,500 associates, including 1,250 research analysts and consultants, and clients in 85 countries. For more information, visit www.gartner.com.

HP Helps Customers Realize Higher Value from PCs with New LANDesk Management Solutions

HP Helps Customers Realize Higher Value from PCs with New LANDesk Management Solutions

PALO ALTO, California, March 12, 2012



HP today announced it is offering LANDesk management solutions directly to business customers, enabling them to boost end-user productivity and more easily secure and connect devices across their environment.

Through this collaboration with LANDesk Software, HP business customers of all sizes can use LANDesk Management Suite to reduce the PC setup time for end users from hours to minutes.

By eliminating the need to stage deployments through IT departments, LANDesk management solutions help companies to increase efficiency and reduce cost while also resolving IT concerns like energy conservation, device and BIOS management, retail operating system and reporting support, and hardware-failure alerts.

“HP is committed to helping commercial customers mitigate issues that result in lost time, money and productivity,” said Dan Forlenza, vice president and general manager, Commercial Clients Global Business Unit, HP.

“This collaboration brings unique capabilities to HP customers in the area of client management, end-point security and IT service management,” said Mike Hall, senior vice president, Sales and Marketing, LANDesk Software. “We look forward to the continued integration of our joint solutions.”

LANDesk software from HP helps save customers time, money
HP business customers can leverage the powerful remote hardware management capabilities of the LANDesk software suite to reduce the need for costly, time-consuming desk-side visits by their IT department.

Automatic acquisition and remote deployment of the latest HP updates allows customers to easily install and deploy drivers and hardware and firmware updates from HP for their PCs.

Customers also can use one-to-many BIOS and firmware configuration changes to modify all settings on supported PCs. Plus, proactive hardware health alerting takes the guesswork out of thermal PC conditions and proactively senses potential hard drive failure.

In addition to the immediate availability of the LANDesk Management Suite, policy enforcement of key HP Professional Innovations, including HP Power Assistant power management tool and HP Connection Manager connectivity interface, is scheduled to be available in June. LANDesk support for HP thin clients will be available in October.

More information on the additional offerings coming throughout the year is available here.

Support for additional client management solutions
For customers who have standardized on Microsoft® Systems Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), HP will continue to maintain its HP Client Catalog. In October, HP will expand support for Microsoft SCCM with a new deployment pack that helps customers more easily perform scripted operating system installs and configure BIOS settings.

HP also will continue to offer its industry-leading HP Client Automation (HPCA) management solution, which provides high levels of end-client management automation and the lowest cost of ownership in an all-HP solution. HPCA uses desired-state, policy-driven technology to enable dynamic enterprises to ensure their end points are correct and functional, and that they have enhanced security. Fully integrated with HP hardware innovations and new technologies, HPCA provides one solution for all endpoints – physical and virtual, thick and thin. 

New integrated platform driver packs
Responding to customer feedback for a single file that contains all the necessary drivers for a particular platform or model, integrated driver packs from HP are scheduled for release by August for most desktop and notebook PCs and workstations launched since 2010. The driver packs will be available in LANDesk Management Suite, the HP Client Catalog for Microsoft SCCM and HP Softpaq Download Manager.

Additional information on supported PCs is available here.

About LANDesk Software 
LANDesk Software is a leading provider of systems lifecycle management, endpoint security, and IT service management solutions for desktops, servers and mobile devices across the enterprise. LANDesk enables IT to deliver business value by gaining control of end-user computing with a single console, light infrastructure, and ITIL solutions that can deliver significant ROI for thousands of customers worldwide. LANDesk is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, with offices located in the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific, and can be found at www.landesk.com.  

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.

Symantec Helps Organizations Get Control of Runaway Data Growth

Symantec Helps Organizations Get Control of Runaway Data Growth

Data Insight 3.0 Creates Accountability for Unstructured Information Governance

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – March 12, 2012 – Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC) today announced Symantec Data Insight 3.0, the latest version of its solution that improves information governance by providing intelligence into ownership and usage of unstructured data such as documents, presentations, spreadsheets and emails. Enhancements to Symantec Data Insight help organizations transform storage operations and simplify information governance processes to reduce costs, reduce risk and achieve compliance.


Read more detailed blog posts:

According to Gartner, the growth rate of data is 40 to 60 percent; but for unstructured data in the enterprise, the growth rate can be up to 80 percent¹ and is becoming increasingly difficult to manage and protect. IT organizations are faced with seemingly impossible data governance objectives to reduce costs, reduce risk and achieve compliance. IT lacks the business context for the data and must engage the data owners who best understand the value of the data. However, challenges in understanding who owns the data and how it is being used impact IT’s ability to operationalize data governance.


Symantec Data Insight addresses these challenges by continuously monitoring data usage and enabling rule-based inferences for data ownership. Understanding how data is being used enables effective unstructured data management operations – facilitating tasks such as reclamation and chargeback. By assigning data ownership, IT organizations can establish a framework for collaboration with the business to address data governance objectives. Since the initial launch, Symantec has seen broad adoption and use of Data Insight to reduce storage costs, simplify protection of critical data, and meet compliance.


Click to Tweet: Symantec Helps Organizations Get Control of Runaway Data Growth with Data Insight 3.0: http://bit.ly/AoQIh8


Transform Storage Operations

Symantec Data Insight’s detailed data usage analytics of unstructured data, such as growth, frequency of access, inactive data, and user activity are essential to reducing storage costs and streamlining unstructured data storage operations such as reclamation, tiering, migration to cloud storage and capacity planning. Rapid growth of unstructured data and the emergence of Big Data are significantly increasing the magnitude of the operations challenge. Data Insight is particularly well-suited to support large-scale data management operations with its highly scalable and parallel architecture. With optimizations in collection, indexing and query algorithms, Data Insight delivers actionable analytics with enhanced performance across large data sets.


Empower the Business

Symantec Data Insight helps storage, security and compliance professionals empower the data owners inside the business to better manage and protect unstructured data through a new data custodian management feature.


  • Data Custodian Management: Data Insight helps automate the discovery and management of custodians for unstructured data within the business. IT can automatically engage the custodians with valuable usage, permissions, and classification reporting and analytics, empowering the business to become better stewards of an organization’s resources.
  • Managing Data Growth: Data Insight automates custodian reviews of inactive or orphan data facilitating storage remediation actions, such as deletion, archival, or migration as well as assisting with data retention guidelines based on data ownership classification. Data Insight’s ownership and usage capabilities help organizations build a consumption-based chargeback model to promote accountability for efficient use of the storage.
  • Protecting Confidential Data: Symantec continues to strengthen the integration between Symantec Data Insight and Symantec Data Loss Prevention. Features such as risk scoring and sensitive data alerts, combine Data Loss Prevention’s content-awareness with Data Insight’s usage and permissions analysis to help prioritize remediation of data based on risk. Data Insight’s custodian management feature will streamline the risk remediation process, especially important given the rapid growth of unstructured data.
  • Governing Access to Data: Through Data Insight’s integration with the Aveksa Access Governance suite, organizations can easily establish business processes to control who can access key data resources across the enterprise. By incorporating the ownership and access information discovered by Symantec’s Data Insight into the Aveksa system, organizations can more easily and efficiently achieve compliance and better enforce access policies.

Comprehensive Coverage

Data Insight 3.0 now features a new integration point with Veritas Storage Foundation 6.0. Customers using Storage Foundation for file serving can now leverage Data Insight for their data management needs. Data Insight also features enhanced operations for NetApp network attached storage (NAS) and expanded coverage to support both CIFS and NFS protocols.


Data Insight provides comprehensive support for leading platforms such as NetApp NAS, EMC NAS, Windows File Servers, Microsoft SharePoint, and Unix File Servers with Veritas Storage Foundation file system. Data Insight also provides support for leading directory services, such as Microsoft Active Directory, LDAP, and NIS/NIS+.


Quotes

  • “Data Insight has given us a better understanding of how unstructured data is being created, used, stored, and retained,” said Starla Rivers, Sr. Information Security Architect, Sharp HealthCare. “With the integration between Data Insight and Symantec’s Data Loss Prevention solution, we are able to identify and manage data by content, access, age and risk. This allows us to work with the business custodians to protect that data through tighter access controls and a clean-up process. This is helping us with our data governance objectives of gaining efficiency and reducing risk.”
  • “NetApp and Symantec are committed to delivering innovative solutions that help our mutual customers employ new strategies to manage, retain and protect growing data volumes,” said Chris Cummings, vice president, products and solutions marketing, NetApp. “The combined strengths of Symantec Data Insight integrated with NetApp’s high performance storage systems enables organizations to better understand who owns information, how it’s being accessed, and how it’s being used to accelerate the business. This in-depth understanding helps customers efficiently manage data growth, make better decisions and drive successful business outcomes at the speed of today’s business.”
  • “Data Insight provides visibility into the who and how as context to 'eating the elephant.’ Our enterprise customers large and small find the task of classifying information somewhat insurmountable based upon volume, complexity, and lack of visibility,” said Marc Johnson, Practice Director for Data Center Management and Storage, Creative Breakthroughs, Inc. “Data Insight’s ownership and usage analytics help organizations link security, storage, and compliance in an unprecedented way. Never before have the walls crumbled between IT security and IT storage the way that Data Insight incites.”
  • “With Symantec Data Insight and Aveksa integrated together, organizations can safely and efficiently delegate access decisions to the line-of-business custodians, while ensuring compliance with controls and constraints defined by Information Security,” said Deepak Taneja, CTO at Aveksa. “Symantec Data Insight provides information on data resource ownership, classification and usage, and Aveksa leverages this to provide business-user-friendly access activities, including certification, access request, and access remediation. The end result is a full lifecycle management system for controlling enterprise access to applications and data. ”
  • “Data Insight demonstrates innovation and integration across Symantec’s security and storage portfolio,” said Vivian Tero, Program Director for Governance, Risk and Compliance, IDC. “Data Insight’s data ownership and usage analysis benefits both storage and security stakeholders, by enabling efficient management of data growth to reduce cost and simplifying protection of sensitive data, regardless of where it is stored.”
  • “It is difficult for most organizations to identify the data owners for a majority of the unstructured data in their organization,” said Don Angspatt, vice president, product management, Storage and Availability Management Group, Symantec Corp. “Data Insight 3.0 enables our customers to not only identify data owners but also automatically engage them to reduce storage management costs, achieve compliance, and facilitate data protection, thereby increasing the effectiveness of an organization’s data governance initiatives.”

Pricing and Availability

Data Insight is available immediately. Estimated pricing starts at $5,000 USD with either a per-User or per-TB licensing option.


Connect with Symantec

About Storage and Availability Management from Symantec

Symantec helps organizations secure and manage their information-driven world with storage management, high availability/disaster recovery, email archiving, and backup & recovery solutions.


About Symantec

Symantec is a global leader in providing security, storage and systems management solutions to help consumers and organizations secure and manage their information-driven world. Our software and services protect against more risks at more points, more completely and efficiently, enabling confidence wherever information is used or stored. More information is available at www.symantec.com.

Trend Micro Makes Secure Password Management Easy with Trend Micro™ DirectPass™

Trend Micro Makes Secure Password Management Easy with Trend Micro™ DirectPass™
Synchronize online credentials across PCs, mobile phones and tablets

CUPERTINO, Calif., March 12, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Trend Micro Incorporated (TYO: 4704; TSE: 4704), a global cloud security leader, today announced DirectPass, a new password management solution. Designed to organize and manage passwords, DirectPass provides consumers with a fast and efficient way to manage their online activities, while offering extra security measures to keep their credentials safe.  Trend Micro DirectPass uses cloud technology to sync online credentials across multiple devices, allowing users to experience the benefits of DirectPass anytime, anywhere.

The average online user has multiple accounts; however, the majority of people fail to manage their passwords in a secure manner.  According to a recent Trend Micro survey, 75 percent of consumers have 10 accounts or more, yet only 20 percent say they use third-party software to manage their passwords.

"We know that most security threats arise when passwords are forgotten or because users try to remember them by writing them down or worse, making them weak in order to easily commit them to memory," said Carol Carpenter, general manager of Trend Micro. "With the introduction of DirectPass, Trend Micro's goal is to lower users' risks of running into malicious intent by heightening the security of their passwords in an easy way that also doesn't interfere with their day-to-day digital life."

The benefits of DirectPass include:

Password Management

  • Manage all passwords and login IDs in one secure location
  • Seamlessly login to web sites without the need to re-enter credentials – users only have to remember one password
  • Automatically fill personal information into web forms accurately and safely

Online Security

  • A secure browser for banking or financial websites
  • Mitigation against keylogging malware
  • A text-entry feature to store private information that is completely protected

Sync & Access

  • Synchronize online credentials across multiple devices (PCs, mobile phones and tablets)
  • Leverage the security and convenience of DirectPass from anywhere, on any device with a secure Internet connection

Identity theft continues to grow with nearly 12 million Americans having their identities stolen in 2011, according to a report by Javelin Strategy & Research. One of the best ways to prevent identity thieves from accessing private accounts and personal information is to only use strong passwords with multiple letters, characters and numbers. "We know there's a need to protect consumers from ID theft, which continues to be one of the most widespread Internet threats," adds Carpenter. "DirectPass is our commitment to providing consumers with a preventative measure to help avoid these types of threats so they can go online and conduct their business with confidence."

U.S. pricing and availability
DirectPass is available immediately in the U.S. A free version (up to five passwords) can be downloaded online. The premium version, which includes support for unlimited passwords, is also available online for $14.95 for a 1-year subscription.  More information can be found at DirectPass.com.

About Trend Micro
Trend Micro Incorporated (TYO: 4704; TSE: 4704), a global cloud security leader, creates a world safe for exchanging digital information with its Internet content security and threat management solutions for businesses and consumers.  A pioneer in server security with over 20 years' experience, we deliver top-ranked client, server and cloud-based security that fits our customers' and partners' needs, stops new threats faster, and protects data in physical, virtualized and cloud environments. Powered by the industry-leading Trend Micro Smart Protection Network cloud computing security infrastructure, our products and services stop threats where they emerge – from the Internet. They are supported by 1,000+ threat intelligence experts around the globe. 

Additional information about Trend Micro Incorporated and its products and services are available at Trend Micro.com. This Trend Micro news release and other announcements are available at http://NewsRoom.TrendMicro.com and as part of an RSS feed at www.trendmicro.com/rss.   Or follow our news on Twitter at @TrendMicro.

SOURCE Trend Micro Incorporated

Gartner Says Worldwide External Controller-Based Disk Storage Market Grew 4.8 Percent in Fourth Quarter of 2011

Gartner Says Worldwide External Controller-Based Disk Storage Market Grew 4.8 Percent in Fourth Quarter of 2011

STAMFORD, Conn., March 9, 2012—   Worldwide external controller-based (ECB) disk storage vendor revenue totaled $5.9 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011, a 4.8 percent increase from revenue of $5.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2010, according to Gartner, Inc.

"The fourth quarter 2011 results represent the ninth consecutive quarter of revenue growth, but fell short of Gartner's expectations of a 7.6 percent year-over-year increase," said Roger Cox, research vice president at Gartner. "Historically, the fourth quarter produces 29.2 to 29.7 percent of the total year's vendor revenue, but the fourth quarter of 2011 came in shy at 27.9 percent because of three reasons — economic weakness in North America and EMEA, some hard-disk drive supply problems caused by the October 2011 flood in Thailand, and the inability of HP and IBM to keep pace with their improving performance during the first nine months of 2011."

EMC, NetApp, Hitachi/Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) and Fujitsu beat the year-over-year market growth rate in the fourth quarter (see Table 1). EMC gained share with its VNX, VMAX and Data Domain platforms, as well as the accretive influence of the Isilon acquisition. After a couple of spotty quarters, and with its platform portfolio (FAS6000/3000/2000) fully in place, NetApp realized above market results from its core ONTAP-based unified storage platforms. With best in class year-over-year revenue growth performance, the high-end VSP remained Hitachi/HDS's primary strength. Fujitsu's entry to midrange modular ETERNUS DX-series produced solid above market results, propelling a 22.7 percent annual growth rate.

Table 1

Worldwide External Controller-Based Disk Storage Vendor Revenue Estimates for 4Q11 (Millions of U.S. Dollars)

 

Company

4Q11

Revenue

4Q11 Market Share (%)

4Q10

Revenue

4Q10 Market Share (%)

4Q10-4Q11

 Change (%)

EMC1

1,937.2

32.7

1,602.0

28.3

20.9

IBM

977.3

16.5

984.4

17.4

-0.7

NetApp3

619.6

10.5

556.5

9.8

11.3

Hitachi/HDS2

558.1

9.4

521.8

9.2

6.9

HP

555.6

9.4

581.1

10.3

-4.4

Dell

417.0

7.0

411.4

7.3

1.4

Fujitsu4

109.0

1.8

88.8

1.6

22.7

Oracle

91.4

1.5

89.8

1.6

1.8

Others

658.3

11.1

818.2

14.5

-19.5

Total

5,923.5

100.0

5,654.2

100

4.8

Note 1: EMC revenue excludes OEM revenue from Dell and Fujitsu Technology Solutions.
Note 2: Hitachi/HDS revenue excludes OEM revenue from HP.
Note 3: NetApp revenue excludes ONTAP OEM revenue from IBM and Engenio OEM revenue.
Note 4: Fujitsu's branded revenue does not include products sold under the EMC and NetApp brands.
Source: Gartner (March 2012)

Dell, HP, IBM and Oracle lost share in the ECB disk storage market in the fourth quarter of 2011. While IBM's Storwize V7000 and XIV systems achieved a 51.5 percent revenue increase year over year, the sluggish performance of its DS-series caused overall ECB revenue to decline 0.7 percent. Even though HP increased 3PAR revenue 44.2 percent sequentially in the fourth quarter, its P6000 EVA, P4000 SAN (LeftHand) and P2000 MSA platforms declined year over year, resulting in a 4.4 percent drop-off in overall ECB disk storage revenue.

Dell's IP-based products (EqualLogic, Compellent and PowerVault series) achieved year-over-year revenue growth; however, it still suffered from the disengagement from the OEM agreement with EMC. Albeit small (1.8 percent), the fact that Oracle achieved positive year-over-year revenue growth for the first time in five quarters was encouraging for the company, but Oracle still suffered from field sales operational issues.

For the year, worldwide disk storage vendor revenue totaled $21.2 billion in 2011, a 9.8 percent increase from revenue of $19.3 billion in 2010 (see Table 2). Among the top five vendors, EMC continued to lead the market, followed by IBM and NetApp.

Table 2

Worldwide External Controller-Based Disk Storage Vendor Revenue Estimates for 2011 (Millions of U.S. Dollars)

 

Company

2011 Revenue

2011 Market Share (%)

2010 Revenue

2010 Market Share (%)

2010-2011 Change (%)

EMC1

6,728.7

31.7

5,432.9

28.1

23.9

IBM

3,007.0

14.2

2,790.3

14.4

7.8

NetApp3

2,450.6

11.5

2,071.9

10.7

18.3

HP

2,071.1

9.8

1,898.1

9.8

9.1

Hitachi/HDS2

1,989.5

9.4

1,702.2

8.8

16.9

Dell

1,580.3

7.4

1,583.7

8.2

-0.2

Fujitsu4

472.5

2.2

428.3

2.2

10.3

Oracle

359.1

1.7

477.6

2.5

-24.8

Others

2,574.3

12.1

2,954.3

15.3

-12.9

Total

21,233.0

100.0

19,339.3

100.0

9.8

Note 1: EMC revenue excludes OEM revenue from Dell and Fujitsu Technology Solutions.
Note 2: Hitachi/HDS revenue excludes OEM revenue from HP.
Note 3: NetApp revenue excludes ONTAP OEM revenue from IBM and Engenio OEM revenue.
Note 4: Fujitsu's branded revenue does not include products sold under the EMC and NetApp brands.
Source: Gartner (March 2012)

Gartner ECB disk storage reports reflect vendor-branded hardware-only revenue, as well as hardware revenue associated with financial leases and managed services. Optional and separately priced storage software revenue and storage area network infrastructure components are excluded.

Additional information on the ECB disk storage market is available in the Gartner "Quarterly Statistics: Disk Array Storage, All Regions, All Countries, 4Q11 Update." The report includes vendor market share by data access method, price band, sales channel and operating system segmentation. The report is available on Gartner's website at http://www.gartner.com/resId=1939617

Contacts:

Christy Pettey
Gartner
+1 408 468 8312
christy.pettey@gartner.com

Rob van der Meulen
Gartner
+44 0 1784 267892
rob.vandermeulen@gartner.com


About Gartner:
Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) is the world's leading information technology research and advisory company. Gartner delivers the technology-related insight necessary for its clients to make the right decisions, every day. From CIOs and senior IT leaders in corporations and government agencies, to business leaders in high-tech and telecom enterprises and professional services firms, to technology investors, Gartner is a valuable partner to 60,000 clients in 11,500 distinct organizations. Through the resources of Gartner Research, Gartner Executive Programs, Gartner Consulting and Gartner Events, Gartner works with every client to research, analyze and interpret the business of IT within the context of their individual role. Founded in 1979, Gartner is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, U.S.A., and has 4,500 associates, including 1,250 research analysts and consultants, and clients in 85 countries. For more information, visit www.gartner.com.

Key Report Highlights Strategies to Fix “Broken Cell Phone Market”

Key Report Highlights Strategies to Fix “Broken Cell Phone Market”

Groups OpenMedia.ca and CIPPIC release comprehensive report, as Industry Canada prepares rules for wireless infrastructure auction

March 8, 2012 – Adding to the pressure of a 63,000+ signature “Stop The Squeeze” petition launched earlier this year, grassroots group OpenMedia.ca and University of Ottawa legal clinic CIPPIC are releasing a report today that highlights the best way to improve competition and choice in Canada's struggling cell phone market.

This comes as Industry Canada prepares to release the rules for a much-anticipated wireless spectrum auction, which will shape the future of cell phone pricing and choice in Canada.

Wireless spectrum is increasingly crucial infrastructure for cell phones, which more and more Canadians are using to communicate and access the Internet.

OpenMedia.ca has been pushing the government to ensure that rules for the auction will enable a level playing field, rather than making the market even more uncompetitive and expensive. The group emphasises that upwards of 94 percent of the cell phone market is currently controlled by only three large conglomerates, and that Canadians pay some of the highest cell phone fees in the industrialized world.

Titled Spectrum policy in Canada: Levelling the playing field for affordable rates and breadth of choice, the report draws on data from experts in the field and provides a comprehensive analysis of spectrum in Canada.

In comparing a variety of potential frameworks, the report makes it clear that rules involving spectrum set-asides for smaller, independent cell phone companies will go the furthest in improving what many Canadians now feel is a broken telecom market.

Spectrum policy in Canada counters arguments from the Big Three cell phone companies—Bell, Rogers, and Telus—which are seeking to control all of the available spectrum. Perhaps most notably, the report makes it clear that rural Canada is best served by a spectrum set-aside for new entrants.

“Canada’s cell phone industry is in such dire straights that over 63,000 people have already spoken out about this rather technical issue at StopTheSqueeze.ca,” says OpenMedia.ca Executive Director Steve Anderson. “Canadians are tired of being price-gouged for cell phone service, and they’re smart enough to know that it can only get worse if critical wireless spectrum is hoarded by three big companies. We know where Canadians stand, and now the government has a clear set of recommendations to actualize on their input”

OpenMedia.ca, CIPPIC, and PIAC will deliver Spectrum Policy in Canada to Industry Minister Christian Paradis and other key decision makers, and has created a special online tool that allows Canadians to send it to their MPs. The tool can be found at http://openmedia.ca/CellphoneFuture.

The report, including recommendations, can be found at http://openmedia.ca/CellphonePlan.

About OpenMedia.ca

OpenMedia.ca is a grassroots organization that safeguards the possibilities of the open and affordable Internet. The group's primary goal is to increase informed participation in Internet governance.

About CIPPIC

The Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) was established at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law in the fall of 2003. It is the first legal clinic of its kind in Canada.

-30-

Contact

Lindsey Pinto
Communications Manager, OpenMedia.ca
778-238-7710
lindsey@openmedia.ca