As Microsoft Lync Celebrates First Anniversary, Telecom Providers Embrace Unified Communications

www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2011/dec11/12-14Lync.mspx?rss_fdn=Custom

Microsoft Lync replaces legacy PBX systems, helping Sprint and Swisscom increase productivity and reduce operating costs.

REDMOND, Wash. — Dec. 14, 2011 — Business communications have undergone a revolution over the past few years. People have come to expect flexibility and mobility. They want to be able to ask someone on the opposite coast a quick question via instant messaging (IM) without interrupting their work. They want to join a videoconference back home while traveling abroad and share a presentation with the group. And businesses, as ever, want employees to be more efficient and processes to be more cost-effective.


Sprint shows how it is replacing its old phone system with Microsoft Lync and saving US$44 million annually.

Microsoft Lync is making these kinds of communications the norm. Lync integrates IM, presence, audioconferencing, videoconferencing, webconferencing and voice on a single platform to bring people together with one interface that works with the applications people know and use today, including Microsoft Office, Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft Exchange.

Since its launch in December 2010, Lync adoption has been rapid, driving a 250 percent increase in voice deployments compared with the previous year. As Microsoft Lync celebrates its first anniversary, the company recently announced two new customer wins: Sprint Nextel and Swisscom. For these industry-leading telecom companies, Lync offers a viable replacement to the private branch exchange (PBX), or typical desktop, phone system. It is an enterprise-ready communications solution that offers flexibility, mobility, improved productivity, increased ROI and, in some cases, new business opportunities.

Sprint’s Mobile Workforce Saves Money and Reduces Environmental Impact

Sprint Nextel is a principal provider of wireless and wireline communications services in the United States. In 2008, as part of an ongoing effort to reduce its environmental impact, improve employee productivity, and reduce costs and administration for its cumbersome telephony systems, Sprint established a mobile workforce program. Sprint wanted to improve the effectiveness of communication for employees, while reducing expensive local carrier and PBX maintenance costs. By deploying a unified communications solution from Microsoft, Sprint was able to free employees from their desks and make it possible for them to work virtually anywhere.

Tossing out the PBX infrastructure to support desk phones will save Sprint more than US$44 million per year in reduced office space rental, local carrier charges and utilities costs, as well as the complete elimination of PBX maintenance costs.
Tossing out the PBX infrastructure to support desk phones will save Sprint more than US$44 million per year in reduced office space rental, local carrier charges and utilities costs, as well as the complete elimination of PBX maintenance costs.
Click for larger image.

“In 2006, if you had looked at our network, there were 489 PBXs scattered across the country,” says Joe Hamblin, manager of unified communications for client services at Sprint. “We set out a vision and said we wanted to have all of these PBXs gone from the infrastructure and be left with two datacenters — and that is what we have been able to accomplish.”

After the company decided on a network solution, Sprint deployed Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 across the Microsoft with Sprint Global Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) network to provide enterprise voice, IM, presence and conferencing (audio, video and Web) capabilities, along with integrated email and unified messaging capabilities available through its Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 deployment.

To provide the mobility employees demanded, the IT team wanted a communication solution beyond the traditional PBX system it was using, which was costly to operate due to ongoing connection charges, on-site maintenance fees and annual upgrades. It decided to replace its costly PBX systems by using a software-powered approach from MPLS and SIP trunking. The company eliminated all 489 PBX systems across all locations.

To better support its Mobile Workforce initiative, Sprint upgraded its communications solution with Microsoft Lync Server 2010 for all 39,000 employees. “We wanted to use our technology to allow employees to work virtually anywhere,” says Scott Woodrome, strategy manager, Enterprise Real Estate at Sprint. “In our largest campus facility, we deployed Wi-Fi throughout, ensured that we had open seating, and implemented a ‘home pavilion’ with multiple areas to sit. We also created customer-friendly areas so employees could bring customers to the office.”

Through the unified Lync client, employees now have a single interface where they can view presence, send instant messages, place voice calls, or set up ad hoc collaboration sessions and online meetings.

Sprint also deployed location servers that enable Lync to detect employees’ locations automatically based on their network connection. At a glance, employees can see location information for co-workers through the Lync client. “People really pay attention to presence and location,” Woodrome says. “Now they can see not only if someone is available but where that person is, so they do not waste time walking over to another office.”

And Sprint employees are now more productive than ever. “Microsoft Lync allows us to be more productive, more collaborative with our teams, to join a conference call without any numbers or without any codes — you can just click a button,” Woodrome says. “With the click of a mouse, we can move from an instant messaging session to a phone call to an online meeting where we can share documents and applications.”

Sprint has reduced both its operational costs and its environmental impact, in addition to providing a more productive, flexible work environment for employees. The company estimates a total cost savings of more than US$44 million per year in reduced office space rental, local carrier charges and utilities costs, as well as the complete elimination of PBX maintenance costs.

By upgrading to Lync Server, Sprint has moved even closer to meeting its goals to reduce its environmental impact and ensure a “virtually anywhere, anytime” mobile workforce. “When we implemented unified communications,” Woodrome says, “we had an opportunity to further expand on the definition of mobility, leveraging the technology that Sprint has introduced to business customers. Now nothing ties a worker to a particular spot in an office environment.”

Swisscom Dials Into the Future

Innovation rules in the Swiss market, where customers expect the latest technologies in every product they use, from kitchen appliances to computers. For Swisscom, the largest provider of fixed network, mobile networks and unified communications technologies in Switzerland, this demand means continually embracing the forefront of communications innovations to understand where the future of telecom technology is headed.

To that end, Swisscom recently deployed Microsoft Lync to its 20,000 users for enhanced collaboration and voice capabilities. As a result, Swisscom is now responding to RFPs 20 percent faster and is anticipating a total of $17 million in cost savings over five years across telephony operations, travel expenses and the elimination of PBX upgrades.

* Microsoft Lync allows us to be more productive, more collaborative with our teams, to join a conference call without any numbers or without any codes — you can just click a button.*

- Scott Woodrome, strategy manager at Sprint


“We already had Office Communications Server R2 in place, so the upgrade to Lync took us just four weeks,” says Michael Kerle, senior director of product strategy at Swisscom. “The implementation was not difficult. What we faced, mainly at the beginning, is that people are used to working wirelessly. We don’t use cables at all. We don’t have fixed offices. We run from one office to the other. We just sit down where there’s something available. So we really had to heavily invest in our wireless network when we upgraded to Microsoft Lync because the previous network wasn’t made for real-time communications.”

The company decommissioned 94 legacy PBX systems from a number of vendors.

“After a certain number of years you have to upgrade them — and that costs money,” Kerle says. “And it’s not really future-oriented anymore because you’re basically replacing one phone system with another phone system, and the functionality is the same. But you spend a lot of money. Plus managing 94 different PBX systems required 94 different management systems.”

Lync has boosted collaboration for Swisscom in a couple ways. For one, employees don’t have to travel as often. Teams can collaborate and share documents from any office, anywhere, even from home, saving time and expense.

In addition, collaboration can be more spontaneous. “If you work on project teams, little questions come up all the time, and with Lync you can easily clarify things,” Kerle says. “You can quickly share a PowerPoint presentation, Excel spreadsheet or whatever. And that, I think, has really changed how people work together. We’re more efficient in the way we collaborate now.”

Part of that efficiency is because of Microsoft Lync’s presence feature. Employees no longer have to spend time trying to track down co-workers. If someone’s status is set to “away,” employees can wait until the other person is “available” to send an email or make a call.

Swisscom has not only embraced Microsoft Lync across the organization, but the technologies have become a core part of what the company is offering to its customers.

Swisscom provides managed communications and collaboration services, which include Microsoft Lync, Exchange and SharePoint 2010, along with the company’s connectivity and security offerings. These services are available to business customers for a fixed price per user, per month.

“So, in the end people don’t have to invest in those things anymore, they just get the service from Swisscom,” Kerle says. “We run the service either out of our datacenters or out of the customer’s datacenters on premise at the customer site if they wish.”

Kerle says that some of Swisscom’s customers are unsure whether they are ready to let go of their desk phones. “So we let them visit our offices to see there’s not a single phone left, and there are actually thousands and thousands of people using handsets with Microsoft Lync, and making calls. That helps a lot.”

The New Normal

Microsoft Lync enables people to communicate in new ways, increasing productivity wherever they are. With features that include HD video, conference recording and social features such as status updates and activity feeds, Lync gives people a more collaborative, “in-person” experience than standard PBX systems. People can choose how to manage their conversations, redirect calls, set their level of availability, and decide how and when they can be reached.

A few years ago, Bill Gates predicted that software would change the way people communicate. Today, we are witnessing that vision come to fruition. It’s an exciting time — and even the telecoms are on board.

HP Enables Organizations Worldwide to Expand Data Center Resources with HP POD

Content starts here

HP Enables Organizations Worldwide to Expand Data Center Resources with HP POD

Flexible data center solution supports growth, maximizes efficiency, reduces costs across industries

PALO ALTO, Calif., Dec. 15, 2011

HP today announced that enterprises worldwide have chosen the HP Performance Optimized Data Center (POD) to quickly expand data center resources while maximizing efficiency.

Based on HP Converged Infrastructure, the HP POD enables clients to expand rapidly while addressing critical data center challenges related to space, power and cost. HP’s modular data center offerings include the HP POD 20c, 40c and the 240a. Also referred to as the HP EcoPOD, the HP POD 240a delivers the most energy-efficient design, using 95 percent less power than conventional data centers, and it can reduce initial data center capital costs up to 75 percent.(1)

Local governments maximize resources to achieve $6 million in savings

The City and County of El Paso, Texas, needed to pool limited IT resources while supporting long-term growth. El Paso chose an HP POD housing HP blade servers and storage to service the IT operations of law enforcement, the judicial system and administration, which provide services to a combined population of more than 800,000.(2)

HP designed the primary data center in a 40-foot HP POD and redesigned the existing county failover center, which consisted of aging Dell and EMC hardware and software. The deployed HP POD contains HP ProLiant BL460 servers for high efficiency and offers three-phase power to maximize the amount of energy that can be delivered to each rack.

El Paso’s HP POD deployment has resulted in taxpayer savings of nearly $6 million by eliminating service duplication and consolidating IT departments.(3) The municipalities received Texas Association of Counties Best Practices Award for Innovation and the City-County Cooperation Award recognition for forward thinking and cooperation in this large-scale IT deployment.

“The vision of both The City and County of El Paso is to promote technology and efficiency for the combined entities’ customer base,” said David Garcia, director, Information Technology and Project Oversight, El Paso County. “HP has carefully assisted the City and County IT teams with the planning and deployment of the HP POD to deliver modern and redundant data center facilities that benefit the taxpayer at large through better public service delivery.”

Integrating business units onto a singular platform

Skoda Power, a leading provider of technology, products and services for power generation based in Plzeň, Czech Republic, recently deployed a 40-foot HP POD to boost computing performance and save energy.

When Skoda Power became a subsidiary of Doosan, an industrial facilities company operating in 33 countries, the two companies consolidated their IT infrastructures into a single shared platform. Skoda Power selected an HP POD to provide rapid, cost-effective and flexible data center capacity that is energy-efficient and environmentally sustainable. The water-cooled HP POD consumes up to 40 percent less power than alternative solutions, decreasing operating expenses and delivering increased power capacity.(1)

Increasing capacity to compete with HPC

A growing number of research institutions are selecting the HP POD to drive their HPC operations forward with modular computing. To support a new supercomputer system as part of the Australian government’s $1.1 billion Super Science Initiative, scientific and research organization iVEC deployed an HP POD 20c to fuel research in the radio astronomy, nanoscience, geoscience and other leading computational communities.

“In order to service our community effectively, we needed a facility that could deliver massive scale-up capabilities,” said Andrew Rohl, executive director, iVEC. “HP’s POD technology will enable Australian research organizations to compete on the global stage as we further development of codes, techniques and best practices to significantly increase our compute capacity.”

Similarly, the University of California, Los Angeles, extended its virtual HPC cluster to house 1,500 compute nodes – the equivalent of 5,000 square feet. As a result, the university is currently saving nearly $198,000 per year in power costs.(4)

More information about HP Performance Optimized Data Centers is available at www.hp.com/go/pod.

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.

Oracle Communications Solution Processes Approximately 1 Billion LTE Event Records per Hour, Far Exceeding Industry Expectations

Oracle Communications Solution Processes Approximately 1 Billion LTE Event Records per Hour, Far Exceeding Industry Expectations

Performance Test of Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management Running on Oracle Exadata Database Machine and Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud Delivers Unprecedented Results

Redwood Shores, Calif. – December 13, 2011

News Facts

Oracle today released the results of a performance test demonstrating that Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management (BRM) running on Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud, and three Oracle Exadata Database Machine racks, all running Oracle Linux, can deliver exceptional performance and scalability for communications service providers aiming to optimize their rating processes as mobile broadband growth and data consumption reach unprecedented levels.
In this performance test, Oracle leveraged real-life complex pricing scenarios from a leading U.S. service provider. Specifically, the test measured Long-Term Evolution (LTE) rating performance for:(1)
100 million subscribers
5,000 distinct price plans
Friends and family accounts with discount sharing
Discounting
Multi-service price plans including voice, short message service (SMS) and data
Account convergence with 70 percent consumers, 15 percent enterprise and 15 percent retail
Concurrent customer service representative activities that mimicked real-life operations
Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management achieved processing speeds of 926 million event detail records (EDRs) per hour, almost doubling the participating service provider’s expected performance requirements and far exceeding LTE processing requirements of the largest service providers.(2)
Stated another way, when the test results are extrapolated, they show that if all seven billion people on earth made any combination of phone calls, texts or content downloads, Oracle Communications Billing and Revenue Management running on Oracle Exadata Database Machine and Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud could process them all in a single day.
The performance test also demonstrated linear scalability 100 Million Subscriber LTE Performance Test as the subscriber base grew from an application service perspective, and near-linear scalability for the clustered database. Specifically, as the application server’s rating engine resources increased from one to nine threads to simulate increased service usage, and database resources were added – going from one to three Oracle Exadata Database Machines – throughput increased to demonstrate linear and near-linear scalability respectively.
Demonstrating sustained performance throughput, the performance test ran over a four hour period without a single error.

Supporting Quotes

“These results are truly groundbreaking, representing the highest throughput findings ever published in this industry, and demonstrating the power of our integrated hardware and software solution to enable communications service providers to meet increasingly complex billing needs as mobile broadband growth and data consumption scale with the proliferation of next-generation network technology,” said Bhaskar Gorti, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Communications. “Oracle is committed to publishing detailed performance test results such as these to equip communications service providers with the comprehensive data they need to evaluate our solutions’ benefits. Communications service providers should expect, and indeed require, that all suppliers serving the industry adopt similar transparent practices.”

Supporting Resources

About Oracle Communications

Only Oracle’s software and systems span the communications industry technology landscape — from carrier-grade servers, storage and IT infrastructure, to mission-critical business and operational support systems and service delivery platforms; from business intelligence applications and retail point-of-sale solutions to the Java platform running on more than three billion mobile and handheld devices.  Oracle helps 100 of the world's top 100 service providers innovate and exploit new business models, build strong, profitable customer relationships, and streamline operations. For more information, visit http://www.oracle.com/us/industries/communications/index.html

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.

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

Footnotes

1. 100 Million Subscriber LTE Performance Test Whitepaper

2. 100 Million Subscriber LTE Performance Test Whitepaper

# # #

Contacts

Katie Barron
Oracle
+1.202.904.1138
katie.barron@oracle.com

Janice Hazen
O’Keeffe & Company
+1.443.759.8151
jhazen@okco.com

Gartner Says Second Half of the Information Age to Focus on Exploitation of Technology and the Information It Processes

Gartner Says Second Half of the Information Age to Focus on Exploitation of Technology and the Information It Processes

Special Report Examines New Opportunities in IT to Seize a Competitive Advantage

STAMFORD, Conn., December 15, 2011— The Information Age is an 80 year wave of economic and societal change that is in its second half, where business value comes from exploitation of technology rather than from installation, according to Gartner, Inc.

"In the first half of the Information Age, the primary focus was the technology itself; this is where great fortunes were made by companies like IBM and Microsoft," said Mark Raskino, vice president and Gartner Fellow. "In this period, the majority of companies that gained competitive advantage did so by differential access to the technology from these providers — for example, by having more capital to invest in it or better skills at installing it in their businesses.

"In the second half of the age, as technology becomes ubiquitous, consumerized, cheaper and more equally available to all, the focus for differentiation moves to exploitation of the technology and to the information it processes," Mr. Raskino said. "It is already noticeable that the great fortunes of the second half of the age are being made by companies like Google and Facebook, which are not traditional makers of technology. In this period, the majority of companies that enjoy competitive advantage will gain it from a differential ability to see and exploit the opportunities of new kinds of information."

In the report, "Strategic Information Management for Competitive Advantage," (http://www.gartner.com/resId=1851616) Gartner identified four particular types of generally useful information likely to dominate competition this decade, in the way that process information and customer information did in the past 15 years:

Location information, which is now maturing in availability, will offer opportunities to better optimize the utilization of almost any movable physical asset (human or inanimate) in almost any business.
Sustainability information will be vital in advancing business models in industries that are adapting to the realities of a finite Earth meeting the demands of massive, consumerizing emerging markets.
DNA information and the rapidly falling cost of obtaining it will obviously be critical to innovation and productivity leaps in agriculture, medical care and pharmaceuticals, but it will also impact insurance and other sectors.
Social graph information will help companies "X-ray" and understand organization, team design, culture and other factors impacting knowledge worker productivity, yielding valuable insights to advance the intellectual service economy the way time and motion study did for manufacturing in the 20th century.

Beyond these, context, gesture, the live state of everyday objects (Internet of Things), inherent identity (untagged, image-recognition-based), human emotional state and even brain response to stimuli are all new types of information that are at the radar's edge or are starting to be brought into play within businesses.

In the Gartner Special Report, "Seizing Competitive Advantage: New Opportunities in IT" (http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/competitive-advantage/), Gartner analysts examine the key issues around seizing a new competitive advantage by revitalizing leadership, management and culture, and leveraging "big culture technologies."

Gartner defines "competitive advantage" as a difference between a company and its competitors that matters to customers. It is one of the two key components of corporate profitability:

1.  Industry structure: This determines the range of profitability of the average competitor and can be very difficult to change.
2.  Competitive advantage: This enables a company to outperform the average competitor.

"The Gartner view of competitive advantage is about leadership — that is, how does an organization gain a leadership position from the tools, capabilities and competencies at its disposal? The focus is not on doing something merely to be competitive, but rather on taking action to be the leader," said Jorge Lopez, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner.

"Competitive advantage cannot be sustained other than by ceaselessly pursuing new ways to compete, and changing one's culture to match the new needs," Mr. Lopez said.

Mr. Lopez will provide additional analysis during the Gartner webinar, "Seizing Competitive Advantage: New Opportunities in IT" on January 5 at 9 a.m. EST and noon EST. 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=1870514&prm=wb_ctva.

Contacts:

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

Holly Stevens
Gartner
+44 0 1784 267412
holly.stevens@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.

Silver Spring Networks and EMC to Deliver Smart Grid Analytics Solution for Utility Industry

Silver Spring Networks and EMC to Deliver Smart Grid Analytics Solution for Utility Industry
Big Data Analytics to Improve Grid Reliability, Reduce Costs and Enhance Customer Management
Redwood City, CA, and Hopkinton, MA - December 14, 2011

Silver Spring Networks, a leading networking platform and solutions provider for the smart grid, and EMC® Corporation (NYSE: EMC) today announced an expanded relationship to provide a smart grid analytics solution for the utility industry.  This solution will empower utilities with advanced insights from the data generated from the millions of devices on the smart grid and across the utility enterprise. 

Utilities are facing a Big Data challenge in which massive amounts of data are being generated but with limited tools to derive value from it.  With the new analytics solution, data from across the utility enterprise, ranging from grid operations to customer information systems, will be combined and correlated to improve grid reliability, reduce operational cost and enhance customer management. The solution will leverage the EMC Greenplum® Unified Analytics Platform to build the Silver Spring analytics engine to deliver a secure and standards-based interface supporting Silver Spring, utility and third party application development.  Together, Silver Spring and a team of EMC data scientists are creating purpose-built algorithms capable of analyzing smart grid data to make it actionable and valuable to utilities and their customers.   This solution will be available to all utilities, regardless of their smart grid networking technology, MDM solution or other legacy systems.

“The promise of networking millions of homes and businesses has always been about improving utilities operational effectiveness and service for their customers.  Using advanced analytics is a natural step towards this objective,” said Scott Lang, CEO, President and Chairman, Silver Spring Networks.  “As a global leader of innovation, technology and demonstrated commitment to unlocking value for their clients, we are thrilled to be working with EMC and we look forward to benefiting from their experience and expertise.”

“Utility companies are rich with invaluable data, from the back office to the network edge, and have an unprecedented opportunity to maximize Big Data solutions to transform their businesses and vastly improve the services they deliver.  Silver Spring Networks is a proven leader and pioneer in delivering open standards-based technology to the global utility industry, and an ideal partner for EMC as we extend our Big Data solutions into this key industry segment,” said Bill Cook,President and General Manager of Greenplum, a division of EMC.  “Together, Silver Spring Networks and EMC are working to enable smart grid information to be utilized in ways never before possible, to reveal relevant trend patterns and uncover new insights hidden within.”

About Silver Spring Networks

Silver Spring Networks provides a leading networking platform and solutions that enable utilities to transform the power grid infrastructure into the smart grid, helping utilities to achieve operational efficiencies, reduce carbon emissions and empower their customers with new ways to monitor and manage their energy consumption.  Silver Spring provides the hardware, software and services that allow utilities to deploy and run multiple smart grid solutions, including Advanced Metering, Distribution Automation and Demand Side Management, over a single, unified network. Silver Spring's Smart Energy Platform is based on open, Internet Protocol (IPv6) standards, allowing continuous, two-way communication between the utility and devices on the grid. Silver Spring has numerous deployments with leading utilities around the world, including Baltimore Gas & Electric, CitiPower & Powercor, Florida Power & Light, Jemena Electricity Networks Limited, Pacific Gas & Electric and Pepco Holdings, Inc. among others. For additional information, please visit www.silverspringnet.com.

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 at www.EMC.com.

Press Contacts

Jennifer Dreyer
EMC Corporation
(508) 293-7238
Jennifer.Dreyer@emc.com

Lisa Magnuson
Silver Spring Networks
(650) 298-4180
pr@silverspringnet.com

Woodstock Hospital Becomes One of Canada's Most Advanced Digital Hospitals With Cisco Medical-Grade Network

Woodstock Hospital Becomes One of Canada's Most Advanced Digital
Hospitals With Cisco Medical-Grade Network

State-of-the-Art Network Helps Enable Hospital Mission to Facilitate
Patient Care Using the Latest Technology

TORONTO--(Dec 15, 2011) - Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) today announced
Woodstock Hospital (WH) has chosen a Cisco® Medical-Grade Network for
its brand-new facility, providing a highly resilient, innovative and
economical solution to improving health services and advancing patient
care.

The new Woodstock Hospital opened for occupancy on November 20 and
continues to fulfill its mandate to provide patients and staff with a
high-quality healing environment. Utilizing the Cisco network, WH will
also deliver the latest technology for patient care and communications.
The Cisco Medical-Grade Network infrastructure will facilitate and
integrate diverse business and clinical communications between patients,
administrators and partners in a highly secure environment.

The medical-grade network, which utilizes 802.11n wireless technology,
is designed to provide bandwidth-intensive and multimedia rich
applications and information such as medical imaging, to medical staff
throughout the facility, regardless of location and including patient
bedside. The hospital will benefit from multiple wired and wireless
services across one Internet Protocol (IP) network supporting data,
voice and video for the fast and easy exchange of information.

Project Highlights:

* Woodstock Hospital's advanced IP network is the result of the careful
collaboration between Cisco and FlexITy Solutions, a Cisco Gold
Certified and Master Unified Communications Specialized Partner. Once
FlexITy won the network and unified communications business, EllisDon
and FlexITy worked very closely to optimize the design and
implementation of the network, communications systems and integration of
third-party applications.

* The Cisco Unified Communications solution includes approximately
1,000 IP phones, made up predominantly of Cisco Unified IP Phones 7975G
and 155 Cisco Unified Wireless IP Phones 7925G. Approximately 165 IP
phones are located in patient rooms and will provide telephony and
entertainment services. Hospital staff will benefit from Cisco Unified
Communications features such as single-number reach, allowing hospital
staff to receive calls on any IP phone or wireless device.

* The Cisco wireless network will also support third-party applications
to enhance staff collaboration, such as Nurse Call and EXTENSION Mobile,
an application that allows physicians, nurses and other clinical staff
members to stay connected to each other and to patients from any
location, using any wireless device.

* Wireless capabilities will also support real-time Location-Based
Services with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tracking to locate
hospital assets such as biomedical equipment and assist in the safety
and finding of patients and staff.

* Additionally, the network will support several patient monitoring
systems including Spacelabs and Primex (temperature monitoring),
operations systems including ISIS Pro (for bed management), and
equipment sterilization.

* The network core incorporates Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switches and
Virtual Switching System 1140, firewall and packet inspection modules
and Cisco Aironet® 1142 wireless access points. In the data centre,
redundant Cisco Nexus® 5000 Series Switches feed Cisco Nexus 2000 fabric
extenders to simplify the data centre architecture and operations.

* The Cisco Medical-Grade Network facilitates and integrates diverse
business and clinical communications throughout the continuum of care,
providing anytime, anywhere, information capture and access for wired
and wireless applications and devices. The network supports data, voice
and video networks and enables the transfer and storage of the large
amounts of data created by healthcare applications. Th
e Cisco
Medical-Grade Network supports the unique information, technology,
bandwidth, and integration challenges of healthcare while providing
identity and policy-based security from inside the network to beyond
organizational walls.

Supporting Quotes

Natasa Veljovic, president and CEO, Woodstock Hospital:

"Woodstock Hospital is committed to its vision of providing first-class
health care to our community. To fulfill our mandate, we need to be a
leader in innovative, high-quality services and keep a pulse on the
latest healthcare tools and technology. The Cisco Medical-Grade Network
provides the infrastructure we need to provide our staff with the
equipment and information they need to facilitate patient care and
provide the best health services possible."

Brantz Myers, director, Healthcare Business Development, Cisco Canada:

"We applaud Woodstock Hospital's use of an advanced medical-grade
network, allowing them to drive enhanced clinical workflows while
delivering the right information with a high degree of security to the
right people at the right time, saving time for the staff and speeding
up the delivery of care for patients. Working with our ecosystem
partners EllisDon and FlexITy, we are bringing together building design,
construction and technology to build a leading-edge facility to advance
patient care."

Supporting Resources

* Visit Cisco Canada Healthcare
http://www.cisco.com/web/CA/solutions/strategy/healthcare/index.html

* Visit Cisco Canada Blog and follow us on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/ciscocanada

* Become a fan of Cisco Canada on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/CiscoCanada

* Visit FlexITy Solutions healthcare microsite:
http://healthcare.flexity.ca/

* Visit EllisDon Healthcare and Research
http://www.ellisdon.com/what-we-build/healthcare-and-research/

About Cisco

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking that
transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Cisco Canada
Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of Cisco, has offices across Canada
dedicated to customer support, sales and service. For ongoing news,
please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com/canada/.

Tags, Keywords:

Cisco, Canada, healthcare, Woodstock Hospital, EllisDon, FlexITy,
medical-grade network

Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of
Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. A listing
of Cisco's trademarks can be found at www.cisco.com/go/trademarks.
Third-party
trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective
owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership
relationship between Cisco and any other company.

RSS Feed for Cisco: http://newsroom.cisco.com/rss-feeds

Contact Information

Andrea Berry
StrategicAmpersand Inc. (for Cisco)
416-961-5595, Ext. 428
andberry@cisco.com

Karin Scott
Cisco
416-306-7164
kariscot@cisco.com

 


Canadian Web Hosting Launches Cloud Shared Hosting Solution in Canada

Canadian Web Hosting Launches Cloud Shared Hosting Solution in Canada

Leading Canadian Web Hosting Provider Expands Their CACloud Services and Announces Launch of All Canadian Cloud Shared Hosting Plans


Quote startOur Cloud Shared Hosting is designed to maximize uptime and give every customer the benefits of the cloud without the cost.Quote end

Vancouver, British Columbia (PRWEB) December 14, 2011

Canadian Web Hosting, the leading provider of web hosting and infrastructure services in Canada, today announced the extension of its CACloud services by launching a Linux-based Cloud Shared Hosting environment that gives shared hosting customers similar benefits and capabilities of more expensive cloud-based solutions without the cost.

In combination with their CICA 5970 and SAS70 Type II (SSAE 16 Type II) certifications, Canadian Web Hosting’s Cloud Hosting Linux solution addresses the needs of small business’ and web hosting users who have high uptime requirements but limited budgets. With Cloud Hosting Linux, companies of all sizes are able to leverage key technologies and industry leading Xen virtualization that gives each customer on-demand hosting, high resource availability and the reassurance that their sites will remain online. Most importantly, all customer data will remain in Canada ensuring that the privacy and security requirements that customers require are met.

“Our Cloud Hosting Linux is designed to maximize uptime for your website and emails, and gives every customer the benefits of the cloud without the need to invest in expensive hardware or complicated load-balanced, multi-server configurations. Each cloud server utilizes automatic failover to help keep your site online, and with the addition of Litespeed technology the servers are faster than ever,” said Kevin Liang, CTO of Canadian Web Hosting. "Built on top of our CACloud cloud infrastructure, we are able to help facilitate customization and integration that is an exact match to our client’s requirements from shared cloud hosting to high performing multi-server configurations’. With each CACloud solution, our clients get highly redundant dedicated components that yield a higher-level of performance and availability for their critical infrastructure. This is something that is not always possible in typical Public Clouds today especially for shared hosting."

Included with every Cloud Hosting Linux plan, Canadian Web Hosting’s certified support teams can help manage the servers 24/7 and every server includes cPanel and regular backup snapshots to help keep your data protected and scalability with unlimited email and storage. In addition, customers get the ability to one-click install many leading applications like Joomla, Drupal, Wordpress, MySQL and many more.

About Canadian Web Hosting
Since 1998,Canadian Web Hosting has been providing on-demand hosting solutions that include Shared Hosting, Virtual Private Servers (VPS), Cloud Hosting, Dedicated Servers, and IT as a Service for Canadian companies of all sizes. Through the use of innovative technologies and experienced support personnel, they continually focus on helping each customer by offering configurable solutions that are tailored to their exacting business requirements. Canadian Web Hosting is also SAS70 Type II and CICA 5970 certified ensuring that their processes and business practices are thoroughly audited against industry standards. Canadian Web Hosting guarantees a 100% network uptime, and a total money back guarantee that backs everything they do. Customers can get help by calling 1-888-821-7888 to get basic support. For more advanced technical support, customers can use email, ticketing or real time live chat support with support staff. For more information, visit them at http://www.canadianwebhosting.com, or get the latest news by following them on Twitter at @cawebhosting.

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Kroll Announces Top Ten Cyber Security Trends for 2012

Kroll Announces Top Ten Cyber Security Trends for 2012

Forecast highlights the most significant cyber security issues for businesses, including trends in cyber threats, new regulations and protective measures.

Quote startCompanies need to take a strategic and aggressive approach to cyber security. Ignoring a problem is no guarantee that the problem will ignore you.Quote end

Nashville, TN (PRWEB) December 14, 2011

The Cyber Security and Information Assurance Division of Kroll Inc., today released its annual security forecast, highlighting key areas of risk and trends that will impact how organizations and governments combat and respond to cyber threats.

“The events of 2011 suggest that the cyber security landscape will find public and private organizations are still on unsteady footing,” said Karen Schuler, practice leader of the Cyber Security and Information Assurance Division. “Traditional pain points for organizations including mobile technologies, incident response and regulatory requirements will intensify as new and developing challenges surface in 2012.”

“We frequently see organizations with protective measures based on the assumption that they are not a target,” said Alan Brill, senior managing director of the Cyber Security and Information Assurance Division. “Yet 2011 taught us that no one is exempt from attack. Companies need to take a strategic and aggressive approach to cyber security. Ignoring a problem is no guarantee that the problem will ignore you.”

Kroll’s 2012 Cyber Security Forecast includes:

1.    Mobile technology security threats will be at an all-time high. Mobile technologies are changing so rapidly that in some organizations the demand and pressure to deploy new technologies (e.g., tablet computers) will outstrip the organization’s existing capabilities to secure them. This unfortunate dynamic is no secret to thieves who are ready and waiting with highly targeted malware and attacks employing mobile applications. Similarly, the perennial problem of lost and stolen devices will expand to include these new technologies and old ones that previously flew under the radar of cyber security planning. For example, digital cameras used by medical facilities to document patient treatment are becoming increasingly attractive to potential thieves. The loss of this type of data represents a potential HIPAA privacy law violation and could have serious ramifications for the health care industry.

2.    Social media will increase in popularity as a conduit for social engineering attacks. Social media adoption among businesses is skyrocketing and so is the threat of attack. In 2012, organizations can expect to see an increase in social media profiles used as a channel for social engineering tactics. Thieves will utilize clever tactics to coerce end-users into disclosing sensitive information, downloading malware or both. To combat the risks, companies will need to look beyond the basics of policy and procedure development to more advanced technologies such as data leakage prevention, enhanced network monitoring and log file analysis.

3.    Small businesses (SMBs) will enter the crosshairs of cyber attacks. “Hacktivism” may make headlines, but the fact of the matter is that data thieves are simply looking for the path of least resistance. Of late, that path has been leading directly to SMBs that house large amounts of valuable data but lack the data security budgets of their big business peers. Common modes of attack include everything from social engineering to SQL injection. In addition, ongoing use of legacy systems – weakened by postponed or overlooked upgrades and replacements – put SMBs at heightened risk.

4.    As cloud services gain in popularity, related breach incidents will flourish. If we were meteorologists, we’d definitely be calling for overcast with a chance of storms. Companies are smartly embracing the cloud for the associated cost savings and ease of use. Unfortunately, current surveys and reports indicate that companies are underestimating the importance of security due diligence when it comes to vetting these providers. As cloud use rises in 2012, new breach incidents will highlight the challenges these services pose to forensic analysis and incident response and the matter of cloud security will finally get its due attention.

5.    Business and government cooperation will be mission-critical for economic and infrastructure health. Cyber crime has the capacity to cripple almost every aspect of commerce from the largest corporation to the individual consumer. Similarly, the security of U.S. infrastructure is being called into question in disturbingly real ways. For these reasons there is a growing sentiment among both private organizations and the U.S. government about the increased need for information sharing. Improved communication between the private and public sectors will not only give government the ammunition needed to take down major threats, it will also increase private entities’ capacity to respond to large threats more effectively.

6.    Privacy concerns will keep geolocation technology in a white-hot spotlight. Geolocation technology is the quintessential double-edged sword. On one hand, consumers love the convenience of innovative mobile apps and services utilizing this technology. On the other, the backlash against surreptitious tracking or disclosure can be swift and strong. In fact, two federal bills were introduced in 2011 dealing specifically with the protection of geolocational information. It’s doubtful either will become law in 2012, but we can expect to see privacy advocates urging businesses to adopt an opt-in or consumer consent model.

7.    Management and analysis of logs will gain more respect for its role in incident preparedness and response. Security incidents have increased in sophistication and frequency in recent years and one of the most effective modes of response involves maintaining complete logging for the network and key applications. While historically undervalued, logging provides vital information that can be utilized for analysis of network activities and documentation of security incidents. As companies begin to see the error in their ways in 2012 they will begin to implement formal risk assessments to look for security weak spots.

8.    Incident Response Teams will get a permanent seat at the table when it comes to standard business operations. Historically, incident response teams were made of employees from across the organization tapped to mobilize only if and when security incidents occurred. But to remain competitive in today’s market companies need to upgrade incident response teams from contingency plan status to day-to-day operations. Effective incident response teams can include a group of full-time employees designated as incident responders or a team of outside consultants (via a third party) hired for 24/7 incident response support.

9.    Companies will overlook key vulnerabilities, as regulatory compliance continues to drive organizational security. Let’s face it – state and federal regulations remain the yardstick by which the comprehensiveness of data privacy and security are measured. But using such a “checklist mentality” to drive security initiatives is dangerous because a number of data security regulations overlook basic IT security controls. Certainly there are regulations that address the need for encryption or the development of an incident response plan but few require a wide range of best-practice controls such as up-to-date anti-virus software. As more breaches occur as a result of security gaps, we should expect to see governing agencies offer specific guidance on risk assessment and standard IT security controls.

10.    Breach notification laws will gain traction outside of the US. While the U.S. Congress struggles to reach consensus on a federal breach notification law, internationally the idea is gaining momentum. Germany began requiring breach notice in all sectors in 2010 and several other EU nations have expressed interest in putting similar requirements in place. Meanwhile, Canada is also considering mandatory breach notice as part of proposed revisions to PIPEDA, which governs how Canadian businesses collect, use and disclose personal information. Companies with a global presence should watch these developments closely because they could have significant impact on their operations abroad.

About Kroll
Kroll, the world's leading risk consulting company, provides a broad range of investigative, intelligence, financial, security, technology and supplier management services to help clients reduce risks, solve problems and capitalize on opportunities. Headquartered in New York with offices in 52 cities in 29 countries, Kroll has a multidisciplinary team of approximately 2,800 employees and serves a global clientele of law firms, financial institutions, corporations, non-profit institutions, government agencies and individuals.

About Altegrity, Inc.
Altegrity, Inc., is the parent company of the largest commercial provider of background investigations for the federal government; the world’s leading risk consulting company that provides a broad range of investigative, intelligence, financial, security, technology and supplier management services to organizations and multinational corporations around the world; and a global commercial employment background and drug screening supplier to more than one-third of the Fortune 500. Headquartered in Falls Church, Va., Altegrity has approximately 10,500 employees in 30 countries. Altegrity, which is the holding company for USIS, HireRight and Kroll, partners with its government and commercial clients to help them Make Decisions Smarter® by uncovering, reviewing, analyzing and delivering information.

Office 365 Becomes First and Only Major Cloud Productivity Service to Comply With Leading EU and U.S. Standards for Data Protection and Security

News Press Release
Office 365 Becomes First and Only Major Cloud Productivity Service to Comply With Leading EU and U.S. Standards for Data Protection and Security
Microsoft announces improvements to its support for security and privacy in Office 365.

REDMOND, Wash. — Dec. 14, 2011 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that Microsoft Office 365, the company’s next-generation cloud productivity service, is the first and only major cloud-based platform to offer leading information privacy and security standards for customers operating in the European Union and United States. As part of its contractual commitment to customers, Microsoft will now sign the EU’s model clauses, which will help customers certify compliance with the European Commission’s stringent Data Protection Directive, and the U.S.-mandated Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

Microsoft also announced the availability of the Office 365 Trust Center. The site provides in-depth information about the privacy and security practices for Office 365 and was recently redesigned to be more accessible and easy to understand. The new site can be accessed at http://trust.office365.com.

Compliance Updates

In February 2010, the EU released these standard contractual clauses (commonly referred to as “model clauses”) to legitimize the transfer of personal data via international networks to locations outside the European Economic Area (EEA). When included in service agreements with data processors, the model clauses assure customers that appropriate steps have been taken to help safeguard personal data, even if data is stored in a cloud-based service center located outside the EEA. European regulators have the option to request that customers halt the use of a service that hasn’t taken appropriate steps to safeguard personal data until they have evaluated the service and deemed it compliant with EU data protection and security standards.

Along with furnishing the model clause provisions, Microsoft has gone a step further than other cloud providers to include a data-processing agreement for EU customers. Some of the 27 member states have more exacting requirements than those of the EU-wide Data Protection Directive. To streamline the use of cloud-based services for customers operating under additional compliance requirements, Microsoft has included with the model clause provisions a robust data-processing agreement that was developed in view of the specifics of member-state regulations.

“Developing cloud-based productivity tools that meet the needs of European businesses means more than simply building apps in a browser,” said Jean-Philippe Courtois, president, Microsoft International. “Microsoft has a more complete approach to European data protection and security laws than any other company, and we’re proud of the work we’ve done to ensure the widest range of organizations can move to the cloud with confidence — or choose an equally functional on-premises option.”

As the first major cloud-based productivity service to obtain certification under ISO/IEC 27001, a rigorous information security management benchmark, Microsoft submits to a yearly audit of its information security policy by an independent expert and shares the results with its customers. Additionally, Microsoft has developed its online services to provide physical, administrative and technical safeguards that facilitate full compliance with HIPAA requirements.

“Until recently, concerns about the security and privacy of patient data have been the most common barrier to healthcare organizations realizing the full potential of cloud-based technologies,” said Michael Robinson, general manager for U.S. Health & Life Sciences at Microsoft. “Microsoft is helping remove that barrier by embedding privacy and security capabilities in Office 365 that enable health organizations to address their HIPAA compliance requirements. Today, Office 365 can help hospitals, insurers and clinics confidently empower their staff to be efficient and productive virtually anytime and almost anywhere while substantially reducing their IT operating costs.”

About Office 365

Office 365 brings together Microsoft Office, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Exchange Online and Microsoft Lync Online in an always-up-to-date cloud service. With Office 365, moving to the cloud does not require people to change the way they work because it’s based on the familiar, industry-leading productivity tools people know and trust. Employees get new ways to work together with ease, on virtually any device or mobile phone,* using familiar applications such as Office that they already know and love. Business owners get the reliability, security features and IT controls they need in the cloud.

More information about Office 365 and regulatory compliance are available at Office 365 FAQs.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

*An appropriate device, Internet access and a supported browser and/or carrier network connectivity are required.

Hitachi Data Systems Enhances Hitachi Data Ingestor to Help Organizations Reduce Costs and Simplify Cloud Adoption

NEWS RELEASE: Enhancements to Hitachi Data Ingestor Help Organizations Reduce Costs and Simplify Cloud Adoption  

 

New Content Sharing, File Restore and NAS Migration Capabilities Increase Manageability and Flexibility for Cloud and Distributed IT Environments

 

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — December 14, 2011 — Hitachi Data Systems Corporation (HDS), a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT / TSE: 6501), today introduced enhancements to Hitachi Data Ingestor (HDI), a bottomless, backup-free cloud on-ramp and filer, to help organizations simplify and accelerate cloud adoption. Featuring new content sharing, file restore and NAS migration capabilities, the new version of HDI gives seamlessly scalable, backup-free storage solutions to distributed consumers of IT, such as remote offices and branch offices (ROBO) or cloud storage users. Working in conjunction with Hitachi Content Platform (HCP), a virtualized object store with advanced storage and data management capabilities, HDI is deployed as a minimal-footprint or virtual appliance that sends data from the edge to the core infrastructure to easily and cost-effectively help customers move data to the cloud at their own pace.

 

Organizations look for ways to reduce the costs, complexities and risks associated with today’s aggressive growth of unstructured data, particularly when providing IT services to geographically disperse locations or cloud consumers. Together, HDI and HCP are an integrated edge-to-core solution with seamless, bottomless scalability and backup-free storage. The combination greatly reduces the cost and complexity of providing IT services to distributed environments such as remote or branch offices, organizations building an internal private cloud, or service providers creating a standard on-ramp for cloud adoption.

 

“For many organizations, the ability to store and protect company data at one location can be a daunting task. With multiple sites, the ability to securely and adequately manage that data becomes exponentially more difficult. To help organizations with this challenge, Hitachi Data Systems has taken the general concept of object storage a leap forward with the new enhancements to HDI,” said Miki Sandorfi, chief strategist, File, Content and Cloud, Hitachi Data Systems. “Combined with HCP, the new HDI solution will allow customers to properly manage, protect and backup the data residing at the edge, and reduce their infrastructure footprint.”

 

Hitachi Data Ingestor: New Content Sharing, File Restore, and NAS Migration Features

Acting as a caching device, HDI provides users and applications with seemingly endless storage and newly available capabilities for cloud and distributed IT environments, including: 

  • Content sharing – enabling “edge-dispersion” of data across a network of HDI systems

o   Multiple HDI systems can read from a single HCP namespace, giving an HDI system access to other HDI systems

o   Users can deploy a wide area content distribution framework

  • File restore

o   Users can retrieve previous versions of a file as well as deleted files

o   Users maintain file and directory access control

  • NAS migration

o   Users can transparently migrate data from NAS and Windows Servers to HDI

o   Automated throttling and continuous migration of data into HDI are supported

 

Benefits to Customers

The new version of HDI provides customers with enhanced manageability and flexibility specifically designed for cloud and distributed IT environments, to help organizations reduce cost and IT complexity, and drive practical strategies to simplify and accelerate cloud deployments. Benefits include:

·         Reduces costs

·         Eliminates backups at the edge by providing a highly available on-ramp into a centralized storage solution and taking advantage of robust storage management capabilities

o   Improves efficiency and utilization by consolidating distributed silos

  • Simplifies IT

o   Reduces islands of storage and infrastructure

o   Increases efficiencies through bottomless storage at the edge with intelligent management capabilities.

  • Reduces risk

o   Supports compliance and retention capabilities

o   Supports full integration with Active Directory and LDAP

  • Streamlines cloud deployments and adoption

o   Supports multitenant, multi-namespace environments

 

About HDI and HCP

HDI is an intelligent on-ramp for users and applications at the edge. Representing the remote site in ROBO and cloud environments, HDI connects to HCP at a core data center. Together, HDI and HCP work as a single solution to orchestrate the agility and robust characteristics necessary for rapid cloud adoption and cost-efficient, distributed IT deployments. Complex data and storage management practices are cost-effectively centralized and automated, and tape-based backup is eliminated. In addition, cloud service providers can deliver the benefits of cloud storage without having to build and maintain their own edge-to-core infrastructure.

 

Web Resources

-       Learn about Hitachi Data Ingestor and Hitachi Content Platform

-       Hear what Miki Sandorfi has to say about the announcement

-       Follow us on Twitter

-       Connect with us on LinkedIn

-       Friend us on Facebook

 

About Hitachi Data Systems

Hitachi Data Systems provides best-in-class information technologies, services and solutions that deliver compelling customer ROI, unmatched return on assets (ROA) and demonstrable business impact. With a vision that IT must be virtualized, automated, cloud-ready and sustainable, Hitachi Data Systems offers solutions that improve IT costs and agility. With more than 5,300 employees worldwide, Hitachi Data Systems does business in more than 100 countries and regions. Hitachi Data Systems products, services and solutions are trusted by the world’s leading enterprises, including more than 70 percent of the Fortune 100 and more than 80 percent of the Fortune Global 100. Hitachi Data Systems believes that data drives our world – and information is the new currency. To learn more, visit: http://www.hds.com.

 

About Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi, Ltd., (NYSE: HIT / TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company with approximately 360,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2010 (ended March 31, 2011) consolidated revenues totaled 9,315 billion yen ($112.2 billion). Hitachi will focus more than ever on the Social Innovation Business, which includes information and telecommunication systems, power systems, environmental, industrial and transportation systems, and social and urban systems, as well as the sophisticated materials and key devices that support them. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at http://www.hitachi.com.

 

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© Hitachi Data Systems Corporation 2011. All Rights Reserved. Hitachi is a registered trademark of Hitachi, Ltd. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries. Hitachi Data Systems is a registered trademark and service mark of Hitachi, Ltd. in the United States and other countries.  

 

 

Lizanne McReelis

Echo Communications

O: +1.647.438.5414

C: +1.416.846.5385

E: lizanne@echo-communications.com

W: http://www.echo-communications.com

 

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/lizannemcreelis

Twitter: LizanneMcReelis