Microsoft Shines the Spotlight on the New SharePoint

Microsoft Shines the Spotlight on the New SharePoint
Nov. 12, 2012
Exciting new product enhancements and big bets on social, cloud and mobile.

LAS VEGAS — Nov. 12, 2012 — Today, at SharePoint Conference 2012, Microsoft Corp. demonstrated an exciting array of new product enhancements in SharePoint 2013 and highlighted significant investments in social, cloud and mobile capabilities.

New Product Enhancements

SharePoint is one of Microsoft’s most popular business products ever. The company announced today that it has grown to more than $2 billion, adjusted, in annual revenue.

“This growth underscores the power and passion of the SharePoint community of customers, partners and developers,” said Jeff Teper, corporate vice president, Microsoft. “The new SharePoint is a pivotal release that not only delivers an amazing amount of innovation today, it lays the foundation for exciting new innovations in the future.”

New product enhancements include the following:

• A new and simplified user experience. Share documents inside or outside your organization with a single click, drag and drop content into document libraries, edit lists inline, and create new sites in seconds.

• Document store and sync. Use SkyDrive Pro to store and sync your documents across all your devices.

• Task management. Organize your work with task lists and project timelines. Consolidate task management across SharePoint, Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Project.

• Smarter search. Find what you’re looking for with the new and improved FAST Search. Customize and narrow your search for more relevant results and discover related people and documents with recommendations.

• Core services. Manage risk with eDiscovery across SharePoint, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Lync and file shares. Create dynamic websites with cross-site publishing and enhanced Web content management. Improve scalability and performance with a new cloud architecture.

Social: Changing the Way We Work

Microsoft also unveiled the company’s vision for the future of enterprise social. “We envision a world in which social is woven into the apps you use every day — where people work together using new experiences that combine the power of social with collaboration, email and unified communications,” Teper said.

As a first step toward that vision, the company shared a road map for SharePoint and Yammer integration. Today, customers can connect the two systems with Yammer Web parts and the new Yammer Open Graph capabilities. As a next step, Microsoft is investing in unified identity, integrated document management and feed aggregation.

To align with this vision and road map, Microsoft also announced changes to Yammer packaging and pricing, consolidating Yammer’s paid services into a single offering, Yammer Enterprise, and reducing the price of the service from $15 to $3 per user per month. For Enterprise Agreement customers, it further announced plans to ship Yammer Enterprise with Microsoft SharePoint Online and the Office 365 Enterprise plans with no change in price for existing customers. “This means customers get the best cloud productivity service and the best enterprise social service together — Office 365 plus Yammer,” said David Sacks, corporate vice president, Microsoft. “These packaging changes are just a first step into a future where Yammer will power new social experiences across your business applications.”

New Cloud App Model

In addition to broad investments in SharePoint Online, SharePoint 2013 also introduces a new cloud app model for the more than 700,000 developers building on SharePoint. The new app model and a new Office Store make it easier for developers to build, buy, deploy and manage applications using existing Web development skills.

Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president in Microsoft’s Server and Tools Business division, announced new tools for developing apps for Office and SharePoint with Visual Studio 2012. They work with “Napa” tools for online development of Office 365 apps, include templates and designers to facilitate app development, and support the LightSwitch HTML client for easy creation of data-centric business apps in SharePoint 2013.

Mobile Apps for Anywhere Access

Finally, to help people work from anywhere and across any device, Microsoft introduced new native SharePoint mobile apps to give people access to SharePoint news feeds and documents on Windows 8, Windows Phone, iOS and Android devices. All apps will work with both SharePoint 2013 and SharePoint Online.

The SharePoint Conference 2012 continues through Thursday, Nov. 15, 2012. Session information can be found at the SharePoint Conference 2012 website. Additional information about today’s news can be found at the Official Microsoft Blog.

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

Commercial and Technical HPC Customers Can Achieve Big Data Results Faster with NetApp HPS Rack Solution

Commercial and Technical HPC Customers Can Achieve Big Data Results Faster with NetApp HPS Rack Solution

New High-Performance Storage Rack Solution Brings Simplicity, Economy, and Ease of Deployment to Data-Intensive Industries Looking to Manage Growing Data Volumes

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Nov. 9, 2012 — Technology advances have made high-performance computing (HPC) more affordable, extending the benefits beyond traditional scientific and military applications to a broader set of commercial and university applications. As the need to work with growing datasets becomes common, organizations are discovering that the resources required to address big data challenges exceed the capabilities of existing infrastructure, as well as the expertise and process knowledge of supporting staff. And, while the volume of data generated by emerging commercial industries such as manufacturing, life sciences, and higher education can provide key business insights, these organizations are limited by the complexity of existing HPC systems in the market.

Today, NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP) is helping customers with these deployment and management challenges with the announcement of the NetApp® High-Performance Storage (HPS) Rack. The prepackaged and preconfigured storage solution delivers high performance that scales to help manage ever-increasing data growth. The HPS Rack includes preconfigured servers, management and monitoring software, and the open-source Lustre parallel file system, enabling organizations to shorten deployment time from months to days, lower risk, reduce total cost of ownership, and speed time to results.

“Storage system deployment and management needs to be simplified for more industries to reap the benefits of high-performance computing,” said Brendon Howe, vice president, Product and Solutions Marketing, NetApp. “The NetApp HPS Rack integrates critical building blocks and removes many of the deployment challenges associated with HPC management, ultimately helping customers deploy low-risk solutions that unlock innovation quickly and gain critical competitive advantage in their markets.”

The NetApp HPS Rack is built on the NetApp E-Series platform. NetApp E-Series solutions efficiently process, analyze, manage, and access data at scale to meet customers’ needs in industries requiring applications with dedicated workloads, including oil and gas, financial services, media and entertainment, high-performance computing, and the public sector. Customers can spark innovation, make better decisions, and drive successful business outcomes at the speed of today’s business.

Additionally, the NetApp HPS Rack can integrate Terascala LustreStack software to provide proven management and extensive analytics. With LustreStack, customers get a Lustre-based solution that deploys in minutes, is easy to manage, and is optimally tuned for applications and workflows. Administrators can get all the performance and scalability benefits of Lustre without the need for any in-house expertise, bringing rapid deployment, simplicity, and faster time to results to big data and HPC environments.

“For fast insight to action, the best software and hardware needs to be employed to achieve the highest levels of performance for our researchers,” said Scott Kornblum, managing director, Thesys Technologies, the infrastructure affiliate of Tradeworx. “Once we started running our NetApp E5400 and E2600 with Terascala’s LustreStack, it became dramatically easier for us to manage resources, helping us reduce costs. We can now monitor performance in real time and provide 5GB per second of throughput to our research group, giving them the tools they need to test and model new algorithms concurrently.”

“By integrating with the NetApp HPS Rack, we make it fast and easy for commercial organizations to install, tune, and manage high-performance storage solutions,” said Steve Butler, CEO, Terascala. “There is a complete set of tools for system monitoring, application tuning, and event logging and alerts, as well as data workflow management. With improved throughput and less time spent managing the system, customers can get to their results much faster.”

The NetApp HPS Rack will be demonstrated at next week’s SC12 Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, from November 10–16. Come and visit NetApp at booth 4626.

Key Highlights

  • The NetApp HPS Rack is a preconfigured solution that allows customers to achieve faster time to results by reducing the time and resources needed to architect, design, and implement HPC storage configurations.
  • Optimized for Lustre, NetApp and Terascala solutions enable administrators to easily deploy, manage, and maintain their environment to achieve results faster and at low risk.
  • NetApp E-Series is optimized for performance, processing efficiency, and density needs.
  • The solution enables real-time data collection for application-driven tuning.

Additional Resources

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

Press Contact:
Dominic Garcia
NetApp PR
(408) 822-1940
xdl-uspr@netapp.com

Commercial and Technical HPC Customers Can Achieve Big Data Results Faster with NetApp HPS Rack Solution

Commercial and Technical HPC Customers Can Achieve Big Data Results Faster with NetApp HPS Rack Solution

New High-Performance Storage Rack Solution Brings Simplicity, Economy, and Ease of Deployment to Data-Intensive Industries Looking to Manage Growing Data Volumes

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Nov. 9, 2012 — Technology advances have made high-performance computing (HPC) more affordable, extending the benefits beyond traditional scientific and military applications to a broader set of commercial and university applications. As the need to work with growing datasets becomes common, organizations are discovering that the resources required to address big data challenges exceed the capabilities of existing infrastructure, as well as the expertise and process knowledge of supporting staff. And, while the volume of data generated by emerging commercial industries such as manufacturing, life sciences, and higher education can provide key business insights, these organizations are limited by the complexity of existing HPC systems in the market.

Today, NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP) is helping customers with these deployment and management challenges with the announcement of the NetApp® High-Performance Storage (HPS) Rack. The prepackaged and preconfigured storage solution delivers high performance that scales to help manage ever-increasing data growth. The HPS Rack includes preconfigured servers, management and monitoring software, and the open-source Lustre parallel file system, enabling organizations to shorten deployment time from months to days, lower risk, reduce total cost of ownership, and speed time to results.

“Storage system deployment and management needs to be simplified for more industries to reap the benefits of high-performance computing,” said Brendon Howe, vice president, Product and Solutions Marketing, NetApp. “The NetApp HPS Rack integrates critical building blocks and removes many of the deployment challenges associated with HPC management, ultimately helping customers deploy low-risk solutions that unlock innovation quickly and gain critical competitive advantage in their markets.”

The NetApp HPS Rack is built on the NetApp E-Series platform. NetApp E-Series solutions efficiently process, analyze, manage, and access data at scale to meet customers’ needs in industries requiring applications with dedicated workloads, including oil and gas, financial services, media and entertainment, high-performance computing, and the public sector. Customers can spark innovation, make better decisions, and drive successful business outcomes at the speed of today’s business.

Additionally, the NetApp HPS Rack can integrate Terascala LustreStack software to provide proven management and extensive analytics. With LustreStack, customers get a Lustre-based solution that deploys in minutes, is easy to manage, and is optimally tuned for applications and workflows. Administrators can get all the performance and scalability benefits of Lustre without the need for any in-house expertise, bringing rapid deployment, simplicity, and faster time to results to big data and HPC environments.

“For fast insight to action, the best software and hardware needs to be employed to achieve the highest levels of performance for our researchers,” said Scott Kornblum, managing director, Thesys Technologies, the infrastructure affiliate of Tradeworx. “Once we started running our NetApp E5400 and E2600 with Terascala’s LustreStack, it became dramatically easier for us to manage resources, helping us reduce costs. We can now monitor performance in real time and provide 5GB per second of throughput to our research group, giving them the tools they need to test and model new algorithms concurrently.”

“By integrating with the NetApp HPS Rack, we make it fast and easy for commercial organizations to install, tune, and manage high-performance storage solutions,” said Steve Butler, CEO, Terascala. “There is a complete set of tools for system monitoring, application tuning, and event logging and alerts, as well as data workflow management. With improved throughput and less time spent managing the system, customers can get to their results much faster.”

The NetApp HPS Rack will be demonstrated at next week’s SC12 Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, from November 10–16. Come and visit NetApp at booth 4626.

Key Highlights

  • The NetApp HPS Rack is a preconfigured solution that allows customers to achieve faster time to results by reducing the time and resources needed to architect, design, and implement HPC storage configurations.
  • Optimized for Lustre, NetApp and Terascala solutions enable administrators to easily deploy, manage, and maintain their environment to achieve results faster and at low risk.
  • NetApp E-Series is optimized for performance, processing efficiency, and density needs.
  • The solution enables real-time data collection for application-driven tuning.

Additional Resources

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

Press Contact:
Dominic Garcia
NetApp PR
(408) 822-1940
xdl-uspr@netapp.com

SAP and MolecularHealth Join Forces to Shape the Future of Personalized Cancer Treatment

SAP and MolecularHealth Join Forces to Shape the Future of Personalized Cancer Treatment

Treatment Decision Support Solutions from MolecularHealth Powered by the SAP HANA® Platform

WALLDORF, Germany and NEW YORK - November 12, 2012 - SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) and MolecularHealth, a leader in clinico-molecular informatics™, today announced that they have joined forces to improve oncologists’ clinical decision-making and enhance the quality of care for cancer patients. A personalized cancer treatment services offering from MolecularHealth based on the SAP HANA® platform aims to translate terabytes of clinical, molecular and drug data into real-time and effective treatment choices for each individual patient. Benefitting from the unprecedented speed and performance of SAP HANA, the new offering is intended to successfully tackle the challenges of “big data,” complex analytics, scalability and increasing healthcare industry costs. The solution is planned to be deployable in the cloud, on premise or in a hybrid model, as well as to be made available via mobile devices. The collaboration with MolecularHealth, recently formalized in an original equipment manufacturing (OEM) agreement, underlines SAP’s commitment to supporting the paradigm-shifting information-driven revolution in personalized cancer treatment.

Oncologists constantly face the challenge of identifying the correct treatment approach for an individual patient with cancer. This decision involves choosing the most effective medications with the least toxicity, or “personalizing” treatment for a specific patient based on the unique characteristics of their cancer.

“The growing numbers of available therapies and the rapidly expanding body of biomedical knowledge have led to great hope for treating patients, but at the same time there are increasing challenges due to the complexity in the clinical decision-making process. But today the practice of medicine is undergoing a technology-driven revolution to realize the goals of truly personalizing therapy and improving clinical efficiency,” said Lloyd K. Everson, M.D., former vice-chairman and member of the Board of Directors of US Oncology and former member of the Board of Directors, president and chief operating officer of American Oncology Resources, Inc. “MolecularHealth has taken a unique approach to the integrated analysis of clinical and genetic data. The company is contextualizing these data with drug-related information for precise and safer treatment considerations by doctors. Powered by SAP HANA, MolecularHealth’s personalized cancer therapy solutions aim to help oncologists achieve the potential of precision medicine.”

There have been extensive advances in cancer treatment over the years, but many if not most cancers, especially in advanced stages, remain difficult to treat. Personalized cancer therapy seeks to dramatically improve these poor outcomes. Recent advances in technology — particularly genome sequencing — enable analyzing a patient’s individual cancer and matching findings to existing drug choices. By conducting genomic sequencing on both a patient’s normal cells and cancer cells, and then examining the differences that may have an impact on the disease, key clinical insights can be gleaned. Personalized medicine aims to achieve a higher effectiveness of drug selection and an improved understanding and subsequent avoidance of adverse side effects.

Addressing Challenges at the Heart of Genomics
While selecting from a host of approved drugs and clinical trials poses a real challenge to today’s oncologist, SAP HANA can bring a dramatic acceleration to the decision-making process. The MolecularHealth offering, supported by the platform, is planned to be capable of translating genomic sequences of both tumor and normal cells — more than 3 billion data points — into potential treatment strategies. Physicians are planned to be able to select a treatment strategy for each patient from hundreds of approved drugs and clinical trials — a process that today involves significant time and complexity. Genomic sequencing data amounts to approximately 2 terabytes of information per patient. Printed on paper, this amount of data would fill a medium-sized elementary school library.

“The partnership between two exceptional players in their respective fields creates a unique opportunity to enable better decision-making in the healthcare industry,” said Friedrich von Bohlen, chairman of the Executive Board, MolecularHealth. “Personalized cancer therapy solutions integrate cutting edge technologies with critical molecular, clinical and drug information to inform decision-making.”

The offering from MolecularHealth supported by SAP technology aims to change the way patients are treated and how the industry operates by providing customized treatments. Based on SAP HANA, a combination of mobile and cloud offerings are also planned, along with offerings for other diseases. A network that includes oncologists, researchers, regulatory authorities, life-sciences corporations, sequencing labs and care centers will be able to further change the way people with cancer and other diseases are treated. The underlying technology is intended to enable fast, real-time data analysis to boost operational efficiency and scalability. Additionally, as the cost to sequence a patient’s tumor drops, the use of genetic data is quickly becoming actionable in the clinical setting. As a result, healthcare professionals such as oncologists will have more time to focus on their core mission — patient care.

“With our market-leading innovations and our investments in research and healthcare IT solutions, we have the ability to support the fight against cancer together with MolecularHealth,” said Jim Hagemann Snabe, co-CEO, SAP AG. “We partner and drive co-innovation with companies that are dedicated to making a difference. Our investment in technologies and platforms such as SAP HANA, cloud and enterprise mobility enables us and our partners to deliver on our vision and commitment to make the world run better and to improve people’s lives.”

For more information, visit the SAP Newsroom.

Next Major Event: SAPPHIRE® NOW + SAP® TechEd Madrid
In 2012, SAP again brings together its largest ecosystem education event series with its premier customer conference for a co-located event to be held in Madrid, Spain, from November 13-16. With SAPPHIRE® NOW, SAP offers its customers, partners, and prospects even more opportunities to engage in dialogue with peers, participants and thought leaders around the globe, and can gain insight as to how SAP is delivering on its product strategy and helping organizations around the world to run better. SAP® TechEd brings IT managers, software developers, administrators, and business process experts together to learn in an interactive environment directly from the experts responsible for cutting-edge SAP technology. The co-located event provides access to the entire SAP ecosystem and enables attendees to learn how SAP can help their organizations run like never before. Follow on Twitter at @SAPPHIRENOW and @SAPTechEd, and join the conversation at #SAPPHIRENOW and #SAPTechEd.

About MolecularHealth
MolecularHealth, a clinico-molecular informatics company, is advancing precision medicine by translating patient-specific molecular and genomic data, clinical history and published scientific and medical evidence into safer, more effective drug choices for patients. The company’s solutions range from a next generation drug safety assessment and prediction tool that analyzes the molecular basis of adverse events to a treatment decision support system that transforms genome sequences into evidence-based treatment strategies for cancer patients.  MolecularHealth’s collaborators include the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). For more information visit www.molecularhealth.com.

About SAP
As market leader in enterprise application software, SAP (NYSE: SAP) helps companies of all sizes and industries run better. From back office to boardroom, warehouse to storefront, desktop to mobile device – SAP empowers people and organizations to work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively to stay ahead of the competition. SAP applications and services enable more than 197,000 customers to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and grow sustainably. For more information, visit www.sap.com.

Arrow Electronics Launches Online Development Tool for “Internet of Things” Applications

Arrow Electronics Launches Online Development Tool for “Internet of Things” Applications

ENGLEWOOD, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 12, 2012-- Arrow Electronics, Inc. (NYSE:ARW) today announced Arrow Cloud Connect, the first online tool for developing ARM Cortex-M0+ -based designs and “Internet of Things” (or machine-to-machine) applications. Featuring technology from Freescale Semiconductor and Digi International, Arrow Cloud Connect is a free development environment that helps designers realize the potential of adding connectivity to their products.

Arrow Cloud Connect offers an online integrated development environment (IDE) for users to write, compile and program code to Freescale’s development platform for Kinetis® L series MCUs. This provides a path for engineers to quickly test their ARM® Cortex- M0+-based designs and eliminates the extra step of purchasing or downloading heavy IDEs. Engineers can also connect to Digi’s iDigi® Device Cloud through a software gateway, providing instant cloud connectivity to devices. The iDigi Device Cloud makes it easier for an engineer to develop an application using remote connected devices, and remotely update firmware and troubleshoot problems during development.

“Connectivity is pervasive in embedded systems. As more of our applications run in the cloud, we looked at these trends and recognized that embedded development, code generation and compilation can be done in the cloud to offer our customers greater options and solutions,” said Aiden Mitchell, director of supplier marketing for Arrow Electronics. “Arrow, Freescale and Digi have worked to deliver that capability with Arrow Cloud Connect – a platform we can build on as a development playground.”

“We're excited to build upon the Freescale relationship we announced earlier this year along with our relationship with Arrow,” said Larry Kraft, senior vice president of global sales and marketing, Digi International. “Arrow Cloud Connect provides easy access to complex development tools. And with the iDigi Device Cloud, developers now have access to remote device management tools in the cloud that make device deployment and ongoing maintenance easy. Once development work is complete, the iDigi Device Cloud makes rollout of connected devices easy.”

Arrow Cloud Connect was designed for efficiency and convenience, with a comprehensive code library for rapid development and enhanced dashboard and collaboration tools. For more information and to get started, register online by visiting: www.arrow.com/arrowcloudconnect.

About Arrow Electronics

Arrow Electronics (http://www.arrow.com) is a global provider of products, services and solutions to industrial and commercial users of electronic components and enterprise computing solutions. Arrow serves as a supply channel partner for more than 120,000 original equipment manufacturers, contract manufacturers and commercial customers through a global network of more than 390 locations in 53 countries.

Source: Arrow Electronics, Inc.

Arrow Electronics, Inc.
Chris Maio, 631-847-5454
Manager, External Communications
cmaio@arrow.com





































































































































































































































































Arrow Electronics Launches Online Development Tool for “Internet of Things” Applications

Arrow Electronics Launches Online Development Tool for “Internet of Things” Applications

ENGLEWOOD, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 12, 2012-- Arrow Electronics, Inc. (NYSE:ARW) today announced Arrow Cloud Connect, the first online tool for developing ARM Cortex-M0+ -based designs and “Internet of Things” (or machine-to-machine) applications. Featuring technology from Freescale Semiconductor and Digi International, Arrow Cloud Connect is a free development environment that helps designers realize the potential of adding connectivity to their products.

Arrow Cloud Connect offers an online integrated development environment (IDE) for users to write, compile and program code to Freescale’s development platform for Kinetis® L series MCUs. This provides a path for engineers to quickly test their ARM® Cortex- M0+-based designs and eliminates the extra step of purchasing or downloading heavy IDEs. Engineers can also connect to Digi’s iDigi® Device Cloud through a software gateway, providing instant cloud connectivity to devices. The iDigi Device Cloud makes it easier for an engineer to develop an application using remote connected devices, and remotely update firmware and troubleshoot problems during development.

“Connectivity is pervasive in embedded systems. As more of our applications run in the cloud, we looked at these trends and recognized that embedded development, code generation and compilation can be done in the cloud to offer our customers greater options and solutions,” said Aiden Mitchell, director of supplier marketing for Arrow Electronics. “Arrow, Freescale and Digi have worked to deliver that capability with Arrow Cloud Connect – a platform we can build on as a development playground.”

“We're excited to build upon the Freescale relationship we announced earlier this year along with our relationship with Arrow,” said Larry Kraft, senior vice president of global sales and marketing, Digi International. “Arrow Cloud Connect provides easy access to complex development tools. And with the iDigi Device Cloud, developers now have access to remote device management tools in the cloud that make device deployment and ongoing maintenance easy. Once development work is complete, the iDigi Device Cloud makes rollout of connected devices easy.”

Arrow Cloud Connect was designed for efficiency and convenience, with a comprehensive code library for rapid development and enhanced dashboard and collaboration tools. For more information and to get started, register online by visiting: www.arrow.com/arrowcloudconnect.

About Arrow Electronics

Arrow Electronics (http://www.arrow.com) is a global provider of products, services and solutions to industrial and commercial users of electronic components and enterprise computing solutions. Arrow serves as a supply channel partner for more than 120,000 original equipment manufacturers, contract manufacturers and commercial customers through a global network of more than 390 locations in 53 countries.

Source: Arrow Electronics, Inc.

Arrow Electronics, Inc.
Chris Maio, 631-847-5454
Manager, External Communications
cmaio@arrow.com





































































































































































































































































HP Helps Organizations Quickly Harness the Benefits of SAP Rapid Deployment Solutions

Content starts here

HP Helps Organizations Quickly Harness the Benefits of SAP Rapid Deployment Solutions

HP’s SAP-qualified services help enterprises accelerate return on investment

MADRID, Nov. 12, 2012

HP today announced the availability of its new SAP-qualified implementation services for SAP® Rapid Deployment solutions, which are designed to help organizations accelerate return on investment and lower the IT risks related to implementing and running SAP applications.

HP’s new implementation services for SAP Rapid Deployment solutions combine software and best practices with HP consulting services to help clients achieve benefits quickly and affordably while reducing risks. These preconfigured solutions identify the costs and scope of SAP application implementations up front, which leads to predictable results. Additionally, HP can help clients customize the SAP Rapid Deployment solutions to address future business requirements.

When customers are ready for the production environment of SAP Rapid Deployment solutions, HP offers a hybrid delivery model to support the client’s choice on where to run the applications. Clients can run the applications in a traditional IT environment, in a private cloud on the client’s premises, or in one of HP’s secure commercial data centers around the globe.

“Enterprises need to address their most pressing business needs—such as analytics, mobility, supply chain and customer relationship management—while laying the foundation for future expansion,” said Jules Beck, vice president, Global Enterprise Applications and Mobility Services, HP Enterprise Services. “With deep expertise in various delivery models and SAP applications, HP helps clients to stay competitive, improve customer retention, meet regulatory requirements and improve business processes.”

HP is a leading global service provider offering SAP-qualified implementation services for the following SAP Rapid Deployment solutions:

  • SAP HANA® Profitability Analysis rapid-deployment solution;
  • SAP Extended Warehouse Management rapid-deployment solution;
  • Rapid database migration of SAP NetWeaver® Business Warehouse (SAP NetWeaver BW) to SAP HANA; and
  • Rapid database migration to SAP Sybase® Adaptive Server® Enterprise (SAP Sybase ASE).

The coupling of SAP Rapid Deployment solutions with HP fast start services for the SAP HANA platform offers clients a unique opportunity to deliver business value in weeks, rather than months. HP also can provide the preconfigured hardware for SAP HANA, which further accelerates time to value.

“Faster time to value has become a critical factor in IT budget spending decisions,” said Steven Birdsall, senior vice president and general manager, SAP Rapid Deployment Solutions. “Using HP’s implementation services for SAP Rapid Deployment solutions will allow clients to quickly address their most urgent business processes utilizing SAP best practices, templates and tools.”

HP offers end-to-end consulting and system integration services to help clients further capture the full business advantage of their SAP applications. The HP implementation services for SAP Rapid Deployment solutions extend HP’s capabilities, resources and expertise for SAP application development and delivery.

HP is an SAP-certified global provider of cloud services, application management services, Run SAP implementations and hosting services, providing high-quality standards for delivering of SAP applications.

HP’s premier Europe, Middle East and Africa client event, HP Discover, takes place Dec. 4-6 in Frankfurt, Germany.

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.

BlueGene/Q system: IBM attained top ranking for the fastest supercomputer in Canada

Research and innovation-dedicated IBM Blue Gene/Q supercomputer named fastest in Canada

 

TORONTO, ONTARIO, November 12, 2012 – The Southern Ontario Smart Computing Innovation Platform (SOSCIP) today announced the research consortium’s IBM Blue Gene/Q system has been named the fastest in Canada on the TOP500 list of the world’s top supercomputers.

 

Located at University of Toronto’s high performance computing facility, the Blue Gene/Q platform is dedicated to collaborative research focused on solving critical challenges within cities, health, water, and energy systems, as well as in the area of agile computing.  

 

Watch the video (time 02:26)

 

Canada’s top supercomputer, the IBM POWER architecture-based Blue Gene/Q has more than 40,000 water-cooled processors -- the equivalent processing power of 3 million smartphones, or 6500 new, high-end laptops.  The system is approximately 30 times faster, 10 times smaller, and uses five times less electricity than Canada's previous top supercomputer.  The Blue Gene-Q system was installed in September 2012 with funding support from the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario). 

 

“The Blue Gene/Q and, in fact, the SOSCIP consortium facilitate a university-industry partnership that will transform what we can do through research and innovation,” said Professor Paul Young, Vice President (Research and Innovation) at the University of Toronto and Co-Chair of the SOSCIP Board.  “SOSCIP and the Blue Gene/Q will help to lower the barriers to high performance computing, enabling researchers, students, and small to medium sized business enterprises to collaboratively use this powerful new technology and create innovative solutions to challenging problems facing society.” 

 

Through SOSCIP supported research projects, the Blue Gene/Q supercomputer will enable researchers from participating universities to tackle new and previously unattainable big data and scientific challenges such as disease modeling, disaster planning and mitigation, climate science and other computationally intensive modeling and simulation-based research.

 

“The muscle behind this system is the same architecture that drives many of the world’s enterprise computing systems. Here, it's being applied toward data-intensive, complex calculations to find solutions to issues affecting us all,” says John Lutz, president of IBM Canada. “The IBM BlueGene/Q can change the research climate in Canada and reveal insights that will deepen and strengthen our knowledge-based economy.”

 

For more information about SOSIP visit: http://www.soscip.org

 

About SOSCIP
The Southern Ontario Smart Computing Innovation Platform (SOSCIP) is a research consortium established in April 2012.  The consortium pairs academic and industry researchers with high performance computing to analyze big data and fuel innovation leadership in Canada within agile computing, health, water, energy and cities.  The consortium members include the IBM Canada Research and Development Centre as well as seven Ontario universities, led by University of Toronto and Western University.  Other participants include McMaster University, Queen’s University, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, University of Ottawa, and University of Waterloo. 

 

For more information about the individual investments made by the Government of Canada, the Government of Ontario, and IBM Canada, please refer to the following backgrounders: 

·         Government of Canada 

·         Government of Ontario 

·         IBM Canada

 

 

BlueGene/Q system: IBM attained top ranking for the fastest supercomputer in Canada

Research and innovation-dedicated IBM Blue Gene/Q supercomputer named fastest in Canada

 

TORONTO, ONTARIO, November 12, 2012 – The Southern Ontario Smart Computing Innovation Platform (SOSCIP) today announced the research consortium’s IBM Blue Gene/Q system has been named the fastest in Canada on the TOP500 list of the world’s top supercomputers.

 

Located at University of Toronto’s high performance computing facility, the Blue Gene/Q platform is dedicated to collaborative research focused on solving critical challenges within cities, health, water, and energy systems, as well as in the area of agile computing.  

 

Watch the video (time 02:26)

 

Canada’s top supercomputer, the IBM POWER architecture-based Blue Gene/Q has more than 40,000 water-cooled processors -- the equivalent processing power of 3 million smartphones, or 6500 new, high-end laptops.  The system is approximately 30 times faster, 10 times smaller, and uses five times less electricity than Canada's previous top supercomputer.  The Blue Gene-Q system was installed in September 2012 with funding support from the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario). 

 

“The Blue Gene/Q and, in fact, the SOSCIP consortium facilitate a university-industry partnership that will transform what we can do through research and innovation,” said Professor Paul Young, Vice President (Research and Innovation) at the University of Toronto and Co-Chair of the SOSCIP Board.  “SOSCIP and the Blue Gene/Q will help to lower the barriers to high performance computing, enabling researchers, students, and small to medium sized business enterprises to collaboratively use this powerful new technology and create innovative solutions to challenging problems facing society.” 

 

Through SOSCIP supported research projects, the Blue Gene/Q supercomputer will enable researchers from participating universities to tackle new and previously unattainable big data and scientific challenges such as disease modeling, disaster planning and mitigation, climate science and other computationally intensive modeling and simulation-based research.

 

“The muscle behind this system is the same architecture that drives many of the world’s enterprise computing systems. Here, it's being applied toward data-intensive, complex calculations to find solutions to issues affecting us all,” says John Lutz, president of IBM Canada. “The IBM BlueGene/Q can change the research climate in Canada and reveal insights that will deepen and strengthen our knowledge-based economy.”

 

For more information about SOSIP visit: http://www.soscip.org

 

About SOSCIP
The Southern Ontario Smart Computing Innovation Platform (SOSCIP) is a research consortium established in April 2012.  The consortium pairs academic and industry researchers with high performance computing to analyze big data and fuel innovation leadership in Canada within agile computing, health, water, energy and cities.  The consortium members include the IBM Canada Research and Development Centre as well as seven Ontario universities, led by University of Toronto and Western University.  Other participants include McMaster University, Queen’s University, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, University of Ottawa, and University of Waterloo. 

 

For more information about the individual investments made by the Government of Canada, the Government of Ontario, and IBM Canada, please refer to the following backgrounders: 

·         Government of Canada 

·         Government of Ontario 

·         IBM Canada

 

 

Skype Launches New Online Platform for Small Businesses

Skype Launches New Online Platform for Small Businesses
Nov. 08, 2012
Skype in the workspace designed to help businesses connect and grow.

LONDON and PALO ALTO, Calif. — Nov. 8, 2012 — Skype today launched to the public Skype in the workspace (SITW), a new online platform for small businesses to instantly connect with potential customers, partners and suppliers across the globe.

The free-to-use tool makes use of the huge network already offered by Skype, allowing millions of small businesses to promote their products and services to new networks and connections. Users can improve existing connections and establish new ones by instantly sending messages and talking to or meeting face-to-face with peers and business prospects over Skype.

The SITW community is already active because today’s launch comes at the end of a six-month beta trial, which enabled 500 businesses, offering more than 140 different services, to sign up, try out and test the platform.

“With more than 280 million connected users each month, Skype offers a huge range of contacts for the small-business community,” said Ural Cebeci, head of SMB Marketing at Skype. “We aim to connect millions of small businesses with Skype in the workspace and believe that, by taking advantage of this shared network, businesses can develop the range of tools they need to grow, regardless of location or industry. From the designer in San Francisco looking to source textile suppliers in Thailand to the London consultant connecting with clients in Milan, the possibilities are endless.”

SITW will provide a central hub for entrepreneurs, startups and small businesses to connect with experts, coaches and consultants who can help them develop their businesses. Users join the community using their existing Skype accounts, then through a series of promotional tools can create public “offers” or “opportunities” inviting community members to live sessions on Skype to demonstrate services or products to a wider audience. Users can also book appointments with potential customers or suppliers and keep track of them with a meeting notification service. When an opportunity is over, users can instantly give testimonials on the product or service offered.

“Small businesses are the backbone of the U.S. economy,” Cebeci said. “For these businesses to survive and grow in what is still a tough economic climate, we understand that good communication and connections are key to their success.

“This is why today we are opening the Skype in the workspace platform to the public,” Cebeci said. “We feel we’re helping connect businesses face-to-face with their customers and prospects, no matter where they are located. It opens up a world of opportunity for them.”

Alison Coward, an avid user of Skype and owner of the London creative collaboration agency Bracket, said, “Skype in the workspace is a real breakthrough. It’s the perfect platform for me to promote my business and connect with the people who can help it to grow. My business is about getting in front of people and helping them to solve their problems. With Skype in the workspace, I am visible to quality leads without even leaving the office. With no travel time to contend with, it’s also now far more feasible for me to grow my business outside the U.K. into Europe and the U.S.”

Jorge Parra, an avid user of Skype and owner of Florida-based Jorge Parra photography, said, “There’s a big difference between a professional network and a social network, and Skype in the workspace seems to understand this distinction. It is the perfect companion to my existing online presence and generates connections that will actually bring me business.”

Cindy Bidar, owner of All Quality Websites, a U.S. startup providing expert advice on how to design, build and maintain an online presence, added, “Skype in the workspace has offered something other online platforms couldn’t — a community of business-focused individuals who can explore my services and interact with me in real time.”

SITW is available to all Skype users starting today. Those wanting to sign up for the community can register their details here.

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