Two Digital Media Innovation Hubs Added to Canadian Digital Media Network

Two Digital Media Innovation Hubs Added to Canadian Digital Media Network

By on Oct 30, 2012 / Categories: CDMN News, Partners, Press Releases

The Canadian Digital Media Network (CDMN) announced today that two more digital media innovation centres have joined the CDMN’s cross-Canada network to enable collaboration and advance digital innovation nationally. The Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre in northern Ontario, and Tech SouthEast in Moncton, New Brunswick become the newest nodes on the CDMN network, bringing the total number across Canada to 12 nodes with 20 locations.

“The CDMN was initiated in 2009 and has grown over the past three years to become a collaboration network connecting innovation hubs across the country,” said Kevin Tuer, CDMN Managing Director. “We’re delighted to bring on board two more organizations that are dedicated to furthering Canada’s competitiveness in the digital economy and advancing commercialization of digital media innovations.”

The CDMN has ambitious expansion plans for the network, and intends to sign additional nodes west of Ontario before the end of the year. Prospective nodes are eager to take advantage of the many benefits associated with membership in this one-of-a-kind national network. Nodes will gain domestic and international market exposure for their organizations and client companies, and have access to unique services that enable their facilities and their clients to leverage proven regional programming and best practices of network members. In addition, they will join Canada’s largest members-only online collaboration of commercialization resources, immediately expanding their client support capability while enabling national access to their regional resources.

Headquartered in Waterloo Region at CDMN node The Communitech Hub, which houses approximately 100 digital media startups, CDMN brings together the regional commercialization centres across Canada and makes the full complement of services and expertise of the nation available to Canada’s entrepreneurs in ICT and mobile, in order to create companies, jobs and opportunity for wealth creation.

Applications are currently open for the CDMN Soft-Landing Program, an initiative for mature startups and small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) who can benefit from a getting a toe-hold outside Canada to expand their businesses. Until November 16, companies can apply for up to $4000 worth of funding to cover travel and accommodation expenses associated with an up to three-month stay at a business accelerator in an economy of interest. To learn more, visit softlanding.cdmn.ca.

Another major initiative is CDMN Canada 3.0, Canada’s only national digital media forum, which is in its fifth year and will be staged in Toronto in May 14 & 15, 2013. Registration opens in November 2012. Further details will be posted at www.cdmn.ca/canada30.

AMD Changes Compute Landscape as the First to Bridge Both x86 and ARM Processors for the Data Center

AMD Changes Compute Landscape as the First to Bridge Both x86 and ARM Processors for the Data Center 

Company to Complement x86-based Offerings with New Processors Based on ARM 64-bit Technology, Starting with Server Market


SUNNYVALE, Calif. —10/29/2012 

In a bold strategic move, AMD (NYSE: AMD) announced that it will design 64-bit ARM® technology-based processors in addition to its x86 processors for multiple markets, starting with cloud and data center servers. AMD’s first ARM technology-based processor will be a highly-integrated, 64-bit multicore System-on-a-Chip (SoC) optimized for the dense, energy-efficient servers that now dominate the largest data centers and power the modern computing experience. The first ARM technology-based AMD Opteron™ processor is targeted for production in 2014 and will integrate the AMD SeaMicro Freedom™ supercompute fabric, the industry’s premier high-performance fabric.

AMD’s new design initiative addresses the growing demand to deliver better performance-per-watt for dense cloud computing solutions. Just as AMD introduced the industry’s first mainstream 64-bit x86 server solution with the AMD Opteron processor in 2003, AMD will be the only processor provider bridging the x86 and 64-bit ARM ecosystems to enable new levels of flexibility and drive optimal performance and power-efficiency for a range of enterprise workloads.

“AMD led the data center transition to mainstream 64-bit computing with AMD64, and with our ambidextrous strategy we will again lead the next major industry inflection point by driving the widespread adoption of energy-efficient 64-bit server processors based on both the x86 and ARM architectures,” said Rory Read, president and chief executive officer, AMD. “Through our collaboration with ARM, we are building on AMD’s rich IP portfolio, including our deep 64-bit processor knowledge and industry-leading AMD SeaMicro Freedom supercompute fabric, to offer the most flexible and complete processing solutions for the modern data center.”

“The industry needs to continuously innovate across markets to meet customers’ ever-increasing demands, and ARM and our partners are enabling increasingly energy-efficient computing solutions to address these needs,” said Warren East, chief executive officer, ARM. “By collaborating with ARM, AMD is able to leverage its extraordinary portfolio of IP, including its AMD Freedom supercompute fabric, with ARM 64-bit processor cores to build solutions that deliver on this demand and transform the industry.”

The explosion of the data center has brought with it an opportunity to optimize compute with vastly different solutions. AMD is providing a compute ecosystem filled with choice, offering solutions based on AMD Opteron x86 CPUs, new server-class Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) that leverage Heterogeneous Systems Architecture (HSA), and new 64-bit ARM-based solutions.

This strategic partnership with ARM represents the next phase of AMD’s strategy to drive ambidextrous solutions in emerging mega data center solutions. In March, AMD announced the acquisition of SeaMicro, the leader in high-density, energy-efficient servers. With this announcement, AMD will integrate the AMD SeaMicro Freedom fabric across its leadership AMD Opteron x86- and ARM technology-based processors that will enable hundreds, or even thousands of processor clusters to be linked together to provide the most energy-efficient solutions.

“Over the past decade the computer industry has coalesced around two high-volume processor architectures – x86 for personal computers and servers, and ARM for mobile devices,” observed Nathan Brookwood, research fellow at Insight 64. “Over the next decade, the purveyors of these established architectures will each seek to extend their presence into market segments dominated by the other. The path on which AMD has now embarked will allow it to offer products based on both x86 and ARM architectures, a capability no other semiconductor manufacturer can likely match.”

At an event hosted by AMD in San Francisco, representatives from Amazon, Dell, Facebook and Red Hat participated in a panel discussion on opportunities created by ARM server solutions from AMD. A replay of the event can be found here as of 5 p.m. PDT, Oct. 29.

Supporting Resources

  • AMD bridges the x86 and ARM ecosystems for the data center announcement press resources
  • Follow AMD on Twitter at @AMD_Unprocessed
  • Follow the AMD and ARM announcement on Twitter at #AMDARM
  • Like AMD on Facebook.

Supporting Quotes from Industry Leaders

Dell

“With its planned 64-bit ARM solutions, AMD brings the experience of a proven enterprise CPU provider to the ARM ecosystem," said Jimmy Pike, vice president and senior fellow of the Dell Data Center Solutions group. "ARM has the promise of being a serious player in areas like web front-end servers and as a worker node in a Hadoop environment. AMD's opportunity is to deliver serious value in performance-per-dollar and performance-per watt-where low-power server platforms running massively scale out workloads can shine. The availability of 64-bit ARM solutions is an essential milestone needed to accelerate enterprise adoption of this technology.”

HP

“In order to handle evolving workloads, business demands and the information explosion, enterprises are looking for flexible compute solutions that drive optimal performance and reduced energy consumption,” said Paul Santeler, vice president and general manager, Hyperscale Business Unit, Industry Standard Servers and Software, HP. "As part of HP's Pathfinder Program, AMD and HP are continuing their decade-long relationship to innovate power-efficient computing with the development of a rich ecosystem of highly energy-efficient, dense server technology.”

Red Hat

“The ecosystem for hyperscale computing is starting to take shape as workloads quickly evolve. Red Hat and AMD have been at the forefront of this movement, and today we are announcing our collaboration efforts to support the next-generation ARM-powered 64-bit architecture, ARMv8,” said Jon Masters, Chief ARM Architect, Red Hat. “This is only the first step, and we’re excited about sharing our enterprise Linux expertise with AMD and the ecosystem as they are striving to become a disruptive force for choice in the emerging ARM-based server market. As part of this effort, Red Hat’s ARM team is looking forward to supporting AMD’s processors in a future release of Fedora, our community-powered Linux distribution.”

About AMD

AMD (NYSE: AMD) is a semiconductor design innovator leading the next era of vivid digital experiences with its groundbreaking AMD Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) that power a wide range of computing devices. AMD’s server computing products are focused on driving industry-leading cloud computing and virtualization environments. AMD’s superior graphics technologies are found in a variety of solutions ranging from game consoles, PCs to supercomputers. For more information, visit http://www.amd.com.

HP Unveils New Printing Innovations that Digitize the Office, Help Reduce Costs

HP Unveils New Printing Innovations that Digitize the Office, Help Reduce Costs

PALO ALTO, Calif., Oct. 30, 2012

HP today announced new HP Officejet Pro and HP LaserJet printers and content management solutions designed to redefine business and government printing by enabling customers to reduce costs, increase efficiency and digitize the office.

The new offerings represent the largest upgrade to HP’s commercial printers in almost a decade, signifying the integration of intellectual property (IP) and innovation from across the organization.

“Our customers need innovative technology tailored to their workflow that is simple and effective, and helps them conduct business,” said Todd Bradley, executive vice president, HP Printing and Personal Systems. “HP is offering new ways to print that have not previously been possible—with superb speed and performance to drive a new level of office efficiency.”

HP Officejet Pro: Outstanding speed, quality, reliability and cost efficiency for SMBs

HP Officejet Pro X Series desktop printers and multifunction printers (MFP) deliver up to twice the speed at up to half the printing cost compared with color laser printers in their class.(1, 2) This new class of devices is powered by HP PageWide Technology, the next-generation inkjet platform that sets a new standard for small work team printing. It offers small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), remote offices and branch offices high-quality documents at up to 70 pages per minute.(3)

HP LaserJet and cloud-based solutions digitize the office, simplify data access

The creation of vast amounts of business and government data means customers need a way to streamline how information is managed and accessed. The HP LaserJet Enterprise flow MFP M525c and HP LaserJet Enterprise color flow MFP M575c offer higher-performance document processing and sharing. This provides an ideal on-ramp to the digitized world with premium scanning and data entry that speed the transition from a paper to digital office.

The HP flow MFPs can be integrated with content management solutions based on software from Autonomy, an HP Company, either on-site or via the cloud. By pairing HP printing technology with Autonomy solutions, customers can access, organize and leverage information in documents, audio, video, email and web pages.

The HP Flow CM Professional brings enterprise-class content management to growing businesses, with security features that also support leading banks, legal firms and stock exchanges. The cloud-based offering increases collaboration and productivity by easily capturing, indexing, storing, searching and retrieving documents through a unique user-friendly interface designed with the customer in mind.

The HP Flow CM Enterprise is composed of a set of enterprise content management (ECM) offerings for large organizations that give instant access to vital information and help to integrate, simplify and automate processes to help reduce operating costs, improve employee productivity and assist with compliance efforts.

“The HP Flow CM Professional and HP flow MFPs offer us an opportunity to improve employee productivity via collaboration and streamlined processes, allowing us to focus more time toward our customers and overall business,” said Stephen Cassar, chief executive officer, TICKETsage. “We see these offerings as having a very positive impact on our business—making it easy to scan documents, easy to find them in the cloud-based document management system and easy to print out information.”

Office printing to increase productivity

Organizations of all sizes can address the need to increase productivity while reducing the complexity of their printing environment.

For SMBs looking to increase office efficiencies with fast, powerful prints, HP is offering two additional series of HP LaserJet Pro printers. HP also is introducing new and enhanced document workflow solutions along with HP LaserJet Enterprise series printers that simplify productivity in enterprise organizations. For workers on the go, HP now offers greater access to print from cloud-based applications, incorporating Google Apps mailbox support through its HP ePrint Enterprise.(4)

For improving workflow through targeted customer communications across print and electronic channels, HP is offering HP Exstream LiveSite Connector and HP Claims Correspondence 2.0. HP Exstream LiveSite Connector combines solutions from Autonomy and HP Exstream to offer consistent, analytics-based, targeted customer communications. HP Claims Correspondence 2.0 reduces claims-settlement cycle time, provides faster correspondence processing and improves online awareness of claims status by uniting document content with people and processes.

Additional information about today’s announcements is available at www.hp.com/go/FallBizPrinting.  

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.


(1) Comparison based on manufacturers’ published specifications of fastest available color mode (as of March 2012) and includes color laser MFPs <$1,000 USD and color laser printers <$800 USD available March 2012 based on market share as reported by IDC as of Q1 2012 and HP internal testing of printer in fastest available color mode (sample four-page category documents tested from ISO 24734). Additional information is available at www.hp.com/go/printerclaims.

(2) Cost per page (CPP) claim is based on the majority of color laser MFPs <$1,000 USD and color laser printers <$800 USD as of March 2012. ISO yield based on continuous printing in default mode based on market share as reported by IDC as of Q1 2012. CPP comparisons for laser supplies are based on published specifications of the manufacturers’ highest-capacity cartridges. CPP based on HP 970XL/971XL ink cartridges estimated street price. Additional information is available at www.hp.com/go/learnaboutsupplies.

(3) After first set of ISO test pages. Additional information is available at www.hp.com/go/printerclaims.

(4) HP ePrint Enterprise requires HP ePrint Enterprise server software. App-based option requires internet- and email-capable BlackBerry smartphone OS 4.5 or newer; iPhone® 3G or newer, iPad® and iPod Touch® (2nd generation) devices running iOS 4.2 or later; or Android® devices running version 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, with separately purchased wireless internet service and the HP ePrint service app. Email-based option requires any email-capable device and authorized email address. Solution works with PCL5/6, PCL3, and PCL3GUI printers (HP and non-HP).


iPod is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc.

This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If such risks or uncertainties materialize or such assumptions prove incorrect, the results of HP and its consolidated subsidiaries could differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including but not limited to statements of the plans, strategies and objectives of management for future operations; any statements concerning expected development, performance, market share or competitive performance relating to products and services; any statements regarding anticipated operational and financial results; any statements of expectation or belief; and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include macroeconomic and geopolitical trends and events; the competitive pressures faced by HP’s businesses; the development and transition of new products and services (and the enhancement of existing products and services) to meet customer needs and respond to emerging technological trends; the execution and performance of contracts by HP and its customers, suppliers and partners; the protection of HP's intellectual property assets, including intellectual property licensed from third parties; integration and other risks associated with business combination and investment transactions; the hiring and retention of key employees; assumptions related to pension and other post-retirement costs and retirement programs; the execution, timing and results of restructuring plans, including estimates and assumptions related to the cost and the anticipated benefits of implementing those plans; expectations and assumptions relating to the execution and timing of cost reduction programs and restructuring and integration plans; the resolution of pending investigations, claims and disputes; and other risks that are described in HP’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended July 31, 2012 and HP’s other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including HP’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2011. HP assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.

© 2012 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

VMware Announces VMware vFabric™ GemFire(R) 7.0

 

VMware Announces VMware vFabric™ GemFire® 7.0

 

Cutting-edge in-memory data grid addresses enterprise demand for lightning fast, highly available and scalable data access for modern applications

 

PALO ALTO, Calif., Oct. 30, 2012 — VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), the global leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure, today announced the availability of VMware vFabric™ GemFire® 7.0, the premier in-memory data platform delivering speed and dynamic scalability, together with the reliability and data management capabilities of a traditional database. Faster and more flexible than ever before, this latest release enables users to process massive quantities of data and scale within the cloud to suit the needs of the user, while providing new tools to simplify monitoring and management. Also included in this version is native support for JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) documents. Popular with mobile and other web developers, vFabric GemFire brings high performance, scale-out, transactional support and other enterprise-grade features to JSON not available from competing data offerings.

 

“The monolithic database of the past cannot meet the needs of modern applications,” said Jerry Chen, Vice President, Cloud and Application Services, VMware. “Proven through nearly a decade of production deployments in some of the most high-availability low-latency applications, VMware vFabric™ GemFire® 7.0 solves difficult data challenges presented by modern, highly distributed web-oriented applications.”

 

With this release, vFabric GemFire enables speed with scalability in the cloud, supporting terabytes of data in-memory and enabling high-performance within enterprise production deployments. Engineered for low latency, vFabric GemFire provides lightning fast, highly available and scalable data access for highly transactional modern applications, allowing businesses to run applications significantly faster than a traditional database.

 

What’s New in VMware vFabric GemFire 7.0:

·         Cloud scale at the speed of business – With enhanced caching and wide area network (WAN) capabilities, vFabric GemFire was engineered to support low-latency applications that can scale to support terabytes of data and hundreds of thousands of users. New, high-speed parallel WAN processing allows customers to scale vFabric GemFire across global sites without sacrificing speed or performance.

·         Simplified monitoring and management – vFabric GemFire includes new graphical dashboard and performance monitoring capabilities that give customers visibility across distributed vFabric GemFire environments through a single console.  A simplified command line interface (CLI) and new “DataBrowser” functionality allow customers to easily view data, make queries and control all aspects of the vFabric GemFire environment.

·         Increased developer productivity – vFabric GemFire’s modern APIs and integration with the Spring framework speed and simplify development. Now, vFabric GemFire includes integration with the Spring Data GemFire project, including documentation and code samples to make it even easier to develop and support scalable, transactional enterprise applications. Further, applications using Memcached can transition smoothly to vFabric GemFire with minimal to zero developer impact since vFabric GemFire 7.0 supports the Memcached client protocol.

·         JSON document support – vFabric GemFire 7.0 natively supports storing and querying of JSON documents. vFabric GemFire brings enterprise-grade capabilities to a JSON store including very low latency, horizontal scale-out, transaction support, security and continuous query. It supports the ability to query between multiple JSON documents as well as across JSON documents and key/value objects. With this new capability, vFabric GemFire can be effectively used as a production-ready backend document store for REST and mobile applications.

 

Leading global 1,000 companies utilize vFabric GemFire including those in the financial services industry, online retail, travel and many others.

 

VMware vFabric GemFire 7.0 is currently available. For more information, please visit: www.vmware.com/go/gemfire.

 

Additional resources

·         Learn more on the VMware vFabric GemFire website

·         Discover vFabric products on the VMware vFabric blog

·         Watch the VMware vFabric GemFire use case video

·         Find out more about the Spring Data VMware vFabric GemFire Project

 

About VMware

VMware is the leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure solutions that enable businesses to thrive in the Cloud Era. Customers rely on VMware to help them transform the way they build, deliver and consume Information Technology resources in a manner that is evolutionary and based on their specific needs. With 2011 revenues of US$3.77 billion, VMware has more than 400,000 customers and 55,000 partners. The company is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the world and can be found online at www.vmware.com. VMware Canada is based in Burlington, Ont., and can be found line at www.vmware.ca.

 

VMware, vFabric and GemFire are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other names and marks mentioned herein may be registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective organizations. The use of the word “partner” or “partnership” does not imply a legal partnership relationship between VMware and any other company.

 

-30-

 

For more information please contact:
Cindy Watson / Stephanie Williams

StrategicAmpersand Inc.

cindy@stratamp.com / stephanie@stratamp.com

(416) 961-5595

 

 

























































































Ingram Micro Ready to Deliver Windows 8 Solutions to Channel Partners in North America

Ingram Micro Ready to Deliver Windows 8 Solutions to Channel Partners in North America
Committed to Doing Business Differently, Leading Technology Distributor Makes It Easier for IT Channel Partners to Sell Windows 8 OS Solutions

Oct 29, 2012 (Marketwire via COMTEX) --  Ingram Micro Inc. (NYSE: IM) today announced it is bringing together the technology front-runners in systems, software and mobile solutions to deliver Windows 8 OS and Windows Server solutions and support to the company's IT channel partners.

Recognized as the world's top technology distributor, Ingram Micro offers the industry's most comprehensive solutions portfolio designed to work with Windows 8. Readily available to qualified channel partners throughout North America, the new Windows 8 solutions include a wide variety of tablets and touch screen products, as well as notebooks, desktops, workstations and servers from the industry's top IT manufacturers and software suppliers.

In support of the highly anticipated launch, Ingram Micro has trained more than 400 of its sales reps and technicians across six divisions on the new Windows 8 OS and Windows Server. Additionally, Ingram Micro is training its channel partners on the new Windows technologies and the business advantages Win 8 and Windows Server will provide to their small-to-medium sized and enterprise customers. 

"The Windows 8 and Windows Server refresh present a great opportunity for our channel partners to engage their existing customers and prospects about new technologies and business drivers," says Jodi Honore, executive director, Consumer and Direct Markets, Ingram Micro U.S. "Together with Microsoft we are bringing to market the technologies, business resources and enablement tools to make it easier for channel partners to maximize the sales opportunity around Windows 8 and Windows Server." 

Ingram Micro Offers Channel Partners Targeted Win 8 Marketing, Sales and Technical Support
To fuel demand and ignite the sales cycle, Ingram Micro is also providing demonstration units running on the Win 8 OS for channel partners, and has collaborated with Microsoft and a number of its hardware manufacturers to develop and deploy a real-world Windows 8 environment within each of its Solution Centers located in Buffalo, N.Y. and Santa Ana, Calif. Channel partners can leverage the Solution Centers to conduct Win 8 and Windows Servers business and technology trainings for their customers, as well as associates. 

Simultaneously, the Ingram Micro Marketing Services Agency is launching a cohesive Windows 8 go-to-market plan that touches each division and business unit within the distributor's North American organization and offers customizable, multi-vendor marketing materials, as well as end-user lead generation to channel partners. In November, the distributor will kick off its multi-vendor Windows "Experience Tour" throughout North America. The tour will focus on educating channel partners on how to best market, sell and support touch screen solutions. 

For more information about Ingram Micro's Windows 8 solutions portfolio and business enablement resources, channel partners should contact their Ingram Micro sales or marketing representative.

More information about Ingram Micro is available at www.ingrammicro.com.

To learn, see and hear more about Ingram Micro online, follow the distributor on Facebook at www.facebook.com/IngramMicro; Twitter at www.twitter.com/IngramMicroInc; and YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/ingrammicroinc

About Ingram Micro
Ingram Micro is the world's largest wholesale technology distributor and a global leader in IT supply-chain, mobile device lifecycle services and logistics solutions. As a vital link in the technology value chain, Ingram Micro creates sales and profitability opportunities for vendors and resellers through unique marketing programs, outsourced logistics and mobile solutions, technical support, financial services and product aggregation and distribution. The company is the only global broad-based IT distributor, serving 145 countries on six continents with the world's most comprehensive portfolio of IT products and services. Visit www.ingrammicro.com.





































































































































































ING Selects Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management Leading Financial Services Firm Seeks to Strengthen HR’s Role in Driving the Business Redwood Shores, Calif. – Oct. 29, 2012 News Facts ING Bank Netherlands, a leading financial services organization

ING Selects Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management

Leading Financial Services Firm Seeks to Strengthen HR’s Role in Driving the Business

Redwood Shores, Calif. – Oct. 29, 2012


News Facts

ING Bank Netherlands, a leading financial services organization, has selected Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management (HCM).
ING’s decision to deploy Oracle Fusion HCM was driven by its ongoing desire to strengthen HR's role in driving the business.
Oracle’s long-time PeopleSoft HCM customer evaluated the HCM market segment before selecting Oracle Fusion HCM to help strengthen its leadership position as an employer of choice and to continue using leading HR tools to maintain its position as one of the top employers in the Netherlands.
ING will deploy Oracle Fusion HCM, working closely with NorthgateArinso, a Gold-level member of Oracle PartnerNetwork, who will be providing the hosting services, and Oracle Consulting Services.
The financial services firm will deploy the full suite of Oracle Fusion Global Human Resources and Talent Management solutions, including Oracle Fusion Goal Management, Oracle Fusion OTBI, Oracle Fusion Workforce Compensation, Oracle Fusion Benefits, and Oracle Fusion Performance Management.
Additionally, ING will deploy Oracle Fusion Financials, taking advantage of Oracle’s unified platform of Oracle Fusion Applications.

Supporting Quote

“As a leading financial institution and a top employer, ING believes our people are one of our most strategic assets. Ongoing best-in-class HR is a competitive differentiator for us, and we needed a leading HCM suite to complement our efforts,” said Marijke Brunklaus, General Manager HR ING Bank Netherlands. “Being a longtime Oracle’s PeopleSoft HCM user, we carefully evaluated the possible solutions available and chose Oracle Fusion HCM as our go-forward platform. Oracle Fusion HCM's deep global capabilities and leading talent tools are a good match for helping us to continually evolve our business."

Supporting Resources

About Oracle Applications

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

About Oracle

Oracle engineers hardware and software to work together in the cloud and in your data center.  For more information about Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL), visit www.oracle.com

Trademarks

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

Contact Info

Danielle Cormier-Smith
Oracle
+1.610.766.3463
danielle.cormier@oracle.com

Susie Penner
Oracle
+1.650.506.1973
susanne.penner@oracle.com

IBM Researchers Demonstrate Initial Steps toward Commercial Fabrication of Carbon Nanotubes as a Successor to Silicon

Made in IBM Labs: Researchers Demonstrate Initial Steps toward Commercial Fabrication of Carbon Nanotubes as a Successor to Silicon

• For the first time, scientists precisely place and test more than ten thousand carbon nanotube devices in a single chip using mainstream manufacturing processes
• Novel processing method helps pave the way for carbon technology as a viable alternative to silicon in future computing

YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, N.Y. - 28 Oct 2012: IBM (NYSE: IBM) scientists have demonstrated a new approach to carbon nanotechnology that opens up the path for commercial fabrication of dramatically smaller, faster and more powerful computer chips. For the first time, more than ten thousand working transistors made of nano-sized tubes of carbon have been precisely placed and tested in a single chip using standard semiconductor processes. These carbon devices are poised to replace and outperform silicon technology allowing further miniaturization of computing components and leading the way for future microelectronics.

Aided by rapid innovation over four decades, silicon microprocessor technology has continually shrunk in size and improved in performance, thereby driving the information technology revolution. Silicon transistors, tiny switches that carry information on a chip, have been made smaller year after year, but they are approaching a point of physical limitation. Their increasingly small dimensions, now reaching the nanoscale, will prohibit any gains in performance due to the nature of silicon and the laws of physics. Within a few more generations, classical scaling and shrinkage will no longer yield the sizable benefits of lower power, lower cost and higher speed processors that the industry has become accustomed to. 

Carbon nanotubes represent a new class of semiconductor materials whose electrical properties are more attractive than silicon, particularly for building nanoscale transistor devices that are a few tens of atoms across. Electrons in carbon transistors can move easier than in silicon-based devices allowing for quicker transport of data. The nanotubes are also ideally shaped for transistors at the atomic scale, an advantage over silicon. These qualities are among the reasons to replace the traditional silicon transistor with carbon – and coupled with new chip design architectures – will allow computing innovation on a miniature scale for the future. 

The approach developed at IBM labs paves the way for circuit fabrication with large numbers of carbon nanotube transistors at predetermined substrate positions. The ability to isolate semiconducting nanotubes and place a high density of carbon devices on a wafer is crucial to assess their suitability for a technology – eventually more than one billion transistors will be needed for future integration into commercial chips. Until now, scientists have been able to place at most a few hundred carbon nanotube devices at a time, not nearly enough to address key issues for commercial applications. 

“Carbon nanotubes, borne out of chemistry, have largely been laboratory curiosities as far as microelectronic applications are concerned. We are attempting the first steps towards a technology by fabricating carbon nanotube transistors within a conventional wafer fabrication infrastructure,” said Supratik Guha, Director of Physical Sciences at IBM Research. “The motivation to work on carbon nanotube transistors is that at extremely small nanoscale dimensions, they outperform transistors made from any other material. However, there are challenges to address such as ultra high purity of the carbon nanotubes and deliberate placement at the nanoscale. We have been making significant strides in both.” 

Originally studied for the physics that arises from their atomic dimensions and shapes, carbon nanotubes are being explored by scientists worldwide in applications that span integrated circuits, energy storage and conversion, biomedical sensing and DNA sequencing. 

This achievement was published today in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Nanotechnology. 

The Road to Carbon 

Carbon, a readily available basic element from which crystals as hard as diamonds and as soft as the “lead” in a pencil are made, has wide-ranging IT applications. 

Carbon nanotubes are single atomic sheets of carbon rolled up into a tube. The carbon nanotube forms the core of a transistor device that will work in a fashion similar to the current silicon transistor, but will be better performing. They could be used to replace the transistors in chips that power our data-crunching servers, high performing computers and ultra fast smart phones. 

Earlier this year, IBM researchers demonstrated  carbon nanotube transistors can operate as excellent switches at molecular dimensions of less than ten nanometers – the equivalent to 10,000 times thinner than a strand of human hair and less than half the size of the leading silicon technology. Comprehensive modeling of the electronic circuits suggests that about a five to ten times improvement in performance compared to silicon circuits is possible. 

There are practical challenges for carbon nanotubes to become a commercial technology notably, as mentioned earlier, due to the purity and placement of the devices. Carbon nanotubes naturally come as a mix of metallic and semiconducting species and need to be placed perfectly on the wafer surface to make electronic circuits. For device operation, only the semiconducting kind of tubes is useful which requires essentially complete removal of the metallic ones to prevent errors in circuits. Also, for large scale integration to happen, it is critical to be able to control the alignment and the location of carbon nanotube devices on a substrate. 

To overcome these barriers, IBM researchers developed a novel method based on ion-exchange chemistry that allows precise and controlled placement of aligned carbon nanotubes on a substrate at a high density – two orders of magnitude greater than previous experiments, enabling the controlled placement of individual nanotubes with a density of about a billion per square centimeter. 

The process starts with carbon nanotubes mixed with a surfactant, a kind of soap that makes them soluble in water. A substrate is comprised of two oxides with trenches made of chemically-modified hafnium oxide (HfO2) and the rest of silicon oxide (SiO2). The substrate gets immersed in the carbon nanotube solution and the nanotubes attach via a chemical bond to the HfO2 regions while the rest of the surface remains clean. 

By combining chemistry, processing and engineering expertise, IBM researchers are able to fabricate more than ten thousand transistors on a single chip.

Furthermore, rapid testing of thousands of devices is possible using high volume characterization tools due to compatibility to standard commercial processes. 

As this new placement technique can be readily implemented, involving common chemicals and existing semiconductor fabrication, it will allow the industry to work with carbon nanotubes at a greater scale and deliver further innovation for carbon electronics.                                                                                         

For more information, please visit www.research.ibm.com.

CRTC requires more transparency in rates for wholesale telecommunications services

CRTC requires more transparency in rates for wholesale telecommunications services

OTTAWA-GATINEAU, Oct. 26, 2012 /CNW/ - Today, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) announced that in the future large telephone and cable companies will have to make more information public when proposing rates for wholesale services.

"Smaller companies offer competitive and innovative choices to Canadians, by using access they have purchased at wholesale prices from the large companies," said Jean-Pierre Blais, Chairman of the CRTC. "Today's guidelines will increase transparency and allow Canadians to better understand how we establish wholesale rates."

Rates for wholesale services are based on the cost of providing the service plus an allowable markup. Markups contribute to costs that have not been accounted for, such as corporate overheads and past network investments.

Once companies submit their costs and proposed rates to the CRTC, that information is made public. With this additional data, interested parties will be able to provide a more informed analysis.

Companies will continue to have the right to protect competitively sensitive information, and other parties can continue to request disclosure of any such information. The CRTC will rule on any disclosure requests using the new guidelines.

The CRTC

The CRTC is an independent public authority that regulates and supervises broadcasting and telecommunications in Canada.

Telecom Regulatory Policy CRTC 2012-592

Broadcasting and Telecom Information Bulletin CRTC 2010-961-1

Reference document:
Telecom Notice of Consultation 2012-168

SOURCE: Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission

For further information:

Follow us on Twitter @crtceng

Media Relations:
http://support.crtc.gc.ca/CRTCSubmissionMU/forms/Mediarelations.aspx?lang=e
Tel: 819-997-9403, Fax: 819-997-4245

General Inquiries:
Tel: 819-997-0313, TDD: 819-994-0423, Fax: 819-994-0218
Toll-free # 1-877-249-CRTC (2782)    
TDD - Toll-free # 1-877-909-CRTC (2782)
http://crtc.gc.ca/RapidsCCM/Register.asp?lang=E

These documents are available in alternative format upon request.

















































































































Windows 8 Arrives

Windows 8 Arrives
Oct. 25, 2012
Easy-to-download upgrades and the best range of PCs ever welcome Windows 8 to worldwide availability.

NEW YORK Oct. 25, 2012 Microsoft Corp. today announced the global availability of its popular Windows operating system, Windows 8. Beginning Friday, Oct. 26, consumers and businesses worldwide will be able to experience all that Windows 8 has to offer, including a beautiful new user interface and a wide range of applications with the grand opening of the Windows Store. As a result of close work with hardware partners, more than 1,000 certified PCs and tablets, including Microsoft Surface, will be available for the launch of Windows 8 — making it the best lineup of PCs ever across the Windows 8 and Windows RT ecosystem.

“We have reimagined Windows and the result is a stunning lineup of new PCs,” said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. “Windows 8 brings together the best of the PC and the tablet. It works perfect for work and play and it is alive with your world. Every one of our customers will find a PC that they will absolutely love.”

Windows 8 Launch Photos
113
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announces the availability of Windows 8 at launch event in NYC.
Steve Ballmer at Windows 8 Launch
October 25, 2012
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announces the availability of Windows 8 at launch event in NYC.
Download: Web | Print

Windows 8 will be available for download to upgrade existing PCs in more than 140 markets and 37 languages at http://www.windows.com/buy beginning at 12:01 a.m. local time and at retail locations around the world. At retail, Windows 8 will be available in two primary versions — Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro — as well as Windows 8 Enterprise for large organizations. Launching at the same time is a new member of the Windows family — Windows RT — designed for ARM-based tablets and available pre-installed on new devices. In addition to Microsoft Office 2013, Windows RT is designed exclusively for apps in the new Windows Store. Windows 8 features the new fast and fluid Start screen that gives people one-click access to the apps and content they care most about. It also features an entirely new Internet Explorer 10 that is perfect for touch, and built-in cloud capabilities with SkyDrive.

Windows 8 can be purchased in a variety of ways from the world’s leading retailers, including Amazon, Best Buy and Staples in the U.S., Casas Bahia in Brazil, Future Shop and Staples in Canada, Suning in China, Media Markt across Europe, FNAC in France, Yamada in Japan, Telmex in Mexico, Dixons in the U.K., and many more, which will feature a variety of offers for customers looking for great deals on Windows 8 PCs, devices and software. Consumers can go to http://www.windows.com/shop to learn about the large array of Windows 8 devices available and find the one that best fits their needs. More information on the great offers around the world is available at http://www.blogs.windows.com.

Meet Windows 8

In addition to the range of new Windows-based devices available, consumers can also upgrade their existing PCs. Through the end of January, consumers currently running PCs with Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 are qualified to download an upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for an estimated retail price of US$39.99. And eligible Windows 7 PCs purchased between June 2, 2012, and Jan. 31, 2013, in more than 140 markets can download an upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for an estimated retail price of US$14.99 with the Windows Upgrade Offer, available at http://www.windowsupgradeoffer.com.

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

The information contained in this press release relates to a pre-release software product that may be substantially modified before its first commercial release. Accordingly, the information may not accurately describe or reflect the software product when it is first commercially released. The press release is provided for informational purposes only, and Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, with respect to the press release or the information contained in it.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

Oracle Partners Develop New Oracle Accelerate Solutions for Midsize Organizations to Address the Growing Customer Experience Imperative

Oracle Partners Develop New Oracle Accelerate Solutions for Midsize Organizations to Address the Growing Customer Experience Imperative

Oracle Accelerate Packaged Solutions Cater to the Needs of Growing Businesses

Redwood Shores, Calif. – October 24, 2012

News Facts

To help midsize organizations around the world address the growing customer experience imperative by taking advantage of modern, best-in-class applications, Oracle Partners have unveiled new Oracle Accelerate solutions tailored by industry, geography and product line that empower fast-growing companies to rapidly adopt Oracle Applications.
Oracle Accelerate is Oracle’s partner-driven approach to providing simple to deploy, fast time to benefit solutions for midsize organizations. Oracle Accelerate solutions offer industry-specific applications, implemented rapidly using Oracle Business Accelerators and delivered with the proven expertise of a global network of skilled partners via Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN).
To capitalize on the strong demand for enterprise-class applications, 30 partners have created 38 new industry- and geography-specific Oracle Accelerate solutions over the past six months.

Oracle Accelerate Program Expands as Partners Meet the Midsize Demand for Modern Application Solutions

Oracle Accelerate solution providers continue to expand offerings to meet the midsize demand for powerful, modern applications at a low total cost of ownership.
Bolstered by a variety of deployment options, including cloud, on-premise, hosted and hybrid, and the availability of packaged solutions that reduce implementation time and risk, midsize organizations are increasingly adopting enterprise-class applications to scale and grow with their business, while also implementing solutions that help to ensure the delivery of exceptional customer experiences.
Partners continue to deliver innovative solutions that meet the pressing needs of growing businesses, including some of the first partner developed solutions for Oracle Customer Experience using Oracle ATG Web Commerce.
With customer experience a top priority for organizations of all sizes, North America’s Professional Access and EMEA’s e2x Limited have developed new Oracle Accelerate solutions for Oracle ATG Web Commerce, including the first tailored for the communications and retail industries.
Partners realized a greater demand for enterprise-class applications to support growth and competitive advantage among European organizations, with new Oracle Accelerate solutions for ERP, financial management, commerce and CRM.
Partners have capitalized on the need for packaged solutions that speed time-to-value by developing the first solutions for:
The Oil & Gas industry in APAC and Latin America
Wholesale distribution in Latin America
Oracle Business Intelligence Applications for the financial service industry in APAC by partner AbbuSys PVT Limited
New Oracle Accelerate solution providers include Professional Access (North America); AbbuSys PVT Limited and CSA Consultants Pvt Limited (APAC); e2x Limited (EMEA); and Premier Soluciones de Centroamerica S.A and Synergy Work Ltda. (Latin America).

Supporting Quotes

“Joining the Oracle Accelerate program is the best business decision e2x has made,” said James Spalding, managing director, e2x Limited. “The high standards and rigorous process to approve RoadRunner, our Oracle Accelerate solution for the retail market, underlie the quality Oracle requires for Oracle Accelerate solutions. The stringent requirements help us engage with new and existing clients in a focused way that demonstrates a fast time to business benefit for our clients and incremental revenue for e2x and Oracle.”
“Our clients value fast, simple implementations to get up and running on mission-critical Oracle applications quickly,” said CA Manoj Mani Agrawal, director, CSA Consultants Pvt. Ltd. “CSA Consultants' Oracle Accelerate Solution leverages the cloud configuration capabilities of Oracle Business Accelerators, enabling Oracle customers to go live with industry leading best practices more quickly than with traditional implementations.”
“Delivering a personalized, consistent cross-channel approach is particularly important as digital dominates and social becomes increasingly significant,” said Chip Winslow, executive vice president Global Sales & Marketing, Professional Access. “We developed Oracle Accelerate solutions for Oracle ATG Web Commerce specifically for the communications and soft retail industries so customers can quickly implement dynamic, enterprise-class applications that power the high-touch customer experience.”
“Manufacturers require specialized tools to optimize business operations, and fast adoption is a significant advantage for companies with limited resources,” said Rodrigo Vargas, executive director, Synergy Work Ltda. “With our new Oracle Accelerate solution, midsize companies in the Oil and Gas industry can implement Oracle’s JD Edwards EnterpriseOne faster than ever, enabling organizations to focus their efforts on growth – rather than managing technology.”
“Around the world, midsize businesses are finding that modern applications and enterprise-class technology empower them to streamline operations, improve efficiencies, capitalize on growth and improve the customer experience,” said Steve Cox, vice president, Oracle Accelerate for Midsize Companies. “With more partners worldwide delivering packaged, easy-to-implement solutions, growing businesses have more opportunity than ever to upgrade to Tier 1 applications that will meet their expanding business needs. Only Oracle, via the Oracle Accelerate program, has the solution set that can enable midsize organizations to modernize their ERP footprint, while simultaneously addressing the customer experience imperative.”

Supporting Resources

About Oracle Accelerate

Oracle Accelerate provides simple to deploy, packaged, enterprise-class software solutions to growing midsize organizations through Oracle’s network of expert partners. Created by Oracle's expert partners, Oracle Accelerate solutions are simple to deploy, industry-specific packaged solutions, designed for fast time to benefit, which means getting the right solution in place quickly, inexpensively and with a controlled scope and predictable returns. The best Oracle Accelerate Solutions are based on Oracle Business Accelerators, which are powerful, cloud-based rapid implementation tools developed and maintained by Oracle to get you up and running on a wide range of Oracle Applications, both quickly and reliably. Oracle has more than 280,000 midsize customers who buy Oracle to grow. To find out more, visit www.oracle.com/accelerate.

About Oracle Applications

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

About Oracle

Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) is the world's most complete, open, and integrated business software and hardware systems company. For more information about Oracle, visit oracle.com.

Trademarks

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