Cisco Offers World's Lowest Latency Networking Technology for High Performance Data Center Environments

Cisco Offers World's Lowest Latency Networking Technology for High
Performance Data Center Environments

Worldwide Networking Leader Delivers up to 60% Faster Performance Than
Competitors; Financial Traders Gain Competitive Edge With Cisco Nexus
3548 High-Performance Switch That Breaks the 200-Nanosecond Latency
Barrier

SAN JOSE, CA--(Sep 19, 2012) - Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) today announced the
Cisco Nexus® 3548 with Algorithm Boost (or Algo Boost) technology, a
groundbreaking networking innovation which delivers up to 60 percent
network-access performance improvement over competing full-featured 10
Gigabit (GB) Ethernet switches*. Designed for use in high performance
computing, high performance trading, and big data environments, this new
switch offers network-access performance as low as 190 nanoseconds (ns)
-- a huge performance improvement enabled by the unique Algo Boost
technology developed by silicon engineers at Cisco.

With numerous patents pending, the Cisco Nexus 3548 switch extends
Cisco's leadership in networking by pairing performance and
ultra-low-latency with innovations in visibility, automation, monitoring
and precise time synchronization.

Network performance is of paramount importance in high performance
trading markets where obtaining and acting on real-time equities,
options and other financial market information nanoseconds faster than
competitors may be worth millions of dollars. The Nexus® 3548 can give
traders a competitive advantage. Globally interconnected financial
markets have elevated the demands on trading networks, making visibility
and control equally critical to performance. Proactive management of
market volatility, granular real-time monitoring, and precision timing
accuracy of trade events give trading participants greater control and
visibility at peak opportunity times across the globe. By providing
these capabilities, the Cisco Nexus 3548 with Algo Boost enhances the
Cisco High Performance Trading Fabric architecture that helps enable
greater business agility and intelligence for customers without imposing
performance or latency penalties.

Key Highlights:

Cisco ultra-low-latency switch with Cisco Algo Boost technology, is the
fastest full-featured Ethernet switch in the industry

- The Nexus 3548 one-rack-unit (1RU) 10 GB Ethernet switch running in
"warp mode" offers latencies as low as 190 ns in those environments with
small to medium Layer 2 and Layer 3 scaling requirements.

- The ultra-low-latency switch also facilitates the efficient delivery
of stock market data to financial trading servers in as little as 50 ns
with the warp switch port analyzer (SPAN) feature.

-The Nexus 3548 also includes Hitless Network Address Translation
(NAT), a critical feature to allow algorithmic traders to easily connect
to any trading venue they desire without any latency penalty.

- Cisco Nexus 3548 switch latency speeds were verified using Spirent
TestCenter across various workloads and using testing specifications
developed jointly with Spirent Communications.

Superior analytical framework gives greater visibility for
high-performance environments

- The Nexus 3548 is the first switch to integrate the unique Cisco®
Algo Boost technology in the ASIC (Application Specific Integrated
Circuits) switching silicon that provides granular visibility into how
the switch is performing while in production to help financial traders
accelerate price discovery, increase order flow liquidity, and better
manage regulatory requirements.

- Precision Time Protocol helps trading firms keep their entire
infrastructure highly synchronized, allowing them to correlate network
events and better achieve regulatory compliance and digital forensics.

- Active Buffer Monitoring proactively monitors and alerts users to
congestion points that could be occurring and may negatively impact
application performance.

- Intelligent Traffic Mirroring consists o
f filtering and nanosecond
time-stamping of captured traffic, which can help traders gain greater
visibility into why gapping, slippage and slow order situations occur,
correlating these trends with analytics tools to help enable smarter
trading decisions.

Supporting Quotes:

Nigel Harold, head of Business Development Technology, London Stock
Exchange

"London Stock Exchange is at the heart of the global financial market
and home to some of the largest, most successful and dynamic companies
in the world. Our members expect to connect using high performing and
reliable infrastructure for real-time trading and market data. The new
Algo Boost ASIC technology, that will be available in Cisco Nexus 3548
switch, offers ultra-low latency and unique features that can increase
our visibility across the network and further boost reliability for our
customers."

David Rukshin, senior vice president, The D. E. Shaw Group

"We trade in markets around the globe in an increasingly competitive
environment, and investing in state-of-the-art technology is one of the
keys to producing attractive returns for our investors. Detecting and
handling short-lived congestion in information flows is business
critical, since the latency of packets that experience congestion in the
network would be significantly higher than the nominal latency of modern
Ethernet switches. Detecting these microbursts of traffic and measuring
short-lived congestion in hardware should be very valuable to our
investment businesses."

David Yen, senior vice president of Data Center Group at Cisco

"Today, Cisco has leapfrogged our competitors in delivering a full
featured switch that offers the lowest latency Ethernet in the
networking industry. The Nexus 3548 with the unique Cisco Algo Boost
technology implemented in ASIC provides a robust feature set to give
financial traders more control over their sophisticated trading
algorithms and respond more quickly to the changes in the market. In
addition to the performance, this unique ultra-low-latency Ethernet
technology is part of the unified data center fabric and offers strong
total cost of ownership for commercial high-performance computing and
big data environments as well as scale-out storage topologies."

Supporting Resource Links:

- InfoGraphic: Nexus 3548 Innovation

- Testing Results: Summary of Spirent Communications testing results of
Nexus 3548
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps9441/ps11541/ps12581/white_paper_c11-716751.pdf

- View Cisco Nexus 3548 series switch website
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps12581/index.html?CAMPAIGN=Monticello&COUNTRY_SITE=us&POSITION=link&REFERRING_SITE=press+release&CREATIVE=Press+Release+to+3548

- View Algo Boost Technology website
http://www.cisco.com/web/solutions/data_center/algoboost.html?CAMPAIGN=Monticello&COUNTRY_SITE=us&POSITION=link&REFERRING_SITE=press+release&CREATIVE=PR%2Bto%2BLaunch

- Video: Cisco Executives discuss unique Algo Boost Technology

- Cisco Data Center Blog: Informative blog on game changing Algo Boost
technology
http://blogs.cisco.com/datacenter/cisco-algorithm-boost-and-nexus-3548

Tags: ASIC, Cisco, High Performance Trading, High Performance
Computing, HPC, London Stock Exchange, Network Innovation, Nexus,
High-Performance Trading Fabric, Unified Fabric, Nexus 3000, Nexus 3K,
Nexus 3500, Nexus 3548

* 60% faster performance and lowest latency is based on published
reports from Cisco and competitive 10 GB Ethernet Layer 2/3 switch
vendors

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

About Cisco

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

-30-

Cisco, the Cisco logo and Cisco Systems are registered trademarks or
trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United
States and certain other countries. All other trademarks mentioned in
this document are the property of their respective owners. The use of
the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco
and any other company. This document is Cisco Public Information.


Contact Information

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

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


Dell Unveils First Shared Infrastructure Solution to Provide Hyperscale Customers with New Modular Computational and Storage Capabilities

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Dell Unveils First Shared Infrastructure Solution to Provide Hyperscale Customers with New Modular Computational and Storage Capabilities

·         PowerEdge C8000 series is the industry’s only 4U shared solution to provide customers compute, GPU/coprocessor and storage options in a single chassis

·         New shared infrastructure solution engineered for the most resource-intensive hyperscale workloads, including HPC, big data processing and hosting providers

TORONTO, Sept. 19, 2012 – Dell today announced the PowerEdge C8000 Series, the industry’s first 4U shared infrastructure solution to allow the mixing and matching of compute, GPU/coprocessors and storage sleds in one chassis.   

 

Ideally suited for workloads that require high performance per watt and flexibility in configuration, such as high-performance computing (HPC) and big data applications, the PowerEdge C8000 series delivers the ideal mix of resources, while saving on space, energy and refresh rates, and allowing customers to run their data centres at higher operating temperatures. Customers can pack more compute power in less space than traditional 1U servers, with the cores, memory and I/O expansion needed for peak workload performance.

 

Shared Infrastructure Results in Lower Total Cost of Ownership

Customers running highly resource-intensive hyperscale workloads can benefit from shared infrastructure pools and shared compute, storage, power and cooling resources that result in lower total cost of ownership in power efficiency, system scaling efficiency and compute density. The shared infrastructure reduces power and cooling costs and enables customer to refresh with the latest components without having to replace the entire chassis. Additionally, the PowerEdge C8000 Series can provide customers with up to 4x the server density when compared with competitive solutions.[1]

 

Mix and Match Compute, Compute/GPU and Storage Sleds

The PowerEdge C8000 shared infrastructure chassis holds up to eight single-wide sleds or four double-wide sleds. Each compute sled is equivalent to a standard server built with a processor, memory, network interface, baseboard management controller, and local hard drive storage. Dell customers can speed up their most resource-intensive workloads by mixing and matching the following compute, GPU/coprocessor and storage sleds in the same 4U chassis:

·         The PowerEdge C8220 compute sled: packs a lot of compute power in a dense space. Up to eight C8220 nodes can slide into the C8000 chassis mounted on specially-designed single-width sleds, delivering the compute power of up to 16 next-generation processors in just 4U of rack space.

·         The PowerEdge C8220X compute/GPU sled: further increases the performance and compute/memory density per rack, as well as allowing the use of GPUs and other accelerators. Customers can run multiple workloads in a single chassis in scientific visualizations and other resource-intensive workloads.

·         The PowerEdge C8000XD storage sled: fits up to 1.4x more local storage in 4U of rack space. This sled is ideal for workloads requiring flexible storage expansion, such as HPC, Hadoop and hosting environments.

 

PowerEdge C8000 Customer Deployment Breaks New Ground

The Texas Advanced Computing Centre (TACC) is leveraging the performance and flexibility benefits of the PowerEdge C8000 series in its new supercomputer “Stampede,” which is expected to become a model for supporting petascale-level computational science.

 

“TACC’s Stampede infrastructure consists of several thousand PowerEdge C8000 servers with GPUs to help speed scientific discovery,” said Dan Stanzione, deputy director at TACC. “Dell’s infrastructure is invaluable in our mission of supporting data-intensive computing and visualization in complex computational science and engineering research including weather forecasting, climate modeling, energy exploration and production, drug discovery, new materials design and manufacturing, and more efficient and safer automobiles and airplanes.“

 

At Dell, we are constantly working to address our customers’ evolving needs for solutions that deliver the ultimate in performance for their heaviest workloads, while saving on space, energy and total cost of ownership. This focus has resulted in Dell’s sustained leadership in IDC’s density optimized server market share report,” said Forrest Norrod, vice president and general manager, Server Solutions, Dell. “Today, based on those customer needs, we are introducing a shared infrastructure solution that provides unprecedented flexibility, performance and efficiency for hyperscale environments.”

 

Pricing and Availability

The PowerEdge C8000 Series will begin shipping in September 2012. The four products that make up the PowerEdge C8000 series will be available from a Dell sales representative, or through Dell’s Global Direct Channel Partners. Learn more on dell.com/poweredgec.   

Additional Information

 

International Data Corporation’s (IDC) Q2 2012 Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker

 

About Dell

Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) listens to customers and delivers innovative technology and services that give them the power to do more.

 

Join us at Dell World 2012 – The Power to Do More. Technology professionals will learn from one another and identify key challenges and opportunities connected to the top forces changing business today. Learn more at www.DellWorld.com or follow #DellWorld on Twitter.

Dell and PowerEdge are a trademark of Dell Inc. Dell disclaims any proprietary interest in the marks and names of others.

 

Media  Contacts:

Janet Fabri

Dell

+1 (416) 758-3398

Janet_fabri@dell.com

Melissa Lee

Cohn & Wolfe

+1 (416) 924-5700

  Melissa.lee@cohnwolfe.ca

 

 


[1] When compared with two HP DL 380P G8 in 4U of rack space.

Brantford, ON MSP Offers Citrix Desktop and Server Virtualization Training

Brantford, ON  MSP Offers Citrix Desktop and Server Virtualization Training


Today's IT world continues to move forward at an amazing velocity.  One of the major innovation drivers is desktop and server virtualization.  Many Ontario businesses are now looking at desktop and server virtualization solutions to help decrease the operating costs of IT, implement one standardized platform across a company and aid in business continuity efforts.  Working World understands the importance of this new technology standard and offers technical training on the latest Citrix desktop and server virtualization solutions from its training centre in Brantford, ON. 

 

Brantford, ON Sep. 18, 2012 - Technology innovation continues to drive business forward across Ontario, but how does a business stay current with all the latest innovations?  Working World believes it has the answer to many of the technology challenges facing businesses in the Province of Ontario.

 

Working World's computer software training and IT technical training services offer quality education through an expert virtual instructor-led training and a wide course selection, including software training on the latest Microsoft, Adobe and Web related technology, in addition to top technical training on Microsoft and CompTIA programs. 

 

Starting in September 2012, Working World will offer Citrix desktop and server virtualization training.  Training on the top Citrix solutions including NetScaler, XenServer and XenDesktop will be offered from the training centre in Brantford.  Courses will run from September 2012 through to January 2013.

 

"Citrix is great, and we are honoured to be offering the technical community across Ontario training on many of the leading Citrix technologies," said Working World president Josie Kocsis.  "Citrix provides a solid foundation for businesses to build a solid IT platform upon".

 

To learn more about Working World's IT and software training visit http://www.workingworld.ca.

 

### 

 

About Working World:  Working World is based in Brantford, Ontario, Canada and offers business IT support and computer/technical training to businesses throughout Southern Ontario.  Working World provides businesses with a solid foundation of technical support services including support for desktop and server virtualization solutions, Windows networking, and server support and backup/business continuity services.  To learn more about how Working World can help your Brantford or Southern Ontario business visit http://www.workingworld.ca.

QuickBooks Online goes global

QuickBooks Online Goes Global
 
No Matter Where They Call Home - Small Businesses
Can Work Smarter and Grow
 
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – Sept. 18, 2012  – From Austria to Zimbabwe, small businesses globally for the first time can easily create localized invoices, pay bills and track expenses with the availability of QuickBooks Online, from Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq: INTU), the makers of QuickBooks and provider of connected services trusted by more than 60 million customers.
“The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well around the world, and a critical part of the global workforce and gross domestic product,” said Alex Lintner, president of Intuit’s Global Business division. “With QuickBooks Online becoming available globally, we can now help the 29 million small businesses in the U.S., as well as the more than 500 million small businesses worldwide effectively manage their operations and achieve financial success.”
QuickBooks Online financial software offers an affordable and powerful cloud solution that is optimized for around-the-world use. Currently, more than 360,000 small businesses are using QuickBooks Online. Since its beta rollout in July 2012, small businesses in 130 countries have started using the product.
Intuit’s commitment to harnessing the power of many is part of the company’s evolving connected services strategy which was outlined today by Intuit CEO Brad Smith at the company’s annual Investor Day.
Customized for Local Impact
Participation-driven innovation is at the heart of the QuickBooks Online platform, which is built to be flexible so customers can make it fit the needs of their businesses and their country. This allows nationals worldwide the opportunity to optimize QuickBooks Online with their home country’s currency, date and number format as well as accounting scheme. Additionally, QuickBooks Online can handle sales taxes for any country and includes a translation tool so customers can use the solution in their home language, making QuickBooks Online truly specific to each country’s culture and way of doing business.
“The QuickBooks Online platform allows for customer configuration, user-defined tax rates and country-specific interactions that make a small business in the Philippines, for example, feel like QuickBooks Online has been developed explicitly for their country,” said Dan Wernikoff, senior vice president and general manager of Intuit’s Financial Management Solutions division. “Highly customizable content makes QuickBooks Online local everywhere, helping the world’s small businesses and accountants quickly get set up and running their business anywhere in the world.”
Product Features
Focused on the common needs of small businesses around the world, QuickBooks Online gives an intimate portrait of the business all in one place so small businesses can focus on their passion of helping customers and growing their business.  Through QuickBooks Online small businesses can:
  • Help save time on common finance tasks, such as invoice creation, managing sales tax and organizing sales receipts.
  • Get set up to be paid faster with tools to help centralize income forms (estimates, invoices, sales receipts, etc), summarize totals for due or past due transaction items as well as tips to help take immediate action.
  • Easily track customers, orders, income and expenses so a small business can always see where it stands.
  • Gather all tax relevant information in one place to avoid tax time headaches.
  • Leverage the power of the cloud via a mobile device to stay on top of finances while on the road.
  • Get in-depth business insights with reporting tools that analyze their business and industry trends to help them move their business forward.
 
“I very much depend on intuitive and easy-to-use software to help keep my costs low. Often, I find that cost and ease-of-use are correlated and I typically have to sacrifice one for the other,” said Fong Min Hun, owner of Craft Writing Consultants of Selangor, Malaysia. Not so with QuickBooks Online, which has proved itself to be an affordable and intuitive product. “The fact that everything is available via the Cloud also helps me coordinate with my accountant and other business partners without having to worry about minor details such as the availability of software and file servers.”
        Learn more and sign up for QuickBooks Online at global.intuit.com.  The QuickBooks Online suite offers three different versions based on a small business’ needs: QuickBooks Simple Start, QuickBooks Essentials and QuickBooks Plus. Costs start as low as $15 per month.
 
Resources:
 
About Intuit Inc.
Intuit Inc. is a leading provider of business and financial management solutions for small and mid-sized businesses; financial institutions, including banks and credit unions; consumers and accounting professionals. Its flagship products and services, including QuickBooks®, Quicken® and TurboTax®, simplify small business management and payroll processing, personal finance, and tax preparation and filing. ProSeries® and Lacerte® are Intuit's leading tax preparation offerings for professional accountants.  Intuit Financial Services provides enhanced online banking solutions and unique insights to help banks and credit unions serve businesses and consumers with innovative solutions.
Founded in 1983, Intuit had annual revenue of $4.15 billion in its fiscal year 2012. The company has approximately 8,000 employees with major offices in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, India and other locations. More information can be found at www.intuit.com.
 

 

Stripe hits Canada with online payment service

Stripe Aims to Reinvent Online Payments in Canada

- Backed by PayPal Founders, Stripe responds to customer demand for expansion -

 

SAN FRANCISCO, September 19, 2012 – Stripe, the company redefining how to best accept payments on the Internet, is today opening its service to Canadian entrepreneurs and businesses who eagerly awaited their international expansion.

 

Founded by brothers Patrick and John Collison, former MIT and Harvard University students, Stripe’s goal is straightforward: to make it easy for large businesses, startups, entrepreneurs, non-profits, and everything in between to accept payments from anywhere in the world. Since launching in September 2011, Stripe has earned accolades from developers around the world and secured $38 million in funding. Investors include Sequoia Capital, General Catalyst, Redpoint Ventures, and Andreessen Horowitz, along with PayPal founders Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and Max Levchin. Last month, Stripe announced that Peter Thiel had increased his investment in Stripe by $5 million.

 

“Stripe came about because we were so dissatisfied with how hard it was to accept payments online and build a business on the Internet," said Patrick Collison, Stripe’s co-founder and CEO. "Lengthy waits, onerous requirements, and antiquated technology have been holding back the Internet economy. Stripe makes it simple for any company to sell to anyone, anywhere in the world.”

 

Co-founder, John Collison, added, “Stripe removes one of the biggest hurdles to starting an online business in Canada. For the first time, any businesses in Canada will easily be able to accept credit card payments without compromising on their customers’ experience. We’re excited to see what Canadians will create using our service.”

 

Why Stripe is Winning Praise

One area in which Stripe succeeds is by making it easy for businesses to accept payments on the Internet while still controlling their customers’ experience. Avi Bryant, founder of Vancouver, BC-based DabbleDB, which was acquired by Twitter in 2010, said, “It took us months of phone calls and faxes to get approved for a merchant account and set up payment integration, and even then we were never happy with the tools and APIs available to us.”

 

E-commerce sites looking to avoid a merchant account setup can opt for a third party payment provider; however, these providers whisk consumers off to their site to complete a transaction, adding steps to the process and reducing the retailer’s control over the customer experience.

 

With Stripe, entrepreneurs and businesses can easily sign up for an account, enter a few lines of JavaScript into their site’s source code, and with that, their website is ready to accept payments. After consumers enter their credit card information on the business’ website, the payment information goes straight to Stripe’s secure servers, so site owners don’t have to worry about storing sensitive data. Stripe then processes the payment and the business gets a deposit in its bank account.

 

As with the rest of Stripe, pricing is simple and predictable. Stripe charges one simple fee of 2.9 percent plus 30¢ CAD per successful transaction. Unlike other online payment processing systems, Stripe doesn’t charge setup fees, monthly fees, or require lengthy contracts, making it more cost-effective for businesses of all sizes to transact online. Stripe also provides a beautiful dashboard to track everything from payments to coupons to deposits to customers.

 

To a consumer, a Stripe-powered website contains a familiar on-page checkout form. This elegant integration, previously unavailable to all but those companies with the resources necessary to build a complex payment system, allows businesses to design the customer’s online shopping experience from start to finish.

 

How Canadians are Using Stripe

Stripe works with many successful brands in the U.S. including foursquare and MoMa and many Canadian businesses have been using Stripe over the summer. Companies like Tarsnap, MetaLab, and Shopify, have all been excited to see their businesses thrive with Stripe.

 

Tobias Lütke, CEO of Shopify, one of Canada’s fastest-growing companies headquartered in Ottawa, described his experiences. “The first time I dealt with online payments was when I opened my online snowboard store here in Canada. My only option was to go through my bank. It took months of pleading and convincing. By the time we could accept payments, we had spent thousands of dollars for unnecessary security audits and we were sitting on unsold inventory.”

 

Lütke continued, “Like Stripe, we believe that companies of all sizes should have all the tools they need to run a successful business. We got hooked on offering Stripe’s services to our customers because they understand how simple it can be – and should be – for businesses to grow and transact online. For Canadians, this means more choice for purchasing a variety of products and services from businesses which are now able to operate online. Americans have been enjoying Stripe for a while and I'm thrilled that it's finally available for Canadian businesses and startups.”

 

Andrew Wilkinson, founder of award-winning design studio MetaLab based in Victoria, BC, shared his views after using Stripe’s beta. “Credit card processing in Canada is still in the dark ages. Getting setup with our old payment gateway took months of frustrating applications and phone calls, and came with a barrage of fees and startup costs. Stripe has been a breath of fresh air. It took us less than a minute to get set up and start accepting payments. The old guard should be quaking in their boots.”

 

Colin Percival, founder of Tarsnap, also a Stripe beta user believes, “Stripe makes all the problems of credit card processing go away. It took only a few minutes to sign up; it was easy to integrate into my website;  and the pricing is straightforward. Unlike Paypal, they trust me to decide if I want to accept a payment and, most importantly, when I need help, I can send an email and get a reply from them in a matter of minutes. I can't imagine why a small business starting up now and needing to accept credit cards online would want to use anything other than Stripe.”

 

About Stripe

Stripe is the best way to accept payments on the Internet. With Stripe, entrepreneurs and businesses alike can easily create their own secure payment experiences without having to invest in a costly infrastructure. By providing innovative tools and systems for transacting online, Stripe aims to build the economic infrastructure for the Internet.

 



















































































































 

 

 

 

CAA Partners With Tracker Networks to Track and Save on IT Costs

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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CAA Partners with Tracker Networks to Track and Save on IT Costs

 

CAA South Central Ontario uses the IT Tracker system and Tracker mobile app to track IT costs, equipment, software and services – and benchmark their resource management effectiveness against real marketplace data.

 

In today’s cost conscious and competitive business environment, innovation and automation are essential to delivering better technology services to users while lowering costs.  This challenge has never been greater for technology and finance executives with the proliferation of offsite hosting, the use of personal devices in the workplace and the rising costs of support. 

 

Tracker Networks Inc. is pleased to announce today that CAA South Central Ontario (CAA SCO) has signed on as a customer for the IT Tracker system and mobile application to track CAA SCO’s IT costs, equipment, software and services contracts.  CAA SCO will also leverage the IT Tracker market database of over 35 million items to benchmark its costs and IT performance against the market.

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 “CAA SCO is an innovative and forward-thinking organization,” said Kin Lee-Yow, Vice President Information Technology, CAA South Central Ontario.  “To support our growth, we are making improvements in the way we manage IT and investing in technologies that will automate tracking, improve our visibility and get rid of manual effort.  The IT Tracker system from Tracker Networks helps us to do this effectively.”

 

IT Tracker is a web-based software tool and mobile application that makes it easier for Finance and Technology executives to plan for and track all of their equipment, software, support agreements, telecom contracts, consultants, services and other expense areas. 

 

Using analysis and confidential benchmarking against the proprietary Tracker Networks market database of over 35 million items and real-time prices, the system helps track and control IT costs and find ways to provide better service to business users and their customers.

 

“With all the investments we are making in IT, we need to be able to measure and validate our IT improvements.  The IT Tracker system lets us do this by tracking our costs and letting us compare ourselves to real market data,” said Lee-Yow.

 

“We are delighted to be partnering with Kin and his team at CAA to find ways to increase IT effectiveness and lower costs,” said Roger Mahabir, Chairman and CEO of Tracker Networks.  “Saving money for our customers and implementing innovative solutions are some of the key goals we strive for at Tracker Networks.  Trying to be a step ahead with our products and services to meet our customers’ evolving needs, we put our customers’ success above everything else – when our clients win, as in this case with CAA’s IT team, we all succeed.”

 

 

About CAA South Central Ontario

 

CAA South Central Ontario is a not-for-profit auto club offering insurance, travel, automotive care and roadside services.  There are more than 1.8 million CAA members in South Central Ontario and 5 million members in Canada. We’re more than Roadside Assistance.  We’re Life-side Assistance. Visit www.caasco.com

 

About Tracker Networks

 

Tracker Networks Inc. is an innovative and fast growing software company headquartered in Toronto, Canada.  Tracker Networks helps technology and business executives to track equipment, services, contracts, resources and costs – to find ways to lower costs, improve service and increase revenue.  Tracker Networks systems import and track thousands of quotes and contracts per day, for over 150 manufacturers and many leading IT organizations in Canada, the US, Europe and Asia.  Visit www.trackernetworks.com

 

 

Contact

 

For Tracker Networks

Jason Doel

EVP & COO

Office: (416) 848-7347

jason.doel@trackernetworks.com

www.trackernetworks.com

 

For CAA South Central Ontario

Jeff LeMoine

Media and PR Specialist

Office: (905) 771-4709

jlem@caasco.ca

www.caasco.ca

 

Follow CAA on Twitter

@caasco_News for regular updates on wait times and other news and information.





















































































































































 

 

 

 


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Lenovo Acquires Stoneware to Expand Secure Cloud Computing

Lenovo Acquires Stoneware to Expand Secure Cloud Computing

Lenovo grows its technology portfolio and advances its PC Plus strategy
Stoneware brings substantial experience and expertise in secure cloud computing
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. and Carmel, IN, September 18, 2012: Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY) today announced the acquisition of Stoneware Inc., to enhance and expand its cloud computing solutions, a key component of Lenovo’s product portfolio. Stoneware has built a strong, profitable, and growing business by delivering innovative software technologies, which are helping people and organizations make the complex environment of cloud computing that much simpler.
 
As a result of this acquisition, Lenovo will add significant new technologies and accelerate its capabilities for both commercial and consumer cloud offerings, particularly the ability to provide secure content across multiple devices in education and government.
 
Lenovo’s product portfolio will benefit from the experience and expertise of the Stoneware team. Stoneware already has several strong, highly innovative cloud products – including webNetwork and LanSchool – that serve millions of users primarily in education and the public sector. Lenovo will help extend the reach of these products as well as new offerings through its global reach as the world’s second largest PC maker and number one commercial laptop company. Lenovo will also help develop the opportunity to extend this technology, beyond the current strongholds that Stoneware has in government and in education, into more consumer-focused offerings over time.
 
“Adding Stoneware cloud computing into the Lenovo line up presents a significant opportunity to leverage their success, and enhance our PC Plus offerings, all to the benefit of our customers,“ said Peter Hortensius, senior vice president, and president, Product Group, Lenovo. “We have a history of innovation and embracing new technologies, and the talented team at Stoneware will fit in perfectly with our long-term strategy.
 
With today’s typical technology user carrying multiple devices, the PC Plus era is here, and Lenovo is aggressively expanding its product offerings and capabilities to help people and businesses connect across any device to the content and communities that matter most to them. Customers simply want a better way to connect their PC with their tablet with their smartphone, and with Stoneware, Lenovo aims to help them get there.
 
The purchase of Stoneware is critical to Lenovo’s broader PC Plus strategy. As a recognized leader in PCs, with the momentum of an expanding tablet and smartphone business and a newly formed joint venture with EMC, Lenovo aims to offer end-to-end secure solutions to business customers and compelling cloud-based technology to consumers.
 
“We are pleased to be joining forces with Lenovo”, said Rick German, CEO, Stoneware. “Lenovo is one of the largest and fastest growing technology companies in the world and for Stoneware, a small company with roots in the heartland of the United States, we are delighted to be given the opportunity to deliver real benefit to customers on a global stage.”
 
While financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, the acquisition is not material to Lenovo’s earnings. Stoneware has 67 employees, located in either Indiana or Salt Lake City, Utah. As part of this agreement, it is expected that all U.S.-based Stoneware employees will join Lenovo, and that there will be no job losses as a result of today’s announcement.
 
The acquisition is expected to be completed by the end of 2012 and in the coming weeks the Stoneware team will be fully integrated into Lenovo. The Stoneware team will remain in Indiana and Utah and will continue to sell both webNetwork and LanSchool while serving customers and partners with the same level of dedication and excellence.
 
About Lenovo
Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY) is a $US30 billion personal technology company and the world’s second largest PC company, serving customers in more than 160 countries. Dedicated to building exceptionally engineered PCs and mobile internet devices, Lenovo’s business is built on product innovation, a highly efficient global supply chain and strong strategic execution. Formed by Lenovo Group’s acquisition of the former IBM Personal Computing Division, the Company develops, manufactures and markets reliable, high-quality, secure and easy-to-use technology products and services. Its product lines include legendary Think-branded commercial PCs and Idea-branded consumer PCs, as well as servers, workstations, and a family of mobile internet devices, including tablets and smart phones. Lenovo has major research centers in Yamato, Japan; Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, China; and Raleigh, North Carolina. For more information, see www.lenovo.com.


Microsoft Signs Licensing Agreement With Research In Motion

Microsoft Signs Licensing Agreement With Research In Motion
Sept. 18, 2012
exFAT file technology helps mobile industry leader provide cutting-edge capabilities to customers.

REDMOND, Wash. — Sept. 18, 2012 — Microsoft Corp. announced today that Microsoft and Research In Motion (RIM) have signed a patent licensing agreement that gives RIM broad access to the latest Extended File Allocation Table (exFAT) for certain BlackBerry devices of RIM. exFAT is a modern file system from Microsoft that facilitates large files for audiovisual media and enables seamless data portability and an easy interchange between desktop PCs and other electronic devices.

exFAT improves on its predecessor, the FAT system, and greatly expands the size of files that flash memory devices can handle by five times over previous FAT technology. It also increases the speed with which those files can be accessed. The exFAT file system not only facilitates large files for use of audiovisual media, it enables seamless data portability and an easy interchange between desktop PCs and a variety of electronic devices.

“Today’s smartphones and tablets require the capacity to display richer images and data than traditional cellular phones,” said David Kaefer, general manager of Intellectual Property (IP) Licensing at Microsoft. “This agreement with RIM highlights how a modern file system, such as exFAT can help directly address the specific needs of customers in the mobile industry.”

Microsoft’s Commitment to Intellectual Property Collaboration

Microsoft offers flexible IP licensing programs that give companies access to many of the foundational technologies in its own products, allowing those companies to build devices, applications and services that work seamlessly with each other.

Since Microsoft launched its IP licensing program in December 2003, the company has entered into more than 1100 licensing agreements and continues to develop programs that make it possible for customers, partners and competitors to access its IP portfolio. The program was developed to open access to Microsoft’s significant R&D investments and its growing, broad patent and IP portfolio.

Microsoft has entered into similar licensing agreements with several leading consumer electronics manufacturers through its IP licensing program, including Panasonic Corp., SANYO Electric Company Ltd., Sony Corp. and Canon Inc.

More information on Microsoft’s IP licensing program is available at http://www.microsoft.com/iplicensing, and information specifically related to Microsoft’s exFAT licensing program is available here.

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

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

Changing the Way Canadian Businesses Shop for Merchant Services

Changing the Way Canadian Businesses Shop for Merchant Services

Top Edge Solutions, LLC is now offering its extensive network of payment provider's to both the U.S. and Canadian markets. This has made it possible for small business owners to have their specific needs taken into consideration by a trained payment consultant who has a knowledge of the many different products and services available in this very complex, and sometimes confusing industry.

Toronto, Canada, September 18, 2012 --(PR.com)-- Top Edge Solutions has just completed the re-launch of their company, taking Canadian merchants by storm. For years store owners and retailers have been in the dark with how credit card processing really works, never really knowing which processing provider is giving an honest quote, or who has the best program for their business need.

“We listened to what Canadian merchants were saying, and wanted to be part of the solution,” said Keith Symanski, Founder and CEO of Top Edge Solutions, LLC, “Business owners want to know what options exist, and are happy to speak with someone who knows the details of the various offerings out there in the industry. And that’s where we fit in.” Keith added, “We are not the Acquirer, nor are we an employee for any specific Acquirer and/or Processor directly. We are an independent sales organization, and ultimately have the freedom to represent the providers we choose to support, and offer the solutions we believe are best for our merchant base. At the end of the day, we are only interested in the best solutions available for our merchants. Selling low credit card rates that come with mediocre back-end service is not what we are interested in. Before Top Edge, you would have to speak with a different sales department, and battle trained sales agents who all want your business, just to try and find out what’s available. You end up making a rushed decision just to get it over with already! It is nerve-wracking to say the least.”

Top Edge Solutions has partnered with North America’s leading electronic payments, and added-value service providers, and has a vast knowledge of the different payment solutions that are available for today’s small to mid-sized business. Top Edge Solutions, LLC is a registered sales partner of each provider in it’s network, and offers all services directly to merchants. That includes pricing, paperwork, and product/service information. Top Edge Solutions is not part of a referral network, or lead generation company. More information on their programs and services can be found at www.topedgesolutions.com

Contact Information
Top Edge Solutions, LLC
Vincent Shapiro
877 751 3282 ext. 100
Contact
www.topedgesolutions.com


Oracle Buys SelectMinds

Oracle Buys SelectMinds

Adds Social Talent Sourcing Capabilities to Oracle’s Talent Management Cloud

Redwood Shores, CA – September 17, 2012

News Facts

Oracle today announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire SelectMinds, a provider of cloud-based social talent sourcing and corporate alumni management applications.
SelectMinds’ applications enable organizations to empower recruiters, hiring managers and employees to leverage social connections to distribute job opportunities, source higher quality referrals, market their employment brand and manage corporate alumni relationships.
With referrals as the #1 source for external hires*, organizations are looking to tap into higher-quality talent by leveraging employees’ social connections.
The combination of Oracle and SelectMinds’ complementary social sourcing capabilities is expected to create a comprehensive recruiting, candidate sourcing, and talent management offering for organizations to reach quality referrals through social recruiting.
SelectMinds products are already fully integrated with Oracle Cloud Recruiting, Performance Management and Human Capital Management solutions and further extend Oracle’s social and mobile initiatives into talent management.
More information on this announcement can be found at http://www.oracle.com/selectminds.

Supporting Quotes

“Recruiting candidates through employee referrals is widely acknowledged as the most effective method to find talent through trusted contacts. Making recruiting efforts efficient and seamless by leveraging social connections and through mobile applications helps companies find better quality candidates and continue to build the pipeline for future talent,” said Thomas Kurian, Executive Vice President, Oracle Development. “By adding SelectMinds to Oracle’s Talent Management Cloud, Oracle can help customers with a complete talent management solution, enabling streamlined recruiting practices, more quality referrals, faster employee on-boarding, and better performance.”
“Oracle’s proposed acquisition of SelectMinds represents a strong endorsement of SelectMinds intuitive social sourcing technology and the value customers have achieved with our solutions. We’re excited to be a part of Oracle, and look forward to combining our resources to better serve and support customers with more global scale,” said Anne Berkowitch, CEO and Founder, SelectMinds.

*Source: CareerXroads 2011 report

Supporting Resources

About Oracle and SelectMinds

General Presentation

Customer and Partner Letter

FAQ

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 is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
This document is for informational purposes only and may not be incorporated into a contract or agreement.

Contact Info

Danielle Cormier
Oracle Corporate Communications
+1.610.766.3463
danielle.cormier@oracle.com

Ken Bond
Oracle Investor Relations
+1.650.607.0349
ken.bond@oracle.com