HP struggles as Dell and Cisco push enterprise servers

HP struggles as Dell and Cisco push enterprise servers

HP is continuing to suffer as a result of Oracle dropping Itanium support while Dell’s enterprise strategy gains momentum, according to the latest market data from Gartner.

The company posted worldwide server supplier revenue of $3.7bn, 28.7% of the total market share for the second quarter of 2012, although revenue was down compared to last year.

Adrian Connell, a research director at Gartner, said,  “HP is having a challenging time (see box below). The business is suffering from weak Unix sales. HP has been suffering since Oracle said it would not support Itanium.”

In spite of winning a legal battle to force Oracle to continue Itanium support, HP was looking to increase the mission-critical aspects of its commodity x86 Proliant PC server platform. “The challenge for HP is to migrate customers from Itanium to x86,”  he added: “HP has always pushed the envelope of the x86 platform.”

Connell predicted that over time businesses still relying on high-end Unix servers will migrate to Windows Server and Linux–based x86 PC-server hardware.

HP is also coming under pressure from competitors in the x86 server market. Dell has been growing particularly strongly and Cisco with its unified computing system (UCS) is making inroads in the server blades market, where HP has previously been strong, according to Connell.

Over the last few years, Dell has been trying to become more enterprise-focused. Connell said, “Its product portfolio is very different compared to three years ago. Dell has also transformed how its sales force engages with customers. In the last few quarters we are seeing concerted benefits.”

Dell expects tough next quarter

Dell expects tough next quarter

PC maker Dell has warned that it expects third-quarter revenue to be down between 2% and 5% on second-quarter levels because of the “uncertain economic environment”.

Dell also blamed “competitive dynamics” and “soft consumer business” for its negative outlook for the third quarter, and said it expects a “challenging” user computer environment in the second half of the year.

The warnings came in second-quarter financial results in which Dell reported revenue of $14.5bn, down 8% on the same period a year ago and narrowly below the level that analysts had estimated.

Dell also saw its profits dive 33% in its first financial quarter of 2013 as consumer and large enterprise sales fell 12% and 3% respectively. Total sales in the first quarter were worth $14.4bn, compared with $15bn in the same quarter last year, a fall of 4%.

The second-quarter results caused Dell’s shares to fall by 3.7% in after-hours trading to $11.88, after closing at $12.34, according to the BBC.

Despite the warnings, Dell also said it expects continued solid growth in its enterprise solutions, services and software divisions.

Dell Enterprise Solutions and Services revenue grew 6% year-on-year to $4.9bn, which the company said represents 50% of margin and more than a third of revenue. The company also reported growth of 14% in its server and networking revenues.

"We're transforming our business, not for a quarter or a fiscal year, but to deliver differentiated customer value for the long term," said Michael Dell, chairman and chief executive.

Brian Gladden, Dell chief financial officer, said: “Our performance in the second quarter provided another proof-point that our long-term strategy is right.

“We continued our progress in shifting the mix of our business to higher-margin enterprise solutions, led by solid growth in our server, networking, services, and Dell IP storage businesses.

Sony Vaio Zoom Notebook Concept

Sony Vaio Zoom Notebook Concept by Eno 

Setiawan !! ♥

Sony Vaio Zoom notebook concept takes everything we know about holographic technology and squeezes it inside a thin glass form factor. When off, the screen is completely transparent and the keyboard goes opaque. Turn it on and the touch screen holographic festivities begin. Even the mouse buttons are holographic!

IBM acquires Texas Memory Systems

IBM acquires Texas Memory Systems:

IBM has announced it is buying Texas Memory Systems (TMS) for an undisclosed sum.

Texas Memory Systems (TMS) was founded in 1978 and has become one of the most prolific suppliers in the flash storage market, specialising in its RamSan range of rack-mounted SSDs and PCIe cards.

Now IBM will integrate TMS's technology into its own server and storage ranges.

“The TMS strategy and solution set align well with our smarter computing approach to information technology, by helping clients realise increased performance and efficiencies at lower costs,” said Brian Truskowski, general manager of systems storage and networking at IBM.

“Solid state technology, in particular, is a critical component of our new smarter storage approach to the design and deployment of storage infrastructures, and part of a holistic approach that exploits flash in conjunction with disk and tape technologies to solve complex problems.”

IBM has promised to invest in TMS to continue to build the products. However, when Computer Weekly spoke to Erik Eyberg, senior analyst at TMS, he would not confirm what would happen to the company name or whether its employees would be kept on board.

“We are looking at several avenues in the integration progress,” Eyberg said, “but we cannot comment on it at this time.”

Eyberg was keen to highlight the endorsement of SSD technology represented by the deal.

“The I/O bottleneck has been holding back computing for years and hard disks are not getting any faster,” Eyberg said.

“This deal is a huge validation of the technology and the potential it has to change the industry.”

Simon Robinson, principal analyst at The 451 Group, agreed on the validation aspect of SSD, claiming it was a “white hot technology that is transforming storage.”

“The deal comes hot on the heels of similar moves from other players, most notably EMC with XtremIO,” Robinson told Computer Weekly. 

“The obvious difference between the two is that XtremIO was a very young company without a general availability product, while TMS is almost 35 years old.”

However, Robinson thinks the older company is a better fit for IBM, adding: “It has a broader set of SSD products that can reside in both the host and as a shared storage system.

“SSD ultimately is going to reside in all levels of the stack so all systems and storage players are going to have to make organic and inorganic investments here. IBM now has its hands on this industry's most venerable player.”  

IBM already partners with other SSD companies, including Fusion IO. However, the company claimed TMS would “complement IBM’s current portfolio”, rather than replace it.

The deal is expected to complete by the end of 2012.

Acer sees sales stall

Acer sees sales stall

Acer saw sales stalll in its second quarter, down 2.2% compared to the first three months of the year.

The Taiwanese company said it didn’t expect revenue to pick up until its fourth quarter.

But Acer will start shipping products for the launch of Microsoft Windows 8 in August and September, therefore anticipates revenues to rebound, and consequently expects third quarter revenues to be about the same as the second quarter, said the company.

The company also said a one-time tax settlement of NT$410m affected its income.

The news follows record sales from Chinese rival Lenovo, which saw a  44% year-over-year in its latest results.

Andrew Buss, service director analyst at Freeform Dynamics said the results reflect a tumultuous last few years at the company.

“Acer had a policy of pile it high and sell it cheap, which worked in the boom time but when the downturn happened it was  left with a lot of stock it had to write off,” he said.

“Also the lower end of the market, which it has typically targeted, has cannibalised by things like iPad, as people look to purchase tablets instead of netbook and lower cost PCs.  

“Alternatively Lenovo has focused on the mid- to upper end of the market and only recently moved into the consumer space.”

Buss said Acer should see an increase in sales with the release of Windows 8, but shouldn’t rely on that as a long-term strategy to improve sales.

Adobe seeks solution to InDesign crashing issues...

Adobe seeks solution to In Design crashing issues...

Adobe has acknowledged what InDesign users have been pointing out since mid-June--that versions CS5, CS5.5, and
CS6 will cause a system and/or application crash on the new 2012 models of Apple's MacBook Pros, MacBook Airs, and
Retina MacBook Pros, under certain circumstances, such as when the program displays a warning dialog box.

"Adobe was recently informed that InDesign customers using the new Retina MacBook Pros are experiencing
problems," said Chris Kitchener, InDesign product manager. "As with any software compatibility issue with brand new
hardware, we are still in the process of fully understanding the problem. We are talking with Apple and working so
we can resolve the matter just as soon as we can."

According to Adobe support technician Scott Worthington, who has publicly been tracking the case on the Adobe forums since June 27, "At this time it
appears the update is removing an API we use to control our use of system icons. At present the solution appears to
be to rollback the update for the software to continue to function as expected. Other solutions are being explored
to see if we can find a simpler answer."

Crashes traced to new hardware and software updates

The problem appears to originate with the new Retina MacBook Pros, the new non-Retina Macbook Pros, and the new
MacBook Airs that feature the new Intel Ivy Bridge processors, and are running OS X 10.7.4.

On June 15, an Adobe InDesign forum contributor with the nickname "arminvit" reported that his copy of InDesign
CS5 crashed on his 2012 MacBook Pro when he tried to delete a page with content and when packaging files. He also
observed that another, older computer, running 10.7.3 did not crash under the same circumstances.

This kicked off an avalanche of forum posts spanning nearly a month that has gained some acknowledgment from
Adobe about the problem, but no fix yet in sight

How to Setup Windows 7 from USB drive?

How to Setup Windows 7 from USB drive?

Step1: Create Bootable USB Drive:

1. Insert the USB drive you intend to boot from.
2. Choose the menu "Tools > Create Bootable USB Drive". The "Create Bootable USB Drive" dialog will popup. If you are using Windows Vista or Windows 7 operating system, you need confirm the UAC dialog to continue.
3. In "Create Bootable USB Drive" dialog, click "..." button to open the iso file of Windows 7.
4. Select the correct USB drive from the "Destination USB Drive" list if multiple USB drives are connected to the computer.
5. Choose the proper writing method. "USB-HDD" is recommended.
6. Click "Start" button to start creating windows 7 bootable USB drive.

If no errors occured in the above process, you should now be all set to setup Windows 7 from USB drive!

Step 2: Configuring the BIOS:

You should now reboot and go into the BIOS configuration to boot from USB. Instructions for doing so wildly from system to system, but generally entail the following:

1. Reboot the system.
2. While booting (before Windows starts loading), get into the BIOS configuration screen by hitting something like F1, F2, Delete or Escape. Hotkey instructions are generally provided on the screen.
3. Go to the section that contains your boot devices.
4. With your USB drive plugged in, the USB drive should be listed. If it isn’t, your system might not support booting from USB. Assuming that it is supported (as is the case with virtually all modern hardware), promote your USB drive to the primary boot device.
5. Exit from the BIOS configuration, saving all changes.

Step 3: Booting and setup windows 7 from USB drive:

Assuming that you properly configured your BIOS and your USB drive supports booting,  Windows 7 setup should now load. Depending on the speed of your USB drive, this may take a while.

If it isn’t working, then double-check the following before making a scene:

• Is your BIOS properly configured for booting from the USB device? (Is the USB device listed and does it have top priority?)
• Have you correctly prepared the USB drive in step one? (Restart the procedure.)
• Does your USB drive properly support being booted from? (Try another one!)