WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2012
TECHNOLOGY
HP expands converged cloud portfolio KUWAIT: HP yesterday announced it is expanding its HP Converged Cloud portfolio with new solutions for VMware vCloud Suite 5.1, enabling clients to transform traditional virtualization deployments into open private and hybrid cloud environments with less risk and complexity. Introduced in April, HP Converged Cloud extends the power of the cloud across infrastructure, applications and information to provide clients with choice, confidence and consistency. As the industry’s first strategy and portfolio based on a single open architecture, HP Converged Cloud enables the integration of any combination of private, managed and public cloud, as well as traditional IT. This combination provides workload portability as well as dynamic scaling. HP has helped more than 1,000 clients transition from virtualization to cloud computing with solutions engineered by HP and its partners. The expanded HP Converged Cloud portfolio, built on HP Converged Infrastructure and HP Converged Management and Security, has been optimized for VMware vCloud Suite 5.1, and includes new capabilities that enable clients to: Reduce complexity and accelerate building and managing cloud with preintegrated solutions. Fast-track cloud adoption with comprehensive security and compliance controls that can be automatically applied to virtual machines
Decrease the risk of data loss with automated policy-based data protection “As organizations move from a virtualized environment to a private or hybrid cloud, they may face significant challenges with security, performance and the management of multiple, heterogeneous computing models,” said Eyad Shihabi, Managing Director, HP Middle East. “Extending HP Converged Cloud with comprehensive, integrated solutions for VMware vCloud Suite 5.1 enables clients to embrace secure cloud computing with less risk and greater choice”. “With VMware vCloud Suite 5.1, organizations will have reliable, flexible cloud solutions that enhance business agility while also addressing individual enterprise needs quickly and efficiently,” said Raghu Raghuram, executive vice president, Cloud Infrastructure and Management, VMware. “VMware vCloud Suite 5.1 and HP Converged Cloud solutions will enable our joint customers to accelerate their journey to the cloud, giving enterprises a proven, integrated solution that provides a competitive edge in a rapidly evolving market.” The expanded HP Converged Cloud offerings include the integration of VMware vCloud Suite 5.1 with HP CloudSystem, helping clients rapidly transform virtualized resources into selfservice private and hybrid cloud environments. To accelerate time to value, HP
offers customers preintegrated cloud solutions. Combined with VMware vCloud Suite 5.1, HP CloudSystem doubles virtual-machine density, reduces
Eyad Shihabi network complexity and provides flexibility to support any workload. New HP CloudSystem capabilities integrated with the VMware vCloud Suite 5.1 include: HP CloudSystem optimized for VMware-provides faster time to revenue with preintegrated solutions that include HP Converged Infrastructure and cloud management from HP and VMware
Auto-flexing feature-reduces response time to business requests and improves overall service levels by enabling VMware administrators to provision hardware for vCloud Director to automate the scaling of converged infrastructure. With this technology, customers can cut the time required to add a virtual host from four hours to 15 minutes Virtual-machine importing-simplifies clients’ path to the cloud by easily importing running virtual machines into an HP CloudSystem without downtime or reconfiguration HP Cloud Maps for VMware-accelerates the design of cloud services and automates the deployment of virtual applications using prepackaged, optimized HP CloudSystem templates The expanded HP Converged Cloud portfolio also includes the HP Cloud Protection Program and Consulting Services, which delivers a comprehensive security solution across network, storage and server virtualization layers that can be designed and implemented in less than three weeks. The new service identifies an effective mix of HP and VMware cloud-security capabilities that addresses common barriers to the adoption of cloud services, while enabling compliance controls. Management capabilities include cloud, virtualization of the network, and storage virtualization layers. For VMware clients challenged with addressing the Payment Card Industry
(PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS) in virtual environments, HP also offers the industry’s first converged PCI Compliance Security Solution Stack for virtual and cloud environments. The solution accelerates the path to compliance covering a majority of 200 security-based PCI DSS controls, removing security hurdles associated with achieving PCI compliance and access to cloud. HP Data Protector, the industry’s first and only backup and recovery solution supporting federated deduplication for the enterprise, now delivers integrated protection for VMware vCloud Director. This new solution features patented HP StoreOnce deduplication technology, and dynamically provides one-touch policy-based protection for VMware’s multitenant cloud environment. These capabilities help vCloud customers and service providers eliminate the risk of data loss from applications, both on premises and now in the virtual cloud. Availability Select expanded HP Converged Cloud solutions are available through HP and its worldwide channel partners; the remaining solutions are expected by the end of the calendar year. HP also will offer all VMware vCloud Suite editions with HP Converged Cloud solutions through HP sales and channel partners in late third calendar quarter.
Hackers claim 12m Apple IDs from FBI ‘One of the worst privacy disasters yet’
WASHINGTON: A view of an Apple iPhone displaying Facebook app’s splash screen in front of the login page. — AFP
Social media networks: Tool to energize politics WASHINGTON: Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter are playing a growing role in US politics by helping users stay informed and energizing activists, a study showed yesterday. The Pew Internet & American Life Project survey found that 36 percent of social networking site users say the sites are “very important” or “somewhat important” to them in keeping up with political news. About one in four users of social networks said sites are “very important” or “somewhat important” to them in recruiting people to get involved in political issues that matter to them. The survey found Democrats are more likely than Republicans or independents to say the sites are important. It also found 25 percent of social network users surveyed said they became more active in a political issue after discussing it or reading posts about it, and 16 percent said they changed their views about an issue after discussing it or reading about it on the sites.
Among Democrats, 33 percent said they were becoming more active as a result of social networks compared with 24 percent of Republicans. That was also true for 39 percent of self-described liberals and 21 percent of moderates. “Those who are really active in discussing and participating in politics use social networking sites pretty eagerly and report that their discussions and debates on the sites affect them,” said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet Project. “However, for most of those who use the sites, political material is just a small portion of what they post and what they read. And the impact of their use of the sites is modest, at best.” The survey found that the vast majority of social network users — 84 percent-said they have posted little or nothing related to politics in their recent status updates, comments, and links. These findings come from a survey conducted from January 20 to February 19 among 2,253 adults. — AFP
EMC provides Velocity with assembly service capability
E
MC Corporation yesterday announced that it is enabling EMC Velocity distributors worldwide with the skills and resources required to assemble multi-vendor solutions that feature EMC’s award-winning unified storage systems and next-generation backup solutions. Distributors worldwide will be provided with the technical training, proven methodologies and the backing of EMC’s Global Services organization so they may assemble EMC VSPEX Proven Infrastructure and other solutions for their reseller Partners. By receiving a pre-assembled, proven solution on-site that has been customized to meet the customer’s specific business needs, reseller Partners can immediately focus on accelerating the installation and implementation so that its customers can realize the benefits of the solution faster. The new assembly capability for distributors builds on EMC’s commitment to provide choice for how Partners assemble multi-vendor solutions. It also enables Partners to accelerate their profitability by focusing on valueadded services to more quickly deploy the solution to meet specific customer needs. Today’s announcement follows a string of other new EMC initiatives developed to help channel partners worldwide accelerate their customers’ journey to the cloud. These include VSPEX Proven Infrastructure, as well as Velocity Cloud Practices-Cloud Builder and Cloud Provider-and EMC Cooperative Services, which were announced at the first annual Global Partner Summit held at EMC World in May. Reseller and customer benefits The assembly services capability announced today provides resellers and their customers: Faster, easier, and more efficient implementations of multi-vendor solutions like VSPEX that are built on EMC VNXand VNXe unified storage systems, EMC Data Domain deduplication storage systems and Avamar
deduplication backup software and systems; More efficient use of resources that focus on high-value configuration, reduced implementation time, and integration services specific to customer needs; Confidence of a validated solution assembled to their specific requirements by EMC-trained professionals; and Simplified logistics by reducing the need to receive and track numerous components for multi-vendor solutions. Distribution partner benefits EMC Velocity distributors that offer assembly services can better support many of their reseller Partners by delivering pre-built, multivendor solutions such as VSPEX that include EMC technology; EMC is providing distributors with free training and tools that support assembly of solutions built on the EMC VNX family of unified storage solutions, and Data Domain and Avamar backup and recovery solutions; and EMC is also providing distributors with online access to installation guides and tools, the backing of EMC Customer Support Services, and EMC’s validation of their qualified status. Colin Sheard, Commercial Director, Synapse said “As a reseller, it’s important that we have options to scale our business to meet our unique customer needs. Today’s announcement is another example of EMC’s commitment to provide its partners with the resources to meet our customers need for faster deployments, while growing our business.” Joe Burke, Vice President of the North American Security, Virtualization and Networking group, Enterprise Computing Solutions, Arrow Electronics said “This additional services capability for Arrow brings Arrow’s channel-enablement model full circle. Arrow’s VSPEX enablement tools, coupled with the ability to assemble, will enable our solution providers to quickly and easily deliver VSPEX solutions to their customers.”
WASHINGTON: A hacker group has claimed to have obtained personal data from 12 million Apple iPhone and iPad users by breaching an FBI computer, raising concerns about government tracking. The group called AntiSec, linked to the hacking collective known as Anonymous, posted one million Apple user identifiers claimed to be part of a larger group of 12 million, purportedly obtained from an FBI laptop. Contacted by AFP, FBI spokeswoman Jenny Shearer said: “We’re not commenting.” Peter Kruse, an ecrime specialist with CSIS Security Group in Denmark, said on Twitter that the leak “is real” and that he confirmed three of his own devices in the leaked data.”Also notice that they claim to have fullname, adresses, phone numbers etc... Big ouch!” he tweeted. Eric Hemmendinger, a security expert with Tata Communications, said the report raises concerns about the protectors of cybersecurity. “The question is not whether it’s accurate, it is why did the feds have the information and why did they not take due care to secure it,” he told AFP. Hemmendinger said that based on past repor ts from Anonymous and related groups, he believes the report is probably true. “If you work in cybersecurity and your machine gets hacked, that’s a pretty embarrassing scenario,” he said. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Social media and news blogs were aflutter with the news. The tech blog Geekosystem called it “one of the worst privacy disasters yet” and various Twitter comments said the news suggested the FBI is tracking Apple users. One website set up a database to help users determine if their
WASHINGTON: A woman uses her Apple iPhone in this photo. — AFP device was on the hacked list of Apple unique device IDs (UDIDs). “Quite why the FBI was collecting the UDIDs and personal information of millions of iPhone and iPad users is not yet clear-but it’s obvious that the data (and the computer it was apparently stored on) was not adequately secured,” said Graham Cluley of the British security firm Sophos. “My suspicion is that the hackers were more interested in embarrassing the FBI’s team than endangering innocent users. All the same, hacking into computers is a criminal act-and I would anticipate that the FBI and other law enforcement agencies will be keen to hunt
down those responsible.” Others expressed concern about the apparent leak. “Since UDIDs are unique to each iPhone and iPad, having yours end up in the wrong hands is a concern,” said Josh Ong on the technology blog The Next Web. “The bigger issue, however, is that they were tied to additional personal information, including user names, device names, notification tokens, cell phone numbers and addresses, that could potentially lead to identity theft.” Johannes Ullrich of the SANS Internet Storm Center said it was difficult to verify the report. “There is nothing else in the file that
would implicate the FBI. So this data may ver y well come from another source. But it is not clear who would have a file like this,” he told AFP. Ullrich said it is unclear why the FBI, if the report were true, would have the data. “The size of the file... would imply a wide spread, not a targeted tracking operation, or the file was just kept in case any of the users in the file needs to be tracked,” he said. “The significance of this breach very much hinges on the source, which as far as I know, hasn’t been authenticated yet. The data is, however, real based on some of the reports that people do find their own UDID in the file.” — AFP
Online universities blossom in Asia Harvard, MIT offer courses over the net KUALA LUMPUR: Thousands of kilometres from Kuala Lumpur in Cameroon, doctoral student Michael Nkwenti Ndongfack attends his Open University Malaysia classes online and hopes to defend his final thesis by Skype. A government worker, Ndongfack could not find the instructional design and technology course he wanted in his own country, so is paying a foreign institution about $10,000 (8,000 euros) for the degree instead. Online university education is expanding
quickly in Asia, where growth in technology and Internet use is matched by a deep reverence for education. “I chose e-learning because it is so flexible,” Ndongfack, 42, told AFP via Skype from his home in the Cameroonian capital Yaounde. Webbased courses dramatically boost opportunities for students and are often cheaper than those offered by traditional bricks-and-mortar institutions. But online learning has also caught the eye of some of the
KUALA LUMPUR: Students prepare for an exam in front of their computers at Kuala Lumpur-based Asia e University (AeU). — AFP
world’s most prestigious universities, with Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology recently teaming up to offer free courses over the Internet. “With the improvement in technology, the number of institutions offering online education has increased, both in terms of numbers and the kind of classes offered,” said Lee Hock Guan, senior fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore. The Malaysian government said about 85,000 people took online courses in the country last year, both at web-based institutions and traditional universities offering Internet teaching. In high-tech South Korea more than 112,000 students at 19 institutions are taking web-based classes, all of which have begun since 2002. China embraced the concept of online learning in the late 1990s to expand access to education, particularly in its vast rural regions, and there are now scores of providers, with 1.64 million people enrolled in 2010. A new type of learning Online courses are changing the way students learn, educators say, placing less emphasis on the rote learning that has long characterised
education in parts of Asia, and harnessing modern consumer technologies. And “open” universities, which typically offer courses primarily through the Internet, allow anyone to enrol for online programmes regardless of prior qualification or degrees. At Kuala Lumpur-based Asia e University, students download course materials from an online forum and virtual library. They are in contact with teachers and fellow students mostly through email, online chats, phone and text messages. Assignments typically include illustrating what they have learned with videos and other presentations made with smartphones, iPads or other devices and uploading them to YouTube. Academics say such interactive learning helps students engage with the material more than they would sitting passively in a lecture hall, and opens a window to learning through a medium they know and love-the latest gadgets. “Everyone is a front-row student,” said Ishan Abeywardena, who teaches information technology at Wawasan Open University, based in northern Malaysia. Students who might be too shy to ask questions or otherwise engage with their class in a traditional setting are much bolder online, Ishan said. —AFP