Pro IT Zone

Some interesting things happened today. IBM has granted a product manufacturing license to Lenovo for one and two socket tower and rack servers.

Lenovo will now manufacture a select subset of x86 based servers (from the current System X Servers family) and they will focus mainly on the small and medium business. Lenovo will also provide configuration and management tools suitable for the small business.

In this way both companies will benefit each other in a great way, this will help Lenovo to expand their current product set available for the Americas and EMEA and IBM will expand their products into the market sectors that they were not reaching.

Since the acquisition of the Personal Computer Division from IBM, both companies have benefit each other positioning their technology, Lenovo using best technology available in personal computing, expanding operations and products to the countries were they didn’t have presence making it the third biggest PC vendor in the world, and positioning into the enterprise market; IBM entering to the SMB market, speeding product manufacturing, cost improvement for consumers. Both companies made the perfect match.

Two or three years ago some rumors were said that probably IBM will sell to Lenovo the System X Servers division. I must clarify that I’m not saying that this is going to happen; it is something that could be, but for the people who said those rumors this will give them more to say and think. That will be something that we will have to wait and see want negotiations are the “Big Blue” and the Chinese Company doing.

As many of may know by now, Symantec has made major changes on their security software solutions. The launches of these new solutions were made on December 2007. Some of the changes that now can be found are that Symantec Antivirus Corporate Edition is now Symantec Endpoint Protection and Symantec Antivirus Enterprise Edition is now Symantec Multi-tier protection.

Some things that got my attention of this new product are that, they now include a more user friendly interface and include new features than any Corporate Edition previous version. These features are: Antivirus, Antispyware, Desktop Firewall, Device Control, Intrusion Prevention and SNAC.

As we know security threats are increasing every day and every time is getting more difficult to stop them. Now with this security suite it will easier to protect a network and clients.

The antivirus and antispyware solution is the award winning solution that will help to keep your system free of known and unknown virus and malware. The desktop firewall will block any malware before it can enter to your system. The Intrusion Prevention feature will provide protection against unseen threats (zero-day threats), and does not rely on a signature. The device control will protect any information from been copied or stole from a desktop without the administrator’s authorization (i.e., will prevent copying files from a PC to a USB memory key), and the SNAC will enforce any security policy, it can be gateway-based enforcement or self enforcement, this will help to check that all devices are complaint with your security policies.

The user interface is so simple and friendly to use, something that is really impressing is that has a very light weight engine that won’t consume a lot of resources of a PC, notebook or server.

And what about the administration console? Well there are big changes also in the administration console. This is now a very friendly console with a nice design, some features like graphical reports… yep new graphical reports are now available in the Symantec administration console, and this was something much criticized before by other Antivirus and Security vendors because Symantec didn’t include this before.

Something to what Symantec is now going to is consolidate all their products let them to be administered by a single console, this is going to be very useful for all network and security administrators to have since there not going to be installed separate consoles for each product, in a near future you will be able to manage backups, security, administration and other software solutions made by Symantec.

On the test that I made to the antivirus and security solution I could found that the Endpoint security protected my PC from all the security threats to which I exposed, starting with the EICAR virus test and then surfing by some websites that I know they constantly put malware, Trojans and other kinds. Everything worked fine and my computer didn’t get infected.

This solution is compatible with Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 2000 with SP3 or greater and Windows Server 2003.

This is an example of how security threats have being evolving and how you can be ready to prevent them before they attack your network. With this kind of solutions made by Symantec which will help to protect your whole network, desktops and more, now you can have the peace of mind that you where looking for.

Imagine that you are a technological manufacturer or any other kind of organization looking to start being more ecological. You exactly don’t know where to start and after hours of researching in different literatures, databases and the Internet you can’t find what you are looking for.

Now this task can become a little bit easier, since IBM and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) have and iniciative to which other big manufactures like Sony, Nokia and Pitney Bowes have joined to donate their ecological patents that will let any organization to improve their processes for manufacturing products, distribution and presentation, reducing the electric consumption and the adverse effects to the environment.

In this way, a common fund of patents will be created that will be for public use. This portfolio of patents is denominated “Eco-Patent Commons” and it is available in a specific area of the Web site of the WBCSD.

The donated patents to the Eco-Patent Commons talk about innovations related to the environment or to innovations in the different processes from business and manufacture that have impact on the environment. For example, the donated patents can talk about solutions in the logistic area of how to reduce the fuel consumption, or facilitating the reduction of dangerous wastes.

The entrance in Eco-Patent Commons is open to all the individuals and companies that donate at least one patent. The acceptance of each patent is subject to the approval of the organization. The founder members of WBCSD invites other companies to participate in this initiative whose objective is to promote the innovation in the protection of the Planet.

Some of the patents donated by IBM are:

1. Method for the ozone generation and treatment of surfaces (U.S. Patent: 6178973).
2. Solution for packing based on the insertion of respectful material with the environment (U.S. Patent 6997323).
3. Catalytic reactor (U.S. Patent 6197267).

If you are more interested on the theme or will like to receive more information please visit the WBCSD website.

Yesterday I made a post about green computing and the importance of. Today I contiued making my researchs about which IT companies are contributing developing green computing devices.

I found something interesting about HP who has recently made the biggest deployment of their technology HP Dynamic Smart Cooling  in a datacenter destinated for research and investigation that the company has in Bangalore, India.

The main focus of this investigation wanted to demonstrate the scalability of their technology of refrigeration in real surroundings. The result has been the creation of one of the datacenters with greater number of sensors in the world, with a reduction of the 20 percent in the consumption of refrigeration energy.

Once totally optimized, which is hoped that the datacenter equipped with HP Dynamic Smart Cooling will save 7,500 megawatts/hour per year, this is equivalent to the consumption of energy of more than 750 North American homes, and will reduce the emissions to the atmosphere of carbon dioxide in 7,500 tons to the year.

The project has included the consolidation of the datacenters of 14 laboratories into a high density data to center of 6,500 square meters located in Bangalore, and in this way has become one of the biggest in India.

Once the installation is completely optimized, it is hoped that the datacenter will reduce up to a 40 percent the consumption of energy for refrigeration with respect to other technologies that are currently used in datacenters worldwide.

This is a big example of how HP is the way to follow in the field of power effiency, and simultaneously allows to give an ecological sense to the businesses of the companies by reducing the environmental impact.

It is well know that this year is the “International Year Of Planet Earth”. We can also help to save our beautiful Planet buying “green computer and electronic” devices. Many studies have been done lately to see how technology can improve our way of life without damaging our environment. I know that this is not an easy task to do, and probably you’ll spend a couple of more cents when looking for ecological electric devices but trust me, every penny worth it.

Imagine 50 years in future from now, where your sons and grandsons are going to be living in a hot place, where their skin is going to be damage by the ultra violet rays because there is Ozone layer. No more animals living in the Earth, no pure oxygen, most of the water that can be found is contaminated, eating synthetic food, wearing disposable cloths (which will pollute more the environment), drinking half a glass of water every day instead of eight, working for water instead of money and having a life expectancy of 30 or 35 years…

This is something that I can’t even image how life will be, it will be something horrible and it is going to be our fault…

We can start to make the difference right now, not buy only saving the water, trying to use less or vehicles and stuff like that, we can also do it making shopping wisely.

When you buy Energy Star compliance devices not only going to be protecting the environment, you also are going to be saving money. That’s because Energy Star compliance device consume less energy, are electronic devices that are built with non hazardous substances or materials, and are devices manufactured on plants that reduce the greenhouse emission gases.

Also make sure that when selecting electronic devices they meet the ROHS (Restriction Of Hazardous Substances) Directive, in order to get products that are Lead, Mercury, Cadmium and other substances free that may damage the environment.

Try to look for computers and other electronic devices that can be recycled or contain materials that are biodegradable. You may also ask to your computers and electronic devices vendor if they count with a recycling program where you can trade your old device for a new one.

Look in your community for an electronic device recycling program instead of sending them to the municipal or public dump.

Saving the Earth is easy, it just needs a little of will, these are some advices that will help to keep our Planet clean, people and animals healthy, and believe me, you sons and grandsons will always thank this to you.