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New Flash Disk Card.

There are more and more storage devices based on flash memory technology appearing every day. Following the trend, Mistral Solutions Pvt. Ltd. has released a flash disk card. It can be used as a replacement for convenient hard disks. The company itself positions it for extreme environments where standard disks are too unreliable. The flash disk card can support JBOD and RAID via software. The card comes in size of 8/16/24/32/64 GBytes. Cards like these and flash based hard disks are great solutions, unfortunately too expensive for end users these days. Still, as Windows Vista promotes the concept of flash based storage in PCs, it is expected that prices of flash drives will go down and they would be more affordable to be deployed in computers and servers. Technorati : Flash, Windows, hard disks, memory Del.icio.us : Flash, Windows, hard disks, memory Ice Rocket : Flash, Windows, hard disks, memory

Jack PC Thin Clients

Chip PC Technologies is a company producing Jack PC, small thin clients. The advantage of Jack PC products is that they are tiny can be installed in walls instead of network wall sockets!!!

Chip PC is offering a range of thin clients. All models use power over Ethernet (PoE) as power supply, although it is also possible to use additional power supply attached to the client. Typical power consumption of these thin clients is only 5 watts.

Chip PC thin clients offer different specifications. For example Jack PC EFI-6900 offers

Industry-leading hardware architecture integrating latest AMD RISC Processor, 64MB M-Systems DOC and 128MB DDR RAM
4 USB (v2.0-compatible) ports, Audio In/Out support
8 MB Video memory with DVI Video-Out supporting both DVI/Analog monitors, Dual Screen functionality supported
Advanced local image software including Windows CE 4.2/5.0 OS, ICA 9.x, RDP 5.2, IE 6, Built-in remotely managed desktop, multi sessions support
Full, remote, enterprise management through Xcalibur Global , combining real-time as well as policy-based management modes, including highest authentication mechanisms, Active Directory synchronization and more.

Jack PC clients look like an interesting solution for organisations interested to deploy TC technology for the first time. In case of companies who have existing infrastructure, the benefits of Jack PC might be less attractive.

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New mobile devices

Sony has made available a new micro PC, Sony VAIO® Micro PC.This model uses low voltage Core Solo CPU and Windows XP Professional. It has a touch screen (800*600) and a sliding keyboard.The model deploys Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and even WAN interfaces.It looks like a good companion for a busy sysadmin who is always on the move. However, the price of this beauty is a bit high reaching approximately 1800 $.Meanwhile, Motorola has released a new version of 700 G handheld, based on Windows mobile.From product page:The HC700-G is a versatile, rugged handheld computer with integrated GSM /GPRS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth® wireless technology. Designed to enhance worker productivity in a multitude of industries, the HC700-G provides integrated data-capture capability and anywhere communications connectivity in a flexible, purpose-built converged device.Products like 700 G help to improve automation in production and transport systems Technorati : handheld, mobile, windows Del.icio.us : handheld, mobile, windows

NetGear announces ProSafe™ SSL VPN Concentrator 25 – Model SSL312

NetGear is making available another product that should simplify the creation and management of VPNs between remote clients and head offices.NetGear is making available another product that should simplify the creation and management of VPNs between remote clients and head offices.Model SSL312 allows up to 25 concurrent secure tunnels which is quite sufficient for SOHO and small enterprises.The concentrator supports a number of authentication and encryption protocols. It has simplified web-based control system and helps organisations to save time and money as it is easy to install and configure. Technorati : SSL, VPN, hardware Del.icio.us : SSL, VPN, hardware

Microsoft Office Validation: another measure against piracy

Microsoft has recently released another tool that validates whether Microsoft Office installed on users' computers is genuine or pirated.It is understandable that Microsoft Corporation is trying to fight piracy and it is their right to do so.On the other hand what implications does it have on normal users and administrators?Microsoft has published a small FAQ about MS Office validation.There is a number of conclusions that can be made from this document.Only Office XP and newer are required for validation. This may have small impact on organisations that use Windows 2000 or older in their environment (It is well known that even Office 97 has sufficient features for most users, so there are many organisations that use old versions and dont plan to upgrade)Users holding individual licenses for each copy of Microsoft Office are required to validate. This makes life harder for administrators as they would have to install ActiveX component in Microsoft Internet explorer on all machines with Office. People using Firefox or Opera will have another trouble as these browsers do not support ActiveX. Well, at least Microsoft offers validator as a plugin. For Opera validation should be performed using a small application that is downloadable from Microsoft. Running such an application may require changes to firewall rules on client computers.The good news is that Volume Licenses do not require validation. So large companies should not be affected so much. Technorati : windows Del.icio.us : windows

Vmware vs Microsoft: 4-2?

An interesting 'Virtualization market match' is going on between Vmware & Microsoft. And its giving administrators lots of benefits and freebies too! Vmware is aggressively defending its virtualisation patch: Even though it is the undisputed virtualization leader, Vmware, in a brilliant move to preempt Vista, released the free Vmware player: 1-0. Microsoft responded by including the Windows license with virtual machines on Windows Server Enterprise: 1-1. Vmware released GSX server for free (brilliant product, this counts for 2 goals 🙂 ) 3-1. Microsoft responded by giving away its virtualization software for free: 3-2. And the latest news is that Vmware has opened up the Vmware vm format, so that developers can develop for it. 4-2. Will Microsoft make another move, or is it time they acknowledge defeat?

Industry Analyst Report Shows That Network Appliance Leads NAS and Unified Storage Market

Sunnyvale, Calif. – April 17, 2006 — Network Appliance, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTAP) today announced that it has extended its position in the NAS and unified storage market. According to Gartner’s report “Market Share: NAS/Unified Storage, Worldwide, 2000-2005,”1 the total NAS and unified storage market grew 16.1% in 20042. NetApp grew more quickly than the market, posting annual revenue growth of 22.4%3. According to Gartner, the company increased its market share from 52.4% in 2004 to 55.2% in 20054.
NetApp leads in both the high-end and midrange parts of the market, with 88.9% market share and 70.5% market share by revenue respectively5. Additionally, NetApp revenue for NAS/Unified Storage Gateways grew faster than the market from 20046.
“With NetApp® unified storage, customers can consolidate, standardize, and centrally manage both SAN and NAS storage to simplify complex IT environments and dramatically reduce total cost of ownership,” said Patrick Rogers, vice president of Products and Partners at Network Appliance. “By offering storage solutions that maximize our customers’ investments and simultaneously support Fibre Channel SAN, IP SAN (iSCSI), and network-attached storage, NetApp can continue to address changing business needs as storage technologies evolve.”
Full Press Release is accessible on NetApp official website 

Windows on Mac

Public Beta of Boot Camp makes Windows available on Intel based Apple computers (please see official press release and official homepage) .What would Windows on Mac bring to average users and administrators?This is definitely good news for average users as Windows has all these applications that are missing on Mac OS.Another point is that Apple products look more attractive for people.However, it is still under question how well Mac hardware will be supported under Windows. Hopefully, administrators will not end up with users who are unhappy that their beloved and cherished Macs are unable to work with Windows.Time will show… 🙂 Technorati : apple, macintosh, windows Del.icio.us : apple, macintosh, windows

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