Boyd Davis, director of marketing Of Intel's Data Center Group, holds up an Intel Xeon 5600 processor

On Tuesday Intel (INTC) launched the Xeon 5600 series processor, blending security, performance and energy efficiency that the company says can significantly improve the economics of data center operations. Intel says one 5600 processor can replace 15 single-core servers, deliver 60 percent better performance than the Xeon 5500 and achieve a return on investment in as little as five months.

The introduction of the 5600 marks the next step in the transition to the Intel 32-nanometer processors, formerly code-named Westmere. The 32nm logic technology uses Intel’s second generation high-k metal gate transistors to increase speed and decrease energy consumption. Processors within the Xeon 5600 family range from a four core L5609 at 1.8GHz all the way up to a six core X5680 running a 3.33GHz.  All chips have 12MB of L3 cache regardless of core count.

“The performance of the Intel Xeon processor 5600 series is so compelling that it’s absolutely justifiable immediately in terms of ROI, to simply replace Legacy service, a whole rack of servers, or whatever it happens to be with a single platform,” said Simon Crosby, CTO, Data Center & Cloud, Citrix Systems said. “We did it ourselves for our own IT workloads and reduced 264 servers to 16 and in the process got high availability and agility as a result.”

Two trends tied to the economic cycle may boost interest in the 5600. Corporate cost-cutting has prompted many companies to postpone major purchases, as Intel notes that “80% of the sever install base is up for refresh.” Enterprises that are spending on IT have focused on investments that can bring savings through improved efficiency. The 5600 offers savings opportunities on several fronts: either by keeping the same CPU power but gaining up to 40% more performance per watt, or by lowering power by 30% while retaining the same performance as a 5500 series chip.

The 5600 series processors also deliver two new security features – Intel  Advanced Encryption Standard New Instructions (AES-NI) and Intel Trusted Execution Technology (TXT). These new features enable faster encryption and decryption performance for more secure transactions and virtualized environments.  Intel TXT will provide enhanced virtualization security through hardware-based resistance to malicious software attacks at launch.

As most of the major hardware vendors line up to offer the new chips, Intel boasts 12 new world records for two-socket servers and workstations. Here are some of the related vendor announcements and stories about the new 5600 line of processors:

• SGI announces immediate availability of Intel Xeon Processor 5600 series.  The new processor will be available across the entire scale-out server lineup, and boast increased performance, core density and power efficiency up to 60 percent.
• Dell refreshes its PowerEdge server portfolio.  Dell introduced nine PowerEdge blade, rack-mount and tower servers and three Dell Precision tower workstations updated with the new Intel Xeon 5600 series processors.
• Hewlett Packard (HPQ) refreshes the ProLiant line.  HP announced it has updated its ProLiant G6 portfolio of tower, rack-mount , blade and scale-out servers with the newest processors from Intel, the 5600 series.
• ZT Systems announces new server solutions.  ZT Systems announced the ZT Systems 1250 Ri Series 1U data center server featuring the powerful new Intel Xeon Processor 5600 series. The 1250Ri is the first of several server platforms that will support the new processor and provide ZT’s custom integration and delivery capabilities for precision-fit solutions to the unique technical and business requirements of individual data centers.
• Supercomputer provider Cray Inc. announced that its Cray CX1 line of deskside supercomputers will now ship with the Intel Xeon processor 5600 series.
• Super Micro Computer (SMCI) announced that it has launched a complete, optimized selection of server, workstation and blade solutions to support the new generation Intel Xeon Processor 4500/3600 Series.
• The Cisco UCS B-Series blade servers will offer up to two Intel Xeon Series 5600 multicore processors.
• IBM will update its HS22 and HS22v blade server lines to offer the new Intel Series 5600 processors.

Big Blue has offered Smart Business Development & Test service as a private cloud solution since June 2009. It will soon begin offering it in three delivery models:

• IBM CloudBurst for Development & Test: A pre-integrated set of hardware, storage, virtualization and networking to rapidly deploy an internal/private cloud environment.
• IBM Smart Business Development & Test Cloud: A private cloud service behind the client’s firewall, built and managed by IBM. The service now includes enhanced capabilities for collaborative cloud development using Rational Software Delivery Services for Cloud Computing.
• IBM Smart Business Development & Test on the IBM Cloud – application development and test featuring Rational Software Delivery Services for Cloud Computing over IBM’s secure, scalable cloud.

IBM also outlined plans for a “partner ecosystem” to  offer additional cloud management and security services to customers using IBM’s cloud computing services.

Some of the partner offerings include:

• RightScale and Kaavo to help customers manage and provision cloud resources;
• Navajo Systems to provide additional security for cloud-based applications;
• Silanis’ e-signature process management to enable secure e-transactions and e-contracts.
• Aviarc, Wavemaker and Corent to enable development of applications on the cloud
• SOASTA CloudTest for load testing, and VMLOgix for compatibility testing.
• Trinity Software,to work with federal government agencies and clients faced with complex IT administration scenarios and mandatory requirements for compliance and security.

As part of that initiative, IBM has introduced new Rational Software Delivery Services for Cloud Computing v1.0, which includes a collection of Rational’s products to help clients harness the agility and flexibility of the cloud.

IBM will also launch a cloud computing resource center on IBM developerWorks, which will feature articles, videos, blogs and hands-on virtual workshops for IT professionals new to cloud or interested in developing cloud infrastructures or applications.

Microsoft starts from scratch
In the first public preview, Microsoft (MSFT) unveiled Windows Phone 7 Series Monday at Mobile World Congress. The new mobile OS is a very ambitious re-branding of Windows Mobile and an agreed much overdue release. Gadget sites Engadget and Gizmodo both have glowing reviews and pictures of the new interface and explain how Microsoft threw out everything from the old OS, started over, and produced a game-changing phone operating system that will give the Android phone and iPhone a run for the money.  Gizmodo actually calls the Outlook application on phone “stunning” and continues to elaborate on the big picture, where Microsoft brings together different services like Zune, Xbox and Bing in a way that “actually makes sense and just works.” The Windows Phone 7 Series isn’t due to be released until the 2010 holidays.

Intel and Nokia merge platforms
In another big announcement at Mobile Congress World, Intel (INTC) and Nokia (NOK) announced they would merge their popular Moblin and Maemo software platforms into an open software platform called MeeGo.  Hosted by the Linux Foundation MeeGo will be Linux-based and run on multiple hardware platforms and across devices such as netbooks, tablets, mediaphones, connected TVs and in-vehicle infotainment systems.  “Our vision for seamlessly communicating between computing devices from the home, auto, office or your pocket is taking a big step forward today with the introduction of MeeGo,” said Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini.  People are able to keep their favorite mobile applications when changing devices, since MeeGo runs on multiple device types.  The first release of MeeGo is targeted for the second quarter of this year with MeeGo-based devices from Nokia and other manufacturers expected later this year.  Other resources about MeeGo including the press conference replay from Barcelona can be found here.

Juniper’s new framework for mobility solutions
Juniper (JNPR) hit the ground running at Mobile World Congress, unleashing a flurry of press releases regarding new software, solutions and partners to transform the experience and economics of mobility.  The new mobility framework marries partner applications with Juniper MX 3D Series Universal Edge Routers and SRX Series Services Gateways to help mobile operators deploy truly open and secure mobile networks.  At the conference Juniper announced Junos ready software, Junos Pulse for Smartphones, Juniper Mobile Secure, Juniper Traffice Direct, Juniper Media Flow and Juniper Mobile Core Evolution.  “Mobile operators need their networking vendors to stop building new one-off boxes, band-aids and bolt-ons to handle mobile data traffic. They need networking vendors with real innovation that can offer immediate TCO relief, unmatched scale for the future, built-in security and open platforms to monetize new services,” said Kim Perdikou, executive vice president, Office of the CEO, Juniper. Juniper also announced that Sprint has selected them to secure their mobile data network infrastructure. Sprint will use Juniper SRX Series Gateways to securely deliver mobile data services.  Juniper also joined the IBM Service Provider Delivery Environment Framework Partner Program and jointly announced security solutions for fixed and mobile networks with Nokia Siemens.

The Mobile World Congress runs through February 18 and mobileworldlive.com has been setup for announcements and live broadcasts.

The interior of the $360 million new IBM data center in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.

IBM.com has a new home. Big Blue’s web site now resides in a huge new cloud computing data center in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, where IBM is investing $362 million to build out more than 100,000 square feet of data center space. The company held a ceremony Thursday to mark the opening of the first phase of data center space. 

The new facility also houses the US Open web site for the United States Golf Association (USGA), as well as a cloud computing application that allows students from a high school in Durham to access course materials and software from North Carolina Central University (NCCU) and NC State.

IBM is hailing the energy efficiency of the new facility, which has been submitted for a Gold LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating from the U.S. Green Building Council. The data center will use fresh air cooling for half the year, and features a dynamic management system that adjusts the cooling in response to conditions in the server area.  

“This new facility not only sets new standards for energy efficiency, it also will deliver services that enable IBM’s clients to reduce costs, improve productivity, and assert competitive advantage in their markets,” said Pat Kerin, General Manager, IBM North America.

The USGA says the new data center’s efficiency is generating savings for customers. “The migration of our USOpen.com operations to IBM’s Raleigh data center reduced our energy consumption by 38 percent and floor space requirements by 54 percent,” said Alex Withers, managing director of Digital Media for the USGA. 

IBM built the Research Triangle data center with its modular design, the Enterprise Modular Data Center (EMDC) which will allowthe company to rapidly scale capacity to meet demand by adding future space, power, and cooling to the data center with no disruption to existing operations.

In constructing the new data center, IBM renovated an existing building on its Research Triangle Park campus by reusing 95 percent of the original building’s shell, recycling 90 percent of the materials from the original building and ensuring that 20 percent of newly purchased material came from recycled products. 

For some attendees at Thursday’s ceremony, the project’s coolest feature was its economic impact. 

“IBM’s commitment to North Carolina has always been clear,” said North Carolina Governor Bev Purdue.  “The opening of this new, state-of-the-art data center designed and built to support IBM’s clients around the world affirms this commitment, and reflects the vital role North Carolina plays as an acknowledged center for technology and business both near and far.”

This viewing area provides a glimpse into the Smarter Data Center, a section of the IBM Smarter Planet exhibit at Epcot that showcases information technology.

It’s not quite Space Mountain. But an IBM data center features prominently in a new attraction at the Epcot theme park at Walt Disney World, giving visitors a closer look at the technology playing an ever-larger role in their daily lives. 

The data center is part of IBM’s SmarterPlanet exhibit within Epcot’s Innoventions center, which illustrates the role computers play in addressing complex challenges like reducing  traffic and crime, and improving food safety and local water supplies.

The exhibit’s glass storefront provides a glimpse of the working IBM Smarter Data Center, which powers the exhibit, and educates visitors about the servers, storage and networking equipment that serve up their favorite web sites and cloud computing services.

Higher Profile for Racks and Servers
The exhibit is the latest sign data center technology is gaining a higher profile, slowly shedding the anonymity of the back-office server room or remote data center in a secure, undisclosed location. As the Internet becomes a more integral part of everyday life and the American economy, the back-end is moving out front. 

The SmarterPlanet exhibit “brings to life the many ways in which IBM technologies are invisibly woven into the way people live, work and play,” said Gary Cohen, IBM General Manager, Global Communications Sector. “The objective is for guests to walk away understanding the increasing role technology will play in improving the quality of life for people across the world.”

The experience “encourages guests to think about their individual role in creating a smarter planet as well as understand how smarter data centers are the heart of a more sustainable, technology-enabled world,” IBM said.

Modular Design,
The Smarter Data Center in the exhibit is a version of IBM’s Scalable Modular Data Center, a pre-engineered 500 or 1,000 square foot data center that can be rapidly deployed.

The product’s energy efficiency and standardized design can help organizations reduce the expense and deployment time needed to expand IT operations. The Smarter Data Center also includes a demonstration of IBM Cloudburst technology, which can helps customers quickly develop and deploy applications for cloud computing.

Since the Smarter Data Center is equipped with more computing horsepower than is needed to run the exhibit, IBM will donate unused computing resources to the World Community Grid, which pools thousands of individual computers worldwide. The grid’s massive computational power is equivalent to a supercomputer, helping accelerate medical, humanitarian and environmental research.

Interactive Trip Through Computer History
For younger guests, the exhibit also features Runtime, an attraction created by Walt Disney Imagineering that transforms guests into personalized avatars as part of a video game experience. Players can run, jump and dance through a timeline of the history of computing, journeying from the Babbage computer, through vacuum tubes and chips and bits, to the Internet.

Here’s a broader look at the SmarterPlanet exhibit: 

Cloud management Start-up Cloudkick launches. San Francisco start-up Cloudkick announced its cloud server management and monitoring services coming out of beta. Cloudkick is trying to leverage the trend towards monitoring as a service by creating a unified dashboard that helps end users monitor the workings of a variety of cloud services. The service currently works with EC2, Rackspace, Linode, GoGrid, Slicehost, Rimuhosting and VPS.net. Cloudkick recently posted charts showing periodic ping latency between EC2 nodes in an embattled debate over cloud capacity issues.

Tieto builds new data centre in Finland. Helsinki based IT services company Tieto announced they are building a new, energy efficient data centre in Espoo, Finland.  The 1,000 square meter (10,764 square feet) data centre consists of two 500 square meter modules and will double the area of Tieto’s data centers located in the Helsinki metropolitan area. The EUR $18 million project began this month and is expected to begin operations near the end of the year. ”Modern data centre technology will enable full-scale production of the growing cloud computing services and the energy-saving virtualization of servers. Through new data centres, Tieto can also respond to the future growth of the market and IT outsourcing in particular,” says Ari Karppinen, Tieto’s Country head of Finland.

IBM Upgrades Tennis Australia. Australian IT news site reports on an IT infrastructure upgrade for the Australian Open, led by IBM. The Tennis Australia (TA) infrastructure powers massive data capture and distribution systems for the two week event where staffing changes from 300 to about 2000.  The infrastructure is being hosted by IBM in a U.S. data center that is also used for supporting Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.  To handle the large amount of data being captured TA purchased an IBM XIV Storage System with a 42 terabyte capacity. “Video analysis is one of the key things in sport now, and it’s certainly our intention to have an infrastructure that allows us to do all the analytical work our coaches require,” said TA chief information officer Chris Yates.

Juniper and Polycom Partner. Juniper Networks and Polycom announced an alliance focused on improving the reliability, cost-effectiveness and quality of the customer experience for telepresence and video conferencing services. A joint managed video services solution will pair Juniper’s network resource control platform and the Polycom video call control system, with the aim of reducing costs and improving the delivery and manageability of visual communications. Polycom CEO Bob Hagerty said “teaming with Juniper, our goal is to help improve the quality and efficiency of visual communications on the network, so customers have deployment options and can confidently incorporate the technology into their core business processes and as a key component of their unified communications initiatives.” A Juniper/Polycom service provider solution is expected mid-year 2010.

Attendees at the Gartner Data Center Conference tour the IBM Portable Modular Data center (PMDC) on display on the expo floor at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas.

Power and cooling vendor APC by Schneider Electric today announced an expanded relationship with IBM to offer Big Blue’s Portable Modular Data Center (PMDC) container based on APC’s InfraStruxure architecture. The PMDC provides a data center in a shipping container with a complete physical infrastructure including power and cooling systems and remote monitoring.

The announcement builds on the global alliance between APC and IBM announced in 2006 when APC was selected as an infrastructure provider for IBM’s Scalable Modular Data Center (SMDC) and High Density Zone (HDZ) solution, which allows customers to deploy a high density environment rapidly within an existing data center.

APC previously announced a similar partnership with Datapod, an Australian company whose containers include specialized modules which can include “entrypods” that serve as access control man-trap systems or “utilitypods” holding generators and fuel tanks.

“APC’s data center physical infrastructure design lends itself well to IBM’s PMDC, focusing on maximizing efficiency through a modular and scalable approach,” said Jim Simonelli, Chief Technology Officer for APC. “The pre-engineering and pre-testing we do for our products ensures the PMDC solution is highly reliable and available.”

“IBM’s partnerships with leading vendors such as APC provide customers with an efficient, cost-effective solution to support IT growth in a more flexible environment,” said Steven Sams, vice president, Global Site and Facilities Services. “The inclusion of APC technology is a result of our long-standing relationship with APC.”

Partnerships are critical to IBM’s strategy in the container market, where it has followed a different path than several of its competitors. Rather than advancing a particular design vision, IBM has positioned its container as perhaps the most flexible of the major container offerings, promising to customize the PMDC to each customer’s requirements.

That includes the basic container configuration, as IBM offers its “data center in a box” in 20, 40 and 53-foot sizes, and can either place the mechanical and electrical gear in a separate container or have it share a single container with racks of IT gear.

Cisco to Power NBC’s Olympic HD Coverage. Cisco announced Wednesday thatit is will provide NBC with a  media-aware IP video network infrastructure during the network’s all-HD coverage of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games. To support production and video-archiving functions NBC will be testing the Cisco Media Data Center and Unified Computing System. Cisco Flip video cameras will help NBC analysts and bloggers shoot on-the-fly video around the winter games. “The NBC network powered by Cisco technology is a medianet in action, making a great example of what a network optimized for extreme video traffic and rich media applications can handle,” said Pankaj Patel, senior vice president and general manager, Cisco Service Provider Group.

IBM Provides Modular Server Room with India Bank.  IBM has entered into an agreement with India’s Karad Urban Co-operative Bank Ltd. (KUCB) to deploy a Scalable Modular Server Room (SMSR), a pre-designed and pre-fabricated data center. The deal is expected to enable KUCB to save nearly 75% on resource allocation costs. Additionally IBM will provide facility and maintenance services for both the data center and disaster recovery sites of KUCB.  “With the scale of our operations expanding, it is imperative for us to invest in technology solutions that are ready-to-deploy and continuously meet the unique requirements associated with our growth,” said KUCB’s Chairman, Dr. Subhash S. Erram. “IBM’s unique value proposition through SMSR and their consultative approach was in synch with our requirements.”

Q9 Networks selected by Canadian Automobile Association. Toronto based Q9 Networks announced that it was selected by the Canadian Automobile Association South Central Ontario to provide a comprehensive data center colocation solution. As a consolidation plan for the Association they will go from two internal and two external facilities to a single Q9 data center with failover to a second Q9 facility. “Q9 sells its colocation services based on a power reservation model that gives us an incentive to understand and closely manage the power draw of our IT assets,” says CAA SCO Chief Operating Officer, Jay Woo.

Attendees at the Gartner Data Center Conference tour the IBM Portable Modular Data center (PMDC) on display on the expo floor Tuesday at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas.

LAS VEGAS – IBM is getting serious about data center containers. Big Blue brought one of its 40-foot Portable Modular Data Center (PMDC) containers to the Gartner Data Center Conference, where it shares the expo floor with the HP and SGI containers that have been regulars at industry conferences for several years now. Today IBM announced a formidable lineup of partners who will help it outfit the containers to customer specifications.

Partnerships are critical to IBM’s strategy in the container market, where it has followed a different path than several of its competitors. Rather than advancing a particular design vision, IBM has positioned its container as perhaps the most flexible of the major container offerings, promising to customize the PMDC to each customer’s requirements. That includes the basic container configuration, as IBM offers its “data center in a box” in 20, 40 and 53-foot sizes, and can either place the mechanical and electrical gear in a separate container or have it share a single container with racks of IT gear.

Introduced in 2008
IBM introduced its container product in May 2008 as part of a broader rollout of modular data center designs for pods and zones within larger environments. The higher profile of the IBM container at the Gartner Data center Conference likely reflects growing interest in containers among the enterprise companies that make up a substantial chunk of the attendees for the Gartner event.

Big Blue offers its container through a partnership with AST Global, the Spanish company that makes the containers, which it showed off at the CeBIT conference earlier this year. APC by Schneider Electric, Eaton Corporation, Emerson Network Power, Panduit, Anixter, Siemon, and Vette Corp.

Sams: Partners Provide More Options
“These partnerships allow IBM to produce a broader lineup of solutions to provide cost-effective and flexible data center alternatives from mid-size companies to large enterprises requiring remote and temporary data center capacity,” said Steven Sams, vice president of Site and Facilities for IBM Global Technology Services. “Consequently, IBM offers the most comprehensive range of options for clients, with the IBM Data Center Family, to support their business growth in a cost-effective manner.”

The PMDC can support multiple technology vendors and multiple systems in an industry standard rack environment and enables complete access to both the front and rear of the IT equipment from within a physically and environmentally secure container.

Racks on Rails
One of the most interesting features seen in the PMDC are the rails embedded in the floor, which allow racks of servers and storage to slide back and forth to allow staff access for maintenance. This also provides flexibility in positioning the cabinets within the container. The 40-foot unit on display here in Las Vegas includes UPS models from several vendors, as well as a separate area for chillers that has an open roof.

• Key milestone to 100 Gigabit Ethernet demonstrated. At the SC09 conference in Oregon Monday Infinera, Internet2, Juniper Networks and Level 3 demonstrated 100 Gbps data transport between Seattle and the SC09 show floor in Portland.  The 100 Gbps of test data was sent via a single slot on the Juniper T1600 Series Core Router, populated with a new 10×10GbE physical interface card and an Infinera optical system, over Level 3 and Internet2’s fiber-optic network.  An 802.3ba compliant 100GbE router interface was demonstrated by Juniper as well.  The demonstrations follow-up on an initiative announced at the SC08 conference last year between the same partners and the U.S. Department of Energy Sciences Network.  Kanalya Vasani, vice president of product management at Juniper said “with ‘Big Science’ projects like the Large Hadron Collider expected to be generating data flows of 100Gbps as soon as 2010, it’s clear that the world’s scientific research and education community needs to move beyond groups of 10Gbps waves and be ready with 100GbE solutions in the very near term.”
• IBM selected by LBNL for cloud research. Monday IBM announced that the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has selected an IBM System x iDataPlex server to run the Lab’s program to explore how cloud computing can be used to advance scientific discovery.  The LBNL program is being funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act through the Department of Energy and will allow scientists to accelerate discoveries in energy efficiency, climate change and genomics.  According to the August 2009 Green500 list, the iDatPlex system is one of the most energy efficient computers in the world.  It also will have the theoretical peak speed of more than 60 teraflops.
• NTT to Power OpSource Cloud: NTT America, the U.S. subsidiary of NTT Communications Corporation (NTT Com), and OpSource today announced their intention to accelerate the adoption of enterprise cloud computing by powering OpSource Cloud, which will use  NTT America’s secure data centers and Tier-1 global IP network. OpSource Cloud is designed to allow IT departments to manage their security as they would within their internal IT infrastructure. OpSource Cloud provides every user with a Virtual Private Cloud within the public cloud, allowing them to determine their own degree of Internet connectivity.

• IBM Analytics Cloud: Also on Monday, IBM announced the world’s largest private cloud computing environment for business analytics. Known as Blue Insight, the cloud will provide new levels of insight for 200,000 IBM sales teams and developers and will launch initially with more than a petabyte (1,000,000 gigabytes) of data and gathers information from nearly 100 different information warehouses and data stores.  Blue Insight will run on a System z10 mainframe with 48 processors and strong cryptography capable of handling up to 10,000 secure transactions per second.
• PhoenixNAP Gets Wired: The PhoenixNAP data center announced this week that it has arranged connectivity from Level 3, AGL Networks and AboveNet. PhoenixNAP is a new 160,000 data center facility in Phoenix being developed by Global Datacenter Trust.