If you have not registered yet, there is still time.  Registration is still open and you too can register.  Things have changed a bit from last year, as this event was primarily focused around Dell’s storage products and services.  This year we are changing it up just a little, but all for the better.  As you can tell the name has changed, but the event is still going to have the same look and feel and come with the same great content you have come to expect year after year.  However, this year we have added in more of the Dell products and services to give everyone an even better view into the solutions we have to help you meet your goals.

Dell Enterprise Forum is the premier technical learning event for Dell enterprise customers and channel partners. The conference, is held annually in the US and Europe, and offers an intensive, interactive learning experience across the data center from, servers, storage, and networking to software, services, and converged solutions.

You will learn directly from the engineers, architects and other experts who design and develop Dell enterprise solutions. Plus, you get open access to experts and executive thought leaders throughout the event.

There are two different tracks, one for Customers and one for Channel partners.  Customers learn how to optimize their Dell data center technologies, preparing for the future while accelerating business results today. Channel partners discover new ways to grow their business with Dell.

Come join the Dell TechCenter crew at this year’s Dell Enterprise Forum and we will give you a special discount if you register today using our special code DEFUS2013DTC

I just registered for Dell Enterprise Forum–San Jose 2013
Lance Boley
Mon, 13 May 2013 21:17:00 GMT

The Dell EqualLogic PS Series storage array supports multiple iSCSI SAN connections for performance and reliability. Multi-Path I/O (MPIO) provides multiple paths from servers to storage, delivering fault tolerance, high availability, and improved performance. The Dell EqualLogic MPIO DSM simplifies MPIO setup and configuration in a Microsoft® Windows® server environment by automatically managing multiple iSCSI sessions and also optimizes the operation of a Dell EqualLogic PS Series array by using knowledge about volume layouts on a PS Series group and routing I/O directly to the Dell EqualLogic PS Series arrays that will be servicing requests.

The Dell™ EqualLogic™ MPIO DSM Delivers:

• Automatic connection management
• Automatic path failure detection and path failover
• Automatic load balancing across paths
• Support for multiple connections to a single iSCSI target (volume)
• Increased bandwidth
• Reduced network latency
• Easy installation and management
• Support for a variety of iSCSI initiators

The MPIO DSM is easy to install as part of the Host Integration Tool Kit. The Host Integration Tool Kit is included with the purchase of a PS Series array or downloadable from support.dell.com/EqualLogic at no extra cost.

Configuring and Deploying the Dell EqualLogic Multi-Path I/O device specific module with Microsoft Windows Server 2008

Storage managers need faster, higher-capacity hardware to keep up with volumes of data that nearly double every two years.

Storage administrators demand simplicity
admin
Wed, 27 Mar 2013 10:00:00 GMT

An open, neutral internet has been a force for sweeping social change: democratizing information, commerce, and access to jobs, triggering GDP growth and a rising standard of living. Our collective ability to equally access and innovate on internet platforms, from search and social networks, to content and commerce sites, is fundamental to continued growth.

It is not a given.

With internet innovation comes congestion. The amount of content shared and accessed by the world’s 2.4 billion Internet users is constantly increasing — in volume, and in size. It is outpacing the internet’s, and Internet Service Providers’, ability to efficiently deliver it.

Internet penetration and usage continues to expand at exponential rates. But the issue is not just a growing internet population. It’s the growing fidelity demands of today’s internet population, as they transition from text, image, and standard-definition media-sharing, to high-definition (and even 4K) file transfer. Innovation in content quality has surpassed innovation in internet delivery. Today, billions of people are increasingly using the same pipes to deliver billions of HD media files. We’re facing a congestion crisis.

Barriers to TCP Innovation

The way that the Internet combats congestion is through a protocol called TCP. TCP is a regulator that’s designed to allocate Internet capacity evenly across all applications that use it. This ‘congestion control’ keeps the Internet from being overwhelmed. Every single computer, smart phone, smart TV, and web server — every single internet-connected object or device — relies on this protocol. So, in order to upgrade the TCP protocol, you would have to upgrade the entire world’s internet devices. Billions of them. Simultaneously. No practical solution for TCP innovation exists.

The All-You-Can-Eat Internet

Today, the primary business model for the consumer internet is all-you-can-eat usage. This has successfully driven widespread internet adoption, and Internet Service Provider (ISP) profitability. However, the model separates subscriber revenue from the cost of the network. The same person can use more internet bandwidth without increasing revenue gains for the network. As more powerful applications for the internet emerge, congestion builds with increased usage, which has the potential to result in diminished margins for providers.

Congestion, rather than raw usage, is the key driver of this phenomenon; given that the Internet Service Provider network is largely a fixed-cost asset. Like any fixed-cost asset, such as the Interstate highway system in the U.S., it is cheap to operate and expensive to upgrade. It is congestion, like rush hour on the roads, that drives the necessary upgrades and cost of the network. Congestion, or the threat of it, forces more capacity (capital expense) to be added to the network, in a never-ending race to keep up with internet growth.

The Challenge:

If we want to create a sustainable future for the internet, we need a new way of solving the congestion problem. Today, the solution is simply to add more capacity. Thus, we have seen the internet’s core evolve (from the original 56kbps links of the ARPANET backbone, to T1 (1.5Mbps) lines, and on and on to the multi-Gigabit links of today’s core network). Likewise, consumer connections are increasingly capable. Dialup has been replaced with DSL and cable; emerging FTTH offerings promise upwards of 1Gbps. More internet has been at the heart of every serious solution to the congestion problem, but the internet keeps inventing new applications to fill this capacity; in turn, increasing demand for internet capacity.

We need a better solution. Is it new pricing models for the consumer internet that try to re-couple network cost to revenue? Do we need a new set of incentives that can help manage the internet’s growth? Do we need new economic models where applications pay consumer networks for access to users? Do we need government regulation to ensure a level playing field on the network for applications, giving tomorrow’s innovators the same access as yesterday’s Googles, Facebooks, and Amazons? I’ve heard arguments for all of the above.

Or do we need better technologies that can be more efficient at using the internet we’ve already got?

read more …

Solving the Internet’s Congestion Problem by Eric Klinker

On the PC, the service is browser-based, while on iOS and Android devices it requires a Verizon Messages app that can be used in place of or alongside the standard text messaging app.

The new program, now available in Google Play and the Apple App Store, is a significant expansion of Verizon Messages. Earlier versions of the app had more limited features, such as the ability to save text messages to an SD memory card.

Apple, of course, delivers iMessages to multiple devices, but only of the Mac and iOS variety. Other services also deliver messages to multiple devices, but one thing that makes Verizon’s approach particularly interesting is that it does this with standard SMS messages.

On the PC side, Verizon Messages works with Chrome, Firefox (with a plug-in) and Safari 6.0 and higher. A Verizon representative said the Web version also works in Internet Explorer but users won’t get the pop-up notifications for new messages that they get in other browsers.

Here’s a video Verizon did showing the service in action.

Verizon Adds iMessage-Like Capabilities to Its Text Messages
Ina Fried
Thu, 21 Mar 2013 22:46:10 GMT

The chip maker calls the forthcoming product the Grid Visual Computing Appliance, a server-style device that is packed with Nvidia technology and runs software that normally requires expensive workstations that typically reside in company offices.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »
Don Clark

Dynamics NAV 2013 and GP 2013, both of which cater to smaller and midsized companies, will be available on Microsoft’s Azure cloud service through partners in June, Microsoft announced this week at the Convergence conference in New Orleans. Microsoft also affirmed that the next major version of AX, its enterprise-focused product, will be available on Azure.

FAQ: Inside Microsoft’s cloud ERP strategy
admin

A recent study by 451 Research shows that—contrary to popular expectations—power prices in the United States are actually decreasing, with potential implications for choosing sites for next-generation data centers.

Perhaps even more significant is that, while the research firm expects power costs within the United States to decrease, those within Europe should continue to climb. The 451 report estimates that energy prices in the United Kingdom and Germany are roughly double those of the United States, adjusted using exchange rates—a trend expected to continue.

The implication: if you’re a U.S. data center company, build close to home.

As a result, the energy bill for a medium-sized 2 megawatt data center in the U.S. with 50 percent baseload energy consumption would be about $604,000—as much as $500,000 a year less than a comparable facility in the UK–and about $750,000 less than one in Germany. (The report used national energy data, collected annually, through 2011 to make its point. The U.S. Energy Information Administration has yet to publish 2012 numbers.)

The price of power can significantly alter the overall lifetime cost of a data center. Assuming a 15-year lifespan, a price of $0.067/kWh contributes about 30 percent of a facility’s operating expense and usually accounts for 10 percent to 15 percent of the total cost of building and running a datacenter, the report said. “This figure is large enough to sway decisions about where a datacenter should be built,” Andy Lawrence, a research vice president at 451 Research who co-authored the report, wrote in a statement.

The firm cited two reasons that energy prices within the United States are expected to remain low. First, U.S. shale gas prices are at record production levels, driving down the cost of gas-produced electricity below that of coal. Gas-powered utility factories can be manufactured for half the cost and twice as fast as a coal plant, making them a worthy investment for the utilities themselves. Coal prices have also fallen as demand has slowed in China, the biggest electricity producer.

That’s not the case in Europe, where gas production is much less. The 451 report admitted that energy forecasts were not as easy to come by within Europe, but that shale gas production was significantly less. The International Energy Agency has also predicted that by 2035, the cost of electricity in the EU will be 50 percent higher than in the U.S., partly driven by environmental restriction on coal-powered utilities.

The implications, the report notes, won’t be felt across all of the enterprise. In some businesses, for example, the data center is merely a fraction of capital-equipment costs—and simply building out a data center can quickly consume the bulk of the investment. The 451 report suggested that electricity costs could become critical at businesses like colocation, where the data center is the business. It also acknowledged that U.S. energy prices are expected to rise once again, meaning that businesses might not want to avoid investments in power-saving technologies, altogether.

Businesses will have to factor in the availability of power, as well as it its cost.

“Lower energy prices will lengthen the return on investment cycles for products,” the report concluded. “Some suppliers will need to reassess their ROI calculations and rethink their messaging. Over the long term, low energy prices may limit US demand for certain energy-efficient datacenter technologies, especially where there is a trade-off with risk and availability. But lower prices will also hold down the overall costs of running datacenters, and encouraging investment. The bottom line is that energy prices affect many choices concerning datacenter power management and are a significant operating expense for all. Prices are not rising as expected and feared, however, and some impact can be expected.”

The report doesn’t address the business need to distribute data around the globe, either mirroring an existing data center or placing data closer to customers to improve response times. That’s an important consideration.

If a customer is going to place a data center in Europe, however, the data suggests that Norway might be a good location: electricity prices were just $0.002 kWh more than in the United States in 2011, and there’s also that natural cooling thing, too.

Image: Ase/Shutterstock.com

Why You Should Build Datacenters in the U.S.: Power Costs
Mark Hachman
Mon, 18 Mar 2013 15:45:52 GMT

• Clearly schedule your time. Treat downtime like a work meeting: Schedule it. Book evenings off, one to two days a week free of work, and weeklong chunks of vacation every year on your calendar, and stick to them.
• Shut off your devices. Leave your laptop at the office when you can. Carry a phone for work and one for personal use — leave the work phone in your bag when you come home or in the safe at your hotel when you’re on vacation.
• Create routines. Signal to your mind that it’s time to start work, leave work, or engage with family by using rituals to transition from one kind of activity to the next.

Adapted from “The Upside of Downtime” by Jackie Coleman and John Coleman.

Make the Most of Your Downtime
Tue, 12 Mar 2013 09:00:00 GMT

Dell now offers 74 server models certified for use with Ubuntu, according to Canonical — the most of any major hardware OEM. The company’s 12th-generation line, which was released in February 2012, is its latest and most advanced.

more…