An IBM offering that makes it easier to deploy, manage, and support applications; a new release of a major open-source software package that includes significant enhancements; and several new products and collaborations aimed at simplifying data management and workflows highlight last week’s new product news.
IBM announced it is partnering with Citrix and VMware to launch the first offering in its IBM Virtualized Hosted Client Infrastructure (VHCI), which IBM claims will deliver full desktop functionality to any client. The VHCI approach use IBM xSeries and BladeCenter servers, a Citrix Presentation Server, and the VMware virtual infrastructure product line to make virtualized applications available to client computers.
IBM says the combination of the three vendors’ products allows for easier application and systems management and makes better use of server resources. And IBM claims companies using this VHCI approach could see total cost savings of up to 60 percent and reap a return on investment in as little as six months. The IBM Virtualized Hosted Client Infrastructure, which is offered through IBM Global Services, is being rolled out in some pilots now and will be generally available in the first quarter of 2006.
OpenOffice.org (the group) has released OpenOffice.org (the product) version 2.0, an updated version of its open-source business productivity software. Like past versions, the new release includes a word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation modules. Version 2.0 adds a database module and advanced XML capabilities. The software is interoperable with all major office productivity suites.
Version 2.0 is available in 36 languages (with more being added over time) and it can run natively on Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Sun Solaris, and several other operating systems. OpenOffice.org (the product) offers native support for the OASIS Standard OpenDocument format, which is a set of formats for storing documents. Sun Microsystems is the primary sponsor and contributor to OpenOffice.org. Other vendors involved include Debian, Intel, Novell, Propylon, Red Hat, as well as independent programmers.
EMC announced it will acquire Captiva Software, a company that specializes in the conversion of paper-based information to digital format. The demand for this type of conversion software, which is called input management software, is increasing in many life science areas, including research, development, and clinical trials. The Captiva offerings help capture, digitize, and categorize paper-based information. EMC claims these features allow companies to classify the information and this in turn lets companies create policy-based workflows for managing the information once it is in digital format. When the acquisition was announced last week, EMC noted that the software is a natural extension to its EMC Documentum enterprise content management system.
Microsoft named the University of Massachusetts Amherst as the nation’s first Microsoft IT Showcase School. At the announcement, made last week on the university’s campus, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer noted that Microsoft and UMass Amherst “share a vision of employing information technology” to encourage collaborative inquiry, to improve the delivery of educational materials, and to engage students in active learning. To that end, “together, we will address important national challenges [of] preparing more students to be competitive in a digital age and encouraging students from all backgrounds to pursue careers in science and technology,” said UMass Amherst provost and senior vice chancellor for academic affairs Charlena Seymour.
Ariadne Genomics, which develops systems biology tools, and Infocom, a life sciences IT services company, announced a partnership aimed at improved microarray and proteomics data analysis. Specifically, Ariadne Genomics will integrate Infocom’s Auto Net Finder gene analysis software with Ariadne’s pathway analysis software called PathwayStudio Central. Scientists using the integrated products can infer regulatory networks from gene expression data and then validate this information by comparison with PathwayStudio Central’s ResNet, a database of functional relationships compiled from literature.
Genedata AG, a provider of drug discovery computational software and services, and bioinformatics solution provider Nonlinear Dynamics announced they are teaming on a high-throughput protein-gel processing solution. Specifically, the two companies will co-market and promote the synergies between Genedata’s Expressionist and Nonlinear Dynamics’ Progenesis solutions. The Genedata Expressionist system automates data integration, processing, and analysis of proteomic data. The Nonlinear Dynamics Progenesis is 2D gel data mining and image analysis software. The companies note that the collaboration will produce a more integrated workflow between the two systems, making it easier to exchange and analyze data.
Quantum announced the availability of the DLT-V4 tape drive for data archiving, backup, and recovery. Quantum says the drive combines high performance, high capacity, and data management and safeguarding features. To those ends, the drive supports a data transfer rate of 10 MB per second (20 MB per second for compressed data), and a single cartridge has the capacity to store 160 GB of data (320 GB of compressed data). Like other drives in the DLT line, the DLT-V4 offers predictive and preventive diagnostics management features through Quantum’s embedded DLTSage technology. And the drive supports Quantum’s DLTIce technology, which includes features, such as Write Once, Read Many (WORM), aimed at demonstrating that stored data meets regulatory compliance.
FalconStor Software, a developer of network storage software, launched a data protection center called PrimeVault, a secure facility that offers managed services to protect corporate data. Companies using the PrimeVault services get FalconStor’s DiskSafe or FileSafe software to run on their own computers and servers. The software performs data backups to an appliance (provided as part of the service and located at the user’s office) that runs FalconStor’s iSCSI storage software. The data saved to the appliance is then replicated to the PrimeVault facilities. Using the hardware in the managed center and the user’s site in conjunction with FalconStor’s backup, archiving, and recovery software allows companies to establish disaster recovery and data archiving procedures to protect their data.
Related Links
IT and Informatics Weekly New Product Roundup (week of Oct. 10 to 14)
IT and Informatics New Product Roundup (week of Oct. 3 to 7)
IT and Informatics New Product Roundup (week of Sept. 26 to 30)