Microsoft issued an out of band notification for its Internet Explorer products. This is a notification for a critical vulnerability which would allow remote code execution. IE versions 5 to 8 beta 2 are affected. It is suggested to apply the update for this vulnerability as soon as it is released. Meanwhile, browse the web through a different browser or visit as few pages as possible.
The details are available here:
London – 8 December 2008 - 3CX (www.3cx.com) the international developer of telecommunications software has announced the roll out of version 7.0 of 3CX Phone System for Windows. The new version comes with a revamped design aimed at making its already user-friendly Management Console and User Interface even easier to work with; whilst effectively delivering more mobility to users by empowering them to configure their own extensions with advanced call handling rules based on caller ID and time of call.
Nick Galea, CEO at 3CX said that these improvements are building on the company’s strategy to deliver a software-based IP PBX that is easy to manage and use. “One of the things we discovered from listening to our customers is that VoIP phone system users want more flexibility in managing their incoming calls. By allowing call rules to be configured based on caller ID, time received and type of call, users can break free from the office and have more mobility. For example, after-hour calls from important customers can be routed to a mobile phone, whereas all other calls can go to voice mail” Galea said; adding that with the new call handling rules also come many added functionalities such as a new management console and a new configuration wizard.
Furthermore, 3CX version 7.0 is an example of better Windows integration in an IP PBX environment. “By replacing the use of technologies such as Apache and PHP with IIS and .NET, adding support for PBX virtualization in Hyper V, resolving inbound calls to MS Outlook contacts, and incorporating Windows management tools for better monitoring, we are taking a step forward towards further integration of 3CX Phone System with Microsoft Windows”, added Nick Galea.
3CX Phone System for Windows allows businesses to completely break free from the restrictions of expensive hardware-based, proprietary phone systems. It also ships with many other enterprise-level features that help businesses enjoy substantial productivity and efficiency gains.
Key new features of 3CX Phone System for Windows version 7.0
A video presentation on 3CX Phone System for Windows v7.0 is available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irUmoGQqMa8
One Free edition and four Commercial editions: Mini, Small Business, Pro and Enterprise
3CX Phone System is available in five editions. The Free edition can handle up to 4 simultaneous calls, whereas, the Commercial editions have a more extensive feature set and concurrent call capacity that can be expanded with upgrade packs. A detailed edition comparison table can be found on http://www.3cx.com/phone-system/edition-comparison.html.
Mike Nash announced Customer Preview Program on Windows Team Blog:
Beginning Thursday Dec. 4th, we will be making the Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 Beta available to everyone through a Customer Preview Program (CPP). The CPP will launch on TechNet and be available to anyone interested in trying out this service pack. The CPP is intended for technology enthusiasts, developers, and IT Pros who would like to test Service Pack 2 in their environments and with their applications prior to final release. For most customers, our best advice would be to wait until the final release prior to installing this service pack.
So if you are brave and bold feel free to help Windows Team in testing of SP2 and make their WIndows products better.
Tokyo, November 17, 2008 — Fujitsu Limited today announced the development of two new series in its line of 2.5″ enterprise hard disk drives (HDDs), the 10,025-rpm MBD2 RC series and 15,000-rpm MBE2 RC series, both of which provide standard support for the 6Gb/s SAS interface. The MBD2 RC series will be released in the first quarter of 2009 calendar year, and the MBE2 RC series will be available in the second quarter.
Compared to current 2.5″ models, the new series improve performance by 60% in terms of internal transfer speeds. They are also more environmentally friendly, with halogen-free design - a first for Fujitsu’s enterprise HDDs - and industry-leading power efficiency. Moreover, the series boast perpendicular magnetic recording, which enables increased recording density and allows the MBD2 series to have capacities up to 300 GB, noteworthy for 2.5″ HDDs. The new models are well-suited to a range of applications, from servers to high-capacity storage systems.
While the enterprise storage market continues to demand high performance and high reliability, there has been a growing push for environmentally friendly design that minimizes heat generation, power consumption, and space requirements. As an alternative to 3.5″ HDDs, which have been widely used in the enterprise market, there has been increasing interest in 2.5″ models that can deliver superior performance in a smaller footprint.
Fujitsu is responding to these needs with its newest releases, the 10,025-rpm MBD2 RC series and 15,000-rpm MBE2 RC series, both of which provide standard support for the 6Gb/s SAS interface.
Both series use perpendicular magnetic recording, which enables capacities up to 300 GB in the MBD2 RC series and up to 147 GB in the MBE2 RC series. The new models thus reduce space requirements while providing higher storage capacities.
In addition, the new series improve maximum internal transfer rates by 60% over current 2.5″ models. By supporting the latest SAS-2 interface specification, they also offer faster data-transfer rates (600 MB/s) between the drive and the host.
Environmental benefits include the industry-leading low power consumption of 3.4 W at idle for the MBD2 RC series and 4.1 W for the MBE2 RC series. This represents an improvement of as much as 28% over current 2.5″ models, and as much as 74% over current 3.5″ models, contributing to lower energy costs for customers.
In addition to complying with the EU’s RoHS Directive, the new models are also Fujitsu’s first enterprise HDDs to comply with halogen-free initiatives.
The new offerings are the most recent products of Fujitsu’s Green Policy Innovation program, which was unveiled in December 2007 to promote energy-efficient products and services as a way to help customers lower their ecological footprint.
Capitalizing on the vast experience and reputation for reliability that Fujitsu has accumulated through over 40 years of HDD development, these products deliver the superior quality and environmentally friendly features that customers have come to expect from Fujitsu.
Complete press release is available from here:
PALO ALTO, Calif., Nov. 17, 2008 - HP today announced breakthrough networking, storage and server technologies that reduce costs, increase bandwidth flexibility and improve overall performance of virtual server environments.
The HP Virtual Connect Flex-10 Ethernet module, a direct connect storage bundle for HP BladeSystem, and the HP ProLiant DL385 G5p server are among HP’s offerings that are helping customers efficiently deploy their virtualized infrastructures.
While a growing number of companies deploy server virtualization to gain operational savings within their technology infrastructures, the cost of networking virtual servers continues to climb – for example, a typical server that hosts virtual machines requires six network connections.(1)
To reap the benefits of their virtualized environment, companies are finding it necessary to invest in additional networking equipment, including network expansion cards, switches and cables. As an example, customers must purchase expensive network switches in either one Gigabit (Gb) or 10Gb increments to meet the increased bandwidth required for additional virtual server workloads.
HP’s new Virtual Connect Flex-10 Ethernet module is the industry’s first interconnect technology that can allocate the bandwidth of a 10Gb Ethernet network port across four network interface card (NIC) connections. This increase in bandwidth flexibility eliminates the need for additional network hardware equipment. As a result, customers deploying virtual machines and utilizing Virtual Connect Flex-10 can realize savings of up to 55 percent in network equipment costs.(2)
Virtual Connect Flex-10 can save 240 watts of power per HP BladeSystem enclosure – or 3,150 kilowatt hours per year – compared to existing networking technologies.(3)
“Customers looking to eliminate the common obstacles of networking costs and bandwidth flexibility should look no further than HP,” said Mark Potter, vice president and general manager, BladeSystem, HP. “These technologies break down the barriers of virtualized networks, giving customers the greatest return on their investments.”
Industry-leading cost benefits and four-to-one network consolidation
HP Virtual Connect Flex-10 distributes the capacity of a 10Gb Ethernet port into four connections, and enables customers to assign different bandwidth requirements to each connection. Optimizing bandwidth based on application workload requirements enables customers to leverage their 10Gb investments across multiple connections, supporting virtual machine environments and other network intensive applications. This reduces overall network costs and power usage by provisioning network bandwidth more efficiently.
The recently announced
HP ProLiant BL495c virtualization blade includes built-in Virtual Connect Flex-10 functionality that enables it to support up to 24 NIC connections. With increased network bandwidth and memory capacity, the BL495c can accommodate more virtual servers than other competitive blade server offerings on the market.(4)
Existing HP ProLiant c-Class blade customers can upgrade to Virtual Connect Flex-10 with the new HP NC532m Flex-10 expansion card.
Simple, cost-effective storage expansion for HP BladeSystem customers
HP’s new direct connect storage bundle for HP BladeSystem includes two HP StorageWorks 3Gb serial attached SCSI (SAS) BL switches and an MSA2000sa storage array.
Traditionally, BladeSystem server administrators have had limited direct-attach or shared storage options and have had to rely on personnel with specialized knowledge to build a storage area network (SAN) based solution. This new low-cost, reliable storage option allows server administrators to easily deploy scalable shared SAS storage without the costs and complexity SANs require. By simply purchasing additional MSA2000sa arrays, customers can deploy up to 192 terabytes of external shared storage directly connected to an HP BladeSystem enclosure.
The combination of the HP ProLiant BL495c virtualization blade server, Virtual Connect Flex-10 modules and the shared SAS storage bundle reduces the cost per virtual machine by more than 50 percent when compared to competitive solutions.(5)
HP has enhanced its Virtual Connect 4Gb Fibre Channel module to allocate storage resources on a per virtual machine basis. This further simplifies storage and virtualization deployments for Fibre Channel storage customers. Customers can assign up to 128 separate SAN volumes per server blade for greater performance and flexibility.
Innovative server design removes bottlenecks to virtual server performance
The new HP ProLiant DL385 G5p is a rack-based server optimized for virtualization. It offers up to 6 terabytes of internal storage as well as double the memory and a 67-percent improvement in energy efficiency when compared to previous generations.(6) Based on the new AMD Opteron™ 2300 Series Quad-Core processor, the DL385 G5p improves application performance and expands support for virtual machines.
Pricing and availability(7)
The newly announced offerings are all available today, for the following U.S. list prices: The HP Virtual Connect Flex-10 Ethernet module is $12,199; the HP NC532m Flex-10 NIC upgrade card is $699; the HP Virtual Connect 4Gb FC module is $9,499; the HP ProLiant DL385 G5p is $2,259; and the HP direct connect storage for HP BladeSystem bundle is $9,999.
PALO ALTO, Calif., Nov. 3, 2008 - HP today broadened its Green Business Technology initiative with additions to its HP Thermal Logic portfolio that include power-capping server technologies and energy-efficiency services designed to reduce costs and extend the life of data centers.
In traditional data centers, customers invest millions in capital expenditures to create a redundant power infrastructure that maximizes uptime. Additionally, to ensure power availability, IT administrators overprovision server energy.
HP Dynamic Power Capping helps customers reallocate power and cooling resources in the data center by dynamically setting or “capping” the power drawn by the servers. This eliminates the need for overprovisioning by precisely identifying how much power is actually required to run each server and setting a limit based on that usage. As a result, companies reclaim their overprovisioned energy to improve the capacity of their data center.
To expand the data center, companies can increase the number of servers threefold, using the same power allocation and infrastructure. This allows them to recover up to $16 million in capital expenditures for a 1-megawatt data center.(1) At the same time, it can also reduce ongoing energy consumption by up to 25 percent and save nearly $300,000 a year.(2)
“With these new solutions from HP, customers are able to drive down data center costs by reducing energy consumption and, at the same time, minimize environmental impact,” said Peter Gross, chief executive officer, EYP Mission Critical Facilities, an HP company. “HP’s Green Business Technology initiative is built on decades of innovation and experience in data center design and deployment, resulting in solutions that empower CIOs to turn energy efficiency into business benefits that impact the bottom line.”
Better use of power and cooling resources
HP Thermal Logic is a set of technologies embedded in HP products and services to deliver a more efficient data center. It combines measurement and control of power and cooling resources with industry-leading, energy-efficient product and solution design.
HP Dynamic Power Capping, part of the HP Thermal Logic portfolio, is the industry’s first solution to offer a threefold increase in data center capacity. This is accomplished with hardware-based control of system power, which places a limit on, or “caps,” the power that is used by the equipment without compromising performance. Additionally, HP Insight Control Environment software provides accurate measurement of power consumption, allowing administrators to gain insight into actual power and cooling usage via thermal dashboards.
Minimize environmental impact
HP has been committed to sustainable IT within the data center since the early 1990s. HP research and development teams continue to solve energy problems using sophisticated modeling to better provision cooling resources, allocate computing workloads and reclaim power capacity in constrained data centers. As a result, the company is introducing new HP Energy Efficiency Design and Analysis Services to address data center energy challenges:
Reduce energy consumption
HP system practices and product design are key drivers to achieving data center energy and cost savings as well as business growth:
More information about these new offerings and the HP Green Business Technology Initiative is available at www.hp.com/go/greencomputing.
LOS ANGELES — Oct. 27, 2008 — Today, during a keynote speech at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference 2008 (PDC2008), Ray Ozzie, Microsoft Corp.’s chief software architect, announced Windows Azure, the cloud-based service foundation underlying its Azure Services Platform, and highlighted this platform’s role in delivering a software plus services approach to computing. The Azure Services Platform is an industry-leading move by Microsoft to help developers build the next generation of applications that will span from the cloud to the enterprise datacenter and deliver compelling new experiences across the PC, Web and phone.
Ozzie described how this platform combines cloud-based developer capabilities with storage, computational and networking infrastructure services, all hosted on servers operating within Microsoft’s global datacenter network. This provides developers with the ability to deploy applications in the cloud or on-premises and enables experiences across a broad range of business and consumer scenarios. A limited community technology preview (CTP) of the Azure Services Platform was initially made available to developers in attendance at PDC2008, giving them a chance to try out its features and functions and plan for their own future development.
“Today marks a turning point for Microsoft and the development community,” Ozzie said. “We have introduced a game-changing set of technologies that will bring new opportunities to Web developers and business developers alike. The Azure Services Platform, built from the ground up to be consistent with Microsoft’s commitment to openness and interoperability, promises to transform the way businesses operate and how consumers access their information and experience the Web. Most important, it gives our customers the power of choice to deploy applications in cloud-based Internet services or through on-premises servers, or to combine them in any way that makes the most sense for the needs of their business.”
Empowering Cloud Development With the Azure Services Platform
Unlike many of today’s service-based solutions, the Azure Services Platform provides developers with the flexibility and ability to create applications while taking advantage of their existing skills, tools and technologies such as the Microsoft .NET Framework and Visual Studio. Developers also can choose from a broad range of commercial or open source development tools and technologies, and access the Azure Services Platform using a variety of common Internet standards including HTTP, representational state transfer (REST), WS-* and Atom Publishing Protocol (AtomPub).
Key components of the Azure Services Platform include the following:
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Windows Azure for service hosting and management, low-level scalable storage, computation and networking |
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Microsoft SQL Services for a wide range of database services and reporting |
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Microsoft .NET Services which are service-based implementations of familiar .NET Framework concepts such as workflow and access control |
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Live Services for a consistent way for users to store, share and synchronize documents, photos, files and information across their PCs, phones, PC applications and Web sites |
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Microsoft SharePoint Services and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Services for business content, collaboration and rapid solution development in the cloud |
State-of-the-Art Datacenter Infrastructure
Microsoft also described the importance of building robust datacenters in delivering online services. Over the past year, Microsoft has opened major datacenters in Quincy, Wash., and San Antonio, with additional centers scheduled to open in Chicago and Dublin, Ireland. Microsoft is leading the way in services infrastructure with innovative use of shipping containers as flexible and portable housing for servers, providing 10 times the density and dramatic savings in power usage. Supporting the Microsoft software plus services strategy, Microsoft’s datacenters serve up e-mail accounts, Web pages, instant messages, photos, videos, software programs and search information to millions of Internet customers worldwide.
Cut Costs and Unlock Innovation
Services technologies, when employed alongside other core technology enablers such as virtualization and modeling, will result in dramatic benefits for customers’ IT departments. Specifically, these technologies will enable a new and more dynamic world, where IT departments can drive down operating costs, focus their spending on systems that differentiate the business, and ultimately enable IT to become a more strategic asset.
“Only a few companies in the world can bring the promise of cloud computing to reality, and we are excited about the strong capabilities of the Azure Services Platform,” said Paul Farrell, senior vice president of research and development for Epicor Software Corp. “We believe that Microsoft’s initiative and leadership in software plus services will be beneficial to Epicor customers as we architect our solutions to optimize for cloud and on-premises solutions.”
Providing Businesses Choice and Flexibility Through Software and Services
Microsoft’s service offerings also include Microsoft Online Services. These solutions deliver enterprise-class software as a subscription service, hosted by Microsoft and sold through partners. Microsoft services applications, including Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, Office Communications Online and Office Live Meeting can be used as a complement to or in addition to on-premises software, enabling the power of choice depending on a customer’s IT strategy.
More information about the Azure Services Platform and Microsoft’s software plus services offering can be found at http://www.azure.com.
This is an advance notification of an out-of-band security bulletin that Microsoft is intending to release on October 23, 2008.
This bulletin advance notification will be replaced with the revised October bulletin summary on October 23, 2008. The revised bulletin summary will include the out-of-band security bulletin as well as the security bulletins already released on October 14, 2008.
For more information about the bulletin advance notification service, see Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification.
To receive automatic notifications whenever Microsoft Security Bulletins are issued, subscribe to Microsoft Technical Security Notifications.
Microsoft is hosting a webcast to address customer questions on this out-of-band security bulletin on October 23, 2008, at 1:00 PM Pacific Time (US & Canada). Register now for the Out-of-Band Security Bulletin Webcast. After this date, this webcast is available on-demand. For more information, see Microsoft Security Bulletin Summaries and Webcasts.
Microsoft also provides information to help customers prioritize monthly security updates with any non-security, high-priority updates that are being released on the same day as the monthly security updates.
More details are available here:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin...t.mspx
BOSTON - 10/21/2008 - Citrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTXS), the global leader in application delivery infrastructure, today announced that it has certified its XenServer™ solutions for use in Intel-based environments as a member of the Intel® Enabled Server Acceleration Alliance (Intel® ESAA). A member of the Intel ESAA program since 2006, Citrix now enables the creation of pre-validated “recipes” that joint channel partners can use to deliver world-class virtualization solution stacks based on Intel® Server Products and Citrix® XenServer. As a result, resellers reduce the engineering effort needed to deliver world-class virtualization solution stacks while end-customers gain access to tightly integrated hardware and software and world-class support directly from Intel and Citrix.
“The relationship between Intel and Citrix has grown into a powerful collaboration,” said Ned Thanhouser, director, Intel ESAA program. ”Intel ESAA solution recipes based on Citrix XenServer let resellers deliver advanced virtualization capabilities for businesses of all shapes and sizes and provide a significant opportunity for our channel.”
Intel ESAA is a collaborative program that streamlines technical certification and validation of reliable, high-quality server solutions to end-user customers. The certification allows Intel OEM and channel partners to quickly deliver pre-configured, Intel-based solutions to their customers. Solution builders are assured that Intel ESAA solutions consist of equipment and software from trusted technology providers, and end-user customers have confidence knowing they are purchasing a pre-tested and validated solution.
“With the increasing complexity of virtualization solution stacks, resellers and customers need pre-validation they can depend on,” said Frank Artale, vice president, business development, Citrix Systems. ”Working together, Citrix and Intel can help build that level of confidence.”
DALLAS, Oct. 13, 2008 - HP today announced new disk encryption features and improvements to key management for tape libraries, enhancing the security of business-critical data and simplifying the management of compliance-related operations for midsize to enterprise customers.
Introduced at Storage Networking World, the new hardware encryption features, added to the HP StorageWorks XP24000 and XP20000 Disk Arrays, reduce the risk of security breaches by protecting the data stored on each disk drive in the array. This is done without degrading the XP array’s high performance – a problem for competing solutions.
The encryption enhancement for disk arrays, combined with effective key management, strengthens the HP Secure Advantage portfolio of hardware, software and services designed to protect data and resources, from the desktop to the printer and the data center.
By encrypting data on both disk and tape, customers can be confident that “data at rest” – information not traversing the network – is secure and easily accessible. If disks are removed or stolen, the encrypted data is inaccessible and, therefore, protected. This encryption safeguards against loss of intellectual property and private information, and helps to protect corporate revenue and reputation.
The XP array’s redundant hardware platform with data replication capabilities ensures business continuity in case of disaster. The XP array also includes storage virtualization and thin provisioning capabilities that let customers improve the utilization of their storage capacity, the accessibility of their data, and the scalability of their storage environment.
The emphasis on storage security is largely a response to increased demands for decades-long access to archives. Tightening regulations and the increased use of content-rich applications are causing the volume of stored data to grow at an exponential rate. This makes securing archived data much more challenging.
“As regulatory compliance and privacy requirements become more stringent, efficiently protecting stored data across an entire organization requires the combination of encryption and easy-to-use key management,” said Jon Oltsik, senior analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group. “HP understands that security solutions need to evolve with growing business demands. The company’s easy-to-use encryption and central key management solutions safeguard data for extensive periods of time so security and compliance demands are always met.”
Secure key management with a single control point
HP has enhanced its Secure Key Manager (SKM) hardware solution, which automates encryption key management for HP LTO-4 enterprise tape libraries. SKM 1.1 now supports up to 2 million keys to ensure that multiple tape library installations and future encryption devices are protected.
The SKM also provides high-availability features to reduce bottlenecks during periods of high transaction volume, as well as failover capabilities to safeguard keys in case of an outage. SKM aids in meeting regulatory compliance by providing identity-based access, administration and logging; lifetime key archival; and automatic multisite key replication. The new solution has been submitted for rigorous U.S. government FIPS 140-2 security revalidation.
“Automating data security functions allows customers to fully capitalize on the critical information they need to grow their businesses,” said Bob Wilson, vice president, Storage Platforms Division, HP. “To further protect that critical information, HP has significantly increased the complexity of storage security available to mitigate risk by encrypting XP arrays and expanding key capacity on the SKM.”
More information about HP storage security is available at www.hp.com/go/encryption.
Pricing and availability(1)
Encryption for the XP24000 or XP20000 will be available in December 2008 with the option to add the encryption feature to existing disk arrays. U.S. list price will start at $23,000 and will vary depending on models and configuration.
The Secure Key Manager 1.1 will be available in December 2008 at a U.S. list price $28,500.
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