X4LIVE

Got info about the IBM Mac Pilot Program which is being published on Roughly Drafted Magazine. Keep sending me those links. 

by Daniel Eran Dilger on Roughly Drafted Magazine
As further evidence of the growing interest in Macs among enterprise customers, IBM’s Research Information Services launched an internal pilot program designed to study the possibility of moving significant numbers of employees to the Mac platform. The study has already found an enthusiastic response from participants and is helping to drive Mac support for IBM’s business applications.

IBM’s Mac Pilot Program.
A summary of the pilot program, detailed in a IBM document obtained by RoughlyDrafted, revealed that IBM is actively working to move away from its dependence upon Microsoft Windows and toward a heterogeneous cross-platform future.

Source:  IBM Research and Roughly Drafted  

I attended a session on the IBM PDU's (made by Eaton / Powerware) at the Technical University in Sevilla and heard that a new PDU Selection sheet or PDU Decision Tree has been released.  This guide is essential in selecting the right PDU for your configuration.

They also updated the special Powerware IBM EMEA website. The recently announced Ultra Density PDU is already there as is the PDU+ and the UPS3000.

Source: Powerware EMEA, Powerware EMEA PDU Decision Sheet

Got an email about bundling Red Hat with Domino

Improve reliability, security, and performance while lowering costs with IBM Lotus Domino 8 and open collaboration client powered by Red Hat® Enterprise Linux®.

Looking for a new way to cut IT costs and increase capability at the same time?
Click to download a live evaluation of Lotus on Linux.

Businesses are moving forward with server and storage virtualization projects and realizing the benefits. IBM® offers the industry's broadest set of virtualization capabilities. The cross-platform virtualization, automation, and systems management solutions available from IBM enable customers to access and manage resources simply and dynamically for better asset utilization and reduced operating costs.

Learn about virtualization on Mainframe, Power and Modular Systems as well as software and storage technologies that are used to implement virtualization.  This paper is suitable for people who want to expand their knowledge of virtualization and what IBM can offer with its systems and software.

Source:  IBM RedBooks

In february we published that the dutch i5live.nl community was launched. And now we can publish that the i5live.com website is LIVE.

i5Live is a new community that aims to increase and promote the use of the IBM midrange server platform through knowledge transfer and information delivery via both online and 'offline' activities. By sharing the knowledge of the i5Live members and partners, and by using the most recent and innovative System i and i5/OS technologies, i5Live makes sure that the IBM Midrange server platform and its supporting applications can be optimally used in organizations. By its activities, end users and independent hardware and software vendors are getting more connected.

IBM Introduced a uni-processor Blade called the HS12 because they see that customers either virtualize on DP and MP servers or right-size on UP servers.  Dual/Quad Core UP servers now have enough processing power to run most SME single applications like webserving, fileserving or printserving.
Customers who are installing BladeCenter S do not need two-socket blades but do require two local hard drivers and more memory slots.  The estimated selling price is $ 999 (or euro 858 !!) and is listed in SSCT 1.18. 

Last week we even saw that VMware has changed its license policy that permits using UP systems with VMware ESX (see HERE).

VMware is issuing a policy statement (effective April 1, 2008) about deploying VI licenses on single-processor servers.

Policy content and why is VMware doing this:  It clarifies that customers may split and use 2-CPU VI licenses across two 1-CPU Servers. Previously, they had not explicitly stated one way or another that customers can do this. 

This policy enables VMware to be a really attractive solution into remote/branch office and SMB accounts. 
Read the Q & A below for additional information

Source: Policy Statement, Licensing overview and help