IBM Slashes Power Systems Memory Prices
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Big Blue's desire to kick Sun Microsystems when it is down in the Unix business as the Oracle acquisition and Sun's failed 'Rock' processor have left customers wondering about the platform, and to steal some accounts away from Hewlett-Packard where customers are perhaps are a bit annoyed by the delays in the 'Tukwila' Itanium servers, is playing into the hands of Power Systems i shops, who some days seem to be an afterthought for IBM. READ MORE >

A New Look for the COMMON Session Grid
by Dan Burger

The session grid at the COMMON Annual Meeting is almost 100 percent filled as the organization's biggest event of the year takes shape in light of financial belt tightening, a scaled back educational schedule, reduced compensation for volunteers (particularly speakers), and questions about how the user group should be defined. Ever since the convergence of IBM's traditional AS/400 and AIX hardware platforms into the Power Systems division, there have been debates about whether COMMON should remain all i. READ MORE >

SSD Performance: Be Careful Before You Buy
by Doug Mewmaw

The other day I was at an office supply store picking up a flash drive for my wife. As a teacher, the inexpensive technology is just perfect for her storage needs. Did you chuckle when I said the technology was inexpensive? I remember when a flash drive cost over $50, and now they are practically giving them away. I purchased a 4 GB flash drive for less than $10! READ MORE >

Mad Dog 21/21: The Fox in IBM's Storage Henhouse
by Hesh Wiener

Moshe Yanai became successful by taking enterprise storage business away from IBM. He led the team that created the EMC Symmetrix, which became the leading storage product at IBM's glass house accounts. EMC and Yanai parted ways in 2001 and after a decent interval Yanai founded a new storage venture, XIV (pronounced Ex Eye Vee). IBM acquired XIV at the start of 2008, naming Yanai an IBM Fellow. Yanai may be able to clobber EMC for IBM, but to succeed he will also have to kill off IBM's flagship DS8000 array with his XIV boxes. READ MORE >