« April 2007 | Main | June 2007 »
May 31, 2007
BrocData to make HBAs...
Hey, how much more grief can theirs be than Emulex?
Brocade intends to muscle in on more of the networking market by expanding its product catalog to include host bus adapters (HBAs) and intelligent server adapters.The networking equipment maker announced today a low power consumption iSCSI adapter, a line of Fibre Channel adapters and plans for high-performance intelligent server adapters.
The company said sinking its hooks into the $1.1bn HBA industry is a logical extension to its storage area network offerings. Brocade jumps into the pool with Emulex and QLogic, who currently own the lion's share of the business and happen to be Brocade partners.
Announced today; the Brocade 2110 iSCSI Initiator HBA targets large business servers running Windows or Linux operating systems. The company claims the HBA offers the lowest power consumption on market. The adapter is capable of delivering more than 60,000 IOPS on Windows Server 2003 and more than 400 MB/s aggregate throughput over dual Ethernet ports. It is currently available from Brocade and its channel partners.
We're seeing more and more Symmetrix customers moving to Cisco, for various reasons, and that's going to cut into BrocData's directer-level sales. Getting into the HBA market makes a lot of sense, lock up the small-to-midrange markets, and keep a foot in the door of the enterprise customers.
Posted by Edward J. Branley at 7:55 PM | TrackBack
May 24, 2007
reason #359,273 to keep your anti-virus subscription up-to-date
I have a number of friends who use Skype, which prompted me to download it and give it a try. Then I see this warning:
Malware miscreants have created the first worm targeting Skype that's also capable over other instant messaging networks, such as MSN and ICQ.The unnamed worm poses as a chat message linking to a website, as with other example of Skype-spreading malware before it. This malicious website contains a .pif file, that poses as "photos". Users tricked by this simple ruse will find themselves infected by the Stration worm, a mass mailer that also attempts to foil attempts to remove it by blocking access to security-related websites, and other items of malware.
Everyone should know by now to never click on unsolicited hyperlinks, because they often re-direct you to a page running ActiveX or Java that will introduce some sort of malware into your system. That first line of defense, basic common sense, is worth its weight in anti-virus software packages.
Just as healthcare workers take basic precautions so they don't contract an infectious disease from contact with a patient, computer users should be thinking the same way, particularly when getting started with a new, unfamiliar program.