IBM and Dell lick their lips as Microsoft and Google buy billions in gear
The death of the white box makers
What you need to know about cloud backup
Radio Reg Voracious buyers such as Yahoo!, Microsoft and Amazon represent a niche in the server market - a very lucrative niche. So, we've seen companies such as IBM and Dell come out recently with gear aimed right at the service provider set.
Episode 17 of Semi-Coherent Computing takes a look at the "white box killer" hardware available with Chris Hipp and Dan Olds joining yours truly for an action-packed discussion.
The show starts off by probing IBM's new iDataPlex unit and then moves to Dell's custom Cloud program. We also explore Microsoft's decision to go hog wild with data centers in shipping containers.
Overall, these service provider-friendly systems build on a lot of the high performance computing work done over the years at labs and big businesses. So, once again, we're seeing HPC goodness makes its way downstream.
Dan is so enamored with this the trend that he's planning to set up a data center van, which will let him go from customer site to customer site for on location analysis. "All I need from you, Mr. Customer, is an outlet, a hose and perhaps a storm drain," he said.
The show wraps up with a chat about Citrix's struggles to pull meaningful revenue away from VMware. We wonder if Microsoft will have any more luck once it gets its act together.
In addition, we take a brief look at quantum computing start-up D-Wave, which hopes to hit 512 qubits by the end of this year.
Anyway, on to the show.
Semi-Coherent Computing - Episode 17
Open source types can get Ogged and Vorbed here, those plagued by low-bandwidth can catch a smaller, crappier quality show here or a monster-sized show here.
You can also grab the show off iTunes here or subscribe to the show via this feed.
As always, let me know if there's anything you'd like to see covered in future shows or any special guests you would like to have on the program.
Thanks for your ears. ®
COMMENTS
File Types
Considering the primary advantage vorbis has over mp3 is at low bitrates, why not produce the 'small crappy' version in vorbis instead? Considering it's supposedly meant to become an internet standard, why not use it.
These qubits, they keep a-coming
Scott a Mad Guy, constantly lampooning D-Wave? Not that I know of, but if so, that may be because he has doubts about whether the D-Wave machine makes sense. And he knows what he's talking about. Try this link:
http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=291
Of course, if D-Wave actually gets usable qubits and finds applications for their special-purpose computer, more power to them.

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