Sign up for our Technology Newsletter 
SUSE Goes OpenStack Cloud 5
SUSE has released OpenStack Cloud 5, the latest version of the its infrastructure-as-a-service private cloud distro.
Version 5 adds the OpenStack brand front and centre, and its credentials are based on the latest Juno build of the OpenStack open source platform.
This version includes enhanced networking flexibility, with additional plug-ins available and the addition of distributed virtual routing. This enables individual computer nodes to handle routing tasks together, or if needs be, clustering together.
Increased operational efficiency comes in the form of a new seamless integration with existing servers running outside the cloud. In addition, log collection is centralized into a single view.
As you would expect, SUSE OpenStack 5 is designed to fit perfectly alongside the company’s other products, including the recently launched Suse Enterprise Storage and Suse Linux Enterprise Server 12 as well as nodes from earlier versions.
Deployment has also been simplified as part of a move to standardise “as-a-service” models.
Also included is the company’s new Sahara data processing project designed to run Hadoop and Spark on top of OpenStack without degradation. MapR has released support for its own service by way of a co-branded plug-in.
“Furthering the growth of OpenStack enterprise deployments, Suse OpenStack Cloud makes it easier for customers to realise the benefits of a private cloud, saving them money and time they can use to better serve their own customers and business,” said Brian Green, managing director, UK and Ireland, at Suse.
“Automation and high availability features translate to simplicity and efficiency in enterprise data centers.”
Suse OpenStack Cloud 5 becomes generally available from today.
OpenSuse Hacked
The openSUSE Forums were hijacked today by a Pakistani hacker who goes by handle H4x0r HuSsY. Apparently the hacker exploited the vulnerability in vBulletin 4.2.1 software which SUSE uses to host the forum. The problem is that the hack revealed that the openSUSE Forums were based on proprietary forum software.
The openSUSE team has denied that the users’ passwords were compromised by the hack.
“The credentials for your openSUSE login are not saved in our application databases as we use a single-sign-on system (Access Manager from NetIQ) for all our services. This is a completely separate system and it has not been compromised by this crack,” the team said.
What the cracker reported as compromised passwords where indeed random automatically set strings that are in no way connected to your the passwords.
While it was good that none of the user data was compromised open sourcers are scratching their collective heads and wondering if the attack would have happened if the outfit had been eating its own dogfood and used some nice open source technologies.
Xen Project To Support ARMv8
Xen Project will release the Xen 4.3 hypervisor later today with support for ARMv7 and ARMv8 hardware.
The Xen Project overseen by The Linux Foundation produces an open source hypervisor that is a popular alternative to KVM. The project will release the Xen 4.3 hypervisor today with support for ARM servers, performance improvements and a technology preview of Open Vswitch.
The Xen Project is backed by a number of big firms including AMD, Cisco, Google, Intel and Samsung, and is one of the first hypervisors to support ARMv8 based processors along with the ARMv7 architecture. The Xen Project said it has been working with ARM server vendor Calxeda to validate Xen 4.3 on its ARMv7 and ARMv8 servers.
For the Xen Project, ARM server support, in particular ARMv8 support, will be key as servers using the architecture start to appear later this year and in volume during 2014. Given that Amazon Web Services, arguably the biggest cloud service provider around, is supporting the Xen Project, ARMv8 support in the hypervisor could be painful for VMware as it tries to compete against a free, industry supported alternative.
Lars Kurth, community manager for the Xen Project said, “The ARM server support is an exciting development for the community and we’re excited about the opportunities this will bring to customers.”
Xen 4.3 also includes improvements to power efficiency by using the MWAIT extension for processors such as Intel’s Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge and Haswell.
Linux Foundation VP and COO Mike Woster talked up the importance of virtualisation to the Linux and open source community. He said, “Virtualization is important to Linux and the open source community and the Xen Project is helping companies realize new levels of scalability and efficiency in areas such as cloud computing.
“With the latest release of Xen Project, organizations can advance their cloud computing strategies to deliver on customer expectations for their enterprise environments.”
The Xen 4.3 hypervisor was released yesterday.
openSUSE Lacks Resources For ARM
Opensuse said that its ARM development is being limited by a lack of resources to build software despite having launched its Open Build Service (OBS).
Last month the Opensuse project announced the release of Opensuse 12.3, which brought ARM support to the same level as x86 and AMD64. While the project is working on bringing ARMv7 and more importantly ARMv8 support to its Linux distribution, Jos Poortvliet, community manager at Opensuse, said that the project’s ARM development has been limited by the lack of build resources.
Opensuse announced a collaboration with Samsung to create the OBS, which it was hoped would speed up the development life-cycle. However Poortvliet said, “ARM development is limited by available build resources required for compiling each iteration of new software and while the OBS helps by bringing a lot of build power in one place, the use of QEMU meant that build resources were shared with native x86_64 builds, which turned out to be a performance limitation.
“With fast and dedicated ARM hardware we can reserve build power for ARM builds and make use of the more efficient KVM virtualization.”
However in better news, Poortvliet said that the project had managed to deploy KVM – the Linux kernel based virtual machine – on ARM hardware. He added that parent firm Suse has assigned more resources to building ARM software on OBS and forecast that all packages would be built in two weeks.
While Canonical and Red Hat have been vocal about their ARM developments, Suse and its Opensuse project have been quietly going about their business, though given Poortvliet’s comments regarding a lack of resources, perhaps they have been going about it too quietly.
Although ARM vendors are not expected to converge on the server market until next year, even ARM thinks that most servers using its chips will run open source software.
Unless Suse manages to get its act together, it might find that Canonical and Red Hat have already carved out a significant chunk of the market.
RedHat Takes A Fall
Red Hat announced a 15 percent increase in quarterly revenues to $322.6m, though it reported a 12.5 percent decline in profits to $35m.
Red Hat, which last year became the first Linux vendor to hit $1bn in revenues in a fiscal year, has revealed revenue figures that once again show it can repeat that performance in 2013. The firm announced that its second fiscal quarter revenues were up by 15 percent from the same quarter a year previously to $322.6m, however its profits fell by 12.5 percent from last year to $35m.
Charlie Peters, EVP and CEO of Red Hat said the firm’s earnings per share would have been higher if the firm had not made two large purchases. Peters said, “This quarter marked a significant ramp-up in investments in our nascent storage business, with the launch in late June of Red Hat Storage Server 2.0. Furthermore, we announced two small technology acquisitions in the middleware space to further round out our offerings, which decreased the quarter’s EPS by approximately $0.01 per share due to one-time closing costs.”
Red Hat’s $1bn fiscal year was seen as a watershed moment for the commercial viability of Linux, as it showed that the open source company could compete with large, established competitors such as Microsoft and Oracle and still make a considerable amount of cash.
Will Window 8 Tablets Launch In November?
Comments Off on Will Window 8 Tablets Launch In November?
The first Windows 8 tablets should hit retail sometime in November and we could see a bunch of devices in different form factors.
According to CNET’s Brooke Crothers, the first wave of Windows tablets will include more than a dozen devices, but more than half of them will be hybrid designs. So, it seems Microsoft and vendors are betting on traditional keyboards to set Windows tablets apart from the competition.
The new tablets will be based on Intel’s dual-core Clover Trail Atoms, but bear in mind that Microsoft will also release Windows for ARM chips and AMD could also enter the fray with some low-voltage APUs.
Intel Goes ALL-IN On Windows 8 Tablets
Comments Off on Intel Goes ALL-IN On Windows 8 Tablets
It appears that is working on a new type of NAND storage, offering higher data density and lower costs. The company believes the new triple-level cell ships are ideally suited for tablets and ultrabooks.
Samsung claims it is the first chipmaker to embrace triple-level cell (TLC) technology, but other companies are expected to follow suit. Unlike single-level cell (SLC) or multilevel cell (MLC), the new tech can store three bits per cell, greatly increasing density. The obvious offshoot is lower production cost, as TLC basically allows for more bits per wafer.
However, TLC also has some drawbacks. Due to its design, it is more prone to errors, less reliable and it is also slower than MLC. However, it still ends up significantly faster than hard drives and reliability issues can be worked out with a bit more digital signal processing.
Will Windows 8 Beat Android?
February 8, 2012 by admin
Filed under Uncategorized
Comments Off on Will Windows 8 Beat Android?
ARM’s CEO Warren East has been having a look at his Tarot cards and has come to the conclusion that Windows 8 will probably put the fear of God into Android in the tablet market.
East said that Microsoft may have some potential advantages over Android particularly now it is going to run on chips lovingly designed on ARM. East told CNET that Microsoft’s brand recognition among consumers was a lot better than Androids and this could mean that they would go for that brand. He said consumers are familiar with Microsoft and very familiar with Windows and they’re less familiar with an Android environment. East added that it will be interesting to see how Microsoft exploits that advantage, but I think that’s a fundamental difference. He believes Android tablet sales will eventually take off as there were similarities between what happened with smartphones.
When Android phones were introduced, there was a lot of hype and nothing happened then a few years later–two years later–half a million units a day, 700,000 units a day and Android phones now are successful. East thought that everyone should give Android tablets a little bit more time. He did not think that Intel would be able to dent the smartphone or tablet market.
WIN8 Enter Final Pre-Beta
Microsoft Windows developer build tracking site Winunleaked.tk has recently updated its Windows 8 build number page, documenting the milestones Microsoft developers have been achieving in the compilation of the Windows 8 operating system. According to the latest numbers, it appears that the company has just released the final pre-beta build, marking another significant milestone in the release cycle of the operating system.
The site claims Microsoft’s own testers will then vote on which of the next Windows 8 builds will become the “Final Beta,” with a voting decision being made on Saturday, January 28th. The final beta build will then be shown at an internal Microsoft preview on Monday, January 30th.
The official pre-beta build number is 8189.0.winmain.120120-1830, and according to the site, the next builds for Windows 8 will be labeled as “Beta Escrow” builds. Additionally, the operating system roadmap claims that the “Final Beta” build to be released to the public will be named “winmain_win8b1.”
WIN 8 To Hit Ultrabooks Next Year, Says Intel
Comments Off on WIN 8 To Hit Ultrabooks Next Year, Says Intel
Ultrabooks with Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 8 OS will reach market next year, and the OS could help propel demand for the devices, an Intel executive said this week.
More than 60 ultrabook designs could become available next year and “11 or so designs” will be unveiled by the end of this year, said Tom Kilroy, senior vice president and general manager of worldwide sales at Intel, in an interview following the company’s third quarter earnings call on Tuesday.
Windows 8 could help drive up ultrabook demand in the second half of next year during the back-to-school and holiday shopping seasons, Kilroy said.
In addition to Windows 8, ultrabooks will have the next-generation of Core processors based on the Ivy Bridge microarchitecture, which will have performance and graphics improvements, Kilroy said. Some four of 10 laptops sold by the end of next year will be ultrabooks, he said.
“Judging by the excitement, that’s a realistic goal,” Kilroy said.