Please join thinkASG in congratulating the honorees recognized today at our Smart Leaders Awards Luncheon at the Center Club in Irvine. Each of you have demonstrated a unique set of accomplishments that have allowed you and your firm to excel in your field of business. We applaud your well deserved success and look forward to learning of more great things in your future!  Thank you to Jim McCluney, CEO of Emulex, for his key note address on the importance of security in our high tech world and it's mission critical necessity for all of our firms to sustain viability. Also, much appreciation to Smart Business for coordinating this event as well as our co-sponsors, IBM and Union Bank.  Please consider engaging all of us to help you and your firm continue to be the smart leaders and busine...

Twenty five years ago on January 21, 1986, IBM Austin launched a new operating system called IBM RT Personal Computer Advanced Interactive eXecutive -- better known as AIX -- with a new system called the IBM RT PC. The system ran on a RISC processor codenamed “ROMP” (for Research Office Products Division MultiProcessor). This new AIX operating system was based on UNIX operating system, but it included significant IBM enhancements such as a virtualization to allow multiple operating systems to run on a single machine, support for high resolution displays, and a simple user interface. Over the ensuing years we have seen significant advances in the evolution of AIX: - 1990, AIX V3 on the RS/6000 on the first POWER processor - 1994, AIX V4 with support for symmetric multiprocessin...

VMware made CRN's top products of 2010.   Virtualization is the stepping stone to building your private cloud.  Check out what CRN said about vCenter and vSphere. VMware released vSphere 4.1, its cloud operating system, this year to focus on making virtualization, and its management and deployment, more efficient, and provide greater control and flexibility for enterprises. Why are these advances such a big deal? For example, vSphere 4.1 provides nice memory compression technology, which reduces memory bottlenecks and makes stuff just run faster. In terms of scalabilitywhich is huge for cloud computing deployments, be they hosted or privatevSphere 4.1 is capable of scaling to as many as 10,000 virtual machines at a rate of 3,000 per cluster. Those are mind-numbing numbers and cert...

Wow!  That is the word that comes to mind from our announcement event.  From Intel's newest saleable Nehalem EX processors to IBM's incorporation of these processors into fully redesigned and MASSIVELY scaleable SystemX servers.  You want a Terabyte of memory for those virtual servers?  No problem.  You want a shared memory pool for two servers?  No problem.  Want to scale, start off with a 2S system and take it to 4S as your environment grows?  No problem.  These are just some of the new and exciting developments of IBM's Intel based SystemX servers. Call me and I'll find the right solution to solve your problems.   So, if the new technologies from Intel and IBM weren't enough, we followed that up with an afternoon of racing at K1 Speed. 12 laps of practice, followed by...

A timeline of continued xSeries innovation, investment and differentiation: In 2001 IBM introduced their first generation in the Enterprise X-Architecture (EXA) systems. The x440 was the first scalable 16 Socket x 86 platform available in a form factor smaller than Unisys’ entire rack. Its small form factor was not its only draw, there was the fault-tolerant memory and the “pay-as-you-grow” option to expand past the initial investment (and capabilities) of a single system. In 2003 the x445 was announced as IBM’s successor to their first generation EXA system. The x445 allowed for increased performance and unparalleled expansion. Like the previous generation the systems was able to scale past a single node, with the new x445 being able to scale to up to 32 Intel Xeon processors...

Look out folks, another big announcement just took place. On the heels of POWER7 comes Intel's eX5. eX5 is the newest breakthrough in x86 innovation and brings with it the biggest launch in the history of System x. Yes, that's right, this is MORE history in the making! eX5 takes x86 systems to an entirely new level, enabling clients to tackle their toughest challenges. Mark McCardle, from Intel and Phil Drachman from IBM System x teamed up to bring the eX5 announcement to thinkASG's office on March 2, 2010, the same day that Intel made their announcement public. Mark briefed thinkASG's Human Drive Sales and Technical team on all the amazing technical capabilities that comes with the eX5 architecture.  Thankfully, Intel's public announcement releases us from our NDA gag order and unl...

Team thinkASG executed the first Southern California POWER7 announcement event, on February 16, 2010 in their Irvine office.  Clients interested to learn about the world changing POWER7 architecture followed the thinkASG signs to the office and knew they had arrived when greeted by smiling faces in black and red polo shirts at the facility marked by the big "7" balloons.  Curiosity was peeked early by the IBM Wall Street Journal ads and the hints to the amazing price / performance enhancements of the latest generation of the IBM Power Server line. IT folks from across So Cal joined us, representing diverse industries including life sciences, automotive, manufacturing, distribution and services, all intrigued to get the latest updates. After a reception, the attendees segmented to AIX / L...

Sunsets Are Beautiful – Goodbye Sun IBM is not always the first to market nor do they always enter the market with the best product, but given time, they find a way to prevail.  Like the proverbial slow and steady tortoise that eventually beat the hare trekking through the forest, IBM whizzed past SUN Microsystems in the UNIX server wars.   A Foreign Culture When IBM introduced the RISC System / 6000 (RS/6000) in the early 1990’s, Big Blue entered the UNIX world of pony tailed geeks wearing sandals – not common place in the white shirt, ties, brick and mortar of mainframe customers.  Although the POWER (Performance Optimized With Enhanced RISC) processor that fueled the RS/6000 was accepted as a decent effort by the UNIX community, AIX was laughed at and scolded for be...

IBM has extended IBM i v5r4 for an additional year. This removes a pending event but there are still good reasons to move to V6R1.  Contact thinkASG for an understanding of the best roadmap for your business. IBM Announcement on change of support withdrawal date.

Have you ever wanted to know when the next paradigm shift will occur in computing?  Will it be mobile computing or large servers?   I think it has started happening.  As I write this, the newest iteration of the Apple iPhone (3G S) hits the street.  Think about the metrics here.  We have reached a mass of users that can listen to music, get directions, play games, manage their servers and VNC into their desktop and home.  We have embarked upon a mobile device that is nearly all things to most people, of course, within the AT&T coverage. Today, this mobile device is about twice as fast and will be reveling in the new 3.0 apps. We shall see more and more industries embrace this technology as the days of multiple devices will get smaller. With the U.S. Senate now getting involve...