In an effort to ensure the current IT strategy of Cloud Infrastructure doesn't leave you in a fog...Here is a link to help you get started:   Improve storage efficiency and data mobility with IBM SmartCloud Virtual Storage Center http://www-01.ibm.com/software/tivoli/solutions/storage-hypervisor/

Every year IBM partners worldwide compete for an IBM Beacon Award.  Beacon's are awarded for exemplary solutions in a handful of categories.   The Beacon Award is, by far, IBM's most prestigious award and with thousands of IBM business partners worldwide, the honor of earning the award or making the finalist list is a tremendous acknowledgement for a business partners' innovation and expertise in architecting IBM solutions.   thinkASG is honored to be an IBM Beacon Award finalist for 2011 in the category of Best Competitive Solution.  Our solution comprised IBM Power System Servers and DS8000 Enterprise Storage to replace a 10+ year Sun and EMC installation in a Fortune 50 company.  The division that installed our competitive take-out solution selected the IBM technology fo...

During the last few open house events there has been quite an interest in external SAS. For companies that never took the leap to a fiber SAN or is ready for upgrading this is a perfect option.   The LSI SAS switches are very economical and may be daisy chained to connect up to 1,000 end devices with up to 25 meters between SAS switches. Coupled with the IBM DS3500 line of disk storage which all have (2) SAS connectors for each controller in the base product and can be double with a daughter card. We see this as a perfect solution for small to large ESX clusters for either departmental needs or development.   A small ESX server cluster with (2) IBM 3650 M3s with memory up to 288GB and a DS3512 with up to 24TB of shared storage allows for this configuration to be a rob...

I am often asked why should a client work with a valued partner vs going "direct" - good question. The short answer is that the Partner has a vested interest in the customer for literally decades. Direct (insert large HW or SW company here) is only motivated by results that quarter - and then they are done. Pricing, Service and Support are always going to be more favorable when working with a Partner........yep - that's right - Always. So even with the partner advantage on price, service and support, do you want to work with people that invest in your company for years and years, or a direct relationship driving revenue for the quarter, and then "new faces"? A Partner approaches customers with the intention of working with that customer for decades - and as such, provides the customer wit...

IBM online back-up solution, called Managed Back-up cloud.  Could be your answer to your offsite data back-up requirements.  Incredibly low price for a quality solution.  Your feedback is welcome.  Do you use an online back-up solution now?  Need one?  Leave a comment on the relevance of this technology to your business. Managed Back-up Cloud Video

DB2 is proven to reduce costs and improve performance over Oracle.   Check out the Break Free with IBM DB2 video.

Perhaps it was the lineup of speakers, the passion for storage, or maybe the opportunity to play golf and get out of the office before the big Memorial Day Weekend. Either way, the day was packed with customers, speakers, and seasoned architects to continue the ongoing discussion of SAN vs NAS. David Browning, thinkASG’s CEO, kicked off the event with introductions, review of the days agenda, and the instructions on how to use the Plain and Peanut M&M’s to cast the vote for SAN or NAS. During the morning session the participants were encouraged to drop an M&M for every time something tipped the scale of either technology. The goal was to determine which break out session would best meet the participants to storage requirements. I think I saw more M&M’s eaten than dropp...

When advising my clients as to why they should upgrade to P7, the following aways applies as immediate benefits to the customer: 1. P7 delivers better performance and depending if you're replacing P5 or P6 you see between 3:1 and 4:1 increase 2. P7 will allow you to do more with less processors therefore cutting your software lics cost. In some cases, the savings of software lics will pay for the hardware 3. P7 uses less energy consumption and takes up less space 4. P7 will lower your maintenance cost. In some cases the cost of maintenance on older boxes can pay for new hardware and ROI is less then 3 years. I hope this helps.

thinkASG, IBM and Bramasol/SAP joined forces and gathered their valued clients and prospects for a fun evening of hockey at the Staples Center. After all, everybody enjoys the inter-county rivalry of the Anaheim Ducks vs the Los Angeles Kings! We met at the VIP entrance to be escorted by the Kings Ice Girls and straight to the arena floor.  The, straight out to Center Ice for a perspective few but the athletes get to enjoy - where we took a picture of our winning team!  We marched back inside to find the Ducks playing a little soccer/volleyball as warm-up in the hallways of the Staples Center...it was all our crew could do not to stop for a George Parros autograph!  Our group broke into  two groups representing those interested in IBM/Intel EX5 offerings and those interested in S...

More and more customers that we talk to are considering cloud computing  and asking for our assistance with the design and infrastructure build out.   VMware vSphere 4 is the first and only OS Cloud Computing platform. VMware is working aggressively to encourage the world to embrace cloud computing by building critical infrastructure resources into ESX (the base technology of vSphere).   vSphere 4 enhances the infrastructure capabilities of VI3 to enable  customers to implement internal clouds with security, high availability, and fault tolerance.  Customers are building internal clouds with plans to enhance their environments with vSphere for expanding their infrastructure to incorporate utility based computing - allowing internal and external clouds to securely federate b...