February, 2012

By Christopher Papa

The fundamentals of the data center change about every 10 years. The industry is in the midst of a transformation largely brought on by the opportunity created by cloud computing.

The future has always been about the nexus of people, process, and technology — technology alone doesn’t fundamentally change the game. The trends are about efficiency, innovation and productivity.

Here’s a great example.

The Bank of Hawaii, named Forbes #1 bank in the US in 2010 and 2011, is relentlessly focused on improving the customer experience. They embrace a “Moneyball” approach to enterprise IT meaning looking at every aspect of the IT spend to see how disadvantage can be turned to…

Laser hardcopy peripherals (HCP), also known as laser printers, grew at a notable pace last year despite market woes brought by the uncertainties in the global economy, government underspending, and numerous typhoons particularly Pedring, Quiel, and Sendong, especially in the latter part of 2011.

IDC’s Asia-Pacific quarterly hardcopy peripherals tracker in 4Q 2011 found that the market for laser HCP remarkably expanded by 30.4 percent compared to the same quarter in 2010.

This is a stark contrast compared with the declines seen in other HCP technologies namely inkjet (-7.2 percent), serial dot matrix or SDM (-12.5), and line printer (-76.3 percent).

“Laser HCPs, being copiers as well as single and multi function…

The master plans for the “innovation cluster” program of the Congressional Commission on Science and Technology (Comste) were presented recently during a meeting to formally launch the program at the Sofitel Hotel in Pasay City.

Sen. Edgardo Angara is flanked by DOST Secretary Mario Montejo (right) and Comste executive director Gregory Tangonan

Aside from Comste chair, Sen. Edgardo Angara, the event was attended by DOST Secretary Mario Montejo, Comste executive director Gregory Tangonan, and other participants of the program.

The innovation clusters initiative is basically a partnership for research and development (R&D) among government, academe, and the private sector. It is also is intended to serve as public-private partnerships (PPPs) in S&T.

There…

In January of this year, tech giant IBM announced the appointment of Mariels Almeda-Winhoffer as the new president and country general manager for its Philippine operations.

Almeda-Winhoffer is the first female to hold the highest post at IBM Philippines, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year.

Born and raised in Manila, she started her career in IBM 26 years ago. Her most recent posting was client advocacy executive for IBM Corp., where she reported directly to the chairman and provided support for global client engagements.

She completed her primary and secondary education at Assumption College, before moving to the United States earning a double degree in Finance and Computer Science, cum…

The worldwide server market ended 2011 with mixed results, as worldwide server revenue declined 5.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011 and server shipments increased 4.5 percent, according to research firm Gartner.

For the year, worldwide server revenue grew 7.9 percent, and server shipments increased 7 percent.

“The shortage of hard-disk drive (HDD) inventory because of the Thailand floods in October 2011 provided supply issues, and many providers could not meet the demand in the last weeks of 2011, said Jeffrey Hewitt, research vice president at Gartner.

“We expect the negative impact of these drive supply issues to continue into 1Q12.”

From a geographic perspective, all regions grew year-on-year in shipments for…

A new nasty piece of malware is now being used in the ongoing conflict in Syria, with the ability to take over an infected computer or steal documents from it.

Photo credit: http://wideshut.co.uk

Computer security firm Trend Micro cited reports that the malware, dubbed as DarkComet, is being used against supporters of the Syrian opposition movement.

“The malware used in the attacks reportedly spreads through Skype chats. Once users execute the malware, it connects to a (command and control) server in Syria … which belongs to an IP range assigned to the Syrian Telecommunications Establishment,” Trend Micro said in a blog post.

It noted this could be a response to the opposition’s increasing…

British telecom giant Vodafone has appointed local wireless operator Smart Communications as its first and only partner in the Philippines.

Members of the Vodafone online team with Smart’s Joy Sanchez, Mellissa Limcaoco, and Bhrein Salazar during one of the Smart-Vodafone transformation activities

With the tie-up, Smart said it now has access to telco firm’s technology systems and best practices in roaming, marketing, and customer value management.

Smart and Vodafone will also enter a series of collaborations, which may include the sharing of rollout strategies for LTE (Long Term Evolution) and green networks.

“We are proud to be the preferred partner of Vodafone in the Philippines, as we work together to meet the growing…

More than a decade after its introduction, the Senate finally approved on Tuesday, Feb. 28, a proposed law creating the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) with an overwhelming vote 12-0.

DOST undersecretary Fortunato dela Pena (left), Senate S&T chair Edgardo Angara (center) and then CICT chair Ivan Uy engage in a huddle during a break in last year’s Senate hearing on the DICT bill. In the hearing, Dela Pena formally conveyed the DOST’s opposition to the formation of the DICT

The bill, which was swiftly passed by the Senate even with the ongoing impeachment trial, will now go into bicameral conference to be reconciled with the approved version of…

The Philippines marked a historic moment in public transportation on Monday, Feb. 27, when the first commercial e-jeepney franchise in the country was formally launched in Makati City.

Sen. Ralph Recto, author of the Alternative Fuel Vehicles Incentives Act of 2011, led the symbolic ride/drive of the first franchise-armed e-jeepney in Makati City

Sen. Ralph Recto, author of the Alternative Fuel Incentives Act, Secretary Lucille Sering of the Climate Change Commission, Chairman Jaime Jacob of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB), commercial franchise holder EJeepney Transport Corporation (EJTC), the Makati City government as represented by the City Consultant Ernie Camarillo, transport groups representatives, and other alternative public transport advocates…

Peripherals maker Genius has introduced in the local market the Ring Presenter, the world’s first ring-style touch cursor controller for business, travel, and education users.

The Ring Presenter is designed to be worn in the ring finger which can be used for presentation with mouse functions.

With touch-control technology, it provides complete control to PowerPoint slides. In addition, the Ring Presenter can be used as a mouse, with the gadget able to perform all the following actions — move the cursor left / middle / right mouse button, dragging and scrolling in four directions.

There is also a switch between two modes: mouse and presenter.

The Ring Presenter is powered by a slim…