EMC unveils all-SSD array, one app to manage all flash

EMC today released its first, purpose-build, all-solid state drive (SSD) array that is based on its XtremIO acquisition last year, as well as new software that identifies server flash throughout a data center and allows it to be managed under one interface.

Additionally, EMC has released six new PCIe flash cards for use in data center servers.

XtremeIO all-SSD array

Referred to as "Project X" prior to its release today, EMC's all-SSD XtremIO Array is based on a clustered architecture, allowing multiple SSD modules to be added, increasing performance and capacity linearly, said Josh Goldstein, vice president of marketing and product management for EMC's XtremIO unit.

Unlike EMC's current all-flash appliances, which are filled with PCIe cards (i.e. Project Thunder), the new XtremIO Array uses serial ATA (SATA) SSDs, which come in a 2.5-in. hard-drive form factor. None of the hardware is proprietary, Goldstien said, allowing EMC to keep data center integration capabilities higher. The SATA SSDs, like SAS SSDs, are dual ported for resiliency.

Using random 4KB blocks, a single XtremIO Array node can achieve 250,000 read- and 100,000 write-IOPS, Goldstein said.

EMC's XtremIO all-SSD array

"We precondition the arrays before we recorded the performance numbers," Goldstein said. "We fill the array nearly to capacity with data to simulate a flash system that you're already overwriting with data. This is a much more stringent test the new arrays will undergo."

Along with high performance, the XtremIO array comes native with automated thin provisioning capabilities, which means volume sizes can automatically expand as an application may need. The thin provisioning is also granular in that volumes can expand in 4KB blocks to ensure thrifty use of flash capacity, Goldstein said.

The array comes with inline data deduplication, which means an algorithm checks to ensure data sets being stored to the array is not the same as content already there. "The only thing being written to flash on the XtremIO system are unique I/O blocks," Goldstein said.

For data protection, XtremIO has a proprietary algorithm that is similar to RAID 6 (capable of protecting data with up to two flash card failures), but with the performance of RAID 1, Goldstein said.

The XtremIO array is built on a scale-out architecture not dissimilar to EMC's Isilon scale-out NAS array.

The new arrays are being marketed for use with applications requiring extremely high levels of random I/O performance, such as such as OLTP databases, server virtualization and VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure).

The SSD array offers sub-millisecond latency, fully random transaction patterns with all data services enabled and operating while filled nearly to capacity.

EMC's all SSD-array announcement follows a similar one by NetApp last month. NetApp announced the EF540 all-flash array, also a purpose-build, all-SSD array.

New PCIe flash cards

Along with all the new product releases, EMC also announced it was changing all of its flash product names so that they would all come under the EMC Xtreme Family mantle. Accordingly, its VFCache PCIe flash card line for servers will now be called XtremSF cards.

EMC announced six new XtremSF cards that include four enterprise-class multi-level cell (eMLC)-based cards and two single-cell level (SLC) cards. All of the PCIe cards are in half-height, half-length form factors.

The eMLC cards come in capacities of 550GB, 700GB 1.4TB and 2.2TB. The SLC cards come in 350GB and 700GB capacities.

XtremSF server flash card

The new XtremSF server flash cards offer up to 1.13 million I/Os per second performance using 128KB blocks and deliver two times throughput of their predecessors with eight PCIe I/O lanes. Using 4KB and 8KB block sizes, the flash cards offer up to 200,000 and 120,000 IOPS, respectively, according to Barry Ader, an EMC senior director of product management.

XtremSF server flash card performance chart

The new flash cards also reduce server CPU utilization by as much as 50%, because the flash controller handles the flash management functions instead of the server chip.

"They are twice as fast as anything else in the marketplace," Adder said.

Flash management suite

Along with a new SSD array and PCIe flash cards, EMC announced that later this year it will be releasing new software that can discover NAND flash in a data center and bring it under a single management interface.

The XtremSW Suite works with either MLC or SLC-based flash, and can offer the ability to pool resources. The software suite will offer advanced data services for flash to be used as memory and DAS, Ader said.

The software will also allow the flash cards to be used in conjunction with a storage area network (SAN) to boost performance.

Mark Peters, an analyst with research firm ESG, said it is the software that sets EMC's announcement apart from other NAND flash-based hardware, such as NetApp's all-SSD array or server flash cards from FusionIO. Vendors regularly leapfrog each other with the performance of their storage systems, he said.

"Much as there is a lot of brand loyalty in enterprise storage, the game will ultimately be won and lost on software, not hardware, which is why the two most critical parts of this announcement in my view .... [is] the XtremIO Software Suite ... and the fact that XtremIO is essentially a software platform and does not demand proprietary hardware," Peters said.

Steve Duplessie, founder and lead analyst at ESG, agreed, saying that users need to think about a portfolio-approach to flash -- in the server, in the array, or as an all-flash array -- using intelligent software to leverage those assets.

"EMC has had this philosophy since it first entered the flash game, and hasn't wavered," Duplessie said.

XtremSF 550GB and 2.2TB eMLC capacities are available globally, and the 700GB and 1.4TB capacities will be available in the second quarter of 2013. EMC said it will extend the XtremSF family with even higher capacity offerings in the future.

EMC offered no pricing on any of its products.

Lucas Mearian covers storage, disaster recovery and business continuity, financial services infrastructure and health care IT for Computerworld. Follow Lucas on Twitter at @lucasmearian or subscribe to Lucas's RSS feed. His e-mail address is lmearian@computerworld.com.

See more by Lucas Mearian on Computerworld.com.

Read more about storage hardware in Computerworld's Storage Hardware Topic Center.

SAP pins future hopes on growth of Ariba business network

After 12 successive quarters of double-digit growth at SAP, co-CEO Jim Hagemann Snabe is now pinning his future hopes on the company's recently acquired Ariba e-commerce network.

Recent growth has been fueled by SAP's HANA in-memory platform, the company's fastest-growing product ever, Snabe said, adding that the entire Business One suite can now run on HANA, not just its analytics functions.

But although HANA has specialized hardware requirements, SAP will not move into hardware sales: That will be left to partners, working to detailed specifications from SAP, he said in a news conference at the Cebit trade show on Tuesday.

Following the successful deployment of in-memory applications, the company is now turning its attention outward, Snabe said.

"We have 41 years' experience of optimizing within companies," he said. "Now the next phase is optimizing relations between companies. We can do that with Ariba."

He cited a study by McKinsey in early 2011 that found networked companies 50 percent more likely to have increased sales, higher profit margins, and market share growth.

"Ariba is our response to this trend," he said, adding that the Ariba network links one million trading partners in 190 countries. "Imagine the power of combining this network with the installed base of SAP."

As Ariba is integrated into all SAP products, customers "will only have to decide whether they want this benefit," he said.

Network members spend around US$450 billion in-network annually, according to SAP, which takes a slice of that spending as the network enabler. In the third quarter of 2012, the last before SAP closed its acquisition of the company, Ariba reported network transaction revenue of $47.3 million and subscription revenue of $95.3 million.

In return for those fees, customers are able to reduce transaction costs by automating many elements of the purchasing process, doing away with fax and email and eliminating the rekeying of data.

Snabe cited the example of Caterpillar, for which the SAP network accounts for 98 percent of spending. In the seven years it has been in the network, it has seen purchasing costs fall 70 percent, he said.

In addition, he said, "On the buyer side, we see a 1 percent to 8 percent reduction in total spend, and better discounts."

On the seller side, benefits include increased revenue, lower processing costs, and up to 70 percent faster payments. "That means better liquidity," he said.

He announced a new Ariba customer, Fleurop, a partner network for 7,000 German florists. They are seeing average savings in administrative costs of ¬35 ($45) per flower arrangement ordered in-network, he said.

Snabe reaffirmed the company's decision, made in 2010, not to sell its own hardware.

"Customers want choice. They aren't interested in being locked up in a stack with no choice, and suffering price pressure as a result," he said.

He acknowledged that company did recently offer a HANA-optimized, SAP-branded server through its website, but said most servers for HANA will be provided by SAP partners.

"We don't want to be a hardware company," he said. "We think it's better to specify the hardware requirements for HANA in sufficient detail that you can be sure it will work."

In addition to talk of strategy, Snabe mentioned improvements to SAP's Customer OnDemand offering for marketing and sales staff. This has been extended with a new home page, offline capabilities for the related iPad app, and the addition of a self-service portal with telephony integration and a link to social commerce company Bazaarvoice.com for customers of SAP's customers.

Cebit, at the fairgrounds in Hanover, Germany, runs through Saturday.

Peter Sayer covers open source software, European intellectual property legislation and general technology breaking news for IDG News Service. Send comments and news tips to Peter atpeter_sayer@idg.com.

With convergence in mind, Ubuntu Linux scraps Wayland

Longtime Ubuntu Linux fans may remember Canonical's announcement back in 2010 that it was planning to adopt the OpenGL-based Wayland display management system instead of the venerable X Window system for Ubuntu Linux.

That intent was reiterated last May by Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth in Ubuntu Open Week, but now it looks like plans have changed.

Specifically, just ahead of this week's Ubuntu Developer Summit, product strategy engineering manager Oliver Ries announced that the company's new platform-agnostic focus has caused it to drop Wayland and instead create a display manager of its own.

'Some changes are necessary'

"In order to implement the vision of converged devices, some changes to our display stack are necessary," Ries wrote in an announcement on the Ubuntu mailing lists on Monday.

"After thorough research, looking at existing options, and weighing in costs and benefits, we have decided to roll our own display server, Mir."

Today's users expect a more consistent and a more integrated user experience than what is possible using the old X Window system, the Ubuntu Wiki explains. Wayland, meanwhile, is similar enough that it's likely to suffer from similar problems, it adds.

According to an initial set of specs, Mir is "a system-level component targeted as a replacement for the X Window server system to unlock next-generation user experiences for devices ranging from Linux desktop to mobile devices powered by Ubuntu."

'By Ubuntu for Ubuntu'

Mir will be "driven by the designs and requirements that our larger vision dictates--no compromises, no crude hacks, fully testable and tested, performance in mind, support for legacy X applications, developed by Ubuntu for Ubuntu," Ries explained in another blog post.

Mir is also part of Canonical's transition from its current Unity desktop environment to Unity Next, by which the cross-platform software will adapt itself automatically to the hardware running it.

Toward that end, the Ubuntu project is also beginning to move Unity away from OpenGL toolkit Nux and towards a Qt/QML-based implementation instead.

"Having one single code base that serves all variants of input and display types will help greatly to deliver the unified user experience we are committing to," Ries explained.

Complete convergence by 2014

By May Canonical hopes to finish the first steps towards integrating Unity Next with Mir and start iterating the actual shell development, "providing developers with a solid platform and designers with means for rapid prototyping," it says.

April 2014 is when it aims to achieve complete convergence across form factors, with Mir serving as the carrier.

Kaspersky PURE 3.0 Total Security adds online shopping protection

On Monday, Kaspersky released version 3.0 of PURE Total Security--the company's most-feature-packed PC antivirus and security product--priced at $90 for a 3-user, 1-year license. There are no major visual changes, but this new version has some new and improved features in addition to the existing file encryption, file backup, password manager, parental controls, and remote access features, among others.

The new Safe Money feature helps you better secure your online banking and shopping. Before you log onto a banking or payment site, it automatically verifies the site's security certificate and reputation. If the site is found genuine, Safe Monet opens it in a secure browser with secure keyboard input to prevent your login or payment information from being captured by any keyloggers or malware you might have on your PC.

Kaspersky also made improvements to the suite's existing backup utility, which now allows you to backup your important files online with the integrated Dropbox storage in addition to local drives. And if lose your files or your PC crashes, you can restore them via the program or access them from the Dropbox website.

The existing Online Password Manager that can store your passwords in a protected vault now offers a synchronization feature. Login details, notes, and identity information you save can automatically be encrypted, stored online, and synced with your other PURE-protected machines.

Kaspersky has also made several other minor improvements in version 3.0, including better protection against exploits and phishing sites, and improvements to the content filtering for the Paternal Controls.

Want to give Kaspersky a try? Though the company doesn't provide a full free edition, it does offer a free scan-only download and 30-day free trials for all its products.

Oracle pulls Java 6 plug, but Apple likely to keep patching OS X Snow Leopard

Apple on Monday patched Java 6 for OS X, following Oracle's lead and quashing a browser plug-in vulnerability that hackers have been exploiting.

Oracle issued the "out-of-band," or emergency, update for Java 6 and Java 7 to patch two critical vulnerabilities. One of those bugs -- designated CVE-2013-1493 -- has been exploited in the wild since at least Feb. 28, according to security firm FireEye, which discovered the attacks.

Because Apple maintains Java 6 for OS X -- unlike Java 7, which Oracle handles -- it followed with its own update, as usual.

But Oracle also said that Monday's update would be the final for the aging software. "This release is the last of publicly available JDK 6 Updates," Oracle said in its release notes. "Oracle recommends that users migrate to JDK 7 in order to continue receiving public updates and security enhancements."

That advice works for Windows users: Java 7 runs on all Microsoft-supported versions of its operating system, including Windows XP.

However, not all Mac users can upgrade to Java 7, which requires OS X Lion, or its successor, Mountain Lion. According to Web metrics company Net Applications, 37% of all Macs last month ran a version of OS X older than Lion. The majority of those users relied on OS X Snow Leopard, the 2009 operating system that is stubbornly resisting retirement.

But that doesn't necessarily mean that Snow Leopard users will be out in the cold, Java-wise.

Contrary to what Computerworld reported in December, when it said Snow Leopard users would be without Java 6 security updates as soon as Oracle pulled the plug, further investigation has provided more than a glimmer of hope.

Apple relies on Oracle to craft Java 6 patches, and so without Oracle creating patches, Apple would seemingly have nothing to distribute. Not quite.

Oracle will continue to come up with security patches for Java 6, but those will only be distributed to enterprises that have negotiated contract support plans with Oracle. And if the past is any indicator, Apple will have access to those only-for-corporate-customers patches and will use them to draft updates for its own users.

The future is murky, as it always is with Apple support -- unlike Microsoft, the company does not spell out its support policies in black and white -- but there is precedent.

For OS X 10.5, known as Leopard, Apple provided Java 5 updates well after Sun Microsystems, the creator and former owner of Java, stopped serving public patches.

Sun stopped Java 5 support with Java 5 Update 22 (Java 5u22), which it released Nov. 4, 2009. But Apple continued to issue Java 5 updates for Leopard until June 2011, when it released patches that it said pushed the software up to Java 5u30.

Those patches were for flaws that Oracle -- by then it had acquired Sun and taken control of Java -- identified as fixes for its business customers.

If Apple follows that same timeline, it will support Java 6 for approximately a year and a half, or deep into 2014.

There's no guarantee. The closest Apple has come to that was when it deprecated Java, telling developers that it would no longer ship Java with OS X. "The Java runtime shipping in OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard, and OS X v10.5 Leopard, will continue to be supported and maintained through the standard support cycles of those products," Apple said at the time.

Leopard's support cycle has long ended -- the last Java update for OS X 10.5 was issued in mid-2011, and its last security update released in May 2012 -- but Snow Leopard's has not come to an end. (Apple shipped a security update for OS X 10.6 in September, for example, alongside the most recent fixes for Lion and Mountain Lion.)

Apple might want to play it safe and continue to patch Java for Snow Leopard, both because of the recent rash of Java "zero-days," or vulnerabilities exploited before they have been patched, and because Apple was embarrassed last year when a then-unpatched Java bug gave hackers a way toinfect hundreds of thousands of Macs in the widespread "Flashback" malware campaign.

The massive numbers of customers who remain on Snow Leopard -- as of last month, OS X 10.6 powered 27.5% of all Macs -- might also weigh in Apple's decision.

Ironically, Monday's update was a bonus for both Windows and Mac users. Previously, Oracle had said it would end public support for Java 6 with its Feb. 19 update. Oracle had also extended Java 6's EOL, or "end-of-life," twice last year, first from July to November 2012, then again from November 2012 to February 2013.

OS X Lion and Mountain Lion users who require Java should upgrade as soon as possible to Java 7, which Oracle plans to maintain at least until July 2014, and Apple may support even longer.

The next scheduled Java 7 update is set for April 16. If Apple continues support for Java 6 on Snow Leopard, it will issue that update the same day.

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at @gkeizer, on Google+ or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed. His email address is gkeizer@computerworld.com.

See more by Gregg Keizer on Computerworld.com.

Read more about application security in Computerworld's Application Security Topic Center.

Oracle adds virtualization, faster performance to Database Appliance for SMBs

Oracle has rolled out version X3-2 of its Database Appliance for small and medium-sized businesses that it says delivers up to twice the speed and more than four times as much storage as the first edition, which was launched in 2011.

In addition, Database Appliance customers can take advantage of a new virtualization option in version X3-2. Independent software vendors could use the virtualization capabilities "to package and ship a complete solution-in-a-box," Oracle said in a statement released Tuesday. It is also capable of "automatically pinning the database and application VMs to specific cores," thereby tying costs to the actual capacity used, according to Oracle.

Another option allows customers to add a storage expansion shelf, providing room for larger data volumes as needed. Oracle has also developed a series of preconfigured virtual templates for its database, WebLogic application server and a number of applications, allowing for easier deployments, according to a statement.

The Database Appliance is aimed at companies that have smaller budgets or appetites for IT spending, but wish to gain some of the performance benefits of Oracle's flagship Exadata database machines.

The new X3-2 systems now have 512GB of RAM and 18TB of raw disk storage and 800GB of flash memory, according to a statement. That compares to 192GB of RAM and 12TB of raw storage in the original. X3-2 also includes 32 processor cores, up from 24 in the first edition.

Oracle has charged US$50,000 for the base Database Appliance hardware, a price that remained valid as of the latest public price list, which is dated Feb. 26. It wasn't immediately clear whether the new, upgraded hardware in version X3-2 will carry a higher cost.

In contrast, an entry-level Eighth Rack version of Exadata lists for $200,000 in hardware costs.

But both systems are better seen as a delivery vehicle for Oracle software licenses, which provide the vendor with lucrative annual maintenance revenue streams.

Still, customers can start by using just a handful of processor cores and then scale up to the full 32 available cores in the system as desired, according to an Oracle data sheet. They can also choose to run a single Oracle database instance or use the vendor's Real Application Clusters technology to create a high-availability environment.

Since acquiring Sun Microsystems and its hardware business, Oracle has focused on selling systems like the Database Appliance rather than trying to compete with the likes of Hewlett-Packard and Dell in the commodity server market.

While Oracle has seen hardware revenues continually fall, officials have stressed that engineered systems carry much higher profit margins for Oracle than basic hardware would. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison has also said hardware revenues will begin growing within Oracle's current fiscal year.

Chris Kanaracus covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Chris' email address is Chris_Kanaracus@idg.com

VMware ships Horizon Mirage with application layering for modular desktops

VMware's Horizon Mirage 4.0 allows IT departments to be more flexible when they put together centrally managed desktop images using separated application packages.

VMware lives and breathes desktop virtualization, but enterprises still want and need to run traditional desktops where applications execute on the PC. To address this fact, VMware last year acquired Wanova, a company whose software was used to centralize and simplify the management of physical desktop images while letting users get the native performance of a PC, it said at the time.

The latest iteration of that software is Horizon Mirage 4.0. It became generally available on Monday and the basic idea is still the same: to centrally manage desktop images.

The most notable feature in version 4.0 is application layering, according to VMware.

In a Mirage environment, the IT department first configures so-called base layers, which include the OS and applications that are used across the whole enterprise. It is possible to create multiple base layers that can be customized for different countries or business units. However, only one base layer can be assigned to each PC, according to VMware.

On top of the base layer, administrators can now configure layers containing only applications -- and deliver them to Mirage-managed devices independently of the base layer. An application layer can include applications for the sales department, for example. Previously the applications were all part of the base layer, but the addition of the application layers allow IT departments to be more granular, according to Erwin Breneis, lead systems engineer at VMware.

Each layer can be migrated, updated, or restored independently of the others.

If the IT department decides to allow it, users can still control their own data and settings, as well as install their own applications on their endpoints. This personalization exists side-by-side with the IT-controlled base and application layers.

Today, Mirage works with Windows XP and Windows 7, and can be used to help migrate from one to the other. That's important because Windows XP support ends next April.

VMware will soon add support for Windows 8 as well.

Mirage is part of VMware's Horizon Suite end-user computing package, which also includes Workspace and View, and is this week being demonstrated by VMware at the Cebit trade show in Hanover, Germany.

Version 5.2 of View -- which is used to remotely access desktops running on a server -- includes bandwidth improvements, hardware accelerated 3D graphics and the platform can now understand native iOS and Android gestures.

There is also support for Windows 8 and improved management when used in large deployments, which will decrease the time it takes to provision the platform, VMware promises.

Today, View and Mirage use separate management tools, but VMware's goal is to bring the two together, so administrators can use one console to control both virtual and traditional desktops, according to Breneis.

Horizon Workspace is a new product that allows administrators to create customized sets of applications and data for end users.

Horizon View 5.2 and Horizon Workspace have now also become generally available.

Horizon Mirage 4 and Workspace both cost US$150 per named user, while Horizon View 5.2 costs $250 per concurrent connection and is offered in increments of 10 or 100 licenses. The whole suite costs from $300 per named user, according to VMware.

Send news tips and comments to mikael_ricknas@idg.com

Microsoft issues free tool it says will cut Azure costs

If it works, a new free tool called MetricsHub can help cut costs of using Microsoft's Azure cloud services by automatically making the service run more efficiently and by increasing and decreasing Azure resources as customer need fluctuates.

Microsoft bought the company, which it also helped finance through its Microsoft Accelerator program for startups, and is making its software available as part of Azure services.

[ BACKGROUND: Microsoft acquires cloud monitoring startup MetricsHub ]

MetricsHub is a service that monitors customers' Azure systems and makes changes based on rules set by customers. Alternatively, customers can switch on a standard template of best-practices rules recommended by MetricsHub.

The service gathers data from each customer's Azure resources from one of two sources: WindowsAzure diagnostics or via a MetricsHub agent within customer's Azure infrastructure.

If customers use the first option, the gathered data is kept within customers' Azure storage block, typically costing 50 cents per instance per month, the MetricsHub says on its website. With this option, MetricsHub gathers only data that Azure makes available to any third-party developer via its APIs.

If customers use the second option, they install a MetricsHub agent in their Azure cloud, which requires redeploying each instance of customers' applications. This option allows gathering of more information. "Collecting data with this method gives MetricsHub deeper integration with your system, resulting in more informed decisions," MetricsHub says.

Specifically, the agent gathers metrics about virtual machines and websites, something the APIs don't reveal.

MetricsHub analyzes the data and using a feature called ActiveScale adds or drops application instances to best meet actual demand. MetricsHub produces a report that breaks down Azure bills to explain exactly what is being paid for.

MetricsHub can be used as a monitoring platform as well, providing health and performance monitoring and sending email, SMS or pager alerts when it detects potential problems.

In announcing that it had bought MetricsHub, Microsoft acknowledges that it's difficult without tools to gather and analyze data needed to scale applications up and down efficiently. MetricsHub makes those decisions and acts on them, says Bob Kelly, a Microsoft corporate vice president for strategy and business development in his blog. "It also ensures customers are only paying for what they need and maximizing the services they're using," he says. "We think it's going to save customers time, money and headaches."

Customers can opt in to using MetricsHub via the Azure Store. Any paying customers will be converted to the free version.

Tim Greene covers Microsoft for Network World and writes the Mostly Microsoft blog. Reach him at tgreene@nww.com and follow him on Twitter @Tim_Greene.

IBM: Watson will eventually fit on a smartphone, diagnose illness

IBM's Jeopardy!-winning supercomputer, Watson, may have started out the size of a master bedroom, but it will eventually shrink to the size of a smart phone, its inventors say.

The supercomputer is currently performing "residencies" at several hospitals around the country, offering its data analytics capabilities for diagnosing and suggesting patient treatments.

IBM is also working to program Watson so that it can pass the U.S. Medical Licensing Examination. Yes, the "Dr. Watson" moniker used in the media will someday be applicable.

Even today, a Watson supercomputer with the same computational capabilities as the system that took on Jeopardy!'s all-time champions, is a fraction of its former size. And, the smaller Watson is almost two-and-a-half times faster than the original system, according to Dan Pelino, general manager of IBM's Global Healthcare & Life Sciences business.

"It was the size of a master bedroom, but now it's the size of a bathroom," Pelino said "It will get to be a handheld device by 2020 based on a trajectory of Moore's Law."

By then, Pelino said, he can envision Watson being capable of image recognition sophisticated enough to determine the difference between a life-threatening bug bite and a rash on a child in a developing nation. It could then recommend treatment based on its diagnosis, Pelino said.

It's not so far-fetched, considering IBM has allocated $7 billion toward the Watson supercomputer's research and development.

Digesting unstructured data

One area IBM scientists are working to improve with Watson is its ability to process unstructured data - physicians' notes, research published in peer-reviewed medical and science journals, radiological images, biofeedback from wireless monitoring devices, and even comment threads from online patient communities. All of that information can be used in the melting pot of data analytics.

"Ninety percent of the world's information has been created over the past 10 years, and 80% of that 90% is unstructured data," said Manoj Saxena, general manager of Watson solutions in IBM's Software Group. "That data needs to be digestible."

Today, Watson is developing its resume working with oncologists at Memorial-Kettering Cancer Center in diagnosing and treating patients.

That project, announced a year ago, follows efforts by IBM and WellPoint to jointly develop applications that will essentially turn Watson into an adviser for oncologists at Cedars-Sinai's Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute in Los Angeles.

Last month, IBM announced that WellPoint and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center unveiled the first commercially developed Watson-based cognitive computing breakthroughs.

To date, Watson has ingested more than 600,000 pieces of medical evidence, two million pages of text from 42 medical journals and clinical trials in the area of oncology research. In a matter of seconds, Watson can sift through 1.5 million patient records representing decades of cancer treatment history, such as medical records and patient outcomes, and provide to physicians evidence based treatment options.

Jeopardy! Is old news

The Watson supercomputer that handily beat past Jeopardy! champions was made up of 90 IBM Power 750 Express servers powered by eight-core processors -- four in each machine for a total of 32 processors per machine. The clustered system had 2,880 cores and 15TB of memory. The servers were virtualized using a kernel-based virtual machine (KVM) implementation, creating a server cluster with a total processing capacity of 80 teraflops. A teraflop is 1 trillion operations per second.

Today, Watson's software can run on one-sixteenth the number of servers the original system used, Pelino said.

Saxena sees a time when big data and the Watson supercomputer are integrated, allowing it to focus its teraflop processing capabilities on, for example, personal genomics. Watson and other supercomputers could access massive gene-sequencing data stores to determine which patients react best to specific medicines, ushering in an era of personalized healthcare.

"We refer to this as Big Data cognitive analytics," Saxena said. "Cloud embedded with the cognitive capabilities of Watson. You'll see this by the end of this year."

Right now, Watson's cognitive abilities to crunch massive amounts of data and interpret the results is limited "to a few people in the U.S.," Saxena said, referring to its current deployment in only a few hospitals.

"It's like you're the Coca Cola company, and you only have one fountain dispenser in this country in Houston. Everybody likes Coke, but they have to go to Houston to drink Coke. I want Watson to be the bottling and distribution plant for all of their [the medical industry's] knowledge and distributed around the world through a browser, through a handheld, through whatever interface," Saxena said.

"Big data will make Moore's Law look small," he said.

Lucas Mearian covers storage, disaster recovery and business continuity, financial services infrastructure and health care IT for Computerworld. Follow Lucas on Twitter at @lucasmearian or subscribe to Lucas's RSS feed. His e-mail address is lmearian@computerworld.com.

See more by Lucas Mearian on Computerworld.com.

Read more about high performance computing in Computerworld's High Performance Computing Topic Center.

After SlideRocket, will VMware sell other enterprise collaboration products?

VMware, the virtualization specialist that has recently built up an enterprise collaboration software stack through acquisitions, has sold off one of those companies, but at least two analysts say it's unlikely VMware will retreat from that market.

SlideRocket, whose cloud application is designed to let users post and share slide presentations, has been sold to ClearSlide, which makes cloud-based software for managing sales professionals' interactions with customers, ClearSlide announced on Tuesday. VMware had indicated in its latest earnings call in late January that it intended to sell SlideRocket as part of an effort to refocus its product lineup.

VMware bought SlideRocket two years ago, as part of its strategy to compete in enterprise collaboration, which also involved acquiring email and collaboration software vendor Zimbra and enterprise social-networking provider Socialcast, as well as developing a cloud file-sharing product now called Horizon Suite.

Asked whether the SlideRocket divestiture means VMware will distance itself from the enterprise collaboration market, a spokesman reiterated VMware's intention to focus on three areas: data center software, hybrid cloud and end user computing.

"For all other related products including Zimbra and Socialcast, we remain committed to our customers' success and to continuing the same level of service and support that they are accustomed to receiving," the spokesman said via email.

Gartner analyst Chris Wolf doesn't see VMware discarding other enterprise collaboration software like Socialcast and Horizon.

"Collaboration is a key component of VMware's Horizon strategy. Horizon's long term vision is to allow users to seamlessly work and collaborate across Windows, Web, and mobile applications," he said via email.

Zimbra, meanwhile, plays a core role in VMware's move up the stack to the application layer, according to Gartner analyst Matt Cain. As long as VMware continues to make "applications part of their strategy, we believe Zimbra will be a part of that effort," Cain said via email.

For its part, ClearSlide has big plans for SlideRocket, which has more than 1 million users and will be integrated with ClearSlide's software.

With SlideRocket, ClearSlide plans to give its customers -- primarily sales professionals -- a tool to create highly interactive presentations that contain not only text and images but also video, audio, analytics and rich media, the company said.

Juan Carlos Perez covers enterprise communication/collaboration suites, operating systems, browsers and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Juan on Twitter at@JuanCPerezIDG.

Strangest Apple Store robbery yet: Thieves attack with bear spray

Vancouver police are investigating a brazen robbery at an Apple Store Monday night in which three male suspects allegedly sprayed 40 people with a chemical mix designed to ward off bears as they swiped an undetermined amount of Apple laptops, iPads and iPods.

According to the National Post in Canada, police are still looking for the suspects, who fled by car and dumped some of the items they swiped before doing so. A handful of the people hit at the Oakridge Mall with the cayenne pepper-based spray were treated by paramedics, according to the National Post.

[ LOOK BACK: The ugly, scary year in Apple iPhone, iPad thefts ]

Theft of Apple devices has become a serious concern for device owners and law enforcement. An armed robbery of an Apple Store in Paris on New Year's Eve involved more than $1 million in stolen goods. 

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg in December pointed to thefts of iPhones and iPads as being the main reason crime numbers have inched up in the Big Apple.

2012 was marked by a wide variety of ugly Apple product thefts, including at stores, on the streets and at airports. There was even a report of thief stealing an iPhone from a baby. 

Bob Brown tracks network research in his Alpha Doggs blog and Facebook page, as well on Twitter and Google +.

Read more about anti-malware in Network World's Anti-malware section.

Hot technologies to watch: Augmented reality and 3D printing

TUCSON, Ariz. -- Augmented reality and 3D printing are the hottest emerging technologies to watch, according to Tom Soderstrom, chief technology officer for NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The impact of both technologies is already being felt with some new products, including a free augmented reality app in Apple's App Store called Spacecraft 3D. The app was built by JPL designers as an outgrowth of the Jet Propulsion Lab's "petting zoo" -- a development sandbox concept that JPL has had in five locations for four years.

In an interview at the Premier 100 conference here, Soderstrom showed how the Voyager and 10 other spacecraft look in the 3D app. With the app loaded on his iPhone, he focused its camera on a special card, and the 3D image of Voyager appeared on the smartphone's display, and could be rotated to look at all sides of the spacecraft. The image on the card was like the rough surface of a planet, and that same image can be downloaded and printed out -- eliminating the need for the card. The app will soon be available on Google Play for Android, Soderstrom said.

Soderstrom also demonstrated functional plastic tools, including a wrench and a gear that were produced with inexpensive 3D printers. Such printers can now cost $1,500 to $2,500, using a variety of materials, including sheets of highly durable manufactured sapphire, he said. Low-cost 3D printers are being made by MakerBot, Cubify and a number of companies that showed products at the International CES show in January, he said.

JPL engineers helped further develop 3D printing in JPL's five petting zoos, Soderstrom said.

Augmented reality allows computer-generated content to be superimposed over a live camera view of the real world.

Th first uses of augmented reality and 3D printing could be effective in education settings, Soderstrom said. Students could learn how tools and devices look and feel and how to design them with software.

He showed a hand-sized 3D model of the surface of the moon, which blind students can touch to gain an appreciation of the moon's rugged surface. "This model cost just 30 cents to make," he said.

Likewise, augmented reality can be used to enrich the learning experience about spacecraft and other technologies -- all from a student's smartphone or other portable device, Soderstrom said.

JPL engineers are also relying on the virtual world of Second Life to design JPL conference rooms, showing potential users and investors how they would look or could be modified. "Blueprints didn't work, but in Second Life they see how the lighting works, where the walls will be," Soderstrom said.

Soderstrom, a science evangelist of sorts for JPL, spending much of his time in schools explaining the significance of technology to coming generations. This is the second year he has attended Premier 100. He attracted a crowd of CIOs interested in innovations and ways they can promote innovation in their companies.

Soderstrom's purpose in going to schools is to preach about the need for more scientists and engineers. "We're going to need more engineers for all this new technology," he said.

Matt Hamblen covers mobile and wireless, smartphones and other handhelds, and wireless networking for Computerworld. Follow Matt on Twitter at @matthamblen or subscribe to Matt's RSS feed. His email address is mhamblen@computerworld.com.

See more by Matt Hamblen on Computerworld.com.

Read more about emerging technologies in Computerworld's Emerging Technologies Topic Center.