Puppet Labs Announces Puppet Enterprise 3.2

Puppet Labs, the leading provider of IT automation software, announced today the availability of Puppet Enterprise 3.2, which simplifies and accelerates IT organizations' ability to meet the demands of their business and their customers. Puppet Enterprise 3.2 includes new capabilities to help IT organizations provision new hardware and scale infrastructure faster than ever before - and realize the full value of Puppet Enterprise more quickly.
"As organizations struggle with rapidly increasing node counts and the time pressures of meeting customer demands, reducing cycle time is becoming more critical," said Luke Kanies, founder and CEO of Puppet Labs. "Puppet Enterprise 3.2 addresses these challenges by significantly reducing the time it takes our customers to deliver new value, quickly and with confidence."
Key New Capabilities in Puppet Enterprise 3.2
Puppet Enterprise Supported Modules New in Puppet Enterprise 3.2 is the first set of planned supported modules to help IT teams get up and running more quickly, so they can realize the power of the software faster than ever before. The first set of Puppet Enterprise supported modules will help IT teams ensure time synchronization across nodes, set up database services, manage web servers and control Windows components. Hand-selected from more than 2,100 modules on the Puppet Forge, these pre-written, ready-to-run configurations have been rigorously tested and validated by Puppet Labs to ensure they perform reliably and with predictable results in the most demanding production environments. Puppet Enterprise supported modules can be found at forge.puppetlabs.com/supported.          
Simplified Agent Install
Puppet Enterprise 3.2 simplifies the task of deploying and upgrading agents by leveraging native OS packaging systems. With this new capability, the time required to deploy and upgrade puppet agents can be reduced several minutes per node, delivering substantial productivity gains in large environments.
Razor Tech Preview
Razor, a next-generation physical and virtual hardware provisioning solution, lets IT teams improve the speed of provisioning bare metal and scaling infrastructure to meet increased demand, enabled by Puppet Enterprise's rules-based approach. Razor includes the ability to automatically discover bare-metal hardware, dynamically configure OS and/or hypervisors and hand off resources to Puppet Enterprise for workload configuration via policy-based automation.
Razor is available as a Tech Preview in Puppet Enterprise 3.2. The Tech Preview enables customers who want to automate bare metal provisioning and accelerate deployment of compute resources to get early access to upcoming provisioning innovations. Plus, customers can provide feedback and influence future product development.
More New Features in Puppet Enterprise 3.2 ●      Oracle Solaris 11 support. Builds on Puppet Labs' commitment to support platforms critical to enterprise IT, joining a long list that includes Microsoft Windows, IBM, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, IBM AIX, Debian, Ubuntu and others.
●      Ability to run agents as non-root. Enables users who don't have root access to realize productivity gains through automation, extending the capabilities of Puppet Enterprise beyond infrastructure teams to other groups such as app developers and database admins.
●      More than 300 fixes and improvements throughout the platform that improve usability and platform support.
Pricing and Availability
You can download Puppet Enterprise 3.2 today and try it out free for up to 10 nodes. Annual subscription options including license, support and maintenance start at $112 per node. Documentation for installing and using Puppet Enterprise can be found here.

CommVault Software Helps Protect Real-Time Analytics Environments with New Integration with SAP HANA Platform

CommVault today announced that its Simpana 10 software has achieved certified integration with the SAP HANA platform. CommVault’s Simpana software enables companies to more easily and comprehensively manage, protect and recover massive volumes of high-performance transactional and analytical data.
As the consumerization of IT and “Internet of Things” continue to transform how companies engage with their customers, Fortune 500 organizations need to adjust to rapidly changing business requirements to remain competitive. Managing massive data growth and constant change also requires IT organizations to focus on efficiency and ensuring data integrity, protection and availability of mission critical information. Avoiding downtime is key. SAP HANA is being used as an enterprise cornerstone providing streamlined analytics, planning, and predictive and sentiment assessments. Simpana 10 software delivers robust and comprehensive backup and recovery for environments running SAP HANA with the speed, ease of use and performance required in the fast-moving world of real-time, predictive analytics.
“CommVault continues to enable enterprises to increase the business value of their information as a result of our investments in solutions for SAP HANA and our relationship with SAP as a member of the SAP PartnerEdge® program for Application Development,” said David West, senior vice president, worldwide marketing and business development, CommVault. “Companies can speed up their data management by using CommVault software together with solutions based on SAP HANA.”
The new SAP-certified integration with the SAP HANA platform is especially timely because of increasing demand from CommVault customers for deeper protection of enterprise database applications from SAP. In addition, with CommVault’s newly available support for Fujitsu’s FlexFrame, an end-to-end operating platform for infrastructures running SAP solutions, customers can have more confidence that running on Fujitsu technology is highly scalable, fully protected and recoverable.
With its unique single-platform architecture, Simpana software can help companies meet business demands more efficiently and easily. Customers can anticipate reducing the costs, risks and complexities associated with protecting and accessing information for environments running SAP software.
CommVault Simpana 10 takes advantage of the distinctive capabilities of SAP HANA to deliver key benefits, including:

• Simpler administration through integration with SAP HANA studioand policy-based automation.
• Simplified end-to-end backup for a large-scale single-node and multi-node SAP HANA environments.
• Robust and comprehensive backup and recovery with automatic log backups, command line support and efficient job management and reporting.

Live Webinar: Virtualization Backup & Recovery Deep Dive

Virtualization backup is changing rapidly including new developments with hypervisors, features, cloud capabilities and more.  This webinar takes a deep dive into the world of virtualization backup and recovery to answer questions about different types of:

• Cloud backups
• Backup modes
• Replication,
• Deduplication
• Hypervisors
• Scalability issues,
• Agent and agentless backups,
• Recovery testing,
• Mixed virtual and physical environments 

WHEN?  March 19th, 2014 @ 1PM CDT
A deeper understanding of these commonly used terms and capabilities is necessary to help you avoid the pitfalls while ensuring best practices in your ever changing environment. Whether you have been virtualized for years, or are just starting out, you won’t want to miss this informative webinar delivered by the PHD Virtual Team.
WEBINAR BONUS: One lucky attendee of this webinar will be chosen as the winner of a $50 Amazon Gift Card. You must attend the webinar to win, and the sweepstakes is only open to US residents.
Click here to register.

AMD A10-7850K And A8-7600: Kaveri Gives Us A Taste Of HSA

We've spent the days following CES benchmarking two of AMD's new Kaveri-based APUs. Do the Steamroller x86 architecture, GCN graphics design, and HSA-oriented features impress, or do they come up short against Intel's value-oriented Haswell-based parts?

This year’s CES was my most insane to date. I showed up in Vegas two days earlier, stayed a day later, and managed to fit close to 50 different meetings into a schedule that started early in the morning and didn’t end until late at night. But by the end, I had a solid grasp on the technologies we’ll be seeing in 2014. Some of them are decidedly evolutionary. Others, like Oculus’ Crystal Cove prototype, will fundamentally change PC gaming for the better.

For AMD’s part, it spent CES talking about Kaveri—a design that, on paper, should be interesting stuff for enthusiasts. There are the Steamroller-based x86 cores, giving us a new processor architecture to talk about. This is also the first time AMD’s vaunted Graphics Core Next design finds its way into an APU. The company did a ton of work enabling Heterogeneous System Architecture features for better interplay between computing resources and software developers. And it’s using a new 28 nm manufacturing process from GlobalFoundries.

But although this week's introduction focused on the top-end 95 W A10-7850K, the real emphasis of Kaveri is down in the lower-power segments. Company representatives say engineers designed for the 35 to 45 W range, scaling as high as 95 and as low as 15 W. AMD wants to see APUs in desktops, notebooks, embedded environments, and servers. So, it took the middle road in order to better optimize for those targets. AMD also had to make some compromises on the manufacturing side, better balancing transistor density to enable a 512-shader Radeon graphics core, while ultimately sacrificing CPU speed.

Gigabyte Announces Quad-Core J1900-Based Motherboard

Gigabyte's new J1900-based motherboard is even more feature-rich.

Not long ago, Gigabyte announced its J1800-based motherboard. Now, it brings us the J1900N-D3V board, which carries a quad-core Celeron J1900 chip. Alongside this upgrade, the motherboard also features a number of other improved goodies.
The Celeron J1900 chip is a Bay Trail-based chip, operating four cores at a clock speed of 2.0 GHz. The integrated Intel HD graphics runs at 688 MHz, though it can boost up to 854 MHz. The TDP of all of this is just 10 W, allowing Gigabyte to have the chip passively cooled.

Internal connectivity consists of two DDR3-SODIMM slots, two SATA2 ports, a single PCI port, and a Mini-PCIe slot. Rear I/O connectivity is handled by a pair of PS/2 ports, a pair of serial COM ports, DVI, VGA, four USB 3.0 ports, stereo audio jacks, as well as dual Gigabit Ethernet. Gigabyte has also equipped the board with its DualBIOS, which is a very nice addition for a budget board.
There was no word on pricing or availability yet.

Intel to Shut Down AppUp Store Meant for Netbooks, Ultrabooks

Intel is shutting down its app store.

Intel announced on Wednesday that it's shutting down its AppUp store on March 11. The service was originally launched in January 2010 and focused on netbooks, but eventually expanded out to include Ultrabooks, laptops and desktops. Now its days are numbered.

"At Intel, we're always thinking about the future, which often means making changes today," reads the notice on the AppUp website. "That's why, on March 11, 2014, Intel AppUp center will come to a close as we focus on developing new and exciting PC innovations that will continue to shape your world."
According to the FAQ, customers will still need to keep the client installed in order for their apps to work. Intel suggests that users launch and update the client software after the service shuts down in March. Customers can also continue to download apps until the March 11 shutoff date.

"Most applications should work as normal," reads the FAQ. "However, they must be launched directly from a desktop icon or through the Program menu rather than through the storefront. Please note that some applications do require communication with the AppUp client and may not work after May 15, 2015."
That's because some of the apps use a special technology (read: DRM) that protects the app from being pirated. As long as customers update to the latest AppUp client, these apps will work until the May 2015 date.

The FAQ also reveals that customers can get refunds for paid apps. These refunds will be granted for the actual transaction price, and will be available for a limited time only: January 28, 2014 to December 19, 2014.

The FAQ addresses the issue of Intel storing personal information. For the most part that's not going to happen, as it's all purged save for a few exceptions such as purchase information for the apps that are downloaded, and all orders and invoices will be archived for financial accounting and audit purposes.
"Closing Intel AppUp was a tough decision," reads an email to all registered users. "Of course, Intel AppUp would not have been possible without loyal users like you. Thank you for participating in the experience. It's been a fun ride."

We asked Intel for a comment, and the company provided this letter:

Intel continually assesses its business objectives to ensure we are meeting the needs of the market and our customers. In the recent months the company has been public about its intent to re-focus the business to address the mobile market and to move faster. Intel’s Software and Services Group will play a key role in this growth strategy.

Intel is sharpening its focus around services, specifically business services that address the market needs of the enterprise, service provider and developer. To accelerate this focus, Intel will be making some changes to existing services that fall outside of the new scope.

Ongoing analysis and reprioritization is a normal course of action that all businesses go through.

All existing agreements with customers will be honored (as per its contracts).

What do you think of Intel closing its app store? Is Intel better off leaving app distribution to the experts?

Fujitsu Ultrabook Has Shift Hinge to Enable 4 Orientations

Fujitsu's Lifebook TH90/P will have four modes.

Shopping around for a convertible laptop? Fujitsu could have what you're looking for: the Lifebook TH90/P. This notebook has a special "Shift Hinge" that allows the user to position the notebook's screen in four ways: Theater for watching movies, Presentation for sharing content, Tablet for pen input and classic Laptop. The device launches later this month for an unknown price.

"It has been designed to instantly adapt to the best mode for any use without being limited by its shape. With support for styluses that can detect 1,024 gradations of pressure sensitivity, users can jot down memos or make sketches with the feeling of writing on paper," reads the company's press release.
The company didn't provide a full list of specs, but reports that the notebook features a durable chassis with an "ultra-compressed, solid core" and machined aluminum construction. The notebook also has an IGZO panel with a 2560 x 1440 resolution that's protected by a high-strength Dragontrail display, which can handle bumps and scratches.

In addition to the screen, the new convertible laptop packs a fourth-generation Intel Core i5-4200U processor, a 500 GB hybrid drive, and a "long running" 12.5 hour battery. Unfortunately, that's it in regards to the hardware details. We expect to see more information arrive before the laptop ships later this month.
The company also updated two additional laptops late last month. The Lifebook AH42/M is now offered with an Intel Haswell processor, the Pentium 3558U, whereas the Esprimo FH52/M comes equipped with Microsoft Office Home and Business.

Fujitsu has also launched Personal Computer Norikae Cloud Service in Japan. This new service aims to make it easy to migrate a customer's data and settings from an old computer, such as one running Windows XP, to a new one by way of My Cloud Library. Customers signing up by the end of April 2014 will receive up to two months of My Cloud Library's 100 GB plan free of charge.

"Starting in mid-February, Fujitsu will be giving away a limited number of a free Touch New FMV migration-assistance DVDs," reads Fujitsu's announcement. "The first 100 thousand customers buying FMV or ARROWS Tab computers installed with Windows 8.1 or Windows 8(6) at stores will receive the Norikae Ouen DVD, which helps migrate data to a new computer. In addition to helping with data migration, the DVD also includes tips on using Windows 8.1, the photo-oriented My Cloud, and the updated Windows 2013."

Toshiba's convertible Lifebook TH90/P is scheduled to launch on February 21. Prices were not announced. The updated Lifebook AH42/M and Esprimo FH52/M are already available on the market.