Today, HP Launches Industry’s Most Complete Software-defined Network Fabric for Cloud. This network fabric is built on HP FlexNetwork architecture, enabling business agility for clients by delivering two times greater scalability and 75 percent less complexity over current network fabrics while reducing network provisioning time from months to minutes.

This is possible by:

• Improving IT productivity by unifying the virtual and physical fabric with new HP FlexFabric Virtual Switch 5900v software, which, in conjunction with the HP FlexFabric 5900 physical switch, delivers advanced networking functionalities such as policies and quality of service to a VMware environment. Integrated Virtual Ethernet Port Aggregator (VEPA) technology provides clear separation between server and network administrations to deliver operational simplicity.
• Reducing data center footprint with the HP Virtualized Services Router (VSR), which allows services to be delivered on a virtual machine (VM), eliminating unnecessary hardware, by leveraging the industry's first carrier-class software-based Network Function Virtualization (NFV).

As organizations move to software defined networks, some fundamental changes in the approach will be required and these products are a start down that path. Here is a video with a bit more high level discussion and some details:

Recently, I’ve been working with our executive briefing folks and a number of others on megatrends – the industry independent trends that will shape our lives in the future and their effect on business decision making. These will naturally shape how technology is consumed as well.

In the process, a number of meta-drivers fell out that may shape the megatrends. Yes, this is turning into a convoluted network of interactions and that is why some models to assess these interactions are so important. These categories for these meta-drivers seemed to be:

• Engagement – this is what drives social, concepts like flow and maybe even the Internet of Things
• Simplicity – addressing the limitations of our ability to consume
• Efficiency – this embraces the concept of abundance and scarcity
• Flexibility – the need to adjust quickly (probably the sustained driving factor for cloud techniques)
• Security – we all know about this, if you don’t feel safe almost nothing else matters
• Visibility – the need for contextual understanding in order to act (one of the reasons for the current focus on Big Data)

Are these too simple? What have I left out?? It surprised me how old some of the links I identified were to link to this post.

It seems like many of our decisions could use an indicator showing how they increase or decrease these categories. We could use this as part of defining our expectations.

How many times do we make decisions that increase security but radically decrease flexibility or visibility, for example? You hear that discussion about our personal as well as our business lives today.

I was thinking about writing a post about the history of HP Discover, but realized that most within IT are actually more worried about the future than interested in the past.

The IT industry behavior is definitely changing. We’re moving from a focus on cost savings and RFP driven engagements between companies and suppliers into an environment that is more consumption-based. Where nearly anything in IT can be purchased “as-a-service”. This allows for a much more business-led approach, focused on business value generation, yet with a demand for a relatively short return on investment. This leads to many asking for advice on what they should do or just a level-set on what is actually happening and what others are doing.

HP Discover 2013 in Las Vegas is an opportunity to interact with others and see where HP is focusing its efforts. If you want to see what it is like, you can see highlights from Discover Frankfurt in 2012. Or visit the full HP Discover Session Catalog to see where HP Discover 2013 is focused and the sessions that matters most to you and your business.

There is even a blogging community developing where you can get the inside scoop - Buzz

Four of the big trends organizations want to know more about today are: mobility, analytics, cloud services (flexible resource acquisition) and security. All of these will be covered by multiple sessions from multiple perspectives. Nadhan put out a post the other day on how CIOs can get their priorities right at HP Discover 2013 in Vegas , the approach he descibesmay also be of interest.

Follow HP Discover at:

•  @HPDiscover Twitter
• HP Discover LinkedIn Group
• HP Discover on FaceBook

Recently NMC, ISTE, and HP launched the HP Catalyst Academy. The HP Catalyst Academy extends the work of the HP Catalyst Initiative, which was launched in 2010 to support innovations in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) teaching and learning. To date, 56 organizations in 15 countries have received grants from HP to explore how emerging technologies and great teaching can be combined to create powerful STEMx learning experiences for more than 130,000 students around the globe.

Beginning in June 2013, the HP Catalyst Academy will offer its first set of online mini-courses, covering a wide range of topics such as:

• Building a Framework for Digital Fabrication
• Social Textbooks
• Computational Thinking in Secondary Schools
• Connecting Students to their World
• Game Design for Learning
• Geospacial Tech for STEMx Learning
• Helping Students Change their World through App Design
• InkSurvey: Graphical Response Tool for Real-Time Formative Assessment
• Multi/Interdisciplinary STEMx Teaching
• Planning Enriching ICT-Mediated STEMx Experiences
• Polar Bears in a Changing Climate
• Project-based Learning with Real-World Problems
• Remote Labs
• Weaving Social Media into STEM Teaching
• Strategies for Formative Assessment though e-Portfolios

The mini-course leaders, known as HP Catalyst Fellows, are working to develop these innovative online professional learning experiences.

I’ll definitely see if I can find out more about the Digital Fabrication mini-course.

Helping educators prepare to both understand these subjects and their application in business is one way to ensure that we’ll have the kind of candidates needed for the workplace of the future.

I forgot to add that HP has announced that the RFP is now open for the next group of Fellows to lead mini-courses: http://hp.com/go/hpcatalystacademy.

The deadline is July 8th.

Flash memory was once viewed as special tool to improve performance or allow for easy transportation of information (e.g., thumb drive – I can’t recall the last time I gave someone a CD, let alone a floppy drive). Now flash memory devices are a standard component of any storage performance strategy.

As the Solid State Drive (SSD) came on the scene, it was used as a plug replacement for spinning media hard drives, providing better performance, but the characteristics of an SSD are actually quite different. The storage industry has only now started to design storage systems that take advantage of the differences in flash memory.

The Flash Translation Layer (FTL) translates the typical hard drive block-device commands and structure into comparable operations in flash memory. FTL is really a compromise for compatibility, since there is no need for the block and sector structure in flash. Additionally, the SSD controllers must perform a number of additional functions such as garbage collection, write amplification, wear leveling, and error correction, since the writeable life span of each storage cell of flash is limited (although there is discussion of a cure to this long-time flash illness). We’re going to see more applications that skip the need for FTL and take direct advantage of flash’s direct memory access capabilities.

High performance software capabilities such as databases currently circumvent the Operating System file system to attain optimal performance. Modern file systems such as Write Anywhere File Layout (WAFL), ZFS (which used to stand for the Zettabyte File System), and B-tree file system (Btrfs)are designed to take advantage of the various storage medias capabilities. The resulting systems were more efficient and easier to manage.

Storage system performance was a concern when operations were measured in milliseconds. It matters more on flash devices, whose operations are measured in microseconds. Future technologies like Memristor that will be even faster demand and optimized approach to long term storage and access of information. Compromises for convenience will exist but the penalties in performance will be high, impacting the application portfolio of organizations.