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Cisco routers are about to get a big upgrade, thanks to an agreement with IBM to add its Watson Internet of Things (IoT) business analytics technology to the hardware. The global partnership will allow organizations in remote locations to access IBM’s artificial intelligence (AI) technology without having to upload heavy data sets to the cloud, the companies said.

“The way we experience and interact with the physical world is being transformed by the power of cloud computing and the Internet of Things,” said Harriet Green, general manager for IBM Watson IoT, Commerce & Education, in a statement. “For an oil rig in a remote location or a factory where critical decisions have to be taken immediately, uploading all data to the cloud is not always the best option."

Together, IBM and Cisco are taking these IoT technologies the last mile, "extending Watson IoT from the cloud to the edge of computer networks, helping to make these strong analytics capabilities available virtually everywhere, always," she said.

Focus Shifting to IoT and Cloud Technologies

IBM has been shifting its focus to cloud services, analytics, IoT and the Watson AI platform and away from the stagnating PC business. While cloud services are a good option for devices and sites with strong locations to the grid, accessing cloud-delivered services is more difficult from more remote locations, or via autonomous devices that lack strong Internet connections.

Under the new agreement, IBM’s Watson technologies will be installed on Cisco’s edge routers, allowing devices in remote locations to perform sophisticated analytics at the point of data collection, rather than having to upload massive amounts of data. IBM said the technology would be particularly beneficial to companies operating on oil rigs, in mines, factories, shipping centers, or other remote areas.

The Edge of the Network

“With the vast amount of data being created at the edge of the network, using existing Cisco infrastructure to perform streaming analytics is the perfect way to cost-effectively obtain real-time insights,” said Mala Anand, senior vice president of the Cisco Data & Analytics Platforms Group, in the statement. The technology will provide customers with the flexibility to combine edge processing with the cognitive computing abilities of the IBM Watson IoT Platform, Anand said.

For example, IBM said that a company with employees who have to monitor the health and behavior of critical machinery in remote environments would benefit from the technology. The combination of the Watson IoT platform and Cisco’s edge analytics will allow such an organization to more accurately plan for necessary maintenance and equipment upgrades.

Kicking off its EMC World user conference in Las Vegas today, EMC Corp. unveiled several new hardware and software services and products, including a assortment of offerings intended for data center operators planning to modernize their operations. In addition to EMC Unity, a brand new family of all-flash storage arrays (with one pictured above), the business also unveiled its Virtustream Storage Cloud platform; the EMC MyService360 cloud-based service dashboard; an expansion of its Copy Data Management portfolio; as well as the new ViPR Controller 3.0 software for storage automation.

During his appearance in the conference, Dell CEO Michael Dell also says the new company created when his firm completes its buying EMC will likely be called Dell Technologies. The acquisition, currently worth around $60 billion, requires Dell to pay EMC shareholders for taking the business private.

IT Industry Faces 'Massive Transformation'

The offerings announced today are directed at organizations looking to transform their IT operations with new cloud-based applications and digital services. Such transitions are requiring enterprises to figure out ways to maintain existing legacy systems effectively as well as introducing new, next-generation applications in the cost-efficient manner.

"The IT industry is inside a state of massive transformation, causing both disruption and great opportunity," EMC Information Infrastructure CEO David Goulden said in the statement. "Every business leader, across every industry, is facing the dilemma of how to back up and grow traditional IT infrastructure while modernizing your data center in order to back up the growth of new applications and advance their digital agendas. Some are performing all of this simultaneously."

The new product or service unveiled at EMC World are made to help customers build modern data centers for them to thrive as digital businesses, he added.

New Offerings Help Users Become More Proactive

EMC's new Unity class of flash storage systems are intended to provide "cloud-like proactive management and monitoring" via an HTML5, task-oriented interface, this company said. Designed for smaller than average medium-size IT departments, EMC Unity offers all-flash configurations starting at under $18,000, and hybrid configurations with prices starting well below a $10,000.

For larger enterprises, providers and public sector organizations, EMC is introducing a whole new cloud storage platform called Virtustream Storage Cloud. A hyper-scale platform, it includes users with efficient tiering, long-term backup retention and cold storage inside cloud, in addition to single-source support from EMC.

Virtustream Storage Cloud is predicted to be generally available starting May 10, with nodes both in the U.S. and Europe. The new offering is EMC's latest expansion of capabilities for Virtustream, an infrastructure-as-a-service company that had been acquired by EMC not too long ago.

SoftNAS Accelerates Video On Demand Performance for IndonesianCloud Customers -- SoftNAS Cloud NAS delivers secure, scalable and rapid deployment for cloud vendor SoftNAS®, the #1 best-selling software-defined cloud NAS, today announced cloud company IndonesianCloud has selected SoftNAS Cloud® NAS to compliment its customers. IndonesianCloud offers cloud servers, cloud backup, disaster recovery, CDN Services, S3 storage, dedicated private clouds and managed services kind of clouds. “As one of the few cloud providers in the nation certified by VMware, we had been looking for a solution that may work in our datacenters, scale up and was simple to deploy and utilize. SoftNAS Cloud NAS has proved for being flexible and incorporates CIFS support along with features that enable us to pay attention to our core business,” said Reza Kertadjaja, Chief Operating Officer, IndonesianCloud.

“We know carrier's networks need fast approaches to complex problems and that's where SoftNAS excels. SoftNAS is now known as the easy button for storage because currently a quick and effective way to deal with storage growth challenges and simultaneously get rid of the barriers to deployment,” said Mike Goodwin, President, COO and CFO of SoftNAS.

About IndonesianCloud

Established this year, IndonesianCloud is surely an independent cloud supplier (CSP), dedicated to the delivery of managed IT services based on the principle of on-demand, dynamic, and pay-per-use. IndonesianCloud strives being Indonesia’s most trusted, best, and the majority secure local cloud supplier. We accomplish that by implementing the very best, independently certified technology, engaging with the very best suppliers, hiring the most beneficial people, and deploying our cloud platform inside highest security datacenters in Indonesia.

About SoftNAS

SoftNAS®, Inc. would be the leading provider of software-defined NAS solutions and protects mission-critical data for customers using any blend of public, private and hybrid clouds. SoftNAS gives its customers the enterprise-class data security, protection, and gratifaction required to safely, predictably, and reliably operate IT systems and applications. SoftNAS believes in powerful, hassle-free data management and works together with any hardware, any data type, across any geography, sufficient reason for any IT environment, like the most popular public, private, and hybrid cloud computing platforms:

Judging by the responses from users on Twitter, Dropbox' new technology for accessing cloud-based files in the desktop might be a welcome and much-needed improvement. Unveiled today, the "Project Infinite" preview will let Dropbox users view all of their cloud-stored files and folders from other devices without needing to first launch a browser. "Dropbox Infinite 's what I've been seeking for several years now," Web developer Nils Riedemann wrote today inside a tweet. Tech news publisher Owen Williams added, "Whoa, Dropbox Project Infinite looks *amazing* -- don't really need to have the files locally anymore, takes no space."

Dropbox, information hosting and cloud storage services provider, introduced the project over the Dropbox Open conference in London. It calls the technology -- on the market only to a finite number of sponsor customers -- a "revolutionary new means to access all your files."

Project Infinite syncs a user's desktop while using data kept in Dropbox files and folders so all on the cloud-based info is visible on local devices, it doesn't matter how much or how little disk drive storage those devices have. The locally visible files and folders represent placeholders, and are also identified either with green checkmarks (for locally synced content) or cloud icons (for anything else).

Addresses 'a Major Issue' for Users

The new cloud icon beside a desktop file indicates data that is saved in Dropbox, this means it melts away no memory about the local device. When the icon is clicked, however, the cloud-based file opens in the same way any locally stored file would, syncing with Dropbox when needed.

If users know they don't have network access however want gain access to Dropbox-stored files using their desktops, they're able to choose to save a neighborhood copy for later viewing. Dropbox said Project Infinite work on any device, whether it is running Windows 7, 8 or 10 or Mac OS X.

"With Project Infinite, we're addressing a significant issue our users have asked us to fix," product manager Genevieve Sheehan wrote today around the Dropbox Business Blog. "The volume of information being created and shared has exploded, but the majority people still work with devices with limited storage capacity. While teams can store terabyte upon terabyte inside cloud, most individuals' laptops could only store half that."

Project Infinite solves this problem by letting users view all their Dropbox files using their local devices without needing to launch a Web browser, which can be "a clunky buyer at best," Sheehan added.

Like OneDrive's Now-Defunct Placeholders

Tech blogger Paul Thurrott wrote in a very post today that Project Infinite basically returns the cloud storage placeholders that users of Microsoft OneDrive could actually employ on his or her devices.

"Naturally, Dropbox isn't while using the term placeholders," Thurrott wrote, noting this company instead describes its technology as "revolutionary." "Well. It's revolutionary provided that you've never used placeholders."

Microsoft had enabled local viewing of OneDrive cloud-based files using its Windows 8 operating-system. However, users had no strategy to easily distinguish between cloud-based and locally stored files, as well as the feature was dropped with Windows 10. Instead of placeholders, Windows 10 users can make use of a feature called selective sync to gain access to cloud-stored data locally.

Chipmaker Intel has its own head within the clouds nowadays. Or, to get more accurate, inside the cloud. CEO Brian Krzanich outlined a collection of core beliefs yesterday guiding you can actually strategy for the long run -- chief most notable that the cloud could be the single most important trend influencing the long run of computing. “Our strategy itself is about transforming Intel from your PC company into a company that powers the cloud and vast amounts of smart, connected computer systems,” Krzanich wrote in the blog post yesterday. Krzanich's comments come a week following your company announced a serious restructuring initiative that may see it shift its focus to its data center and Internet of Things businesses.

5G and Moore’s Law

Five core assumptions will drive Intel’s strategy forward motion, Krzanich said. In addition for the cloud’s importance for computing generally, the need for the company’s PC and IoT services would be dependent on cloud connectivity, he explained.

Krzanich also stated that memory and programmable solutions for instance field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) will give rise to new classes of merchandise for the business’s data center and IoT businesses. Meanwhile 5G technology will prove the real key driver behind cloud connectivity, and Moore’s Law continue to generate economic growth, he explained.

“Our technique is based on these premises, plus the unique assets that only Intel gives them,” Krzanich said. “There is usually a clear virtuous cycle here -- the cloud and data center, the Internet of Things, memory and FPGAs are common bound together by connectivity and enhanced because of the economics of Moore’s Law.”

Although the CEO's message was upbeat, careful analysis shift the business’s focus from your stagnating PC sector on the still nascent cloud and IoT sectors will probably be far from painless. Last week, the corporation announced it could be laying off 12,000 employees, approximately 11 percent of their workforce, the way it undergoes its most critical restructuring in a very decade.

Connectivity Is Fundamental

Krzanich said the initial priority is to try using advances in cloud computing to Intel’s data center business, particularly within the fields of software and virtualization. The company will likely increase its consentrate on analytics to extract more worthiness from computing, machine learning, and big data capabilities.

Meanwhile, IoT is going to be the company’s second priority, Krzanich said. Intel promises to focus mainly on connecting autonomous vehicles, industry, and retail towards the cloud. Memory and programmable solutions, including Rack Scale Architecture, 3D memory, FPGAs, and silicon photonics, which Intel continues to be developing internally for several years, will constitute the corporation’s third priority.

Intel sees cloud connectivity among the common threads tying these points together. Krzanich pointed to autonomous vehicles to illustrate how Intel’s priorities can combine in a very single product.

A new open data exchange platform from Samsung is bringing some competition on the Internet of Things market. The new service, the Artik Cloud Platform, will directly contend with other commercial cloud services like Microsoft’s Azure and IBM’s Bluemix to help you bring interoperability to more devices and services. Samsung launched the system yesterday with the 2016 Samsung Developer Conference happening in San Francisco. The company is touting Artik for an easy-to-use alternative that can make it faster and much easier for developers to take new IoT solutions and services to advertise. The service is offering through a pay-as-you-go tiered pricing plan.

Breaking Down Data Silos

“Unlike several IoT cloud platforms, Artik Cloud fights data [silos] between devices and enables a different class of IoT applications and services,” Young Sohn, president and chief strategy officer of Samsung Electronics, said within a statement.

“The launch of the exciting new platform not merely signals Samsung’s foray in to the cloud services market but reinforces our belief that, by creating powerful open platforms, we can easily harness the data generated by IoT to formulate new insights and new strategies to address the main global challenges in the present day and tomorrow," he added.

In particular, Samsung has evolved the service’s open APIs and tools as methods of developers to beat the problem of interoperability between different cloud providers. Artik may take data from enterprise systems, third-party clouds, and different devices and rehearse that data to create vertical, onboarding, predictive and partner apps.

The company said that the working platform is highly scalable, having an architecture created to support the vast amounts of IoT devices expected over the next few years, and keeps latency low to permit fast interactions.

Supporting IoT and Cloud Adoption

The new service is crucial to the company’s enterprise clients in addition to ensure that its very own products are interconnected, said B.K. Yoon, CEO of Samsung Electronics. “As increasingly more consumer IoT machines are created and brought to offer, the requirement of interoperability becomes paramount as it's the key to creating more compelling and integrated experiences,” he was quoted saying in the statement.

Yoon said the requirement for an open cloud solution which could work with any connected device, with other cloud services is crucial to supporting greater consumer and enterprise adoption in the cloud. “The launch of Artik Cloud is quite exciting as it promises to besides help Samsung connect our diverse portfolio of items, but in addition enable others to participate in the growing IoT ecosystem," he explained.

Tech giant Apple will reportedly run parts of its iCloud backup service on the Google Cloud Platform instead of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) platform.

The move is a clear victory for Alphabet, the Google parent company that owns the cloud service, which came under new leadership last year. The reported cost to Apple for Google’s services is said to be between $400 million and $600 million. However, it is not clear whether this range refers to spending per year or for a set amount of capacity.

Desire To Diversify

Apple initially signed a deal with Google late last year and has spent the ensuing months dialing down how much it relies on the AWS infrastructure to run parts of iCloud and other services. Although Google has been lagging behind Amazon and Microsoft’s Azure in the cloud computing market, it has gained ground since Diane Greene was named head of Google's cloud business in November.

However, it appears that Greene has lots of ground to make up. Only 6 percent of cloud users employ Google’s cloud infrastructure, while 17 percent use Microsoft and 57 percent use Amazon, according to a recent survey by cloud management provider RightScale.

The move to the Google Cloud Platform likely reflects a desire by Apple to diversify its Internet services. iCloud, which offers customer backup storage for photos, music, videos and other files, is one of those services. Apple is likely to operate more of these services internally in the coming years, at the expense of AWS. Some analysts have estimated that Apple has spent more than $1 billion a year on the AWS services.

Apple has already said it plans to build three new data centers over the next two years, which would bring the number of Apple data centers to seven.

One such facility, being promoted by Apple as a data "command center," will be located in Mesa, Arizona. The company also plans data centers in Ireland and Denmark that are slated to go live next year. The latter two facilities will power Apple’s online services in Europe, which include the iTunes Store, App Store, iMessage, Maps and Siri.

Dropbox, Spotify Also Going Internal

Apple isn’t the only company looking to spread out its cloud services a bit. Earlier this week, file hosting provider Dropbox said that it would build its own internal cloud for its storage service instead of relying on AWS. Part of that will include Dropbox investing in its own data centers. Music streaming service Spotify will also move some infrastructure to Google, although the storage of its music files will stay with AWS.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.8 officially enters its beta stage today, providing users of Red Hat's Linux platform with new features, some of which had already debuted in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2 in November 2015.

While the RHEL 7 product branch first became generally available in June 2014, Red Hat has a long life cycle for its products. RHEL 6, which was first released in November 2010, is still in what Red Hat refers to as Product Phase 1, which means it is still benefiting from new capabilities and extensions to the platform's existing capabilities.

"There's no question that Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 is a maturing product, one that supports many of the world's mission-critical workloads, and these customers put a greater emphasis on stability over new features," Steve Almy, senior product manager at Red Hat, told eWEEK.

RHEL 6.8, however, will likely be the last RHEL 6.x release that gets new features. After this release, Red Hat expects to move RHEL 6.x into Production Phase 2, which is focused almost exclusively on bug fixes and security errata, favoring stability over innovation, according to Almy.

"For customers who are looking for newer or advanced features, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 provides them with the platform that can best match their needs," he said.

Even though RHEL 7 has been in the market for nearly two years, that doesn't necessarily mean it's the platform that the majority Red Hat customers immediately migrate to. Almy explained that Red Hat's RHEL customers use multiple versions of the platform today, and the subscription model gives them the flexibility to run any supported version. Given the scope of Red Hat's customer base, this leads to many deployment scenarios. For example, some customers have very large and highly tuned workloads that may still be running on RHEL 6, but they are implementing new business projects on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.

"With that said, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 has been out for six years and, as you can imagine, it has a loyal customer base and makes up the majority of customer deployments," Almy said. "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 adoption, however, is at the fastest rate of any of our major platform releases at this point in its life cycle."

The majority of the new features landing in RHEL 6.8 are being backported from the RHEL 7 product branch. Among them is the Libreswan virtual private network (VPN) technology that will become the new default VPN technology in RHEL 6, replacing Openswan.

"Openswan has provided VPN endpoint functionality to the Linux community for a very long time," Almy said. "However, Libreswan, which was first introduced in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, has shown greater community participation, making it easier and faster to address issues found in the public domain, which can ultimately lead to a more stable experience for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 users."

RHEL 6.8 will also gain the "relax and recover" data recovery technology that is in RHEL 7.2. The technology is rooted in the open-source "relax and recover" project that defines itself as a setup-and-forget Linux bare metal disaster recovery solution.

"We have had a good response to this feature in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, and customers will see similar benefits on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6," Almy said.