Chutneytech | UK Technology News

Evolving from a development tool running on the desktop to an essential component of IT infrastructure, more and more companies are using virtualization in their business to reduce costs and space.

A recently published article titled Virtual Strategies: Managing Servers, Desktops and Storage for Infrastructure Efficiency, found that 92 percent of companies have implemented so type of server virtualization. AMD and Intel have implemented enhancements to their chipsets that enhance virtual performance for virtual machines, applications and operating systems.

Virtualization can address many problems such as a more productive and flexible data centre, which is easily scalable, reduced costs, both in power and data centre footprint ad increasing data availability.

End users of both AMD and Intel virtualization solutions were asked to report their experiences in addressing five key areas;

• System availability
• Data availability
• System complexity
• Impact on space and power requirements
• A General Improvement

In systems availability end-users of both AMD and Intel reported marked improvements, with Intel users’ improvements about 1.5 times greater for both server and desktop availability. Improvement in storage availability was bout equal.

The results were similar in data/applications availability, as general improvements were reported by both sets of users. Intel users reported improvements in data/application availability about 1.8 times greater than that of AMD users. However, they also indicated substantially less success in meeting data service level agreements, with AMD end-users reporting a rate 12 percent higher than Intel.

Virtualization has had a significant impact on the size and composition of end-user configurations. Intel end-user turned almost 25 percent of their server farm and reduced the total number by over 13 percent, by replacement or retirement. AMD end-users turned about 30 percent of their servers, reducing the total number by almost 11 percent. AMD end-users reported an infrastructure efficiency increase 1.2 times that of Intel.

By optimizing existing systems, virtualization can reduce the total number of servers, desktops and storage hardware required to do the same amount of work.  In tandem with a reduction in footprint, is often a reduction in power requirements.

Using less power and less hardware to support similar or greater workloads is a scenario that those seeking to help the environment would approve of. AMD end-users reported greatest success in both reducing footprint and power consumption, substantially greater than Intel users.

Solution providers in virtualizing the x86 platforms are primarily AMD and Intel. Other technologies are utilized to enhance and enable serve, desktop and storage virtualization.

Virtualization can be enabled and enhanced with several technologies. X86 virtualization is effective in addressing multiple issues that plague current system configurations: End-users of both Intel and AMD reported substantial improvement in system application availability.

The growing problem of system complexity was also addressed with reported reduction in the number of servers required to complete the same work or more and the resulting increase in infrastructure efficiency.

End-users of both AMD and Intel reported significant progress on several important metrics, so either solution is a better option than non-implementation.

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The value of virtualization has been found by businesses because of the opportunity it gave legacy applications to continue working without tying up a physical computer. This in turn led to the next big virtualization virtue: server consolidation.

If you can avoid having to maintain old hardware for an outdated platform by running a system within a virtual PC there is no reason you can’t avoid maintaining new hardware by continuing to virtualize your systems. By using virtualization you are able to combine multiple workloads all on the one physical computer. Although this equates to less machines, the overall work performed, and the number of environments represented, does not decrease in any way.

Imagine a medium to large scale business that houses a data centre with racks and racks of servers. Each one of these is performing a task of some kind. One could be a mail server, one a print server and several would be dedicated to a range of applications including small rarely-used apps that are only required by one person, a situation that most companies can find themselves in.

If you imagine that each on of these computers is taking up space in the building. They are using a lot of power, and require constant cooling, all of which costs lots of money. Now image the systems administrator when the business come along and announces they’ve bought another special-purpose piece of software that needs its own web server not tied up for any other purpose.

The systems admin has two options. He can order new hardware, taking up space and adding upkeep cost, or if he’s clever he will recognize he can use the capacity within the existing servers. This is where consolidation comes into its own, as you could run two (or more) entirely independent and even conflicting virtualized computers on the one set of hardware, which will prove much more energy efficient than two individual computers would be.

Some businesses have found that they can cut the number of servers in their organization by consolidating them as virtual servers. This can help deliver he cost savings, and help a company who wants to turn that little bit greener.

In addition to this, virtualization cuts the dependency between an operating system and the underlying computer hardware. Typically, when setting up a server there is a lot of work involved configuring the computer itself. The computers setup is largely tied in to that machine. If you wanted to upgrade to a more powerful computer you generally cannot simply backup the computer and the restore onto the new system. Generally, you must go through the format, installation and setup process from the start.

This is not the case with virtualization. As the file system is merely a file on a disk, and the virtual computer is protected from the real hardware, by working through an abstraction layer which is provided by the software implementing your virtual environments.

You can now replace your hardware with a more powerful computer that need not bare any resemblance to your previous system. The virtualized systems won’t mind. Just copy their disk files over and you’re up and running once more, and unless something has went completely wrong they’ll pick off from where they left off.

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Quite simply Virtualization is the method of running a pseudo-computer as if it was just another application running on a real computer. The virtualized system believes it has a hard drive to itself, but the reality is that its entire file system is contained within disk files on another underlying file system. The virtualized computer will act as though it were physically installed on a computer, with the processor and resources to itself.

Virtualization makes for a terrific test environment, as the virtual computer doesn’t have to be the same operating system as the host it runs on. What this means is that you could trial different Linux distros within virtual PCs on your Windows-based computer. This takes away the risk factor of harming your Windows installation, but you still reap the benefits of a real Linux deployment.

However, it doesn’t just work with Linux on Windows, you might want to trial Windows Server software on your Linux or Windows XP or Vista system. You can mock-up a multi-server environment on a single computer by running more that one virtual PC with its own configurations.

The computer architecture doesn’t even have to match. You can easily run a 32-bit virtual PC on a 64-bit computer. This is where the advantages of legacy application support comes in to play. For example, you may have an old Windows NT program your business must continue supporting, yet you don’t want to maintain a Windows NT computer. You could have amazingly shiny servers running a more contemporary server operating system, that doesn’t matter what is installed on them, nor if they are 64-bit machines. You can create a virtual 32-bit Windows NT environment for your legacy program to run on. This gives the impression that it’s running on such a computer, and you’ve removed the hassle of maintaining old hardware.

Down to the fact that file systems for virtual computers are just disk files within a parent environment you can easily perform a backup with a straightforward disk copy. This allows you to make up backups prior to implementing any changes on your virtual PC. If something goes wrong then you don’t have to panic; recovery is nothing more than closing the virtual machine, replacing the file system disk file with a backup copy and restarting. As far as your virtual computer knows, nothing happened: anything between making the backup and restoring did not happen.

For Virtualized Network Installations and Consultancy, Contact us here.

A Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) is where players assume the role of a fictional character and take control over many of that character’s actions. But if you don’t want to spend hours sitting in front of your PC “levelling-up” then there are programs available that will control everything for you – for a fee, of course.

One such company has landed in hot water with Blizzard Entertainment, the creators of the 7.5 million players World of Warcraft, and has been sued for £3.36m ($6m) for its ‘bot’ software.

The damages award comes after Blizzard won the fist fight against MDY Industries in July 2008. Blizzard embarked on the case against MDY claiming that its World of Warcraft ‘Gilder’ software encroached on Blizzards copyright.

Proving pretty popular, the Gilder software lets Warcraft players automate much of the games repetitiveness, such as levelling-up by killing monsters and scavenging loot.

In July US District Court Judge David Campbell ruled that the MMOGlider, which the software is now known, broke the terms of the license that players are forced to agree with before the begin to play the game.

The software was developed by MDY founder Michael Donnelly, who reportedly sold over 100,000 copies of the program, which retailed at £14 ($25). Which if my maths is correct, makes £1.4m.

Although sizeable, the damages award could have easily been bigger, but MDY managed to argue the cost of its infringement down. This was also helped by admitting that they were in the wrong.

However, MDY still has cause for panic, because Blizzard may well appeal for double or even triple the amount. The case will be dragged out until January 2009 when remaining issues in the legal conflict will be discussed.

These issues include whether MDY broke the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and whether Donnelly will have to pay damages from his own pocket. But he’ll have to dig pretty deep to find that amount of cash.

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Just a couple of weeks ago Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin had her email address hacked, after someone by-passed her password after guessing the answer to the “secret question”.

She was obviously targeted because of her status, but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen to you. With the average internet user having around 25 online profiles, a secure password is vital to ensure your safety online. The majority people are lazy though. They spend so much time on the net that it’s easier for people to use a simple password that has relevance to them, and is generally short. Remarkably, even though reports of cyber-crime and identity theft are through the roof, people still use passwords like “god”, “abc123” or the classically bad, “password”. These people can be loosely defined as idiots.

A solid password doesn’t have to be difficult, but it should be at least eight characters long and ALWAYS contain a mix of letters and numbers, and if you want to be extra secure – symbols.

Here’s a good way of building a secure, and hopefully memorable password.

•    I’ll start with the word: technologynews (14 characters)
•    Right, now let’s substitute some of the letters for numbers: t3chn010gyn3ws
•    Already that’s pretty solid, but to make it extra tough you could capitalise some of the letters: T3cHn010gYn3wS

That leaves us with a pretty tough password that you need to memorise. It’s not too hard to memorise one password like this, but unless you have a photographic memory, then you’ll struggle to remember a further 24 passwords if you fall into the average net user category.

It’s fair to say that this password is no way the toughest in the world. You could go military style and uses something like 8Uji#ge3s9%=vw2L93VuX>hT:5tPg. When it comes to security, especially if it’s your business, then you should make it as tough as possible.

One way of remembering all your new passwords is to utilise a password manager. These are readily available either online or local and the majority offer ‘one-click-login’ so you don’t even have to remember your gobbledygook.

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BT wants thousands of its broadband customers to voluntarily participate in a third trial of Phorm’s advertising targeting system starting tomorrow, the two companies announced today.

The trial was supposed to start back in March, but was delayed after technical issues and legal problems. The plans are to monitor 10,000 residential broadband lines in real time.

Phorm released this statement earlier this morning:

“Phorm, the advertising technology company, today announces that its ISP partner, BT, will tomorrow commence its trial of Phorm’s platform, branded “BT Webwise”.

“BT customers are being invited to take part in the trial, which will take place over a number of weeks. Following successful completion of this trial and an appropriate period of analysis and planning, it is currently expected that Phorm’s platform will be rolled out across BT’s network.”

BT’s “Webwise” page sheds a little more light, saying that customers will be asked for permission to wiretap into their line. They say: “As a BT Total Broadband customer, you can try an exciting new service called BT Webwise.”

An “invitation page” will appear on the customers screen initially.

BT continues: “BT Webwise uses a cookie stored on trial customers’ computers to remember their preference. If the cookie is deleted at any point, the invitation page will be displayed again.”

BT has said previously that Phorm’s much-criticised cookie-based opt-out method would be replaced with a new method to satisfy those customers who don’t want their traffic to come into contact with Webwise-related equipment.

Cookies are still involved in the trials however. BT’s FAQ says “to remain opted-out, you can set all your browsers to block cookies from the domain webwise.net”. BT chief press officer Adam Liversage confirmed that opted-out traffic will pass through the system during the trial, but said it “will not be mirrored or profiled”.

Liversage added that BT is still working on a network-level-opt-out, but that it will not be offered during the trial.

This third trial will be the first time BT and Phorm have gauged the effect their behavioural targeting system has on ad click rates. The first trial did not seek to measure whether the technology improved response, and in the second trial no ads were served. The European Commission is currently considering action over the secret tests, which were conducted in 2006 and 2007 without customer consent.

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A new report from the government’s architecture and design group believes that UK citizens should be subjected to random carbon spot-checks, and intensive surveillance of their diets, transport and waste disposal habits.

The publication comes from the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE), and talks, rather excessively, about “monitoring” the general public.

The report is titled ‘What Makes and Eco Town?’, and is sure to rile up the UK’s free-thinking public, because it sound’s like something from George Orwells ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’.

The CABE believes that strict monitoring is required to ensure the carbon footprint of eco-town dwellers remains at one-third of the British average, which is the requirement for what they call “one planet living”.

The group wants to monitor “the ecological footprint of the diet of 100 randomly selected residents”, along with our waste disposal and transportation habits.

The Carbon Corps also wan to choose the food you should eat, selecting only the most ecological retailers. The group is also, “actively seeking retailers on site who will commit to supporting residents in reducing the ecological footprint of their food consumption, in particular providing a wide variety of healthy, low meat and dairy options.”

The government proposal includes the building of 15 towns, which will house over 100,000 citizens. These towns sound like a large version of the Big Brother house, with 15 mile an hour speed limits, toilets that don’t flush and a fine for residents leaving the town walls.

If you want to live in such a repressed environment, first of all you’re mad, and second of all, you’re mad, and if the government actually agrees to this, then they are also, in my humble opinion, mad.

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In the long running battle over video game classification, Paul Jackson, director general of the European Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), has slammed the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), claiming it is not fit for purpose when it comes to game classifications.

Hard-talking Jackson made his point very clear indeed at the Labour Party Conference earlier today. He said that his organisation’s scheme is the only ratings classification with the power to prevent publishers from distributing unsuitable content to children.

The ELSPA is a voluntary organisation that is controlled by videogame publishers. The BBFC is the only ratings body with any legal backing, and is also independent of content producers.

Jackson attacked the BBFC to make everyone aware that a single classification organisation – called the Pan European Game Information System (Pegi) – run by the ELSPA, would be the best way of classifying games both in the UK and across Europe.

“The film ratings board continually downgrades games classified 18 by Pegi. They go to BBFC 15 or even BBFC 12,” claimed Jackson. He believes that the UK would be left “out of step” with classifications in the rest of Europe.

Even though the BBFC has already taken steps to handle the increase in online videogame sales, by launching BBFC Online, Jackson told the conference that Pegi would be better for handling such content.

However, this battle has been raging for quite some time now, and does classification make a difference at all, when children ask their parents to buy games that are branded 18+, and they do just to keep the peace? Or is this just another way for Labour to get more support for their flagging leadership?

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A highly influential group of European privacy experts said last week that it will lead hearings with Google over claims that EU data protection laws do not apply to the search giant.

The independent EU advisory body on data protection and privacy, the Article 29 Working Party, said that Google is refusing to submit to Europe’s data protection regime and that “strong disagreements” remain.

The A29WP said in a statement that Google “considers that the European law on data protection is not applicable to itself, even though Google has servers and establishments in Europe.” It adds that Google “wishes to retain personal data of users beyond the six months period requested by the Article 29 Working Party, without any justification.”

The dispute is over the records of users search queries. Google keeps records of searches to use to improve the quality of search results, to fight against fraud and to improve data security.

The A29WP has called for this data to be deleted after six months. In a report published earlier this year, the Party said that companies keeping data for longer risked breaching data protection laws.

“If personal data are stored, the retention period should be no longer than necessary for the specific purposes of the processing,” said the Working Party’s April report.

“In view of the initial explanations given by search engine providers on the possible purposes for collecting personal data, the Working Party does not see a basis for a retention period beyond six months.”

The report also recommends that web users must be able to provide consent to the exploitation of their data, with particular reference to profiling purposes.

Google listened to the recommendations and on the 8th of September confirmed that it would reduce its retention period from 18 to nine months.

However, the Article 29 Working Party says that is not enough: “Google refuses for the moment to submit to the European data protection law.”

A29WP chairman, Alex Turk criticised Google for failing to improve its anonymisation mechanisms, which he labelled as “insufficient”. He said that Google considers that IP addresses are confidential data but not personal data, “which prevents granting certain rights to its users”.

Turk also accused Google of failing to “express the willingness to improve and clarify the methods that are used to gather the consent of its users.”

Google’s Peter Fleischer, from the company’s global privacy counsel, said that the company was committed to engaging in a constructive dialogue with the A29WP and other leading privacy stakeholders around the world.

Google also backtracked from one of its key arguments. Fleischer had previously claimed tat the EU’s Data Retention Directive forced it to keep the details for between six and 24 months. The Party said this was not the case because data retention laws only applied to telecoms companies.

“We agree with the Working Party that search logs are outside of the scope of the Data Retention Directive,” said Fleischer in Google’s response document.

In July Google caved in to pressure from privacy activists when it agreed to publish a direct link to its privacy policy from its front page after calls from regulators to do so.

The Working Party was happier with that, but still wants more. “In conclusion, despite some progress, significant work must still be carried out to guarantee the rights of internet users and to ensure the respect of their privacy,” they said. “In this perspective, the Article 29 Working Party will lead hearings with Google to discuss the points of dissension.”

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Nintendo’s revolutionary Wii console could face a US sales ban, after an American manufacturer has claimed that four of its patents for on-screen navigation and control technology have been infringed by the famous Japanese company.

The US International Trade Commission (ITC) has voted to investigate Hillcrest Laboratories’ allegations that Nintendo violated three patents hillcrest owns relating to a “handheld three-dimensional pointing device” and a fourth for a “navigation interface display system that graphically organises content for display on television”.

The ITC said that the complaint alleges “violations of section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930” and that it relates to “certain videogame machines and related three-dimensional pointing devices”.

The first part of the investigation will be handled by one of five ITC administrative law judges, who will hold an evidentiary hearing. The judge will then have to make an initial decision on whether there has been a violation of section 337, after which ITC will make a final decision over the lawsuit’s merits.

Hillcrest is hoping for an exclusion order and a cease and desist order, which if approved could see the Wii and its controllers banned from sale in the US, and from being imported.

Charlie Scibetta, a spokesman for Nintendo of America, released a statement that claimed that none of the videogame pioneer’s products infringe Hillcrest Laboratories’ patents. Nintendo plans to “vigorously defend” its position, he said