New integrated system provides rapid foundation for trusted cloud deployments IBM  announced a series of new enterprise cloud offerings for the mainframe which will help clients and service providers reduce the cost of operations and rapidly deploy trusted cloud services with mainframe technology. Today’s announcement includes the first System z-based integrated system offering, the IBM Enterprise Cloud System. The new IBM Enterprise Cloud System provides an integrated platform, built upon open standards, for clients and service providers looking to rapidly build out a trusted cloud environment capable of supporting mission-critical workloads.  Additionally, a new flexible…

Redmond giant pulls update after discovery of bug making it unsuitable for enterprises Microsoft has stopped business users from downloading its Windows 8.1 update because of a bug. The software giant confirmed the move on its Windows Server Update Services blog, and said it was because the update caused some PCs to stop scanning against Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) 3.0 Service Pack 2. Although Microsoft hasn’t revealed how many companies were affected by the glitch, it said only PCs running WSUS 3.2 on Windows Server 2003 (SP2 and R2 SP2) and Windows Server…

Virtualisation giant claims moves to cut cost of virtual desktops are starting to pay off VMware claims the user experience problems and cost barriers that previously put business users off adopting virtual desktops have now been overcome. The virtualisation giant made the declaration during a press briefing to discuss the imminent launch of its Horizon 6 desktop virtualisation offering. The product’s aim is to provide IT departments with a means of delivering and managing desktops and applications across a wide range of devices in the workplace with ease. Horizon 6…

Dell has announced new networking solutions to help customers deliver faster results, maximize efficiency and modernize and transform operations in scale-out and cloud-based environments. New products introduced include the Dell Networking Z9500, an energy-efficient, highest density per rack unit, and only pay-as-you-grow 10/40 GbE data center core switch available today. The new Active Fabric Controller and efforts to accelerate Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) solutions into the sector through industry consortiums and collaboration with industry partners such as Red Hat also can help customers transform and modernize data center infrastructures. Dell is helping customers upgrade…

Security experts claim internet users must sit tight and wait for web service providers to fix bug Security experts warn there is little web users can do to protect themselves from the recently uncovered “Heartbleed” bug that exposes data to hackers. Researchers have observed sophisticated hacking groups conducting automated scans of the internet in search of web servers running a widely used web encryption program known as OpenSSL that makes them vulnerable to the theft of data, including passwords, confidential communications and credit card numbers. OpenSSL is used on about…

New look to be phased in over the next few weeks Twitter unveiled a redesign of its user profile pages on Tuesday, the latest in a series of steps promised by the company to bring new users to the seven-year-old service. In response to an all-time low in user growth figures during the recent quarter, Twitter chief executive Dick Costolo told worried Wall Street analysts that the company would make a number of changes to freshen up the service. Tuesday’s redesign, while mostly cosmetic, hinted at what Costolo described in…