EMC Wins Environmental Design Award for Durham Center of Excellence

EMC Corp. has earned a LEED Gold — Commercial Interiors certification for Phases 1 and 2 of its 450,000 sq. ft. Center of Excellence in Durham, North Carolina. LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is an internationally recognized green building rating and certification system of the U.S. Green Building Council. EMC partnered with design firm Symmes Maini & McKee Associates and construction company DPR Construction to turn a vacant warehouse facility into an energy-efficient virtual data center and EMC’s first U.S.-based Center of excellence. More

IBM Software Helps Illinois Manage Big Data, Transform Operations

The Illinois Department of Human Services (DHS) is using IBM software to manage Big Data and digitize thousands of documents, enabling caseworkers to spend more time focusing on the needs of citizens. DHS is one of the largest state agencies in Illinois, with an annual budget of $5.4 billion and more than 12,000 employees. In 2010 it had more than 100 million pieces of paper stored in case files at local offices and warehouses throughout the state, and its operations were very paper-bound. Working with IBM, DHS determined that digitizing three central forms would eliminate 7 million pieces of paper annually using Enterprise Content Management Big Data technologies. More

Banorte-Ixe, IBM to Create Unique Client-Centric Banking Model

Mexican financial institution Grupo Financiero Banorte and IBM have signed a 10-year strategic agreement to create a customer-centric banking model while substantially improving the bank’s efficiencies. The agreement, based on the Grupo’s solid growth, seeks to create a scalable and sustainable platform to achieve major efficiencies while gaining high attention levels and segmentation, retention, and contact schemes with its clients, through both existing and new channels. More

China’s Chuanqing Drilling Chooses IBM PureSystems to Power Natural Gas Search

Sichuan Geophysical Company of the Petroleum Administration Bureau (SCGC), one of the largest oil and gas seismic exploration and engineering service providers in China, has adopted IBM PureSystems. The PureFlex solution will analyze seven times more seismic data than SCGC’s legacy system, enabling the exploration of larger oil and gas fields while reducing the environmental footprint. SCGC is part of Chuanqing Drilling Engineering Ltd. and a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corp. More

Dell SonicWALL SuperMassive E10800 Earns “Recommend” Rating from NSS labs

Dell’s SonicWALL SuperMassive E10800 Next-Generation Firewall running SonicOS 6.0 has earned the highest rating of ‘Recommend’ from NSS Labs. To earn this rating, SuperMassive excelled in one of the industry’s most comprehensive, real-world tests of Next-Gen Firewalls to place in a leading position in the NSS Labs’ Security Value Map for the second consecutive year. More

VMware Network Virtualization Speeds Service Delivery at NaviSite

TIme Warner Cable Co.’s NaviSite enterprise-class, cloud-enabled hosting service is deploying VMware’s network virtualization to improve the speed of service delivery. By decoupling the network from underlying hardware, network virtualization transforms the operational model of networking, enabling NaviSite to respond to opportunities more rapidly while dramatically decreasing operational and capital expenses. More

VMware Names former Savvis President to Head Hybrid Cloud Services Business Unit

VMware Inc.has appointed Bill Fathers senior vice president and general manager of VMware’s new Hybrid Cloud Services business unit. Fathers comes to VMware from Savvis, a provider of cloud computing and managed hosting, where he served as president. He has more than 15 years of experience scaling global services businesses from start-up to more than $1 billion in revenues and in building partnerships across the service provider, ISV, and service integrator communities. More

Microsoft Declares Quarterly Dividend

Microsoft Corp. has announced a quarterly dividend of $0.23 per share payable June 13 to shareholders of record on May 16. More

Microsoft Joins TagVault.org

Microsoft has joined TagVault.org, which is working with industry partners to create a consistent, standardized method to reliably identify software components purchased, distributed, installed, and managed within a customer environment, based on the ISO/IEC 19770-2 specification. The goal is to provide the authoritative ID markers required for larger organizations to effectively manage their software supply and distribution process. More

Kirill Tatarinov to Open Microsoft Dynamics Convergence 2013

Microsoft Business Solutions Division President Kirill Tatarinov will open Convergence 2013, Microsoft Corp.’s premier event for the Microsoft Dynamics community, in the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, New Orleans, March 19 at 9:00-10:30 a.m. CDT. The keynote address will be webcast live, and a transcript will be available within 24 hours. Business leaders from Chobani Inc., Habitat for Humanity International, Revlon Inc., Shock Doctor Inc., and Weight Watchers International Inc., will discuss how their organizations use Microsoft Dynamics. More