— WebWireID108247 —

Redwood City, Calif. - A recent market research report from Dell'Oro Group, the trusted source for market information about the networking and telecommunications industries, indicates that the Ethernet Switch market grew for the second consecutive quarter during the third quarter of this year, driven by continued strength in data center deployments.

'Since early 2008, many new product introductions have focused on the data center and many of these products ramped strongly during the most recent quarter,' said Alan Weckel, Director of Ethernet Switch Market Research at Dell'Oro Group. '10 Gigabit Ethernet is leading the charge, both as a server connectivity technology and as an aggregation technology within the data center. In the short term, most of the overall Ethernet Switch market revenue growth will come from the data center,' Weckel added.

The report also shows that Fixed 10 Gigabit Ethernet revenues grew nearly 30 percent during the quarter with most of the growth being driven by purpose-built Fixed 10 Gigabit Ethernet data center products. Cisco and HP lead in this segment with a combined share of almost 70 percent of the total Fixed 10 Gigabit Ethernet port shipments. Other vendors with Ethernet Switch offerings are 3Com/H3C, Arista, Blade, Brocade, Extreme, Force 10 and Juniper.

About the Report

The Dell'Oro Group Ethernet Switch Quarterly Report offers complete, in-depth coverage of the market with tables covering manufacturers' revenue, ports/units shipped and average selling prices by various port speeds (e.g., 100 Mbps, 1000 Mbps, 10 Gbps, etc.) for Layer 2-3 Ethernet Switches (Fixed and Modular reported separately), and revenue, units shipped and average selling prices for Layers 4-7 Server Load Balancing Ethernet Switches. To purchase this report, please contact Emily Kendall at +1.650.622.9400 x223, or email Emily@DellOro.com.

About Dell'Oro Group

As the trusted source for market information about the networking and telecommunications industries, Dell'Oro Group provides in-depth, objective research and analysis that enable component manufacturers, equipment vendors, and investment firms to make fact-based, strategic decisions. For more information, contact Dell'Oro Group at +1.650.622.9400 or visit www.DellOro.com.

— WebWireID108230 —

To handle a rising tide of information stemming from various corporate systems, Jackson Hewitt Tax Service® sought a software solution that would quickly synthesize external information, including new tax law changes, the tax implications of new legislation, and the tax impact of a natural disaster for faster distribution to its franchisees and company-owned locations managers to help best serve clients.

As a result of quick and easy access to critical business information, employees will be able to improve client service more quickly and efficiently.

IBM business analytics technology will significantly cut programmer servicing time, especially during peak times of the year, and will allow Jackson Hewitt® franchisees to use a more self-sufficient model to independently review relevant business information at-a-glance to more effectively run their office operations and analyze business reports in real time. The new analytics solution will also help Jackson Hewitt enhance office and employee performance through such tools as real-time fee and discount tracking.

"We selected IBM's business analytics system after a rigorous bid process," said Danamichele Brennen, senior vice-president and chief technology officer, Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc. "With analytics technology we can effectively and expeditiously empower our franchisees, corporate partners and internal stakeholders with the right information at the right time. They'll get the relevant data and analytics insight they need to provide our customers with exceptional service."

"Smart midsize organizations like Jackson Hewitt are laying the foundation for 21st Century growth with business analytics that provide and enhance data-driven decision-making," said Mychelle Mollot, vice president of worldwide marketing, BI and Performance Management, IBM. "Business analytics helps all clients glean new intelligence from their data that can be effectively applied for smarter decision-making."

About Jackson Hewitt:

Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc. (NYSE: JTX), with approximately 6,600 franchised and company-owned offices throughout the United States during the 2009 Tax Season, is an industry leader providing full service individual federal and state income tax return preparation. Most offices are independently owned and operated. Jackson Hewitt is based in Parsippany, New Jersey. More information may be obtained at www.jacksonhewitt.com.

About IBM:

For more information about IBM Smarter Planet, please visit www.ibm.com/press/smarterplanet

For more information about IBM Information Management, please visit http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/.

— WebWireID108224 —

ARMONK, N.Y. and BALTIMORE. IBM (NSYE: IBM) today announced researchers at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) are using IBM technology to analyze smoke patterns during wildfires. The goal of the research is to provide fire and public safety officials with a real-time assessment of the fire, allowing them to make more informed decisions on public evacuations and health warnings.

Current analysis of smoke patterns is limited to weather forecasting data that is updated every six hours, observations from front-line workers and low resolution satellite imagery. Using a cluster of IBM BladeCenter servers housed at the UMBC College of Engineering and Information Technology's Multicore Computational Center (MC2), the team of faculty and student researchers will be able to instantly process the massive amounts of data available from drone aircraft, high-resolution satellite imagery and air-quality sensors to develop more effective models for smoke dissipation.

According to the U.S. National Interagency Fire Center, wildfires present a serious and dangerous threat to commercial buildings, private homes and people. In the last year alone, there have been more than 76,000 individual fires, consuming an approximate 5.8 million acres. And according to the agency's recent Quadrennial Fire Review 2009, the threats are only expected to increase due to drier conditions associated with climate change and increasing population growth.

"By combining the resources and expertise of IBM and UMBC, together with data acquired from agencies like NASA, NOAA, EPA and the US Forest Service, we not only hope to protect the health and safety of neighboring communities, but also prevent the threats to their lives and property," said Dr. Milton Halem, director, UMBC's MC2. "We expect this research will be of great interest for many groups - especially in states where these types of fires are commonplace."

In addition to the IBM blade servers, researchers also will be using the recently announced IBM InfoSphere Streams, a technology designed to help organizations analyze information from any source; narrow it down what people are specifically looking for; and continuously refine the answer in real-time. Together, the UMBC team will have the first-ever opportunity to capture data from a network of surface, aerial and satellite sensors already established by organizations such as NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and provide more timely:

* identification of the location and progression of wildfires and smoke coverage;
* model forecast of fire and smoke behavior and plume dispersion for air quality monitoring;
* retasking of sensors to create new measurements;
* assistance by issuing real-time forecasts in the fire-fighting effort; and
* issuance of public safety and health alerts.

The research work is in-part funded by IBM's Shared University Research (SUR) awards program, which is designed to connect the research and researchers at universities with IBM Research, IBM Life Sciences, IBM Global Services and IBM's development and product labs. The SUR Awards program's goal is, among other things, to increase access to and successful use of IBM technologies for research and in curriculum.

"We are pleased to be working with the researchers at UMBC to create a breakthrough Smarter Planet application that will help save lives by predicting the movement of wildfires," said Bernie Meyerson, vice president of innovation and global university programs, IBM. "UMBC students and faculty will have access to IBM's latest hybrid computing platforms with incredibly fast predictive analytic capabilities."

The new system will be based on a set of blade servers designed by IBM, including the JS22, HS22 and QS22 models. Together, the computing power of the blades will help process a massive amount of real-time data streams of smoke plume models, helping discern the scope and projection of wildfire lines.

The UMBC MC2 research team is currently in the design stages of their monitoring technology, and expects to have a prototype available next year.

— WebWireID108211 —

CARY, NC, SAS received the top rank for cost and profitability analysis – earning a perfect score – while also receiving the top score in product strategy and vision in the November 16, 2009, Forrester Wave: Business Performance Solutions, Q4 2009 report.

'This past year, many organizations had to scale back,' said Jonathan Hornby, Global Marketing Director for Performance Management at SAS. 'Without a true understanding of what drives cost, profit and value, many have unfortunately cut muscle and bone to meet short-term targets at the expense of future prosperity. There is a better way. SAS enables customers to model, predict and optimize future scenarios so they can make fact-based decisions.'
Dealing with economic uncertainty

Today's economy makes it imperative to implement exceptional planning and measurement processes and systems. According to Forrester Research's report, 'planning, forecasting, financial reporting and performance measurement solutions are essential for addressing economic uncertainty. Forecasting, especially, has helped companies cope with market volatility in the face of the economic slowdown and economic instability that now seem to be easing.'

Paul Hamerman reported, 'SAS has sophisticated capabilities in cost and profitability, forecasting and strategy management, and it focuses on business issues well beyond the scope of finance.'

To improve performance and outpace the competition, companies do well to forecast and measure leading indicators rather than relying on lagging indicators and historical accounting. Companies that can identify opportunities and threats more easily than competitors, understand the implications, update strategy quickly and execute consistently across the organization will be the winners.

'With leading capabilities in cost and profitability management and predictive analytics, SAS is a smart choice for sophisticated companies. The predictive technology supports complex planning and forecasting applications,' Hamerman notes in this report.
SAS® for Performance Management

SAS offers a comprehensive set of business performance offerings, delivering on all core capabilities evaluated for this Forrester report: planning and budgeting; consolidation and reporting; strategy and performance; and cost and profitability analysis, together with foundational BI capabilities. SAS offerings are well-integrated and move beyond the traditional purview of finance to give a complete picture of performance.

SAS for Performance Management, implemented at more than 1,500 customer sites, enables organizations to organize and cleanse data as a critical first step. Many then address financial aspects of budgeting and planning as a foundation for strategy management. Others focus on understanding what drives value. To help organizations improve performance, SAS' intertwined solutions include:

* Dashboards and scorecards.
* Financial consolidation, budgeting, planning and reporting.
* Cost and profitability analysis.
* Human and IT capital analysis.
* Customer and supplier intelligence.
* Enterprise risk management.
* Sustainability management.
* Advanced analytics.

SAS solutions are built on a common, scalable platform – the SAS Business Analytics Framework – to address the end-to-end process. With SAS, companies can start with a single solution and evolve at a pace that suits their needs.

— WebWireID108209 —

MONTPELLIER, FRANCE and ARMONK, In a region of France known for sunshine, agriculture and natural spring water, IBM (NYSE: IBM) has established a Center of Excellence for Water Management to use high performance computing to monitor and forecast the impact of climate change and severe weather conditions on water resources.

Based in Montpellier, France, the center is in the Languedoc Roussillon, a southern-facing region with abundant sunshine and seasonal, torrential rains causing millions of dollars worth of damages each year. More than 400 miles of levees exist to protect the 600,000 people living in potential flood zones.

'We have a unique opportunity, and unique ability, to apply our combined expertise in high performance computing, sensor networks and advanced analytics across a wide variety of water management challenges,' said Sharon Nunes, vice president, Big Green Innovations, IBM. 'We're modeling and simulating flash flooding scenarios, water management infrastructures, reservoir systems and more to develop new innovations for predicting, managing and sometimes even preventing events that might otherwise have a negative impact on a region's water supply.'

The center's high performance computing modeling capabilities combined with resilient sensor networks will enable fast, high resolution, large scale simulations based on multiple scenarios and options. With this ability, scientists can bring together a diverse set of information incorporating weather and climate changes, flood patterns, reservoir activity and more to develop new insights and innovations for smarter water management. Initiatives at the center are expected to complement those already underway with the county council including levee management, pollution reduction and sustained economic development.

One of the first projects slated for the Center of Excellence will be a collaborative effort by IBM and the ClusterEAU, an association of research laboratories, educational organizations and enterprises, to explore projects for advanced water resources management.. The ClusterEAU was formed to respond to the constantly growing needs for innovative proposals to face the issues of ensuring the concerted management of world water resources in a context of global changes and new challenges arising from human society: rapidly growing populations, energy challenges, economic and environmental issues in urban and rural development, globalisation of markets and services, emerging countries, stagnation in the poorest regions, and more.

'The new Center of Excellence will be a unique opportunity for us to establish strong collaborations with IBM and jointly promote our expertise in the field of advanced water resources management, particularly the computational aspects,' said Jean-Pierre Buchoud, president, ClusterEAU.

In 2008, IBM established centers of excellence for water management in Amsterdam, where the primary focus is on flood management and levee systems, and in Dublin, where the primary focus is to monitor, manage and forecast environmental challenges such as the movement of pollutants in fresh water, marine and oceanic environments.

IBM's smarter water management offering is part of its Big Green Innovations initiative, launched in October 2006 as part of IBM's $100 million investment in 10 new businesses generated by InnovationJam.

— WebWireID108203 —

MILWAUKEE, Rockwell Automation announced that it is supporting the release of a free, open-source EtherNet/IP software stack for I/O adapter devices developed by the Vienna University of Technology. Designed to connect a wide range of products using open communication standards, developers can download the new license and royalty-free adapter stack through SourceForge.net (http://opener.sourceforge.net/).

The open-source communications stack was created and released to the global engineering community by the Odo Struger Laboratory team of researchers from the Vienna University of Technology's Automation and Control Institute. The stack is an open-source implementation of EtherNet/IP, an open network standard made available through ODVA. EtherNet/IP uses the proven Common Industrial Protocol (CIP) on standard, unmodified Ethernet to enable communications from I/O to IT, connecting factory-floor devices all the way up to business-level systems. Access to plant and production information allows users to effectively manage real-time control and information flow throughout the manufacturing and IT enterprise, which helps drive improved management and decision-making.

'An open-source stack with a support community gives industrial product developers a faster, more cost-effective way to integrate their products with CIP-based networks like EtherNet/IP,' said Harry Forbes of ARC Advisory Group. 'Using open source accelerates time to market, decreases software development risk, and reduces many costs of custom software development. In addition, the availability of a peer-reviewed open-source component for EtherNet/IP provides product suppliers with greater assurance of full interoperability.'

Developers can use the open-source adapter stack in a variety of EtherNet/IP I/O adapter-class products, including basic sensors, actuators, simple drives and I/O components. The lightweight, adapter-class stack is scalable and written in the widely used C programming language. Its modularity and flexibility make it ideal for developers seeking a low- or no-cost communication stack for simple EtherNet/IP products.

EtherNet/IP allows networks, including motion and safety, to communicate seamlessly on the factory floor, along with other common sets of IT capabilities like video, data and telephony. This results in a converged Ethernet architecture.

— WebWireID108202 —

SAN FRANCISCO. Cisco today announced the availability of Cisco® SIO To Go, an Apple iPhone application that puts the power of the Cisco Security Intelligence Operations (SIO) in users' hands, giving them real-time access to a wealth of actionable global security information no matter where they are. The Cisco SIO iPhone application enables users to personalize alerts to show only those security threats that could impact their network and provides added assurance that they are being protected by their Cisco security solution.

With its next-generation Borderless Networks Architecture, Cisco is helping individuals to reliably and seamlessly connect to the network from anywhere, using any device, with a high level of security. This freedom is changing the way information technology departments work, allowing for more automation and real-time data flow to ensure the integrity of the borderless network. The new Cisco SIO To Go iPhone application provides IT staff with an efficient way to receive alerts and respond to threats that can affect their operations.
Cisco SIO To Go iPhone Features

Powered by the Cisco Security IntelliShield Alert Manager Service, the Cisco SIO To Go iPhone application informs, protects and enables users to respond in real time to alerts and threats to the network. The application delivers early warning intelligence, threat vulnerability and proven Cisco mitigation solutions to users' iPhones as they occur. It also provides unique IP and URL address e-mail and Web reputation look-up powered by the Cisco IronPort® SenderBase Security Network and the Cisco SIO.

Alerts delivered include:

* Cisco Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) Alerts
* Cisco Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS) Signatures
* Cisco Applied Mitigation Bulletins
* Cisco Threat Outbreak Alerts
* And many others

Links to the following Cisco security news and information:

* Cisco Security Blog
* Cisco Cyber Risk Report
* Cisco Press Releases
* Cisco Security Twitter Feed
* Cisco Security Podcasts

Supporting Quote:

* Marie Hattar, vice president, Network Systems Solutions Marketing, Cisco

"Enabling borderless networks is critical for today's business success. A key component of enabling individuals to connect to their business networks from anywhere is working to ensure that the network is protected regardless of the device used. Our new Cisco SIO To Go iPhone application is another important step in making this vision a reality. It improves the means by which IT departments are alerted to threats, and it provides added confidence and device flexibility as Cisco customers are shielded from these breaches."

About Cisco Security Intelligence Operations

* An advanced security infrastructure that provides threat identification, analysis and mitigation to continuously provide the highest level of security for Cisco customers. Cisco SIO comprises three components:
o Cisco SensorBase: The world's largest threat-monitoring network that captures global threat telemetry data from an exhaustive footprint of Cisco devices and services. Sources for SensorBase include more than 700,000 globally deployed Cisco security devices; Cisco IntelliShield, a historical-threat database of 40,000 vulnerabilities and 3,300 IPS signatures; and more than 600 third-party threat-intelligence sources, which track more than 500 third-party data feeds and 100 security news feeds around the clock.
o Cisco Threat Operations Center: A global team of more than 500 security analysts around the world dedicated to threat research every day, all day, and automated systems that extract actionable intelligence.
o Dynamic Updates: Real-time updates automatically delivered to security devices, along with best-practice recommendations and other content dedicated to helping customers track threats, analyze intelligence and ultimately improve their organization's overall security posture.

Pricing and Availability:

* The Cisco SIO iPhone application is free and will be available soon at the Apple iTunes Store.

— WebWireID108197 —

The report emphasized the hard work that SAP has put into building new functionality into its CIS solution as well as the clear road map for releases going forward. In particular, the IDC Energy Insights study points out that SAP plans to offer enhanced functionality in a number of areas relevant to the new energy economy, which is characterized by the integration of smart metering, complex billing, and new business models for utility providers.

SAP also received high marks from customer references in deregulated markets. One customer has been able to bill 27 different products using the SAP application. The report also cites SAP's leadership as owing to a large extent to the close cooperation with customers and partners in the company's industry value network.

More than 500 utilities worldwide use CIS software from SAP. In addition to IDC Energy Insights, other large analyst firms have also ranked SAP as a leading provider of CIS solutions. Market research firm Gartner recently identified SAP for the third year in a row as the leading CIS vendor for the utilities industry. Utilipoint ranked SAP in the same position for the fourth consecutive year.

— WebWireID108196 —

Fremont, CA, and Portland, OR, Supercomputing 2009, Booth #1721 - SGI (NASDAQ: SGI), a global leader in HPC and data center solutions, today announced that, for the second year in a row, NASA's Pleiades Supercomputer at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) facility at Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., was certified by the TOP500 list as one of the fastest supercomputers in the world as measured by the LINPACK Benchmark.

The fastest supercomputer on the November 2009 list based on an open systems approach (commodity processor, operating system and interconnect), the Pleiades supercomputer ranked sixth overall. It is powered by Altix® ICE 8200EX, which helps the world's most sophisticated HPC installations solve their most complex scientific computing problems. Recently, the system was enhanced with 2,304 additional Intel® Xeon® X5570 processors (9,216 cores) to drive advanced earth science research.

"NASA scientists are leading the way in climate, weather and oceanic modeling," said Mark J. Barrenechea, president and CEO of SGI. "This is important work that affects current and future generations. SGI is proud to partner with NASA to provide the necessary infrastructure to enable its research."

One of the most powerful, general-purpose supercomputers ever built, the Altix ICE installation at NASA employs 14,080 quad-core Intel® Xeon® processors for a total of 56,320 cores in 110 racks, reaching a peak performance of 673 TFLOPS. Pleiades features the world's largest open system using Linux OS, Intel processors and InfiniBand cluster. At 544.3 TFLOPS on 56,320 cores, it is one of the industry's most efficient systems in the Top 10, with 9.7 GFLOPS per core as measured by the LINPACK Benchmark, the industry standard for measuring a system's floating point computing power. Pleiades also includes four petabytes of storage via SGI® InfiniteStorage 15000, a high performance SAS-based storage system utilizing high capacity SATA drives.

"We were very pleased with the performance of Pleiades before this enhancement," said William Thigpen, Pleiades project manager at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) Division at Ames. "With SGI's integration of the new Nehalem processors, we are seeing a 2.4x increase in the science that can be done on the system."

"Platforms based on Intel Xeon series processors, like SGI Altix ICE, have brought essential new capabilities to the supercomputing industry," said Richard Dracott, general manager of Intel's High Performance Computing Group. "We are thrilled to have worked so closely with SGI to develop powerful, fast and energy-efficient systems that excel in the world's most demanding HPC application environments."

The TOP500 list is compiled by Hans Meuer of the University of Mannheim, Germany; Erich Strohmaier and Horst Simon of NERSC/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; and Jack Dongarra of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

About SGI
SGI is a global leader in large-scale clustered computing, high performance storage, HPC and data center enablement and services. SGI is focused on helping customers solve their most demanding business and technology challenges. Visit www.sgi.com for more information.

— WebWireID108192 —

ARMONK, NY, IBM (NYSE: IBM) and the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (DC WASA) are working together to modernize the management of the aging water and sewer infrastructure hidden beneath the nation's capital. The sprawling infrastructure includes hundreds of thousands of assets such as water distribution pipes, valves, public fire hydrants, collection pipes, man holes and water meters.

IBM's Global Business Services and Research arms have started a new collaboration with DC WASA to integrate advanced analytics with IBM Maximo software and a mapping application from ESRI, an IBM Business Partner. The availability of real time, map-based information will help DC WASA engineers identify potential problems before they occur. This can be done by analyzing an enormous amount of data and uncovering patterns related to weather conditions, water use and hundreds of other variables.

The new preventative measures, including converting to automated meter readers, have substantially reduced billing-related customer calls. A future benefit of the project is that it will enable dispatchers to deploy crews based on where they are working and what areas need service, streamlining the workload and improving the customer experience.

The system will also enable DC WASA to share and exchange data both internally for planning purposes and externally to assist other agencies, such as sharing real-time status of the more than 9,000 public hydrants in DC with the DC Fire and Emergency Medical Services. Based on data from the IBM Maximo software, the hydrant status and water flow capacity of each hydrant can be seen by the fire department via Google Earth®. As firefighters are rushing to the scene, they will know in advance the level of water flow to expect out of the hydrants in the vicinity.

'Our work with IBM has allowed our assets to communicate with us – and we're doing more than just listening, we're taking action,' said Mujib Lodhi, CIO of DC WASA. 'Using IBM software, we're able to deploy our crews faster, which is key when there's water on the road or customers are without service. For day-to-day maintenance, the IBM software helps us to coordinate and plan our crews weeks ahead so we can work much more efficiently.'

The system, which dates back to the 1800s, had been maintained with paper records, which meant engineers had to go through paper files to find the status of individual assets. Now, with the integration of IBM Maximo software with a mapping application, DC WASA engineers can see a detailed map showing the location and condition of each asset at any given point in time – with just a push of a button.

'In cities like our nation's capital, water management systems date back more than one hundred years, yet now serve millions of residents and visitors,' said Sharon Nunes, vice president, Big Green Innovations, IBM. 'DC Water and Sewer Authority stands out because they understand this – and are willing to bring about significant change in the way they work in order to more intelligently manage this critical resource.'

DC WASA uses IBM Maximo Asset Management software to manage: all the wastewater treatment equipment, the water and sewer infrastructure at the Departments of Water and Sewer Services, the water quality issues maintained by the Water Quality Division, and for permit plan reviews and developer permitting.

DC WASA's Enterprise Asset Management Systems is a combination of IBM Tivoli Maximo Enterprise Asset Management software with the ArcGIS mapping application and an enterprise GIS (Geographic Information System) based on ESRI technology.

— WebWireID108188 —

In terms of the agreement, known as Partners Achieving Change Together (PACT), IBM is responsible for the development and implementation of a range of business transformation and systems integration projects. IBM is also responsible for DVLA's technical infrastructure and its ongoing operation, maintenance and support. A key element will be to deliver a robust and flexible IT architecture that will support a move to emerging cross-government architectures and further improve service quality and the customer experience.

Brendon Riley, Chief Executive of IBM UK and Ireland, said, "DVLA is recognised as being at the forefront of the government's service transformation agenda, having already achieved an enviable delivery track record in a complex business and technical environment. This extension provides the opportunity to build upon past successes."

Paul Evans, DVLA's Chief Information Officer, added, "This agreement offers significant savings for DVLA and we look forward to building on the partnership that has already been responsible for a wide range of innovative projects."

The contract was signed in November 2009, and extends the IBM contract until September 2015.

— WebWireID108170 —

SAN DIEGO — Teradata Corporation (NYSE: TDC), the world's largest company solely focused on data warehousing and enterprise analytics, today announced that its Teradata Customer Education program has expanded and it now offers more that 200 courses for business and technical users.

Teradata customers worldwide can customize an education program and provide their employees with on-site training or select the cost-effective web-based training – for either a single class or a subscription for many classes. Classes, catalogs, and training are delivered globally by Teradata instructors in person and over the web - a reach not matched by other data warehouse providers.

'We designed a learning environment that is both flexible and affordable,' said Debi Hoefer, consulting partner, Teradata Customer Education Americas. 'The Teradata Database is the easiest database to use. As the data warehouse grows and becomes mission critical with additional users, applications and data volumes, it is important that users understand its power and potential. The Teradata Customer Education program enables businesses to leverage the performance and capability of the database, which helps them to out-maneuver their competitors.'

Based on the customer's experience level – from foundational knowledge to mastery, Teradata Customer Education training consultants provide personal assistance in developing the right training plan. Customers can create individual learning plans based on job roles and Teradata certification levels, resulting in a self-managed education plan which benefits individuals and their companies. Users may select live, online classes, or prerecorded web-cast classes. Customers who want to shorten their 'learning curve' can access Teradata classes when they are ready, anytime, anywhere using the web-based tools. In addition, instructors are available for in-classroom learning.

The Teradata Customer Education programs can serve as preparation for the Teradata Certified Professional Program, which trains and certifies individuals. Those who achieve this status have a robust knowledge of data warehousing technology.
About Teradata

Teradata Corporation (NYSE: TDC) is the world's largest company solely focused on raising intelligence through data warehousing, data warehouse appliances, consulting services and enterprise analytics. Teradata is in more than 60 countries and on the web at www.teradata.com

Teradata is a trademark or registered trademark of Teradata Corporation in the United States and other countries.

— WebWireID108141 —

LONDON, - Southbank Sinfonia, Britain's best-known orchestra of young professional musicians and the country's leading orchestral academy, has for the second consecutive year hosted international auditions for its ensemble using Cisco TelePresenceTM, a technology allowing for life-size, high-definition video collaboration. The auditions were held last week in the Cisco London office.

Over 300 musicians from across the world applied to take part in the auditions, from countries as diverse as Taiwan, Sweden and Canada. Traditionally, musicians would have had to fly to London for the chance to undertake the 15-minute audition at significant cost and time. However, this year, two young musicians in Australia have for the first time auditioned using Cisco TelePresence suites in their own country.

The two Australian musicians performed live, while being assessed in real time by the select panel of judges back in London. This was made possible by the quality of the wideband spatial audio and the clarity of very high-definition video delivered by the Cisco TelePresence technology. As well as reducing the travel costs incurred and time commitment required by the candidates, Cisco TelePresence technology lowered the process's environmental impact.
Facts/Highlights:

* The judging panel consisted of Simon Over (co-founder and music director of Southbank Sinfonia), Michael Berman (chairman of Southbank Sinfonia) and Jennifer Nickson (Royal Opera House).
* This year's Cisco TelePresence auditions took place in Sydney, Australia. Last year Cisco TelePresence auditions were held in Scotland, Spain, New Zealand and the United States.
* Cisco is committed to a high level of environmental responsibility in its business operations, culture, products and customer solutions. Cisco's vision is for the power of technology to transform how the world manages its environmental and energy challenges.
* Cisco now has more than 300 TelePresence customers, with some global customer deployments extending beyond 100 units.
* Internally, Cisco has deployed over 650 TelePresence units in more than 200 cities across 45 countries, which has allowed it to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from business travel by an estimated 186,786 metric tons.

Supporting Quotes:

* Simon Over, music director of Southbank Sinfonia

"Southbank Sinfonia is committed to ensuring that the world's most talented and promising players, destined to be the future caretakers of orchestra, are not lost from the profession in the difficult period immediately following their time at music college. Last year Cisco enabled us to bring together performers who might not have been able to audition previously, and its technology has opened up an exciting range of new possibilities. We're delighted to be working with Cisco again this year to help us establish Southbank Sinfonia as an important contributor to musical life in Britain and beyond."

* Phil Smith, Cisco vice president and chief executive for UK and Ireland

"Cisco believes that technology has the power to transform how the world collaborates and manages its environmental challenges. Businesses across the world are adopting TelePresence technology to do just that, but there are benefits for organisations of all types. Last year Cisco TelePresence opened the opportunity of auditions to young musicians, and this year we are building on that success. Cisco is thrilled to continue its work with Southbank Sinfonia and allow them to overcome the barriers of time, distance and cost whilst minimising its impact on the environment."

— WebWireID108134 —

Norton Ghost 15 is a robust and professional-grade backup solution for both home users and small businesses. With Norton Ghost, lost or damaged files can be recovered and restored in the event of a system failure, even if the computer's operating system does not start. It also allows backup of an entire system or specific files and folders while saving recovery points to offsite locations using FTP. Norton Ghost is also flexible, allowing users to decide when to back up their system, either on a schedule or based on an event.

'Norton Ghost has been the essential imaging and recovery product since 1996,' said Dave Cole, senior director of consumer products, Symantec. 'Consumers PCs have never been more central to people's lives, or more at risk due to cybercrime and critical failures. Ghost 15 not only is a powerful disaster recovery tool, but also it adds important features such as Windows 7 compatibility and Blu-ray Disc support to keep current with the way people are using their computers today.'

In addition, Norton Ghost works with both 25G and 50G Blu-ray Discs and most storage drives, including external hard drives, networked drives, and recordable and rewritable CDs and DVDs. It also includes a hot backups feature, which lets users back up their computers without having to shut it down first. Norton Ghost is also supported by Windows 7 Bitlocker, providing enhanced data protection through drive encryption and integrity checking, keeping stored data safe and protected.

Norton Ghost 15 now also includes cold imaging technology, which backs up files without installing the product, saving users time and money. After purchasing a new computer, users can image the PC immediately before any software is loaded so that factory settings remain intact. Also, cold imaging allows easy back up of a system by simply booting to the recovery environment (a light version of the Windows operating system) from the Norton Ghost CD, and then initiating a backup.

Backing up isn't just about saving files from accidental data loss; these days computers can fall prey to damage from cybercriminals. That's why Norton Ghost 15 leverages Symantec's ThreatCon, which uses intelligence from Symantec Security Response to automatically backup files whenever the landscape reaches a specific threat level.

Pricing and Availability

Norton Ghost 15 is now available worldwide for purchase through the Symantec Store at www.symantecstore.com, select retail locations and various online outlets for an estimated retail price of US $69.99. In addition, Norton offers other backup solutions including Norton Online Backup, which provides automatic protection for your important digital photos and files, and Norton 360, an all-in-one solution for protecting your PC and all your online activities.

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ARMONK, N.Y. IBM (NYSE: IBM) has introduced a consulting service to reduce the costs and environmental impact associated with managing property, equipment and business activities.

Sustainable Asset Analytics is designed to help clients manage real estate, supplier performance, carbon data collection and analysis, asset lifecycle maintenance, and all processes and systems used to support these activities. The service can be applied to everything from buildings to information technology and other office equipment to manufacturing tools and warehouse machinery to business travel.

Property, other assets and business activities of all types can be areas of waste and unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions. Culprits include poor planning and maintenance, inadequate energy management, the heating or cooling of unused space, and the inability to collect and analyze operational information. But by creating a comprehensive plan to manage and measure these activities and assets, clients can reduce energy and water use, lower greenhouse gas emissions and waste, and improve efficiency.

'Buildings alone are a source of huge waste and inefficiency, accounting for 70 percent of all energy use and 38 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S.,' said Rich Lechner, energy and environment vice president for IBM. 'Squeezing out that inefficiency and cost requires new 'smarter' technologies and business analytics.'

For example, by using a detailed carbon reduction strategy and implementation plan created with IBM for travel, property, information technology and procurement, the UK government's advisor on the English natural environment, Natural England, has reduced CO2 emissions by 25 percent toward a goal of 50 percent by next year.

Leading UK construction and regeneration group Morgan Sindall has engaged IBM for this offering. This engagement follows IBM's work performing a Strategic Carbon Management assessment for Morgan Sindall's operations.

Sustainable Asset Analytics draws on IBM's business analytics capabilities and consulting expertise to provide strategies and analysis for making real estate, facilities, capital projects and daily business activities sustainable for clients in the following areas:

* Property carbon footprinting
* Property carbon audit;
* Travel carbon footprinting;
* Project-based travel tracking and analysis;
* Workplace transformation;
* Consolidated real-time property-related data reporting;
* Product and service lifecycle carbon analysis;
* Data center management

Sustainable Asset Analytics is supported by a number of key IBM offerings, services, software tools and products, including:

* IBM Maximo Property Performance Management Solution software, which is designed to extract and consolidate key property data from across all of a client's real estate to help assess and manage true total cost of ownership and environmental performance for buildings and other tangible assets;
* The Green SigmaTM consulting offering, which is based on Lean Six Sigma methods, tools and advanced analytics to help clients measure and reduce energy and water use, waste and greenhouse gas emissions. After the data are collected and analyzed, the information is presented on a dashboard that allows the client to understand where consumption and waste are occurring;
* Strategic Carbon Management, which uses a Component Business Model approach to help analyze CO2 emissions and energy use in any part of a client's business or an entire operation. This allows the client to prioritize where to make changes that will lower environmental impact and reduce costs.
* IBM's strategic information management and analytics tool, Cognos, which is being integrated with many of our offerings in the sustainability arena: notably with both IBM Maximo and Green Sigma.This will allow powerful, flexible, customizable queries across the entire set of asset-related sustainability data.

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SAN FRANCISCO, CA, Visa Inc. (NYSE: V), a global payments technology company, today announced the opening of a new global data processing center in North America. Concurrently, Visa implemented several IT enhancements, chief among them the implementation of a new operating system that underpins VisaNet, its global transaction processing network.

Together, these technology investments further enhance the flexibility, reliability and scale of VisaNet, and increase Visa's ability to process the ever-growing number of increasingly complex electronic payments around the world, which now account for 33 percent of global consumer spending. [1]

* Greater reliability, capacity - The opening of the new center is a key milestone in Visa's multi-year technology upgrade, that results in Visa now having two synchronized, secure and reliable data centers in North America, each capable of carrying Visa's entire global payments volume in the event of a natural disaster or systems outage. Instant fail-over technology between Visa data centers around the globe ensures the 5-nine level of uninterrupted service that cardholders, merchants, governments and financial institutions have come to expect from Visa.
* New operating system - Developed in partnership with IBM, the system, known as zTM Transaction Processing Facility (z/TPF), is a 64-bit operating system that allows more information to be manipulated at once and perform more complex processing functions in milliseconds. Importantly, this paves the way for Visa to deliver new, information-intensive applications such as advanced fraud analysis, and mobile payments and services.
* Enhanced security - This centralized processing structure, combined with the new operating system, provides Visa with a comprehensive view into the global payment system, leading to high levels of intelligence around spending patterns, enabling Visa to provide a broad range of information-based services, and improving the company's ability to detect and prevent fraud in near real-time.

"Visa's commitment to continuous technology upgrades differentiates us from competitors and helps Visa play a key role in facilitating the migration to electronic payments. Few people recognize the critical role VisaNet plays in supporting our extensive brand acceptance, securing our products and facilitating payment innovation," said Mike Dreyer, Chief Information Officer, Visa Inc. "As we activate our second new data center in four years and complete a transition to the latest information technology, we are laying the foundation for the future of Visa payments and related services."

Data Center Expands Global Capacity, Flexibility

Located in the Eastern United States, Visa's new data center is a 370,000 square foot, state-of-art facility architected to support multiple authorization engines and process hundreds of millions of transactions each day. With more than 140,000 square feet of raised floor space the center houses some of the payments industry's most advanced payment processing services and is capable of handling more than 10,000 transaction messages per second.

Visa's new processing center completes a global network of four data centers on three continents connecting more than 16,000 financial institutions, and millions of merchants and processing partners through more than 1,600 network endpoints around the world. For the four quarters ended June 30, 2009, Visa's total volume was nearly $4.3 trillion dollars. With the growing worldwide migration away from cash and checks and towards electronic payments being fueled by new merchant acceptance locations, new products like mobile payments and prepaid, and new services like money transfer, and mobile alerts and notifications, the volume and complexity of Visa transactions are expected to grow.

New Operating System Boosts Visa's Processing Power

Beyond its new data center, Visa has also recently implemented a new operating system to enhance the processing capabilities of its authorization platform, the Visa Integrated Payment platform (VIP). Visa selected the new IBM System zTM Transaction Processing Facility (z/TPF), one of the most advanced operating systems in the world for handling transaction-based computing tasks. The system is specifically designed for ultra high capacity and high-availability, and for systems designed for rapid expansion needed to handle high peak periods or spikes of transaction activity.

Visa partnered with IBM on the implementation of z/TPF and provided input on key operating system features to ensure seamless integration with Visa's payment processing applications. Visa is the first large company to implement z/TPF.

"The ability to provide a business platform that delivers a predictable and dynamic environment for increased transaction volume is crucial to success in commerce today," said Mark Anzani, IBM VP and chief technology officer for System Z. "Visa has raised the standard for future transactions processing by tapping the reliability and security of the new Z10 mainframe and the power of the new z/TPF software to connect an ever-increasing number of merchants, banks and consumers."

Annual VisaNet Stress Test Sets New Record

The new data center began processing transactions immediately following Visa's annual "stress testing" of its network. The testing is designed to simulate extremely heavy transaction loads, well beyond those expected at the height of the holiday shopping season, which is Visa's busiest. [2]

The stress test, conducted in an IBM facility configured to match an operational Visa data center, confirmed that as currently configured, VisaNet is has more than sufficient capacity and processing power to support the busiest hour of the busiest day projected for the year, even if an entire data center was to go offline.

Annual Software Update

In October, as part of its semiannual software update, Visa completed the upgrade of its global payment platform, as well as introducing a number of advanced processing capabilities. For this latest update, Visa programmers, engineers and testers have invested more than 85,000 labor hours to create and incorporate upgrades to VisaNet. That includes the addition of several new currencies to the 175 for which Visa already processes transactions.

As with past updates, these significant system changes and improvements were made while VisaNet remained fully operational, ensuring that cardholders, merchants and financial institutions could continue to rely on Visa to process their transactions.

Visa's software updates improve the network in crucial areas such as security while continually adding the technology to support the growth and complexity of electronic payments. These include the development of information-based services that help financial institutions provide more value to their cardholders and increase loyalty; provide ways for businesses to use Visa to maintain greater control and transparency over card spending; and help governments deliver benefits with more efficiency and accountability.

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BOLOGNA, Italy. IBM (NYSE: IBM)announced today that its Research scientists are working with the Rizzoli Orthopedic Institute, in Bologna, Italy, to use information technology to better address treatment and research for rare genetic skeletal diseases.

Scientists from the two organizations are collaborating on a system called BioMIMS -- short for BioMedical Imaging Management Solution -- which integrates different types of medical data such as images, phenotype data, and genomic data. The system will enable advanced analytics on family trees that are dynamically created by the system to correlate between patients who show similar signs of the disease.

As scientists gain insight into genetic diseases at the molecular level, the critical role played by family history is becoming more apparent at all levels of treatment. However, until now, there has been no complete system for easily collecting, classifying and analyzing family histories for patients suffering from hereditary skeletal diseases like single and multiple exostoses. Unfortunately, most of this information traditionally sits in different hospitals and databases, and in different formats.

The new technology being developed by IBM and the Rizzoli Institute, will enable doctors to call upon all information related to a hereditary disease -- including genetic information, observations studied, and imaging data from the perspective of the treatment history for any family members -- so diagnosis and treatment becomes faster, less expensive, and more personalized. The project is scheduled to be completed in mid to late 2010.

The system will also build family history records, collect and classify, allowing research into advanced pedigree analytics. Because the disease is hereditary, it's critical to have access to data for all patients that are connected to the same pedigree. For example, when a child is being diagnosed, it's vital for physicians to see observations and clinical/genomic information from the parents, aunts, uncles, and other close relatives. The new system, from IBM Research - Haifa, will take the pedigrees and automatically assign them to groups based on common characteristics. These groupings have the potential to help doctors identify new research directions to better understand the correlation between genotype and the observable characteristics (phenotype) of the disease.

"BioMIMS will provide us with access to an invaluable collection of information so we can compare data to the records obtained from other patients and family members," noted Luca Sangiorgi, Manager of Medical Genetics at Rizzoli. "This holds the promise of significantly deepening our clinical knowledge about rare skeletal diseases, helping us diagnose and treat individual patients more accurately. Bridging the two worlds of information technology and healthcare will help lead the way towards new answers and new cures."

"This project demonstrates how new information technology solutions are allowing medical personal to make more accurate diagnoses and select treatment programs that have a much higher potential for success," noted Boaz Carmeli, manager of IT for healthcare and Life Science group at IBM Research Haifa. "Integrating information from various sources, and realizing the vision of interoperability and cooperation between healthcare organizations, is a surefire key to smarter healthcare solutions and better insight into the treatment of diseases."

The Rizzoli Orthopedic Institute is the second largest institute in the world for the study of rare skeletal diseases. Established in 1896 as a specialized hospital for orthopedics and traumatology, it evolved into a musculoskeletal center that distinguishes itself through pioneering clinical and research advancements. Physicians at the Institute see about 150,000 patients and perform about 18,000 surgeries annually.

IBM's track record of improving healthcare through scientific achievements and collaboration with healthcare companies dates back to the 1950s. In the last decade, IBM has developed a national digital mammography archive with the University of Pennsylvania; developed a clinical trial participant system with the Mayo Clinic; collaborated with Scripps to understand how influenza viruses mutate and proactively develop treatments; collaborated with European universities to develop better methods to decide on antiretroviral therapies for HIV; launched the World Community Grid, which has done projects on cancer, aids, dengue fever; and much more.

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MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq: INTU) is extending a helping hand to small businesses affected by the discontinuation of Microsoft Office Accounting, which will no longer be distributed after today.

The QuickBooks maker is providing a free conversion tool that will help former Microsoft users seamlessly transfer their small business accounting data to QuickBooks products.

The free QuickBooks Conversion Tool easily imports business data, balances and transactions so customers can continue running their businesses without missing a beat. It converts data from Microsoft Small Business Accounting and Office Accounting products through the 2009 versions into QuickBooks Pro, Premier, and Enterprise Solutions editions.

It can also convert Microsoft Office Accounting Express to QuickBooks Simple Start 2010. The tool includes a short and straightforward setup process, moving all data into a newly created QuickBooks file, leaving existing data untouched.

'We are committed to helping small businesses be as successful as possible,' said Kiran Patel, executive vice president and general manager of Intuit's Small Business Group. 'We know that many Microsoft customers will soon be looking for new accounting software so they can keep on top of their finances. The QuickBooks team will take them through the transition and help them streamline critical accounting tasks and connect to new online services as soon as possible.'
Assistance in Making the Transition

Intuit representatives are available at 1-866-676-9668 to assist Microsoft customers in making the transition and to provide advice on which QuickBooks product will best support their business. Further information is also available at: http://quickbooks.intuit.com/product/about-quickbooks/switch.jsp.

QuickBooks 2010 is part of a family of financial software and services from Intuit.

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Zurich, Switzerland. IBM (NYSE: IBM) scientists have created a one-step point-of-care-diagnostic test, based on an innovative silicon chip, that requires less sample volume, is significantly faster, portable, easy to use, and can test for many diseases, including one of world's leading causes of death, cardiovascular disease*. The results are so quick and accurate that a small sample of a patient's serum or blood, could be tested immediately following a heart attack, to enable the doctor to quickly take a course of action to help the patient survive.

View Images: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ibm_research_zurich/sets/72157622597913688/

Point of Care Diagnostics

As reported in Lab on a Chip, December 2009, Volume 9, Issue 23, IBM Research - Zurich scientists Luc Gervais and Emmanuel Delamarche, in collaboration with the University Hospital of Basel in Switzerland, have developed a new diagnostic test that uses capillary forces to analyze tiny samples of serum, or blood, for the presence of disease markers, which are typically proteins that can be detected in people's blood for diagnostic purposes. Capillary action force is the tendency of a liquid to rise in narrow tubes or to be drawn into small openings. An everyday example of a capillary action force can be viewed by dipping a paper towel in a cup of water - the microstructures in the paper fiber enable the towel to absorb the water.

"This point of care test has achieved the trifecta for medical staff in that it is portable, fast and requires a very small volume of sample," comments Emmanuel Delamarche, scientist, IBM Research - Zurich. "We are giving back precious minutes to doctors so they can make informed and accurate decisions right at the time they need them most to save lives".

IBM scientists have encoded the forces of capillary action on a microfluidic chip made of a silicon compound, similar to those used in computer chips, thus leveraging IBM's vast experience in developing and manufacturing silicon semiconductor wafers. The chip, which measures 1 × 5 centimeters, contains sets of micrometer wide channels where the test sample flows through in approximately 15 seconds, several times faster then traditional tests. Uniquely, the filling speed can be adjusted to several minutes when the chip requires additional time to read a more complex disease marker.

The microfludic chip, which is based on nearly three years of research and development, consists of a microscopic path for liquids with five innovative stages:

Stage 1: A one microliter sample, 50 times smaller than a tear drop, is pipetted onto the chip, where the capillary forces begin to take effect

Stage 2: These forces push the sample through an intricate series of mesh structures, which prevent clogging and air bubbles from forming

Stage 3: The sample then passes in a region where microscopically small amounts of the detection antibody have been deposited. These antibodies have a fluorescent tag and similar to the antibodies within our body, they recognize the disease marker and attach to it within the sample. Only seventy picoliters (a volume one million times smaller than a tear) of these antibodies are used, making their dissolution in the passing sample extremely fast and efficient.

Stage 4: The most critical stage is called the "reaction chamber" and it measures 30 micrometers in width and 20 micrometers in depth, roughly the diameter of a strand of human hair. Similar to a common pregnancy test, in this stage the disease marker that was previously tagged is captured on the surface of the chamber. By shining a focused beam of red light, the tagged disease markers can be viewed using a portable sensor device that contains a chip similar to those used by digital cameras, albeit this one being much more sensitive. Based on the amount of light detected, medical professionals can visually confirm the strength of the disease marker in the sample to determine the next course of treatment.

Stage 5: Less a stage and more a part of the entire process is the capillary pump. The capillary pump, which has a depth of 180 micrometers, contains an intricate set of microstructures, the job of which is to pump the sample through the device for as long as needed and at a regular flow rate, just like the human heart. This pump makes the test accurate, portable and simple to use. IBM scientists have developed a library of capillary pumps so that tests needing a variety of sample volumes or test times can still be done without having to re-engineer the entire chip.

Collaboration

True to IBM's strategy of open collaboration, scientists in Zurich tested their ideas with academic and healthcare partners. This research also would not have been possible without the generous support of KTI/CTI, an organization which fosters innovation in Switzerland.

"This microfluidic chip is the next step in the evolution of point of care devices. We look forward to working with the scientists at IBM Research - Zurich to develop this innovation even further," said Thierry Leclipteux, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Science Officer, Coris BioConcept.

IBM scientists designed the chip with flexibility in mind in both its form and uses. Due to its small size the chip can be embedded in several types of form factors, depending on the application, including a credit card, a pen or something similar to a pregnancy test. Besides diagnosing diseases, the test is also flexible enough to test for chemical and bio hazards.

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