HP has expanded its networking portfolio with new HP ProCurve offerings integrated with HP BladeSystem infrastructure solutions that enable customers to increase performance, security and management of both physical and virtual environments.

IBM has signed an agreement with Chi-X Global Technology LLC, the technology services unit of Chi-X Global Inc., whereby Chi-Tech will adopt IBM's high speed messaging technology in its exchange and market centre trading technology platform.

IBM has successfully developed a prototype of the semiconductor industry's smallest, densest and fastest on-chip dynamic memory device in next-generation, 32-nanometer, silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology that can offer improved speed, power savings and reliability for products ranging from servers to consumer electronics. IBM's SOI technology can provide up to a 30 percent chip performance improvement and 40 percent power reduction, compared to standard bulk silicon technology. SOI protects the transistors on the chip with a "blanket" of insulation that reduces electrical leakage, saving power and allowing current to flow through the circuit more efficiently, improving performance.

Sun Microsystems Inc. has launched key technology enhancements and rapid customer adoption rates across its Unified Storage systems portfolio that extend the performance and data protection capabilities of the Sun Storage 7000 family. New software features and up to 30 percent greater controller performance extend the power of the industry's fast-growing Open Storage effort.

Customers from a broad range of industries including Betfair, Grupo Elektra, MorphoTrak - SAFRAN Group, Postbank Systems AG, and XIUS-bcgi - a division of Megasoft, were amongst the dozens of organisations that evaluated and revealed their findings from beta testing Oracle Database 11g Release 2.

The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. ranked 15th on the 2009 InformationWeek 500. The results were revealed at the InformationWeek 500 Conference at the St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort in Dana Point, California. InformationWeek recognized The Hartford for its innovative use of Grid technology, which allows the company to run large and sophisticated calculations quickly by spreading the work across more than one thousand servers, equating to the computing power of over 5000 PCs. By harvesting storage from the Grid design, the company has addressed challenges such as costly storage, complex infrastructure management, and customer analytics.

Over the last six years Enabling Grids for E-sciencE (EGEE) has grown to become the world's largest multi-disciplinary Grid infrastructure, with tens of thousands of users. In Barcelona this month the flagship EC-funded project meets for its final annual conference. Next year will see the inauguration of EGEE's successor, the European Grid Initiative (EGI), and this pivotal gathering of the Grid community will allow for reflection on the successes of the project, as well as marking a major step forward on the path towards a nationally-focused sustainable Grid infrastructure, to benefit all European researchers for years to come. The transition from EGEE to EGI represents a welcome move from short-term project funding to sustained support on a national and international level, which will enable users to continue using Grid infrastructures - now and in the future.

Savvis, a global expert in outsourced Internet infrastructure services for the enterprise, has previewed its next-generation Cloud compute platform. Dubbed Project Spirit, the platform will power the industry's first enterprise-class Virtual Private Data Center (VPDC) with multi-tiered Quality of Service (QoS) capabilities.

The GridTalk project has launched its 8th GridBriefing at the Enabling Grids for E-sciencE (EGEE) conference in Barcelona. The report covers how information and communication technologies (ICTs), particularly computing Grids, are used in the health and biomedical sectors of European research. EGEE has supported this research community since the project's birth and it is the second largest user group after physics research.

At the annual conference of Enabling Grids for E-sciencE (EGEE) - the world's largest Grid computing infrastructure for research - two sessions showcased the latest developments aligning Grid and Cloud technology. 'Grids' and 'Clouds' are two paths open to researchers who want to use distributed computing. While industry has mostly concentrated on exploring so-called Cloud resources, academia has primarily invested in Grids. This has resulted in some differences in emphasis between the two, driven by the needs of these distinct but related user communities. From these differences - and from the similarities - lessons can be learnt by both communities.

Scientists have long known that molecules dance about as the temperature rises, but now researchers know the exact steps that water takes with a certain molecule. Results with small, electrically charged cyanide ions and water molecules reveal that water zips around ions to a greater extent than expected. The findings improve our understanding of a chemical interaction important in environmental and atmospheric sciences.

EADS Innovation Works, a global network of Technical Capability Centers operating the corporate Research & Technology laboratories - has recently benchmarked the HyperWorks CAE platform for functional and physical simulation tasks and has again recommended its use to the engineers of the EADS Group and its divisions Airbus, Eurocopter, EADS Astrium and EADS Defence & Security.

MECAPLAST Group, France, a European automotive supplier, has extended its use of HyperWorks to optimize its automotive products for weight and performance. Altair's CAE software family will be used within the Finite Element Analysis Department for the Body Skills Centre of the company, which is working closely with the Design Department and the Test & Validation Laboratory of MECAPLAST Group to evaluate technical specifications of its customers via simulation and to provide mechanical improvements toward a 'right-at-first-time' solution. In addition, the department is also working on the optimization of injection molded trim components taking into account tooling constraints.

Numerix, an independent provider of award winning cross-asset analytics for the structuring, valuation and risk analysis of derivatives and structured products, has launched Numerix Counterparty Risk Powered by CompatibL- its integrated solution for calculating potential future exposure (PFE) and credit valuation adjustment (CVA) for derivative portfolios - using a high performance Monte Carlo simulation engine based on the Numerix model library.