HP Leader in Disaster Recovery Services

HP is ranked as a global leader in providing disaster recovery services in the recently issued Forrester Research report, “The Forrester Wave: Disaster Recovery Service Providers, Q1 2006.” In the report, HP ranked highest for its fixed-site disaster recovery service strategy, which includes flexible contract terms that clearly define customer relationships, investments in infrastructure to capture new markets or incremental customers in existing markets, and bundling and pricing of services offerings. HP received high scores for its geographic breadth of coverage, its remote access support and its service providers. The report also cited HP for its packaged application deployment and operations experience.

HP delivers a full range of offerings, including business continuity solutions; highly available IT infrastructure and services; data protection and recovery solutions, security and disaster tolerance solutions. In regards to HP’s leadership in fixed-site recovery services, the Forrester report noted that HP offers both shared resource and managed recovery facilities in all global markets. In the shared-resource model, HP plans for the same equipment to be shared by a set of clients and manages the level of sharing to a ratio under an assumption that disasters almost never impact a large number of clients simultaneously. Managed recovery facilities provide a hybrid of shared resource and do-it-yourself recovery.

The Forrester report also noted that HP has been attracting many more customers to its fixed-site recovery services while aggressively building out infrastructure over the last three years. HP has invested $100 million in its disaster recovery services business and increased its number of individual sites from 46 to 62.

Biometric Security in New Dell Notebooks

Dell has introduced in EMEA the Latitude D620 and Latitude D820 — slimmer and lighter notebook computers featuring wireless broadband connectivity, biometrics security, extended durability and Intel Core Duo processors.

The starting weight for the Latitude D620 is 2kg and includes an Intel Core Duo processor with a wide aspect 14.1-inch WXGA display, 512MB shared DDR2 memory, 40GB SATA hard drive and 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi capability. A base configuration for the Latitude D820, starting weight 2.5kg includes an Intel Core Duo processor with a wide aspect 15.4-inch WXGA display, 512MB DDR2 shared memory, 40GB SATA hard drive and 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi capability.

Dell proactively worked with customers to develop features and design enhancements for these two products and major attributes of the Latitude D620 and D820 include:

• HyperConnected enables a true “work anywhere” work force, with users staying connected and productive regardless of where their business takes them. Pre-configured for 802.11n6, a wireless specification that is set to significantly increase throughput and range of current Wi-Fi-enabled hardware. The notebook’s Wi-Fi Catcher helps find wireless connections without turning on or booting up, and the Location Profiler makes it easy to configure settings for a variety of networks or locations.

• Smart Security helps IT managers provide appropriate system and network access while protecting sensitive data from illicit access. The notebooks include an integrated optional biometric fingerprint reader, Smart Card, Trusted Platform Module (TPM1.2) to provide choice to customers in ensuring authorized access to data. Users can easily enable and manage any or all of these security technologies with the Dell Embassy Trust Suite software application that is pre-loaded. Users can also locate missing notebooks and delete data remotely with embedded support for CompuTrace theft recovery and asset tracking software.

• RoadReady Quality Durability — RoadReady quality designates a durable design and rigorous testing to help ensure systems stand up to wear and tear for the long haul. The notebooks also come with sealed, spill-resistant keyboards and full-time hard drive protection. StrikeZone, metal-reinforced security slots are included standard on all models.

Users of the Dell Latitude D620 and D820 can configure either system with battery-saving Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 or high-performance NVIDIA Quadro NVS TurboCache graphics solutions. The new systems feature the Latitude three-year limited warranty with international next-business-day, on-site service.

User Verification With the Touch of a Finger

CryptoMetrics has announced the commercial release of its FingerSURE line of fingerprint biometric authentication products. FingerSURE integrates with biometric authentication devices to provide a comprehensive fingerprint biometric enhanced security solution. By leveraging Microsoft Active Directory, FingerSURE offers companies and their employees the ability to irrefutably validate identity while connecting to the corporate network by simply using their fingerprint. FingerSURE’s integration within the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) provides enterprise administrators a common and familiar administration tool for the management of the FingerSURE solution.