Demand Sustains Growth for Storage Software

The worldwide storage software market experienced its 12th consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth in the third quarter of 2006 with revenues of $2.5 billion, a 10.7 percent increase over the same quarter one year ago. According to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Storage Software Tracker, storage replication was once again a major factor driving the sector’s growth.

“The market for storage software has performed very well over the past three years with the replication and archiving segments providing a lot of momentum,” said Rhoda Phillips, research manager for Storage Software at IDC. “IDC expects this trend to continue as companies focus on data retention requirements and business continuity needs, as well as storage consolidation and migration issues.”

Storage replication, one of the largest storage software markets, demonstrated year-over-year growth of 22.5 percent in 3Q06. Meanwhile, the smaller but fast-growing archive and hierarchical storage management (HSM) market posted a 30.8 percent year-over-year growth rate.

EMC led the overall market this quarter with 28.5 percent revenue share in the third quarter of 2006. Symantec took the second position with 17.6 percent revenue share, while IBM finished in the third position with 12.3 percent revenue share. Network Appliance finished in the fourth position with 9.4 percent revenue share. Again, CA and HP rounded out the Top 5 in a statistical tie with 5.3 percent and 4.9 percent revenue share, respectively.

Popular Search Queries and Trends of 2006

Google has posted its annual Zeitgeist, featuring lists and charts of the most popular and fastest-rising global search terms that people have typed into Google.com. Visit http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/zeitgeist2006.html to read all about what spurred people’s collective curiosity in 2006.

This year’s Google Zeitgeist reveals the following trends:

• What’s hot: The who, what and how of what’s being searched.

• Current events: Top searched scandals, political figures and global regions.

• Milestones: Most searched divorces, weddings, deaths and births of 2006.

• Entertainment: What movies and TV shows were hot this year.

• Sports: Top searched sporting events, who retired and whose jerseys were most sought after.

Survey Reveals Worst Photo-Taking Mistakes

As digital photography becomes more and more popular, lots of amateur photographers are attempting to record important events in their life rather than relying on professional photographers to shoot highlights of those moments. According to a survey of 1,065 Popular Photography & Imaging magazine (Pop Photo) readers, the two biggest mistakes amateurs make in taking pictures at celebrations are standing too far from the subject and not checking the background before shooting.

Twenty-nine percent of the readers surveyed cited standing too far from the subject as the biggest mistake followed by 25 percent who voted for not checking background before shooting. The third biggest mistake, according to Pop Photo readers, was using direct flash that causes “red eyes,” cited by 20 percent. Other mistakes noted were: Blurry, shaky shots — 10 percent; Too few photographs of each situation — nine percent; and Poor judgment while taking the photo — six percent.

Check That ESRB Rating, Please!

With school out for the winter holidays, loads of parents are buying video and computer games to keep the kids busy. But parents need to check both parts of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) rating system — age ratings and content descriptors — to help select age appropriate titles. Just as some movies are Rated R, some games are Rated M, because they are intended for Ages 17 and older.

The ESRB ratings are designed to provide information about video and computer game content, so consumers can make informed purchase decisions. ESRB ratings have two equal parts: Rating symbols suggest age appropriateness for the game, and over 30 content descriptors indicate elements in a game that may have triggered a particular rating and/or may be of interest or concern. To take full advantage of the ESRB rating system, it is important to check both the rating symbol (on the front of the game box) and the content descriptors (on the back of the game box).

The ratings are:

• Early Childhood (EC) — Titles rated EC have content that may be suitable for Ages 3 and older. Titles in this category contain no material that parents would find inappropriate.

• Everyone (E) — Titles Rated E have content that may be suitable for Ages 6 and older. Titles in this category may contain minimal cartoon, fantasy or mild violence and/or infrequent use of mild language.

• Everyone 10+ (E10+) — Titles Rated E10+ have content that may be suitable for Ages 10 and older. Titles in this category may contain more cartoon, fantasy or mild violence, mild language and/or minimal suggestive themes.

• Teen (T) — Titles Rated T have content that may be suitable for Ages 13 and older. Titles in this category may contain violence, suggestive themes, crude humor, minimal blood, simulated gambling, and/or infrequent use of strong language.

• Mature (M) — Titles Rated M have content that may be suitable for persons Ages 17 and older. Titles in this category may contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language.

• Adults Only (AO) — Titles Rated AO have content that should only be played by persons 18 years and older. Titles in this category may include prolonged scenes of intense violence and/or graphic sexual content and nudity.

For a complete list of and definitions for ESRB rating categories and content descriptors, please visit www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.jsp.

CERT Supercomputing Center Launched

The Center of Excellence for Applied Research and Training (CERT) in Abu Dhabi has launched the first On-Demand Supercomputing Center in the Middle East. Based on IBM’s Blue Gene System, the On-Demand Supercomputing Center will be used by CERT to enhance research and development capabilities in various sectors. Industries like oil and gas, banking and finance, life sciences, seismology and others will benefit from the huge amounts of computing power provided by the Blue Gene System equivalent to 5.7 Teraflops of processing power (equivalent to 5.7 trillion mathematical operations per second). Based on IBM’s Power architecture, the IBM eServer Blue Gene Solution System is optimized for bandwidth, scalability and the ability to handle large amounts of data while consuming a fraction of the power and floor space typically required by today’s fastest systems.

Partner organizations and clients to CERT will reap the benefits from accessing the new center. CERT is working with a number of independent software vendors in providing applications for the different industries to use and gain access through the on-demand environment available at the center.

For instance, CERT’s partner organization Tsunami Development will launch the Tsunami Seismic Imaging Software Suite available on the CERT’s Blue Gene for Oil and Gas clients to use in South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. Newly established AcuraGen, a specialist medical research company based in the UAE, India, and the United States, will tap into CERT’s Blue Gene and be able to conduct its research studies in oncology more efficiently. AcuraGen will also carry out contract research in drug discovery for its Life Science clients. Dubai Biotechnology and Research Park (DuBiotech) clients are also to have access to the Blue Gene resource at CERT.