This simple little rackmount lockbox can mount on any relay rack or server rack for quick access to the little things techs need on site. Box is 9 inches deep with a locking hinged door for security. Take a look at it by clicking here. I think you will like it! Helpful hint from Rackmount Ranger.

Dell, Hewlett-Packard and IBM are among nine companies IDC has recognized as meeting its Green Recycling and Asset Disposal for the Enterprise—or, G.R.A.D.E—certification. GE Capital, Redemtech, Intechra, Converge, Insight Enterprises and TechTurn complete the list.

The research company recognized that thousands of companies were involved in various aspects of the collection, treatment and marketing of retired IT assets, but that the young ITAD (IT asset disposal) industry needed a set of standards—particularly as enterprises, looking for third parties to help them phase out old hardware, face government regulations, fear of data breaches and environmental concerns. Click here for the rest of the article.

Hitachi Data Systems today announced the release of three new software products to provide enhanced monitoring of business applications, virtualized servers and the storage they use.

Hitachi said the products address a new market for the storage systems and software provider: a holistic view of everything that an enterprise uses to connect to its storage systems. The products will also work with competing vendors’ systems. Click here for the rest of the article.

McKinsey, the doyen of strategy consultants, published a report on cloud computing last week featuring a disguised real-world case study. While the report doesn’t explicitly state the fact, it seems that the paper is a summary of the results of a strategy project with a financial services firm, which apparently engaged McKinsey to assess whether it would make sense to move all of its systems to Amazon Web Services. Click here for the rest of the article.

The recent IT Roadmap conference in Chicago began with Jim and two other analysts on stage being asked questions by John Gallant. Given the current economic conditions, the question and answer session focused on cost savings. One of the questions posed to Jim was, “Should IT organizations be looking to implement virtualization as a means of saving money?” Jim’s answer was yes, but only if they realize the impact that virtualization has on the WAN, on management, and on application delivery. Click here for the rest of the article.

Brocade has extended an OEM relationship with IBM to include its recently acquired Foundry switches in a deal that appears to be in retaliation for Cisco’s recent entry into the blade server market.

IBM will rebrand and sell Brocade’s Foundry switches through its global sales force and authorized business partners. The switches include: Click here for the rest of the article.

Verizon Communications continues to produce financial results that contradict the notion that the economic recession is affecting telecom. The telco reported first-quarter earnings that included a 5.3 percent increase in net income to $3.21 billion and a revenue increase of more than 11 percent to $26.6 billion. Wireless growth, including benefits from the company’s acquisition of Alltel, continued to drive overall growth. The company added 1.3 million wireless subscribers during the first quarter, topping AT&T wireless customer additions of 1.2 million, which reportedly surprised many analysts. Click here for the rest of the article.

Servers and storage services take up a “significant portion” of most IT department budgets, according to Info-Tech Research Group.

The London-based firm has released a report outlining specific techniques IT managers can use to reduce server and storage costs and improve the performance of technologies already in place. Click here for the rest of the article.

Sunnyvale (CA) – AMD updated its server processor roadmap with several surprises. The new monolithic six-core Opteron version, code-named Istanbul, will be introduced in June. We will also see a new integrated memory controller technology, 12-core processors in 2010 and a 16-core CPU in 2016. Click here for the rest of the article.

Oracle’s announcement earlier this week of its intended acquisition of Sun ends months of speculation. Who would have expected Oracle to become a server and storage hardware vendor?

Of course there are some that wonder if Oracle will hold onto all that gear.

“There is speculation on what Oracle will do with Sun hardware: Keep them, sell them off, invest in them or let them fade away,” said Greg Schulz, an analyst with StorageIO Group (Stillwater, Minn.). “I smell concern for Sun storage and server customers and opportunity in the near term for Dell, EMC, IBM, HP and NetApp.” Click here for the rest of the article.