What You Need To Know Now…

Big Blue Pursues SMB Green
IBM still is a huge industry presence, and Big Blue appears to be entering the router game, unveiling several new “power systems” based on its POWER7+ processors. Targeting the entry-level and mid-sized enterprise arenas, the systems will help with the cutover to big-data and cloud products and services; pricing starts at $5,947. IBM claims its pricing is in line with that of Oracle and HP for competing hardware. The souped-up processors now can handle Cognos and SPSS for business and predictive analytics. Avnet, Arrow, Ingram Micro and TechData will distribute the gear, starting later this month.

Malone Faces Murdoch If Virgin Cable Talks Succeed
In what could be one of the few-and-far-between watershed transactions in the U.K., Liberty Global is going after cable-and-wireless provider Virgin Media and its nearly 6 million cable subscribers. It also represents a potential clash of the titans: pay-TV heavyweights John Malone and Rupert Murdoch. Says Adrian Drury, Ovum’s principal analyst, “Malone will bring the operational smarts from cable operations in 13 markets, multiterritory leverage with the major studios and sports federations plus its recently launched Horizon next generation pay-TV and multiscreen platform, now rolling out across its European operations. But it will be facing off against a jewel in the Murdoch empire. BSkyB, by any measurement, is one of the best-run pay-TV operations on the planet, with a strong technology platform strategy and some powerful content rights.”