Whitepapers

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Server virtualization and cloud computing are changing the face of enterprise computing today. Virtualization enables more efficient use of IT resources and greater levels of IT agility and control. Cloud extends these benefits, allowing IT organizations to reduce their infrastructure complexity, ease staff workload, and more rapidly scale compute resources. Together, these technologies enable organizations to better meet organizational demand and provide greater agility for the enterprise.

Unfortunately, most current network technologies were not developed with the needs of virtualization and cloud computing in mind, and as a result, the network can become a bottleneck to cloud and virtualization deployments. Static topologies require manual intervention to deploy and migrate virtual machines (VMs), which adds cost and burden to IT and hinders the organization's ability to respond quickly to changes in the environment.

OpenFlow is an open source networking architecture that is supported and promoted by the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) and designed to address these shortcomings. An extension of Ethernet, OpenFlow separates the data path and control path, with all networking logic and policies handled by a separate controller. This introduces a new layer of abstraction in networking, analogous to server virtualization, and enables the network to act as a single fabric.

With OpenFlow, the network acts as one "big switch." All logic occurs in software and can be changed as application and network requirements change, allowing for instant and automatic propagation of new policies throughout the network, simplification of network management, and dynamic partitioning of the network to easily handle multitenant environments or traffic segmentation needs as one would using VLANs.

Company Profile

Schawk, Inc., the world leader in digital imaging graphic services to the consumer products packaging market, provides all prepress services for its Fortune 500 packaging clients. The global company, headquartered in Des Plaines, Ill., provides a host of services to packaging, advertising and promotional markets. It counts consumer product giants Unilever Bestfoods North America and Pepperidge Farm among its clients, along with household names like The Discovery Channel. Schawk Stamford excels in the breakneck world of consumer packaging, where global brand consistency is a necessity and speed to market is the driving force.

Challenge

The Stamford, Conn., facility of Schawk Inc. was poised to make the transition from an analog to computer-to-plate prepress workflow to accelerate the development of vibrant new packaging and speed client products to market. Schawk needed an accurate digital proofing system that could maintain the highlevel quality standards and custom colors critical to consumer package printing.

Solution

Schawk’s Stamford division chose EFI Colorproof™ with Best™ technology for color-accurate contone proofing, and EFI Screenproof™ for content and color accurate halftone proofing.  

Results

The proofing solutions enable Schawk Stamford to speed client products to market using lower-cost, digital proofs that accurately match press output. They’ve helped Schawk cut job turnaround time, increase productivity, reduce material costs and eliminate color variations and errors derived from human intervention, providing Schawk Stamford with the right colors and savings too! 

Introduction

In today’s business environment, customers rely on the most efficient, high performing, and reliable backup systems to protect critical business information, such as Microsoft® Exchange. Customers need to protect increasing levels of data while keeping costs under control. HP StoreOnce Backup systems provide a disk-based data protection platform while addressing data growth by applying HP StoreOnce deduplication software for efficient, longer term data retention.

The HP StoreOnce B6200 Backup system, the latest deduplication appliance in the HP StoreOnce product line, provides a unique combination of features, including industry-leading performance (up to 100 TB/hr), high-vailability, and high-capacity making the HP StoreOnce B6200 Backup system the industry leader in the enterprise deduplication sector. 

HP StoreOnce Catalyst software was developed to dramatically improve the performance, function, and integration of backup applications such as Symantec NetBackup. HP StoreOnce Catalyst delivers deduplication on an appliance server, media server, or dedicated appliance. Since it uses the same deduplication algorithm globally, data can be moved between platforms without rehydration.HP StoreOnce Catalyst allows better utilization of advanced, disk-based storage solutions while increasing efficiency and performance.

This document describes the benefits of using HP StoreOnce B6200 Backup systems combined with HP StoreOnce Catalyst software and Symantec NetBackup to backup Microsoft Exchange data. This document also recommends backup and recovery implementations.

Transforming Communications

Harnessing the Power of the Data Explosion

We live in a world transformed by data. The opportunities available to businesses and their customers for increased levels of engagement and understanding are exponential but at times overwhelming. Organizations struggling to harness this deluge of data can find themselves spending unnecessarily on duplicate mailings to the same household or missing opportunities to engage more cheaply and efficiently online. Customer experience may be hurt by brand inconsistency across channels and internal silos that impede resolution of service issues. And incremental revenue is often left on the table when cross-sell and upsell opportunities are either disconnected or poorly aimed.

For businesses operating in a regulated environment, the challenges of the data explosion are even more complex. Industries like financial services,telecommunications and healthcare must comply with ever increasing regulation, along with privacy and data protection laws that vary from one geography to the next. Disparate standalone databases and fragmented processes for creating and delivering content make managing compliance across a myriad of customer touchpoints both a significant and risky undertaking.

However, for progressive organizations, the pressures of regulatory compliance coupled with the challenges of today’s data overload can actually be a springboard to more effective multichannel communications. 

The same single customer view (SCV) with cross-channel integration that enables the operational control and accuracy essential for compliance is also the key to effective, data-driven marketing. The benefits for businesses that execute well can include lower cost, improved revenue and increased customer satisfaction. With increased regulation now mandating standard operating procedures for many companies, some have posed that the ability to deliver an outstanding customer experience within regulatory constraints can actually become an important differentiator.

This will certainly be true in healthcare, where a perfect storm of regulation, pressure to cut costs and the need to control prices is forcing health insurers to look for new ways to interact with their members. And forthe telecom industry, where year-over-year churn can run as high as 30%, the ability to deliver a personalized experience across the consumer lifecycle—activation, billing, problem resolution—becomes critical to decreasing churn.