Today Dell announced that they have reached an agreement to acquire firewall maker SonicWall.
“Dell’s distribution, reach and brand are well-recognized across the industry. This transaction aligns well with Dell’s mid-market design focus and allows us to accelerate growth of our flagship SuperMassive Next-Generation Firewall solutions with Large Enterprise customers,” said Matt Medeiros, president and CEO, SonicWALL. “Additionally, SonicWALL is recognized as a leading security solutions provider for small and medium businesses through our UTM solutions. Dell’s phenomenal breadth and reach into small and midsize companies provides a significant opportunity to expand our customer base.”
Dell seems to really be making a push into enterprise networking, however I am not sure if this acquisition improves their strategic plan that well. SonicWall although popular at the small and mid-size network levels has never really seemed to be all that welcomed at the large enterprise level.
I guess as they say “Only time will tell”.
The guys and gals over at iFixit have released their teardown guide for the new Motorola Droid 4. Take a look here.
If you are on a tight budget and can’t afford to build your own Cisco lab then head over to PacketLife.net. They have a community Cisco lab that is free. All you have to do is register for a free account, schedule an open time slot, and get to playing. Whether your are studying for your CCNA or just want to do some pre-project simulation this site is very useful.
Here is a list of their currently available lab hardware:
Block A
- 1x Cisco 2811 (with 2x WIC-2T)
- 2x Cisco 1841 (with 1x WIC-2T)
- 1x Cisco Catalyst 3560-24
- 1x Cisco Catalyst 3550-24 (with Inline Power)
- 1x Cisco ASA 5505
Block B
- 1x Cisco 2811 (with 2x WIC-2T)
- 2x Cisco 1841 (with 1x WIC-2T)
- 1x Cisco Catalyst 3560G-24 (with IEEE 802.3af PoE)
- 1x Cisco Catalyst 3550-24
- 1x Cisco ASA 5505
- 1x Cisco Aironet 1232AG
OCC (Overclockersclub.com) recently posted a new review of the new OCZ Vertex 3 240GB SSD. It is an excellent review that is worth a few minutes of your time. As the review author ccokeman points out the only real con of this drive is the cost at a staggering $559. I love high performance as much as the next guy but at that price per GB is the performance increase really worth it?
Read the review here
Panasonic has announced that they are releasing a 10″ Android powered Toughbook late this year. Details such as hardware specifics and price have not yet been released.
Ran across a good article on cnet about solid-state drives. The writer covers mainly the idea of longevity and reliability of solid-state drive technology.
Storage talk: Understanding your solid-state drive