Blow to Windows Home Server

Despite inking a $250 million partnership earlier this year to co-develop cloud computing systems, Microsoft and HP are going separate ways when it comes to home server technology, reports Information Week.

Microsoft this week confirmed that HP will discontinue its line of Windows Home Server-based MediaSmart systems, in favour of products that will run WebOS, which HP obtained as part of its $1.2 billion acquisition of Palm in August.

Losing the world's biggest PC maker as a channel is surely a blow to the Windows Home Server line, the report says, but Microsoft insists other partners will pick up the slack when it releases the next version of the software, known as Vail, next year.

New research from Microsoft has outlined why economies of scale have worked in server virtualisation's favour, notes One Stop Click.

According to the IT specialist, cloud computing allows even mid-market virtualisation solution adopters to benefit from this resounding economic principle that underpins the majority of modern business growth.

In its latest report on server virtualisation, entitled 'The Economics of the Cloud for the Public Sector,' Microsoft notes that simple economic forces - such as the rising cost of energy - is apparently helping large cloud computing providers capitalise on widespread cloud computing adoption.

Gartner says worldwide server shipments and revenue went up during the third quarter, while sales for Unix servers based on the RISC and Itanium architectures continued to slip, reveals PC World.

The research firm says worldwide server shipments totalled 2.2 million in the third quarter, growing by 14.2% compared to last year's third quarter. Server revenue was $12.29 billion, up 15.3% year over year.

Shipments of x86 servers went up 14.9% during the third quarter, while shipments of Unix servers based on the RISC (reduced instruction set computing) or Intel's Itanium architecture fell by 10.1%.