Friday, June 9, 2017

World Vision appeals for donations to help displaced families in Marawi

Child-focused aid organization World Vision begins its relief operations after more than 200,000 people were forced to flee the city of Marawi in Mindanao.
 

Relief kits that contain hygiene kits and non-food items (mosquito nets, mats, blanket and malong or tube skirt) are already being distributed.
 
World Vision hopes to reach at least 10,000 people or 2,000 families. In the next days, child-friendly spaces will also be set up in two evacuation centres to provide psychological first aid to the children affected by the conflict.
 

To extend your help to the people displaced by Marawi crisis, visit www.worldvision.org.ph/help-people-marawi or call 372-77-77 for more information.

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Hitachi Content Platform Portfolio Transforms Cloud Infrastructure To Achieve Over 60% TCO Savings Versus Public Cloud

Press release

Enable Multi-Cloud Environment On Your Terms with Hitachi Object Storage Solutions 

Hitachi Data Systems (HDS), a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE:6501), announced major updates to the Hitachi Content Platform (HCP) portfolio, providing a path to digital transformation for enterprises while achieving significant cost savings over public cloud. The integrated portfolio offers the capability to increase profitability and productivity through cloud economics and by applying analytics to uncover new opportunities and insights. It also can reduce risk by enhancing security, availability and data protection.

With this release, HCP gains a 400 percent increase in usable storage per cluster, 67 percent more storage node capacity via 10TB drives, a 55 percent increase in objects per node and simplified software licensing so customers can achieve over 5x lower storage costs than public cloud, which leads to over 60% TCO savings than public cloud for enterprise use cases. 

“Once again, we’ve raised the bar for object storage with our uniquely integrated Hitachi Content Platform portfolio. Hitachi Content Platform provides the ideal ecosystem to support customers’ existing content-centric applications and newer cloud use cases and workloads simultaneously. It also provides a central way for customers to securely incorporate hybrid cloud storage on their terms to react faster to change and to optimize costs.” -- Peter Sjoberg, Chief Technology Officer, Cloud and Mobility, Hitachi Data Systems

The HCP portfolio is a unique end-to-end solution that eliminates silos; promotes collaboration; enables governance and compliance; provides safeguards for sensitive data; automates management in private, hybrid and multicloud environments; and surfaces insights through sophisticated search and analytics. The HCP portfolio includes Hitachi Content Platform for software-defined object storage; HCP Anywhere for file synchronization and sharing and data protection capabilities; Hitachi Data Ingestor (HDI), an elastic-scale cloud file gateway; and Hitachi Content Intelligence, where rapid insights emerge from your data.

“At MCIS, Inc., we are a healthcare information technology company dedicated to delivering and managing innovative products and services. As a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Marshfield Clinic Health System (MCHS), MCIS products and services deliver better outcomes at lower costs across the system. Hitachi helped us decrease costs with the Hitachi Content Platform portfolio’s native, self-healing capabilities, which removed the need for traditional backups. We’ve expanded with Hitachi to include other medical imaging sources and as a replacement of traditional backups for large static datasets within MCHS. The flexible security, multi-tenant support, and built-in encryption, combined with other products from the Hitachi Content Platform portfolio, have also allowed us to realize true cost savings by enabling us to repurpose existing primary storage capacity, deferring budgeted upgrades and delaying new purchases.” -- Tim Buss, Vice President, Infrastructure Services and Chief Technology Officer, Marshfield Clinic Information Services (MCIS)

“Klinikum Wels-Grieskirchen is committed to leveraging innovative IT solutions to provide the best healthcare to our patients. Over the past four years, Hitachi Content Platform has consistently delivered value as a highly scalable cloud-based clinical repository that can integrate with any clinical system. Furthermore, the healthcare data stored on HCP is readily available, which has drastically improved the speed and quality of our response to patient emergencies. We are excited about the addition of Hitachi Content Intelligence to the HCP product portfolio based on the potential to use sophisticated analytics to accelerate diagnoses.” -- Elmar Flamme, CIO, Klinikum Wels-Grieskirchen

“The challenges surrounding unstructured data growth has triggered a renaissance in object storage; both on-premises and in the cloud. The key to next-generation data management lies in collecting the high quality metadata needed to provide enhanced data visibility, automation and policy-based management regardless of where the data may physically reside. The economics of storage are evolving, and the smart move may be to start with an on-prem object storage framework that best matches company needs and is extensible to public cloud options; rather than the other way around.” -- Steven Hill, Senior Storage Analyst, 451 Research

Hitachi Content Platform Updates
As traditional organizations transform to compete with companies born in the digital era, they need a cloud-driven infrastructure for greater agility. With this release, HCP gains a 400 percent increase in usable storage per cluster, 67 percent more storage node capacity via 10TB drives, a 55 percent increase in objects per node and simplified software licensing so customers can achieve over 5x lower storage costs than public cloud alone. Customers can also take advantage of enhanced multipart file transfers to speed performance of large file uploads, downloads and range reads for Amazon cloud storage applications. APIs have also been enhanced to give organizations greater visibility to analyze the performance and health of their infrastructure.

For today’s always-on IT environments, HCP offers several reliability, availability, security and flexibility improvements. HCP adds geo-distributed erasure coding for multisite deployments, resulting in lower capacity overheads, reduced total cost of ownership (TCO), and faster rebuilds. Corrupted files are restored from storage across geographies, rather than from redundant sites, which maintains availability during adverse events, such as a large-scale outage. HCP users may choose the right  combination of data protection options including local and geographically distributed erasure coding, RAID and replication based on their business, regulatory and performance requirements. This release also includes a variety of customer-driven enhancements to further extend existing serviceability and monitoring capabilities. To provide customers with even greater flexibility, HCP has added KVM Hypervisor support to further improve the total cost of ownership and extend software-defined capabilities. To address security-conscious customer needs, HCP has added a dedicated management port that isolates user and administrator network traffic for an added level of security.

Hitachi Data Ingestor Updates
With Hitachi Data Ingestor, organizations can greatly reduce risk, cost and complexity of providing IT services to geographically dispersed locations and cloud users. New features include multipart file transfers to HCP for faster uploads of large files such as videos. Other enhancements include: easier resolution of content sharing conflicts, universal file migration improvements that boost performance, and updated cryptographic hash algorithms to further protect data. 

Hitachi Content Platform Anywhere Updates
This announcement builds on HCP Anywhere updates announced last month to enable organizations to advance their digital workplace experience in a way that incorporates existing content repositories; delivers next-generation file sharing, collaboration and data protection capabilities; simplify searches; and provides APIs to design new workflows and customize the user experienceFor additional details, the full release is availablehere.

Hitachi Content Intelligence
Announced in November 2016, this search and analytics solution is the latest addition to the portfolio which allows organizations to exploit the value of their data. The Hitachi Content Platform portfolio is the only offering that allows organizations to bring together object storage, file sync and share, cloud storage gateways, and sophisticated search and analytics to create a tightly integrated, simple and smart cloud storage solution.  For additional details the full release is available here.

Enrico Signoretti, Head of Product Strategy at OpenIO, in a March 2017 Gigaom report called Sector Roadmap: Object storage for enterprise capacity-driven workloads, wrote the following: “The HCP (Hitachi Content Platform) is one of the most successful enterprise object storage platforms in the market. It has more than 1700 customers, with an average cluster capacity between 200 and 300TB. … Alongside the hardware ecosystem, HDI (remote NAS gateway) and HCP Anywhere (Sync & Share) stand out for the quality of their integration and feature set.”

Hitachi Data Systems is a sponsor at the Cloud Expo, June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City.

Learn More. Join the Conversation.




Sunday, June 4, 2017

The #NBAFinals are Set to Tip Off on Twitter

Press release

The #NBAFinals are Set to Tip Off on Twitter

2 June 2017, MANILA - The matchup is set. The @Cavs and @Warriors will be featured in a third consecutive installment of the #NBAFinals. Cleveland’s LeBron James (@KingJames), Kevin Love (@kevinlove) and Kyrie Irving (@KyrieIrving) take on Golden State’s Stephen Curry (@StephenCurry30), Klay Thompson (@KlayThompson) and Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) for the Larry O’Brien Trophy. 

Join the Conversation
The best and fastest way to join the live conversation and connect directly with the teams and fellow fans is to search for and Tweet with #NBAFinals. Make sure to follow @NBA and @ESPNNBA to keep up with the latest happenings along the way.

To help bring NBA Finals Tweets to life, Twitter partners with the NBA with a special Twitter emoji. Fans Tweeting with #NBAFinals throughout the series will automatically render an emoji of the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy. Fans of the Cavs and Warriors can also Tweet using #DefendTheLand (Cavaliers) and #DubNation(Warriors) for special team emojis.

Twitter has also created eight NBA Finals Twitter Stickers: 2 NBA Finals (championship ring and replica of Larry O’Brien trophy) and 3 each for the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors (team jersey, team headband and foam finger with team logos).

#GoLive during the NBA Finals
“The Warmup”, which streamed live exclusively on Twitter this season, will go live with special shows before each NBA Finals game. The programs, co-hosted by sports and entertainment commentator Ben Lyons(@iamBenLyons) and emcee, DJ and sports personality Ro Parrish (@RoParrish), feature a blend of the NBA, lifestyle, music, and pop culture talk. The first #NBAFinals edition begins June 3 at 12:00 AM Manila time atthewarmup.twitter.com. Fans can also tune-in postgame press conferences live on Twitter and Periscope for the first time ever after each game via @NBA.

Twitter data
There is no shortage of star power during the NBA Finals, so who are fans talking about most? This graphic from@TwitterData looks at mentions of the @Cavs and @Warriors top stars since the playoffs began.

And while there are a ton on shining stars, it all comes down to the best team. It’s a close call with two great teams, but here’s who fans think will be NBA Finals champions.




Saturday, June 3, 2017

adidas x Parley Run For The Oceans

During June 5th - 11th 2017, the adidas x Parley collab is asking runners from around the world to join the fight against ocean plastic, by taking part in a digital run, through Runtastic.

Everybody can become an ambassador for the oceans and join the global movement by taking part in the digital run. Between June 5th and 11th, runners from around the world will virtually unite to show their commitment to ocean health, one mile at a time. 

As you run, you can listen to a dedicated Story Run and learn about the ocean’s delicate ecosystem, the Parley AIR strategy, and how you can all be part of the solution

Runners can contribute their mileage and help spread the message by registering for the free digital run. Those who register and run at any time during this week, accumulate miles and can see how those miles are adding up to the ones run by all runners around the world joining the movement.
 
Join us on June 5, at 5:00 PM, converging point at adidas BGC, Two Parkade, as we jumpstart our contribution for the ocean together, and harness the power of sport to raise awareness and inspire positive action.
 
Show your commitment and wear blue. We also encourage you to bring your headsets if you want to listen to the Run for the Oceans Story Run.

For more updates, follow this blog and like L.E.N.S. blogs on Facebook.

Friday, June 2, 2017

ADIDAS ORIGINALS CELEBRATES THE CAMPUS SHOE WITH A NEW CAMPAIGN: NO TIME TO THINK

Press release

- adidas Originals celebrates the Campus shoe: the most raw and authentic, classic icon  -
- Introducing the new faces of the Campus shoe, the fearless cast behind
the No Time to Think Campaign –
- adidas Originals connects with the downtown culture to inspire creative intuition -

Manila, Philippines – adidas Originals is celebrating its most raw and authentic classic icon, the Campus silhouette. A shoe that was claimed for the street from sport, the suede style with the 3-Stripes mark embodies a fearless spirit. Connecting to the creative intuition of the downtown scene, Originals collaborates with Blondey McCoy, Na-Kel Smith, Tavia Bonetti and Tiffany Lighty to celebrate the brave, bold attitude of the Campus shoe in the No Time to Think campaign.

No Time to Think was inspired by the downtown scene of New York in the early 90’s, a time defined by an intuitive approach to creativity, and made up of creative trailblazers. As a group, they set the pace for identifying what it means to be original, removing all inhibitions and acting out of pure instinct. Turning to a new creative set, who are linked to the downtown scene and skate culture, Blondey, Na-Kel, Tavia and Tiffany represent the faces of the Campus shoe. Photographer Kenneth Capello, a fixture to the downtown scene himself, captures the free-spirited, fearless intuition of this cast of creators in their natural habitat. Turning to a crew who are always doing it their way, this group identifies with the raw, honest attitude of the street today.

Since being introduced in the 1980’s, with its roots in sport, the Campus shoe became the coveted shoe off the basketball court. Debuting in a bold palette of burgundy and green, the shoe was a favourite amongst the emerging downtown creative scene. Today, the Campus shoe continues to embody the original raw, authentic and straightforward attitude, but re-imagined with a new relevancy. The classic trefoil logo is celebrated with a new narrative, encouraging a new community to act without hesitation and to not think twice.


The still image and video campaign premieres globally with footwear launching June 15th at adidas locations worldwide and on http://shop.adidas.com.ph/originals/campus.html The Campus footwear range retails from P4,795 to P5,495, depending on the style, and are available at leading adidas stores and retailers.

Thursday, June 1, 2017

ADIDAS ATHLETICS UNVEILS Z.N.E. ZERO-DYE HOODIE

Press release

-          Z.N.E. Zero Dye Hoodie is latest product from range that inspires athletes to find focus on what really matters
-          - Latest product from Athletics range created using zero dye process which reduces water waste -

- Leading athletes including Paul Pogba, Tori Bowie and Coco Shilin debut garment -

Philippines – adidas Athletics has just released its latest product offering, the Z.N.E Zero-Dye Hoodie. Like the rest of the adidas Athletics range, the Z.N.E Zero-Dye Hoodie is designed to provide premium comfort and help athletes find focus as they go from the street to the game.


The range is created using a no-dye process, which saves resources by using materials in their natural colour. By using this technique the athletics range wants to reflect the purity and vision athletes harness when entering the zone. “Find Focus On What Really Matters”, the new tagline used in the campaign, extends the concept of finding focus, making athletes conscious, not only of their performance, but the environment that surrounds them.

Leading adidas athletes, including the likes of Paul Pogba, Tori Bowie and Coco Shilin have been wearing the Z.N.E Zero Dye range, which are available at adidas Greenbelt, TriNoma, and Fort. ZNE Hoodie retails at 3,995, while the Shorts retail at 2,995.

To learn more, visit adidas.com.ph/athletics_zne. Follow @adidasPH / #adidasPH on Twitter and Instagram and use the hashtag #findfocus to join the conversation.