Roundup: HP, Level 3, EMC

Here’s a roundup of some of some of this week’s headlines from the data center and hosting industry:

HP completes 3Com acquisition.  HP (HPQ) announced it has completed the acquisition of 3Com Corporation at a price of $7.90 per share in cash or an enterprise value of approximately $2.7 billion. 3Com stock (COMS) jumped from $5.69 per share to $7.46 after the acquisition announcement and remained below $8. HP is planning on folding in the 3Com switching, routing and security offerings with existing HP ProCurve solutions, with complete integration announcements to come at a later date.  The 3Com H3C S9500E Series was named as a finalist in the 2010 Best of Interop - Infrastructure category.

Level 3 to demonstrate 3D streaming. Level 3 Communications (LVLT) announced its collaboration with Microsoft to deliver live and on-demand high definition, three-dimensional streaming for both PC and television using the Level 3 content delivery network(CDN). The technology will be demonstrated at the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) show in Las Vegas this week.  The 3D content delivered over Level 3's CDN will use Microsoft Silverlight and can be delivered via HDMI to the new generation of 3D TVs and viewed with Polarized or Active Shutter glasses.  "This technology opens up a world of content to 3D streaming and offers new possibilities for event delivery starting as early as this year - major live sporting events or concerts streamed right to your television or computer in 3D," said Peter Neill, senior vice president of Content Markets at Level 3.  On Friday Level 3 announced major upgrades to its Vyvx VenueNet infrastructure, in time for the start of U.S. professional football and hockey seasons.

EMC unveils deduplication array.  EMC Corporation announced the EMC Data Domain Global Deduplication Array (GDA), the industry's fastest inline deduplication storage system for enterprise backup applications.  The GDA is based on a new multi-controller extension of the Data Domain architecture which offers a global namespace for all data stored in the dual controller system. The array provides up to 14.2 petabytes of logical backup capacity and throughput of 12.8 terabytes per hour.  That throughput enables up to 270 concurrent backup jobs access to the GDA. Brian Babineau, Senior Consulting Analyst with Enterprise Strategy Group said "with their Data Domain Global Deduplication Array, EMC has far exceeded the inline deduplication performance benchmark it set with its previous top-of-line Data Domain system, but more importantly, the company has given customers a way to protect more of their data in a shorter period of time."  The EMC Data Domain Global Deduplication Array will be generally available in the second quarter of 2010.