reduction

Reductive Labs nails $2 million in funding--Q&A

Reductive Labs, creator of the popular open-source IT automation project Puppet, has raised $2 million in Series A funding from True Ventures, the firm that also invested in (then) open-source marketing automation vendor Loopfuse.

Reductive plans to use the funding, which was announced Tuesday, to build out the functionality of Puppet, a move that won't win it any friends among competitors like Hewlett-Packard's OpsWare.

It's a good time for the company to be raising money. Counting such heavyweights as Google, Digg, Twitter, the New York Stock Exchange, Barclays Capital, Oracle, Sun Microsystems, Red Hat, Harvard Law School, … Read more

Cisco's missing data center acquisition

Cisco has been on a software acquisition spree this past year, acquiring Jabber, PostPath, and now Tidal Software, among others. But as Cisco goes after the data center with its new Unified Computing push, one open-source company should be on Cisco's radar screen: Reductive Labs, creators of the Puppet project, a framework for automating system administration.

Tidal is a performance-monitoring solution for data centers. It's a nice start, and a definite upgrade over Cisco's baseline Unified Computing management tools. But as Forrester senior analyst Glenn O'Donnell suggests, "Cisco is the new kid in town in … Read more

IBM job cuts hit applications services unit, says union

IBM issued 1,674 layoff notices to U.S. employees in its applications services business on Thursday, as part of a larger round of anticipated cuts to its Global Business Services unit, according to a national representative of Alliance@IBM, an affiliate of the Communication Workers of America, which is seeking to unionize IBM.

The applications services business is one of several areas in IBM's Global Business Services unit, a massive consulting arm that last year generated $19.6 billion in revenue for Big Blue. The Global Business Services unit also posted a 9 percent increase in its revenue. … Read more

Report: IBM to cut jobs in services unit

With the recession continuing its hold on the economy, IBM is reportedly preparing for another round of layoffs, according to a report Wednesday in The Wall Street Journal.

The cuts are expected to affect a large swath of U.S. employees in IBM's global business services unit, with a number of the jobs reassigned to workers in India, the Journal reported.

Talk of pending layoffs in IBM's services unit is making the rounds on Alliance@IBM, a Communications Workers of America affiliate attempting to organize IBM workers into a union.

On the Alliance@IBM site, two posts Wednesday … Read more

One Puppet to rule the cloud?

What with all the virtualization hype, one would think that virtual servers had the option of parting the Red Sea or walking on it.

While there's a great deal of promise in virtualization, there's also the peril of managing virtual servers, as Luke Kanies, founder of the Puppet project, points out in a blog post.

You have significant problems when you rely on golden images (i.e., virtual images complete with all necessary services): image sprawl, updating your images, and image state vs. running state...Maintaining these (virtual) images is more like managing a foil ball: it's … Read more

Open-source traffic is way up in 2008

Just when I think we've tapped out all possible open-source business opportunities, I hear of another open-source start-up. Or several.

This past week I've heard of a few new ones, or of others that have been around for a while but have yet to take venture money. Reductive Labs (puppet project), Cilk Arts, RiverMuse, and Watircraft are a few that I can mention publicly, but there are several more that are still in stealth. In two cases, a business hasn't been formed but some very interesting ideas are being kicked around.

Open-source venture investing may be down this past quarter, … Read more

Amazon.com has the Pentax K200D 10.2MP Digital SLR Camera with Shake Reduction (Body Only) for $499.99, after $99.96 savings.

Amazon.com has Pentax K200D 10.2MP Digital SLR Camera with Shake Reduction (Body Only) for $499.99, after $99.96 savings. >> Regular price is $599.95 >> Sale price is $499.99 >> Savings $99.96 (16.66%) >> Click here for deal

Nvidia cuts workforce 6.5 percent

Update at 10:45 p.m. with additional information throughout.

Responding to "business realities," Nvidia is cutting its workforce by over six percent.

Nvidia, the world's largest graphics chip supplier, on Thursday announced a workforce reduction of 6.5 percent "to allow for continued investment in strategic growth areas," the company said in a statement. "As a result, Nvidia expects to eliminate approximately 360 positions worldwide, or about 6.5 percent of the company's global workforce."

The company expects to record restructuring-related charges of approximately $7 million to $10 million in the … Read more

eBay to lower sellers' fixed-price fees

eBay will reduce the fees it charges to sellers to list fixed-price items, the online auctioneer is set to announce Wednesday.

The move, which will take effect September 16, is intended to help eBay compete better with online retail rivals such as Amazon.com, as well as reduce its dependency on auctions.

Under the new pricing plan, sellers who offer fixed-price items in eBay's "Buy It Now" format will pay only 35 cents to list an item for 30 days, a 70 percent reduction in upfront fees. The online auctioneer is also expected to announce that most … Read more

DxO revamps photo editing tools for Vista

LAS VEGAS--DxO has updated two photography programs, releasing DxO Optics Pro 4.2 with Windows Vista support and adding new options to its FilmPack 1.1.

DxO Optics Pro is a stand-alone application or Adobe Photoshop plug-in that lets users adjust color, correct lens geometry problems, reduce noise. The new version 4.2 is compatible with Windows Vista and adds a feature called SmartVibrancy that increases color vividness without throwing skin tones out of whack. The company announced the moves at the Photo Marketing Association trade show here on Thursday.

The company also is working on a DxO plug-in to … Read more