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Zulip, a collaborative chat system that can be integrated with many platforms and Web services (Twitter, GitHub, Trac, Zendesk, Puppet, Nagios, Bitbucket and Freshdesk among the others), has been released by Dropbox as open source code.

The announce was made a few days ago on Dropbox's Tech Blog, while on www.zulip.org the applications client-side (Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android), as well as the server side apps, can be downloaded.

The G8 version of the most famous HP microserver has a new appeal thanks to the ILO and two on-board network card interfaces.

HP’s eight generation microserver is an extremely interesting product for both system administrators and Msp looking for a compact, quiet, economic and flexible device that can be used in most situations.

It can be used as a Nas or as a server in small offices where there’s no place for a ‘datacenter’, or as an appliance to run firewalls, telephony switching services, mail server or other specific apps that does not require resources or high computing power.

The new G8 release eventually takes advantage of the more performant Intel platform and already has an onboard ILO dedicated to remote control, just like its big brothers of the Proliant line. Amongst the most appreciated changes there is the even more compact dimensions (almost 4 cm less in height) and the more easy access to RAM and the other internal elements. In the previous release, after opening the fore panel to access the motherboard, unscrewing two internal screws and unplugging all the cables, all of that while pulling it out, was necessary. Now there is no more need to unplug cables or to move the motherboard: unscrewing two screws on the back (a screwdriver is not needed) and lifting the top cover is enough. Easy and quick access to the two RAM slots (only DDR3 Unbuffered, exclusively ECC, 16GB max) and to the Pci Express slot (2.0 x16, low profile) is now granted, as well as the internal USB 2.0 port which is now coupled with a MicroSD slot (non hot-plug). The external connectivity is remarkable: two Gbit NICs, one NIC dedicated for the ILO, two USB 2.0 ports on the front and on the back, two USB 3.0 ports on the back that replace the previous e-SATA port (fast access to an external storage). Finally, a VGA port is available to connect an external monitor through the integrated Matrox G200 video card.

After last VMworld held in San Francisco, CA, on 31 August, VMware Italia has presented all the new features to the press of our country. Alberto Bullani, Country Manager, by introducing the main concepts of software defined datacenters, a topic that VMware has been harping on for years, seized the opportunity to talk about a new report concerning the employees' “digital skills”.

GURU Advisor: a new challenge

How many reviews have you read before booking your hotel room? And before buying your smartphone? You maybe relied on the brand, your own good sense or the the trust inspired by the seller when buying servers, infrastructure and services that you resell to your clients or use for your company, instead.

GURU advisor is a completely new project on both the Italian and the international scenario and arises because of the need to fill a gap. A lack -baffling, severe in some ways- of reviews, detailed information, opinions and points of view in a sector so important and rich like IT. An information that has to go beyond the surface, to aim at technicians, system integrators, IT managers, professionals that aren’t satisfied with a few technical sheets and pictures found on the Internet.

GURU advisor is and will remain completely free and accessible without registration. We’d like to let it remain free from traditional advertising, the one that pops up a banner on the article that you are reading or the one that changes the background of your newspaper in a car or insurance banner.
We’d like the attention to remain on contents and their quality. Who writes on these pages has experience, on the field, not just as journalist, but also as sysadmin, engineer and technician that daily deals with these activities.

Today the issue number zero of the magazine is online: it’s rich in content that spans on most of the topics we’d like to talk with you. You’ll also find a brief preview of some articles of the next number. You should just subscribe: you’ll then receive an email for each number and you’ll always remain up to date.

Note for the english readers: we're a little bit slower on publishing the articles in your language: today the main part of the magazine is written in italian and then translated in english, so it takes a little more time. We hope to improve that but for these early days please be patient.