Next-generation smart phones and tablets will run multiple operating systems and powerful cloud applications like high-definition gaming thanks to the growing use of virtualization on mobile devices, experts said this week. A new generation of mobile devices containing faster processors could help applications run faster, while virtualization could help consolidate applications without wasting resources, said Linley Gwennap, principal analyst at Linley Group, during the Linley Tech Processor conference in San Jose, California. Virtualization has already been widely adopted in data centers, where the technology has helped consolidate servers and cut energy costs. The technology is now having an impact on handheld devices such as smart phones, helping run critical tasks in real-time and securing disparate software environments.

Intel Corp., the world’s largest chipmaker, agreed to buy McAfee Inc. for about $7.68 billion to expand in security software.

The word is that Google will be taking advantage of the Google I/O conference--Google's largest developer event of 2010--to unveil Google Storage for Developers. The cloud-based data storage service pits Google against similar services such as Amazon's S3, but with a specific focus on developers. More than 5,000 developers are gathering at San Francisco's Moscone Center this week for Google I/O--featuring 80 sessions and over 100 demonstrations from developers showing off next-generaton Web, mobile, and enterprise applications built on Google platforms. That makes Google I/O an ideal forum for announcing Google Storage for Developers.

Mid-sized enterprises are more likely than smaller and larger enterprises to adopt data center technologies like virtualization and cloud computing, but other issues are taking precedence in companies as they deal with tight budgets and staffs, according to Symantec Corp. The company has released its 2010 State of the Data Center Report, finding that mid-sized data centers (those with 2,000-9,999 employees) are adopting cloud computing, deduplication, replication, storage virtualization and continuous data protection at 11-17 percent higher rates that other data centers.

A new computer server from Iceotope has modular liquid-cooled components which the company says can help cut a data center’s cooling costs by 93 percent. The product is geared toward companies that want to upgrade existing, traditional air-cooled data centers, which Iceotope says can consume 30 percent or more of a data center’s electricity costs, according [...]

Symantec Corp., an infrastructure software provider, is achieving significant business cost and productivity benefits including a projected energy cost savings of $2.1 million thanks to its ongoing “green” IT efforts. The cost savings is attributed to hardware device reduction and related power consumption savings from August 2007 to December 2010. Symantec hired Alchemy Solutions Group to [...]