Israel Innovation 2.0

During the week of October 26, 2008, news continued out of Israel of the first lay-offs resulting from the turning economy. While companies such as AmDocs and Delver announced cut people, Check Point asserted that though its customers were being affected by the economy, the information security company wasn’t at the moment impacted enough by it to need to let go of any of its employees. The threat of Israel’s universities not opening this year was solved when Olmert ordered a NIS 515 million budget hike. Of course, this wasn’t the only news coming out of Israel this past week. For the full 15 Israel-related technology headlines, check below.

Cleantech
1. LucidLogix raises $18 million for parallel graphics processing technology

2. The Inaugural Israel Cleantech Tour to Arrive in California

3. Israeli cleantech start-ups head to the US to seek investment

4. Argonaut Increases Renewable Energy Interests with SolarReserve

Investments
5. Is The VC Vault Closing for Cleantech?

6. VC Drought? 70 Million Exceptions To The Rule

7. TC50 DemoPit Company Joongel Nets Investment for Stealth Product

8. $5.5 Million BlackBerry Fund Invests In Future Mobile Harvest

Information Technology
9. Will nanotechnology take over IT security?

10. MellanoxTechnologies Ranked Number 28 in Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50 Program for Silicon Valley Software and Information Technology Companies

11. Innovative data solution and remarkable funding rounds help secure nomination as ‘Best New Company of the Year’

12. Check Point Software CEO sees no layoffs

Miscellaneous
13. Digital billboards get a little creepier

14. Mich. may be hot spot for Israeli businesses

15. Higher education crisis ends as Olmert orders NIS 515 million budget hike

About the author: Lisa Damast is the Membership Manager of ebizQ.net and currently resides in Israel. Any questions or inquiries regarding this blog or ebizQ membership services can be directed to her via email at ldamast (at) ebizq (dot) net. She can also be followed on Twitter, where she covers additional Israeli technology companies and Israel-related headlines and topics.

*About the Weekly Headlines image: The Star of David in the image was found on Flickr and is used under the Creative Commons license. It was originally uploaded by Flickr member, zeevveez. The overall Weekly Headlines image was designed by Lisa Damast.

Mellanox Technologies Ltd., a semiconductor-based server and
storage interconnect solutions provider, announced yesterday that since the January release of its InfiniBand drivers for VMware ESX 3.5, it has received a sharp increase in demand and inquiries from “partners, and end-users from multiple
enterprise data center vertical markets”. The drivers are drawing interest primarily for their ability to consolidate I/O adapters and, as a result, minimize the set-up process in virtualized environments.

According to the news release, Mellanox’s consolidation claims have drawn “heavy interest from
Fortune 500 companies” interested in “the ability to immediately save I/O power (up
to 30%) and I/O cost (up to 50%).”

To back up claims about its drivers performance capabilities, Mellanox will be showcasing its InfiniBand drivers in action at VMworld Europe 2008 this week. VMworld Europe is led by VMware (Virtual Machine ware) and is a key conference for business and IT professionals on “virtual technology and business solutions.”

VMware’s website defines virtualization (also termed “cloud computing” by IBM and Google) as letting, 

one computer do the job of multiple
computers, by sharing the resources of a single computer across
multiple environments. Virtual servers and virtual desktops lets you
host multiple operating systems and multiple applications locally and
in remote locations, freeing you from physical and geographical
limitations. In addition to energy savings and lower capital expenses
due to more efficient use of your hardware resources, you get high
availability of resources, better desktop management, increased
security, and improved disaster recovery processes when you build a
virtual infrastructure.

Data center architects and IT managers in vertical sectors (such as banking, Web 2.0 and healthcare) who are trying to cut their data center costs and decrease risk through virtualization should look into how Mellanox’s InfiniBand drivers for VMware ESX 3.5 can help simplify the implementation process.

Company Facts

Founded in 1999 and based in Yokneam and Tel Aviv, Israel.

Eyal Waldman, Co-founder, Chairman of the Board and CEO.

Roni Ashuri, Co-founder and Vice President of Engineering.

Products: Silicon adapters, adapter cards, software and production development kits.

Website: www.mellanox.com.

Related entries:
Company in Focus: G.ho.st.
Company in Focus: XIV.

About the author: Lisa Damast is the Membership
Manager of ebizQ.net and currently resides in Israel. Any questions or
inquiries regarding this blog or ebizQ membership services can be
directed to her via email at ldamast (at) ebizq (dot) net. She can also be followed on Twitter, where she covers additional Israeli technology companies and Israel-related headlines and topics.