IBM Pulse 2012: IBM and Toshiba unveil power-savvy business laptos

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Toshiba has confirmed the next generation of its enterprise-class laptops will feature built-in software designed to better protect data and significantly reduce energy consumption.

The tech giant's future lineup will come bundled with IBM software, which will reduce power usage by 47 per cent, according to Nori Nakamura, one of Toshiba's managers in its business PC unit, who announced the new partnership at IBM's Pulse event in Las Vegas.

What's more, the new solution also provides beefed-up security to help prevent sensitive corporate data from falling into the wrong hands.

"This solution is a core development between Toshiba and IBM and provides users with advanced power management and security," Nakamura said.

The in-built software blends together IBM's Tivoli Endpoint Manager with Toshiba's BIOS functionality, allowing IT managers to apply their organisations' security and energy policies across their fleet of laptops.

Security-wise, patch management is handled much more efficiently and in the background, preserving vital network bandwidth for other business uses.

"As endpoint devices such as laptops proliferate inside and outside an organisation, it's important that the right security and management policies are in place no matter where the device is located," said Danny Sabbah, general manager of IBM's Tivoli software division.

"IBM software embedded into Toshiba laptops allows organisations to easily oversee these devices to help manage energy efficiency and security of the data that resides on them."

The new line-up will be available worldwide from the middle of the year, according to Toshiba.

Maggie Holland

Maggie has been a journalist since 1999, starting her career as an editorial assistant on then-weekly magazine Computing, before working her way up to senior reporter level. In 2006, just weeks before ITPro was launched, Maggie joined Dennis Publishing as a reporter. Having worked her way up to editor of ITPro, she was appointed group editor of CloudPro and ITPro in April 2012. She became the editorial director and took responsibility for ChannelPro, in 2016.

Her areas of particular interest, aside from cloud, include management and C-level issues, the business value of technology, green and environmental issues and careers to name but a few.