- LTO - tale of the tape
- IBM, Fujitsu Promote Autonomic Standards
- A new title in IT: Chief Blogging Officer
- SCO Web site hack is like breaking in
- Linux train keeps rolling
- I'd rather not be phishing
- IBM wins developer support to build Workplace momentum
- Intel bolsters support for Linux in Asia
- AMD ships mobile chip to rival Intel Celeron M
- Are cellular carriers trying to stop low-cost broadband?
November 30, 2004 | Comments: (0)
People love to form groups. In the movies, all Mickey Rooney had to do was say, "Hey, let's put on a show!" and a few minutes later the group would put on a show with Judy Garland cutting loose with a well-rehearsed song and dance number that would put a Broadway show to shame.
In life, groups are a bit more trouble. There are meetings, meetings about meetings and
meetings about meetings about meetings.
Nevertheless, some groups work. Our industry seems to thrive on groups. What is amazing is how many of them work. Remember when IBM came out with the PS/2 PC and included the PS/2 bus which required other PC clone vendors to pay royalties to IBM if they used the bus? It was an attempt by IBM to siphon a little revenue off of its competitors. Its chief PC rival at the time, Compaq led a group with a more open, and cheaper, standard. The group worked and IBM was eventually forced to offer systems using the rival's technology.
Another successful group was the 10 Gigabit Ethernet organization. After the group met its objectives, all that is left is a website detailing its success. The Linear Tape-Open (LTO) group is another example. IBM, HP and Certance formed the group several years ago with a defined set of objectives for tape backup technology. IBM and Certance have already announced their LTO version 3 drives and HP will do the same shortly. The group has been so successful, and moved so quickly, they have to get together and come up with a new strategy beyond the LTO version 4 which is expected in another 18 months. That's not quite as fast as Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland could put together a show, but it's not bad.
Posted by Bob Francis on November 30, 2004 09:57 AM
November 30, 2004 | Comments: (0)
IBM, Fujitsu Promote Autonomic Standards
Hoping to accelerate the acceptance of autonomic computing standards, IBM and Fujitsu Limited on Tuesday announced their intention to work together in the area of new and/or existing standards relating to the Web Services Distributed Management (WSDM) Event Format. The WSDM Event Format is an effort to standardize a set of actions to better manage IT resources as well as standards concerning software installation and deployment. As part of the joint effort, Fujitsu will promote, along with IBM, the WSDM Event Format based on IBM's proposal of the Common Base Event format, which has already been submitted to the OASIS standards organization late last year. This format is seen as the basis for identifying and resolving problems automatically within a heterogeneous IT environment, according to spokemen from both companies. As part of the alliance both companies are also expected to draft specifications that help define management capabilities and operations for overall IT resource management in environments multi-vendor systems. Corporate and third party developers can go to either www.fujitsu.com or www.ibm.com for more technical information.
Posted by Ed Scannell on November 30, 2004 08:45 AM
November 30, 2004 | Comments: (0)
A new title in IT: Chief Blogging Officer
HighBeam Research this morning announced that it appointed a Chief Blogging Officer (CBO).
To be specific, HighBeam is now working with blogger Christopher Locke to develop blogging tools. The company also announced a new Web page: chiefbloggingofficer.com.
I Googled the new-sounding title and found a reference from February of this year on Ben McConnell's and Jackie Huba's blog, Church of the Customer, but that post did not entail the naming of anyone to a CBO position. Ben McConell did, however, suggest that Robert Scoble should be named as Microsoft's chief blogging officer and in that capacity manage other Microsoft bloggers in spreading the company's message. McConnell dubbed it BR, as in Blog relations.
So I'd say Locke is one of the first, if not the very first CBO. It's still a bit early to tell if Chief Blogging Officer will catch on as a title, though.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 30, 2004 08:28 AM
November 29, 2004 | Comments: (0)
SCO Web site hack is like breaking in
A gut reaction to news that hackers broke into The SCO Group's Web site and mocked its claims to own parts of the Linux operating system might be a feeling that SCO brought it on itself by trying to constrain the open source movement through its legal maneuvering.
But that thought quickly passed with the recognition that breaking and entering is wrong whether it's through a window or a Web page.
Open source supporters will get their day in court in the unfolding of SCO's lawsuit against IBM over claims Big Blue violated SCO's copyright on Unix System V.
On Monday, hackers inserted a banner that read, "We own all your code. Pay us all your money."
Gordon Haff, senior analyst with IT research and analysis company Illuminata, says the truth of SCO's claims will be examined fully on the merits.
"I don't think it's beneficial for this kind of thing (the SCO hacks) to be done," Haff says. "At the end of the day, SCO's claims are going to be resolved one way or another in court."
Posted by Jack McCarthy on November 29, 2004 02:06 PM
November 24, 2004 | Comments: (0)
For the first time, quarterly revenues of Linux servers have exceeded $1 billion, according to a report from IDC.
While Linux sales accounted for just 9.2 percent of the $11.5 billion in servers sold in the third quarter of 2004, it is safe to say that Linux is like a hot celebrity these days. Linux servers posted their ninth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth, with year-over-year revenue growth of 42.6 percent and unit shipments increasing 31.7 percent.
Still in the game, Unix servers experienced an 8.3 percent growth rate year over year, but a 2.3 percent revenue decline, to $4 billion for the quarter. Windows server revenues on x86 hardware grew 13.3 percent, with quarterly revenue of $3.9 billion.
For an operating system that is available for free plus support costs, Linux is making a spectacular dent in the market, stealing the thunder from Windows and Unix. With Linux showing up everywhere, including on IBM mainframes, the open source platform has at least a chance to become the industry-standard operating platform.
This would be much to the chagrin of Microsoft, with its still-dominant Windows platform, and perhaps Sun Microsystems, with its Solaris Unix operating system remaining one of the company's crown jewels.
In the early 1990s, I worked at a publication devoted to Unix. But Unix lost steam to Windows. Now, Linux is the new kid on the block. We'll have to wait and see how far Linux can go or if there is another upstart in the making, perhaps in development as we speak in some university lab or in some unknown programmer's garage.
- By Paul Krill
Posted by Jack McCarthy on November 24, 2004 01:11 PM
November 24, 2004 | Comments: (0)
The Anti-Phishing Working Group this week reported on the October statistics for online phishing schemes. As with most security statistics, the results were a little scary. According to the report, 1,142 sites were used for phishing, up 110 percent from the previous month's figures.
Phishing, as most of you know, occurs when scam artists send fraudulent e-mails to consumers to lure them to Web sites that appear to be the home page of a well-known financial institution. Frequent targets are Paypal and most national banks. The e-mails instruct the consumer to leave account information on the site, which the scammers then use to steal private account information. I'm knowledgeable enough to just delete the messages or better yet, block the sender from my e-mail. But I shudder when I think about my mother receiving one of the e-mails.
It all sounds dire, but Peter Cassidy, secretary general of the APWG, puts it in a little historical perspective. "Fraud nearly brought down the catalog industry in the early 1970s," Cassidy told me. Cassidy said that as the catalog and 1-800 number industry was taking off, credit card fraud because a huge problem. "The catalog industry and people in the 1-800 industry demanded the credit card people do something because their industry was threatened by fraud. That led to several changes that kept the fraud to a minimum. I think the same thing will happen here," said Cassidy.
Maybe it will. In the meantime, to quote Sgt. Phil Esterhaus from Hill Street Blues, "Be careful out there."
Posted by Bob Francis on November 24, 2004 01:10 PM
November 24, 2004 | Comments: (0)
IBM wins developer support to build Workplace momentum
Hoping to add some momentum to its Workplace platform strategy IBM has launched an online developer resource center that gives software developers ready access to tools to help create products and services that will exploit the platform.
The new Workplace Resource Center, which is hosted on IBM's developerWorks site offers programmers a detailed and integrated overview of the technologies and products that constitute IBM's Workplace initiative, including links to business and technical articles, whitepapers, code downloads, and a number of other resources.
"Since we announced Workplace client technology last summer and out 17 design partners, we have been developing a lot of code downloads, white papers, and testing tools for use within their platforms. So we are taking all these resources and for the first time making them all available in one location to simply ISVs time, expense and efforts," said Mike Loria, director of Channels and Product Marketing for IBM's Lotus software group.
IBM has been working with a number of business partners including Adobe, Bowstreet Portlet Factory and Hyperion to adapt their tools that would allow users to create and customize applications that work to exploit the WorkPlace environment.
IBM's Workplace initiative is what company officials describe as a "front-end" development model intended to assist corporate IT shops move from PC-centric en-vironments to network-managed delivery of tools and applications. This allows administrators to centrally manage and provision applications more effectively to a range of desktop and mobile devices, company officials said.
IBM officials note in the majority of corporate workplaces settings, users must use a series of disconnected e-mail, calendaring and document management applications in order to do their jobs. Because of this, they contend, those users lost unnecessary time having to deal with a variety of format conflicts and document access points. This can be an expensive proposition as IT departments are forced to manage and deploy and update all of these systems user by user.
In a related announcement, IBM announced on Tuesday that 100 software developers have now adapted their applications to take full advantage of the Workplace environment, which has helped IBM secure 1 million seats of Workplace software over the past year.
By Ed Scannell
Posted by Jack McCarthy on November 24, 2004 10:54 AM
November 24, 2004 | Comments: (0)
Intel bolsters support for Linux in Asia
Intel has released its Quick Start Kit for Linux, stepping up support for Asian system integrators that offer Linux-based desktop PCs.
The Quick Start Kit for Linux is similar to software kits that Intel makes available for system integrators that build PCs designed to run Microsoft's Windows operating system, said Scott McLaughlin, a spokesman for Intel. "We are starting to extend what we've done in the Windows world to include the Linux space," he said.
Initially, the kit is only being made available in China and India, McLaughlin said, noting that demand for Linux is strong and growing among education and government customers in these two countries.
"What we're trying to do is provide a resource for the system integrator to be able to offer a validated solution to their customer with a minimal amount of work," McLaughlin said. "They shouldn't have to worry about finding all of the drivers on their own."
The Quick Start Kit for Linux is available for free to Intel Channel Program members and supports Novell's Linux Desktop 9, Red Hat's Red Hat Desktop and Red Flag Software's Red Flag Desktop 4.1, Intel said in a statement. Support for China Standard Software's Linux distribution will be added in a future version of the kit, it said.
The kit has been validated for use with several Intel desktop motherboards, including the D845 family of Celeron-based motherboards, and the D865 and D915 lines of Pentium 4-based motherboards, Intel said.
The Quick Start Kit for Linux is comprised of several software components. The first component is comprised of Linux drivers that have been validated by Intel for each of the motherboards supported by the kit. Secondly, the kit contains a management system that allows systems integrators to install device drivers with a single command, eliminating the need to understand make files, tar files and source code.
The kit also contains Intel's Application Version Compliance tool, which helps to ensure that the applications installed on a desktop PC have been validated for various Linux distributions and motherboards.
While the Quick Start Kit for Linux is currently only available in China and India, it may soon find its way into other markets. "We're actively looking to expand where the product is offered," McLaughlin said.
By Sumner Lemon, IDG News Service
Posted by Jack McCarthy on November 24, 2004 10:12 AM
November 23, 2004 | Comments: (0)
AMD ships mobile chip to rival Intel Celeron M
AMD unveiled a new mobile chip today with the slightly inelegant name of Mobile Sempron. See our news site for the full story by Tom Krazit, "AMD releases Mobile Sempron ahead of 2005 mobile push."
I spoke with one of the premier industry chip analysts, Nathan Brookwood, president of Insight 64 to get his take on why anyone should care.
His answer, in two words, was "battery life."
"Intel always leaves power management out of its Celerons for mobile use. Even though Centrino has all these wonderful features to extend battery life, if you want the cheap version you give up all that stuff," Brookwood said.
At the same time, AMD has historically kept their power management, called PowerNow in the value line.
"I suspect the battery life for these Sempron mobile processors will be better than the battery life for similar notebooks configured with an Intel Celeron M [processor]" Brookwood told me.
It was Andy Grove, former head of Intel that said only the paranoid survive. Which makes me wonder how Intel might respond to the Sempron Mobile if it starts to gain market share.
It is certainly nice to see a little competition in the chip arena.
The Sempron is targeted at the thin and light crowd that wants a value-priced notebook to do their daily tasks.
In related news ATI Technologies, the graphics chip manufacturer, also announced PCI Express-based graphics processors for thin and light notebook PCs.
Posted by Ephraim. Schwartz on November 23, 2004 02:21 PM
November 23, 2004 | Comments: (0)
Are cellular carriers trying to stop low-cost broadband?
It appears that Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love, may have to change its motto, at least if the state legislature has its way.
The city's plans to create a Wi-Fi network across the city, for a nominal subscription fee and targeted at giving poorer neighborhoods in the city access to broadband, has hit a serious snag.
Read "Law May Snag Philadelphia WiFi Rollout" by Steve Lawson to get all the details.
The bill "would prohibit a government or any entity it creates from offering broadband for a fee," according to Lawson's news story which goes on to say that one of the biggest proponents of the bill is none other than Verizon.
Here's another excerpt from Lawson's story.
"It's one of many efforts being made by Verizon to prevent competition," said Gary Tuma, press secretary to state Senator Vincent Fumo, a Democrat who opposed the bill.
"What was going on here was an intense lobbying effort by Verizon to get a version of the bill they were happy with."
Companies like Verizon should look at the bigger picture and look at companies with more heart than them, like Intel, Microsoft and Apple.
These companies give away technology to poorer communities in the U.S. and abroad in order to seed the world with access to technology and knowledge.
The bill has already made its way through both state houses and is now on Governor Edward Rendell's desk. No one seems to know if he'll sign it or not.
Let's all send him an email telling him not to sign House Bill 30 (HB30).
Posted by Ephraim. Schwartz on November 23, 2004 01:33 PM
November 23, 2004 | Comments: (0)
It is tough when a friend dies, particularly when that friend has simply lost its importance, its reason for being. I'm talking about the death of the VCR, which moved a step closer to the high-technology graveyard today when Britain's largest electronics retailer announced it is dropping the technology from its shelves.
It is hard to remember what life was like prior to the VCR. My nieces and nephews have no idea what life would be like without the VCR. My nephew grew up imprinting Star Wars on his brainpan via the VCR. The early machines were weighty boat anchors that would eat tapes at about a two to one ratio. I once took possession of a "free" VCR that worked fine, as long as you didn't mind everything being in black and white.
Like most technologies, there were some birthing pangs. There were the Betamax/VHS wars, with Sony attempting to impose a standard (Betamax) that offered better quality that - in the era of DVD sharpness - we would laugh at today. The origins of the VCR are a little tough to ferret out. Sony actually sold a video tape model in the sixties, but sold few of the products. Some of the technology was used in the space program and eventually JVC in Japan created the basic VCR as we know it today.
In the beginning, film studios were aghast at the technology, feeling that no one would go see movies if they could just pop in a video. It was not long before they realized they had a whole new revenue stream. That has carried over to the DVD, which now sells programs most people can see on reruns anytime of the day. Box set of Seinfield anyone?
Like most technology, when it was new it was so hot that it was the target of thieves. The news story on Dixon's dropping VCRs mentions that police say no one bothers to steal the machines anymore. That may have been the final nail in the coffin - when thieves pass you by, you know it is over.
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Posted by Bob Francis on November 23, 2004 01:27 PM
November 22, 2004 | Comments: (0)
As the number of downloads of Mozilla Foundation's open source browser Firefox 1.0 continues to soar (4.7 million hits by Nov. 19), people are asking what will established browsers do in response?
Microsoft officials said they could add on features to Internet Explorer (IE), but they may wait until Longhorn, the next version of Windows, appears in 2006.
America Online execs say a Firefox version of Netscape will be previewed Nov. 30.
We instinctively root for the underdog, and I feel that way about Firefox. I stayed with Netscape well after many others had switched over to IE.
But, as Infoworld News Editor Tom Sullivan said in his blog, many people will stay away from Firefox until they are sure that all the kinks are worked out.
Posted by Jack McCarthy on November 22, 2004 02:53 PM
November 22, 2004 | Comments: (0)
The PeopleSoft Poison Pill - what is it?
Now that Oracle has more than 60 percent of PeopleSoft's outstanding shares the question is can the PeopleSoft board of directors stop the hostile takeover?
The answer is they probably can with a poison pill tactic used by most companies, including Oracle, to prevent such a takeover.
In PeopleSoft's case it is called a Shareholder Rights Plan and gives the board, at their discretion, the right to issue new shares of the stock. By distributing more shares and thus diluting the stock, it becomes virtually impossible for Oracle to gain a majority ownership of the outstanding shares of stock.
Without a majority Oracle cannot wage a successful proxy fight to oust the current board and install one favorable to Oracle's $24 per share bid.
PeopleSoft also did something very smart last year when it created what it calls its Customer Assurance program.
Built into customer contracts since June 2003 is a clause that says if PeopleSoft is acquired by either Oracle or SAP and either company does not support and develop modules as PeopleSoft would have, customers have the right to claim anywhere from two to five times their money back.
While the assurance program is technically not a poison pill, sources I spoke to say it is this program that has allowed PeopleSoft to gain over 3,500 new contracts despite the uncertainty over the company's future caused by Oracle's hostile bid.
Posted by Ephraim. Schwartz on November 22, 2004 12:22 PM
November 19, 2004 | Comments: (0)
Bill Gates and Microsoft were in the news a lot this week, most notably with CEO Steve Ballmer claiming that Gates is the most spammed person in the world. Bill Gates is said to receive 4 million e-mails a day, most of it spam.
Spam is definitely a plague, as every last one of us can attest to. In fact, I just posted a story online about new technologies and services for fighting spam. It is a huge market, and vendors are coming out with new techniques to squash spam every day.
But the question I had after reading some of the Gates spam stories is: Are 4 million spam messages daily enough for Gates and Microsoft to put aside political issues and agree with open-source foes on a Sender ID framework standard?
The Sender ID standardization push in the IETF went belly up in September, when AOL withdrew its support. But then in October, AOL said it was back on board after Microsoft made some revisions to Sender ID. But one consistent rumor and opinion is that the open source community is still riled over Microsoft's patents over Sender ID.
By the way, we here at InfoWorld are busy prepping our hot new cover story: Most Spammed Man Alive, featuring a sizzling centerfold headshot of Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates. Jude Law may have just been crowned People Magazine's sexiest man alive, but Jude's got nothing on Bill.
Posted by Cathleen Moore on November 19, 2004 04:42 PM
November 19, 2004 | Comments: (0)
Novell follows the Linux path to profit
Linux has saved the day again, this time for Novell.
The company's focus on Linux paid off this week in a big way, as the company posted a profit in its fourth quarter and for the year. While Novell's old-line NetWare business declined, business for its Linux server software grew.
The company earned $13 million on revenue of $301 million for the fiscal fourth quarter, ending Oct. 31. During the same period last year, Novell lost of $109 million.
For the full fiscal year, Novell showed revenue of $1.2 billion and earnings of $31 million. Revenue for the full year fiscal 2003 was $1.1 billion with a $162 million loss.
Jack Messman, Chairman and CEO of Novell, pointed to the power of Linux in announcing the company's financial report Thursday.
"Our key growth initiatives of Linux and Identity Management continued their strong performance. In particular, our Linux solutions are allowing us to reach more and more new customers at a pace not seen at Novell for many years. We see no slowdown to the tremendous progress made by Linux technology to date," Messman said. "However, we still have challenges ahead. While we had a strong finish in closing fiscal year 2004, fiscal year 2005 will be another rebuilding year for Novell as we make significant investments in our solutions, systems and peo-ple to try to grow our newer businesses in order to counterbalance the continued decline in our NetWare business."
Novell actually made its move to Linux in November, 2003, buying Suse Linux for $210 million. The company quickly signed partnerships with the likes of IBM and Hewlett-Packard to sell the server software. And earlier this month, Novell announced a desktop Linux operating system for enterprise use.
Posted by Jack McCarthy on November 19, 2004 12:31 PM
November 19, 2004 | Comments: (0)
Firefox won't replace IE for me -- at least not yet
I'd love to purge my PC of IE and never, ever fire it up again.
It's not that I am anti-Microsoft; I'm really not, though I lay no pro-Redmond claims down either.
Like the rest of the computing world, I have been using IE for a long time. Long enough, in fact, that I am ready for a change. Granted, the IE of today is not the same browser that knocked Netscape off my desktop in the late 90's but, you know, it's not all that much different either. And I oppose one-vendor markets. Instead I prefer to throw my support behind the little guy in hopes that I can help it grow and, in turn, proliferate more competition in the marketplace.
Security is a concern with IE as well. Secunia discovered more holes in IE 6 this week.
So I read most of the myriad stories about the little-browser-that-can-and-will steal at least a miniscule piece of Microsoft's market share and at best a chunk worthy of InfoWorld following it for some time to come. The decision to install Firefox was a gimme.
At first blush, I like it because it is similar enough to IE that I could navigate, pun very much intended, easily to get up and running without stumbling over any steps.
The first thing I wanted to do was set my default homepage to The New York Times. Easy enough.
Once that was taken care of, though, I clicked on a story and came to a page asking me to register. Wait a second, I did that about as long ago as I started using IE. What did I choose as my username and password again, anyway?
When installing Firefox, I had elected to import existing IE settings, including favorites and stored passwords. It reorganized my bookmarks into alphabetical order and added an icon next to the bookmark for InfoWorld, pretty slick.
While the favorites came through, stored passwords did not. My colleague Ed Scannell, it is worth pointing out, also downloaded Firefox but did not experience this same problem.
Taking stabs at current and past username/password combinations ate a few minutes of my time but got me into the site nonetheless. The next Web page I visited that required registration made me realize that I have more username/password combinations out there than I could recall.
I rely on a handful of sites that assigned me with a username and, naturally, they are my most important sites. I had to search through my e-mail, neither easy nor pleasant, to find those usernames, but eventually located them.
After doing that twice, though, I gave in and fired up IE so I could go straight into secure sites.
When I had time available later, it was easy enough to locate in the help documentation, which is tailored for IE users, about how to import everything again, and the second time I tried it worked without a hitch. Password problem solved.
Any hesitation on my part to use IE was merely prolonging the inevitable, as I figured it necessary for a critical application and the software I use to post to this blog. Just to be sure, I emailed fellow blogger and our CTO Chad Dickerson, proponent and practitioner of open source, who confirmed my suspicions that said application is dependent on IE because of how the browser interacts with Microsoft Word.
For the blogware, Firefox would work, so long as I do not mind doing a little hand-coding for things like the HTML links embedded into posts. From my perspective it is not a matter of minding or not minding, the issue is practical in nature. Hand-coding even something as simple as HTML links is just not a good use of my time, especially not when IE can automate the process.
So my applications have kept IE alive in my system, and relegated me to browser purgatory. There will be no IE purging just yet.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 19, 2004 07:51 AM
November 18, 2004 | Comments: (0)
RIAA follows MPAA in fight against file swappers
The great debate over file sharing rages on, with some, like the Electronic Frontier Foundation maintaining that copyright law doesn't matter anymore.
But the music and motion pitcure industries just aren't giving up. This week, the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America each filed new lawsuits against people who use peer-to-peer (P-to-P) software to share movie and music files.
The RIAA filed 761 suits, some against people using university networks such as those at Boston College.
"The lawsuits are an essential educational tool," RIAA President Cary Sherman said in a statement. "They remind music fans about the law and provide incentives to university administrators to offer legal alternatives."
Say what you will about the inevitability file sharing. The industry associations plan to fight to the end.
Posted by Jack McCarthy on November 18, 2004 03:30 PM
November 18, 2004 | Comments: (0)
We're expanding the Tech Watch blog roster
Beginning this morning, we in the InfoWorld news department will be posting to a new blog for small and medium businesses.
Editor at Large Ed Scannell kicked things off with this morning's post and we'll be updating the SMB Blog several times a week.
In typical Tech Watch blog fashion, we will have multiple contributors but, whereas Tech Watch itself focuses on all things enterprise IT news, the SMB blog will keep a sharp edge on news, opinions and products specific to the SMB fray.
Please e-mail me with questions or suggestions at tom_sullivan@infoworld.com.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 18, 2004 02:45 PM
November 18, 2004 | Comments: (0)
Leading high tech execs have little new to say
If you want to boost your ego you should have watched the Charlie Rose show last night. If not see if you can catch any reruns where he interviews four of high tech's top execs for an hour, Cisco's John Chambers, Intel's Paul Otellini, Google's Eric Schmidt, Yahoo's Terry Semel.
What I learned from listening to them is that I did not learn anything. They had the same things to say that you or I say and hear every day.
They gave out such platitudes as wireless is going to be big and will give users anywhere any time access. Watch for WiMax as the next important technology.
Or how's this, broadband is going to change the world and the way we live. Really?
Or China is going to be mega giant technology consumer and technology innovator and the U.S. better watch its step if it wants to stay on top.
Chambers harped on our education system being lousy and that the government should give tax breaks for stock options.
Otellini talked about Intel chips in every kind of device, while Semel and Schmidt talked about the personalization of search and content.
Very unenlightening if you follow the industry with even one eye shut.
Not that what I have to say are pearls of wisdom mind you, but I thought these million dollars execs would at least know more than me.
If they do, they certainly were not about sharing it.
Tonight Rose has Carly Fiorina and others. Let's hope they have more to say.
Posted by Ephraim. Schwartz on November 18, 2004 10:24 AM
November 18, 2004 | Comments: (0)
High-tech execs are trying to apply some shine back onto the image of Silicon Valley.
The New York Times has a story online about how the likes of Google's Eric Schmidt, Intel's Paul Otellini, Cisco's John Chambers and Yahoo's Terry Semel came together to tout the importance of innovation and technology for the future of this country, the story said.
The execs were on the Charlie Rose show, and the host apparently cracked a joke about the tech CEO club being able to rule the world.
The series continues today with Carly Fiorina and others.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 18, 2004 05:53 AM
November 17, 2004 | Comments: (0)
Weighing in on the miracle grilled cheese, Microsoft magic, and DSI
Most likely you've seen the news today of the 10 year old grilled cheese sandwich up for sale on eBay. A Miami woman claims to have taken one bite from the sandwich only to find the face of the Virgin Mary staring at her. The photos look pretty convincing. According to several reports the bids have hit as high as $69,000.
It's a shame that the woman wasn't more of a shrewd marketer. Just maybe, if she had contacted the folks at Microsoft in time the decade-old half sandwich could have been part of Microsoft's "magic" themed keynote presentation earlier this week at its IT Forum in Copenhagen. I bet she could have got more than $69,000 out of Bill.
Bill Gates and Co. used a real magician, smoke, mirrors, and its own software to talk about how the magic of software can reduce IT complexity. Gates discussed Microsoft's long-term DSI vision, which promises reduced IT complexity through automated creation and maintenance of distributed systems.
I might be a little more sold on the magic of Microsoft products if Bill would have unveiled the image of Melinda Gates on a grilled cheese. They also could have claimed that buying Microsoft products will bring good luck, just as the Miami woman claimed her Virgin Mary sandwich helped her rake in $70,000 at a local casino. In fact, it may not be too late. The Virgin Mary grilled cheese aparently has spawned several copy cat eBay edibles, including Yasser Arafat on a falafel and a George W Bush tortilla.
But seriously, one tid-bit of news coming out of Copenhagen that seemed to get lost behind all the smoke and magic is the release of the Windows Server System Common Engineering Report, a Web-based report that lists the status of compliance in various Windows Server System products with the Common Engineering Criteria for 2005.
Back in May at TechEd I wrote about this Common Engineering Criteria for 2005, which aims to provide a consistent set of server features across Windows Server System products. This will help reduce complexity at the engineering level and improve integration, according to Microsoft.
The Common Engineering Criteria is connected to Microsoft's DSI plan it touted this week in Copenhagen. According to a Microsoft representative, the DSI technology concepts will be productized in the Windows Server System via this common engineering process. The report posted this week is Microsoft's attempt to show its progress toward that end, and give its customers information about which products are compliant with the effort.
The Common Engineering Criteria effort is designed to make DSI more tangible. Proof that Microsoft is taking steps toward making IT system management less painful and less complex for IT managers, now that's magic.
Posted by Cathleen Moore on November 17, 2004 03:48 PM
November 17, 2004 | Comments: (0)
Reality TV is all the rage these days. Somehow the powers that be in television have convinced us that two wealthy young women hitchhiking through the semi-rural south, well-folliculed billionaires playing boardroom God or couples eating animal intestines somehow represents reality.
In the world of IT, reality is a little more, well real, for lack of a better word. When you speak to IT managers that live on the front lines of IT, you always learn something. I recently spoke to an IT manager in Chicago about his use of LANDesk's systems management software. He is a fan of LANDesk because it helps him manage the more than 3,000 devices throughout his organization.
While giving me some background about his organization, the IT manager mentioned that he had standardized on Dell systems several years back to - again - simplify PC management. That was a big trend about five years ago as IT departments attempted to reduce the number of systems they supported. It made sense. Reduce the number of systems, standardize on one company's PCs and stick with those PCs for several years, replacing them as needed. Sounds good? In theory.
In reality? According to the IT manager, the results have not been quite as planned. He said Dell makes changes to their systems so often that the result has essentially been a wash. To be fair, all the other PC manufacturers do the same thing, he said. But the dream of reducing the complexity of systems support? It just wasn't reality.
Posted by Bob Francis on November 17, 2004 01:11 PM
November 17, 2004 | Comments: (0)
Can't say I didn't tell you so
Previously, I have asked what happens to the software industry if enterprises expect to acquire their software for free via open source.
Well, it looks like this expectation is coming to fruition. A Wells Fargo executive at the SDForum's "Open Source Entering the Mainstream" conference this week said the tide has switched from companies being suspect of open source to now openly seeking it out as an alternative to commercial products.
Which leads us back to the question of what happens to innovation if at some point there is no money being made on the actual selling of software. As one panelist pointed out at the conference, business models for open source companies remain unproven at this point. Linux official Andrew Morton even acknowledged that leading-edge projects in open source have been the exception; open source has focused on legacy infrastructure.
How long can open source be sustained if developers have to work a separate job to pay the bills and deal with open source as a hobby? I guess that depends on the devotion of the developers, whose dedication to their craft is certainly admirable and even enviable.
The fate of commercial software companies caught in the open source wave will be a big issue for the industry in coming years. SpikeSource CEO Kim Polese stressed at the conference that companies will have to adapt to the new paradigm presented by open source.
I have to wonder, though, whether the days are numbered for software companies to make billions of dollars a year by selling software.
Posted by Paul Krill on November 17, 2004 12:26 PM
November 17, 2004 | Comments: (0)
Linux Core Consortium may not derail fate's wheels
Fate may hold something of a pre-determined fragmentation for Linux operating systems, like Unix before them, that even standards efforts cannot undo.
This morning we ran the story Linux distributors team up to push standardization in which we reported the formation of the Linux Core Consortium.
LCC, comprised of Linux distro's Turbolinux, MandrakeSoft, Conectiva, and Progeny Linux Systems, assumed the mission of pushing standardization with the aim of making sure that Linux distributors do not splinter the way that Unix vendors did.
So, a new set of Linux players are embarking down the same road as Unit-edLinux, the effort consisting of SuSE, Conectiva, Turbolinux and the now dreaded SCO Group.
Almost anything is possible, I have to admit, and preventing a divison of Linux vendors falls under that. I'm just not sure fragmentation is really such a bad thing in the long run.
Don't get me wrong, I think the LCC is a fine idea. It is not my intent to under-mine any of the four companies involved. Indeed, each is important in its own right. And the group foreshadowed a step in the right direction by convincing the likes of Novell, CA, Red Hat, HP and Sun to express support, albeit hardly enough support to actually join the LCC. Presumably, though, there was no word from IBM.
The thing is, I can't help wondering if customers are actually better off today be-cause of the Unix splintering, despite the fact that it is predominantly viewed in a negative light. Was it really fragmentation that whittled down the number of companies selling Unix? Perhaps. But a strategy on Microsoft's part of lower pricing and software that runs on commodity servers, in tandem with a desktop OS monopoly did not hurt, either. Regardless of the reasons, customers now have more choices in the server space than they would have if Unix standardized into a stronghold.
And I am not sure that the fact that IBM AIX, HP-UX and Sun Solaris are the remaining Unix operating systems is a result of anything more than market progression. History shows that as markets from automobiles to operating systems mature, the number of product providers dwindles.
Furthermore, while some might argue that Unix' heyday is over, those remaining vendors are still cranking out new versions of Unix. Sun, after all, just this week took the wraps off of Solaris 10, a major new release that the company put a lot of muscle into, both technology- and marketing-wise. So Unix is still getting better.
Had Unix somehow been standardized, I don't see Sun, HP and IBM still updat-ing those old OSes with the same fervor Sun threw toward Solaris 10.
Fragmentation may be an unstoppable force of nature that will impact the Linux distributors. Of course, that remains to be seen. What is certain, however, is that LCC would stand a better chance of not joining UnitedLinux among the perished if Novell, HP, Sun, CA and also IBM actually joined the organization.
I welcome opposing viewpoints at tom_sullivan@infoworld.com.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 17, 2004 11:34 AM
November 16, 2004 | Comments: (0)
Update: Oracle, PeopleSoft shareholders taking sides
As the November 19th deadline from Oracle to buy PeopleSoft shares approaches the biggest shareholders are now taking sides.
Two of the largest holders of PeopleSoft shares, Capital Guardian Trust Company and Private Capital Management, came down on opposite sides of the fence today as the battle between the two software vendors heats up.
Cap Guardian has offered to tender all of its shares to Oracle, according to Jim Finn, Oracle vice president of corporate communications.
At the same time, Steve Swasey, Finn's spiritual counterpart at PeopleSoft announced that Private Capital Management have decided not to tender.
From the InfoWorld news story:
Private Capital Management said in a regulatory filing that it has "significant concerns" about whether Oracle's bid, which Oracle now values at $9.2 billion, represents a better return for shareholders than PeopleSoft would be able to generate as an independent company.
"We are pleased," said Swasey
Meanwhile, Tad Piper, a senior research analyst at Piper Jaffray & Co., said the battle is far from over.
"I think we are going to have more clarity on where people stand on this throughout the remainder of the week," Piper said.
It seems PeopleSoft is in the midst a roadshow to key financial institutions and analysts shoring up its support.
My guess is Oracle is on a similar road trip.
PeopleSoft still insists that the $24 per share offer is insufficient. Swasey told me that even those who are willing to tender their shares at that price feel it is undervalued.
"Shareholders have a lot of reasons for tendering stock," he said.
If Oracle wants to acquire PeopleSoft they are going to have to pay more or vote the current board out.
"Barring voting out the current board which is what the current proxy battle is about," Piper said.
Even if more than 50% of the share holders tender its stock, the current board has said it will not rescind the poison pill, according to Piper.
Of course, by Cap Guardian tendering its shares to Oracle, Ellison and company have a lot more votes to cast in favor of a new board of directors.
This could turn out to be a very bloody proxy battle.
Stay tuned.
Posted by Ephraim. Schwartz on November 16, 2004 01:19 PM
November 16, 2004 | Comments: (0)
Sun posts Java 6.0 Mustang snapshot release
Sun Microsystems last night posted what it calls a 'Snapshot Releases' of J2SE 6.0, code-named Mustang, marking them as available for developers to download.
InfoWorld editor-at-large Paul Krill broke the news in Sun previews next version of Java.
The snapshot is literally Build 12 of the forthcoming version of J2SE, which is still really very early in development. Sun, in fact, released J2SE 5.0 in September, so don't expect to see a final version of Mustang running around the wild anytime soon.
What the snapshots provide, according to Sun, is access to the latest features and fixes made to the forthcoming J2SE 6.0 release.
As Paul reported, thus far the most significant themes of Mustang include ease of development, performance and Web services, and Sun estimates that a general release version of J2SE 6.0 will manifest in Spring of 2006.
Sun's Mark Reinhold explained the philosophy behind making such an early release available as an experiment in openness in his blog post.
Caveat Emptor: Sun spelled out very clearly that this snapshot is not for the risk averse or the novice developer as it was, in Sun's own words, only lightly tested before being posted for download.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 16, 2004 12:47 PM
November 16, 2004 | Comments: (0)
Made to love Microsoft DSI magic
Nick Drake has a posthumous album, titled Made to Love Magic. The title song is about, as the name implies, coming to accept and even love magic, catalyzed by certain, difficult circumstances.
Lately, Bill Gates has been singing his own song about magic, only he is taking a nearly opposite tack and proclaiming that the magic of software will make life easier for IT folk.
Personally, whenever I hear the word magic relating in any way to technology, I get a bit skeptical, not to mention just plain scared.
So when Gates evangelized Microsoft's DSI initiative by saying that the magic of software will eliminate the complexity of managing, well, complex distributed systems, my eyebrow nearly leapt up to my hairline.
DSI is an acronym for Dynamic Systems Initiative. (For a poignant view of IT acronyms see Paul Krill's opinion.)
Gates described DSI as Microsoft's phraseology for shifting from thinking about individual systems and manual activities to the streamlined creation and maintenance of distributed systems which, of course, relies on the automation of tasks and capabilities such as having apps and hardware keep management software apprised of their status.
Chairman Bill went on to say that DSI is a long-term vision that will require broad industry cooperation. Read: Microsoft's partners and competitors will have to agree to support DSI for the initiative to reach a level of potential worthwhile of customers' time and financial investment.
That reminds me more than just a little of the marketing-speak around Web services, back in 2000, when Microsoft first gave the notion a name. And every day since then has been a struggle -- some legitimate technical battles; others mere bickering between rivals -- just to get all the different vendors on board for Web services standards. That is not to say that Web services have not caught on, just that it has been somewhat bumpy, and the road ahead has more than one standard-related obstacle within.
Bill Gates may be the closest thing the IT industry has to a Harry Houdini, but the real rabbit to pull out of his hat will be the alignment of different vendors to actually agree to DSI in a capacity more technical than conceptual, and to avoid the drawn-out process that invariably occurs when multiple vendors try to mold a standard, any standard, to their own proprietary interests.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 16, 2004 09:39 AM
November 15, 2004 | Comments: (0)
It's the week before Thanksgiving. Do you know where Comdex is?
Las Vegas, November 14, 2004 - I arrive at the airport at 8 p.m., on the Sunday that in recent years would have marked the opening of Comdex.
But not this year. The gargantuan, hate-the-crowds-but-got-to-be-there event was canceled for 2004. I, however, am in Vegas for the ApacheCon conference, a nice, cozy event at a resort that (Gasp!) has not a single slot machine within its walls.
At the airport, there are dozens of cabs, but no passengers lined up. So I have to walk past a dozen cabs to get to the one that I'm directed to, but there's no wait. During Comdex, waiting for cabs or buses was commonplace.
The whole Vegas scene is a bit peculiar. Some of the city's major attractions (gambling, strip shows) are vices that most other cities shun. Bringing tens of thousands of analytically minded techies and high-tech executives to this town never seemed like a match made in Heaven to me; it was more like putting maple syrup on a hamburger.
The demise of Comdex, at least temporarily, doesn't reflect well on the health of the IT industry. But at least all of us this year are spared from either negotiating through the hordes at the show or finding some way to dodge the whole event.
(Written by Paul Krill, at ApacheCon in Las Vegas)
Posted by Cathleen Moore on November 15, 2004 03:14 PM
November 15, 2004 | Comments: (0)
Linux looms large for Sun Solaris 10
In doing some reporting for Sun's Solaris 10 announcement Monday, I asked some analysts for their thoughts on Sun's overall Solaris vs. Linux strategy and if the Sun-Microsoft deal, signed earlier this year, was having any influence on it.
Analysts generally agree that until they see the first fruits of the Sun-Microsoft deal, not likely until sometime next year, it is hard to say what impact it might have on Sun's future Solaris vs. Linux set of priorities. But one thing is clear to some observers, the Microsoft-Sun deal shapes up as one that is tactical and not strategic.
"(Sun and Microsoft) needed to put aside some issues that their respective users had in terms of their products playing better together. Their users were saying to them, 'If you don't make these products work together, then as we are planning our future platform strategies we will plan both of you out'," said Dan Kusnetzky, vice president of System Software research with IDC.
Kusnetzky and others do not expect the relationship to have a long life because each company has a similar but conflicting goal: each company sees itself as central to everything going on in the market and that's one too many companies trying to lead in that dance.
"So while there is an opportunity for them to work together now, future events will very likely cause them to work in separate directions," Kuznetzky said.
While it remains to be seen how if Sun will use the Solaris 10 announcement to further promote their proprietary OS at the strategic expense of Linux, some think that at some point the company needs to take a stronger, more consistent stance in terms of Linux.
"Is Sun overlooking the strategic importance of Linux? Sometimes it sure feels that way. They are vocal supporters of Linux, but when it comes to delivering product and moving consistently in that direction, it seems they have more of a containment strategy," said IDC's AL Gillen, IDC's Research Director of System Software.
"But I don't think there is any reason why Sun can't have a strong commitment to Solaris and still endorse Linux at the same time. The two do not have to be mutually exclusive of one another," he added.
By Ed Scannell
Posted by Jack McCarthy on November 15, 2004 03:01 PM
November 15, 2004 | Comments: (0)
SmartLine, a company based in Moscow is just introducing its newest security software called DeviceLock that can stop a desktop user from downloading sensitive files onto a USB keychain device, or just about any piece of removable media, including FireWire.
It also prevents downloading data by way of Bluetooth, infrared or WiFi as well as blocking data at any port on a PC.
The software works with Microsoft Active Directory and plugs into the Microsoft Management Console.
The current version has reporting capabilities to show what devices individual users have access to. The next version, due out next month, will also be able to report down to the file level, revealing who tried to access what files with which device.
The next version will also give administrators the ability to manage devices at a group level.
Administrators can also add certain brands of devices to their approved list of devices.
With all the problems Livermore Labs has had recently about workers taking home sensitive files it is amazing that the top secret lab wasn't using something like this all along.
The software costs $35 for a single purchase and $7.40 if you buy a thousand at a time. Not bad.
Posted by Ephraim. Schwartz on November 15, 2004 10:45 AM
November 12, 2004 | Comments: (0)
Microsoft's new MSN Search stumbles on debut
After much anticipation, Microsoft this week rolled out the beta version of its MSN Search engine. With the new Web search service, Microsoft hopes to take on established Web search players such as Yahoo and eventually slay Web search Goliath Google. The search service sports a simple layout, ala Google, and claims to index up to 5 billion documents.
But in its beta debut on Thursday the MSN Search service, found at beta.search.msn.com, hit some glitches, going down for a period after launching. Users attempting to kick the tires on the service on Thursday were greeted with "temporarily unavailable" messages until Microsoft fixed the technical difficulties later in the day.
Furthermore, Google killed a bit of Microsoft's thunder by announcing late Wednesday that the Google search engine has nearly doubled its index to over 8 billion pages.
This is all very exciting but it's important to remember that this is only Round 1. Microsoft's real potential in the Web search market comes from the fact that it now owns its own Web search technology, which it will likely integrate into its vast Internet properties, such as IM, and its corporate desktop systems, including its forthcoming desktop search offering. The final release of MSN Search is expected sometime next year.
Get ready for Round 2.
Posted by Cathleen Moore on November 12, 2004 02:13 PM
November 12, 2004 | Comments: (0)
AMD, Dell and the attack of the blog
Have you ever heard of Good Morning Silicon Valley? How about The Inquirer? Maybe I had. I don't know. But now I have. They all linked to our story on Dell's more open-minded view toward AMD and their 64-bit processors.
There are more. I saw a story about our story on a French website that reminded me it was time to dust off my college French textbook. C'est la vie or at least it is in the new world of the Internet and blogs. You never know where a story will show up. I saw a blogger in the Netherlands that referred to our story. I have a friend who runs a Dutch restaurant, so I sent it to him. Maybe he can tell me what it says.
I grew up in the days of competitive journalism, when towns had more than one newspaper. I often worked for the underdog paper, which meant that if you had a scoop, the larger paper could just ignore it for a couple of days and then come back with a slightly different take on the story. It was frustrating, kind of like watching the school bully take off with your girl friend.
I remember seeing my scoop on a big new shopping center get buried by the larger paper's coverage a few days later. Even worse was when the TV stations arrived to put their stamp on it and leave without giving my paper any credit. What I wouldn't have given to have had some bloggers and a few Internet sites then. C'est la vie.
Posted by Bob Francis on November 12, 2004 01:48 PM
November 12, 2004 | Comments: (0)
Sun in need of good business advice
With all due respect to someone with the same last name as me, Jonathan Schwartz, president and COO of Sun, Schwartz's November 10th blog, left me almost speechless.
I can't believe Sun is singing that same old Java song about how the company is licensing Java for a nominal fee, practically giving it away, in order to use it as a lever to sell its other products and services. This time around Schwartz says Java everywhere will take Sun from an $11 billion company to a $50 billion company.
I've been hearing that tired tune from Sun executives for at least five years. In its latest form it is Java Desktop System and J2ME on cell phones that will save the day.
According to Schwartz there are currently 579 million Java-enabled handsets and, he says the following:
"So then, what's the point of a world filled with cheap, secure and connected devices? It gives Sun the opportunity to monetize the resulting demand for infrastructure software, service and hardware."
It hasn't worked yet. Sun is still losing money. Last quarter it lost $147 million. Take out the $92 million it paid to Kodak and they lost $55 million for the quarter.
Schwartz it appears even believes that Sun's willingness to give away Java rather than charging $50 per phone is an eleemosynary endeavor.
"If we were trying to harvest $50 [per] phone, there's no way 60% of 15 year olds in North America would have them…"
It seems to me there's some middle ground between $50 and free.
Now, to be fair. It is a fact that the market for data services and content on cell phones is growing rapidly. It is also true that Sun has a strong carrier business. Therefore it is legitimate to assume carriers will need more hardware and infrastructure to meet this rapidly expanding demand. It seems logical to me that they would turn to Sun as one of the key providers. But Sun is not the only provider.
Nevertheless, Schwartz asks, "Are we making money from Java?"
He answers his own question by asking another. "Does Amex make money from "free" payment cards? Cingular from free hand-sets?"
He argues that they do, but not on the sale of the cards or the handsets. Rather he compares it to the razor blade and razor handle model.
"Make sense" It should. Razor handles and razor blades -- blades go to free, the world needs a lot of handles," Schwartz says.
Somebody ought to put that business model to rest. Yes, it works sometimes, but the problem in Sun's case is there is not a one-to-one relationship. If Cingular gives away the handset the consumer has to buy Cingular service. If Amex gives away the credit card the consumer can only use it only to buy things on credit.
However, if Sun gives away J2ME on a cell phone it doesn't force anyone to buy a Sun Solaris server exclusively.
I hold no degree in business, so take it for what its worth. But all I know is
Microsoft doesn't give away ice in the winter.
If it's not too late, as its new president Schwartz should steal a page or two from the Microsoft play book. Or maybe, instead of accepting the $1.6 billion settlement with Microsoft over the Java suit it should have asked for some good business advice instead.
Remember that old Chinese saying? Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
I really don't care where they get it from but Sun needs more than $1.6 billion. It is in need of some good fishing techniques.
Posted by Ephraim. Schwartz on November 12, 2004 09:42 AM
November 11, 2004 | Comments: (0)
Sun in need of good business advice
With all due respect to someone with the same last name as me, Jonathan Schwartz, president and COO of Sun, Schwartz's November 10th blog, left me almost speechless.
I can't believe Sun is singing that same old Java song about how the company is licensing Java for a nominal fee, practically giving it away, in order to use it as a lever to sell its other products and services. This time around Schwartz says Java everywhere will take Sun from an $11 billion company to a $50 billion company.
I've been hearing that tired tune from Sun executives for at least five years. In its latest form it is Java Desktop System and J2ME on cell phones that will save the day.
According to Schwartz there are currently 579 million Java-enabled handsets and, he says the following:
"So then, what's the point of a world filled with cheap, secure and connected devices? It gives Sun the opportunity to monetize the resulting demand for infrastructure software, service and hardware."
It hasn't worked yet. Sun is still losing money. Last quarter it lost $147 million. Take out the $92 million it paid to Kodak and they lost $55 million for the quarter.
Schwartz it appears even believes that Sun's willingness to give away Java rather than charging $50 per phone is an eleemosynary endeavor.
"If we were trying to harvest $50 [per] phone, there's no way 60% of 15 year olds in North America would have them…"
It seems to me there's some middle ground between $50 and free.
Now, to be fair. It is a fact that the market for data services and content on cell phones is growing rapidly. It is also true that Sun has a strong carrier business. Therefore it is legitimate to assume carriers will need more hardware and infrastructure to meet this rapidly expanding demand. It seems logical to me that they would turn to Sun as one of the key providers. But Sun is not the only provider.
Nevertheless, Schwartz asks, "Are we making money from Java?"
He answers his own question by asking another. "Does Amex make money from "free" payment cards? Cingular from free hand-sets?"
He argues that they do, but not on the sale of the cards or the handsets. Rather he compares it to the razor blade and razor handle model.
"Make sense" It should. Razor handles and razor blades -- blades go to free, the world needs a lot of handles," Schwartz says.
Somebody ought to put that business model to rest. Yes, it works sometimes, but the problem in Sun's case is there is not a one-to-one relationship. If Cingular gives away the handset the consumer has to buy Cingular service. If Amex gives away the credit card the consumer can only use it only to buy things on credit.
However, if Sun gives away J2ME on a cell phone it doesn't force anyone to buy a Sun Solaris server exclusively.
I hold no degree in business, so take it for what its worth. But all I know is
Microsoft doesn't give away ice in the winter.
If it's not too late, as its new president Schwartz should steal a page or two from the Microsoft play book. Or maybe, instead of accepting the $1.6 billion settlement with Microsoft over the Java suit it should have asked for some good business advice instead.
Remember that old Chinese saying? Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
I really don't care where they get it from but Sun needs more than $1.6 billion. It is in need of some good fishing techniques.
Posted by Ephraim. Schwartz on November 11, 2004 04:34 PM
November 11, 2004 | Comments: (0)
I don't know how many times I've heard the question asked of Dell and, similarly, I don't know how many times I've heard the same answer. The question always is, "Is Dell planning on using AMD chips in their computers?" The answer always is, "If customers demand it and if it makes economic sense, we'll do it."
So when my editor Tom Sullivan, fellow writer and editor-at-large Ed Scannell and I got a chance to interview Kevin Rollins, Dell's CEO and president, we put the standard AMD question on our list.
The question was no surprise, but the answer was. Rollins did not say Dell had a product using AMD processors ready to go, but he took away most of the caveats Dell always placed in front of any AMD deal. "My guess is we're going to want to add that [AMD] product line in the future," he said. Tom, Ed and I waited for the qualifier, but none came. So we picked our jaws off the floor and continued with the interview in a "So, Mrs. Lincoln, other than that, how was the play?" kind of way. We ran the news story as quickly as we could.
In some ways, it shouldn't have come as that much of a surprise. After all, AMD has done its homework. After years of cutting deals with PC manufacturers that left it with little profit, AMD decided to concentrate on technology. Along the way, it edged out Intel with its 64-bit Opteron chip for servers and 64-bit Athlon64 processor for desktops, even winning Microsoft as a convert.
Now we'll see. In the past, Dell has flirted with AMD just to win concessions from Intel, according to many industry analysts. It doesn't sound like it this time.
Posted by Bob Francis on November 11, 2004 01:15 PM
November 11, 2004 | Comments: (0)
TMRA (Too Many Redundant Acronyms)
Technology acronyms, while always annoying, nonetheless have served a purpose of abbreviating tongue-twister technology names.
It's always easier to say ODBC than Open Database Connectivity, or say RISC rather than Reduced Instruction Set Computing.
Lately, though, the march of acronyms has gotten out of hand. Either the officials celebrating the acronymed technology don't even know what the acronym stands for, or, worse, the same letter combos are being used for multiple technologies or concepts.
For example, what's IP stand for? It used to just stand for Internet Protocol. Now, when you see IP in a headline, it's more likely to mean Intellectual Property. Maybe before too long there will be a third meaning for IP, such as Information Protection or something like that. There might even be a third definition out there that I'm not yet aware of.
IP is not the only multi-definitioned acronym. This morning, I met with a vendor who talked about SCM. In this instance, the official was talking about Software Configuration Management and not Supply Chain Management. Borland recently unveiled a strategy it calls SDO, for Software Delivery Optimization. Don't confuse it with the other SDO definitions - Service Data Objects or Server Data Objects.
I also run into instances where technically minded executives hail an acronym and clearly are masters in detailing the intricacies of what the technology does. But then they are stumped when asked what the acronym stands for. This happened the other day with the acronym, JVMTI. Afterward, I looked it up, and it's Java Virtual Machine Tool Interface. Maybe JVMTI also has a second definition somewhere; who can know for sure?
Perhaps it's time to stop immediately taking the acronym path to labeling a technology or concept. The clarity of acronyms has clearly become the confusion of acronyms.
Posted by Paul Krill on November 11, 2004 10:50 AM
November 10, 2004 | Comments: (0)
Don't Regulate Instant Messaging
Meta Group released some interesting stats this morning about the use of instant messaging among employees who work for companies in the Global 2000.
The study found that 57 percent of those surveyed use IM at work for personal rea-sons, while 56 percent use IM at home for business.
Those numbers come across to me as a pretty even balance. While Meta is saying that the former of those numbers is more surprising, I found the latter to be the compelling piece of data.
Now Meta says that CIOs should view these numbers as alarming, and that companies need to control the use of IM, to regulate it, if you will.
The report found that 49 percent of respondents would comply with a corporate-enforced policy limiting or prohibiting personal IM use at work. Meanwhile, 10 percent said they would ignore the ban and use IM as they always have.
Security issues aside, regulating IM will not stop employees from reaching out to friends and family, it will only make it harder for them, cost the company more in phone calls and, because IM is more efficient than either e-mail or the phone, result in lost time that should be spent working.
I'll not pretend that IM never gets abused; sure it does. But so does e-mail and so do phones. Of the three, though, IM is the least time-consuming.
Any way you look at it, employees need a balance between their personal and professional lives. Sometimes they absolutely have to make personal arrangements while they are at work, and sometimes they don't actually have to, but do so anyway.
That said, it is better to give employees the tools to make personal communications as proficiently as possible than it is to take away today's most efficient means of one-to-one communication.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 10, 2004 10:11 AM
November 08, 2004 | Comments: (0)
Security is top of mind, but low on budget
Computer security is a top of mind subject for both IT managers and their corporate bosses, yet it is getting little budget attention. It seems a little incongruous - 81 percent of IT managers say attacks on their networks are increasing, yet the percentage of IT budgets devoted to network security will remain at current levels. At the same time, one out of five of the IT managers surveyed admitted they had been the victim of a hacker who had gained unauthorized access to their company's network.
That's the finding of a recent study by Q&A Research sponsored by Britestream Networks. The report only gives credence to recent anecdotal evidence. Recently two IT managers spoke to editors at InfoWorld and both said essentially the same thing: Their IT budgets were not increasing appreciably over the next year, even if the recession that never was is over. Repeating the opinion of IT managers in the survey, the two IT managers said attacks on their networks were increasing.
In the past, lean and mean IT budgets have not been much of an issue. Technological innovations have been able to make up for the lean budgets in many areas. But the amount of the IT budget allocated to security is a concern for IT managers this year. Respondents to the survey said that securing a sufficient budget for security solutions is their biggest problem. It is on the mind of CEOs as well, according to the report. It is already November, so most corporate budgets are set in stone. It could be an interesting year in the world of computer security.
Posted by Bob Francis on November 8, 2004 01:45 PM
November 05, 2004 | Comments: (0)
Meeting with Ross Mauri, general manager, On Demand Business for Big Blue left me wondering -- was it him or me?
On Demand, as I recall, has always been synonymous with utility computing. In other words, hosted applications that allowed a company to dial up or dial down the infrastructure as needed without owing any of it.
Need more computing power for the holiday season? No problem IBM will give you all the performance you need for the next three months and then throttle back when business slows.
But at a meeting earlier this week, November 3rd, with Mauri he told me On Demand never meant that. He said I had it all wrong. When a Big Blue exec speaks you listen. I guess I'm just not remembering correctly.
What, then, is OnDemand? It is a fusion of business transformation and the technology or operating environment needed to do it. All of that gets wrapped around something called FFDO, Flexible Financial Delivery Offerings. Under the FFDO banner I suppose you would find hosted services as one of the offerings.
But On Demand means even more than a flexible financial delivery offering, according to Mauri.
If you recall last year IBM bought Pricewaterhouse Coopers, the giant consulting firm. Mauri explained that Big Blue now has 30,000 more consultants than they used to have and they can "help a CEO redesign his business," i.e., business transformation. According to Mauri, IBM wasn't that high up the food chain until now.
So IBM is in a new business, no longer interested in just selling hardware, middleware, software and services, from feet on the street to system integration, now they've wrapped all of that around a container which they've decided to call On Demand.
But it is not going to be so easy to make folks like me forget the old definition. After all, there's that pesky multi-million dollar deal IBM had with Siebel to launch its hosted CRM service, the service targeted at rival Salesforce.com. Guess what it's called? Siebel OnDemand. Maybe they should rename it now, Siebel Flexible Financial Delivery Offerings. Much catchier don't you think?
I understand the thinking up there in Armonk. They are saying, "you Mr. CEO can have anything you want, anyway you want from Big Blue. It's all on demand."
But why did they have to take the old name and give it a new definition?
Signed,
Confused in San Francisco
-- Ephraim Schwartz
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 5, 2004 06:05 AM
November 04, 2004 | Comments: (0)
Expanding the Microsoft Office ecosystem
Wanting to build out a significantly broader ecosystem for its Office 2003 desktop suite as well as for its Office-branded servers, Microsoft has some ambitious plans to increase the number of authorized developers and systems integrators over the next year.
According to Chris Capossela, a corporate vice president with Microsoft's Information Worker Product Management Group, the company would like to grow its existing 70,000 partners to "two to four times" that many over the next year. The company plans to spend $20 million over that time on partner training.
Capossela admits that many Office users both large and small complain that they do not get enough help from Microsoft on how to get more functional use out of the product to address some of their individual application needs.
"We want to move from being a productivity vendor of choice to a productivity partner of choice. We need to work better with users who need to get more capability out of Office. They need more technical tips and tricks in order to solve specific problems they have, like putting out an RFP," Capossela said.
Nonetheless, Capossela said that at just past the one year anniversary of Office 2003, product deployments are markedly ahead of those of it predecessor, Office XP, after its first year in the market. He declined to offer specific numbers comparing the two.
Microsoft's Information Worker Productivity group raked in $10.8 billion in revenues for the fiscal year ending June 30, a healthy 17 per cent increase over the last year. Largely responsible for that increase were the vertical editions of Office, including the ones for small- and medium-size businesses and the one for teachers and students. Also notably making contributions to the increase were the SharePoint Portal Server and Live Meeting.
Microsoft will continue to look at delivering more Office-branded servers that better tie together the applications within Office 2003 System. Currently the company has Project and Project Server, Office 2003 and SharePoint Portal Server and Outlook and Exchange.
Capossela again declined to discuss reports that the company was working on an InfoPath Forms Server and a new Excel Calculation Server.
"It is way too early in our thinking to talk about those types of products. We haven't even thought about how we might package such servers," Capossela said. He added, however, that the ongoing concept of Office System applications, servers and services is the strategic direction the company continues to head in.
As far as the progress being made on Office 12, or Wave 12 as Microsofters refer to it, Capossela was again mum. He would only say that the upcoming release, like the several releases before it, is on a consistent "two- to-three-year" release schedule which would put its delivery no later than October, 2006.
- By Ed Scannell
Posted by Jack McCarthy on November 4, 2004 02:43 PM
November 04, 2004 | Comments: (0)
Are storage vendors fortifying the gap between information and storage management?
The recent definition of Information Lifecycle Management, which the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) put forth late last month, appears to many in the industry as a step in the right direction.
The definition attempts to help IT managers and others begin to view storage as information instead of just data to be stored on whatever device is available. The definition is pretty basic: ILM is comprised of the policies, processes, practices, and tools used to align the business value of information with the most appropriate and cost-effective IT infrastructure from the time information is conceived through its final disposition.
I recently did a story on the subject and got some interesting comments. While plenty in the industry see the definition as a way to level the field and bring some organization to some rather chaotic concepts, others involved in storage see the definition as nothing but window dressing. To quote from one letter I received: "Hundreds of companies in the information management industry have been working on the underlying principles of ILM since long before the term
was coined. In fact, you'll find many of the same principles in fields
such as content management and digital asset management. The storage
industry is about 25 years late to the party. And now the industry has
the audacity to attempt to 'define it'. Give me a break."
That is an interesting observation. The writer goes further saying that the storage industry is, in fact, wasting time and money developing technologies that "conflict with, and in many instances trample upon, existing, mature information management solutions. Rather than breaking down the barrier between information and storage management, I believe the storage industry may well be reinforcing it."
It sounds like the writer believes the storage industry is trying to re-invent the wheel and not doing it that well. In speaking to Mike Peterson, the analyst and leader of the group in the SNIA who came up with the definition, one reason for the definition is to build up management practices revolving around ILM.
Posted by Bob Francis on November 4, 2004 12:42 PM
November 04, 2004 | Comments: (0)
Through the typical barrage of vendor meetings I had this week one surprising thread emerged: IT is increasingly looking for ways to reduce expenses by using less power.
I know, I know. It sounds rather obvious. Trite, even. All companies, the well-run ones at least, try to spend as little on power as they can possibly get away with. It only makes sense.
A lot of the attention that gets paid to power savings, however, relates to the datacenter and to lower-voltage processors, particularly for notebook computers. Reducing power expenses has certainly been an issue within the datacenter, but when it comes to notebooks the benefits of using less power, more often that not, relate not to electricity bills but instead to size, performance and battery life.
This week I met with secure remote access provider Tarantella and the thin client folks at Sun.
Frank Wilde said that in his discussions with customers since taking the CEO post at Tarantella about a year ago he has heard myriad CIOs say one of their biggest problems was managing power, space, lighting, heating and air-conditioning.
These problems are not typically associated with the bits and bytes of IT, though IT may consume more of those resources than any other business unit, depending on the type of company.
Unknowingly backing up Wilde's remarks, Mason Uyeda, the product line manager of Sun Ray clients, said that Sun Rays use an average of 13 watts, whereas a typical desktop PC consumes a "barebones minimum of 80 watts."
Those wattage numbers are estimates, not exact figures, based on several variables, such as which optional components are run with the system.
What got my attention, though, was that Uyeda said Sun has customers who buy Sun Ray machines primarily to reduce spending on power.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 4, 2004 09:23 AM
November 03, 2004 | Comments: (0)
I spent the day at Dell Computer recently and found the company busy with new products and service offerings. You could forgive Dell officials for being blase about success, but even they have been surprised by the impact of the company's EMC relationship. Darren Thomas, head of Dell's storage group, said the company is constantly changing and expanding the terms of their now three-year-old relationship because it has provided both companies with new opportunities. If you don't recall, Dell and EMC have a co-branding and co-development agreement for several low-end storage products. Proving that relationships matter, EMC's president and CEO Joe Tucci was formerly head of Wang Computer, which provided service and support for Dell products during the 1990s. When Tucci went to EMC, Michael Dell kept in touch. Thomas says Dell is learning a great deal about the storage needs of customers, while EMC is learning about making products that are more customer friendly.
The most recent product to result from the agreement is the AX/100, which has been described as "SAN in a box." Designed for simplicity, it takes four mouse clicks to set up, said Thomas. That has proven a boon to Dell customers, particularly to Dell's small and medium business customers with small or no IT departments. Dell is eager to expand the concept, said Terry Klein, vice president of Dell's advanced systems group. "If we take what we've learned with the AX/100 and take it to larger storage systems, we'll really have a winner. It may take 20 clicks instead of four, but that's good, very good compared to other products on the market," he said.
I'll never forget my first visit to Dell Computer. It was sometime around 1990 and I had read and heard a bit about Dell and their computers. I called them up and was invited down to take a look (yes, reporters do have hunches, though truthfully I also visited more than a few flash-in-the-pan PC vendors at the time). Even though the magazine I was working for was skeptical about PCs (even calling them "pcs"), I went.
The affable marketing guy, Brian, took me to a room and showed me their latest computers, which had just been renamed Dell, after dropping the PC's Limited brand name (with good reason and foresight as it turned out). As Brian went through the products, a young man entered the room and stood quietly to the side. I assumed he was an engineer waiting to answer any questions.
Indeed, when I asked a technical question, the young man stepped forward and patiently explained the technical point. He continued talking and explaining the technology, products and customer needs until finally he introduced himself as Michael Dell. He was as enthusiastic about his products then as the company leaders seem to be now, nearly, gulp, 15 years or so later.
Posted by Bob Francis on November 3, 2004 03:21 PM
November 03, 2004 | Comments: (0)
More encroachment on Microsoft
First it's Windows. Now it's Internet Explorer.
Already facing a threat to its Windows operating system dominance from the open source Linux platform, Microsoft can't be too thrilled to find out this week that its Internet Explorer browser is losing market share to the open source Mozilla offering.
After holding at 95 percent of the market for years, share has dropped to 92.9 percent as of October. This can't be good news for a company whose grand entrance into the browser market and the bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows several years ago displaced Netscape as the dominant browser.
Although 92.9 percent still is quite an overwhelming share, the concept of open source continues to present new burdens for the Redmond, Wash. software giant. Open source is creat