Next Gen Enterprise

Links for 2012-01-27 [del.icio.us]

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 00:00:00 PST

#SAP Gets A Pit Bull
“Watch out, Larry Ellison. Watch out, Marc Benioff. This ain’t your grandfather’s SAP,” he bellowed to the guests. Dalgaard walked out of that room a hero to the entrepreneurs gathered there. But minutes later, out in the hallway, Dalgaard changes mood. His booming voice softens as he leans forward, compacting his 6-foot-4 frame: “I cried when I told our employees we were selling. I couldn’t help myself,” he says. “How uncool is that? Crying. I was on my knees, literally. But you know, no one can control what I do or say.” Not even Dalgaard can control what he says. He’ll probably get an executive board seat at SAP. In exchange, SAP is getting the loud voice it badly needs. Having Dalgaard in the trenches lobbing propaganda bombs at Oracle and Salesforce.com, two companies very skilled at grenade-launching, is a clear sign that the formerly stolid German software company is breaking out of its Teutonic shell.
Do #Oracle Customers Deserve A Better Choice?
I think that customers will use some or all of the following questions to determine whether SAP or Oracle is the better choice: 1) Which company will give me faster time to value? 2) Which company will give me better TCO? 3) Which company will help me move into the cloud as aggressively as I want? 4) Which company has the mobile expertise to help me not only make my sales force more productive, but also allow my customers be more successful by letting them engage with consumers in the ways those consumers prefer? 5) Which company has committed to a long-term technology roadmap and maintenance policy that gives me predictability and transparency so I can confidently plan my own strategies for the next several years? 6) Which company’s approach to the market will give me maximum openness, choice, and innovation? 7) Which company offers the deepest industry-specific knowledge, including benchmarks relevant to my industry and my region and my competitive set?
Getting Bullish on #SAP in the HR Marketplace
With the acquisition of SuccessFactors, the company now offers a SaaS best-of-breed set of talent management products and the only piece left to do is integrate all these things together (more information on that front is coming soon).
#Salesforce.com customers say new analytics should be included in core fees
Analytics Edition will include several capabilities, such as joined reports, data "bucketing" and cross-filtering, according to an official blog post written in December.
Make Analytics Edition Free!!!!! | Ideas | #Salesforce.com
Why are you charging us for functionality that so many people need? If Salesforce.com is Software as a Service then why are you making us pay more for the software if the whole idea is to cover these costs with recurring revenue. MAKE IT FREE and GET YOUR COSTS IN ORDER!!!! We expect more from you guys.

Links for 2012-01-26 [del.icio.us]

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:00:00 PST

Zach Nelson: A Decade in the #Cloud ( #NetSuite)
Any company that has a multi-year road map to deploy enterprise systems will be crushed by faster, more nimble competitors who are moving their operations to the Cloud using NetSuite.

Links for 2012-01-25 [del.icio.us]

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:00:00 PST

#Workday becomes latest Cloud up-and-comer to settle in Ireland
Workday plans to expand its presence in Europe and the Middle East by creating 100 jobs over the next three years in Dublin.
Kimberly-Clark Launches Global Rollout of #Workday
Kimberly-Clark selected Workday for reasons including: Workday's Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) delivery model Lower total cost of ownership and faster deployment as compared with Kimberly-Clark's current on-premise system A modern technology architecture to support Kimberly-Clark's most important asset -- its worldwide workforce A single, unified system for workforce data Actionable analytics for gaining insights into Kimberly-Clark's full-time and contingent workforces Workday's consumer-like user interface and self-service capabilities
Seven Questions for Bill Veghte, #HP's New Chief Strategy Officer
As we’re out talking to customers, they’d like to buy more from HP; they’d like HP to be more successful. They look at the advances we’re making in networking or storage or printers, but they want to know why the whole is greater than the sum of is parts. What is HP’s strategy for continued leadership in the market transitions that are going on? And some customers would say that where HP is concerned, that’s not a fully realized opportunity.
#HP software EVP picks up new tasks as chief strategy officer
Veghte joined HP in 2010 after two decades working at Microsoft Corp. in a variety of senior leadership positions, including managing the company’s $15 billion global Windows business and the delivery and launch of Windows 7.
#HP Names Bill Veghte Chief Strategy Officer
In addition to his new responsibilities, Veghte will continue in his current role as executive vice president of HP Software. ... “Every 10 to 15 years, fundamental shifts occur in the IT industry that redefine how technology is delivered,” said Meg Whitman, HP president and chief executive officer. “From mainframes to client/server to the internet, companies that identified the opportunity first and developed the right strategy came out on top. As we move forward, HP intends to stay on top, and I believe Bill has the knowledge and vision to keep us there.” In addition to helping drive strategy for the company as a whole, Veghte will lead HP’s cloud and webOS open source initiatives.
#Microsoft and #HP Join Hands on the #Cloud
Microsoft recently announced a global, four-year deal with HP to deliver its communications and collaboration applications via HP’s cloud services. As per the press release, the deal would include: Private cloud: HP Enterprise Cloud Services – Messaging, HP Enterprise Cloud Services – Collaboration and HP Enterprise Cloud Services – Real-Time Collaboration deliver Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 and Microsoft Lync Server 2010 productivity applications as a service from HP datacenters around the world. Public cloud: Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft’s Office collaboration and productivity tools, will be delivered by Microsoft through the cloud. Hybrid solution: HP will resell Microsoft Office 365 with HP Enterprise Cloud Services – Messaging, HP Enterprise Cloud Services – Collaboration and HP Enterprise Cloud Services – Real-Time Collaboration.
#HP's Whitman lines up future scapegoat
After HP's former chief strategy and technology officer, Shane Robison, resigned last October, the company said "in an effort to drive strategy, research and development closer to the company’s businesses, it will not be replacing the role of chief strategy and technology officer." And now, less than three months later, the company has reversed that decision. Maybe HP concluded it actually would be better to drive strategy, research and development further from the company's businesses. You know, to provide some perspective.
One CES Lesson: #HP's Apotheker Had It Right
For the most part, former HP CEO Leo Apotheker, ousted in September, had it right in wanting to spin off the company's personal systems group, a decision his successor, Meg Whitman, has since reversed. If Apotheker hadn't botched that effort, showing all the finesse of a (drunken) bull in a china shop, the result probably would have been a positive one for HP. Now it'll have to get there through attrition.

Links for 2012-01-23 [del.icio.us]

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:00:00 PST

Wanted: The #SAP HANA Killer App – Part 2
Wouldn’t it be great, if we could manage inventories by knowing every piece by its serial number instead of only an aggregated view by material number? We already do this for some valuable items, but we could make lot size one the default rather than the exception. Barcodes, RFID tags and automated warehouses could help with managing the picking. This would have a number of advantages: Older items can get picked and sent out first, resulting in less items turning bad, e.g. through the influence of light on the packaging Valuation of inventories could be performed using their actual purchase price and their shelf life Product recalls could become more targeted, faster and less expensive

Links for 2012-01-22 [del.icio.us]

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:00:00 PST

Reflections On A Long Career — Part I
Lifelong learning and personal growth are at the heart of any long career. But for a marathon rather than a sprint career, that lifelong learning, that personal reinvention, must be a passion, not just a chore. And it’s our responsibility to learn and grow; it’s not the responsibility of our employer of the moment. By all means take advantage of every employer-provided opportunity, of those tax breaks and government programs that support lifelong learning and career programs. But, in the final analysis, it’s your job to build and preserve your own KSAOCs.
A Beginner's Guide to #SAP anese
“Our Next Largest Competitor”—rarer than a week passing in which Oracle doesn’t buy another company is SAP actually referring to the “Stack Attack” by name.
Did #Google Just Break Its Cash Machine?
Should we all sell our Google shares before the whole advertising system explodes in our faces?
Jim Balsillie, Mike Lazaridis out, Thorsten Heins in as new #RIM CEO
The sudden move follows a year of decline in which RIM lost three-quarters of its market value, botched the launch of its PlayBook tablet and watched rivals eat into its market share for smartphones.
#RIM’s Balsillie and Lazaridis Step Aside
The company named Thorsten Heins, currently one of RIM’s two chief operating officers, as chief executive. He pledged during an interview on Sunday to follow the strategy Mr. Balsillie and Mr. Lazaridis set in place. Mr. Heins said he was staking the company’s revival on a new line of phones and a new operating system known as BlackBerry 10. Over the last year, that project has run into a series of delays. The new phones are not expected until the end of 2012, almost five years after the appearance of the first iPhone.

Links for 2012-01-21 [del.icio.us]

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 00:00:00 PST

London boroughs seek #SAP #Oracle #Aggresso IT services worth up to £1.2bn
Tracie Evans, a project leader on Programme Athena, told Information Age that another component of the scheme is to build single instances of Oracle, SAP, Agresso and finance software Cedar across the boroughs. Evans said that procurement of the single instance of Oracle has already closed and that the SAP procurement is currently in progress.
#SAP – ECC is catching another wind. Are we ready?
I don’t think I have seen another time after the mid to late nineties when the market was this hot for SAP. Several companies seem to be in a hurry to do big SAP projects again . And no – they are not talking of big HANA projects, or big mobility projects or big cloud projects. Drum roll please……They are talking about the good old on premises ECC projects – FOR REALS! It is like the mainframe – it never dies, and always catches another wind.
Top #BI Trends for 2012 and a Look Back at 2011
In-Memory...Visual Discovery...Big Data...Mobile BI...Cloud BI...Social, Collaborative BI...BI Beyond the Technology

Links for 2012-01-20 [del.icio.us]

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 00:00:00 PST

#Microsoft Beats Up on Analysts Yet Again
Margins dropped across the board.
#Microsoft, others endorse same-sex marriage legislation
"We write you today to show the support of our respective companies for SB 6239 and HB 2516 recognizing marriage equality for same-sex couples." Addressed to Gregoire, it was signed by executives from Microsoft, Vulcan, Nike, RealNetworks, Group Health Cooperative and Concur, an online travel and expense-management firm.
#Microsoft asks ITC to take closer look at Motorola's 'wide-scale infringement of Microsoft #patent s'
In general, it's a good thing if complainants face a reasonably high hurdle to prove a violation, but if the standard is that even the sworn testimony of the other party's technical witness doesn't do the job, then it becomes virtually impossible to meet regardless of the actual merit of a claim.
#IBM's Sam Palmisano: 'Always Put the Enterprise Ahead of the Individual'
People who were always a good role model for me [were those who] never put themselves first. They always put their institution or society or their enterprise first. And usually they get better results. If you say, "Well, why does it work?" [It's] because you get people more excited because they can contribute versus an individual trying to take all the bows for the team. And so you could say I'm comfortable in that style. But if you put that aside for a second, I actually think it's a more successful product at the end of the day.
#Informatica ($INFA) Downgraded by Susquehanna to “Neutral”
Shares of Informatica opened at 37.00 on Thursday. Informatica has a one year low of $34.15 and a one year high of $62.42. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $39.47 and its 200-day moving average is $44.5. The company has a market cap of $3.935 billion and a P/E ratio of 37.30.
Tidemark Bulks Up With $24M For Business Intelligence
"You try to invest in exceptional people"
U.S. #VC investment up 10% for 2011, slows in Q4
Dow Jones said the fourth quarter experienced slowed investment in U.S.-based companies compared to the third quarter's deal activity, with investors putting $7.4 billion into 803 deals. Dow Jones said the decline parallels a fourth-quarter drop in exit activity. The MoneyTree report suggests fourth quarter investments for 2011 totaled $6.6 billion into 844 deals — or a 10 percent decrease in dollars and an 11 percent decrease in deals from the third quarter of 2011.
ANNUAL #VC VENTURE INVESTMENT DOLLARS INCREASE 22% OVER PRIOR YEAR, ACCORDING TO THE MONEYTREE REPORT
Double-digit increases in investment dollars in 2011 were spread across a number of industries, including the Clean Technology and Internet-Specific sectors. Investment dollars also increased across every stage of development category, with the exception of a 48 percent decrease in Seed Stage investments. First-time financings rose in 2011 compared to the prior year, however, fourth quarter investing did show a decline in both first-time dollars and deals when compared to Q3 2011.
How #IBM's Sam Palmisano Redefined the Global Corporation
Recognizing that the company's command-and-control culture wouldn't work in the 21st century, he defined leadership as leading by values and created a unique collaborative organizational structure.
Thoughts on the #Splunk IPO and S-1
Most folks make software that analyzes human-generated data; we focus on machine-generated data.

Links for 2011-06-20 [del.icio.us]

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 00:00:00 PDT

The Vertica story (with soundbites!) ( #HP #BigData)
Vertica says it has a “staggering” pipeline now that it’s been with HP for a few months. I also gather that the post-merger HP/Vertica appliance product line formally rolled out last week.
Ask HANA Questions, Get Answers - Three SAP Mentors Talk to the #SAP HANA Team
During this 40 minute podcast, you'll hear SAP Mentors John Appleby and Ethan Jewett pressing SAP on some of the key HANA questions they have been hearing from SAP customers. I jump in once or twice with thoughts of my own - otherwise, after my intro, this is a free-flowing discussion with SAP's Jake Klein and Thomas Zurek providing in-depth answers and a good deal of useful context to the HANA discussion. Topics such as the future of BW and data warehousing at SAP, the need for HANA benchmarking, and the reality of current HANA use cases are covered at length. Klein and Zurek acknowledge that HANA is still in a relatively early phase and explain what they are doing to bring SAP customers from Proof of Concept (POC) to Go-Live.

With the HANA General Availability announced on June 20, this is a timely podcast. We didn't get all our HANA questions answered - time ran out on the taping first - but listen in to find out what we did learn.
JSON Activity Streams Spec Hits Version 1.0
Activity Streams provides a common protocol for creating and parsing activity streams. The ATOM version was already at 1.0.
Activity Streams Working Group: JSON Activity Streams 1.0
In its simplest form, an activity consists of an actor, a verb, an an object, and a target. It tells the story of a person performing an action on or with an object -- "Geraldine posted a photo to her album" or "John shared a video". In most cases these components will be explicit, but they may also be implied.

It is a goal of this specification to provide sufficient metadata about an activity such that a consumer of the data can present it to a user in a rich human-friendly format. This may include constructing readable sentences about the activity that occurred, visual representations of the activity, or combining similar activities for display.
The Woe of Idaho: How Ignoring End-Users Derailed an ERP Implementation ( #ITfail)
... not enough planning or communication, lack of end-user input, design defects, provider enrollment issues and so forth. But what really stands out is the almost total absence of end-user testing.
ICANN opens floodgates on Internet-address suffixes
Websites will soon be able to end with anything from ".shop" to ".canon" after the group that manages Internet addresses approved what it called a historic change in a statement on its website Monday. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which until now allowed 22 suffixes including ".com" and ".org," will accept requests for almost any word in any language from Jan. 12 to April 12.
#Intel code guru: Many-core world requires radical rethink
"'What if we optimize for data movement, to reduce it, and the heck with the fact that that'll cause us to do extra computation'," they proposed. "And they've gotten some fantastic speed-ups," Reinders reports. "And everybody looks at this and thinks, 'Why didn't we think of that?'."
#Intel Discusses The Future Of Many Integrated Core (MIC) Products
Knight's Corner (and future MIC products in general) utilize a CPU based on Intel's original Pentium architecture (P54C). Modifications include complete cache coherency, x86-64 compatibility, and 512-bit vector support capable of performing 16 single-precision floating point operations simultaneously.

One advantage Intel is talking up in a big way is the fact that existing x86 applications will be relatively easy to port to MIC processors. The exact amount of necessary modification will depend on what the program does and how easy it is to parallelize the workload across the 50 chips Knight's Corner will offer. The company claims that "With greater reuse of parallel processor code, software companies and IT departments benefit from creating and maintaining a single code base binary and not having to retrain developers on proprietary programming models associated with accelerators."
OEMs show systems with #Intel MIC chips
Intel claims it will have an advantage in this space because its MIC chips will use x86 cores. Users will be able to program them more easily than competing GPUs because they will use existing x86 server programming tools, Intel claims.
Hyper-V 3.0 Confirmed for #Microsoft Windows 8 Client
I’m able to confirm over a dozen new features for Hyper-V 3.0 They are:

Storage
Virtual Fibre Channel Adapter
Storage Resource Pools
New .VHDX virtual hard drive format (Up to 16TB + power failure resiliency)
Memory/Processor Enhancements
Support for more than 4 cores! (My machine has 12 cores)
NUMA - Memory per Node, Cores per Node, Nodes per Processor Socket
Networking Enhancements
Hardware Acceleration (Virtual Machine Queue & IPsec Offload)
Bandwidth Management
DHCP Guard
Router Guard
Monitor Port
Virtual Switch Extensions
Network Resource Pools

This is a huge step forward for Windows 8. I believe it will have a huge impact on a wide array of usage scenarios, the least of which is the potential for self-contained App-V / Windows XP Mode support. Not to mention better Windows Phone 7/7.5/8 Emulator support. But more on that in my next post. In the meantime, I’ll be switching
New #Microsoft Windows 8 build reveals virtual keyboard, SMS
Also new to Windows 8, at least as found in the latest build, is some type of per-feature licensing, uncovered by a "Windows enthusiast" on Twitter who examined the code for the latest build, according to tech site Redmond Pie. Though the code didn't reveal the use for this feature, Redmond Pie speculates that this could let Microsoft offer all users a "barebones" version of Windows and then prompt them to purchase new features as needed.
#HP upgrades #Vertica analytics platform to keep up with #EMC, #IBM and #Oracle
Vertica 5.0 is the first upgrade since HP bought the firm in February and has been designed to allow much faster scaling up and down of computing power, using a mix of cloud, virtual and physical resources. Advanced native SQL analytic functions have been added and the platform is now capable analyzing more than a petabyte of data from customers.
#SAP Labs in Palo Alto Earns Top Workplace Distinction
The award is based on the results of a survey conducted among employees and designed to measure satisfaction with different aspects of working at SAP. Respondents answered questions across several categories, including pay and benefits, direction, management, career mobility, workplace conditions and execution. The company received especially high marks for compensation and workplace conditions. SAP was also recognized for its commitment to local activities that benefit the community, such as volunteer days.
#SuccessFactors Named One of the Top Workplaces in 2011 by Bay Area News Group
"At SuccessFactors we value our people and culture above all else and we believe this comes through in every aspect of our products and how we focus on the success of our customers. People are our competitive advantage and our most precious asset. We want to make every employee in our company, and every company, successful by providing the tools to enhance their professional skill set, advance their career goals and connect with their company and its mission. We truly believe it's time to love work again and that starts with creating a great work atmosphere that engages and delights the people who live in it each and everyday."

Links for 2011-06-19 [del.icio.us]

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 00:00:00 PDT

Can #Google App Engine compete in the enterprise?
Time and time again, Google demonstrates that it clearly doesn’t understand the enterprise.
Rethrick Construction ( #Google)
Protocol Buffers, BigTable and MapReduce are ancient, creaking dinosaurs compared to MessagePack, JSON, and Hadoop. And new projects like GWT, Closure and MegaStore are sluggish, overengineered Leviathans compared to fast, elegant tools like jQuery and mongoDB. Designed by engineers in a vacuum, rather than by developers who have need of tools.
The impact of #Google’s aging software infrastructure on App Engine
Part of this gap between Google and outside technologies is driven by the fact that offering a cloud platform as a service is not core to Google’s business...
In the case of Google App Engine, a key question to ask is how your enterprise needs will be prioritized against the needs of internal Google developers...With both user groups vying for the next feature on their wish-list to be completed, will Google address the needs of its internal developers or third party enterprise? Keep in mind that revenue from projects that internal developers are working on will far outweigh revenue from third party enterprises through Google App Engine for the foreseeable future.
Are #Java and .Net becoming legacy platforms?
For enterprise developers, the unthinkable has happened: They're working with platforms whose futures seem uncertain. How long will they sit still for it?
#OpenSource Analytics Options Grow
A technology called DomainExpert reduces query times, optimizing performance by "adding intelligence about a particular data domain -- such as web, financial services or telecom," according to Infobright.

Another new feature, called Rough Query, allows users to dig through especially large data sets faster. "Rather than execute a long-running query to find a specific answer, Rough Query enables a user to narrow down the results in an iterative manner, with sub-second response time, before the full query is run," the company said.

Other new capabilities in Infobright 4.0 include a connector to the Hadoop framework for large-scale data processing and a system for loading big data sets rapidly. The latter feature can load data at up to 2TB per hour, according to Infobright.
HeidiSQL – Free #OpenSource Front-End For #MySQL & MSSQL
HeidiSQL can connect to multiple databases and besides creating/editing databases, tables, views, stored routines and triggers, it has support for scheduling events (great for regular jobs like backups).
Forrester Research Reveals #Microsoft Windows XP Still Dominates Business PCs
According to the report from Forrester, Windows 7 is powering 20.9 % of corporate PCs around the world. While on the other hand Windows XP still continues to dominate this field by powering 60% of all business PCs.
#HP - #Oracle: It’s war for sure, Miss Scarlett
According to HP’s complaint, Oracle is telling customers that it won’t fix the bugs, and that the only solution is to upgrade to upcoming new editions of the software or change to current versions that contain the bug fix. Neither option includes software that will run on HP’s Itanium based systems.
[Isn't that Oracle's standard policy for deprecated platforms, like Itanium? -DBM]
#Salesforce.com's Chief Scientist on Why Gamification is the Future of Work
While badges and leaderboards can be effective tools in the modern workplace, Rangaswami warned against "putting the lipstick of gamification on the pig of work." That is, if the work is not inherently rewarding, you're not going to be able to fix that by adding a layer of game mechanics on top of it.
YouTube - Ray Wang - Why Enterprise Software sucks & how disruptive technologies converge to change this
[video]

Links for 2011-06-18 [del.icio.us]

Sun, 19 Jun 2011 00:00:00 PDT

#HP knew All About Itanium End-of-Life Plans Before #Oracle Found Out
What we know for certain is that Ray Lane and HP’s current board members and Leo Apotheker and HP’s current management team now know full well that Intel has plans in place to end-of-life of the Itanium microprocessor. Knowing this, HP issued numerous public statements in an attempt to mislead and deceive their customers and shareholders into believing that these plans to end-of-life Itanium do not exist. But they do. Intel’s plans to end-of-life Itanium will be revealed in court now that HP has filed this utterly malicious and meritless lawsuit against Oracle.
#ERP Vendor Rankings: Despite #Cloud Hype, Same Old Story ( #SAP #Oracle #Sage #Infor #Microsoft #Lawson)
SAP out in front (with more than $16 billion in annual revenues) and Oracle following behind (with approximately $8 billion in ERP revenues).
SAP: $16538
Oracle: $7739
Sage: $2236
Infor: $1800
Microsoft: $1300
Lawson: $745
Totvs: $664
Intuit: $611
Unit4: $611
Epicor: $414
IFS: $375
Exact: $303
QAD: $220
Kingdee: $212
NetSuite: $194
For #IBM #Cognos, it’s business as usual
Since Governor Deval Patrick took office in January 2007, state agencies have spent $2.4 million on 13 contracts with Cognos, a Canadian software company whose American headquarters are in Burlington, according to figures provided by the state.

The money spent on those contracts represents a fraction of the two software deals, totaling $17.5 million, that are at the center of the case against DiMasi. Prosecutors allege that DiMasi used his influence as speaker in 2006 and 2007 to steer the contracts to Cognos in exchange for cash to fund his lavish lifestyle. Joseph Lally, a former salesman for Cognos, pleaded guilty to giving kickbacks to DiMasi, who has pleaded not guilty to the allegations.
Steven John on Vendor-Managed Updates ( #Workday #Cloud)
always on the current release of the software and the latest technology, helping to create and maintain your competitive advantage.
The IT roles needed for the IT organization of the future
"It's a very broad definition of consulting. It's providing direction, it is providing oversight, it's providing value," said Marc Cecere, a principal analyst at Forrester Research Inc.
2. #Oracle vs. #HP
Oracle called the lawsuit "utterly malicious and meritless."
S.F. Bay a danger zone for America's Cup yachts
These boats are very physical, and everybody involved on the ride is going to get a full whipping.
#SAP's McDermott describe company's business strategy
“None of us is as smart as all of us and that’s the open ecosystem approach that we have chosen to take,” McDermott said. “So whether it’s a Lockheed Martin or an IBM or many of the other well-known integrators in this town, we’ll partner with anybody if we can make a difference in a mission or an initiative to return value to the U.S. taxpayer.”
#IBM Readies Data Visualization Play
IBM Cognos looks poised to disrupt what has largely been a niche market. The company will support visual analysis in both stand-alone deployments and as an extension of the Cognos 10 platform. In-memory database Cognos TM1 will power the new visualization tool. I can't get into product names, release dates, or pricing due to nondisclosure agreements.
#Microsoft Refreshes C++ For The #Cloud, Tablets
Visual Studio 2012, will offer tools that coders can use to write programs that work with a new extension to the C++ language. The extension, C++ Accelerated Massive Parallelism (C++ AMP), is designed to simplify the process of writing programs for heterogeneous, parallel architectures.
#Microsoft C++ Accelerated Massive Parallelism
C++ AMP

lowers the barrier to entry for heterogeneous hardware programmability and brings performance to the mainstream, without sacrificing developer productivity or solution portability.
is designed not only to help you address today's massively parallel hardware (i.e. GPUs and APUs), but it also future proofs your code investments with a forward looking design.
is part of Visual C++. You don't need to use a different compiler or learn different syntax.
is modern C++. Not C or some other derivative.
is integrated and supported fully in Visual Studio vNext. Editing, building, debugging, profiling and all the other goodness of Visual Studio work well with C++ AMP.
provides an STL-like library as part of the existing concurrency namespace and delivered in the new amp.h header file.
makes it extremely easy to work with large multi-dimensional data on heterogeneous hardware; in a manner that exposes parallelization.
introduces only one core C++ language ex
#Microsoft C++ AMP keynote is online
The main reasons we decided to build a new model is that we believe there needs to be a single model that has all of the following attributes:

C++, not C: It should leverage C++’s power for strong abstraction without sacrificing performance, not just be a dialect of C.
Mainstream: It should be programmable by millions of developers, not just by a priesthood. Litmus test: Is the Hello World parallel GPU program a page and half, or a couple of lines?
Minimal: It adds just one general-purpose language extension that addresses not only the immediate problem (dealing with cores that can’t support full C++) but many others. With the right general-purpose extension, the rest can be done as just a library.
Portable: It allows shipping a single EXE that can use any combination of GPU vendors’ hardware. The initial implementation uses DirectCompute and supports all devices that are DX11 capable; DirectCompute is just an implementation detail of the first release, and the model c
Heterogeneous Computing and #Microsoft C++ AMP
Herb Sutter introduces the AMD Fusion Developer Summit 11 crowd (and the world!) to Microsoft's view on heterogeneous computing in the concurrency age and introduces one of Microsoft's upcoming technologies for democratizing GPGPU/APU/Multi-Core/Many-Core programming for native developers: C++ Accelerated Massive Parallelism or C++ AMP. Look for C++ AMP and associated tooling in the next version of Visual C++.

Links for 2011-06-16 [del.icio.us]

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 00:00:00 PDT

#HP vs. #Oracle - From ugly to uglier as HP takes to the Courts
HP also seeks:

Injunctive relief, including an order prohibiting Oracle from making false and misleading statements regarding the Itanium microprocessor or HP’s Itanium-based servers and remedying the harm caused by Oracle’s conduct.

Damages and fees and other standard remedies available in cases of this nature.
Exclusive: #Sage rumoured to be in acquisition talks with #IBM and #SAP
"We are in a period of reflection at Sage," he said. "The company is looking to double our customer base in five years, which is quite a challenging path."

"The structure of the organisation holds us back, and we would certainly benefit from more collateral and capital expenditure".

The source believes that being acquired by SAP or IBM would help to streamline internal processes and potentially fund a restructure.
#Salesforce.com's Benioff Pushes 'social Enterprises'
"Salesforce.com was born cloud, but we were reborn social."
#Infor Reports 28 Percent Organic License Growth in Fourth Quarter
Total revenue of $509.8 million for Q4 2011 was 12 percent above Q4 2010 total revenue of $453.7 million. This is the second consecutive quarter of double-digit license growth for Infor and represents continued market share gains in the enterprise applications market.
Why is #Salesforce.com So Worried about #Microsoft? - Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog
At Microsoft, we think about this business differently. We give you flexible contract terms, a broad technology solution for the public and private cloud, and a great experience for your end users … all at a much more affordable price.
Ex-Massachusetts House Speaker Convicted in #IBM #Cognos Bribery Case
After an six-week trial in federal court, the former Massachusetts Speaker of the House Salvatore F. DiMasi, once one of the state's most powerful politicians, was convicted Wednesday of trading $17.5 million worth of state contracts for kickbacks from Cognos, the Canadian BI shop that now belongs to IBM.

IBM and Cognos were never involved. Between 2005 and 2007, the $65,000 in bribes was secretly funneled to DiMasi by one of Cognos' local sales VPs Joseph Lally. He turned state's evidence in return for a lighter sentence.

After the Boston Globe exposed the conspiracy and forced DiMasi to resign in 2009, IBM returned $13 million of the contract money. It was found that one of the two contracts had skirted bidding rules.
#HP Girds for Battle: The Executive Shuffle
Bill Veghte will now report to the office of the CEO. Bill, who was one of the most well-regarded Microsoft executives, is missioned with building HP's software unit and to reverse Mark Hurd’s starvation of software. In order to better position against both Oracle and IBM, HP needs massive additional strength here and this unit moves from non-strategic under Hurd to most strategic under Apotheker and thus now reports into the chief executive’s office.
America's Cup Field Of Competitors Announced
Representatives of teams from China, Italy, New Zealand, South Korea, Sweden and France, which has two teams, joined the U.S. team, Oracle Racing, at a news conference at the Ferry Building this morning. A ninth team that will contend will be announced next week in Europe.
#Google pans #Oracle damages argument: #Java was fragmented well before #Android
Google, however, said that the lawsuit should revolve around the Android software, which happens to be free.
#Google Inc.'s Brief in Support of Daubert Motion ( #Oracle #Java #Android)
Google’s advertising business is not the accused product. The accused product is the Android platform software, which Google does not sell and from which it earns no direct revenue. The value of the Android software and of Google’s ads are entirely separate: the software provides for certain phone functionality, whether or not the user is viewing ads, and Google’s ads are viewable on any software and are not uniquely enabled by Android
Company shares its #SAP support staff with others to cut IT costs
“Part of it is the economy, and part of it is a good idea of leveraging resources,” O’Dell said.
For a pioneer of technology, 100 years of "Think" ( #IBM)
IBM dates to June 16, 1911, when three companies that made scales, punch-clocks for work and other machines merged to form the Computing Tabulating Recording Co. The modern-day name followed in 1924.
As Fed CIO Kundra Departs, Will Progress Stall?
Kundra will resign in August for a fellowship at Harvard University, where he will study the implications of digital media and technology for governance, and work with Harvard on research in the areas of cloud computing, open data, and open government. In a statement, Obama administration budget director Jack Lew said that the administration would continue down the path of IT reform that Kundra has helped clear.
Obama's CIO quits
While there was progress, "I don't think anyone can declare success on any one of those right now," he said.
#Oracle, #Cisco May Benefit As Smart-Grid Costs Soar
The risk of cyberattacks is higher, as is the need for reliability. An increasingly digital society boosts demand. So does the proliferation of solar and wind systems feeding their intermittent power, which needs to be managed, into the grid.

Links for 2011-06-14 [del.icio.us]

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 00:00:00 PDT

#Oracle Racing unleash, and capsize, catamaran in San Francisco
"Everyone's wearing helmets for a reason, there's a significant amount of risk," said Spithill.

"They're the fastest boats out there at the moment, and to get the most out of them you have to push."
YouTube - High Five!
Going extreme with the AC45 in San Francisco Bay!
#HP, #Microsoft take joint aim at #Oracle
But if you are at HP's big user conference this week and interested in talking to Oracle, you won't find the company listed as an exhibitor on the expo floor.

But a couple of HP attendees did report seeing a truck with Oracle advertising on it outside the conference. And Oracle is nonetheless on the agenda at the conference. On Wednesday, one conference session was titled "Oracle database migrations to Microsoft SQL Server with HP services."
#Oracle Exadata Gains Certification for #SAP Applications
The SAP certification was valid as of Friday and applies to products that are based on NetWeaver 7.x and certified for Oracle database 11g Release 2, according to SAP's website.
#Oracle Exadata for #SAP Customers Now Available
Because all database machines
are the same, their characteristics and operations are
well known and understood by Oracle field engineers
and support. Individual customers will not need to
diagnose and resolve unique issues that only occur on
their configuration. Performance tuning and stress
testing performed at Oracle on an exact replica of the
customer’s configuration ensure better performance
and higher quality.
The powerful servers within the Exadata Database
Machine (up to 64 cores and 2 TB RAM) allow
customers to move multiple small databases to a
single server for enhanced management and resource
sharing. This can even be supported by a new feature
called Oracle instance caging which can dedicate
processors to specific instances (a solution that prevents
one instance from “hogging” the processors).
- Large databases can be spread over several RAC
nodes.
- Exadata is suitable for any kind of load, OLTP,
OLAP or a combination of both.
Vendors Converge On Packaged #Cloud
#HP and #Oracle extend their converged infrastructure products but smaller packages are also appearing

Top-tier data centre systems makers continue to roll out prepackaged hardware-and-software offerings as they look to grow their capabilities in the increasingly competitive converged infrastructure space.
#Oracle lawsuit highlights #cloud security and liability concerns
One of the New Jersey college’s claims is that Oracle hedged on providing a hosted data center environment in which Montclair could convert its financial data to ready it for PeopleSoft applications. According to Montclair, Oracle wanted the university to sign an amendment that would excuse Oracle from legal liability if Oracle wasn’t able to keep Montclair’s financial data confidential.

“Oracle’s proposed amendment was inconsistent with Oracle’s obligation to maintain the University’s data confidential under the terms of the parties’ existing agreement …” the lawsuit reads. As a result, the university bought more server hardware to do the data conversion in-house, a measure that cost it time and money.
YouTube - Raw Video: America's Cup Catamaran Capsizes
Four-time America's Cup champion Russell Coutts, the CEO of Oracle Racing, capsized his 45-foot catamaran on the San Francisco Bay during a practice race. (June. 14)

Links for 2011-06-13 [del.icio.us]

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 00:00:00 PDT

Gates Foundation forms alliance against smoking in China
Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and chairman of Microsoft, and Robin Li, chairman and chief executive officer of Baidu Inc., formed a strategic alliance on June 11 in Beijing to promote healthy lifestyles and create a smoke-free environment both in China and around the world.
Gates outs Facebook founder's engagement
"His fiancée, Priscilla, thought about education, and he gave money to Newark," the loose-lipped Gates said.

Facebook officials declined to comment yesterday.
#Oracle gains while chip sell-off weighs techs Tech Stocks
Analysts from Citigroup and Lazard Capital Markets issued reports before the opening bell, predicting strong results for Oracle when the company posts results for its fiscal fourth quarter on June 23. Joel Fishbein of Lazard said channel checks have indicated a strong period for the company “including database, Exadata, and applications.”

Walter Pritchard of Citi said his research indicates that the Exadata and business intelligence businesses “continue to drive growth at Oracle,” with Exadata in particular seeing strong growth.

“Recent data points suggesting a slowdown in hardware are dated, limited in geography, and ignore the broader SPARC picture that includes share gains for Fujitsu, Oracle’s hardware partner,” Pritchard wrote.
#Oracle: Citi, Lazard See Hardware Biz Under-Appreciated
Citigroup’s Walter Pritchard this morning writes that the company’s “Exadata” dedicated hardware for massive database sifting is “seeing tremendous growth, with a very large deal in the tens of boxes signed last quarter,” and that some market data that may have suggested a slowdown in Oracle’s hardware business is not accurate and is “dated.”
...
Exalogic v1, which was shipped in December, should not have much of an impact this fiscal year, as the Oracle sales force is busy selling Exadata. Oracle has made great strides in transitioning to a direct hardware sales model and hardware sales should continue to stabilize as reseller agreements are almost undone by now. We believe that the large market opportunity for Exadata leaves plenty of opportunity for Oracle, despite potential disruption from emerging technologies such as that of Fusion-IO (FIO). Our Exadata market opportunity analysis only accounts for 15% penetration, which we believe is realistic in the short term.
#SAP on #Oracle Database
Oracle Exadata Now Certified by SAP New!

All SAP products based on SAP NetWeaver 7.x that are also certified for Oracle Database 11g Release 2 can now be used with the Oracle Exadata Database Machine. For more information, see SAP Note 1590515 and the Oracle white paper.
10 Jun 2011
Oracle Linux 5 Certified by SAP New!

Unicode versions of SAP products based on SAP NetWeaver 7.0x are now certified for Oracle Linux 5 (as of Update 5) on x86_64 platforms using Oracle Database 11g Release 2.
For more information, see SAP Notes 1565179 and 1567511.
04 Apr 2011
ASM and ACFS Now Certified for SAP

As of Oracle Grid 11.2.0.2 and Oracle RDBMS 11.2.0.2, both Automatic Storage Management (ASM)
and Automatic Storage Management Cluster File System (ACFS) are now certified for SAP kernels 6.40_EX2 and higher on all
UNIX and Linux platforms.
This certification applies both to Oracle Single Instance and Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC).
America's Cup sailing goes extreme
"The crunch and crash and excitement -- sailing has never had that," said Dave Santori, rear commodore of the Golden Gate Yacht Club, Ellison's home club. "It was big amounts of boredom to panic. Now, from the time the race starts to the end, it's all going to be excitement."
#HP reshuffles executives, prompts departures
Hewlett-Packard today made some seismic level changes to its top management that included the exit of its CIO, Randy Mott, who is leaving "effective immediately."

Another major change was the exit of Ann Livermore, an HP employee since 1982, as head of HP's Enterprise Business. But Livermore, who has been on the short-list of potential CEOs of the company, will continue to work for HP as a member of its board, the company said.

The organization changes also point to the people who will form the core of CEO Leo Apotheker's leadership team at HP.

Dave Donatelli, executive vice president of enterprise servers, storage, networking and technology services, and Bill Veghte, executive vice president, software, who both reported to Livermore, will now report directly to Apotheker, HP said. Jan Zadak, executive vice president of global sales, will also report directly to the CEO.
#HP Announces Organizational Changes
New structure aligns HP to better capitalize on strategic market opportunities
Livermore joins board of directors
Donatelli, Veghte, Zadak to report directly to HP CEO Apotheker
Gartner Search Analytics Shows Spike in Platform as a Service ( #PaaS) Inquiries in 2011
#Cloud Middleware Services including Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) are still unknown to many Gartner IT user clients...
When Gartner IT users search for PaaS on the website and throughout online research, the four most common secondary terms are IaaS and SaaS (7.05%), Magic Quadrant (6.12%) and cloud (5.72%)...
The top three vendors that Gartner IT users search for are Microsoft (18%), Amazon (13%) and Tata (11%).
Google Trends: iaas
[Trending up sharply from tiny base -DBM]
Google Trends: saas
[Flat trend - but plenty of industry coverage and a nice-sized base -DBM]
Google Trends: #cloud
[Trending up strongly -DBM]

Links for 2011-06-11 [del.icio.us]

Sun, 12 Jun 2011 00:00:00 PDT

#SAP Ranked Leader in Business Intelligence Tools Market, Outpaces Market Growth for Financial Performance and Strategy Management Applications ( #BI)
The two IDC analyses – "Worldwide Business Intelligence Tools 2010 Vendor Shares"1 and "Worldwide Financial Performance and Strategy Management Applications 2010 Vendor Shares"2 – found that SAP leads the worldwide BI market with revenues of $1,866.4 million and a 21 percent market share, while revenue for FPSM was $629 million constituting a 24.9 percent market share. From 2009 to 2010 SAP outperformed the worldwide market growth in each category: for BI tools SAP grew by 19.9 percent compared to the total market growth of 11.4 percent, and for FPSM applications it grew by 17.5 percent compared to the total market growth of 9.2 percent.
Converting my lessons learned from #SAP Sapphire into compelling future architectures
Focus on customer-facing micro-applications – preferably mobile - that use data from OnPremise environments (either via Gateway or HANA in the Cloud) that are hosted on the OnDemand Edge PaaS environment.
#ERP: Long, difficult, expensive. Is cloud ERP's next big thing? ( #NetSuite)
"I do think we are hitting a tipping point for complex businesses turning to the cloud," he said, claiming that companies' experience of using software as a service in non-mission-critical areas like salesforce automation and HR had "led them to believe this is a better way of running their business".
HRM Software/Services Q1 Vendor Briefings — It’s A Wrap!
If it s not true SaaS, if you don’t have something hot under the covers, and if you don’t have a huge installed base a la SAP/Oracle/PeopleSoft, then the influencers, including the traditional analyst firms but excepting the pay-for-play false analysts, aren’t going to be very interested or supportive.
#Workday Blog: Five Reasons Why #SaaS Updates Are Better Than #ERP Software Upgrades
The widely known (among IT shops) but not widely reported story of on-premise ERP software is that major upgrades resemble re-implementations in terms of their cost and complexity. After trying to address the issue with technology and tools, ERP software vendors have resorted to lengthening release support windows and doing less frequent major releases. Customers have resorted to negotiating for even longer support windows and skipping major releases.
#Oracle Exadata notes
A couple of existing Oracle users — one rather well-known — recently told me that Oracle won’t let them text Exadata except on Oracle premises. In one case, this is a deal-breaker keeping Exadata from being considered for a purchase, and Oracle still won’t budge.
Why #HP webOS is a Challenge to iOS and Android in the Business World
Other factors in play that help tip things in HP's favor:

An open app environment. Enyo is a framework for webOS 3.0. It allows the developer to take code and condense it. The framework still executes and does so more efficiently. It's easier for developers.
Developers can create cross-platform apps. Enyo is again the magic sauce. It allows for the app to work across different screen resolutions, laptop, smartphone or tablet.
webOS runs Citrix Receiver, allowing for a secure, virtualized mobile desktop.
webOS will be added to all HP, PCs, laptops and printers.
Enyo can be used in WebKit.
An independent software vendor network that includes SAP and Microsoft.
webOs has a connected component. You can touch a Palm Pre smartphone to the Touhpad or vice versa. That's a compelling seamless capability.

Meg Whitman and Kim Polesi: Separated at Birth

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis Moore) — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 00:12:00 +0000

Meg Whitman and Kim Polesi: separated at birth? You be the judge ...

What can we learn from software development job posts? (SQL, Java, and XML will get you a job!)

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis Moore) — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 22:38:00 +0000

About a year ago, I posted some analysis of what we can learn from job posts. Since then, the job outlook for at least the American economy has substantially declined, but there are still opportunities available if you have - or can develop - the skills in demand. A year ago, according to job posts on Dice.com, the hot job skills were Java, SAP, and Oracle. How about today?

Well, with a slight change to methodology, things look pretty much the same, but the changes are interesting. Last year, I only looked at terms that appeared in job post titles; this time around, I searched on terms that occurred anywhere in the job post. I can't say I used a totally comprehensive set of terms, or that the queries don't produce some false positives and negatives, but without further disclaimers, here are my findings.

The top 20 IT skills in demand on Dice.com:

SQL
Oracle
Java
Windows
Unix
Linux
XML
SQL Server
HTML
C#
Dynamics
C++
SAP
Perl
IBM
AJAX
PL/SQL
BASIS
PHP
MySQL

(For the rest of the list in the analysis, see the end of this post.)

A little surprising that Dynamics came in above SAP on this list, and perhaps there were some "false positives" putting BASIS above PHP, but probably nothing really shocking there. There was strong demand for many skills, but very little demand (relatively) for iPad (just 13 jobs!), HTML5 (34 jobs), Fortran, Azure, and eBay -- all under 100 job posts mentioning these skills.

Overall, your best bet is to learn Oracle, SQL Server, Java, and XML on your choice of platforms, and you've got job security 'til the end of time (or at least for the next few quarters).

Some additional findings:

SQL is a great skill to have. Oracle and SQL Server are the best databases to learn in terms of job openings [NOTE: no analysis was done on salaries, so your mileage may vary if you care about earning potential. There was one job on Dice for a TPF programmer, and I bet that pays pretty well!]. DB2 and Sybase also had strong demand.
Java, C#, and C++ are all continuing in strong demand. Perl, PHP, Ruby, and Python also have strong demand. There is some, but significantly less, demand for Flash, COBOL, and ABAP development skill.
XML skills are greatly in demand. There is significant demand for AJAX skills as well.
Dynamics came in very strong on the Applications front, with SAP also very strong. There is some continued demand for Peoplesoft and Siebel skills. Salesforce.com is significantly less, but there is still substantial demand for Salesforce.com skills.
There is not a lot of demand for Mac, iPhone, or iPad developers, with none of those platforms cracking the 500 job posts mark. Blackberry was the only mobile phone platform above that mark, with some significant demand. Android is in slightly less demand than iPhone, but growing much faster.
Amazon and Azure, two leading cloud platforms, had very little demand for candidates.

Overall results:

Skill Sought SQL	# of Posts Mentioning 17525
Oracle	12533
Java	12104
Windows	9877
Unix	8872
Linux	7703
XML	7600
SQL Server	7196
HTML	6198
C#	5773
Dynamics	5066
C++	4937
SAP	4713
Perl	3943
IBM	3306
AJAX	3244
PL/SQL	2656
BASIS	2306
PHP	2085
MySQL	2061
DB2	1996
VMWare	1776
Python	1629
Peoplesoft	1603
Embedded	1466
Sybase	1379
Mainframe	1342
Siebel	1153
Google	837
Ruby	786
Flash	604
Blackberry	580
COBOL	537
Salesforce.com	521
ABAP	479
iPhone	387
Mac	372
Android	316
Twitter	283
Facebook	248
Amazon	236
Assembler	191
Widget	174
Yahoo	165
Informix	153
Palm	133
PowerBuilder	111
eBay	62
Azure	53
FORTRAN	52
HTML5	34
iPad	13

Enterprise headlines and summaries, 2010-04-02

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis Moore) — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 14:24:00 +0000

#ERP Advertisers: Tell Us Who You Are -- Not Who You're Not
Don't simply tell us you're not as big as #SAP or #Oracle, or beat us over the head with "crimes committed by Big ERP."
#Oracle Looks to Keep #Java Interesting and Attract Young Developers
Closures, or first-class functions and lambda expressions, make it easier to write applications for multi-core programming. Also needed are changes to bolster generics support and more accommodation for other languages, Kaul said. Multi-language support is a focus of the upcoming Java Development Kit 7...
GlassFish , Harris said, brings a set of developers, a methodology and an approach to development for Oracle to absorb into its DNA, Harris said. Oracle has positioned GlassFish as a departmental application server while the former BEA WebLogic application server is the company's primary enterprise application server...
Oracle officials Wednesday also committed to supporting three separate IDEs: JDeveloper, which the company already has owned; Eclipse, developed by the Oracle-backed Eclipse Foundation, and newly acquired NetBeans IDE that came over in the Sun buy.
#Lawson Announces Full-Function #ERP on #Amazon Web Services Infrastructure
Flexible computing capacity
• Complete off-premise management
• Includes subscription pricing for cloud services offerings
• New way to test software before buying
#Lawson's #cloud services: good start, but no #SaaS
Lawson's moving the infrastructure layer to Amazon's cloud services is a good move. In the absence of a strategy to offer true software as a service, prospects now will at least have the option of a low-cost and flexible cloud infrastructure. And for prospects that find Lawson meets their needs in terms of functionality--this may well be the best option for them.
#Lawson: Im OK, you are not OK
#ERP compute and storage cost is overpriced. It does not tackle Lawson’s license, annual maintenance cost, the cost of application (and database and other components) management, upgrade and other common ERP costs. And while Amazon costs can be elastic (depending on how Lawson will pass them through), the cost of amortizing the Lawson license, the annual Lawson maintenance, AM staff (or outsourcing arrangements) and upgrades have remained stubbornly fixed over the years.
Product Update: #Workday 10
More functionality for your current subscription dollars coming every few months. Real integration across your system of record and core talent management (as noted above, Workday does not today do external talent acquisition at the deep level of their newest partner, MrTed, nor do they today do learning management at the deep level of a true LMS). Models-driven development, with all that implies about improved agility, cost, quality and time-to-market. And a solid process for delivering all the legs and regs that regulatory activism at every level of government appears to be generating. Can Workday 10 stand up to all of my “killer” scenarios? Does it deliver on all of my preferred architectural behaviors? Of course not. They don’t call them “killer” for nothing, and there’s not yet a hint of interrogatory configuration (to mention just one preferred behavior) in Workday’s story. But there’s a lot to admire in Workday’s software, and I do.
#SaaS contracts and cash flow
He argued that the high startup costs of operating and growing an as-a-service business generate such a huge funding requirement that you have no choice but to sell one-, two- and three-year contracts to get cash in the business.
Minimizing the Cost of #SaaS Operations
Attitude Matters: Be Obsessed with Lowering Cost of Service

You get what you expect and inspect. Never a truer thing said than in this case. It was a deep-seated part of the Helpstream culture and strategy that Cost of Service had to be incredibly low. So low that we could exist on an advertising model if we had to. While we never did, a lot was invested in the critical up front time when it mattered to get the job done. Does your organization have the religion about cutting service cost, or are there 5 or 6 other things that you consider more important?
CEO payday: What tech's top execs made in '09 - #Microsoft
Steve Ballmer's pay consists of a $665,833 salary, $600,000 bonus and $10,794 in perks and other compensation. He did not receive any stock options in 2009 -- nor in 2008, when his pay package was valued at $1.4 million. Meanwhile, Microsoft saw its first-ever drop in annual revenue in its 2009 fiscal year, which ended June 30. Revenue came in at $58.4 billion, a decline of 3% compared to $60.4 billion in 2008. Net income fell 18% to $14.6 billion from $17.7 billion in 2008.
CEO payday: What tech's top execs made in '09 - #NetApp
Dan Warmenhoven's 2009 compensation declined 23% from the year before, when he received a package valued at $6.1 million. But it's not down as much as NetApp's profit, which fell 72% during the company's 2009 fiscal year, ended April 24. NetApp reported net income of $87 million on revenue of $3.4 billion in 2009. In 2008, the company reported net income of $309.7 million on revenue of $3.3 billion. Warmenhoven's 2009 pay package includes an $859,231 salary, $535,266 bonus, $3,612 in perks and other compensation, and $3.3 million in stock and option awards. Meanwhile, Tom Georgens was appointed CEO in August, four months into NetApp's 2010 fiscal year. Warmenhoven remains chairman of the board and executive chairman of NetApp.
CEO payday: What tech's top execs made in '09 - #Adobe
Shantanu Narayen's pay took a big hit in 2009, as did Adobe's revenue and income. Narayen received compensation in fiscal 2009 valued at $5.2 million, a drop of 68% compared to $16.4 million in 2008. His pay package includes an $875,000 salary, $4.3 million in stock and option awards (down from $14.2 million in 2008), and $7,740 in perks and other compensation. As a company, Adobe saw revenue slide 18% and its income plummet 56% during its fiscal year ended Nov. 27. Adobe recorded net income of $386.5 million on revenue of $2.9 billion in 2009. In 2008, the company reported net income of $871.8 million on revenue of $3.6 billion.
CEO payday: What tech's top execs made in '09 - #RedHat
In his first full year as Red Hat CEO, Jim Whitehurst saw the total value of his compensation climb 11% to $6.9 million, up from $6.2 million in 2008. His pay package includes a $700,000 salary, $595,000 bonus, $5.3 million in stock and option awards, and $310,439 in perks and other compensation. The company, meanwhile, grew its revenue and profits by 25% and 3%, respectively, in its 2009 fiscal year, ended Feb. 28. For the full year, total revenue was $652.6 million, up from $523 million in 2008. Net income hit $78.7 million, up from $76.7 million.
CEO payday: What tech's top execs made in '09 - #EMC
Joe Tucci's 2009 compensation took a hit amid declining profit and revenue at EMC. His $9 million package includes an $872,308 salary (down from $1 million in 2008); $1.1 bonus (down from $1.4 million a year earlier); $7 million in stock and option awards (down from $9 million in 2008); and $149,150 in perks and other compensation. Altogether, his pay is down 23% from $11.7 million in 2008. As a company, EMC saw revenue decline 6% and profit fall 15% in its fiscal year ended Dec. 31. EMC reported net income of $1.1 billion on revenue of $14 billion in 2009. In 2008, the company reported net income of $1.3 billion on revenue of $14.9 billion.
CEO payday: What tech's top execs made in '09 - #Cisco
John Chambers ' 2009 pay package includes a $375,000 salary, $2 million bonus, $11.8 million in stock and option awards, and $9,998 in other compensation. His total package is up 15% from 2008, when he received compensation valued at $12.3 million. The company, however, saw revenue and profit fall 9% and 24%, respectively, in its 2009 fiscal year, which ended July 25. Cisco reported revenue of $36.1 billion, down from $39.5 billion a year earlier. Net income fell to $6.1 billion from $8.1 billion in 2008.
CEO payday: What tech's top execs made in '09 - #Intel
Paul Otellini's 2009 pay package includes a $1 million salary, $5.3 million bonus, $7.9 million in stock and option awards, and $290,400 in perks and other compensation. His pay totaled $14.4 million, a gain of 16% compared to $12.4 million in 2008. Meanwhile revenue and profit fell 7% and 17%, respectively, during Intel's 2009 fiscal year ended Dec. 26. Intel reported net income of $4.4 billion on revenue of $35.1 billion in 2009. In 2008 the company reported net income of $5.3 billion on revenue of $37.6 billion.
CEO payday: What tech's top execs made in '09 - #IBM
Sam Palmisano's $21.2 million pay package includes a $1.8 million salary, $4.8 million bonus (down 14% from $5.5 million in 2008), $13.5 million in stock awards (up 11% from $12.2 million in 2008), and $1.1 million in perks and other compensation. His total compensation rose 1% compared to 2008, when his pay package was $21 million. As a company, IBM reported revenue of $95.8 billion in fiscal 2009, a decrease of 8% compared to $103.6 billion in 2008. However, Big Blue managed to grow its profit during the year ended Dec. 31. Income came in at $13.4 billion, a gain of 9% compared to $12.3 billion in 2008.
CEO payday: What tech's top execs made in '09 - #HP
Mark Hurd's 2009 compensation fell 29% in HP's 2009 fiscal year, which ended Oct. 31. His pay includes a $1.3 million salary, $15.8 million in bonuses, and $475,192 in perks and other compensation. Hurd also received stock and option awards valued at $6.6 million when they were granted. His compensation package totaled $24.2 million, compared to $34 million in 2008. HP, meanwhile, saw declining revenue and profit in its 2009 fiscal year. HP's revenue came in at $114.6 billion, a decline of 3% compared to $118.4 billion reported a year earlier. Net income fell 8% to $7.7 billion from $8.3 billion in 2008.
CEO payday: What tech's top execs made in '09 - #BMC
Robert Beauchamp saw his compensation more than double in 2009. The vast majority of his pay package came in the form of stock and option awards, which were valued at $22.3 million when they were granted. His $950,000 salary, $3.2 million in bonuses, and $21,992 in other compensation make up the remainder. Overall, Beauchamp's 2009 package is up 135% from 2008, when he earned $11.3 million. BMC saw revenue gains during its 2009 fiscal year ended March 31, though not nearly so drastic. BMC's revenue came in at $1.9 billion, up 8% from $1.7 billion in 2008. Net income fell 24% to $238.1 million from $313.6 million a year earlier.
CEO payday: What tech's top execs made in '09 - #Larry
The bulk of Larry Ellison's 2009 pay package came in the form of option awards, which were valued at $78.4 million at the time they were granted. Ellison also received a $1 million salary, $3.6 million bonus, and $1.5 million in other compensation. His package is virtually unchanged from 2008, when his pay was valued at $84.6 million. The company, meanwhile, grew revenue and profits by 4% and 1%, respectively, in its 2009 fiscal year, which ended May 31. Revenue came in at $23.3 billion, up from $22.4 billion in 2008. Net income hit $5.6 billion, up from $5.5 billion in the prior year.
2010 World’s Most Ethical Companies | Ethisphere™ Institute [#HP #Adobe #Salesforce.com #Symantec #Teradata]
Computer Hardware
Hewlett-Packard Company
Computer Software
Adobe Systems
Salesforce.com
Symantec
Teradata
#Google #Android Froyo to take a serious shot at stemming platform fragmentation
We've been given reason to believe that the company will start by decoupling many of Android's standard applications and components from the platform's core and making them downloadable and updatable through the Market, much the same as they've already done with Maps. In all likelihood, this process will take place over two major Android versions, starting with Froyo and continuing through Gingerbread. Notice that we said apps and components, meaning that some core elements of Android -- input methods, for instance -- should get this treatment. This way, just because Google rolls out an awesome new browser doesn't mean you need to wait for HTC, Samsung, or whomever made your phone to roll it into a firmware update, and for your carrier to approve it -- almost all of the juicy user-facing stuff will happen through the Market.
#Google CEO's compensation for 2009 falls 52 pct
The sharp decrease reflected lower bills for protecting Schmidt and flying his personal guests on jets chartered by Google.
#RiminiStreet fires back at #Oracle; Alleges 'anticompetitive tactics'
#Rimini Street on Monday fired back at Oracle over its lawsuit adding that Larry Ellison & Co. are trying to stifle competition to preserve fat software maintenance margins.
#RiminiStreet Files Countersuit Against #Oracle
Oracle's suit is groundless, anticompetitive and disparaging, Rimini Street said in the response filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada.
#RiminiStreet Sues #Oracle
#Rimini Street is Oracle’s Primary Competition for Annual Support Services...Oracle has a Long History of Trying to Stifle Rimini Street Competition...Oracle Chooses Competition in the Courtroom Rather than the Marketplace...Rimini Street Vehemently Denies Oracle’s False Accusations
Upstart fires back at #Oracle in legal battle [#RiminiStreet]
"As #Rimini Street's success grew, so did Oracle's apparent determination and efforts to disrupt Rimini Street's growth."
#RiminiStreet Announces Delivery of 2010-B Tax, Legal, and Regulatory Updates
Update 2010-B contains numerous U.S. federal, state, and local tax changes, including federal updates for electronic filing, support for modified forms, and non-resident Aliens, multi-state changes to withholding tables, unemployment insurance taxable wage base figures, tax reciprocity agreements, and garnishment rules, and various local tax changes for several jurisdictions. For Canadian Payroll clients, Tax and Regulatory Update 2010-B includes updates to provincial tax tables for Nova Scotia, Ontario, and the Yukon Territory. Rimini Street also delivered numerous global tax, legal, and regulatory updates for jurisdictions throughout the world prior to this 2010-B Update.

Enterprise headlines and summaries, 2010-03-27

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis Moore) — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 14:20:00 +0000

IT Pros Aren't Happy With Enterprise Apps
But they also doubt that next-generation apps will be any easier to deal with. Most enterprises have yet to fully embrace service-oriented architecture, software as a service, or business process management. Oh, sure, they're using these technologies here and there, but few survey respondents are confident that SOA, SaaS, or BPM can handle everything.
#Intel, #Cisco [and #SAP] Part of White House Innovation Forum With Russia
Officials from U.S. firms who were part of the video conference included Cisco chief technology officer Padmasree Warrior, SAP chief technology officer Vishal Sikka, Intel chief technology officer Justin Rattner, and Renata Dionello who is chief of staff to eBay chief executive John J Donahoe, Hammer said.
#Workday Release 10 Moves Users One Step Closer To #ERP Replacement
Release 10 bolsters key financial and spend management capabilities, highlighting aspirations to be the SaaS option for Oracle, PeopleSoft, and SAP ERP replacements over the next 3 to 5 years.
Hewlett-Packard's Mark Hurd: He Wants It All
Below the senior tier, however, HP is more miserable than restless. It consistently ranks at the bottom of its big-scale competitors on Internet sites where employees compare notes. On one (www.proletar.com/by-employees/HP.html) it scores 1.6 out of a possible 5 stars, compared with 3.3 at Cisco and 3.7 for IBM. At Glassdoor.com HP managed a 2.5 out of 5 among 1,045 employees ("If you want to be kicked like a dog, come work here!" is typical), three slots above Countrywide Financial, and Hurd got a 30% approval rating (IBM's Samuel Palmisano, 40%; Chambers, 60%). Common complaints concern overwork, favoritism and managers looking over their shoulders in fear of not meeting Hurd's inexorable goals. "A sweatshop," says one low-level manager who recently departed. "No one wants to quit now, but watch them go when the economy recovers."

The pain seems particularly acute for some of the dwindling population of long-term vets who remember HP, perhaps wrongly, as a warm and caring place. Fou
BMW #Oracle Racing drops America's Cup court case vs. Alinghi
The new trustee, San Francisco's Golden Gate Yacht Club, announced Friday that it and vanquished trustee Societe Nautique de Geneve agreed to drop their remaining legal actions against each other, the remnants of a 2½-year court fight between two of the world's richest men.

The agreement was signed a 1½ months after the speedy space-age trimaran owned by American software tycoon Larry Ellison routed a catamaran sailed by defending champion Alinghi of Switzerland in Valencia, Spain.
Details leaking out on next America's Cup
Details about what Oracle Corp.’s Larry Ellison has in mind for the next America’s Cup sailing race are slowly trickling out.
#Oracle adopts 'all or nothing' support policy
Oracle has adopted what amounts to an "all or nothing" hardware support policy, according to a document the vendor posted on its Web site. The policy, which went into effect March 16, states that "when acquiring technical support, all hardware systems must be supported (e.g., Oracle Premier Support for Systems or Oracle Premier Support for Operating Systems) or unsupported." Customers who don't purchase support for hardware systems aren't allowed to obtain "maintenance releases, patches, telephone assistance, or any other technical support services."
#Oracle F3Q10 (Qtr End 02/28/10) Earnings Call Transcript
Our applications business is doing very well in all regions and in all verticals and it is truly no wonder SAP is so unhappy...Again, it is a company we think is vulnerable and we think we have an excellent chance of becoming number one in applications...They don’t have a lot of what you are calling edge applications. They don’t have a lot of industry specific applications. Their technology is fraying around the edges.
#Microsoft Closer To Worldwide Rollout Of On-Demand #CRM App
Microsoft has released a technical preview version of the next generation of its Dynamics CRM application, the company said Thursday, and the product remains on-track for general availability in the second half of this year.
The IT project failure dilemma: how to get early warnings
Asuret, a company that sells “technology-backed services”. He gave me a look at their forthcoming product, an impressively slick, well-engineered tool that in my view promises to provide exactly that kind of benefit: identifying where and why a project might fail in terms of some of those people/best practices aspects, before it actually does.

In a nutshell, Asuret facilitates a cross-sectional analysis of project participants and stakeholders as the project proceeds. By aggregating the answers to its carefully crafted questions and constructing a number of easy-overview summary charts, the tool then displays astonishingly insightful visual breakdowns that let you pinpoint major disconnects, such as between stakeholder groups and IT, or between actual project-specific and industry-best practices.
#Sybase SQL Anywhere Gets New Spatial Data Capabilities
Sybase is demonstrating the new spatial data capabilities to arrive in the upcoming version of SQL Anywhere at the ESRI Worldwide Business Partner Conference.
#Novell Adds #Ingres DB to #SUSE Studio Online
A new template for the Ingres database eliminates the burden for IT managers of managing the life cycle of the operating system or the middleware database component within their appliances.
#SunGard Upgrades Its UCS Cloud Platform
The augmented Unified Computing System-based private-cloud computing platform will offer high availability for application delivery and data recovery services in the UK and North America later this year.
#Oracle revenue up, but charges drag down profit
Excluding special charges, earnings per share grew 9% to $1.9 billion or $0.38 per share, with $6.5 billion in revenue. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had on average predicted earnings per share of $0.38 and $6.35 billion in revenue.
#ORACLE REPORTS GAAP EPS OF $0.23, NON-GAAP EPS OF $0.38
New Software Licenses Up 13%, Applications New Licenses Up 21%
#Oracle Profit Slips but Software Sales Rise
Oracle Corp . felt the recession's effects later than most companies in the technology sector. But the software maker isn't having to wait as long to recover.
Ellison sticks it to #SAP as #Oracle reports strong sales growth
"SAP's most recent quarter was the best quarter of their year, only down 15%, while Oracle's application sales were up 21%. But SAP is well ahead of us in the number of CEOs for this year, announcing their third and fourth, while we only had one," he said.
Six Easy Steps to Slashing #Database Costs
Data volumes are not getting any smaller. The good news is database management can get a little bit cheaper, depending on your enterprise needs. There are a number of ways for database administrators and IT decision makers to slash the cost of handling the ever-growing amount of databases and data in their business. In a report titled "Take Advantage of New Ways to Save Money on Database Costs," Forrester Research laid out some of those strategies. Now, Forrester has shared some of its database cost-savings tips with eWEEK, and here are some ideas for you to think about the next time you draw up your IT budget.
Cloud Computing is Moving into Hype Mode
With every company adding the words “in the Cloud” to their every marketing pitch and product position it is beginning, for me at least, to feel the same as adding those words “in bed” at the end of those fortunes in the cookies; somewhat wearisome.
The Next Wave Of #SaaS
Would the SaaS vendors have used a multitenant architecture if they had Amazon Web Services and the RackSpace Cloud available to them? The economic argument against the multitenant architecture is that vendors must replicate the cloud they could buy much more cheaply from Amazon and Rackspace. For example, Acquia, a company that offers multitenant hosting of the Drupal open source content management system, uses Amazon's EC2 cloud compuing service.
The New Face of Geek Chic | Technically Women
Why is it weird to code 100 lines in ABAP by day and club by night in 5-inch Louboutin shoes? It shouldn’t be.

Anne is so much more than the sum of her good looks and impeccable fashion taste. She’s an SAP Mentor; she rallied a revolution against Facebook (and won), her tweets often look like this, and she’s a “man among equals” at any geekfest.

I’ve since joined Anne here on the Technically Women blog and now consider her a friend. She once confided to our @tech_women group, “Being ‘the hottie’ you either have the guys’ attention for all the wrong reasons, or they just think you are as stupid as you look. Both cases makes you work twice as hard as everyone else to prove that you actually know your stuff.” I’d love to see more women competing in tech and celebrating their femininity. It’s not an either/or; it’s an and. And all geeks work really hard, so let’s stop making women do double time to prove they belong in the club.
#Oracle's Ellison eyed as possible buyer of Golden State Warriors
The Golden State Warriors announced Monday that they have hired a sports advisory and finance firm to conduct a sale of the team, which has the third-worst record in the National Basketball Association this season.
#Oracle Announces Latest Release of Oracle Berkeley DB
# Oracle Berkeley DB 11g Release 2 introduces a new SQL API, based on SQLite, which is familiar to a large developer community and helps simplify application development.
# New features include support for JDBC and ODBC connections to Oracle Berkeley DB.
# In addition, Oracle Berkeley DB 11g Release 2 introduces support for the Android platform, offering developers the ability to develop and deploy a wide range of applications.
#Amdocs buys MX Telecom for $104M
MX Telecom, led by Managing Director Alex Moir, will become part of Amdocs’ OpenMarket business, which operates a mobile transaction hub.

The joint OpenMarket MX Telecom business will provide a platform to extend mobile payment and messaging capabilities, Amdocs said.
Q&A: #IBM's Steve Mills On Strategy, #Oracle, #SAP
Oracle is not a very strong technology company, but they are a very high-testosterone company. They love to beat their chest and talk about how they always win and never lose. They're very declarative in that sense because their perspective is that lies that go unchallenged become the truth. If you scream loud enough, it's hard for anybody to get a word in edgewise.
#SAP middleware gives customers ‘heartburn’: #Forrester
Why #Microsoft, #IBM and #Oracle are slaying SAP

SAP AG ’s failure to maintain strong investment in its middleware offerings is a signal to customers to look to other vendors like Microsoft Corp., IBM Corp. and Oracle Corp. when integrating heterogeneous applications, said a Forrester analyst.

“For the last several years, SAP has been falling behind in creating a comprehensive platform and in maintaining a strong level of investment,” said John Rymer, vice-president and principal analyst with Forrester Research Inc.
Rethinking IT and business transformation success
Most software deployments are actually business transformation initiatives that involve technology. As with other business projects, implementation success often requires collaboration and open communication across information silos and organizational boundaries.
After health care vote, high-skill immigration debate quickly returns
It makes no sense to educate the world's future inventors and entrepreneurs and then force them to leave when they are able to contribute to our economy," they wrote in an op-ed published on Friday in the Washington Post.
#Forrester: Uncertain Future for #SAP #NetWeaver
SAP used to have a desire to compete head-on in middleware with rivals Oracle and IBM, but not anymore, Rymer added.

While there's a chance SAP will try to "resuscitate" NetWeaver development in an effort to catch up to those rivals, "the likelihood of this happening is very low," Rymer added.

It's more the case that SAP will follow one of two scenarios, he said. The first would see it align itself strategically with a Java-centric middleware partner, such as IBM, as well as with Microsoft and its .NET technology. There's little chance the Java partner would be SAP's longtime nemesis Oracle, he added.

But SAP will most likely "adopt a vendor-agnostic stance in Java," continue working with Microsoft, and also embrace open-source middleware options, according to Rymer.
#Palm must build great accessories to survive
There is no easy solution for the company, but a series of tough measures and creative development efforts can turn things around.
#Palm must build great accessories to survive
Palm needs to get serious about its future – reduce burn, reduce channel glut, create a defensible “core” market segment it can own and grow, and develop products that serve that core segment better than others in the future (accessories and new phones as well). Palm has always had a special kind of magic – Apple’s cool with Google’s geek chic. If Palm can make it through its current tough times, we can hope for a return to the kind of creativity and innovation that made it special in the good old days.
11 Tech Companies 'Willfully' Violating H-1B Laws
There are currently 21 companies that have been debarred by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division as being willful violators of laws that regulate the use of H-1B visas for foreign workers. Here, eWEEK looks at 11 different technology or IT-related companies that are on the Labor Department’s list, including a look at the companies’ locations and periods of debarment. During the debarment period, these companies are not allowed to apply for or obtain H-1B visas for foreign workers. These IT companies have "committed either a willful failure or a misrepresentation of a material fact," according to Labor Department statistics. One company that faces additional sanctions is Peri Software Solutions, which currently owes $1.4 million in back wages. Right now, Peri Software’s petition is under review by the Labor Department.
Pricing - #SAP StreamWork
Basic Edition
Free
Quickly and easily collaborate
on decisions with business partners.

Professional Edition
$108 USD* per user, per year
Includes everything in Basic and adds more
capacity and advanced administration features.
Jeremy Burton - Executive Biographies - #EMC
Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer
EMC Corporation

Jeremy Burton is Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of EMC. With 2009 revenues of $14 billion and approximately 43,000 employees, EMC is the world's leading developer and provider of information infrastructure technology and solutions that enable organizations of all sizes to transform the way they compete and create value from their information.
Jeremy Burton

Burton, who joined EMC in March 2010, is responsible for the global structure, strategy, and execution of all aspects of EMC's marketing efforts, including all major events and programs. He reports to Joe Tucci, EMC's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. In the role of CMO, Burton focuses on extending EMC's presence and relevance on the world stage, building and guiding EMC's global reputation and brand, and further enabling the success of the company's sales teams and partner ecosystem.

A 20-year veteran of the IT industry, Burton jo
Open (Letter) Season on #SAP
ask SAP to give you an account manager without a sales quota. You’ve just signed a big deal for all the SAP software you’re going to need for the next few years, and they give you a new rep whose only goal is to find other stuff to sell you. That’s not customer-centric. Insist on a real account manager, with a comp plan based on deployment of, and satisfaction with, what you’ve already bought.
#NetSuite Calls #Microsoft '#ERP Dinosaur'
NetSuite CEO Zach Nelson dismisses Microsoft's bid to attract NetSuite customers as "the last gasp of a dinosaur trying to protect its Stone Age software products."
Who's the world's most inventive tech company? Based on patent quality, it's #Microsoft.
if you measure inventiveness by the quality and usefulness of patents, Microsoft tops the tech world, according to three different reports in the last few months.
[Microsoft's rating was 7422, and Oracle was 994 as #2]
IEEE Patent Power Scorecard (#Microsoft #Oracle #Adobe #SAP)
Rank Company 2009 US Patents Pipeline Growth Index Pipeline Impact Self-Citations Adjusted Pipeline Impact Pipeline Generality Pipeline Originality Pipeline Power Adjusted Pipeline Power
1 Microsoft Corp., U.S. 2918 1.43 1.29 36.70% 1.2 1.32 1.12 7953 7422
2 Oracle Corp., U.S. 338 1.09 1.32 22.80% 1.32 1.38 1.49 994 994
3 BEA Systems Inc., U.S. 95 1.22 1.83 31.90% 1.79 1.95 1.08 444 435
4 Adobe Systems Inc., U.S. 152 1.65 1 22.80% 1 1.22 1.07 325 325
5 SAP AG, Germany 388 1.49 0.91 16.50% 0.91 0.95 0.61 306 306
6 Symantec Corp., U.S. 212 1.41 1.58 17.60% 1.58 1.9 0.32 289 289
7 Novell Inc., U.S. 43 1.26 1.27 5.00% 1.27 1.29 2.32 207 207
8 Synopsys Inc., U.S. 78 1.18 1.11 19.20% 1.11 1.43 0.89 129 129
9 Digimarc Corp., U.S. 58 1.02 3.12 67.70% 1.95 2.95 0.25 136 85
10 Nuance Communications Inc., U.S. 42 3 1.49 9.50% 1.49 1.56 0.25 73 73
11 Cadence Design Systems Inc., U.S. 99 1.24 1.32 37.90% 1.22 0.96 0.46 71 66
12 i2 Technologies Inc., U.S.* 21 1 1.25 5.50% 1.25 1.38 1.58 57 57
13 Nat
Patent Scorecard (#Microsoft #IBM #Oracle #HP)
Science strength
Tech strength Company/concern Symbol Patents granted 13-wk 5-yr Innovation cycle time Industry impact
6418.6 Microsoft Corp MSFT 2974 41826.3 20517.4 7.8
1.3
4982.4 Intl Business Mach IBM 3585 4417.3 3148.4 7.5
0.8
1697.1 Oracle Corp ORCL 921 3950.3 3358.4 7.4
1.1
1497.7 Hewlett-Packard HPQ 1318 952.8 872.6 8.1
0.7
1288.7 Canon Inc ADS CAJ 1332 171 174.4 8.1
0.6
1197.4 Ricoh Co Ltd ... 1046 482.3 267.4 8.6
0.7
968.1 Hitachi Ltd ADS HIT 902 244 326.4 7.1
0.6
784.8 Xerox Corp XRX 728 1910.5 1160.2 10.5
0.7
694.7 Samsung Group ... 837 241.3 144.2 7.8
0.5
651.6 Seiko Epson Corp ... 725 78.3 94 8.5
0.5
630.4 Toshiba Corp ... 603 180 150 7.5
0.6
629.1 Apple Inc AAPL 314 1024.5 434.4 9
1.2
589.6 Google Inc A GOOG 151 1034 424.4 7.1
2.3
588.8 EMC Corp EMC 276 100.8 108.6 7.8
1.3
584.7 Symantec Corp SYMC 218 424.8
Patent Portfolio’s Focus on Quality and Innovation Earns High Marks - #Microsoft On The Issues
Our high-quality patent portfolio provides customers and partners with assurance that Microsoft is committed to protecting intellectual property. Through our IP licensing programs, Microsoft provides access to these technologies and patents for our partners to spur innovation and economic opportunity across the industry.
Cash gap grows between tech giants, rivals (#Cisco #Microsoft #Apple #Google #Oracle)
The company with the most cash at the end of 2009 was Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO), with $39.6 billion — up 74 percent since year's end in 2007.

No. 2 was Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) with $36.1 billion, up 71 percent in two years.

No. 3 Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) grew its stash by 35 percent in that span to $24.8 billion.

No. 4 Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) was right behind Apple with $24.5 billion, up 73 percent.

No. 5 Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ:ORCL) shot up 148 percent to $20.8 billion.
Gosling Claims #Java in Good Hands with #Oracle
Gosling delivered the opening keynote at TheServerSide Java Symposium here March 17, saying he was "encouraged" by the direction Oracle is taking with Java and, "I don't think anybody in this room has anything to worry about" regarding the future of Java. Particularly, with his talk entitled, "Java Today and Tomorrow," attendees were looking for some indication of where Oracle might make changes to Java or disrupt the status quo. However, Gosling assured them that the business of Java as well as the ongoing technological innovation of the Java platform continues apace.
#Java founder emphasizes #Oracle's commitment
Java EE 6, also known as Java Platform, Enterprise Edition 6, is "really going to be the foundation of the next generation of enterprise software," Gosling said. The specification was approved November 30 after several years in the making, he said.

Palm must build great accessories to survive

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis Moore) — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 16:21:00 +0000

Palm is in a tough situation. As reported widely, Palm's operating results are beginning to cast doubt about the viability of the company. There is no easy solution for the company, but a series of tough measures and creative development efforts can turn things around.

Palm makes a number of smart phones, notably the Palm Pre Plus and the Palm Pixie Plus [Disclaimer: I am a very happy owner of a Motorola Droid, but have owned Palm devices since the original Palm Pilot]. The Palm phones incorporated a large number of innovations, from wireless charging to sleek styling, but the market for smart phones is very competitive these days. Palm made a number of missteps in entering the market, from bad timing to baffling advertisements. Now, Palm finds itself in a crisis that may leave it unable to survive: the channel is full of aging stock, losses are mounting, and the economy shows no signs of rescuing the company.

How Can Palm Survive?

How can Palm survive, with all these issues in front of it? And why do I think I have any answers for them? I've been following Palm since the US Robotics days of the Palm Pilot, and owned many Palm devices, from the awful Treo 300 to the wonderful Tungsten TX. I was also CEO of OQO, the mobile gadget company that made sleek, stylish, powerful handheld computers. We faced, and failed to overcome, some of the same issues Palm now faces and must overcome if it is to survive. Other companies, such as Apple Computer, have faced similar problems, and gone on to greatness, and so can Palm.

Cash

First off, Palm has to survive, and that means it has to have enough cash to continue operations. The company must cut expenses ruthlessly. The company must also ensure that it has access to capital if necessary, even if it dilutes the current owners. Also, the company should aggressively focus on identifying and eliminating every source of warranty repair claims - this will help it improve current operating margins, as well as help it build a reputation for quality, and create some IP around design for quality that will help it with future products.

Second, Palm has to find a way through its problems - chief among them is getting through the inventory on hand, finding a growth segment (or a collection of growth segments) it can better serve than other smartphone options, and creating a product pipeline that will not suffer the same problems as the current lineup.

Accessories

There is very little difference from one leading edge smartphone to the next - touch screens, video, camera, applications. iPhone phanboyz will tell you that there are more apps for the iPhone, but realistically any good app is available for all platforms (except the Google apps, which are pretty much only available on the Droid now). Smartphones are not really distinguished by functionality or cost any longer. Now, they are pretty much distinguished by the markets they target. iPhones are for those who view themselves as hip, urban, and elite. Blackberry's are for wonks and businessmen (and heavy text messagers). Droids are for supergeeks. Who are Palms for?

All this is to say that phones are now accessories, like handbags or shoes. They say something about you. Palm needs to find a target market segment that is underserved with the current competitors, and do a great job of meeting their needs. Looking at its assets, we see a stylish phone with a few interesting accessories, with a built-in keyboard, and with a relatively powerful operating system. To whom could this phone appeal? We can speculate:

Corporate executives
Bloggers and other social media aficionados
IT workers
Customer-facing mobile workers
Students and mobile gamers who don't want to live with the restrictions
Apple forces on them

Regardless of what we can speculate, Palm needs to do hard research, and then follow through with the programs that appeal to these users.

Also, as this is a relatively short-range problem Palm must solve, it must do so without large new product R&D investments and without a new line-up of smartphones. Palm's options are pretty much limited to adding new channels (e.g., new countries and carriers) and introducing new accessories.

Accessories are an option Palm should explore. First off, accessories can be sold directly or through the channel, at very high margins compared to phones. Second, accessories can be brought to market more quickly than new phones, at very low R&D effort. Third, accessories can be exactly the customization Palm needs to appeal to chosen market segments - rugged cases, attached printers and scanners, executive cases, waterproof cases, customized cases showing the owner's twitter name, etc. Finally, if designed properly, accessories can be made to create a "system effect," if they are upwardly compatible with new Palm phones. This can encourage buyers to upgrade to new phones when available.

Summary

Palm needs to get serious about its future - reduce burn, reduce channel glut, create a defensible "core" market segment it can own and grow, and develop products that serve that core segment better than others in the future (accessories and new phones as well). Palm has always had a special kind of magic - Apple's cool with Google's geek chic. If Palm can make it through its current tough times, we can hope for a return to the kind of creativity and innovation that made it special in the good old days.

Enterprise headlines and summaries, 2010-03-18

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis Moore) — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 16:12:00 +0000

#SAP Bosses Say It’s Now Pedal to the Metal
They knocked #Oracle’s zealous acquisition strategy as being focused more on obtaining support revenue streams than about innovation. And while not saying Oracle’s name out loud, Mr.McDermott talked about the flaws that followed a company “focused on squeezing margins for the benefit of a stock price,” rather than creating new products.

“We can help the world run a lot better by being independent and thinking about the next big thing,” Mr.McDermott said.
Security risks of multi-tenancy
In theory, there is some truth in this intuition. But in practice, it depends what level of multi-tenancy we’re talking about and how rigorously it has been architected. The theoretical comparison assumes the same security regime in both cases, whereas in real life, the provider of a multi-tenant service is going to put a lot of expertise and resource into making sure its infrastructure is as secure as possible against this kind of data exposure, which would be very bad for its reputation. Most multi-tenant systems are operated to much higher security standards than standalone systems. Look at it this way: in theory, a single house with a fence around it is much more secure than an apartment in a block shared with many other households. In practice, the householders in the apartment block will pool the cost of having a porter on duty 24×7 to control access to the building and monitor security.
Gartner says China will be World's Fastest Growing Enterprise Software Market Through 2013
China ’s enterprise software market is forecast to maintain its strong performance, with an estimated compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.6 per cent from 2008 to 2013 – the highest growth rate in the world, according to Gartner, Inc. Despite current global conditions, the software market in China is expected to rebound to an annual growth rate of 14.8 per cent in 2010. Gartner analysts said that the increasing globalization of the Chinese economy is leading to a growing need for modern software with the latest features and improved functionality.

“Software vendors have strong growth potential in China, but also face the challenges of operating in a commercial environment that is still developing,” said Hai Hong Swinehart, research analyst at Gartner. “Chinese enterprises have historically preferred to develop applications using their own labour because it costs less. However, this tendency has resulted in legacy and quickly obsolete software as well as inhibiting Chinese enterpr
#Oracle R17 and Pharma’s Future
Oracle’s done a good job of keeping up with changes in the industry and you have to admit that pharma sales is a different kettle of fish than almost anything else in CRM. The pharma business model is what’s unique. Sales reps never actually sell their wares to actual customers. They sell to the major recommender, the doctor, and even the MD doesn’t buy anything. He or she simply writes a prescription. So you have this odd situation where the sales person is there simply to influence the recommender.
Big Data, Big Sheets, and #Hadoop: Interviews with #IBM’s Rod Smith
If you’re interested, then, there are two videos below. The first is a bit more business focused, the second slightly more technical. In them we talk about Hadoop, obviously, but projects from Dumbo to Pig, IBM’s Big Sheets and the work done at the British Library, and Big Data more generally.
#Google: A One-Click Pony?
By the end of 2011, we’ll see a significant part of their revenue contributed from non-paid search ads. I think their revenue will mostly still be from performance-based advertising but not necessarily keywords.
Chambers: How I'll Make #Cisco Into IT's Biggest Player
Cisco's real ambition, as articulated by its high-energy CEO, John Chambers, is to become the most important IT company of all. In this installment of IDG Enterprise's CEO Interview Series, Chambers talked with IDGE Chief Content Officer John Gallant, Computerworld Editor-in-Chief Scot Finnie, and InfoWorld.com Editor-in-Chief Eric Knorr about the market transitions fueling Cisco's bold strategy, what it means for enterprise customers and how the company will compete head-to-head against the industry's biggest players.
Software Insider Index™ (SII): 2009 SII Top 35 Enterprise Business Apps Vendors™
# Legacy On-Premise Vendors Retain Operating Margins But Lose Revenue Share. Almost every on-premise software vendor lost revenue on a year-over-year (YoY) basis in 2009 (see Figure 1). IFS (3.87%) and SAS Institute (2.21%) grew in the midst of the financial onslaught. Vendors such as QAD (-31.42%) and Manhattan Associates (-26.84%)saw the worst YoY declines (see Figure 2). Most vendors relied on their maintenance and support to bolster their revenues. For example, CDC, Epicor, Exact, Lawson, Manhattan, Oracle, QAD, and SAP exceeded a 1:2 ratio in new license to maintenance revenue. Why? Customers chose not to upgrade, purchase new licenses, and expand their footprint. Despite the downturn, most vendors survived with operating margins between 10% an 50%, well above those achieved by SaaS vendors. Traditional vendors clearly felt pressure from SaaS/Cloud.
# SaaS Models Prove Themselves In 2009. Meanwhile, every SaaS vendor grew, from Ariba with the lowest YoY revenue growth (0.
Principles for Model-Driven Applications
Still, some modeling technologies show promise. Microsoft’s software factories approach, and more recently their Oslo project, have picked up on domain specific languages, templates and patterns, and on seeing the model as the application. Reflective programming frameworks like CLOS (Common Lisp Object system) follow many of the principles, but their syntax is far from user-friendly (violating principle 1). RDF (The Resource Desciption Framework) is a simple language for partial specification, which allows properties to be treated like objects reflectively. The RDF Schema class system does however share most of the weaknesses of UML. OWL (Web Ontology Language) support property modeling indenpendent of object classes, which is important for industrial data management. OWL Full supports reflection, allowing users to treat all kinds of elements the same and to extend the core metamodels. This variant is however seldom applied, because it cannot guarantee sound formal reasoning for automa
#SAP Middleware Directions: More Open Source, In-Memory Stuff
As SAP looks to the future for new middleware opportunities, expect a big push on in-memory execution technologies. For SAP's business solutions, in-memory databases promise to eliminate the need for separate transaction-processing and reporting systems. But will SAP also provide code execution, event processing, session management, parallel service processing, and other in-memory patterns as well? And will SAP expose its in-memory technology to developers for customization of its business applications and/or custom applications? We'll see at Sapphire. Stay tuned.
The Sleek and the Geek @ #SAP
[Jim Snabe, Bill McDermott, and @vsikka Vishal Sikka discuss SAP product strategy, co-CEO approach, and more-DBM]
#Oracle Who? #SAP Co-CEOs Slam Oracle - They Are The Old Way
The underlying tone was “screw you” Oracle you’re old and we got the goods over you. SAP has been quiet of late on specifics except pounding the innovation message. SAP seems to be one of the old school software companies that seemed out of touch with the key trends.

“Oracle Is Thing Of The Past – History Will Play It Out That Way”

Microsoft and Oracle have been making moves lately pushing “purpose built” software for hardware devices. SAP has been the only one without a date at the enterprise software “prom” when it comes to integration with hardware vendors. Although SAP has recently been touting innovation all over the place, many in the industry have been saying “show us the innovation”.

SAP’s new co-CEO partnership will accelerate SAPs innovation capability. They have a interesting dynamic and comprehensive strategy.

On Oracle Bill McDermott throws a haymaker at Oracle when he said

“these are heterogeneous environments (and networks) they don’t buy “a stack” they are
2010 #ERP Vendor Analysis Report
The overall average duration is just over one year (12.3 months).
The average actual duration of Tier I implementations was 13.2
months, which is approximately the same as Tier III
implementations (Figure G). At 11.1 months, Tier II packages had
the shortest duration times. Eighty percent of companies that
selected Tier III vendors met expected duration time, and 15%
experienced duration times shorter than expected.
#SuccessFactors Is The Future Of Business Software (#SAP)
SuccessFactors' annual revenue is only about 1/100th of SAP's, it has only about 700 employees, and it has only one CEO.

But SuccessFactors should be SAP's worst nightmare.
#SAP to Shun Growth Through Acquisition Strategy
SAP's recently appointed co-CEOs say they are focusing on technological innovation as a way to get the company back on a path to revenue and profit growth, and they have no plans to try to imitate archrival Oracle by launching an expensive corporate buyout campaign. One major goal is to get updated versions of SAP's Business ByDesign software-as-a-service suite into more customers' hands on schedule.
#Infosys, #Wipro Face Rise In Staff Resignations
"In the last three months, because the markets have opened up, there is a slight increase (in staff resignations), which is natural," Nandita Gurjar, senior vice president and global head of human resources at Infosys, told Dow Jones Newswires late Thursday.

She denied rumors of 4,000-4,200 people leaving in February. "It is absolutely no where near 4,000," Gurjar said, but declined to say how many have left.
IT firms gear up to enable more women to get top positions
At the mid-levels, the percentage of women might be around 20 per cent, a bit more at the junior levels, but at the senior levels, it will be just five to six per cent,” he says. The proportion of women to men falls radically after the mid-management level, he asserts, with “the incidence of problems related to children or broken homes, which increases drastically where women are pursuing a larger role in the company”.
#Satyam Still Risky a Year After Fraud Revealed: #Forrester
Satyam's ongoing problems such as high attrition, cultural differences between the new management and old Satyam staffers, and risks arising from the unavailability of the company's audited financials, Forrester said in a report
#SAP Co-CEOs Pledge To Move Company Faster
The new co-CEOs will try to move the company at a faster "clock-rate" than the former CEO. The basic strategy will remain the same but the execution will be faster...Best of breed solutions were criticized, the problem is that "they don't breed well."...SAP justified the maintenance fees being paid by customers because the company is innovating across industry sectors.
#Workday pushing high-end SaaS for the enterprise
Workday would appear to be a nascent threat to the traditional on-premise Tier I vendors, Oracle and SAP. They are no doubt already seeing Workday in some deals for HCM and will probably begin to see Workday encroaching on their turf in financials. Another SaaS player, NetSuite, already has been campaigning for a slice of SAP's business for smaller units. In contrast, Workday has a real shot at displacing SAP and Oracle in larger units or even for corporate applications of HCM. How much longer will it be before Workday is competing head to head with SAP and Oracle for complete ERP replacement in large organizations with legacy versions of these Tier I systems?
Tim Bray · Now A No-Evil Zone
I’d had an offer to stay with #Oracle which I decided to decline; I’ll maybe tell the story when I can think about it without getting that weird spiking-blood-pressure sensation in my eyeballs. So I reached out to a couple of appealing potential next employers, both were interested, and Google seemed like the best bet.
#Oracle loses #XML co-inventor to #Google
Ex-#Sun XML envangelist Tim Bray starts with Google's #Android team
Details of #NetSuite's SuiteCloud 2010 Given
SuiteCloud 2010 will be held April 14-16 at the InterContinental Hotel in San Francisco. The focus of the event will be on how the NetSuite cloud ecosystem works with the changing business models for resellers, including third-party applications.
#Salesforce.com: A Growth Story
This year, Salesforce.com is going to face difficult quarterly sales comparisons, commonly known in Wall Street circles as 'difficult comps,' but that's a good thing: it beats the alternative. Further, look for revenue to rise 20-25% in 2010, followed by a 15-20% gain in 2011.
NY set to replace IT consultants with state workers
As many as 500 new state IT jobs may be created under a new in-sourcing program that was recently approved by the legislature and backed by Gov. David Paterson.

This law creates "term appointments" for state IT workers, which strip away some hiring and firing rules that apply to permanent workers. The maximum tenure for "term appointments" is five years.

The state estimates that it can save approximately $25,000 annually for each contracting position that is shifted to the state payroll. The annual savings is pegged at as much as $15 million, but that estimate is contingent on whether the contracted positions can be replaced.
#HP to Brandish Its Technology Credentials
"Awareness of what we do has not kept pace with that expansion," Mr. Mendenhall says
#IBM Welcomes Competition with #Oracle
"They're out there with very aggressive selling tactics; they do a lot of wrap and roll kinds of deals. The more technology they've acquired, the more financial engineering that goes into the Oracle sales proposition. And that is a technique that can at times be a formidable technique. I don't think it fools the customer. The question is do they sign up for even more Oracle technology recognizing that Oracle is trying to implement a form of price control on them? Or do they think twice about over-committing to Oracle in light of Oracle's pricing practices? Because the pattern here has been very clear: They buy a company, they take people out and then they raise prices. You talk to any customer that's been a user of the technology that Oracle has acquired and they'll tell you that's what they've seen. It's a consistent pattern of resource reduction and price increase, particularly around subscriptions and maintenance fees and things of that nature. And that has some people very concerne
#IBM stops disclosing U.S. headcount data
IBM has stopped providing breakouts of the number of employees it has in the U.S., and in doing so is closing a door to data that provided insights into this bellwether company's employment shift. Over the years, IBM workforce data showed accelerating overseas hiring, especially in India, and a steadily declining U.S. workforce.
$1 Million raises on Hit for Haiti Night
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison presented a $1 million donation check to the American Red Cross Haiti Relief and Development Fund, that has been established to help those affected by the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck in January. Ronald Agenor, a former Top 20 player on the ATP World Tour, was there on court to represent Haiti during the presentation.
San Diego explores possible role in America's Cup
"If San Francisco can get it done in time, that would be great. If not, San Diego is a fantastic alternative," Ellison said that day. "They've hosted three Cups here in San Diego and they did a terrific job."
#Microsoft plants #Bing on #Google-free Chinese #Android
Google has confirmed with The Reg that it has barred the use of its mobile applications on Android phones from Chinese carriers, leaving the likes of Motorola to use alternatives.
#Microsoft's #Bing is gaining on #Google
We say inching with a lot of caution really because at the rate at which it is growing, Bing may take up to a few decades to overpower Google and win the Web search war.

Yet, there is hope for Microsoft. Bing is now officially in control of 11.5 per cent of the search engine market. Google is not unduly worried because Bing is gaining at the expense of Yahoo! Search. At the same time, Google increased its market share by one-tenth of a per cent to 65.5 per cent.
#Google ‘99.9 Percent’ Sure to Shut Down in China
An exit from the world’s biggest Internet market would cost Google, whose sales growth slowed during the U.S. recession, $600 million in revenue, according to estimates by JPMorgan Chase & Co.

China is “a market that no company can ignore, Google included,” JP Gan, managing director at Shanghai-based Qiming Venture Partners, which oversees more than $500 million, said before the FT report. “You have to play by the local rules if you want to operate here.’
#Google Apps Marketplace Challenges #Salesforce.com, Analysts Say
while Google and Salesforce.com integrate on Google Apps, Salesforce.com did not join the Marketplace. After all, it has its own AppExchange store to tend to. Despite cordial statements from both companies, analysts see the Google Apps Marketplace as a definite challenge to AppExchange.
#Microsoft Tries to Lure #NetSuite Users With New Deal
Microsoft's announcement has a ring of familiarity, as NetSuite itself has made a string of similar marketing efforts in the past against other vendors.
#Oracle’s Ellison, #Google’s Brin and Page get richer on billionaires list
His “fortune continues to soar,” the magazine said. At the No. 4 spot in 2009, he was guessed to be worth $22.5 billion.
#IBM Reloads Enterprise Branding
IBM will adopt "Smarter Systems for a Smarter Planet" as its data center marketing moniker, putting distance between today's "dynamic infrastructure" and the me-too catch phrases used by competitors.
Spithill explains BMW Oracle Racing's winning America's Cup moves
How much was Larry pushing the technology side? Was he listening to your geeks come up with ideas and critiquing those, or was he pushing them hard pushing them the other way?

Spithill: I’ve got to know Larry over this campaign both with racing him and then sailing with him. The thing is that the guy is a real competitor, and he’s very switched on. He’s no stranger to technology. Russell really kept Larry up to speed of what was going on; obviously Larry’s got a lot of commitments with running his companies but he’s stayed in touch. Russ was always keeping him up to speed with the decisions. It was Larry’s call whether he did the wing or not, and he spoke to a few of us about it; we all thought it was a good idea. Mike Drummond was the guy that really pushed for it; he was the guy that ultimately made us all say 'look, I think this is a serious option'. Then Larry made the call. I guess a guy like that, he’s just making key decisions like that in a lot of other stuff he does – in all
'Evil is the cure for incompetence'
I almost laugh when people tell me that human or cultural factors play no role in IT failures.
Apps Development, Maintenance Staff Shrinks
application programmers and system analysts declined from 25% of the IT staff on average in 2007 to 20% in 2009, based on our annual survey of more than 200 IT organizations each year.

Enterprise headlines and summaries, 2010-03-12

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis Moore) — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 20:55:00 +0000

#Oracle Promoting #Microsoft #Bing? Microsoft Paying Oracle and Subsidizing #Java? Cats and Dogs Living Together???
Is Larry Ellison aware that Oracle (which now owns Sun and its Java products) is promoting Microsoft Bing? By the way, a colleague told me that he received a similar promotion for a Yahoo! toolbar rather than the Bing toolbar, so perhaps Oracle is not solely promoting Microsoft, and perhaps this deal was done before the acquisition. Still, it's odd that Oracle would promote a Microsoft product.

It's even odder that Microsoft is so anxious to promote Bing that it will even do so while subsidizing Java and paying Oracle, two that must be high on Microsoft's "Most Wanted" hit list - does Steve Ballmer know that Microsoft is paying money to Oracle, and (horror of horrors!) subsidizing Java???

Cats and dogs living together indeed ...
"#Oracle in the #Cloud" #AWS Webinar (#Amazon)
Slides from the December 2008 AWS Webinar about best practices for using Oracle software in the EC2 cloud
Where #Android Beats the #IPhone
The good news is that the platform is not only competitive but is often a better choice than the iPhone for many programmers and the enterprises that employ them.
The Facebook Imperative Cannot Be Stopped (#SAP #Salesforce.com)
Charles Zedlewski emerged from a long blogging hiatus to argue that Facebook is designed for entertainment—not productivity. Well, that’s not surprising given that he works for SAP, one of the companies I have previously referred to as “innovationless”—in my view they remain the Anti-Cloud. Their actions speak for themselves. Still, I’m astounded that more enterprises haven’t figured out how to tap into the real collaborative power of Facebook and Twitter, and the new social models that they have pioneered.
Herbert Heitmann, Chief Communications Officer, to Leave #SAP
"Herbert created a global organization that integrates and aligns SAP stakeholders both internally and externally, builds thought leadership, and is dedicated to maintaining and preserving SAP's global reputation
#SaaS #ERP Has Buzz, But Who Are the Real Players?
Activant: ERP for distribution available as both SaaS and on-premise.

Epicor 9: Broad solution across many verticals, available as both SaaS and on-premise.

Everest Software Available as both SaaS and on-premise.

Glovia On Demand: Glovia's solutions are also available as both SaaS and on-premise.

Infor Syteline: Available as both SaaS and on-premise.

NetSuite: Available only in SaaS environment; targets non-manufacturing and light manufacturing companies.

Plex Systems: Available only in a SaaS environment; extends beyond traditional ERP, targeting manufacturers.

QAD: Available as SaaS, on-premise, and preconfigured on a hardware appliance and managed remotely.

SAP: Business ByDesign is available exclusively as SaaS but not yet generally available.
#Oracle Promoting #Microsoft #Bing? Microsoft Paying Oracle and Subsidizing #Java? Cats and Dogs Living Together???
does Steve Ballmer know that Microsoft is paying money to Oracle, and (horror of horrors!) subsidizing Java???
HP workers begin two-day strike - People Management
The strike action affects work at the Department for Work and Pensions, the Ministry of Defence, and car manufacturer Vauxhall. Industrial action was also taking place at HP locations in Washington, near Newcastle, and Preston and Blackpool, the PCS said.

The dispute centres on pay freezes, as well as on the 3,400 EDS staff who have been made redundant since HP took over the company in 2008, and the 1,000 job losses planned for the first half of the year.
Sizing up the big computing players
Acquiring EDS, however, has enabled HP to nicely round out its offerings, giving it one of the broadest portfolios in the business, a fact the company hopes to leverage to strategic advantage. Services accounted for 30% of HP's revenue last year and that segment has reportedly become the company's most profitable.
20 IT Skills on the Rise
Even though many IT professionals have seen flat to declining pay rates, there are some bright spots in the IT job arena. According to Foote Partners, publishers of the esteemed quarterly IT Skills and Certification Pay Index, there has been a definite demand for SAP and enterprise applications skills over the last six months. Here are the top 20 distinct skills by market value growth over the last six months, according to the most recent index.
30 Reasons Why Software Rules at #IBM
Once the neglected stepchild of IBM's colossal services business and systems unit, IBM Software is now a huge profit driver for Big Blue. Indeed, IBM's Software Group now competes with IBM Global Services as the top money maker for the company. Over the past decade, IBM has transformed its business model as the company shifted to higher value areas of software, improved efficiencies of its business and invested in long-term opportunities. This slide show identifies 30 reasons why software is big business at IBM.
IT centralization is back in fashion
For decades, the pendulum has swung between centralized IT organizations and decentralized operations featuring small IT groups in each business unit. But with the urgent need to cut costs today, there's a good argument to be made for the former arrangement. With technology assets in one place, it's easier to take advantage of developments such as virtualization, storage de-duplication, cloud computing and outsourcing, all of which promise to lower costs.
Economist Gets It Wrong: Dual-CEOs Can Actually Work Well (Just Ask #Oracle) #SAP
Last week one of the last of the authoritative business magazines put its foot in its mouth with a lightweight and poorly considered column about the value of co-CEOs, with a specific reference to SAP’s recent appointment of Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe to replace departed CEO Leo Apotheker. Where to start with this rare example of a major journalistic miss?
The IT failures blame game (part 2)
As the Devil’s Triangle principle makes clear, one-sided generalizations apportioning blame are rarely accurate.
#Hadoop Karma: How much data is generated on internet every year?
According to Neilson Online currently there are more than 1,733,993,741 internet users. How much data these users are generating ?
Few numbers to understand how much data is generated every year.
Good times return for India's IT workers
India's outsourcing sector which is set to increase recruitment by nearly 70 percent in the next financial year, according to the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom).

India's big three outsourcing companies -- Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys and Wipro -- all have plans to boost hiring sharply in the coming financial year.

"The feel-good factor is back in the industry," said Prithvi Lekkad, head of the Union of IT and IT-enabled services (Unites) Professionals, a trade union which represents some outsourcing workers.
12 types of tech zealots: How to spot them in the wild
#Microsoft (MSFT) Believer

Microsoft believers have been worshipping the leader of the other side of the Apple-Microsoft holy war (Bill Gates) for decades. Leaving Windows would be as unthinkable as leaving Las Vegas on a winning streak. Microsoft believers have their own interpretation of the history of software: how it's been developed, marketed and sold during the past 30 or so years. That interpretation does not favor men who wear black mock turtlenecks. Penguins also are not so adorable.
12 types of tech zealots: How to spot them in the wild
#Google (GOOG) Groupie

These can be tricky to spot: Stealthy Google adherents stay under the cover of "Don't Be Evil" and are reluctant to flaunt their successes as much as those of the competition. But lurking behind the typical "Aw shucks" demeanor and glasses (see: CEO Eric Schmidt) is a smart and always-connected individual who prefers to do everything via the Web. Conversational giveaway: Loves creating new verbs from nouns.
12 types of tech zealots: How to spot them in the wild
#Oracle High Flyer

His smug arrogance is matched only by his deference to Leader Lawrence J. Ellison. He will top you at anything -- aerial acrobatics, facial hair, coding, golf, net worth calculations. Other telltale signs: Proclivities toward Asian art, high-seas yachting and hostile acquisitions.
12 types of tech zealots: How to spot them in the wild
#Salesforce.com Disciple

Don't ever -- EVER -- talk about on-premises, traditional software in the presence of a Salesforce.com Disciple. Heresy!! (Stay clear of Oracle-related (ORCL) topics, too.) A true follower will usually have a copy of Benioff's book on his bedside table. Also a dead giveaway: This is one of the few techies who is not referring to a Jedi or Skywalker when he speaks of the Force.
12 types of tech zealots: How to spot them in the wild
#IBM (IBM) Follower

One of the oldest species in the high-tech ecosystem (species classification: Biggus Mainframi) who has continually adapted and changed his appearance with each succeeding decade and tech trend. He now wears a French blue dress shirt but sported plenty of ugly ties back in the day. One sign that will help you spot an IBM Follower: an understated combination of confidence and entitlement.
12 types of tech zealots: How to spot them in the wild
#SAP Advocate

Dignified. Restrained. Multilingual. This overall "quiet confidence," on display here by three former SAP execs, best typifies the SAP Advocate. On occasion, he can be mistaken for an IBM Follower. You can spot the difference pretty easily: Ask him to pronounce "NetWeaver" or about popular restaurants in Walldorf. He'll "get it."
Federal CIO describes problems, changes in IT
Another example of an outdated and inefficient agency is the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which takes three years to process a patent, he said. "One reason is because the U.S. PTO receives these applications online, prints them out, and then someone manually rekeys the information into an antiquated system," he said.
Virtualization Boosts Cheap Chips
Sales of servers built around processors that use the more esoteric RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) designs peddled by companies such as Oracle, or Intel's Itanium design, continued to fall. Shipments fell 30.5%. Revenues fell 20%.
New York Isn’t Silicon Valley, and That’s Why They Like It
“Silicon Valley is always leading the cluster, but it goes through booms and busts like everywhere else.” Nevertheless, she adds, “this is a moment where New York really has the chance to shine.”
#Google Buys DocVerse in Another Move Aimed at #Microsoft Office
The stakes are certainly high, since Office is Microsoft's largest business -- accounting for $12 billion in profits. But based on the continued efforts of Google, it looks like this business will undergo a gradual disruption.
A special report on managing information: Data, data everywhere
The data-centred economy is just nascent,” admits Mr Mundie of Microsoft. “You can see the outlines of it, but the technical, infrastructural and even business-model implications are not well understood right now.” This special report will point to where it is beginning to surface.

Oracle Promoting Microsoft Bing? Microsoft Paying Oracle and Subsidizing Java? Cats and Dogs Living Together???

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis Moore) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:50:00 +0000

Today, I got an alert from Java that an update was available, so I clicked "OK" to install. Imagine my surprise when I got the following prompt during the installation procedure:

Is Larry Ellison aware that Oracle (which now owns Sun and its Java products) is promoting Microsoft Bing? By the way, a colleague told me that he received a similar promotion for a Yahoo! toolbar rather than the Bing toolbar, so perhaps Oracle is not solely promoting Microsoft, and perhaps this deal was done before the acquisition. Still, it's odd that Oracle would promote a Microsoft product.

It's even odder that Microsoft is so anxious to promote Bing that it will even do so while subsidizing Java and paying Oracle, two that must be high on Microsoft's "Most Wanted" hit list - does Steve Ballmer know that Microsoft is paying money to Oracle, and (horror of horrors!) subsidizing Java???

Cats and dogs living together indeed ...

Enterprise headlines and summaries, 2010-03-05

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis Moore) — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 04:54:00 +0000

#Oracle Real Application Testing
Oracle Real Application Testing provides a cost-effective and easy-to-use solution for assessing the impact of changes on production Oracle Databases. Join us for a live Webcast to see Oracle Real Application Testing in action.

You'll discover how you can:

* Reduce your testing efforts by up to 80 percent
* Capture and replay your actual database workload and workflows
* Upgrade to Oracle Database 11g risk-free
Salesforce.com Disciple
Don't ever-EVER-talk about on-premise, traditional software in the presence of a Salesforce.com Disciple. Heresy!! (Stay clear of Oracle-related (ORCL) topics, too.) A true follower will usually have a copy of Benioff's book on his bedside table.
The 18 Use Cases of Social CRM - The New Rules of Relationship Management
Behind The Scenes In Social CRM - A Holistic Approach to 18 Use Cases That Show Business How To Finally Put Customers First

Social CRM reflects the new world of disruptive technologies and the related business models, processes, and organizational requirements we live in. Hence the multi-disciplinary approach to this research. We’ve paired Jeremiah’s expertise in social technologies and customer strategies with my background in CRM, enterprise applications, master data management, and order management. Our goal - take a holistic approach across multiple business departments, roles, and processes.
A game-changing play in enterprise software
Finally, someone is showing some innovation in how enterprise software is sold and contracted. No, it's not the two big guys of traditional on-premise software, SAP or Oracle. And it's not the market leader in cloud-based systems, Salesforce.com. Rather it's a smaller player, farther down the list: RightNow.com, a SaaS provider of customer service applications.
2010 OpenWorld Call for Papers
Submit your papers for #Oracle OpenWorld and the Develop Stream for JavaOne+Develop, March 2-21, 2010.
The trouble with tandems
At #SAP Mr McDermott is supposed to gladhand customers while Mr Hagemann Snabe coddles engineers.

Yet even in the tech industry shared leadership works best when there is a power-broker behind the scenes. At SAP Hasso Plattner, one of the company’s founders and head of its supervisory board, wields considerable clout; Wipro’s chairman, Azim Premji, is an influential figure there. Jonathan Miller, News Corp’s head of digital media, is widely believed to be calling the shots at MySpace. While joint bosses keep a wary eye on one another, someone else may be steering the tandem.
Marin County may pull plug on computer fiasco #SAP
"Before we invest anything more, we want to look out in the market, and look at what we have," he said. "Can we save money?" is the question officials must answer, he added.
Obama's CIO ready to bring government tech up to speed
Kundra's visit to San Fransisco was part of a 48-hour whirlwind tech tour – the Bay Area and Silicon Valley on Wednesday, and the Seattle area on Thursday. In California, he met with Google, Apple and smaller companies, he said. While in Seattle, Kundra visited with local business leaders – including Microsoft CIO Tony Scott and Weyerhauser executives – to talk about technology strategy.
Making H-P too big to fail through M&A
The first is the always-contentious Sybase Inc. With a market capitalization of about $3.6 billion, the stock has run up a bit, but still would be a nice fit with H-P.

Another company to look at is Teradata Corp. Unfortunately its market cap is more than $5 billion, and it's not a pure database play by any means. It's a poor fit unless H-P wants to absorb a huge infrastructure and jump into whole new areas of business.
#SAP to open up platform for developers
“With release 2.5 [of cloud offering], we will be announcing interfaces [APIs] so that our partners will be able to develop solutions tailored to micro-verticals that will be hosted and run within the SAP environment. Overnight, a developer can create a solution that has been [automatically] localised for over 70 countries,”
#RightNow #Cloud Challenge Video
[RightNow commercial poking fun at #Oracle, #SAP, and #Salesforce.com]
A Small Company, Promising Major Savings on Vital Software, Lures Colleges
"If I was going to be a continuing customer with #Rimini Street," he says, "I'd be a little worried."
5 Reasons Businesses Still Hate Enterprise Software
The staggering intensity of dissatisfaction, coupled with the idea that enterprise software is a not just an IT concern but a real business problem, doesn't just beg the question—it screams the question: What, then, is enterprise software actually doing well right now?
RightNow Tries to Change SaaS Contract, Pricing Game
Under RightNow's Cloud Services Agreement (CSA), which is now standard for all new business conducted by the vendor, customers receive fixed pricing for three years. They also have the ability to renew for another three years at a cost determined at the time the initial contract is signed.

Users who sign multiyear agreements can cancel on an annual basis for any reason, said CEO Greg Gianforte .
Getting Real about #NoSQL and the SQL-Isn't-Scalable Lie
SQL is Scalable and NoSQL Isn’t For Everyone

The point is one that I think all rational people already realize: The ACID RDBMS isn’t appropriate for every need, nor is the NoSQL solution.
#RightNow’s kinder, gentler contract
Cash service credit for not meeting service levels. This is a biggie since a lot of vendors don’t offer SLAs.
#SAP to extend title sponsorship of #SAPOpen
Silicon Valley Sports & Entertainment (SVS&E) announced today that the SAP Open, Northern California's premier men’s professional tennis tournament, has reached agreement with title sponsor SAP to extend its partnership for three additional years making SAP the tournament’s title sponsor through the 2013 tournament. In keeping with tournament policy, financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Hasso Plattner
is a major owner of the San Jose Sharks hockey team and Silicon Valley Sports and Entertainment Group.
#Microsoft to spend $9.5 billion on research in 2010
The figure is $3 billion more than the next closest technology company, said Kevin Turner, Microsoft's chief operating officer, who gave a keynote speech on Thursday at the Cebit trade show. Much of Microsoft's investments center around "cloud" services, or online computing provided to users from hosted data centers.
Steve Ballmer’s Memo To #Microsoft Staff: “We Must Move At Cloud Speed”
As a part of this, I request that you do the following:

• Watch the speech on demand here
• Learn more about our cloud offerings and how they relate to our overarching software plus services strategy here
• Review your commitments to ensure you are landing our vision with customers and partners.
The Case for RAMClouds: Scalable High-Performance Storage Entirely in DRAM
Disk-oriented approaches to online storage are becoming increasingly problematic: they do not scale grace-fully to meet the needs of large-scale Web applications, and improvements in disk capacity have far out-stripped improvements in access latency and bandwidth. This paper argues for a new approach to datacenter storage called RAMCloud, where information is kept entirely in DRAM and large-scale systems are created by aggregating the main memories of thousands of commodity servers. We believe that RAMClouds can provide durable and available storage with 100-1000x the throughput of disk-based systems and 100-1000x lower access latency. The combination of low latency and large scale will enable a new breed of data-intensive applications.
YouTube - What is #Hadoop? Other big data terms like #MapReduce? Cloudera's CEO talks us through big data trends
Cloudera is a company that helps developers with big database problems. Here the CEO Mike Olson gives us a tour through the major database changes that are hitting lots of startups now.
#Cloudera #Hadoop Training: #MapReduce Algorithms
This video is part of a larger series of free online training from Cloudera. Check out our website for more videos, a virtual machine pre-loaded with exercises and more.
Oracle hikes certification testing fees
A full accounting of the fee changes was not immediately available, but one forum poster claimed the cost of a MySQL Certified Associate exam had more than doubled under the new pricing.
Drupal Founder Critical of #SaaS and its Proprietary Nature
Drupal's founder is calling for open source in the enterprise and in the cloud. This should be no surprise, coming from someone like Dries Buytaert. But it is still interesting, considering the source and the point he makes about the actual lack of open source in cloud computing.
Who Analyzes the Analysts
Today’s analysts are essentially required to have a grasp of social media. “Someone effective with social media could be truly independent, and they could build…a sort of lead-gen machine around social media, the press, and public speaking,” Lusher says. As an example, social media has certainly helped establish Altimeter’s market reputation. Li, Owyang, and Wang all placed among the top 15 of twitterers in the TweetLevel rating system developed by public relations giant Edelman. In fact, 12 out of Edelman’s top 15 are analysts, not firms. Owyang’s blog often receives more traffic than the Web site of an entire analyst firm.
It’s Official: #SAP Community = 2,000,000 STRONG!
A scant two years after reaching our 1 million member milestone, SAP Community Network (SCN) has doubled in membership to be 2 million members strong!
#SAP TV Videos - CNBC Squawk Box US
SAP Co-CEOs Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe, tell CNBC how SAP is getting back on track.
#Microsoft CFO Says Product Blitz Heating Up
Microsoft's prospects for the next couple of years are starting to look a bit like the good old days.

That was the prognosis Microsoft's new CFO, Peter Klein, presented to financial analysts on Tuesday at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference.
Open Letter to #SAP Customers
What will we change?

What we will change is to accelerate the pace of the innovation we deliver to you. We will do that by energizing our entire company to become even more open to and informed by the needs of your company. This is not a new task, as innovation has long but quietly flourished in many groups within SAP. Our goal now is to bring these groups together and unleash the creativity at SAP by fostering a new motivated employee culture, increasing customer involvement, and by increasing the clock speed of development efforts.
#SAP Readies Upgrade For Small Business App
SAP...unveiled Business One 8.8 at the CeBIT trade fair in Hannover, Germany. The product, which is largely sold through SAP's channel partners, will be generally available by the end of April.
Can #Oracle virtualization be a player?
Oracle VM 3, expected this spring, will give Oracle credible Xen-based server virtualization that could challenge VMware, Microsoft and Citrix Systems Inc.-- at least in the tens of thousands of Oracle database and application shops.

"Oracle VM 3 really does have some promise," said Chris Wolf, virtualization analyst with the Burton Group. "VMware is still dominant -- even in the data center where Oracle lives -- but in organizations where a separate group manages the Oracle infrastructure, there's an opportunity."
Stock Options Still Popular in Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley firms such as Oracle Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc. continued to give out big options packages to executives during the recession last year, according to an analysis from executive-compensation research firm Equilar Inc. Some companies handed out option grants that were similar in scope to what they gave in 2008, while others raised such grants substantially from 2008, when they didn't hand out any stock options to executives.
Chum In The Water Around #Novell
Whitt said #IBM or even #Oracle could counterbid Elliot's offer and that BMC Software might also be interested in some parts of Novell but not all of it. Like Williams, Whitt said IBM is broad enough to take on Novell but believes hardware vendors like Hewlett-Packard would not likely bid for the target, preferring not to upset its partnership with Microsoft and Red Hat in the migration from Sun to HP-based solutions. Whitt added VMware to the list of potential suitors since it would have an interest in Linux but not Novell's other businesses. "The challenge with Novell is its legacy business, NetWare, is eroding pretty fast," and is unlikely to garner much desire.
Netezza Corporation F4Q10 (Qtr End 01/31/10) Earnings Call Transcript
A number of our customers and prospects have now evaluated the new Oracle Exadata system and we hear a common theme emerging, mostly the platform used as a consolidation server for other infrastructure running OLTP-based applications not as a complex analytical processing platform.

Of course, we do see Oracle competing in the data warehouse but we remain well-positioned against them in our space. We’re happy to have Oracle in the market as they continue to invest heavily in marketing activities, raising the general awareness of the space and likely contributing to the pipeline growth we are experiencing.

As Oracle works out the positioning of their product offerings, we believe their entrance to the market only bolsters our position as we find the choice is good for customers, allowing them to avoid vendor lock-in and to acquire best-in-class capabilities. We remain very well-positioned to serve that need.
#Netezza 4Q Net Plunges 88% Amid 2008 Tax Benefit; Views Beat
Netezza Corp.'s (NZ) fiscal fourth-quarter earnings fell 88% on a prior-year tax benefit, though the database specialist saw stronger sales and margins in the latest period and results beat analysts' estimates.

The company also resumed providing financial guidance, saying its visibility has improved in recent quarters. Netezza expects 20% revenue growth for the new year, while analysts' polled by Thomson Reuters recently forecast a 19% increase to $226 million.
Machines Plus Minds: #MySQL+#Memcached is still the workhorse
The relational table model is not dead, at all. It will never die, nor should we try to kill it. We no longer have to be as religious about normal form, and we don't HAVE to fit everything everywhere into this form, but there is no reason to avoid it just because it's not "sexy and exotic".
#IBM Welcomes Competition with #Oracle
"They're out there with very aggressive selling tactics; they do a lot of wrap and roll kinds of deals. The more technology they've acquired, the more financial engineering that goes into the Oracle sales proposition. And that is a technique that can at times be a formidable technique. I don't think it fools the customer. The question is do they sign up for even more Oracle technology recognizing that Oracle is trying to implement a form of price control on them? Or do they think twice about over-committing to Oracle in light of Oracle's pricing practices? Because the pattern here has been very clear: They buy a company, they take people out and then they raise prices. You talk to any customer that's been a user of the technology that Oracle has acquired and they'll tell you that's what they've seen. It's a consistent pattern of resource reduction and price increase, particularly around subscriptions and maintenance fees and things of that nature. And that has some people very concerne
#SAP co-CEOs to prioritize product development, delivery
"The great projects today aren't just on-time, and they aren't just on-budget. They're on value," McDermott said. "It's much more than just software and stacks."
#Amazon Web Services CTO out to Prove Enterprise Chops
Vogels also took the opportunity to push Amazon's VPC (virtual private cloud), which integrates a company's existing IT infrastructure and the cloud, which makes it particularly attractive to enterprise customers, according to Vogels. Companies can build a walled garden in the cloud using VPC and connect it to the data center using an encrypted VPN (virtual private network), he said.

VPC was announced almost six months ago and is still only available in beta, according to Amazon Web Services' site. Vogels didn't provide any details on when VPC would exit the testing stage.
Hedge Fund Offers to Buy #Novell
Hedge fund Elliott Associates LP, which holds a 8.5% stake in Novell Inc., offered to buy the rest of the software company for about $1.8 billion.

Novell shares, which were off 1% in 4 p.m. trading, surged 30% in late trading to $6.15, above the $5.75 offer price Elliott disclosed in a letter to Novell's board.
#Cassandra and the #NoSQL scalable OLTP argument
the designers of the world’s most scalable websites — e-commerce sites perhaps excepted — seem pretty unanimous in thinking it’s best to bake some database/integrity management into the applications, rather than offload it all to an RDBMS. Why? Because the transactions are so simple that hand-coding all that isn’t prohibitive. And of course because of their extreme performance and scalability needs.

I’m not sure on what basis one could argue that they’re wrong.
#MySQL and #Memcached: End of an Era?
With a little perspective, it's clear the MySQL+memcached era is passing. It will stick around for a while. Old technologies seldom fade away completely. Some still ride horses. Some still use CDs. And the Internet will not completely replace that archaic electro-magnetic broadcast technology called TV, but the majority will move on into a new era.
The Business Cloud: How Cloud Computing and Business Management Suites are Forever Changing the Way Companies Run Their Business
Upcoming 2010 Locations

* San Diego, March 9
* Los Angeles, March 10
* Orange County, March 11
* London, March 16
#NetSuite and the America's Cup: A Firsthand Report
For the third straight America's Cup competition season and the eighth year running, BMW Oracle Racing (BOR) used NetSuite's powerful solution for accounting, expense and payables management, international tax compliance, reporting, employee records, and multi-currency management. NetSuite employee Matt Leary gives us this firsthand account from the 33rd America's Cup, which ended on March 14 with BOR's victory.
#SAP Gains 3M as New Customer
SAP(R) Business Suite Applications to Replace Legacy Business Software at 3M Operations Around the World; SAP Enables Global Business Process Transformation at Innovation-Driven Company
#Microsoft Slams #Oracle For Limiting Choice But Seeks x86 Hegemony
But what was surprising was the ham-fisted approach taken by Muglia in his attempt to convince the audience of investors at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference that Oracle's strategy of offering vertically integrated systems will stunt customer choice while Microsoft itself wants nothing more than unlimited options for customers—that is, as long as all those options are x86.
#NetSuite Recruiting Resellers With 100-Percent Margin Offer
Under the new NetSuite SP 100 program unveiled Tuesday, some partners can earn 100 percent margins on the first year of new contracts -- that is, keep all revenue from that year -- and 10 percent on annual renewals.
#Infor's Flex Upgrade Program Termed an Early Success
Flex allows customers to upgrade to the latest version of Infor's ERP software with either no new fees or small license fees, no changes to annual maintenance costs, rapid implementation services and incentive pricing on features they want to add. Infor users can also switch to another application in Infor's portfolio and get the same perks as a Flex upgrade.
#SAP's New Co-CEOs Pledge to Listen and Innovate
"This methodology is not new, but so far it was only used by small companies, and we are scaling it to 12,000 engineers," Snabe added.
[Agile is used only by small companies?-DBM]
#Agile Software Development in Large Organizations
December 2004 (vol. 37 no. 12)
pp. 26-34

ASCII Text
x

Mikael Lindvall, Dirk Muthig, Aldo Dagnino, Christina Wallin, Michael Stupperich, David Kiefer, John May, Tuomo K?hk?nen, "Agile Software Development in Large Organizations," Computer, vol. 37, no. 12, pp. 26-34, December, 2004.

BibTex
x

@article{10.1109/MC.2004.231,
author = {Mikael Lindvall and Dirk Muthig and Aldo Dagnino and Christina Wallin and Michael Stupperich and David Kiefer and John May and Tuomo K?hk?nen},
title = {Agile Software Development in Large Organizations},
journal ={Computer},
volume = {37},
number = {12},
issn = {0018-9162},
year = {2004},
pages = {26-34},
doi = {http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MC.2004.231},
publisher = {IEEE Computer Society},
address = {Los Alamitos, CA, USA},
}

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TI - Agile Software Development in Large Organizations
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#Oracle-#Sun Ends HDS Storage Agreement
The dissolution of the storage agreement between Oracle and HDS, the latest fallout from Oracle's acquisition in January of Sun, is also seen as the latest sign that vendor consolidation into a small number of companies looking to control their hardware and software stacks is continuing.
The twin evils of IT gridlock and denial
Without sufficient consensus on key project issues, two bad problems often arise: * Gridlock: Project progress stops, due to lack of consensus or agreement on the best steps forward. In gridlock situations, the team cannot reach agreement, so project decisions slow down while everyone fights it out. * Denial: Project progress continues, despite lack of consensus. In denial situations, the team does not address disagreements, agreeing to wait until sometime in the future to resolve open issues. Problems then simmer below the surface only to “unexpectedly” erupt later, usually in more severe form.
#Oracle Likes Cloud Computing After All
Oracle described a strategy that is pragmatic for Oracle, but not well-articulated and missing key pieces.
Five kinds of public relations
There actually are a couple of vendors who drown me in press releases without pissing me off. Why? Because those press releases have instantly comprehensible headlines and topic paragraphs. (Typically they’re user success stories without breathless fluff.) I know what I’m ignoring, without having any work to do to ignore it.
#IBM speeds up data analysis with new algorithm
The mathematical algorithm, developed by IBM's laboratories in Zurich, can sort, correlate and analyze millions of random data sets, a task that could otherwise take days for supercomputers to process, said Costas Bekas, an IBM researcher. The algorithm is just under a thousand lines of code and will be instrumental in establishing usage patterns or trends based on data gathered from sources such as sensors or smart meters, he said. The algorithm could be used to analyze a growing mass of data measuring electricity usage trends as well as air or water pollution levels. The algorithm could also break down data from global financial markets and assess individual and collective exposure to risk, Bekas said.
#Wipro Says Employee Charged With Fraud Committed Suicide
A finance employee of Indian outsourcer Wipro committed suicide shortly after the company caught him in December for embezzling US$4 million from the company, a spokeswoman for the company said on Tuesday.
#Microsoft Elaborates on Long-Term Cloud Computing Play [#Azure]
"In the short run, over the next three years, the financial [aspects of Azure] are not material," he said.
#Microsoft unveils a locked-down, hosted app bundle for U.S. government customers
BPOS Federal is a security-enhanced version of the current BPOS product. BPOS is a Microsoft-hosted collection of Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Communications Online and Live Meeting. The Federal version is hosted on “separate, dedicated infrastructure in secured facilities,” not in the existing datacenters where Microsoft currently hosts BPOS. (BPOS is a cloud offering, but isn’t currently hosted on Windows Azure. Microsoft officials have said the goal is to move BPOS to Azure, but haven’t offered a timetable for that.)
#Microsoft ramps up #Azure with additional datacentres
"We have 2000 computers on Azure now, and we are aiming to grow this to 10,000."
Mister Softee's Revenge
It helps that the technology is good. With Windows 7, Microsoft rethought its development process to produce a streamlined, elegant operating system; similar thinking seems to have gone into Windows Phone 7, which bears no resemblance to the much-maligned predecessor, Windows Mobile 6.5.
#Microsoft Launches Windows MultiPoint Server 2010
Microsoft unveils Windows MultiPoint Server 2010, aimed at the education segment. The product allows multiple users at multiple thin-client terminals to operate independently in a Windows environment while linked to a single host system. In theory, this would save schools or even small workgroups the expense of purchasing multiple workstations. Another of Microsoft's server offerings, SQL Server 2008 Release 2, is due in May.
Seattle mayor wants town hall with #Microsoft CEO
The replacement will cost more than $4 billion.
Competition Authorities and Search - #Microsoft On The Issues
#Google’s public response to this growing regulatory concern has been to point elsewhere—at Microsoft. Google is telling reporters that antitrust concerns about search are not real because some of the complaints come from one of its last remaining search competitors. It’s worth asking whether Google’s response really addresses the concerns that have been raised. Complaints in competition law cases usually come from competitors. (Believe me, I know: I’ve been chief competition counsel at Microsoft since 1994, so I’ve seen plenty of competitor complaints. Novell, when current Google CEO Eric Schmidt was at the helm, was never hesitant about complaining to regulators about Microsoft. Google hasn’t been shy about raising antitrust concerns about Microsoft in the last few years, either.) This is the way that competition law agencies function: They look to competitors in the first instance to understand how particular markets operate, the practices of dominant firms and the competitive sig
#Microsoft: #Oracle will take us back to 1970s hell
"There are some things that Oracle is doing that I just shake my head at," Muglia told financial analysts attending the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco, California. "I don't understand what's going to happen - what they think they're going to do with Sparc. I don't see how Sparc can live long-term."
#Oracle Introduces Oracle SOA Governance 11g
New Release Delivers Industry’s Most Complete, Unified Approach for Governing Service Oriented Architecture and Applications Integration Projects
ERP Support: How Far Will #Oracle Go to Protect Golden Egg?
What does Oracle think about those companies that offer third-party maintenance and support services for Oracle's software--for up to half off Oracle's price? Look no further than the names of these two lawsuits:
#Oracle Fusion Middleware Scores Highest Ever Performance With SPECjAppServer2004 Benchmark Using a Clustered Database
Today, Oracle announced that Oracle® WebLogic Server, a component of Oracle Fusion Middleware, together with Oracle Database 11g, Oracle Real Application Clusters and Oracle Enterprise Linux, running on an HP ProLiant BL460c G6 server, delivered 11,067.68 SPECjAppServer2004 JOPS@Standard (jAppServer Operations Per Second), the highest performance ever achieved running a clustered database(1).
#Oracle wields hefty muscle in Colorado's tech sector
Oracle Corp.'s $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems — the latest in a long line of takeovers for the software giant — puts the eccentric Larry Ellison in control of the largest tech employer in Colorado.
Who’s to blame for “Excel hell?”
Most of the time though, they seethe with quiet loathing.

Enterprise headlines and summaries, 2010-02-28

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis Moore) — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 04:51:00 +0000

#CA continues cloud computing buying spree
CA Inc. announced today that it plans to acquire for an undisclosed sum a 3Tera, a move that industry watchers say will equip the management software maker with tools to offer customers a smoother transition to private and public cloud computing.
#Opera's Molly Holzschlag on #HTML5 and the future of web apps
With the current proposals of HTML5, you can remove the need for Javascript in a lot of places like form validation. We are putting the stress on the browser.
The Painful Truth About Age Discrimination in Tech
In other words, all you IT veterans are still big. It's the jobs that got small.
#SAP Customer? Come Jam with us!
I’m happy to report that analyst George Lawrie of our team that serves Application Development and Delivery Professionals has been working with a host of analysts from across the company to put together our first-ever SAP Jam on March 22-25!
Are you stuck with #Oracle's and #IBM's #middleware control?
Is the middleware market becoming a duopoly, with users locked in to either Oracle or IBM?
Speed, Playfulness, Key to Successful Web Apps
The layout should also be "clean" with abundant empty space and large fonts, for example, so that the application "isn't busy on the page," he said.
Adoption of #Salesforce.com's 1/1/1 Model Accelerates Around the World
The Salesforce.com Foundation (http:www.salesforcefoundation.org), the global leader in integrating philanthropy and business, today announced the growing success of its mission to inspire companies around the world to give 1% of their resources forward to support organizations that are making the world a better place. Today, hundreds of companies of all sizes including Atlassian, C-Level Management, FinancialForce.com, Google, LiveOps, NewVoiceMedia and Seal Shield have adopted salesforce.com's unique 1/1/1 integrated corporate philanthropy model (http://www.salesforcefoundation.org/sharethemodel) where 1% of a company's time, 1% of its equity and 1% of its products are given forward to the community.
#Epicor Showcases Latest Release of Its Next-Generation Enterprise Resource Planning Solution at 2010 User Summits
Epicor Software Corporation (NASDAQ: EPIC) will debut the latest release of its next-generation enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution at its annual user summit events across the United States during the spring of 2010. Hundreds of customers are expected to attend the user summits, which are being offered in 12 cities across the U.S. Attendees will get an insider's look at Epicor's latest ERP business solution, which features enhanced product functionality and technology to further streamline a company's business operations. Building on the extensive functionality delivered with Epicor 9, the latest in Epicor ERP is a follow-on release that continues to deliver easily implemented innovative technology providing exceptionally high value to a company at a low total cost of ownership.
High Performance Scalable Data Stores
In recent years, a dozen new storage systems, sometimes called “NoSQL” systems, have been introduced to provide indexed data storage that is much higher performance than existing relational database products like MySQL, Oracle, DB2, and SQL Server. These data storage systems have a number of features in common: • a call level interface (in contrast to a SQL binding) • fast indexes on large amounts of data, • ability to horizontally scale throughput over many servers, and • ability to dynamically define attributes or data schema.
#Microsoft's Muglia brings 'Cloud Computing for Dummies' on stage
Bob Muglia, president of the server and tools business at Microsoft, pulled out a Cloud Computing for Dummies book during his keynote at the Goldman Sachs technology conference today, having found it on his admins desk. He said it was an indicator that the market was growing, but that it still has a ways to go.
#SharePoint 2010: #Microsoft's Thomas Rizzo Talks Details
Yes, it’s the fastest growing. We hit over 1.2 billion dollars last year. 17,000 customers. A lot of people think of SharePoint as just collaboration and intranet search. But we’ve expanded into a lot of other areas. A lot of big Internet-facing sites run SharePoint now. So you may not even know it, but folks like Kraft and Hawaiian Airlines are on SharePoint for their Internet-facing site. Recovery.gov is running SharePoint. So that’s a big area—growing our Internet business. One of our big bets was the FAST Search & Transfer acquisition for 1.2 billion dollars. We wanted really high-end search because high-end search powers the Internet. We worked to integrate the FAST team and combined it with SharePoint Web Content Management to build a really great Internet business offering.
#H-1B Visa Program Again Under Fire
A new study by the Economic Policy Institute claims some companies are using the H-1B visa program to transfer work overseas and to take advantage of cheaper guest worker labor.
Obama Supports Keeping Tech Jobs Onshore
On the anniversary of the passing of the economic stimulus package, President Obama discusses the accomplishments and challenges still facing the economy. In terms of job creation, the president says he believes there is still a long way to go, but says technology jobs will be a major part of that future.
Older Workers Face Younger Bosses
Research from CareerBuilder sheds light on management shifts in the workplace. The new work landscape is full of younger people in authority and older workers coping with the day-to-day challenges presented by the generation gap.
5 Books for Understanding the Millennial Generation
The 80-million strong Millennial generation is going to change the IT landscape in countless ways, whether CIOs like it or not. Dealing with this unique generation can be difficult—given their work habits, interests and deep grounding in technology as a way of life. Luckily, there are a handful of insightful books that help businesses and bosses understand and manage the Millennials.
Why Vendor Events Are Useless
I seldom go to major vendor events any more. They've gotten so big that you can't actually get anything useful done and I already own too many of the various give away items that abound at 'partner" booths at these things.

Enterprise headlines and summaries, 2010-02-22

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis Moore) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 05:08:00 +0000

Fighting the Dark Side: Tech's Heroes and Villains - VILLAINS: Bill Gates
How can a renowned philanthropist also be a villain? If anyone qualifies, it's Gates. For decades, the Microsoft co-founder used Windows' dominance to push questionable business tactics that locked competitors out of various markets. Behind the nerdy glasses was a ruthless businessman who didn't always play by the rules. But Gates's amazing charitable work makes it easy to forget his past transgressions. He's the Ebenezer Scrooge of tech.
Silicon Valley's Wage Crash by the Numbers
Adjusted for inflation, wages and stock-related pay have been seriously hurt by two bubble economies, companies leaving the area and a shift from a large high-tech manufacturing base led by semiconductor engineering into one dominated by medical research, bio- and nanotechnologies, and pharmaceutical products, said the report.
Crash and reboot: Silicon Valley hightech employment and wages, 2000–08
On the whole, high-tech industries in Silicon Valley declined sharply in employment and wages from 2000 to 2004 but increased gradually in both respects from 2004 to 2008; though the industry mix changed during the 8-year period, Silicon Valley remains the world’s leading high-tech hub
#Microsoft vs. #Google: The empire strikes back
If the software giant's legendary intransigence prevents it from realigning itself with Ozzie's vision, there will be tough times ahead in Redmond. With its sky-high revenues -- Microsoft earned $20 billion in operating income in 2009 -- the danger is not that Microsoft will disappear, but that it will drift into irrelevancy, leaving competitors such as Google to dictate the direction of the computing market. As the man with the job of reversing that drift, it can't be easy being Ray Ozzie -- but it must be exciting.
Fast-payback ERP projects for 2010
"Often, software salespeople will throw in an extra discount if you buy more licenses," said Ray Wang, a partner with the consulting firm Altimeter Group. "So if you needed 800 and would have gotten a 50% discount but got offered a 60% discount, you'd fall for the shelfware trap. You now have 200 licenses [for which] you will pay 20% maintenance every year of ownership, whether or not you use them. At that rate, you now have paid for the software once every five years in maintenance costs."
3PM = 1PM
There are customers who just want base bug fixe and regulatory updates, and others who want full boat innovation. Treat them differently, and price them differently. Not just a 5% difference in maintenance rates, a 50 to 60% difference.
SaaS takes on business intelligence
Consider BI SaaS If... * You don't have in-house resources to do the job or BI isn't a core competency. * You need something that can be built, adjusted and scaled quickly, such as customizable sales reports. * You need it fast. * You can get 80% of what you need with a few customizable templates. * You're already using SaaS in operational areas such as CRM and HR and need to add an analytics component. Think Twice If... * You're uncomfortable processing business intelligence data outside of the corporate firewall, regardless of security assurances. * You have a complex project or one that requires a high degree of customization. * You have a very large data set. * The data on which you need to perform analytics changes every day. * BI tools will be used primarily within the organization. * It doesn't fit the broader business model or culture. Balancing departmental and enterprise needs is key. A myopic view of BI needs can lead to applica
Original1 Begins Business Operations
#SAP AG, #Nokia and Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) today announced that the respective antitrust authorities have approved the establishment of their joint venture, Original1 GmbH. Original1 has begun business operations on February 1. Established to deliver unique product authentication and anti-counterfeiting services across the globe, Original1 is headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and headed by Claudia Alsdorf, former vice president of SAP Research. The plan to form Original1 was initially announced on October 27, 2009
Technology helped BMW Oracle win back the America's Cup
He also spoke about building a sailboat racing center in San Francisco bay, and also abut the technology that helped beat the Swiss.
Can Informatica earn a place at the head table?
It is making the right bets on cloud and on a partner ecosystem.
#Microsoft-#Amazon patent deal covers #Kindle, #Linux
Microsoft and Amazon.com have signed a wide-ranging patent cross-licensing agreement that provides each company with access to the other's patent portfolio. Specific terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but it was made clear that Amazon will be paying Microsoft an undisclosed amount of money as part of the arrangement. While Microsoft wouldn't say which of its products and technologies Amazon is interested in, Microsoft did mention that Amazon's Kindle, which employs open source and proprietary software components, as well as Amazon's use of Linux-based servers are covered. Neither company would officially disclose why the deal was struck today. "We are pleased to have entered into this patent license agreement with Amazon.com," Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft's corporate vice president and deputy general counsel for Intellectual Property and Licensing, said in a statement. "Microsoft's patent portfolio is the largest and strongest in the software industry, and this agreement demon
#Microsoft Updates #Azure Provisioning Tool
To help IT pros automate the provisioning and management of services deployed to the recently released Windows Azure cloud offering, Microsoft released a new version of its Windows Azure Service Management (WASM) Cmdlets for PowerShell last week. The tool is available for download on Microsoft's MSDN site. The tool lets IT pros who script in PowerShell add new Azure management functions, such as deploying, upgrading and removing hosted services, and managing storage accounts and certificates.
#Microsoft and #HP: Eyeing Their Next Move
#Oracle CEO Larry Ellison has already guaranteed that he will wreak havoc on #Sun's channel following remarks that he intends to take the top 4,000 accounts direct, while putting the rest of its partners on notice. "If you simply take the Sun box, do nothing to it, and just resell it, and that's all you're really doing, then at that point we think we are better off going direct to the customers," Ellison said during a strategy briefing on Jan. 27, the day the deal closed.
The State of Professional Services 2010
We were also surprised at the frugality, ie extremely low costs for facilities and management overhead posted by the leaders; many top-performing firms are operated “virtually” with almost no brick and mortar facilities and almost all members of the organization are billable. Another big surprise was that almost all the top performers focused intently on specific vertical markets and business process optimization. Biggest losers were broadly oriented horizontal organizations due to skill and price commoditization. Bill rates have been relatively stagnant for almost 10 years so PS organizations are demanding and getting more and more productivity from their employees every year, remote service delivery has been a big catalyst for higher productivity.
The Lords of Research
So here are the three things analysts still play a role in: 1. Trusted advisor: Give me an independent view point, tell me what I need to do to align IT and business. Help me bounce around some ideas. Vet some proposals with me. 2. Knowledge transfer: Provide decision frameworks, share with us your expertise, teach us how to evaluate. 3. Technology purchases: How does that technology work? Who does a good job? Does the tool fit my business requirements? Can you help me with my apps strategy? My enterprise strategy?”
#Microsoft's chief counsel Brad Smith sharp, able to relate to people
Since Brad Smith took the helm of Microsoft's 1,000-plus in-house legal department in 2002, the company has undergone a multiyear armistice campaign, settling several cases with industry competitors in the U.S. The company still has one major appeal of a $1.4 billion fine levied for failing to comply with an earlier European antitrust ruling.
Big players keep on dialling
If you ever doubted that cellphones are the most powerful communications device, last week they got a ringing endorsement from the biggest players in the computing industry: Microsoft and Google, Nokia and Intel.
Mobile World Congress 2010: the winners and losers
But for every action in the mobile world, it appears there has to be an equal and opposite reaction, with a few surprisingly big names disappointed us too – we look at the highs and lows of Mobile World Congress 2010.

Enterprise headlines and summaries, 2010-02-20

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis Moore) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 05:06:00 +0000

Investigators identify #Tesla employees killed in East Palo Alto plane crash
Doug Bourn, 56, the pilot, was a senior electrical engineer with the car maker; Brian Finn, 42, was a senior interactive electronics manager; and Andrew Ingram, 31, was an electrical engineer.
Gears API Blog: Hello HTML5
If you've wondered why there haven't been many Gears releases or posts on the Gears blog lately, it's because we've shifted our effort towards bringing all of the Gears capabilities into web standards like HTML5. We're not there yet, but we are getting closer. In January we shipped a new version of Google Chrome that natively supports a Database API similar to the Gears database API, workers (both local and shared, equivalent to workers and cross-origin wokers in Gears), and also new APIs like Local Storage and Web Sockets. Other facets of Gears, such as the LocalServer API and Geolocation, are also represented by similar APIs in new standards and will be included in Google Chrome shortly.
MySQL Memory Settings
General MySQL Settings The Most important ones are: Key Buffer The key buffer holds the indexes of tables in memory and a bigger key buffer results in faster row lookups. Adjust according to your own needs. Bigger is better, but prevent swapping at all costs. A good rule of thumb seems to be to use 1/4 of system memory. Query Cache This is where the magic happens. Well, not magic really, just plain old caching. Keeping the result of queries in memory until they are invalidated by additional writes enhances performance by magnitudes. The query_cache_size, as the name suggests, is the total size of memory available to query caching. The value query_cache_limit is the maximum number of kilobytes one query may be in order to be cached. Setting this value too high might prevent a lot of smaller queries to be cached. Setting it too low will result in bigger queries to never be cached, and the smaller queries not being able to completely fill the cache size, which would be a waste of resourc
Open source - the once and future dream
"My vision," Zemlin said, "is to have a computer in every gas pump, X-ray system, cell phone, GPS system, set top box, picture frame, car, logistics system, airplane, DVR, server, super computer and desktop all running Linux."
NoSQL And Elastic Caching Platforms Are Kissing Cousins
The idea is pretty simple: Not all applications need a traditional relational database management system (RDBMS) that uses SQL to perform operations on data. Rather, data can be stored and retrieved using a single key. The NoSQL products that store data using keys are called Key-Value stores (aka KV stores).
Twitter’s Plan to Analyze 100 Billion Tweets #BigData
Hadoop and Pig are Used for Analysis Any question you can think of requires analyzing big data for answers. 100 billion is a lot of tweets. That’s why Twitter uses Hadoop and Pig as their analysis platform. Hadoop provides: key-value storage on a distributed file system, horizontal scalability, fault tolerance, and map-reduce for computation. Pig is a query a mechanism that makes it possible to write complex queries on top of Hadoop.
Cities vying to host next America's Cup
The courtship of billionaire Larry Ellison began almost as soon as his space-age trimaran sailed to victory in the 33rd America's Cup.
#Oracle CEO optimistic on quick #Sun profit potential
"I think it's going really well and we expect to be profitable right away." Some analysts are skeptical that Ellison will be able to quickly turn around Sun, which never fully recovered from the bursting of the dot-com bubble in the early 2000s that savaged demand for its high-end computers.
America's Cup debuts briefly at City Hall
But there are questions about whether Ellison and the Golden Gate Yacht Club can stage a successful race locally. The primary concerns revolve around building a sailing village, providing rival teams areas for their own bases and negotiating the heavy cargo traffic traveling through the Bay.
The mogul and the mayor meet for a cup and congratulations
Ellison has neither the polish nor pretension of San Francisco's mayor, but there was some question whether the two men could fit all their aspirations under the same rotunda, even though it's the fifth-largest dome in the world. But Ellison — who once fought a lengthy battle with San Jose's airport for the right to land his private jet, no matter how late or who it disturbed — sounded an appealingly humble note.
Mahindra #Satyam to hire 5,000 by March-end
"We are planning to hire around 5,000 people through the current recruitment drive across lateral and entry levels. The process is expected to be completed by March-end," the official told PTI.
Top 10 Open-Source Server Technologies You Need to Know
To introduce you to 10 hot server-oriented open-source technologies you need to know, I compiled a diverse list of projects and applications for you to discover and explore. Many of these products are free of cost or close to it.
Top 25 Programming Errors list updated
Just as they did last year, over thirty international security organisations have come together, to publish a list of the 25 most dangerous programming errors leading to vulnerabilities that can be exploited for cybercrime and espionage. The 2010 CWE/SANS Top 25 Most Dangerous Programming Errors has been updated with a number of improvements to how the errors are graded, prioritised and categorised. For example, new "Focus Profiles" allow readers to quickly see the listed errors sorted for particular professionals' interests.
#HP's Mark Hurd: The Biggest Winner
If Hurd can get services revenues humming again after a weak quarter – and on the analyst call he said services and software are showing signs of renewed vigor – the profit payoff should be very nice indeed. We’ll see how he does at next quarter’s weigh-in.
#HP Keeps Growing, But Is Big Blue Better?
But the fact that HP's sources of growth are either expensive or low-margin in nature makes me a skeptic when it comes to HP as an investment. IBM is cheaper (on a price-to-earnings basis) and pays a more generous dividend. IBM also boasts a one-star advantage in CAPS ratings, meaning I’m not alone in that assessment.
#Microsoft announces #Office for #Mac 2011
the new version of Office will incorporate document-collaboration features that take advantage of Microsoft's online storage features. With Office for Mac 2011, Mac users will be able to share files and collaborate on documents with other Mac and Windows users via Microsoft's SharePoint, SkyDrive, and Office Web Apps. Those online tools will allow users to collaborate on documents with other Windows and Mac Office users in real time, much as you can in Google Docs now. You could, for example, create a document in Word on your laptop, save it to SkyDrive, then share it with others. A pop-up in Word will show you who’s working on the document; click on that list, and you’ll be able to send them a message (as long as everyone is using Outlook or Microsoft’s Messenger IM application). The paragraphs your collaborators are working on will be locked out until they’re done. You’ll also be able to edit those same documents from any computer, using Office’s Web apps. Mac users will have the sa
Just another #Oracle Sunrise, Or, A Consolidation Sketch
Clearly Oracle is in an amazing position now in terms of its assets and account control. Ellison always wanted to take IBM on head to head, but may even have an advantage over its East Coast Competitor- if business application market share can be converted into stack marketshare – for example if Oracle can persuade customers to swap out their WebSphere application servers in favour of WebLogic. Oracle is making customers, let alone competitors, nervous by dint of sheer scale though, which could lead to an unwillingness to put any more eggs in the Redwood City basket. Oracle will also be trying to persuade customers to kick out EMC storage hardware and storage management software, and Dell, HP and IBM servers and storage too. Serious margin maths- Oracle will be calculating what competitors share can be eroded. My money is on EMC as an obvious target.
#SAP Wants #CA To Give It More Toys
Phillips would be CEO of CA today if somebody intimate with CA's boardroom secrets hadn't tipped Oracle off to his imminent departure, an inconvenient exit considering Oracle was about to close on its hard-won Sun acquisition. It's hard to tell whether Oracle CEO Larry Ellison had an inkling one of his co-presidents could be anywhere near the orbit of his great rival, SAP, but, whether or not, he reportedly wanted Phillips to stick around for a couple more years.
#Linux is now #Oracle's low-end offering
Oracle Corp . has rekindled its# Solaris love. #Sun's Solaris operating system will underlie new high-end data center appliances running the Oracle software stack. And Oracle EnterpriseLinux now becomes the preferred OS for lower-end commodity hardware. By making the Sparc/Solaris tandem the foundation of big-iron SMP appliances, the company is going back to its roots when Oracle and Sun were joined at the hip. Pre-Linux, Solaris was the de facto development platform for new Oracle software. New Oracle databases came out first on Solaris and later on everything else.
Engineers sweat #Oracle's #Sun-#Java integration promise
integration of the two to produce a single JVM probably wouldn't happen soon but might finally take place in the next year-and-a-half to two years. The goal to integrate of JRockit and HotSpot was announced by Oracle as part of its strategy day in January, where managers laid our the plan for Sun's middleware and operating systems in the wake of Oracle's successful closure of its $5.6bn acquisition of Sun.
More America's Cup ugliness surfaces - Mutiny on the Race Committee Boat in Race Two?
Bennett then ordered the AP, or official postponement flag, to be dropped, which would signal that the timed start sequence was underway. But the SNG members simply refused to lower the flag. A yelling match began, both sides at an impasse, while the two racers waited and the clock ticked closer to the 4:30pm race abandonment time limit. At that point Principal Race Officer Bennett flexed his official muscles and drafted GGYC observer Tom Ehman and a Spanish Guardia Civil cop onbaord into service, ordering them to lower the AP flag and get the starting sequence, and Race Two, underway.
Nathan Myhrvold's Intellectual Ventures Using Over 1,000 Shell Companies To Hide Patent Shakedown
The company used a bait and switch scheme to get a bunch of big tech companies to fund it, not realizing that they were then going to be targets of his shakedown system. Basically, IV buys up (or in some cases, applies for) tons of patents, and then demands huge cash outlays from those same companies (often hundreds of millions of dollars) for a combined promise not to sue over those patents and (here's the sneaky bit) a bit of a pyramid scheme, where those in early supposedly get a cut of later deals. Of course, to just talk to IV requires strict NDAs, so the details of these deals are kept under wraps and only leaked out anonymously. But the hundreds of millions of dollars going towards this sort of trolling behavior, rather than any actual innovation in the marketplace can be seen on various financial filings (you can't hide hundreds of millions of dollars in payments that easily).
Brewer's CAP Theorem
there are three core systemic requirements that exist in a special relationship when it comes to designing and deploying applications in a distributed environment (he was talking specifically about the web but so many corporate businesses are multi-site/multi-country these days that the effects could equally apply to your data-centre/LAN/WAN arrangement). The three requirements are: Consistency, Availability and Partition Tolerance, giving Brewer's Theorem its other name - CAP.
BMW ORACLE Racing America's Cup USA Victory Tour, Presented by ORACLE and BMW EfficientDynamics
BMW ORACLE Racing invites you to enjoy unprecedented access to the America's Cup as it lands on American soil for the first time in fifteen years. What: The team is hosting the following public events to welcome home the America's Cup: 1. BMW ORACLE Racing Team and America's Cup arrival at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) 2. San Francisco City Hall Celebration hosted by Mayor Gavin Newsom, with Oracle CEO Larry Ellison 3. San Diego Celebration, hosted by Mayor Jerry Sanders
#Salesforce.com Announces Private Beta Of Chatter
Some key features include: * Aggregating streams of information. Employees can subscribe to feeds such as internal updates, social networks, and documents. * Automating status updates. Users can receive updates from system and user generated alerts. Alerts can include documents and related links. * Enabling secure document sharing. Chatter feeds can be searched to find relevant information. Document sharing is protected by a secure sharing model from teh Force.com platform.
Marc Benioff proclaims era of Cloud 2.0
The service adds a Facebook-style format to other #Salesforce applications, and allows social networking between teams, departments or entire companies. Chatter will allow teams to react a lot more quickly by offering access to social networking groups on the fly, Benioff said. The tool will support collaborative documents, and will integrate with all Salesforce services.
Marc Benioff’s enterprise ambitions (first look at #Salesforce #Chatter)
what pie is he going after? Microsoft’s Sharepoint. Now, he’s not alone in those ambitions. Jive, Box.net, Zoho, SocialText and other companies have the same ambitions. The problem is they don’t have a big stick to get into the CTO’s office. Salesforce already has a relationship with almost every company’s CTO. The other players have had some good wins, but they won’t be able to make an entire marketplace pay attention the way Benioff can.
February Power Breakfast with #Oracle Chairman, Jeff Henley
Thursday, February 18, 2010 # 7:30am – 9:00am # Governor Hotel # 614 SW 11th Ave. # Portland, OR
#Oracle + #Sun: What it Means for Content Management
Will Oracle + Sun combo have a profound effect on the web content management industry? Not likely. Some predictable changes aside, and with widespread M&As and industry consolidation, from what we see it’s nothing more than business as usual.
#Oracle should cannibalize #JavaFX Frankenstein
One of the survivors of Oracle's mammoth takeover of Sun Microsystems is JavaFX, the Flex wannabe and illegitimate son of Swing.
#Oracle set to merge #Java virtual machines
The plan to meld #HotSpot with #JRockit is evolving, and a single #JVM based on both technologies is expected within two years
America's Cup Due in San Francisco on Friday
A public viewing is scheduled for Saturday morning at the San Francisco City Hall Rotunda. Mayor Gavin Newsom is scheduled to formally welcome the Cup and team, including Ellison, back to the United States in a ceremony at 11:30 a.m.
BMW Oracle puts America's Cup back in U.S. hands
The America's Cup has been away from U.S. shores for 15 years, the longest drought since 1851.
#Microsoft introduces SQL #Azure Database SU1
Microsoft introduced the first Service Update for its Cloud-based data platform on February 17th, 2010, and customers embracing Windows Azure should expect more refreshes to the components of the Cloud platform, although there’s no telling at which rate they will be delivered. Service Update 1 for SQL Azure was made available at just a couple of weeks since Microsoft started charging customers for its Cloud platform, namely the general availability deadline. David Robinson, SQL Azure senior program manager, notes that the software giant has been taking feedback into account and incorporating input into SU1.
#Microsoft To Release New SQL Server Service Packs
The company plans to release new service packs for both SQL Server 2008SQL Server 2005. Service Pack 2 for SQL Server 2008 will be released sometime in the third quarter of this year. Microsoft plans to release Service Pack 4 for SQL Server 2005 in the fourth quarter of this year. The release of SP4 for SQL Server 2005 likely will be the last service pack for this product, according to Matthias Berndt, group program manager for Microsoft SQL Server, in a blog post. SQL Server 2005 will enter its five-year "extended support" phase on April 13, 2011. During the extended support phase, Microsoft drops support associated with licensing programs, as well as no-charge support, although security updates will continue to be delivered. The details are described at the Microsoft support lifecycle page. and
DBMS Vendors Likely to Get Scrappy in 2010
It's a good time to be in the market for a database management system. This mature space is going to see increased competition in the year ahead, with the big four vendors vying for each other's customers. Still, any DBMS vendor that hopes to dislodge or supplant a rival in an existing account will have to work hard to do so.
Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 Launch Event
Come learn from customers running Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 and see product demonstrations. Find out how you can go beyond basic business management and reporting to: * Enhance Insight - Bring personalized business insight to everyone in your organization. * Make It Easier - Automate business processes making it easier to work faster and smarter. * Extend Connections - Dissolve traditional boundaries with solutions and services that connect people and systems.

Enterprise headlines and summaries, 2010-02-16

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis Moore) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 16:43:00 +0000

EU clears proposed acquisition of #3Com by #HP
The European Commission has cleared under the EU Merger Regulation the proposed acquisition of 3Com Corporation by Hewlett-Packard Company, both of the US. The Commission concluded that the concentration would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area (EEA) or any substantial part of it.
#Wipro to recruit 7500 more professionals
Wipro- India's third largest IT Company is now hiring heavily. According to a latest report, Wipro plans to add 7,500 fresher’s in the coming fiscal. Girish Paranjpe, joint CEO of Wipro Technologies quotes that the company plans to recruit in 7,500 engineers for which it plans to go to campus in 2010 & also adds that the company is currently busy making lateral hiring.
Egypt Sees Potential to Double the Size of Its Global ITO and Engineering Services Market and Triple Its Global BPO Market
"Egypt's concept is proven by the large presence of multinational and major regional companies. There are currently 15,000 direct export oriented professionals, 22,000 for domestic business accounts, over 300,000 active bloggers and over 50,000 indirect jobs are supported by the industry."
Oracle’s Larry Ellison Wins The America’s Cup
In the end, it appears that Ellison got the win thanks to the superior technology of his 90-foot tri-hulled vessel, which shut out Bertarelli’s catamaran in the best of three races.
Ellison’s space-age BMW Oracle reclaims America’s Cup for America
Alinghi raised a red protest flag on its giant catamaran late on the first leg of the triangle course. Since there's no communications off the boats, it wasn't clear what it was for and won't be cleared up until the teams return to port.
America's Cup to go back to original format
Oracle boss Larry Ellison said he had not yet decided on where to stage the next Cup -- although he mentioned Newport, San Diego and San Francisco in the United States as possibilities -- but he said the location must have room for many teams. "We have to develop bases for many teams because it is going to be a multi-challenger event," he said after his side defeated Swiss defender Alinghi in the 33rd America's Cup staged off the Spanish port of Valencia.
#IBM acquires Intelliden
Toward that end, IBM has acquired Intelliden to extend the network automation capabilities of the IBM Integrated Service Management offerings. IBM’s Integrated Service Management solutions drive enterprise efficiency and effectiveness by helping clients break down long-standing barriers between IT and the business that have inhibited productivity, cost control and service quality. IBM Tivoli has built a comprehensive service management portfolio that provides visibility into the quality of service across the enterprise, allowing clients to improve quality and minimize risk as they deliver smarter, more innovative services.
IT Hiring Jumps in January
U.S. IT employment increased by 12,900 jobs, or 0.3%, in January, one of the best month-to-month gains since the recession hit in late 2008, the TechServe Alliance reported today.
Add 'Denali' to the #Microsoft #SQL Server roadmap
My bet is Denali will be SQL Server 2011, which will be the version of SQL Server that follows SQL Server 2008 R2 (codenamed “Kilimanjaro”). The R2 release is slated to ship in early May, Microsoft officials said recently, and a Release Candidate for it should be right around the corner.
#Microsoft CEO mum on iPhone talk
Microsoft 's new mobile software launched on Monday should speak for itself and the company has no current need to buy a mobile device maker or materially change its license fees, its chief executive said.
#NetSuite Powers BMW #ORACLE Racing's Quest for America's Cup
NetSuite provides BMW Oracle Racing with a powerful web-based system to manage all financial and business operations smoothly around the clock across three continents—from Anacortes, Washington; where the hulls are built, to Valencia, Spain; where most of the team is headquartered; to Auckland, New Zealand, where the company maintains an office. With NetSuite, BMW Oracle Racing can: * Manage its international financial operations—including financial management, reporting, payables, taxes, account management and team expenses * Get anytime, anywhere access to real-time business information and detailed financial reporting * Meet tax statutory requirements in three countries * Handle multi-currency transactions in the New Zealand dollar, the U.S. dollar and the Euro—without the need for expensive servers or dedicated IT staff.
Cup Winner Confirms a Challenger
The Golden Gate Yacht Club , home to Larry Ellison’s BMW Oracle team, confirmed Club Nautico di Roma as the challenger of record for the 34th America’s Cup. BMW Oracle won the cup Sunday by sailing its trimaran to its second straight victory over the two-time defending champion, Alinghi of Switzerland. The Golden Gate Yacht Club is based in San Francisco, but Ellison said no decisions had been made about a site for the next race.
#Oracle CEO Larry Ellison talks America's Cup, Steve Jobs, NBA
Next on his mantle case? Perhaps the NBA's Golden State Warriors, for whom Ellison has expressed an interest in buying. The Warriors, owned by reclusive cable magnate Chris Cohan, so far have ignored his overtures. (The Warriors play in Oracle Arena, after Oracle bought the naming rights to the basketball arena for 10 years.) "We have floated a few offers the last several years and been rejected each time," Ellison said. "We might pursue another (pro basketball) team and could bring it to San Jose. It's up to the NBA." For now, Ellison has no plans to get into the NFL. He had long pursued an expansion franchise in Los Angeles, presumably to be called the Stars. Not anymore. "There is nothing active with the NFL," he says.
#SAP's 'Timeless' Future
The Timeless Software concept of SAP CTO Vishal Sikka is the perfect way to do this
Oracle Support blog no more
"I’m not allowed to represent Oracle Support through social media. Please escalate SR."
Chris Warticki's Blog - No longer available
Please use My Oracle Support Communities instead
#Microsoft's new mobile software: Windows Phone 7 Series
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told CNN that this is a major push for the company to get back in the mobile space. He said 7-based smart phones will be manufactured by the likes of Qualcomm, Samsung, LG, HTC, HP, Dell, Sony Ericsson, Toshiba, and Garmin-Asus.
Why #Google Has Become Microsoft's Evil Twin
Google 's introduction of its Buzz social media tool this week was possibly the most disastrous product debut in the company's 12-year history.
Software Directs Mobile Industry
Intel Corp . and Nokia Corp. said at an industry conference in Barcelona Monday that they are combining their own separate software ventures into a new mobile operating platform dubbed "MeeGo." Meanwhile, Microsoft Corp., which has struggled to translate its dominance of the desktop for mobile devices, unveiled a dramatic revamp of its mobile-phone operating system, which has suffered in comparison with Apple's iPhone and handsets that use Google's Android system.
#SAP Mobility – Is Change Coming?
In December of 2009, SAP unfolded their 5-year strategic plan that emphasized the following five points: on-demand computing, cloud architectures, flexible pricing, mobile and in-memory computing. This event was covered well by InformationWeek in an article called SAP Outlines 5-Year Enterprise Software Plan. Since mobility was already on the list in December when Snabe was head of product development, Apotheker's departure is unlikely to change this emphasis.
What really gets out goat in the office
Leo Apotheker , chief executive of #SAP, the German business software provider, stood down after customer unrest. He told a session at at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month that chief executives needed to think about value to stakeholders — such as customers.
#Ariba's Earnings – What Stands Out (Part 2)
If Ariba remains independent ten years from now (which I do not anticipate, mind you), I suspect the biggest surprise in its revenue model by 2020 will be that suppliers will account for close to 50% of its business.
Epicor Software posts higher 4Q earnings
Business software company Epicor Software Corp. said Thursday its fourth-quarter profit soared on a jump in software license revenues and a decline in operating costs. Earnings were $6.7 million, or 11 cents a share, in the three months ended Dec. 31. That compares with a profit of $1.5 million, or 3 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Revenue fell to $111.9 million from $121.9 million.
Will #SAP be acquired?
An acquisition of SAP is very unlikely in the short term, and perhaps could not occur unless SAP faces an existential crisis.
Chuck Phillips Was #CA-Bound And Then Those Billboards Happened
CA named board member and executive chairman Bill McCracken CEO. He's the guy who's been running the company since John Swainson's reportedly forced retirement was announced in September. An ex-IBMer and an ex-Swainson pal, it was no secret he really wanted the job.
For America's Cup winner Ellison, whether it's software or sailing, competition is personal
He is perhaps the most aggressive CEO in the tech industry today," said Jon Fisher, a former Oracle vice president who now teaches business at the University of San Francisco. Fisher added that Oracle, a company that vies with such giants as Microsoft and IBM, is both highly competitive and ruthlessly "engineering-centric," even compared with other tech firms.
HP opens first wind-cooled green data center; most efficient to date
Hewlett-Packard has officially opened its newest green data center in northeast England, cooled entirely by cold wind blowing off the North Sea.
Cast Iron Systems Dominates Cloud Application Integration in 2009
Cast Iron Systems, The #1 Cloud Integration Company, today announced that it closed fiscal year 2009 with momentous growth driven by major new channel brands and enterprise customers. Cast Iron reported its thirteenth consecutive quarter of growth and the most successful quarter in the company's history. In addition to new customers and partners, existing clients returned for even more products and services, while Cast Iron collaborated with established partners like salesforce.com on more deals than ever.
Goldman Sachs: Shift toward #cloud unstoppable
# "SaaS first" policy is being enacted in the majority of small and midsize businesses. Goldman's survey highlights that 58 percent of respondents always consider an SaaS option when making an application purchase decision. At total of 39 percent prefer an SaaS option, if available. # Web conferencing and sales force automation continue to rank as the most utilized SaaS applications; accounting and billing shows significant improvement, underscoring broad acceptance in all application areas. # Accounting and billing, call center automation, and eRecruiting were the largest gainers, with 20 percent, 18 percent, and 17 percent increases, respectively, from April 2009. # Data warehousing, supply chain management, and product life cycle management require more customization, or are more embedded within the core of a company than cloud applications. They are also utilized by a smaller group of individuals, which could impact the time to, or volume of, deployments.
#Microsoft to Unveil Cellphone Software
the company plans to publicly show a new version of its cellphone operating system, Windows Mobile 7, for the first time, according to people familiar with the matter. The operating system sports a revamped user interface that resembles the look of Microsoft's Zune HD music player, people who have seen it said.
Will #Microsoft pursue an acquisition of #RIM?
Microsoft, which has taken a beating as of late over its lagging WinMo platform, may be looking outside the company to help it catch up with the iPhone, Research in Motion and the various Android devices.
Will #SAP be acquired?
With over 340 votes in, two thirds of all who voted expressed the opinion that SAP will be acquired.
The Amazing Race: New season includes a #Microsoft employee
being a salesperson definitely prepares you to be on top of your game. We compete every day with competitors like Oracle, like SAP, like Apple. All those big vendors, IBM. Being on the race, basically, you're in that mode.
#SAP Mobility – Is Change Coming?
In December of 2009, SAP unfolded their 5-year strategic plan that emphasized the following five points: on-demand computing, cloud architectures, flexible pricing, mobile and in-memory computing. This event was covered well by InformationWeek in an article called SAP Outlines 5-Year Enterprise Software Plan. Since mobility was already on the list in December when Snabe was head of product development, Apotheker's departure is unlikely to change this emphasis.
What really gets out goat in the office
Leo Apotheker , chief executive of #SAP, the German business software provider, stood down after customer unrest. He told a session at at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month that chief executives needed to think about value to stakeholders — such as customers.
#Ariba's Earnings – What Stands Out (Part 2)
If Ariba remains independent ten years from now (which I do not anticipate, mind you), I suspect the biggest surprise in its revenue model by 2020 will be that suppliers will account for close to 50% of its business.
Epicor Software posts higher 4Q earnings
Business software company Epicor Software Corp. said Thursday its fourth-quarter profit soared on a jump in software license revenues and a decline in operating costs. Earnings were $6.7 million, or 11 cents a share, in the three months ended Dec. 31. That compares with a profit of $1.5 million, or 3 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Revenue fell to $111.9 million from $121.9 million.
Will #SAP be acquired?
An acquisition of SAP is very unlikely in the short term, and perhaps could not occur unless SAP faces an existential crisis.
Chuck Phillips Was #CA-Bound And Then Those Billboards Happened
CA named board member and executive chairman Bill McCracken CEO. He's the guy who's been running the company since John Swainson's reportedly forced retirement was announced in September. An ex-IBMer and an ex-Swainson pal, it was no secret he really wanted the job.
For America's Cup winner Ellison, whether it's software or sailing, competition is personal
He is perhaps the most aggressive CEO in the tech industry today," said Jon Fisher, a former Oracle vice president who now teaches business at the University of San Francisco. Fisher added that Oracle, a company that vies with such giants as Microsoft and IBM, is both highly competitive and ruthlessly "engineering-centric," even compared with other tech firms.
HP opens first wind-cooled green data center; most efficient to date
Hewlett-Packard has officially opened its newest green data center in northeast England, cooled entirely by cold wind blowing off the North Sea.
Cast Iron Systems Dominates Cloud Application Integration in 2009
Cast Iron Systems, The #1 Cloud Integration Company, today announced that it closed fiscal year 2009 with momentous growth driven by major new channel brands and enterprise customers. Cast Iron reported its thirteenth consecutive quarter of growth and the most successful quarter in the company's history. In addition to new customers and partners, existing clients returned for even more products and services, while Cast Iron collaborated with established partners like salesforce.com on more deals than ever.
Goldman Sachs: Shift toward #cloud unstoppable
# "SaaS first" policy is being enacted in the majority of small and midsize businesses. Goldman's survey highlights that 58 percent of respondents always consider an SaaS option when making an application purchase decision. At total of 39 percent prefer an SaaS option, if available. # Web conferencing and sales force automation continue to rank as the most utilized SaaS applications; accounting and billing shows significant improvement, underscoring broad acceptance in all application areas. # Accounting and billing, call center automation, and eRecruiting were the largest gainers, with 20 percent, 18 percent, and 17 percent increases, respectively, from April 2009. # Data warehousing, supply chain management, and product life cycle management require more customization, or are more embedded within the core of a company than cloud applications. They are also utilized by a smaller group of individuals, which could impact the time to, or volume of, deployments.
#Microsoft to Unveil Cellphone Software
the company plans to publicly show a new version of its cellphone operating system, Windows Mobile 7, for the first time, according to people familiar with the matter. The operating system sports a revamped user interface that resembles the look of Microsoft's Zune HD music player, people who have seen it said.
Will #Microsoft pursue an acquisition of #RIM?
Microsoft, which has taken a beating as of late over its lagging WinMo platform, may be looking outside the company to help it catch up with the iPhone, Research in Motion and the various Android devices.
Will #SAP be acquired?
With over 340 votes in, two thirds of all who voted expressed the opinion that SAP will be acquired.
The Amazing Race: New season includes a #Microsoft employee
being a salesperson definitely prepares you to be on top of your game. We compete every day with competitors like Oracle, like SAP, like Apple. All those big vendors, IBM. Being on the race, basically, you're in that mode.

Enterprise headlines and summaries, 2010-02-12

noreply@blogger.com (Dennis Moore) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 16:41:00 +0000

#ERP: How and Why You Need to Manage It Differently
The major ERP suites are "old and not as flexible as some newer stuff, and they can't build flexibility in," Hanna says. "Modifying it takes our time and money and training." His ears practically steam from frustration. "You tell me: What am I missing here?"
Waste Management Now Demanding $500 Million From #SAP
But SAP has denied any wrongdoing and counters that Waste Management breached its contracts with SAP by failing to "timely and accurately define its business requirements" and provide "sufficient, knowledgeable, decision-empowered users and managers" to work on the implementation.
#SAP chairman says won't meddle day-to-day
UBS said in a note that Schwarz's departure may have a negative impact on staff at Business Objects. "Investors are likely to worry his loss may affect morale in the ex-BOBJ operations," UBS analysts said. "Some investors may worry about the limited experience of the board and its workload," the analysts also said, echoing similar remarks from earlier in the week.
#SAP's Executive Exodus
But Schwarz is another matter. Having been CEO of Business Objects before and after SAP's acquisition of the business intelligence software firm for $6.8 billion in 2008, Schwarz was an obvious successor to Apotheker. The fact that Apotheker was replaced by two executives--the company returned to its dual-CEO structure following his departure--who were also younger than Schwarz, suggests he might have made the decision this week that there was suddenly little point of staying with the company.
Buzz Killington Visits #SAP
out of date, out of touch and out of time.
BMW #Oracle sails to 1-0 America's Cup lead
BMW Oracle manhandled Swiss Cupholder Alinghi's catamaran today to go up, 1-0, in the best-of-three match.
BMW #Oracle helmsman Jimmy Spithill leads USA boat to 1-0 lead over Alinghi in America's Cup
victory by 15 minutes, 28 seconds off the coast of Valencia.
#Oracle Calls for #JavaOne Papers
presenters have until March 14 to submit their proposals.
2010 #JavaOne Conference Homepage
JavaOne conference speakers receive a Full Conference pass and the respect of your peers. Submit a proposal to speak in one of the following seven tracks
#SAP Salary Outlook in 2010: Panaya SAP Salary Survey Analysis
salaries and rates are a function of supply and demand, and there are less experienced ERP 6.0 people than those working on previous releases. I will admit that I'm not 100 percent certain why the 4.7 pay rates came in lower than 4.6, but I'd say two things: first, the discrepancy between 4.6 and 4.7 rates is not large, and also, we do see a phenomenon sometimes in IT where those professionals who remain on older releases after others have moved on can see a temporary bump in pay. So lingering on 4.6 projects can may pay off for a short period of time for some SAP professionals, but in the long run, it's better to pursue the most advanced release exposure rather than staying on older releases for rate reasons. Call it the lesson of the Cobol programmer.
ASUG CEO Bridgette Chambers on #SAP's management shake-up
either make or drive the cost of TCO or maintenance down, helping to ensure the changes they've made to their maintenance portfolio are well received , that the option period is well understood, and that they deliver on those promises.
The Crocodile in the Room
Don’t they [#SAP] see the crocodile in the room?
15 Ways Oracle Can Make Java Better (and Improve Its Stance with Developers)
[Almost all of this can be summarized as "give control of Java away to IBM and Google, even though you spent billions to buy it."-DBM]
Apache Harmony - Open Source Java Platform
Apache Harmony is the Java SE project of the Apache Software Foundation. Please help us make this a world class, certified implementation of the Java Platform Standard Edition!
#MySQL users hope for the best, prep for the worst
Widenius agreed that it is wise to "at least look at the MySQL forks and experiment with the options." Widenius' development company, Monty Program AB, is behind a MySQL drop-in replacement, MariaDB.
What You Didn’t Know About #Cloudera [#Hadoop]
“Either this quarter or next we will offer an enterprise software bundleFacebookYahoo, we continue to have core committers to Hadoop.” consisting of proprietary enhancements for Hadoop users,” Olson said. “Our proprietary apps will complement the open source core, and, like and
#SAP Could Consider Larger Buys
While in the third quarter of this year SAP made three small buys, Apotheker said a larger acquisition is possible if it makes strategic sense. Asked whether SAP could consider getting a credit rating, with a view to raising acquisition financing from the bond market, Apotheker said he sees no need for that step. He explained that SAP recently placed a Schuldschein on the market successfully, and the banks that deal with such credits know SAP very well. Asked whether SAP will take a greater role in sector consolidation, Apotheker observed that consolidation does not have to happen through acquisitions. He said it can also happen through organic growth. Apotheker said that about 70% of mergers and acquisitions in the software industry do not generate any added value. He said a good M&A strategy needs to be based on achieving synergies for customers and bringing extra value. Cost saving for its own sake is not enough, he said, as the operations of the companies also need to complemen
mongoDB
open-source, high-performance, schema-free, document-oriented database
#SAP Announces Subsequent Changes to Executive Board and Management in Support of New Co-CEO Structure
[Oswald-COO;Schwartz-gone;Lorenz-Exec Bd] # Gerhard Oswald, Executive Board member responsible for SAP Global Service & Support, has also been named chief operating officer, replacing Erwin Gunst, who stepped down for health reasons. Oswald's nearly thirty-year career at SAP has spanned the areas of support, consulting, education, custom development and quality control. He has been an Executive Board member since 1996. His contract has been extended until December 31, 2011. # In addition, Peter Lorenz, executive vice president of Small and Midsize Enterprises (SME), has been named a corporate officer. He will continue to report to Co-CEO Jim Hagemann Snabe, overseeing the development of the SAP portfolio of SME solutions, SAP Business ByDesign, SAP Business One and SAP Business All-in-One. # The SAP Supervisory Board has accepted the resignation of John Schwarz, member of the Executive Board responsible for SAP BusinessObjects, Ecosystem & Corporate Development, effective immediately.
#SAP keeps it interesting!
Will there be even more changes coming at SAP? Most likely. The Business Objects leaders supported by John Schwarz will not have air cover anymore, putting their status and longevity in doubt. With Snabe moving up a level, and with Schwartz leaving, there are also many questions about how the product side of the house will be organized. As of the January announcement, Schwarz was set to run product management, with Snabe running development. That transition has not yet occurred, but all the changes were planned and internally known. Much of that planning will have to be re-done now.
Not a good week for #SAP
The loss of Schwarz is a body blow to SAP for at least three reasons: * First, Schwarz was slated to run product management for SAP which is in desperate need of strengthening. Confusion over the role of SAP's new Business ByDesign is just one example. * Second, as the former head of Business Objects, his resignation has to be a discouragement for the top Business Objects people, who SAP needs to keep, as business intelligence is one of the few bright spots for new sales in SAP’s portfolio right now. * Finally, Schwarz was a test case for whether an outsider could survive in the top ranks of SAP management. His departure has to be seen as a failure for SAP to accommodate someone without a long tenure within SAP at that level.
#Google, Market Thyself
Google is clearly skilled at selling online ads. But formulating a coherent marketing strategy for itself remains a work in progress.
#Workday's Aneel Bhusri talks about his optimistic outlook for 2010
#1 Workday’s rank on the list of the Best Companies to Work for in the Bay Area.
What is #SAP's #CRM Really Being Used For?
Service Management - 40% (41%) Lead Management - 35% (29%) Campaign Management - 15% (16%) Order Management - 10% (12%)
What if Shai Agassi never left #SAP?
Reading the speech Agassi planned to deliver at Sapphire 2007 is almost painful. So many of the points he emphasizes are what Plattner said SAP needs to figure out to grow and move forward now.
#Infor rolls out global ad campaign
Business software company Infor has rolled out its “Down with Big ERP” campaign in Asia, Latin America and the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) regions. The campaign, developed by PJA Advertising + Marketing, includes print, online and out-of-home.
#Informatica Takes Database Archiving to the #Cloud
Informatica Data Archive Cloud Store Option, another first in cloud computing. -- The industry's first Infrastructure-as-a-Service offering to archive database and enterprise application data to the cloud in a cost-effective and secure manner. -- Supports almost all structured data including relational databases, enterprise applications and data warehouses. -- Removes need for specialized database skills through standard file system management of archives. -- Simplifies the entire cycle of archiving data, whether stored in the cloud or on-premise. -- Maintains data security and data integrity through end-to-end encryption and application-specific business rules which enables easy restoration of archived data. -- Provides an optimized data access service on Amazon EC2 in order to query and retrieve data that has been archived to Amazon S3. -- Archived data remains fully accessible to users via standard SQL querying, reporting and discovery tools. -- Automatically distributes processing
Poll: Do you think #SAP will be acquired?
Who (if anyone) might acquire SAP, and when? Vote here!
Will History Repeat Itself?
DBS clung to its past too long and delivered too late (and with a solution that did not meet all of the market challenges). Will Oracle and SAP cling too closely to the past and become the next legacy vendors (at least in business applications) or will they be able to adapt to the changing market and lead into the future?
#Salesforce.com: Cloud-Based DIY Business Applications for Sales and Service
Salesforce.com is expected to make more acquisitions over the coming months.The company recently closed a $500 million debt offering that will allow it to buy companies that will buttress its technology offerings.
#Oracle Launches Worldwide #Cloud-computing Tour
The move stands in contrast to CEO Larry Ellison's well-publicized mocking of cloud computing, which he has deemed a rebranding and conflation of existing technologies. But it's not as if the ongoing tour wasn't telegraphed.
#SAP's Last Chance: It's The Customers, Stupid!
And it all won't be worth a hill of beans unless SAP can make that last part come true: regain the trust of customers who feel SAP has become aloof, arrogant, fat, slow, overpriced, behind the times, and incapable of delivering breakthrough ideas and transformative technologies.
#SAP Needs to Reconsider Mergers and Acquisitions As #Cloud Computing Revolutionizes Software Business
M&A's have worked wonders at Oracle. Why not at SAP?
#SAP to Split User Conference Between Europe, US
SAP will attempt to unify attendees through "real-time connected sessions" between Frankfurt and Orlando. SAP is also planning to have "a major presence" at the massive Cebit trade show in Hanover, Germany, which takes place in early March.
#SAP to Hold SAPPHIRE(R) 2010 Customer Conferences in Europe and U.S.
Building on the success of last year's SAPPHIRE® 2009 customer conference in Orlando, Florida, drawing an audience of more than 18,000 people online and in person, SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today announced that this year's industry-leading show will be expanded to Europe. By holding SAPPHIRE 2010 simultaneously in Orlando, Florida, and Frankfurt, Germany, May 17 to 19, SAP aims to create an innovative, compelling and relevant experience that uses technology and social media to share SAP insights and innovations, and connect customers and partners around the world.
What #SAP Needs After Apotheker
Co-CEOs Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe must revitalize SAP's product pipeline, soothe customers, and counter competition from Oracle
6 billion moving forward150 million holding us back
We believe that #SAP’s R&D organization is widely inefficient and driven more by the inclination of internal factions than it is driven by market demand or customer requirements
Enterprise Software in Harvest Mode
#SAP #Sage #Oracle Software is in harvest mode, just about everywhere you look. What is harvest mode? When products reach the end of the life cycle they are kept around because they still have some value and market cache. We don’t continue to invest in them because the investment will no longer pay off. So we simply harvest whatever revenues we can while keeping a very close eye on costs.