VMware customers cast a wary glance at Microsoft's virtualization tools

VMware customers attending VMworld are taking a look at Microsoft's Hyper-V virtualization software, but say the Microsoft technology falls a bit short and that it would be problematic to start over after investing heavily in VMware.

Posted on 3 September 2010 | 5:24 am

You don't know tech: The InfoWorld news quiz

What makes an Apple Special Event special? How about a refreshed line of iPods, lower prices on iTunes rentals, and a new music-oriented social network? But Apple wasn't the only company serving up specials this week. For example: Intel continued its corporate shopping spree, while Google snapped up more companies in the gurgling social media space; TV pundit Glenn Beck joined the blogosphere; a powerful new ally just joined the fight against cyber crime; and Foursquare has a brand-new badge. Are you a fully informed geek? Prove it by getting a perfect score.

Posted on 3 September 2010 | 4:00 am

Microsoft: Silverlight capabilities exceed those of HTML5

While acknowledging the importance of HTML5, Microsoft stressed this week that its Silverlight rich Internet technology extends the Web beyond what HTML5 allows.

Posted on 3 September 2010 | 4:00 am

SAS brings predictive analytics to business users

SAS Institute announced on Thursdaya new toolset aimed at giving business users the ability to work with predictive analytics software, which has historically been the province of specialized statisticians.

Predictive analytics refers to the practice of crunching existing data sets in an effort to determine patterns and predict future outcomes.

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 12:51 pm

Google and AOL renew long-term partnership

Google and AOL have renewed a long-term partnership that gives AOL Web properties access to Google search and advertising services.

The partnership, in place since May 2002 and renewed for the third time, provides revenue-sharing from AOL in exchange for search services. The new deal will expand to give AOL access to Google's mobile search products and Google subsidiary YouTube access to AOL's video content, the companies said in a statement.

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 12:37 pm

Onapsis to release ERP vulnerability testing suite

An information security company will soon release a tool that will allow companies to test their ERP (enterprise resource planning) software for security threats.

The first version of X1 works with SAP business platforms, said Mariano Nuñez Di Croce, director of research and development for Onapsis. The company eventually plans to add modules for Siebel, Oracle and PeopleSoft ERP applications, he said.

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 12:11 pm

Dell loses 3Par bidding war to HP

Dell on Thursday said it would not increase its most recent proposal to acquire virtualized storage vendor 3Par, paving the path for rival Hewlett-Packard to acquire the company.

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 10:03 am

Intel upgrades parallel development suite

Intel will release on Thursday an upgrade to its parallel development toolset for Windows application developers, adding both a tool to walk developers through parallelism, as well as support for Microsoft's Visual Studio 2010 IDE.

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 8:00 am

Apple's iOS six times more popular than Android on the Web

Apple's iOS mobile operating system is now the third-most popular platform on the Internet, with a share nearly six times larger than Android's, a Web measurement company said Wednesday.

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 6:23 am

Is Windows still relevant in the virtualization era?

Virtualization has not stripped Windows of its relevance, a Microsoft official said in response to VMware CEO Paul Maritz's argument that operating systems are no longer the center of innovation in the IT world.

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 5:49 am

As Hurricane Earl looms, tips for battening down IT operations

Hurricane Earl today continues to threaten the east coast of the U.S. in the midst of what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts will be an unusually active hurricane season .

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 5:24 am

3Par sued by Crossroads Systems

3Par, which is already the subject of a bidding war between Hewlett-Packard and Dell, is now among a group of companies being sued by Crossroads Systems for patent infringement.

Crossroads' products include storage routers and storage bridges, a database security appliance, virtual tape appliances, tape encryption and file migration software.

Posted on 1 September 2010 | 5:32 pm

ActiveState Python honed for databases

ActiveState has updated its distributions of the Python programming language so that they provide developers easier access to databases, as well as new ways of creating GUIs (Graphical User Interfaces), the company announced Wednesday.

The ActivePython update also offers ways for programmers to create secure connections to databases and Web services, using OpenSSL and M2Crypto-based cryptographic modules.

Posted on 1 September 2010 | 5:11 pm

Enterprise Software Innovation - mostly Spray Paint and Fast Food

As Vinnie puts it, "Big Tech is Broken - badly". And broken needs fixing, but is the patient ready for that? I wonder if the issue is a semantic issue; how the fix, the innovation, is understood. If you don't...

Posted on 24 August 2010 | 7:30 am

Business Software is in need of some leaps and bounds!

Most business software is created to help you do what you do today, in the same manner, but hopefully better, faster, and with less effort. Efficiency is the siren call. But alas, the usefulness and ROI of upgrading have a...

Posted on 11 August 2010 | 5:49 am

Unlearn or Challenge?

What's the diff? David Heinemeir Hansson of 37signals and Ruby on Rails fame spoke at Stanford the other day - Unlearn your MBA! Good concept of course, provocative title for a talk for business students, and old stuff is old...

Posted on 30 July 2010 | 10:57 am

Summer and all that

Been quiet for awhile now, and not because I've had a spot of vacation, quite the opposite. Delivery-time now, meaning programming, helping to build a new business model (and delivery using Thingamy of course) for a very interesting and ambitious...

Posted on 29 July 2010 | 9:36 am

Simple errors and big consequences, same procedure as always.

Hat tip to Eapen Thomas who pointed me to this year's commencement speech at Stanford’s School of Medicine given by Atul Gawande. Here is an excerpt of what he told the graduating class: We’ve been obsessed in medicine with having...

Posted on 30 June 2010 | 6:36 am

Three types of GUIs - past, present and the future

There are three types of Graphical User Interfaces: First we had to interact with our early IT tools, as on our Apple IIs with Visicalc, then we had to face an ever increasing number of apps that made our screen...

Posted on 8 June 2010 | 7:42 am

SAPPHIRE Now - huge surprise, good stuff and a couple of important issues

I have to admit I went to Orlando and this year's SAPPHIRE Now with lower than normal expectations. Boy was I surprised, and in a good way. Overall I found a turbocharged and far, far nimbler SAP. To the extent...

Posted on 21 May 2010 | 8:52 am

Plans, Budgets, Deadlines, not what you think

You know the stuff that makes the corporation hum and spin it's wheels, the workflow mechanism, the process framework activities and not the value creation work per se: Plans, Budgets, Deadlines, Rules, Meetings, Reports... Are they as efficient as they...

Posted on 11 May 2010 | 7:24 am

How business hoodwinks itself

When you create a new company you have an idea, some sketches, then you develop a product or a service while trying to understand your potential customers by listening and testing. Then the production/service org gets cranking, channels established and...

Posted on 20 April 2010 | 9:12 am

Fixing Greece

I've been chirping about how automating the flow part of workflows, by adding a proper IT based process framework to BRPs, would suggest a possible 67% increase in World Wide GDP. But I completely forgot an important issue; Corruption and...

Posted on 16 April 2010 | 6:15 am

Disregarding BRP is like being long on subprime CDOs

Now and then. If you, as a developer and vendor of products, create a new product that has the promise of value for your customer you're onto something. Say going back a few years starting up Facebook or creating the...

Posted on 13 April 2010 | 8:56 am

Organisational Effectiveness vs. Personal Efficiency

Wherever you turn you'll find that Enterprise Software is on a never ending quest to increase your personal efficiency. It says so on the vendor's site, it seeps through in discussion about User Interfaces, one is constantly reminded how good...

Posted on 19 March 2010 | 10:37 am

Happiness and a better Enterprise Software Data Model

Funny thing, seems the human brain uses same tricks as Enterprise Software to save disk space :) Thanks to Zia I found Daniel Kahneman at Ted's site (go see): Kahneman's premise being "confusion between experience and memory: basically it’s between...

Posted on 16 March 2010 | 10:20 am

Enterprise Apps User Interface - the wrong discussion

Imagine an Enterprise App with UI design lifted from World of Warcraft? A tad gothic? But games work, kids dive into them in droves and never seem to scratch their heads. Electronic games now being a bigger industry than the...

Posted on 10 March 2010 | 7:38 am

Elegant Organisations? Daily Simplicity? Fugetaboutit!

"Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem" Occam's razor keeps it simple - "entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity". Or in short form; simple is better. A basic philosophy of science - simple is better. Einstein could be a signatory...

Posted on 2 March 2010 | 8:13 am

Enterprise Software's blind spot

A Project is a temporary activity or sequence of activities with a specific goal initiated by an issue, an idea or a request, often with multiple participants. It is usually unstructured, at least somewhat unpredictable and hence Barely Repeatable. There...

Posted on 19 February 2010 | 9:31 am

Work Flows and Wealth Creation

Inseparable since the beginning. Following the last post about Information, Knowledge, Wisdom and Innovation let's add one particularly interesting and dynamic object organiser, an object by itself: The Workflow. The representation of a particular sequence where value is created and...

Posted on 2 February 2010 | 7:16 am

Information, Knowledge, Wisdom, and Innovation

These four concepts makes humanity move forward. They're basic requirements for every day work as well as for Big Important Decisions, hence nothing to take lightly. Indeed, if possible to grasp, sort, handle, and model efficiently we would all be...

Posted on 19 January 2010 | 7:42 am

Process Engine + Social Media -> Thingamy and ESME

For a long while I've been keeping an eye on the E 2.0, collaboration and social media efforts meant for enterprise use. I have to admit to being a sceptic, still viewing such as mainly single-task tools with little or...

Posted on 7 January 2010 | 3:34 am

How not to do it - 12sprints and Chatter

More and more Enterprise Software vendors (and users) have their "aha!" moments, getting the reality that "unstructured", Barely Repeatable Processes are immensely important. Not only happens about 60% of all work in such processes, but no proper process based IT...

Posted on 21 December 2009 | 4:09 am

It's so strange here...

As a kid I was a huge fan of a Norwegian poet named Sigbjørn Obstfelder, a contemporary and friend of Edvard Munch (I'm a big fan of him as well). [Drawing by Oda Krogh, Wikimedia Commons] Now, many years later,...

Posted on 15 December 2009 | 7:45 am

Office work is like shovelling snow

When I entered the work force I lived in a log cabin in the woods, only connected by a footpath to the road, very romantic, but with a few "hardships" thrown in. When winter hit, nightly snowfalls had me out...

Posted on 9 December 2009 | 6:36 am

No...

No container, then no content. No data context, then no meaning. No process, then no business. No presence, then no record. Words makes no sense unless they're arranged sequentially on paper or in a text or html file, i.e. held...

Posted on 4 December 2009 | 7:13 am

Simple is always better, but harder to sell

The classic "Apologies for the long letter, I did not have time to write a short one" surely applies to development of Enterprise Software. So I've spent my time with Thingamy, too much some would say, exactly enough I say....

Posted on 2 December 2009 | 7:04 am

Discovering the universal Business core

What should Enterprise Software do if it stopped wasting everybody's time supporting the work to allow real work instead of supporting real value creating work? Obviously, it should directly support the work that actually creates value. If it did that,...

Posted on 1 December 2009 | 8:42 am

Legacy Enterprise Software impedes gravity

Movement requires a force. Gravity or electromagnetic force is not enough, a clear unobstructed path is required as well. The nature of the force is important; gravity is free and universally present while electromagnetic force has to be applied locally,...

Posted on 24 November 2009 | 8:43 am

Legacy Enterprise Software is not strategic

Despite being involved with some radically different Enterprise Software I have been fortunate enough to be frequently invited to study the wares and future plans of many legacy systems vendors. So again last week, with some of my EI friends,...

Posted on 17 November 2009 | 6:01 am

E 2.0 - not joining the debate, but...

Being 'diplomatic' I'm not going to step into the debate featuring Dennis, Susan, Nenshad and others... but I've been waiting and waiting for one benefit to be touted, an important but unplanned benefit (the only one?) I've seen in practice...

Posted on 6 November 2009 | 11:21 am

A case for rethinking the data model - reporting from SAP TechEd

Yet another TechEd is over, again definitely worth the time and effort. Mike and Stacey did amazing work yet again, my good blogger and SAP Mentor friends were a treat as always, and the management of SAP displays an amazing...

Posted on 3 November 2009 | 7:09 am

Work processor

On Friday I was asked to give a presentation of Thingamy to an audience of non-techies. My preparation and energy was a tad hampered by a bad cold and three days of non-stop meetings at SAP TechEd. The presentation format...

Posted on 1 November 2009 | 2:12 am

Do something instead of doing things to get something done

What if we could shift the whole world to renewable energy sources, feed and educate all children at no extra cost nor resource use? What if you could double your bottom line without cutting costs? All possible. Now. Of all...

Posted on 20 October 2009 | 6:43 am

Is Gartner "getting it"?

(At least they've found a huge issue, but not so much a solution.) Always a pleasure to read a blog post with "revelations" like this: "...the hidden costs of unstructured processes: although a lot of focus of BPM efforts (time...

Posted on 6 October 2009 | 9:49 am

Building by taking apart

Apologies for spotty posting activity, much too busy busy with stuff that is shaping up in unexpected ways. Ever had that feeling you're close to some solution even if you're not even looking for one? A vague pattern slowly appearing...

Posted on 22 September 2009 | 7:08 am

Think I nailed it

One single model for all Barely Repeatable Processes: IMCI, OODA and uttering of eureka! Most of this summer I've been busy building real world pilots, process model templates for Thingamy that is. When implemented and tested (such radical stuff) always...

Posted on 8 September 2009 | 2:08 am

Rules

A flow requires a framework. Electricity flows through lines directed by switches. No framework, then no boiled egg for breakfast. Work in large organisations flows through the organisational structure directed by rules. "If this then do that" is the switch....

Posted on 26 August 2009 | 1:58 am

Habits inhibits

I'm sometimes hitting a small snag when building pilots in Thingamy; actual workflow running engines where work flows seamlessly from person to person while all information and "tools" are delivered with the task: "This is not how we're used to...

Posted on 19 August 2009 | 2:42 am

The fallacy of IT productivity tools

Good thing we humans are flexible, able as we are to handle all kinds of tasks with sometimes far too little training. I can often get a lamp to work again, I can paint a door or even grease the...

Posted on 31 July 2009 | 2:41 am

Increase profits by working less

What's taking up most of your working day? Add up the time spent on the following: Receiving tasks from superiors Distributing tasks to subordinates Discussing these tasks to get more knowledge and clarify Emailing Phone and Skype calls Searching for...

Posted on 2 July 2009 | 4:25 am

Solutions creates problems

Thingamy's first business task is to create problems. Worse, Thingamy's business is to create problems for the daily work of most people! Sounds like a rather bad business purpose or what? Not so, it's more to it: Solving problems is...

Posted on 25 June 2009 | 5:48 am

Stop managing

If you like the occasional blinding flash of the obvious there's a book out - Management rewired: Why feedback doesn't work and other surprising lessons from the latest brain science by Charles S. Jacobs. Basically takeaway is that the annual...

Posted on 16 June 2009 | 6:30 am

BizTechTalk Briefs 08/28/2010

Stewart Brand proclaims 4 environmental 'heresies' | Video on TED.com The man who helped usher in the environmental movement in the 1960s and '70s has been rethinking his positions on cities, nuclear power, genetic modification and geo-engineering. This talk at...

Posted on 28 August 2010 | 7:30 am

BizTechTalk Briefs 08/26/2010

The Simplicity Shift: Innovative Design in a Corporate World Amazon reviews mark this as well worth it. Definitely relates to a very complex project we're working on that needs a whole lot of re-thinking towards simplicity. Have not yet read...

Posted on 26 August 2010 | 7:30 am

BizTechTalk Briefs 08/18/2010

WCM Field Notes: The Skinny on JCR, CMIS and OSGi Article that's well worth reading from Jon Marks - published on CMSWire. Most relevant bit to me at the moment... "If CMIS is Not for WCM…Then What? As usual, Laurence...

Posted on 18 August 2010 | 7:30 am

BizTechTalk Briefs 08/13/2010

The Daily Crowdsource - #1 site for crowdsourcing news Interesting roll-up site for crowdsourcing news of all types. tags: the_daily_crowdsource crowdsourcing Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Posted on 13 August 2010 | 7:30 am

BizTechTalk Briefs 08/11/2010

Identity Management Pays-Off - Wikibon The Solution – Federated Identity and Access Management Merit IAM Solution Merit selected SinglePoint, a security SaaS solution from Symplified, to tie together end-user business needs and infrastructure security requirements from the CIO's office. Through...

Posted on 11 August 2010 | 7:30 am

Nielsen to raise $2 billion through IPO

Nielsen, the world's largest TV and consumer measurement company, is to raise up to $2.01 billion through an initial public offering, more than the $1.75 billion it was originally aiming for, the company has said in a U.S. regulatory filing.

Nielsen was originally taken private back in 2006, after a $10 billion deal backed by a consortium of six private equity firms - Carlyle Group, Blackstone Group LP, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co, Thomas H. Lee Partners, AlpInvest Partners and Hellman & Friedman.

However in June, the company said it planned to raise up to $1.75 billion through an IPO, and that amount has now been increased to $2.01 billion.

As such, private equity firms are said to be looking to take the firm public as they look to exit investments and reap dividends for investors. This news coupled with plunging stock markets means that a number of media-related companies are now seemingly taking the public route to avoid collapse.

In August, Internet company Demand Media Inc filed to raise up to $125 million, while Internet phone services provider Skype, filed to raise $100 million. It is also rumoured that web video service Hulu is also said to be planning an IPO.

Nielsen profits

Despite the IPO, Nielsen has seen solid growth and reported revenue of $1.27 billion for the second quarter, an increase of 7 percent from the year-ago period. Operating income was $182 million, compared with $172 million last year.

The company is expected to use the money for the IPO to pay off debt, after deducting underwriting discounts and offering expenses.

Relevant articles:

General Electric to create UK online bank | Toyota accidents caused by driver error? | How USPS is going green

Posted on 18 August 2010 | 9:08 am

General Electric to create UK online bank

American power giant General Electric has announced it is to launch an online bank in the UK within the next 18 months.

The news, that was broken by the Sunday Times, will see the firm's GE Capital unit attempt to break into the ever-growing market of online UK banks that includes the recent additions such as Metro and Virgin Bank.

The GE online bank will hope to win customers from those banks that were hit hard during the global recession and have said they aim to launch their service within the next 18 months.

GE Capital, has already launched a similar bank in Germany, called GE Direkt, but its plans for the UK would make it the first online bank in the country launched since the end of the recession.

The German branch is already seeing strong popularity, with good reviews and good rates on offer. For example, investors can deposit their savings at a competitive rate of 2.25 percent with a full deposit guarantee and without any limitations to the amount of investment. GE Capital hope to replicate this level of success in the UK.

GE Direct

The new bank is rumoured to be called GE Direct, and will operate purely online. It will be the first Internet bank opened in Britain since the tightening of legal regulations for online banks made two years ago by the FSA, as a result of problems with Icelandic financial institutions.

As such, the creation of a new online bank may be a feat even for GE. However brand recognition may be in its favour, something that has taken the likes of Egg and Cahoot to build up over time.

Many online banks have also been scaled down in recent months, as many banks increase services through branch and telephone services. Egg was recently put up for sale by its US owner Citigroup and Cahoot has been scaled down by Abbey and Santander.

Whether GE Direct will be a success remains to be seen, but the company has a lot of resources behind it that should ensure a big impact in the market.

Relevant articles:

RBS to sell WorldPay stake | RBS fined for IT system failure | BBVA launches new ATMs

Posted on 17 August 2010 | 6:37 am

Toyota accidents caused by driver error?

Accidents caused by Toyota cars, that dominated headlines earlier in the year and impacted on the company, could have been caused by driver error according to a preliminary investigation by the US National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration.

The US group that has been tasked by Congress to investigate the accidents involving the Japanese vehicles said that in their initial findings, data recorders of 58 cars involved in incidents suggested brakes had not been applied in 35 cases.

In another nine of the 58 cars, the group said that the brakes had been applied late, while another incident saw the brake and accelerator both depressed.

In a statement, Transportation Department spokeswoman Olivia Alair said that looking at data recorders was only part of the investigation into "unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles.

"At this early stage period in the investigation, engineers have not identified any new safety defects."

Mass recalls

Since the accidents in the first half of the year, Toyota has recalled about 10 million vehicles globally in the past year for various problems including faulty floor mats, sticky accelerator pedals, braking software glitches and steering malfunctions.

The accidents saw the company's President Akio Toyoda apologise for the recall and admitted the carmaker was facing a "moment of crisis." He later faced a US Congressional hearing.

As a result, the Toyota recall prompted other Japanese automakers to make sure their products are the best they can be - hence a series of recalls from Honda, Nissan, Daihatsu and Suzuki, albeit mostly from their home market.

At the time, Infrastructure APAC reported how Honda issued a recall for almost one million cars over an 'airbag problem', while Nissan, Daihatsu and Suzuki later followed suit, recalling cars that had potential problems.

Toyota however has, to date, been fined US$16 million for not disclosing potentially dangerous defects, including the "sticky pedals", to regulators. The company has yet to comment on the latest investigation results.

Relevant articles:

The great Japanese car recall |Mr Toyoda goes to Washington | First Toyota... now Honda | Toyota's recall crisis

Posted on 12 August 2010 | 7:16 am

How USPS is going green

Many national businesses produce sizeable carbon footprints but very few actually do anything about it. However, thanks to new guidelines from the Department of Energy, the United States Postal Service has decided to make itself one of the greenest delivery companies in the country by cutting its energy usage.

The company may have recently cancelled a green roof project in Baltimore, but this hasn't stopped them from declaring that making its their assorted sites greener is the way forward.

As such, the postal firm has said it will be looking at green roofs and methods such as optimally efficient management system of energy consumption as part of their efforts to cut their power needs.

Large power consumers

For postal depots, one of the largest users of energy is air conditioning with ‘heat-islands' playing a large part. This is when black and/or dark roofs cause an increase in ambient temperature and as a result, more air-conditioning is needed to provide a comfortable working environment. Not just that, but air quality is also hampered.

What USPS aims to however is to embrace green roof initiatives where they can, as specified by the Energy Department. For example, in Manhattan Midtown, the USPS has converted the roof of Morgan Mail Processing Facility to green roof topping. This 2.5-acre wide green roof is the largest green roof topping in New York City.

By installing a green roof, buildings can not only reflect sunlight and therefore reduce heat gain, but they can potentially save up to 40 percent on their energy bills per month. Other advantages include a reduction of polluted storm water run-off -75 percent in summer and 40 percent in winter.

By implementing methods such as the Enterprise Energy Management System, USPS has managed to save some $400 million since 2007. More than $1 million of this was as a direct result of green roofing.

With measures like green roofing and LEED certifications, the USPS has achieved an energy cut of some 21 percent since 2003 and a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, thereby controlling carbon emission by 20 percent. The company has said it is to implement new measures, such as to make its entire fleet of buildings energy efficient and to use more green environmentally friendly alternative fuels.

USPS's long term plan is to economize energy consumption by 30 percent by 2015. Amazingly, it has already met 70 percent of this target, leaving only about one third of the goal left to go.

Relevant articles:

Android phone sales soar | 60% of US financial firms use open source | BP chief Hayward to step down?

Posted on 10 August 2010 | 5:02 am

60% of US financial firms use open source software

It appears that open source software could be the future of IT technology in the financial industry. According to a survey from Accenture, around 60 percent of financial services firms in the US say they are fully committed to, and are already using, open source software.

The survey saw over 300 public and private sector organizations questioned (in the UK and Ireland as well as the US) with the firms all having annual revenue of over $500 million. Of those asked, nearly two thirds of respondents from the financial services industry were committed to open source while only seven percent said they have looked at it but decided against.

However in comparison, only 38 percent of respondents from the public sector are fully committed while 15 percent have decided against.

What was most interesting though was that a third of financial services respondents said that open source was changing their business culture for the better, while 40 percent said they thought it was changing the way IT is operated.

Competitive advantage

Backing the technology, 13 percent said that believed that the benefits of open source "will generate a true competitive advantage" over those using propriety software while 33 percent thought there were not enough open source alternatives to use it confidently across the entire business.

The survey also revealed that for the financial firms, the biggest concern in opting for open source software was cost especially in the wake of the recession. However those asked did they could potentially see savings of up to 44 percent in the long run. As such, three quarters of respondents in the UK and US cited quality as a key benefit of open source while two thirds said it improved overall reliability.

All this meant that in 2009, 20 percent of developments were in open source, but this is expected to rise to 23 percent this year and 27 percent by 2013.

Speaking to Finextra, Paul Daugherty, chief technology architect, Accenture, says: "What we are seeing is the coming of age of open source. Through both our research and our work with clients, we are seeing an increase in demand for open source based on quality, reliability and speed, not just cost savings."

Relevant articles:

Telco-firms unite for contactless m-payments venture | China - Mobile Banking Leader | Citigroup banking app security flaw

Posted on 6 August 2010 | 6:43 am

Android phone sales soar

While Apple may be dominating the global tech sector and seeing record profits, Google's Android mobiles have been quietly performing strongly as well.

In fact, statistics from research firm Canalys suggest that the firm is doing extremely well with shipments reportedly increasing 886 percent year-on-year from the second quarter of 2009.

This is even bigger than Apple, who while second in smartphone growth, only saw a 61 percent increase in the same period. However the smartphone sector has been steadily increasing with Q2 sales rising by 64 percent.

While Apple may have dominated headlines due to its brand images, Canalys' Pete Cunningham said that Android's success was due to the release of "highly compelling" phones.

"We're really seeing major vendors getting behind the platform," he said, citing large manufacturers such as HTC, Samsung and Sony Ericsson, who all use the platform and have helped drive shipments.

Market share

Due to the diverse brands, Android has been able to get a higher market share over Apple. Despite this, the most popular platform is still Symbian, most commonly found on Nokia and certain Sony Ericsson phones.

Symbian has grown in popularity since the Symbian Foundation made its code open source, meaning that any organisation or individual can use and modify the platform's underlying source code. However Apple's popularity in the media and its brand awareness has meant that the iPhone's operating system has always overshadowed it.

Nokia is the most popular phone maker in the world and the operating system it opts to use in the future could determine a clear market leader. While it is a ‘mass market' for operating systems, Nokia is reportedly seeking to switch to another platform in order to compete with other brands.

Nokia recently launched Meego with Intel to compete, but no-one is sure what Nokia could do in the future.

In comparison, media-darling Apple saw the iPhone achieve the second largest growth during the period, despite high-profile issues with the iPhone 4G.

Relevant articles:

Apple profits beat forecasts | Smartphone sales boost Samsung profits |

Posted on 4 August 2010 | 7:18 am

Smartphone sales boost Samsung profits

Samsung Electronics has reported that it has made record quarterly profits thanks, the company says, to increased sales of smartphones and other electronic components such as memory chips.

The South Korean firm said that for the quarter between April and June, it made net profits of $3.6 billion - an impressive 83 percent rise of the same period a year ago. The increase in profits meant that revenue rose by 17 percent.

However, despite the strong profits, Samsung has warned that such a level would be hard to maintain. In a statement, Robert Yi, Samsung's Head of Investor Relations said, "In the second quarter, our component business performed very strongly, yet it was a more challenging quarter for our set businesses.

"With intensified competition throughout the digital media and mobile industries going forward, it may become a challenge to maintain current profitability levels."

It is thought that with the increase in smartphone usage, Samsung's profits have grown as a result. The World Cup also saw a worldwide increase in sales of flat screen TVs, items that Samsung is the world's largest manufacturer of.

In terms of mobile phones, it is the second largest manufacturer behind Nokia.

However, while the company is on a high at the moment, it is expected that a slow global economy will cause profits to fall over the next few months due to excessive supply and mass competition, especially in sales of chip and liquid crystal displays.

Higher market costs for hand-held devices and television is also expected to dampen the profit.

Beating Sony

Samsung's fortunes are monumental compared to Sony, who have struggled to make a mere $289 million profit for the quarter.

Japanese electronics companies have, in recent years, been falling behind rivals from South Korea and Taiwan in businesses like televisions and laptop computers, which were hit hard in the global economic crisis as sales evaporated and a strong yen ate into profits.

But a rebound in the global economy and solid growth in emerging markets, coupled with aggressive cost-cutting and restructurings, have started to raise their bottom lines.

Relevant articles:

Apple profits beat forecasts | Apple is the world's largest technology company | Apple offers free iPhone 4 case solution | Apple's Steve Jobs defends conditions at Foxconn

Posted on 30 July 2010 | 7:13 am

BP chief Hayward to step down?

Rumors have been circulating all weekend about the future of the infamous Chief Executive of BP, Tony Hayward. Widely condemned in the media over his handling of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill crisis, Hayward has become the ‘face of BP' and, due to a series of embarrassing gaffes, has become somewhat of a hate-figure.

However, despite reports last week that any reports over him standing down were false, an official statement from the oil giant at the weekend has said that Hayward had the board's full support and "no final decision has been made".

The firm said a board meeting was being held on Monday night and "any decisions will be announced as appropriate", but that the company had noted "the press speculation over the weekend regarding potential changes to management and the charge for the costs of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill."

BP confirms that no final decision has been made on these matters."

However, despite BP saying that Hayward has the "full support" of the board and senior management, there have been rumors that he was discussing his severance package with company heads over the weekend.

Hayward's replacement has already been rumored to be his American colleague, Bob Dudley, who has taken charge of the clean-up operation. Not just that, but Hayward could leave with a pension of $17 million.

To compound matters, a US government official quoted by the Associated Press, said senior figures in the company had already briefed them about a change of leadership at the oil multinational.

Golden handshake

Hayward's pension was revealed by the UK's Daily Telegraph who reported his pension pot could be as much as $16.7 million, resulting in an annual payment of about $905,000.

If the rumors turn out to be true, it would see the end of Hayward's 28 years with BP, three of which he has spent as Chief Executive when Lord Browne stepped down in 2007.

When he took the position he was a popular choice, however the Gulf of Mexico disaster has made 2010 the worse year in the company's history and has left BP responsible for the US's biggest environmental disaster.

Comments such as saying that he "just wanted his life back" and that the Gulf of Mexico was a "big ocean" following the leak has not endeared Hayward to the public or to the US House Energy and Commerce Committee, and with BP reeling from mounting costs and accusations of poor safety standards, it looks like BP is looking to turn the page on The Hayward Years.

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Posted on 26 July 2010 | 6:13 am

Bernanke: US economic outlook uncertain

US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has sent ripples of concern through Wall Street by saying that the country's economic outlook remains "unusually uncertain".

Speaking to the Senate Banking Committee, Bernanke said that "record low interest rates would still be needed to support economic recovery" and that further actions from the government may be needed to boost growth.

"Even as the Federal Reserve continues prudent planning for the ultimate withdrawal of monetary policy accommodation, we also recognize that the economic outlook remains unusually uncertain," Mr Bernanke said in a pre-written statement.

"[But] rising demand from households and businesses should help sustain growth,"

As a result of his words, Wall Street equities fell to a 1.3 per cent loss and short-term US government bond yields dropped to record lows as investors' fears about a US slowdown were brought to the fore.

Bernanke's words also followed President Obama signing a bill that passed the biggest overhaul of financial regulations since the Great Depression.

Holding rates

Plans to keep US interest rates at their current low levels have been extended, in order to keep lending and spending in the wake of the recession. As a result, interest rates are between zero percent and 0.25 percent.

Bernanke said that, despite the economy growing by 2.7 percent in the first quarter of the year, inflation was to be "subdued over the next several years."

Despite such initial growth, high unemployment and a slowdown in US manufacturing has raised concerns that the United States isn't out of the woods just yet. However, Bernanke did state that growth continues at a "moderate pace," and reaffirmed predictions that US gross domestic product will grow between three percent and 3.5 percent this year.

The head of the committee, Senator Chris Dodd summed up the feeling by saying: "In short, it look likes our economy is in need of additional help."

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Posted on 22 July 2010 | 6:32 am

Apple profits beat forecasts

Despite the recent controversy over their iPhone 4 and its antenna issues, Apple's third quarter profits have eclipsed Wall Street predictions bolstered by sales of their iPad and the increasing popularity of their Mac computers.

The company has seen a 78 percent in profits with a reported net income for the three months to 26 June of US$3.25 billion (UK£2.1 billion) up from US$1.83 billion for the quarter last year.

Revenue also increased by a massive percentage from last year - 61 percent - totalling US$15.7 billion. It is the company's highest quarterly revenue ever, establishing the firm as the world's biggest tech-company, a title that it stole from Microsoft earlier in the year.

"Phenomenal quarter"

Speaking about the company's profits, Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO said, "It was a phenomenal quarter that exceeded our expectations all around, including the most successful product launch in Apple's history with iPhone 4."

"iPad is off to a terrific start, more people are buying Macs than ever before, and we have amazing new products still to come this year," he added.

With a slew of popular products, Apple's brand has never been more popular. Sales of its iPhone have reportedly hit 8.4 million (a 61 percent rise on last year), with the 3G and 3GS still selling strong despite the release of the iPhone 4G.

However the iPhone 4G still sold 1.7 million units in three days (which were included in the quarter) leading to Jobs dunning it the "the most successful product launch in Apple's history".

Sales of Mac computers were also up, by 33 percent, with 3.5 million sold - the same figure as the iPad, which has only been out since April.

Apple's success this year has led many to speculate that this could be the year it overtakes Microsoft in terms of revenue. It is expected to report a revenue of US$15.25 billion later in the week.

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Posted on 21 July 2010 | 6:17 am

Goldman Sachs fined $550m

If you mislead investors, expect to pay the price. For Goldman Sachs, that price is a record $550 million fine after their marketing of mortgage investments led to the crash of the US housing market.

The fine, that was issued by US regulator the Securities and Exchange Commission, will see the UK's Royal Bank of Scotland receive $100 million in compensation, despite it losing $840 million in investments during the crash and now 84 percent owned by the tax payers.

German bank IKB Deutsche Industriebank will receive $150 million, while it is reported $300 million will go to the US Treasury.

In their review, the Securities and Exchange Commission said allegations against Goldman Sachs were based upon the fact that that mortgage-backed securities sales were arranged without the bank disclosing in its marketing material that hedge funds were betting against those same investments.

Despite the fine, Goldman Sachs has still not admitted its guilt or denied it, but said that the decision was "the right outcome for our firm, our shareholders and our clients".

Banking scandal

Goldman Sachs has also stated it admits some of its marketing material "contained incomplete information", and also neglected to disclose the role of hedge fund Paulson & Co, headed up by John Paulson.

In a statement, the disgraced firm said, "We understand that the SEC staff also has completed a review of a number of other Goldman Sachs mortgage-related collateralized debt obligation transactions and does not anticipate recommending any claims against Goldman Sachs or any of its employees with respect to those transactions based on the materials it has reviewed. We recognize that, as is always the case, the SEC has reserved the right to reopen those matters based on new information."

However despite the record fine, there are concerns that the banking giant has gotten off easy, especially as it made a profit of $3.5 billion in the first three months of the year.

Shadowy deals

The decision comes the same week as President Obama puts the final touches to a historic Wall Street overhaul bill that will stop the "shadowy deals" that helped trigger the financial crisis. The President said the law, which he is expected to sign next week, would build an "innovative, creative, competitive" economy.

It is the broadest overhaul of US financial rules since the Great Depression and has been approved by Congress. The legislation, which is designed to rein in the risky practices blamed for causing the financial crisis, was passed by 60 votes to 39.

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Posted on 16 July 2010 | 4:04 am

Increase in jobs due to Recovery Act

According to a new quarterly report unveiled by the White House, the Recovery Act implemented by President Obama created between 2.5 and 3.6 million jobs - more jobs than was predicted by the economic stimulus package.

The report also states that the stimulus may have expanded US growth by about three percent, just as a newly released Federal Reserve report revised down its forecast for US growth this year. It states that 2010 growth forecast was down by 0.2 percent, to a range of three percent to 3.5 percent.

The Federal Reserve report also stated that further measures may be needed to stimulate the economy if the US growth looked set to worsen. This month, it was reported that sales were down 0.5 percent, after a 1.1 percent fall the month before.

Employment growth

While national unemployment is still at a massive 10 percent, the job growth will be a bolster to the Obama administration. It has always been accepted that the stimulus package created jobs, there had just been a lot of dispute over the exact number.

Much of the Recovery Act money was put into unemployment and health benefits, and tax breaks to small businesses as well as funding public works projects.

In a statement to the press at the release of the report, Christina Romer, head of the White House Council of Economic Advisers said, "There's obviously a lot of uncertainty about any job estimate."

"I suspect the true effects of the act will not be fully analysed or fully appreciated for many years."

For the here and now however, the stimulus package appears to holding up the US economy and succeeding in being responsible for the growth of the economy in the wake of the global recession.

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Posted on 15 July 2010 | 4:52 am

Australia's economic growth

The economic volatility of the past few years has undoubtedly transformed the scope of technology for business, creating enormous pressure for CIOs globally. While market giants in the US and Europe struggle to weather the storm, Australia is in an enviable position, with forecasted growth significantly higher than other regions. Executives from across the technology industry believe now is the time to act and plan for the future. Opportunity is rife and the time to invest is now.

A study released last week of CIOs around Australia and New Zealand found that while technical and vendor-specific skills seem plentiful, strategic and conceptually oriented skills were in short supply.

According to the report, the shortage for these particular skills has grown out of reinstated projects following the economic downturn, and has led to some companies offering up to 100 percent increases on contract rates in order to attract required personnel. The growth within the CIO sector of Australia has meant that company projects are becoming more diverse which has lead to the need for more integral systems to take the strain in the countries expanding businesses.

Innovative platforms

The role of IT in the next few years is crucial for any organization seeking to gain strides over the competition. CIOs in Australia recognize 2010 as an opportunity to explore IT best practices, which will not only optimize infrastructure in a cost-effective manner, but create opportunities for innovation and growth within the organization.
Within Australia, IT spend is anticipated to surpass 4 percent growth overall, with some technology areas like CRM and Virtualization catapulting to over 15 percent increase in sales. Initiatives such as the National Broadband Network in Australia will provide tremendous opportunities to organizations within the region looking to bring innovative platforms to their businesses and this has not goes unnoticed by the NG CIO Australia Committee.

Representatives from Adecco - Dominic Panzera, CIO, Australia Department of Immigration - Peter McKeon, Head of IT, Kiwi Bank - Ron van de Riet, GM IT, PepsiCo - Jackie Montado, CIO and Energy Australia - Sharron Kennedy, CIO expect a boost in Q3 and Q4 of 2010 and government tenders to drive considerable spending over the next 12 months. Key focus areas will include Regulatory compliance and the need to spend as a result of intense competition in the retail sector, spurring spending on customer relationship management (CRM) and back office systems.

New government projects in sectors such as e-government, healthcare and education are also a driving force for meetings such as the NG CIO Australia summit offering significant opportunities for IT vendors. In mid-2010, the Australian government is expected to launch a standardized reporting system scheme. Australia's National E-Health Transition Authority has the goal to create a paperless environment in Australia's health sector, including public hospitals and influenced the NG CIO committee to set their next meeting date for the end of July.

With so much change on the horizon who will be the first to capitalize and will the staffing deficit of skilled staff limit growth?

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Posted on 7 July 2010 | 7:57 am

Stocks soar for Apple with iPhone 4 release

Today, thousands of people around the world are queuing up to buy Apple's latest gadget - the iPhone 4 - and as a result, Steve Jobs' company saw its shares shoot up to as much as 2.1 percent.

The iPhone 4 was released first in Japan and is currently being sold in the US, UK, France and Germany. By September, it will be sold in a massive 88 countries. This will be the fastest roll-out of any product Apple has ever made and analysts are predicting huge growth in sales and profits for the company.

Barclays Capital have forecasted that Apple will sell 8.1 million iPhones in the fiscal third quarter ending 29 June and that this will be boosted to 12.1 million in the fiscal fourth quarter as production of the iPhone 4 catches up with demand for the latest Apple product, reported Reuters. 

"We're thrilled to be launching iPhone 4" said Natalie Harrison, a spokeswoman for Apple. "We've seen incredible customer excitement in the US and around the world."

Indeed, queues started forming outside Apple stores in the US and Japan many days before the iPhone 4 went on sale, reflecting the huge demand for the product.

Initial setbacks

Pre-orders for the iPhone 4 began on June 15, and on the first day alone 600,000 devices were ordered. However, Apple and carrier AT&T struggled to meet demand and said their inventory was depleted. According to PC World, the "big rush caused online ordering systems to collapse, leaving potential buyers frustrated and angry."

Pre-ordering then had to be halted, with Apple apologising and claimed that demand for the iPhone 4 was "far higher than we anticipated."

Analysts have cited inventory shortages and overwhelming demand for the product as the two main reasons that sales of the iPhone 4 may not achieve the predicted profits.

In a research note, Barclays Capital analyst Ben Reitzes issued warning words: "Some in the investment community may not grasp the magnitude of these initial iPhone 4 shortages. Supply is likely to be the limiting issue for Q3."

Mr. Reitzes did say, however, that "we believe Apple's production ramp for the September and December quarters is very significant."

Apple's future profits

The first iPhone was launched in 2007 and the four iPhones on the market now represent Apple's main growth driver, accounting for 40 percent of the company's overall revenue, and is Apple's best selling product.

However, although the iPad is still a relatively new addition to Apple's collection of products, the company announced that three million iPads have been sold in the three months since it was launched. It is thought that these huge and largely unanticipated sales contributed to Apple overtaking Microsoft last month to become the world's largest technology company. 
      
The iPad is currently available in the US and six other countries but will be rolled out in a further nine countries next month.

Yesterday, shares in Apple closed up at $3.68, or 1.36 percent.

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Posted on 24 June 2010 | 4:09 am

AOL to sell Bebo for just $10 million

AOL is on the brink of selling struggling social networking site Bebo to a private investment firm, it has been claimed by the Wall Street Journal this morning.

The rumored buyer, LA-based digital media investors Criterion Capital Partners, is said to be buying Bebo for somewhere in the region of $10 million, or perhaps even less. This is a huge dive from the $850 million AOL bought the social networking site for in 2008.

Exact terms of the deal couldn't be learned, although one person said it was "an exceptionally uninspiring number" with almost total "value destruction." AOL have declined to comment on the reports.

According to some reports, if AOL had decided to abandon Bebo, rather than sell it, they could have realized a tax saving of around $380 million, whilst selling the company only allows AOL to write off the loss against capital gains, which makes AOL's rumored decision something of a mystery. 

Criterion Capital Partners, however, specializes in turning around companies with a revenues between $3 million and $30 million and insiders have said that the investment firm has been actively pursuing technology and media acquisitions.

Bebo's speedy demise

As we reported in April 2010, AOL revealed that its purchase of Bebo had been something of a misjudgement and talk of AOL selling Bebo quickly circulated. However, at this point, industry insiders were predicting that Bebo would be bought for around $200 million. Now that Bebo is possibly being sold for just five percent of the forecasted figures, it is clear that the burden of buying Bebo was even worse for AOL than anyone realized.

When AOL bought Bebo, it had 40 million users and a dominant presence in the UK and Ireland and was the largest social network behind Facebook to open its platform to outside developers. However, Bebo never caught on in the US and while AOL struggled to solve the ailing company's problems, Facebook retained a far quicker pace of user growth, adding about 50 million users more than Bebo every two months.

By this year, according to comScore, Bebo had five million unique US visitors in May, down 44 percent from the same period last year. Facebook, on the other hand, had 130.4 million unique US visitors.

AOL's future

VentureBeat has reported that sources close to the negotiations between AOL and Criterion Capital Partners, have said that AOL executives are "livid that the news has broken and believe Criterion leaked the information."

However, it is thought that a deal could be announced as early as next Thursday.

The sale of Bebo comes just six months after AOL separated from Time Warner and, when the company recently celebrated its 25th birthday, it announced a change in direction for AOL. The company said at the time that it was hoping to become the leading producer of high-quality content on the web and announced its new slogan "Beat the Internet".

Whether or not AOL is in a position to "Beat the Internet" remains to be seen. 

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Posted on 17 June 2010 | 3:21 am

Business leaders form clean energy council

The business leaders have formed the American Energy Innovation Council, which is calling upon Washington to spend $16 billion annually on research into energy innovation, such as biofuels and car batteries. This figure is over three times higher than the Department of Energy's current $5 billion research budget.

Mr. Gates highlighted the need for additional funds during an interview with NPR last night and he argued that a strong and close relationship between businesses and governments is imperative for the energy sector to thrive. He drew parallels with the history of other sectors, such as IT, and the way in which innovation in the energy sector should replicate the research and development (R&D) that took place in these areas.

"Government investment unlocks a huge amount of private sector activity" said Mr. Gates, going on to discuss the huge impact government funding had within both the IT and pharmaceutical industries.

"Here in energy we're saying to go up from less than $5 billion to $16 billion" Mr. Gates explained. This then "creates jobs and it creates new technologies that will be productised but the government has to prime the pump here. The basic ideas, as in those other industries, started with government investment."

The meeting will also be attended by business leaders Ursula Burns, who is Chairwoman of Xerox, as well as Cummins Chairman Tim Solso, and Silicon Valley venture capitalist John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers and will take place at the White House this Thursday.

US energy industry falling behind

Although the amount of money the business leaders are calling upon to be invested is a huge amount, Mr. Doerr claimed that this is really just a drop in the ocean compared to the vast amounts being invested in other areas and said "Americans spend more money per year on potato chips than they do on clean energy research."

Mrs. Burns argued that the US is overly reliant on international industries and more needs to be done internally in order to move the US energy industry forward.

"There is too much dependence on foreign innovation to fuel the United States. It seems to be backwards. It shouldn't be that way. That's not the way this country was formed," said Mrs. Burns and claimed that continuation of this trend will ultimately result in "long-term dependence on a very brittle, very fragile system."

Mr. Gates currently funds many different companies and he argued that only through widespread investment will real advancements be made.

"I'm backing, just myself, over 50 different energy companies" revealed Mr. Gates. "I guarantee the majority of them will fail because [for] the one that's the most economic the prize is very big. It's very similar to the IT revolution or the biotech revolution. It's just that we haven't gotten started."

All of the business leaders are emphasising the need for strong R&D within the energy sector and believe that this area could be one of huge growth, profit and success. If the US fails to invest in the energy industry, these leaders believe that other countries will be running with the baton, so to speak, and the US will be left behind.

As Mrs. Burns said: "We don't do well following. We do very, very well leading."

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Posted on 14 June 2010 | 3:31 am

Private employers drastically cut job creation

Although the 411,000 people hired by the Census did help to boost the economy and drive down unemployment rates, these jobs will no longer exist after the Census has been completed and will therefore do nothing to improve the nation's economy in the long run.

The survey also revealed that the number of persons employed part-time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) declined by 343,000 in May to 8.8 million. These individuals were working part-time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job and now that private employers have cut job creation so severely, it seems this trend is set to continue for some time.

Recession's rippling effects

"On the surface [the employment figures] look great," claimed Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors. "But that beauty was only skin-deep. The private sector is not out there hiring like crazy."

In fact, industry analysts believe that unemployment will remain high (around 7 percent) for at least two years and, according to an Associated Press-GfK Poll, only one in five members of the American public considers the economy in good condition.

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Posted on 7 June 2010 | 7:48 am

Apple's Steve Jobs defends conditions at Foxconn

Apple's chief executive Steve Jobs has spoken out for the first time about the spate of suicides that have occurred at Foxconn, the Chinese plant where numerous components of Apple products are produced. Mr. Jobs has defended working conditions at the plant in Shenzhen and said that the rate of suicides was lower than the overall suicide rate for the United States.

12 of the 400,000 Foxconn employees have killed themselves at the factory since the beginning of this year, and at least four more workers have attempted to commit suicide. Another 20 employees are said to have been stopped by the company before they had they had the chance to take their lives.

Mr. Jobs, speaking to delegates at the D8 technology conference in California, acknowledged that the situation is "troubling" but denied claims that workers at the Foxconn plant are being mistreated.

"We look at everything at these companies, and I can tell you a few things that we know: Foxconn is not a sweatshop" Mr. Jobs said. "It's a factory, but, my gosh, they have restaurants and movie theatres and hospitals and swimming pools. For a factory it's pretty nice."

Suicide rates at Foxconn and in the US

Mr. Jobs told delegates: "[Foxconn have] had some suicides and attempted suicides. They have 400,000 people there. The rate is under what the US rate is, but it's still troubling."

According to the World Health Organization, the average annual suicide rate in the United States is 11.1 people per 100,000 of the population. The most recent overall US suicide statistics available are from 2005.

However, the United States Department of Labor has released a National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries more recently containing the rates of death within US workplaces. The Census revealed that in 2007 there were 196 workplace suicides and this number rose to 251 cases in 2008. The highest percentage of US workers who committed suicide at work were found to be in managerial positions.

Corporate and social responsibility

People working at Foxconn manufacture products for Dell and Hewlett Packard as well as Apple. All of these companies say that they are now investigating the plant.

"We are all over this," said Mr. Jobs and said that Apple takes its corporate and social responsibility very seriously. 

Mr. Jobs also drew parallels between Foxconn and his hometown, Palo Alto, where six young people have recently taken their own lives. "We had this in my hometown of Palo Alto," said Mr. Jobs: "Copy cat suicides. We're over there trying to understand this. It's a difficult situation."

All of the people in Palo Alto who committed suicide were local students who attended Gunn High School.

Labor unions speak out

Li Qiang, executive director of New York-based China Labor Watch, has claimed that Foxconn is a sweatshop and, in a recent statement, said that the factory "tramples" workers' personal values for the sake of efficiency. The report also stated that suicides amongst Chinese factory workers employed in the industrial south have more than doubled this year, compared with suicide numbers in 2009.

An undercover investigation into the working conditions at Foxconn also claimed that workers were being pushed to breaking point in the factory's attempts to keep up with the huge volume of orders. Zhu Guangbing, who organized the investigation said that the factory has struggled after losing tens of thousands of workers during the global financial crisis and was struggling to keep up with demand for products such as Apple's incredibly sought-after iPad.

"The management [at Foxconn] is poor," said Mr. Zhu. "Hundreds of people work in the workshops but they are not allowed to talk to each other. If you talk, you get a black mark in your record and you get shouted at by your manager. You can also be fined."

Foxconn's future

According to the China Daily Newspaper, "Foxconn may not be a sweatshop in the sense that it physically abuses its employees or forces them to work extra hours." However, continued the editorial, "That does not mean it is showing enough humanitarian concern for its employees. And, neither does it imply that it is doing enough to foster a corporate culture that helps employees strike a healthier work-life balance."

Mr. Zhu also said that during the investigation he conducted at Foxconn, all of the workers he spoke to said they never had any time to even go and see the facilities Mr. Jobs referred to; let alone use them.

"It's a difficult situation" Mr. Jobs told delegates at the Californian conference. "We're trying to understand right now, before we go in and say we know the solution."

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Posted on 2 June 2010 | 9:40 am

Meet The Boss: Tom Doughty, Prudential

Security is a vital concern for all businesses and the decisions, actions and processes of employees at every single level of a company can have a profound impact on the success or failure of the security measures being used and deployed.

Within businesses there are a variety of risk holders and the individual choices they make can have either positive or negative effects on the business as a whole. However, according to Tom Doughty, CISO of Prudential, a proficient security system is ensured by a framework in which employees are all able to make informed residual risk decisions.

In an exclusive interview with Meettheboss.tv, Tom Doughty spoke about his beliefs and approaches to security and the ways in which he has managed to implement these.

Doughty explained how stakeholders throughout an organization have an impact on security and the information, options and framework they have access to will strongly influence the risk decisions they go on to make.

"Tools and technology cannot create a culture", Doughty told Meet the Boss. "They can leverage a culture, but at the end of the day people have access to information; people are controlling processes, modulating processes and people make decisions".

Social media is one area that clearly highlights the dichotomy between expanding communication, interaction and information within business whilst also maintaining a safe and secure workplace. Doughty explained that this is something Prudential has embraced whilst conceding that social media has also "increased the surface area for untoward things to happen."

Doughty sees his role as perhaps one of informer, describing how his approach can filter down throughout Prudential: "if the risk owner makes the technology risk decision in the business with their eyes wide open, whether it's one that I thought would have been the right decision to begin with or not, I've begun the process correctly. And uninformed risk decision is vastly worse compared to an informed residual risk decision."

By crediting stakeholders with the ability to make informed decisions, the overall security of the company can be maintained and the business can continue to develop and expand.

For the full interview with Tom Doughty, visit Meet the Boss TV

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Posted on 28 May 2010 | 7:26 am

Apple is the world's largest technology company

Apple is the world's largest technology company, overtaking Microsoft, after two decades spent battling for the position. At the end of yesterday's stock trading session, Apple's victory was announced, with the company's market value standing at $222.07 billion, compared to Microsoft's $219.18 billion. Apple's triumph also extends further, with the company becoming the second largest in the US by market capitalisation, after ExxonMobil.

Shares in Apple rose as much as 2.8 per cent on the Nasdaq index yesterday, making them worth ten times more than they were ten years ago. The constant flow of new and innovative gadgets over the last few years is integral to Apple's growing success and, in particular, the release of its latest product - the iPad. Surpassing industry expectations, a million tablets were sold in the US during its first month of sales, causing delays to its international release. Tomorrow the iPad will go on sale in Australia, Canada and Japan, as well as six European countries, with further international launches planned for July.

Shift from desktop computing

Yesterday's achievement speaks volumes about technological trends and marks a distinct shift from desktop computing, where Microsoft has long been leading, to mobile computing, in which Apple has flourished with products such as the iPhone and iPod.

According to Matt Rosoff, a lead analyst at independent firm Directions, "Wall Street has more confidence in Apple's growth prospects than it does in Microsoft's growth prospects." Mr Rosoff believes that in order to keep up with Apple, Microsoft needs to find new and unique ways in which to develop. Otherwise, he says, Microsoft will inevitably lag behind.

Huge companies like Apple and Microsoft can, however, see their market capitalisation differ by billions of dollars from day to day and there is the possibility that Apple's market lead will not last.

Microsoft's chief, Steve Ballmer, has today announced that he is unconcerned by rival Apple's current upper hand, claiming that "certainly there is no technology company on the planet that is as profitable as we are."

Talking of Microsoft's plans for the future, Mr Ballmer told journalists "we are executing very well and that is going to lead to great products and great success."

In terms of full-year profits, Microsoft has enjoyed higher figures than Apple, with last year's net profits standing at $14.6 billion and $5.7 billion respectively. Microsoft also reported bigger full-year revenues of $58.4 billion, with Apple on $36.5 billion. Apple Macs also only constitute one of every ten computers sold worldwide. However, the success of Apple's gadgets, which truly began with its introduction of the iPod in 2001, has encouraged larger numbers of consumers to opt for Macs instead of PCs, despite the fact that Apple products are compatible with computers running Windows operated systems.

iPhone demonstrates Apple's turnaround

Indeed, before the launch of the iPod, in the late 1990s, Apple almost went under and had to be bailed out by a $150m investment from Microsoft. Times have greatly changed and the advent of the iPhone in 2007 clearly showed Apple's return to success. With a new version of the iPhone expected later this year, Apple's profits and revenues could continue to rise. Mr Ballmer, however, is focusing on long-term strategy, stating that "It's a long game" and "we have good competitors... we too are a very good competitor".

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Posted on 27 May 2010 | 10:08 am

Useful vs. Useless Media

What is the difference between useful and useless media?  We could probably fill textbooks, whoops, digital pages of useless examples of people and organizations using social media uselessly. Useless meanshaving or being of no use and not able to give service or aid. Being able to comprehend useless means you have to understand useful. Useful means a capable of being put to use, serviceable for an end or purpose, of ...

Posted on 3 September 2010 | 4:01 am

Knowledge Is … All About Working Smarter, Not Necessarily Harder!

I love it when it happens! You know, that “Serendipity Doing Its Magic” thing. It just happened once again! Earlier on today, as I was recovering from the @RWW effect, I was catching up through my Twitter timeline stream and I bumped into two wonderful YouTube video clips that come from two completely different worlds, [...]

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 6:00 pm

Get used to it, paper is not going away

Several years ago I managed an electronic forms (eForms) product that supported many of the industry form standards – PDF, XForms, HTML, and even InfoPath, the Microsoft product. The story around electronic forms was that it enabled businesses to replace many of the manual paper based processes with electronic processes, saving company’s valuable time and [...]

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 5:19 pm

Why No CMIS Support for Older ECM Product Versions?

Unfortunately, ECM vendors in general are not implementing CMIS support for older versions of their products at this time

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 4:44 pm

How Enterprise Search Sabotages Itself

Venkatesh Rao’s recent post on The Real Reason Enterprise Search is Broken struck a chord with me. A very discordant chord. Venkatesh writes that while the technical challenges faced by enterprise search are daunting, they can be solved with enough engineering talent. He thinks the real reasons for failure lie in organizational behavior. I desperately [...] Related posts:Paul Graham on Enterprise 2.0The Politics of Enterprise 2.0Why ...

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 11:32 am

Props to SubVersion - Just saved my butt

Gotta love easy to use source code management!Clipped from subversion.apache.orgApache Subversion“Enterprise-class centralized version control for the masses”Subversion exists to be universally recognized and adopted as an open-source, centralized version control system characterized by its reliability as a safe haven for valuable data; the simplicity of its model and usage; [...]

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 11:29 am

How I Produced an Online Movie

Want to try your hand at directing a movie, casting its actors, writing the script, and playing cinematographer and art director — at the same time? I just did that. I grabbed the text copy from my article on changing my Facebook ways, created representations of me and Stacy, tinkered with expressions and animated movements, [...] -- Thank you for reading How I Produced an Online Movie at AriWriter Related posts:Foursquare, Plancast, ...

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 10:39 am

Advertisers Are Jumping Ship As Rupert Murdoch's Paywall Numbers Emerge

"Faced with a collapse in traffic to thetimes.co.uk, some advertisers have simply abandoned the site. Rob Lynam, head of press trading at the media agency MEC, whose clients include Lloyds Banking Group, Orange, Morrisons and Chanel, says, "We are just not advertising on it. If there's no traffic on there, there's no point in advertising on there." Lynam says he has been told by News International insiders that traffic to The ...

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 10:10 am

The Economist On Netflix's Potential

"One outfit is steadily gaining ground. Netflix, which rents DVDs through the post, has been amassing subscribers: 15m so far. It is gradually moving into online distribution, and is becoming popular on connected TVs. It will be built into the new Apple TV. Netflix has a pot of money to spend on rights, and wants to acquire some content exclusively. Although it stayed quiet this week, it is the company to watch—and, if you are a ...

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 10:10 am

Steve Jobs: Choose “Things That are in Their Springs”

Steve Jobs, speaking at the D8 conference, explains how Apple chooses the technologies to include in their products: Apple is a company that doesn’t have the most resources of everybody in the world, and the way we’ve succeeded is by choosing what horses to ride really carefully – technically. We try to look for these [...]

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 9:53 am

An Apple iPad strategy for newspapers | The Wall Blog

via wallblog.co.uk Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 7:04 am

What is Your Relationship Strategy?

Linkedin, Twitter and Facebook are not a social media strategy. They are merely channels for your content and containers reflecting your presence. Your presence and content mean nothing to others unless you can add value to others. Everyone seems to be pursuing social media strategies and many, if not all, call themselves a strategist. Most of the actions in the social space today are consumed with marketing and advertising using the ...

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 5:08 am

Google TV Is Getting Snubbed

I earlier asked the question: Will Google Succeed with TV Where Apple and Microsoft Have Fallen Short? Well it seems that Google is also having a rocky road, at least according to Rick Munarriz at the Motely Fool. Rick noted...

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 2:28 am

Links for 2010-09-01 [del.icio.us]

Knoco stories: Knowledge and Power#comment-formKnoco stories: Speaking to the unknown userGetting Real about Project Management, Collaboration, and Communication - Managing Technology - Dennis McDonald's Web Site http://johntropea.tumblr.com/post/1050291042/ive-recently-learned-and-re-learned-someUntrue Knowledge

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 1:42 am

What is a DAM Meetup Group?

Within one year, two DAM professionals have formed a successful DAM Meetup group. Chad Beer begin_of_the_skype_highlighting     end_of_the_skype_highlighting and Michael Hollitscher created NYC Digital Asset Managers on Meetup.com. They organize events for those interested in Digital Asset Management about every month in New York City. So what is so interesting about this?

Posted on 1 September 2010 | 10:56 pm

Network Security Podcast, Episode 210

Rich is off dealing with the joy of fatherhood (again), leaving Martin and Zach to rope Mike Rothman into the podcast for a few weeks. Our news stories are pretty short tonight, thanks to an interview with the one-and-only Jennifer Granick of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Martin discusses GPS tracking, the DMCA, and more with [...]

Posted on 31 August 2010 | 6:19 pm

Defcon 2010 Interview: Joe Grand

I was only able to get a few interviews while I was in Vegas this year.  But one of my favorites was talking to Joe Grand, the creator of all five year’s worth of electronic Defcon badges.  This year’s badge was smaller than previous years but it had some unique and interesting capabilities and it [...]

Posted on 28 August 2010 | 8:31 am

Certified Application Security Specialist in job description

Last year Rich Mogull and Jeremiah Grossman created a little know certification, the Certified Application Security Specialist or Certified ASS.  To those in the know, or with the intelligence of the average house pet, it should be immediately obvious that this was an April Fool’s joke.  Funny, and it’s been a continuing joke through out [...]

Posted on 27 August 2010 | 7:59 am

May see you at HacKid

Zach Lanier brought up HacKid (pronounced ‘hacked’ I’m told) on the podcast last night and I just realized I haven’t even written a single post on the subject.  My friend Chris Hoff, aka @beaker, is one of the key organizers and Zach is on the committee as well, and this looks like it’s going to [...]

Posted on 25 August 2010 | 9:00 pm

Network Security Podcast, Episode 209

The gang reunites this week after skipping an episode and, despite wondering if Rich’s house was going to get blown away to the merry old land of Oz, squeezed out a show — and even included our very first bumper (from our friends over at Eurotrash Security Podcast). Yes, we did cover the proverbial “elephant [...]

Posted on 24 August 2010 | 8:50 pm

Black Hat 2010: Branden Williams, RSA

Branden Williams is one of the thought leaders in the PCI field, or at least someone like me who blogs about it a lot and hopes others find value in our thoughts.  I had a few minutes to catch up with him at Black Hat, where we discussed what he’d seen at Black Hat as [...]

Posted on 22 August 2010 | 1:33 pm

How would I write a framework to replace PCI?

I’ve been working in and around the payment card industry for over four and a half years now.  A year and a half working for a service provider and seeing the worst of credit card storage possible and three years of performing Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI-DSS) assessments have shown me both the [...]

Posted on 14 August 2010 | 8:42 am

Review of PCI-DSS 2.0

Here’s the most complete review of the changes I’ve seen to the update of the PCI-DSS and PA-DSS to version 2.0 over at the PCI Guru blog.  And a hat tip to John Kindervag for pointing me in the right direction. That’s all for now. 

Posted on 13 August 2010 | 9:14 am

PCI 2.0 Summary of Changes

This morning the PCI Council released the Summary of Changes for PCI 2.0.  And to be brutally honest, so far I’m completely underwhelmed.  Obviously we don’t have the details on what the changes actually are, but the high level view of them makes it sound like there are almost no significant changes.  Strike that: there [...]

Posted on 12 August 2010 | 3:14 pm

Network Security Podcast, Episode 208

This week’s episode was pretty refreshing- rather than covering our usual news stories, we spent most of our time answering some questions from our listeners (that’s you). Please keep ‘em coming folks- we’d much rather try and help you out than blather about unimportant nonsense in our feed readers. Besides, if you ask enough questions [...]

Posted on 10 August 2010 | 7:42 pm

Canary in a Coal Mine: Signs That Your ERP Implementation Project May Be in Trouble

I'm a big fan of '80s rock. I am also guilty of quoting more than my share of classic rock songs in my blog. So when I heard "Canary in a Coal Mine" by The Police on the radio the other day, I instantly thought about ERP projects.

Posted on 3 September 2010 | 7:00 am

ESET AV software Signature Update may cause an “ekrn.exe” error

It seems that a recent update to the ESET signature database (5418) may cause an “ekrn.exe error. If you are using the software, you should update to the latest (5419) to resolve the issue. In their notice. ESET describes the symptoms and how to re...

Posted on 3 September 2010 | 5:52 am

Toshiba Recalls Satellite Laptops

Toshiba has announced a recall of the following models of Satellite Laptops due to an overheating problem that could cause melting and burning. Satellite T135D-S1326, T135D-SP2012L, T135-SP2909R, T135D-SP2012M, T135-SP2013L, T135-SP2013M, T135D-S132...

Posted on 3 September 2010 | 5:47 am

Fake Anti-virus software getting mor nasty and sophisticated

We are all familiar by now (or we should be) with the fake AV software being pushed over the net. Up pops a window telling you that your computer is infected and for a small charge you can download and install protection. If you are lucky, you get ta...

Posted on 3 September 2010 | 5:37 am

Microsoft will offer the Windows 7 3-pack “Family” upgrade for $150

When MS first released W7, for a short time, they offered a 3-pack of upgrades from XP or VIsta to W7 Home Premium for $150. Considering that the “normal” upgrade price is $150, that’s a good deal. Well, starting October 3 (US) and October 22 (the r...

Posted on 3 September 2010 | 5:18 am

6 useful Wi-Fi Tools for Windows

Here are some free apps that can help you find nearby WiFi access points and tell you a lot about them, allow you to turn your computer into a hot spot, trouble shoot your WiFi network, etc.. I like free… :-) 6 useful Wi-Fi tools for Windows

Posted on 3 September 2010 | 5:03 am

Leaders Wanted, Heroes Need Not Apply

It's a common theme.  A project or business is in trouble.  Too many bad decisions have been made - or maybe decisions haven't been made in a timely fashion.  And now the whole thing seems about to go off the rails entirely.  What...

Posted on 3 September 2010 | 2:43 am

I don't know how to pronounce it, but I'm falling in love with Xobni...

A colleague rocked my world the other day when, in passing, he asked, "Have you heard of xobni?" It's an Outlook plugin that sits on the right hand side of screen, constantly refreshing as you select messages and contacts. It groups messages into threads, shows stats on the contact in question, and more. The stats-nerd in me loves the graphical analysis of my e-mailing habits. The passive/aggressive

Posted on 3 September 2010 | 2:12 am

Kevin's Moiblity News Weekly - September 2, 2010

Kevin's Mobility News Weekly is an online newsletter that is made up of the most interesting news and articles related to enterprise mobility that I run across each week. I am specifically targeting information that reflects market numbers and trends.

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 7:47 pm

Harddrives: Internal and External

We have all heard the term phrase external hard drive, yet some may still not fully understand what that phrase means.

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 6:56 pm

ERP Software Selection: The Law of Diminishing Returns

Software is important, but let’s spend most of our time and money on the key drivers of success.

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 6:25 pm

I wrote a review article about antiX core today

Thursday, September 02, 2010 This week I have been exploring Debian based systems that offer strong, flexible networking. All of them are specialized, to some degree; some are definitely special purpose systems; others are highly customizable systems that you can tailor to best meet your specific needs. I've looked at Easy Peasy, Jolicloud, Debian Live, and I've come back to antiX core today.

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 5:35 pm

Another Debian Live snapshot

Wednesday, September 01, 2010 The last time I took a Debian Live Snapshot, I selected the XFCE desktop environment. This time, to compare, I selected the LXDE desktop environment, and I also added the Chromium-browser. It will be interesting to review how well the two environments compare to one another.

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 5:33 pm

Working with external USB drive again

Tuesday, August 31, 2010 Now that I have an external USB drive once again, I have started to pick up the volume of testing of Linux ISO images, because I have a place to store them, and I also have linked the location of the Virtualbox hidden directories to the USB drive, which means I have space for the test virtual images as well, plus I can run them on both of my systems - which I've already

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 5:30 pm

Testing Debian Live CD snapshot

Sunday, August 29, 2010 I created a live CD snapshot of the Debian Sid distribution with the Xfce desktop environment yesterday by making a request at Debian Live. Within twenty minutes, I was sent a link where I could download the Live image. I then created a bootable CD image of this system and tried it out today and it worked very well. The only quirk I noticed was that no Web browser was included

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 5:27 pm

The End of Paper As We Know It!

Nothing made me sadder in recent days than having to throw out an entire set of the Encylopaedia Brittanica into the Recycling Trash! Paper as we know it is ending, at least for large books of knowledge!

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 4:25 pm

And so you code! Hilarious Video

Hilarious video by Ofer Spiegel. And so you code!

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 3:33 pm

To Null or not to Null ...

Why we should use Nullable...

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 3:14 pm

Business Intelligence and Transactional Content Management, Part 2

SAP has a new solution called SAP Streamworks which is a tool for collaborative decision making.

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 2:50 pm

Catherine Zeta Jones outburst on Michael Douglas's Cancer, Understanding challenges that healthcare providers face

"It makes me furious they didn''t detect it earlier,” This remark by Catherine highlights once again the challenges that healthcare providers face

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 2:20 pm

Raising Forums: Community Management Is Like Parenting.

Managing forums is much like raising small children. Change is difficult for them to process and if left to their own devices and without focus, they run wild finding ways into all sorts of mischief. However, just like children, running a forum can prove rewarding when done right and the best way to put a forum on the right path is to plan ahead.

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 2:17 pm

Hackers Invade iTunes Accounts, Buy Gift Cards

Apple says there is little it can do about iTunes account hijacking. It advises victims to change their passwords and contact their financial institution about being made whole. Consumers should keep antivirus protection and all software updates current, change passwords often, avoid disclosing personal information and surf judiciously.

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 2:14 pm

Random Thoughts about SIs and IT industry

I am thinking of reviving this blog yet again. I've been part of the System Integrator industry for a long time and have seen it from close quarters. I believe there is much hype, too many myths as well as a lot of FUD about SIs. I also think there's a serious lack of "balanced" perspective about this industry. One of the main reason for that probably is that a lot of good people are employed by

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 2:14 pm

VMworld 2010: SRM Host Based Replication & Failback

VMworld 2010 in San Francisco, CA - all the hype this year is around VMware’s vCloud Director, and with good reason. This new technology will enable vCloud Service Providers to deploy true federated cloud services to organizations looking to augment their environments with cloud-based services.

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 1:00 pm

Does a Project Sponsor Guarantee Project Success?

Most of the time a project sponsor is critical to project success. However, there are some projects that probably don't need a sponsor...

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 12:28 pm

The Microsoft Virtual Appliance Concept

Imagine if you would, a world where virtualization is the defining trend in x86 computing. Where new advances in hardware capacity and hypervisor scalability see 20+ VM-to-physical server environments everywhere.

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 12:11 pm

BYOC: How to Make It Work

How do you save your company money? That’s easy. Stop buying desktops every few years. Sounds simple, but there is a problem-- users seem to need workstations to do work. The answer comes in the “Bring your own computer” policy you are seeing implemented at many of the mid to large size firms around the world.

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 11:25 am

What You Really, Really Need: The Mother of all Data Center Monitors!

You may have asked yourself, “Why do I need another monitoring and reporting product if I already have five?” True, you most likely don’t need another monitoring product, but rather what you really, really need is a system to link these systems together. Why? Because several different monitoring systems operating in their own silos doesn’t help you improve your business. Instead, what you need

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 10:12 am

Do Co-los & MSPs need Unified Monitoring & Measurement more than other Data Centers?

Here at Modius, we are seeing an increasing number of requests among Co-locations (Co-los) and Managed Service Providers (MSPs) to help them capture more robust and accurate power measurement data. In one sense, this trend is nothing new because all data centers—whether captive inside an enterprise or an outsourced service provider—need accurate power measurement, typically for improving: Capacity

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 10:11 am

Oracle Technology Network Live

As you may know, I’m heading for San Francisco in a few weeks for Oracle Develop. If you can’t go, then maybe you’d like to get a taste of what it is like. One way to do that is to watch the live broadcasts from the Oracle Technology Network. They have just posted the schedule at http://www.oracle.com/us/javaonedevelop/oracle-technology-network-live-166853.html

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 9:34 am

Multi-tenancy: why you should care

SaaS buyers shouldn’t settle for the limited horizons of single-tenancy. Multi-tenancy is the ideal architecture to make the most of the cloud environment, because it continually evolves to keep pace with the collective demands of its tenants.

Posted on 1 September 2010 | 3:27 pm

Single tenancy, the DEC Rainbow of SaaS

If you believe the private cloud vendor spin that simply by including certain features in common you’ll capture all the advantages of cloud computing, you’re making the same mistake that enterprises made in the 1980s when they invested in DEC Rainbow PCs and IBM PS/2 Microchannel.

Posted on 26 August 2010 | 4:17 pm

How T-Mobile nixed my summer roaming

T-Mobile was that close to getting a glowing endorsement from me this year, but instead it cheated itself out of over $100 in data roaming revenue and left me sloping off on my vacation to the Internet cafe instead of joining the kids by the pool.

Posted on 24 August 2010 | 9:20 am

Unlocking Google's Lotus Notes opportunity

A French startup is helping enterprises migrate from Lotus Notes to the cloud by adding process integration to Google Apps.

Posted on 10 August 2010 | 9:41 am

Calling all cloud skeptics

Does cloud skepticism have a champion who can rally the forces of fear, uncertainty and doubt against the onward march of cloud computing? Or is resistance futile?

Posted on 4 August 2010 | 5:53 am

Choosing the right cloud platform

The emergence of a number of self-proclaimed ‘open’ cloud platforms - the latest is Rackspace’s OpenStack initiative - presents any would-be cloud adopter with a confusing plethora of choice. Taking the bigger picture into account, who are the winners likely to be?

Posted on 26 July 2010 | 4:32 pm

Polymaths see the bigger picture

To really take advantage of cloud for business transformation, you have to be what Vinnie Mirchandani calls a ‘new polymath’, joining up the dots between cloud computing, mobility, social networking and other aspects of the Web

Posted on 17 July 2010 | 2:54 pm

iPhone 4: too slippery by half

This antenna problem isn’t a flaw, it’s a feature, deliberately introduced to provide a face-saving explanation for accident-prone users like me who have no choice but to keep their iPhones wrapped in a non-slip bodysuit

Posted on 12 July 2010 | 5:18 pm

How to really transform a service business

Using the cloud and SaaS can totally transform how a business operates, but I only see a few innovative companies really taking advantage of the potential — the big guys are missing it completely.

Posted on 9 July 2010 | 8:33 am

Policy and the cloud

Cloud users shouldn’t just worry about security. SLAs should cover performance, availability, privacy, cost and many other criteria. In an ideal world, those service levels should be reconfigurable on demand, too. But the technology’s not there yet.

Posted on 7 July 2010 | 8:55 am

One-Thrd Of Users Fear The Whole Wide Web And Everything On It

New figures from Avira indicate that a healthy fear of the Web is making users more security-conscious if not yet more careful. Now's a good time to reinforce the lesson.

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 4:02 pm

Let The Contractors In

Contractors deserve a voice in the series of upcoming TechStat review sessions the Office of Management and Budget has launched to fix high-risk IT projects across the federal government.

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 2:39 pm

Quality Of Service Isn't Quality Of Experience

In simple terms, Quality of Service (QoS) refers to the emotional opinions a customer develops from using a service. These personal hopes and opinions affect loyalty, retention, purchase decisions and the financial performance of your company. The easiest way to understand the emotions of Quality of Experience is to consider what customers say about a service.

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 2:09 pm

SMB On Location Progress Report: Torelli in the "Sandbox"

If you drop in on Torelli Bicycle Co. headquarters in North Hollywood, Calif., these days, you’ll find CEO Todd Linscott and the rest of Team Torelli spending every spare moment reveling in their new "sandbox." This sandbox is no plaything, however. It's actually a very sophisticated test bed containing Torelli's critical business data, reconstructed on an SAP enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 11:28 am

Green IT Pointers from Fujitsu

Fujitsu America has begun offering consulting services to help its customers promote green IT and cut their IT energy costs. While aimed at F500 types, the same tips apply to SMBs.

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 11:07 am

vStorage API Spreads Its Wings

The goal for VMware is to virtualize as much of the data center as possible. This goal can only be reached by increasing virtual machine (VM) density per physical server. The roadblock to high VM density per host is storage performance and data protection. Much of the focus of VMworld was addressing those issues through more vendors adopting the use of the vStorage API set.

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 10:20 am

HP Announces New Notebooks, Netbooks

Starting today and continuing over the next few months, HP will be introducing new Pavilion and Envy notebooks and new Mini don't-call-them-netbooks. The Pavilion and Minis could appeal to many business travelers.

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 12:31 am

Microsoft Goes Gold, Apple and Palm Announce Updates

This has been a pretty big week for upcoming smartphone platforms. Microsoft announced today that Windows Phone 7 has been released to manufacturing on schedule. Palm has released the SDK for WebOS 2 and revealed quite a bit of info on the new platform. Finally, Apple today gave details on the 4.1 and 4.2 updates for iOS.

Posted on 1 September 2010 | 11:04 pm

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Posted on 1 September 2010 | 11:04 pm

Wound Care Goes ToThe Cloud

GWR Medical decided more than a year ago that instead of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to upgrade and maintain its own IT infrastructure supporting its wound care therapy business, it would instead pass the baton to Verizon. That's when GWR Medical made the move to the cloud.

Posted on 1 September 2010 | 4:49 pm

USB And SMB Is A Risky Mix

Drive-based threats may pose a larger risk to your business than drive-by attacks -- and USB drives may pose the largest threat of all.

Posted on 1 September 2010 | 12:12 pm

IBM Exec Slams Oracle Over Customer Philosophy

Oracle's begun promoting the idea that the IT stack can become much more manageable, much less expensive, and much less complex if CIOs will simply go with all-Oracle stacks. While Oracle says this novel approach is starting to gain traction among customers, IBM senior VP Steve Mills says it's all a bunch of typical Oracle testosterone-driven blather.

Posted on 1 September 2010 | 9:03 am

ADTRAN Revamps Switch Line

While much attention is being paid to high end converged data center devices, many small and medium businesses still are searching for lower cost, higher performance network switches. In response, ADTRAN, which has been serving that market for 25 years, enhanced its 28-port Gigabit Ethernet switches, so they offer more bandwidth while reducing their size and power consumption.

Posted on 1 September 2010 | 8:56 am

Android Is Not Free

Much has been made recently about the cost of Microsoft's licensing fees for Windows Phone 7 and how it is model out of sync with the realities of today. Android is open source and has no licensing fees, so why would anyone pay Microsoft up to $15 per Windows Phone license when you can pay $0 for Android?

Posted on 31 August 2010 | 11:09 pm

VMware Has More Of The Market Than IDC Figures Show

VMware isn't letting much moss accumulate under its feet as it continues expanding what it plans to do with its virtualization software portfolio. VMware executives have taken to expressing the expanding horizons of virtualization as a theme. They say they refer customers to "the journey," not one set of limited data center goals.

Posted on 31 August 2010 | 9:09 pm

Google Vs. Oracle: Microsoft Wins?

Oracle, now the keeper of the Java flame through its acquisition of Sun Microsystems, has decided that Google has sullied Java through its modifications for the Android platform. For that, Google must pay, and it must pay Oracle. At least that's the way Oracle sees things.

Posted on 31 August 2010 | 8:18 pm

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Posted on 31 August 2010 | 5:14 pm

Watching The TV Wars

Very soon, the Internet and the TV will merge and technology companies will force media companies to adopt a more reasonable pricing scheme for entertainment content.

Posted on 31 August 2010 | 5:14 pm

AMD Servers Created Machete

The latest Robert Rodriguez movie was made on an AMD-equipped server farm on the grounds of the old municipal airport in Austin, Texas.

Posted on 31 August 2010 | 4:16 pm

For Dell, Green For SMBs Means Three Cs

Dell has adopted an environmental strategy based on Cube, Content, and Curbside—plus bamboo—and, so far, the results look good, both for Dell and its SMB customers.

Posted on 31 August 2010 | 12:18 pm

Dangerous Internet Explorer QuickTime Flaw Surfaces

Spanish security researcher Ruben Santamarta has discovered a way to exploit Apple QuickTime on Microsoft Windows systems and bypass advanced security defenses to take complete control of targeted systems.

Posted on 31 August 2010 | 11:48 am

Gmail Is Calling

With new features recently added to Google's Gmail, the application now has the ability to freely make calls to phones anywhere. And while, feature-wise, it is well behind competitors like Skype, its integration in Gmail makes it a serious option.

Posted on 31 August 2010 | 9:50 am

Hotmail Supports Exchange ActiveSync Push Technology

On August 30, Microsoft flipped a switch allowing Hotmail users to use Exchange ActiveSync to synchronize their smartphones with Hotmail's email, contacts, calendar and tasks. Hotmail now matches, and exceeds what Google Sync offers.

Posted on 30 August 2010 | 11:09 pm

Netgear Debuts $899 Unified Threat Management Appliance

Netgear debuted its latest security appliance today, the ProSecure UTM50, an $899 Unified Threat Management device that addresses firewall, ant-virus, URL filtering , spam and other aspects of network security.

Posted on 30 August 2010 | 2:55 pm

Why Service Providers Need Service Management Systems

One of the most significant challenges in moving to a Service Management mindset is understanding the level of process maturity that is really needed to be a Service Management oriented organization. The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is just that, a library of all the things you might do regarding Service Management, and the relationships between the processes (minimizing the need to develop these processes yourself).

Posted on 30 August 2010 | 1:11 pm

Skype Reaches Out To Corporate PBXs

Skype has been trying to branch out beyond its traditional consumer base and serve more small and medium businesses. As part of that strategy, the company rolled out Skype Connect, which enables companies to tie their Private Branch Exchange (PBX) or Unified Communications (UC) systems into Skype.

Posted on 30 August 2010 | 12:32 pm

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Posted on 30 August 2010 | 12:32 pm

Microsoft Software Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) Unleashed

While many industry watchers may not acknowledge it, Microsoft has been one of the few software makers to put a serious, and highly public, effort behind the development of secure software. Now, much of what the company has learned about secure software development is going to be even more accessible.

Posted on 30 August 2010 | 11:25 am

Security Program Automatically Tracks Down Missing Patches

Secunia has updated its Personal Software Inspector (PSI) with the ability to silently download and apply patches from multiple vendors soon after their release. PSI 2.0 is now available in an open beta test,

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 10:00 pm

Women Did Well on Defcon Social Engineering Test

Organizers of a recent Defcon social engineering contest will release their results next week. One conclusion is that women did well in protecting corporate secrets.

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 10:00 pm

A Guide to Today's Top 10 Linux Distributions

One of the most confusing things for the newcomer to Linux is how many distributions, or versions, of the operating system there are. Ubuntu is the one most people have heard of, but there are hundreds of others as well, each offering some variant on the basic Linux theme.

Posted on 1 September 2010 | 10:00 pm

Disk Storage Still Bouncing Back, IDC Says

The market for enterprise disk storage systems grew strongly in the second quarter, continuing to recover from a slump brought on by the economic slowdown of 2008 and 2009, research company IDC said on Friday.

Posted on 1 September 2010 | 10:00 pm

Happy 2nd Birthday, Google Chrome

Today marks the second anniversary of the release of Google's Chrome browser. While Chrome hasn't completely taken the world of Web browsing by storm, it has made a lasting impact on the market for Web browsers -- a decent accomplishment for a two-year-old. Google is celebrating Chrome's birthday by releasing a brand new stable build of Chrome, which is already available for download, but let's mark the occasion in our way: by looking back at the ways in which Chrome has shaped the Web browsers we use today.

Posted on 1 September 2010 | 10:00 pm

HP and 3Par Sign Definitive Merger Agreement

Hewlett-Packard and 3Par have signed a definitive agreement for HP to buy the California storage vendor for US$2.35 billion, the companies said Thursday.

Posted on 1 September 2010 | 10:00 pm

Five Reasons I Won't Be Using Ping

Despite all the hardware Apple introduced at its press event Wednesday, the most radical news was Ping, a social network for music that's launching as a feature of iTunes 10. I've taken a brief test drive of Ping to see what it's about, but even before updating iTunes, I knew Apple's new social network was not for me. Here are five reasons I won't be using Ping:

Posted on 1 September 2010 | 10:00 pm

Verizon Joins the Prepaid Mobile Data Party

Verizon Wireless joined a growing trend on Thursday by announcing prepaid data plans for most of the smartphones and feature phones it sells.

Posted on 1 September 2010 | 10:00 pm

As IBM Cuts Jobs in Vermont, Others Hire

Growing workforces at smaller firms in the Burlington, Vt., area are partially offsetting the loss of some 3,000 jobs at IBM, long a major employer in the state.

Posted on 1 September 2010 | 10:00 pm

Facebook Connect Mysteriously Disappears From Apple's Ping

Apple has mentioned Facebook Connect support for new social network Ping in Wednesday's keynote, the iTunes 10 how-to video, on the Ping Website, and even in a conversation with All Things D. So why is the feature apparently no longer available?

Posted on 1 September 2010 | 10:00 pm

VMware Customers Cast a Wary Glance At Microsoft's Virtualization Tools

VMware customers attending VMworld are taking a look at Microsoft's Hyper-V virtualization software, but say it would be problematic to start over after investing heavily in VMware.

Posted on 1 September 2010 | 10:00 pm

Microsoft Uses Bing Home Page to Push IE8

Microsoft on Thursday started featuring a small advertisement on its Bing home page for Internet Explorer 8 in an apparent effort to encourage more people to migrate to the latest version of its browser.

Posted on 1 September 2010 | 10:00 pm

Hosted Service Promises to Protect Corporate Documents on Smartphones

Confidela's WatchDox is adding support for mobile platforms, starting with Android 2.2. Users can access selected, protected documents. But they can be restricted in being able to forward, print, or copy them. It uses an encrypted version of Flash to display documents, but a native version is being tested now for iOS devices like the iPhone.

Posted on 1 September 2010 | 10:00 pm

SAS Rolls Out Predictive Analytics for Business Users

SAS Institute on Thursday announced a new toolset aimed at giving business users the ability to work with predictive analytics software, which has historically been the province of specialized statisticians.

Posted on 1 September 2010 | 10:00 pm

Google and AOL Renew Long-Term Partnership

Google and AOL have renewed a long-term partnership that gives AOL Web properties access to Google search and advertising services.

Posted on 1 September 2010 | 10:00 pm

72 percent of adults are text-messaging now, study says

More American adults have taken to texting in the past year, but teens still take the crown when it comes to using their phones for text-messaging, with 87 percent of them doing so, according to a new study.

Posted on 3 September 2010 | 5:29 am

First 'intelligent' stamp put on sale by Royal Mail

The Royal Mail has launched the world's first "intelligent" stamp, the first to work with image recognition technology.

Posted on 3 September 2010 | 3:57 am

India turns focus to Google, Skype - The Globe and Mail

India on Wednesday launched a clampdown on major Internet communications firms, including Google and Skype, and began accessing some BlackBerry traffic in a campaign driven by security fears.

Posted on 3 September 2010 | 12:24 am

Debate with Nina Paley about noncommercial licenses

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 11:52 pm

AngioDynamics Adds New Access Kit to its VenaCure EVLT System

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 9:40 pm

Apple iPod Shuffle 4th gen UK price announced

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 9:38 pm

10 dumb inventions that made people rich

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 9:36 pm

software update

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 9:30 pm

32 of the Geekiest Papercraft Creations Ever

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 9:26 pm

Panasonic unveils world’s first 42-inch 3D plasmas

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 9:22 pm

Miss IFA Is Happy To Endorse Dyson Products

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 9:14 pm

Samsung Galaxy Tab preview

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 9:02 pm

Austin Energy Enters Into Solar Supply Agreement

The Austin City Council this week approved Austin Energy's first solar supply agreement. In just two years, the cost of solar modules has dropped by almost 50% due to improved manufacturing methods and cheaper silicon.

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 6:50 pm

What Toyata Sees In Tesla

So Toyota wants to get Tesla's battery and electric drive technology, hook it up in to a couple of Rav4 SUVs and put it through some rigorous testing.

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 6:41 pm

Privacy in iTunes Ping - PCWorld

Once you switch Ping on, you'll get a step-by-step wizard that takes you though setting up your account profile and adjusting your privacy settings. Ping requires you to provide your name and gender; the rest of the fields--for your location, photo, and bio--can be left blank.

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 4:56 pm

Dell's enterprise challenge remains after 3Par

Dell Inc. doesn't have to start over in its quest to become a significant purveyor of technology for businesses after losing a multibillion dollar bidding contest for an obscure data-storage maker.

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 4:28 pm

ArcSight posts higher fiscal 1Q profit

ArcSight Inc. said Thursday its fiscal first-quarter profit tripled as the cybersecurity software and services company's sales jumped 39 percent.

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 4:24 pm

HP vs Dell: the showdown that ended in spectacle

The showdown over 3Par Inc. that ended Thursday was a puzzling spectacle.

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 4:21 pm

Facebook's new security feature: remote logouts

Facebook is rolling out a new security feature that lets users log out of their accounts remotely from another computer.

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 3:04 pm

Google Voice Is A Hot Mess Right Now

What happened? In June Google Voice opened up for anyone to use, and there was clearly a surge of new people trying out the service. For the most part it weathered that storm.

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 2:58 pm

Court rules against firm that fired employee for 'stealing' 1.8 cents of electricity to recharge Segway

Network administrator Oliver Beel lost his job after charging his Segway, a two-wheeled electric vehicle, at work in May 2009. After he connected the vehicle to the firm's power source for 1-1/2 hours, his boss asked him to remove it.

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 2:46 pm

Take-Two posts 3Q profit, revenue soars

Video game publisher Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. posted better-than-expected results for its fiscal third quarter Thursday, reversing a loss as revenue more than tripled thanks to largely to strong sales of "Red Dead Redemption."

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 2:30 pm

Verizon hikes quarterly dividend 2.6 percent

Verizon Communications Inc. said Thursday it is hiking its quarterly dividend by 1.25 cents, or 2.6 percent, to 48.75 cents per share.

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 1:34 pm

Google, Skype targeted in India security crackdown

India has widened its security crackdown, asking all companies that provide encrypted communications — not just BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion — to install servers in the country to make it easier for the government to obtain users' data. That would likely affect digital giants like Google and Skype.

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 1:00 pm

Verizon to sell smart phones for prepaid service

Verizon Wireless on Thursday announced it's opening up access to smart phones for customers who prepay for service, such as people with poor credit and those who don't want to be tied down by long-term contracts.

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 12:35 pm

CTP President Named one of ColoradoBiz Magazine Top 25 Most...

Joshua Holmberg, President of Communications Technology Professionals (CTP) is selected by ColoradoBiz Magazine as one of Colorado's Top 25 Most Influential Young Professionals.

(PRWeb September 03, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4457984.htm

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Continuent Offers a Database Solution For SaaS And PaaS

New release of Continuent Tungsten provides an ideal open source database platform for cloud-based applications.

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4458034.htm

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The CMI Group Successfully Completes SAS 70 Type II Audit

Leading ARM Firm Secures Recognition For Operational Controls

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4447724.htm

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Keypoint brings full vPBX live to its clients

Kent based communications legend Keypoint has finalised its vPBX services, bringing an enhanced platform for cheaper business calls to all its clients.

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/call-forwarding/caller-id/prweb4448194.htm

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LightPointe Launches ACMA Compliant License-Free 60 GHz Millimeter...

New AireBeam™ Z60 product offers high-speed backhaul & bridging capability for Australian Enterprise and Mobile Wireless Carrier Markets

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4456234.htm

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Inc. Magazine Names IVCi One of America's Fastest-Growing Private...

By being named to the Inc. 5000 for four consecutive years, IVCi has demonstrated it has a formula for success.

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4456384.htm

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Mobile Gambling Wagers to Surpass $48bn by 2015, Spurred by Chinese...

A new report published today by Juniper Research has found that a combination of mobile casino, lottery and betting service launches in major emerging markets led by China allied to liberalisation of...

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4458764.htm

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Addvalue partners Globe Wireless to Roll Out a New FleetBroadband...

Addvalue Communications Pte Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SGX Mainboard-listed Addvalue Technologies Ltd (“Addvalue”) announced today that Globe Wireless, which serves over 550 ship operators with...

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4459044.htm

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Big in Japan, Creator of Top Barcode-Scanning App ShopSavvy, Releases...

Move is the latest in developer’s efforts to drive awareness and use of two-dimensional barcodes.

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/barcode-powered_shopping/mobile_app/prweb4460414.htm

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Rowlett IT Firm Expands Product Offering Through BlueTie Partnership

T&J Home Products Adds BlueTie's Business Email Solutions to Competitive Portfolio

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4447164.htm

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NetClarity Launches Game Changing Network Access Control (NAC)...

New and improved NACwall version 8.0 released for real-time intrusion defense against new threats

(PRWeb September 01, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/network_access_control/netclarity_nacwall_v8/prweb4402884.htm

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GoGo Cast Teams up with LG Electronics to Deliver Crisp, Vibrant...

Go-Screens™ to be co-branded with LG LCD HDTV displays for up-to-the-minute, informative content for point-of-purchase advertising

(PRWeb September 01, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4444464.htm

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TCN Releases SoftPhone: Complete Call Center Technology Now Available...

TCN’s full Virtual Call Center suite of products to contact customers – without having to purchase a single phone or to engage a telco provider.

(PRWeb September 01, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4450044.htm

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Verecloud Names Two New Board Members

Telecom industry veteran Hossein Eslambolchi and retail energy expert Phillip Tonge to help company drive new cloud services opportunities

(PRWeb September 01, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4452424.htm

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CTI-PRO Joins TelcoBridges’ Media Gateway Partner Program

Leading Central European reseller adds Tmedia™ VOIP gateways to its converged network solution offerings

(PRWeb September 01, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/cti-pro/telcobridges/prweb4453294.htm

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India's Largest Social Network SMS GupShup Hits 35 Million Users and...

SMS GupShup, India’s largest mobile social network, today announces that they have crossed 35 million users in India. The company continues to outpace Google Orkut, Facebook and Twitter, as the most...

(PRWeb September 01, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4453474.htm

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Firethorn Announces 1-800-FLOWERS.COM as Latest Merchant to Sign on...

Leading mobile commerce solutions provider Firethorn Holdings, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM), has announced that 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, the world’s largest florist...

(PRWeb September 01, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/SWAGG/Firethorn_1-800-Flowers/prweb4454244.htm

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NetworkIP Continues to Evolve Platform – Drives IBM Technology Into a...

NetworkIP®, a leading provider of innovative telephony and stored value services, today announced the successful deployment of enhanced IBM® architecture and database software to its Hosted...

(PRWeb September 01, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4456934.htm

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Avalon Granted Patent for Innovative Skew-correcting Apparatus

The invention provides a skew (delay) detection and skew correction apparatus for high-speed data communications system with multiple data lanes.

(PRWeb September 01, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/avalonmicroelectronics/OTNIP/prweb4442404.htm

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PATLive Announces New Phone Number Search Engine and Expanded...

PATLive announces new phone number search engine and additional number providers to expand inventory. The new online process makes choosing the perfect phone number for your business easy and fast....

(PRWeb September 01, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4442994.htm

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GL Enhances T1 E1 Analyzer Products / Software

GL Communications Inc. announced today the release of <a href="http://www.gl.com/t1e1releasenotes.html">T1 E1 Analyzer</a> Software Version 5.33 with new enhancements.

(PRWeb September 01, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4446524.htm

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New iPhone App - The World of Photography At Your Fingertips

The Foto News Now iPhone app is the latest unique and innovative brand to be launched by Archant Imaging, the publishers of Professional Photographer, Photography Monthly, BPI, Which Digital Camera...

(PRWeb September 01, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4447134.htm

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Business School Handelskolen Sjælland Syd Keeps Students and...

To help Handelskolen Sj&#230;lland Syd communicate more effectively to varying audiences, Scala and Calamus have installed a network of 25 digital displays to welcome guests and broadcast important...

(PRWeb September 01, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4449104.htm

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HABA USA Hires New ECommerce Manager

HABA USA has hired Vishal Thakkar, a consultant with nearly 10 years of experience designing and creating Web sites for a variety of companies, as ecommerce manager for its online sales site,...

(PRWeb September 03, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4455994.htm

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Bulgarian PR Corp. M3 Communications Group, Inc. Wins Two...

Bulgaria's leading PR company M3 Communications Group, Inc. received two prestigious recognitions at the Seventh Annual International Business Awards, well known as the Stevie Awards, the world's only...

(PRWeb September 03, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4453694.htm

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IT Hosting Company, OneNeck IT Services, Finalist for Innovator of the...

IT hosting company, OneNeck IT Services, has been recognized by the Governor’s Celebration of Innovation (GCOI) Selection Committee and honored as a finalist for the Governor’s Celebration of...

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/it-hosting-company/oneneck-it-services/prweb4455314.htm

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Ohio Internet Marketing Agency, Webbed Marketing, Announces New Hires...

Columbus, Ohio based Internet marketing agency announces expansion and new hires, furthering its growth in the Columbus market.

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4442204.htm

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Webinar: Change Management: Proprietary Best Practices of People &...

Chief Examiner for APM Group discusses effective Change Management.

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4448654.htm

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Small Business Spotlight - A New Online Service for Small Business...

Their services are ideal for businesses such as barber and beauty shops, insurance agencies, restaurants, flower shops, accounting firms, law offices, home or auto repair services, land survey...

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4451464.htm

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How Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) Made an Extra £14 Million...

A travel agency offering cheap holidays has almost doubled its sales by applying a new scientific approach to optimizing website conversion rates.

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4453854.htm

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Nimlok Exhibition Marketing Manager Awarded Diploma

Since joining Nimlok in 2002 as a marketing assistant, the exhibition supplier's now Marketing Manager, Sarah Elmore, recently received a professional postgraduate diploma in marketing through the...

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/exhibition-stand/diploma-award/prweb4455044.htm

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Shaughnessy Renews Environmental Commitments

Missouri-based distribution company continues to balance its environmental impact by offsetting its corporate electricity use and 100 percent of its carbon emissions from company’s fleet of delivery...

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/renewable_energy_credits/shaughnessy_paper/prweb4456974.htm

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EmployeeScreenIQ Announces Strategic Alliance with UK's Verifile Ltd.

Partnership bolsters European and North American background screening capabilities for both companies

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4457384.htm

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Data Financial, Inc. Simplifies Daily Slot Drops with LabelPro System

‘Fast, secure, easy’ … three words casino operators welcome hearing from their staff and vendors. Data Financial, Inc., a value added reseller based in Mequon, WI, is making that a reality for...

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4460024.htm

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Impact Interactions Presents “Moving Beyond Counts & Traffic – Social...

Recent research has shown that executives across many industries are expanding their use of social media. At the same time, the research shows that the majority of executives in charge of social media...

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4447484.htm

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MoreSteam Sees Surge in Lean Six Sigma Certification Enrollments

MoreSteam.com, the leading global provider of online Lean Six Sigma (LSS) training and Blended Learning support technologies, reports a quadrupling of enrollments for its Lean Six Sigma Green Belt and...

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4450364.htm

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New Employee Scheduling Software for Shiftwork Operations

Until now, employee scheduling software did not address the most challenging task of shift schedule management: filling open shifts that result from absences, temporary staffing shortfalls, or...

(PRWeb September 01, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4385874.htm

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Finally, Hiring Restaurant Employees Made Easy, Thanks to WyckWyre.com

Restaurant owners don't open restaurants because they love to hire and fire employees, yet this is what they spend much of their valuable time doing. Fortunately, WyckWyre.com's newly enhanced...

(PRWeb September 01, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/wyckwyre/restauranthiring/prweb4444314.htm

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ShortTrack CEO Founders Release New Book About How Mid-Market CEOs...

The founders of ShortTrack CEO, the first business management system created by CEOs for leadership teams of mid-market companies, officially released their book today titled ShortTrack CEO: How...

(PRWeb September 01, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/ShortTrack-CEO/Mid-Market-CEO-Book/prweb4448224.htm

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Stewart Levine to teach Negotiation course at top ranked University of...

Attorney, mediator, speaker and consultant, Stewart Levine will teach Negotiation at top ranked University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall Law School. Levine’s course will use content based on his...

(PRWeb September 01, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4450934.htm

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August CMI Shows Modest Recovery Despite a Continued Weak Service...

The trend in data this past week was hardly encouraging, resulting in another chorus of pronouncements regarding an imminent return to recession. The housing market remains in the doldrums, GDP...

(PRWeb September 01, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/NACM/August-2010-CMI/prweb4455484.htm

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Not Guilty by Association: AIA Launches ExpertBail, Building Trust and...

First National Bail Bond Brand Begins Changing Misperception of Bail Bondsmen Emphasizing Quality and Professionalism Through Its National Network of Agents and Comprehensive Bail Agent Search Site

(PRWeb September 01, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4452924.htm

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Recent Ethosource Project: Freedom Freightliner Saves "Truck Load" of...

Ethosource recently completed a project for Freedom Freightliner of Spokane, Wash. They needed to outfit its new office with pre-owned/refurbished furniture in just six weeks, General Manager Larry...

(PRWeb September 01, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4377444.htm

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Aquent Announces a New Website for RoboHead

A Leaner, Easier to Navigate Site for an Improved User Experience

(PRWeb September 01, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/marketing/project_management/prweb4423454.htm

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JAMS Job Scheduler Earns Windows 7 Logo

MVP Systems Software, Inc. (MVP) announced today that JAMS Versions 4.9 and 5.0 have successfully earned the Windows 7 logo. This step assures JAMS customers that their application will successfully...

(PRWeb September 01, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4430864.htm

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CastlePointe Presents IT Transformation Webinar "Creating...

Fourth in the "Free Lunch" IT Transformation Webinar Series, hosted by CastlePointe CEO, Charles Araujo, on Wednesday, September 15, 2010 • 12:15pm EST / 9:15am PST • Register today at...

(PRWeb September 01, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/castlepointe_webinar/creating_org_agility/prweb4437384.htm

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Pointwing Recruiting Software Mass Resume Parsing Improves Recruiting...

Recruiters and staffing coordinators can save time and effort by mass parsing large groups of candidate resumes directly into Pointwing’s database.

(PRWeb September 03, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4459214.htm

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Imagine Learning Ranked Eighth Fastest-Growing Private Company in...

Inc. 5000 ranked educational software company Imagine Learning eighth on their list of fastest-growing private companies in the education industry. Imagine Learning was also ranked No. 533 overall on...

(PRWeb September 03, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/English-learners/struggling-readers/prweb4458444.htm

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Announcing the Launch of ThePCBundles.com -- High Quality Software...

ThePCBundles packages high quality software into dramatically discounted bundles. Our no-fine-print policy ensures customers get the same software, support, licenses, and upgrade benefits that apply...

(PRWeb September 03, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/bundle/09/prweb4458534.htm

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NDB Accountants & Consultants Launches the Official SSAE 16 and ISAE...

Service Organizations for over 18 years have been utilizing the SAS 70 auditing standard for third-party reporting purposes. The SSAE 16 and ISAE 3402 standards become effective for reporting periods...

(PRWeb September 03, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4459654.htm

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Scott & Scott, LLP Sponsors 2nd Annual Special Olympics Texas Casino...

<a href="http://www.scottandscottllp.com">Dallas Intellectual property law firm</a>, Scott & Scott, LLP, supports Special Olympics as title sponsor of second annual...

(PRWeb September 03, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4462124.htm

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New Collaboration Software Released at the 2010 OpenOffice.org...

Sironta Software Platform Will Be Presented the September 3rd in Budapest

(PRWeb September 03, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4453814.htm

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Aspect Enterprise Solutions Wins CTRM Deal With Geneva-Based Integral...

Specialist petroleum distributor replaces paper system with SaaS solution

(PRWeb September 03, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4454054.htm

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myLanguage and PakReport.org partner to Support Pakistan Relief Effort

Leading mobile translation app provider adds Urdu and donates free apps. Partners with PakReport.org to accelerate flood incident mapping in Pakistan and aid with fund raising for flood relief.

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4315934.htm

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Electronic Document Management Company, OSAM Document Solutions, Inc.,...

Electronic document management company, OSAM Document Solutions, Inc., is excited to announce the renewal of its AIIM membership.

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/electronic-document/management-company/prweb4455404.htm

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Continuent Offers a Database Solution For SaaS And PaaS

New release of Continuent Tungsten provides an ideal open source database platform for cloud-based applications.

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4458034.htm

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Taurus Software and Natural Solutions Announce Partnership to Deliver...

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and key analytics found in Taurus Software's Manage Metrix provide valuable insight and effective cost-cutting strategies to Natural Solutions’ clients

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/taurussoftware/2010-09/prweb4458674.htm

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Syclo Announces New Version of its Agentry Mobile Enterprise...

Agentry 5.2 adds multi-developer support, enhanced cross-platform capabilities and analytics tools.

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Agentry_Mobile_Platform/Enterprise_Mobility/prweb4460374.htm

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CorreLog Announces the “Cloud Security and Compliance Suite”

CorreLog’s cloud and virtualization suite enhances security and compliance

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/SIEM/Compliance/prweb4325994.htm

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Radiant Technologies Named to 2010 President’s Club for Microsoft...

Radiant Technologies is recognized by Microsoft for commitment to customers.

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4348714.htm

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ClearBenefits and Limeade Announce a New Strategic Alliance

Agreement between leading employee benefits companies brings fresh, effective wellness tools to employees.

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/employeewellness/2010/prweb4442854.htm

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Atlassian, Makers of Software Developer Tools, Named 2011 Technology...

Atlassian is one of thirty-one companies from around the world recognized by the World Economic Forum for its visionary approach to enabling the future of business collaboration and innovation.

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4444724.htm

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Ohio Businesses Get Paper and Paperless Document Management with Help...

New alliance with document management software company, ColumbiaSoft, extends Team Office Technologies’ services so that clients have more options for managing documents electronically.

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/document/management/prweb4445494.htm

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Webinar: Change Management: Proprietary Best Practices of People &...

Chief Examiner for APM Group discusses effective Change Management.

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4448654.htm

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CTS, Inc. Named one of the Best Companies to Work for in Alabama

CTS, Inc. was recently named one of the 2010 Best Companies to Work for in Alabama. Created in 2010, the awards program is a project of Business Alabama Magazine and Best Companies Group. CTS ranked...

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4450164.htm

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Alchemy Introduces Animal Welfare Training Library for the Poultry...

New SISTEM™ courses educate employees on the humane handling of live poultry according to National Chicken Council (NCC) Guidelines for Broilers

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4451364.htm

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Puridiom Tackles the Great Procurement Debate -- Cloud vs. Licensed

Puridiom, leading provider of <a href="http://www.puridiom.com">eProcurement</a> solutions, tackles the issue of Cloud vs. Licensed eProcurement platforms and is helping...

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/eprocurement/cloud_vs_licensed/prweb4454884.htm

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Quickstart Intelligence Wins the 2010 Microsoft Cpls Engagement...

QuickStart Intelligence, a Microsoft Training provider, wins Top Event Management and Environment along with Top Instructor Award from the Microsoft Learning Solution Partners Engagement Program. It’s...

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4455104.htm

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Azavea and the Sustainable Business Network of Philadelphia Launch...

Today Azavea an award-winning geospatial analysis (GIS) software development company, and the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia, announced the launch of the CommonSpace web...

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4455584.htm

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Association Launches Concentrated Health IT Training to Prep Needed...

The American Society of Health Informatics Managers (ASHIM) Launched Its Online Training Program to Prepare Students In Four Months for Health IT Jobs.

(PRWeb September 03, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4461464.htm

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IT Hosting Company, OneNeck IT Services, Finalist for Innovator of the...

IT hosting company, OneNeck IT Services, has been recognized by the Governor’s Celebration of Innovation (GCOI) Selection Committee and honored as a finalist for the Governor’s Celebration of...

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/it-hosting-company/oneneck-it-services/prweb4455314.htm

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Third Annual SC World Congress Tackles the Industry’s Most Burning...

Conference Adds to Premiere Roster of Featured Speakers, Announces Second Annual Security Innovators Throwdown and Additional Platinum and Gold Sponsors

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/SC_World_Congress/Updated_Agenda/prweb4455934.htm

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Consonus Reveals Impressive PUE Rating for West Data Center

Energy Efficiency Initiatives Contribute to Power Usage Score

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/data_centers/PUE_rating/prweb4456164.htm

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Taurus Software and Natural Solutions Announce Partnership to Deliver...

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and key analytics found in Taurus Software's Manage Metrix provide valuable insight and effective cost-cutting strategies to Natural Solutions’ clients

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/taurussoftware/2010-09/prweb4458674.htm

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Tracking Hurricane Earl Real-Time on Your iPhone with iMapHurricane

Advanced Hurricane app offers constant updates for mobile and online users

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4459244.htm

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CGI Supports Gulf Coast Oil Spill Recovery Efforts With Ongoing...

CGI has partnered with three organizations assisting with oil recovery efforts: Bay Area Food Bank (BAFB), Baton Rouge Area Foundation (BRAF) and National Wildlife Federation (NWF). Over the last...

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/CGI/BP-Oil-Spill/prweb4459564.htm

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CorreLog Announces the “Cloud Security and Compliance Suite”

CorreLog’s cloud and virtualization suite enhances security and compliance

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/SIEM/Compliance/prweb4325994.htm

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Ohio Businesses Get Paper and Paperless Document Management with Help...

New alliance with document management software company, ColumbiaSoft, extends Team Office Technologies’ services so that clients have more options for managing documents electronically.

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/document/management/prweb4445494.htm

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Webinar: Change Management: Proprietary Best Practices of People &...

Chief Examiner for APM Group discusses effective Change Management.

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4448654.htm

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Puridiom Tackles the Great Procurement Debate -- Cloud vs. Licensed

Puridiom, leading provider of <a href="http://www.puridiom.com">eProcurement</a> solutions, tackles the issue of Cloud vs. Licensed eProcurement platforms and is helping...

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/eprocurement/cloud_vs_licensed/prweb4454884.htm

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Identropy Releases Identity & Access Management Primer Series:...

Identropy adds a new offering as part of its well-known Advisory Services: the Identropy IAM Primer Series. This offering not only provides access to Identropy's IAM best practices library, but also...

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4455054.htm

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Sidus Group Designs Updated Website for Fort Meade Alliance

Sidus Group updates website for Fort Meade Alliance providing them with enhanced usability, increased functionality and a design that better aligns with their brand.

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/SidusGroup/09/prweb4457794.htm

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Accellos Announces Acquisition of TMS Assets

Accellos acquires Virtual Dispatch, LLC, a Staufville, Ontario-based provider of both on-premise and on-demand transportation management solutions.

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Accellos_Virtual-Dispatch/TMS-Assets/prweb4460624.htm

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Home Health Software Provider Kinnser Software Ranks No. 215 on the...

Inc. magazine ranks Texas-based home health software firm one of 2010’s fastest-growing private companies in the country, with three-year sales growth of 1,379 percent.

(PRWeb September 01, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/kinnser-software-makes/2010-inc-500/prweb4452734.htm

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New Bento 3 Project Manager from FileMaker Makes Project and Time...

Free Download Includes Trial Version of Bento 3 Personal Database for Mac

(PRWeb September 01, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/project_management/personal_database/prweb4434644.htm

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Business Intelligence Goes Social: Start-up Launches Revolutionary...

The InfoGrok Business Intelligence Network drags the traditional business information industry into the web2.0 era with new suite of products.

(PRWeb September 01, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4447364.htm

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Carahsoft Partners With Wyse Technology to Deliver Cloud Client...

Carahsoft Technology Corp., the trusted government IT solutions provider, and Wyse Technology, the global leader in cloud client computing, today announced a partnership through which the companies...

(PRWeb September 01, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/carahsoft/wyse/prweb4449624.htm

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Namecheap Hosts "Back to School" Riddles Trivia Contest

Namecheap is a domain name registrar and web hosting provider that will be running a Back to School trivia contest featuring a full week of opportunities to win domain names and the Apple iPad or the...

(PRWeb September 01, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4450004.htm

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IMO, Clinical Interface Terminology Leader, Adds Three Innovative...

Medical Informaticists Further Expand IMO's Leadership Delivering Clinically Relevant Terminology that Streamlines Clinician and Back-Office Workflows, Improves Care Coordination and Increases Revenue

(PRWeb September 01, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4456504.htm

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Alaska Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development &...

Alaska Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development Commissioner Susan Bell today announced the launch of Alaska’s first statewide broadband availability map. The web-based map is fully...

(PRWeb September 01, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4458134.htm

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JAMS Job Scheduler Earns Windows 7 Logo

MVP Systems Software, Inc. (MVP) announced today that JAMS Versions 4.9 and 5.0 have successfully earned the Windows 7 logo. This step assures JAMS customers that their application will successfully...

(PRWeb September 01, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4430864.htm

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CastlePointe Presents IT Transformation Webinar "Creating...

Fourth in the "Free Lunch" IT Transformation Webinar Series, hosted by CastlePointe CEO, Charles Araujo, on Wednesday, September 15, 2010 • 12:15pm EST / 9:15am PST • Register today at...

(PRWeb September 01, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/castlepointe_webinar/creating_org_agility/prweb4437384.htm

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All Transfers with World Airport Transfer are Now CarbonNeutral®...

New website features and services include carbon offsetting, Quick Quote and improved booking process.

(PRWeb September 03, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4453804.htm

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Rubicon Marketing Group Expands Metrics + Analysis Services by...

Rubicon will leverage its expertise of Eloqua and Webtrends' Optimize platform to give marketers a comprehensive online marketing platform.

(PRWeb September 03, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4456004.htm

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Nextiva Fax Service Added to InternetFaxProvider.com

A website that pairs top <a href="http://internetfaxprovider.com">Internet fax providers</a> with the most appropriate business industries has added information about a...

(PRWeb September 03, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4457814.htm

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Global Biometrics Market to Reach US$14 Billion by 2015, According to...

GIA announces the release of a comprehensive global report on Biometrics market. Global Biometrics market is forecast to reach US$14 billion by 2015. The market is mainly driven by an increasing need...

(PRWeb September 03, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/biometrics_AFIS/non_AFIS_finger_scan/prweb4458474.htm

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Percussion Software Continues Investment in Customer Engagement with...

Investment in people, processes, and technology improve communication and transparency and maximize the value of customers’ web content management investment

(PRWeb September 03, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4459224.htm

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NDB Accountants & Consultants Launches the Official SSAE 16 and ISAE...

Service Organizations for over 18 years have been utilizing the SAS 70 auditing standard for third-party reporting purposes. The SSAE 16 and ISAE 3402 standards become effective for reporting periods...

(PRWeb September 03, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4459654.htm

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National Bureau of Economic Research Content Available through EBSCO...

Working Papers, Conference Papers and Monographs from NBER Accessible via EBSCO Discovery Service™

(PRWeb September 03, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/NBER/EDS/prweb4460064.htm

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World Dating Partners Partners with Dating Factory

Dating Factory to power World Dating Partners infrastructure

(PRWeb September 03, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4460164.htm

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Red Ventures to Host Job Fair September 9, Plans to Fill Inside Sales...

Interested candidates can apply online and interview with the Red Ventures team at the event

(PRWeb September 03, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/redventuresjobs/2010/prweb4461414.htm

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Association Launches Concentrated Health IT Training to Prep Needed...

The American Society of Health Informatics Managers (ASHIM) Launched Its Online Training Program to Prepare Students In Four Months for Health IT Jobs.

(PRWeb September 03, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4461464.htm

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Revolutionary Tag Management Solution Reshaping the Way Enterprises...

Ensighten, has launched as a new tag management technology promising to dramatically reconfigure how interactive marketing and web analytics professionals think about tracking tags. While tracking...

(PRWeb September 03, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4461664.htm

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DaFlores Offers Ways for People to Show Love and Friendship on...

Online flower delivery company daFlores invites customers to celebrate Love and Friendship Day on September 18th. This Colombian holiday originated in South America but the sentiment isn't just...

(PRWeb September 03, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Love-and-Friendship-Day/Colombia/prweb4461934.htm

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Agent Reboot: One-Day REALTOR® Marketing Training Event Comes to...

Inman News, the leader in independent real estate news and technology, will be bringing Agent Reboot to Las Vegas this September 15th from 8:30am to 3pm at the Alexis Park All Suite Resort in Las...

(PRWeb September 03, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4462404.htm

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CoupSmart Uses Technology to Save Coupon Clippers Time and Money

CoupSmart, a new company based in this thriving Ohio city, is bringing traditional couponing into the Digital Age — saving people time and money — by utilizing cutting-edge technology and...

(PRWeb September 03, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4457424.htm

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Recruiter.com and RecruitingBlogs.com Agree to Merge, Creating a...

Will Offer Human Resources and Recruiting Industry a Standard Platform for Online Community and Services -- Will Have Leading Position In HR and Recruiter Related Social Networking and Media Services...

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/recruiter/hr/prweb4435494.htm

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Logo Design Guru Re-Launches with Revolutionary Business Model

Customers Able to Name their Own Price for Dozens of Logo Designs

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4450794.htm

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Website Conversion and Sales Jump by 17.6% for iNetVideo.com with...

buySAFE, Inc., a leading provider of consumer confidence and website conversion solutions for merchants and iNetVideo.com, a leading online retailer for DVD, Blu-Ray and video games determined during...

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4455564.htm

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Third Annual SC World Congress Tackles the Industry’s Most Burning...

Conference Adds to Premiere Roster of Featured Speakers, Announces Second Annual Security Innovators Throwdown and Additional Platinum and Gold Sponsors

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/SC_World_Congress/Updated_Agenda/prweb4455934.htm

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Ironworks Consulting Redesigns and Rebuilds American Cancer Society...

Ironworks, a management, Web and IT consulting firm, is pleased to announce the recent launch and rebuild of the American Cancer Society’s website.

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Ironworks_Consulting/American-Cancer-Society/prweb4456264.htm

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Influxis Launches New Mobile Streaming Service

Influxis Offers Easy, Optimized and HTML5-Ready Mobile Streaming for All Platforms – iPhone/iPad, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and more.

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4456814.htm

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PubCon Las Vegas 2010 to Feature Keynote by New York Times Columnist...

PubCon, the premier search and social media conference and expo, has announced that noted author and New York Times technology columnist David Pogue will present a keynote address during PubCon Las...

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4456964.htm

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Continuent Offers a Database Solution For SaaS And PaaS

New release of Continuent Tungsten provides an ideal open source database platform for cloud-based applications.

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4458034.htm

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FORA.tv Pioneers Online Subscription Model: Introducing FORA.tv Plus

Leading destination for smart video programs unveils paid membership plan to deliver 'the ultimate video viewing experience'

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4458254.htm

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New Tiki-themed iTinis Explorer and Explorer HD Cocktail Discovery...

NuNuApps LLC expands its line up of iTinis iPhone and iPad cocktail discovery apps tiki style

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4456634.htm

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Half Off Depot Inks Deal with Knoxville-based Digital Marketing Firm

Pyxl to Deliver Integrated Marketing Services; Develop iPhone Application

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/marketing/pyxl/prweb4455354.htm

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Influxis Launches New Mobile Streaming Service

Influxis Offers Easy, Optimized and HTML5-Ready Mobile Streaming for All Platforms – iPhone/iPad, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and more.

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4456814.htm

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Tracking Hurricane Earl Real-Time on Your iPhone with iMapHurricane

Advanced Hurricane app offers constant updates for mobile and online users

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4459244.htm

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Syclo Announces New Version of its Agentry Mobile Enterprise...

Agentry 5.2 adds multi-developer support, enhanced cross-platform capabilities and analytics tools.

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Agentry_Mobile_Platform/Enterprise_Mobility/prweb4460374.htm

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NeedyMeds Adds New Camps and Scholarships Databases to its Resources

NeedyMeds, a national nonprofit, has added new Camps and Scholarships databases to its website. These databases contain information on camps and scholarships tailored toward helping those living with...

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4455744.htm

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LightPointe Launches ACMA Compliant License-Free 60 GHz Millimeter...

New AireBeam™ Z60 product offers high-speed backhaul & bridging capability for Australian Enterprise and Mobile Wireless Carrier Markets

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4456234.htm

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ShopRite and MyWebGrocer Launch the First Retail Grocery Weekly...

New Android App is part of ShopRite’s mobile strategy to connect with shoppers on all mobile platforms.

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4456994.htm

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High-Tech Travel Game Adds to Italian Holiday

Described as a cross between The Amazing Race and The Da Vinci Code, a new interactive tour experience called whaiwhai is transforming trips to Italy.

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/selectitaly/whaiwhai/prweb4457104.htm

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Lion Nathan Wine Group Debuts Cellar Key, a 2D Barcode Technology,...

Lion Nathan Wine Group, owner and importer of fine wines from around the world, launches a proprietary marketing platform called Cellar Key with four esteemed wine brands this September 2010. A 2D...

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4457724.htm

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Big in Japan, Creator of Top Barcode-Scanning App ShopSavvy, Releases...

Move is the latest in developer’s efforts to drive awareness and use of two-dimensional barcodes.

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/barcode-powered_shopping/mobile_app/prweb4460414.htm

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Kadoo™, Inc. Surpasses 2 Million Registered Users; Rapid Growth Proves...

Kadoo Today Announced its Open Source MetaCloud has More than 2 Million Registered Users. The Kadoo Ecosystem Enables Consumers To Upload Their Files Once and Use Them across Mobile and Web Apps,...

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4450394.htm

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Diving into iPhone and iPad Programming

iPhone and iPad programming can be humbling for even the most experienced developer. For a new programmer, developing effective habits when starting out will reap tangible rewards. One of the most...

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4447854.htm

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Finally a Free Membership for Seniors 65+ by iStayYoung.net

According to the International Symposium on prevention of aging, average life expectancy has increased by 15 years in the last decades. Next year it is predicted there will be 23.7% of U.S. people...

(PRWeb September 01, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/iStayYoung/083110/prweb4338464.htm

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Former USA Karate Coach's Shihan Kim's, J.H. Kim Karate Institute, is...

Shihan Kim's J.H. Kim Karate Institute is now powered by Massive Playbook™. Massive Playbook is an email communication platform that offers a tremendous opportunity for fundraising at a time when it’s...

(PRWeb September 01, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/08/prweb4437214.htm

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GoGo Cast Teams up with LG Electronics to Deliver Crisp, Vibrant...

Go-Screens™ to be co-branded with LG LCD HDTV displays for up-to-the-minute, informative content for point-of-purchase advertising

(PRWeb September 01, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4444464.htm

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New Service Lets People Interact with Places, Objects from their...

A new service lets businesses and individuals claim ownership of locations to enable with virtual services so that their visitors can interact with them.

(PRWeb September 01, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4446264.htm

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Credit Card Reader for iPhone Shipping Now for Inner Fence Credit Card...

Inner Fence, maker of Credit Card Terminal for iPhone, is now shipping Credit Card Reader for iPhone, an Apple-authorized hardware accessory that allows merchants to swipe credit cards.

(PRWeb September 01, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/iphone-credit-card-reader/for-credit-card-terminal/prweb4448984.htm

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Namecheap Hosts "Back to School" Riddles Trivia Contest

Namecheap is a domain name registrar and web hosting provider that will be running a Back to School trivia contest featuring a full week of opportunities to win domain names and the Apple iPad or the...

(PRWeb September 01, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4450004.htm

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GasBuddy Launches Cheap Gas Locator App for Android Smartphones

New GasBuddy app helps motorists find the cheapest gas in their area using an Android powered smartphone

(PRWeb September 01, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/GasBuddy/prweb4451044.htm

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CTI-PRO Joins TelcoBridges’ Media Gateway Partner Program

Leading Central European reseller adds Tmedia™ VOIP gateways to its converged network solution offerings

(PRWeb September 01, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/cti-pro/telcobridges/prweb4453294.htm

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India's Largest Social Network SMS GupShup Hits 35 Million Users and...

SMS GupShup, India’s largest mobile social network, today announces that they have crossed 35 million users in India. The company continues to outpace Google Orkut, Facebook and Twitter, as the most...

(PRWeb September 01, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4453474.htm

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Go Mobile with 1&1’s Hosting Packages

Professional web design software for free. New offer helps create a mobile optimized website.

(PRWeb September 01, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4454164.htm

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Global Biometrics Market to Reach US$14 Billion by 2015, According to...

GIA announces the release of a comprehensive global report on Biometrics market. Global Biometrics market is forecast to reach US$14 billion by 2015. The market is mainly driven by an increasing need...

(PRWeb September 03, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/biometrics_AFIS/non_AFIS_finger_scan/prweb4458474.htm

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Telecast Fiber Systems Announces CopperHead™ 3400 for Advanced 3D...

Newest Member of CopperHead™ Family Harnesses Lightweight Fiber for 3D Signal Transport as Well as Control of HD Cameras and 3D Rigs

(PRWeb September 03, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/CopperHead-3400/3D-Fiber-Optic-Tranceiver/prweb4462104.htm

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Broken Sword: The Director's Cut Available on PC and Mac on September...

Download and Retail Release for Remastered Version of Adventure Classic

(PRWeb September 03, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/BrokenSword/RevolutionSoftware/prweb4462414.htm

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New Collaboration Software Released at the 2010 OpenOffice.org...

Sironta Software Platform Will Be Presented the September 3rd in Budapest

(PRWeb September 03, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4453814.htm

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Website Conversion and Sales Jump by 17.6% for iNetVideo.com with...

buySAFE, Inc., a leading provider of consumer confidence and website conversion solutions for merchants and iNetVideo.com, a leading online retailer for DVD, Blu-Ray and video games determined during...

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4455564.htm

Posted on

Third Annual SC World Congress Tackles the Industry’s Most Burning...

Conference Adds to Premiere Roster of Featured Speakers, Announces Second Annual Security Innovators Throwdown and Additional Platinum and Gold Sponsors

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/SC_World_Congress/Updated_Agenda/prweb4455934.htm

Posted on

Taurus Software and Natural Solutions Announce Partnership to Deliver...

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and key analytics found in Taurus Software's Manage Metrix provide valuable insight and effective cost-cutting strategies to Natural Solutions’ clients

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/taurussoftware/2010-09/prweb4458674.htm

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Syclo Announces New Version of its Agentry Mobile Enterprise...

Agentry 5.2 adds multi-developer support, enhanced cross-platform capabilities and analytics tools.

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Agentry_Mobile_Platform/Enterprise_Mobility/prweb4460374.htm

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Hours of Paperwork a Thing of the Past with Online VAT Returns from...

FreeAgent Central has launched a new service to allow users to complete their VAT returns using its online accounting application.

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4454184.htm

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Ohio Businesses Get Paper and Paperless Document Management with Help...

New alliance with document management software company, ColumbiaSoft, extends Team Office Technologies’ services so that clients have more options for managing documents electronically.

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/document/management/prweb4445494.htm

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SimilarSitesSearch.com Estimates that Searches for Similar Websites...

Research on global Internet traffic data by SimilarSiteSearch.com shows that traffic for similar websites related searches well surpasses millions of times per month. A more detailed research shows...

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4447544.htm

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Liquid Technology Makes Inc. 5,000 List for Third Consecutive Year

Liquid Technology also finds itself ranked at No. 9 among Inc.'s Top 500/5000 Computer Hardware Companies and at No. 77 on the 2010 Top 100 Businesses in New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island,...

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4447764.htm

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Webinar: Change Management: Proprietary Best Practices of People &...

Chief Examiner for APM Group discusses effective Change Management.

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4448654.htm

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CTS, Inc. Named one of the Best Companies to Work for in Alabama

CTS, Inc. was recently named one of the 2010 Best Companies to Work for in Alabama. Created in 2010, the awards program is a project of Business Alabama Magazine and Best Companies Group. CTS ranked...

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4450164.htm

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Charlotte PHP Developers Group to Host September 13 Meet and Greet

Under new leadership, the group will host the event for current and potential members

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4454454.htm

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Quickstart Intelligence Wins the 2010 Microsoft Cpls Engagement...

QuickStart Intelligence, a Microsoft Training provider, wins Top Event Management and Environment along with Top Instructor Award from the Microsoft Learning Solution Partners Engagement Program. It’s...

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4455104.htm

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Azavea and the Sustainable Business Network of Philadelphia Launch...

Today Azavea an award-winning geospatial analysis (GIS) software development company, and the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia, announced the launch of the CommonSpace web...

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4455584.htm

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Infrastructure-as-a-Service Company Offers Significant Savings on...

Codero offers up to 40 percent discount on any new server purchase of three or more.

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Codero/server_sale/prweb4457534.htm

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Mobile Gambling Wagers to Surpass $48bn by 2015, Spurred by Chinese...

A new report published today by Juniper Research has found that a combination of mobile casino, lottery and betting service launches in major emerging markets led by China allied to liberalisation of...

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4458764.htm

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(Bradford)UK Marketing Agency Clinches Prestigious Partnership

A FAST-GROWING Bradford digital marketing agency is celebrating after securing a lucrative deal with a world technology leader.

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Email-Marketing-Services/Response-On-Innovation/prweb4458854.htm

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Helping graduates to transfer from university to an IT career

FDM Group have guaranteed their success during troubled economic times by transforming IT and numerical science graduates into successful IT Consultants.

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/FDM-Academy/FDM-Academy-Scam-Killer/prweb4459084.htm

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Multi-award-winning training provider -FDM Academy- shows ongoing...

Finding employment after university can be particularly difficult, and it is not helped by the fact that in these uncertain economic times we cannot be sure of the financial security of even the...

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4459204.htm

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Data Financial, Inc. Simplifies Daily Slot Drops with LabelPro System

‘Fast, secure, easy’ … three words casino operators welcome hearing from their staff and vendors. Data Financial, Inc., a value added reseller based in Mequon, WI, is making that a reality for...

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4460024.htm

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Rubicon Marketing Group Expands Metrics + Analysis Services by...

Rubicon will leverage its expertise of Eloqua and Webtrends' Optimize platform to give marketers a comprehensive online marketing platform.

(PRWeb September 03, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4456004.htm

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Percussion Software Continues Investment in Customer Engagement with...

Investment in people, processes, and technology improve communication and transparency and maximize the value of customers’ web content management investment

(PRWeb September 03, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4459224.htm

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WorldAPP Announces Fourth Year as Inc. 500/5000 Fastest Growing...

In its comprehensive ranking of the nation's fastest-growing private companies, Inc. magazine has again recognized WorldAPP as a leader among its peers in the software industry and overall. The...

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4455014.htm

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IT Hosting Company, OneNeck IT Services, Finalist for Innovator of the...

IT hosting company, OneNeck IT Services, has been recognized by the Governor’s Celebration of Innovation (GCOI) Selection Committee and honored as a finalist for the Governor’s Celebration of...

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/it-hosting-company/oneneck-it-services/prweb4455314.htm

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Third Annual SC World Congress Tackles the Industry’s Most Burning...

Conference Adds to Premiere Roster of Featured Speakers, Announces Second Annual Security Innovators Throwdown and Additional Platinum and Gold Sponsors

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/SC_World_Congress/Updated_Agenda/prweb4455934.htm

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Consonus Reveals Impressive PUE Rating for West Data Center

Energy Efficiency Initiatives Contribute to Power Usage Score

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/data_centers/PUE_rating/prweb4456164.htm

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Continuent Offers a Database Solution For SaaS And PaaS

New release of Continuent Tungsten provides an ideal open source database platform for cloud-based applications.

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4458034.htm

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Taurus Software and Natural Solutions Announce Partnership to Deliver...

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and key analytics found in Taurus Software's Manage Metrix provide valuable insight and effective cost-cutting strategies to Natural Solutions’ clients

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/taurussoftware/2010-09/prweb4458674.htm

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Syclo Announces New Version of its Agentry Mobile Enterprise...

Agentry 5.2 adds multi-developer support, enhanced cross-platform capabilities and analytics tools.

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Agentry_Mobile_Platform/Enterprise_Mobility/prweb4460374.htm

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Hours of Paperwork a Thing of the Past with Online VAT Returns from...

FreeAgent Central has launched a new service to allow users to complete their VAT returns using its online accounting application.

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4454184.htm

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CorreLog Announces the “Cloud Security and Compliance Suite”

CorreLog’s cloud and virtualization suite enhances security and compliance

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/SIEM/Compliance/prweb4325994.htm

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ClearBenefits and Limeade Announce a New Strategic Alliance

Agreement between leading employee benefits companies brings fresh, effective wellness tools to employees.

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/employeewellness/2010/prweb4442854.htm

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Atlassian, Makers of Software Developer Tools, Named 2011 Technology...

Atlassian is one of thirty-one companies from around the world recognized by the World Economic Forum for its visionary approach to enabling the future of business collaboration and innovation.

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4444724.htm

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Ohio Businesses Get Paper and Paperless Document Management with Help...

New alliance with document management software company, ColumbiaSoft, extends Team Office Technologies’ services so that clients have more options for managing documents electronically.

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/document/management/prweb4445494.htm

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Webinar: Change Management: Proprietary Best Practices of People &...

Chief Examiner for APM Group discusses effective Change Management.

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4448654.htm

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Puridiom Tackles the Great Procurement Debate -- Cloud vs. Licensed

Puridiom, leading provider of <a href="http://www.puridiom.com">eProcurement</a> solutions, tackles the issue of Cloud vs. Licensed eProcurement platforms and is helping...

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/eprocurement/cloud_vs_licensed/prweb4454884.htm

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Identropy Releases Identity & Access Management Primer Series:...

Identropy adds a new offering as part of its well-known Advisory Services: the Identropy IAM Primer Series. This offering not only provides access to Identropy's IAM best practices library, but also...

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4455054.htm

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Azavea and the Sustainable Business Network of Philadelphia Launch...

Today Azavea an award-winning geospatial analysis (GIS) software development company, and the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia, announced the launch of the CommonSpace web...

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4455584.htm

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Live Search Marketing Now Webcast focuses on Managing PPC Campaigns in...

International search marketing expert Andy Atkins-Kruger will deliver live presentation about PPC advertising for international search marketers, Sept. 21 at 4 PM GMT (11 AM Eastern)

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/ppc/UK/prweb4457854.htm

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Data Financial, Inc. Simplifies Daily Slot Drops with LabelPro System

‘Fast, secure, easy’ … three words casino operators welcome hearing from their staff and vendors. Data Financial, Inc., a value added reseller based in Mequon, WI, is making that a reality for...

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4460024.htm

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Accellos Announces Acquisition of TMS Assets

Accellos acquires Virtual Dispatch, LLC, a Staufville, Ontario-based provider of both on-premise and on-demand transportation management solutions.

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/Accellos_Virtual-Dispatch/TMS-Assets/prweb4460624.htm

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Zepheira Announced Today that Bernadette Hyland will Resign as CEO

The Board of Directors of Zepheira, a professional services firm specializing in the application of Semantic Technologies, announced today that Bernadette Hyland, the Chief Executive Officer of...

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4448384.htm

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Open-Xchange Releases Free Migration Tool For Microsoft Outlook Users

Simplifies Switching from Outlook and Exchange to Open-Xchange Server

(PRWeb September 02, 2010)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/09/prweb4449424.htm

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Oracle Apps User Survey now live

Our new survey for users of Oracle Applications is now online.If your organization is a user of ANY of Oracle's applications systems--whether E-Business Suite, JDE, PeopleSoft, Siebel, or others--please help by taking this easy 10-minute survey.The survey is to solicit the views of Oracle customers on several "hot topics," such as Oracle's maintenance and support programs, Fusion Apps, and the

Posted on 27 August 2010 | 1:20 pm

Calling all Oracle Apps customers

I'm getting ready to launch a short survey for Oracle Applications customers. If your organization is a user of ANY of Oracle applications systems--whether E-Business Suite, JDE, PeopleSoft, Siebel, or others--please let me know if you'd like to respond to the survey. It should take less than 10 minutes. My email address is in the right-hand column.What it's about. We are interested in the

Posted on 24 August 2010 | 2:39 pm

Factors that affect ERP implementation cost

The CEO of a small software vendor contacted me last week with a simple question. Did I know of any recent research that provided typical ratios for Tier II ERP implementation cost to software license cost? He didn't say why he was asking, but I assume it was in order to position his own customers' experience against some sort of industry benchmark.My reply was simple. I wrote: Dear XXX,

Posted on 23 August 2010 | 10:36 am

ERP implementation: plan for the worst

Chris Kanaracus, always on the lookout for lawsuits and regulatory filings related to enterprise software, spotted this case study today: a company that was forced to delay reporting of quarterly results due to problems with a newly installed ERP system. VAN NUYS, CALIFORNIA -- August 11, 2010 -- Superior Industries International, Inc. (NYSE:SUP) today announced that it is postponing the release

Posted on 12 August 2010 | 2:40 pm

Countering aggressive software maintenance terms

There are two developments this week on the analyst front, dealing with the issue of software maintenance contracts. First, Gartner issued what it calls a "code of conduct" for vendors in crafting maintenance contracts. Second, my fellow Enterprise Advocate Ray Wang wrote a hard-hitting blog post dealing with what he calls "all-or-nothing" vendor maintenance agreements.Code of ConductGartner's

Posted on 20 July 2010 | 10:55 am

Shifting strategy: Infor casts its lot with Microsoft

Infor came out with two significant announcements this morning. Based on a briefing that Infor gave me yesterday, they point to a major strategic shift in direction. Infor's 70,000 customers should take note.Two announcementsFirst, Infor announced something called Infor ION, which is a set of software services for application integration, document-based communication, and business process

Posted on 23 June 2010 | 8:30 am

Open source not immune to ERP vendor consolidation trend

The enterprise software vendor consolidation trend has now reached the open source corner of the market, with Consona's announcement that it is acquiring Compiere, Inc.Background on Compiere and ConsonaCompiere was one of the first open source ERP developers. I interviewed Compiere's founder and then-CEO Jorg Janke back in 2006 and wrote an extensive post about the product. At the time, Compiere

Posted on 16 June 2010 | 10:24 am

Beware the malicious insider

Over at Computer Economics, we've published a new special report entitled, Malicious Insider Threats: Countering Loss of Confidential Information, Fraud, Sabotage, & Other IT Security Threats Posed by Trusted Insiders.Most organizations are aware of the IT security threats posed by outsiders. Countermeasures such as firewalls, antivirus software, and intrusion detection systems are all aimed at

Posted on 10 June 2010 | 1:22 pm

Plex Online: pure SaaS for manufacturing

As software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers continue to prosper against traditional on-premise enterprise software vendors, I've been frustrated by the lack of SaaS solutions for manufacturing companies. There are a number of SaaS providers of CRM solutions, HRM and other point solutions, of course, that can work for manufacturing firms. But where is there a complete ERP, deployed as SaaS, for

Posted on 9 April 2010 | 2:58 pm

Lawson's cloud services: good start, but no SaaS

Lawson announced a new cloud computing program today, but it's only an incremental step in the right direction.Extension of Lawson's existing managed services offeringFor some time, Lawson has been providing managed services to customers of its traditional on-premise ERP and talent management on-premise software. Under that program, Lawson hosts its software in one of its partner's data centers

Posted on 31 March 2010 | 3:12 pm

Rimini Street sues Oracle for unfair competition and other abuses

This just in: Rimini Street is fighting back against Oracle's lawsuit by filing its own lawsuit against Oracle for copyright misuse, defamation, disparagement, trade libel, and unfair competition.Note: this post has been updated with further information gathered today along with extended excerpts of the Rimini Street court filings.Background: Rimini Street offers third-party maintenance services

Posted on 29 March 2010 | 9:24 am

Update on Infor's Flex program: customers win

Infor's Dennis Michalis stopped by my office for coffee and a chat this morning, and it gave me a good opportunity to see what sort of progress Infor has made in rolling out its Infor Flex program to customers.By way of background, Infor Flex was introduced in June 2009, to allow customers to upgrade to the latest, SOA-enabled versions of their Infor products or to exchange those products for

Posted on 25 March 2010 | 11:37 am

Workday pushing high-end SaaS for the enterprise

Software as a service (SaaS) has made great strides in recent years, especially in small and midsize businesses (e.g. NetSuite) and for departmental applications, such as salesforce automation (e.g. Salesforce.com) and customer service (e.g. RightNow.com).Now Workday is showing that SaaS also has a place in core applications of large organizations. I first noted this trend about two years ago,

Posted on 16 March 2010 | 1:22 pm

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.According to RightNow's press

Posted on 3 March 2010 | 3:01 pm

Victory in court for open source software

My friend Jeff Gordon, an expert on software licensing, alerted me to an important decision that came down today, greatly strengthening the legal basis for open source software licenses. The case, which I've been following for some time, was filed by one Robert Jacobson, who manages an open source project for model railroad enthusiasts, claiming copyright infringement for use of his code in a

Posted on 23 February 2010 | 4:28 pm

SAP pushes back on Gartner for its ranking of Business Objects

SAP is complaining about Gartner's latest Magic Quadrant, which shows its Business Objects product line ranked way down the line for "ability to execute," behind Oracle, Microsoft, IBM, SAS, and Microstrategy.From Information Week:When vendors make it into the top-right "leaders" quadrant of a Gartner Magic Quadrant (MQ) report, they generally don't complain. But SAP isn't thrilled with the "

Posted on 18 February 2010 | 8:17 am

IT workers seeing meager 1.8% pay raise in 2010

Over at Computer Economics, we've just released our new 2010 IT Salary Report. Bottom line: salaries at the median are increasing but not by much:During two years of turmoil, the great recession of 2008-2009 brought budget cutting and layoffs across most IT organizations, large and small. But the picture is brightening for IT workers, and our 2010 IT Salary Report finds that IT organizations are

Posted on 15 February 2010 | 1:48 pm

Oracle shuts down free support blog

Dennis Howlett called my attention to a recent action by Oracle to shut down a free support blog run by one of its senior support people. Chris Warticki’s Oracle Support Blog (See Feb. 24 Update at bottom of this post), was hosted by Oracle but completely under the editorial control of its author.Leaving no doubt that it was Oracle that took action to shut down his blog, Warticki subsequently

Posted on 15 February 2010 | 7:32 am

Not a good week for SAP

There are more management changes in Waldorf, with SAP announcing more changes to its executive board. But the big disappointment is the resignation of John Schwarz, former CEO of Business Objects, which SAP acquired in 2007.Why is he leaving? Most likely because he didn't get the CEO job, which went to Bill McDermott, head of the field operations, and Jim Hagemann Snabe, head of product

Posted on 11 February 2010 | 12:12 pm

SAP top management changes: impact on maintenance fees?

SAP pulled a surprise change in its leadership team over the weekend, with Léo Apotheker out as CEO and replaced by Bill McDermott, head of the field operations, and Jim Hagemann Snabe, head of product development, who will now share the top job. At the same time, SAP elevated Vishal Sika, chief technology officer (CTO) to the SAP Executive Board.Analyts and bloggers have been buzzing about the

Posted on 8 February 2010 | 5:18 pm

Oracle slams Rimini Street with lawsuit over third-party maintenance

Chris Kanaracus at Computerworld alerted me, via email, to the news that Oracle filed has filed a lawsuit against Rimini Street, alleging massive theft of Oracle's intellectual property, in connection with Rimini Street's delivery of third-party maintenance services.Chris was kind enough to send me a PDF of the actual complaint. A quick read reveals allegations similar to those Oracle made in its

Posted on 26 January 2010 | 5:07 pm

Flash: SAP backs down on 22% maintenance fees

SAP has finally thrown in the towel on its fight to unilaterally increase maintenance fees from 18% of software license cost to 22%.According to SAP's press release: SAP...today announced a new, comprehensive tiered support model that is being offered to customers worldwide. This support offering includes SAP Enterprise Support services and the SAP® Standard Support option and will enable all

Posted on 14 January 2010 | 9:52 am

Outlook brightens a bit for 2010 IT spending

Over at Computer Economics, we've just release the findings from our special November survey of IT decision-makers regarding their IT spending and staffing plans for 2010. See the six year trend chart above, with our 2010 projection.Although the 2% projected rise for 2010 in IT spending at the median of the sample is surely not a barn-burner, it's a welcome improvement from the dismal results for

Posted on 16 December 2009 | 1:54 pm

Revisting Epicor's Shared Benefits program

I wrote about Epicor's Shared Benefits program about a month ago, when it was first announced. The program, in brief, offers customers to get back half of the savings if Epicor delivers its implementation services at less than estimated, and only pay half of Epicor's hourly rates if Epicor exceeds its estimate. In essence, it's sort of a compromise between a time-and-materials project and a

Posted on 8 December 2009 | 11:11 am

Killer combination: open source ERP and cloud computing

I honestly can't understand why this has not gotten more attention. Opentaps, an open source ERP project, is now available on Amazon's Elastic Compute (EC2) cloud. Si Chen, of Open Source Strategies, has put up a Youtube video that shows how anyone can go to Amazon and install a working instance of opentaps in less than 10 minutes.Although Si plays it straight, if you have any experience at all

Posted on 19 November 2009 | 9:04 am

FISA Court proposes new rules; DHS restructures the IT workforce;

> New Orleans wasted $1 million on IT staff outsourcing, says IG. Article
> "In Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), we are at once the surveilled and the individual retinal cells of the surveillant, however many millions of us, constantly if unconsciously participatory." Article
> FISA Court proposes new rules. Article
> DHS restructures the IT workforce. Article
> Sweden reopens rape investigation of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Article

And Finally... First, fried beer. Now, the beer popsicle.

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 9:15 am

FDA touts online performance metric dashboards

The Food and Drug Administration received 5,066 Freedom of Information Requests in the first half of this calendar year, according to a recently unveiled online dashboard that's part of the Health and Human Services Department open government effort.

The dashboard belongs to an initiative dubbed FDA-TRACK that will publically monitor more than 100 FDA program offices with quarterly online updates. FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said the online dashboards will counteract a history of opaqueness at the agency, bringing it "into the daylight."

As for the FDA's FOIA requests, available data on the dashboard shows that they remain relatively stable on a month-to-month basis, averaging around 5,000 a month with a maximum range of 309 requests. The dashboard provides FOIA request numbers from October 2009 through June 2010. The agency routed the greatest percentage of the requests--24 percent in all--to the FDA's commissioner's office.

For more:
- go to the FDA-TRACK website
- download the most-recently revised HHS open government plan (.pdf)

Related Articles:
Public satisfaction with online agency transparency down
HHS urges on health data app development
Guest commentary: FOIA is a tool for VA reform
FOIA trends up and down

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 8:52 am

Q&A: Randy Hite on the new GAO EA maturity framework

When the Government Accountability Office released August 5 a major revision to its framework for assessing the maturity of agency enterprise architectures, it was the first change to the framework since 2003. Three years in the making, the new framework could also be the EA swan song of the person whose signature is on the preface, Randy Hite, GAO director for information technology architecture and systems issues.

Hite recently talked with FierceGovernmentIT about the framework, about how enterprise architecture has evolved in recent years and the need for a new round of agency EA implementation evaluations. But, much as a new round of evaluations may be needed, Hite said he won't be able to lead it himself--he leaves government service this December after 33 years.

FGIT: So, why a new enterprise architecture maturity framework now and so long after the last update?

HITE: Frankly, it's late in coming. It's overdue. It's needed, so better late than never. The original one served a purpose, it had been overcome by events. The EA discipline has evolved, the manner in which EA, from a practical standpoint, is being implement has evolved.

And, we've learned a lot from looking at EA across the government, we've learned a lot from interacting with the private sector on the subject, so there was more information and knowledge and context to be brought to this whole question of "How do you manage such a complex endeavor?"

I've been wanting to do this literally for three years now, and because the vast majority of the work we do, and in my case, 100 percent of it, is requested by Congress, this is something I was just able to do in my spare time with others, with their spare time in getting it done. It took longer than we would have liked, but I think it's well worth the wait. I'm really happy with how it turned out.

FGIT: How would you contrast EA as it's practiced today as opposed to in 2003, when the last framework was released?

HITE: Back in the early days of EA, it was sometimes viewed as an all or nothing proposition--a boil the ocean kind of endeavor. You needed to have an enterprisewide, top to bottom, A to Z, fully fleshed out architecture before you could do anything.

In reality, it's not done that way. It's really done on an incremental basis, within the context of establishing some thin layer of policies, principals, standards for your entire enterprise. You can then architecture slivers of your organization in more detail and provide the specifics necessary to drive specific programs implementation and  systems implementation.

One of the major changes in this framework is that it recognizes that fact. You don't have to have a 100 percent complete architecture in order to implement and derive the benefits from architecture.

FGIT: How's that reflected in the new framework?

HITE: The way the stages were constructed in the past was really directed toward developing the entire architecture, implementing the entire architecture. Now there's provision in the framework for getting an initial version of the architecture, and building out parts of the architecutre and targeting parts of your organization for transformation and modernization. There's stages that recognize that, as well the continuous evolution and improvement of it.

Another thing that this version does that the other one didn't do--this is something we learned from applying the framework--is that consistently across government agencies, there were several major obstacles to making architecture a reality. Those dealt with basically a resistance to change, parochialism, lack of understanding in senior executivs in the organization about what architecture is, and a lack of resources and people with the knowledge and skills to develop and implement architecture.

And so, one of the things this version does is recognize right up front in the initial stage, past the stage of becoming just aware of what an architecture is, is that crating institutional commitment to architecture really provides the foundation for making architecture successful. The basic premise is that if your organizational leadership doesn't recognize the value and its role in making architecture a reality, then you're in for an uphill battle. We saw instances in looking at architecture across the government where program offices trying to get this done were literally the tail trying to wag the dog. They just weren't in a position to make it happen. For architecture to work, ownership has to be vested in the leadership of the organization. They have to own it, and they have to be behind it.

FGIT: EA's reputation often precedes itself as difficult to understand and even as just a bureaucratic device.

HITE: I would agree that there's probably that perception out there. What do people as a rule gravitate to? They gravitate and embrace things they understand. That's kind of the irony of the whole thing, because architecture is designed to simplify and streamline what the organization does, and how it does it, where it does it, why it does it.

On the one hand, it's viewed as a bureaucratic check-the-list, must-do-this kind of thing that really provides no decision making value to senior executives. But, in reality, it's intended to provide just that decision-making value. That's the great irony here - the purpose of the architecture is to help the organization have a better understanding of how it operates so that it can react to changes in its environment quickly, so that it can identify opportunities to consolidate and cut costs and improve efficiencies, improve mission performance and better share information.

I think I was asked one time "Where do you see enterprise architecture 25 years from now?" Frankly, I see it as a tool that sits in the boardroom. And, that when a board of directors is trying to make decisions about the strategic direction of the organization, directors consult the enterprise architecture with "what if" kind of questions to understand how would it impact the organization, and what would have to be done to make a strategic shift?

FGIT: In terms of getting from here to there, though, isn't there that constant problem that taking time to understand how a program is best optimized by fitting into EA helps the enterprise, but there's nothing in it for a program in the short run?

HITE: If you view programs as independent, isolated, individual endeavors, yes, there's nothing in it for that one program.

FGIT: Isn't that pretty much how they're funded and managed?

HITE: Not really, no. I think they are managed--and it's not consistent across all organizations--as an inter-related set of investments. There's a recognition that no program, no system, is an island.

FGIT: There's a GAO report that's barely a few months old, if that, that talks about how FAA doesn't have management tools to manage its NextGen portfolio in a multi-program manner.

HITE: There may be an absence of the tools they need to make that happen. That doesn't mean that there wouldn't be a recognition that there are those interdependencies and relationships. One of the tools to make that happen would be the architecture.

If a program is being defined and designed within the constructs of an architecture, there would be ample opportunity to identity where other services or applications already exist within the organization that will fulfill the need of my program. To the extent that I don't have to develop that myself within my own program, and I can access that service that already exists, I've got an opportunity to save money on my program, and to invest those funds in maybe expanding the kind of functionality that my program can deliver. Or, frankly, just saving money as a cost-cutting measure.

A lot of this is going to be driven by what you're responsible for and accountable for and judged on. If I'm a program, and get I rewarded and evaluated on the basis of the extent to which I act in a manner that is in the best interests of my enterprise as a whole, then I don't pursue [other efforts]. You've got to hold program managers accountable for marching in step with the architecture context of that organization.

FGIT: The new framework now has more gradations--59 core elements now?

HITE: Fifty-nine core elements now, 31 before. The comments that we received from departments on agencies on the prior version was that they were looking for more granularity and specificity in the core elements, to help them implement it.

We're always trying to strike this balance between providing the principles we wanted to have implemented, and not being prescriptive in terms of how that gets done. For example, in the prior framework, we had the need for an architecture framework, an architecture repository tool and a development methodology all rolled into the same core element. In this one, it breaks them out separately.

The reason we did that is because rarely did any organization have all three, but they may have had one of those. We wanted to break them out separately to provide emphasis and attention to all three and to spend more time explaining what we want by all three, because there was some confusion. For example, what's an architecture methodology? Agencies we would go to would describe their framework as being a methodology. They're two completely different things, so we wanted to clarify that.

Some of the other things that account for the increase in core elements is that this version recognizes the concept of architecture federation and segmentation, service orientation, and having an extended architecture across organizations. There are more processes, procedures, structured that we wanted to have in place to cover those kinds of things. Now it deals not only with the corporate architecture that the prior version dealt with--the end all, the be all, the boil the ocean type, one-of-a-kind monolithic architecture. This version recognizes that there is a hierarchy of architectures that make up the family of architectures in an organization, whether you do it on a segmented or a federated basis.

FGIT: Is ITIL influencing enterprise architecture much?

HITE: Frankly, I haven't done current work in the last three to four years on what agencies are doing, architecturally. The last time we've really looked at architecture across the government was probably about five years ago.

FGIT: Any plans for a new evaluation?

HITE: I really think there should be one. We don't have anything planned, and as I said, 100 percent of my work is congressionally requested. We don't have an outstanding request to look at this across the government. I think it should be done. Whether or not we do get a request, or whether or not GAO itself will launch something, is going to be out of my hands. I'm retiring this year. I'll have over 33 years of service, in December.

FGIT: You mentioned that one of the important parts of getting an EA operational is getting executive support. But that's been said, far as I can tell, forever as long as there's been such a thing as EA.

HITE: I have a couple thoughts on that.

In the federal government, for the most part, senior leaders are only here for a short stay. They're looking to make something happen in the near term. Architecture is a strategic asset. The return on investment in architecture is not going to be so much this year or next year, it's going to be downstream. It's a long term investment. And I would dare say that individuals that are coming into the government in leadership positions are looking to demonstrate an impact right away. They don't tend to be here for the long term.

The other thing I would suggest is a lack of understanding and awareness--education around what EA is and what it can do for you.

FGIT: Architects hardly help in this matter--there's a lot of very specialized jargon that goes along with EA.

HITE: I got to believe that there is a translation that goes on between the CIO and those leaders to remove the jargon from it and to put it in concrete business terms. One of the things we did in this framework--we not only talked about the fact that in stage one you have to have a committee made up of the business leaders of the organization and the CXOs of the organization that are the vested owners of the architecture, but that these people actually need to have been given some type of understanding of the principles and concepts associated with architecture. So that they don't come into it with a gross unawareness of what architecture is, what it can do for you. We emphasize that's something that needs to be done. In the absence of that, you do run the risk of someone in the discipline making their eyes glaze over with the kind of terminology that they've been suing to describe things.

I also believe--it's something I've never said before--that when organizations develop their enterprise architectures--and this is something John Zachman always talked about--there are differing views of the organization that one can have, depending on where you sit in the organization. I've always felt that there needs to be the most senior executive view of the architecture. If an architecture is a document, and that document is literally a thousand pages, there needs to be the executive summary, so the senior executives have a better understanding of what it is and how it represents the organization.

When Charles Rossotti was at the IRS, and they first went through putting their enterprise architecture together, he did that. Not only for himself, although he literally read the thousand pages, but for his executive team. He also wanted that to help him for those outside of the organization that were in oversight roles.

FGIT: As far as short term senior leaders, isn't that a permanent, systematic thing?

HITE: Yeah, that's a reality. What can be done? That's a tough one, I don't know what the answer to that one is. There's probably just as many cases where that's not true, that you have very experienced business leaders coming into senior positions in the government, and they realize that there's things we want to do to position this organization for long term transformation, and there those things we want to do in order to provide near term benefits and gains. I've never really queried the most senior people in government to ask them, ‘Do you understand, do you endorse it, if not, why?'

That probably would be a valuable thing to do.

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 8:19 am

NIEM expansion could require contractor support

As the National Information Exchange Model becomes more embedded within agencies as the technical basis for cross-organizational information exchange, its program management office is contemplating hiring a small business to support the model's expansion.

The fiscal 2011 budget passback from the Office of Management and Budget requires agencies to at least evaluate NIEM as a means for sharing information. In all, twelve agencies, including DHS and the Justice Department, currently make use of it; another seven are actively contemplating its adoption, according to government sources.

NIEM uses XML schemas to standardize core data components for exchange and allows other communities of interest to create mutually-intelligible data components specific to their communities. The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board utilized it for the creation of Recovery.gov and its proponents include the Health and Human Services Department.

In a request for information released Sept. 1, the NIEM program office says it might require a small business to support its activities going forward. Among the potential duties of the small business would be to create domain models and perform gap analysis and document extensions to the NIEM model.

Responses to the RFI are due by Sept. 7.

For more:
- go to the FBO page for the NIEM PMO RFI
- go to the NIEM PMO webpage

Related Articles:
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NIEM director offers four tips on information sharing
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Posted on 2 September 2010 | 8:04 am

DARPA in pursuit of insider threats

Just as constantly looking over your shoulder might betray nefarious intent, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency says certain system and network activities could indicate the presence of an insider threat.

Insiders granted legitimate access to sensitive networks are notoriously difficult to catch--witness the saga of Bradley Manning, the Army intelligence analyst who allegedly sent a large cache of documents to Wikileaks after downloading them onto a CD labeled "Lady Gaga." As a DARPA broad agency announcement for a new program to detect insiders through their behavior notes, insider threats to date have largely been identified only through perpetrators' incompetence or by accident.

The DARPA program is Cyber Insider Threat, which the agency, through the miracle of selective acronym selection, dubs CINDER. At its head is Peiter Zatko, aka Mudge, a former hacker hired by DARPA earlier this year. CINDER will fund insider detection capabilities in three phases, starting with identifying the types of "missions" an insider might undertake and techniques to identify them.

For example, a malicious insider might take an unusual interest in log files, make frequent queries of who is logged into a particular system, or might repeat non-standard queries to databases, the announcement states. But the goal of CINDER isn't to identify inside actors per se, since a system that would examine isolated activities would run the risk being inundated with false positives. What's needed is a context--hence, identification of insider threat missions that might be performed by an individual or a group of people, the announcement states.

One such mission could "remain persistent within an environment and continuously identify and exfiltrate actionable intelligence as it is discovered."

Previous attempts to model the behavior of legitimate users have been problematic, the announcement says.

Later phases will develop a system utilizing information from Phase I to create a system capable of identifying multiple insider threat missions and demonstrate that system "at scale on real world environments," the announcement states.

For more:
- see the FBO webpage for the DARPA CINDER broad agency announcement or directly download the BAA (.docx)

Related Articles:
IARPA looks to the future
Hacker 'Mudge' will help DARPA to deal with cybersecurity attacks
Lynn: Cyber deterrence rests mostly on denial, not retaliation

Posted on 2 September 2010 | 7:13 am

Auditors: CBP unable to detect excessive custom refunds in fiscal 2009

Customs and Border Patrol was unable to prevent itself from issuing excessive custom duty refunds during the last fiscal year due to inherent limitations and lack of controls in certain information technology systems.

Auditing firm KPMG found the material weakness--which also includes in an inability to prevent and correct excessive refunds--during a review of CBP internal controls over financial reporting during fiscal 2009. The Homeland Security Department inspector general released the audit to the public Sept. 1 in redacted form.

U.S. firms are entitled to a customs duty refund, known as "drawback claim," under some circumstances, such as when they export products made with imported merchandise. The customs duty paid when that imported merchandise entered the United States can be the subject of a drawback claim. The penalty for submitting a false drawback claim ranges from a written notice to a fine constituting the amount of the entire false claim, plus restitution.

The amount of redaction done to the KPMG audit makes it impossible to state which information technology system is responsible for the material weakness.

However, the key systems subject to review by KPMG auditors for the report include the Automated Commercial System and the Automated Commercial Environment.

The latter, a web-based portal, is replacing the former, a mainframe-based system. A 2009 review of ACE by the DHS chief information officer found the program has encountered challenges since its initiation in 2001. Among them has been a shifting baseline and significant delays; the review states that as planned, ACE cannot be completed within budget.

The KPMG audit also reviewed the Seized Assets and Cases Tracking System (SEACATS) and CBP's financial management system, which is SAP R/3.

In CBP's official response to the audit, Charles Armstrong, CBP CIO, said he agrees with KPMG's findings.

For more:
- download the redacted audit, OIG-10-109 (.pdf)
- read the November 2009 DHS CIO assessment of ACE (.pdf)

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Posted on 1 September 2010 | 8:40 pm

OMB plummets in agency satisfaction rankings

The Office of Management and Budget is seen by its employees as among the worst small agencies to work for in the federal government, according to a study of federal personnel perceptions.

The study, based largely on data collected by the Office of Personnel Management and analyzed with a statistical model at the behest of the Partnership for Public Service and American University, ranks OMB as the 25^th among 36 small agencies.

That's a sharp contrast from the 2009 results, when OMB was ranked third among small agencies.

In a prepared statement, OMB spokeswoman Meg Reilly said that agency takes the results seriously.

"We are preparing new workplace initiatives to address the concerns we have heard that can be implemented right away. We are also creating longer-term operational and strategic recommendations for Jack Lew's consideration after he is confirmed as OMB Director.  We're confident that this process will yield immediate results for OMB employees and improve overall workplace satisfaction," she said.

Other low ranking agencies include the Federal Communications Commission, which is ranked 21^st.

Among large agencies, the National Archives and Records Administration ties with the Department of Housing and Urban Development  for last place at number 31.

The General Services Administration--despite a social media policy evocative of Russian repression, according to some employees there--ranks 8^th among large agencies. 

Overall government satisfaction can be ranked as a score of 65 out of 100, the study states. That number represents an all-time high score since the Partnership for Public Service and AU began the study in 2003. This year's is the fifth study. The number is a 2.7 percent increase from 2009 and a 7.4 percent jump from 2003.

"A high level of satisfaction and employee commitment translates into better organizational performance and government effectiveness," state study authors.

For more:
- go to the Partnership for Public Service website

Related Articles:
Feds less satisfied with telework programs, says OPM survey
Survey finds vast disparity in public- and private- sector telework

Posted on 1 September 2010 | 7:35 am

NASA posts historic photos on Flickr; DHS goes to email as a service;

> Federal agencies gird themselves for Earl with technology old and new. Article and Article
> Hurricane Earl could imperil teleworkers, too. Article
> CNN "sidestepped company channels" (YouTube), apparently more than Craigslist's CEO can mentally accommodate. Article  
> NASA posts historic photos on Flickr, including this snap of the Apollo 11 rocket launching and the first launch of the Bumper 2 rocket in 1950. Website
> California preschoolers tracked with RFID chips. Article and EFF reaction
> DHS goes to email as a service. Article

And Finally... Video of all asteroids discovered since 1980.

Posted on 1 September 2010 | 6:34 am

Electronic signatures now preferred in the Navy

Electronic signatures are now the preferred way of conducting business at the Department of the Navy.

DON Chief Information Officer Rob Carey signed on August 27 a memo--meant for electronic distribution only, naturally--stating that while hand-written signatures are still permissible, they're not preferred.

Decreasing reliance on paper transaction will improve information sharing and security and allow quicker access to documents, Carey states. The memo applies to all DON military, civilian and contractor personnel.

Affixing an electronic signature requires a Defense Department-approved Public Key Infrastructure certificate such as already issued with a Common Access Card. When a person affixes an electronic signature to a document, that person's identity is verified via the PKI certificate.

The Defense Department has required since 2006 PKI-based digital signature applications to undergo testing at the Joint Interoperability Test Command to ensure interoperability across the department.

Carey is due to soon leave his position as DON CIO in favor of a policy and strategy position with the Navy 10th Fleet/Cyber Command.

For more:
- download Carey's August 27 memo, SECNAVIST INSTRUCTION 5239.21  
- read a May 5, 2006 memo from the DoD CIO regarding DoD-wide digital signature interoperability (.pdf)

Related Articles:
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No Blackberries in the SCIF
Q&A: Rob Carey's exit interview

Posted on 31 August 2010 | 9:25 pm

Simplified acquisition and other thresholds going up

Contracting officers, rejoice! The quincennial adjustment of various federal acquisition thresholds arrived August 30 in a final ruling that becomes applicable starting Oct 1.

Among the changes is a rise in the simplified acquisition threshold from $100,000 to $150,000. That means that procurements worth up to 50 percent more than the old threshold will now be eligible for the simplified acquisition process, under which agencies need not bother with formal evaluation plans, nor establishing a competitive range, nor conducting discussions, nor scoring offers. Also, a contracting officer, not necessarily a source selection team, can choose the contract winner under simplified acquisition procedures.

The final rule also raises the threshold level of a simplified acquisition "pilot program" (it's been in place since 1997) that allows the government to apply simplified acquisition procedures in procurements now worth up to $6.5 million, provided that a contracting officer "reasonably expects" based on market research that offers will include only commercial items not worth more than that. The old limit on the "pilot program" was $5.5 million.   

The distinction between procurements made through simplified acquisition procedure versus procurements under the threshold is slight, at least for a commercial items vendor. Mainly it matters because procurements above the threshold done with the procedure might be subject to scrutiny that acquisitions made under the threshold aren't. For example, contracting officers have to check a database called the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System (FAPIIS) for any procurement worth more than the threshold, but not for procurements worth less.

In addition, the final rule rises the contract value threshold after which prime contracts must submit a subcontracting plan. The old threshold for negotiated procurements, plus sealed bidding was $550,000. It now becomes $650,000.

The Truth In Negotiations Act's cost-or-pricing data threshold also gets elevated. Starting Oct. 1, contracting officers have an opportunity ask for cost-or-pricing data in order to determine price reasonableness starting with contracts worth $700,000. Until then, the threshold remains $650,000.

The Federal Acquisition Regulation discourages contracting officers from requesting cost-or-pricing data, even going so far as to mostly prohibit its use for price reasonableness determinations in the acquisition of commercial items.

Companies consider cost-or-pricing data a generally invasive tool, since if the government requests it, it's calling for all facts that affect price negotiations significantly.

Unchanged by the rule is the micro-purchase threshold, which holds fast generally at $3,000. Purchases made below the micro-purchase threshold don't require a contracting officer for completion. Above the threshold, however, only contracting officers in possession of a signed warrant from the agency's senior procurement executive can bind the government into a new contract.

For more:
- download the final quincennial thresholds adjustment rule (.pdf)
- download a matrix tracking all the changes (.pdf)

Related Articles:
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Posted on 31 August 2010 | 8:41 pm

Why congressional websites suck

Congressional websites are generally mediocre even if they tend to perk up in quality during an election year, states a new paper printed in a Brookings Institution newsletter.  

Based on the presence and absence of about 100 criteria such as timeliness of updates present during 2006 and 2007, three political science academics conclude that congressional websites are stuck in a suboptimal equilibrium.

Perhaps that's not surprising, given the true-life anecdote the authors relate, that of one member of Congress asking a staffer which television channel would display the member's homepage.

Nonetheless, during election years, the quality of incumbents' websites scored higher, state the authors - Kevin Esterling of the University of California-Riverside, David Lazer of Northeastern University and Michael Neblo of Ohio State University.

But, high quality is apparently just a fleeting phase since in years when an incumbent isn't up for re-election, quality regresses to the generally low average, the article authors state.

Congress as an institution doesn't promote website quality, the authors state, as evidenced by the fact that the websites of incoming congressional freshmen follow the same quality distribution curve as that of incumbents.  

"You could imagine Congress having mechanisms that would help members of Congress continuously improve their websites and get them to meet best practices," said Esterling during a telephone interview August 31. "We couldn't find evidence of institutionalization of such a process," he added.

Based on interviews the academics conducted with congressional staff, the authors say that metrics of what portions of a member's website constituents find the most interesting generally have no impact on content.

"Given this, it is perhaps no surprise that we found that the qualities of websites are virtually unrelated to the characteristics of members' districts," they state.

Neither do offices consult with each other to learn best practices. Political parties do take an interest in members' websites, but mostly to make sure they're on message, Esterling said while on the phone.

The paper also criticizes the office of House Information Resources, which provides limited website support, such as templates and webhosting.

"Perhaps it's changed, although I doubt it," Esterling said. Staffers told the authors that the templates are limited and constraining, and that working with House Information Resources can be a time-consuming affair.

Article authors hold out little hope for change, but do state that awards given out by the Congressional Management Foundation for the best congressional websites have at least fired up the competitive ardor of members who seek to out-do their peers in all matters, whether geeky as a website or not.

For more:
- download the article, "Improving Congressional Websites" (.pdf)
- see some of the ugliest and worst business websites of 2009
- go to perhaps the worst political website, ever (made with Microsoft FrontPage 5.0!)

Related Articles:
Study finds higher digital IQ among GOP senators
National Guard Bureau advises on social media, avoids official policy
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Posted on 31 August 2010 | 7:39 pm

Agencies stay watchful amid social-media fervor

Hyper-vigilance on the inside and the outside seems to continue as the watchword for government attitudes toward social media.

For example, should you happen to say anything about the Food and Drug Administration in a social media context, the agency wants to know about it.

According to a solicitation recently posted on FedBizOpps.gov, FDA is looking to acquire "a social media monitoring service to provide metrics and in-depth tracking of mentions of the FDA in any website/blog/micro-blog or online publication." It explains that the data will help assess the reach of FDA messaging and its effectiveness, in order "to get a pulse on how FDA is faring online."

FDA is looking for a hosted solution, for a minimum one-year contract that will provide comprehensive coverage, social media metrics, data filtering and segmentation, workflow management, social media web analytics, social CRM and engagement, automated sentiment analysis, historical data, and enterprise-level scalability.

But a recent post on the Air Force website should serve a reminder that agencies also wants their workers to police themselves. Airmen should consider "the risks and vulnerabilities" associated with revealing personally identifiable information on Web 2.0 platforms, the post states.

"We're starting to see a loss of sensitive information occurring at an alarming rate," said Ryan McCausland, of the service's information protection directorate, in the Air Force article. "We must all continually safeguard our personal information as well as the information we handle in the workplace."

Among the restricted items mentioned in the Air Force post are biographies, rosters, telephone directories and organizational lists. The message of the Air Force post echoes a recent informal announcement by the National Guard Bureau.

For more:
- see the FedBizOpps.gov solicitation
- see the Air Force public affairs post

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Posted on 31 August 2010 | 1:55 pm

Audio: Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center on AEHF stall - UPDATED

Air Force officials said August 30 that an on-board thruster meant to send the first Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellite into geosynchronous orbit shut down prematurely following the bird's August 14 launch on an Atlas V rocket.

The Air Force first acknowledged the problem in an August 20 statement, but David Madden, director for the Military Satellite Communications Wing at the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center in Los Angeles, elaborated on the problem in an approximately 40 minute phone call with reporters on August 30. Click below to hear the full audio of the press call.

The Lockheed Martin [NYSE:LMT]-built satellite, the first of a constellation meant to replace the aging Milstar system, is currently being nudged into a "parking orbit" of 950 kilometers, outside the effects of the Earth's atmosphere, Madden said. From there, the Air Force says it will husband on-board fuel and raise the first AEHF into the originally planned geosynchronous orbit, albeit four to five months later than anticipated.

UPDATE: For more:
- read Dave Madden's opening statement

Posted on 30 August 2010 | 12:17 pm

VA's Baker: No wholesale dumping of MUMPS

As the Veterans Affairs Department sorts through responses to a request for information on the viability of open source software as a component of the VistA electronic health record architecture, it's also making clear that the MUMPS programing language will continue to underpin VistA in the near term.

VA chief information officer Roger Baker released an August 30 statement noting that the VA's current health information technology system, the VA Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture, known as VistA, contains more than 15 million lines of code written in MUMPS.

"I just don't see us deciding to re-code all of that in another language right away," Baker said. "One question I had was how well modules written in other languages will interface with MUMPS code, but lots of folks have weighed in to assure me that it is not a significant issue," he added.

"So, I would expect an Open Source VistA system to evolve over time as people chose the language they prefer to write new functionality," Baker concluded.

Related Articles:
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Posted on 30 August 2010 | 6:52 am

Army looks to research for tips on tech-centric leadership

In the future, Army commanders will text orders to a dispersed and decentralized force who rarely see their superior officers, says the Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences.

Units will be isolated, command posts will be mobile, the planning process will be collaborative, but communicating intent will rely on electronic means, the institute states in a recently listed a notice on FedBizOpps.gov soliciting whitepapers. Leading via information technology represents a "fundamental change in the mode of communication between soldiers and their immediate leader," the notice adds. The deadline for responses is September 7.

A shift to remote command and control has structural implications for Army leadership, leading the institute to acknowledge that it needs more research about the implications.

"The primary goal of this research is to provide guidance to leaders on how to best manage emerging relationships, build trust and identification, clarify expectations, and motivate and inspire followers through electronic media," the announcement states.

"Leaders must understand how information technology is being used effectively (and ineffectively) in a military context, how to forestall potential problems associated with new technology, how technology can be used to facilitate leader influence, and what knowledge, skills, and abilities are needed to lead in a technology-mediated environment," it adds.

ARI's objectives for the research include: 

• An assessment of current frequency and function of technology-mediated communication among Army leaders and their subordinates;
• identification of characteristics that are embodied by an effective technology-enabled leader;
• development of best practices for e-leadership in a military context, and a description of the ease of implementation of said practices; and
• development of recommendations for training military leaders who are attempting to influence from a distance via electronic communication.

For more:
- see this FedBizOpps.Gov post

Related Articles:
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Army General: Too soon to abandon manual processes

Posted on 30 August 2010 | 6:31 am

InfoWeek finds disconnect between OMB and agencies; Mars rovers still going;

> Colonel sent home from Afghanistan for criticizing PowerPoint use. Article
> Well duh--InfoWeek survey finds "significant disconnect between OMB's centralized IT policies and what's actually happening within agencies." Article
> DoD social media guru leaves department. Article
> Mars rovers still going. Article
> Old adults embracing social media. Survey overview and report (.pdf)

And Finally... More signs of the impending apocalypse: Deep fried beer. Article

Posted on 30 August 2010 | 6:13 am

DON EA version 2.0.000 now available

The Department of Navy Enterprise Architecture version 2.0.000 is out! The new EA includes rules regarding open architecture, conditioned-based maintenance and emerging country code standards, according to the DON CIO. Unfortunately, a detailed description of applicability and usage of DON EA v2.0.000 content won't be available until "prior to Sept. 30, 2010." Enforcement of the new EA starts on Oct. 1, 2010.

Posted on 29 August 2010 | 8:26 pm

Lynn: Cyber deterrence rests mostly on denial, not retaliation

Deterrence in the cyber world will depend far less on retaliation than on denying enemies access to U.S. networks in the first place, says Defense Secretary William Lynn.

Lynn wrote a much-noted article that appeared online August 25 in Foreign Affairs discussing efforts the Defense Department is undertaking to counter increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks. While attention has generally focused on Lynn's account of an foreign intelligence network attack made through an infected USB drive, the deputy secretary also makes several policy points in the article.

The extent to which a cyber attack should provoke a retaliatory response has been a recent matter of debate within the strategic community. But given the difficulty of assigning attribution to cyber penetrations, and given the fact that what constitutes a cyber attack, as opposed to espionage, "deterrence will necessarily be based more on denying any benefit to attackers than on imposing costs through retaliation," Lynn wrote.

In a phone call with reporters, Lynn didn't exclude retaliation, but emphasized that "the mix in the cyber world is more heavily weighted to denial of benefit than retaliation."

Deterrence founded mostly of retaliation isn't the only Cold War concept that fails to make the cyber cut in Lynn's article. Because attribution difficulties make verification of compliance almost impossible, traditional arms control regimes would also likely fail to deter cyber attacks, Lynn wrote.

"If there are to be international norms of behavior in cyberspace, they may have to follow a different model, such as that of public health or law enforcement," he added.

However, the Cold War construct of shared warning among allies does apply to cyberspace, Lynn wrote. During his press availability, Lynn said he's recently traveled officially to the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia and will travel to NATO headquarters in the next month to foster cybersecurity cooperation.

Lynn's Foreign Affairs article also tackles the problem of acquiring information technology capabilities for the Defense Department. Few disagree that the current acquisition process as generally administered results in the department lagging in acquiring cutting edge private sector technology.

But the Pentagon is developing a new, specific acquisition track for IT, Lynn wrote. It will allow acquisition cycles of 12 to 36 months rather than seven to eight years, as often occurs now, he said.

In addition, the new acquisition track will allow for incremental development and for different levels of oversight, depending on the mission criticality of the technology in question. For it to work, however, the military "must be willing to sacrifice or defer some customization in order to achieve speedy incremental improvements," Lynn wrote.

For more:
- read Lynn's Foreign Affairs article (reg. req.)
- listen to Lynn's phone call press availability (.mp3)

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Posted on 29 August 2010 | 7:19 pm

Rand: Rate network dependability according to how humans, and not hardware, see it

Incorporating user perceptions into a network dependability measurement framework results in a more accurate picture than when data comes only from traditional sources, says a new Rand research paper.

Rand produced the paper at the behest of the Navy's Program Executive Office for Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence (PEO C4I). As the military grows increasingly dependent on networks, their dependability is vital, the paper notes.

The study criticizes a measurement of network operational availability arrived at through dividing uptime by the amount of time a network is both working and not working. A simple binary concept of network availability misses times of partial functionality, such as when a network is congested or partially degraded.

What's more, human failures--as opposed in particular to hardware failures, which is a traditional source of data in network dependability measurement frameworks--count for more than half of failures in networked environments, the Rand study states, citing other studies.

Availability isn't, therefore, dependent just on whether the hardware or other network components are fully functional. Rather, it can be measured as percentage of successfully executed service requests made during a certain time period, the study states.

Directly modeling the availability of a service is easier said than done, it adds. It would require diagramming all the hardware and software, as well as human interaction.

As for measuring sailor perception, Rand recommends that the Navy come up with a standardized way for sailors to report availability or reliability-related issues, since otherwise that perception-based information is not easily accessible nor comparable across systems.  

For More:
- download the Rand report, "Navy Network Dependability: Models, Metrics and Tools." (.pdf)

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Posted on 29 August 2010 | 2:35 pm

DOT pays out unjustified award fees on cost plus contracts, says IG

The Transportation Department pays incentive fees to contractors without demonstrating that they deserve them, says an inspector general report.

The report, dated August 25 and based on an investigation conducted between June 2007 and May 2010, examines 24 cost plus award fee contracts from seven Transportation administrations, including the Federal Aviation Administration and the Federal Highway Administration. The contracts have a potential maximum value of more than $3 billion and about $170 million in available award fees. Under cost plus award contracts, vendors receive a percentage of a pre-determined incentive fee based on performance--a "fee" in this case being what the private sector calls "profit."  

Cost plus award fees are slightly different than cost plus incentive fee contracts--in the latter, vendor profit can go up or down, in large measure based on an inverse relation to how close the final cost is to the estimated total cost.

While Transportation officials generally give contractors high ratings, paving the way for them to receive award fees dependent on performance, they generally do not demonstrate how contractors meet or exceed evaluation criteria, the report states. During one rating period, civil servants extended to contractors 91 percent of the $16.5 million available award fees, but didn't adequately justify why they had done so in cases amounting to $14 million of paid out award fees, the report states.

Extrapolating to all 41 cost plus award fee contracts Transportation officials had going as of Dec. 31, 2006, auditors assert that the department has paid approximately $140.6 million in award fees without proper justification. That assertion comes with a large caveat, however--auditors assign their number a confidence rating of 90 percent, meaning that the range of statistically possible values range from $75.5 million to $216.1 million.  

Proper justification has been lacking in large measure because none of the examined contracts have clear and measurable criteria to evaluate contractor performance, auditors state. For example, the Federal Highway Administration's Adaptive Control Software contract calls for adjectival ratings such as "above standard," but performance monitors have differing individual interpretations on what that ratings language means.

Contract language in 13 of the 24 reviewed contracts also allows for vendors to be paid award fees even if they return below-average results, auditors state.

Because some Transportation administrations allow award fee payment for mere satisfactory payment, and some contracts also allow for a "base fee" contingent only on satisfactory performance, in many cases vendors are rewarded twice for the same satisfactory performance, the report asserts.

The audit also finds that duties in the award-fee process aren't properly separated, with some performance monitors also serving on the performance evaluation board. "In other words, performance monitors are reviewing their own rating," the report states.

In the department's official response to the audit, Linda Washington, assistant secretary for administration, says the report "overstates the issues," adding that Transportation disagrees with the report's assertion of $14 million in unjustified award fees and thus also auditor's extrapolation to $140.6 million. Had the department instead used cost plus fixed fee contracts in those cases, she adds, Transportation could have spent another $1.4 million more.

For more:
- download the audit report, ZA-2010-092
- download a Dec. 4, 2007 OMB memo on the "Appropriate Use of Incentive Contracts"

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Posted on 29 August 2010 | 12:26 pm

William Lynn wrote an article on cybersecurity; Navy lost control of drone that violated D.C. airspace;

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Posted on 26 August 2010 | 9:45 am

State attorneys call for shut down of Craigslist adult services ads

State attorneys are once again pressuring Craigslist over prostitution, requesting that the San Francisco-based company immediately take down the adult services section of its websites.

Spurred in part by a CNN report (YouTube) in which a child advocate dubbed the ubiquitous classified ad website "the Wal-Mart of child sex trafficking," the attorney generals of 17 states sent Craigslist an August 24 letter asking for "immediate action to end the misery for the women and children who may be exploited and victimized by these ads."

The letter also cites the case of two girls, who identified themselves only as MC and AK, who say they were trafficked for sex through Craigslist; the girls' open letter appeared earlier this month in ads taken out in The Washington Post and the San Francisco Chronicle.

Self-policing efforts by Craigslist have failed to reduce obvious ads for prostitution in the adult services section, the state attorneys state.

The online classified ad company wrote a blog post August 18 touting its manual review process of adult services ads, stating that more than 700,000 such ads have been rejected from May 2009 to May 2010. The company also wrote an earlier response to MC and AK, asking that "you or the advocacy groups who placed the ads please let us know where the police reports were filed?" and requesting that responses be sent to legal [at]craigslist.org.

"Craigslist is one of the few bright spots and success stories in the critical fight against trafficking and child exploitation," the blog post states.

State attorney pressure against Craigslist is nothing new. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, at the head of a 39-state coalition, subpoenaed the company in May for documents relating to "the craigslist brothel business " (as he put it).

At the time, Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster accused Blumenthal of "once again indulging in self-serving publicity at the expense of the truth and his constituents."

Political pressure had in 2009 succeeded in compelling Craigslist to take down its "erotic services" section and institute the manual review process of ads in the new adult services section. Nonetheless, a cursory look at Craigslist shows that pictures of scantily-clad women offering various types of relaxing massages are prevalent on the site.

The site also entered into an agreement in 2008 with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and the attorneys general of 40 states to clamp down on illegal activity on the site.

The 17 attorneys general who signed the letter are from Arkansas, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.

For more:
- download the letter from 17 state attorneys (.pdf)
- watch the CNN report on prostitution on Craigslist

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Posted on 26 August 2010 | 8:56 am

Spotlight: A look at Telecoms participating in Networx

The General Service Administration's massive Networx telecom contract offers considerably more services than FTS 2001, the current telecom contract offering which expires in June 2011. But while Networx might not immediately lead to a revolution in federal telecom, it has caused significant changes in the telecom industry. 

"Under Networx Universal, participating service providers AT&T (NYSE: T), Qwest (NYSE: Q) and Verizon (NYSE: VZ) have to provide both legacy TDM and next-gen IP services that are currently on the FTS 2001 and Crossover contracts, while Networx Enterprise, which includes Level 3 (NASDAQ: LVLT), Sprint (NYSE: S), AT&T, Qwest and Verizon, is primarily focused on next-gen IP services," explains a recent special report from sister-publication, FierceTelecom. Read FierceTelecom's rising government communications stars

Posted on 26 August 2010 | 8:34 am

Fast, cheap and at the communications edge: The new Army software model

Mobile applications and devices will become increasingly critical to meeting the needs of warfighters who are producing and consuming information in combat zones, said an official from the Army Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center (CERDEC).

A first step toward realizing an apps model is making situational awarenes systems used at the edge of connectivity, such as Command Post of the Future (CPOF) and Battle Command, more customizable, said Michael Anthony, chief of Advanced Applications Branch at CERDEC, during a blogger roundtable on August 25.

CPOF now allows third parties to create enhancements through a software developer's kit, Anthony said. Any developer can follow Project Management Battle Command's process to add new capabilities into CPOF much more quickly than with traditional acquisition, he added.

"Today's warfighters are facing an ever-changing, ever-adapting, ever-evolving enemy. And we need to be able to adapt if not as fast, or faster than the enemy. And to put it bluntly, our traditional process, the DOD 5000 process, does not necessarily enable this, at least for software," said Anthony.

"So we believe by allowing or decentralizing some of this ability to create solutions to meet the immediate needs of warfighters, and then creating an environment to share that across the organization, we'll realize a greater return on taxpayer dollar. So not only will we be able to meet our servicemen and women's immediate needs, we'll also be able to achieve this in a total cost of ownership--at a lower total cost of ownership," said Anthony.

When the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency developed and deployed the Tactical Ground Reporting system (TIGR), an edge-enabled system, it did not follow the traditional DoD 5000 model, explained Anthony. It was "put in front of soldiers in a very fast, iterative process in theater, enhanced based on direct warfighter feedback."

"The DoD 5000, you know, is an incredible model when you're building a major system, a plane, a tank, a battleship" said Anthony. He said that, although the process takes time, it also covers important bases in security and accreditation.

"I'm not sure if it warrants a significant change to the policy or some sort of additional guidance," said Anthony. "Some of the PMs are leaning forward to, you know, not only enhance this but see how this type of process can work within their own system or program of record."

This focus on providing access to edge-enabled systems builds upon Army CIO and G6, Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Sorenson's interest in creating an app-enabled Army. On August 10, Sorenson said an acquisition decision memorandum that would define mobile application specs for operating environment, standardize configuration and cybersecurity architecture would be released by the end of August.

Anthony said an ADM along those lines has not been released yet, but the Army is actively pursuing that model and putting together the accreditation process. "I think the programs of record are all working aggressively to ensure that they can leverage, exploit and harvest some of the innovation that we believe the Army's going to--or at least this technology will--enable the Army to spread across the enterprise," said Anthony.

For more:
- listen to the DoDLive roundtable

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Posted on 26 August 2010 | 7:41 am

Lack of technical data hampers competition at DoD, says GAO

Lack of access to technical data is a major barrier to competition at the Defense Department, concludes a Government Accountability Office report.

In nearly 60 percent of 47 noncompetitive Defense contracts examined by the GAO, the department was essentially stuck with a certain contractor since it lacked technical data behind the goods and services it has been purchasing.

It's a situation that contractors haven't been entirely loathe to part with. In one case, a contractor informed an Air Force missile program that it would cost $30,000 merely to put together a cost estimate for its technical data package, the GAO report states. The contractor later said it would part with the technical data for $31 million, but wouldn't sell the rights to critical software, which was proprietary to the contractor.

In another case, a contractor with a $4.8 billion sustainment and support contract told the Air Force that purchasing the data rights would cost the service more than $1.3 billion.

The situation the government finds itself in is a result of decisions made years, if not decades ago, when cost pressures pushed the military not to buy the technical data packages at the onset of a weapons system acquisition. Some of the procurement officials interviewed by GAO auditors also blame a lack of access to technical data to acquisition procedures for commercial items. Procurement officials told the GAO the government "lacks leverage" in commercial acquisitions.

The Defense Department and other government agencies use commercial item acquisition in an attempt to avoid the many other problems that come with procuring custom-made goods, such as high costs and lack of innovation.

In any case, even when technical data is not an issue, the military may have little choice but to rely on the contractors that were the original equipment manufacturers of a weapons system, the GAO report states.  

For example, the Army awarded a noncompetitive engineering contract for its Hellfire missile program despite the fact that a technical data package has been developed. But, the vendor in question has worked on the program since 1994, and so has unique expertise with the missile.

For more:
- download the report, GAO-10-833 (.pdf)

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Posted on 26 August 2010 | 7:34 am

NASA past performance ratings higher for cost plus contracts than fixed price

The more a company has a contractually risky relationship with NASA, the more likely it is that the agency will rate that contractor well during past performance evaluations, according to new research from INPUT, a Reston, Va.-based intelligence and analysis firm.

INPUT obtained information on NASA past performance evaluations through Freedom of Information Act requests, releasing a proprietary August 16 report supplied by the firm to FierceGovernmentIT.

Two months following every anniversary of a contract worth more than $100,000, NASA must evaluate its contractors on a 5-point scale based on attributes including quality, timeliness, price or control of costs, and other considerations.

Cost plus award fee contracts--the most common type of NASA contract, accounting for nearly 67 percent of all contractor spending, according to INPUT--earn on average a rating of 4.64, the report states.

Cost plus incentive fee contracts--the second most common contract at NASA, accounting for about 9 percent of contractual spending--earn on average a rating of 4.59, INPUT states.

Firm fixed price contracts--nearly 8 percent of contractor spending--merit on average a 4.32, a rating that's almost 7 percent lower than the cost plus award fee average.

The vast majority of contractors--94 percent, in all--receive a score of 3 or above in past performance evaluations, according to INPUT. Most NASA centers tend to rate their contractors similarly, with average scores ranging from 4.55 to 3.91. That low score comes from the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, the top score from the Dryden Flight Research Center located inside Edward Air Force Base, northwest of Los Angeles.

The Obama administration has criticized agency use of cost reimbursement contracts--calling them, in a memo issued March 4, 2009, potentially "wasteful, inefficient, subject to misuse, or otherwise not well designed to serve the needs of the Federal Government or the interests of the American taxpayer."

The memo, signed by President Obama, directs agencies to utilize cost-reimbursement contracts only when circumstances don't allow the agency to define its requirements sufficiently to allow for a fixed-price type contract.

Despite top-down pressure on agencies not to use cost reimbursement contracts, they nonetheless remain popular in no small part because they allow agencies to skirt around funding uncertainties caused when Congress fails to approve annual spending bills by the start of the federal fiscal year. Under those conditions, it's far easier to start work with a cost reimbursement contract to which money can be added incrementally, than with a fixed price contract

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Posted on 25 August 2010 | 9:00 pm

Most CBP agents not trained in how to conduct border laptop searches

Most Customs and Border Patrol agents at ports of entry receive training on their legal authority to search border crossers' laptops, but not in how to actually conduct an electronic search, according to an August 20 Homeland Security Department assessment.

DHS has claimed the authority to search electronic devices carried in and out of the country since the Bush administration. In August 2009, DHS issued revised directives on the search power of CBP and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Both CBP and ICE still retain the ability to search electronic devices "with or without individualized suspicion" and to copy the data that resides on them.

A department privacy impact assessment prepared at the time cites the 1977 Supreme Court ruling of U.S. v. Flores-Montano, which holds that "presenting one's self at the U.S. border seeking to enter has been equated with consent to be searched," the impact statement says.

Since the release of new computer-based course in November 2009, approximately 95 percent of CBP field agents have gone through training on border crossing searches of electronic devices, the new assessment states.

However, "the course does not directly address how an electronic device should be searched," it adds.

Rather, CBP officials are told of the legal authorities that support the border searches, the time frames for holding on to an electronic device (five days unless "extenuating circumstances" exist), when CBP can seek assistance from other agencies and also in the handling and review of business confidential information, attorney-client information, medical information, and work-related information (claims of privileged material require CBP to consult with a federal attorney, according to the privacy impact assessment). The training also informs agents of their reporting requirements.

Missing from the course is the "operational step that occurs before information is discovered--the actual search of the device," the assessment adds.

CBP has developed another course on "triage of electronic devices at the border," made mostly available to senior agents, the assessment says. That course does train officials in the "requisite knowledge to adequately search" an electronic device, and the fact of the triage course's limited availability should not necessarily be taken as proof that the CBP is underprepared, according to the assessment.

Nonetheless, the assessment recommends that CBP plan within a year to have an implementation plan for wider distribution of the triage course.

For more:
- download the DHS assessment on CBP training for the search of electronic devices (.pdf)
- see an August 27, 2009 announcement of new directives for CBP and ICE on border searches, or go directly to the current CBP directive (.pdf) or the ICE directive (.pdf)
- download the DHS privacy impact assessment on border searches of electronic devices (.pdf)

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Posted on 25 August 2010 | 7:45 pm

Wikileaks says it will release CIA document; GSA finalizing FedRamp requirements;

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Posted on 25 August 2010 | 9:00 am

Obama excuses state governors from background checks to see classified info

State governors no longer have to undergo a background investigation to receive classified intelligence information under an executive order signed August 18 by President Obama.

Instead, they're required now to only sign a non-disclosure agreement and stay away from "disqualifying conduct," states executive order number 13549.

In addition, the order establishes a program for sharing intelligence information up to a classified level of "secret" with state and local governments, as well as private sector entities. Involvement in the program requires federal agency sponsorship, and participants may see more highly classified material on only a case by case basis, the order states.

In any case, state, local and tribal officials can only physically possess information up to a secret level so long as they are outside of a location fully managed by the Homeland Security Department or other federal agency, the executive order says.

Information sharing among federal and more local levels of government--and the private sector--has long been viewed as a weakness of national security efforts.

A recent survey by the Government Accountability Office of private sector cybersecurity officials found that 87 percent of surveyed private-sector representatives greatly or moderately expected access to classified or sensitive information, but only 16 percent say they received it.

DHS's efforts to share even just sensitive but unclassified information haven't gained much traction, according to some reports. A June 21 GAO report on the security of intermodal transportation facilities found that 11 of 17 mass transit and passenger rail systems officials who discussed the DHS portal for such information, the Homeland Security Information Network, did not use it for guidance on available security technologies when considering security technology investments.

An October 2008 DHS inspector general report found that the department "has not defined and communicated its homeland security information sharing process to HSIN stakeholders."

For more:
- read executive order 13549
- download the GAO survey of private sector cybersecurity officials' expectations, GAO-10-628 (.pdf)
- download the June 21 GAO report on intermodal transportation security, 10-435R (.pdf)
- go to the October 2008 DHS OIG report on HISN, OIG-09-07 (.pdf)

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Posted on 25 August 2010 | 8:44 am

OMB targets 26 IT projects for critical assessment

The Office of Management and Budget released a list August 23 of 26 "high-priority" IT projects across federal agencies that are at-risk for termination or serious modification if significant changes are not made to turn the projects around. Many of the targeted projects are either over-budget or running behind schedule, OMB says.

The list of projects was formulated after 16 days of meetings between Federal Chief Information Office Vivek Kundra and agency CIOs, Kundra said while speaking to reporters the day OMB released the list. Fifteen departments are affected by the project crackdown. The projects are an average of five years old and range from a low life-cycle cost of $64 million to a high life-cycle cost of $7.5 billion.

"The focus here is to make sure that these projects are turned around and if these projects can't be turned around, if they don't add value, we will take the appropriate actions. They may be discontinued," said Kundra.

Kundra announced that one project at the Office of Personnel Management has already being "essentially halted."

"It slowed down in terms of spending as we go out there and make sure that it's properly scoped through fiscal year 2012," Kundra said. It is unclear from Kundra's remarks whether or not other projects have been temporarily suspended as further assessment is conducted.

Matthew Perry, the OPM CIO, said during the press call that the project has been underway for 23 years and is at a life-cycle cost of $136 million. He said the agency is putting together it's implementation plan and will be taking action to improve the project because it is important for federal employees that the project continues.

As for the private entities supporting some of these projects, "companies also need more information about how and why these projects were selected--they can only help correct problems they understand," said Phil Bond, president and CEO of TechAmerica, a technology industry group. "There certainly are concerns in many quarters about what data went into the development of this list, how that data was analyzed and how it was presented."

During the press call on at-risk programs, Kundra explained that the decisions on which programs to target were based partially on the IT dashboard--a tool that several groups, including Government Accountability Office have criticized for its accuracy.

"I've talked about it and we've said multiple times that there are challenges in terms of the data sometimes that's presented on the IT dashboard. And agencies over the last one year have been working very, very hard to fundamentally reengineer their back-end processes to make sure that the data on the IT dashboard is accurate as possible," said Kundra.

"The IT dashboard is an evolutionary process. And we're going to iterate and improve data quality over time," he added.

Kundra said the decisions were also based on conversations in meetings held from August 2 to August 18 with 27 CIO-council agencies. Meeting attendees included agency CIOs, program managers, others working on specific projects. The data discussed in the meetings included past GAO reports and IG reports, in addition to Dashboard data.

"These projects were not selected just based on the IT dashboard. That was one of the data points," he said.

"What we want to make sure is that we're being surgical in our approach to make sure that these projects deliver faster and that this project actually creates value for the American people as we focus on execution," he added.

For more:
- see the list of 26 at-risk IT projects
- listen to the press call and read the transcript
- see the TechAmerica statement

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Posted on 25 August 2010 | 8:20 am

Surprising lessons from a Florida college's iPad deployment

At Florida State College at Jacksonville, the CEO, CFO, campus presidents, administrators, IT staff, and some faculty and students have been given iPads. The college, which has plans to roll out 1000 of the tablet computers by year's end, has seen some surprising results, reports Tom Kaneshige at CIO magazine.

Senior managers, who were among the first to request iPads, quickly used them to replace laptops as their primary device, said CIO Rob Rennie. They take the devices to meetings and use them to make decisions on the spot. However, some of the deans and faculty members at the college have been surprisingly unenthusiastic, voicing concerns that iPads are too expensive for some students and might divert resources from other needed technologies.

Another surprise was the degree to which iPads have raised privacy fears at the college, Rennie said. After his staff developed certificates and limitations for iPad use, restricting access to some websites, some users expressed worries that their personal use of the device would be monitored. With location-based apps installed, the iPad can also track users' movements, raising more red flags.

"Say a faculty member has an alternative lifestyle, and the content on their personal device reflects that lifestyle. Now their personal life is integrated. In the back of their mind, there's a fear about it becoming an issue," Rennie said.

For more:
- see Tom Kaneshige's article at CIO

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Posted on 1 September 2010 | 11:50 am

Tips for healthy relationships with vendors

As more IT functions are provided by outside sources, suppliers take on a growing role in the enterprise. However, the relationships between vendors and customers still come with frustrations, and they must be carefully tended in order to thrive. In a post at CIOUpdate, Drew Robb presents some ideas for overcoming the frustrations.

While CIOs can't take every call from every vendor, it isn't a good strategy to focus on only an established few, Robb writes. Staying open to some niche players and new players on the scene helps keep one informed of emerging developments, because the large vendors may not be moving as quickly. To avoid letting this task spiral out of control, it's a good idea to allocate a set amount of time for managing vendor relationships.

To help narrow the field of possible vendors to pursue, look for those who have taken some time to learn about your company and who know how to communicate quickly, politely and effectively.

For more:
- Drew Robb's post at CIOUpdate

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Posted on 1 September 2010 | 11:44 am

Where Hurricane Earl may hit IT

Hurricane Earl may present a blustery challenge for some IT systems, but the most likely casualties will be teleworkers, not data centers, analysts predict. Backup facilities and generators tend to sustain data center operations during storms these days, but Internet access for telecommuters generally does not come with the same level of robustness, reports Patrick Thibodeau at Computerworld.

Power outages in the United States are on the rise, in part because of old infrastructure, and hurricane season is likely to exacerbate the problem. If you really want your telecommuters to be prepared, take a tip from Chuck Wilsker, president and CEO of The Telework Coalition, who works from his home in Montgomery County, Md.

To stay online and in touch during outages, Wilsker keeps two batteries on hand for his laptop and two for his BlackBerry, and he recharges them in his car if he has to. He has a battery-powered light for his desk, and a landline telephone. To stay connected to the Internet, he uses his BlackBerry, which he tethers to his laptop.

Another option: Make sure your telecommuters have access to coffee shops and bookstores with Wi-Fi.

For more:
- see Patrick Thibodeau's article at Computerworld

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Posted on 1 September 2010 | 11:40 am

VMware outlines strategy for displacing traditional OS

VMware wants to displace Windows by developing a subscription-based, hosted service that makes it possible for cloud-based applications to be delivered to any user device, reports Jon Brodkin at IDG News Service. The idea is that the technology, known as Project Horizon, would replace the need for the traditional operating system.

As Brodkin points out, virtualization technologies and traditional operating systems are not mutually exclusive and co-exist on systems such as IBM mainframes. Still, it is interesting to see VMware move beyond virtualizing operating systems to try to offer "the broader operating frameworks for data centers and desktops," he writes. Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) offers virtual desktop technology within Windows for PCs, viewing virtualization as just one element of the OS.

VMware's announcement--made at its annual VMWorld conference this week--came amid the news that it just purchased two companies to bolster its cloud computing strategy. One of the company's main themes is the value of a hybrid cloud infrastructure, in which customers use a combination of private clouds and public software-as-a-service offerings, reports eWeek's John Pallatto.

VMware CEO Paul Maritz touted the hybrid cloud model at the conference, predicting that virtualization software will operate an increasing portion of the data center, reports Charles Babcock at InformationWeek. In Martiz' vision, companies that implement virtualization technologies will run future application on a private cloud, and the workload will move fluidly between the enterprise's own environment and the cloud partner's environment.  

For more:
- see Jon Brodkin's article at Computerworld
- see John Pallatto's article at eWeek
- see Charles Babcock's article at InformationWeek

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Posted on 1 September 2010 | 11:33 am

Complaints persist about the Navy's costly NMCI network

If you work for the U.S. Navy, your email inbox may have 150 times less capacity than a Gmail account, and your local network may be out of business for days when the latest productivity suite is installed, reports Noah Shachtman at Wired magazine. The Navy has said in the past that it plans to take over its network management from long-time contractor Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), but it recently signed a $3.3 billion no-bid contract with the vendor, he reports.

The Navy Marine Corps Intranet--the world's second largest network, with 4,100 servers and approximately 1,100,000 users--was originally planned a decade ago to combine 15,000 separate IT systems, according to Shachtman. The mammoth project must be given its due for some successes, but the centrally managed system operated by an outside contractor is too rigid, too costly and too slow moving.  

The problems seem to extend beyond the proverbial Pentagon/Contractor stories of waste and inefficiency. The Navy is paying $2,490.72 annually for a typical workstation that comes with a 50 MB capacity email account and 700 MB of storage. Additional applications on a computer can cost as much as $4,026.72 a year. Nearly $3 million a year is spent on anti-spam services.

One Navy civilian is quoted saying, "HP is holding the Navy hostage, and there isn't a peep about it. We basically had two recourses: pay, or send in the Marines." Another: "When our computers are not being crippled by updates, and as long as we don't have to call the help desk for anything (i.e. we don't have any computer problems) then NMCI has somewhat stabilized."

For more:
- see Noah Shachtman's article at Wired

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Posted on 1 September 2010 | 11:26 am

Experiment triggers bug, crashing one percent of the Internet

Duke University and a European group conducted an experiment late last week that inadvertently uncovered a flaw in Cisco's (NASDAQ: CSCO) IOS XR operating system. Despite being designed for Cisco's carrier-grade CSR-1 routers, a bug in the implementation of its BGP routing logic eventually saw affected routers become unreachable, compelling the team to end the test within 30 minutes.

BGP, or the Border Gateway Protocol is used by routers to know where to send their data to. It is considered an extremely important component of the Internet, and security experts have warned in the past that hackers could cause widespread Internet disruptions if they can somehow manage to meddle with BGP data.

Earl Zmijewski, a general manager with Internet security firm Renesys described what happened: "Over 3,500 prefixes (announced blocks of IP addresses) became unstable at the exact moment this 'experiment' started."

Well, the affected IOS XR apparently corrupted the--much larger than usual--routing information originating from the test, corrupting it before passing it on. Many routers, upon receipt of the dodgy data, simply closed their network connection as an automated precaution.

This culminated in an estimated one percent of the Internet becoming briefly inaccessible. Cisco has since released a security advisory confirming the bug, and has also released a patch that fixes the problem.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at Computerworld
- check out this article at Computerworld

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Posted on 31 August 2010 | 10:19 am

Email remains a major vector of enterprise data loss

A new survey of some 261 U.S. enterprises with more than 1,000 employees has found that email remains the number one source of data loss risks. Indeed, 35 percent of companies say they investigated the exposure of confidential information via this medium in the last 12 months. Another 20 percent say they have terminated an employee for violating company email policies while half have disciplined an employee.

Enterprises are taking steps to lower their risk profiles. Thirty-seven percent of the surveyed organizations say they employ staffers to monitor the content of outbound emails for content that poses possible "legal, financial and regulatory" risks, while almost half say they perform regular audit of (outgoing) email content.

In a nutshell, anxiety over potential corporate data loss is no longer under the purview of the IT manager or hapless system administrator. Gary Steele, CEO of Proofpoint, noted the increasing attention being paid to potential data loss, "We're seeing C-level executives and management paying attention as data loss becomes a very real, public threat to companies."

For more on this story:
- check out this article at InformationWeek
- check out this press release at Markewire

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Posted on 31 August 2010 | 9:45 am

Hotmail Wave 4 now comes with Exchange ActiveSync

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) on Monday enabled its Exchange ActiveSync technology for Hotmail users, allowing them to receive push email with a supporting client device. Beyond email, calendar entries and contact will also be automatically pushed to Smartphones that implement Exchange ActiveSync, such as the iPhone and the upcoming Windows Phone 7.

Dick Craddock Group Program Manager Windows Live Hotmail elaborated on the benefits to users, "If you use an email client on your PC that already syncs with Hotmail, like Outlook with the Outlook Connector or Windows Live Mail, what you do on your phone will show up there as well, delivering a seamless experience for managing your stuff between your PC email client, your browser, and your phone."

Of course, the BlackBerry is far more efficient in its management of data, a fact that is most keenly felt when executives rack up roaming bills when traveling overseas. At the end of the day, the implementation of Exchange ActiveSync on the widely-used Hotmail service essentially eliminates the barrier of entry to what used to be a feature found only enterprise settings.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at InformationWeek
- check out this article at Softpedia

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Posted on 31 August 2010 | 9:27 am

Google Chrome 7 will come with GPU acceleration

Hot on the heels of a report that the latest Firefox 4 beta has code for GPU acceleration is the news that support for hardware acceleration will be found in an upcoming version of Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) Chrome. The Chrome team has apparently put a lot of thought into the design, and you can find the design document detailing the specifications and how the hardware acceleration works here.

Currently available as a developer build, Chrome 7 makes use of hardware acceleration to render web pages in layers. For those not familiar with the Chrome browser: Chrome 5 is the current release version while Chrome 6 is currently in beta.

Of course, Chrome's sandboxed rendering model means that implementing any form of hardware acceleration in Google is a tad more difficult compared to Internet Explorer or Firefox. As you can imagine, Google has not divulged any target release dates for either Chrome 6 or Chrome 7.

For now, users itching to give hardware acceleration a spin can download Chrome 7 from the developer channel here. Launching Chrome from the command line with the enable-accelerated-compositing flag is also necessary at this point to enable the acceleration. A "CPU process" is supposed to appear under the browser's task manager if the GPU rendering is in use.

For more on this story:
- check out the article at The Register
- check out the article at Toms Guide

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Posted on 31 August 2010 | 9:04 am

Shipment of Linux, Windows servers on the rise

According to IDC, in its Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker report, year-over-year server shipments in Q2 2010 increased to 23.8 percent--the most rapid growth in more than five years. According to the research analysis company, the global server market is cornered by HP (NYSE: HPQ), with 32.5 percent factory output, while IBM (NYSE: IBM) comes in at second place with 29.8 percent. The next three server manufacturers reported were Dell, Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) and Fujitsu, with 15.6 percent, 8.6 percent and 3.4 percent of the factory revenue market share respectively.

Matt Eastwood, group vice president, Enterprise Platforms at IDC noted: "The server market is at a crossroads. This is the fourth consecutive quarter of improving sever market demand and the fastest quarterly server revenue growth IDC has reported in more than five years."

Propelling demand for Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) Windows servers would be a 28.2 percent increase in unit shipments of x86 servers, which hit $7 billion worldwide on unit shipments of 1.8 million servers. Windows server sales were $5 billion, while Linux server sales were $1.8 billion. Both Windows and Linux servers saw an increase in revenues compared to the same time last year, though it apparently comes at the expense of Unix, which saw a 7.2 percent dip to $2.9 billion in revenues.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at InformationWeek
- check out this article at Redmond Channel Partner

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Posted on 31 August 2010 | 8:33 am

The Wi-Fire range-extending USB wireless adapter

Constantly stymied by poor Wi-Fi reception when on the move or in certain parts of your house? The Wi-Fire is a compact USB adapter that comes with an antenna that clips on to the lid of your laptop. Its maker, hField Technologies promises a wireless connection from up to 1,000 feet away, or three times the range of your laptop's internal wireless adapter. Of course, the current version available on its website supports only 802.11 b/g only, so users with faster networks need not apply. Article

Posted on 31 August 2010 | 8:02 am

Top five challenges in dealing with the staff

Shifting gears to address plans for growth is a positive move for companies, but for CIOs it can create a staffing challenge as it likely requires a significant change in mindset for employees. This is one of the five top staffing challenges that CIOs confront today, according John Reed, executive director at Robert Half Technology.

To make the transition easier, IT leaders should do everything they can to make sure employees understand the game plan and feel like they're part of it, Reed writes in a post at CIOUpdate. They should include the staff in planning and let them know when there are new developments that will affect demands.

The other four top staffing challenges are: Under staffing; managing the workload; keeping skills up-to-date; and retaining employees. As economic woes abide, the risk of workers leaving rises. To meet this last challenge, IT leaders should focus on addressing the other four, Reed advises.

For more:
- see John Reed's post at CIOUpdate

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Posted on 28 August 2010 | 3:18 pm

Bids from HP, Dell for 3PAR show vendors' need for innovation

The bidding war between Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) and Dell for data storage vendor 3PAR reached a dizzying height late last week when HP offered to pay $2 billion in cash for the little-known company. Since HP and Dell are vying for market share in cloud computing, it follows that they both would want storage technology like 3PAR's, but the huge bids are spurring questions about whether the fervor over the cloud is going too far.

In an article headlined "Cloud computing or cloud-cuckoo land?", The Economist questioned whether HP would be able find a decent ROI after spending $2 billion for this company. It is a sentiment echoed by a number of analysts and industry observers. 

Noting that 3PAR has revenues of less than $200 million this year and has never shown a profit, Rick Merritt at the EETimes writes that the bidding war is a reflection of the dynamics in the industry today. Calling HP and Dell "a mile wide and an inch deep, Merritt writes that neither company has been spending much on R&D lately. Both companies are hungry for innovation, so "when a well-managed, medium-sized company with a novel technology and a significant customer base comes along, it's a luscious treat," he writes.

While HP and Dell both provide storage offerings today, they rely on partnerships with other manufacturers, writes Brandon Bailey at The San Jose Mercury News. As each company tries to provide more comprehensive offerings down the road, the ability to integrate more components becomes increasingly important, and 3PAR would offer a leg up in terms of control. "People are saying it doesn't make sense to pay this much for a company that had $200 million in revenue last year. But this is about long-term strategy," said Roger Cox, a storage expert at Gartner. 

For more:
- see The Economist article
- see Rick Merritt's article at The EETimes
- see Brandon Bailey's article at The San Jose Mercury News

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Posted on 28 August 2010 | 3:12 pm

Ouch! Everybody wants to beat Cisco

Late last week Forbes ran two articles by different writers but with very similar headlines: "Polycom: How We Will Beat Cisco" by Andy Greenberg; and "Avaya's Plan to Beat Cisco" by Elizabeth Woyke. With everyone trying to beat up Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) these days, it seems that customers should begin to see the fruits of competitive pressures before long.

Avaya is trying to edge out Cisco not only with software for conference calls and call centers, but also with a tablet computer that can host messaging services and phone calls, Woyke reports. With its acquisition of much of Nortel, Avaya also gained a foothold in the switches and routers market as well as a vast resellers network. 

Meanwhile, Cisco has been gaining in Avaya's traditional stronghold of office phones. According to estimates from the Dell'Oro Group, Cisco won 22 percent of the phone equipment spending in Q1, while Avaya won 25 percent.

Cisco also has made a great leap into the video conferencing sector with its purchase of Tandberg, leaving Polycom as the only major vendor focused solely on video. To counter the marketing prowess of Cisco combined with Tandberg's technology, Polycom plans to remain focused on open standards and maintain tight relationships with partners like Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), IBM (NYSE: IBM) and HP (NYSE: HPQ), Greenberg reports in a revealing Q&A with Polycom CEO Andy Miller.

For more:
- see Elizabeth Woyke's article at Forbes
- see this interview with Polycom CEO Andy Miller at Forbes

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Posted on 28 August 2010 | 3:03 pm

Analyst: Why Google Voice isn't a game changer

Google's (NASDAQ: GOOG) new voice-over-IP calling via Gmail service may be cool and convenient in some circumstances, but it's no game changer, says Forrester Research analyst Charles Golvin. 

Far from being revolutionary, the integration of Gmail and voice functionality is a natural step in the move toward integrated communications, Golvin says in an article by CIO magazine's Kristin Burnham. People having a prolonged email exchange may find it easy to incorporate voice, but the new functionality isn't likely to lure talkers away from their cell phones. 

As for business uses, the new service is not likely to be incorporated into Google Apps for enterprises any time soon, Golvin predicts. Changing PBXs and other calling systems to mask changed phones numbers is a big project, requiring a great deal of integration.  "I don't think it's an unreasonable assumption that it'll come to Google Apps later down the road, but it's a much bigger challenge right now," Golvin says.

For more:
- see Kristin Burnham's article at CIO

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Posted on 28 August 2010 | 2:55 pm

Do IT workers sit on their rear ends too much?

Is your IT staff playing basketball outside at lunch? Working out at the company's gym? Going running together? They are at JM Family Enterprise in Deerfield Beach, Fla., reports ComputerWorld's Mary K. Pratt. Physical fitness among the tech workers is encouraged from on high at the company because it helps build relationships as well as improve fitness.

If this profile doesn't fit your organization, don't worry, you're not alone. Even though corporate health and fitness programs for employees are not unusual, it can be particularly challenging to get IT workers to join in, Pratt reports.

"In our IT services, folks are for the most part sedentary, so there's a lack-of-activity issue. They are exposed to a high degree of stress. And they're so diligent and passionate about what they do that the day or night goes by and they haven't gotten up to do anything for themselves," Richard Luceri, vice president of health care services at JM Family Enterprises, says.

An on-site gym that's available around the clock can go a long way in getting the IT team out of their chairs. But there are more subtle ways to promote health and fitness as well.  JM Family Enterprise's vice president of technology operations, Shawn Berg, says that he discourages meetings during lunch or after 5 p.m.  He also discourages workers from using email after 5 p.m. so they can turn their attention to other activities.

For more:
- see Mary K. Pratt's article at ComputerWorld

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Posted on 28 August 2010 | 2:49 pm

Autoruns for managing software that loads at bootup

Trying to figure out why your computer's startup is taking such a long time? Or perhaps you just installed a new application and are now wondering about the additional software added to the boot process? Enter Autoruns for Windows, a robust and time-honored utility that allows you to dig into your startup folder, Run, RunOnce and other Registry keys. A host of other locations can also be defined, and range from shell extensions, browser helper objects and services, to name a few. Finally, the ability to Hide Signed Microsoft Entries also helps to sieve out troublesome applications. Article

Posted on 27 August 2010 | 10:36 am

Microsoft: We love open source

Radically backtracking from its earlier stance on the open-source community, software giant Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) has now admitted that its earlier hostility was a mistake. Almost a decade ago, company CEO Steve Ballmer called the open source Linux operating system a "cancer" where its IP was concerned; Microsoft has also accused open source providers of violating hundreds of its patents in recent years.

In a recent interview with Network World, Jean Paoli, the general manager of Microsoft's interoperability strategy team explained that the mistake has to do with equating Linux with all open source technology. "We understand our mistake, he says," and pointing out that the various work that Microsoft has since done with open source, he quipped, "We love open source."

Microsoft is committed to open standards, says Paoli, who pointed to Microsoft's heavy involvement in the creation of open data protocol OData and driver source code designed to make the Linux kernel work better under its Hyper-V hypervisor technology.

So what prompted the radical change in thinking at Microsoft? Paoli himself offers the clue when he pointed out that the world today revolves around the concept of "mixed IT." 

Paoli explains, "Today it is a reality that many customers, if not the majority of customers I talk to, use Oracle and Red Hat and Microsoft and IBM and VMware and Google, etc. It's all around what we are calling mixed IT. You have commercial software and open software together, in many, many cases."

While there is no executive tasked specifically with managing open source, the company says that more than 150 employees take up a "shared responsibility" on various open source collaboration efforts. Microsoft says that it runs many projects that embrace open source today and even have a site dedicated to open source here.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at Network World
- check out this article at Telegraph.co.uk

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Posted on 27 August 2010 | 7:24 am

Samsung unveils teaser of Galaxy Tab tablet

Samsung earlier this week released a short teaser video of its upcoming "Galaxy Tab" tablet. You can view the 19-second video here, which shows some very brief snapshots of the device interlaced a number of application screenshots. There is no voice commentary, though helpfully supplied keywords were supplied as teasers. Phrases such as "video calling," "full Web browsing," "Android 2.2" and "7-inch touch screen" gave important hints as to its capabilities.

The last page of information shows that the Galaxy Tab will be launched on September 2, in Germany, at the IFA Berlin--which is Europe's version of the Consumer Electronics Show. A Samsung press representative confirmed that the Galaxy Tab will be launched on September 2.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at CNET News

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Posted on 27 August 2010 | 7:23 am

Google's real-time search engine gets update, own web address

I reported earlier this week on Google's instant search feature that was spotted when undergoing tests on a limited basis. When quizzed, Google's (NASDAQ: GOOG) spokesperson revealed Google runs 50 to 200 search experiments "at any time" in its bid for continual search dominance.

Well, it appears that one of its experiments has just been deployed on its own web address. According to Computerworld, Google started putting real-time links into search results in December, though users had to take the extra step of clicking on "latest" and "updates" in order to see these results. Users looking for the latest results now can simply access Google Realtime at www.google.com/realtime. In addition, search alerts for real-time results can also be created, which will poll real-time sources to send out the appropriate email alerts. Google says the service is now available in 40 languages.

So what benefit does the real-time search engine have over the conventional one? Dylan Casey, a Google product manager says that the real-time search engine represents a "great way to find information or a link to a full story about it" that might not be found in a standard result. If you must, think of it as a response to the search functionality found in popular social networking services like Twitter or Facebook.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at Computerworld
- check out this article at Wall Street Journal

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Posted on 27 August 2010 | 7:22 am

More details about Intel 10-core sever processor emerges

Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) earlier this week confirmed that the upcoming Westmere-EX server processor will be coming in a 10-core single-die format. No details of its eventual clock speeds or performance characteristics were revealed, available information pointed to enhancements that were made to improve server performance.

While emphasizing that the processor is not yet available, the lead microarchitect for the Westmere-EX, Intel engineer Dheemanth Nagaraj confirmed that the next server processor from Intel will come with 10 cores, or process up to 20 threads. Six new instructions were added for AES cryptographic acceleration, while enhancements range from better virtualization support such as improved VM switch latency and the incorporation of real mode memory addressing.

So why opt for 10 cores when the competitor is creating 12-core processors? Nagaraj refused to be drawn into speculation, but noted that going with 10 gave Intel the "sweet spot for performance and time-to-market."

For more on this story:
- check out the article at The Register
- check out the article at Toms Hardware

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Posted on 27 August 2010 | 7:22 am

Infected USB flash drive led to worst U.S. military breach in history

Malware loaded into USB flash drives resulted in the successful infiltration of the U.S. military's Central Command in 2008, says a new report by The Washington Post. In what was deemed as the U.S. military's "most significant breach," Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III confirmed that the malicious code was placed in the drive by a foreign intelligence, and managed to spread undetected onto classified systems.

"That code spread undetected on both classified and unclassified systems, establishing what amounted to a digital beachhead," says Lynn in a Foreign Affairs article. The data could then be transferred to servers under the control of foreign governments. The decision by Lynn to declassify the incident reflects the Pentagon's desire to raise congressional and public awareness over the asymmetrical nature of cyber warfare facing U.S. computer systems today, say experts.

Elaborating on the seriousness of the successful infiltration of the command and control system, a former intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity told the Post: "This is how we order people to go to war. If you're on the inside, you can change orders. You can say, 'turn left' instead of 'turn right.' You can say 'go up' instead of 'go down.' "

For more on this story:
- check out this article at Ars Technica
- check out this article at CNET News
- check out this article at The Washington Post

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Posted on 27 August 2010 | 7:17 am

How CRM reports mislead

CRM reports can provide some very useful information, but they also can be dangerously misleading if not generated and interpreted wisely, warns David Taber, CEO of the consultant firm SalesLogistix. Taber outlines some of the problems with CRM reports than can dampen their credibility in a post at CIO. 

The first problem is rather obvious: CRM systems can contain inaccurate, incomplete and duplicate data, and this problem is exacerbated if data imported from outside systems. Unless the quality of the data has been proven, the assumption should be that it's bad, Taber writes. Processes and policies to prevent bad data from being entered may not be cheap, but they can be great cost-savers down the road.

Semantics present another problem in a CRM report. Does everyone involved with the system use the same terms to mean the same thing, and do all business units use the same models to record information? If not, using the report data to compare units can be of no value. Establishing semantic standards and a "data steward" to control how data fields are created and managed can lead to more valuable reports, Taber recommends.

As a general matter, CRM reports attempt to reach conclusions about different business processes, but even though the processes are connected, the data can be disjointed, Taber warns. The two reports that are most likely to produce misleading information are sales activity reports and marketing investment/ROI reports, he writes.

For more:
- see David Taber's post at CIO

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Posted on 25 August 2010 | 11:50 am

Tips for creating an environment of trust

Fear, distrust and anger do not tend to promote efficient project implementation, but many IT teams work under these conditions, reports Tom Kaneshige at CIO magazine. Drawing from the experiences of two CIOs speaking at the CIO 100 symposium, in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. this week, Kaneshige presents tips for building a more productive culture of trust within an IT organization.

One way to set the tone is to meet regularly to discuss where difficulties lie, according to John Foley, a former pilot with the U.S. Navy Blue Angels. If senior-level staff members take responsibility for their contributions, it can promote a sense of trust. Verbal contracts--or disclosing what you plan to do or what others are expected not to do--and communicating with a grateful attitude also generate a more trusting atmosphere, in Foley's experience.

A culture of fear is the main reason projects fail, according to Frank Wander, CIO at The Guardian Life Insurance Company. The environment in which IT groups work can be "emotionally toxic," in part because of a history of uncaring management rooted in assembly-line production, he said. To get the most out of employees, CIOs need to change this tradition by generating an environment of trust.

For more:
- see Tom Kaneshige's article at CIO magazine

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Posted on 25 August 2010 | 11:46 am

Google rumored to be creating web-based calling via Gmail Chat

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) is working on a way to enable users to make calls directly from their Gmail chat box, according to an article by CNET's Tom Krazit. Google declined to comment on the report, but if it proves accurate, it could further raise the stakes for Gmail as a productivity tool.

According to Krazit, it looks like the new calling feature will be a web-based, voice-over-IP client embedded into email, and it isn't clear whether it will be part of the Google Voice or Google Talk services. With Gmail Chat today, it is possible to conduct voice and video calls with other Gmail users, but making VoIP calls over the web to non-Gmail users requires a service like Skype.

Google's latest tinkering with web-based calling "very well may change the way you communicate over phones forever," speculates Seth Weintraub at Fortune. Calling early previews of the alleged voice service in the works "a handy little Skype killer," Weintraub notes that Google's acquisition of Skype VoIP, Global IP Solutions and Gizmo5 position it to make some major moves in the web-based calling business.

PCWorld's Ian Paul points out that Google has been known to duplicate functions in different services before, and it might make sense to integrate Gmail Chat with Google Voice. Both Gmail and Google Voice offer SMS services, for example. 

For more:
- see Tom Krazit's article at CNET
- see Seth Weintraub's post at Fortune
- see Ian Paul's post at PCWorld

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Posted on 25 August 2010 | 11:41 am

IBM X-Force: Web apps present rising security threat

Enterprise security vulnerability disclosures have risen 36 percent in the first half of this year, with 4,396 new vulnerabilities documented by IBM's (NYSE: IBM) X-Force research group. More than half of all vulnerabilities disclosed were from web applications containing security exploits, the group said in its 2010 Mid-Year Trend and Risk Report.

In the first half of this year, hidden attacks using JavaScript more than doubled, and exploits in PDFs rose 37 percent. The greatest threat for financial institutions is still phishing scams, but for other industries phishing has dropped precipitously, according to the report.

"This year's X-Force report reveals that although threats are on the rise, the industry as a whole is getting much more vigilant about reporting vulnerabilities," Steve Robinson, general manager for IBM Security Solutions, said in a news release.

Of the 4,396 new vulnerabilities documented, more than half had no patch provided by the vendor by the end of the period. IBM ranked software vendors according to percentage of unpatched vulnerabilities. SUN (now part of Oracle) leads the pack with 24 percent unpatched vulnerabilities, with Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) following close behind with 23 percent, and Mozilla coming in third with 21 percent. IBM itself fares a little bit better with 10 percent unpatched vulnerabilities. 

For more:
- see IBM's X-Force 2010 Mid-Year Trend and Risk Report

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Posted on 25 August 2010 | 11:33 am

LG: Our tablet will be better than iPad

South Korea's LG Electronics is so confident about its upcoming Android-based tablet device that it has boasted to The Wall Street Journal that its offering will be better than the tablet-market leader. Chang Ma, LG's vice president of marketing for its mobile-devices division said, "Our tablet will be better than the iPad."

This is a huge claim, and it could be a statement of confidence, ignorance or desperation. Whatever it is, it does seem a tad unlikely that LG is able to make its devices sufficiently compelling as to stand out, bearing in mind that its competitors, such as Samsung, will also be releasing tablet devices based on Android. For now though, the consumer electronics giant is still the third largest handset maker in terms of shipments.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at The Wall Street Journal
- check out this article at AppleInsider

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Posted on 24 August 2010 | 3:01 am

Embarcadero's new RAD Studio XE suite in September

Embarcadero Technologies is set to launch what it calls the "2011" release of its database and Delphi development suite in September. Embarcadero RAD Studio XE will come with RadPHP XE, which the company says will incorporate visual web development in an integrated development environment (IDE) for PHP and Facebook application development. Other key enhancements to the suite include new cloud capabilities that allow developers to build and deploy to Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) environments and other thin client applications. For those interested in checking out the suite, Embarcadero is previewing it at the Delphi Live Developer Conference in San Jose, California this week. Article

Posted on 24 August 2010 | 2:47 am

Google tests instant search

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) was spotted testing a new feature that will offer instant suggestions that change as users type in their search queries. The feature was first observed by search engine optimization consultant Rob Ousbey, who posted a video of it on his personal blog. When contacted, Google verified the authenticity of the video, and noted that the feature was being tested on a limited basis. In fact, "At any given time we are running between 50-200 search experiments," noted a Google spokesperson.

Reviews of this potential, new feature are mixed. What is certain, from a technical perspective, is that Google's server will see a large increase in load due to the heightened processing demands placed by so many additional searches. This test might not end up as a feature, ultimately; though if it does, competitors could well have trouble emulating it.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at Computerworld
- check out this article at eWeek 

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Posted on 24 August 2010 | 2:35 am

Microsoft release security advisory about remote DLL flaw

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) has issued a security advisory on a 10-year-old problem with implications for existing Windows-based systems, including widely-installed software like iTunes. The root of the problem stems from how some applications load DLL (Dynamic link library) files without properly specifying a path. This potentially allows an attacker to load malware by mirroring the filenames of legitimate DLLs, which will be executed with the same privileges as the application.

At that time, Microsoft made changes to how DLLs are loaded in order to mitigate the problem. This includes the creation of certain programming calls that developers can leverage to prevent this possibility. The new twist here has to do with how similar attacks can apparently be pulled off remotely for applications that do not load external libraries in a secure manner.

This list of applications that are vulnerable to the problem of remote DLLs is apparently not a short one either. According to HD Moore, the creator of the Metasploit penetration testing tool, at least 40 Windows applications were tested by him to be vulnerable. Moore has added the test for this particular vulnerability into Metasploit to enable administrators to audit their systems.

For now, Microsoft has released a number of workarounds for administrators. This ranges from blocking TCP ports 139 and 145 at the firewall, to modifying the registry to completely disable the loading of DLLs from remote directories.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at CNET News
- check out this article at PCMag Blogs
- check out this article at Computerworld
- check out this article at Redmondmag.com

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Posted on 24 August 2010 | 1:26 am

RIM BlackPad tablet will not run the BlackBerry OS

RIM's (NASDAQ: RIMM) yet-to-be-announced BlackPad tablet will run on custom software developed by a company called QNX Software Systems, according to new rumors that have surfaced. The company was acquired by RIM for $200 million in April this year, ostensibly to allow RIM to better integrate its smartphone offerings with vehicles.

QNX is a company well-known for its real-time operating system (RTOS), used in critical components ranging from automotive navigation systems to cardiac monitors. A version of the RTOS will supposedly be created to specially spearhead RIM's first foray into the tablet space.

As a result, RIM will not be using its BlackBerry operating system (OS), or even a variant, for its tablet device. Where the rationale behind abandoning the BlackBerry OS is concerned, Bloomberg reports that the presence of legacy code in the BlackBerry operating system made it a poor choice for adoption into a tablet.

Indeed, the BlackBerry OS has been around for a while. It is old compared to the much newer operating systems on the market. Examples are Google's (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android or Chrome OS, Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) iOS and the webOS recently acquired by HP (NYSE: HPQ) as part of buying Palm. Even Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) has decided to rewrite its mobile operating system from scratch. Taking the various competitors into consideration, RIM's decision to build on a more modern, proven OS appears to be a completely logical one.

For more on this story:
- check out the article at Bloomberg

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Posted on 24 August 2010 | 1:10 am

Latest Firefox 4 beta gets code for GPU acceleration

The latest beta of Firefox 4 now comes with support for Direct2D acceleration on Windows, heralding an era of hardware-accelerated web browsers. The code now included in Beta 4 of Firefox essentially alleviates the effort of rendering two-dimensional graphical objects by offloading it from the CPU; a feature also promised by Microsoft for the release version of Internet Explorer 9.

More processor intensive tasks shifted to the GPU translate into additional CPU cycles to handle JavaScript execution and also to speed up other aspects of the browser. This ultimately translates into a much faster browsing experience at the end of the day.

For now, inquisitive users will still need to enable it in Firefox 4 beta manually; the team says it is not confident enough yet to "turn it on for all users." Enabling it should be pretty straight-forward for users who are willing to try beta builds in the first place. Full instructions can be obtained from Mozilla's wiki page here.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at The Inquirer
- check out this article at CNET News
- check out this article at bit-tech

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Posted on 24 August 2010 | 12:54 am

Windows 7 could surpass XP in the enterprise by 2012

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) has been "almost eerily silent" about the early success of Windows 7, writes Ed Bott at ZDNet, even though it has already sold 175 million licenses for it. It comes as no surprise that Vista users were eager to make the switch, but XP users are upgrading in significant numbers as well, Bott reports.

Bott writes that evidence suggests that companies are moving to the latest OS much more quickly than they moved to Vista in 2007-2008 or to XP in 2002-2003. "In fact, it's good enough to finally dislodge XP's stranglehold on corporate computing," Bott writes of Windows 7. Approximately 70-75 percent of corporate desktop PCs run XP today, but if the current Windows 7 adoption rate persists, the new OS will probably pass XP by 2012, according to Bott's calculations.

The lack of chest-thumping out of Microsoft demonstrates the company's "marketing ineptitude," writes Devindra Hardawar in a post at VentureBeat. "Now that Microsoft actually has a legitimate success on its hands, it doesn't quite know how to sell it."

For more:
- see Ed Bott's article at ZDNet
- see Devindra Hardawar in a post at VentureBeat

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Posted on 21 August 2010 | 8:24 pm

SAP's plans to offer real-time visibility into business

SAP presented a preview last week of its game plan for developing mobile applications, enterprise information management and analytics in conjunction with its recent acquisition of Sybase. Within nine months, an open standards-based mobile business applications platform will be available for a variety of mobile devices and operating systems.

With Sybase's contribution, SAP aims to give companies real-time visibility into business activity with up-to-date information on any device, reported Chris Kanaracus of IDG News Service. Other plans include certifying the Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE) database for use with Business Suite by mid-2011. 

But, the question is how these new capabilities will affect the larger business environment, said Bob Evans at InformationWeek. With SAP's ability to give enterprises a means of handling applications that provide insight about the business in real time, can it "win the resulting culture war precipitated by the radical and unprecedented shift to real-time operations?" he wondered. In other words, once SAP enables companies to transcend the technological challenges of dealing with their ever-mounting volumes of data, how will they adjust to the changes needed in processes, behavior and organizational structure?

SAP's CTO, Vishal Sikka, provides one perspective: "The cultural changes will be huge--massive," Sikka told Evans. "A CEO of a Fortune 50 company said that when they begin moving to real-time operations, he wants to have HR leaders in all of his board meetings because the changes that will spring from this real-time awareness will be widespread and profound."

For more:
- see Chris Kanaracus' article at NetworkWorld
- see Bob Evans' column at InformationWeek

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Posted on 21 August 2010 | 8:18 pm

Two language tips to make you a better IT leader

Dealing with obstacles created by others may be an inevitable part of the CIO's job, but it does not have to be an insurmountable challenge. Getting past these kinds of hurdles--particularly when dealing with people who are difficult, incompetent, rigid or misguided--has less to do with what you say than how you say it, writes Patty Azzarello in a column at CIOUpdate.

Azzarello presents two strategies for using language to get what you need when it comes to IT. First, use language that the people you are trying to persuade will understand and find relevant to their own problems. When requesting a meeting, give it a name that motivates them, such as "how IT is planning on solving your problem of attracting new customers," she recommends.  In the same way, describe your requests using their vocabulary and show how it benefits them directly.

Second, approach people who might create obstacles with the phrase, "I'm hoping you can help me...," Azzarello suggests. In her experience, this phrase empowers people to offer help. "Giving up this small bit of respect makes them want to help you and people generally like to help. If you don't attack them first and tell them how wrong and incompetent they are, you stand a far greater chance of getting what you need from them," she writes.

For more:
- see Patty Azzarello's column at CIOUpdate

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Posted on 21 August 2010 | 8:11 pm

IT lessons from colleges and universities

Colleges and universities sometimes serve as test beds for technologies that later become the norm in enterprise IT. NetworkWorld's John Cox takes a look at initiatives underway at 10 institutions of higher education this fall to get a peek at what's coming. Cox found that wireless networks are becoming the connectivity option of choice on campus, while virtualization and cloud-based services are on the rise. With video traffic growing by leaps and bounds, upgrading bandwidth is also imperative.

More campuses are phasing out wall jacks as 802.11 becomes the students' preferred means of connecting. When Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., updated four dormitories, it deployed WLANs rather than rewiring the buildings, saving more than $100,000 in infrastructure costs, Cox reports. In a similar fashion, Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh disengaged the 100 Mbps wired outlets in its dorms, having deployed WLAN technology for the entire campus.

Universities are confronting soaring demand for bandwidth as students come equipped with a variety of wireless devices as well as a penchant for online video. Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering in Needham, Mass., and Morrisville State College in Morrisville, N.Y., both increased their bandwidth from 90 Mbps to 200 Mbps. North Texas University anticipates a need for 500 Mbps as students return this fall, having used between 300 Mbps and 400 Mbps last year.

For more:
- see John Cox's article at NetworkWorld

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Posted on 21 August 2010 | 8:06 pm

Intel moves to buy security software maker McAfee for $7.68 billion

Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) has acquired security software maker McAfee for $7.68 billion, it's largest acquisition ever. The chipmaker announced yesterday that it has entered into an agreement to acquire McAfee's shares at $48 per share in cash, or a premium of 60 percent over Wednesday's stock price. As my colleague Caron Carlson reported yesterday, the deal took industry observers by surprise.

It is clear, after going through various reports, that Intel CEO Paul Otellini's vision involves integrating McAfee's security software with the semiconductors that it makes. The eventual goal here is to move this amalgamation of hardware and software into new Internet-connected devices such as smartphones, vehicles and even medical gadgets in order to secure them.

Renee James, the head of Intel's software division, said in an interview with Bloomberg that, "As we look at all of the growth areas for Intel silicon, one of the consistent purchase criteria for both IT managers and consumer is security." James added that this was "a pretty natural step for us."

Referring to the increasing number of security attacks, Otellini said, "We have concluded that security has now become the third pillar of computing, joining energy-efficient performance and Internet connectivity in importance." He shared in a conference call that "Our view is that everywhere we sell a microprocessor, there is an opportunity to sell security software with it."

Intel chips with built-in security software will debut in the first half of next year, according to Intel. It is projected that McAfee will help the semiconductor giant increase its sales in the double digits. On the other hand, critics say that Intel is creating a product to solve a problem that does not yet exist. I have my own thoughts on the possibilities from a technological perspective, though I would love to first hear from you.

What are some products that you envision Intel to come out with?

For more on this story:
- check out this article at CNET News
- check out this article at Bloomberg
- check out this article at BusinessWeek

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Posted on 20 August 2010 | 9:48 am

Researcher cracks Google's reCAPTCHA, releases algorithm

Independent researcher Chad Houck this month demonstrated his work on solving Google's (NASDAQ: GOOG) reCAPTCHA, which was designed to foil software bots that attempt to spam or abuse its free service by creating numerous accounts for nefarious purposes. Despite recent enhancements made by Google however, Houck says he came up with algorithms that could beat reCAPTCHA 30 percent of the time.

While this might not sound very impressive, what it basically means is that automated software using Houck's algorithm will be able to create one account out of just three attempts. Multiple those odds by tireless attempts by tens of thousands of zombies in a typical botnet, and you see the problem.

Referring to reCAPTCHA, Houck noted that "[ReCAPTCHA] has never been wholly secure. There are always ways to crack it." The researcher has since published a white paper on it, and has also released his algorithms online. For now at least, a Google spokesperson says there has not been any sign of this particular attack being actively used.

Houck says that he never got a reply when he emailed recaptcha.net about his research. If I were to guess though, the reCAPTCHA team has its hands full with the growing problem of low-wage workers, in developing countries being paid to solve CAPTCHA puzzles.

For more on this story:
- check out the article at Dark Reading

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Posted on 20 August 2010 | 9:37 am

Consumers getting only half of advertised broadband speed

In a report released this week, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has reported that users are getting an average of half of the "up to" broadband speeds advertised by ISPs. While nobody truly expected to be able to get the maximum rated speed on their Internet connection, the shocker is how actual speeds are so much lower than the advertised numbers.

According to the report "...in 2009, average (mean) and median advertised download speeds were 7-8 Mbps, across technologies. However, FCC analysis shows that the median actual speed consumers experienced in the first half of 2009 was roughly 3Mbps, while the average (mean) actual speed was approximately 4Mbps."

Putting two and two together, the report concluded that "Therefore actual download speeds experienced by U.S. consumers appear to lag advertised speeds by roughly 50 percent."

Another very interesting piece of information has to be how a small number of users consume "very large amounts of data" each month. While this in itself is no surprise, it appears that this number could be to the tune of terabytes at times.

In fact, one percent of residential users account for some 25 percent of all traffic; while the top three percent uses up to 40 percent of traffic. Check out today's editorial for more on this. You can also download the full report here (pdf).

For more on this story:
- check out this article at Ars Technica
- check out this article at The Register

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Posted on 20 August 2010 | 9:30 am

Toshiba claims HDD breakthrough can lead to five times the data density

Toshiba has successfully demonstrated a recording head traveling over a track packed with some 2.5 terabits of data per square inch. Using a technique called bit patterned media, a data density in the order of five times that of Toshiba's own high capacity drives is achieved. While the company has yet to demonstrate reading and writing yet, Toshiba claims that it is the first to control a head over such a dense data track.

Not everyone is optimistic that using bit patterned media is the way to go, however. William Cain, vice president of technology at Western Digital expressed doubts, saying, "Technologies don't exist in the supply base to create such small features cost effectively." Toshiba isn't deterred however, and expects the first drives based on bit-patterned technology to be available around 2013.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at Ars Technica
- check out this article at EETimes 

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Posted on 20 August 2010 | 9:22 am

SanDisk introduces super small flash drives

Flash memory card maker SanDisk announced it has started testing super small flash drives that move away from the current trend of conforming to the dimensions of existing 2.5-inch or 1.8-inch hard disks. And it is small indeed; measuring just 16 x 20 x 1.85mm, the iSSD weighs less than a gram and is small enough to be soldered directly onto motherboards.

SanDisk says the iSSD clocks sequential reads and writes at 160MB/sec and 100MB/sec respectively, making it no performance laggard either. Available capacities will range from 4GB to 64GB, and while this is puny by traditional desktop or laptop standards, is more than adequate for the markets targeted by the company. The iSSD could be used in devices such as tablets, netbooks and other small consumer electronics. In fact, the iSSD at 32GB is probably adequate to serve as the main drive for lighting-fast booting.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at CNET News
- check out this press release 

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Posted on 20 August 2010 | 9:17 am

Plug-in to sync Outlook 2010 with Google Calendar now available

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) has released a new update for its Google Calendar Sync tool. Google Calendar Sync version 0.9.3.6 will now sync your calendar in Outlook 2010 with the cloud-based Google Calendar. The Google Calendar Team says it's their top-requested feature, though only support for the 32-bit version of Outlook 2010 is available for now. The application does its magic according to a configurable time interval. I've used it for the last couple of days now and it basically works as advertised. See the Google blog post.

Posted on 20 August 2010 | 9:03 am

Intel, McAfee deal takes industry observers by surprise

Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) entered into an agreement to acquire security software giant McAfee for $7.68 billion in cash, the companies announced, to the surprise of many industry observers. McAfee will become a stand-alone subsidiary of Intel, and its leadership may remain intact. The companies said that by joining forces they can better combat today's cybersecurity issues, which require "a fundamentally new approach to security"--mainly by integrating security into hardware via chips.

"Frankly, the industry needed a paradigm shift--incremental improvements simply couldn't bridge the opportunity gap. McAfee and Intel Corporation are joining forces to tackle this next generation cybersecurity issue which impacts everyone and anything connecting to the Internet," the two companies said in a joint news release.

Although it should have been obvious all along that security needed to be a fundamental part of online computing, the emphasis on synthesizing a device's software, hardware and services is "a pretty enlightened viewpoint (at last!) and implies that future Intel chips will be designed with at least one eye on how chip-level technology can influence the online safety and security of PC owners," writes Kit Eaton at FastCompany.

Venturing into a bit of conspiracy theory, Eaton notes that there will always be money in getting rid of infections on PCs. "If Intel makes the CPU of your PC, and now owns one of the biggest anti-virus software firms, is there any financial incentive for future McAfee's to be 100 percent effective in ridding your PC of malware?" she asks.

Conspiracy theories aside, the wisdom of the acquisition is not immediately apparent to some industry observers. Some are questioning the high premium that Intel is paying out, notes Andy Greenberg in a post at Forbes. The growing ubiquity of mobile devices may not prove to be a hot market for antivirus software because of the fractured nature of mobile operating systems and the relatively low instance of viruses on the devices. "If Intel is thinking that McAfee will help it gain more traction in mobile, it's making some risky bets," Greenberg writes.

Some analysts speculate that Intel may be able to leverage its power in the PC market to persuade manufacturers to preload McAfee software, Greenberg notes.  Others argue, however, that that type of bundling strategy could raise anti-trust red flags.

The deal appears to target ARM Holdings, which sells processing technology that is standard for mobile devices, writes Ryan Kim, in a post at The San Francisco Chronicle. "Intel seems to be suggesting that depending on ARM designs may not be a good idea if security becomes an issue," Kim writes. "It's not really a huge concern now but Intel is trying to get out ahead of it. Or maybe, it's creating a market by hyping the issue."

While Intel does not make large acquisitions frequently, it has "a history of dabbling in, and retreating from, markets outside its core business of building computer microprocessors," writes Jordan Robertson in a post at Huffington Post. "It once even had a toy division that made microscopes and other gadgets before giving up on it because of poor sales." Recently, the company has bought a number of software companies, including in the fields of gaming and visual computing.

For more:
- see Intel, McAfee news release
- see Kit Eaton's post at FastCompany
- see Andy Greenberg's post at Forbes
- see Ryan Kim's post at The San Francisco Chronicle
- see Jordan Robertson's post at Huffington Post

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Posted on 19 August 2010 | 2:09 pm

Startup unveils chip for quickly calculating probabilities

Calculating probabilities is an increasingly critical and commonplace computing task--key to things such as financial modeling, fraud detection and target marketing--and a new processor system from startup Lyric Semiconductor aims to make the task faster and cheaper. The company wants to give rival giants, Intel and AMD, a run for their money, reports Jeffrey Burt at eWeek.

The binary nature of traditional computing--using 0s and 1s to arrive at yes or no answers--is not the most efficient model for discovering odds, Lyric maintains. Processors that conduct probability calculations today take up large amounts of power and space. The calculating circuitry unveiled by Lyric, which was funded by VC firms and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, would take only a few processors while others could take hundreds, Burt writes.   

As Ashlee Vance at The New York Times reports, Lyric's technology provides a potential advantage for the Department of Defense in pinpointing useful information in vast streams of data. The company's approach resembles that of other niche chip players, like Nvidia, which developed a chip that improved the speed of nuclear weapons simulations.

For more:
- see Jeffrey Burt's article at eWeek
- see Ashlee Vance's article at The New York Times

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Posted on 18 August 2010 | 11:37 am

Alleged Apple fraudster done in by email

The former Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) manager, indicted on charges of wire fraud this month, was allegedly done in by an email cache discovered on his laptop. 

Paul Shim Devine, who is charged with taking kickbacks of more than $1 million for passing confidential company data along to electronics companies in Asia, blew his cover via email, reports Martyn Williams of IDG News Service. Apple's investigators reportedly found cached Hotmail and Gmail messages as well as a Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) Entourage database of messages on Devine's computer, detailing payments and confidential data given to a company in Singapore.

Ironically, Devine allegedly knew of the risks inherent in sending such information over email. In a Sept. 16, 2008 message, he asked the recipient to "Please avoid using that email as Apple IT team will randomly scan emails for suspicious email communications for forecast, cost and new model information."

The allegations against the former global supply manager include giving information about pricing, specs and sales forecasts for products not yet released to a minimum of six contractors.

For more:
- see Martyn Williams' article at CSO magazine

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Posted on 18 August 2010 | 11:32 am

More "reserved instances" expected from cloud vendors

Many organizations have been reluctant to embrace services offered over the public cloud, and vendors in turn are starting to offer reserved portions of the cloud to allay concerns about losing control.These virtual, private clouds--or "reserved instances"--are a positive move on the part of the vendors, writes David Linthicum in a post at InfoWorld. 

Amazon Web Services is offering Reserved Database Instances, which gives customers a discounted hourly usage rate for database use in a specific region when they make a one-time payment up front. While it's a fairly high price when you consider the relatively inexpensive cost of commodity servers and open source stacks, Linthicum writes, you avoid the installation, upkeep and maintenance costs.

Linthicum predicts that we will see more "reserve" offerings from cloud computing providers, giving customers a stronger sense of ownership rather than a sense of sharing.

For more:
- see David Linthicum's post at InfoWorld

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Posted on 18 August 2010 | 11:25 am

GAO: Cyber data sharing falls short

The effort between the government and private companies to share information related to cyber security remains far less than optimal, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office. If things don't improve, GAO warns, companies that own critical infrastructure may not have the necessary information to ward off "cyber attacks that could have catastrophic effects."

The report, titled "CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE PROTECTION: Key Private and Public Cyber Expectations Need to Be Consistently Addressed," was based on surveys and interviews with officials in the public and private sectors. Fewer than a third of the private sector stakeholders in the report said they were getting alerts and other information from the government "to a great or moderate extent." Some federal partners have restricted the kind of information they are willing to share.

Meanwhile, according to government officials, some of the private sector stakeholders are reluctant to share proprietary data lest it could lead to lost market share, the GAO reports.

For more:
- see GAO's Critical Infrastructure Protection report (.pdf)

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Posted on 18 August 2010 | 11:22 am

Blowback to Wired's "The Web is Dead" story

A Wired magazine cover story announcing that "The Web is Dead" naturally generated frenzied pushback, over the week. The article, by Chris Anderson and Michael Wolff, puts forth the argument that "semi-closed" Internet platforms and services, such as apps, inevitably are overtaking the open, browser-based World Wide Web. While the web at one time was the Internet's star attraction, it is now just one application among many, the authors write.

The notion that more and more people are using apps is not exactly new, as GigaOm's Mathew Ingram points out. The roaring success of the iPhone and its app store have driven the Internet's evolution toward meeting specific needs with specific applications. However, it's hard to say what the next big thing will be. And with HTML5, developers could develop websites that look and behave like apps, he argues.

According to Rob Beschizza at BoingBoing, who looked at the data presented in the Wired article from a different angle, the use of the browser-based web is, in fact, still growing. A chart included with the article shows web traffic declining as a percentage of total U.S. Internet traffic. But if you look at the growth of actual traffic, he notes, there is substantial growth in all aspects of Internet use, including the web.

Alexis Madrigal at The Atlantic takes issue with Wired's premise that one successful new technology inevitably destroys an older one. Citing scholars, Madrigal makes the point that new and old technologies often work side-by-side. Technological progress is not deterministic, but rather shaped by personal choices and social influences, he argues.

Noting that Wired had pronounced the browser dead back in 1997, Michael Arrington at TechCrunch takes the magazine to the mat for jumping to conclusions. While apps work well for smartphones with small screens, they aren't necessarily the choice for people using larger mobile devices, such as the iPad. One example Arrington gives is that the Facebook iPad "app" is accessed not from an app store but via a browser. He predicts that eventually people will want less software on their mobile phones as well.

One thing pretty much everyone agrees on, Wired gets kudos for the provocative headline. It's own website, over the past week, was very much alive.

For more:
- see Anderson and Wolff's article at Wired
- see Mathew Ingram's post at GigaOm
- see Rob Beschizza's post at BoingBoing
- see Alexix Madrigal's article at The Atlantic
- see Michael Arrington's post at TechCrunch

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Posted on 18 August 2010 | 11:17 am

Use passwords of at least 12 characters to protect against hacking

Brute-force attacks are now much more of a threat to short passwords, given the increasing computational prowess of computers, says research scientists at the Georgia Tech Research Institute. In a nutshell, a password consisting of just seven characters is slated to be "hopelessly inadequate"--even if numbers and non-standard symbols are used. Their recommendation, therefore, is to use passwords of at least 12 characters.

One culprit would be the increasing availability of high-powered graphics processing units (GPU); today's top GPU offers about two teraflops of parallel processing powers. As a comparison, senior research scientist Richard Boyd noted that the world's supercomputer in the year 2000 yielded a computing performance of just slightly more than seven teraflops--and cost $110 million.

Joshua Davis, another research scientist involved in the project noted that length is a major factor to protect against brute force approaches. He said, "A computer keyboard contains 95 characters, and every time you add another character, your protection goes up exponentially, by 95 times."

For more on this story:
- check out this article at The Register

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Posted on 17 August 2010 | 1:08 am

IM+ offers free web version of multi IM service

The popular maker of multi instant-messaging service, Shape Services, has released its new service IM+ for web as a public beta. As its name implies, IM+ for web allows users to log onto a web service to simultaneously access and chat on multiple instant messaging networks. What I found interesting is how IM+ keeps a log of past chats, which is then searchable via the browser's on-page search. Currently supported networks are Skype, AIM, MSN, Yahoo, Facebook, MySpace, ICQ, Jabber and Google Talk. You can check it the beta service here.

Posted on 17 August 2010 | 12:53 am

Verizon FiOS test approaches 1Gbps

Verizon (NYSE: VZ) has completed a field test of its FiOS network, which is based on GPON, or gigabit passive optical network technology. With a theoretical maximum of 2.4Gbps download pipe and 1.2Gbps upstream, the test yielded a speed of more than 800mbps to a business customer located 400 miles away. To underscore the feat, the same test, which was conducted using a local server achieved only a marginally faster speed of 925Mbps.

The actual throughput for a standard Gigabit Ethernet connection is far lower than 1Gbps. With 800Mbps in throughput as reported by PCWorld, the transfer rates in Verizon's test are in effect somewhat superior.

Before you starting calling Verizon to subscribe to this service, note that the fastest speed service available to Verizon customers today is 50Mbps, though the company says it has plans to offer 100Mbps soon. Anyway, the throughput achieved in the test is also shared at the GPON node, though the test does offer a glimpse of the future possibilities on its fiber optic network.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at Ars Technica
- check out this article at PCWorld
- check out this article at CNET News

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Posted on 17 August 2010 | 12:42 am

New Atom processors for home and business appliances

Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) has announced that it is shipping several new Atom processors targeted at home media and business storage appliances. Other than its support for DDR3 RAM, the performance of the new Atom processors is also boosted via higher CPU frequencies. The 1.8GHz D425 is a single-core processor, while the D525 is a dual-core chip. The new Atom processors support both Microsoft Windows Home Server and Linux platforms.

The energy-efficient Atom platform is typically used by a large variety of appliances or even as low-end workstations. While Intel did highlight the versatility of the Atom in enabling Internet-connected devices in its press release, it is clear that the chip company has storage vendors firmly in mind. In fact, Intel went as far as to name a number of storage vendors with Atom-based storage solutions, such as Cisco, Synology and Netgear. You can certainly look forward to new devices arriving later this year that utilize the new chips.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at Computerworld
- check out this article at Electronista

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Posted on 17 August 2010 | 12:37 am

Intel planning major revamps to SSD lineup

Leaked roadmaps from Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) have revealed that the company has big plans ahead for its solid state drives (SSD), with larger capacity SSDs chief among them. For one, the popular Intel X25-M range of SSDs will be replaced by a new model that comes in 160GB, 300GB and 600GB variants. As was the case previously, these new drives will make use of cheaper 25nm MLC NAND flash.

In turn, Intel's entry level SSD drive, the X25-V, will see its capacity bolstered from 40GB to 80GB, using the same MLC flash as the (new) X25-M. An entry-level SSD with capacities of 40GB and 80GB will also be arriving in Q1 2011, and will come in the form of a PCIE card.

On the enterprise front, it appears that Intel plans to switch from 50nm SLC flash to what the company terms "Enterprise Grade" MLC flash created by the 25nm process. The decision to drop the use of proven SLC flash is surprising, though is likely to be related to cost. However, it remains to be seen whether the MLC enhancements will match up with SLC's traditional performance superiority. These new enterprise-level drives will come in 100GB, 200GB and 400GB capacities, replacing earlier 32GB and 64GB ones.

For more on this story:
- check out the article at PC Authority
- check out the article at The Register

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Posted on 17 August 2010 | 12:33 am

Security software market to pass $16.5 billion this year

A new report from Gartner says that the revenue for security software around the world will exceed $16.5 billion in 2010, which represents a growth of 11.3 percent from last year. In comparison, the security software market grew 7 percent in the midst of the global economic slowdown last year to reach $14.8 billion in revenue.

Gartner also predicts that this increase will also see a replacement of traditional software licensing models by software-as-a-service and security appliances. In fact, these two categories of products are expected to become the preferred purchasing methods, according to a senior research analyst at Gartner. On the enterprise front, compliance is expected to be a key driver in spending.

In a statement, Ruggero Contu, principal research analyst at Gartner said, "Overall, security will remain one of the fastest-growing areas within the enterprise software market." 

The increase in spending sounds reasonable, given the increasing number of security incidents. Ultimately, security is more than about purchasing software or deploying more appliances. As evidenced by the fact that many companies are not well equipped in defending against social engineering schemes, there is a need for organizations to put more funding toward training.

The Gartner report is titled, "Forecast Analysis: Security Software Markets, Worldwide, 2009-2014, 2Q10 Update," and can be accessed here if you are a Gartner client.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at Dark Reading
- see this article at Information Week

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Posted on 17 August 2010 | 12:24 am

When ERP systems impact earnings statements

Enterprise resource planning systems are notoriously challenging, but for Superior Industries International, a maker of automobile wheels, ERP problems were partially to blame for the company missing a filing deadline with the Securities and Exchange Commission. As Computerworld's Chris Kanaracus reports, the difficulties had to do mostly with using the system for the first time to close out the quarter.

Other companies' financial statements have fared worse on account of massive ERP system deployments. An ERP implementation that ran over budget ended up having a negative impact on Levi Strauss' earnings in 2008, Kanaracus recounts.

The complexity of ERP and the customization that enterprises often require have a tendency to generate unexpected delays. "That's oftentimes the downfall of these big projects. [The core software provides] 70 to 80 percent of what they need, and then they get into expensive customizations. They get into that, and never finish," said Paul Hamerman, an analyst with Forrester Research.  

For more:
- see Chris Kanaracus' article at Computerworld

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Posted on 15 August 2010 | 9:12 pm

Oracle's lawsuit against Google could have far-reaching ramifications

Oracle's (NASDAQ: ORCL) patent infringement lawsuit against Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) over Java could have far-reaching ramifications. Oracle claims that Google's Android mobile operating system and the devices that use it infringe on a slew of Oracle's intellectual property related to Java. Here's a quick tour of impressions from around the blogosphere:

Predicting an "epic smackdown," CNNMoney's David Goldman writes that the intellectual property disputes out of Silicon Valley are becoming increasingly complex. With both Oracle and Google developing open-source platforms, this lawsuit could be especially tricky and take many years to resolve. If Oracle wins, it would signal that Java is less open than once considered.

The big winner in this latest fight over Java, according to ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley, could be Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). Developers and users might start to wonder about what's going to happen with Android, and the lawsuit gives "Windows Phone 7 more air cover."

Foley's colleague at ZDNet, Larry Dignan, speculates that the Oracle lawsuit may be the tip of the iceberg for patent infringement allegations against Android. A pending lawsuit by Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) against HTC "has a heavy dose of Android in it," Dignan writes, adding that it won't be long before more parties join in.

Predicting that the lawsuit "signals a major reversal in the stewardship of Java," Wired's David Kravets notes that Sun Microsystems, which created the Java programming language and was acquired by Oracle, was not known for filing lawsuits. Sun had given Java away as open-source code as well as licensing it, and in 2006 the language became part of the Free Software Foundation's GNU General Public License. Some developers have lambasted the lawsuit as an attack on open source, and Google has taken up that banner in its defense.

Others anticipate trouble ahead for Java, which has experienced waning popularity in recent years. According to one-time chairman of the opensource convention, Nathan Torkington, Java has "lost its momentum" and "it's becoming legally murky enough that there's room for competition," Kravets reports.

For more:
- see David Goldman's post at CNNMoney
- see Mary Jo Foley's post at ZDNet
- see Larry Dignan's post at ZDNet
- see David Kravets' post at Wired

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Posted on 15 August 2010 | 9:07 pm

Should businesses care about net neutrality?

The net neutrality debate is often framed as pitting consumers against Internet Service Providers, but as demonstrators gathered on Google's (NASDAQ: GOOG) doorstep recently to protest its proposed deal with Verizon (NYSE: VZ), industry experts weighed in on why business users should take an interest in this arcane regulatory matter. 

Fred Wilson argues in a post at CNNMoney that entrepreneurs should support net neutrality because it would maintain the ecosystem responsible for enormous innovation in web-based businesses. Taking the opposing position are Robert E. Litan and Hal J. Singer, in a post at HarvardBusinessReview.

Wilson argues that a simple, non-discrimination rule preventing ISPs from giving preference to any one application or content would basically codify the system we have in place. It is this framework that has enabled enormous innovation in web-based businesses, and it doesn't give ISPs an opportunity to game the system, in Wilson's view.

In Litan and Singer's view, enterprises should oppose net neutrality for two reasons. First, if regulation is established, ISPs could stop investing in their networks--something they have made veiled threats about over the years. Second, if ISPs were allowed to discriminate and give businesses the opportunity to buy priority delivery, innovation could benefit, they argue. Higher-performing real-time applications could be enabled.

For more:
- see Fred Wilson's post at CNNMoney
- see Litan and Singer's post at HarvardBusinessReview

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Posted on 15 August 2010 | 8:58 pm

Indian outsourcers offshoring to Latin America

As analysts predict growing competitive pressure for outsourcers based in India, at least one of those outsourcers is offshoring the work to Latin America. India's Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is employing more than 7500 workers in Latin America, reports Don Sears at eWeek.

Latin America's outsourcing business grew 11.3 percent last year, according to a Frost & Sullivan research report, and the competition is robust. There are numerous local outsourcers, including Brasil Telecom, Chile IT, Stefanini and Tivit. Meanwhile, stalwart U.S. providers such as HP (NYSE: HPQ), IBM (NYSE: IBM), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) are doing work from there as well, Sears reports.

India's TCS is expanding its Latin American operations throughout Argentina, Brazil, Columbia, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay. Argentina is seen as a particularly hot outsourcing destination right now because of its many universities, while Brazil is expected to witness a boon with the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

For more:
- see Don Sears' article at eWeek

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Posted on 15 August 2010 | 2:04 pm

Virgin America's IT infrastructure is primarily opensource

Virgin America is using mostly open-source software in its IT infrastructure, according to the airline's CIO, Ravi Simhambhatla. The move from proprietary software is saving Virgin America millions of dollars, but that's not the main reason for the transition, reports Sean Michael Kerner in an article at CIOUpdate. 

The airline replaced its commercial VPN technology with an open-source alternative, OpenVPN, Simhambhatla said. Among the open-source platforms it uses are Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Apache Tomcat and MySQL. To secure email, it uses the Apache spamassassin project. To embrace opensource, an enterprise must have an open mind as well as "an incessant drive to keep costs low without compromising core needs," he said. "We didn't put open source in because it was free, we put it in because it just works."

Analysts have found that the majority of enterprises are using opensource in at least some capacity, but if you're not ready to embrace it wholeheartedly, you're not alone. Your developers are likely clamoring for it, but IT executives generally are taking a pragmatic approach, according to Jeffrey Hammond, an analyst with Forrester Research. The differing views between developers and executives is gearing up to create conflict, but it can be avoided, reports Savio Rodrigues in an article at InfoWorld.

Most executives making decisions about software purchases consider foremost its capacity to meet the business need, Rodrigues reports. However, according to research by Forrester, developers are playing a growing role in making decisions about software. And since developers tend to find opensource to be productive, they are more willing to recommend it. To prevent a clash with developers, IT executives should drive the purchasing decisions through management and drive the adoption through developers, Forrester's Hammond recommends.

For more:
- see Sean Michael Kerner's article at CIOUpdate
- see Savio Rodrigues' article at InfoWorld

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Posted on 15 August 2010 | 1:59 pm

EnGenius ECB9500 multi-functional 802.11n wireless device

Looking for a wireless access point that will serve your branch office well? You might want to consider the ECB9500 from EnGenius. A business-class multi-functional 802.11n wireless device with seven distinct operational modes, the ECB9500 supports 802.11n for a maximum speed of 300Mbps. For good measure, it also sports a gigabit Ethernet LAN port that supports Power-over-Ethernet (PoE). Indeed, I purchased the ECB9500 earlier this week to replace my existing 802.11n Linksys wireless router when it broke down. Overall, the ECB9500 has given me far better coverage and completely eliminated dead spots that were previously present. You can check out the wireless router here.

Posted on 13 August 2010 | 7:15 am

Wireless tire sensors on vehicles vulnerable to hacking

The problem of weak security implementation is hardly limited to computers, if research by the University of South Carolina and Rutgers University are any indication. Data from tire pressure sensors built into cars' tires could essentially be monitored or even manipulated using programmable radio equipment costing just $1,500 and some free software.

In a nutshell, the researchers managed to interfere with the readings of two different tire pressure monitoring system, causing warning lights on the dashboard to activate. And because the pressure sensors contain unique IDs, vehicles could theoretically be tracked as well.

Still, the team was quick to emphasize that there is no actual security threat to the vehicle this point, and since tire sensors communicate infrequently at between 60 to 90 seconds, any invasion of privacy is hard to perpetuate. What is clear to me though, is that security was not taken into account when designing the system. 

In this case, car makers seem to be relying on the obscurity of the communications protocols used instead of any real security measures. With an increasing number of components within the modern vehicle being controlled by computers, such an attitude could eventually prove to be a disastrous one.

For more on this story:
- check out the article at Ars Technica
- check out the article at Technology Review

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Posted on 13 August 2010 | 6:58 am

Installing Microsoft LNK security patch on Windows XP SP2

Users still on Windows XP SP2 and fretting that Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) has stopped releasing security updates for it can now rest a little easier where the recent LNK vulnerability is concerned. Due to the severity of the problem, Microsoft issued an emergency patch last week to rectify it; fueling this decision was the presence of active exploits that were already making their rounds.

With the problem affecting every version of Windows since Windows XP, a large number of users still on Windows XP SP2 for various reasons were effectively left out in the cold. It appears however that Windows XP SP2 can actually be tricked into installing the emergency update with a registry edit to trick the operating system into thinking that it is Service Pack 3.

Sean Sullivan, a security adviser at antivirus vendor F-Secure wrote about this in a blog entry: "It turns out that an SP2 system will think its SP3 if you edit this key: HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Windows, and edit the DWORD value CSDVersion from 200 to 300 (and reboot)."

Sullivan's approach is obviously not tested by Microsoft, and users should only do this at their own risk. Interestingly though, a reader who posted a comment to the original article suggested using a security update for Windows XP Embedded, which also installs on SP2 systems without the need for any registry tweak. The file can be accessed here.

Whatever method you use to protect your Windows XP SP2 installation can only be considered a stop-gap measure at best, however. Ultimately, users should either bite the bullet to upgrade to Windows XP SP3, or switch to a newer version of Windows.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at Computerworld
- check out this article at ZDNet Blogs

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Posted on 13 August 2010 | 6:57 am

Chrome 6 enters beta, packs enhanced sync capabilities

The Chrome 6 web browser was promoted to beta status by Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) earlier this week, bringing it one step closer to being released as a stable release. Besides the usual performance enhancements--Google says it renders JavaScript 15 percent faster, the new version of Chrome comes with a simplified user interface and enhanced synchronization capabilities.

The enhanced sync means that everything from extensions, autofilled data, themes and preferences will be synchronized between copies of Chrome running on different workstations. This will allow the user experience with Chrome to be essentially the same at work or at home. Of course, the alternative would be to just use a laptop for both work and home. (That's what I do)

Another new feature touted by Google is autofill, in which the browser will remember multiple sets of data so as to make filling forms easier. This includes credit card information, though Google won't save it without first obtaining confirmation. If you are interested, you can download Chrome 6 beta from here.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at Ars Technica
- check out this article at Computerworld

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Posted on 13 August 2010 | 6:44 am

Hotmail upgrade not smooth sailing for all

A recent revamp by Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) of its Hotmail service did not appear to have gone smoothly for everyone, judging from the numerous complains on its support forum. Initiated in mid-June, the "Wave 4" upgrade for some 350 million Hotmail accounts was completed earlier in August.

Some of the problems have to do with basic functionalities, such as an inability to access or compose emails, and others are downright strange, such as errors in the "From" field of emails that were moved to another folder. At the moment, Microsoft forum representatives have advised users to avoid certain browsers. Ironically, one of their recommendations was to use the latest version of Google's (NASDAQ: GOOG) Chrome web browser. Another workaround was to avoid using the web-based interface, and to download the Windows Live Mail desktop client to access their Hotmail accounts instead.

It would appear to me that the various problems are real, judging from the anger and frustration from some users. It is hard to know exactly how many users were actually affected, unfortunately.

The question here is whether we should even consider the various free web-based email services to be our main mailbox in the first place--considering that there is no recourse for any service disruption or undesirable 'upgrades.' I would love to hear your opinion on this.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at Computerworld 
- check out this article from ZDNet

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Posted on 13 August 2010 | 6:40 am

Majority of IT workers willing to pay for their own tech tools

A new survey from Unisys indicated that the majority of IT workers are willing to pick up at least part of the tab for technology tools used as part of their workflow if they are allowed to pick the tools themselves. The online survey was conducted in July and, although it covered only 141 respondents, illustrates the blurring lines of technology for personal use and technology for work use.

When posed with the question: "What percentage of the cost of your job's IT tools would you be willing to fund if you had the freedom to choose what you could use?" 32 percent said they were willing to pay the entire cost, while 21 percent would foot half the bill. Only 26 percent stated that their employers are responsible for these costs; the rest were amenable to pay up to a third of the price.

"The consumerization of IT is being driven by workers who are the ones going out and voluntarily purchasing equipment with their own dollars for business and personal use," said Sam Gross, VP of global IT outsourcing solutions at Unisys.

Rather than resist the inevitable, Gross suggested that businesses should start figuring out how to leverage this to their benefit. If not, employers who decline to adapt to the willingness of staff to pay for specific IT tools could well be missing out on an opportunity to reduce cost and improve staff morale.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at InformationWeek
- check out this article at InfoTech

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Posted on 13 August 2010 | 6:28 am

Motorola warns against downloading unofficial Android 2.2 upgrade for Droid X

As Droid X users become impatient waiting for the Android 2.2 update, Motorola has cautioned these smartphone owners to avoid downloading an unofficial Android 2.2 upgrade popping up on Internet sites.

On its blog, Motorola warned that installing a leaded upgrade will keep Droid X smartphone users from receiving the final version of Android 2.2, also known as Froyo, which is expected to be released early this month.

Android 2.2 promises to permanently correct some Exchange 2003 email problems that Motorola has already issued a temporary fix for. Moreover, Motorola's operating system upgrade for the Droid X should give enterprise users full push delivery support for Exchange as well as Gmail for business. Live widgets for streaming messages to a user's home screen will be included along with filter widgets for distinguishing between work and home emails.

Other enterprise enhancements include: A corporate directory, the ability to permanently delete text messages, a global lookup capability, a unified calendar and security protocols for remotely establishing the device's password for documents stored in memory.

For more:
- see this Newsfactor article

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Posted on 31 August 2010 | 11:44 pm

Physicians love smartphones but often can't access clinical records

Physicians have rapidly embraced smartphones significantly beyond the general population leaving IT departments in hospitals grappling with demands from physicians that electronic clinical information systems be available through their devices.

"Five to 10 years ago they were saying, 'If only my docs would be using computers,'" C. Peter Waegemann, vice president for development of the mHealth Initiative, an organization that promotes mobile technology in health care told American Medical News. Now hospital executives complain that doctors are "using these smartphones all the time...and I don't know how to integrate it," he added.

Research firm Spyglass Consulting Group took a survey earlier this year of more than 100 physicians and found that 94 percent of them use smartphones for both personal and professional functions, including at the point of care. Another survey from Manhattan Research showed that 72 percent of doctors use smartphones for both personal and professional use, with the number expected to increase to 81 percent in 2012.

However, the obstacle physicians face is the ability to connect with existing clinical records at the hospitals they practice medicine in. George "Buddy" Hickman, executive vice president and chief information officer at Albany (N.Y.) Medical Center, found out through a survey of hospital executives, that 18 of the 52 hospitals that responded to his questions said they allow smartphone access to the hospitals clinical records.

For more:
- see this American Medical News article

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Posted on 31 August 2010 | 11:42 pm

Palm makes surprise WebOS 2.0 announcement

Palm made a surprise announcement today that WebOS 2.0 is on the way.

Palm has been relatively quiet since being acquired by Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) and hasn't issued any new hardware or software releases in some time as employees jump ship. However, the company has indicated it would release a WebOS product in early 2011, most likely a tablet.

Some of the top features of the updated WebOS platform include:

• Developer access to Synergy, allowing developers to merge their own services into the unified contact book, calendar and messaging inbox;
• Multitasking stack, which means WebOS turns apps into "cards" with stacks sorting related cards together;
• A Just Type feature that enables developers create "quick actions" to let users begin an email, create a message, update statuses, search websites without having to launch an app;
• A dock mode feature that allows apps to put up special screens when a Palm device is sitting on its Touchstone dock. "Think slide shows; stock, news and sports tickers; social network updates; virtual pets; a killer alarm clock," Palm wrote on its website;
• Enhanced access to native hardware to give more developers access to the Plug-In Developers Kit.

Palm hasn't given a date as to when the update will become available but indicated WebOS 2.0 will come later this year.

Back in May, former HP CEO Mark Hurd said webOS would go well beyond smartphones and tablet PCs and into connected devices such as web printers complete with an app store. HP's aim is to also grow Palm's smartphone business.

For more:
- see this PCMag article

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Posted on 31 August 2010 | 3:45 pm

Microsoft faces heavy costs to make WinPhone 7 competitive with iPhone

Windows Phone 7 is expected to cost Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) almost a half-billion dollars in marketing expenses when the phone is first rolled out, according Jonathan Goldberg, analyst with Deutsche Bank.

In an interview with TechCrunch, Goldberg said he estimated Microsoft's marketing costs for the Windows Phone 7 platform to run around $400 million when the first Windows Phone devices roll out later this year. That figure is in addition to the substantial amount of money it has already invested in developing the new platform.

"This is make-or-break for them. They need to do whatever it takes to stay in the game," Goldberg said. "They don't have to take share from Android or Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), so long as they can attract enough consumers switching from feature phones."

Microsoft has spent a significant amount of time courting developers to build for the Windows Phone platform, recently rolling out a new series of online tutorials demonstrating best practices for application building. Microsoft is also willing to pay iPhone developers to port their programs onto Windows Phone 7. Developers' involvement is a key piece in the platform's success. Microsoft senior product manager Anand Iyer told TechCrunch that the software company has already seen 300,000 downloads of Microsoft's development tools.

Goldberg said Microsoft executives told him that Microsoft, along with its carrier and manufacturing partners, would likely spend "billions" of dollars in the first year for marketing and development.

Out of the eight handset manufacturers Microsoft announced in February as supporting its new platform, it appears three are left: HTC, Samsung and LG, Goldberg said. (The others were Dell, HP (NYSE: HPQ), Sony-Ericsson, Garmin-Asus and Toshiba).

For more:
- see this TechCrunch article

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Posted on 31 August 2010 | 2:26 pm

Apple's iPad now shipping in 24 hours

It appears Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) production capacity of the iPad has increased as the device, both the WiFi-only and 3G-enabled version, now ships within 24 hours from Apple's online store. Previously, Apple's online store had reported days' or even weeks' worth of delays for shipments. In the third fiscal quarter, Apple reported sales of 3.27 million iPads, and there is significant anecdotal evidence that the iPad is penetrating the enterprise quickly. Article

Posted on 31 August 2010 | 9:58 am

RIM avoids BlackBerry ban in India for 60 days

Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) avoided a possible ban of its BlackBerry services in India after it agreed to provide security agencies in the country more access to its services.

The Indian government has said that it will review its security concerns again in 60 days after India's Department of Telecommunications looks at whether corporate email and instant messaging services can be routed through a server in India.

RIM faced a ban in India if it didn't provide the government with a way to monitor BlackBerry messages. RIM supports about 1 million Blackberry users in India, which represent around 2 percent of the company's 46 million global users.

India's Ministry of Home Affairs said in a statement that RIM had made "certain proposals for lawful access by law enforcement agencies and these would be operationalized immediately. The feasibility of the solutions offered would be assessed thereafter."

It's not clear what RIM exactly agreed to do for the Indian government. The BlackBerry maker is facing similar problems in the United Araba Emirates and Saudi Arabia as the governments there see BlackBerry's encrypted services as presenting a potential threat to national security. Analysts now believe that RIM may have opened the flood gates. The action, according to analysts, could provoke regulators in other countries to demand similar concessions from RIM. For its part, RIM argues it maintains a "consistent global standard" for lawful access to its system, which "does not include special deals for specific countries." In the United States, law enforcement officials can gain access to communications, contingent on legal approvals.

For more:
- see this WSJ article (sub. req.)
- see this Bloomberg article
- see this NYT article
- see this other Bloomberg article

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Posted on 30 August 2010 | 10:27 pm

SAP offers more details on Sybase acquisition

SAP gave more details last week about its plans for Sybase. In May, SAP announced its intention to acquire Sybase for $5.8 billion as a way to expand into enterprise mobility and stay competitive with Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL).

During a press event last week in Boston, SAP said it plans to enhance Sybase's mobile middleware offerings by adding SAP business analytics and enterprise information management products during the next nine months. 

"We are making significant improvements, making it more comprehensive," said Brian Vink, vice president of data management products with Sybase. "Combining the mobility side with SAP business suite analytics is about generating an optimized comprehensive solution for analytics. Enterprise information management brings support to provide a comprehensive platform for data management."

SAP said it will keep Sybase as a separate business unit with existing Sybase customers and products being continued and supported. However, SAP is relying on its own and Sybase's existing partners to push forward with the newly revamped Sybase Unwired Platform.

SAP's integration plans include:

• The co-developed Sybase Unwired Platform that willl support all major mobile operating systems. The company has plans to make the platform available to partners for application development;
• SAP's Business Suite and EIM solutions that will include the Sybase ASE database platform;
• Sybase IQ and Sybase ASE that will support SAP's business analytics offering, SAP BusinessObjects, also an acquisition asset; and 
• The incorporation of in-memory computing technology across SAP and Sybase data management solutions, so users can get browser-based access to any data in one environment.

For more:
- see this Channel Insider article

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Posted on 25 August 2010 | 12:03 am

New RIM BlackPad tablet may not run on BlackBerry 6

The new BlackBerry tablet, BlackPad, that is expected to come out in November may run on software developed by QNX Software Systems instead of BlackBerry 6.0, according to new reports.

Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) has not yet confirmed what platform its tablet will run on, but QNX Software Systems was purchased by RIM for $200 million in April, and it has exclusive access to its software technology for its tablet. QNX is a company well-known for its real-time operating system (RTOS), used in critical components ranging from powering the six-wheeled unmanned Crusher combat vehicle of the U.S. Army to automotive navigation systems to cardiac monitors. A version of the RTOS will supposedly be created to specially spearhead RIM's first foray into the tablet space.

The QNX operating system (OS) doesn't need to carry legacy software from older BlackBerry devices like the new BlackBerry 6 OS, which is reportedly why RIM is opting for QNX software. The tablet is expected to be closely integrated with RIM's email system and provide similar security for messaging.

The BlackPad is seen as serving as a larger screen companion to the BlackBerry phone complete with tethering via the smartphone.

For more:
- see this Times of India article
- read this Bloomberg article

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Posted on 24 August 2010 | 2:14 pm

Leaked: Images of Windows Phone 7 devices surface

Some images of Windows Phone 7 models have been leaked to the public, despite the fact that handset makers have yet to release official photos or information on upcoming Windows Phone 7 devices.

According to CNET's Ina Fried, "Photos, videos or details on a handful of models have leaked to the Web including LG's keyboard-enabled c900, the touchscreen-only e900, HTC's Mozart, and Samsung's i917."

Just last month, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer spoke about Windows Phone 7's debut expected later in 2010. Ballmer said Windows Phone 7 would be aggressively promoted to smartphone- and tablet-makers, with the company's sights set on Dell, Sony, Asus and Samsung as potential partners to release WP7-powered products in "the next few months."

For more:
- see the CNET News article

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Posted on 24 August 2010 | 2:00 pm