Calsoft Blog

Amazon puts cloud on the market

2012-01-28T01:36:00.002+05:30

Amazon is opening up its cloud for the enterprise market enabling firms to back up data in its cloud storage facilities - the product on offer is called AWS Storage Gateway.

Amazon described the service as being for “in the event you need replacement capacity for disaster recovery purposes, or if you want to leverage Amazon EC2's on-demand compute capacity for additional capacity during peak periods, for new projects.”

It also reduces cost when running a normal workload by mirroring your on-premises data to Amazon EC2 instances.

Of course the issue of security is always present when it comes to storing data in the cloud – maybe even more so for enterprises. Amazon has been eager to make their security measures clear.

Secure Socket Layer (SSL) is a cryptographic protocol, which protects the data in transit as the shift to the cloud takes place.

The data is then stored in Amazon’s cloud using Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) 256 (a secure symmetric-key encryption standard), and the data is made less susceptible to a datacentre failure by using multiple locations for storage.

“Amazon S3 is designed to sustain the concurrent loss of data in two facilities, redundantly storing your data on multiple devices across multiple facilities in a region," said the firm.

Enterprises can trial the AWS Storage Gateway for 60 days for free - £79.70 per month thereafter, though volume of data may attract additional fees. As a way of backing up point-in-time snapshots of on-premises application data, in preparation for future recovery, Amazon’s cloud seems like a good idea.

"We're not done yet"

2012-01-23T21:00:00.001+05:30

Wikipedia may have come back to life, but they are firm in their resolution that the fight will go on.

Along with other sites that participated in the Internet blackout on Wednesday, they are continuing the battle against the contentious Protect IP Act (PIPA) and the Stop Online Piracy ACT (SOPA).

Wikipedia, along with a good 10,000 smaller sites, effectively shut down and replaced the familiar homepage with a warning to visitors about PIPA and SOPA.

Google showed its support and blacked out its main logo – other sites that showed support but did not blackout took the number of smaller sites up to 40,000 (the majority of these were on WordPress.com), according to Fight for the Future.

Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) said that close to 396,000 people signed its online petition resulting in nearly 1.2 million emails to Congress.

"Our next action against the blacklist legislation is a call-in day to senators on Monday," said Rainey Reitman, activism director at EFF. “We've seen incredible successes in the last 48 hours, but we need to make sure this proposal is good and dead before we let up.”

PIPA is scheduled for a final vote tomorrow – hence no holding back.

Wikipedia apparently had eight million people look up the contact information for their local representative on the day of the blackout using a Wiki tool.

"The purpose of the blackout was twofold: to raise public awareness, and to encourage people to share their views with their elected representatives," said Wikipedia's message.

Awareness was raised all right - increased traffic caused ‘online rubber necking,’ during the blackout, due to users satisfying their curiosity.

Critics of SOPA and PIPA say US website owners will be forced to police their own sites in terms of copyright infringement – “They are misguided solutions to a misunderstood problem.” Wikipedia cautioned.

The bills have been weakened but not yet stopped – with the PIPA vote on 24th January, can the masses succeed with so little time left?

Reitman hopes so, “I'd like to kill this bill so thoroughly that Congress won't even think to introduce a replica."

Parliament on the hunt for pioneering data network

2012-01-19T22:29:00.002+05:30

The Houses of Parliament need a partner to provide a state-of-the-art data network under a four-year contract that is set to commence in September this year.

The aim is to reduce the cost of ICT whilst connecting members and the public to data they need "anywhere, at any time and from any device" – and whoever is chosen to provide this managed service solution will end up with a contract worth over £3m.

Parliament wants a new wired and wireless data network designed and installed by their new partner – the network will provide all members, staff and visitors (to both Houses), with data and voice services.

The contract is to be spilt into two – so two vendors may be called upon. The first contract covers the data switch replacement, telephony system replacement, network access control, unified communications, Internet access and the convergence of other parliamentary networks.

The second is ‘simply’ for the provision of a managed wireless data network – including guest access.

Quite a contract for whichever supplier is chosen – Parliament will want value for money and the availability for future expansion without any issue, thus flexibility.

Did I mention Inatech supplies managed services?

Gartner predicts 4% increase on global spending

2012-01-18T22:22:00.000+05:30

Gartner have revised their global IT spending forecast to take into account the
impact of Thailand’s floods - and the research firm still predicts a 3.7 per cent
increase on last year (reaching $3.8tn).

The floods affected hard disk drive production, but also the lack of economic stability and the eurozone crisis meant Gartner had to look at their figures again.

It could be 2013 before the effects of the devastation are fully dealt with – Gartner are also telling firms to tread carefully in the current economic climate and stay alert with regards to the eurozone crisis.

Emerging economies are actually still showing healthy growth in their IT markets, “such as Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa,” as opposed to the slow down in the US and EU. These newer markets can afford lots of opportunities, according to Robert Gordon, Vice President of Gartner.

Growth in the enterprise software market comes in second to telecoms equipment spending – software is more ‘resilient’ than the hardware market and also, software spending is subscription based and not a one-off purchase, so it rolls on nicely.

“There is a lot of strategic investment in software at the moment with companies buying applications and updating infrastructure rather than hiring new staff,” said Gordon

The increase in IT spending is the trend for companies now as they develop growth strategies post the cut backs following the financial crisis of 2009. Firms are developing more agile business practices in order to position themselves within the new economy.

"So there's a lot of strategic investment for IT infrastructure and business applications as companies need to invest in technologies that enable them to understand their customers better. IT is a key enabler of business agility," said Gordon.

The IT market may slow down, but it seems only the end of the world could stop it. Let’s hope that prediction does not come true.

Christmas gadgets challenge CIOs

2012-01-17T14:59:00.003+05:30

The gadgets that many employees got for Christmas are set to give CIOs a new challenge.

As new smartphones and tablets are brought in post the festive season, companies have to be able to control the increased influx. Research suggests that there is actually a disparity between the devices workers are bringing into the office and what the IT department allow for work use.

Cloud supplier, Star believes this is set to become a battle in the workplace. “It is clear that the consumer trends in technology will be one of the biggest factors in 2012 that drive UK companies to rethink their IT.”

Star carried out research that revealed IT departments were not prepared for the influx of iPhones and iPads and fewer than 50% had integrated these devices. In fact only a quarter of companies have allowed more than a tenth of workers to use their own devices.

Those larger companies on board with the change (employees becoming recognised as a powerful force when it comes to change within a company) are encouraging employees to ‘bring your own’ device.

According to these enterprises hardware spending can be reduced, workers are given the device appropriate to their role, and of course – the worker is happy.

Citric has formularised a test scheme to allow their employees to choose their own computing device for work (Buy Your Own Computer, BYOC). The company pays for the employee’s device, and this is open to all staff – 20% are on board so far.

IT service firm Cognizant, has a ‘Future of Work’ initiative that spells out the need for businesses to take on board the will of the employee or risk losing staff to companies able to offer them what they want.

Power to the people, so to speak.

IT recruiters positive about 2012 jobs

2012-01-11T17:17:00.001+05:30

2012 should be good for jobs in IT, according to the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) – the feedback supports the findings of REC and KPMG jobs report for December 2011.

Jeff Brooks, Chairman of the REC, said, "I was pleased to hear from many of our members that they are looking forward to 2012 with confidence in the IT jobs market."

IT recruiters are ‘upbeat’, with the report showing there is demand for system developers and project managers – however, there is a worry about the lack of suitable candidates from the side of employers and recruiters alike.

The IT skills gap is an ongoing problem with the number of students signing up for IT at school going down. The skills body, e-skills UK, is addressing the problem, and working closely with the REC to do so.

Brooks believes the problem can start to be answered by firms being less choosy. He has said previously that firms need to stop looking for the perfect candidate, and instead look for a graduate with potential – thus using a long-term outlook.

Making a choice with an eye on future development is the key according to Brooks - a firm would be "rewarded with a competent worker, who would cost an employer less and stay with the company longer".

Job vacancies in the IT industry have held strong throughout the economic slump because investment is continuing – companies are increasing productivity, reducing costs and driving forwards with their future growth.

The IT industry is an exciting and constantly developing scene, with job vacancies – practical solutions need to be found and young people need to be inspired, this is a sector that could lift them up with it.

Visions for 2012

2012-01-05T15:02:00.002+05:30

At the speed things change it’s hard to predict what will unfold over the next 12 months – but here are a few hopes and wishes the industry believes will take place.

Yahoo
Yahoo needs a home – for a decade it has fought to keep up with Google but is no match for the G-force. Microsoft declared its relief at being turned down back in 2008 offering $44.6bn – since then, alongside the recession, Yahoo has had a trail of disappointing results.

Microsoft, apparently, is still interested, so Yahoo may still be able to retire in 2012 and give up the ghost of its once great solo career.

RIM and Nokia
RIM and Nokia really need 2012 to be a good year, the last thing either needs is for their market position to fall further. Both companies claim to be back on track after the setbacks of 2011, but figures suggest otherwise.

In 2012 they need to compete by offering high-quality phones, and a larger choice of smartphones. If RIM and Nokia can succeed their respective market shares will go up, but more importantly the industry would benefit – with Apple and Android holding court, they are the last of the great players able to challenge these two tech monsters.

Floating Facebook
Is Facebook going to float on the stock market in 2012? The idea has been suggested many times.

Facebook values itself at $100bn, a ‘confident’ amount shall we say. But who knows what the outcome could be – LinkedIn exceeded expectations, whereas Groupon fell well below. A negative result for Facebook could set off the expected second dot.com collapse – let’s hope the confidence of the company carries through.

End of the Internet
2012 will hopefully not be the end of the world – though the panic behind the 32-bit IPv4 address space running out has been described as the ‘End of the Internet’.

Even World IPv6 Day last year had a minimum effect on pushing adoption. Until ISPs support it fully, customers are reluctant to change, but if customers do not demand it then the ISPs hold back.

Service providers like Google need to build a presence on both protocols and then IPv6 should be able to drive forward. We need some big overhauls to happen this year to get this procrastinating baby going.

Future IT minds
IT education needs to improve in the UK – a constant discussion throughout the past year. If students lose interest in signing up for the ICT GCSE (as figures show), and qualifications beyond, the UK will have trouble remaining a technology leader.

Students need more than Word and PowerPoint to interest them – lets get into the real digital world by teaching about the workings of the social networks and maybe the UK could find the next great technological mind.

The new East End
Silicon Roundabout is the new name for the East End of London, in terms of the many start-ups being encouraged to settle there. There is a positive feeling behind this drive from tech-lovers, to Kate and Wills and the government.

If the UK is ever to produce a Facebook or Apple, this is the secure base companies
need. In 2012 we need some business high spots – this could be a game for iPhone
(Angry Birds), new hot social sites (Foursquare), or business productivity tools like
Salesforce.

Lets see a return on those investments.

2012 Olympics
Finally – we have to mention the 2012 London Olympics. The major IT firms involved have been working hard to ensure all things technical run smoothly – the UK’s image is at stake, so technology cannot let us down.

Imagine watching Usain Bolt in the 100 metres final from the comfort of your sofa – and the picture cuts 50 metres in. PR disaster.

12 months from now, the UK will hopefully have a lot to be proud of – and the Olympics should be the crowning glory – technically at least.

Cloud & consumerisation exposes blind spot in IT departments

2011-12-21T16:29:00.002+05:30

Transparency is lacking when it comes to the cloud, consumerisation of IT, social media and mobility – resulting in IT departments “running blind”.

Compuware, a technology performance firm, took a survey involving 500 CIOs - the results indicated that IT departments were unable to support their businesses due to lack of involvement when new services were signed up to.

Inadvertently keeping the IT department in the dark only results in problems when things go wrong. Determining the fault can then be a struggle as it is not clear whether the third party service provider or the company’s internal infrastructure is to blame.

Michael Allen, director of application performance management at Compuware explained how businesses were not necessarily getting the visibility, availability, performance and quality needed because IT was not being consulted first.

Visibility for customers is starting to happen – as Allen confirmed, “some of the smarter providers are beginning to realise they can differentiate their services by offering greater transparency.”

Even so many CIOs admitted mobility projects were going ahead without IT being fully informed.

Allen explained that a fundamental change was taking place – because of mobile devices and the cloud, what had been traditional was now a thing of the past.

The point of consumption is becoming the point to measure performance and availability – for customer satisfaction and to protect the brand with better accessability and support. These systems would also allow companies to understand the level of performance that a customer would expect before expanding into new areas – so protecting investment and understanding commitment.

By using cloud-based systems to test apps consumersiation would be less of an issue too – according to Allen. Mobile devices could be tested by the thousand.

IT departments can take control again – but they have to look beyond the traditional, internal means – and maybe the business involved needs to take note of visibility wants too.

Government set to spend millions and extend mobile coverage

2011-12-19T15:18:00.000+05:30

Apparently, by 2013 those living in rural areas of the UK, with little to no mobile reception could find themselves finally connected.

The government is to pay telecoms firms to extend coverage to these areas - where up to 10 per cent of the population live. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has informed suppliers of the decision.

In the Official Journal of the European Union, the DCMS states, “In certain areas of the UK, particularly remote areas, there is a limited commercial case for market-driven private investments to achieve the required enhancement to coverage and quality of service.”

The big decision is the allocation of funding to deploy the superfast broadband across the UK - the Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) team is overseeing the matter and has two choices - pay operators to extend coverage to otherwise uneconomic areas, or the BDUK buy the necessary infrastructure itself.

However, the Chancellor, George Osborne has been criticised by those watching the market as offering too little for the deployment to work, £150m precisely.

The Countryside Alliance also discovered last week that the Treasury has not yet passed any of the allocated money on to the relevant councils.

If the government wants this deployment to be a success they need to push ahead – is the BDUK just indecisive? Or is there a problem we have yet to discover?

RIM slashes prices to push Playbook sales

2011-12-13T21:34:00.002+05:30

Sales of RIM’s Playbook have fallen quite significantly since the end of the first quarter of 2011 - down to 150,000 sales from 500,000. Their answer to the issue is to slash prices - $485m to be precise - on its third quarter revenues.

Despite this, Mike Lazaridis, co-chief executive at RIM, is optimistic about the company’s future in the Playbook market.

“We believe the PlayBook, which will be further enhanced with the upcoming PlayBook OS 2.0 software, is a compelling tablet for consumers that also offers unique security and manageability features for the enterprise," he said.

Nick McQuire, research director at IDC, confirmed that with Apple dominating the market, cutting the price of the Playbook was RIM’s only choice in order to build up awareness of their device and drive adoption.

However, McQuire added. “It will be tough to overcome this situation, though, as the market hasn't been that taken with the device and sales have been very poor."

RIM also had to write off $50m following the outage back in October – to compensate, customers were offered free services and apps. McQuire was impressed with the figure – after such a huge global problem; the cost could have been much greater.

After a year like 2011, RIM has to ensure a successful start to next year – products need to be popular and glitch free so no wonder there has been delays on release dates.

The pressure on the company and its devices to provide the market place with what it wants is huge – and the competition is going nowhere.

Letting the Cuts out of the Bag in 2012

2011-12-09T17:14:00.000+05:30

In 2011 there was “a lot of pent-up demand” for businesses when investments could no longer wait. Now these demands have been met resulting in 2012 being a year of investment cuts, according to an international benchmarking survey.

In Europe IT expenditure will fall by 14 per cent as projects are completed – IT spending went up by 20 per cent in 2011 as companies stepped up their capital IT spending and got on with all the projects they had put on hold – such as desktop PC upgrades, and investments in ERP and CRM.

Andrew Horne, managing director at CEP UK explained how companies had been investing greatly in new ways to exploit their business data.

“We are seeing a lot more interest in information analysis of sales and marketing, understanding customer information and customer value.”

This includes external information – meaning IT departments are looking at applications to manage external sources of information that the company has no governance over.

“If you are no longer controlling and generating all the information your users are consuming, some of the traditional ways of governing and architecting that information change,” said Horne.

Spending in the cloud and mobile technology is still fairly low – though both are expected to grow significantly in 2012. Most organisations will have things happening in the cloud by then.

At least half of all CIOs will be on board with end to end services by next year – the survey explains how more IT organisations are offering these services which gather a range of IT systems and services, into a single service, and as such a single cost and service level agreement.

The US is still playing catch-up with IT investment - predicted to rise by 5 per cent in 2012, but the European rapid cut back after such a push may be a reflection of the unstable economy.

The investments of 2011 were needed – but let’s hope the cut backs are not too soon and too sudden.

Chinese iPhone usage drowns out the US

2011-12-08T20:30:00.005+05:30

China has pipped the US at the post with 23.9 million smartphones shipped in, in the third quarter (compared to 23.3 million for the States) – making China the world’s largest smartphone market.

Strategy Analytics, the research firm behind the figures, described the next two quarters as ‘a seesaw game,’ between the two world powers, but maintained that China would still come out on top,

"…going into next year, China will outstrip the U.S. market continuously. China is going to be larger every quarter," said Thomas Kang, Strategy Analytics director.

Canalys had different figures bringing the US out on top for the third quarter – different definitions of smartphones or vendors possibly?

In revenue terms the US is still top, mainly due to high-end devices – like Apple’s iPhone – driving the sales. Strategy gives China four years to catch up in this area.

With regards to measuring the smartphone market by volume the US leads – according to two other research firms, though China is very close behind.

The growth in China has been credited to smartphones becoming more widely available, and subsidies on devices such as the iPhone – with low-cost Android smartphones also being introduced into the Chinese market the US may not be able to hold on to the number one spot at all.

In 2010 Nokia held a 70 per cent share of the smartphone market – now Nokia is down to a 28 per cent market share, but is still the top smartphone vendor in the China. The Android smartphone introduction has a lot to answer for, according to Kang, as does the promotion of rival smartphone makers from China’s mobile operators.

Apple’s iPhone appears to be taking over the world – sales are soaring in China, or rather, “its share has been doubling every year,” said Kang.

There is no stopping China, or the iPhone.

The difficulties of measuring your business' social media campaign

2011-12-02T17:31:00.002+05:30

The return companies get through social media can’t necessarily be measured in hard cash.

The Seattle Interactive Conference in November was the venue for many a discussion about the use of social networks in the work place – companies have harnessed the new media, but there are doubts as to its success.

David Camp, head of marketing for AmazonWireless described the issues as having not “seen a lot of ‘R’ in the ROI.” Whilst Camp referred to cash, Kim Johnston, VP at Parallels preferred to look at the issue from another angle.

"The R," she said, "could be insight, not just money."

The message on use of customer feedback was clear – be careful. Parallels learn a lot from customers through Facebook and Twitter, and T-Mobile gathers an understanding of its customers from social networks that help product development.

Alex Samano, general manager for Bobsled (a T-Mobile voice-over-IP product) pointed out people on Facebook may not be a fair representation of other (or all) customers.

The benefits of cautious customer research are there - Samano explained how a focus group could have cost $150,000 a decade ago – now, social networks provide the information.

In terms of businesses bringing in new custom from social network users – the success rate varies. AmazonWireless has not turned traffic into cash in significant enough terms, whereas T-Mobile has.

When Bobsled was launched (Facebook users only initially), the media-launch strategy brought in 3,000 users an hour ready to sign up.

The bottom line appears to be how to convert the information into an effective strategy – this ‘new’ media obviously has many floundering, but once the right path is found, the results can be incredible.

OpenWorld insights

2011-11-28T19:08:00.001+05:30

When Larry Ellison announced the Oracle Public Cloud (OPC) at Openworld in October, it was underlining six years of hard work.

Since Ellison’s news some have said that Oracle has stayed too much in its comfort zone, but such a step forward undoubtedly boosts market confidence and allows Oracle to give its customers a set of options they are familiar with.

Oracle had been redesigning and re-engineering its middleware and applications to run in the cloud - so with Oracle Fusion Applications ready, Ellison picked his moment well.

“If we have a set of applications that run in the cloud, I guess we need a cloud,” he stated back in October.

Oracle hosts the broad set of integrated services, and as Ellison explained the user can add on to the standards-based Oracle Fusion Applications, even hosting their own custom applications.

Even though an independent survey last year found only 13.8 per cent of Oracle customers were using public clouds, Oracle is adamant this has increased.

However, the low percentage is not unusual, Oracle customers are reflective of the market as a whole – not flocking to public clouds, they are instead trying to work them out.

This is where Oracle’s Public Cloud comes in to it’s own. OPC gives its users a familiar path to follow, with a vendor they know. Ellison explained the flexibility of this cloud, allowing customers to move applications and databases back and forth, or to another cloud.

“Don’t try to move your Java EE applications to the Salesforce cloud. It won’t run,” he said. “ With vendor lock-in, you can check in but you can’t check out. It’s like the roach motel of clouds.”

Significant characteristics of OPC include; developers can automatically deploy in OPC; Oracle Exadata and Exalogic appliances offer high performance, availability and reliability; services share resource management and isolation; security; data exchange and integration; virus scanning and white list management.

There is no doubt OPC is going to boost Oracle’s revenues, along with the Oracle Social Network, and make customers happy – but Oracle are not sitting back now the cat is out of the bag. The company, and Ellison, know they have to keep working to retain their place in the IT market.

The acquisition of RightNow was a mark of Oracle’s strength building – no third party provider will be able to outperform this Goliath offer without a challenge.

IT giants collaborate for global cloud qualification

2011-11-25T16:46:00.001+05:30

Microsoft, Google and IBM have all had a hand in creating a worldwide cloud computing qualification - and it takes one week.

Technology trade association CompTIA launched the qualification based on the plan that it will become a standard requirement for those looking for work in the cloud (service procurement and provision to be specific).

"As cloud computing was so quick to take off, it is now just being understood as best practices and standards have emerged," said CompTIA CEO Todd Thibodeaux.

The course is the first of its kind and covers all cloud types – hosted, public and private. Six core modules cover the business perspective and value of cloud, cloud adoption and impact of the cloud on IT services as well possible risks and fallout.

It may well appeal to a broad range of people – from IT graduates to IT employees throughout industry, on a full time basis the course and exams can be completed in one week.

The UK course dates begin from December 1^st this year – and it will be dispersed around the world over the first few months of 2012.

CompTIA, as well as the big companies who gave their time, must be hoping for a big uptake, as well as a respect for the qualification itself. Without the latter, it won’t mean anything.

Android becomes strong contender in smartphone market

2011-11-21T22:04:00.004+05:30

Blackberry is on a downward spiral according to research - apparently, the smartphone provider’s dominance in the enterprise market will be threatened over the next few years by Google’s Android mobile operating system (OS).

At present, Blackberry represents 40 per cent of corporate smartphone shipments. However, analyst firm Ovum has conducted research that shows this being cut to 27 percent with Android taking over 26 percent of corporate devices by 2016.

The iPhone is also expected to increase shipments – the gains predicted to be made by Google and Apple are reflective of trends in the consumer smartphone market, according to Pauline Trotter, principal analyst at Ovum.

“Ongoing improvements in manageability of these device platforms and support for more business applications will begin to make these devices much more appealing to enterprise buyers," Trotter added.

Blackberry will retain its overall lead initially, as it is an IT department favourite, but as the research predicts – it seems to be only a matter of time before the tide turns.

RIM’s Blackberry outage disaster in October will undoubtedly have made IT departments think about other platforms, outweighing the security threats that Android has suffered from.

The numbers do speak for themselves - shipments of business smartphones are expected to rise from 29 million at the end of the year to 54 million by 2016. Android is predicted to reach 4.7 million at the end of 2011, with Blackberry touching 10.9 million.

Is it possible for RIM to change this prediction and hold Apple and Google at arms length? They have a strong lead, but can they can keep up with the developments of their rivals, and prevent the future becoming a murky one?

Oracle announces world's first cloud OS

2011-11-18T20:54:00.002+05:30

Oracle released Solaris 11 at the beginning of November – described as ‘a milestone,’ it was also the first significant update since Oracle had acquired the operating system as part of the Sun takeover back in 2009.

“It’s been years in development and has solved a number of problems related to deploying next-generation datacentres and cloud computing systems,” said Charlie Boyle, Oracle senior director of product marketing.

There were also huge improvements, according to Boyle, in the scale and performance of the core features, including a better working relationship with Oracle’s software stack and hardware.

Oracle engineering teams are working on solving the issues surrounding hardware and software integration into the cloud, according to Markus Flieri, Oracle’s software development vice president.

“A big challenge for customers running thousands of physical nodes was provisioning, updating and rebooting these nodes. So a lot of administration was needed there,” said Flierl.

When introducing virtual nodes on physical systems Flieri said the admin effort has to go up ‘exponentially.’

Thus, Solaris 11 now has a Boot Environment feature - which gives users an environment for their systems, which is a good four times faster than in Red Hat environs.

The new release can boast OS virtualisation, network resources virtualisation, enhanced security, and a lock down system on the public cloud – meaning the whole infrastructure is protected from malicious and accidental modification.

Including better database memory sharing, plus health check and patch management - it appears Oracle have covered everything.

Google's fresh start for its engine

2011-11-16T21:42:00.003+05:30

Google has tweaked its search in order to deliver the newest, most recent results possible.

By adjusting its ranking algorithm the search engine giant is able to deliver the most relevant and up-to-date findings, based on the information the user is searching for.

Last year the Caffeine web indexing system was rolled out with a claim of 50 per cent fresher results – this new algorithm, apparently, builds on the Caffeine.

A blog post by Amit Singhal, a Google Fellow, admits that context can affect the meaning of ‘up-to-date.’

"Given the incredibly fast pace at which information moves in today's world, the most recent information can be from the last week, day or even minute.” he explained.

Traditionally, Google search results give more weight to a site that is popular in terms of the number of links to that site, whereas now, time is of the essence.

“Depending on the search terms, the algorithm needs to be able to figure out if a result from a week ago about a TV show is recent, or if a result from a week ago about breaking news is too old."

As Singhal explains, “Different searches have different freshness needs.” An event or hot topic that is trending at that moment on the web, will deliver a different level of freshness to a recipe, for example.

When searching for a conference or awards ceremony, Google will assume the searcher requires details of the most recent occurrence of the event.

“This algorithmic improvement is designed to better understand how to differentiate between these kinds of searches and the level of freshness you need, and make sure you get the most up-to-the-minute answers," said Singhal.

With 35 per cent of searches predicted to be affected, and as information continues to move at break-neck speed, has Google developed a tweak that helps the user keep up?

Google+ coming to an office near you

2011-11-11T15:07:00.002+05:30

Google has finally integrated its latest social networking product with Google Apps resulting in businesses being able to manually turn it on for all employees.

When Google+ was first released back in July this year, businesses were urged not to sign up, as it as not yet suited to their needs.

Google product manager, Ronald Ho, has admitted that the process of integration was more complicated than originally expected.

"It took more technical work than we expected to bring Google+ to Google Apps, and we thank you for your patience," he wrote in a blog post.

Ho also pointed out that the integration was only the beginning, “we'll continue to add features and improve the way that Google+ works with Google Apps."

In addition to access the same features available publicly, Google App users will be able to share information with their whole company, rather than circles of friends or colleagues.

When Google+ was released in the summer the message for the enterprise was a strong one.

“The business experience we are creating should far exceed the consumer profile in terms of its usefulness to businesses. We just ask for your patience while we build it."

Now Google+ is fully turned on, Facebook and Twitter have a new giant to square up to. Is there room for all three in the work place?

Government policy at fault for cyber-crime

2011-11-07T15:50:00.002+05:30

The London Conference on Cyberspace (LCC) ran last week, with William Hague, the foreign secretary, highlighting the threats to the freedom of expression on the internet.

“Together we must begin to address how we can maintain the economic and social benefits of the internet and guard against the criminal and security cyber threats without suffocating future innovation," said Hague.

The opportunities cyberspace offers have to be protected and preserved – to do this the panel has already been debating issues of internet freedom, crime legislation and international development.

The UK’s approach is simply - what is unacceptable behaviour in the real world, should be deemed unacceptable in cyberspace. However, too many states push the boundaries on legitimate interference.

Freedom of expression was one of the central themes of the LCC – and part of Hague’s keynote speech. Atiaf Alwazir, Yemeni activist and researcher, was able to highlight the struggle for freedom, as it is a daily issue in Yemen.

The internet was introduced to Yemen in 1996 – but with daily power cuts and all Internet service providers being state-owned, the Yemeni government is able to keep a restricting hold over all cyber activities.

The LCC sought the answers – which at present, no one appears to have. Hilary Clinton, US secretary of state; Neelie Kroes, European commissioner, and Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia were all present, looking for the solution.

Maybe the answer will not be found by the high and mighty, but rather a tech savvy individual who knows the cyber world inside out.

Oracle adds RightNow to cloud portfolio

2011-11-02T17:05:00.001+05:30

Oracle is busy building its cloud empire – on-demand customer service software firm RightNow Technologies has been snapped up by the software giant in order to expand its Public Cloud Platform in a $1.5bn deal.

The Oracle Public Cloud offering was announced at OpenWorld earlier this year - the same event where Marc Benioff’s keynote was cancelled, causing Salesforce to once again fall out with Oracle.

According to Thomas Kurian, executive vice president of Oracle Development, "Oracle is moving aggressively to offer customers a full range of cloud solutions.” And with the Cloud being the future, Oracle is showing it is on top of it.

The ‘full range’ (fuller thanks to RightNow) includes, sales force automation, human resources, talent management, social networking, databases and Java.

"RightNow's leading customer service cloud is a very important addition to Oracle’s Public Cloud," added Kurian.

RightNow joins Endeca, an enterprise search and business intelligence firm, which Oracle bought just days before. This move puts the software giant on a more equal footing with Salesforce – possibly taking the rivalry to a new level.

RightNow customers should see an improvement in industry specific support once the deal is complete, according to an Ovum analyst – for example colleges and universities will have membership access to the Higher Education User Group, “which covers a broad set of products and services and has global reach.”

Where will Oracle look to next? Larry Ellison probably has the answer – with a large stake in NetSuite, it may only be a matter of time before the firm is swept up and added to Oracle’s cloud masterpiece.

UK government cuts cost with cloud

2011-10-31T22:22:00.001+05:30

The cloud is the government’s secret weapon to slashing the costs of IT in the public sector.

Once in the cloud, system integration costs (and long term contracts) will be cut along with the number of back-office staff says Chris Chant, government programme director for the cloud.

Chant pulled no punches when talking about government IT at Teacamp - the government digital networking event, describing it as "outrageously expensive, ridiculously slow, and most unforgivable it is rarely user-centric."

SIP – the government’s Strategic Implementation Plan for IT, has cloud computing at the heart of its £1.4bn cost saving strategy. By 2015 the cloud should have saved the government £120m per year.

“[With the cloud] we start from 'this is what the user needs', then comes the system at the right price, then comes the security wrapper to make it appropriately safe. And that, for many, is a 180 degree turn - and it's the way all government IT must be delivered from now on," says Chant.

The first government app store is to be launched in March 2012, and will be significant in its cloud computing plan. Public sector organisations will be able to source IT services via the portal – and rate them, thus sharing their experience.

"If [the product] doesn't deliver the [organisation] can go somewhere else - and that is what will drive quality and price, not some long-term contract. I guarantee the cloud will be cheaper in almost every circumstance."

There are concerns – CIOs lacking the skills to move to a commodity IT model, and the culture of relying on large IT contracts. The cloud, once again, may seem a step too far for many.

The Government’s strategy should be released shortly, and with a number of Foundation Delivery Partners prepared to engage government departments, the cloud (and it’s money saving ways) is set to turn public sector IT on its head.

RIM plays it safe

2011-10-28T18:01:00.001+05:30

RIM is playing it safe – and who can blame them following the outages of a few weeks ago?

The update of its PlayBook platform has been delayed until next year to ensure it will run without incident, as explained in the official BlackBerry blog.

The PlayBook OS 2.0 is expected in February 2012 – without the BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) app, which will be released with a later edition of the PlayBook OS.

“We are committed to developing a BBM solution that fully delivers on the powerful, push-based messaging capabilities recognised today by BlackBerry users around the world and we're still working on it," said David Smith, RIM’s vice president for PlayBook.

Selected enterprise customers, as well as developers at last week’s BlackBerry DevCon, were given access to a beta of the BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 – all in preparation for the launch next year.

“We believe BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 will deliver a great experience for our customers, building on the powerful performance introduced with the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet earlier this year," said Smith.

Some crucial updates are expected, and needed, (surely, on one level simply to resist being pushed out by the iPhone), such as native support for email, calendar and contacts – and further integration with BlackBerry smartphones.

One such move was the announcement that RIM will be offering support for Microsoft’s Office 365 platform, so that mid to large sized companies can use the productivity suite on BlackBerry smartphones.

But will it all be too little, too late? BlackBerry users were expecting the PlayBook earlier this year – now the wait is longer, and still no native support.

Even the most loyal of customers have a limit.

Tablets threaten existence of the keyboard

2011-10-27T19:37:00.008+05:30

The mouse and keyboard may soon become relics of the past, apparently – according to the report iPad and Beyond: What the Future of Computing Holds, by Gartner.

"During the next five to 10 years, media tablets will instigate change in computing form factors.” said Angela McIntyre, research director at Gartner.

The simplicity of multitouch on media tablets has been converting users, and thus affecting the hardware business. Some enterprise applications have already felt the multitouch effect in the development stage as they are only designed to work with a keyboard and mouse.

“Modular designs will enable tablets to take on new functions, becoming the cross-platform controller and brain for hybrid consumer electronics and computers," said McIntyre.

She also pointed out that, for many, touchscreens will be their first pathway to the Internet. And, significantly, “the keyboard on PCs is a major barrier for those who have had no reason or opportunity to become facile with QWERTY."

As for SME’s, a study found that 37 per cent already have tablets in the work place but only five per cent of SME’s think the tablets will replace other devices.

The difference for a large enterprise is that they have to be more structured, whilst most SME’s only use tablets for convenience.

A CIO at a large enterprise would have to consider implementing work tablets when senior staff use their BYOD (bring-your-own-device), to access company applications.

“Employees' own devices are in parallel to the desktops and smartphones that are already given to them by the company. So it begs the question whether CIOs should provision BYOD or provide tablets," said Drury.

“Alternative user interfaces, such as multitouch, are essential for extending the deployment of computing devices into new markets," said McIntyre, and along with Drury, agrees it is only a matter of time until they are more prevalent in the enterprise.

Microsoft tool shows how safe browsers really are

2011-10-21T14:38:00.000+05:30

Microsoft’s new tool to warn users of out-of-date or insecure browsers has not been welcomed by browser maker Mozilla – not surprising really as it rated Firefox less secure than Internet Explorer 9.

By using data from Microsoft’s Security Intelligence Report, and the Anti-Phishing League and Online Trust Alliance - YourBrowserMatters.org was able to assess how secure the user’s browser is.

Internet Explorer 9 got top marks (four out of four), whilst Firefox 7 was given a low two – below Google Chrome and above IE7.

Considering Firefox 7 is only just a month old, it really is no surprise that Mozilla reacted as strongly as it did. The statement from Johnathan Nightingale, Mozilla’s director of Firefox engineering, cited the phrases, “fiercely proud” and “long track record of leadership on security.”

“We believe that being safe on the web means having a robust browser that defends against malware and phishing includes new technologies to help sites and users secure themselves, and a responsive security team that gets security updates out quickly and reliably," he added.

Mozilla’s and Google support the HSTS (HTTP Strict Transport Security) secure browsing standard and the Do Not Track privacy initiative. Nightingale pointed out Microsoft’s lack of these in its tool.

"Microsoft's site is more notable for the things it fails to include: security technologies such as HSTS, privacy tools such as Do Not Track, and vendor response time when vulnerabilities are discovered."

Do Not track has yet to become an official web standard, but Sir Tim Berners-Lee, web founder, has been pushing for security professionals to input to the W3C’s Do Not Track working group.

All such tools designed to check the safety of our browsers should, perhaps, meet a universal code that all companies are happy with. Or is that just wishful thinking?

Confidence lost in Blackberry after 60% look to switch

2011-10-19T14:20:00.001+05:30

Not surprisingly, Blackberry may have fallen foul of its customers following the far reaching and never ending outages of recent weeks.

According to research by shopping comparison site Kelkoo, almost two-thirds of Blackberry customers are thinking about switching to an iPhone. One thousand Blackberry customers were interviewed - 62 per cent admitted they would prefer the Apple device over other brands.

Research in Motion (RIM) has already been criticised for its slow response to the outage, with customers left wondering what was going on.

Mike Lazaridis, RIM founder, apologised but many believed it was too little too late with customers affected across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Americas.

PriceRunner.co.uk, a rival comparison site, backs up Kelkoo's findings with an almost identical amount of users considering a change in handset.

However, those considering a switch to iPhone may want to be cautious. One editor found her device wiped of all files and contacts. The solution to this would be to back everything up onto a PC prior to attempting an update – and not to rely on iTunes as in this case it failed.

The iCloud is Apple’s new online storage system but apparently, this is not yet firing on all cylinders.

Even so, it is not surprising Blackberry users are looking to the iPhone. So far, an outage on such a scale has not plagued Apple, and as a market leader, it is the obvious choice.

Amazon challenges tablet market

2011-10-18T14:57:00.003+05:30

The Amazon Kindle Fire launched at the end of September, and could be about to throw the tablet market into confusion – according to YouGov, an online research firm.

YouGov predicted that tablet devices should plummet in price to match the Kindle Fire. In fact the price of $199 could mean that Amazon can cut up its competitors and make it a two horse race between itself and Apple.

"Apple is far and away the current UK market leader in terms of brand awareness, preference and price," said Russell Feldman, Associate Director for Technology and Telecoms Consulting. The Apple iPad is priced at $499.

The lower price of the Kindle Fire, and features make it viable to compete with Apple – along with the strength of the Amazon brand.

"What's more, it has the potential to be a major game-changer, given the depth of Amazon's downloadable content as well as its burgeoning application store - something that has underpinned consumers' loyalty to Apple over other tablets running an Android OS." Said Russell Feldman, Associate Director at YouGov.

The out-dated HP TouchPad sells between £89 and £115 – showing consumers are attracted by a good deal. The Kindle Fire, whilst boasting many a tablet temptation, some reports say it is still very much a shop window for Amazon.

Apple, as a premium product, should have no need to lower prices, but what about Android tablets? Can they price themselves between the Fire and the iPad? Or is the question – will they?

Samsung requests ban on iPhone 4S

2011-10-14T17:40:00.001+05:30

Samsung confirmed in the Tomorrow blog that it is filing a preliminary injunction order against Apple in Paris and Milan.

The company want the new iPhone 4S banned from sale in the respective countries due to the legal dispute between Apple and Samsung growing ever more acrimonious.

The argument is over alleged patent infringements relating to wireless telecoms technology.

"The infringed technology is essential to the reliable functioning of telecom networks and devices, and Samsung believes that Apple's violation [is] too severe and that the iPhone 4S should be barred from sales," Samsung said.

The technology giant clearly has reached a limit and believes Apple have had a ‘free ride’ on their technology for long enough.

The battle between these two global leaders is not a new one – they are several legal disputes going on around the globe. One such issue is over sales of Samsung’s Galaxy tab across the US, Australia and the European Union.

Apple recently rejected a settlement offer from Samsung in relation to the Galaxy tab in Australia (the dispute is down to the apparent similarity between Samsung’s Galaxy Tab and the iPad).

Samsung was desperate to get the device on the market for Christmas – Apple did not play ball. Steven Burley, Apple’s lawyer, told the court that they were there to prevent the Galaxy Tab launch, and, “maintain the status quo”.

Samsung then demanded to see the upcoming iPhone 5 and iPad 3 designs – rumour had it that, like Samsung, the company would be launching with a larger screen and near field communication capabilities. These requests were denied. And as we know – the iPhone 5 became the iPhone 4S (for now at least).

The twist to all of this is that Samsung provides components for Apple’s products – i.e. screens for iPhones and iPads. So isn’t this animosity all rather unnecessary?

Tributes paid to a tech genius

2011-10-13T15:07:00.001+05:30

The world of technology lost one of its greatest last week. Steve Jobs died from the pancreatic cancer he had been battling for almost a decade - he was only 56.

Bill Gates paid tribute to his friend on Twitter, "For those of us lucky enough to get to work with Steve, it's been an insanely great honour. I will miss Steve immensely."

As Obama described him as “among the greatest of American innovators,” it was fitting that his industry peers wrote tributes via social networking sites, along with hundreds of thousands of admirers from around the world.

Jobs stepped down as Apple CEO earlier this year, with Tim Cook replacing him. At the time Jobs comment was telling, "I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come."

A statement from Apple’s board said that Jobs had “saved” Apple, and made it what it is today. He became synonymous with the company as reflected in the shares following his resignation.

Apple’s shares fell by 5.13% - a dip that did not worry analysts but reflected the strength of Jobs for the market, and how he was seen as a lynch pin for the company.

HP CEP Meg Whitman, sums up the presence of Jobs and how he was regarded round the world. "Steve Jobs was an iconic entrepreneur and businessman whose impact on technology was felt beyond Silicon Valley. He will be remembered for the innovation he brought to market and the inspiration he brought to the world."

Undoubtedly, Steve Jobs, a “visionary leader,” and “iconic legend,” will never be forgotten. Life for Apple, post-Jobs, will be an interesting road to follow.

Oracle redefines the Cloud at OpenWorld

2011-10-05T18:10:00.003+05:30

Oracle OpenWorld 2011 is on this week in San Francisco and it’s a week of networking and hands on experimenting.

There are keynotes from some big names in the industry including Oracle’s own Larry Ellison. Tomorrow is the day for Oracle’s news on the cloud – as the company redefines cloud computing for the enterprise.

“Oracle is the technology that powers the cloud,” according to Ellison. The keynote will outline the company’s cloud roadmap to the future – and then delegates can discover more through the numerous technical sessions and demos.

Ellison opened the 29^th Oracle Openworld with an overview of the major product announcements planned throughout the event, as well as the new offerings from Oracle.

Other speakers include John Chambers, Chairman and CEO, at Cisco; Michael Dell, CEO, Dell Inc; Joe Tucci, CEO at EMC and S.D. Shibulal, CEO and Managing Director at Infosys.

Shibulal’s keynote is one of Accelerating Growth, and the breathtaking pace at which technology and business trends are changing. OpenWorld certainly is capturing that.

Focus On gives delegates a roadmap of sessions, demos, partner’s exhibits and networking events all related to a particular subject matter – such as applications, the Cloud, database, middleware and Oracle services. Following the map will ensure no stone goes unturned.

Hands-on Labs, Oracle DEMOgrounds and the Oracle Support Stars Bar all go towards providing delegates with more than the technical and executive solution sessions.

As the shenanigans between Marc Benioff and Ellison reflect the story of last year and throw some spice into the mix - Oracle continue to send delegates home full to the brim and satisfied.

Cook to unveil iPhone 5 tomorrow

2011-10-03T14:32:00.001+05:30

The iPhone 5 has already become rather infamous even before any unveiling.

The rumoured September introduction was squashed by the news of an iPhone5 prototype being lost – from stories of being sold on Craigslist to Apple dispatching its own investigators, and the local police assisting, the new iPhone was raising many questions.

The revised date to remember is, apparently, tomorrow (4^th October) - when Tim Cook, Apple’s new chief executive, will unveil the iPhone 5 at a special media event. Significantly, this will be Cook’s first major product announcement since taking over from Steve Jobs.

And with the iPhone 5 being the most talked about smartphone launch of the summer, other high ranking Apple people can be expected – namely Phil Schiller and Eddie Cue, VP of worldwide product marketing and senior VP of internet software and services, respectively.

Even Samsung, unsuccessfully, tried to call for the smartphone prototypes to be admitted as evidence in the ongoing legal battle between itself and Apple.

Once the (rumoured slimmer case and smaller SIM design) iPhone 5 hits the streets, the designers may be able to relax a little.

Two Larrys tackle the Android-Java dispute

2011-09-29T18:43:00.004+05:30

Larry Page and Larry Ellison were planning to meet this month to try and put an end to the Android-Java dispute. The Google and Oracle chief executives had a date at the US District Court for the Northern District of California.

Florian Mueller, software patent specialist, wrote in the Foss Patents blog about the meeting, seeing it as a positive move.

“There's a reasonable chance that Larry Page will show the strong leadership he's demonstrated since taking over the helm and make Larry Ellison an offer too good to refuse: a ton of money in exchange for a perpetual licence."

There is the obvious issue of a ‘pay-off,’ in terms of it setting a trend for other patent holders to expect similar treatment. But, as Mueller says, this is ‘not a reason not to do what needs to be done.’

Google are unlikely to come out of this unscathed and so a settlement would be in the Internet giant’s best interest. If the case did go to court, Oracle has got the upper hand, even though Android’s defence is helped by Google’s recent purchase of over 1,000 patents from IBM.

“Oracle probably wouldn't win a trial on all counts, but it's highly likely to win on at least some of them, and quite probably the counts on which Oracle would prevail would be powerful enough," said Mueller.

Oracle had to lower it’s original damages claim (of $2bn to $6bn) after it was discovered that Google had rejected the chance to pay Sun $100m to license the Java platform when it was developing Android.

If the two Larrys cannot come to an agreement the expected court date is 31^st October – probably a Halloween to remember.

The need for data centres grows worldwide

2011-09-26T20:01:00.001+05:30

Nick Parfitt, Datacentre Dynamics Research director, has described the growth of Internet use as the ‘perfect storm’, following the release of their latest report.

A ‘storm’ in terms of demand from government, business and users socially – IT and internet use is growing rapidly and as such so is the need for more servers and storage – and thus datacentres.

“The perception is without question that datacentres are the best way of ensuring the availability and reliability of IT services and the machines to deliver them," said Parfitt.

As the world becomes more IT dependent the UK has responded with a 25 per cent increase (compared to last year) in expenditure on datacentres.

The report lists the greatest spender as the US at £2.18bn ($3.5bn) – the UK following closely behind with outgoings of £2.1bn ($3.35bn). China comes in a close third.

The UK and US have invested primarily in existing datacentres, and upgraded them, resulting in a low number of new centres needed. In comparison, emerging markets, such as Turkey, Brazil and Columbia have seen datacentre expansion of up to 60 per cent.

The facts given by the report in response to such growth is self-explanatory. Internet users have more than doubled in five years to 2.11 billion, and 500 million smartphones today is nothing compared to 2 billion expected by 2015.

15 years ago there were 18, 000 websites – today there are 215 million. The storm has been building for a while now, and we are all part of it.

Security threats lie with firms says Gartner

2011-09-22T17:03:00.004+05:30

Own the vulnerability; don’t blame the threat, is Gartner’s advice. Fingers have been pointed at China and Russia (amongst others) for some of the recent cyber attacks – but the techniques used are not new.

In Gartner’s last report – Strategies for Dealing with Advanced Targeted Threats – it is clear that security has to evolve to combat the increase in these types of attacks.

“The reality is that the most important issues are the vulnerabilities and the techniques used to exploit them, not the country that appears to be the source of the attack," said John Pescatore, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner.

Simple, signature-dependent security approaches are not the answer to the level of tailoring and targeting that the new threats present.

Denial of service, theft of information – these are techniques that cyber criminals have worked on for years – and Gartner are clear in their message.

“Targeted attacks are penetrating standard levels of security controls and causing significant business damage to organisations that do not evolve their security controls," said Pescatore.

The message is to reduce vulnerabilities, increase monitoring capabilities, and react quickly to evolving threats – resulting in everyone from teenagers to state-backed attackers hitting a brick wall.

"The use of specialised threat detection, network forensics and situational awareness technologies can be very effective…but require high levels of skilled resources to be effective." Pescatore added.

A ‘lean-forward’ approach is needed towards security where the business is constantly looking beyond the standard level of security, and active threats are continuously being monitored.

However, investment is the key to the lean-forward processes, but also a company has to be able to take action if a breach is discovered.

Government drops plans to shut down social media

2011-09-19T15:28:00.001+05:30

Message from the Lords is: “The government is committed to a free and open internet.”

Baroness Browning confirmed that the plan to seek additional powers in order to close down social media networks would not be going ahead.

In the wake of the riots, David Cameron proposed shutting down social media when it was evident that some users were citing disorder. Theresa May had also called for such a plan to be considered which, led to a meeting with police commanders and representatives of social media.

Cameron had discussed with MPs, “whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these web sites and services when we know they are plotting violence".

During the Lords debate it became clear that a middle ground had to be reached. Baroness Miller, of the Liberal Democrats, stressed the unacceptability of a wholesale surveillance operation, whilst Labour minister, Lord West, called it ‘madness’ for the police not to use information from social media to protect the public.

Social media sites do have to take some control - and, according to Browning, many have indicated a commitment to removing illegal content where appropriate.

Browning confirms that Cameron does not want to close down networks – a move that would upset a great many – but he is determined to see what can be done to prevent such a social media hijack again.

1 in 4 believe cloud is more secure

2011-09-14T16:47:00.003+05:30

Cloud Watch, a report by network specialist Cisco, has revealed that one in four IT leaders believes the cloud offers better security than in-house IT or managed services.

Leaders across five sectors were spoken with – namely government, retail, healthcare, finance and service providers. However, 76 per cent still think security is a stumbling block when it comes to cloud adoption.

Ian Foddering, CTO of Cisco for UK and Ireland, said: "There are still problems around the perception of cloud services, and these include security and governance.”

Concerns revolved around the location of data, and integrations with in-house IT or other hosted services. Over half questioned saw responsibility as sitting between end user organisations, cloud service providers and applications providers.

In terms of security, the most popular cloud services are web conferencing, video conferencing and unified communications. The real-time links must have some relevance here.

The report also found that only seven per cent of companies considered cloud uptake as critical, though over half had it on the IT agenda (many of these with a plan to invest in the next 12 months).

Foddering said, “These issues are being addressed. The ITU and other bodies are developing standards and adequate governance will address the remaining security concerns."

Security has to work, but also, when it comes to the cloud, and the huge change to the IT landscape – it was always going to be a leap of faith for many.

Oracle vs SAP: damages reduced

2011-09-12T19:51:00.000+05:30

The ongoing saga of SAP versus Oracle took a huge turn - or rather drop - in SAP’s favour earlier this month, when the $1.3bn payout (decreed in November last year), was over turned.

The damages were awarded for copyright infringement, following Oracle’s claim that SAP’s TomorrowNow software-maintenance unit had illegally downloaded and copied its own software.

However, the jury this time round had a different view, as the court statement made clear, ‘the verdict grossly exceeded the actual harm to Oracle’.

SAP are said to be ‘gratified’, but how do Oracle feel about the new offer of $272m? Considering Paul Meyer, Oracle’s damage expert, outlined a sum of $1.66 billion, the mood at the software giant cannot be a good one.

US district judge Phyllis Hamilton, overturned the original sum describing it as ‘grossly excessive’. She also made it clear that if Oracle objected to her ruling, there should be a new trial.

SAP said, “We believed the jury's verdict was wrong and are pleased with the significant reduction in damages. We hope the court's action will help drive this matter to a final resolution."

Whether Oracle accepts this drop in compensation is another matter. Larry Ellison may not be a happy man.

Apps created by the public for Department of Health

2011-09-09T13:32:00.002+05:30

“Apps and maps” are what the Department of Health are calling for.

Health secretary, Andrew Lansley, wants medical professionals and software developers to get creative and “help patients make informed decisions about their care.”

With a range of NHS data already available to the public, software and web developers do have material to play with.

"We want to give people better access to information that will put them in control of their health and help make informed choices about their healthcare," said Lansley.

The Department of Health want to hear from all budding app developers (as well as seasoned creatives, of course), to help them, “bring to life new ideas and realise true innovation in healthcare.”

The Maps and Apps website lists the types of apps that the NHS would be interested in – for example; an app that allows people to search for health information on line; one that allows a patient to manage their health condition; another to rate and review local health services to an app that allows you to plan your own care.

However, the NHS is not a complete stranger to the app revolution.

"Our staff are already realising the benefits of medical apps and have developed a number of these which are proving popular with the medical community," said Dr Ian Abbs, medical director at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust.

One such example is where clinicians (in an emergency situation) “can now quickly and accurately double check complex drug dose calculations.”

A showcase event in the autumn will present the best apps chosen from the ideas put forward via the website – for more information, take a look http://mapsandapps.dh.gov.uk/category/blog/

Amazon to manage your cache

2011-09-06T20:03:00.004+05:30

Amazon ElastiCache is a managed caching service, which means all managing, monitoring and operating of an in-memory cache environment is taken out of the customer’s hands.

“Until today, businesses have had little choice but to shoulder this responsibility themselves,” explained Raju Gulabani, VP of database services at AWS.

Launched in beta a couple of weeks ago, the ElastiCache is easy to migrate to from existing Memcached environments as it is fully compliant with the Memcached memory object caching system.

Customers using ElastiCache experience a managed, flexible and resilient caching service that quickly and easily adds in-memory cache to application architectures – something customers have been calling for, according to Gulabani.

“Caching is a core part of so many web applications today, but running your own caching infrastructure is time consuming and rarely adds differentiated value for your business," he said.

The cloud will benefit hugely from ElastiCache, says Clive Longbottom, an analyst at Quocirca, where everything takes place in a single cloud hoster’s datacentre.

Caching apparently gets rid of latencies within the cloud host – which, tops security as a big problem for up above.

Resulting issues, however, include loss of all data in memory if power fails, and it cannot be used across datacentres as interconnects have to be ‘superfast’ from cache to compute environment.

Launching the Cache Clusters and sending forth the Cache Nodes, according to AWS is going to please many customers. Longbottom says the ElastiCache is not so great for “anything where composite applications, shared applications or distributed data is concerned".

Touted as best for read-heavy application workloads such as social networking, gaming and media sharing - AWS knows its market.

Oracle offers bundles to customers

2011-08-31T19:59:00.006+05:30

Oracle is encouraging its customers to move from using third-party hardware for running their platforms on to systems, which bundle Oracle’s middleware and software with its Sun Server.

“Oracle is truly in a position to offer products for the entire stack," said David Simmons, director of Oracle’s Sun Sparc enterprise server business.

Earlier in August, in San Francisco, the company explained the cost and performance benefits of combined hardware and software datacentre platforms.

"We know that customers need choices, so we provide a portfolio of traditional best of breed, but we really do have a vision of getting to engineered systems," said Simmons.

Even the cloud has been taken into consideration. Customers can use Oracle’s Exadata server hardware combined with the Private Database Cloud and develop shared database systems – all ready to use within days.

However, even with the promise of better performance, and the benefits of a single contact for issues such as security and support - locking into a single vendor for the entire datacentre stack is undoubtedly a hard sell for some enterprises.

Charles King, analyst at Pund-IT does not think many enterprise customers are looking for one vendor to supply everything.

“They don't like to be told who they can and can't do business with. In the datacentre, it seems variety is the spice of life," he said.

This integrated stack may prove to be a positive offering.

Social media at work increases productivity

2011-08-30T14:21:00.001+05:30

Social media sites have been proven to be a positive feature of the work place after all – maybe not such a surprise to the IT savvy companies out there.

New research by the National University of Singapore found that workers who had access to social media sites are actually 39 per cent more productive at work. Such a figure cannot be sniffed at.

96 workers were involved across two experiments – quite simply, half had access to social media and gaming sites - half did not.

Participants had to highlight specific letters within documents of lengthy text. They then had to fill in a questionnaire reflecting their levels of mental exhaustion, boredom and psychological engagement.

The workers, who came out top for productivity, were also less bored and more psychologically engaged.

“Managers must recognise that blanket policies that prohibit all forms of personal web usage are ineffective, and excessive monitoring is likely to be counterproductive," the researchers said.

Even a limited amount of personal web time will have a salubrious impact on the employees involved. Nowadays, to cut off access to social media is like cutting a lifeline – this is how more and more people communicate and keep up with the world at large.

The employee with no social media may as well sit in a windowless room, alone.

Rivals to benefit from Google's Motorola buy

2011-08-26T19:46:00.003+05:30

Whilst Nokia could benefit from Google’s purchase of Motorola Mobility, RIM may not reap the same rewards.

Industry analysts are predicting a ripple affect beyond the Android world following Google’s announcement to buy the Motorola Mobility unit for $12.5bn.

Nokia will find itself at an advantage, as Google’s acquisition of an Android hardware vendor will draw phone makers to Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform.

According to the analyst as Nokia moved to Windows Phone early, they may have the edge over other vendors.

"Nokia benefits because Microsoft's Windows Phone suddenly looks like a much more viable operating system," said Avi Greengart, research director for consumer devices at Current Analysis.

Whilst RIM’s stock did climb to 9.4 per cent – following speculation over the value of the company’s patents (Patent holdings are said to have played a roll in Google’s decision) - it still drags its sagging hardware business with it.

Ken Dulaney, VP at Gartner believes this could limit which hardware vendors would look at buying up RIM. However, not all would agree.

An analyst from Sterne Agee thinks the disruption to the Android market could benefit RIM as HTC and Samsung may feel alienated (due to lock down in patent protection for Android.).

Also – there are concerns about the power of Google and Apple as mobile phone suppliers – could RIM become the strong third contender?

Analysts do say that RIM’s efforts to re-establish its hardware lines and transition to the QNX platform far outweigh any impact from the Google deal.

So, whilst looking to Nokia as the obvious benefactor, don’t rule out the opportunities coming to RIM.

RIM to release data following London riots

2011-08-24T20:20:00.002+05:30

Following the riots that spread across London and the rest of the country earlier this month, Research In Motion (RIM), will most likely hand over data to the Metropolitan Police and UK government.

The riots, according to media reports, were organised via Blackberry’s private messaging service (BBM) – something the authorities have had difficulty intercepting, unlike sites such as Twitter.

RIM is happy to help the police but also said they will continue to operate under UK data protection laws and regulation.

"As in all markets around the world where BlackBerry is available, we co-operate with local telecommunications operators, law enforcement and regulatory officials. We also comply with The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) and co-operate fully with the Home Office and UK police forces."

The police would need a warrant in order to request access to the BBM messages – if granted RIM would have to had over the data.

However, there is a loophole, as Mike Conradi, partner and lead telecoms lawyer at DLA Piper, confirmed.

“The act only applies to the content, not to the fact that the content has been sent. So the fact that person A has sent a message to person B at a certain time would not be covered by RIPA."

The police could exploit this loophole to find out information about the individuals sending the messages. Conradi also believes the warrant would be ‘quite easy’ to gain - so with content and individuals potentially being exposed, there may be nowhere for the rioters to hide.

Google + adds to its platforms

2011-08-18T20:09:00.002+05:30

Google + is gathering pace as it now presents itself in app form for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad tablet.

The web giant has given the Google + iOS app Version 1.0.2. 1966 ‘various speed and performance improvements’, and it is free from the iTunes App Store – no stone has gone unturned in making sure the new version is irresistible.

Many improvements have been directed towards the Circle and Huddle users – further support for the Huddle group texting applications is now available, and a conversation (text, obviously) can be started direct from their profile.

Huddlers can restrict who is allowed to converse with them, and also hide Huddles, of the one-on-one kind, from their list.

Circles social connections project has aggregated contact notifications for users, and these users can also customise the main Google+ stream view to suit them, i.e. show only the streams they want to see from individual circles.

July, the month Google revealed the Google+ iOS app, was not the company’s best.

Deleting a large number of the social network user accounts was not a popular move. The reasons cited were apparent policy violations – Google is looking at ways to improve access, and have apologised.

Apparently, near the end of July, Google+ traffic fell by three per cent, compared with a huge 283 per cent rise the week before.

However, a spokesperson from the firm that released the results above, Experian Hitwise, also called the figures a blip due to some traffic from mobile devices and platforms being excluded.

Even the great and mighty fall into disarray sometimes – but should we expect better?

The wait is over for Java SE 7

2011-08-16T14:15:00.001+05:30

It seems tensions between the Java community and Sun Microsystems have cooled slightly, with the release of the first Java Standard Edition (SE) update, for public download, after five years of development.

Industry analysts see the move as a positive one, which is a nice change considering the issues that have arisen since Oracle acquired Sun in 2009.

The release is seen by Oracle as an evolutionary update towards the larger Java 8 release in 2012.

“I'm pleased that the Java community has come together in favour of technical progress and that we have a clear path forward for Java SE 8," said Oracle Fusion Middleware and Java products senior vice president Hasan Rizvi.

Rizvi also was keen to stress Oracle’s commitment to the success of the Java platform, and that the Java SE 7 release will be supported ‘across the Oracle Fusion Middle product portfolio.’

Al Hilwa, programme director at IDC, said, “The Java community should be much more relaxed about Oracle's stewardship." The Java platform has suffered as a result, since 2009.

“Some of the decisions to reverse the Java over-reach and unrealistic schedules from the Sun days were hard to make, but I would say they are doing the right thing."

‘They’, being Oracle, must be happy with such a comment. The Java platform needs to successfully move on without past issues dragging behind – hopefully, now maybe it can, and the same goes for the Java community.

Start-ups excel in data management

2011-08-12T14:25:00.001+05:30

It goes without saying that the young are more agile than the old - and this applies to businesses too.

An Oracle roundtable discussing data management concluded that newer companies are able to utilise their data in order to create opportunities, in a way that larger companies cannot.

Diverse and fragmented legacy systems hamper the big businesses – in a nutshell, there’s just too much data hanging around.

"I'd hate to be the CIO of a large bank," said David Rajan. Oracle UK technology director. "How do you go from worrying about data security and management across 5,000 databases, and compete with a service like [short-term lender] Wonga?"

A company such as Wonga can work in real-time – data-mining and accessing information from the web in order to make quick and accurate decisions.

A large enterprise often has as many as 5,000 databases – where do you start looking?

"With so many databases there's the risk of having different versions of the truth, and different levels of data available to different applications.” Said Rajan.

Data security inevitably becomes an issue – when the call comes to secure the company data, the answer is, “Which version?”

No business wants the reputation for not ‘knowing’ their customer, as Rajan explains.

“It's like when you call your utility company and one department knows your address, they transfer you and the next department doesn't even know your name."

The answer is consolidation of data. And also, as suggested by the panel – cut down those databases so the IT management, can, do as intended - manage.

Oracle goes green with E-Business Suite

2011-08-10T14:02:00.004+05:30

"Environmental considerations such as emissions reporting are part of the new-normal for all organisations,” declared Oracle vice president of product strategy Jon Chorley, last month.

To prove their commitment Oracle has gone green with its E-Business Suite by adding energy consumption and carbon emissions tracking tools.

JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Financial Management platform is included too.

"Oracle is committed to providing comprehensive solutions to meet these requirements," said Chorley.

The environmentally friendly accounting tools are optional modules that a company would be wise to employ if it wants to be green. The tools enable a company to track and report energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

“With the introduction of Oracle Environmental Accounting and Reporting, customers can embed this capability within their normal business operations, delivering the required results at the best total cost of ownership," added Chorley.

By connecting with Oracle’s Business Intelligence platform, the modules also allow companies to pinpoint areas where CO2 consumption can be reduced.

Alongside Oracle’s release, companies are already able to improve their carbon footprint thanks to power management and virtualisation.

However, there are other issues coming to the forefront as the need to be green pushes on.

Greenpeace have pinpointed the problem of some large IT firms locating datacentres in areas that use coal power plants to generate electricity. So, whilst energy efficiency is being embraced – clean energy is not.

The Dirty Data report points at Facebook, Apple and Google for not scrubbing up – being dirty green is not good enough.

Citrix acquires Cloud.com

2011-08-09T14:11:00.001+05:30

Over the next four years spending on public cloud services will grow four times faster than the entire IT market. No wonder Citrix is happy with their recent acquisition.

Cloud.com, the open source cloud-computing platform has been welcomed into the Citrix family. By providing infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), Cloud.com helps customers build and manage private and public clouds.

"As the industry moves into the cloud era, Citrix is committed to leading the charge with powerful solutions that make the cloud more open, more secure, and more personal,” said Mark Templeton, president and CEO of Citrix Systems.

Citrix already has quite a portfolio when it comes to the cloud – OpenStack, Cloud Gateway, Cloud Bridge and XenDesktop and XenApps. Adding Cloud.com allows the company to complete its family of virtualisation, orchestration and networking services.

According to Citrix, the world’s largest and most successful public clouds are run on platforms that are purpose-built for cloud computing, pointedly not following the traditional enterprise datacentre route. They also offer multi-tier and multi-tenant services.

Whilst Cloud.com already supports Citrix XenServer and VMware vSphere, Citrix will be extending this support to Microsoft’s Hyper-V and System Centre.

According to IDC, as spending on the cloud grows faster than the rest of the IT market it could hit $72.9bn by 2015. An incredible compound annual growth of 28%.

Citrix are definitely holding all the right cards.

Cloud enables universities to share

2011-08-05T14:10:00.002+05:30

Sharing has always been a good thing to do, and Janet, the joint academic network, is proof of that.

The UK-based service from Logicalis provides universities with the means to run cloud-based research by pooling funds and buying a shared part of high-performance computer (HPC) processing.

“UK Research is a key driver in the knowledge economy.” So if research is restricted by lack of funds then, “finding new models to exploit opportunities such as high-performance computing is critical.” said Tim Marshall, CEO at Janet (UK).

Built on the IBM Power7 platform the Logicalis cloud allocates the HPC pool equitably in real-time. Each institution can use up to 100% of the pool, and the research cloud ensures dynamic sharing of HPC platforms.

Everyone is a winner as sharing means costs are cut and academics have access to the resources they need, without having to build anything themselves.

"For those universities where research is a primary source of income, balancing the need for high-performance computing power with diminishing budgets puts their global competitive edge at stake." Added Tom Kelly, managing director of Logicalis.

There is growing competition from emerging researched-focused nations and the UK education research community needs to keep up. Logicalis believes the community can do this by combining HPC platforms and cloud-based collaboration.

Logicalis is passionate about Janet. The company hope that the launch of the Shared Research Cloud will entice private sector companies from around the globe to bring their research projects to the UK.

“The technology behind this platform is well understood and used in high computational environments, and in being able to share this resource across the research community, we are changing the cost model and competitiveness of an already strong sector.”

Increase of cyber terrorism ahead

2011-08-04T13:44:00.001+05:30

Tools for cyber terrorism are becoming increasingly widespread online, so much so, that the UK counter terrorism forces are preparing for the Al-Qaeda-led ‘cyber-jihad’ of the future.

The government has committed £650m to its cyber security strategy already.

The Home Office Counter Terrorism Strategy says that,"the so-called 'here you have' virus, responsibility for which was claimed by the Tariq bin Ziyad Brigades for Electronic Jihad, was relatively unsophisticated but a likely indicator of a future trend.”

So whilst “systematic cyber terrorism” is not here yet, there is a definite threat. Al Qaeda has called for lone acts of terrorism, and ‘cyber-jihad.’

The report points out how lone terrorists use information online, and as cyber attacks develop, this information will increase, and improve, making the attacks more sophisticated.

In the UK, law enforcement has been successful in removing terrorist material – but these sites can relocate to servers in another country, making international co-operation paramount.

“Our most important single relationship is with the US which is by far the biggest provider of Internet hosting services in the world."

Low-level attacks cannot be dismissed, even though it is unlikely that a terrorist group would have the resources to threaten the UK’s critical national infrastructure, as yet.

“Cyber warfare continues to present a very real threat to our national security, and is moving rapidly up the government agenda," said Mark Darvill, director at government-grade security vendor AEP Networks.

A centralised reporting system would be ideal – so any suspected terrorism content would be sent directly to the relevant law enforcement agency, or a service that could trawl through the Internet with the use of key words and metadata, searching for the offending material.

Once again, co-operation and sharing of forces is key to standing firm against the terrorists of the future.

Google + Spam = Frustration for Early Adopters

2011-07-22T14:25:00.003+05:30

‘Yikes,” was the response from Google when early adopters of Google+ were hit with an avalanche of spam.

The glitch happened as Google revealed it was working on a business-focused feature on its social networking site, though, as the Google+ team failed to anticipate the notification problem, doubts about success could be raised.

The notification service ran out of disk space resulting in messages being sent out multiple times. Vic Gundotra, senior vice-president of social for Google apologised via his Google+ account.

"For about 80 minutes we ran out of disk space on the service that keeps track of notifications. Hence our system continued to try sending notifications. Over, and over again. Yikes," he said.

Google+ business tools plan to rival LinkedIn and Facebook’s company pages – linking into other services such as Google’s AdWords advertising system.

During testing the site is available on an invitation-only basis, a move that has been praised by privacy groups following the privacy issues of Google’s Buzz and Street View services.

Google+ plans to differentiate itself in terms of privacy according to Eric Schmidt, Google president. With Facebook regularly under fire these days for enabling content-sharing features by default, this is a sensible move.

Oracle welcome move to make HP complaint public

2011-07-20T14:29:00.002+05:30

Oracle hit back at HP earlier this month over threats to go public with its legal complaint by calling HP’s bluff.

"In a legal filing today, HP said it is more than willing to make its complaint against Oracle public. But HP is not willing to make public the settlement agreement upon which the complaint is based," the statement from Oracle said.

Oracle says they welcome the move, as they have nothing to hide from the public.

The argument started when Oracle pulled support for the Itanium processor on which HP’s servers are based. HP claim the software giant had pledged support, whilst Oracle deny such an agreement and say the Intel chip is simply out of date.

Oracle is happy for HP to disclose the settlement agreement, as, according to them, it does not exist. HP has apparently based all such hope on a joint statement issued over the Mark Hurd debacle.

“No sophisticated corporation would ever secure a supposedly life-or-death software support commitment with two fuzzy sentences that primarily deal with an employment dispute," said Oracle.
HP is not backing down. However, they are restrained by legal terms following the Hurd settlement.

“The parties negotiated an agreement on confidentiality, and that agreement is being honored by HP. Oracle and Hurd have not agreed to waive the confidentiality obligations they negotiated under the agreement and impose a significant restriction on HP."
Oracle and HP are not the only heavyweights eyeballing each other. Samsung and Apple are fighting it out over allegations of intellectual property theft over the iPhone and iPad.

It’s a dramatic IT landscape right now – and who knows who will come out on top.

Companies can no longer avoid social media

2011-07-19T13:53:00.002+05:30

"Today, it is almost optional for companies in certain industries to ignore Twitter," says analyst group Gartner, but, "within three to five years, it will be part of your enterprise communications strategy."

As Social networking takes over the workplace, analyst Carol Rozwell, explained how CIOs have to act now to push forward with their company’s social media strategy and engage with the team creating the strategy to share their business perspective.

“Our belief is that the social business wave will not only be a large wave, but will be more disruptive than the e-business wave. And it will take longer to play out," she said. No company will want to be left behind.

Social media will not just be about communicating with customers, it will also be used to present the business in a more human way.

"We know that many people prefer to communicate with companies through Twitter. You can't tell customers how you want them to talk to you. You have to communicate with them the way they want to talk with you," added Rozwell.

Businesses will need company-wide social media policies in order to make the most of the technology. It is no good having a Facebook page if the company does not utilise it correctly.

"If you don't have some sort of strategy there is no guidance how the business can use social media. That can lose customers, send out the wrong messages, and lead to brand dilution," said Rozwell.

Nokia uses crowd sourcing to canvass public opinion and IBM encourages “ideajams” to get feed back on product designs – to stay in the game companies can no longer avoid surfing the social media wave.

Government IT strategy criticised

2011-07-14T16:28:00.006+05:30

The government has been told, "simply listing actions to be achieved within two years is not good enough."

Margaret Hodge, chair of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, strongly criticised the new IT strategy over the lack of baseline to monitor its success and the issue of cyber security seemingly being side stepped.

Her committee’s report welcomed ‘the direction and principles” of the strategy, but pointed out that a government promising improved IT results for all concerned (businesses and individuals), and a huge reduction in operating costs, was not a new thing.

Hodge was adamant that the Committee had to be able to evaluate the strategy’s success and value for money.

Or, quite simply, the coalition government has to try harder.

As the report said: "Success will depend on greater rates of adoption of technology, and a cultural shift to encourage genuinely different ways of working in the civil service that will stimulate behaviour change by suppliers."
Some MPs are cautious. 30 actions in two years appears “ambitious”, particularly following the NHS computer system, FIRecontrol (costing hundreds of millions), and the farmers’ Single Payments System.

“We look forward to the publication of the implementation plan in August 2011, which we expect will include milestones on which we can hold government to account."

The plan is for the Efficiency and Reform Group (ERG) to step in and micro-manage specific projects within a business, if necessary. Smaller business suppliers are to be encouraged to increase input and re-direct designing services around the customer.

The ERG has "only a small team of experts to keep on top of 50 major projects" and lacks information about IT and cyber security expertise within the Civil Service. Hodge’s worries appear justified.

Oracle: HP's lawsuit a 'publicity stunt'

2011-07-13T14:18:00.011+05:30

Oracle’s reaction to HP’s lawsuit, has been a strong one. Dubbed as a ‘publicity stunt’ the software giant believes HP is trying to find a scapegoat.

In a court filing at the end of June, Oracle claimed that, "this case is a broader campaign to lay the blame on Oracle for the disruption that will occur when HP's Itanium-based server business comes to an end."

Oracle described HP as clinging to a ‘decades-old microprocessor architecture,’ specifically, Intel’s Itanium chip line.

HP claimed that a contract was signed to ensure the database software for the Itanium processor was maintained, Oracle stated otherwise in the filing.

“Such an important contract, if it existed, would obviously be a heavily negotiated, fully documented, formal contract, with terms and conditions and all the other characteristics of real-world commercial agreements. But there is no such agreement.”

Apparently, a ‘corporate hug’ may have been taken the wrong way by HP. The two companies made up last year following the spat when HP’s former chief executive, Mark Hurd, joined Oracle as co-president.

A lawsuit had been initiated by HP but was dropped and both sides made a joint statement, which included the supposed promise.

“This agreement also reaffirms HP and Oracle's commitment to delivering the best products and solutions to their more than 140,000 shared customers."

Oracle is dismissive, describing the statement as ‘two fuzzy sentences that primarily deal with an employment dispute.” HP, obviously, read more into the public back patting.

HP may have to get over the breakup and move on. Oracle in the mean time has bigger fish to fry as the battle with Google continues.

Firms obliged to make security breaches public

2011-07-07T14:36:00.005+05:30

What some term a ‘burden’, Viviane Reding, vice-president of the European Commission, defines as ‘necessary’.

Following the various high-profile cyber attacks, The European Commission (EC) has made it clear that firms have to make any security breaches public.

Reding spoke at the British Bankers’ Association (BBA) Data Protection and Privacy Conference, making it clear that the notification of data-security breaches was to be mandatory for all sectors.

At present, only the telecommunications sector has had to report security breaches (in Europe). The banking and financial services are the reluctant ones with regards to the new conditions.

“I understand that some in the banking sector are concerned that a mandatory requirement would be a burden. However, I believe that an obligation to notify the public of a serious data security breach is necessary and would enhance consumer confidence," Reding said.

Reding also believes it would act as an incentive for businesses to ‘conduct serious risk assessments,’ ensuring that personal data was protected by appropriate security.
The move appears to have been expected and, as Pete Gooch, privacy expert at business firm Deloitte, pointed out the organizations that already have excellent security controls will continue to spot breaches, whilst firms with poorer controls may be unaware of a problem occurring.

“This, rather ironically, means that organisations with poor controls may escape the watch of the regulators, while those with better controls come under more scrutiny," said Gooch. "That is not to say that having poor controls is an appropriate response – the regulators will continue to examine every breach on a case-by-case basis."

How will this extra scrutiny really affect businesses? And do the firms lacking in data-security need to be pulled into line?

SAP releases Hana to improve customers' decision-making process

2011-07-06T15:16:00.003+05:30

Hana is finally on general release. SAP’s High Performance Analytic software has been eagerly awaited since it was first revealed back in December.

The software is designed to improve users’ real-time decision-making capabilities – and was pushed to greater prominence during the London SAP World Tour in May.

"General availability is a major milestone for SAP Hana but this is just the beginning," said Vishal Sikka, SAP Chief technology officer, in a statement.

Hana will give businesses the advantage of in-memory computing to deliver faster data analytics – the appliance’s superior performance is due to the placement of data (to be processed) in RAM, instead of on disc.

“Hana brings a fundamental transformation to the way companies run their businesses and is at the heart of innovation across our entire product and technology portfolio." Said Sikka.

Some of SAP’s hardware partners are to host the Hana software – and as long as the BI application supports common query language, like SQL, it will be compatible.

The high-performance space is becoming a popular hang out – SAS recently announced, that they too are to launch an in-memory BI product.
One customer who provides IT services for taxi companies uses Hana to search through 360 million traffic records in seconds.

SAPs new platform’s capabilities, delivering faster data analytics by analysing huge amounts of data in real time, will get you where you want to be. Quickly.

Though we do need a pricing system to be released.

Hospital shares patients' details using the cloud

2011-07-01T18:50:00.002+05:30

Chelsea and Westminster Hospital are working on a pilot study so that, “for the first time, patients can have control over their treatment and their records.”

Flexiant is a cloud service provider, giving cloud integration work for free; and Edinburgh Napier University has also been working with the Hospital to show how a private cloud can be used to share confidential patient data with GPs and consultants.

The plan is for an e-health platform to replace the current paper-based system.

The National Health Service (NHS) has always had a big challenge when it comes to data sharing – different hospitals have different databases and different standards.

Bill Buchanan, a professor at Edinburgh Napier University, explained how the new service oriented architecture (SOA) system at Chelsea and Westminster, would work.

“Our system allows for data to be stored with its context, such as where it was captured, and then used in whatever way is necessary through well-managed clinical services."

By using the core data, clinical services are provided and accessed through iPhone, Android and web browsers. Only patient data is available through the services.

"Hosting the data in the cloud as soon as results are published means that the patient can go online and access them, sharing them in real time with everyone who needs to see them,” explained Lucas.

Lucas believes such access will be “enormously empowering,” for each individual, and, equally, have massive implications for patient treatment across the UK.

On paper, it’s a good plan, but will the cloud live up to expectations?

HP tackles Oracle over Itanium drop

2011-06-22T14:36:00.003+05:30

HP is clearly not over the moon about Oracle’s decision to drop Itanium. A law suit has been filed accusing Oracle of breaching contracts and HP is demanding a jury trial.

It was back in March, this year, when Oracle announced the decision to end software development for HP’s Itanium chip-based servers.

Intel took over all Itanium development from 2004 (having co-developed successive iterations of the chip with HP). Oracle, on making the announcement, claimed Intel had made it clear that Itanium was coming to the end of its life – focusing now on the x86 microprocessor.

Intel rejected this claim, and the Connect HP user group appealed to Oracle not to drop Itanium from future development projects.

HP believes that the decision "violates legally binding commitments Oracle has made to HP and the more than 140,000 shared HP-Oracle customers".

HP want the company to realise there are legal rights to be considered and the filing goes into of how Oracle dropped Itanium and makes further claims of Oracle withholding critical bug fixes.

One consulting group discovered that out of 450 enterprises IT customers, nearly 80% believed Oracle withdrawing support for Itanium was a tactical move. The natural migration due to Oracle Software not being available is to Oracle’s Solaris Unix variant.

Oracle is in direct competition with former partners (since buying Sun Microsystems) such as IBM, HP and Dell – but as Oracle has not responded to the appeal from Connect HP, we can only wait to see who will respond next.

Oracle may have a very good comeback to the Itanium furore.

Security rules bent for the iPad

2011-06-20T15:06:00.001+05:30

The iPad appears to be seducing the workforce to the extent that firms are putting security at risk.

Research by systems integrator Dimension Data discovered that despite the majority of IT chiefs recognising the security threat created by iPads, smartphones and laptops – over 50 per cent still allowed employees to use them for work. Alongside lack of encrypted data and anti-virus tools the chink in IT security is a big one.

Chris Jenkins, a security director at Dimension Data, said that sensitive corporate data could leak out unless staff are made to encrypt the data on their devices.

“You need to strike a balance between productivity and security,” said Jenkins. “If a member of staff wants access to corporate systems they should accept that IT will have to install encryption, anti-virus etc onto that device first."

Such devices as the iPad bring huge benefits into the enterprise, but security has to be maintained. Legally, it is actually quite simple, as an associate at Taylor Wessing law firm pointed out.

“If an employee is using a device for work, both the business and the employee have legal obligations to protect confidential information and personal data. These obligations apply regardless of whether the employee or the business owns the device,”

Quite simply, security has to get on the move - and IT chiefs need to give it a push.

Has Oracle discovered the Holy Grail? It’s all about the searching

2011-06-17T13:50:00.000+05:30

Everyone wants to make searching for that elusive document quicker, simpler and more accurate, i.e. an intelligent contextual search engine. A simple request that results in the right version of the right file, from the right source being found within a beat of the customer’s request.

This dream has frustrated many, and Boolean searches have remained dominant. As users search by ‘and’ and ‘or’, or both, the frustrations of users as they continue to wade through search results just wastes time and energy.

Step up Oracle waving its ECM banner.

ECM (Enterprise Content Management) has had to adjust with the IT landscape – whether in the Cloud or a hard copy it has to keep documentation and software ‘under control’. Duplication and incompatibility can result in a business falling into disorder, and experiencing license rule breaking issues.

Forward-thinking businesses are accepting E2.0 as part of their IT strategy and understand that there is a way of utilising ECM to fine-tune paper-intensive processes.

Oracle IPM is the imaging platform for Oracle Applications and it automates paper-intensive invoice and AP processes by incorporating scanning, capture and imaging technology with workflow. Whilst its benefits are many (increased transparency, real-time reporting, less human error, greater efficiency and ‘procure to pay’ in days), can this solution really search for that elusive, badly referenced, file successfully?

Inatech is having more and more requests to configure Oracle IPM for contextual search, hence Sophiasearch, which, is the antithesis to the Boolean search. As it is contextual it can recognise appropriate meanings for a query and intelligently organise the results in structured thematic folders.

With some people estimated to waste one day in six searching for files, the goal is to make such frustration, and wasted manpower, a thing of the past. To re-educate a whole workforce on the pros and cons of data storage is too mammoth a task. So this technological search tool has to make up for all the misspellings, misfiling and data hoarding, within a company.

A powerful search is priceless – simply by eliminating duplication of effort and wasted time (born of data chaos), a business can bask in profit instead of failure.

Maybe not the Holy Grail, but definitely close, in search terms at least.

Oracle ends relationship with open source community

2011-06-15T16:58:00.001+05:30

Described as the ‘least bad option’, Oracle has handed OpenOffice over to Apache Software Foundation (ASF).

The move means Oracle has ended its involvement in the open source community – a liaison that began in January 2010 with the purchase of Sun Microsystems. Some developers jumped ship soon after in protest over Oracle’s supposed lack of commitment to the open source community, creating the Document Foundation and Libre Office project.

Charles Schulz, a founding member of the Document Foundation, was disappointed and described it as a ‘missed opportunity’ for Oracle to close the loop with the break away developers.

However, David Bradshaw, an IDC analyst, believes Oracle made the best of an awkward situation.

"If Oracle had shut OpenOffice down completely, it would have raised a stink," he said. "And Oracle could not have given the suite to LibreOffice because it is at cross swords with the community."

Both Schulz and Bradshaw do agree that the ASF does not have enough resources and developers to invest significantly in OpenOffice. However, the ASF has invited the Document Foundation to talks on how the suite will progress – a move that was welcomed by Schulz.

Schulz said he wanted the two companies to work closely to continue the production of a successful office suite.

Oracle may not have ‘returned’ OpenOffice to those that left in protest, instead, the Document Foundation has a new work colleague – one they appear happy with.

Google blames China for Gmail hacking

2011-06-09T14:37:00.001+05:30

Liu Xiaoming, China’s ambassador to the UK, has described China as a ‘victim of cyber space crime.’ Google may not agree.

Following cyber attacks on several Gmail accounts, Google announced that the hacking had originated in China, thus prompting a reaction from Xiaoming.

The Chinese ambassador gave a speech at the Worldwide Cybersecurity Summit last week explaining China’s commitment to fighting global cyber threats, and why its Internet community should not be blamed for the attacks.

‘The Chinese government has always supported international co-operation in cyber security. Cyber security is a vital global issue," Liu said.

Liu explained how the Chinese were also facing an increased cyber security threat and so rather than blame China for the attack, which, according to Liu, was not factual, ‘the way forward is to jointly deter and fight cyber crime’.

Liu referred to summits held in the country on the issue of cyber security, making China an, ‘active player’ in the fight against cyber crime.

“China welcomes the establishment of bilateral and multilateral dialogue and agendas on cyber security to settle international differences," he said.

Thanks to China’s intense censorship of the Internet – or the ‘Great Firewall’ – cyber crime is apparently down. Hacking of websites decreased by 21.5 per cent between 2009 and 2011, and spam originating in China is on a decline.

However, Liu could provide no source for these statistics.

"Cyber space has enhanced productivity and people's living standards, and promoted economic and social progress," he said. This is what one would hope.

Big decision for small nations

2011-05-31T19:50:00.001+05:30

Whilst the US government has been commended on its bold uptake of the cloud, smaller nations have been advised to get a move on.

Juan Carlos Soto, a senior advisor to the US government on the use of cloud computing, expressed his concern about the slow approach by some, and suggested the UK government use the expertise of industry professionals to push the technology through.

“I would imagine in the UK that bringing in experts from industry, sometimes from academia and even other government agencies, perhaps those that were early adopters, could lead to very good recommendations," he said.

Soto acknowledged that nations would always move at a pace that suits them, and that issues of security have to be organised first.

"No solution is perfect and some data will not be suitable for the cloud, so I would advise any government or enterprise to make sure they understand the cloud service they are intending to use and whether the security implications are acceptable," he said.

Soto also unlined the importance of the cloud in terms of the changing IT landscape, by comparing it to the introduction of the Internet and web services, “Cloud is that fundamental a shift.”

The US government has estimated savings of about $6bn from its annual IT budget of $80bn. When smaller countries look to this example, it is not a figure that can be ignored.

"I don't know where it will end up from a terminology stand point. 'Cloud' happens to be a very convenient collective term, but the benefits of a service you use in a utility-like manner ... are compelling to any company." Said Soto.

In other words – moving to the cloud is inevitable – whether done boldly, or otherwise.

Urban Mapping helps Oracle customers find their way

2011-05-27T16:30:00.005+05:30

A leading provider of web services and on-demand data for interactive mapping applications, Oracle’s products will have direct access to Urban Mapping’s Mapfluence platform.

Integrated into Oracle Fusion Middleware’s MapViewer feature – Urban Mapping’s massive catalogue of on-demand data will be at user’s fingertips across many industries.

"Oracle customers have an insatiable appetite for high-value content within their applications," said James Steiner, Oracle Vice President for Product Management.
"Our relationship with Urban Mapping allows the Mapfluence platform to overlay thematic data, creating instant location intelligence, a critical component in our content strategy."

Offering more than 10,000 data variables over numerous categories, the Mapfluence on-demand data catalogue is the industry’s most comprehensive. Access to the data is under one license, and in a software-as-a-service model.

Mapfluence is of particular use to Oracle Spatial customers – the location features in Oracle Database 11g and Oracle Spatial 11g enable Oracle to manage all data from traditional business information to XML and 3D spatial information.

"As enterprise markets have shifted to become more nimble, Oracle Spatial customers have increasing need to analyze proprietary data with commercial-grade demographics, business analytics, transportation infrastructure, environmental and other data," said Ian White, Urban Mapping CEO.

Oracle Spatial customers control their IT investment with rapid deployment thanks to the lightweight web services offered by Mapfluence.

As a Gold level member of Oracle PartnerNetwork – Urban Mapping is well worth its weight one might say.

Take a look at www.urbanmapping.com/oracle for more details.

Concerns raised over Amazon's EC2 failure

2011-05-23T15:58:00.001+05:30

Since Amazon Web Services (AWS) recent outage, old concerns about the cloud have taken hold of the industry again. Customers were left offline for four days before operations returned to normal.

Foursquare, one of the sites affected, said, "Our usually amazing data centre hosts, Amazon EC2, are having a few hiccups [...], which affected us and a bunch of other services that use them."

‘Hiccups’ does not really sum it up, but also suggests that Foursquare did not panic. Gartner had predicted that the cloud computing market would reach $150bn globally by 2014. This needs adoption to be accelerated, not worried into a slow down.

Amazon are making changes to ensure this never happens again, however, the outage has drawn attention to the disaster recovery, security and compliance risks with cloud services.

If data cannot stay within the EU, (so meeting regulatory requirements), it restricts the business provider in being able to mirror its data centres for business continuity. And so, the responsibility falls back on the business to ensure its own disaster recovery and back up.

Amazon has a good track record with EC2 providing a high level of service, the question is whether other businesses have the money to invest on infrastructure like Amazon.

It is still early days for cloud computing and the potential gaps between a SLA and individual company legal requirements have to be covered to prevent future outages.

Organisations have to choose the right cloud, public or private. A public cloud is not suitable for a company that requires a business-grade service. Everyone needs a SLA, and UK organisations need a local provider. And, discussions with the provider need to match services to a company’s cloud needs with a long-term delivery strategy.

Amazon has been making amends with its customers so they won’t be out of pocket, but its reputation has taken a dent. However, the ‘hiccup’ may serve to pinpoint areas companies need to concentrate on. Maybe, in the long run, the outage will strengthen the power of the cloud.

As one analyst wrote, “you can't afford to pass up the opportunity cloud computing presents for turning IT from cost centre into revenue driver." Hopefully, lessons have been learnt.

Desktop virtualisation enhanced with Sun Ray Software 5.2

2011-05-19T17:19:00.000+05:30

“Innovations in Sun Ray Software 5.2 make it even easier to install and update, while delivering an improved end user audio and video experience," said Wim Coekaerts, senior vice-president, Oracle.

Earlier this month, Oracle introduced the enhanced desktop virtualisation offerings, which allows customers to virtualise and manage software and hardware stack.

Sun Ray Software 5.2 features improved video, audio, smart card, Virtual Private Network (VPN), and network resiliency.

Oracle explained that as Sun Ray is a server-hosted desktop software, then the maintenance, upgrade, operational costs and security vulnerabilities – that are associated with traditional desktop environments – are practically eliminated.

“Today’s organisations are under more pressure than ever to maximise efficiencies, while minimising costs,” said Coekaerts.

Users can also access virtual Windows, Linux, and Oracle Solaris desktop environments with the Sun Ray Software. Enhancements include; simplified installation and deployment; richer multimedia experience; real-time audio; Oracle Solaris IPMP support for resiliency and load spreading, and Sun Ray Client OS enhancements.

“With Sun Ray Software, IT can centralise the management and maintenance of thousands of thin clients – reducing cost and complexity, while enhancing security,” added Coekaerts.

As part of Oracle’s complete desktop-to-datacentre virtualisation portfolio, Sun Ray Software 5.2 seems to hit all the right notes.

Amazon blamed for SaaS issues at SAP

2011-05-17T14:10:00.002+05:30

Since the Amazon outage SAP has had to, ‘work harder to make people comfortable with where cloud computing is.’

SAP blames Amazon Web Services (AWS) for difficulties the industry is having in selling software-as-a-service. And believe the outage has made it harder to convince customers of the benefits of cloud computing.

Described as ‘a tough week’, by the head of SAP’s global solutions business, it is also a lesson for all enterprises planning to move to the cloud. An IDC analyst, David Bradshaw explains.

“If a major service outage occurs, people will be worried about the availability of the services depending on it. People don’t want to find that business-dependent services cannot be accessed because of an outage.”

It all comes down to Amazon’s explanation of events, and how businesses interpret them. AWS said that a misdirected software upgrade shifted large amounts of traffic onto systems unable to deal with the load.

“If this is proved an exceptional event that is not necessarily going to be duplicated by other service providers, there will be less damage to the cloud computing industry than if the outage is seen as a problem in the general cloud infrastructure,” said Bradshaw.

SAP has had problems selling its software-as-a-service previously and was only ready for widespread deployment last year. It is no wonder that the company has come down hard on Amazon – the last thing they need is another obstacle to clamber over.

Bug bites Apple and tracks users

2011-05-11T20:58:00.002+05:30

A small number of customers are suing Apple following the tracking issues of its devices - they claim that the company’s location-based services have put them at risk of privacy invasion and stalking.

Apple has been under attack since it admitted that the iPhone and iPad contained a record of everywhere users had been.

The company has now blamed a bug for tracking users locations even when the Location Services was turned of – resulting in Wi-Fi data constantly being updated. Apple was adamant that it had never, and would never, track users locations.

“The iPhone is not logging your location. Rather, it's maintaining a database of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers around your current location, some of which may be located more than one hundred miles away from your iPhone, to help your iPhone rapidly and accurately calculate its location when requested," said the company.

Apple will be releasing free iOS software to prevent the devices from storing location-based information once the services are switched off. However, the incident has raised questions in high places.

Congress want an explanation from not only Apple, but also Google, as to what exactly is compiled from the increasingly powerful smartphones. The security and privacy of the user has to be maintained – something that most users probably have previously taken for granted.

Judge favours Oracle in Google case

2011-05-06T13:49:00.002+05:30

A US Judge has sided with Oracle in the lawsuit against Google - the company sued its rival over use of Java programming language in Android last year. Oracle acquired the rights to Java early last year, when they bought Sun Microsystems (Java had been mainly open source when under Sun).

Judge William Alsup has largely backed up Oracle’s claims and a tentative claims construction order has been issued that outlines the scope of Oracle’s patents.

Out of seven patents, three were addressed and the judge favoured four of the five technical terms as interpreted by Oracle, leaving Google out in the cold. Such an outcome is not good for Google, a huge knock on effect could ensue, affecting the millions of Android devices on the market.

The likely option for Google, if it doesn’t win, is to arrange a licensing agreement of some kind. However, there is a small window for change, or delaying the outcome, as the rivals have until today to object to the judge’s ruling.

Oracle must be happy – but is there anything Google can do?

MySQL's first milestone

2011-04-27T17:06:00.001+05:30

MySQL 5.6 is the world’s most popular open source database – and Oracle is right behind it, as Tomas Ulin, Oracle’s MySQL vice president of Engineering confirmed on its first development milestone release a few weeks ago.

"From significantly investing in the technology, to working closely with the community, Oracle continues to make MySQL better.”

The release promises increased MySQL performance and scalability enhancements – which include better query performance, faster access to relevant data and improved monitoring and tuning.

The improved innoDB storage engine means more predictable optimizer plans and a reduced start-up time. Purge operations are more efficient and more comprehensive resources material is provided for performance and troubleshooting. DBAs are able to deploy systems with a large number of tables more efficiently.

Enhanced replication improves data integrity and prevents slave corruption by detecting the relevant errors. Replication performance is enhanced and system resource consumption is reduced. Time delayed replication means DBAs are more flexible and real-time backups can be created from the binary log.

“With this first MySQL 5.6 development milestone release, we are offering early access to new stable features for testing.” Added Ulin. The MySQL community can test significant new features by going to http://labs.mysql.com.

“Oracle continues to innovate and enhance the MySQL Database, delivering a higher performing, more scalable, reliable, and easier to use MySQL.” Few can argue with this.

SAP denies HP takeover

2011-04-26T21:07:00.001+05:30

The co-chief executives at SAP are adamant that there is no take over in the pipeline. An HP buy out of the business software company is not needed explained Jim Hagemann and Bill McDermott as sales have been strong since their arrival.

"We get to the point where we appreciate the compliment that we are a jewel in the crown, but we do have some swagger on our own." Said McDermott who pointed out that HP are only 7bn euros ahead of SAP now (since SAP improved in market capitalisation).

Analysts and industry insiders believed a take over may be on the cards due to poor performance, which could result in SAP’s elderly founders selling their 24 per cent of the company.

Also, Leo Apotheker left SAP when financial results and customer satisfaction were low. Once at HP, he announced a push into software, which, fuelled acquisition rumours further.

SAP director, John Antunes, dismisses the rumours totally, but Gartner analyst, Donald Feinburg, is not so convinced.

“The co-executives don’t normally do press interviews so I am sceptical in that there may be something behind this. HP could have approached SAP,” he said. However, Feinburg does admit that the companies’ valuations in market capitalisation are close, and so, “it would be a stretch.”

It seems if SAP’s performance is up, and HP only a stride ahead, then the rumours cannot be strong. But there may be a grand plan we know nothing about - lets see how the next few months unfold.

Facebook shares design details

2011-04-21T21:08:00.002+05:30

Facebook has become ‘vanity-free.’ Firstly, it is openly sharing the design details of its new green datacentre with competitors. Secondly, by leaving servers free from paint, logos, stickers and a front panel more than 120 tonnes of material does not have to be manufactured – saving time and cost.

Through the “Open Compute Project,” Facebook, apparently, wants to encourage others in the industry to collaborate for best practices on datacentre and server technology.

“Facebook and our development partners have invested tens of millions of dollars over the past two years to build upon industry specifications to create the most efficient computing infrastructure possible," said Jonathan Heiliger, vice president of technical operations at Facebook.

By publishing technical specifications and mechanical CAD files for the centre’s servers, power supplies, server racks and building design the social networking site are showing the industry, openly, what can be achieved and how.

Heiliger added. “These advancements are good for Facebook, but we think they could benefit all companies. We think it's time to demystify the biggest capital expenses of an online business – the infrastructure."

The datacentre supposedly uses 38 per cent less energy, doing the same work, than the company’s present facilities – and at 24 per cent less cost. With all the information presented on a platter, rivals of the networking site would be foolish not to look further.

Oracle is standing tall with strong results

2011-04-21T13:52:00.002+05:30

According to Larry Ellison, “Oracle is the technology that powers the cloud.” And with reported total revenue of $8.8bn for the third fiscal quarter – it may be wise to believe him.

It is a 37% increase on the same period 12 months ago. Safra Catz, Oracle co-president put the organisation’s success down to a series of new software products and the integration of Sun Micro systems, instead of a recovery in IT spending.

"We are now completely confident that we will exceed the $1.5bn profit goal we set for the overall Sun business for the current fiscal year," said Catz. And with hardware product gross margins having increased to 55% in the quarter, she may be right.

Mark Hurd, Oracle co-president, talked of expectations for Exadata and Exalogic to have an even higher growth rate in the fourth quarter – with their sequential revenue growth for the third quarter being over 50% he is allowed to aim high.

Ellison spoke of the many large hardware and software deals that had been signed during the quarter – namely with some of the biggest names in cloud computing.

“For example, Salesforce.com's new multi-year contract enables it to continue building virtually all of its cloud services on top of the Oracle database and Oracle middleware.”

Net income was up 78% and earnings per share up 75%. Oracle’s board of directors also announced a 20% increase on the quarterly cash dividend – six cents per share, up from five cents.

Oracle’s shares rose 3% in the after-market trading, in addition to a good 2% rise earlier that day. Oracle is standing tall, as well as powering the cloud.

Oracle launches Enterprise Gateway 11g

2011-04-20T13:34:00.001+05:30

Oracle released its Enterprise Gateway 11g security and management for Fusion Middleware earlier this month.

“With the introduction of the Oracle Enterprise Gateway, Oracle is the only SOA and identity management vendor to offer comprehensive threat mitigation, identity propagation, secure connectivity and compliance for SOA environments," said Oracle vice president for identity management Amit Jasuja.

SOA and cloud application systems thus benefit from extra protection and increased performance – and, access control and management functions are provided for applications.

The software will also integrate with third party platforms, helping reduce security risks while simplifying integration.

Oracle also explained how the tool manages and streamlines XML processing thus improving the performance of cloud-based and SOA applications.

“Using Oracle Enterprise Gateway, our customers have enhanced security and flexibility to confidently extend their enterprise datacentre into the cloud."

It really is all about cloud application security – IT vendors are well aware that there are many enterprises concerned about data security in the cloud. Hence, the big push to create products and business plans to tackle such concerns.
Oracle’s Enterprise Gateway 11g is another step in the right direction.

Social media - the industry is still being persuaded

2011-04-14T16:22:00.003+05:30

IT users expect their corporate lives to reflect their private lives, according to a report by analyst firm Ovum, at least when it comes to social media.

The report explains how organisations that do not harness social media could be creating huge problems for their IT departments. Apparently, users see social software as a necessity.

“As IT service desks increasingly move up the agenda in terms of importance for organisations, integration of social media will be seen by employees as a must-have, and a lack of availability could generate inefficiencies, such as workarounds, creating compliance issues." said Ovum lead analyst Mark Blowers.

IT departments could suffer by not providing the software. Businesses already up-to-date with the use of social media use sites to tackle IT problems - Twitter has been used to broadcast incidents and alerts.

Businesses need to be more adaptable in their approach and integrate the IT service management with the appropriate social media. Blowers said, "Social media tools can work well in IT service management, especially in bringing about improvements in the service provided to users.”

Social media is the monster that has to be trained by the corporate world – it cannot be ignored, and it will not go away.

Oracle claims HP is misleading customers

2011-04-12T15:19:00.005+05:30

When Dave Donatelli - an HP vice president – described Oracle as using ‘anti-customer behaviour,’ with regards to it dropping Itanium, it was only a matter of time before a response came back from Oracle.

In a statement Oracle said. “Oracle has an obligation to give our customers adequate advanced notice when Oracle discontinues development on any software product or hardware platform so our customers have the information they need to plan and manage their businesses."

Oracle went on to claim that HP knew that Intel was focusing on x86 for the future – and they were purposefully withholding the information from ‘our joint Itanium customers.’

HP had already spoken about Oracle trying to push businesses towards its Sun server platform, but analyst, Charles King thinks, if this is true, customers may not be so easily shepherded.

As the knocks keep coming IBM have kept their nose to the ground, and as King has noted, they may do well from the situation. Since Oracle announced it was to drop Itanium, IBM has pushed forward with its Power server platform – but they have also kept well clear of the war of words between its competitors.

"IBM has got to look like a big, stable company. The more they look like the grown-up in this whole mess the better off they will be," he said.

Oracle has made a clear statement – now it may be best to respectively draw a line under any further public disagreements.

Oracle becomes leader of Corporate Performance Management Suites

2011-04-06T18:35:00.003+05:30

Oracle announced last week that it is in the Leader’s Quadrant of Gartner’s 2011 report, “Magic Quadrant for Corporate Performance Management Suites.”

As a Leader, Oracle excels in the CPM suite market – delivering breadth and depth of suite functionality, supporting a wide CPM strategy with enterprise-wide implementations. Leaders communicate a successful business proposition and are able to deliver successfully around the world.

“We believe that our placement in the Leaders Quadrant is testament to our depth of functionality, a wide-reaching partner network, strong customer base and integrated platform,” said Hari Sankar, vice president of Product Management, Oracle.

Oracle’s Hyperion performance management applications cover planning, budgeting and forecasting, strategy management, financial close and reporting, and profitability management. By combining applications Oracle’s EPM system strengthens strategic, financial, and operational management processes.

Sankar added. “Oracle is committed to delivering a market-leading and comprehensive solution for managing enterprise performance that is continually evolving to meet the expanding needs of global organisations.” Another success for Oracle.

Intel Itanium gets cut off

2011-04-04T19:35:00.001+05:30

Oracle’s recent announcement to cut off support for Intel Itanium, may possibly signal the end for the high-end chipset.

However, Oracle and Intel appear to have crossed wires with regards to the life of the processor. In a statement Oracle said that Intel’s management were now focusing on the x86 microprocessor family, whilst Intel dismissed claims that Itanium was reaching the end of its shelf life.

Paul Otellini, president of Intel said. “Intel's work on Intel Itanium processors and platforms continues unabated with multiple generations of chips currently in development and on schedule."

Oracle pointed out how Microsoft and RedHat had already put Itanium to one side and even questioned HPs commitment.

A Quocirca analyst appeared to back up Oracle’s statement, “Itanium was a bold step in its day, but it is not fit for purpose now. Itanium is a chip that does not have any economy of scale, isn't loved or supported fully by the development community and isn't particularly needed by the user community."

It is the partners that have kept Itanium going – HP being the largest one, and most entrenched. HP needs Itanium for SuperDome, so pulling out could be complicated.

Oracle has promised to support customers with existing versions of software products that already run on Itanium. The question is – how many customers are left on Itanium and is Oracle thinking of moving those remaining on to another system?

Budget bonus for the sector

2011-03-31T15:30:00.002+05:30

When George Osborne revealed the benefits to the technology sector in the Budget last week it was clear that SMEs and large enterprises could come out on top.

Osborne wants to cultivate growth in the UK economy by introducing a moratorium on “domestic regulations” and increasing small company R & D tax credits by 200 per cent - by encouraging startups and small businesses, generation of future revenues should increase.

Other benefits to the sector include ‘Start-up Britain’, a venture to encourage new business development, and also the government wants to improve the UK’s intellectual property regulations. The Small Business Rate Relief holiday has been extended to October 2012.

Osborne wants to rival the low corporate tax rate of 12.5 per cent that Dublin has to offer, and which Facebook and Google have embraced. He said, “Britain is open for business. We want to make Britain the place where international businesses go, not where they leave."

There will be a two per cent reduction in corporation tax, instead of the expected one per cent. By 2015 it should be as low as 23 per cent as decreases continue.

21 enterprise zones are also to be set up around the UK with super fast broadband networks and reduced business rates – the last location to be developed will be in London – the mayor, Boris Johnson will have the final say on that.

With 24 new technical colleges being funded to ensure the UK can keep up in the constantly changing digital world it looks like technical talent is not being overlooked – important in a challenging economic climate.

A slow start to the adoption of the Public Sector Network

2011-03-30T15:21:00.003+05:30

The Public Sector Network (PSN) is grossly underused, and not even known about by some public sector IT budget holders – 69 per cent are aware, 13 per cent use it.

However, the PSN preparedness report, released by Cisco, showed how over the next two years at least 57 per cent of holders were likely to adopt a PSN despite present numbers being low.

87 per cent of budget holders said that communication and collaboration with other government bodies needed to be improved – when an understanding of how joining the PSN can do just this then implementation of the technology could follow.

"There are so many different network providers with their own protocols currently, and the public bodies have their own security standards too; it's a very fragmented network.” Said Rod Halstead, managing director of the public sector at Cisco. “The police might want to share information with schools but because of the different security level requirements they are not able to."

The government has estimated £651m savings once the PSN is adopted - surely encouragement to organisations to go ahead.

The lack of awareness about the technology and waiting for contracts to run out before taking up PSN are said to be two stumbling blocks. Rocco Labellarte at Northamptonshire Council does not agree. He explained how they could still establish the PSN-ready protocols and “connect with other service providers when they have upgraded too.”

However, two more possible hurdles are a lack of money to invest upfront and reluctance in some bodies to hand over control of their networks.

The PSN will work for public bodies across the board – such as the health service, the police and schools – it will be a single, secure telecommunications infrastructure that has been created according to a set of security protocols to suit all.

The bottom line is simple, according to Halstead. “Adoption of the PSN is really just sensible rationalisation and standardisation of the network”

Next step with the Cloud - Secure it

2011-03-25T16:32:00.003+05:30

At the Gartner Identity and Access Management (IAM) summit earlier this month attendees discussed the next big challenge for the security industry – namely, securing cloud-based data.

Kurt Johnson, vice-president strategy and corporate development for IAM solutions provider Courion explained.

"You can't just shut off network access once someone steps away from the company. Now they could go into the nearest coffee shop and be right back on.”

CIOs will have to make significant changes resulting in formal identity and access management strategies that run across their organisations. The fears surrounding data stored in the cloud make it all the more important to have a security system in place that controls access rights to both upload and download information.

A hybrid strategy, which takes cloud and on-premise into account, is apparently the best one, Johnson said. Gartner confirmed this as a popular choice. "Through 2015, over 50 per cent of cloud-based IAM solutions will be hybrid, with software and scalable service-based solutions integrated for cloud computing.”

This is one big challenge that the security industry has no choice but to succeed in.

Oracle updates its MySQL

2011-03-22T15:39:00.000+05:30

Oracle’s updated MySQL Enterprise Edition database offers 90 per cent lower total cost of ownership than Microsoft SQL Server – obviously, no coincidence as Oracle moves in on its rival.

MySQL Enterprise Edition 5.5 promises improved performance, and easy-to-use and comprehensive management tools. The new additions to MySQL include MySQL Enterprise Backup and MySQL Workbench, and an improved MySQL Enterprise Monitor – the standard database, monitoring, back up, design tools and faithful customer support, of course, are still part of the package.

“With the enhancements to MySQL Enterprise Monitor and MySQL Enterprise Backup, along with streamlined, global support, database administrators and developers can speed their MySQL deployments while reducing total cost of ownership." Said Tomas Ulin, vice president of engineering at Oracle.

Whilst support has improved, there is also integration with MyOracle Support, which could well prove to be a lure for users of other systems (SQL Server and Linux systems), particularly as the MyOracle Support feature covers training and teaching materials.

“The latest enhancements in MySQL Enterprise Edition underscore Oracle's commitment to helping customers be successful with the world's most popular open-source database." Said Ulin. Such updates may help prove Oracle’s belief in the open-source community.

Inatech at the OAUG Connection Point conference

2011-03-18T21:00:00.004+05:30

Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG) has just hosted, a very successful, third annual OAUG Connection Point conference – alongside OAUG Middle East, in Dubai.

Chris Gough, Inatech, presented at the event, as well as Inatech exhibiting. Gough’s session covered how to use a cloud based build and development server to manage the Continuous Build and Deployment of Version Controlled 11g SOA components into multiple environments.

Attendees were able to sign up for one-to-one conversations in the ‘Meet the Experts’ forum - on specific topics with various Oracle leaders – including Oracle’s E-Business Suite Strategy and Development teams, and Oracle’s Applications Integration Architecture product management team. Dubai provided a wealth of experience just waiting to be tapped in to by attendees from various areas of business, including IT managers and CIOs.

Speakers ranged from Keynote presentations by Cliff Godwin, Senior Vice President, Applications Development, Oracle Corporations providing an update on the E-Business Suite product line, to Dan Stevens, Solix presenting a Case Study on how an Islamic Bank Managed Data Growth through Database Archiving. Oracle Apps customers were shown how Dell is ‘Changing the Game’ for them and Google Enterprise described how high quality search has become the ‘dashboard for action’ amongst enterprises.

The annual conference, as always, was a huge opportunity for attendees from the financial services, media and communications, and retail, (to name but a few), to get up close and personal with the people behind their applications.

Improving Oracle Health Information Exchange provides benefits

2011-03-16T19:39:00.004+05:30

When Oracle announced improvements to Oracle Health Information Exchange at the end of February, Neil de Crescenzo, senior vice president, Oracle Health Sciences, was keen to explain the benefits for healthcare organisations and government agencies.

“Empowering healthcare providers with accurate and complete patient information when and where it is needed can have a tremendous impact on improving quality of care and patient outcomes – while also helping to drive down healthcare delivery costs.”

The Oracle Health Information Exchange is an open standards-based solution that simplifies the deployment of a Health Information Exchange (HIE). Neil de Crescenzo added.

“While this vision is clear, the path forward has often been mired with complexity as healthcare organisations work to integrate data from myriad systems and grapple with security concerns.”

The Exchange provides a comprehensive and pre-integrated portfolio of products built on a scalable and secure infrastructure. The interoperability and security enhancements have improved private healthcare communities and streamlined connectivity to public exchanges.

Oracle Health Information Exchange provides, to name a few; secure communication; system integration; enterprise master person indexing and consent management and enforcement. With the new components the Exchange can protect in-transit protected health information; provide a single point of contact to access information about a patient or person within the organisation; simplify data management; improve security, and with open standards-based HL7 messaging, assist with the integration of data across clinical and administrative systems.

Neil de Crescenzo explained how the Oracle Health Information Exchange will help companies move on from trying to piece together data from countless systems and security worries, instead, ‘speeding time to value and optimizing the secure exchange of electronic health information with an extensible, open, suite of solutions designed to work together out of the box and running on a robust, reliable and secure technology infrastructure.”

Google is denied right to fight Oracle

2011-03-14T21:31:00.001+05:30

Google’s attempt to have Oracle’s case against it dismissed has failed. Google had claimed that the “issues are ripe and can be decided without further discovery as a matter of law.” However, the US district judge, William Alsup, thought otherwise and certainly did not think all avenues for the case had been exhausted.

"The motion is not ripe because discovery may well reveal additional evidence of copying," Alsup said. "Oracle's copyright-infringement contentions, which are the target of Google's proposed motion, represent only a snapshot of our case taken at the time they were submitted."

Oracle claims the magnitude of the copying is already in question. Possibly up to one third of its Java Packages containing “numerous class files, each of which is protectable by copyright” may have been used by Google. "Thus, contrary to Google's 'we only took a little bit' argument, Google derived its Android code from the specifications for hundreds of Oracle's copyrighted Java files."

Oracle are obviously standing firm, and as the company also claim that there were Google Android developers who had worked for Sun, or had access to ‘proprietary Oracle materials’, it is not looking good for Google.

Google had requested that certain patents be re-examined, possibly to drag out the case. Florian Mueller, founder of the NoSoftwarePatents campaign, explained how even if the case was stalled Oracle could bring about an import ban against the major Android device makers, or even sue Google in other jurisdictions.

“Apple and Nokia are duking it out not only in the US but also in three European countries. Some of the patents Oracle asserts against Google have Chinese, Japanese and European counterparts,"

It appears that Google may have run dry of ‘get out’ clauses.

Microsoft insists IE6 users 'let go'

2011-03-11T18:01:00.002+05:30

Microsoft has had to launch a publicity campaign to try and persuade customers to ‘let go’ of the, apparently, well loved, but rather dated Internet Explorer 6 web browser.

Security issues for the IE6 are well know and as Bradley Anstis, vice president at M86 Security said, "From a security standpoint, there is simply no reason why anyone should be running a browser that is nearly 10 years old, as modern browsers now deploy additional security measures to help protect end users.”

Part of the campaign can be seen on the IE6 Countdown site – as is IE6’s declining stake in the global market share. After a decade it is long past the point where users should have updated to a more recent edition of Internet Explorer – and yet the IE6 still holds a 12 per cent market share.

China has 34.5 per cent of the IE6 browser market, with Korea not far behind with nearly 25 per cent. The UK report a 3.5 per cent IE6 share, with the US not far behind with 2.9 per cent.

Microsoft is stepping up the pressure on all remaining IE6 users. "Friends don't let friends use IE6, and neither should acquaintances," Microsoft said. "There are many benefits of upgrading to a newer version of Internet Explorer, improved speed, tabbed browsing and better privacy settings to name a few."

Anstis explained how a recent Security Labs report discovered that the IE6 ActiveX vulnerability from 2006 was till the most popular target for security breaches. The simple solution – as Microsoft is pushing, is to upgrade and maintain those security patches.

CeBit highlights the flexibility of technology

2011-03-09T17:59:00.000+05:30

Hanover, Germany is the annual location for the world’s largest digital IT fair, CeBit, with technology and gadgets from some 4,200 exhibitors – and for the first week in March the crowds were shown just how far technology can take us.

A shining white robot, known as RoboThespian, enacts film scenes (namely RoboCop – without the violence) and recites perfect Shakespeare - being all singing and dancing and able to speak at least 20 languages – he proved popular with the crowds.

Tobii Technology enticed the CeBit attendees with 20 prototype laptops, which the user can control with eye movement, no mouse required. Two cameras (mounted on the laptop) search for the ‘glint’ in the eye, and reflections from each retina. The computer scrolls down when needed, and apparently can mimic the eye-tracking systems of fighter pilots.

The Max Plank Institute also demanded the concentration of the attendees – but only the female ones, as this particular program is not yet available for men. A personal make-up artist is a luxury that this program could provide for many.

The program scans your face and suggests make-up combinations specifically for the user. Apparently, the program also has an opinion on make-up currently worn - an interesting concept, as a computer program is unlikely to beat around the bush. Once perfect make-up is established, how about a shopping trip?

The Heinrich Hertz Institute in Berlin has developed a gadget for the ‘pavement purchaser.’ Simply window shop by pointing to the item of choice on the interactive screen in the shop window, use a twist of the hand to rotate the image, and to purchase - via the checkout icon - the shopper simply places their smart phone against the glass.

A researcher at the Heinrich Hertz Institute said, “It’s secure, easy and of course 24/7.” And, germ free apparently, as the very public interactive system is not a touch screen.

These technological advances could feasibly reach the high street within the next two years. The speed and stretch of advancement in the IT world seems to suggest anything is possible. Though maybe RoboThespian should remain a party piece.

The battle of the software giants continue

2011-03-07T17:44:00.001+05:30

Oracle is said to ‘vigorously oppose’ SAP’s recent appeal against the huge $1.3bn (£808m) damages it has been ordered to pay out – Oracle is firmly against a retrial and, understandably, want the verdict to stand. In fact as SAP drag the trial out, Oracle could push for more compensation.

The jury worked out the final, rather staggering, amount by presuming that if SAP had downloaded the IP legally, then the full value of Oracle licenses would have been paid for. SAP has felt the outcome unfair as they always accepted responsibility for the actions of TomorrowNow – and claim they would never have sought to buy the Oracle software, and so the jury’s basis for the fine should not stand.

The case is coming up to nearly four years old now as Oracle originally sued SAP back in March 2007 for the alleged theft by TomorrowNow, (a subsidiary of SAP) of Oracle software and support materials.

Oracle’s analysts originally estimated a $408.7m fine pre the intellectual property-theft trial, but obviously, they do not want to give up the larger amount. A hearing is set for 13th July as the two software giants continue to go head to head.

Differences in opinion over the cloud

2011-02-25T14:34:00.002+05:30

At NetEvents in Barcelona earlier this month the safety of the cloud was once again questioned. “Trust is the Achilles heel for the cloud,” said Justin Fielder, CTO at Easynet Global Services.

Unbelievably, Fielder actually likened moving to the cloud to “signing your own death warrant,” for IT leaders. Fielder may not be alone in his criticism of the cloud as some CIOs are also cautious about testing the cloud - however, they are not questioning the benefits, rather they are worried about putting themselves or their company at risk – people do not like the unknown.

“People do not want to lose control,” said Raul Chico, head of IT at BT Spain. Maybe joining the cloud needs to be seen as TAKING control - the possibilities to cut costs are still hugely attractive – and it is a necessity to keep up with the competition. To stay in the game, companies cannot sit on the sidelines as others jump.

"People don't necessarily know what they want [from the cloud] but they know they need to reduce cost to remain competitive," said David Hill, vice-president EMEA for Spirent Communications.

"The cloud is the equivalent to Shangri-La for IT departments. It is everything they would want their IT environment to be, yet we are still waiting for it to really take off," said Sean Hackett, research director, CloudScape, The 451 Group.

At the end of the day, a ‘leap of faith’ is necessary – and the more that take such a leap, the more will follow.

Keeping up with the US cloud

2011-02-24T21:17:00.001+05:30

During Cloud Expo, at the beginning of the month, it was revealed that Europe is at least a year behind the US in cloud uptake. Whilst, together, the US and Europe produce 90 per cent of the revenue from the cloud globally – Europe has only 27 per cent of that stake.

Analyst, William Fellows from The 451 Group explained. “When you examine revenues and adoptions in Europe, it looks how the US did 12 months ago."

Suppliers, and the market, in the US have had more support than their European counterparts. The US General Services Administration has provided a support system that has enabled companies to forge ahead.

However, the World Economic Forum last month marked a change in Europe – Neelie Kroes, the Digital Agenda Commissioner outlined plans for effective data protection, and how to make sure the cloud and Europe’s single market could work alongside each other. Legal framework will be rethought and there will be pilots, and technical and commercial research.

Fellows explains how the growth in Europe will be pushed by the enterprises as they are now beginning to realise that working in the cloud has benefits that far outreach simple cost efficiencies.

“The customers I go back and speak to again and again are telling me that actually flexibility and agility are the main benefits for them. The speed at which you can get to the market with this scalability is becoming more important."

The cloud is beginning to lift and all is becoming clear.

Oracle and IBM work together for Open-Source

2011-02-23T15:06:00.004+05:30

Oracle and IBM have joined forces to share governance of the OpenJDK Java community. Oracle is chairman and the OpenJDK lead, IBM takes on the vice chairman role – and bylaws are in place to ensure the structure of the governance is clear.

One analyst described the move by Oracle as one of goodwill – now they just have to govern this code in an open-handed way. There is a lot invested in Java. “Java is also important for IBM, and so having them work together will be good for OpenJDK.” Said Michael Azoff, analyst for Ovum.

"It is also worth mentioning that although Oracle and IBM have a strong influence in steering Java, this does not make it proprietary; they are not aiming to do this.”

Joining with IBM may be good for the open-source community – however, the other side of the coin is Google. The legal battle with Oracle rumbles on and casts a shadow over Java and the rest of the community.

It is Google’s Android platform that is in question – Oracle claims that the Internet giant stole Oracle’s Java code – and renamed it Dalvik, which has resulted in a huge copyright infringement case.

Azoff believes that if Oracle wants Java to succeed, they may need to work with Google to bring about an end to the case.

“With Android now overtaking Apple's iOS, and the mobile market continuing to dominate, you don't want Oracle to have a negative impact on Android development," Azoff said. "I think if you want open-source Java to succeed, Oracle needs to behave in a co-operative way with Google and we need to see agreement between the companies."

Will Oracle be able to see the wood for the trees and act on behalf of the greater good?

SAP challenges the court

2011-02-22T14:47:00.004+05:30

Last week, a Californian court issued its final judgment on the alleged theft of Oracle code by SAP subsidiary, TomorrowNow. The final cost to SAP is the £806m ($1.3bn) fine with legal fees and interest of over £80m (nearly $135m) added on top.

SAP, however, is not happy. They plan to argue that the considerable fine is not reflective of the offence – they may even ask for the trial to run again.

“As stated before, we have accepted liability for the actions of TomorrowNow and have been willing to fairly compensate Oracle, but we believe that the amount awarded by the jury is disproportionate and wrong," SAP said in a statement.

The statement went on to say that SAP is allowed to file ‘post-trial motions’ to the trial judge – which the company plans to do shortly. SAP want the court to reduce the damages that the jury has awarded Oracle. Thinking beyond the reaction of the judge, SAP is already considering an appeal.

The trial has been far from friendly – Ellison is not shy with his thoughts about wanting Leo Apotheker (SAPs ex chief executive) to take the stand.

TomorrowNow was found guilty of copyright infringement and Ellison quoted losses of up to £2.47bn ($4bn) – SAP requested a limitation on the fine of up to £25m ($40m) and always claimed they were willing to fairly compensate Oracle. With the fight not over, the final payment cannot be set in stone.

Oracle tops the leader board again

2011-02-21T21:40:00.000+05:30

Oracle is riding high again after being named a Leader in ‘The Forrester Wave: Comprehensive Integration Solutions, Q4 2010’ report. David Shaffer, VP, product management for Oracle Fusion Middleware explained what customers expected. “To solve complex integration challenges, organizations are demanding a truly unified CIS solution.”

And Oracle has such a CIS solution – as the report backs up – comprising of Oracle SOA Suite and Oracle BPM Suite as key components.

Shaffer added, “With shared user interface and runtime components across Oracle BPM Suite 11g, Oracle SOA Suite 11g and other Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g components, we are able to provide lower total cost of ownership and better performance to help our customers address the most complex integration projects.”

Oracle was one of 15 vendors analysed for the report against 137 criteria, which were split into Current Offering, Strategy and Market Presence. Oracle came top of class for over all strategy, and out of five product areas, Oracle scored highly again in four.

Forrester stated that the Leaders produce the “best overall combination of architecture, integration server, application development, business process management (BPM), and business-to-business (B2B) support features.”

Shaffer sees the report as huge boost for Oracle. “We believe that our position in this report is recognition of those capabilities and our commitment to providing comprehensive and unified integration solutions to our customers.” It’s in black and white – who’s going to argue?

Nokia partner with Microsoft to make a mark in the market

2011-02-18T16:05:00.003+05:30

Last week Nokia announced a “new global mobile ecosystem” that they plan to create with their new partner, Microsoft. A huge step away from Stephen Elop, Nokia President and CEO, describing Nokia as a man “standing on a burning platform,” albeit in an internal memo.

This broad strategic partnership will hopefully help Nokia’s position in the market. Google’s Android platform and the Apple iPhone have certainly taken over, much to Elop’s distress, particularly in terms of the high-end smartphone market.

Elop was clearly confident with the Microsoft partnership. "Nokia and Microsoft will combine strengths to deliver an ecosystem with unrivalled global reach and scale. It's now a three-horse race."

‘Happy’ was not in Elop’s vocabulary, however, as voiced in the internal memo that was leaked prior to the partnership announcement. He stressed the obvious lack in a product to match the iPhone, and the rivalry from Android who, “came on the scene just over two years ago, and this week they took our leadership position in smartphone volumes."

Now, the lay of the land is clearly different. Nokia is to adopt the Windows Phone 7 as its smartphone platform (no fire in sight), and the Microsoft Bing search engine will be delivered across all services and devices. Microsoft is excited to be working with Nokia – Elop must be over the moon.

Steven Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, is confident, “Ecosystems thrive when fuelled by speed, innovation and scale. The partnership announced today provides incredible scale, vast expertise in hardware and software innovation and a proven ability to execute."

And with plans to deliver an app store to rival Android and Apple app markets, if the plan works, Nokia could be back in the game.

Smartphones and Tablets will become leading devices for enterprise users

2011-02-14T16:51:00.002+05:30

Android is ‘really taking off in the US enterprise sector,” said Ed Brill at IBM’s Lotusphere 2011 event in Orlando. So much so that IBM predict tablets and smartphones to become the device of choice for enterprise users three to five years from now.

Ed Brill is director of product management for LotusLive, Notes and Domino at IBM – and according to him the Google-based tablets are a good prospect. In the US enterprise sector, “there is an open market, and there are also many of the Google devices in the UK.”

Brill points out that it is difficult to take on new manufacturers – IBM presently develops apps for Apple, Android, BlackBerry and Symbian devices – to take on anymore has to be worth the expense.

Windows Phone 7 is one platform Brill confirms they keep an eye on. "We are constantly evaluating Windows Phone 7 to see if there is enterprise interest before investing. So far there is inquiry level interest, but there is no demand in the enterprise for it," he said.

IBM and RIM, however, appear to have a burgeoning relationship. BlackBerry devices will be supporting the up-coming cloud-base LotusLive Symphony collaboration tool on release.

In fact – Jim Balsillie, co-chief executive at RIM, took the stage at Lotusphere 2011 to plug the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and the availability of Lotus and Domino applications. What enterprise users want – the PlayBook appears to have – multi-tasking, Internet performance and security.

It’s still personal - just on a grand scale.

Apple drives PC sales

2011-02-10T15:51:00.001+05:30

The iPad has taken Apple into third place in the PC market as well as helping push the global PC market up by 19 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2010. The iPad basically gave the consumer more product choice over the holiday period.

In the new report from Canalys the iPad has been described as this year’s netbook.
“They do not appeal to first-time buyers or low-income households, but are proving extremely popular as additional computing devices." Said Canalys analyst Tim Coulling.

The report warned that other manufacturers should, “plan for the future and not remain stuck in the past.” With Apple products being the main force behind the rise in the PC market – and the iPad at the helm – the competition should take heed.

“With screen sizes of 7in or above, ample processing power, and a growing number of applications, tablets offer a computing experience comparable to netbooks. They compete for the same customers and will happily coexist," said a Canalys senior analyst.

Coulling believes that companies are now moving on from the restricted budgets of the recession which means IT expenditure could be a catalyst for growth.

In the fourth quarter of last year there were 105.8 million PC shipments in the global market. Apple had an 11.5 per cent share beaten only by HP and Acer – it will be interesting to see who is in pole position a year from now, and the product responsible.

World Eco Forum prepares the EU for Cloud

2011-02-09T18:19:00.001+05:30

‘Cloud computing, in some form, will happen anyway,’ said Neelie Kroes, Digital Agenda Commissioner, in her speech at the World Economics Forum. And she wants the EU to be ready.

Kroes, speaking at the Forum in Davos at the end of January, made it clear she preferred concepts to be clearly defined, but realised that where cloud computing was concerned the EU had to keep ahead of the game - without such a definition agreed.

“This is a complex situation and nobody is likely to have all the answers... But the EU has a role to play: we can make it happen smoother and faster," she said.

Part of that role is ensuring data protection and the EU single market requirements can work with the cloud. Kroes explained she was working on a EU-wide cloud computing strategy, which covered three areas.

The legal framework - covering all laws and rules that affect cloud computing in organisations, both public and private (i.e. data protection and privacy regulations), as well as users’ rights.

Technical and commercial fundamentals covers further research into the security and availability of the cloud, but also points out the bigger role to be taken by the European Commission in the standardisation of application programming interfaces and data formats

Kroes finally suggested that EU member states would take on a series of pilot projects to aide them in developing a common approach towards cloud deployment.

Such a strategy is only the beginning with more to come in 2012. However, Kroes will not be waiting until then to continue the conversation of the cloud –providers and users are invited to Brussels in the spring for some ‘intense consultations.’

CIOs tech priorities for 2011

2011-02-07T16:21:00.002+05:30

Even with shrinking IT budgets – as forecast by a Gartner survey – cloud computing is set to be the top technology priority in 2011.

In the survey, covering 2,014 chief information officers (CIOs) from 50 countries and 38 industries, overall there is expected to be only a one per cent rise, whilst the UK was shown to actually have a shrinking IT budget.

As a result of budget issues for enterprise IT departments cloud computing has risen to top priority globally. Dave Aron, a Gartner VP, said, “This was confirmed when we asked how soon more than half of their business transactions would be conducted over IT platforms in the cloud."

43 per cent of CIOs expected to be using cloud-based IT platforms within 24 months, 31 per cent said five years – although nearly a quarter of CIOs rejected the prospect. Virtualisation is the second priority and the likely candidate for being farmed out across the IT landscape – mainly because it is seen as more mature than cloud. Mobile comes in third.

“CIOs are very keen to do whatever they can in terms of reducing the cost and management time involved in maintaining IT infrastructures to help their businesses to win," he said. Aron points out that IT Strategy needs to be doing more than just being aligned to generic business goals – and it appears well over half of CIOs recognise this.

Aron’s advice to CIOs was to avoid pigeon holing IT teams in roles – rather look at IT skills, business knowledge and behavioural capabilities. Hopefully future skills gaps can then be met cost effectively.

Oracle CRM on Demand roams Europe

2011-02-04T15:54:00.003+05:30

At the beginning of the week Oracle CRM on Demand went local in Europe – in a UK data centre to be precise. To have the SaaS applications securely hosted from within the EU is a ‘significant step forward.’ And, of course, great for new business.

Steve Fearon, Vice President, CRM On Demand EMEA, Oracle, explained how European enterprises would be much happier with the proximity as ‘information assurity around sensitive customer data is becoming an ever-increasing concern of major European businesses and regulators.’ With the new set up European organisations – particularly those in Public and Financial sectors - will be able to meet their own information assurance and regulatory goals, with regards to managing their European Data.

Fearon continued. "We see many large and medium enterprises wantingto benefit from the SaaS delivery and economic model and by now hostingcustomer data within the EU, Oracle is opening up this opportunity to thoseorganizations that want SaaS CRM and want this option for hosting theirEuropean data."

Oracle can now reach customers that previously were unavailable due to the EU Data Protection booking. Steve Fearon puts it clearly, ‘Now they can enjoy world-class CRM from us in a SaaS model which is hosted within the European Union.’

Oracle CRM On Demand is the company’s fastest growing application, provided as a service over the Internet. Having the option to store data within the EU is in stark contrast to most other providers who usually host applications outside the EU, or depend on third party companies.

As always in the IT world there is competition in the wings – by 2012 Salesforce.com are planning to launch a centre in the UK. However, Oracle, at the moment, is a step ahead.