Barker Bites Back
A look at some newsy stuff and interesting bits as well as those hopefully amusing byways of technology.
Wednesday 18 March 2009, 10:10 AM
IBM could buy Sun Microsystems
Talks are possibly underway for the systems giant IBM to buy Sun Microsystems, according a report in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal (WSJ) in what could be a grab for market share.
However, the WSJ did say that, "it is unclear whether the negotiations will result in a transaction".
The two companies have a common interest in the use of open source, Linux and Java, in the data centre which could free them from being reliant on software from Microsoft.
Any deal would also strengthen IBM as it fights with HP to be the number one in the systems market and in the data centre. HP took the number one spot from IBM when it purchased EDS in 2008.
It is too early in any transaction to know the value of a possible sale of Sun to IBM but the WSJ did suggest that "IBM is likely to pay at least $6.5bm (£4.6bn) in cash to acquire Sun".
This is a time of likely change in data centre strategy by the major companies. Part of this will be as a result of Cisco's move into data centres on Monday. Both IBM and HP will have been working out how to react to Cisco's move into their specialist area and a move by IBM to buy Sun would be a first step.
Tony Lock, an analysts with Freeform Dynamics said that a possible purchase of Sun by IBM would be a "logical move" but that the companies had "very complementary strategies".
However, the WSJ did say that, "it is unclear whether the negotiations will result in a transaction".
The two companies have a common interest in the use of open source, Linux and Java, in the data centre which could free them from being reliant on software from Microsoft.
Any deal would also strengthen IBM as it fights with HP to be the number one in the systems market and in the data centre. HP took the number one spot from IBM when it purchased EDS in 2008.
It is too early in any transaction to know the value of a possible sale of Sun to IBM but the WSJ did suggest that "IBM is likely to pay at least $6.5bm (£4.6bn) in cash to acquire Sun".
This is a time of likely change in data centre strategy by the major companies. Part of this will be as a result of Cisco's move into data centres on Monday. Both IBM and HP will have been working out how to react to Cisco's move into their specialist area and a move by IBM to buy Sun would be a first step.
Tony Lock, an analysts with Freeform Dynamics said that a possible purchase of Sun by IBM would be a "logical move" but that the companies had "very complementary strategies".
Thursday 12 March 2009, 4:53 PM
Juniper offers scalable network options
Juniper Networks on Monday, extended its range of network firewalls with two more options for scaling networks from the mid-range to the largest networks.
Aimed at the data centre but for use in networks from medium scale to high-end, Juniper Networks are intended to keep it ahead of its much bigger rival, Cisco, the company said.
Juniper has a hard task ahead since Cisco is far ahead in all round networking and it is planning a new product launch for Monday, themed, "Unified Computing".
Meanwhile, Juniper's new firewalls the SRX3400 and SRX3600 SRX series, extend the company's SRX3000 line of network and security products for the data centre. Juniper said that the gateway products can lower total cost of ownership (TCO) by up to 65 percent but, perhaps more significantly, it said that the arrays need less rack space and can reduce power consumption.
The arrays have different footprints based on the types of services and number of input/output and services processing cards (SPCs) stocked on each array. The idea is that unlike single-purpose security appliances or traditional chassis platforms which will only handle one type of service the SRX Services Gateways can have a range of services at the same time.
The aim, said Juniper's solutions marketing manager for Europe, Gilles Trachsel is to offer a flexible network solution."With others you get one chassis, one network, one service, but with this solution you could have one chassis with multiple networks," he told ZDNet UK.
The idea is flexibility, Trachsel said. When asked how Juniper could compete with the largest company in the market, Cisco, Trachsel said, "They cannot offer the service level we have, and I think we score on network access control (NAC)."
Aimed at the data centre but for use in networks from medium scale to high-end, Juniper Networks are intended to keep it ahead of its much bigger rival, Cisco, the company said.
Juniper has a hard task ahead since Cisco is far ahead in all round networking and it is planning a new product launch for Monday, themed, "Unified Computing".
Meanwhile, Juniper's new firewalls the SRX3400 and SRX3600 SRX series, extend the company's SRX3000 line of network and security products for the data centre. Juniper said that the gateway products can lower total cost of ownership (TCO) by up to 65 percent but, perhaps more significantly, it said that the arrays need less rack space and can reduce power consumption.
The arrays have different footprints based on the types of services and number of input/output and services processing cards (SPCs) stocked on each array. The idea is that unlike single-purpose security appliances or traditional chassis platforms which will only handle one type of service the SRX Services Gateways can have a range of services at the same time.
The aim, said Juniper's solutions marketing manager for Europe, Gilles Trachsel is to offer a flexible network solution."With others you get one chassis, one network, one service, but with this solution you could have one chassis with multiple networks," he told ZDNet UK.
The idea is flexibility, Trachsel said. When asked how Juniper could compete with the largest company in the market, Cisco, Trachsel said, "They cannot offer the service level we have, and I think we score on network access control (NAC)."
Thursday 12 March 2009, 4:31 PM
Virtual Iron virtually sold perhaps
The rumours are building around the virtualisation company Virtual Iron and if they are not quite at fever pitch, they are somewhere close. I normally avoid writing about rumours but this one is so strong and in so many news outllets that I think if it does not actually go through, more than a few people will be wondering, why not?
At the end of February, the first rumours started that the company was about to be sold to Oracle. No surprise there as Oracle is the traditional recipient of rumours at times like this.
Virtual Iron appeared to be as good a candidate as any other. It easily satisfied the main requirements of good technology, a good name and working in an up and coming field, such as virtualisation.
I was waiting to see what happens next until I read an article that brought this issue into sharper focus for me. Writing in Information Week, Charles Babcock, pointed out the following in answer to the question, why buy Virtual Iron?
"There's an obvious answer. Oracle VM is based on open source Xen, as is Virtual Iron's hypervisor. So the tools that Virtual Iron has built out around its hypervisor, such as LiveMigration for moving virtual machines around, and LivePower, for detecting and decommissioning underutilized VMs, could be useful in an Oracle customer's environment."
Of course, this does not mean that any sale is going to happen, that will be down to the finance people, but it suddenly means the idea make a lot of good sense. Still, how often do things happen because the idea makes good sense? Well, sometimes perhaps.
At the end of February, the first rumours started that the company was about to be sold to Oracle. No surprise there as Oracle is the traditional recipient of rumours at times like this.
Virtual Iron appeared to be as good a candidate as any other. It easily satisfied the main requirements of good technology, a good name and working in an up and coming field, such as virtualisation.
I was waiting to see what happens next until I read an article that brought this issue into sharper focus for me. Writing in Information Week, Charles Babcock, pointed out the following in answer to the question, why buy Virtual Iron?
"There's an obvious answer. Oracle VM is based on open source Xen, as is Virtual Iron's hypervisor. So the tools that Virtual Iron has built out around its hypervisor, such as LiveMigration for moving virtual machines around, and LivePower, for detecting and decommissioning underutilized VMs, could be useful in an Oracle customer's environment."
Of course, this does not mean that any sale is going to happen, that will be down to the finance people, but it suddenly means the idea make a lot of good sense. Still, how often do things happen because the idea makes good sense? Well, sometimes perhaps.
Wednesday 11 March 2009, 1:45 PM
Microsoft says it's a SaaS mistake
A Microsoft speaker at a conference on Monday came out with some interesting news that I reported on ZDNet UK. The news was that after it appeared that Microsoft wanted to cut resellers out of the relationship it had with its resellers, it then had apparently had a change of heart and was keen to include resellers in this relationship after all.
SQL Data Services is a scalable, on-demand data storage and query processing utility service.
This is what Microsoft apparently said through the director of its Software Plus Services (software-as-a-service or SaaS as the rest of world calls it) strategy Shannon Day:
" … there is definitely a movement afoot to let you resell services, and you would own the paper and agreement with the customer."
In other words the news, as reported by the trade newspaper and web site CRN, was good for resellers of Microsoft software. They could "own" any relationships they had with Microsoft and Microsoft's customers and Microsoft would be happy with a cut of any deal.
We asked Microsoft to comment or enlighten us further but received no direct reply until Tuesday. Microsoft it now seems had made an error, or rather a Microsoft executive had unfortunately given us a misleading message.
We received a statement from Microsoft:
"In Q2 2009, Microsoft will give Microsoft Online Service partners the opportunity to create a Microsoft Online Services order tailored to their customer. Once enabled, partners will populate an order with recommended services and quantities while designating themselves as partner of record. The order generates a URL the partner sends directly to the customer to confirm and complete the order. Partners continue to own and manage their customer relationships, while Microsoft manages the billing process."
So there it is. Yes, resellers can "own" the customer/Microsoft agreement but when it comes to the real heart of it, which is of course the money, Microsoft is still keeping control.
SQL Data Services is a scalable, on-demand data storage and query processing utility service.
This is what Microsoft apparently said through the director of its Software Plus Services (software-as-a-service or SaaS as the rest of world calls it) strategy Shannon Day:
" … there is definitely a movement afoot to let you resell services, and you would own the paper and agreement with the customer."
In other words the news, as reported by the trade newspaper and web site CRN, was good for resellers of Microsoft software. They could "own" any relationships they had with Microsoft and Microsoft's customers and Microsoft would be happy with a cut of any deal.
We asked Microsoft to comment or enlighten us further but received no direct reply until Tuesday. Microsoft it now seems had made an error, or rather a Microsoft executive had unfortunately given us a misleading message.
We received a statement from Microsoft:
"In Q2 2009, Microsoft will give Microsoft Online Service partners the opportunity to create a Microsoft Online Services order tailored to their customer. Once enabled, partners will populate an order with recommended services and quantities while designating themselves as partner of record. The order generates a URL the partner sends directly to the customer to confirm and complete the order. Partners continue to own and manage their customer relationships, while Microsoft manages the billing process."
So there it is. Yes, resellers can "own" the customer/Microsoft agreement but when it comes to the real heart of it, which is of course the money, Microsoft is still keeping control.
Monday 9 March 2009, 4:01 PM
Microsoft opens SaaS to others
On Sunday, Microsoft said it was moving towards the idea of opening up its online business applications so that its partners can directly bill their customers. Up to now, Microsoft has sought to retain some control over any transactions taking place between customers and resellers.
The issue is important for the development of Microsoft's software-as-a-service (SaaS) strategy, which Microsoft prefers to call Software plus Services (S+S) . This is the delivery method for Microsoft's business productivity online suite (BPOS)
Shannon Day, director of Microsoft's S+S program told CRN and the Xchabge conference in New Orleans on Saturday that, "there is definitely a movement afoot to let you resell services, and you would own the paper and agreement with the customer."
In other words, the resellers would retain control over any agreements with customers. This is potentially a good thing for customers as well as resellers since customers will be buying the software through resellers and it should mean there are clear lines of responsibility. For customers, if they are unhappy, they can go after the reseller rather than having to tackle a company as large as Microsoft.
The Microsoft BPOS bundles hosted Exchange, SharePoint, Office Communications Server, and LiveMeeting.
"This underlines the point that there is no gorilla in the market for SaaS," said analyst Jon Collins of Freeform Dynamics. "Microsoft would like to be that gorilla, but it isn't. Nobody is and that is what makes this an interesting market."
What we are seeing now, said Collins, is "a number of companies like Microsoft and Salesforce and others, all trying to see how much of this market they could own".
The issue is important for the development of Microsoft's software-as-a-service (SaaS) strategy, which Microsoft prefers to call Software plus Services (S+S) . This is the delivery method for Microsoft's business productivity online suite (BPOS)
Shannon Day, director of Microsoft's S+S program told CRN and the Xchabge conference in New Orleans on Saturday that, "there is definitely a movement afoot to let you resell services, and you would own the paper and agreement with the customer."
In other words, the resellers would retain control over any agreements with customers. This is potentially a good thing for customers as well as resellers since customers will be buying the software through resellers and it should mean there are clear lines of responsibility. For customers, if they are unhappy, they can go after the reseller rather than having to tackle a company as large as Microsoft.
The Microsoft BPOS bundles hosted Exchange, SharePoint, Office Communications Server, and LiveMeeting.
"This underlines the point that there is no gorilla in the market for SaaS," said analyst Jon Collins of Freeform Dynamics. "Microsoft would like to be that gorilla, but it isn't. Nobody is and that is what makes this an interesting market."
What we are seeing now, said Collins, is "a number of companies like Microsoft and Salesforce and others, all trying to see how much of this market they could own".
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