IT channel products and technologies

Microsoft PDC 09: The pressure’s on

In the past, Microsoft has used its Professional Developers Conference to talk pie in the sky. Promises made one year for the next typically dribbled out months, even years late and functionally short. Longhorn anyone?

That can’t happen anymore.  With PDC 2009 kicking off this week, Microsoft  has precious little time to make good on Azure promises. It’s playing catchup with uber-nemesis Google and — perhaps more importantly — to Amazon which has real-world cloud services out and functioning now for real, paying customers. Continued »

Tech Data dedicates resources to healthcare, Symantec technologies

IT channel products distributor Tech Data has established an new industry solutions unit for the healthcare sector. It also has focused technical resources on a center populated with Symantec products. Continued »

HP to buy 3Com: Make it stop!

Dear lord. Hewlett-Packard says it’s buying 3Com for $2.7 billion. The rationale is that 3Com’s networking hardware would augment the HP ProCurve lineup.  Really? Isn’t there considerable overlap?

 HP must be really, really serious about beating Cisco.

Marius Haas, senior VP of HP ProCurve Networking, and Ron Sege,  prez and COO of 3Com,  will preside over this evening’s inevitable teleconference.

I guess this paves the way or someone, anyone, (Oracle? Anyone?) to snap up Brocade Networks. Juniper Networks anyone? Bueller?

EC to Oracle: Not so fast!

Well, European regulators are definitely not loving the Oracle-Sun deal. And yesterday the European Commission objected to it formally, stating that Oracle ownership of MySQL as well as its own database franchise hurts competition in the database market.

The EC’s antitrust body opened the inquiry into Oracle’s proposed buyout of Sun in March and had till January to issue its findings.

Oracle posted a response to the EC’s objection late Monday:

 
“The transaction does not threaten to reduce competition in the slightest, including in the database market. 

The Commission’s Statement of Objections reveals a profound misunderstanding of both database competition and open source dynamics. It is well understood by those knowledgeable about open source software that because MySQL is open source, it cannot be controlled by anyone.  That is the whole point of open source. 

The database market is intensely competitive with at least eight strong players, including IBM, Microsoft, Sybase and three distinct open source vendors.  Oracle and MySQL are very different database products.  There is no basis in European law for objecting to a merger of two among eight firms selling differentiated products.  Mergers like this occur regularly and have not been prohibited by United States or European regulators in decades”

 

Sun issued a similar statement that added that  any final decision by the commission is subject to appeal appeal to the European Court of First Instance.

Oracle has shown no desire to spin off MySQL, a move that would placate the Europeans.

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Tata beefs up onshore resources

Here’s a bit of a switch. Instead of taking jobs out of the United States, Indian IT services giant Tata Consultancy Services has hired more than 225 people over the past quarter or so at its North America Domestic Delivery Center, which is located in Cincinnati, Ohio. The total number of jobs in the location is now more than 300.

The focus of the staff will be on development work for industries including banking and financial services, life science and healthcare, and manufacturing and retail.

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More Novell cuts, follow Microsoft cuts

If the recession is, in fact,  winding down, employment truly is a trailing indicator, with tech companies continuing to cut headcount.

Last week, both Novell and Microsoft cut jobs. Novell sliced 3% — or about 100 to 130 —  of its 3,900 employees, according to published reports. And it suspended company-paid 401K contributions, according to its 8K filing. Continued »

With Cisco-EMC pairing, what’s up with VMware?

The HP vs. Cisco/EMC/VMware hype fight this week re-emphasized that Cisco and EMC (and its subsidiary VMware) are joined at the hip in their aggressive grab for data center share. 

Recurring rumors have Cisco giving up all pretense at some point (John Chambers: ” Ah heck, let’s just get this over with!”) and buying EMC outright. Continued »

Google and Microsoft trading places in mail

So, Google wins a big, prestigious $7.2 billion email account –for 30,000 Los Angeles municipal workers . Google Apps Premier is displacing Novell Groupwise there.  But Google beat out the Microsoft Exchange-Outlook combo even though by most accounts the dollar difference between bids was itty bitty.

Continued »

Vblock done, Cisco to launch new unified collaboration attack

Cisco and its best friends forever EMC and VMware finally came clean about their Vblock plans on Tuesday.

Now watch for Cisco next week to shift gears–a tad–and unveil a slew of unified collaboration gear from phones to new unified communications servers–or is it now collaboration servers?  Big news on deck on that front for Nov. 9 when Cisco CEO John Chambers will talk up the products. They will probably also include additional new ISR G2 routers on the infrastructure front.

But back to vBlock: Don’t expect HP and IBM to lay down. In fact, you won’t have to wait long for them to up their  competitive responses to Cisco’s aggressive data center push. HP will talk up it’s “converged infrastructure” approach and will say–truthfully–that it, unlike Cisco or EMC–has all the pieces for a converged data center system. Servers? Check. Networking hardware? Check, check. Storage? Check check check.  It’s already down the road with some converged products and probably put pedal to the medal after Cisco’s first unveiled its Unified Computing Systems news last spring. 

Cisco is now opening up its UCS servers to channel partners which is bound to further incite HP .

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Oracle addresses Glassfish, other Sun software futures

Oracle execs up to and including Larry Ellison have been vocal about their plan to continue, even boost, support for Java and Solaris. This week the company started talking up plans for some of Sun’s more niche software products, albeit in a very general way.

Check out the updated FAQ on Oracle.com, which says that Glassfish will also be safe and sound. Continued »