Enterprise headlines and summaries, 2010-01-23

• Is the #SAP KPI Program Really Dead?
  [Yes.] SAP is going to work with SUGEN "to evolve" the KPI program into something that can measure Enterprise Support's value "in a way that requires less investment [on the part of customers] and is totally scalable across our entire customer base," Wood said.
• Sohaib Abbasi of #Informatica
  What's happening more recently is the data is getting fragmented to cloud computing vendors. Any customer using Salesforce.com is relying on them to manage information on their behalf. So that trend is fragmenting the data, and making it harder to use for the overall business. The next wave of integration is beyond company boundaries.
• Business must take the lead on carbon management - by Leo Apotheker, #SAP
  businesses could face daily fines of up to $32,500 for non-compliance.
• #Sun CEO's internal memo: Beat #IBM
  Sun is a brand, #Oracle is your company.
• BMW #Oracle USA 17 vs Alinghi 5
  We’ve put together what we’ve found out about the two boats here, if you think that you know more then let us know in the comments and we’ll keep ourselves up-to-date. The biggest differences we’ve seen so far is the interchangeable masts and wing from BMW Oracle, we’ll soon see whether it’s an advantage.
• America's Cup: Exciting morning on the water for BMW #Oracle
  The fast part, I can confirm. Trying to keep up in a 6-metre RIB was more or less impossible with the sea state. What was amazing to me was how stable the USA was in the chop, using her waterline length to slice through the waves like they weren't there.
• Oracle president Charles Phillips' dirty laundry hung up in Times Square
  The one overlooking Times Square stretched three-stories high and featured the married former U.S. Marine captain with YaVaughnie Wilkins, a 41-year-old former journalism student at San Francisco State University whose last address was reportedly a multimillion-dollar faux French chateau on the Peninsula. One Web site described it as the couple's "Hillsborough love nest."
• Will you buy your #Oracle software from Charles Phillips?
  The big question: Does someone’s personal life issues impact whether customers sign up for big enterprise software licenses?
• #Sybase says it continues to assert infringement of patents by #Vertica Systems
  A court ruling that cleared Vertica of patent infringement is to be appealed by Sybase.
• #Sybase's CIO on Cloud Computing, Mobility
  So we haven’t been hit by this downturn in the same way as other companies. We’re all thankful for that and have continued to work toward making it happen. We can’t rest. It’s a renewed effort. We have to think about how to posture ourselves to grow to that $2B mark and beyond—what kinds of information systems and technologies are people going to need, and how can we work with the business to improve their processes and advise them on the right technologies to improve their margins by doing things more efficiently and improve the top line to help bring more business into the company.
• The Grill: John Chen
  The #Sybase chief says he's excited to capture what he predicts will be double-digit growth in data-intensive mobile applications...Two new features -- geolocation and near-field communications -- will generate limitless new data-intensive apps that know where you are, who you are, why you are there. We're very excited. Even if the markets stay bad, we think growth is still going to be in the 10% to 20% range. In a good market, that will be even higher, because in the enterprise alone, adoption will be doubling.
• #Sun-#Oracle Deal Could Shake Up Tech
  The greater strategic value for Oracle, though, comes in Sun's Java, Solaris and MySQL software technology. MySQL, which competes with Microsoft's SQL and IBM's DB2, is one of Sun's brightest rays and was the major bone of contention in the Oracle-Sun deal. Regulators initially voiced concern over Oracle's willingness to maintain MySQL's open-source credentials.
• International Business Machines Corp. Q4 2009 Earnings Call Transcript
  Last week we announced that for the 17th consecutive year we were number one in U.S. patents with over 4,900 in 2009. That is more than the total of Microsoft, HP, Oracle, Apple, Accenture and Google combined and consistent with our shift in business mix, about 70% of our patent portfolio is for software and services. We have complemented our organic investments with acquisitions and one of our primary investment areas is business analytics which provides a solid platform for our Smarter Planet initiatives.