Enterprise headlines and excerpts, 2011-03-15

Enterprise news and headlines, first half of March 2011


iPad 2. SAP BI 4. Lawson is up for sale. Larry gets richer. HP launches a new strategy.

• Potential #Lawson acquisition – How it could affect you
  Software companies come and go but software products last forever
• Chuck Phillips and #Infor Offer $1.84 Billion for #Lawson; Contest Expected
  Larry Ellison watchers assume that because Infor is suddenly interested in Lawson that Oracle's CEO may be tempted to up the ante. And Phillips, they say, probably wants Lawson even more than he otherwise might because he knows Larry might want it.
  
  Larry of course has a ton of cash, Lawson will be accretive anyway, buying it will add to Oracle's competitive mass against SAP, and Larry probably wouldn't mind paying a "spite premium" to leave Chuck standing at the altar.
• CIO analysis: Defining IT project 'success' and 'failure'
  # The organization’s strategies are executed according to plan.
  # The organization’s shareholders are satisfied.
  # The organization is financially successful.
  # Projects are completed on schedule and on budget.
  # Project customers are satisfied.
  # Project resources are allocated optimally.
  # Projects are aligned to the organization’s business strategy.
  # The organization works on the right projects.
• #Infor Extends $1.84B Unsolicited Offer For #Lawson
  Infor’s lack of a full HCM suite provides many opportunities for a cross-sell Lawson HCM and build on Infor’s Workbrain customer base. Infor’s Hansen public sector offering will deliver good cross-sell opportunities with Lawson’s Public Sector HCM and Financials offering. Healthcare will deliver overall incremental revenue growth.
• #HP considering sale of PC business: report
  In a statement made to Reuters, HP said its PC unit is absolutely not for sale.
  
  “Irresponsible reporting by Taiwan’s Commercial Times, suggesting that HP might sell its PC business, should be dismissed as market rumor and speculation,” the company said.
• #HP Probe of Hurd’s Departure Needs More Time, Lawyer Says
  Hurd, who argues the cases should be dismissed, declined to agree to the delay HP seeks because the company refuses to provide him with “information that he considers necessary to make an informed decision,” according to a filing submitted to the court today along with Levander’s letter.
• Another Advisory Report Urges #HP Shareholders to Vote Against Director Babbio
  While ISS advised shareholders to vote against the re-election of three directors Lawrence Babbio, Sari Baldauf, and Ken Thompson, a second report, this one from Glass Lewis, advised a vote against only one director: Babbio, the former vice chairman and president of Verizon, and currently an advisor to the private equity firm Warburg Pincus.
• #HP CEO Apotheker Outlines Strategy
  H-P will build an online "cloud" where consumers and businesses can store information and find programs, and added that the company plans an online application store. H-P also said that it would increase its dividend 50% to 12 cents a share, and that the company expects to boost its dividend regularly in the future.
  
  "I'm very excited about the future of H-P and our role in a connected world," Mr. Apotheker said, calling his plan "bold" but evolutionary.
• New #HP CEO Apotheker lays out vision ( #BigData)
  A new area of emphasis for HP will be "big data." The acquisition of Vertica, which is set to close soon, is a good indicator of where HP is headed, Apotheker said. The company will introduce an HP-branded analytics appliance "very, very quickly" to help its enterprise customers with real-time analytics of business intelligence, like tracking components, supplies, Web browsing data, and more. HP says it will help customers get information faster to in turn help make strategic decisions more quickly.
• Now #HP Wants to Be the #Cloud Based Services Company
  Apotheker seems to be focusing on the creation of higher-value services that the company can offer large companies, small and mid-sized businesses, and consumers. This is “a unique opportunity to expand our share of wallet (and) margins,” he said. “We will align our sales force…focus our resources to capture fast-growth geographies.”
  
  While the goal is a compelling and timely vision, analysts may be disturbed that the costs of taking HP in this direction could be more costly than the additional profit margins can justify. Apotheker, the former head of SAP, indicated the company would be buying software companies specializing in products for cloud computing, for example.
  
  He did say he would be focused on operational efficiency, critical for the strategy to succeed. He also raised the dividend 50%, to 12.5 cents a share, encouraging investors to hang around a while and see how well this works.
• #TROLL Harwood Feffer LLP Announces Investigation of #Lawson Software
  [Key false claim: definitive agreement -DBM]
• #HP Summit - live updates and multimedia from San Francisco
  Leo's 39 minute keynote speech, including his slide presentation and some still photography, is below.
• Connectivity is no longer a tool but a global way of life
  At #HP, we are proud to be the foundation of that heritage, and we envision a future of seamless, secure, context-aware experiences that deliver the connected world to more of the world's people -- everybody on.
• #HP Links With Startups #Hara, #C3 for Energy Software
  HP launched a whole bunch of energy, carbon, and resource management and consulting products on Thursday morning dubbed “HP Energy and Sustainability Management (ESM)” services. Indicating the progress of a couple of startups already in the resource management space, HP said it would be working with both Hara and C3 for its software tools.
• #HP launches Energy Services as an alternative to #IBM Smarter Planet, partners with #Hara and #C3
  HP signed up two top companies to work with - Hara and C3.
  
  Open approach to partnering
  
  To enhance the overall solution and customer experience, HP also announced an ESM partner network in which HP, along with organizations that complement HP’s services, will evaluate a client’s environmental impact and develop best practices for improving resource utilization.
• #HP Teams With #C3, #Hara for Energy Consulting
  Allardyce did not provide any clues on how interested customers might be able to get in touch with C3.
• #HP: Trust us with your green IT, sustainability strategy
  # HP Energy and Sustainability Discovery Workshop, where goals and strategies are set
  # HP Energy and Sustainability Roadmap Service, which sets out short-term action plans
  # HP Energy and Sustainability Baselining Service, which provides a starting point for reductions and adjustments
  # HP Energy and Carbon Reporting Service, a comprehensive inventory of footprints (from carbon to water)
  # HP Buildings Energy Efficiency Analysis Service, a focus on electromechanical inefficiencies that might make facilities less green than possible
  # HP Buildings Water Usage Analysis, focused information on water consumption habits
  # HP Critical Facility Sustainability Tradeoff Analysis, an analysis of the impact that certain data center design approaches might have
  # HP Critical Facilities Energy Certification Service, a service for helping achieve certifications such as LEED or the EPA’s Energy Star for Data Centers
  # HP Resource Usage Monitoring Service, monitoring of real-time water and energy usa
• David Ellison, son of #Oracle co-founder, sees future in movies
  The first film that Ellison gambled on under his new co-financing arrangement with Paramount Pictures was “True Grit,” a surprise box-office smash that racked up 10 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.
  
  Now the son of billionaire Larry Ellison, co-founder of software giant Oracle Corp and owner of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, has to show a skeptical movie industry that he's not just a trust fund kid dabbling in Tinseltown.
• Larry Ellison opens his wallet for Indian Wells event
  Soon after taking over the tournament, one of Ellison's first moves immediately excited tennis fans.
  
  Wanting to see the best players from different eras compete against each other, Ellison formed a fundraising exhibition "Hit for Haiti" that featured legendary players Pete Sampras and Roger Federer taking on Andre Agassi and Rafael Nadal in a doubles match.
  
  Hit for Haiti, which also had a women's event with Lindsay Davenport, Justine Henin, Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graf, raised $1 million for relief efforts after the devastating earthquake in Haiti.
• #Oracle founder Larry Ellison is serious about tennis
  The Oracle founder is the fifth-wealthiest man in the world, and he was willing to spend about $100 million of that fortune to buy the BNP Paribas Open, securing the future of the Indian Wells event. At 66, he's also a serious player.
• New #HP CEO aims to remake company's soul
  Apotheker is reversing Hurd's emphasis on cost-cutting in a bid to improve product quality and spur homegrown technology, and he's touring H-P's offices to find ways to get products to market more quickly.
  
  "H-P has lost its soul," he said in an interview at Hewlett-Packard's headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif., offering a glimpse of the vision he will outline in greater detail at an event today in San Francisco. "The first thing I wanted to do when I joined H-P was listen to the people. The rank and file usually know about all the shortcomings."
• #HP chief faces Wall St scrutiny
  In his first meeting with Wall Street professionals, Mr Apotheker is set to present an overall vision that calls for HP to keep its major position in computing hardware and add more profitable software to the mix while tying both to profitable services.
• #HP, Apotheker prep master plan: Five top issues
  Here’s a look at the top five hot topics Apotheker will have to address Monday.
• #HP 's New Vision
  Non-executive Chairman Ray Lane, ex-president of Oracle, a rival of HP, confirmed Apotheker's strategy recently. "Our software portfolio could grow," Lane told Barron's. "Leo will lay that out," he said.
• Liberating HANA – How River will democratize #SAP ’s In-Memory technology
  It is always been known that River isn’t the ideal platform for complicated applications that use Core business functionality. For Edge applications, however, River is perfect. The fact that developers will be able to exploit In-Memory technology just increases its attraction for such scenarios.
  With its ability to provide developers easy access to the In-Memory technology via its WYSIWYG User Interface and its ability to present the resulting data automatically via REST APIs, River opens up InMemory technology to a wide range of developers with varying levels of expertise; it is the resulting expansion of the potential developer community and possible innovative use cases that makes the combination of River + InMemory technology so exciting.
• #Lawson Software gets unsolicited cash offer from #Infor
  Lawson, founded in northeast Minneapolis in the 1970s, has been a so-so financial performer since it went public at about $16 per share nearly a decade ago. It has been through management changes and mergers, reorganizations and layoffs in recent years.
  
  Activist investor Carl Icahn, who often takes stakes in floundering, undervalued companies in hopes of a third-party buyout, has amassed an 11 percent stake in recent months. Icahn will have a say in the St. Paul company's future.
• #SAP, #IBM Team up on In-memory Analytics ( #BI #Sybase)
  The integration is enabled by SAP's Sybase Replication Server, which SAP gained through the acquisition of that company last year. DB2 is now "HANA-ready and can efficiently replicate data into SAP HANA in near real time," according to a statement.
  
  So far, SAP has made no similar announcement regarding Oracle's database, which is a mainstay in many of its customers' ERP (enterprise resource planning) environments.
• Tech rich list winners revealed ( #Oracle #Microsoft #SAP)
  #Oracle founder Ellison had a stellar year as his fortune surged from $28bn to $39.5bn year on year on the back of Oracle's soaring share price. He rose from sixth to fifth place in Forbes' standings.
• #Oracle accused of stifling #HP TPC benchmark
  [Useless article. Don't read. Oracle's benchmark is 10x the TPM, so naturally the cost per TPM is higher. -DBM]
• Is #Oracle ending the honeymoon for #Sun users? ( #3PM)
  [I]f a business selects an independent hardware support provider for hardware maintenance of current Sun/Oracle hardware, Oracle will refuse to support any Sun/StorageTek hardware in the Enterprise. Oracle will also refuse to repair equipment on a "time and materials" basis.
  Oracle's 'all-or-nothing' demand
  "We are especially concerned at the 'all-or-nothing' policy they implemented in the spring of last year. Prior to that ISO's and Sun could both do service on clients, now it is all Oracle/Sun or they will not provide any support whatsoever."
  Betzner previously warned, "Oracle's new policies appear to be an attempt to monopolise the Sun hardware maintenance business. Oracle's strategy appears to force customers into a 'lose-lose' arrangement. Either a customer puts its entire installed base of Sun hardware under Oracle support (no exceptions) or Oracle will cut all ties to the end-user, including refusing access to firmware updates, time-and-materials support and security fixes for S
• #IBM targets #Oracle customers with free #bigdata training
  "As a result, we expect to see more companies move from Oracle to IBM software to capitalise on big data opportunities, and shift the economics from wasteful IT spending to growth investments," added Krishna.
• #IBM Launches Global Bootcamps to Help Companies Tackle #BigData Challenges
  Under the new initiative, IT professionals and students get hands on training to learn:
  
  * How to use InfoSphere, DB2, Informix, Optim and Guardium software to manage and integrate data flowing across and into their organization
  * "Big Data" management and analysis skills including data federation, integration and warehousing techniques using InfoSphere BigInsights, Streams, Warehouse and Information Server software
  * Advanced skills such as data management planning, data governance, quality and security strategies
  * Where to take advantage of free exams and testing to become certified on IBM Software in support of career advancement
• #Lawson Software, Inc. Confirms Receipt Of Unsolicited Proposal From #Infor And Golden Gate Capital
  Lawson Software, Inc. (Nasdaq:LWSN) today confirmed that it received an unsolicited, non-binding proposal from Infor and Golden Gate Capital to acquire all of the company's outstanding common stock at a price of $11.25 per share in cash. The parties are engaged in discussions regarding this proposal; however, there can be no assurance that any agreement will be reached.
• #Oracle's Catz Discusses U.S. Competitiveness Problems
  Catz and White discussed what they saw as burdens on U.S. economic and corporate growth, from national immigration rules to regulation and taxes on businesses. Catz criticized the cap on the number of college-educated foreign workers that companies including Oracle are permitted to hire each year.
  
  “As an immigrant myself, this drives me crazy,” said Catz, who was born in Israel. “The fact that it’s gotten so much harder for educated folks to stay here is really unfortunate because it means the jobs go [elsewhere] … and potentially the jobs [the immigrants] could have created.”
  One big obstacle to changing that limit, Catz said, is that it is “wrapped up in what’s called comprehensive immigration reform, [but] ‘comprehensive’ is Washington’s speak for not going to happen in your lifetime.”
• How #California can get there from here ( #Oracle)
  Catz and White made it clear that California needs to get over itself and realize the state is not only losing business to overseas markets but to its border states as well.
  
  Catz said 80 percent of our R&D is still in the U.S. and in California because the value Oracle places on the work force here.
  
  "But California had better keep its eye on the ball," she said. "California has competition from other states that are offering better energy rates and regulations."
  
  Catz said that's the reason Oracle just spent a $1 million to construct a new facility in Utah. Second on the list was Idaho. California hadn’t made the cut.
  
  White said, "Wake up, California. Arizona, Nevada, Texas are grabbing our business. The state needs to stop playing games. California just doesn't get it."
• #Oracle Releases New Version of Oracle GlassFish #OpenSource #Java Server
  Key Features of Oracle GlassFish Server 3.1
  Developer innovation and productivity improvements, which enable more rapid development and help to decrease costs and time-to-market.
  New features for OSGi Enterprise including support for JDBC and HTTP Service, as well as Apache Felix 3.0.8
  Improved developer productivity with a 29% faster startup/deploy/re-deploy cycle than GlassFish 3.0.1
  Sophisticated tools integration with NetBeans and Eclipse
  Increased compatibility with Oracle WebLogic Server 11g, improving application portability.
  High availability features allowing customers to experience far greater application uptime and faster application responsiveness.
  Failover and load balancing capabilities, as well as built in HTTP and Enterprise Java Bean (EJB) state management
  34% improvement in high availability performance over GlassFish 2.1.1
  Integration with SSH for remote node management
  High availability messaging with GlassFish MQ
  Centralized administration enables customers to moni
• #SAP Says Big Software Deals Are Back
  "Very large transactions have come back," Mr. Brandt said on Thursday. "That happened towards the end of 2010 and we see that continuing."
• #Salesforce.com Plans More Data Center Capacity
  Salesforce.com currently operates seven data centers around the U.S. and Asia spanning about 76,000 square feet of space, with two data centers apiece in Chicago and northern Virginia, along with facilities in San Francisco, San Jose and Singapore. The company is preparing to open a new data center in Japan, and expects to open a facility in Europe next year.
  
  That’s part of an expansion which will see the company add about 100,000 square feet of colocation space next year, Guerrera said. “We have buildouts planned in colo facilities around the world,” he said.
  
  Salesforce.com’s focus on efficiency is reflected in its ability to support 93,000 customers generating $1.8 billion in revenue using just 3,000 servers in a colocation footprint that, while distributed, is the equivalent of about one medium-sized data center facility.
• #Lawson Software hires adviser to explore deal
  Barclays hired to review options -sources
  
  * Buyers contacted; early-stage talks -sources
  
  * Shares surge 13 pct
• #SAP planning in-memory applications that could threaten #Oracle and #IBM
  SAP will be transferring legacy applications to in-memory formats at the same time.
• #Microsoft Kinect Named Fastest Selling Consumer Device Ever
  Guinness World Records, the global authority on record breaking, confirmed Wednesday that the Kinect for the Xbox 360 is the fastest-selling consumer electronics device. The hardware, has sold through an average of 133.3 thousand units per day, for a total of 8 million units in its first 60 days on sale from 4 November 2010 to 3 January 2011.
• #HP Under Fire for CEO's Role in Selecting Directors
  The new board members were identified by an ad hoc committee which included Mr. Apotheker and H-P Chairman Ray Lane. H-P told ISS that the committee played a role "akin to that of a search firm," and stressed that the candidates identified by the panel were vetted by H-P's nominating and governance committee and approved by the company's full board, the ISS report states. "However, the fact remains that the new CEO was involved from the earliest stages of the process."
  
  ISS notes that the nominating and governance committee's charter says that it is responsible for identifying new board members and that each member has to be independent. The direct participation of Mr. Apotheker "raises red flags," the group's report says. "A CEO's participation in the appointment of directors, especially if the director has a significant relationship with the CEO, can make it difficult for such directors to be objective."
• #Google, #Salesforce.com, Sequoia join $32M round for software maker #HubSpot
  HubSpot, said in a news release that his company's platform helps businesses develop "inbound marketing" sales through channels such as Google, social media and blogs rather than cold calling, e-mail or direct mail.
• Insights On SaaS From The $32 million #HubSpot Mega-VC Round
  In our case (and in the case of many SaaS companies), we’re investing in growing revenue (not a proxy for revenue). Like Salesforce.com did in its early years, we understand the economics of our business. We understand how much it costs to acquire a customer, and the lifetime value of that customer. And, for us, Lifetime Value >> Customer Acquisition Cost. So, we don’t think it’s like the dot-com bubble at all. We’re investing capital into building a real business. At HubSpot, we not only have gross margins (gasp!) but they’re trending upwards month after month.
• #NetSuite Sweetens Offers To Recruit Channel Partners
  The new NetSuite SuiteStart Service includes waivers of first-year $5,000 program enrollment fees, a free license for partners to use NetSuite ERP and CRM applications to run their own business, and more marketing resources such as marketing plan templates and sales leads.
  
  The goal of the partner program enhancements is to help new partners get up-to-speed more quickly, especially those new to cloud computing, and do so without big up-front expenses. "We are knocking down some of the fiscal barriers," said Craig West, NetSuite vice president of channel sales, in an interview. "We're investing around [partner] enablement."
• Customer Sues #Infor After #ERP License Audit
  "Based on the e-mails received from Infor, together with its litigious history, BMP has formed the reasonable apprehension and belief that Infor will institute breach of contract and copyright infringement litigation against BMP," the complaint states.
• Let's Talk Payroll ... Payroll?!?
  Payroll gets no respect, unfortunately, except when it breaks. Now the two largest companies providing it as an outsourced service -- ADP and Ceridian -- are undertaking similar radical restructurings of all their HR products and how they sell them. While facing beefed-up competition, as always.
• #Oracle Bad for #OpenSource, Survey Says
  According to the results of a survey released by EnterpriseDB last week, Java developers would rather see Larry Ellison in a dunk tank than Bill Gates, the former Microsoft CEO who crusaded against Linux. The company behind the open source PostgreSQL database also detected some bad karma emanating from Oracle's handling of MySQL, which is something that IBM i professionals can relate to.
• What Ellison Told Obama At Dinner About Steve Jobs ( #Apple #Oracle)
  “Everyone here (in this room) is replaceable except this guy“, and pointed to Steve Jobs. Apparently, the statement came out of nowhere, but that is typical Ellison – he is not afraid to say what’s on his mind – if you have ever attended Oracle World then you know what I am talking about. Apparently, after that there was silence and everyone went about eating their meals. Until the words “dessert anyone” was uttered.
• #IBM fires back at #Oracle in #middleware fray
  IBM is returning fire to Oracle in an increasingly heated battle over who has the faster stack of middleware...In addition, IBM has launched a new website that lays into Oracle on a number of fronts. "Are you overpaying for Oracle Database? Hint. You're overpaying for Oracle Database," one barb reads.
• #RedHat: 'Yes, we undercut #Oracle with hidden #Linux patches' ( #OpenSource #3PM)
  "We made the change, quite honestly, because we are absolutely making a set of steps that make it more difficult for competitors that wish to provide support services on top of Red Hat Enterprise Linux," Red Hat chief technology officer Brian Stevens tells The Register, before naming those competitors. "Today, there are two competitors that I'm aware of that go to our customers directly, offering to support RHEL directly for them...Oracle and Novell."
• #RedHat Defends #Linux Kernel Code Obfuscation
  Red Hat is releasing the source code for the kernel in one big tarball file, with all of the patches applied already. Functionally, this makes no difference for RHEL users, since the kernel is optimized for, well, RHEL. But for downstream vendors it has now become much harder to discern the exact changes Red Hat has made to its kernel and therefore make changes optimized for the downstream distribution.
• #IBM - Get the facts: Overview
  The facts that really matter
  
  * Analytics
  
  Netezza. Up and running in 24 hours, not 24 days.
  *
  
  * Transactions
  
  Are you overpaying for Oracle Database? Hint. You’re overpaying for Oracle Database.
  *
  
  * App servers
  
  Get 71% greater performance than Oracle WebLogic (and only pay for cores you use).
• #IBM - Get the facts: Transactions
  IBM DB2 is as low as 1/3 of the cost of Oracle Database
  
  The first thing to consider when thinking about IBM DB2 for your business: it is as low as 1/3 the cost of Oracle Database. Then consider that DB2 on IBM Power Systems offers 3x the performance per CPU core than Oracle Database on SPARC, in TPC-C and SAP SD benchmarks. This means that you need less CPU cores and less expensive hardware to run your database software.
  
  There are even more reasons to pick DB2 over Oracle Database, including:
  
  * Easier administration
  * Greater scale-out efficiency
  * Increased flexibility
  * Superior system reliability
• #IBM - Get the facts: App servers
  The IBM WebSphere Application Server on Power Systems simply outperforms Oracle WebLogic Server on SPARC Systems — providing up to 71% greater performance per core 1. And speaking of cores, IBM doesn’t charge you for cores you aren’t using, while Oracle does. By choosing a WebSphere Application Server, you can save 57% on first-year licensing and support costs 1.
• #Apple ’s longest serving employee: It’s not Steve Jobs
  Officially employee number 8, Chris Espinosa joined Apple at the age of fourteen in 1976. At the time, the company, although not properly founded, was operating from Jobs’ parents’ garage.
• #Salesforce.com and #SAP: Corralling the Social #Cloud for Business Purposes
  The new monitoring capabilities are actually enabled by a third-party company, called Radian6, which is now selling its solution on Salesforce.com’s AppExchange as well. By coincidence, people I know at SAP also use Radian6 to track Facebook and Twitter data feeds. So, don’t be surprised to see Radian6 acquired quickly by one of the two companies if Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT) or another suitor doesn’t swoop in sooner.
• YouTube - Welcome to #Salesforce.com #Cloudforce 2011 New York
  Marc Benioff, Chairman and CEO of salesforce.com, welcomes you to Cloudforce 2011 New York
• Computer History: The First 2,000 Years
  The Computer History Museum's new 25,000 square-foot exhibit entitled "Computer History: The First 2,000 Years" includes media and artifact-rich galleries with an in-depth focus on more than 20 major areas of computer history. Here are some highlights.
• #Teradata to Acquire #AsterData ( #BigData #MapReduce)
  Teradata acquired an 11 percent ownership interest in Aster Data in September 2010, and has agreed to pay an additional $263 million for the remaining ownership interest, net of debt and other expenses. In addition, through this acquisition, Teradata will obtain approximately $21 million of cash which Aster Data is expected to have on its balance sheet at closing.
• #ITfail Brightpoint Files Suit Against #Emptoris: When Spend Analysis Does Not Go As Planned
  Brightpoint alleges that the suit "arises from the fraud, misrepresentations, breaches of contracts, breaches of warranty and negligence committed by Emptoris pertaining to their purchase of "a Spend Analysis Professional Module, e-Sourcing Enterprise Module, Contract Management Professional Module, and Supplier Performance Enterprise Module."
• The #SAP BI 4.0 Launch in Review – More than Happy Talk?
  SAP seemed to be under the impression that this was the biggest event in the history of business intelligence, and that was not the case. But to be fair, BI 4.0 is unquestionably the biggest BI release in the history of SAP, three development years in the making. Key features include:
  
  * a new semantic layer, including multi-source “Universe” creation.
  * consistent UI experience across the BusinessObjects products.
  * better integration with SAP NetWeaver components.
  * improved backend SAP access via BICS for SAP ERP customer (though standardizing on BICS has some complications for those competitors stuck with using MDX for SAP integration, as Bluefin’s John Appleby points out).
  * 64 bit and virtualization support, including AWS deployment and other features ideal for SME “Edge” customers.
  * enhanced BI monitoring capabilities within Solution Manager.
  * a host of new Business Analytics apps, including six released in conjunction with the event
  * new funct
• #SAP takes another shot at #CRM on-demand
  It’s really designed for the sale user not management.
• #Apple iPad Growth Also Driven by Business Apps ( #SAP #Oracle)
  [M]any apps are being developed by business software makers like SAP and Oracle to help executives access real-time measures such as inventory levels or demand. Software vendors make these apps free of charge to increase usage among existing customers and as a selling point to potential future customers.
• Does #Apple 's iPad 2 further dent #Microsoft 's iPad compete plans?
  So I expect Microsoft to continue to try to make a silk purse from a sow’s ear, and to emphasize iPads’ lack of security/manageability functionality, their lack of USB support, and missing Flash/Silverlight support when trying to dissuade customers from going with Apple’s “Post-PC Era” platform.
• #Apple iPhone and iPad first choice for workers ( #Google #Android #Blackberry)
  After Apple's iPad and iPhone, Nokia Symbian smartphones were the next most popular choice - for 17 per cent of mobile workers. Smartphones using Google Android and RIM's BlackBerry smartphones were each chosen by eight per cent of the surveyed mobile workers.
• Steve Jobs Introduces #Apple ’s iPad 2. Damn the Competitors, Full Enterprise Ahead
  As Jobs went through the numbers, his emphasis on the corporate market was almost palpable. His presentation was peppered with with references to enterprise apps and how the iPad is changing both medicine (an important vertical market Apple has tried to woo) and the enterprise.

Enterprise headlines and excerpts, 2011-02

Enterprise news and headlines, February 2011

SAP and Oracle still haven't settled the TomorrowNow lawsuit, SAP introduces ByDesign 2.6 including SDK, Gideon Gartner explains the development of the Gartner research process, Obama visits Silicon Valley, Nokia abandons its Symbian platform for Windows Phone, IT jobs recovery begins, OpenOffice gets forked, more evidence that Google Android contains unauthorized Oracle IP, another strong year for Salesforce.com, SAP introduces another attempt at CRM (and other applications) On Demand. I hope you had a great Valentine's Day!

• #Oracle #Java EE 7 work focusing on the #cloud
  "[Version 7] will be the basis for how to make Java EE relevant for the cloud," said Oracle's Ajay Patel, vice president of product management, in a webcast last week.
• #SAP Previews Next Wave of On-Demand Solutions at CeBIT
  The planned line-up of new line-of-business on-demand solutions includes SAP Sales OnDemand and SAP Sourcing OnDemand.
  
  * SAP Sales OnDemand is designed for sales professionals, offering them easy and effective ways to collaborate with teams on opportunities, manage customer information in a smarter way and communicate effectively with people in their networks. It aims to help them access relevant and real-time knowledge and resources, and gain accurate insight into sales performance. SAP Sales OnDemand is planned for general availability during the second quarter of 2011.This solution will be the first in a new category of “people-centric” solutions from SAP and also the first to be built on SAP Business ByDesign.
  * The existing on-demand solution SAP Sourcing OnDemand helps customers quickly gain business value in the areas of strategic sourcing, contract lifecycle management and supplier management. It helps users gain real-time visibility and greater control across the enti
• Buffett Has An Elephant Gun But #Oracle ’s Ellison Has A Howitzer For Acquisitions ( #Salesforce.com)
  Oracle has a roughly $25 billion cash balance on its balance sheet, including cash, cash equivalents and short-term marketable securities. Oracle also has a significant amount of debt (around $17 billion) on its balance sheet, which means its net cash position is around $8 billion. However, if Oracle can make use of the cash balance to make acquisitions instead of paying off debt, it could open up a lot of strategic opportunities.
  
  Could Salesforce.com be One Such Opportunity for Oracle?
  
  Salesforce.com’s market cap is around $19 billion, and Oracle could utilize its large cash balance towards a possible acquisition attempt. Salesforce.com is a cloud computing player that specializes in providing client relationship management as well as other applications. The cloud computing space is an area expected to generate substantial growth over the coming years. Oracle is not currently a major player in the cloud computing market and hence Salesforce.com could provide it with ample growth opp
• #SAP Not in Merger Talks, CEO Says
  "We're not having any talks with anyone," SAP co-chief executive Jim Hagemann Snabe said in an interview. He added that the more than 30% increase in SAP's share price over the past year, which added €20 billion ($27.5 billion) to its market value, makes the company a less attractive target.
• Flashback: #SAP launches long-awaited on-demand #CRM (from 5 years ago)
  SAP is a late entrant into a crowded market, and its approach is guarded. SAP executives steadfastly refused to offer forecasts or goals for how many customers they expect to attract to their on-demand offering -- a marked contrast to the tone Siebel took with its own on-demand launch. Siebel aggressively predicted it would vault to the lead among on-demand providers; instead, its user base remains a fraction of Salesforce.com's.
• #SAP enterprise-class hosted #CRM targets #Salesforce.com
  The vendor says its mobility tie-ins and SAP back-end support will make Sales OnDemand CRM a formidable competitor. SAP’s president for North America explains how big data and little data will help SAP become a 20 billion Euro company
• #SAP unveils Sales OnDemand social #CRM tool
  An iPad version of the platform, which was briefly demonstrated earlier today, is also in development, and SAP suggested that sales staff might each have an iPad to carry out their daily duties.
• BLOWN OPPORTUNITY: #Microsoft Gives Up On Sidekick
  Now, it's shutting down the service for good on May 31. T-Mobile will give customers several options for transferring data stored in the service.
• #Google still working to restore Gmail service
  Two days after tens of thousands of Google Gmail users discovered that their e-mail, chat histories and contacts had disappeared from their accounts, the problem still is not fixed.
• #Google Gmail back soon for everyone
  To protect your information from these unusual bugs, we also back it up to tape. Since the tapes are offline, they’re protected from such software bugs. But restoring data from them also takes longer than transferring your requests to another data center, which is why it’s taken us hours to get the email back instead of milliseconds.
  
  So what caused this problem? We released a storage software update that introduced the unexpected bug, which caused 0.02% of Gmail users to temporarily lose access to their email. When we discovered the problem, we immediately stopped the deployment of the new software and reverted to the old version.
• Many Eyes: Data Visualization with #IBM and #Cognos
  Many Eyes allows pure data in either text or table format to be uploaded and processed into multiple visualization formats.
  
  The Many Eyes IBM/Cognos system garners user input in either free-text or spreadsheet format, stores it on the server, and makes the data-set open to any user of Many Eyes. The tasks here are multiple: one major one is allowing free information access, another is visualization creation, a third is elicitation of user evaluation via comments and feedback, and yet another is gathering sources of free data for IBM's corporate use. Essentially, using Many Eyes is an exchange of data for access to the visualization service.
• #SAP CRM Sales On-demand Heads to Market
  Looks like the full complement of functionality, including the SDK, will await a future release of the product, probably in the 2012 timeframe. Meanwhile SAP will be pushing Sales OD as a “standalone” on-demand product in its initial versions, coming this year.
• IT and Productivity ( #BI)
  As businesses learn to use IT and analytics to innovate and drive change—in processes, product development, incentives, and just about everything else they do—a new era of sustained growth and higher living standards will follow.
• Moving off the lead #SAP analyst role
  Donald Feinberg will be taking over from me. He knows more about Database theory, DBMS and Data Warehousing than anyone I have ever met, and this is rather appropriate with SAP’s strategic plans for ICE, the in-memory computing engine, aka newDB, the juicy inside bit of HANA. He brings wealth of experience to the role. With Donald our SAP research agenda is in good hands.
  
  I’ll not move away from SAP entirely, as I still cover them as part of my ERP / HCM agenda. I’ll be working closely with Donald as he gets to know SAP’s inner workings. I’ll still take client inquiry on SAP, and I’ll be part of our SAP research community. However, I’ll now have more time to focus on other research interests such as social software in the enterprise, workforce analytics, data protection law, design/hybrid thinking, usability and pattern based strategy. There is a world beyond SAP and I need to broaden my focus.
• CIOs: Focus on #Mobility, #Cloud Computing, Security and Innovation
  2011 IT budgets are holding steady at 5-6% above the 2010 numbers, a range that is consistent with what had been reported by investment analysts at the end of 2010.
• #Oracle 's Next Version of #Java Headed to the #Cloud ( #OpenSource)
  The corporate edition is focusing on making improvements in Java's value in the worlds of cloud computing, RESTian web services, and similar pervasive web development technologies. Back in January, the first JSRs were released, highlighting Java Persistence and the Java API for RESTful Web Services, and just last week plans were discussed in an Oracle Webcast.
  
  Other areas of Java also moving forward include JavaFX 2.0, which will soon be in technology preview mode with a beta later in the year with a new graphics engine, improved coding abilities and simplified frameworks. A new JDK is also expected in 2012.
• #IBM reclaims server crown from #HP, #Oracle
  Oracle continues to bleed like a stuck pig in the server biz. Gartner believes that Oracle's server business declined by 16.2 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2010, to $805.6m, when everyone else was doing swimmingly. Oracle's box count fell by 40.8 per cent, to a mere 36,614 machines. No matter how big the pipeline might be for Exadata, Exalogic, and SuperCluster appliances, this pipeline is not resulting in a rebound in Oracle's server business.
  
  Oracle said it was going to walk away from unprofitable server deals, and presumably it is making money on the much-diminished Sun Fire and Sparc Enterprise M servers it does sell. The fourth calendar quarter of 2009 was the last one that Sun Microsystems did as a free-standing company, so it is not exactly a fair comparison. But the first quarter of 2011 sure will be, and Oracle had better show some growth this year or co-founder Larry Ellison will be taking questions about how Oracle has failed at the server business.
  
  Oh, wait. I forgot.
• #IBM reclaims server market share revenue crown in Q4, says Gartner
  #Oracle took the largest market share hit in the fourth quarter as the company focuses on higher end systems.
• #HP CEO acquires Atherton 6BD for $7M
  Also: http://bit.ly/ewxe90 http://bit.ly/f2yecU & http://bit.ly/fb5oQW
  Leo and Liliane Apotheker bought a six-bedroom, 8.5-bath at 72 Ralston Road in Atherton from Kevin and Susan Coyne for $7 million on Dec. 30.
• YouTube - Mico reflects on the #SAP BI4 Launch in NYC
  SAP Mentor, Mico Yuk recaps the BI4 Launch and the SAP Run Better Tour in New York City.
• The Truth Behind the #Salesforce.com Hype
  Would you pay 100 times earnings for a company growing earnings by 6% a year? Apparently, many will.
• YouTube - SchiffRadio.com Exclusive! -- Scott McNealy, former CEO of #Sun Microsystems (2/23/2011)
• The New #ERP Software Haves/Have Nots
  The ERP market has regained strength, but we're seeing a growing disparity between the big ERP players and the mid-tier players.
• Judge: Ex- #Microsoft GM can't work in his new #Salesforce.com job
  However, that doesn't necessarily prevent the executive, Matt Miszewski, from finding another job inside Salesforce that doesn't put him in competition with his former Microsoft role, said the judge, Kimberly Prochnau, after hearing arguments from lawyers for Miszewski and Microsoft. The judge agreed to extend a temporary restraining order against Miszewski pending a preliminary injunction.
  
  During the hearing, William Cronin, a lawyer for Miszewski, argued that the geographic scope of his client's new Salesforce.com job, inside the U.S., meant that he wasn't in competition with the previous international scope of his Microsoft job. Cronin also disputed the significance of Microsoft's contention that Miszewski is privy to confidential strategies as a result of his former employment there.
• Government cancels £160 million #ERP contract
  But another reason for the DCLG contract cancellation is likely to be the fact that GON was been marked for closure, in the 2010 Comprehensive Spending Review, at the end of March 2011. As at the end of 2009, the GON operated 11 offices in England and had around 3,000 IT users.
• #SAP Asks Court to Cut #Oracle Award
  SAP has asked that the court drop the award to $28 million, or no more than $408.7 million, or "order a new trial to determine damages based on lost profits and infringer's profits."
• #SAP Challenging $1.3B Jury Award in #Oracle Trial
  "A hypothetical license is available only if a plaintiff proves that, but for the infringement, the parties would have agreed to such a license or that it would have licensed a third party for the same use and was prevented from doing so by the infringement," SAP's motion states.
  
  Oracle and SAP are "fierce competitors" in enterprise applications," it adds. "The trial evidence conclusively demonstrated that Oracle never would have obtained license fees absent Defendants' infringement -- not under any condition, not in any amount, and not from any party."
  
  The jury's award was "grossly excessive," "shocks the conscience," clashes with copyright law and led to a "miscarriage of justice," the motion states.
  
  Using a "reality-based" approach, an expert SAP hired determined that Oracle's damages should be about $28 million. Oracle's own expert placed damages at $408.7 million."In no event" should Oracle be awarded anything higher than that figure, SAP argued.
• #HP 's WebOS Strategy: Don't Make Me Laugh
  [Harsh,over the top,poorly analyzed,ad hominem-DBM]
  Hewlett-Packard has too few developers, a me-too mobile OS, and a bozo CEO. Apple and Google have nothing to worry about.
• Why IT just doesn't compute ( #ITfail)
  This year the UK will waste £10 billion or more on IT projects that go over time, over budget and just plain wrong. Half of the total will be public money. Much of the waste is avoidable, the result not of technical problems but of dismal management and shoddy methods that, like a computer virus, endlessly replicate the mistakes of the past.
• Box.net Gets 48 million more to build enterprise platform
  Box have previously received 14.6 million in funding, having started out as a freemium model cloud content management service primarily serving small to medium sized businesses and as a departmental solution in larger companies. The huge new cash infusion is intended to help Box become a cloud platform player. Speaking to Jason Green of investors Emergence Capital Partners earlier this week, who have also funded Salesforce, Successfactors and Yammer (Green is also on the board at Yammer) it is clear there are new enterprise class cloud alignments being heavily supported this year.
• #Microsoft and the #Cloud: 5 Ways the Company Helps App Developers
  Microsoft is making it easier for developers to start building applications for the cloud by providing a host of new programs and promotions that enable programmers to tap into the power of Microsoft’s Windows Azure cloud platform. As part of its strategy, Microsoft is offering developers a new free trial of the Windows Azure platform, which is valid till June 30. This promotion, available as of Feb. 22, includes 750 hours of Windows Azure Extra Small Compute instance use, 25 hours of Small Compute instance, 500MB of storage, 10,000 storage transactions per month, 100,000 access-control transactions and two service bus connections. Microsoft also is providing users with a 1GB Web Edition of the SQL Azure Database (free for first 90 days), as well as free data transfers—500MB in and 500MB out per month, said Prashant Ketkar, director of product marketing for Windows Azure. Windows Azure compute instances come in five sizes to enable complex applications and workloads: extra-small, small
• #EMC CMO Jeremy Burton Talks Data, Racing, and #Oracle 's Larry Ellison
  I'd never been in a marketing role before and didn't really have any training. I spent a lot of time with Larry, and he was the master of making technology sound simple.
• #Salesforce.com Rallies On Better-Than-Expected FY Q4 Profits
  Salesforce.com (CRM) shares are trading higher in the after hours session on better-than-expected results for its fiscal fourth quarter ended January 31.
• #Salesforce.com net falls, sales rise 29%
  Salesforce.com /quotes/comstock/13*!crm/quotes/nls/crm (CRM 144.35, +10.03, +7.47%) said its fiscal fourth-quarter net income fell to $10.9 million, or 8 cents a share, from $20.4 million, or 16 cents a share, in the same period a year earlier. Revenue for the period ended Jan. 31 rose 29% to $456.9 million, the company said. Excluding one-time items, Salesforce.com said earnings for the quarter were 31 cents a share.
• #Salesforce.com: Strong fourth quarter, light earnings outlook, $2 billion revenue mark in sight
  The gap between non-GAAP and GAAP earnings are largely due to acquisition accounting.
• #Salesforce.com Announces Fiscal Fourth Quarter and Full Year Results
  First Enterprise Cloud Computing Company to Exceed $1.8 Billion Annual Revenue Run Rate
  
  * Raises FY12 Revenue Guidance to $2.03 – $2.05 Billion
  * Record Quarterly Revenue of $457 Million, up 29% Year-Over-Year
  * Record Full Year Revenue of $1.657 Billion, up 27% Year-Over-Year
  * Q4 Operating Cash Flow of $166 Million, up 81% Year-Over-Year
  * Full Year Operating Cash Flow of $459 Million, up 69% Year-Over-Year
  * Deferred Revenue of $935 million, up 33% Year-Over-Year
  * 5,100 Net New Customers in the Quarter
  * Total Customers at 92,300 up 27% Year-Over-Year
• #SAP Unveils Future of Analytics: Real-Time, Mobile, Social
  Key elements of the 4.0 releases include the following software:
  
  * SAP® BusinessObjects™ Data Services software, which helps consolidate any data source, assess the quality, profile and enhance it, then integrate the improved data into any BI or application environment. It is also optimized for operational data integration scenarios like data-migration, data-synchronization and data-hubs
  * SAP® BusinessObjects™ Information Steward, new software that gives end users the power to analyze, monitor and rate their data sources for completeness, accuracy and consistency, and to share key performance indicator (KPI) scorecards
  * SAP® BusinessObjects™ Event Insight, new software that helps people understand the impact of business events – for example financial market fluctuations and network traffic patterns – as they happen throughout an entire business network, putting complex scenarios and large data volumes into actionable context with historical trends to predict future outco
• #SAP Enters Complex-event Processing Market
  SAP is set to challenge Oracle, IBM and Microsoft in the small but growing market for CEP (complex event processing) software with a product called Event Insight, which it planned to announce Wednesday at an event in New York.
• #Oracle America v #Google ( #Java #Android)
  Google has not yet produced all of its source code—and
  none of its proprietary code. Nor has Google produced the requested change log for its source
  code repository.
• #Oracle: 'Eight #Google #Android files are decompiled Oracle [#Java] code'
  Oracle says that in the case, it has identified fifty-one Java API packages – about a third of Java's APIs – that contain numerous class files under Oracle copyright. All told, the company has pinpointed 14 Java copyrights infringed by Google, and it "expects" that case discovery will reveal more. "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," the letter reads. The emphasis is Oracle's.
  
  Google's efforts to get the claims dismissed, Oracle's letter continued, did not address "the demonstrable fact that at least eight Android source code files are actually decompiled Oracle object code". Oracle apparently presented one of these files in its amended complaint against Google, and Muller seemed to identify six others in much-discussed blog post last month.
• #Oracle alleges #Google derived code from specifications for hundreds of Oracle's copyrighted #Java files
  And even then it will be a long shot, considering that the judge sided with Oracle's position within hours of receiving it and that the decision comes across as a no-brainer.
• Larry's Long Reach ( #NetSuite)
  Nelson says this kind of overlap is rare, and that if both companies are in the same room "one of us doesn't belong." Yet he is ramping up his sales organization in the next few months to close bigger, cross-border deals--"the kind that Oracle and SAP go after."
• Pinning Down #Cloud Computing
  The world of information technology is stuffed with bewildering acronyms and new-fangled fads, but cloud computing is one technology phenomenon not to be dismissed.
• Steve Jobs Email Suggests #Apple In-App Subscriptions Don't Apply to #SaaS?
  We created subscriptions for publishing apps, not SaaS apps.
  
  Sent from my iPhone
• Coming soon: #SAP app store and rental software
  New on-demand solutions will also be available, such as E-Sourcing OnDemand or Travel OnDemand, which users will be able to connect to existing applications. Something else that has been under discussion for some time: the Business ByDesign application platform and an app store for business software from SAP, via which partners can offer the solutions that they have developed themselves. The mobile SDK should be ready for release in 2011, too.
  
  New mobile applications are also due for release during the course of the year, such as Sybase CEP, ASE and IQ. Goerke did not reveal what the new software can do, but he did announce that a prototype in the area of “cloud infrastructure mobility” will be available at the end of 2011.
  
  SAP HANA will continue to play an important role and will also be developed further. This technology, which should make business scenarios such as planning, forecasts, simulations and analyses possible, will play a role in areas such as smart metering and smart en
• Developing #SAP Business ByDesign #ByD for #Apple #iPhone in Just Two Months?!
  Our solution in Business ByDesign is quite unique. We do not touch our core business objects of our solution at all! We just create simplified screens (Floorplans) via our tool – UI Designer (Oberon). Those simplified screens have XML schemas which are interpreted by on device software (UI Player) which renders them with the "look and feel" of the specific device and can also leverage device-specific capabilities such as GPS, Camera etc. In other words – a Smartphone user gets a UI Player from the relevant Applications' Store, and then gets access to our application with his Smartphone's native "look and feel". When we (or our partners) introduce new screens, they work on the device "out of the box" – just like any other regular UI (that run on Web Browser or other Desktop Client).
• San Mateo’s #SuccessFactors, a #cloud -based software company, poised for growth with new management team ( #Salesforce.com)
  Since Dennerline came on, the company’s stock has steadily increased. The stock hit a new 52 week high of $37.69 this past Friday.
• #Microsoft Offering Developers Free Trial on Windows #Azure #Cloud
  Microsoft is offering developers a free trial of the Windows Azure platform, which is valid till June 30, 2011. This promotion, available as of Feb. 22, includes 750 hours of Windows Azure Extra Small Compute instance use, 25 hours of Small Compute instance, 500MB of storage, 10,000 storage transactions per month, 100,000 access control transactions and two service bus connections. Microsoft also is providing users with a 1GB Web Edition of the SQL Azure Database (free for the first 90-days), as well as free data transfers -- 500MB in and 500MB out per month, said Prashant Ketkar, director of product marketing for Windows Azure.
• #HTML5 and #JavaScript tools: What could (and should) #Microsoft do?
  Potentially on deck are new standalone tools and libraries for creating HTML5 client applications. There also could be additional support coming inside Visual Studio — beyond what’s slated for VS 2010 Service Pack 1 — for HTML5 and JavaScript. (The final version of SP1 is slated for some time in the first half of calendar 2011.) An aside: The Microsoft browser programability team at the company has, as part of its charter, the creation of “Visual Studio-caliber tools for HTML5 client development across IE and Windows.”
• #Cisco Names No. 2 Executive
  "But I suspect changing personnel isn't going to solve Cisco's problems."
• #HP Profit Jumps, Sales Are Mixed
  The technology giant saw revenue drops in its personal computers and technology services units, while sales rose in its printer, software and server divisions. The company said it saw uneven consumer demand for PCs.
• #Cloudera #Hadoop Beta 4 Now Available ( #OpenSource #BigData)
  Since this will be the last beta before we designate CDH3 stable, our focuses for this release have been on stability, security, and scalability.
  
  Stability and ease of use
  Since we released CDH3 Beta 3 in October, we’ve deployed the distribution for production use cases at a number of customers, and have also gotten considerable feedback from the open source user community. In beta 4, we’ve addressed a number of important bugs and also improved usability. For example, one piece of feedback that we heard consistently was that beta 3 was too finnicky about permissions — in beta 4 we’ve both improved the error messages when permissions are incorrect, and made the software automatically correct permissions errors where possible.
  
  Security
  CDH3 Beta 4 is our most secure release yet. We’ve worked over the past several months to identify and fix several vulnerabilities in Apache Hadoop, and those fixes are included in this new beta release. We encourage any users running in a secured environ
• #OpenSource LibreOffice Beats #Oracle OpenOffice.org Debut by a Whisker
  A number of features are unique to LibreOffice, and that itself is significant, considering that the project has only existed for about four months.
• #OpenSource LibreOffice Debuts, Beating #Oracle OpenOffice.org by a Whisker
  Thanks to the common code base, many extensions and templates designed for OpenOffice.org can be expected to work on LibreOffice without modification; some of these are even included in the distribution.
• Scott McNealy, in Conversation with Ed Zander
  A unique opportunity to hear Scott McNealy, co-founder and former chairman and CEO of Sun Microsystems, in a candid conversation with Ed Zander, former chairman and CEO of Motorola and past president of Sun, about the legacy of Sun, the changing industry, our connected world and more.
• #SAP’s new NetWeaver 7.3 has a nice energy efficiency story
  One of the main reasons for the improvements are SAP’s dropping of its two-stack approach in favour of a single Java stack for NetWeaver 7.3. This significantly reduces the amount of hardware which needs to be deployed and also because messages only need to be stored once, compared to 3-7 times previously, you get even more energy savings.
• David Ellison, son of #Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, is financing and producing movies
  The 28-year-old aerobatic pilot, who can roll a plane 420 degrees a second, is charting a new risky course: movie producer.
  
  The first film that Ellison gambled on under his new co-financing arrangement with Paramount Pictures was "True Grit," a surprise box-office smash that racked up 10 Oscar nominations, including best picture.
  
  Now the son of billionaire Larry Ellison, co-founder and chief executive of software giant Oracle Corp., has to show a skeptical movie industry that he's not just a trust fund kid dabbling in Tinseltown and that he can play an effective role in determining what movies come to the big screen over the next few years.
• #Oracle looks for love at #Java DevJam ( #OpenSource)
  For example, a draft of the OpenJDK governing board bylaws and its initial membership produced snorts of derision from the audience. This was partly because of its effective 80 per cent Oracle/IBM representation, and partly because of the absence of key community and competing commercial organisations, such as RedHat and Azul.
  
  No one claims that the bylaws are complete, nor that the membership is set in stone (the board could quickly vote to co-opt outside members) but this is one area that is likely to remain a touchstone, and it seems that Oracle intends to pay much more than lip-service to it, which is good.
  Ticklish TCK issues
  
  The issues around the TCK licences were also discussed pragmatically, and it is clear that this was, and will remain, a commercially sensitive area; it is one of the few fairly direct revenue pinchpoints for Java. As Sun demonstrated, being warm and cuddly is not enough to foster Java – commercial realities have to be be met too – but accommodating competit
  
• #Oracle Seeks to Bar U.S. From Giving States Whistleblower Data
  ‘Ripping Off States’
  
  “Oracle apparently is afraid that GSA or the Department of Justice may share information demonstrating that Oracle has been ripping off states too,” Frascella said in court documents.
• With Bing Toolbar, #Microsoft Does What #Google Won't
  Microsoft today released an upgrade to its Bing Bar for Internet Explorer. Among the Bing Bar's e-mail, weather, and maps features, the updated Bing Bar includes Facebook functionality, which allows users to quickly check their Facebook walls and pictures.
  
  The move stands in contrast to today's announcement from Google that it has upgraded its search functionality to including personalized results from users' own social networks in its search results. This includes results from sites like YouTube, Flickr, Quora, and Twitter. Notably absent in the list available networks is Facebook.
• Obama Takes Messages of Innovation, Jobs to Silicon Valley Leaders
  While Silicon Valley leaders disagree over jobs and federal subsidies, they agree on one thing: Beefing up federal support for education, especially in science and math, as the president mentioned in Oregon today, is necessary for the U.S. to keep the technological edge that Silicon Valley has helped build.
• My Increasing Love Affair With #Google Apps
  If anyone still doubts google’s intention in the enterprise, you shouldn’t. Count me impressed.
• Seating Chart for President Obama’s Silicon Valley Tech Titans Dinner ( #Oracle #Google)
  How do you prioritize Larry Ellison, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Eric Schmidt, Reed Hastings? Who gets to sit near the President? Who has to sit far away?
• Top 10 reasons to attend the #SAP BI and EIM 4.0 virtual launch on Feb. 23
  1. Keynote from best-selling author Geoffrey Moore
  2. Keynote from SAP executive Steve Lucas
  3. Insights from customers on Business Analytics from SAP
  4. Learn what's new in 4.0 – including the latest mobile analytics and in-memory technology
  5. Learn strategies to make more informed, trusted, and customer-focused decisions
  6. See how easy it is to access all information when you need it with one unified suite for business intelligence and enterprise information management
  7. Get connected to additional deep dive materials – and gain insight into SAP's roadmap for business analytics
  8. Watch a live demo, join customer discussions, and get 'deep dive' solution information from technology experts
  9. Ask product experts your specific questions in an online forum
  10. You can enter a video contest with a chance to win an iPad
  11. Bonus - if you miss the live webcast you can watch it on-demand anytime after Feb. 23! http://virtualevents.sap.com/business-analytics
• IT Jobs Recovery
  The hottest IT job skills, based on the number of open jobs on Dice.com, are SQL, Oracle, Java, Windows, Unix, and Linux. See the table below a more complete list.
• The Database Revolution
  Today they're indispensable. Sixty years ago they didn't even exist as an idea. How did we get here?
• IT Jobs Recovery
  The fastest growth...is in demand for iPad, HTML5, Amazon, Android, Twitter, and Facebook.
• Running a Billion-Dollar Business With a Tablet PC
  #SAP @SAPCIO on using tablets for business computing
• Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference 2011 ( #SAP)
  [Sanjay Poonen @spoonen speaking at Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference]
• #Google #Android Gingerbread & Honeycomb Will Combine to Form Ice Cream
  Chrome OS Will Also Merge with Android, Says Schmidt
  
  After responding that the two concurrent versions of Android would be merged in the next release, Schmidt also offhandedly mentioned that Chrome OS would eventually be merged with Android, too.
  
  In explaining the differences between Android and Chrome OS, Schmidt put it simply: "Chrome OS is unrelated to mobile phones. Chrome OS is for netbooks and PCs." However, said Schmidt, "over time, we're working on merging them."
• #Oracle Applications User Experience
  The Oracle Applications User Experience (UX) team focused on making Oracle enterprise users more productive and empowered by providing improved tools for the decision-making process. The team designed new user experience features in the EBS 12.1.3 framework so that all EBS applications would benefit from the change. These new features, such as the navigational improvements to the main menu, a Google-type search using type-ahead or auto-suggest, embedded analytics, and an in-context List of Values (LOV) tool, make any user’s job more efficient in EBS 12.1.3.
• #Google Legal Move Could Alter Course of #Oracle #Java Trial
  Google argued that if any protected Oracle works are present in Android, they adhere to fair use standards.
• #Oracle America, Inc. v #Google Inc.
  Finally, the portions of Android as to which Oracle alleges literal copying - i.e., the twelve files identified in Oracle's interrogatory answer - comprise in the aggregate less than one percent of Android and a similarly small percentage of the Works. Even if such files were identical to Oracle files (which they are not), their use is de minimis and is not actionable.
• #Google Takes #Oracle’s #Android Case to the Patent Office : Reexamination Alert
  Google might also request that the trial judge, Judge William H. Alsup, to stay the case pending completion of the reexamination proceedings, but such a stay might not be granted since Google and Oracle America are direct competitors and since reexamination could not resolve the copyright allegations.
• #Google #Android claims 'fair use' of #Java against #Oracle
  That said, Oracle's legal claims have done little if anything to scare users or vendors away from Android, so for now this is one battle that is all about the lawyers. It's not stopping Android (even though the threat is kinda/sorta there).
• Miszewski: Job at #Salesforce.com will be nothing like job at #Microsoft – at first
  It seems Salesforce plans to keep Miszewski out of a competing position until his non-compete dries up. It’s unclear, though, whether that was the plan all along.
• #HP chief to report on 1st full quarter as boss
  “H-P is finally getting back into the software business. H-P has a ‘mix’ problem in that far too much of its revenues come from low-margin products, so by getting into the enterprise data/analytics business, H-P is establishing a presence in a much higher margin/higher growth opportunity.”
• Here's The $7 Million Home For #HP's New CEO Leo Apotheker
  Click here to see Apotheker's new pad →
• Take A Tour Of #HP CEO Leo Apotheker's New $7 Million California Home
  It's a pretty nice house, but it's not particularly opulent. The house has a pool, game room, and a number of other amenities.
• #Nokia CEO Elop Says He Sold All #Microsoft Shares Yesterday
  He also predicted that prices of Windows Phone hardware would drop quickly, claiming that he received some concessions from Microsoft to help get hardware prices down.
• Defections from $1.6-billion computer system upgrading #ITfail project pose more headaches for Brown
  12-year effort to replace the state’s antiquated budget and accounting computer systems so they can better interact.
  [12 years?!? And we think these people can manage our health?!?-DBM]
• #Microsoft Releases Dynamics #CRM 2011 On-Premises Product
  Pricing for the premises-based product doesn't appear to be announced yet.
• 1100-person company goes bust: #ITfail or mismanagement?
  “They’ll say it was down to the IT system but it was badly mismanaged from the very top.”
• #HP’s Ambitious Cloud Computing Strategy: Can HP Emerge as a Power?
  HP’s strategy is to combine this Matrix system, which it has positioned as its private cloud, with a public compute cloud. In addition, HP is incorporating its lifecycle management software and its security acquisitions as part of its overall cloud strategy. It is leveraging the HP services (formerly EDS) to offer a hosted private cloud and traditional outsourcing as part of an overall plan. HP is hoping to leveraging its services expertise in running large enterprise packaged software
  
  There are three components to the HP cloud strategy:
  
  * CloudSystem
  * Cloud Services Automation
  * Cloud Consulting Services
• #Ross Systems Launches Ross in the #Cloud, an #ERP SaaS Solution Tailored for Process Manufacturing
  Ross in the Cloud, the software-as-a-service (SaaS) version of its popular Ross ERP suite of solutions that will help process manufacturing industries reduce their initial investment and minimize the costly burden of IT overhead and maintenance, while achieving low total cost of ownership.
  
  This new solution is delivered on demand and managed, monitored and maintained by Ross experts in hosted data centers. Available in a monthly subscription pricing model based on number of users, application configuration and service term, Ross in the Cloud offers a secured cloud environment for its manufacturing, distribution and financial applications. Ross in the Cloud gives many small to medium-size businesses (SMBs) access to ERP capabilities previously only available to larger enterprises. Ross in the Cloud includes applications addressing financials, inventory control, manufacturing, maintenance management, process planning, purchasing, sales order process, vendor management inventory and busi
• 2011 Salary Survey for #SAP Professionals – Now The Illustrated Version
  # Are Europeans earning more than Americans? (Hint: No)
  # Is there gender bias among SAP professionals?
  # Is there a correlation between education and pay level?
  # What are the top paying jobs?
  # What is the outlook for 2011?
• Some quick notes on #HP #Vertica
  # It would make sense for HP to acquire StreamBase too, and fold StreamBase into Vertica. Reasons include:
  
  * StreamBase and Vertica are aligned with each other. Both were founded by Mike Stonebraker, with overlapping groups of academic contributors. Both are in the Boston area. StreamBase and Vertica have worked together on various joint customer accounts, especially in the financial services sector.
  * Like other independent CEP vendors, StreamBase can’t or won’t accomplish much outside certain niches (mainly financial services).
  * StreamBase reports, rather credibly, that it’s doing well in its niches. While StreamBase’s success seems to include a heavy dose of professional services, that hardly would be a deal-breaker for HP.
  
  # It would make partial sense for HP to acquire VoltDB, and fold VoltDB into Vertica.
  
  * VoltDB was actually spun out of Vertica, and incubated in Vertica offices. A lot of thinking has already been done about how to integrate VoltDB and Vertic
• Mobilizing Enterprise Apps: The Next Big Leap
  Why now? Aided by the typical two-year turnover in mobile phone contracts, smartphones now account for nearly a third of mobile devices in the U.S. And Nielsen estimates that percentage will reach 50% by the end of this year.
• #Oracle #Database Firewall -- First Line of Defense for Databases -- Now Available
  Oracle Database Firewall establishes a defensive perimeter around databases, monitoring and enforcing normal application behavior in real-time, helping to prevent SQL injection attacks and unauthorized attempts to access sensitive information.
  # Using innovative SQL grammar analysis technology, Oracle Database Firewall examines SQL statements sent to the database and determines with high accuracy whether to pass, log, alert, block or substitute SQL statements based on pre-defined policies including:
  
  * White list policies that refer to the approved SQL statements the firewall will pass through as normal while the rest can be blocked;
  * Black list policies refer to the list of unauthorized SQL statements that are blocked specifically;
  * Exception policies offer the flexibility to override applicable security policies to support patching, custom batch jobs, and/or break-glass administrative controls; and,
  * Policies utilizing attributes such as time of day, IP address, ap
• Nokia Eyes Windows Phone Launch This Year - WSJ.com
  "We're feeling the heat to get one out in 2011," he said, adding there is work under way to reach that goal.
• #Microsoft Reportedly Paying Billions for #Nokia Deal
  Elop made some more interesting comments on Sunday, indicating that Microsoft had won a bidding war with Google for the deal, paying out an undisclosed amount, but in the billions
• #Microsoft 's IE9: Don't believe the hype
  Microsoft must be rattled by the steady decline in the market share of Internet Explorer. Worldwide it has gone from 68.5 per cent in July 2008 to 46 per cent today, according to StatCounter.
• #HP to Acquire #Vertica: Customers Can Analyze Massive Amounts of Big Data at Speed and Scale
  The acquisition of Vertica will enhance HP capabilities for information optimization, adding sophisticated, real-time business analytics for large and complex sets of data in physical, virtual and cloud environments. Vertica’s platform helps customers analyze massive amounts of data simply, quickly and reliably, resulting in “just-in-time” business intelligence.
  
  “In today’s highly competitive environment, customers need the ability to manage the increasing amounts of data and growing streams of information with more flexible, more dynamic architectures,” said Shane Robison, executive vice president and chief strategy and technology officer, HP. “Vertica’s unique platform combines simplicity with industry-leading performance, allowing HP to leap ahead of the industry in the race to analyze massive amounts of data.”
  
  “By combining Vertica’s offerings with HP’s brand and global reach, customers will benefit from the commitment, expertise and resources from the largest technology company
• #Microsoft accuses former employee of #cloud data theft ( #Salesforce.com)
  Miszewski produced 600MB data from his computer, comprising over 900 separate files running to a combined total of 25,000 pages, Microsoft said. Documents included playbooks and business plans for Microsofts 2011 cloud computing products and services and government group strategies.
• #Microsoft accuses former manager of stealing 600MB of confidential docs ( #Salesforce.com)
  "It defies reason to assume that Miszewski could perform his new role at Salesforce.com without using Microsoft's extensive confidential information, and Miszewski has already evidenced a clear disregard for both his non-compete obligation and the integrity of Microsoft's confidential materials," Microsoft's motion said.
• #Microsoft Corporation v. Matthew J. Miszewski ( #Salesforce.com)
  Among the documents on Miszewski's personal computer are multiple versions of the "Government Cloud Playbook" discussed above, Microsoft's strategic guide for competing in the government portion of the cloud computing market. Also on Miszewski's computer were "Complete Field Handbooks," for Microsoft competitors Oracle, IBM and Google.
• Former #Microsoft exec to head #Nokia US business
  Nokia named Chris Weber to head the U.S. and all other North American markets Friday, the same day the company announced a tie-up with Microsoft to challenge Apple and Google in the smart phone market.
• #Microsoft Is Terrified of a Man Named Matt Miszewski ( #Salesforce.com)
  Microsoft said it has a "well-grounded fear" that he's going to share the little secrets with Salesforce.com, and that they too will be able to develop a business with world-class lawyers and mediocre computer products.
• #Oracle Fortune Getting Behind Paul Thomas Anderson's Scientology Pic
  Megan Ellison, 25-year-old heiress to the Oracle billions made by her father Larry, is said to be backing up the money truck to Paul Thomas Anderson's home. Ellison wants to fund both his film inspired by Scientology, as well as his adaptation of Thomas Pynchon's "Inherent Vice," according to Vulture.
• #Microsoft and #Nokia team up to fight #Apple and #Android
  A #Google exec has tweeted that "Two Turkeys do not make an Eagle," a reference to Nokia and Microsoft. Elop tweeted back "Two bicycle makers from Dayton, Ohio, one day decided to fly."
• Twitter / @vicgundotra ( #Google #Android #Microsoft #Nokia)
  "Two turkeys do not make an Eagle".
• Twitter / @Stephen Elop ( #Google #Android #Microsoft #Nokia)
  Two bicycle makers, from Dayton Ohio, one day decided to fly
• What #Nokia 's Windows move means for #OpenSource ( #Microsoft)
  I asked, and as you might guess, they’re not happy.
• #IBM Simplifies Enterprise Software Development
  With new software support for the IBM zEnterprise System, IBM clients in financial services, government, telecommunications and any industry operating core business processes on a mainframe, can experience a truly integrated hardware and software delivery platform. This platform can now span the entire enterprise, supporting zEnterprise mainframe and select IBM Power7 and workload optimized systems, as well as the IBM Smart Analytics Optimizer, yielding a tightly configured, integrated data center environment. Later this year, IBM will deliver support for select System x servers. Applications created in Java, for example, can be deployed in an AIX environment without changing code or server specifications. Organizations no longer have to maintain duplicate environments for application development across various platforms, and now have the flexibility to move workloads around without having to worry about moving development teams and infrastructure.
• #SuccessFactors alleges covert scheme by competitor
  Using the fake company as cover, one or more Halogen workers "falsely represented they were a legitimate sales prospect wishing to purchase software services from SuccessFactors," it adds.
  
  An "intensive sales effort" by SuccessFactors, including a number of product demonstrations, ensued over several weeks in mid-2010, according to the complaint.
• #Amazon.com: #NetSuite For Dummies (9780470191071): Julie Kelly, Luke Braud, Malin Huffman: Books
  Price: $16.49 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25.
• #SuccessFactors 4Q loss widens on expenses
  Expenses rose 40 percent to $47.9 million, including a 38 percent jump in sales and marketing costs to $29.5 million. Research and development costs rose almost 89 percent to $12.2 million, and general and administrative costs jumped 71 percent to $11.1 million.
  
  The company expects to break even on an adjusted basis in the first quarter and for all of 2011. It forecast adjusted first-quarter revenue of $62.5 million to $63.5 million, and $265 million to $270 million for the year.
• #Cisco feels heat from #HP, #Juniper as margins crimped
  Add it up and Cisco is in a commodity business and that’s a new environment for Chambers & Co. Cisco was one of the only networking companies to report sequential revenue declines (down 3.2% q/q) in what was a healthy IT spending environment,” said Piper Jaffray analyst Troy Jensen. What’s the fix?
• #IBM 's soft side
  # IBM CEO Palmisano predicts $20 billion in deals over the next five years.
  # The company has emerged as one of the top acquirers of smaller software companies.
  # An area of particular interest for IBM has been in business analytics.
• #Salesforce.com Rides Chatter Momentum Toward $2 Billion
  That bullish projection from UBS research director Brent Thill is the latest addition to the remarkable momentum and buzz surrounding Salesforce.com over the past few months as a wave of new products, greater acceptance among large enterprises, and the recruitment of an IBM sales executive to further expand large-company penetration are combining to push this leading cloud-software provider to the brink of a $2 billion revenue run rate.
• 500 Startups Launches New Silicon Valley Incubator
  500 Startups Accelerator program offers young companies work space in downtown Mountain View, Calif., as well as distribution and design help and access to more than 120 mentors.
• #Oracle #PeopleSoft payroll #ITfail problems still peeve police
  "Is the ERP a tool with which the city destroys the employee morale, steals employee pay and/or holds it hostage?" one wrote.
  
  "Really they owe me over a thousand dollars and all I ever get is 'we are working on it,'" another poster wrote. "I used to be proud to work here, not anymore."
  
  The officers' organization has "worked every day on this issue and [we] have researched every single aspect of it," said a message posted to the Facebook site on Monday. "The only realistic avenue is to keep the daily pressure on them as we are doing. This will not be a quick fix, nor will it be easy, but we are working every realistic angle possible to get it fixed."
• Fort Worth Police Officers Association on Facebook #ITfail
  Why do we pursue #ERP? Because it's loaded with financial resources and top-management prestige.... It's too famous to fail. The investment of ego, reputation, and resources compels our leaders to irrationally "stay the course."
• Fort Worth City Council briefs: Moncrief assesses Super Bowl week #ITfail
  According to a staff report, progress is being made. Since October, the city has cut 48,303 paychecks and sent out 951 corrected checks. That represents a correction rate of under 2 percent.
  
  That sounds good unless, of course, it's your paycheck that's incorrect.
  
  Much of the problem has been attributed to human error in learning to use the software. However, officials did uncover a software bug over the weekend, said Pete Anderson, director of the city's IT solutions.
  
  Representatives of MiPro, the company auditing the system, were on hand.
  
  "We certainly welcome your expertise and assume you know the glitches we're dealing with," Moncrief said. "We need them resolved."
• #HP leaps into #cloud computing with lackluster lineup
  Is HP too late into the cloud?
  The 451 Group's Abbott said that HP's late entry into enterprise cloud services hasn't changed the competitive landscape much. Even though it's playing catch-up on actual cloud computing products when compared to rivals IBM and Dell (and to a much lesser degree Oracle, CA and BMC), enterprise cloud is a very long-term goal at this point.
• 2011 IT Salary Report: IT Salary Survey for 65 IT Jobs in 397 U.S. Metropolitan Areas
  The Computer Economics 2011 IT Salary Report provides 2011 salary ranges for 65 specific IT job positions. The salary tables, now available in a searchable Excel spreadsheet, provide base salaries plus bonus pay for 397 U.S. metropolitan areas.
• Competitors battle #Oracle for #OpenSource #MySQL support dollars
  Oracle is facing a series of challenges for MySQL support revenues from third-party providers who say they can provide equal or better service for the open-source database
• #Nokia in talks with #Microsoft about phones, report says
  Struggling Finnish phone company Nokia may be putting the finishing touches on a deal with Microsoft that would put the Windows Phone 7 operating system on its handsets, according to reports Thursday.
• #Gartner Early Research Process Part3: Research & Productivity
  My parallel emphasis on our analysts producing more written product may have confused some, but in retrospect. for me it bordered on being a fetish (after all, for too many clients, our written product was all too many clients would see. (Phone communication was obviously important, but many clients didn’t bother to use their call-in privilege….and I estimated that 20% of the analysts (the most senior ones) dealt with 80% of the phone inquiries or discussions, leaving 80% of the analysts to communicate predominantly via the written word!….and if the ratio was 30/70 or whatever instead of 20/80, I kept pushing. The ratio of top analysts to the rest was similar to the ratio at Wall Street’s Oppenheimer, where during the 1970s I was told by the sales force and management that only five of its twenty-five senior analysts were the real commission generators (i.e. producers) within its research department!
• #Gartner ’s Original Research Processes: Part 2 (including MQs)
  1980s ‘research process’ for Gartner which included six major elements: Surveillance, Pattern Recognition, Stalking Horses (including the Magic Quadrant), Search, Document, and Strategic Planning Assumptions (primarily for conferences); while perhaps not followed explicitly, these elements contributed to our research culture:
• #Salesforce.com Chatter.com: Halftime Ad 1 with will.i.am
  [322,419 views - I guess those Chatter ads were successful after all...-DBM]
• #Salesforce.com Chatter.com: Halftime Ad 2
  [371,646 views - I guess those Chatter ads were successful after all...-DBM]
• #SAP preps 'huge' #BI upgrade
  Business Objects 4.0 will get tighter integration of SAP's BI tools with its EIM product line. The release's goal is to cut down on the amount of time and effort customers spend on the process of assembling, transforming, modeling and ultimately delivering information to users, Weisbeck said.
  
  SAP is also introducing a module called Information Steward that will enable employees with particularly keen perspectives on certain types of information -- such as a sales manager who keeps tabs on customers' contact records -- to monitor and rate data quality on an ongoing basis.
  
  Another new module, Event Insight, takes advantage of the CEP (complex event processing) technology SAP gained through its acquisition of Sybase last year.
  
  CEP software sifts through the slew of transactional "events" that occur in a company's systems each day in real time, looking for patterns and correlations and possibly triggering actions based on what it finds. It's commonly used for purposes such as fraud dete
• IcedRobot launches #OpenSource #Android fork to mitigate #Oracle #Google #Java war
  IcedRobot is officially an effort to bring the Android API to the Linux desktop. But it’s much more than that.
  
  “The goal is to avoid Dalvik and Harmony as much as possible and put the Android stack on top of the OpenJDK class library, and run the whole thing in Hotspot,” according to IcedRobot project leaders. “The second goal is the most interesting because it means basically that Android will run on any desktop finally: one environment, one specification one JVM.”
• #Oracle and #IBM to share #OpenSource #Java leadership
  Oracle has agreed to share governance of the OpenJDK Java community with IBM, in a move that demonstrates considerable good will, according to one analyst.
  
  The company has created a series of bylaws outlining the way the governance will be structured, with Oracle appointing itself chairman and the OpenJDK lead, and IBM taking the role of vice chairman.
• OpenJDK Community Bylaws ( #Oracle #IBM #Java #OpenSource)
  The Governing Board manages the structure and operation of the OpenJDK Community.
  
  The Governing Board consists of five individuals:
  
  * The Chair, appointed by Oracle;
  * The Vice-Chair, appointed by IBM;
  * The OpenJDK Lead, appointed by Oracle; and
  * Two At-Large Members, nominated and elected as described below.
• #Microsoft Bing-powered search share tops 27 percent ( #Google)
  Amid an increasingly testy war of words between Google and Microsoft over search, Experian Hitwise puts Bing’s share—including Yahoo and Bing searches—at 27.4 percent in January, up 6 percent from December.
  
  The standings look like this:
• Bing! January A Bell-Ringer For #Microsoft’s Search Engine ( #Google)
  81% of searches on Bing resulted in a visit to a Web site, well ahead of the 66% of Google searches that resulted in a Web site visit.
• #Facebook Is Moving To Former #Sun Microsystems HQ
  #Oracle, the parent of Sun, still occupies the property that Facebook will enter into a lease 15-year lease with the option to purchase after five years
  
  The nine-building campus can accommodate 3,600 people, and the company expects all Facebook employees now working in the San Francisco Bay Area will work in the new digs.
• #Gartner Highlights Five Long-Term, Overarching, and Interdependent Trends Affecting the Enterprise Software Industry
  Business intelligence (BI), collaboration, content management, social software and supply chain management will be the top application software growth segments in 2011, according to Gartner, Inc. This year, the focus will be on modernizing packaged application systems, enabling diverse user access through software as a service (SaaS) and cloud services, and driving revenue and innovation.
  
  Worldwide enterprise software revenue is forecast to surpass $253.7 billion in 2011, a 7.5 percent increase from 2010 revenue of $235.9 billion.
• #SAP 's Business ByDesign Gets Software Development Kit
  SAP on Monday announced the 2.6 release of its SaaS (software-as-a-service) suite Business ByDesign, which contains a highly anticipated SDK (software development kit) that partners will use to create extensions and add-ons.
• JDA Breaks Records in Q4 Thanks to i2 Acquisition
  JDA boosted its reserve for this judgment from $5 million to $19 million, reflecting what it now thinks the likely settlement to be based on preliminary mediation talks with the store chain. The trial against Oracle over software patents starts in March. JDA expects both cases to burn about $10 million in 2011.
• #Amazon Web Services Blog: Amazon RDS: #Oracle #MySQL 5.5 Now Available
  We do not currently support MySQL 5.5's semi-synchronous replication, pluggable authentication, or proxy users. If these features would be of value to you, perhaps you could leave a note in the RDS Forum.
• What the heck are you actually using #NoSQL for?
  These are the general kinds of reasons people throw around for using NoSQL. Probably nothing all that surprising here.
• The Big List of #NoSQL Use Cases
  # Bigness
  # Massive write performance
  # Fast key-value access
  # Flexible schema and flexible datatypes
  # Schema migration
  # Write availability
  # Easier maintainability, administration and operations
  # No single point of failure
  # Generally available parallel computing
  # Programmer ease of use
  # Use the right data model for the right problem
  # Avoid hitting the wall
  # Distributed systems support
  # Tunable CAP tradeoffs
• Mahindra #Satyam wooing back select former employees
  In the last four months, 550 former employees have rejoined the Hyderabad-based company, according to Mahindra Satyam's head of recruitment, Mr M.V. Sridhar.
• Newbie CEO Apotheker rakes in big #HP bucks
  HP is paying Apotheker a base salary of $1.2m. This amount is fixed for two years, but depending on how well or how poorly HP does under his stewardship, that base salary could be cut in the following two years. Apotheker is also getting a $4m signing bonus for stepping up to the plate - even though he wasn't really doing anything after being shown the door at German software giant SAP, where he was co-president.
  
  He's also receiving $4.6m on top of that to cover the costs of breaking his non-compete clauses with his SAP termination agreement, and to cover relocation costs to California. If Apotheker is terminated or resigns within 18 months, he has to return a prorated portion of the signing bonus.
  
  None of that even approaches the real money that Apotheker would get his hands on if HP does well in the next couple of years. Apotheker is also getting 80,000 HP shares as a signing bonus and an additional 120,000 performance-based restricted units (PRUs). These PRUs can convert to anywhe
• #NetSuite Fourth-Quarter Loss Unchanged
  NetSuite reported a loss of $6.4 million, or 10 cents per share, compared with a loss of $6.5 million, or 10 cents per share, in the 2009 fourth quarter.
• #NetSuite Makes Rain from the #Cloud
  In its latest earnings report, revenues increased 21% to $52.1 million. For the year, revenues came to $193.1 million. Operating income was $3.5 million for fourth quarter.
• #NetSuite posts in-line Q4, sees weak 2011 profit
  Q4 adj EPS $0.04 vs est $0.04
  
  * Q4 rev up 21 pct to $52.1 mln vs est $51 mln
  
  * Sees 2011 profit below estimates
  
  * Shares down 5 pct post mkt
• #NetSuite Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal 2010 Financial Results
  # Record Q4 Revenue of $52.1 Million, a 21% Year-over-Year increase
  # Record 2010 Revenue of $193.1 Million, 16% Growth over Prior Year
  # 2010 Recurring Revenue Grows 18% Year-over-Year to $164.0 Million
  # Record Q4 Non-GAAP Operating Margin of 6.8%
  # Record 2010 Non-GAAP Net Income Grows 151% Year-over-Year
  # Record 2010 Operating Cash Flow
• #Ferrari races forward with #Infor #ERP
  Ferrari stayed with Baan IV for more than a decade, and it became a major part of the company's IT architecture. But times change, and last year it decided a migration to Infor's ERP LN was in order.
• #Salesforce.com Gets Nice Spike In Chatter Users
  The total number of companies deploying Chatter has crossed 20,000 within three months of general availability. [1] With attractive pricing and more features offered compared to social networking sites and collaboration tools, we expect the number of paid subscribers for Chatter will continue to grow.
• #LinkedIn ’s Next Data Dive: Professional Skills
  Recently, LinkedIn launched the ability to create visual maps of your connections. And today, the network is allowing users to take a deeper dive into “skills” data on the platform.
• #Forrester: #SaaS Won't Succeed With Some Apps
  SaaS faces major obstacles in four broad sectors of software. They include lower-level elements of the stack, such as operating systems and databases; software for internal IT management and data management; "legacy, entrenched process applications"; and vertical applications, such as a securities transaction processing system, Forrester said.
• #Microsoft #Hotmail delivers aliases to help you manage and secure your email account
  Starting today, you can add up to five aliases per year to your Hotmail account, up to fifteen aliases in total, all designed to make it a lot easier to organize different types of email and personas in one Hotmail inbox without having to give out your primary email address if you don’t want to.
• A Letter from the Chairman - Ross Mayfield's Weblog
  Starting today I'm stepping out of my day-to-day role at Socialtext. I continue to be Chairman of the Socialtext Board of Directors and will keep a desk at the company's Palo Alto headquarters...I'm joining SlideShare as their VP of Business Development. As their first executive hire beyond the founding team my goal is to grow the largest professional sharing community, cultivate a vibrant ecosystem, and help organizations connect to each through sharing.
• #SAP Maneuvers to Reduce $1.3B Restitution to #Oracle
  SAP said that, failing a reduction in the fine through the motions, it may also appeal the decision.
• #Workday 's Year of Transformation
  3 Feature-packed Workday updates
  177 Companies that have selected Workday
  1 million + Workday users under contract
  99% Workday customer satisfaction rate
  99.92% Workday system availability in 2010 (uptime)
  800 Attendees at Workday Rising User Conference (up 60%)
  160% GAAP revenue growth
  90% Growth in three-year bookings
  599 Employees (up 55%)
  No. 1 Business Application (Private Company), San Francisco Business Times' Technology and Innovation Awards
  No. 1 HR Application, HR Demo Tektonic Awards
  No. 1 Professional Services Organization (out of 214 firms), receiving perfect scores in all five categories of SPI Research's "The 2011 Professional Services Maturity Model Benchmark"
• Coming Soon - #Oracle #Database 11g on #Amazon Relational Database Service ( #Cloud)
  As part of our continued effort to make AWS even more powerful and flexible, we are planning to support Oracle Database 11g Release 2 via the Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) beginning in the second quarter of 2011.
• #Oracle and #Amazon RDS ( #Cloud)
  Amazon RDS running Oracle Database
  
  We are excited to announce our plans to make Oracle Database 11g available via the Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) during the second quarter of 2011. Amazon RDS is a web service that makes it easier to set up, operate, and scale a relational database in the cloud. Amazon RDS for Oracle will include flexible pricing options. If you have existing Oracle Database licenses, you will be able to apply them to run Oracle Databases on Amazon RDS with no additional software licensing or support charges. If you don’t, you’ll be able to take advantage of on-demand hourly licensing with no upfront fees or long-term commitments.
• #SAP and #Microsoft Announce Availability of Duet® Enterprise, Launch Joint Partner Program
  Duet Enterprise connects Microsoft SharePoint 2010 and SAP solutions, providing end users with easier access to business processes and data. Businesses deploying Duet Enterprise can enhance the return on their existing IT investments and create a more collaborative infrastructure that will help improve overall productivity.
• Duet Enterprise for #Microsoft SharePoint and #SAP
  Duet Enterprise provides a foundation enabling interoperability between SAP applications and Microsoft SharePoint, Tools & Services to compose solutions that blend the worlds of process and collaboration and ready-to-use capabilities that provide immediate value to end users. Duet Enterprise delivers ready-to-use capabilities with quick time to value for users to collaborate around SAP data, participate in SAP workflows, access SAP reports, explore HR information and search SAP and SharePoint. Duet Enterprise is planned to be released in the second half of 2010.
• Understanding packaged enterprise implementations
  While packaged services and solutions are not a silver bullet for achieving IT success, they can help reduce risk and increase transparency, which is a big step forward.
• Why Next Gen Apps Must Improve Existing Activity Streams
  The Bottom Line: Users Need Greater Control Over Their Point Of View And Next Gen Apps Must Deliver
  
  Filters alone will not provide enough firepower to put users back in control. Users must easily self-manage filters. Self-learning patterns should be identified by the system. Text analytics, natural language processing, and complex sentiment algorithms will play a role. User driven advanced filters should at a minimum include:
  
  * Saved filters. Users save and share with other users their library of filters.
  * Trending. Users apply layers of filters to correlate complex multi-dimensional patterns.
  * Simulations. Users proactively test out scenario plans with existing data.
  * Predictions. Users apply pattern recognition and trending to test hypotheses.
• #Google #Android Tablets Gain Traction with Developers
  74 percent of respondents were "very interested' in building applications for Android tablets, up from 62 percent in the previous iteration of the survey from last September. The formidable iPad attracted the interest of 87 percent of respondees, up 3 points from the last survey.
• Appcelerator IDC Mobile Developer Report, January 2011 ( #Google #Apple #RIM #Microsoft #mobile)
  Google has nearly caught up to Apple in smart phone popularity and is closing the gap in tablets. Microsoft and RIM made solid gains through their product line update, while Google TV and Apple TV interest dropped off.
• Appcelerator /IDC Q1 2011 #Mobile Developer Report ( #Google #Android #Apple #RIM #Blackberry #Microsoft)
  Tablet onslaught reprioritizes development efforts as businesses accelerate their mobile app strategies
• #Gartner #BI Summit: A Big Leap Forward
  Here’s a link to the “Big Leap Forward” presentation [Timo Elliott will] be giving on Tuesday morning at 9:15am
• #Oracle EBS vs. #Microsoft Dynamics: Why the Discrepancy in #ERP Software Satisfaction?
  [H]ow can one vendor score so high with executives while at the same time scoring so low with end-users, and vice versa?...
  1. Executives care very much about business intelligence, reporting, and analytics...
  2. Employees care more about navigation and look and feel...
• Demand Grows for for Web, #Mobile App Skills
  "HTML5," "Mobile app," and "Android," have skyrocketed over the past year, making them the fastest growing keywords in jobs posted online, according to data tracked by jobs search engine Indeed.com.
• 10 Telling Tidbits From #Microsoft 's 10-Q
  Cloud computing carries risks...
  OEMs aren’t as important as they used to be...
  Big hardware sales mean bigger costs...
  China is moving to non-Windows PCs...
  Online losses continue to grow...
  No exposure to subprime mortgages...
  ERP and CRM account for less than 3% of total sales..
• #SAP, #Microsoft Try Again With Duet Enterprise
  "As a result it was difficult to deploy and expensive. It was a great idea though, given that most organizations live inside the Microsoft environment."
• #Microsoft Azure now has 31,000 customers
  Microsoft highlighted a few different customers: travel website Travelocity has moved its analytics tracking to Azure, Xerox has built a cloud printing service on Azure, and T-Mobile USA built its Family Room application on Windows Phone 7 on Azure.
  
  Last year, the companies that jumped into Azure were start-ups that wanted to outsource server infrastructure and niche companies with large computational needs. It appears that larger companies are now experimenting with building new projects in the cloud.
• Easy #Microsoft SharePoint, #SAP Integration and Content Promised in Duet Enterprise
  More than 300 ISVs are building on and testing Duet Enterprise today, according to Microsoft’s Kurt Delbene, president of the Microsoft Office division.