Ready, aim, fire! Google Chrome Gets Ready to Battle Windows for Desktop Dominance

2009, Laura's Insights ITIC Blog, News / By

Everyone loves a good battle. And no market segment has experienced more bellicosity than the operating system arena.

For the last two decades, Microsoft Windows was the undisputed, dominant player with 90% of the desktop OS market share. Today, Microsoft Windows is still the most widely deployed operating system. But its dominance is no longer undisputed.

Microsoft faces an array of formidable challengers including Apple, Google and Ubuntu. Google’s initiatives over the last two years have obviously attracted a good deal of attention – just as they are meant to do.

The recent media coverage and talk of the looming battle between Google’s Chrome OS and Microsoft Windows 7 and Office 2010 conveniently ignores two important facts: 1) the Chrome operating system doesn’t ship until sometime in 2010, and 2) when it does debut it will initially run only on low-cost Netbooks, a miniscule if rapidly growing part of the market.

Other considerations are not as easily answered: What tangible, material impact will this rivalry have on customer deployments? Will Google’s entrance into the Netbook OS market really force Microsoft to slash prices and cut into its Windows profits, the heart and soul of its business? And who besides the press, Google and Microsoft really cares?

It is abundantly clear that Google and Microsoft — each of whom dominates in their core markets – are desperately attempting to encroach on one another’s turf. Google is a convincing leader in the search engine and online advertising market. And Microsoft continues to be the market leader in operating systems and office productivity applications. The sparring has been exacerbated and honed by the ongoing economic downturn. Hence, the series of recent one-upmanship maneuvers. Microsoft announces it’s moving up the release date for Windows 7 and Google responds with headlines of its own about directly competing with Windows. Google said it will partner with top OEM manufacturers like Acer, HP and Lenovo to port Chrome OS onto their Netbook platforms by the second half of 2010. Microsoft counter-punched by releasing details about some of upcoming Office 2010 applications becoming untethered.

Microsoft is aiming straight for Google with its new Office Web Applications. Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote are heading to the cloud in scaled down versions of the immensely popular software that will be browser based and completely free. And although details have been sketchy at best, sources within Microsoft indicate company intends to meld the Office platform across traditional PCs and servers, the Internet and smart phones.Microsoft did release new details about Office at its Worldwide Partners Conference (WPC) in New Orleans last week.Among the disclosures: Office 2010 – due out in the first half of next year – will include a free Web edition and it will finally offer interoperability with the Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari browsers. The Office 2010 Web edition will also incorporate “lite” versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote. Microsoft will likely release more details at its Worldwide Partners Conference (WPC) in New Orleans, this week.

Microsoft and Google continue to circle each other like the battle scarred veterans they are –looking for the weak spot and the right moment to attack, hoping to score a direct hit and encroach on the other’s turf in a meaningful way – e.g. stealing sales and market share.

In truth, neither company has drawn first blood, although not for lack of trying.

 

Google vs. Microsoft: A Historical Perspective

The rivalry between Google and Microsoft dates back several years. Both covet what the other has and both have met with limited success in their attempts to extend their empires beyond their core competencies and revenue streams. While Microsoft has for the last few years been unceasing in its efforts to penetrate the online search engine and advertising market, it still derives 50% of its revenue from the Windows and Office platforms.
Microsoft’s Bing search engine debuted earlier this year to generally positive results. In fact, Bing is Microsoft’s best effort to date but it remains to be seen how much impact it will have on Google.

For its part, Google launched its first serious offensive strike at Microsoft’s dominance in the operating system and applications arena in early 2006 with Google Apps, a set of web-based and desktop applications. Google Apps consists of Gmail, Google Maps, Google Docs & Spreadsheets and Google Calendar. The company continues to bolster the functionality of the platform, and in 2007-2008 added Standard and Premier offerings that incorporate remote and mobile access capabilities, email migration tools and stronger online technical support. The Standard version of Google Apps is free and the Premier version lists for $50 per seat.

Microsoft & Google by the Numbers

From a financial standpoint, both Google and Microsoft remain healthy, although like every other ITfirm, both have felt the effects of the continuing economic crunch. So far this year, Microsoft has laid off 5,000 employees; this is the first substantial layoff in the company’s history. More worrisome for the Redmond, Washington giant is that its Quarterly Revenue and Quarterly Earnings Growth fell into negative categories (See chart below) from the 2008 to the 2009 third quarter ended March 31. The company hopes that Windows 7 (due out on October 22) and Office 2010 will spur sales and revenue and reverse the decline. At the same time, Microsoft knows it must diversify and so it looks to the Web and the emerging cloud computing market, where companies like Amazon and Google dominate.

Google, for its part has yet to loosen Microsoft’s hold in the rich operating systems and office productivity suite. Google Chrome is free and as such does not generate any revenue for the company but that may change because Netbook sales are poised to explode over the next 12 months and could provide Google with the needed momentum to establish itself as an applications provider.In the meantime, Google hopes that the good news from its latest financial earnings (see chart below) and its aggressive high profile marketing strategy will generate a buzz and create pent-up demand for Chrome in the run-up to its 2010 debut.

 

Performance Criteria – Q3 2009

  Google Microsoft
Market Cap: $135 billion $206.7 billion
Profit margin: 20.6% 25.9%
Operating margin: 32.6% 37.1%
Total Cash: $19.3 billion $24 billion
Debt: $0 $2 billion
Return on Assets: 14.2% 20.3%
Return on Equity: 16.% 42.5%
Annual Revenue: $22.7 billion $60.4 billion
Annual Net Income: $4.6 billion $22.5 billion
Quarterly Revenue Growth: 2.9% -5.6%
Quarterly Earnings Growth: 19% -32.2%

***Editor’s Note: Google’s fiscal year coincides with the calendar year, while Microsoft’s fiscal year begins on July 1. The above figures represent Google’s most recent second quarter ended June 30.

 

Future Prospects

What does this posturing and verbal sparring mean for corporate and consumer customers? In the near term, Google and Microsoft’s dueling headlines and pronouncements will have very little impact on customers in terms of platform commitment and purchasing decisions. The ongoing rivalry does mean that neither company can relax or relent for a Pico-second. Each must continue to deliver first-rate, full featured, bug-free products that deliver ease-of-use and integration and interoperability with existing applications and platforms. And both companies must stick to their announced timetables and deliver on their promises, lest one or the other exploit the opportunity.

Microsoft can’t afford a repeat of the lack of backwards application compatibility that plagued its much-maligned Vista desktop. At the same time, Google’s hopes for penetrating the applications and OS market rest on the functionality of its offerings beyond the simple basics that are adequate for Netbook sales.

Ultimately, corporate and consumer customers will demand and receive high performance products at a reasonable price – or they’ll simply sit on their wallets.

The biggest winners in this ongoing war may be the end users. And isn’t that a refreshing change?

Ready, aim, fire! Google Chrome Gets Ready to Battle Windows for Desktop Dominance Read More »

ITIC 2009 Global Server Hardware & Server OS Reliability Survey Results

ITIC Reports & Surveys / By

For the second year in a row, IBM AIX UNIX running on the Power or “P” series servers, scored the highest reliability ratings among 15 different server operating system platforms – including Linux, Mac OS X, UNIX and Windows.

Those are the results of the ITIC 2009 Global Server Hardware and Server OS Reliability Survey which polled C-level executives and IT managers at 400 corporations from 20 countries worldwide. The results indicate that the IBM AIX operating system whether running on Big Blue’s Power servers (System p5s)  is the clear winner, offering rock solid reliability. The IBM servers running AIX consistently score at least 99.99% or just 15 minutes of unplanned per server, per annum downtime.

Overall, the results showed improvements in reliability, patch management procedures and an across-the-board reduction in per server, per annum Tier 1, Tier 2 and the most severe Tier 3 outages.  Among the other survey highlights:

  • IBM leads all vendors for both server hardware and server OS reliability as well as the fewest number of Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 unplanned server outages per year. IBM AIX running on the System p5s had less than one unplanned outage incident per server in a 12 month period. More impressively, the IBM servers experience no Tier 3 outages. Tier 3 outages are the most severe and usually involve more than four hours or a half-day worth of downtime and can also result in lost data.
  • HP UX also performed well though HP servers notch approximately 25 minutes more downtime than IBM servers, depending on model and configuration – or just under 40 minutes per server, per annum downtime.
  • IT managers spend approximately 11minutes to apply patches to IBM servers running the AIX operating system, which is again, the least amount of time spent patching any server or operating system. The open source Ubuntu distribution is a close second with IT managers spending 12 minutes to apply patches, while IT managers in the Apple Mac OS X 10.x. Novell SuSE and customized Linux distribution environments each spend 15 to 19 minutes applying patches.
  • IBM also took top honors in another important category: IBM Power servers and AIX experience the lowest amount of the more severe Tier 2 and Tier 3 outages combined of any server hardware or server operating system. The combined total of Tier 2 and Tier 3 outages accounted for just 19% of all per server, per annum failures.
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008 showed the biggest improvements of any of the vendors. The Windows Server 2003 and 2008 operating systems running on Intel-based platforms saw a 35% reduction in the amount of unplanned per server, per annum downtime from 3.77 hours in 2008 to 2.42 hours in 2009. The number of annual Windows Server Tier 3 outages also decreased by 31% year over year and the time spent applying patches similarly decline by 35% from last year to 32 minutes in 2009.
  • This year’s survey for the first time, also incorporated reliability results for the Apple Mac and OS X 10.x OS platform.  The survey respondents indicated that Apple products are extremely competitive in an enterprise setting. IT managers spend approximately 15 minutes per server to apply patches and Apple Macs recorded just under 40 minutes of per server, per annum downtime.

ITIC 2009 Global Server Hardware & Server OS Reliability Survey Results Read More »

Corporations Prefer Terra Firma to the Cloud — For Now

Laura's Insights ITIC Blog, News / By

Concerns about cloud computing security and how fast cloud providers will respond in the event technical troubles should arise is making companies hesitant to embrace cloud computing — at least within the next 12 months. An 85% majority of the IT Performance Trends survey subjects say they will not implement a public or private cloud between June 2009 and June 2010. However, of that 85%, 31% say they are studying the issue but have made no decision yet and another 7% are “Unsure.”

Security topped the list of concerns and guarantees that companies would demand from a cloud services provider, if their firms were to implement a cloud model. An overwhelming 83% of respondents said they would need specific guarantees to safeguard their sensitive mission critical data before committing to a cloud. Additionally, almost three-quarters or 73% of respondents would require guaranteed fast response time for technical service and support. Nearly two thirds (63%) of respondents want minimum acceptable latency/response times and a nearly equal number (62%) say they would need multiple access paths to and from the cloud infrastructure.

It was clear from the customer interviews and essay responses that IT managers, especially those companies with fewer than 1,000 end users, will keep their corporate data and applications firmly planted behind the corporate firewall until they have ironclad assurances regarding the security of their data and their ability to access it.

“The idea that I would trust my email, financial transactions, or other day to day business operations to cloud computing is just asking for trouble,” observed an IT manager at a midsized corporation with 500 employees in the Midwest. “I do not even want to imagine my all my users being dead in the water because my link to the Internet was down,” he adds. Another manager at a retail firm with 250 employees expressed reservations about the ability of a cloud services vendor to deliver top notch service and support should the need arise.

“Downtime is the bane of an IT professional’s life,” says the network administrator at a retail firm with 250 employees. He noted that when an onsite and locally managed system fails, he and his IT team can take immediate action to replace parts, rebuild the operating system, restore data from tape backup or perform any other action required to restore services and applications. “Compare that to a failure in a cloud computing scenario, when all you can do is report the problem and hurry up and wait,” he says. “Most IT people are action oriented and they won’t respond well to being at the mercy of a cloud provider while listening to complaints and queries from users and management of ‘When will the system be back up?’ or ‘When can I get access to my data?'”

The director of IT at another midsized company with 400 users opined that he does not yet have confidence in the still-emerging cloud computing model. “We own our data, not the cloud provider, and we need to know it is movable if we need to leave the provider.”

Finally, the survey respondents indicated during first person customer interviews that they will continue to chart a conservative course that includes a very low tolerance for risk until the economy recovers and their companies can once again bolster IT staffs and provide more resources.

Analysis

Cloud computing is still in its nascent stages. It’s common for the hype among vendors, the press and analyst community to outpace current realities in IT, especially in the small and midsized businesses who have smaller budgets and are generally more conservative and risk averse than their enterprise counterparts.

The survey results also showed that there was much more of willingness on the part of larger enterprises to explore, test and deploy a cloud infrastructure. Among corporations with over 3,000 end users, a more convincing 57% percentage said they will either deploy or are considering a public or private cloud implementation over the next 12 to 18 months. Even this group though, is rightfully concerned about the uncertainties of trusting their sensitive data to a public cloud whose provider may be located in a foreign country.

Therefore, it is imperative that cloud computing vendors provide customers and prospective customers with transparency and full accountability with respect to crucial issues like: security, technical service and support, equipment and capacity of their data centers; an overview of the technology used (e.g. specific server equipment, virtualization, management, etc.). The vendors should also provide specific SLA levels and guarantees in the event those levels are not met.

Corporations should also perform due diligence. Get informed. Thoroughly investigate and compare the services and options of the various cloud providers. Know where and how your data will be stored, secured and managed. Ask for customer references. Consult with your in-house attorneys or obtain outside counsel to review proposed contracts. Don’t be afraid to insert out clauses and penalties in the event your cloud provider fails to meet SLAs. Also, at this early stage of development, don’t be afraid to ask for discounts and caps on prices hikes for the duration of your contract.

Corporations Prefer Terra Firma to the Cloud — For Now Read More »

ITIC IT Performance Trends Survey Results

ITIC Reports & Surveys / By

An overwhelming 85% majority of corporate customers will not implement a private or public cloud computing infrastructure in 2009 because of fears that cloud providers may not be able to adequately secure sensitive corporate data. That is a key result of the latest ITIC survey which polled C-level executives and IT managers at 300 corporations worldwide on IT Performance Trends.

The survey yielded several other surprising results on pivotal issues that can have a direct impact on daily network operations as well as long term strategic goals like lowering total cost of ownership (TCO), managing risk and achieving tangible return on investment (ROI). For example, initial responses and subsequent first person customer interviews indicated that IT managers are finding it difficult and challenging to track basic IT performance metrics. Among the most stunning revelations was that 48% of IT departments – nearly half — do not track security performance metrics. Only 43% of businesses have SLA metrics with clients that are discussed and updated yearly and 51% of organizations are unable to quantify the cost of an hour of unplanned downtime.

ITIC partnered with Stratus Technologies in Maynard, MA, a vendor specializing in high availability and fault tolerant hardware and software solutions, to compose the Web-based survey. ITIC conducted this blind, non-vendor and non-product specific survey which polled businesses on a wide range of IT performance-related trends. Besides cloud computing deployment trends and timetables, the survey also queried users on such topics as IT accountability for network performance metrics; the frequency of moderate and severe network outages; SLA agreements; how IT tracks performance metrics; how well IT and upper management collaborate and whether or not IT departments are able to quantify the hourly cost of downtime.

The Web-based survey consisted of multiple choice and essay questions. ITIC analysts also conducted two dozen first person customer interviews to obtain detailed anecdotal data. Respondents ranged from SMBs with 100 users to very large enterprises with over 100,000 end users. Industries represented: academic, advertising, aerospace, banking, communications, consumer products, defense, energy, finance, government, healthcare, insurance, IT services, legal, manufacturing, media and entertainment, telecommunications, transportation, and utilities. The respondents hailed from 19 countries; 85% were based in North America. None of the survey respondents received any remuneration for their participation.

Survey Highlights

The responses across a wide range of survey topics indicate that IT departments are overwhelming pragmatic; their chief focus is on keeping their networks up and running in the face of budget cuts and diminished staff and resources.

Among the other survey highlights:

  • Over four out of 10 organizations — 44% — indicate that management holds IT responsible for meeting defined performance metrics; 31% say that upper management only holds them accountable or voices displeasure when something goes awry and 19% of respondents say their companies do not have formally defined performance metrics.
  • On the subject of how businesses track performance, 28% of respondents indicated they do so by the amount of planned and unplanned downtime experienced by IT; another 24% measure performance according to a specific subset of IT operations and systems; 11% are reactive and monitor performance by the time it takes to recover following a service outage; an additional 11% are proactive, monitoring performance in a continuous, programmed fashion throughout the enterprise. Most alarming however is that more than a fifth of the firms represented – 21% – revealed that they don’t keep track of performance.
  • In another somewhat surprising disclosure, 46% of survey respondents do not have service level agreements (SLAs) in place compared to 43% who do; 11% of respondents were unsure. However, the ITIC survey responses showed that an overwhelming 84% majority of large enterprises with over 3,000 end users do have SLAs in place. However even in those businesses, collaboration and communication among C-level executives and IT departments is poor. Only 16% of survey respondents noted any regular, proactive communications between IT and upper management.

ITIC IT Performance Trends Survey Results Read More »

Windows 7 is a make or break release for Microsoft

Laura's Insights ITIC Blog / By

The long awaited successor to Windows XP and Windows Vista, will ship several months earlier than planned. Expectations are high industry-wide.

Windows 7 is crucial to Microsoft’s over-arching software business and technology strategy for the next two years. Although it is an incremental upgrade and not a major overhaul of the underlying Vista kernel, Windows 7 represents a crucial upgrade for both consumer and corporate customers.

Practically speaking, Windows 7 must do what Vista didn’t: deliver near seamless, plug and play integration and interoperability with the overwhelming majority of Microsoft and third party applications, device drivers, utilities and hardware peripherals. As a standalone operating system (OS) Vista was fine. Unfortunately, there’s no such thing as a standalone OS. The lack of backwards compatibility between Vista and third party software and even incompatibilities in the file formats between Vista and Office 2007 and other Microsoft products was a nightmare for corporations and consumers alike.

As a result, there is no margin for error. Windows 7 must fulfill users’ expectations, business and technology needs from the first day it ships. Microsoft will not get a second chance to make a good first impression. Failure to do so could send customers running to rival desktop platforms like Apple’s Mac OS X 10.x and Linux distributions, or even online options such as those being pitched by Google. . And if Windows 7 does not deliver the features, integration, interoperability and reliability Microsoft is promising, it may well create a domino effect that adversely impacts the upcoming releases of related solutions like Exchange Server and the Office platform.

Integration and interoperability are the most important criteria, besting even cost, when it comes to choosing a new technology. The results of ITIC’s May 2009 Application Availability survey of 300 businesses worldwide found that 60% of business said integration and interoperability with existing and legacy applications tops the list of “must have” items in new software application and operating system purchases. Cost came in a close second with 56% of the respondents followed by ease of use and installation (55%).

The stakes for Windows 7 are also high because of intensified competition. Rumors abound that Microsoft pushed up the release date by at least three months so that Windows 7 hits the streets in advance of the low cost netbook version of Google’s Android. Microsoft also faces increased competition in its decades-old rival Apple. During the past two years Apple’s Mac OS X 10.x running on Apple’s Intel-based proprietary hardware has been making a comeback in corporate enterprises. Apple products do not represent a significant threat to Microsoft’s corporate desktop dominance, but they can nibble at the fringes, potentially dilute momentum [for Windows 7] and take some market share. In this ongoing global economic downturn, no vendor wants to concede any revenue or even a percentage point of market share.

Microsoft of course is acutely aware of these issues. In recent months, company CEO Steve Ballmer and Senior Vice President Bill Veghte have publicly stated that users were stymied by the incompatibility issues they encountered with Vista. They intend to avoid those problems with Windows 7.

Fortuitously, for Microsoft, there are many factors in Windows 7’s favor. They include:

  • Pent-up Demand. To date, only 10% of the 700 survey respondents in ITIC’s 2009 Global IT and Technology Trends Global Deployment Survey have deployed Vista as their company’s primary desktop operating system. The results indicated that Windows XP remains the primary desktop OS for 89% of the respondents. Nearly half—45%—of the survey respondents indicated they would skip Vista and migrate from XP to Windows 7. The main reasons for this were cost constraints associated with the bearish economy, and reluctance to undertake a complex OS upgrade with manpower constraints.The prevailing sentiment among businesses is that they can afford to wait because Windows XP adequate met their business and technology needs over the last two years. ITIC believes this bodes well for Windows 7 deployments in the short and intermediate term. If 20% of the installed base of legacy Windows XP users migrate or indicate their intention to upgrade to Windows 7 within the first three or four months of shipment, Microsoft will be well-positioned. There is a reasonable likelihood of this, providing Windows 7 delivers the goods. And the advance word from customers interviewed by ITIC is generally positive.
  • New feature set. Windows 7 will have six different versions, but to minimize the confusion that accompanied the Vista launch, only the Home Premium and Professional editions will be widely sold in retail outlets. Specific versions that are designed for enterprise use or developing nations will be aggressively marketed to those specific accounts and geographic regions, thus taking the guesswork out of purchasing. Most importantly: Microsoft says that every one of the versions will include all of the capabilities and features of the edition below it which will help to minimize upgrade woes. Corporations and consumers that want to move to a more feature rich version of Windows 7 can use Windows Anytime Upgrade to purchase the upgrade online and unlock the features of those editions from their desktops.ITIC interviewed several dozen Windows 7 beta users over the last several months and an overwhelming 9 out of 10 respondents expressed their satisfaction with improvements in many Windows 7’s core capabilities when compared to both Windows XP and Vista. This includes faster boot sequence, better reliability, improved security, a much faster and more comprehensive search engine, and more flexible configuration options. Additionally, Microsoft bolstered the inherent security of Windows 7 with DirectAccess and BitLocker To Go features. The DirectAccess capability is designed to provide remote, traveling and telecommuting workers with the same secure connectivity as though they were local by establishing a VPN “tunnel” to their corporate networks. BitLocker To Go extends the data encryption features introduced in Vista to include removable storage devices such as USB thumb drives support in Windows 7. Users can employ a password or a smart card with a digital certificate to unlock and access their data. And the devices can be used on any other Windows 7-based machine with the correct password. Users can also read, but not modify data on older Windows XP and Vista systems.
  • Economical and feature rich Licensing contracts. Finally, the terms and conditions of Windows 7 licensing contracts promise to make upgrades easier on corporate IT budgets. In February, Microsoft said it would provide a license that will allow customers to directly upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7. There is a caveat, though: users will have to wipe their hard drives and perform a clean install – so technically, it’s not an upgrade. Microsoft has not yet released pricing details for Windows 7 but ITIC believes the upgrade license will most likely cost 20% to 40% less than a new license.Additionally, corporations that purchased Microsoft’s Software Assurance Maintenance and upgrade plan as a standalone product or received it as part of their Enterprise Agreement (EA) licenses, are entitled to free upgrades to Windows 7 since it is an incremental release. Additionally, in order to make life easier for users (and to engender goodwill) Microsoft is letting the Release Candidate (RC) free trial license for Windows 7 last a full year until June 2010! And users looking for a discounted version of Windows 7 to run on low cost, minis or netbooks take note: Microsoft and Intel have agreed that in order for a device to be considered a netbook, the screen must not exceed 10.2” Prior to this, Microsoft allowed customers to get the Windows XP or Vista discount for or devices as large as a 12.1” screen.

In summary, all indications are that Microsoft has learned from its Vista mistakes. As a result, businesses and consumers stand ready to reap significant benefits in compatibility, features, pricing and licensing with Windows 7.

Windows 7 is a make or break release for Microsoft Read More »

ITIC 2010 Editorial Calendar & Surveys

Editorial Calendars / By

ITIC differentiates itself with independent, non-sponsored Web-based surveys. We conduct these surveys in partnership with Sunbelt Software on a wide range of hardware, software, networking and business-issues related technology topics.

Quickly executed surveys often capture critical opportunities in rapidly changing markets.

This is an exciting and challenging time for the high technology industry. There continue to be many emerging high growth technologies and changes in the status quo for some legacy technologies, all of which can present unique and difficult challenges for both the vendor and user community. Corporate IT departments are under cost constraints and tasked with accomplishing more with the same or fewer purchasing dollars. More than ever, strategists require tools that offer timely insight into changing market conditions.

Below is ITIC’s 2010 Editorial Calendar. It provides a detailed list of our upcoming research including a list of forthcoming survey topics which ITIC will conduct over the next two (2) quarters. We will continue to update this list with the dates and times when the surveys will go live and provide you with links to participate if you so choose. And please feel free to contact us and let us know if you have ideas for future survey topics.

Upcoming Survey Topics

January: 2010 -2011 Technology and Business Deployment Trends and Timetables

Description: This ITIC Report, based on survey data and first person customer interviews will provide a detailed overview of the challenges facing IT departments in 2010. These include: budget and staffing issues, deployment trends and migration issues and how IT departments are handling crucial issues such as security, storage and disaster recovery during the ongoing economic downturn. The Report will present the latest ITIC survey data (done in conjunction with Stratus Technologies and Sunbelt Software) based on a poll of 650 IT managers and C-level executives worldwide.

February: Database Deployment Trends & Issues

Description: This survey and report examines the crucial role of databases in today’s network environments. It will poll users on their preferred database vendor; satisfaction with price, performance, features, technical service and support and licensing policies of the major database vendors. It will also detail the reasons customers chose a particular database and vendor and delve into the top technical and business challenges confronting users as they strive to upgrade, manage and maintain their database environments and adapt them to new technology models like virtualization and cloud computing.

March/April: Server Hardware and Server OS Reliability Survey

Description: Reliability and uptime are absolutely essential; corporations of all sizes increasingly require 99.99% availability and greater. But which platforms actually deliver? This survey will poll businesses on the reliability, uptime and management issues involving amount of annual outages associated with the major server operating systems and server hardware platforms. The survey will poll customers on the frequency and number of Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 outages that occur on their core server OS and server hardware platforms. The results of this independent, non-vendor sponsored survey will provide businesses with the information they need to determine the TCO and ROI of their individual environments. The survey will also enable the server OS and server hardware vendors to see how their products rate among global users ranging from SMBs with as few as 25 people to the largest global enterprises with 100,000+ end users.

April/May: Virtualization Deployment Trends, Desktop and Server hardware:

Description: This ITIC survey and report will focus on the current and emerging virtualization technologies including server, desktop (VDI), application, storage and network virtualization. The survey and report will also focus on the crucial nature of virtualization management as well as key issues (pricing, technology challenges etc.) involving and impacting virtualization deployments including Cloud computing, virtualization management and virtualization management issues. The study will poll corporate customers on their primary virtualization vendor(s); ways in which they are utilizing virtualization; the impact (positive or negative) that virtualization has had on their business; quantifying the TCO and ROI of virtualization; the primary reasons customers are deploying or deferring a move to the technology; virtualization licensing issues and virtualization security issues. Vendors profiled in this report will include: VMware, Citrix, Microsoft, HP, IBM, Oracle (now incorporating Sun Microsystems and Virtual Iron) and Parallels.

June: Server and Application Deployment Trends and Issues

Description: This Report will present the findings of an ITIC/Sunbelt Software Web-based survey that polls users on desktop and server hardware and application related topics. Featured vendors will include: Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Lenovo and Sun, As always, ITIC will supplement the Web-based responses with first person customer interviews. ITIC will also get vendor reaction to the survey results. The survey will cover:

  • Primary desktop and server hardware vendor(s)
  • Average life cycles of Windows, Linux, UNIX and Mac desktop and server hardware (including file/print servers; database servers; Email/messaging/collaboration servers and Web servers)
  • Percentage of hardware that a company replaces when it does a major upgrade
  • How much corporations spend on their mainstream line of business servers and desktops
  • Primary server configuration (e.g., two processors, four processors, eight processors, etc.)
  • Current and planned deployments for 32- and 64-bit environments
  • Current and planned deployments for mobile desktop hardware
  • Comparison of the reliability and uptime of the major server platforms including: IBM, HP, Dell et al.
  • Adoption rate of Netbooks and Tablets (including the Apple iPad)

July: Unified Communications, Email and collaboration

Description: This Report will utilize the latest ITIC independent survey data to provide an overview of the latest trends in unified communication, Email and collaboration platforms including and alternative platforms like Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Notes/Domino, Scalix, Zarafa and Zimbra. This Report will also deliver insight as to the issues spurring or impeding a move to a unified communications environment as well as user deployment trends and upgrade plans.

August/September: CIOs

Description: This Report will use the latest ITIC survey data to provide CIOs with a detailed snapshot of the business and technology issues that have the greatest impact on their companies. The Report will also incorporate customer case study profiles of up to six CIOs at mid-sized and enterprise organization from various vertical markets.

October: Licensing and Contract Negotiations

Description: Often overlooked, licensing and contract negotiations can have a long term advantageous or potentially damaging impact on your company’s bottom line and technology decisions. This ITIC report will provide a detailed overview of how licensing agreements impact the business decision to upgrade to a new technology platform or delay a migration. This Report will also examine and provide guidance on pivotal issues such as:

  • Is your firm in compliance with the terms and conditions of your current licensing contracts and what to do to address non-compliance?
  • How will new technologies like multi-core and multi-threading and virtualization impact your new licensing agreements?
  • In a tough economy, should your company re-negotiate the terms and conditions of its existing licensing contracts?
  • Can your organization afford to upgrade its current technology and licensing contracts?
  • Is it time to renew your current licensing agreement? If so, what to look for as your firm reviews the terms of the contract
  • Provide negotiating tips and advice on how to get the best deal for your company.

Organizations must have confidence in their vendors, their technology and their own ability to negotiate deals that are cost-effective, readily understandable, focused on their needs and flexible enough to meet and adapt to this rapidly changing and challenging business environment. This ITIC Report will also address the major trends that affect software use, including mobile and remote users, collaboration among various users, and Internet, intranet and extranet use.

November: Remote Workers and Mobility Trends

Description: Increasingly, “the office” is located wherever the end user employee happens to be: a home office, on the road, or connecting via PDAs, mobile and handheld devices from an airport, an automobile or kiosk. This ITIC Report will use the latest survey data to provide you with quantifiable usage statistics on remote, telecommuting and mobile users. It will also examine the Pros and Cons of mobility and ask crucial questions about whether or not these mobile and remote workers are delivering greater value and increased productivity to their respective firms. It will also take a look at the technical and management challenges facing companies as the rate of mobile and remote workers increases. It will also feature corporate case study examples.

December: ITIC 2011 Global IT and Technology Trends Forecast

Description: This Report will be based on ITIC survey results that poll IT administrators and C-level executives on a variety of forward looking business and technology issues for the 2011 – 2012 timeframe. Topics covered will include: IT staffing and budgets; application and network infrastructure upgrades; integration and interoperability between legacy environments and new Web 2.0 and remote and mobile technologies; hardware and software purchasing trends.

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Virtualization — specifically the TCO and ROI of application and desktop virtualization which are two of the hottest areas. All indications are that the current server virtualization market leaders Citrix, Microsoft, VMware et al. are well positioned as the early market leaders in application virtualization and desktop virtualization (by virtue of their own offerings as well as their respective partnerships with hardware OEMs, software vendors and service providers). This survey will include specific product comparison queries and ask corporations to rate the performance, reliability and scalability of products such as VMware’s Live Migration vs. Microsoft’s Hyper-V; compare and contrast the major virtualization desktop, application and management offerings from the major vendors like Citrix, Microsoft, Oracle, Parallels, Sun, VMware, Virtual Iron and others. It will also address management and licensing issues and trends.

Server OS and Server hardware Reliability survey — This survey will poll businesses on the reliability, uptime and management issues involving amount of annual outages associated with the major server operating systems and server hardware platforms. The survey will poll customers on the frequency and number of Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 outages that occur on their core server OS and server hardware platforms. The results of this independent, non-vendor sponsored survey will provide businesses with the information they need to determine the TCO and ROI of their individual environments. The survey will also enable the server OS and server hardware vendors to see how their products rate among global users ranging from SMBs with as few as 25 people to the largest global enterprises with 100,000+ end users.

Desktop and Server OS and Office deployment trends and issues — This survey will also provide SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) to the tactical and long term strategic positioning of the Windows, Linux, UNIX and open source OS environments with respect to legacy technologies as well as emerging markets like cloud computing.* Licensing, Compliance and Genuine Software trends and issues. These three business issues are pivotal to corporate success with various technologies. Licensing issues are having a huge impact on emerging technologies like virtualization. This survey will provide a comprehensive overview of user deployment and purchasing of software licensing, maintenance and upgrade programs. It will also examine corporate customer satisfaction (or lack thereof) and understanding of these issues and how it impacts the TCO and ROI of their current and planned software infrastructure.

The rise of the Macintosh in the corporate enterprise. Mac hardware and OS usage is on the rise in the corporate environment and is at its highest level since the late 1980s. This survey will poll corporate IT managers and C-level executives on the issues that are propelling or impeding them to deploy Macs in their networks. It will ask customers to rate the performance, scalability, reliability, and security and management capabilities of the Mac. It will also ask businesses to assess the Pros and Cons of Mac virtualization, integration and interoperability with disparate OS environments such as Windows, Linux and open source.

 Survey Methodology

ITIC partners with Sunbelt Software to conduct secure independent Web-based surveys that contain multiple choice and essay questions. In order to ensure the highest degree of accuracy, we employ authentication and tracking mechanisms to ensure that no one tampers with the survey or votes more than once. We poll businesses across a wide range of vertical markets; respondents range from micro-SMBs with fewer than 25 employees up to the largest multinational enterprises with over 100,000 workers. Each Report also includes extensive first person customer interviews and where applicable, vendor and reseller interviews. The titles of the survey respondents include:

  • Network administrators
  • VPs of IT
  • Chief information officers (CIOs)
  • Chief technology officers (CTOs)
  • Chief executive officers (CEOs)

ITIC welcomes input and suggestion from its vendor and enterprise clients with respect to surveys, survey questions and topics for its Editorial Calendar. If there’s a particular topic or question in a specific survey that you’d like to see covered, please let us know and we will do our best to address it.

About Information Technology Intelligence Consulting (ITIC)

ITIC, founded in 2002, is a research and consulting firm in suburban Boston. It provides primary research on a wide variety of technology topics for vendors and enterprises. ITIC’s mission is to provide its clients with tactical, practical and actionable advice and to help its clients make sense of the technology and business events that influence and impact their infrastructures and IT budgets. ITIC can provide your firm with accurate, objective research on a wide variety of technology topics ranging from software, hardware, networking, virtualization and cloud computing to the services industries that support the technology, including outsourcing. ITIC’s mission is to help vendor and corporate clients make sense of the technology and business events that are impacting their infrastructures and their IT budgets.

ITIC 2010 Editorial Calendar & Surveys Read More »

Oracle Buys Virtual Iron

News / By
  • Niche market virtualization vendor known for low priced products
  • Financial details undisclosed
  • Ellison has focused long term strategy
  • Virtual Iron, Sun interoperate with Microsoft platform

When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping. And nobody is a better shopper than Oracle chairman Larry Ellison. His newest acquisition is niche market virtualization vendor Virtual Iron. The company based in Lowell, Massachusetts is notable for delivering innovative server virtualization – that includes live migration and live Snapshot capabilities – at cut rate prices.

The acquisition of Virtual Iron gives Oracle a great play in the SMB space where customers don’t have as much money to invest as their enterprise counterparts. At a list price of less than $800 per socket or under $1,600 for the popular two-socket configuration, Virtual Iron is a bargain.

Ellison is a master strategist. This latest acquisition coming closely on the heels of Oracle’s purchase of Sun Microsystems makes Oracle a contender in many market arenas and serves notice to virtualization market leaders like VMware, Microsoft and Citrix that the thriving virtualization market just got more competitive.

Oracle Buys Virtual Iron Read More »

European Commission vs. Intel

News / By
  • Record $1.45B fine
  • Intel appeals, proclaims innocence
  • EC doesn’t disclose what it does with money
  • Kroes cries “foul” for consumers but doesn’t dispense funds
  • Why are biggest fines levied against American firms?

There are several things about the European Commission’s ongoing five-year antitrust investigation involving Intel Corp. and today’s imposition of a record breaking $1.45B (US dollars) fine against the chip maker, that ITIC finds disturbing.

To recap, the EC, led by European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes, asserts that Intel violated European antitrust regulations and abused its dominant market position by undercutting rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) prices. The EC says that over a five year period from 2002 through 2007 (two of them on current Intel President and CEO, Paul Ottelini’s watch) that Intel sought to exclude AMD from European markets by giving hefty rebates to all of the top hardware makers and even paying Media Saturn Holding, which owns the MediaMarkt electronics chain of stores to stop or delay stocking PCs equipped with AMD chips.

Consequently, the EC today slapped Intel with a whopping $1.45 billion fine. That figure bests the roughly $1.2B (US dollars) the EC imposed on Microsoft in 2004-2005, for anti-competitive actions in the server operating system and media software markets. In a prepared statement, Ms. Kroes said that “Intel used illegal anticompetitive practices to exclude its only competitor and reduce consumers’ choice – and the whole story is about consumers,” adding that Intel’s action “undermined innovation.” Kroes positively crowed about the EC’s action against Intel even joking that, “Intel would have to change its new tagline – “sponsors of tomorrow” – to “sponsors of the European taxpayers.”

Intel is aggressively and vocally proclaiming its innocence. In a teleconference call with reporters and analysts earlier today president and CEO Paul Ottellini strongly denied the charges, stating that “Intel never sells products below costs” and he vowed to appeal the EC’s decision and fines. Intel was also the subject of similar past and current antitrust probes in Japan and Korea and most recently here in the U.S. by the Federal Trade Commission and the Attorney General in New York. Ottellini told reporters and analysts that to date, none of Intel’s customers or OEM manufacturing partners, who include Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo or NEC have complained or joined the complaint against them. “It’s hard to imagine how consumers were harmed since we lowered prices and AMD claims that it’s more vibrant than ever. Intel has not yet seen all the details of the 500 page document does. It’s a very competitive business in most cases our customers are larger than Intel with excellent negotiating powers.

It may take months or years before Intel is found innocent or guilty, but the EC and its Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes, are not White Knights crusading on behalf of downtrodden consumers, as Kroes herself is fond of saying. Since Kroes was appointed to be the top watchdog for the EC five years ago, she’s gone gunning for big U.S. firms, making headlines and imposing exorbitant fines in the process. They don’t get any bigger than Microsoft and now Intel.

Intel should feel gratified that the EC and Kroes didn’t impose the stiffest penalty. Under EC Article 82, the trade body can fine Intel for up to 10% of its annual worldwide sales! Intel’s fiscal 2008 revenues were a whopping $37.6 billion. So theoretically, according to its own rules, the EC could have fined Intel $3.8 billion.

For the record, ITIC believes that any corporation, that is found guilty of predatory antitrust activities against competitors should be held accountable for their actions and pay the proverbial piper to the fullest extent that the law will allow. ITIC also believes that the punishment should fit the crime. That didn’t happen with Microsoft – when the EC compelled the Redmond, Washington software giant to manufacture a version of Windows that did not contain a media player and sell it for the same price as the version that bundled the media player software. Microsoft spent tens of millions doing that only to have distributors refuse to stock it and in the end, EC antitrust regulations prohibited Microsoft from even giving it away! What was the purpose – other than spite – to make Microsoft build a product that no one wanted?

The EC’s own actions – most notably with respect to what it does with the penalty monies they collect – are as transparent as lead! The trade body never says what it does with the monies it collects. This is in stark contrast to the U.S. Department of Justice, which issued rebates to corporations and consumers after it found Microsoft guilty of antitrust violations in the Netscape browser war of the 1990s. Nor does it appear that should Intel lose the appeal that EC will disburse the penalty monies to assist any current or future European semiconductor makers in building logic chips that will compete and counter Intel’s dominant position. And the EC also hasn’t given any indication that if the antitrust findings against Intel are upheld that it will award any damage money to Intel’s rival AMD.

On the rare occasions the question is raised, the EC and Kroes manage to stonewall with the too-pat responses that the money collected in antitrust cases becomes part of the EC’s annual budget of approximately �130 billion (Euro). So where’s the relief for the downtrodden, supposedly victimized European consumers and corporations?

And what’s stopping any European firms or governments from building logic chips to compete against Intel In fact, you’d be hard pressed to name five or even one innovative European chip maker. The only one that comes to mind is Inmos, Ltd., which was founded in 1978 in Britain, got sold to Thorn-EMI and was privatized and finally sold in December 1994 to STMicroelectronics which fully assimilated it and discontinued the use of the brand name.

Meanwhile, those big, bad American firms keep on stimulating the local and regional European economies. Intel employs 6,000 workers in Europe – most of them at the company’s large manufacturing facility in Ireland, according to Ottellini. That’s a lot of jobs and a lot of revenue. Kroes would be well advised – whenever she can stop cracking jokes – that her continuing hard line against American firms could backfire. It’s not inconceivable that Intel, Microsoft and other firms could scale back European operations if it becomes too onerous to do business there.

Apparently, even European free market advocates are critical of the EC’s decision to fine Intel and are publicly criticizing the trade body. In an article on VON’s Website , Jonathan Zuck, president of the Association for Competitive Technology, a tech advocacy foundation based in Brussels, was quoted as questioning the EC’s actions and motivations. “For the past 20 years, the microprocessor industry has delivered more innovation, more speed, more functionality, and lower prices,” Zuck said. “Over the past 10 years, the average price of Intel’s PC microprocessors has dropped by 60 percent. When the only one complaining about the competitive situation is AMD, it raises serious concerns about the efficacy of this action.”

ITIC will keep you apprised of updates as they unfold. And we’ll also keep trying to “follow the money.”

European Commission vs. Intel Read More »

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