management

2011 YTD in High Tech: Bold Aggressive Actions

It’s hard to believe but the first quarter of 2011 is now a memory and we’re well into spring. The tone for the year in high technology was set in early January: fast, bold, aggressive action and sweeping management changes.

In the first four months of the year high tech vendors moved quickly and decisively to seize opportunities in established sectors (smart phones, virtualization, back-up and disaster recovery) and emerging markets (cloud computing, tablet devices and unified storage management). As 2011 unfolds, it’s apparent that high technology vendors are willing to shift strategies and shed executives in order to stay one step ahead of or keep pace with competitors. The competition is cutthroat and unrelenting. No vendor, no matter how dominant its market share, how pristine its balance sheet or how deep its order backlog and book to bill ratio dares relax or rest on its laurels for even a nanosecond.

Recaps of some of the year’s highlights thus far are very revealing. …

2011 YTD in High Tech: Bold Aggressive ActionsRead More »

2011 YTD in High Tech: Bold Aggressive Actions Read More »

ITIC 2010-2011 Infrastructure Trends Survey Shows Sharp Increase in Mobility & Use of Ipads, Smart Phones in the Workplace; Cloud Deployments Slow

ITIC Reports & Surveys / By Laura DiDio

The sharp increase in remote and mobile workers is spurring the fast adoption of iPads in the workplace. At the same time, public cloud computing deployments among mainstream users remain slow and steady. These are some of the other survey highlights of the latest ITIC/Sunbelt Software survey on Desktop and Infrastructure deployment trends.

No Rush to the Cloud — Yet

Users on the Move: Number of Mobile workers increases

The survey results also confirm what has been widely reported: that greater numbers and percentages of users are spending more time telecommuting, traveling and generally working outside the corporate offices.

Over half – 58 percent of businesses say that up to 25 percent of their employees work remotely; another 18 percent of respondents said that between 26 to 50 percent of their workers are remote; 11 percent said that 51 to 75 percent work outside the office and seven percent of respondents said that 76 to 100 percent of their employees work remotely. It is significant that only 7 percent of the over 400 businesses polled say that none of their workers are remote or mobile. …

ITIC 2010-2011 Infrastructure Trends Survey Shows Sharp Increase in Mobility & Use of Ipads, Smart Phones in the Workplace; Cloud Deployments SlowRead More »

ITIC 2010-2011 Infrastructure Trends Survey Shows Sharp Increase in Mobility & Use of Ipads, Smart Phones in the Workplace; Cloud Deployments Slow Read More »

HP, Microsoft Still Have Some ‘Splainin’ to Do on Application-to-Infrastructure Pact

Laura's Insights ITIC Blog / By Laura DiDio

The recently announced joint Hewlett-Packard/Microsoft Application-to-Infrastructure Model Partnership has intriguing possibilities for both companies and their respective and overlapping installed customer base. However, it remains to be seen how quickly and efficiently the two industry giants can deliver products and market the merits of the solution. Now $250 million is huge investment even for two high tech powerhouses like HP and Microsoft. So we know this is a serious committment.

To recap, HP and Microsoft said they will invest $250 million into their Frontline Partnership. The deal aims to deliver full, integrated stacks that support Microsoft’s Exchange Server and SQL Server, including management, virtualization and cloud implementations. The resulting product offerings will consist of pre-packaged application solution bundles that incorporate the aforementioned management and virtualization capabilities. The two companies said the pact calls for them to partner on engineering, R&D, marketing and channel sales.
Still, the announcement left many industry watchers with more questions than answers. As my colleagues Charles King and Merv Adrian noted in their Breaking News Review in the January 14 special edition of Charles King’s Pund-IT, HP and Microsoft “have worked closely for years, share tens of thousands of common customers and channel partners and have long supported each other’s interests.”
So what’s new about this announcement? That question should be answered during the coming months. A $250 million investment is considerable even for two high technology titans. It now remains for HP and Microsoft to execute on their promise to produce solutions that thoroughly integrate the two companies’ infrastructure and applications stacks to ship pre-configured and optimized solutions for Microsoft’s Exchange Server, and SQL Server, virtualization, cloud computing converged infrastructure and pre-packaged application tools.
But perhaps the most immediate and daunting challenge is for HP and Microsoft to deliver a product roadmap that also includes specific details about the pricing, training and services the two firms will commonly deliver. Above all, companies must market and sell this deal to the legions of skeptics. The high tech industry has witnessed numerous high profile partnership deals announced amidst much industry fanfare never to be heard from after the initial press releases.
Remember the Cisco Systems/Microsoft Directory Enabled Network (DEN) initiative of the late 1990s? No. Not many people do. Announced with great fanfare, this dream team was supposed to incorporate the functionality of Microsoft’s Active Directory into Cisco routers and provide network administrators with a more comprehensive means of managing various devices on their network. In reality, the Cisco/Microsoft DEN initiative was a partnership on paper only. There are dozens of similar examples. Hence, the skepticism that greets such announcements is understandable.
This is all the more reason for HP and Microsoft executives to follow up on last week’s announcement with quick, decisive action and not just more fodder for the PR Newswire. For example, when can we expect to see the first fruits of the so-called “deeply optimized machine environment” that will provide turn-key, pre-packaged and pre-integrated server, application, networking and storage solutions? Who are the specific target users and how will they benefit? How will Microsoft and HP license and service these products? Those are just a few of the questions that need to be answered.
Non-Exclusive Partnerships Sometimes Make Strange Bedfellows
The partnership also has especially intriguing implications for HP which now has pacts in place with all of the major virtualization providers, including Microsoft’s biggest rival, and VMware. The new HP/Microsoft Application-to-Infrastructure is a non-exclusive three year partnership. It’s worth noting that HP already has a deal in place with VMware, whose ESX Server is the market leader in server virtualization. Microsoft also gets a boost from this deal. Microsoft’s Hyper-V has been gaining ground, particularly among small and mid-sized corporations. However, it has a long way to go to catch up to ESX Server’s installed base, particularly among large enterprises, so this pact helps keep Microsoft competitive. Additionally, HP also delivers a full suite of management solutions that integrates VMware’s vCenter offering with HP’s Insight management product. HP and Microsoft intend to similarly integrate HP’s Insight and Microsoft’s Systems Center. So again, this helps Microsoft broaden the appeal of its virtualization appeal to its existing base and makes it a more attractive solution for prospective customers.
The partnership with Microsoft put’s HP in the proverbial cat-bird’s seat: it now has a full line of its own servers that runs all the VMware products and similar plans to support Microsoft’s SQL Server and Exchange Server. This gives HP the ability to offer a full line of integrated hardware and services customers their choice of virtualization vendors, while remaining agnostic.
From Microsoft’s perspective, the partnership with HP also has immediate value: it allows Microsoft – at least on paper – to keep pace with VMware, by working with HP, a top OEM hardware vendor and services provider, which is no mean feat. Former Microsoft executive Paul Maritz who now runs VMware is intent on rejuvenating that company and he knows that the way to solidify and expand VMware’s influence is to increase its stake in management and applications. Just last week, VMware purchased Zimbra, the open source Email and collaboration unit of Yahoo for a rumored $100 million. Not coincidentally, Zimbra describes its Collaboration suite as the “next generation” Microsoft Exchange server.
Microsoft clearly felt the need to respond in kind.
The plethora of technology and partnership deals such the HP/Microsoft Application-to-Infrastructure pact, serve as a reminder of the intensity of the IT industry’s competitive landscape – particularly in burgeoning markets like virtualization and by extension, nascent markets like cloud computing. No vendor can afford to rest on its laurels. They must continue to upgrade their product and services offerings to keep pace with the competition.
Microsoft and VMware will continue to try and top one another, and HP is the beneficiary of this ongoing rivalry. Let’s hope the end users are also winners, too.

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ITIC 2009-2010 Global Virtualization Deployment Trends Survey Results

ITIC Reports & Surveys / By Laura DiDio

Server virtualization demand and deployments are strong and will remain so for the remainder of 2009 and through 2010, despite the ongoing economic downturn.

The results of the new, independent ITIC 2009 Global Server Virtualization Survey, which polled more than 700 corporations worldwide during May/June and August, reveal that server virtualization deployments have remained strong throughout the ongoing 2009 economic downturn. It also shows that the three market leaders Citrix, Microsoft and VMware, are consolidating their positions even as the virtualization arena itself consolidates through mergers, acquisitions and partnerships.

Microsoft in particular has made big year-over-year gains in deployments and market share. Thanks to the summer release of the new Hyper-V 2.0 with live migration capabilities the Redmond, Washington software firm has substantially closed the feature/performance gap between itself and VMware’s ESX Server. The technical advances of Hyper-V combined with the excellent conditions of Microsoft’s licensing program, make the company’s virtualization products very competitive and alluring. Three out of five — 59% of the survey respondents — indicated their intent to deploy Hyper-V 2.0 within the next 12 to 18 months.

Survey responses also show a groundswell of support for application and desktop virtualization deployments. These two market segments constitute a much smaller niche of deployments and installations compared to virtualized server environments. The survey results show that application virtualization (where Microsoft is the market leader) and desktop virtualization (in which Citrix is the market leader), are both poised for significant growth in the 2010 timeframe.

Another key survey revelation was that 40% of respondents, especially businesses with 500 or more end users, said they either have or plan to install virtualization products from multiple vendors. This will place more emphasis and importance on integration, interoperability, management and third-party add-on tools to support these more complex, heterogeneous virtualization environments.

Among the other key survey highlights:

The “Big Three,” Citrix, Microsoft and VMware, are bolstering their positions with a slew of new offerings and a plethora of partnerships due out in the 2009 summer and fall.
Partnerships and Alliances: The alliance between Citrix and Microsoft remains robust as these two firms believe that there’s strength in numbers, as they mount a challenge to server virtualization leader VMware’s continuing dominance.
Microsoft Hyper-V Closes the Gap: Microsoft made big year-over-year market share gains from 2008 to 2009. The survey data shows current Hyper-V usage at 32%; but 59% plan to adopt in next 12 to 18 months.
VMware remains the market leader in server virtualization with approximately 50% share among enterprise users; Microsoft follows with 26% share.
Microsoft is the current market leader in application virtualization with a 15% share; followed by Citrix with 11% and VMware with 7%. However, nearly two-thirds of businesses have not yet deployed application virtualization.
Citrix is the market leader in desktop virtualization with a 19% market share followed by Microsoft with 15% and VMware with 8%. But again, over 60% of corporations have not yet begun to virtualize their desktop environments.
Mergers and Acquisitions Raise Questions: There is confusion among the legacy Sun and Virtual Iron users as to what will happen to both the product lines and technical support in the wake of both firms’ acquisition by Oracle.
Apple Mac is a popular virtualization platform; nearly 30% of respondents said they use Mac hardware in conjunction with Windows operating systems to virtualize their server and desktop environments.
Parallels and VMware Fusion are the two leading Mac virtualization vendors with a near 50/50 split market share.
Time to Bargain: Despite budget cuts and reduced resources only a very small percentage of companies — 7% — have attempted to renegotiate their virtualization licensing contracts to get lower prices and better deals.
Server Virtualization Lowers TCO: Almost 50% of survey respondents reported that server virtualization lets them lower their total cost of ownership (TCO) and achieve faster return on investment (ROI); however, only 25% of businesses could quantify the actual monetary cost savings
Users Prefer Terra Firma Virtualization to Cloud: Users are moving slowly with respect to public cloud computing migrations, which are heavily dependent on virtualization technology. To date, only 14% of survey respondents said they will move their data to a virtualized public cloud within the next six-to-12 months.

This survey identifies the trends that propel or impede server, application and desktop virtualization deployments and to elucidate the timeframes in which corporations plan to virtualize their environments. ITIC advises all businesses, irrespective of size or vertical market to conduct due diligence to determine which virtualization solution or combination of products best meets their technical and business needs in advance of any migration. And in light of the ongoing economic downturn, businesses are well advised to negotiate hard with their vendors for the best deals and to ensure that the appropriate IT managers receive the necessary training and certification to ensure a smooth, trouble-free virtualization upgrade. This will enable the business to lower TCO, accelerate ROI and minimize and mitigate risk to an acceptable level.

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Corporations Prefer Terra Firma to the Cloud — For Now

Laura's Insights ITIC Blog, News / By credenceweb

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.

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IBM Charts Green, Energy Efficient Course with Dynamic Infrastructure Initiatives

Laura's Insights ITIC Blog / By Laura DiDio

These days just about every high technology vendor is “keen to be green.” However, few vendors can match IBM for its pioneering efforts and long term commitment to energy efficient solutions that are both good for the planet and good for recession racked enterprises.

This week, IBM took another giant step in its green data efforts. It officially launched its Dynamic Infrastructure for Energy Efficiency initiative, which is a comprehensive, compelling set of new hardware, software and services offerings designed to help customers build, manage and maintain more energy efficient infrastructures.

IBM’s Managing Dynamic Infrastructure for Energy Efficiency initiative serves as a blueprint for vendors and corporate customers to follow and emulate in their respective efforts to reduce power consumption, utility costs and their carbon footprints in the pursuit of greater system, application and network equipment economies of scale.

Declaring that “Environmental sustainability is an imperative for 21st Century business,” Rich Lechner, IBM’s VP of Energy & Environment, outlined IBM’s ambitious plan. Lechner and Chris O’Connor, VP of Tivoli Strategy, Product Management and SWG Green said that Big Blue worked with some 3,200 customers over the past two years to construct and validate metrics on energy usage and costs. Among the key findings from these efforts:

IT energy expenses are expected to increase 35% between 2009 and 2013
An overwhelming 80% of CEOs expect climate change regulations in five years
Buildings account for 40% of worldwide energy consumption

The company’s new products and services are the product of years of primary research and extensive research and development (R&D) in which the company has. spared no effort or expense in its quest to “go green” and assist its customers. It addresses the full spectrum of Green IT issues including: conservation, pollution prevention, consolidation and regulatory compliance initiatives for the physical devices and facilities and using renewable energy sources.

Managing Dynamic Infrastructure for Energy Efficiency

IBM’s Managing Dynamic Infrastructure for Energy Efficiency calls for corporations to build Green Infrastructures, Sustainable Solutions and Intelligent Systems. IBM’s plan is backed by a wide array of product offerings such as the Tivoli Monitoring for Energy Management and enhancements to the existing Tivoli Business Service Manager. IBM is offering customer a free trial of the Tivoli Monitoring for Energy Management.

The Tivoli Energy Management solution is supported by IBM hardware and IBM Global Services. The latter includes chargeback and accounting services and the ability to demonstrate to customers how to optimize assets (plant and facilities) and improve energy usage.

On the hardware front, IBM is embedding new capabilities in its x86 servers through consolidation which can result in an astounding 95% reduction of power compared to servers built three or four years ago.

IBM also has a Green Infrastructure ROI analysis tool. This is an interactive Web-based assessment toll that provides business with benchmarks on green/energy efficiency performance. It also provides the customers with specific recommendations to reduce energy consumption.

IBM also has a full set of services offerings to assist corporations in reviewing their current consumption and infrastructure and constructing customized plans for Green IT. IBM also has agreements in place with a number of technology partners – including Novell and Thunderhead – to deliver solutions that are certified to reduce environmental impact.

Going Green is Good Business

According to Lechner and O’Connor, Green IT initiatives will yield tangible benefits. Actual dollar value cost savings will vary according to the business and its specific cost cutting efforts. IBM customer Care2 for instance, cut energy consumption by 70% and reduced energy usage by 340 megawatt hours with proactive management. Another enterprise customer, Nationwide Insurance anticipates it will save $15 million (US dollars) over the next three years, including an 85% to 90% reduction in server utilization rates via virtualization and an 80% decrease in its environmental costs.

Not surprisingly, Lechner and O’Connor said that IBM practices what it preaches: IBM’s Austin facility achieved a 150% capacity increase while simultaneously cutting energy consumption by 25%. Those figures were good enough for the EPA to rank IBM’s Austin facility number 31 on its list of Greenest hardware vendors.

“Four years ago when we worked with clients [regarding energy efficiency] the discussion was academic,” Lechner said. “Now they want IBM to help them with Proof of Concept (POC) initiatives. The ROI for Green IT is two years or less,” he added.

Analysis

IBM’s Managing Dynamic Infrastructure for Energy Efficiency is the real deal. It is the result of years of dedication and commitment. And it shows. As one of the founding developers of the Electronic Industry Code of Conduct (EICC) in 2004 IBM has always backed up its words with action. The EICC is a code of best practices adopted and implemented by some of the world’s major electronics brands and their suppliers. Its goal is to improve conditions in the electronics supply chain.

It is well known and well documented that demand for Green desktop and server hardware and services will increase significantly over the next one-to-five years. Governments, states, municipalities and utility firms are now offering consumers and businesses a mixture of incentives, backed by mandates to reduce costs, power consumption and produce hardware, whose material components won’t poison the planet when it comes time to discard and/or recycle them.

Green IT initiatives are rising sharply and it’s easy to see why. The energy used to process and route server requests and transactions will exceed 100 Billion kilowatts (kWh) at an annual cost of $7.4 Billion by the year 2011, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). PCs and servers are currently the biggest hogs consuming 60% of peak power even when idle!!! This is double the energy servers used in 2006!

Corporations have a choice: go green voluntarily or be compelled to do so by a slew of new regulations which are now being written into law. For example, one of the mandates of the Green Building Act of 2006 requires that commercial buildings in Washington, D.C. larger than 50,000 sq. ft. must meet or exceed New Construction standards by 2012. Others are voluntary like the Energy Policy Act of 2005. It allows building owners to realize a tax savings of $1.80 per sq. ft. for new commercial buildings that reduce regulated energy use by 50%.

ITIC’s own survey data indicates that 74% of corporate data centers face limitations and constraints on space, power consumption and the rising costs associated with energy and physical plant leasing/rentals. The obvious solution is to cut energy consumption and utility costs, which in turn, reduce carbon emissions and cut the greenhouse gases.

IBM’s Managing Dynamic Infrastructure for Energy Efficiency initiative is a well-conceived and powerful set of products and services. It solidifies IBM’s reputation and position as an energy efficiency pioneer. Few vendors can match IBM in this area. IBM is well positioned to help corporations achieve their goals of cutting costs, consolidating server hardware and physical plant space and ultimately becoming carbon neutral. Corporations are urged to examine IBM’s products and services and test them for themselves.

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ITIC Survey Indicates 35% of Companies Will Delay Network Upgrades for Lack of Money

ITIC Reports & Surveys / By Laura DiDio

Server hardware, network infrastructure and storage upgrades are hardest hit; 97% of security upgrades are on course; nearly 40% of companies report their migrations will proceed on schedule.

BOSTON, MA (February 2, 2009) — Information Technology Intelligence Corporation (ITIC), a high-tech research and consulting firm, today announced that the global economic downturn will force 35% of corporations to delay or abandon crucial network upgrades during 2009.

The latest joint survey conducted by ITIC and Sunbelt Software polled over 700 C-level executives and IT managers at 700 corporations worldwide. The results showed that budgetary constraints and IT staffing issues topped users’ list of most daunting business challenges in the year ahead. The corporate respondents indicated they are understandably cautious about spending their precious capital expenditure monies and are only committing to crucial upgrades on an “as needed” basis.

Among the key survey findings:

Over one-third of the corporate respondents — 35% — said that the ongoing economic downturn had caused their companies to delay or abandon planned software, hardware and network infrastructure upgrades. However, an additional 26% of those polled — over one-quarter of companies — indicated they may yet be forced to shelve crucial migration plans due to lack of funds and a dearth of trained IT staff.
Of the 35% of companies that indicated they will delay or abandon certain planned upgrades — the network projects that will be most impacted are: server hardware (21%) and network infrastructure products such as routers (19%) and storage devices (15%).
Security remains the sole market segment that appears to be immune to the global economic downturn. An overwhelming 97% majority of the survey respondents said their security upgrades will proceed as planned, with only a very small 3% minority indicating they will defer security upgrades.
Overall, 39% of the survey respondents — nearly two out of five businesses — reported that their network migration and upgrade plans will proceed as planned in calendar 2009.
Some 27% of companies — or about three out of 10 businesses — reported their 2009 IT budgets will decrease; another 32% said their budgets will remain the same as 2008. Only 16% of the survey respondents reported their IT budgets will increase during the next 12 months.
Of the 16% of corporations that said budgets will increase — the largest portion — 23% said the budget increases would be modest — ranging from 5% to 15%. 8% reported their IT budgets would rise minimally — 1% to 5%. Large budget increases will be a rarity in 2009: only 1% of companies will see budgets go up by 20% to 30%, and 3% will see IT budgets increase by more than 30%.

Survey Methodology and Background

The Web-based survey included multiple choice and essay responses. In addition, ITIC and Sunbelt conducted two dozen first person customer interviews to validate the survey responses. ITIC and Sunbelt received no vendor sponsorship for this research and none of the survey respondents received any remuneration for their participation. Approximately 85% of the respondents came from North America; the remaining 15% came from 20 countries including Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and South America.

About Information Technology Intelligence Corporation (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 help its clients make sense of the technology and business events and provide tactical, practical and actionable advice. For more information visit ITIC’s website at https://itic-corp.com.

About Sunbelt Software

Sunbelt Software was founded in 1994 and is a leading provider of Windows security and management software with product solutions in the areas of antispam and antivirus, antispyware, and vulnerability assessment. Leading products include the CounterSpy and VIPRE product lines. For more information, visit the company’s website at http://sunbeltsoftware.com.

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Apple Shines

Laura's Insights ITIC Blog / By Laura DiDio

Apple rang in 2009 by celebrating a trio of milestones that were impressive by any standards including those of a company whose 32-year span has been filled with a cornucopia of noteworthy events. In quick succession, Apple posted the best financial results in its history: during the just ended 2009 first fiscal quarter it achieved record revenues of nearly $10.2 billion on record net quarterly profits of $1.61 billion and it sold an astounding 22.7 million iPods, another record. The icing on the cake: Apple’s flagship Mac computer celebrated its 25th birthday amidst the news that the Cupertino, California firm’s latest Mac Book and Mac Book Pro notebooks contributed to the overall financial bonanza with sales of 2.5 million units; a 34% gain in year-over-year unit shipments.

These feats would be extraordinary at any time but they offered even more cause for celebration due to their arrival during a week in which the news from almost all of Apple’s high-tech vendor counterparts ranged from disappointing to dismal to downright dire. Intel said it would shed up to 6,000 workers and close five manufacturing plants; Microsoft announced it will lay off 5,000 workers (the first such major action in its history) amidst declining demand for Windows PC solutions, and even the goliath Google saw a sharp decline in its 2009 first fiscal quarter profits.

With such a bountiful harvest, it was more than a little perplexing to read the headline in the January 22 issue of Silicon Valley.com column proclaiming: “Mac’s influence could wane.” Granted, the headline was a bit misleading. The article itself stated that things look good for Apple and its Macs in the near term, but what about the next 25 years? Good question.

Long term forecasts of even five years are more art or guesswork than science. But decades long prognostications are rarities unless you’re talking about Nostradamus or the Oracle of Delphi. So we’re left to forecast with the tools at our disposal – in this case, the facts. So here for your consideration is our Top 10 List concerning Apple’s health and well-being. It includes some little known facts of both a positive and even potentially negative nature.

10. Big Mac sales shrink. Apple Mac desktop sales dipped slightly even as sales of its notebooks and the lightweight Apple Mac Book Air soared. This is hardly surprising. Both the American and global consumers and workforces are becoming increasingly mobile, transitioning into an era of ever-more powerful notebooks, Netbooks (or minis) and PDAs. Critics argue that the commoditization of PC hardware will make it difficult for Apple or any hardware vendor to distinguish itself. As a result, Apple desktop sales may continue to contract along with those of PCs although they won’t become obsolete for many years. Meanwhile, Apple has a wide array of Mac Book, Mac Book Pro and the Mac Book Air products to take up the slack. The company also wisely cut hardware and OS X 10.x operating system prices to be more competitive with PCs.

9. iPod and iPhone. Apple sold a record 22.7 million iPods during the quarter, and the device has approximately 70% market share in the U.S. Worldwide market share percentages vary by country from 70% in Western Europe and Australia to well over 60% in Japan and over 50% in Canada. At the same time, iPhone sales in Q1 were 4.36 units million, representing 88% unit growth over the year-ago quarter. At some point, iPod and iPhone sales may reach saturation but that won’t happen anytime soon and when it does, Apple will most likely have another device in the offing.

8. Up, up and away. Data is no longer tied to the PC or desktop, it is moving to the cloud. Apple is right there in the cloud. Cloud computing is the new buzz word for delivering applications as services via the Internet. The first fruits of Apple’s cloud computing initiative involves the integration of Google’s cloud computing offering, the Google App Engine with Apple’s iPhone mobile computing platform. ITIC anticipates Apple will expand its reach into the cloud, again based on customer demand. Nearly half – 49% of the ITIC/Sunbelt Software survey respondents said they plan to increase integration between existing Apple consumer products like the iPhone to allow corporate users to access corporate Email and other applications over the next 12 months.

7. Marketing. No one does it better. From the moment that Steve Jobs stepped onstage 25 years ago and unveiled his 20lb. baby, to the creative licensing of the Rolling Stones tune “Like a Rainbow”, to partnering with the Irish rock group U2 to help promote iPod usage, Apple’s marketing has always been stellar. Apple uses every available channel – from the airwaves to the street – to promote its brand. There are now 251 Apple retail stores open in 10 countries, with total quarterly traffic of 46.7 million visitors.

6. New gadgets. Users and industry watchers have grown accustomed to Apple debuting revolutionary new products at MacWorld and they disappointed when it doesn’t happen. It is unrealistic to expect that any company, even one as inventive as Apple, can deliver a iPod or iPhone every year. Meanwhile, users will have to “settle” for evolutionary innovations like new laptop batteries that will run for eight hours without re-charging and Time Capsule, an all-in-one 802.11n wireless backup router that includes up to 1 terabyte of disk storage.

5. Leadership. It’s impossible to overstate or understate what company founder Steve Jobs has meant to Apple. His 1996 return to Apple sparked one of the greatest corporate revivals since Lazarus. An iconic figure in Silicon Valley for over 30 years, Jobs’ future is now clouded by health concerns, and investors and industry watchers are rightly nervous. Only time will tell when or if Jobs will return. If he does not, it will be a devastating loss on many levels but it will not cripple the company’s ability to thrive and survive. Still, Apple must allay customer, investor and government concerns by being truthful and forthcoming regarding Jobs and the company’s future.

4. What’s in Apple’s Wallet? Cash — $28.1 billion to be exact and $0 debt. That’s more than Google ($15.85B); Microsoft ($20.3B); IBM ($12.9B); Intel ($11.84B) or Sony ($6.05B). Apple also has double digit profit margins of 14.70% and operating margins of nearly 19%; return on assets is 10.77% while return on shareholders’ equity is a robust 24.47%. Few if any corporations can boast such a healthy balance sheet, which leaves Apple free to invest heavily in R&D, marketing initiatives and other efforts to keep ahead of competitors.

3. Apple is hot – and cool. Consumers have always loved Apple and there’s nothing to indicate that will change. Consumer enthusiasm for iPods and iPhones has fueled the resurgence of Macs and OS X 10.x in enterprises. Everyone it seems has or wishes they had an iPod or an iPhone. Beyond that the latest joint ITIC/Sunbelt Software data indicates that Apple is increasing its presence in many markets thanks to the performance and reliability of the core products. Eight out of 10 businesses – 82% of the survey respondents – rated the reliability of the Mac and OS X 10.x as “excellent” or “very good,” while almost 70% of those polled gave the same high marks to the security of the Apple platform. Tellingly, 68% of the survey respondents said their firms are likely to allow more users to deploy Macs as their enterprise desktops in the next six-to-12 months.

2. Enterprising. Over the past three years Apple has made a comeback in the enterprise. The latest joint ITIC/Sunbelt Software survey of 700 companies worldwide indicates that nearly 80% of businesses have Macs in their environment and 25% have significant (>30) numbers of Macs. But while enterprise users love Apple, IT managers remain divided. The biggest drawback for the Mac is the dearth of enterprise-class third party management and performance enhancement tools but technical service and support is also an issue. Apple will have to address these points if the company expects or plans to challenge Microsoft’s dominance on business desktops. So far, Apple has been silent about its enterprise strategy but a new consortium of five third party vendors calling itself the Enterprise Desktop Alliance (EDA) is determined to promote the management, integration and interoperability capabilities of the Mac in corporate environments.

1. Mobile and agile, not fragile. The combination and plethora of Apple consumer and corporate devices makes for a powerful product portfolio with widespread appeal. Unlike many of its competitors Apple is not dependent on a single product or market segment. Hence, when sales decline in one sector, the slippage is offset by another product as we’ve seen with Mac notebooks picking up the slack for Mac desktops. This enables Apple to adjust both its technology plans and market focus accordingly, strengthening and insulating the company from cyclical downturns.

One of the hallmarks of Apple’s existence has been the ability to re-invent itself – not only changing with the times – but keeping its fingers on the pulse of an often fickle public and anticipating what its users and the industry wants. Apple is well positioned for both the near and intermediate term. It will have to stay focused, keep its edge and clearly communicate its strategy in order to maintain the same level of success it has achieved in the last 32 years.

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Microsoft Pulls Out all the Stops for SQL Server 2008

Laura's Insights ITIC Blog / By Laura DiDio

Microsoft is pulling out all the stops to support SQL Server 2008 and keep the momentum going for its latest enhanced database offering. On September 29, the company will launch the SQL Server 2008 Experience, a year-long series of in-person events designed to introduce “350,000+ customers, partners and community members” to the new features and benefits of its database offering.

Additionally, Microsoft is touting the merits of SQL Server 2008 on a new Website: http://www.moresqlserver.com. And it also just released the results of the new Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC) performance benchmark tests for Microsoft SQL Server 2008. The TPC ranked Microsoft SQL Server 2008 #1 on price/performance on servers using Intel’s new Dunnington x64 processors, and as the top performance leader using IBM’s new System x3950 M2 server.

There’s no doubt that SQL Server 2008 boasts greatly improved features, functions, scalability, security, management and reliability compared to the 2005 version, and a more powerful, robust and manageable SQL Server 2008 is a must for Microsoft. The company is going head to head with industry powerhouses including IBM’s DB2 and Oracle’s 11g database running on Linux. So 2009 is shaping up to be an extremely competitive and crucial year for database vendors and their respective customers.

At this point, Microsoft is a strong number three behind Oracle and IBM in the database arena, according to both Gartner Group and IDC. The latest statistics show Oracle with approximately 42% market share; IBM second with about 21% and Microsoft with an estimated 19% of the database market. The financial stakes are also high: Oracle’s database revenue is well over $7 billion; IBM realizes close to $3.5 billion from database sales and Microsoft SQL Server generates close to $3 billion in annual sales.

In order to retain its existing installed base and increase its presence – particularly among SMBs and large enterprises, Microsoft must hit the ground running with SQL Server 2008. There is no margin for error from either a technical or a marketing standpoint. Hence, Microsoft is marshalling all its forces.

SQL Server 2008 incorporates a slew of new management capabilities such as: policy management; configuration servers; data collector/management warehouse and a multiple server query capability. Such features are crucial for database administrators, particularly those in large enterprises who are charged with overseeing complex and geographically dispersed database environments that may include hundreds or thousands of physical and virtual servers encompassing tens of thousands of databases.

The SQL Server 2008 Policy Management feature enables database administrators to create and execute configuration policies against one or more servers while the Data Collector facility obviates the need for managers to create custom solutions to cull data from their database server environments.

Data Collector lets administrators utilize the SQL Server Agent and SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) to create a framework that collects and stores data while delivering a detailed history of error handling, auditing, and collection.

Just as important as SQL Server 2008’s new management functions are the accompanying documentation and training that Microsoft is making available for the database platform via its Website, TechNet and its Software Assurance maintenance and upgrade program. Vendor rivalries aside, the chief impediments to users upgrading to any new software platform are the cost and complexity of the migration. These factors are even more crucial when weighed against the cost constraints of the current economic downturn. Microsoft’s TechNet provides SQL Server 2008 customers with ample, “at-your-fingertips” documentation and troubleshooting tips as they prepare to upgrade.

In addition, customers who have purchased Microsoft’s Software Assurance will be able to get significant discounts on training as well as access to Elearning tools. The combination of TechNet and Software Assurance can save IT departments and the corporation untold thousands to millions in capital and operational expenditures and cut upgrade time by 25% to 65% depending on the size and scope of the deployment. And in the event that any significant bugs or performance glitches arise, Microsoft must move quickly and decisively to publicly address the problems and issue the necessary patches without dissembling or temporizing.

Overall, Microsoft has assembled all of the necessary technology and business components to make SQL Server 2008 a winner. The latest Microsoft database has the performance, scalability and management to make the upgrade path easy. The excellent documentation and technical support offered by TechNet is also a plus. Companies worried about budgetary constraints (and who isn’t?) will also find monetary relief from the inherent value of the myriad Software Assurance benefits.

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