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IBM Still Dominating Green500 List

Paul Lilly — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 07:02:14 -0600

Who would've guessed that 18 of the top 20 most energy efficient supercomputers on the planet are built with IBM hardware? Let's be honest, who wouldn't have guessed it? This isn't the first time IBM has dominated the Green500 list, which includes a range of energy efficient supercomputers all around the globe, but it's hard not to be impressed that the company holds 69 of the top 100 positions on the list.

"Supercomputers can no longer focus only on raw performance. The era of simply adding more processors is coming to a close," said David Turek, vice president, deep computing, IBM. "Clients need to be able to run supercomputers anywhere, not only places that have cheap power. As the Green500 proves, IBM has focused on this issue for some time and is well positioned to usher in performance breakthroughs along with efficiency gains."

IBM also claims the most energy efficient system in the world with a supercomputer built at the Julich supercoming center in Germany. The machine is capable of producing more than 732 Mflops per watt of energy.

EU Extends Oracle-Sun Deadline

Paul Lilly — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 07:02:02 -0600

Oracle will have to wait a little bit longer before deciding on its next step in its planned $7.4 billion takeover of Sun. That's because European Union regulators on Friday said they have extended the deadline of its review until January 27 in response to Oracle asking for more time "in order to have the opportunity to further develop its arguments in response to the Commission's concerns."

The new deadline gives Oracle six additional days to plead its case, which consists of convincing the EU that the purchase of open-source database software MySQL isn't a conflict of interest and won't hamstring competition.

While the U.S. has already approved the multi-billion dollar deal, the EU contends that should Oracle acquire Sun, it would purposely kill off the free and open-source MySQL so as not to cannibalize its own paid server database software. But Oracle has accused the EU of not understanding the database market, particularly how it applies on the open-source level.

Should the EU ultimately rule against the deal, Oracle said it would fight the decision in court.

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Novell: It's Tough to Make Money with Open Source, "Keep it Proprietary"

Paul Lilly — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:24:20 -0600

Despite the growing popularity of open source software, there's still the issue of how to make money with it. No easy task, warns Miguel de Icaza, Vice President of Novell, who also heads up the firm's open source Mono project.

"If your livelihood depends on the product that you're selling, until you can figure how you're going to make money on that thing, I say, keep it proprietary," de Icaza said.

The VP went on to say that it's "incredibly difficult" making an open source business. His remarks were in response to an audience member at the Microsoft PDC (Professional Developers Conference), who raised the question of making money via open source. The issue of making money by selling support also came up.

"You need to take those steps carefully in my opinion," de Icaza said. "And support, by the way, is a horrible business. I want to be writing code, and I want to be paid to write code."

The VP did note that if you're a young developer without a lot of obligations, like a family and tuition, then it's far easier to consider doing open source projects.

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Dell's 3Q Sales and Profits Fall Flat

Paul Lilly — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:24:09 -0600

Dell didn't deliver in the third quarter the way analysts were expecting, instead missing the mark even on modest expectations, Businessweek reports.

According to the OEM's earnings report, sales dropped 15 percent to $12.9 billion. Net income took a bigger hit and fell by 54 percent to $337 million, or 23 cents per share, well below Wall Street's prediction that Dell would earn 28 cents per share on sales of $13.1 billion.

The poor performance affected just about every aspect of Dell's businesses, but sales to large businesses were hit particularly hard. That's bad news when close to 80 percent of Dell's sales are businesses and government customers.

Even the launch of Windows 7 didn't do much to bolster sales, at least not yet. According to company CFO Brian Gladden, customers had put off purchasing a PC in the weeks leading up to Windows 7, and Dell's quarter ended just eight days after launch.

"We built a bit of a backlog as a result, and we'll ship through that in the fourth quarter," Gladden said.

Will IT Workers Remain Loyal when the Recession Ends?

Paul Lilly — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 07:06:30 -0600

Some CIOs worry that underpaid IT pros may be a flight risk once the economy rebounds. That's because IT workers have been asked to work more for less money, while also watching their benefits be taken away, and that's not something they'll soon forget once job opportunities open up elsewhere, suggests a new survey.

Robert Half Technologies pinged 1,400 CIOs and found that 43 percent of them plan to make retaining existing workers their top staffing priority in 2010.

"Employers need to focus on preventing burnout and keeping their best people engaged at work. This may be a challenge, given that staffing cuts and the reduction or elimination of benefits have left many employees feeling overworked and undervalued," said Dave Willmer, executive director at Robert Half Technology, in a statement.

But it's not all gloom and doom for CIOs. To prevent a mass exodus among IT staff, Robert Half Technology suggests that IT employers begin implementing training and career development programs. The firm also recommends communicating regularly with staff and encouraging team-building activities that promote a balance between work and life.

"Companies may have to work at 're-selling' themselves to existing employees in much the same way the would when promoting themselves to prospective hires," Willmer said.

But will it be enough?

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Netbooks Coming to the Enterprise, Get Ready IT Dept

Paul Lilly — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 07:06:21 -0600

Netbooks have been selling exceptionally well without much support in the enterprise sector, but they won't stay relegated to the consumer side forever, and that's something IT managers should be preparing for, some observers say.

Maulik Pandya, Dell's senior planning manager for commercial notebooks, says netbooks could conceivably ease into 5 percent of enterprise sales, but there's potential for much more. Rob Enderle, president and principal analyst for the Enderle Group, says that if end-users had any say in the matter, netbooks would blaze past the 5 percent mark.

"Small portable computers for less than $400 is where the market should be," Enderle said. "Portability and the price point really tear up the laptop. Many vendors don't wan to build a strong corporate netbook model because they don't want to pirate their laptop lines."

The obvious downside for enterprise applications is the lack of power inherent in most netbooks. However, this might not be as big an issue as some believe. According to Allen Gwinn, senior director and chief technologist for the Edwin L. Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, there are workarounds. He cites an example of one faculty member who works with demanding SAS models.

"We couldn't find a laptop powerful enough for him to do his work at home," said Gwinn. "So we gave him a netbook. He uses the remote desktop feature to connect to his desktop machine in the office."

Scenarios like this are what IT professionals would be wise to prepare for.

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Cisco Increases Bid by $390 Million for Tandberg

Paul Lilly — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 07:05:44 -0600

How seriously does Cisco want to acquire Norwegian video conferencing firm Tandberg? Serious enough to increase its original takeover offer by another $390 million.

"The new offer represents the offeror's final price for this transaction," Cisco said, adding that it will withdraw the offer if it doesn't achieve the desired 90 percent level of acceptance, the Wall Street Journal reports.

In early October, Cisco offered to buy Tandberg for a little under $3.1 billion, which already represented an 11 percent premium to Tandberg's share price. Cisco said it was a "fair price" for the firm and hinted that it might walk away from the deal if not approved, but several minority shareholders disagreed and ultimately rejected the original offer.

It's believed that the new offer will probably be accepted, which already has the support of several bigger shareholders.

"We continue to believe that Cisco and Tandberg share a vision of changing the way people communicate and collaborate, and that the combination of world-class technologies, Cisco's global scale, and exceptional people from both organizations will enable us to accelerate innovation and market adoption," said Fredrik Halvorsen, Tandberg Chief Executive.

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Shareholders Slap 3Com with Class Action Lawsuit

Paul Lilly — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 07:05:34 -0600

3Com's board of directors and the company's shareholders appear to be at odds over a proposed $2.7 billion merger agreement with HP that was announced last week. Displeased with the potential merger, the shareholders have filed a class action lawsuit in hopes of preventing the deal.

The complaint names the entire company's board of directors and accuses the defendants of attempting to deceive 3Com shareholders by agreeing to a deal that undermines the true value of their investment in the company, TechCrunch reports.

Under terms of the agreement, HP would pay stockholders of 3Com $7.90 per share, but the bankruptcy lawyer who filed the case on behalf of the plaintiffs argues that 3Com's directors should have insisted on a higher price.