Below are the top five companies in the Computer Hardware industry as ranked by free cash flow (FCF) per share. FCF/share is a valuable metric signaling a company’s ability to facilitate growth in the business.

Apple (AAPL) ranks first with free cash flow per share of 18.24x; Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) ranks second with free cash flow per share of 3.36x; and Diebold (DBD) ranks third with free cash flow per share of 3.26x.

Dell (DELL) follows with free cash flow per share of 1.81x and Stratasys (SSYS) rounds out the top five with free cash flow per share of 0.69x.

SmarTrend currently has shares of Hewlett-Packard in an Downtrend and issued the Downtrend alert on February 23, 2011 at $43.15. The stock has fallen 16% since the Downtrend alert was issued.

Source:http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Newsfeed/Article/133901422/201107220622/Top-5-Companies-in-the-Computer-Hardware-Industry-With-the-Highest.aspx

A new program will be available for some Rapides Parish high school students this school year.

The district will launch the A+ program, a course that will enable students at Bolton and Pineville high schools to earn certification to become computer technicians.

The A+ certification program is the latest in a growing number of “industry-based certification” programs offered in the district and designed to give students more options in pursuing a career, or finding a job out of high school.

The concept is also part of the state’s high school redesign efforts to expand implementation of industry-based certification for students and teachers by 10 percent a year.

Other industry-based certification programs in Rapides Parish include construction maintenance, nursing, welding and industrial maintenance.

Rapides Technology Director Bill Morrison said the computer maintenance program not only will give students an advantage when looking for a job out of high school, but they will also be able to get further training in college, if they choose.

“It’s almost like dual-enrollment credit; it’s banking credit for” computer technology-related careers, Morrison said.

David Cox, the course instructor, said that depending on demand for the program, it could lead to the eventual addition of the Network+ and Security + certification programs.

It’s a career path concept, said Cox, who has been an educator for 34 years.

“The certification will get you an interview anywhere. It says a lot about a person that he or she has cared enough to do the course of study to get that certification,” Cox said.

According to the Technology-colleges.info website, Louisiana’s average annual salary for a computer support technician is $29,000, or $2,417 a month.

Until now, Cox was an instructional technology facilitator and was training teachers in several parishes to integrate technology to their lessons.

Morrison said the idea to implement the program is in response to a growing demand for computer technology jobs. The Louisiana Department of Education has indicated that this is one of the growing sectors and career options in the state, Morrison said.

The new program is being funded through the district’s career and technical education and vocational funds.

Cox said the course in computer maintenance was offered in Peabody Magnet High School about two years ago, but was scrapped due to financial constraints stemming from low enrollment.

He said he hopes the course will be a success this time because of young people’s inquisitiveness about technology.

Many students have self-taught themselves a lot of computer basics, but few possess in-depth maintenance knowledge so they may find this program interesting, Cox said.

Pineville High School Principal Karl Carpenter said he is looking forward to the addition. “I am interested in offering as many opportunities for our students to grow and gain the industry-based certificates as they prepare for their future,” he said.

Source:http://www.thetowntalk.com/article/20110722/NEWS01/107220324

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP), the storage and data management solutions provider traded at 50.05, which represents -3.38% versus its previous trading session close,added downward pressure to technology shares, with the Technology Select Sector Spider (NYSE:XLK) trading -0.07% from its previous trading session close.
Technology shares traded flat with the S&P500, which traded lower by -0.07%.
Among the computer hardware makers, NetApp was the worst performer in the Computer Hardware Index (NYSE:^HWI), which traded lower by 0.05%. The index is had a mixed day with slight upside bias with 5 index components trading higher.
Hewlett Packard (NYSE:HPQ), is a worst performer as well. The maker of printers and personal computers ended the trading session at $35.28 representing -0.93% Versus the previous trading session. Shares of Hewlett Packard have defined support at $49.52 and resistance at $54.57.
Relative strength in the Computer Hardware Index was felt in Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), which was the top performer in the session, with the stock trading at $386.9 representing 2.67% versus the previous trading session. Shares of Apple, the maker of iPhones and iPads have defined support at $310.50 and resistance at $360.00.
The other top performer was Western Digital (NYSE:WDC), which traded at $38.08 representing 0.93% from its previous close.

Western Digital, the maker of hard drives for computers and entertainment systems has calculated support and resistance levels at $36.43 and $39.02 respectively.

Source:http://www.tradershuddle.com/20110720265649/Stocks/computer-hardware-leaders-aapl-wdc-laggards-ntap-hpq.html

The federal government plans to shut 40 percent of its computer centers over the next four years to reduce its technology budget and modernize the way it uses computers to manage data and provide services to citizens.

Computer centers typically do not employ many people to tend the machines, but analysts say tens of thousands of jobs will likely be eliminated.

The federal government is the largest buyer of information technology in the world, spending about $80 billion a year. The Obama administration, in plans detailed Wednesday, is taking aim at some of that by closing 800 of its sprawling collection of 2,000 data centers. The savings, analysts say, will translate into billions of dollars a year and acres of freed-up real estate.

The government is following the lead of private business. For years, companies have been using software that shares computing tasks across several machines in a data center. The task-juggling technology enables computers to run at far higher levels of efficiency and use than in the past, doing more computing chores with fewer computers, and fewer data centers.

Vivek Kundra, chief information officer for the federal government, explained that the data center consolidation was part of a broader strategy to embrace more efficient, Internet-era computing. In particular, the government is shifting to cloud computing, in which users access online applications like e-mail remotely, over the Internet.

Tapping cloud computing services, Kundra said, could save the government an additional $5 billion a year, reducing the need for individual government agencies to buy their own software and hardware.

Shawn McCarthy, an analyst at IDC, a research firm, said, “The data consolidation is really part of a much larger reworking of information technology by the government. You start with the technology plumbing, but the goal is more responsive and efficient government services.”

This week’s announcement, analysts say, is a significant step along that path, naming 178 data centers to be closed in 2012. It is the second step in the program. In April, 137 computer centers were singled out to be shut down by the end of this year.

But government officials say the federal agencies are moving faster than the initial plans, with a total of 195 closings now scheduled by the end of 2011. That would help lift the total by the end of 2012 to 373 data centers.

The government, although late in starting, is on track for a particularly aggressive winnowing of its data centers, encouraged by the need for budgetary belt tightening.

“It is ambitious,” said Darrell West, an expert in government and technology policy at the Brookings Institution. “In an era of massive deficits, the federal government has to figure out ways to get more efficient. The data center consolidation is part of that process.”

The total opportunity for savings is so large, Kundra explained, because for years each government agency tended to buy and build its own technology systems. Across the federal government, he noted, hundreds of different software programs are used for financial accounting and hundreds of different ones for human resources management. The number of data centers swelled from 432 in 1998 to more than 2,000 by last year.

“Redundant systems and applications sprouted like weeds,” Kundra said. “We need to shift resources away from duplicative systems and use them to improve the citizen experience.”

Source:http://www.bendbulletin.com/article/20110720/NEWS0107/107200330/