STOURPORT-based children’s charity Mentor Link has recruited three members of staff from the town’s OGL Computer to become mentors for youngsters it helps.

OGL Computer, which provides IT support, software and hardware for business, has supported Mentor Link since the summer and has offered interested members of staff the opportunity to apply to become mentors.

In return OGL will pledge time to members of staff to allow them to mentor during the working day.

Mentor Link trains and provides mentors to support children throughout Worcestershire identified by schools as facing difficulties including family breakdown, low confidence, illness, bereavement and poor behaviour.

The mentor is trained to listen to, support and encourage the young people with the aim of creating a more positive attitude towards themselves and learning.

OGL employees Nick Davies, Sharon Moreno and Kirsty Sheppard are the mentors.

“It is fantastic that OGL have encouraged their staff to volunteer and are allowing them to do so during the working day,” said Claire Quinn, Mentor Link.

“Their staff will be excellent role models for our young people and, I’m sure, get as much out of the experience as the young person they are supporting.”

Mr Davies said: “The training has been very beneficial and has prepared me for any unusual circumstances I may encounter. I am looking forward to putting the training into practice and helping children that are facing difficulties.”

The work of a mentor involves listening to the children and discussing their interests, with Mentor Link seeking to match the interests and common ground between mentors and children, where possible, assisting them with reading, homework, or playing games.

The mentors will visit the children each week within a local school and have a one-to-one confidential meeting away from the classroom environment. A mentor is asked to provide a minimum of 30 minutes a week with a child for a minimum period of six months.

OGL Computer has more than 200 employees and has a second site in Kiddemrinster.

Source:http://www.kidderminstershuttle.co.uk/news/local/9503502.Wyre_Forest_IT_support_firm_s_employees_to_mentor_children/

Apple has never been considered an enterprise technology company, but it owns a significant share of the mobile enterprise market, largely due to the success of the iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air.

And yet, Apple is still often seen as a consumer company that managed to get lucky — a view that misses the big story about Apple’s relationship with the enterprise as well as the current business tech trends it helped launch. More importantly, that view risks underestimating Apple’s contribution to, and effect on, the enterprise in 2012 and beyond.

All of the major trends in IT — cloud computing, mobile solutions and the ongoing consumerization of IT — look good for Apple. It’s more accommodating to the enterprise than it used to be, and its popularity in the mainstream consumer culture should offer advantages in the months ahead.

To understand Apple’s position in 2012 vis-a-vis the enterprise, it’s helpful to first look back at its earlier efforts to meet the needs of business and organizations.

Apple has been working to provide enterprise-grade solutions since before the release of Mac OS X more than a decade ago. It developed both a server operating system (Mac OS X Server) and hardware (Xserve) along with a SAN file system (Xsan) and fiber channel storage solution (Xserve RAID).

As Apple made the transition to Mac OS X, its enterprise approach centered around support for lineup of hardware products — mainly Macs. This helped to ensure that longtime Mac users — notably in education and design/media — had support for large deployments and client management. For businesses based around Apple products, this meant an end-to-end solution was easily available with one-stop shopping: Buy the Macs and Mac servers from Apple, then hire Apple engineers or consultants to help design, build and troubleshoot your infrastructure.

That approach didn’t work out so well in bringing in new converts, however.

Even when Apple offered ways of integrating Macs and its back-end solutions like the Xsan, Mac OS X Server and the Xserve into environments dominated by Windows PCs and related infrastructure, most enterprise IT departments remained uninterested.

Part of that was because Apple didn’t broadly market its enterprise solutions. Apple also seemed determined to flout the traditional IT vendor/customer relationship by not providing road maps of any sort about its plans — an approach that alienated potential business customers. Plus, even when there was enterprise interest in Apple’s server solutions, the fact that companies had to deal with yet another platform, with unique features and functions, made adoption more difficult.

As a whole, this approach may have done more to keep Macs out of some businesses than to encourage widespread adoption. It also had a side effect of creating a vibrant niche of alternative tools for integrating Macs without requiring a major investment in Apple’s server and storage products. And it created a cottage industry of Mac server and network consultants who had worked their way through Apple’s training and certification programs and who could be called on for help.

Apple throws out its enterprise playbook (and cancels some products)
Over the past few years, Apple subtly shifted its enterprise focus away from its own solutions. While still updating and supporting OS X Server and the Xserve, the company began building enterprise integration as a hallmark of OS X and iOS, offering features like Active Directory, Exchange and, more recently, Windows distributed file system support.

This support at the client and device level allowed enterprise customers to integrate Apple’s desktop and mobile products without the need for an investment in back-end Apple solutions. At the same time, a growing market of third-party enterprise integration and management tools began to mature, offering added features and options when it came to supporting hardware like MacBooks and iPhones.

The event that first heralded Apple’s move out of the server closet or data center, even though it wasn’t initially noticed, was the release of iOS 4 in 2010. Launched with the iPhone 4, iOS 4 included a range of mobile device management and security tools that allowed companies to enforce a broad range of device policies, automate the processes of device provisioning and enrollment, and monitor iOS devices in the field.

This was big news for those looking to use iPhones and iPads as business devices. But what made it unique was that the company didn’t offer its own management server or console. Instead, it let third-party vendors provide scalable products that made use of the built-in features, often providing important options such as support for managing other smartphone and device platforms.

A few months after the release of iOS 4, Apple stunned longtime enterprise customers by canceling its Xserve line of 1U rack mount servers (the company had previously discontinued its Xserve RAID and shifted its Xsan file system for use on third-party hardware).

Last summer, when Apple released Lion Server, it became clear that the company was transitioning away from providing enterprise solutions to support its products. Although Lion Server includes the enterprise functionality of its predecessor, the management interface clearly shows that Apple sees it as a solution for the small- and midsize business (SMB) market, in combination with the Mac mini server.

At the same time, Lion became the first version of OS X to ship with built-in support for Microsoft’s Distributed file system, a feature of Active Directory and Windows Server that allows administrators to make shared resources available to users based on a logical rather than physical network file structure. The company then added more enterprise-oriented features to iOS 5, which was released last fall.

These events illustrate a new enterprise strategy: Apple wants to make its products enterprise-ready and easy to integrate with existing systems out of the box. By and large, that integration is possible without the need for in-depth training, though Apple still provides a range of training classes and Mac-specific certifications.

Although jarring for customers that have had long-time investments in Apple’s server platform, the approach actually makes sense and offers significant benefits. It streamlines the company’s approach to business. It allows Apple to tailor OS X Server to the needs of the SMBs. It allows third parties to offer additional enterprise integration and management features that surpass what Apple could offer (often at a reduced cost and by tapping into existing enterprise technologies).

All in all, the approach is much more logical and gives IT a great deal of flexibility in how to approach Macs, iPhones and iPads in the workplace.

Apple is still hands-on in the enterprise
With its new approach, Apple isn’t the central enterprise solution for its products; Active Directory and Exchange at a basic level — or third-party client and mobile management suites at a higher level — now fill that role. But that doesn’t mean Apple has taken a hands-off approach to meeting enterprise needs. In some ways, it’s even more involved than it used to be.

Virtually all third-party management solutions for Macs and iOS devices plug into enterprise capabilities that Apple has built into its desktop and mobile OSes. On iPhones and iPads, that includes a set of MDM capabilities, and on Macs, it means Apple’s client management framework. That gives vendors a set of consistent capabilities and helps to ensure that their various solutions affect the Mac and iOS user experiences in the same way.

For the most part, vendors that offer Mac client management or iOS device management implement most of the capabilities that Apple gives them. The differentiation and value-adds that vendors make involve their ability to tap into other enterprise systems, their management interface and organizational tools, their monitoring and reporting capabilities, levels of automation, the ability to manage multiple platforms, and other add-on features. This allows companies working with the same set of options to offer a variety of tools that can be tailored to, or centered around, different needs.

Even with that differentiation, however, all Mac and iOS management solutions offer a consistent set of provisioning options, controls and restrictions. And since all Macs, iPhones, and iPads are made by Apple, there’s a consistent user experience, even in managed environments, across all of the devices.

This is particularly attractive with the iPhone and iPad. It doesn’t bring Apple’s mobile devices to quite the level RIM has traditionally offered with its BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES), but it comes pretty close. When paired with with any of the major MDM vendors, Apple’s iPhones and iPads represent the most manageable and secure mobile platform other than RIM and BES.

Given RIM’s slide in the mobile market, the generally accepted failure of the PlayBook, and last year’s spate of outages, the iPhone and iPad are worthy contenders for enterprise mobility plans. That employees are often willing to use their own Apple devices in the workplace makes those devices an excellent candidate for BYOD (bring-your-own-device) programs.

Of course, this also sharply contrasts with Android, where there are hundreds of devices by dozens of manufacturers, running a handful of different OS versions — some of which don’t even offer enterprise functionality. The recent Android releases, particularly Ice Cream Sandwich, are moving to resolve the issue with consistent management capabilities. But it will be a while before Android as a whole offers iOS’ level of consistent security and manageability, despite being supported to a degree by mobile management tools.

Building bridges with the enterprise
Although Apple has backed off pushing its own enterprise solutions, it still offers resources and training. One difference, however, is that it is focusing more on enterprise integration.

A great example of this is Apple’s new Mac Integration Basics certification, which provides the core skills needed to connect a Mac to enterprise technologies like Active Directory and Exchange. (It also offers some background information on Mac troubleshooting.) The exam and the study guide are both available for free. On a similar note, Apple now allows certain Microsoft and Cisco certifications to be used as credentials for joining its mobility consultants network as alternatives to Apple’s own certifications.

Although these may seem like minor steps, they show that Apple understands that the success of its products in the enterprise means embracing platforms and standards beyond its own.

Competition in the enterprise
If this year’s Consumer Electronics Show illustrated one thing about Apple’s position in the enterprise, it’s that its two most successful enterprise products — the MacBook Air and the iPad — will soon face stiff competition.

MacBook Air vs. ultrabooks
It’s pretty obvious from a quick glance at Intel’s specs for ultrabooks that the category is designed with one thought in mind: compete directly with the MacBook Air, which has become popular in business because of its small size, light weight and good performance. Of course, the $999 price tag helps, too.

So long as manufacturers keep ultrabook prices at or below par with the MacBook Air — we can expect Intel to keep prodding them to do so — many companies will opt for ultrabooks. That’s especially true for companies that have yet to purchase or support the MacBook Air or other Mac models.

For companies that have already invested in Apple hardware and the back-end technology to manage and support it, there’s no significant reason to change direction just because a Windows alternative arrives. This means potential future Mac sales to those companies and some continued level of Mac support.

Long-term support for those Macs may be a strategic move beyond simply continued use of prior investments. In offering employees a choice between a Mac and PC or supporting employee-owned Macs as part of a BYOD program, IT can build bridges with workers and executives who want to use them. As employees become more tech-savvy and IT becomes more integrated into the business sphere, building strong relationships between the two will become more important. IT needs to be seen as flexible and adaptive to the needs and requests of users at every level of the corporate food chain.

Of course, ultrabooks are just beginning to hit the market and Apple may have some new features up its sleeves for the MacBook Air over the coming months.

iPad vs. Windows 8
If 2011 illustrated one thing about the tablet market, it was that wresting share from Apple is hard. A year ago, everyone (myself included) expected to see non-Apple tablets make serious dents in both the consumer and business markets. That didn’t happen.

There are plenty of reasons no platform gained anywhere near the iPad’s traction in the overall tech market. But things are pretty clear cut from a business perspective: most tablets, including the Xoom, PlayBook and TouchPad, shipped with software that was still at beta quality and lacking core features; they couldn’t offer a price point significantly better than the iPad; and by and large none offered the device management capabilities that Apple had put together in iOS 4 (the PlayBook probably came closest).

In 2012, the focus on enterprise tablets beyond the iPad is Windows 8. Some observers have already predicted Windows 8 tablets will marginalize the iPad in the workplace. The biggest argument is that Windows 8 devices will be more in line with the comfort zone of IT staffers than Apple’s iOS will.

There are two major snags in this argument. First, the iPad is a known solution. Its capabilities, costs, user reaction, and apps are freely available and have been tested in most enterprises to some extent. More importantly, its security and management capabilities have also been tested, along with mobile management vendors and solutions that already link to existing Active Directory and related infrastructures.

While Windows 8 tablets were on display at CES and Windows 8 previews are available for download, Windows 8 tablets aren’t available for real-world testing by enterprises — and won’t be for several months. Adherence to typical enterprise pilot project, procurement, and deployment methods pushes wide availability of Windows 8 tablets well into next year. More crucially, many businesses don’t adopt new Windows versions when they’re initially released; waiting for an initial service pack release is extremely common. That could delay Windows 8 in any form even further.

There’s still contention over what kinds of Windows apps will even run on tablets. It seems clear that most Windows 8 PCs will have access to both legacy desktop-first apps as well as apps designed for Windows 8’s Metro interface. But ARM-based tablets may not. With the projected pricing of Intel-based tablets pushing beyond competitiveness with the iPad, ARM-based models may be the only economical option. Perhaps, more importantly, there’s the question of how well legacy apps will function in touch-first or touch-only devices.

This is a non-issue with iPad deployments, since pilot projects and testing can be started at any time. It’s also worth noting that deployments can be managed with today’s infrastructure. There’s no need to adjust or upgrade Active Directory, Exchange or similar core technologies, which may be necessary for Windows 8 group policies and client management.

The second flaw in arguing that Windows 8 tablets will automatically beat the iPad ignores a core factor in the consumerization of IT and BYOD programs — the influence and choice of users.

As users have grown more comfortable with technology, they’ve begun to play a more active role in IT decision-making — and they may not want a Windows 8 tablet to replace their iPads. One of the reasons BYOD programs succeed is that they empower users to choose the technologies with which they are most comfortable and productive. Of course, in a BYOD program, IT’s preferences often take a back seat to user choices to some extent. Even in organizations without a BYOD paradigm, users are exerting more and more dominance in their use of technology, at the expense of even informing IT in some cases.

This is a trend that will be very difficult to reverse, particularly as many executives, managers and mobile staff members have already become used to the iPad as an everyday tool. Coupled with that, there has been an embracing of iOS apps and their use in workflows for all manner of tasks that users may not see a value in changing.

In fact, given the growing need in almost every IT department to embrace, support and manage multiple mobile technologies, even the “familiarity with Windows” argument begins to falter. IT professionals have become accustomed to supporting other technologies like iOS and Android.

It’s also important to note that, in addition to having a head start, Apple hasn’t rested on its laurels with the iPad. The iPad 2 offered notable improvements over its predecessor. And iOS 5 offers a better experience than iOS 4 for professional tasks and even some management capabilities. That’s a trend we can expect to continue in iOS 6.

A robust app ecosystem is another iPad advantage, particularly given that Windows 8 apps designed specifically for a tablet interface have yet to emerge. There are thousands of business tools out there already that are designed around the specific interface needs and advantages of the iPad’s form factor, many of which are profession- and industry-specific. That includes a whole range of business intelligence, CRM, ERP and collaboration tools — to say nothing of the potential for VDI solutions.

Whither Apple’s relationship with the enterprise in 2012?
Apple has managed to position itself very well as an enterprise vendor. The company has learned from its past mistakes to avoid proprietary solutions or add too much complexity for IT departments. Apple has also managed to leverage its supply chain and economies of scale so well that it’s difficult for other mobile device manufacturers to compete without notably sacrificing quality. Ultimately, these have in the past been the two biggest barriers to entry for Apple technology in the workplace.

Apple also managed to stake out mobile territory far earlier than many of its competitors by being the first company to successfully take mobile solutions like tablets beyond just a niche market. That head start is a massive advantage and it allows Apple to continue to innovate for business needs and environments while other companies are playing catch-up.

Source:http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9223673/Will_this_be_the_year_of_Apple_in_the_enterprise_?taxonomyId=163&pageNumber=1

Dell is on the prowl for an India acquisition worth up to $1 billion (Rs 5,000 crore), part of a strategy to bolster its information technology services business and compete better against the likes of IBM and Accenture.

The world’s third-largest computer maker wants to buy a mid-sized Indian tech firm with “several thousands of staff” and revenues of $500 million to $1 billion or even more, Suresh Vaswani, chairman of the company’s Indian operations and executive vicepresident of the Dell’s global application and BPO business, told ET.

He declined to say which companies Dell, which has cash of about $16 billion, is interested in, but bankers identified Hexaware Technologies and NIIT Technologies, each with revenues of around $300 million, as potential targets. Both companies have been denying plans to sell. Vaswani, a Wipro veteran who joined Dell last year to help the company grow its services business, said mid-sized firms with a majority of staff in India and with expertise in areas such as banking or healthcare will make good targets.

“The services acquisition can be Perot Systems-like but with more India leverage and in the tier-II space. They may be $700 million or $800 million (by revenue) in one vertical and may even be ahead of tier-I companies in that space. We don’t have to look at one; we could look at two,” he said.

Dell acquired Perot Systems for $3.9 billion in 2009, marking its entry into the services space. The acquisitions also gave it significant offshore delivery capabilities and strength in the healthcare services business.

Experts familiar with Dell’s strategy said the company plans to leverage acquisitions to more than double, or even treble, its current IT services revenues of $8 billion in 3-4 years. Dell has said it wants to increase revenues from IT services to $11 billion in three years, but this does not account for business from any potential acquisitions. IT services contribute less than 15% to Dell’s total income.

From around 28,000 staff in India, Dell plans to ramp up to a level where it can compete more effectively against IBM, which has over 1,00,000 employees in the country. This can only be achieved through an acquisition; competing with traditional campus recruiters such as TCS, Infosys and Wipro to hire hundreds of software engineers will be difficult.

Once the world’s largest PC maker, Dell has lost more than a quarter of its share in the commoditised computer market to aggressive Asian rivals such as Lenovo. Now, the company wants a bigger share of the high-margin IT services pie to improve profitability by bundling computer hardware with outsourcing contracts.

IBM had a head start in IT services when in 2005 it sold its PC business to Lenovo to focus on the rapidly-growing areas of software and services. IBM now gets over half of its $100 billion revenues from services.

“These companies are looking at a trillion-dollar market which is only growing. Dell has been an acquisitive company especially in the services space. A mid-sized acquisition will definitely add value for them and help them respond to clients faster,” said Viral Thakker, a partner at KPMG.

Source:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/hardware/dell-readies-rs-5000-crore-war-chest-for-india-buyout-to-boost-it-business/articleshow/11691859.cms

Science, Industry and Technology Minister Nihat Ergün met with leading computer manufacturers, GSM operators and software writers during the course of the week at the headquarters of the Zaman daily in İstanbul, where they discussed the future of the information technology (IT) sector and signed a deal that stipulates major government incentives to increase share of domestic companies in the sector.
With this agreement, the domestic IT sector will become one of the two industries that receive the bulk of government incentives, along with the domestic automotive sector. The deal will pave the way for Turkey to become a leading player in the global IT market over the next 10 years, reduce Turkey’s dependency on foreign technology and help to reduce the current account deficit (CAD).

The minister explained the steps which will be taken to achieve the target, which include a consideration of how the number of patents and entrepreneurs in Turkey reflects the effectiveness of university’s and the introduction of incentives to encourage cooperation between the IT sector and universities. Technology parks will be developed, providing industry hubs that all firms can benefit from and the government will support IT companies by initiating projects that will increase demand for information technology products. Also, international firms will be encouraged, through incentive packages, to move their production and research facilities to Turkey.

Speaking to participants, Ergün mentioned the positive transformation that the economy has gone through over the past 10 years and underlined that the country is on the verge of yet another transformation, which will require the development of advanced technology in order to bring the production capabilities of Turkish companies into line with the competitive global market. He said the IT sector, in conjunction with the electronics sector, will play a key role in development of technology, making the production of extremely high-tech equipment possible. “We must take advantage of Turkey’s young population when looking at ways to advance the fields of IT and electronics,” he added.

Teknosa General Manager Mehmet Nane reminded participants of the success of countries such as China and India, who began to shape their IT sectors in innovative ways 25 years ago. He said, “While taking into consideration the opinions of the main players in the sector, a long term, strategic plan must be established. It is hard to develop hardware and create a brand; therefore we must make the most of the skills of younger generations and focus on the development of software.”

Turkish Informatics Foundation (TBV) President Faruk Eczacıbaşı admitted Turkey began taking an interest in the IT sector fairly late, but said the transformation is inevitable as it is clear the successful countries are those which began implementing their strategies in these sectors in the early ’80s. He emphasized the Movement to Increase Opportunities and Technology (FATİH) project, which plans to improve standards and quality in education through the implementation of smart classrooms, smart boards and computers in schools across the country, emphasizing its anticipated contribution to the development of the service sector. “The FATİH project will enable the country’s youth to contribute to the economy as producers in 15 years time,” he added. He also suggested more projects like FATİH should be established with the support of the domestic IT sector, while the government should source software and hardware from suppliers. He highlighted the importance of creating a fast and effective chain of production, allowing companies to bring products to the market as soon as possible.

Casper CEO Altan Aras Fakılı highlighted that the company has been operating within the IT sector for 20 years, recently becoming the leading producer of local brands in the Middle East, Africa and Europe. Fakılı said, “We have a 16 percent share of computer sales in the Turkish market, with a production capacity of a million computers overall.”He added, “We are lucky to lead the market in Turkey, because local brands don’t have the largest share in countries like China and Brazil.”

Exper Computers board of directors member Nazım Özdemir called for a strategy to develop Turkey into a base for technological products. He said, “We didn’t have mass production before because there were no projects that would support it. Exper, along with Casper, ranks among the top 20 brands in the world. This was achieved only through the effort of those involved in the businesses. We plan to work closely with Casper to play an effective role in the project.”

Ergün said that the main goal of the FATİH project is not to hand out tablet PC’s to students, explaining, “while such a market is being created, the point is to make sure it contributes to improvements in the sector and transformation of the education system, as well as playing a leverage role.” The minister added: “It is crucial to be part of the global industry, not just as consumers, but also producers. We hope our younger generations will catch up with the advantages the sector can bring.”

Source:http://www.todayszaman.com/news-269878-it-sector-to-receive-major-government-incentives.html

The small-business help desk is going corporate, with initiatives from companies like Apple Inc. bringing new competition to independent consultants who typically handle the IT needs of U.S. start-ups and small companies.

The move comes as the use of external IT support among small businesses is exploding. Information-technology services can include setting up new computers, upgrading software, protecting against malware and troubleshooting.

U.S. businesses with less than 500 employees spent roughly $23.5 billion on IT services last year, and are projected to spend $27.2 billion on IT services by 2015, according to estimates by research firm IDC.

Best Buy Co. sees “significant, untapped potential” in small business IT, a company spokeswoman said. The national retail chain in December bought Mindshift Technologies Inc., a Waltham, Mass., provider of IT services to more than 5,400 small and midsize businesses nationwide.

Apple in June formed a partnership with OnForce Services Inc., an eight-year-old IT services network based in Lexington, Mass., to provide small businesses with IT help on their own premises.

“Everyone’s talking small business right now. There’s a huge opportunity,” says Peter Cannone, chief executive of OnForce.

Apple stores already feature a “Genius Bar,” where customers have their products serviced. A year ago Apple introduced “JointVenture,” a program providing small businesses with limited tech support offered by Apple employees in Apple stores and over the phone. That program starts at $499 a year for those who buy a new Mac.

But in-store support isn’t ideal for many business owners who may need to carry multiple computers or devices from their office into an Apple store.

While many small businesses and start-ups are still reluctant to hire new employees, spending on technology and IT services is seen generally as smart if it can help a company operate more efficiently, or make it possible for an owner who travels to manage his or her business from a remote location.

“I don’t have an IT department,” says Kevin Kay, owner of an Easley, S.C., health-care company with just 53 employees. “It’s not a luxury I can afford.”

Mr. Kay, who says he has been cautious in his overall spending in recent years due to the economy, sought Apple’s help in updating and transferring accounting software to three new iMac computers from older personal computers earlier this month.

Apple referred him to OnForce, which then dispatched a technician from its roster of more than 100,000 partners—independent IT-service providers nationwide who pay OnForce a referral fee of 10% of sales—to Mr. Kay’s business. Mr. Kay paid the technician $1,050, or $150 an hour, for seven hours of labor, an amount he describes as “costly but necessary.” That’s on top of the $5,600 he shelled out for computers, iPads, software and data backup.

Thanks to the advent of cloud computing, the options now available to small businesses go well beyond what was typical for a help desk just a few years ago. They include analytics, software customization, disaster recovery and video conferencing, for instance. Such options and others only recently became feasible to dispense on a widespread scale—and at prices the average small business can afford.

Spending on IT services by U.S. companies of all sizes has been growing at a rate of about 3.2% annually over the past five years, and reached $304 billion last year. That total is about 55% more than their spending on computer hardware and software sales combined, according to research firm Gartner Inc.

About 71% of small and midsize U.S. companies said they planned to increase their IT budgets by an average of 5.2% over the next 12 months, according to a July survey of 602 companies with less than 500 employees by the Computing Technology Industry Association, a trade group.

The small-business IT market is alluring to many in part because no single player dominates it, even though some large corporations have been in the space for longer than Apple and Best Buy, including International Business Machines Corp., Staples Inc. and AT&T Inc.

PlumChoice Inc., a midsize IT-services firm in Billerica, Mass., has signed partnerships with five large corporations in recent years to provide help-desk support to those outfits’ small-business customers. “When things don’t work, you can’t even run your business in many cases,” says Ted Werth, its founder.

There are roughly 300,000 independent IT consultants, and another 114,000 small IT companies, according to the trade group. Some independent consultants believe they can thrive despite potentially increased competition for mom-and-pop shops and other small-business clients.

“A college kid offers better pricing than I do but I’m able to give my clients the answers they need in ways they can understand,” says Allan Sabo, an IT consultant in Flushing, N.Y., who charges $100 an hour, or $500 a month, for service for clients who have one server and as many as five workstations.

Small-business owners “want to work with local people,” says Jason Comstock, an independent consultant in Marysville, Ohio, who says he visits his clients on site at least once a month even though he can assist them remotely with many IT issues. “They want to know who you are, where you go to church, are you a member of the local chamber of commerce, all those things. They’re really about the relationship.”

Best Buy so far isn’t planning to carve out dedicated space in its stores for Mindshift, as it currently does for Geek Squad, its tech-support service for consumers.

Rather, Mindshift will serve the businesses in most cases via remote access to a customer’s computer or over the phone.

“We can do 99% of the work remotely,” says Paul Chisholm, Mindshift CEO. “More and more customers want to go to the cloud, and the independents and small regional providers don’t have the financial capital and expertise to develop scalable cloud offerings.”

Keeping a team of IT professionals can be too costly for a start-up.

“The minute you bring them in, unless you spend a tremendous amount on training and keeping them up to date, their skills deteriorate,” says Rick Rodgers, co-founder of Tesaro Inc.

The two-year-old biopharmaceutical company, based in Waltham, Mass., paid Mindshift about $40,000 for all of its 2011 IT needs.

Source:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203806504577183052169000964.html

Energy Star has recognized UNO Information Services as one of the top five universities in the country for their contributions and progress in the government sponsored program’s Low Carbon IT Power Campaign. The recognition brings to the forefront the efforts made by the Information Services team lead by Technical Service Manager Andrew Buker and Desktop Manager Seth Korber in the department’s efforts to save both money and resources.
“We are using less electricity, buying less hardware, and enabling our existing hardware to be used longer. All of which saves money, reduces our carbon footprint, and avoids further pollution by decreasing our demand for fossil fuels and electronics manufacturing,” said Korber by email. The recognition came as a result of Information Services’ efforts to make UNO a more environmentally conscious campus through desktop and server virtualization and PC Power management. These efforts are estimated to have saved UNO $50,000 in power costs and $1 million in combine utility and hardware cost said Korber. “Server virtualization allows one physical server to run many ‘virtual servers’ that would typically each be on their own. This allows for dramatic reductions in the usage of space, energy and management time,” said Korber. This is due to reductions in power usage by the servers as well as a reduction in the energy used to keep that many servers cool enough to operate.
Server virtualization allows UNO to run more than 200 virtual servers on only three physical units with one backup. Korber also estimates that as the universities computing needs grow up to 350 virtual servers will be able to run on the four existing servers before more are needed. In addition to server virtualization, desktops have also been virtualized. This saves the university money by “allowing us to use the desktops for seven to ten years rather than the typical three to five for a standard desktop,” said Korber. The initial server virtualization was funded by two one-time finding requests from the Office of Business & Finance and Information services now accrues money for maintenance. The move towards virtual desktops was funded by President Miliken’s office and the project is being moved towards sustainability so that it too can accrue monies towards maintaining the program. In addition to the power conservation projects with campus computing other efforts by the team have included “zero client” computers that use 80 percent less power than average in MBSC Food Court and the Math Lab. MBSC & DSC IS computer labs have been using a mix of 30 percent post-consumer recycled paper and FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) Certified paper for printing and the encouraged use of duplex (double sided) printing to save paper.Students will continue to see Information Service make every effort to keep UNO at the forefront of green technology use.
“This includes distance and hybrid education, and online class offerings growing, desktop virtualization, and PC power management continuing to expand across campus, easier accessibility to websites and digital services from mobile and tablet devices decreasing the need to print documents, and duplex printing becoming the default printing option in MBSC & DSC labs” said Korber.

Source:http://www.unogateway.com/news/uno-a-top-school-for-it-sustainability-1.2742607#.TxaTuqXrqgQ

Forecast by Gartner a research firm that said the IT Sector would see an increase on global IT spending in 2012 by 4.6 percent has reviewed the forecast analysis and announced on Thursday that the percentage predicted would dip down to 3.6 percent from the expected 4.6 percent but as a matter of fact the brighter side is that there would still be 3.6 percent growth on global IT spending compared to last year.

The fall in this percentage is because of the decline in economic growth around the word, the euro debt crisis and ongoing impact of the Thailand floods which has lead to limiting the production of hard disk drives (HDD) which in turn has resulted in a sluggish economic growth that lead to down gradation of Gartner’s forecasts for worldwide IT spending this year.

“Thailand has been a major hub for hard-drive manufacturing, both for finished goods and components,” Mr. Gordon said. “We estimate the supply of hard drives will be reduced by as much as 25 percent (and possibly more) during the next six to nine months. Rebuilding the destroyed manufacturing facilities will also take time and the effects of this will continue to ripple throughout 2012 and very likely into 2013.” As reported by efytimes.com

The Thailand floods, that devastate one-third of the country under water would have major impact on the computing hardware sector as they would be experiencing the most significant slowdown because the country would limit its HDD production and supply to the vendors during the first six months of 2012, adding to it is also uncertainty and political issues going on in western Europe.

This scenario is advantageous for tablet manufacturers as they stand a fair chance to increase their production since they use flash drive unlike the Computers that use HDDs and hence the reduced production in HDDs would badly hit the computer manufacturers.

Bangalore: Forecast by Gartner a research firm that said the IT Sector would see an increase on global IT spending in 2012 by 4.6 percent has reviewed the forecast analysis and announced on Thursday that the percentage predicted would dip down to 3.6 percent from the expected 4.6 percent but as a matter of fact the brighter side is that there would still be 3.6 percent growth on global IT spending compared to last year.

The fall in this percentage is because of the decline in economic growth around the word, the euro debt crisis and ongoing impact of the Thailand floods which has lead to limiting the production of hard disk drives (HDD) which in turn has resulted in a sluggish economic growth that lead to down gradation of Gartner’s forecasts for worldwide IT spending this year.

“Thailand has been a major hub for hard-drive manufacturing, both for finished goods and components,” Mr. Gordon said. “We estimate the supply of hard drives will be reduced by as much as 25 percent (and possibly more) during the next six to nine months. Rebuilding the destroyed manufacturing facilities will also take time and the effects of this will continue to ripple throughout 2012 and very likely into 2013.” As reported by efytimes.com

The Thailand floods, that devastated one-third of the country under water would have major impact on the computing hardware sector as they would be experiencing the most significant slowdown because the country would limit its HDD production and supply to the vendors during the first six months of 2012, adding to it is also uncertainty and political issues going on in western Europe.

his scenario is advantageous for tablet manufacturers as they stand a fair chance to increase their production since they use flash drive unlike the Computers that use HDDs and hence the reduced production in HDDs would badly hit the computer manufacturers.

Source:http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/Gartner_Cuts_IT_Spending_Growth_Forecast-nid-102522-cid-7.html

Anyone who has ever gone through a computer upgrade knows that hardware and software advances rarely occur without glitches. In the realm of home and business computing, that often means more hours and more money to realize the benefits of new technology.

When the police department of a major metropolitan city encounters snags in the implementation of new technologies, more than time and money are at stake. So are public safety and the security of police officers.

The San Antonio Police Department is engaged in a major upgrade, part of the $19 million Alamo Regional Public Safety system that integrates GPS-aided dispatching with wireless laptops for field reporting and records management. And as Express-News staff writer Michelle Mondo reported, the effort is still plagued with problems nearly a year after its launch.

Officially, the SAPD command staff and the city’s Information Technology Services Department acknowledge the flaws. They encourage officers to report issues and are continuously working to address them.

Unofficially, officers told the Express-News that their complaints are trivialized, take too long to fix or are never resolved. As a result, some frustrated officers have simply stopped reporting chronic issues.

One problem, which the police department and city say has been resolved, meant the information officers were accessing from their cruiser laptops was sometimes inaccurate. In one instance recounted to the Express-News, the new system showed no warrants for a suspect, while a check of the old mainframe system showed he was wanted on a weapons charge.

Other problems involve connectivity of the laptops. As recently as a month ago, a technical problem led to a cascading loss of connection that rendered laptops useless to officers across the city.

Officers need to feel free to report problems without worrying that they’ll be viewed as being resistant to change. And the IT staff needs to instill confidence that those problems are being taken seriously and are addressed.

Source:http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/editorials/article/Boost-efforts-on-SAPD-computers-2443938.php

With the global economy still in the doldrums, beleaguered IT professionals and IT managers are struggling to do more with less. Part of their strategy for staying afloat revolves around sticking with legacy software that is still getting the job done, like the legion of IT departments that are opting to stay with Windows XP rather than upgrade to Windows 7. Computer hardware is also cheaper and more powerful than ever, a situation that leads many businesses to solider on with older equipment that is still getting the job done.

Yet not every IT department can afford to stay with legacy hardware and software systems, and sometimes — for the sake of ensuring critical business tasks or functions – new investments must be made in IT resources. Recognizing that businesses may need help in financing new software and hardware purchases, Microsoft has ramped up promotion of their Microsoft Financing arm that provides a number of financial services for Microsoft customers. To get the latest on what Microsoft Financing can offer customers, I recently spoke with Seth Eisner, general manager of Microsoft Financing.

Eisner mentioned that Microsoft Financing generally helps customers with three different financial scenarios. “We can help customers map their payments to deployments, or help them align financing around their budget cycles,” Eisner said. “We also help customers with periodic payments that work [more effectively] with their cash flow situation…our financing options allow us to help customers buy more, buy better, buy bigger, and buy more often.”

In a statement included in a news release as part of the renewed publicity push for Microsoft Financing, Microsoft partner Steria — a provider of IT business services in Europe — said that Microsoft Financing has helped them streamline their IT operations. “We’ve known about financing but not for software,” says Phillip Cournot, purchasing officer at Steria. “We’ve used other sources to procure our hardware, so when we learned about the Microsoft financing capabilities we were sold on the convenience. This is by far the best and most flexible financing solution we’ve used for purchasing our software and services.”

According to Cournot, Microsoft Financing helped Steria update their enterprise licensing agreement to allow for more flexible payments stretched over a three year period, a change that more closely matched the actual deployment of their software. “My core IT challenge is to deploy Microsoft Office and Windows across our enterprise and reduce IT costs,” says Christian Revelli, Group Chief Information Officer at Steria. “Microsoft Financing helped me in this task by splitting the cost of the rollout over three years.”

We’d love to hear from Windows IT Pro readers that have used Microsoft Financing in the past, or plan to do so in the future. So please add a comment to this blog post or start up a conversation on Twitter about it.

Source:http://www.windowsitpro.com/blog/business-technology-perspectives-blog-38/news2/microsoft-financing-cashstrapped-departments-141807

IBM turned 100 in 2011 and for a company that is that old is doing very well in this cutting edge technology world of today. For Big Blue, as it is fondly referred to, getting to where they are today has not been an easy journey and if there was ever a company that deserved to be where they are today, it is IBM. Over its 100-plus years of existence IBM has had to make a number of difficult decisions that have seen them acquire and divest off billion dollar companies while at the same time trying to fend off competition from the likes of HP and EMC, all angling for the same clients that IBM have been serving for years and years.
But in the midst of all this, IBM has risen to be the largest technology company by market capitalization with a share value of $217 billion dollars and annual revenues North of the $100 billion mark and all this with a work force of over 400,000 spread across the the globe. But how has IBM been able to pull this off and what recent decisions did they make to get them to where they are today? Here are a few things I believe IBM have done right and have got them to where they are today.
Consistent Leadership
Over the 100 years IBM has been in existence, they have had only 9 chief executives, the most recent being Virginia Rometty who took over from outgoing CEO Sam Palmisano. This is a marked departure from what we are used to seeing in all these other “hip” tech companies that change CEO’s as if by coming and going fads. This trend by IBM has seen the company preserve continuity and sustainability and as any expert in management and leadership change dynamics will tell you, a CEO needs at least 5 to 7 years in order to effect any significant change to an organization and IBM have nailed this spot on.
The other interesting thing about the IBM leadership and succession structure is that more often than not, the new CEO is picked from an existing pool of veteran IBM employees who have been at the company for decades (outgoing CEO Sam Palmisano started off at the company as a sales man back in 1973 while incoming CEO Virginia Rometty is also a 30 plus year IBM veteran). This shows an interesting leadership structure that favours internal experience over external skills and qualifications.
This may be compared to the high churn rate in top management in most technology companies such as Yahoo and Google. This choosing of insiders often means that the incoming CEO is not only well versed in the inner workings of the company but that they also have the full support of the whole organization and top management through familiarity and popular appeal.
Future Perspective
One of the biggest decisions IBM had to make in the recent past was walking away from what the company was initially known for, personal computers. When IBM decided to sell off its PC business, the dilemma was obvious. The PC business was bringing in $20 billion worth of revenues per year to the company and was delivering fairly good profit margins. The PC business also made IBM the largest computer technology company in the world with its competitors HP in a distant second.
But IBM have this way of trying to predict where the market will be in the next ten years and then trying to anticipate this market shift and so far, this has gone very well for them. Over ten years ago, IBM began talking about cloud computing, or as they called it back then, on-demand computing. This was a big reason why they decided to sell their PC business to Chinese giant Lenovo as they realized the market was shifting into a highly fragmented hardware market but a more unified cloud computing market and this pay gamble has paid off handsomely.
This critical insight and ultimate gamble is what has seen IBM become today one of the most established and influential cloud computing companies in the world while HP, who are the other computer behemoth are still struggling with the decision of whether to sell of its PC business or not while also caught up in smartphone and tablet wars. What’s more, IBM also realized that solving societal problems is always the entry point to business and this gave birth to their Smart Planet initiative that seeks to identify and create solutions for societal problems faced by governments and large organizations; the company currently supports over 2000 initiatives under its Smart Planet banner.
With these two critical aspects, it is easy to see how IBM has not only stayed profitable and on the upward curve, but has also beat HP to become the largest computer technology company in the world in a way that matters most, in stock valuation; investing guru Warren Buffet has also bit the bait, he recently raised his stake in IBM to over 5% or a $10 billion investment. HP and other technology companies such as Oracle and Microsoft have a lot to learn from Big Blue if they hope to remain around for the next 100 years and still retain a fresh pair of legs and excellent credibility in the global economic market place.

Source:http://theurbantwist.com/2012/01/03/100-years-later-and-ibm-is-still-going-strong/

Mobile phones, long seen as safe amid rising threats to computer security, have become a key target for hackers and an increasing worry for corporate IT departments.

While the first mobile virus dates back to June 2004, risks from hackers remained limited because of the relatively small size of the market.

Source:http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-12-30/news/30572944_1_mobile-security-mobile-phones-mobile-devices

When I was born, the world of technologies was evolving. I would see my rich uncle carrying a briefcase and he’d open it to reveal a mobile phone that seemed something out of outer space. I always wondered if ET carried one too to communicate with kids on earth and as technologies were evolving, my generation was thrust into a world where left, right and centre technologies were evolving at a speed faster than light. Metaphorically speaking, of course. And then, there were cartoons too and almost all of us remember the name Mickey Mouse. It’s a household name. Everybody’s heard about it, invariably. In technology, what is the first name that comes to my mind? Well, it has to be Intel. I knew that if there was anything evolving on the computer technology front, it had to be Intel.

World without microprocessor

Intel, the world leader in silicon innovation, develops technologies, products and initiatives that continually advance how people work and live. Intel was the company that introduced the world’s first microprocessor in 1971. Intel is the world’s largest semiconductor chip maker, based on revenue. It is the company that made a series of microprocessors, processors that are found in most personal computers worldwide. Since the invention of the wheel, for this generation the single most important invention has to be the microprocessor that enables us to use computer technologies to facilitate us in a vast variety of fields. A world without the microprocessor would be akin to a world without a light bulb.
In order to gain greater understanding of Intel’s role in Pakistan, we met Naveed Siraj, Intel Country Manager Pakistan. Unfortunately, due to bad traffic I reached 20 minutes late but he was pleasant enough to wait patiently. So we got straight to the point. What is Intel’s role in Pakistan I asked him? Intel is the tech leader in the industry catering to three distinct segments. It has demonstrated leadership through focusing on enterprise development. Intel during the course of its operations has facilitated businesses through the implementation of computer technology that has benefited them largely, Naveed Siraj said.
While explaining the problems faced in the implementation process, he said SMEs by design focus on revenue generation. Small businesses will therefore not want to invest in IT. Instead, they would like to rely on customised software programmes. Therefore, their aim is to operate software and hardware both, with minimum resources. Intel has targeted the SME sector and after taking on projects of mutual interest, has come far in facilitating these small and medium enterprises.

Intel’s place in the market

Dwelling on how the advent of new companies in the IT industry has affected Intel’s stake in the market, he said that in the last three years smart phone sales have almost doubled. Therefore, there has been phenomenal market growth. Both the formal and informal channels have contributed towards this growth. Therefore the growth has been more organic in nature. IT products, Siraj said have also experienced high growth, mainly due to the affordability of IT products. We have witnessed an increase in the use of PC’s as well. Therefore, growth in the sector presents us with an opportunity. Intel continues to be the market leader and while there have been challenges, these challenges have not been insurmountable. To facilitate progressive growth, the government will have limit the informal sector and instead focus on evolving policies that are conducive to bringing down the costs of IT products in the local market. We recognise governments need to generate revenue, however steps must be taken to reduce the general sales tax from the present 17 per cent.
Mr Naveed Siraj was very straightforward about the company’s vision for 2012. “We will continue the execution of our programmes, while simultaneously focusing on joint programmes with different entities as well.”
He said that Intel’s collaboration with Meezan bank is also an initiative that promises to yield great results. “Through Meezan bank we have offered to provide laptops to students on installments. They now also have the opportunity of owning a notebook for $100. Public private partnership is also another dimension that holds great promise.” With regards to the Punjab 100,000 laptops distribution programme, he said it is a good venture that will offer students increased mobility and access to information. They will be able to augment their studies and increase their learning through the use of laptops.

Recession hangover

When asked about how badly the global economic recession has affected the IT industry and how he views the prospects in the Asian markets, he said that firstly with regards to Pakistan schemes like those recently launched in Punjab and others initiated by Intel such as Intel teach are helping project a different image of the country that needs to allocate more resources towards image building. As far as Asia is concerned he said that there has been a shift in percentage of revenue being generated in different regions and with the increase of the middle class, Asia is attracting businesses despite the recession.
The IT sector he said stagnated in Pakistan mainly because there was no dedicated IT minister. While speaking about Intel teach he said that till last month, the figure of teachers who have been trained under the programme has reached 300,000. It was initiated in 2001 and under this programme intel has trained 10 million teachers. 70 per cent of these teachers hail from Punjab he said. As far as competition is concerned, he said that he did not view it as a threat but rather as an opportunity. “Increased competition is good because the consumers benefit from it,” Siraj said. As far as Intel was concerned they were focusing on promoting the benefits of their own technologies. “We are building hardware specific solutions, with the ability to penetrate a large customer base.”

Appealing technologies

“People want products that appeal to them, therefore we have also worked towards creating such technologies. Ultra book is another category of notebooks where the focus has been towards creating a rapid response technology. Ultra book has the ability to update emails on standby. Increased battery life is another area that we are working on. The Ultra Book was launched last year and is also available in Lahore, with four brands releasing the product worldwide,” Naveed Siraj said.
When asked about whether the year 2012 will see an increase in the demand for data centers, he said that for every 600 smartphones, one server is required. With the growth of smartphones being witnessed world wide, it will be accompanied by an increase in the demand for data centers.
Talking specifically about Pakistan he said that in order to promote information technology, device usage and pervasiveness needs to increase that can only be brought about by evolving strategies to provide consumers with affordable products. The ownership of computers needs to be emphasised upon and there should be a greater focus on promoting women entrepreneurship that will encourage faster growth in the IT sector. Seminars also need to be conducted to increase awareness about IT Siraj said.
And on this note, we wrapped up our meeting with Intel Country Manager Pakistan Naveed Siraj. It is an accepted fact that in order for Pakistan to progress it will have to develop the IT sector on an urgent basis that will create new avenues of opportunity for the people of this country. Intel has done commendable work on their part and other companies need to follow suit to ensure that the development of the country is a collaborative effort that involves all stakeholders in the process.

Source:http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2012/01/intel-%E2%80%93-the-it-industry-juggernaut/

There are inherent dangers in fighting the marketplace’s gravitational forces. … Despite the “dictates of computer science,” over-amplifying the value of traditional mainframe technologies or attempting to inject System z into areas like cloud, where it has achieved minuscule success compared to commodity servers, can make IBM sound like a cranky geezer waxing poetic about the good old days.

If it’s late November or early December, I’m usually traveling to or from Westchester County, New York, home of IBM (NYSE: IBM) and its Software Group (SWG) and Systems and Technology Group’s (STG) annual IT analyst confabs. In practical ways, these events tend to mirror one another; past strategies and solutions are trotted out for a quick going-over, current efforts are polished and examined, and future plans are discussed at some length. In that sense, this year was very much like every one before. But 2011 also marked the third analyst conference since IBM formally integrated STG with SWG, placing the entire shebang in the hands of SVP and Group Executive Steve Mills.

The 2009 STG conference occurred just a few weeks after this realignment was announced, so if any analysts expected major changes, they came away empty-handed. Last year, signs of the reorganization were increasingly apparent, particularly in the company’s emphasis on new, highly integrated business analytics/intelligence solutions, including then-recently acquired Netezza, and the decision to place the Systems Software organization (which manages hardware-related software including IBM’s operating systems, system management and virtualization products) into STG.

At STG’s “Smarter Computing” analyst conference this year, the melding of STG and SWG was even more clearly apparent. While a few new hardware bells and whistles made their public debut, most were described and defined according to how they contributed to or enhanced the overall performance and business value of broader IBM offerings. Plus, this approach is fundamental to the three pillars of Smarter Computing discussed by IBM STG SVP Rod Adkins:

Tuned to the Task — IBM systems optimized for the characteristics of specific workloads

Designed for Data — IBM business analytics, business intelligence and big data solutions, which extend beyond traditional information sources

Managed With Cloud Technologies — IBM product and service offerings designed to evolve clients’ data centers while improving service delivery

In this way, the messaging at the STG event was quite similar to IBM SWG’s “Connect” analyst conference the week before. But at Connect, the emphasis was on system “capabilities” — how IBM finely tunes software and hardware for specific applications or processes. In comparison, the STG event’s thematic focus was “workloads” and the importance of supporting them with right combinations of hardware, middleware and systems software. This, in turn, cast a spotlight on IBM’s three distinct server platforms and the appropriate business problems they aim to solve. It also illuminated longer- term IBM Research projects and growth market development efforts.

Workloads as a Theme

During his keynote presentation and Q&A session, SVP Mills stressed the critical importance of workload optimization and system integration to IBM clients and the company itself, and for good reason: The Producer Price Index of compute products shows a 9X increase in overall performance during the past 15 years.

At the same time, enterprises’ server spending has remained essentially steady, while electrical power and systems/facilities management have gone through the roof. This places enormous pressure on businesses trying to hold the line on data center costs but it also, as Mills put so succinctly, “puts the squeeze on hardware-centric vendors. In fact, unless they institute software, management and efficiency improvements, hardware vendors are doomed.”

IBM has innovated in all these areas for years, but the next major step lies in further optimizing workload performance for systems for every kind, whether they are general purpose servers or specialized appliances. In IBM’s view, this process can happen most anywhere: in the customer’s data center (implemented by IT staff or with the help of IBM service professionals); in the factory (for both individual clients’ and special use cases); or by design (appliances developed/integrated for specific applications and processes, like Netezza’s Data Warehouse Solution).

Not surprisingly, Mills and other company executives expressed strong opinions about the appropriateness of particular server platforms for specific business applications and processes. IBM’s System z mainframe’s unparalleled online transaction processing (OLTP) and the company’s Power Systems’ muscular database performance were common (and regularly used) examples. However, I was happy to see that the company’s System x (x86) solutions had a much higher profile than they did at last year’s STG event, both for general purpose computing applications and as central parts of IBM workload-optimized system and appliance strategy.

The Workload Conundrum

At the same time, Mills’ impassioned comments drifted toward what might be called the ‘workload conundrum’ when he noted “the constant frustration of seeing buying decisions based on issues unrelated to the dictates of computer science,” and cited customers “continuing to drive toward x86 [solutions] despite the technical superiority of IBM’s mainframe systems.” Mills also noted the irony that so much or most cloud development — with its inherently shared design that should play to the mainframe’s strengths — centers instead on scale-out x86 technologies.

There are numerous good reasons for IBM and its executives to focus attention on System z, especially since competing vendors spend so much time lambasting the mainframe as an outdated/outmoded platform. While those opinions have had little impact on enterprise customers, you can’t be too vigilant when it comes to key products. Plus, there are strong commercial arguments for IBM to constantly talk up its scale-up System z and Power Systems.

However, there are also inherent dangers in fighting the marketplace’s gravitational forces. Yes, scale-up systems offer highly attractive margins. But x86 server volumes dominate virtually every major global computing market. Despite the “dictates of computer science,” over-amplifying the value of traditional mainframe technologies or attempting to inject System z into areas like cloud, where it has achieved minuscule success compared to commodity servers, can make IBM sound like a cranky geezer waxing poetic about the good old days.

Workloads and Growth/Future Markets

Focusing on scale-up systems may also affect IBM’s results in emerging growth markets, including Africa where the company has great hopes and is working hard on development efforts. During a fascinating presentation, IBM’s GM of Middle East and Africa, Takreem El Tohamy, noted that while clients want cutting-edge IT and are increasingly buying high-end systems (especially in communications, banking and government), low end x86 solutions are critical to IBM’s efforts.

That could be problematic. While IBM has a full complement of x86 products, many of the company’s best-known System x solutions focus on higher-end workloads. In fact, IBM defines its System x strategy as “defining next-generation x86.” Plus, the company appears to assume that customers will eventually and happily abandon their favored x86 vendors for higher-end IBM systems. That contradicts the commonly held belief among vendors that clients stick with the vendors that help them grow.

At the same time, IBM’s workload strategy is clearly apparent in future-focused efforts, including developing commercial Watson solutions and in cognitive computing research. For anyone who spent 2011 hiding in a bunker, Watson is an advanced question-answering system based on IBM’s Power 750 servers, which can respond to verbal/vocal queries. That remarkable ability was shown to great effect on the TV game show “Jeopardy!” when Watson thoroughly trounced two past grand champions. The STG Smarter Computing conference featured several sessions on workplace scenarios for these systems, including an ongoing project at Columbia University, where Watson is being used to aid medical diagnoses.

The last formal session of the STG event was a presentation by Dharmendra Mohda, who manages IBM Research’s cognitive computing project. While early efforts focused on creating computer simulations of increasingly complex animal brain activity, IBM recently created its first cognitive silicon — a CPU designed to replicate the activities of brain cells and synapses.

These should play a critical role in the development of systems that emulate the brain’s computing capabilities, efficiency and power usage without being traditionally programmed. Plus, while a fascinating project in its own rights, the efforts of Mohda and his team could eventually end up in numerous IBM commercial efforts, including its Smarter Planet solutions.

Final Analysis

I came away from IBM STG’s Smarter Computing IT analyst forum with a better understanding of why the company believes consolidating its hardware and software organizations was both practically and strategically crucial. Whether IBM’s go-to-market messaging focuses on “workloads” or “capabilities,” the aim is essentially the same — to develop and deliver optimized, efficient IT solutions that offer customers superb compute performance and provide them the means to transform their businesses for the better.

Source:http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/Solving-IBMs-IT-Conundrums-Integration-Is-the-Word-74012.html

A computer system installed at the UK Courts Service is unable to add up fines and perform other basic accounting functions, officials have said.
According to the National Audit Office, the courts have been unable to provide the Government’s bean counters with details of fines, confiscation orders and other penalties because the Libra system is not up to scratch.

The failure meant the courts could only guess at the likelihood of receiving more than £1.4 billion in fines and penalties that were outstanding, meaning the National Audit Office could not sign off the courts’ accounts.

“Because of limitations in the underlying systems, HM Courts Service has not been able to provide me with proper accounting records relating to the collection of fines, confiscation orders and penalties,” said Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office, saying he therefore couldn’t sign off the body’s accounting statements.
The Ministry of Justice has told the NAO it plans to investigate the accounting functionality of Libra, but that it might not be able to address the accounting records issue fully until Libra and other relevant systems are significantly enhanced or replaced.

Source:http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/371818/courts-it-system-cant-add-up-fines

With Windows XP facing end-of-life and the Windows 8 preview in the public’s hands, enterprises are considering a radical move: skipping two versions of Windows. Migration will be a very hot topic in 2012. With any type of strategic IT decision, organizations need to consider many different factors such as resources needed, costs, testing, compatibility and training.

While Windows 8 is loaded with new features, it also deprecates features users have grown accustomed to and it will require extra user training. But before you race to Windows 8, check out these 8 reasons why as a CIO, you shouldn’t:

1. Devices have to catch up to OS capabilities

Windows 8 is more than the next Windows operating system. It is really about a whole new wave of devices and a new touch-oriented computing experience. Unlike other tablet or slate devices (e.g. iPad or Kindle Fire) that have hardware genetically tied to software, Microsoft is sticking with its model of empowering independent hardware vendors to create devices to run Windows. Because the paradigm shift with Windows 8 is bigger, the risk is greater to migrate early as vendors rationalize and perfect implementation of touch in Windows hardware.

Having penned the CIO’s worst four letter word less than 100 words into this missive is telling. But really, no one thought twice about keyboard and mouse compatibility. With touch coming fully into the mainstream, we are being forced to consider all of the device changes we so easily forgot. There is also the not-so-small budget consideration around hardware procurement. You can count on first generation devices to be more expensive and less reliable and durable than their second or third generation successors.

2. A new breed of hardware is accompanied by new drivers

With the new wave of devices comes a whole new set of device drivers and the great IT pain point of driver management. In the past you could probably get by with the UPnP in-box driver that wasn’t exactly the OEM driver, but worked. With touch and a new breed of wireless peripherals that will surely accompany these new devices, not to mention the deprecation of optical drives, driver management and smarter deployment will become critical. Because of the new capabilities of Windows 8 devices, workers may actually be rendered totally unproductive because of a driver issue that today would just be a nuisance. This is a potentially massive hit not only to worker productivity, but demand on IT for desktop support.

3. Windows applications have to catch up

The software industry has a lot of learning and then a lot of work to do. There will therefore be a big gap in time between Windows 8 being released for sale and software being properly developed for Windows 8’s new capabilities. There is a whole new world of Metro for software manufacturers to learn. We will all have to implement Metro-based apps or portions of our apps properly into our products.

Until Windows applications get a chance to mature on Metro though, it could be very hit-and-miss in terms of the overuse and misuse of Metro, which could cause potential reliability and productivity issues. ISVs have had a heck of a time getting updated to the Vista/7 platform. The good news is that those apps should run fine on Windows 8, however they will be conventional Windows desktop only and not Metro-enabled. That being the case, why deploy Windows 8?

4. “Dear helpdesk, how do I turn off my computer?”

User training and acceptance is a massive consideration. I only listed it fourth because if you don’t have a device to install an OS, stable drivers to run it properly and apps to run on the OS, you wouldn’t put it in front of people. Unlike the move from Windows 95 to XP to Vista to 7, Windows 8 is not just a different looking start menu: there is no start menu. You no longer access the start menu to shut down. In fact, there is no default shut down option displayed on the UI when the user is logged in.

These seemingly very small things can be a huge disruption for even tech savvy end users. The better bet is to let users educate themselves through a few years of use on their own at home and then capitalise on this user-funded training to introduce the device at work.

5. Consumerisation security and the network edge

On the surface Windows 8 looks and behaves like a consumer product and you better believe the early success of Windows 8 will be with consumers. Everyone has taken their iPads to work and Microsoft expects you to do the same with a very capable Windows 8 slate device. This is tricky because individuals’ decision to work from a Windows 8 slate is out of a CIO’s control. The upside is that since it is a Windows device, it is much more manageable than non-Windows devices. At a minimum, any consumerisation or de-perimeterisation initiatives need to be driven by carefully conceived IT policy.

6. Tick-tock but not of the clock

There are releases of Windows that overhaul the entire code base (the so-called “tick” such as Windows 95 and Windows Vista) and there are releases that build off of or extend an existing core code base (the “tock” like Windows XP and Windows 7). Technically, Windows 8 is a tick release, which most organisations wait until at least the first Service Pack to implement, if they implement it at all.

7. Migration, again

Since it took so incredibly long to get to Windows 7, what is the organisation’s tolerance to undertake another migration? Is IT prepared to jump into it? Have you evaluated all of the facets and ramifications? What projects are waiting and will be postponed if you move to Windows 8? Do you have the resources for another migration? Will you see an ROI with yet another migration so soon?

Most organisations are suffering from “migration fatigue” and don’t have the energy, and ultimately lack the cumulative political will to undertake the entire process again.

8. The unknown

The last, but most important, reason not to race to Windows 8 is that no one knows what Windows 8 will really be when it is released. We have a very, very early release of the product, which was really only provided to get the ecosystem of hardware OEMs and ISVs, a group Microsoft depends upon to make Windows successful, working on making their products work properly with Windows 8.

There is a whole flywheel that has to get spun up for Windows to be successful. If you choose to be a part of that spin up, expect it to consume a lot of time and money as you join the OEMs and ISVs who are developing and refining products and tools to run on this exciting new platform.

Source:http://www.computerworlduk.com/advice/operating-systems/3323563/eight-reasons-to-hold-off-on-windows-8/

Hotshot Computer & Web Services is bringing affordable IT services to downtown Aiken.

The computer networking/repair and web service business opened Nov. 22, at 118 Laurens St. N.W., suite 101, sharing a building with New Moon Cafe.

Owners Will Jackson, the business’ web development expert, and Kevin Bartee, computer services expert, bring a combined 20 years of experience working with computers to the business. The duo met when both were formalizing their long-standing hobby by pursuing degrees in computer services at Aiken Technical College in 2005.

“We’re still finishing setting up the office, but we have a custom-built system that, once we get it started, will allow us to streamline our workflow and have a really fast turnaround as far as getting a machine back to a client,” said Jackson.

“We want to be the guys you call if your computer’s not working right or you can’t get on the Internet,” said Bartee. “You don’t really realize how much you use it until you lose it. We’re the guys you call to come in, diagnose the problem and fix it, and nobody can touch us on price. It’s a big passion for Will, and it’s a big passion for me. What drove me to get that degree is that I want to make my livelihood on doing what I like to do.”

Hotshot offers both in-store and on-site computer services, web marketing services and custom web development. Among their repair specialties are advanced virus, malware and spyware removal, data retrieval and backup, system optimization, data transfers and hardware and software installation.

The partners brought an existing client base with them to the new office and have attracted new clients by word of mouth. They are promoting the business through www.hotshotcws.com and a Facebook page, both of which feature updates on special deal offers and their referral program, and, as members of the Greater Aiken Chamber of Commerce, they plan to schedule a grand opening celebration in the future.

“We’ve already been downtown for a while. A lot of our clients are already downtown, and it’s where I’m from and where I want to be,” said Jackson. “Southside has a little more visibility, but there’s a sense of community with the downtown businesses. Plus, for our downtown clients, it helps us give them that fast turnaround.”

Source:http://www.aikenstandard.com/local/1202-hotshot-computers–3617281

Technology rental organization, Vernon Computer Source has stepped in to aid IT resellers, manufacturers and end-users with a short-term solution to the delays caused by the HDD shortage following the flooding in Thailand.

The rippling effect of the now receding flooding waters in the Southeast Asian country has reared its head in the computer hardware industry by creating a hard drive shortage expected to continue into 2012. This is expected to cause a hike in prices up to 150 percent after what is anticipated to be a 70 million HDD shortfall for Q4 2011.

Beginning in July, the flooding has claimed 320 lives and devastated homes and businesses in industrialized areas in central Thailand. Among those businesses suffering from damage are top HDD manufacturers Seagate Technology and Western Digital, who both have large production facilities in the country.

The industrial effects felt by outside countries has lead to speculation by research groups like IDC predicting a shortage of PC shipments by as much as one fifth in the first three months of 2012.

When asked how computer rental services could help those end users affected by the HDD shortage, Vernon Computer Source General Manager, Anthony Randazzo, said, “You don’t have to hold back on your IT requirements—rent the notebook or desktop with the needed 500GB hard drive until you get those ordered from your supplier.”

Alternatively, resellers and manufacturers can take advantage of Vernon’s services by providing a temporary solution to their customers held up by the HDD shortage delays.

While IDC indicated that HDD industry participants would likely recover and restore production capacity relatively quickly, the research firm expects supply will remain constrained for an extended period of time. As a result, many major OEMs have begun to close order windows, or hold back orders entirely as production halts due to the inability to obtain the required HDDs.

The rental services of Vernon can temporarily place product into the end users’ environment, securing the suppliers’ customer retention by eliminating the need to seek out equipment elsewhere.

Source:http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/12/prweb9011269.htm

Android is the new craze of the Mobile application development industry and is predicted to be the next-generation thing in the mobile-web world. By providing an open development platform, Android offers developers the ability to build extremely rich and innovative applications. 01 Synergy is offering six months Industrial training in Android. This training aims at learning Android applications for various purposes. It is a course which is specially designed keeping in view the need of IT and engineering graduates who have either completed or in the final year of completion of BCA, M.Sc IT, MCA, BE/B.Tech.

This is hands on training, you will be asked to set-up development environment & then start to work on “LIVE” Application Development for Google Android mobile devices in JAVA and C/C++.

The project would entail understanding of object oriented programming (OOPS) and coding in Java & C/C++. The Live project would cover Graphical User Interface (GUI) design, inter-process communication, threading, graphics, multimedia, networking, GPS API. web services , performance & debugging.

After the training is completed, 6 months experience certificate is offered by 01 Synergy, which qualifies the trainee as an expert in Android software apps. Since Industrial Training in Android is a job oriented course, the trainees will get job security amalgamated with bright career prospects.

Enquires about the training program will be available at 0161-4344000 or you can even email at: hr@ldh.01s.in or register online at www.01s.in/IT

Small businesses are like birch trees: they are the first to wander out into a new field and turn it into a forest. And as such, small business spending can be thought of as a leading indicator for economic recovery, and perhaps more importantly, create new jobs and, even more importantly for IT vendors, they also tend to invest in computers, software, and other gadgets at a faster pace than larger organizations during economic downturns.

The prognosticators and pulse takers at Computer Economics just completed a survey of 157 organizations, most of them in the United States and Canada, to figure out what the IT spending sentiment is out there right now and to use the data as the basis of its IT Spending and Staffing Outlook in 2012 report. That report is not free, of course, but like other consultancies, Computer Economics lets out a few tidbits of data to the press to try to scare up some business for itself.

According to the latest forecast for IT spending in 2012, the story is much the same as in 2011. With IT operational budgets growing slowly, capital spending on new equipment being curtailed, and hiring remaining “anemic,” as the company put it. In 2011, the larger companies were more aggressive about IT spending, according to Computer Economics, but this coming year, it looks like the small businesses are being more optimistic about the IT situation–or perhaps are in a place where they simply have to spend more to update their systems, software, and people.

“Small business spending often precedes a recovery, so this is a positive indicator,” explained Frank Scavo, president of Computer Economics, in statement accompanying the executive summary of the report. “But there is a great deal of economic uncertainty, due in part to the European debt crisis, which leads IT executives to remain cautious with their spending and hiring plans.”

A 2 percent increase in the operational budget is nothing to go to the roof and shout about, but that level of increase projected by small businesses is a lot rosier than the half point of growth by midrange shops and eight-tenths of a point forecast by larger enterprises. As far as Computer Economics is concerned, a small business ranges in size from $40 million to $350 million in annual sales, while those with between $350 million to $1 billion in sales are midrange companies and large enterprises have $1 billion or more in sales. It would be interesting to see what is going on at the millions of companies that make far less than $40 million a year.

It is hard to say if 157 companies is statistically significant to case the world’s IT spending plans with great accuracy; 97 of those surveyed for the report came from North America, so this data may be more representative.

The full 2012 spending report, which you can get here, costs $295 and covers operational and capital budgets and IT staffing plans.

Personally, I would think that as infrastructure and platform clouds become more mature and whole cloud-based apps become available, small businesses would simply say the heck with investing in any IT at all and just use cloudy services. That’s what I would do at these prices. If you can fully utilize hardware and have substantial needs, you can still make a credible argument to invest in your own IT wares. But for the smallest companies that lack IT skills and the budget to create basic infrastructure, much less the applications that animate their businesses, buying IT means getting a tablet, notebook, and smartphone and leaving all the other stuff to a service provider. It will be interesting to see if the operational budget optimism that Computer Economics sees is related to the move by SMBs toward the cloud so they can get the economy of scope and scale advantages that were previously only available to larger enterprises rolling their own IT utilities.

Source:http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh120511-story03.html

NetApp, computer storage and data management company, is targeting the emerging opportunity in mid-sized business segment as companies gear up for a technology refresh that would entail a significant ramp-up of storage capacity.

Analysts peg the market size at about $600 million with the hardware component at about $250 million.

Surajit Sen, NetApp’s director-channels, marketing and alliances, said, “Mid-sized business is a lucrative segment. The segment needs more affordable solutions. A lot of these organisations are Microsoft-centric and most of them are still running on dated platforms of 2003. Now, they are likely to move to new versions and go in for a tech refresh. This exercise needs more data storage capacity.”

According to NetApp, which had global revenues of about $5.1 billion in the last fiscal, the mid-sized business segment comprises organisations with headcount of 100 to 1,000 and falls between large enterprises and small and medium enterprises. These companies would have 10 to 100 servers and IT staff of one to five, mostly generalists, with no specific skill in handling storage and networking.

“We have been successful in tapping the mid-sized business segment, though not by design. It just happened that the mid-sized segment has been contributing significantly to the company’s revenues. In our global revenues, about a third comes from the segment. In India, too, the segment has been doing well,” he said.

NetApp India has about 1,000 customers. Of these, about 600 are from the mid-sized segment. This customer base is contributing about 21% to the company’s India revenues.

The company is pinning hopes on data explosion in sectors such as manufacturing, media and healthcare. The applications the company would offer in the space include cloud computing and bid data that would need heavy duty data analytics.

“The organisations in the mid-sized segment are witnessing a significant data explosion, which is estimated to grow 50% annually. However, the IT budgets of the companies are not growing at that pace.”

Source:http://www.dnaindia.com/money/report_netapp-sees-data-explosion-as-mid-sized-firms-reboot_1619167