Top 10: Obama takes charge, Microsoft takes it on the chin
Barack Obama became the 44th, and first African-American, president of the U.S. on an Inauguration Day that captured the world's attention and provided a flurry of technology-related headlines. The post-inaugural buzz ended quickly, though, with dismal economic news being rife (again) this week. On a happier note, Apple did well with its quarterly financials and celebrated the 25th birthday of the Mac.
1. A high-tech agenda for the Obama Administration: Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th U.S. president Tuesday, with Inauguration Day coverage blanketing the Web, including sites that typically do not have much to do with political news. There were any number of tech-related stories pegged to the big day, including how mobile-phone networks and the Internet held up. A tech-savvy president -- Obama publicly declared he was not going to give up his BlackBerry despite security issues and ended up winning the right to continue using his beloved handheld -- will undoubtedly mean more emphasis on tech policy and legislation. Here are some humble suggestions on which issues he should tackle first.
[ Video: Catch up on the tech news of the week with the World Tech Update. ]
2. Microsoft to cut 5000 jobs: Following a disappointing second quarter, Microsoft is laying off 5000 employees as a belt-tightening measure. The company also predicts more dire economic straits ahead. Part of the problem was Windows Vista, which has provided subpar financial returns, and the economic slump could cause the company to rethink its Windows client business .
3. Heartland data breach could be bigger than TJX's and Heartland breach raises questions about PCI standard's effectiveness: Heartland Payment Systems, which provides credit- and debit-card processing services, disclosed a massive data breach that could rival that of TJX, though specific numbers were unclear. However, Heartland processes 100 million card transactions per month, so analysts suspect that the breach was huge. (The TJX breach compromised more than 45 million cards.) The Heartland breach has led to renewed concerns that the Payment Card Industry data security standard required by Visa and MasterCard is not up to the task of ensuring data safety.
4. Microsoft to deliver first IE8 release candidate Monday: The first release candidate of Internet Explorer 8 will be out Monday, according to sources who know what Microsoft is up to with its next browser version. A release candidate, in Microsoft parlance, is software with all the features set to go and code that is stable. It also means that a final release of the software is imminent.
5. Java mobile platform to get widget apps: Embracing the growing importance of mobile apps, Sun is bolstering its JavaFX RIA platform with Java ODP (On Device Portal), for widget applications, and the JavaFX Mobile runtime. ODP is based on the LWUIT (Lightweight User Interface Toolkit), providing a way for Java developers to quickly build consistent mobile widgets. ODP is intended for delivering Java Platform, Micro Edition applications, is focused on rapid creation of Web services, and lowers testing costs.
6. Apple reports record profit for first quarter and Google Q4 earnings plummet, revenue up 18 percent: We don't usually go on about financial results in Top 10, but this week is an exception, with the need to temper the bad news with a couple of positive nuggets. First, Apple defied the recession with record revenue and profit in its first quarter. Then, Google said that although its profit took a nosedive due to one-time investment write-downs, its revenue was up nearly 20 percent for the fourth quarter compared to the same period a year ago.
7. Craig Barrett to retire from Intel: Intel Chairman Craig Barrett will retire in May after 35 years with the company. In recent years he had eased away from day-to-day operations to focus on getting technology to emerging countries.
8. PewTube? Vatican to preach via YouTube and Pope praises potential of new technologies: The Vatican's YouTube channel is up and running, providing video of Pope Benedict XVI's activities as well as other links about the Catholic Church. The pope kicked things off with a speech praising new communications technologies for the good they can do, but warning about the possible pitfalls if they are misused.
9. 25 years of the Mac: Mac fans celebrated the 25th anniversary of their beloved Apple computers and Macworld offered a tribute along with a nice package of stories looking at the last quarter-century of Apple's business, including the best and the worst. Some advice on what the company should do soon and in the future is also mixed in.
10. Bull castration, snake eaters, opium and a whorehouse: the life of storage guru Dave Hitz: Dave Hitz, the founder and executive vice president of storage company NetApp, published a memoir called "How to Castrate a Bull: Unexpected Lessons on Risk, Growth, and Success in Business." He worked on a cattle ranch when he was in college, so the title is more literal than at first might be realized. We haven't read the book yet, but there was no way we could leave a headline like that out of Top 10.
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Microsoft to merge Windows Live and Office Live
Microsoft seems closer to rebranding its search engine and Live online services under the Kumo name, something that's been rumored to be in the works since last year.
The company confirmed Friday that it will merge its Office Live and Windows Live services into one unified online portal, but did not give a specific time frame for the move and declined to provide any other information.
[ On a less upbeat note, read up on Microsoft's first ever layoffs and the effect on its Windows client | Keep up on the latest tech news headlines at InfoWorld News, or subscribe to the Today's Headlines newsletter. ]
"Microsoft has made the decision to converge Windows Live and Office Live, that includes Office Live Workspace and Office Live Small Business, into an integrated set of services delivered through one single destination," Microsoft said in a blog post on the Workspace Team Blog attributed to Kirk Gregerson, product manager for Office Live Workspace.
Microsoft's confirmation comes after a blogger unveiled Thursday that Microsoft planned to integrate the services into one set of offerings when the next wave of those services is released.
Currently, there are two separate portals through which users can reach Windows Live and Office Live. Office Live services are related to Microsoft's Office software, while Windows Live are applications and services that more closely align with functionality in the Windows OS.
Based on actions Microsoft has taken, it has been rumored since last year that it plans to rename its search engine and possibly its entire line of online services under the name Kumo, so the integration could be preparation for that move. Microsoft has declined to comment on any name change for its search engine or services.
However, on Dec. 4, 2008, Microsoft filed a trademark application for the Kumo name. The application is to trademark a host of software and services that include not only a search engine, but also advertising and telecommunications services, education, training, entertainment and the design and development of computer hardware and services.
Prior to that, according to Whois.Net, Microsoft registered the kumo.com domain, and through CSC, a company that manages domain names for corporations, also registered related domains that indicate the Kumo name could be used for other services. Those domains include: www.kumosearch.com, www.kumopics.com, www.kumowiki.com, www.kumogroups.com, and www.kumotravel.com.
Kumo is a Japanese word that can be used to mean "cloud," "ceiling," or "sea spider," among other things, according to an online Japanese-to-English translation service.
Both Windows Live and Office Live, while somewhat recognizable by Microsoft customers and Web users, are fairly new brand names for the company. Microsoft revealed them in November 2005 in conjunction with a revamp of its online services. Still, the company's Online Services Business -- home to Windows Live, Office Live, and the company's online advertising business -- is its least financially successful one, and Microsoft has struggled with developing an audience and solid base of users on the Web.
In an e-mail from its public relations team, Microsoft said the upcoming change does not affect current product cycles for its Office Live and Windows Live services, and the company will have more to share about specifics of the change "at a later date."
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Microsoft to deliver first IE8 release candidate Monday
Microsoft plans to deliver the first release candidate of the next version of Internet Explorer on Monday, according to sources familiar with the company's plans.
IE8 (Internet Explorer 8) has been in its second beta release since August, and a post on Microsoft's IE8 blog on Wednesday said the company was "about to release" IE8 RC1 (Release Candidate 1) for Windows XP and Vista. Sources familiar with the company's plans said the release will be Monday.
[ See how the browsers fared in InfoWorld's challenge: "Lab test: Google Chrome vs. Internet Explorer 8" | Discover the top-rated IT products as rated by the InfoWorld Test Center. ]
In Microsoft terminology, a release candidate means the software is feature complete and the code is basically stable, and a final release is imminent.
Microsoft's public relations team also has sent out e-mails to members of the press saying that Microsoft will have some news regarding IE8 on Monday but will only comment under embargo about that news.
Microsoft originally had hoped to release the final version of IE8 before the end of 2008, but as with many Microsoft product releases, the software's delivery was pushed back. Rather than set firm dates for software releases, Microsoft typically these days will say the final release of software is dependent upon user feedback from the beta process.
Microsoft has developed IE8 to be more compliant with accepted Web-development standards such as CSS and RSS. This is a goal the company also had with IE7 but which backfired because developers who built sites for earlier versions of IE found they didn't render properly or work at all on IE7 once it supported those standards.
Microsoft developed IE before many Web standards were developed, and so older versions of IE don't support them. Developers would typically write applications to work with IE rather than to support standards because IE was the de facto standard for Web browsing for many years. That has changed, starting with the release of the open source browser Mozilla Firefox several years ago. Firefox and now Google's Chrome browser have given users more browser choice, so Microsoft has had to make IE more competitive and standards-compliant.
IE8 also has some new features to make browsing the Web easier and more convenient for users, including two called Web Slices and Activities. Web Slices lets users subscribe to pages or points of interest they visit on the Web, such as news feeds or eBay auctions, and keep track of them through tiles that appear in IE's navigation menu.
Some third parties have even developed custom Web Slices. For example, a social search-engine company called OneRiot has developed a Web Slice that lets users keep track of the most frequently visited links other Web users are clicking on in real time.
Activities let the user right-click on a Web page and pull in maps or other Web pages into a site they are browsing without need for more coding or add-ins by the developer.
Microsoft also had said improving overall browser performance is a goal for IE8, as IE7's frequent crashes are the reason many users say they have switched to Firefox from IE.
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Broadband stimulus passes its first hurdle
The House committee on Energy and Commerce?, which has oversight on broadband and energy matters, approved its portion of the Economic Recovery Legislation this week.
The broadband components of the legislation which is over 200 pages give the National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA) authorization to allocate $2.85 billion for wireless and wireline broadband through a program of grants.
[ Last year, InfoWorld pondered if the U.S. needs a new broadband policy | Barack Obama had been including support for broadband rollout funding in his stimulus package since early this month ]
The entire legislation is expected to come to a floor vote in mid-February.
Approximately $1 billion will be targeted for wireless service with a goal that 25 percent of the $1 billion go to unserved areas and the remaining 75 percent for the advancement of broadband in underserved areas of the country.
The provision requires those that receive grants to lay out a broadband infrastructure to do so in a way that is technologically neutral.
Grantees will be required to ?provide access to the supported infrastructure on a neutral, reasonable basis to maximize use.?
The wording appears to support one aspect of what is called net neutrality.
Net neutrality has come to mean everything from opposing additional fees for better quality of service to network accessibility by competing content deliver services.
President Obama has stated that he favors net neutrality, but net neutrality? is not supported by most of the carriers.
According to news reports, Steve Largent, president of the Cellular Telecommunications Internet Association? (CTIA) also sent a letter to Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman? stating that carriers would be hesitant to participate in the grant program unless the FCC more clearly defines what it means by ?open access,? another term that has many definitions.
According to the legislation, open access would ensure that private entities cannot restrict any content deemed lawful ?that flows through taxpayer-funded broadband facilities.?
The CTIA has also been lobbying on behalf of the carriers for what is called a ?shot-clock? approach to putting up towers and antennas to improve wireless access.
Under shot-clock, a municipality would be required to approve a site within 75 days of an application. Currently, tower and antenna approval can take years as it works its way through various environment impact studies and public hearings.
The current legislation also calls for the NTIA to set minimum speed requirements for unserved and underserved areas, ?reflecting what is technologically and economically feasible.?
The bill, in fact, sets specific benchmarks for ?advanced broadband service? as delivering data to an end-user at a speed of at least 45 Mbps downstream and 15 Mbps upstream.
The term ?advanced wireless broadband service? is defined as data transmitted at a speed of at least 3 Mbps downstream and at least 1 Mbps upstream, ?over an end-to-end internet protocol wireless network.?
Basic broadband service is defined as delivering data to the end-user at least 5 Mbps downstream and 1 Mbps upstream.
The legislation states that almost any entity is eligible to apply for a grant, including satellite companies.
Although the entire stimulus package is on a fast track to a full vote in the House and Senate, some provisions in the broadband component appear to be less hurried.
For example, it requires states to create a broadband inventory map of the United States that ?identifies and depicts the geographic extent to which broadband service capability is deployed and available from a commercial provider or public provider throughout each state. However, the NTIA is being given two years after the enactment of the Act to create the inventory map according to the proposed legislation.
The bill does appear to go a long way toward keeping the public informed of broadband progress. It requires the NTIA to create a Web site that lists eligible entities that have applied for a grant, the areas the entity proposes to serve, plus the status of each application.
States will have 75 days after the legislation is approved to indicate what areas have the greatest priority for broadband.
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Sun: Look for IDEs to tackle the cloud
Look for software development environments to make accommodations for cloud deployments, a Sun Microsystems official said on Thursday.
During the Cloud Connect event in Mountain View, Calif., Lew Tucker, Sun vice president and CTO for cloud computing, spoke of a button, of sorts, for deploying applications to the cloud. "I think that we'll see the IDEs [Integrated Development Environments], the tools that developers use today will start to accommodate the capabilities of even building and deploying applications out into a cloud service provider," Tucker said.
[ For more about the cloud, see InfoWorld's news feature on what cloud computing really means ]
Just as an IDE can deploy to an Apache Web server, IDEs can evolve to back cloud deployments, meaning it would be spinning up a new instance in that cloud. Tucker said he anticipates a variety of tools coming up to accommodate the cloud, but added Sun has not announced any such plans for the NetBeans IDE.
Cloud computing, Tucker said, has become a natural evolution from client-server to the Internet to the cloud. But he acknowledged that moving legacy applications to the cloud remains an issue, particularly data ownership and privacy. "The enterprise by and large has real hard, fast policies around confidential information and protecting that information, archiving, that has kept that information trapped behind the firewall. And so moving apps into the cloud, whereby company confidential information is moving out into the cloud, the enterprise has real issues with that," Tucker said.
He anticipates cloud providers will respond by providing appropriate levels of security and auditing. But IT departments like to know where their data is, who has access to it, and how that data is protected, Tucker said.
Enterprises could have a cloud model move behind the firewall, offering infrastructure as a service to internal customers and get advantages in scalability and cost, said Tucker said.
Sun, he said, has not made any announcement about becoming a cloud provider itself but said the company will be involved in public and private clouds. The company has had a grid computing platform, Network.com. Grid has been geared toward such applications as high-performance computing and batch jobs, Tucker said. Cloud environments are for more general purpose and Web-scale applications, he said.
Also playing into the cloud space is virtualization, Tucker noted. Virtualization had started out as a way for enterprises to do server consolidation, he said.
"Now, we?re seeing virtualization being used and cloud service providers as a way to take applications and move them into the cloud," he said. An OS and LAMP stack can be moved entirely as a virtual machine in the cloud, Tucker said.
Tucker also said he expects clouds for different types of applications, including games.
Sun, meanwhile, has maintained its Project Caroline platform-as-a-service platform as a research project, providing a set of tools for use in the cloud. The project revolves around the notion of a framework of sorts for developing scalable applications.
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IBM out of the online services gate with mixed reviews
Seeking to break out from behind the firewall, IBM/Lotus is cloning its collaboration family for the cloud and embarking on a direction that could define the future of its applications.
The company last week changed the name of its year-old Bluehouse cloud services project to LotusLive and signaled that it is officially in the software-as-a-service race.
[ Find out more about cloud computing in InfoWorld's new blog | Keep up on the latest tech news headlines at InfoWorld News, or subscribe to the Today's Headlines newsletter. ]
The company, however, could only sketch out a rough outline that was full of technological gaps, vague on delivery dates and empty on pricing.
LotusLive includes hosted services such as messaging, conferencing and social networking cast in the likeness of Lotus's on-premises tools. Also planned are plug-ins to connect the online and on-premises software.
IBM/Lotus faces a number of challenges including integrating newly purchased online messaging technology from Hong Kong-based provider Outblaze, tying together the online suite with on-premise software, and wooing small- and midsized businesses (SMB) historically absent from IBM's radar.
In addition, IBM/Lotus must establish a reseller channel against giant online collaboration competitors such as Microsoft, Cisco, and Google in order to prosper.
In its first appearance at the company's annual Lotusphere conference, LotusLive drew rough critiques from some analysts and potential end-users along with a smattering of kudos from pundits and early adopters.
Despite the differences of opinion, all agree IBM/Lotus has work to do and has about 12 to 18 months to define the platform, whip it into shape and prove LotusLive can sell.
"Since IBM started talking about Bluehouse my thought was if they do it really well, it could be really, really good," said Jonathan Spira, CEO and chief analyst of consulting firm Basex. "It's out of beta because they are selling it, but it looks to me like all the pieces are not put together."
The pieces that are together and available are LotusLive Notes (based on Hosted Notes), Meetings and Events, which are based on Sametime.
Last week, IBM/Lotus unveiled a beta of LotusLive Engage, a bundle of services that includes Web mail, instant messaging, Web conferencing, file sharing, charts, and forms. IBM/Lotus promised other bundles targeted at specific industries and needs, or a la carte delivery of services. IBM/Lotus officials would only say the pieces would be released throughout 2009.
To start, however, many analysts panned Engage as ill-defined, immature, and reactionary.
"It is a work in progress," said Kathleen Reidy, senior analyst with the 451 Group.
"Last year, Bluehouse was about SMB, but this year it is how you extend internal investments to the external cloud. So is it SMB or an extension for enterprise customers to do extranets? Can you do both at once with this new service? Those are two different markets."
Another big question was around LotusLive iNotes, a lightweight messaging service that will be based on Outblaze Web mail technology and not Notes/Domino.
IBM/Lotus acquired the technology on Jan. 15 and inserted it into the LotusLive lineup just a few days before its unveiling. Left out was the company's own Notes-based Web e-mail technology.
Lotus officials said Outblaze includes a distributed administration technology and branding options IBM/Lotus lacked.
"We wanted to go a step further and do distribution models with telcos and other resellers, which is a key part of our strategy, or do private labeling or co-branding," says Sean Poulley, vice president of online collaboration service for Lotus Software. "We don't have those skills yet in our business so it makes sense to get additional intellectual property, assets and skills and integrate that." In addition, Outblaze brings along 40 million users.
But getting those assets means they have to be integrated into the platform.
"On the tech side, they are stitching together a lot of different moving parts," says Matt Cain, an analyst with Gartner. "With Engage you have Sametime for IM, Outblaze for e-mail, and activities from Lotus Connections. Delivering a platform stitched together from many parts and making it elegant is tough."
Others called LotusLive a panicked response to recent online collaboration moves by Microsoft, Cisco, and Google.
"It all indicates a lack of vision, a lack of a common architecture and I am not very impressed," said David Ferris, president and senior analyst with Ferris Research.
Outside of the analysts, some Lotusphere attendees also gave LotusLive a lukewarm reception.
Rene Vandal, a systems integrator with Telefilm Canada, said his company was busy building a WebSphere portal. "LotusLive looks interesting, but I don't think we'll have a solution like that."
An IT architect from a financial services firm, who requested anonymity, said his company was too wrapped up in a migration from Notes 6.5 to even think twice about LotusLive.
But it wasn't all cat-calling last week.
At Lotusphere, IBM/Lotus unveiled partnerships with LinkedIn, Salesforce.com and Skype that will integrate those services into LotusLive. The partnerships provide an example of the extensibility of the platform, according to IBM/Lotus officials.
Maureen Shaffer, vice president of marketing for InSet Technologies, spoke at the LotusLive keynote to tout her small company's participation in the early-adopter program.
"I had been looking at Salesforce, Google Apps, and all sorts of different online solutions and I found I was going to have to pick pieces from different vendors and that it was going to be awkward to put together," said Shaffer, whose company lacks an IT staff.
She says the slate of LotusLive offerings in Engage are "fast and easy to use."
InSet mostly uses online Web conferencing, but also taps into file and contact sharing. Shaffer says she was pulled into the LotusLive program by Lotus partner Prolifiq.
"We just added our 17th employee today," she said. "So we are not in IBM's sweet spot."
And some analysts said LotusLive showed a lot of forethought on IBM's part, including using the Eclipse platform as the foundation to tie together not only IBM software but wares from third-parties as well.
"The vision they showed was comprehensive and beyond where I thought they were going six months ago," said Robert Mahowald, an analyst with IDC. "What IBM has built by adding social software and Symphony shows me this is a taking-the-gloves-off approach."
IBM/Lotus will need to get those gloves off if it plans to make a run in the crowded online collaboration services battle.
Studies from Ferris Research, IDC, Gartner, and others show that IBM/Lotus is losing ground in its on-premise software fight with Microsoft. Just last week, Gartner said Microsoft was widening its lead over IBM/Lotus.
If that trend continues, the online market could be key to IBM/Lotus's future success in the collaboration space. Gartner predicts that by 2012, 20 percent of e-mail seats will be hosted. With that kind of growth the time to react is short.
"If you look at Microsoft, Google or Zimbra it took them about 18 to 24 months to get their services out there," said Karen Hobert, an independent consultant. "I'm thinking that IBM is in the middle of that cycle. If they get past the 24-month mark, if they don't make that window with a clear offering, they could be in trouble."
Hobert said one idea might be for IBM in that time to create online brands instead of traditional products/services. The brands would be based around functional areas such as a Notes messaging brand, a Connections social networking brand, a Quickr content management brand. Such a design could help IBM appeal to any size customer regardless of their needs.
"Potentially in the next year and a half we could have Microsoft, Cisco, IBM, Yahoo, and Google competing for all the hosted enterprise business. That would be an interesting time," she said.
Network World is an InfoWorld affiliate.
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Six desk security mistakes employees make every day
You've checked all of the entry ways in your office building, you have surveillance technology in place, and IT assures you that your firewalls are bulletproof. But have you checked your staff's desks? That may be one of the largest holes in a company's security plan.
Desks and other work spaces often have items on or around them that contain sensitive information, and that information can be dangerous if it gets into the wrong hands.
[ Learn how to secure your systems with Roger Grimes' Security Adviser blog and newsletter, both from InfoWorld. ]
Just how vigilant are employees when it comes to keeping sensitive information secure at the office? We tested our own staff here at CSO to see how secure the desks are in our offices. Also, employees can check their own security smarts by taking The Clean Desk Test). As we found out, even at a security publication, some staffers are pretty lax about keeping information safe. (And yes, we got our CEO's blessing before we went snooping around.) Here are the top errors we encountered in our after-hours inspection.
Writing passwords on sticky notes
This was probably the biggest offense we noted when we walked around the CSO office after hours. Several employees had sticky notes on their computer monitors with passwords and/or personal ID numbers written on them. While employees may have a difficult time keeping track of all of their passwords, writing that information down on a piece of paper and leaving it out for all eyes to see is never a good idea. Keep in mind that after the office closes, many strangers can access the work space. One can never tell when a person might try and use employee passwords to compromise an account.
Writing sensitive information on a white board
Staff often brainstorm together and write down their ideas on a whiteboard. Several offices here at CSO had whiteboards. We found one with client names and billing information written on it. The information would have been very valuable to any potential competitors. After a work session, employees should put information in a less obvious place and put it away after hours. Advise staff to erase all whiteboards regularly.
Leaving sensitive documents on the desk
Also on several desks, we spotted detailed client contracts with billing terms. Like the whiteboard, the information might be valuable to competition. But depending on who views it, the client's information might also be used for ill-gotten gains. Any documents with sensitive data belong in a locked drawer or container.
Leaving a calendar or day planner out on a desk
One day planner we found contained private sales-related information. But a calendar might also contain the agenda or travel itinerary of a member of the staff. Depending on the company, that staff member (an executive, for instance) might be a potential target. All calendars and day planners should be locked up or taken out of the office at the end of the day.
Leaving an access card out
We found one desk with an access card hidden under a keyboard. That's not much better than leaving it in plain sight -- it's like putting your house key under the welcome mat, the first place a thief will look. Access cards are used to protect staff from an unwanted intrusion. If an access card gets into the wrong hands, it can allow unauthorized people to roam around freely. Staffers should keep possession of their cards at all times.
Forgetting the printer
The printer in our office had several vendor contracts discarded in a pile of papers. After staff finish with printing jobs, they need to be mindful of any documents that were printed, even the ones that aren't needed, and dispose of them appropriately.
CSO Online is an InfoWorld affiliate.
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Obama plan says cyberinfrastructure is 'strategic asset'
The Obama administration has published a high-level plan to protect U.S. computer networks, saying it considers cyberinfrastructure "a strategic asset" and will appoint an adviser who will report directly to the president.
The six-point outline was published Wednesday as part of a paper detailing the new administration's position on homeland security. Also planned is a "safe computing R&D effort" to build the next generation of security features into computers, and plans to fight cyberespionage and cybercrime by cracking down on "untraceable Internet payment schemes."
[ Also read the recommendations of InfoWorld's Galen Gruman for a high-tech agenda for President Obama. | For the latest in government IT news and issues: Subscribe to InfoWorld's Government IT newsletter. ]
The administration also wants to develop standards for securing data and making companies disclose data breaches, something that is governed by a patchwork of state laws at present.
The plan largely reflects a cybersecurity strategy that U.S. President Barack Obama first outlined in a July 16 campaign speech.
"We know that cyberespionage and common crime is already on the rise. And yet while countries like China have been quick to recognize this change, for the last eight years we have been dragging our feet," Obama said, according to a transcript of the speech. "As President, I'll make cybersecurity the top priority that it should be in the 21st century."
The administration's plans are generally in line with recommendations put forward last month by a panel of security experts, according to one of the report's advisers, Howard Schmidt, president of the Information Security Forum. That report, written by the Center for Strategic and International Studies' Commission on Cybersecurity for the 44th Presidency, called for sweeping changes to the way the federal government approaches cybersecurity, including the creation of a new cybersecurity office in the White House.
Talking about computer security as a critical national asset rather than just the technology behind e-commerce shows that the Obama administration has a new approach, said Schmidt, one of the authors of the George W. Bush administration's "Strategy to Secure Cyberspace." "I think that's one thing that's really, really key," he said. "By declaring this a national asset, that's going to put everybody on notice that they've got to start doing their part to strengthen it."
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Layoffs call for Microsoft to rethink Windows client
Microsoft's first-ever layoffs point to a need for the company to rethink its Windows client business, which is largely responsible for the disappointing financial results that led to thousands of Microsoft job cuts announced Thursday.
Microsoft's second-quarter results Thursday, in which net profit fell 11 percent, show that the company is still largely dependent on its Windows client business for its financial health. That business in turn is dependent on the market for PC sales, which is currently flat and shows no signs of improving over the short term.
[ Related: InfoWorld's Tom Sullivan points to Vista as the main culprit in Microsoft layoffs. | Keep up on the latest tech news headlines at InfoWorld News, or subscribe to the Today's Headlines newsletter. ]
Microsoft has been trying to diversify its revenue for some time and has made incremental progress. But until other parts of the business begin to pull in more revenue, the company should examine ways to keep its Windows client business from damaging its overall financial health if the current economic condition worsens, analysts said.
"Today really shows how dependent they are on PC sales," said Matt Rosoff, analyst with research firm Directions on Microsoft. "They're still largely a desktop software company."
Rosoff said Microsoft has done a good job trying to diversify its revenue base, and there was some good news in Thursday's results to reflect those efforts.
Besides Windows clients, one business that has been a reliable source of revenue for some time is the Server and Tools Division, which Thursday recorded its 26th consecutive quarter of double-digit growth. This was driven largely by Windows Server 2008, which is just now beginning to take hold in the market and should drive continued success in this part of Microsoft's business, said one analyst.
"Even in a downturn, [Windows Server 2008] brings a lot of new value to the market, in particular for customers that want to reduce costs" because it includes built-in virtualization software, said Al Gillen, a program vice president with research firm IDC. Virtualization software allows companies to consolidate server hardware and therefore cut IT costs.
Thursday's results also showed promising revenue growth in Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices and Business divisions -- the latter of which is home to Microsoft's other cash cow, Office.
But even Microsoft acknowledged Thursday that a flat PC market could continue to affect the overall Office business, while Entertainment and Devices' performance had more to do with holiday sales of the Xbox 360 game console than overall growth in that market.
As other businesses pull the weight of Windows client, Microsoft should spend some time rethinking how it approaches that part of its business, analysts said. Pondering ways to develop an annuity revenue stream for Windows could be one way to do that, suggested Neil MacDonald, a vice president at research firm Gartner.
Annuity revenue is any revenue that is recurring, such as from ongoing subscriptions or long-term contracts. Companies can count on such revenue and factor it into financial outlooks ahead of time.
"If Microsoft could develop a business model where you pay as you go, it would certainly protect them in times like this," MacDonald said. "I think you'll see Microsoft experiment with new models on Windows, especially with cloud-based services, based on an annuity revenue stream."
Thursday's results also show that Microsoft still has some lessons to learn from Windows Vista, which appears to have come back to haunt the company.
Microsoft put considerable investment and time into developing Vista, expecting the OS to be more successful than it has been. In the middle of Vista's development cycle, the company also had to put out a major update to Windows XP in the form of a service pack that it did not charge for, also interrupting the normal revenue flow of its client business.
At the time it was developing Vista, Microsoft thought it could "change the PC market with a new OS," Directions on Microsoft's Rosoff said.
However, consumers as a whole did not rush out to purchase new machines just because they had Vista on them, and many companies opted to skip the OS altogether and continue to run XP instead.
Microsoft has now learned that Windows client is not going to be the kind of product that will "suddenly spur this huge wave" of PC market growth, Rosoff said, and it probably will approach the business with that in mind in the future.
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WiMax Forum looks toward roaming
The WiMax Forum kicked off an initiative on Thursday that someday may be critical for making WiMax a true rival to cellular networks.
The industry group launched its Global Roaming Program, aimed at helping mobile WiMax operators set up roaming so subscribers can get online when they travel to areas served by other carriers. The program offers resources for service providers, including technical specifications, a manual, a contract template, and a test plan, on the organization's Web site.
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Domestic and international roaming is widely available among cellular operators, especially those using the most widely adopted mobile standard, GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications). WiMax is just beginning to be rolled out in many parts of the world and has a long way to go before it's as widespread as 2G (second-generation) and 3G (third-generation) mobile networks. But the WiMax Forum is smart to get the ball rolling on roaming agreements now, said Robert Syputa, an analyst at Maravedis.
"Generally, it's always favorable to have these operators do roaming, because that enhances the value of their network," Syputa said.
The program provides a "how-to" manual, a template for writing a contract between operators, a test plan for trying out roaming services with other operators ahead of launch, and specifications for exchanging information to track usage and settle the bill. The documents were developed by WiMax operators and other participants, including iPass and Verisign.
The WiMax Forum's work may help carriers get through some of the rough patches that come with setting up roaming with a new technology. But other challenges remain, according to Syputa. Carriers in different countries use different radio bands for their WiMax networks, such as 2.5GHz and 3.5GHz, and client devices may be equipped to use only one of them. In addition, service providers can allocate varying amounts of bandwidth to individual subscribers. So customers of one WiMax carrier may get a fat pipe of 1Mb per second or more at home and then find they can't use a roaming partner's network for the rich applications they're used to, he said.
In any case, it is too early for the largest U.S. WiMax operator, Clearwire, to get involved in any international roaming deals, Syputa said. With mobile WiMax commercially available in just two metropolitan areas -- Baltimore and Portland, Oregon -- Clearwire probably doesn't have enough demand to make it worthwhile.
"They need to have some critical mass" with 20 cities or more, Syputa said. That isn't likely to happen until some time in 2010, he said.
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Starbucks taps Salesforce's Sites technology for campaign
Salesforce's Force.com Sites service has landed a marquee customer as it works through a developer preview stage.
The nascent service, used to build Web sites with the on-demand CRM vendor's technology, is running under the hood of the new "I'm in" campaign by the Starbucks coffee chain. People who pledge to volunteer five hours on a community-service project get a free coffee through the marketing drive, which began Wednesday and runs through Sunday.
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Along with Salesforce partner Appirio, Starbucks built the campaign's Web site in just four weeks, said Chris Bruzzo, vice president of digital strategy and content for Starbucks. The company also simultaneously launched a Facebook application for the campaign.
The decision to go with Force.com Sites made sense partly because of Starbucks' existing relationship with Salesforce, both for its CRM software and Force.com Ideas, the company's platform for building online communities for customers. The latter powers the My Starbucks Idea site.
Starbucks is hoping to attract at least 1 million hours in pledges for the "I'm in" campaign.
After hatching the idea some weeks back, the company "knew [it] needed a solution that would build quickly and scale infinitely," Bruzzo said.
Appirio's team built out the bulk of the site from an architectural standpoint, while Bruzzo's team designed the user interface elements and also assisted with some coding, he said.
Overall the process went smoothly, although Starbucks' designers had to work nights and weekends to finish the job, he said.
Starbucks probably wouldn't take over all the programming chores should it create another site with the service, according to Bruzzo.
"If I have another idea next month, with Appirio we can quickly assemble their team and get something built. It allows us to focus on the rest of our online strategy," he said.
This approach is also much more economical than having a dedicated internal development team sitting idle, waiting for the next job, he added.
With Force.com Sites, Salesforce's main goal is to "wean some users away from their reliance on Microsoft's SharePoint as their sales portal provider, along with other portal players," such as IBM's WebSphere, said 451 Group analyst China Martens via e-mail.
It's also part of the company's move to "externalize CRM if you will, outside of the four walls of a company -- in some cases through the creation of microsites," she added.
Salesforce has not named a firm date for Force.com Sites' general release, saying only that it will be sometime this year. It first announced the offering in November.
Meanwhile, the Starbucks "I'm In" site has logged more than 500,000 pledge hours and appeared to be in working order throughout the day Thursday.
But Salesforce, which constantly trumpets the power and reliability of its systems, recently dealt with a spate of media attention when it suffered a temporary service outage.
The outage did not particularly faze Bruzzo.
"It is sort of a fact of doing business on the Internet," he said of such mishaps. "I'm sort of realistic about it. It had very little effect on our business."
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Autonomy to acquire Interwoven in $775 million deal
U.K. enterprise search and e-discovery vendor Autonomy has entered an agreement to buy Interwoven, maker of content management software, in a deal valued at about $775 million, the companies said Thursday.
The deal is expected to close in the second quarter. Combined, the two vendors will have more than 20,000 customers and will constitute "the largest company dedicated to the legal information management industry," according to a statement.
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Autonomy sees a growing market for e-discovery due to increased litigation and recent regulatory changes, which have "heightened the need to capture and understand information," such as employee communications, the companies said.
Forrester Research has said e-discovery spending will grow to more than $4.8 billion by 2011, up from $1.4 billion in 2006.
Meanwhile, Interwoven's software is in use at 1,200 top law firms and supports 100,000 Web sites, extranets and intranets, according to a statement.
Autonomy plans to swiftly integrate Interwoven's portfolio with its own, but is also "committed to supporting ongoing development of all their products," said Autonomy's chief marketing officer, Nicole Eagan.
The companies already have a close partnership and therefore will complete a significant amount of the integration work by the time the transaction is closed, she added.
One industry observer and Autonomy shareholder praised the pending acquisition.
"Web content management and search are obvious bedfellows," said Richard Holway, a tech analyst based in the U.K., in a blog post Thursday. "Secondly, Interwoven's strongest sector is legal -- again a great fit with Autonomy, which has made its reputation in compliance and disclosure."
Analyst firm The 451 Group said in a blog post that the deal would leave stand-alone content management vendors such as Vignette "in an even worse position."
Autonomy has made a number of acquisitions in recent years, such as its 2007 purchase of archiving and e-discovery vendor Zantaz for $375 million. The spree has Autonomy "looking more and more like a mini-Oracle every day," the unsigned 451 Group post said.
But Autonomy hasn't done as good a job of integrating acquired products as vendors like Oracle, and technology buyers should "use a great deal of caution when considering Autonomy as a 'suite' vendor for the foreseeable future," CMS Watch analyst Alan Pelz-Sharpe said in a blog post.
Overall, Autonomy is at a sort of crossroads, according to Pelz-Sharpe.
"The firm has bought a number of very good products, and made some very smart moves over the years, but they have reached a point now where they either become/remain a holding company with a marketing-level integration story, or they commit to the hard work of building out an holistic business, one that is more than the sum of its parts."
But Eagan disagreed with such assessments, saying that Autonomy's financial performance of late "speaks for itself. ... The companies we acquire tend to flourish."
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Seagate Barracude drives have a firmware problem
Seagate has confirmed a potential firmware problem with some of its Barracuda 7200.11 hard drives, along with related Serial ATA (SATA) hard drives based on the same platform. The company is offering a firmware update, but it's only available for Windows users at the moment.
"In some unique circumstances, the data on the hard drives may become inaccessible to the user when the host system is powered on," said Seagate tech support in a statement posted to the company's online Knowledge Base.
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The affected drives include some Barracuda 7200.11, DiamondMax 22, and Barracuda ES.2 SATA hard disk drive mechanisms. Seagate's posted information indicates the serial number ranges affected by this problem; the company says that potentially affected drives were manufactured through December 2008.
The Barracuda 7200.11 is a 3.5-inch hard disk drive mechanism that operates at 7,200 rpm; it isn't normally found as a factory-installed item in shipping Mac models, but is a commodity drive that can be purchased from a multitude of third-party resellers.
Seagate's instructions for updating the firmware on affected drives include software for Windows only, so if you've installed this drive in an Intel-based Mac running Boot Camp with a Windows partition installed, you may be able to apply the instructions. Otherwise, it looks like you might be cooling your heels for the moment. Seagate had not returned a request for comment as Macworld posted this article.
Macworld is an InfoWorld affiliate.
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