IT-Code-News: IT News HeadLines (InfoWorld) 13/03/2009

Amazon, Microsoft improve their cloud computing game

Amazon has introduced EC2 Reserved Instances which allow you to obtain a reduced hourly fee for an upfront payment that varies according to which level of EC2 server you use. So, for example, with an upfront payment of US$325, the hourly fee of $.10 is reduced to $.03 for a year. With a payment of $500, the fee is reduced for three years. Amazon's CTO, Werner Vogel, explained that the initiative was launched to address applications that are available for long durations, rather than being used for short periods of time and then taken down.

In essence, this is aimed at organizations that want to use AWS as an external data center for standard applications that are used 24X7.

[ InfoWorld explains: What cloud computing really means. Track the latest trends with our Cloud Computing blog. ]

This offering clearly enables a lower TCO, depending upon how much time the application is actually up. Algebra not your strong suit? Fortunately, Geva Perry, a well-known cloud blogger, created a calculator to allow you to figure it out automatically. Filling out a spreadsheet too much work? Geva bottom lines it: if your app is up more than 12 hours per day for one year, it makes sense to use a reserved instance. Obviously, the blended pricing gets even more attractive over a three year period, where the yearly upfront payment works out to $166.

An interesting variation for companies is this scenario: an application that must always be available, but experiences intermittent large increases in use. Obvious examples are seasonal retail, monthly reporting, etc. For these apps, a mix of reserved instances for typical load with on-demand instances for short duration peak load will provide a good solution that leverages the flexibility of AWS while reducing minimum operations expenses.

Since one of the typical objections to cloud computing is that its TCO is higher than self-hosted systems, this new offering changes the equation -- it may not affect the outcome of that discussion in every case, but it definitely tilts the balance toward the cloud. I believe the argument that cloud computing is, ipso facto, more expensive is more and more tenuous every day.

Microsoft also announced a change in its Azure cloud offering: they now offer standard SQLServer relational database support. The money quote: "a developer can take an existing application and just change the connection string to point it to the cloud and have it just work."

Another common objection to cloud computing is that it isn't easy to migration existing applications to the cloud. In particular, the PaaS offerings don't support standard relational databases or SQL syntax. Cloud advocates argue that this isn't a big deal, because applications are increasingly scale-oriented and run too large for relational databases anyway, which is why the key-pair persistence offerings of the PaaS vendors is more appropriate. I think they're dead wrong in this assertion. While there is no doubt that what I refer to as "Internet-scale" applications and data stores are becoming more common, requiring scalable infrastructures beyond the capability of most data centers, the vast preponderance of applications fall into traditional architecture infrastructures, which rely on SQL databases as the persistence mechanism. Moreover, there is huge potential demand for IT organizations to migrate these apps into cloud environments if the economics are sufficiently attractive (which, as noted earlier, Amazon, at least, is diligently working on).

Microsoft has really increased the attractiveness of its offering, especially to less-sophisticated IT organizations, which comprise a significant portion of the overall Microsoft user base. For those customers, being able to take an existing app and move it into the cloud, or easily install a new app in Azure, makes Microsoft's cloud service extremely appealing. With this announcement, Microsoft has created a hybrid IaaS/PaaS service that can address both traditional architecture applications as well as the new breed of Internet-scale applications. I have to say I'm really impressed, and especially with how quickly Microsoft has created this capability, in vast contrast to the extended delivery cycles we've experienced with many of their other products.

Overall, cloud computing offerings continue to evolve quite rapidly, making the "buy vs. build" of cloud vs. internal data center even more interesting.

Bernard Golden is CEO of consulting firm HyperStratus, which specializes in virtualization, cloud computing and related issues. He is also the author of "Virtualization for Dummies," the best-selling book on virtualization to date.

What the iPhone OS 3.0 update might really mean

File this under random musings du jour. All the fuss about Apple's forthcoming iPhone OS 3.0 got me thinking. And in so thinking, I began to extrapolate. What if Apple is trying to beat Android to market with a mobile companion/Internet device/mini-notebook-like gadget?

We've already heard tale of Android migrating out of the smartphone handset and into other mobile Internet devices. Asus has talked about having an Android-based version of its Eee PC netbook series, and Archos plans an Android-based Internet tablet; neither product is expected until late 2009. Lately, the rumor mill has been rife with speculation over a netbook-like device coming soon from Apple.

[ InfoWorld says the time has come to Free the iPhone! Keep up with app dev issues and trends with InfoWorld's Fatal Exception and Strategic Developer blogs. ]

Enter Apple with its highly functional iPhone OS 3.0. Never mind the implied constrictions the name "iPhone OS" has attached to it; the possibilities are endless for a mobile gadget that could run this operating system software. If Apple can replicate its successful marriage of iPhone hardware with its software on other devices, it could easily quickly become a dominant force in portable hardware.

I'm imagining a device with Apple's usual attention to slick, eye-catching industrial design; a device that's easy-to-use; a device that can be equal parts media player extraordinaire, productivity companion (yes, that would require Apple finally adding support for cut-and-paste), Web device, and game machine. The applications for all of the above are there--and more certainly could come. And the interoperability and shared interface with the iPhone and iPod Touch could herald quite the little empire if Apple could get enough traction with its devices.

In my imagination, this device will one-up the Amazon Kindle 2 by becoming the next true, connected device-- a device that has seamlessly integrated 3G connectivity. Perhaps a basic level connectivity comes included with the device (for example, Kindle 2 doesn't charge extra for its always-available connectivity; but, you're not downloading huge multimedia files and graphical Web pages on Kindle, either); or, you get a step-up plan that won't break the bank (as existing 3G data plans for notebooks do today).

If Apple were to take the step to bring iPhone OS to devices beyond the iPhone and iPod Touch, it wouldn't be the first time a mobile operating system jumped from handset to device. Ignoring, for a moment the talk of future Android-based devices, Microsoft paved the way for this path with its Windows CE operating system more than a decade ago. The trouble was, the Windows CE OS--a predecessor to what's now called Windows Mobile--just wasn't that easy to use. Nor were the devices. Apple's iPhone OS is already lightyears ahead of Windows CE in the usability department; and the device potential today is lightyears ahead, too.

Firefox beta update supports HTML 5

Mozilla released an update for the ongoing Firefox beta, bringing the current version to 3.1b3. This will be the last beta before the version number changes to 3.5, according to the organization.

Among the changes to Firefox 3.1b3 is support for some elements of HTML 5, including the video and audio tags. The update also adds support for the W3C Geolocation API, JavaScript query selectors, CSS 2.1 and 3 properties, SVG transforms and offline applications.

[ To learn more about Firefox and its rivals, see InfoWorld Test Center's guide to browser security. Discover the top-rated IT products as rated by the InfoWorld Test Center. ]

The private browsing mode in Firefox has been improved and the JavaScript engine was updated to improve performance and stability. The Gecko layout engine has been improved as well, allowing for faster content rendering.

The update to Firefox brings its feature set more inline with the most recent public beta of Safari 4, which also added support for the latest Web technologies.

Firefox 3.1b3 can be downloaded from the organization's Web site.

Poll: Cloud computing not seen as IT answer to downturn

New research suggests that, contrary to the view held by some pundits, the economic malaise will not prompt IT buyers to flee to their nearest computing cloud.

Accenture- and Microsoft-backed services firm Avanade's poll of UK C-suite executives and IT decision makers found that 75 percent of users of "proprietary IT systems" did not see their appetites for the cloud model whetted by the downturn, and 25 percent said the fiscal environment had actually cooled their interest. Against that picture, 27 percent of current cloud users said that the recessionary backdrop would encourage them to make more use of cloud technology.

[ InfoWorld explains: What cloud computing really means. Also, follow the cloud with InfoWorld's Cloud Computing blog. ]

The numbers will surprise those observers that expect restriction on traditional IT spending to accelerate adoption of alternative models that reduce the need for capital expenditure. In a recent column for CIO, for example, Mike Altendorf, co-founder of another services firm, Conchango, reported sharpening interest in cloud models.

A likely cause of the confusion is varying interpretations of what constitutes cloud computing'. Many industry watchers define the cloud through platforms such as Amazon.com's Elastic Compute Cloud where internet-based resources can be dynamically allocated to applications and services as an alternative to in-house computing environments. However, others, including Avanade, view it as a catch-all term for software as a service (SaaS), web-based applications and storage, capacity-on-demand and utility pricing.

Even so, Avanade's finding of limited interest in such capabilities also contrasts with some market indicators. For example, SaaS pioneers Salesforce.com and NetSuite are continuing to see sharp (over 30 percent) annual revenue growth compared to many enterprise software veterans.

However, Avanade did concede that cloud computing will make for radical change in the ways IT is deployed. Avanade UK general manager Ian Jordan said that cloud computing will "fundamentally challenge the way outsourcers operate".

Web 2.0 tools can foster growth in hard times

Zappos.com Inc. credits its novel Web 2.0-based sales philosophy for much of its significant sales growth -- and continuing profitability -- during the current hard times.

The online shoe and clothing store doesn't spend massive sums creating and implementing online or offline marketing and advertising campaigns, yet it still generates significant buzz among its current and potential customers.

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How? Mostly through its heavy use of Twitter Inc.'s eponymous social network and, to a lesser extent, its use of tools from Web 2.0 providers like Facebook Inc.

Of Zappos.com's 1,400 employees, 450 actively use Twitter to promote the company. In fact, CEO Tony Hsieh is the 20th most popular Twitterer, with more than 186,000 followers on the social network, according to Twitterholic.com.

Instead of sending online shoppers coupons or information about sales, executives and employees at Henderson, Nev.-based Zappos.com regularly tweet about what happens to them at the airport, the fact that they eat marshmallows in between phone calls and the state of the economy.

The goal is to respond to customer comments and form personal connections with their Twitter followers, as well as with friends on Facebook, where employees post blogs and videos.

The tweets and posts are a way to give customers and other curious social network members a way to get a glimpse at the inside workings of the company.

"Today, consumers have access to so much information," said Aaron Magness, director of business development at Zappos.com. "You can buy the same shirts at Zappos as at somewhere else. The product almost becomes less important; it becomes about the business."

The privately held retailer claimed more than $1 billion in sales last year, up from $840 million in 2007. In blog posts, Hsieh said the company did cut 8% of its workforce late last year because of the declining economy, but it continues to be profitable nonetheless.

Zappos.com isn't alone in its use of social networks. Companies large and small are increasingly investigating how to best use Web 2.0 tools from the likes of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube. Analysts note that there's increasing pressure from customers and employees on companies to use social networks.

Potential Risks

Analysts say that, as in the case of Zappos.com, using Web 2.0 tools to boost visibility can be a good thing, but the strategy can also pose risks, especially in a time of layoffs, benefit cutbacks and salary reductions.

For example, an employee, whether she's a CEO or a researcher, could create an online maelstrom with an unintentional slip of the keyboard. And readers of a company's online posts, bolstered by anonymity, could respond to them in a particularly vicious manner.

"It's two-way communication, and you have to be able to take the heat that may come your way," said Dan Olds, an analyst at Gabriel Consulting Group Inc. in Beaverton, Ore. "It isn't for everyone. Some companies will have a hard time dealing with it, while others will thrive."

Olds said that any company using Web 2.0 tools will inevitably face strong, and potentially embarrassing, criticism. "No company is perfect, and some customers will complain about anything," he said. "That's why some companies are still cautious about engaging with social networks."

Olds also noted that it's important for businesses to find the right voice or tone for their social networking personas. For example, Dell Inc. uses sites like Twitter to blast out information about sales and coupons, while Zappos.com is all about letting customers get to know its employees, he said.

"You have to make sure that you're presenting the right image for your company and doing it in the right way," he said. "A whimsical and funny approach will work for Apple and many other companies, but not so well for, say, Dow Chemical. It takes a lot of thought and careful consideration."

Olds also suggested that companies establish a clear goal for their social networking strategies -- and he said they shouldn't expect users to automatically embrace them. "A bank that focuses on its interest-bearing checking accounts will be less interesting than a bank CEO who provides straight talk on the economy. The critical thing is to understand your goals and present an image consistent with your company," he said.

"I see this whole social networking phenomenon not as truly a purely technical phenomenon, but as a change in the values of the organization," said Soumitra Dutta, the Roland Berger Chaired Professor of Business and Technology at INSEAD, an international business school in Fontainebleau, France.

"CEOs are becoming more open to new ideas from employees and customers they haven't normally interacted with," Dutta said. "Traditionally, companies have looked at customer relationship management as a one-to-one issue. Today, we're seeing that customers talk to each other and not just directly to the company."

Thus, businesses must move in to try to actively manage their relationships with these communities and respond to positive and negative feedback, he added.

A growing number of businesses are creating such communities to bring together groups of people who all love the same thing, whether it's a certain pair of sneakers, a car model or a mainframe computer.

For example, just over a year ago, IBM created a Facebook page for people interested in news and information about its System z mainframe computer offerings. Launched in December 2007, the page now counts more than 700 friends. And, IBM notes, that's a lot of friends for a computer that isn't the newest or sexiest around today.

IBM spokesman Kevin Acocella acknowledged that the company's use of what many see as kids' technology to gather people interested in big-iron machines used by the Facebook generation's fathers and grandfathers is somewhat ironic.

IBM is looking to use the technology to get young people interested in mainframe technology by offering links to articles, comment strings, YouTube videos and the like. The Facebook page has become particularly important in this economy, since many IT professionals and students can't afford to go to conferences or seminars, Acocella added.

Despite its status as one of the earliest computer companies, IBM is no Johnny-come-lately to the social networking scene. IBMers have been blogging and collaborating with wikis for several years.

The company has even created a social networking site, dubbed The Greater IBM Connection, for IBM employees and alumni. The site, which was created about two years ago, attracted some 24,000 members in the first 14 months. Membership has since tripled to 73,000 in more than 110 countries, Acocella said.

Also, IBM has created a social media team to help its current employees learn how to use social networks, record and edit podcasts, and be successful bloggers.

"Over the years, we've learned that what the decision-makers cite as one of the most, if not the most, important driver of their perception of IBM is their personal interaction with IBMers," noted Acocella.

And while IBM requires its employees to follow Web 2.0 guidelines it has established -- such as banning the use of obscenities or slurs, or the posting of confidential company data or personal information about fellow employees -- others, like Zappos.com, give their employees free rein.

Want to find out more about Web 2.0 for business? See How and why to launch a business presence on Twitter and Best Buy getting results from social network.

Google's new 'Tip Jar' offers small change

The notion is to harness that ballyhooed wisdom of the Internet crowds in order to help us all save money in our everyday lives.

From The Official Google Blog: "Tip Jar gathers tips in one place and invites people to rank them in order of usefulness and even add their own tips to the list. Over time, the best and most useful tips will rise to the top."

Over time might be the key phrase there.

It's a cool concept, so I thought it would be worth my while to breeze through the top tips offered in each of the site's eight categories. In one sense, I knew this was unfair, given that Tip Jar had just launched, but Google did ask me to take a look ... and this is what I found as the top one or two in each of the eight.

Category: At home.

"Get your books from the library. It's hard to beat free."

"Turn off the lights in the rooms of your house that you are not occupying. Make it a habit to flip the switch each time you leave a room. Save electricity and save on your bill."

Thanks, Tip Jar. I hadn't heard of this "library" thing and I'm sure my kids will love to make a game out of turning off lights.

Category: At work.

"Bring your lunch to work once or twice a week instead of buying it."

"Live relatively near your workplace. While this isn't always possible, driving 5,000 miles less a year can lower transportation costs by more than $1,000."

Thanks, Tip Jar. Are lunchboxes still cool?

Category: Finance.

"Utilize online bill pay with your bank. It keeps you in much closer contact with your money, as you can keep a very close eye on your balance and be in much less danger of overdrafting. It saves you money on stamps and paper checks."

Thanks, Tip Jar. Who would have thought you could use the Internet to pay bills.

Category: Kids and family.

"Don't spend big money entertaining your children. Buy them an end roll of newspaper from your local paper and let their creativity run wild."

Thanks, Tip Jar. That one has the added benefit of saving a dying industry. Win-win.

Category: Shopping.

"Buy a water filter and take your own water to the gym/sports etc. Bottled water is expensive, unnecessary and bad for the environment"

"Go to the grocery store with your belly full. You won't buy too many things because you just ain't hungry."

Thanks, Tip Jar, but I have a better idea: Drink a gallon of tap water before going for groceries.

Category: Food.

"Drink water. Often we drink lots of calories through sodas, coffee, alcohol, juices, tea, etc. And that costs a lot too. Drink water, save money, save calories."

Thanks, Tip Jar. Is there any challenge that can't be met with a glass of tap water?

Category: Cars and transit.

"Carpool. Is there anyone that lives near you who works at the same place (or near the same place) that you do?"

"Keep your car engine tuned and its tires inflated to their proper pressure. Doing both can save you up to $100 a year in gas."

Thanks, Tip Jar. This is the way I'll go if I can't find a job nearer to my house.

Category: Travel.

"Make sure the kids know that the mini bar is not an option. Buy snacks and beverages from a local market and keep them in the room for snack attacks."

Thanks, Tip Jar. No more giving the mini-bar key to the kids.

Definitely unfair, you say? Fine, I'll give Tip Jar more time.

Tips and comments to buzz@nww.com.

IBM software to ease multivendor security management

IBM is introducing software that lets customers manage multivendor desktop security agents via a single console, affording them a broader choice of security products without proliferating management platforms.

Proventia Endpoint Secure Control (ESC) aims to support software security clients for multiple vendors in four areas: system protection, data protection, configuration management, and system maintenance.

[ Learn how to secure your systems with Roger Grimes' Security Adviser blog and newsletter, both from InfoWorld. ]

Initially, Proventia ESC will support anti-virus software from TrendMicro that can be deployed on the ESC agent and fully managed via the ESC management platform, but IBM says it plans to add more vendors and more products over time. Proventia ESC can also manage security applications that are part of IBM's Proventia Desktop.

The platform is designed as an alternative to static desktop security suites by the likes of McAfee and Symantec that lack the flexibility to pick and choose which vendors supply, for instance, anti-virus software and which provide personal firewalls.

Check Point recently introduced a similar modular approach to network security that supports an a la carte selection of security applications, but it supports only Check Point products.

Proventia ESC grew out of a desire to provide an alternative for businesses that want to deploy multiple security agents on each desktop or laptop.

They could buy multiple products from multiple vendors and manage them via their multiple consoles, a complicated choice involving training on the various management platforms. Or they could buy a security suite made by a single vendor that gives them a single management platform but no choice about the individual applications.

Proventia ESC will allow a third choice using different vendors to supply each application but not requiring new management software for each one.

At the outset, the platform will manage Proventia Desktop applications and Trend's anti-virus. It will support deployment of Verdasys data loss protection and PGP's encryption software out of the box, but management support for them comes later.

Long-term, all the applications Proventia ESC supports will be manageable under the same console.

IBM believes that as new classes of threats emerge that require new defensive applications, that its modular architecture will enable launching the new defenses more quickly. Startups that have traditionally sprung up around new threats will be able to partner with IBM to deploy their wares on Proventia ESC, gaining access to an established customer base without having to set up marketing and channel partners on their own in order to generate revenue.

Customers that have endpoint security suites would have to wait for their vendors to adopt these new defensive platforms or buy a separate product, which would defeat the purpose of buying a suite in the first place, IBM says.

The software could also provide a way to automate desktop defenses against threats discovered via IBM's X-Force security intelligence service, which reports to customers about new threats it discovers. Rather than just reporting, X-Force could recommend configuration changes that could provisioned within Proventia ESC and pushed to each workstation, IBM says.

Proventia ESC could also identify those machines susceptible to new threats via its ability to gather and analyze near real-time data about endpoint configuration.

Proventia ESC will be available in April and pricing has not been set.

Network World is an InfoWorld affiliate

Nation's first CIO to take leave during bribery investigation

Federal law enforcement officials filed bribery charges today against the District of Columbia's acting chief security officer, along with a one-time D.C. government employee who owns an IT outsourcing company that runs offshore operations in India. Both were later arraigned in federal court.

What is drawing extra attention to this case is its connection to Vivek Kundra, the former chief technology officer for D.C. who last week was appointed by President Barack Obama to be the federal government's first official CIO.

[ Related: Meet the nation's first CIO | Here are 10 IT agenda items for Kundra | Check out Kundra's 2008 InfoWorld CTO 25 profile. ]

There is nothing in the court documents from today's arraignment to indicate that Kundra had any knowledge of the alleged illegal activity that led to today's arrests. However, NBC News and other media outlets reported late today that Kundra is taking a leave from the federal CIO job until more is known about the FBI's investigation of his former organization.

Arrested this morning was Yusuf Acar, who currently is the District of Columbia's acting chief security officer; police said they found $70,000 in cash in his Washington home. Acar's annual salary is $127,468, according to court documents.

The second suspect arraigned on bribery charges is Sushil Bansal, CEO and founder of Advanced Integrated Technologies Corp. (AITC), a Washington-based outsourcing vendor that has won a number of contracts from the district's IT department. The court documents said that from March 2004 to February of this year, AITC did more than $13 million worth of business with the D.C. government.

Kundra was named CTO in D.C. in 2007. AITC received contracts before and after he was appointed to that job, including the extension of an IT security support deal that involved antivirus deployment and incident response services.

In court, a somber U.S. District Judge John Facciola told Acar that the alleged crimes "speak of bribery" and added that these "are serious federal charges." Acar, 40, said nothing in court other than to state his name.

The U.S. attorney representing the government in the case, Tom Hibarger, told Facciola that Acar posed "a serious risk of flight." According to Hibarger, Acar has relatives in Turkey and had made statements that he was ready to leave the country "and take a large amount of currency with him."

Acar was ordered held without bail. Bansal was released, but ordered not to leave the area.

In an affidavit, the federal government alleged that Acar worked with a vendor to submit a purchase order for one quantity of goods, "and in actuality a lesser quantity [was] ordered and delivered." The scheme was complex and involved adding people to the payroll who didn't exist -- they were called "ghost employees." Payments were allegedly made to those "workers."

Acar is also accused of hiring ghost employees through a vendor and allegedly approving timesheets for them.

In what the government officials described as the "McAfee Software Scheme," Bansal's firm submitted a purchase order for 2,000 units of McAfee Foundstone software, which is used to provide automated scanning and vulnerability assessments, for $104,166. McAfee generated a quote for AITC for the purchase of 500 units of the software at $36,845, but AITC, the provider in this case, charged the D.C. government for 2,000 licenses.

Computerworld is an InfoWorld affiliate.

IBM hashing out WebSphere plans

IBM plans more componentizing of its WebSphere Java application server as well as additional dynamic language support, a company executive said on Thursday.

Interviewed at the SD West 2009 conference in Santa Clara, Calif., Savio Rodrigues, IBM product manager for WebSphere Application Server, said componentizing of the application server will continue with extensions to the existing version 7 of WebSphere or with other upgrades.

[ For more from IBM's WebSphere group, see "The cloud-SOA connection" on InfoWorld. ]

"In future versions, we're going to extend our work with OSGi to further componentize the app server so that finer-grain components are started up," he said. For example, WebSphere currently launches a full Web services stack, but future improvements could include only launching specific Web services frameworks instead of all of them.

Currently, WebSphere's runtime configuration services capability, which is geared to developers, only starts up necessary parts of the application server container needed for a specific application.

Application servers feature build, run, and management phases in their operations, said Rodrigues. "In the build stages, there's work that the WebSphere team has to do in terms of making the development time much simpler for the developer, so this talks about the tooling that you have but also the application server so that it?s very lightweight, boots up quickly, [and] you don't need to restart when you make changes to the configuration," he said. "All of that stuff is what you should be expecting from WebSphere, and that's some work that we need to do."

Additional scripting language backing is eyed as well. WebSphere developers now can use the PHP and Groovy languages with WebSphere sMash, a platform for quickly building Web 2.0 applications. IBM could add support for languages like Python and the Ruby on Rails Web framework to both sMash and the larger WebSphere platform, Rodrigues said.

Support for dynamic languages helps with developing situational applications that need to be completed in days, said Rodrigues. "[For] that type of application, something like PHP or Groovy is much better for [that]," he said.

More support for programming models also is planned for WebSphere. Technologies like Service Component Architecture and Spring are supported now.

Rodrigues served on a panel at the conference that pondered the application server "frontier." An expansion of the role of application servers was stressed by panelist Larry Cable, an architect at Oracle.

"Well, I think that over the last 10 years with Java technology, we've really taken Java to the core of server-side applications. Application servers now appear not only as the foundation for end-user custom applications, but also are the foundation for a whole series of other programming models," such as enterprise service buses, Cable said.

Hardware makers get ready for Windows 7

New laptop and desktop designs are on tap as PC and hardware makers start tweaking components to take advantage of improved features in Microsoft's upcoming Windows 7 OS.

Microsoft has announced many improvements with Windows 7, like support for more hardware and touch-screen applications, which hardware makers hope to take advantage of. PC makers like Dell and Fujitsu are redesigning hardware to offer more wireless networking options and touchscreen capabilities, which give users an easier way to input data or move images by simply touching screens.

[ Check your Windows 7 compatibility | Test Center: Windows 7 benchmarks unmasked. ]

Dell on Thursday launched Studio 19, an all-in-one PC with multitouch capabilities where users can simultaneously gesture with two fingers on a screen to zoom, pan, tilt, or rotate elements in photos, edit playlists or browse the Web. The multitouch capabilities give users a more immersible multimedia experience than keyboards or mice would, Dell said.

Studio 19 is an early manifestation of what Dell's future Windows 7 PCs may look like. The PC maker already has touchscreen capabilities with the Latitude XT2 laptop, and a Dell spokeswoman said the company would build in touch capability across its desktops and other laptops over time.

Dell has perhaps been the most vocal in its ongoing efforts to tailor hardware to take advantage of Windows 7 features. Dell officials didn't offer further details on how they plan to further hardware tweaks, but the company sees the OS as a way to rejuvenate the slumping PC industry. Dell saw a drop in desktop shipments, while its laptop shipments were flat during the previous quarter.

Windows 7 will definitely impact the way hardware is designed, and Fujitsu hopes to engineer its hardware to implement the improved wireless communications, security and touch capabilities, said Paul Moore, senior director for mobile product marketing.

The company hopes to build improvements into laptops it sells to vertical markets and customers. Fujitsu has plenty of experience with tablet PCs and the company is definitely thinking about adding touchscreens, Moore said. He didn't provide a timeline on when the company may release touchscreen laptops.

Beyond multitouch screens, Windows 7 will also recognize new hardware and is designed to work better with multicore processors and storage products like solid-state drives, a Microsoft engineer wrote in a January blog entry. For example, it will transfer data to SSDs in larger data blocks, helping sustain high data throughput from storage drives.

With that in mind, companies like HP are working with Microsoft to bring Windows 7 capabilities to their hardware.

"We work very closely with Microsoft ... and being the single largest partner, Microsoft [is] also very dependent on HP, and so before they make any change to their software they work with HP extensively to ensure compatibility with all of our products," said Fred Bullock, vice president of marketing at Hewlett-Packard.

One example where Windows 7 could fit in is HP's TouchSmart PC, which may showcase the core functionality of Windows 7 capabilities, including touchscreen support, Bullock said. HP also plans to build its own touch-screen capabilities that will differentiate it from Microsoft's touch-screen applications.

Additionally, chip makers including Qualcomm and Nvidia have already gained certification to boost Windows 7 communications and video capabilities.

Qualcomm has said its Gobi2000 3G embedded chip will run with Windows 7, which is designed to let netbooks and laptops access multiple 3G networks incorporating HSPA (High-Speed Packet Access) or EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized). The chip supports improved data speeds. Nvidia also announced beta drivers for its Ion netbook platform that could bring full high-definition video to Windows 7.

The much-anticipated OS has garnered praise from beta testers, who have said it is zippier and less resource-hungry than the current Windows Vista OS. The OS has worked effectively on PCs ranging from gaming desktops to small laptops like netbooks, which are light on memory and processing speed.

But like all previous Windows releases, customers may be smart to wait in buying a new laptop till the initial kinks of Windows 7 are worked out, said David Milman, CEO of computer repair firm Rescuecom. Some customers may be impatient to upgrade as soon as possible from the failed Windows Vista, but he is recommending customers wait till the first service pack comes out, which could be in 2010, Milman said.

Lawmakers want broadband requirements on phone fund

The U.S. Congress should require telecommunications carriers receiving subsidies from a huge government fund intended to deliver telephone service to rural areas to also provide broadband service, two U.S. lawmakers said Thursday.

The $4.9 billion high-cost program in the Universal Service Fund (USF), intended to subsidize telephone service to rural and other hard-to-reach areas, should cover broadband service and needs to expand the services taxed to pay for the fund, said Representative Rick Boucher, a Virginia Democrat and chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet.

[ Related: "Obama includes broadband, smart grid in stimulus package" and "Does the U.S. need a new broadband policy?" | Your source for the latest in government IT news and issues: Subscribe to InfoWorld's Government IT newsletter. ]

Boucher and Representative Lee Terry, a Nebraska Republican, pushed unsuccessfully for USF reform legislation in the last Congress, and the two said they again will work for it this year. A proposal they've authored would require USF recipients to offer broadband service to all customers and would also cap the high-cost fund.

"Broadband is to communities today what electricity and basic telephone service were 100 years ago," Boucher said at a subcommittee hearing. "It is the new essential infrastructure for the commercial success of all communities."

Witnesses at the hearing from the telecom industry said broadband should be eligible for USF money, even though a huge economic stimulus packaged, passed by Congress in mid-February, includes $7.2 billion for broadband deployment grants and loans. It would cost Qwest Communications International, which provides voice and broadband services in 14 western states, about $3 billion to expand broadband from the current 86 percent of customers to 95 percent of customers, said Steve Davis, Qwest's senior vice president for public policy and government relations.

"In the absence of additional government assistance, the necessary upgrades to expand our footprint are not economically feasible in many rural areas," Davis said. "The grants for broadband deployment established in the stimulus [bill] are a start. They're not sufficient to result in ubiquitous deployment of high-speed broadband."

While many witnesses supported adding broadband as an optional service funded by USF, some questioned whether Congress should require carriers receiving USF money to provide broadband, saying in some rural areas, the cost of providing broadband may exceed any USF benefits.

It would take Embarq, a carrier based in Overland Park, Kan., about $2 billion to provide broadband to all its customers, said Tom Gerke, the company's CEO. "What we're going to get from stimulus, depending on how that works ... and what we can continue under USF would not come close to fulfilling that," he said.

Some subcommittee Republicans suggested lawmakers should first see how much broadband the stimulus package buys before converting USF to broadband. Representative Cliff Stearns, a Florida Republican, suggested the program, which has tripled in cost in 10 years, should be cut instead of redirected.

"Now, nearly the entire country has access to phone service," he said. "There is a need to reform the program away from subsidies, in our opinion, that may no longer be necessary as technology and services improve and become more and more widespread. Without fundamental reform, now is not the time to expand the fund to include just broadband."

Lawmakers have been complaining for years that the high-cost portion of USF, overseen by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, wastes money and needs to be overhauled. But Congress and the FCC have been unable to enact major reform of the program.

USF, with a total budget of about $7 billion a year, is funded with a tax of about 11 percent on long-distance and international phone service, but the tax base is drying up as U.S. phone customers are using less of those services through traditional phone lines and turning to mobile phones or VoIP service.

In addition, the program has little data to show the benefits gained from its spending, lawmakers complained.

Meanwhile, in some areas of the country, multiple telephone and mobile carriers receive USF subsidies, and some lawmakers on Thursday called for Congress to require that carriers bid on contracts to provide phone service to those areas. In areas of Hawaii, three carriers each get a subsidy of nearly $13,000 a line to provide voice service, said Representative Henry Waxman, a California Democrat and chairman of the full committee.

The three carriers could conceivably receive a total of $39,000 in subsidies for one house with a landline and two mobile lines, one from each carrier, Waxman said.

"Is this really the best use of public dollars?" Waxman said.

But other lawmakers and carrier representatives argued that USF is still needed, even if it is in need of major changes. "In this time, when electronic communications are at the very heart of the national economy, it is perhaps more essential than ever before that all Americans remain connected," Boucher said.

FBI raids former office of Obama CIO appointee

The FBI has raided the office of the Washington, D.C., CTO and arrested two men there, the FBI said.

The CTO's job was until recently held by Vivek Kundra, appointed last week by U.S. President Barack Obama to be CIO for the U.S. government. A White House spokesman didn't immediately respond to an e-mail asking for comment on the raid. A number of news reports have cited unnamed sources saying that Kundra is not a target of the FBI investigation that prompted the raid.

[ Related: Meet the nation's first CIO | Here are 10 IT agenda items for Kundra | Check out Kundra's 2008 InfoWorld CTO 25 profile. ]

Arrested in connection with the raid were Yusuf Acar, reportedly an information security and contracting officer in the CTO's office, and Sushil Bansal, CEO of Advanced Integrated Technologies, a Washington-based tech services and outsourcing firm.

The CTO's office has used Advanced Integrated Technologies for several projects, including an IT security support contract announced in May 2008 and the installation of more than 20,000 McAfee software packages, announced in August 2008, according to information on the company's Web site.

Those contracts were awarded when Kundra was CTO.

The raid is part of an ongoing investigation, an FBI spokeswoman said. Early press reports said the two men were arrested on bribery charges, but the FBI spokeswoman said the charges are under seal and not yet public.

The Association of Indians in America's Washington chapter selected Bansal for its Entrepreneur of the Year Award last August.

A spokeswoman for Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty wasn't immediately available for comment.

Amazon Web Services adds option to reserve capacity on cloud

Amazon Web Services began Thursday giving customers in the U.S. the ability to reserve capacity in advance on its Elastic Compute Cloud infrastructure for the first time .

The new pricing, called Reserved Instance, is an additional pricing model to the company's pay-as-you-go pricing, said AWS spokeswoman Kay Kinton. Like its current pricing model, customers will still only pay for the compute capacity they consume, she said.

[ Keep up on the latest tech news headlines at InfoWorld News, or subscribe to the Today's Headlines newsletter. ]

Under the new pricing, customers pay once to reserve capacity on EC2 in either one-year or three-year terms. If they find they will need more usage than has already been reserved and paid for, they can also add more capacity via the on-demand model and pay for that as needed.

Reserving computing capacity is a good option for customers who have predictable computing needs and plan for that usage in their IT budgets ahead of time, Kinton said. AWS added the pricing model at the request of some larger customers who told them that reserving capacity "more closely aligns with how they budget for IT," she said.

For companies that can use reserved-capacity pricing, it actually reduces their IT costs, she said. For instance, AWS charges $.10 per hour for what it calls a "small" On-Demand Instance on EC2. A comparable IT deployment using a one-year Reserved Instance pricing costs $325, while a three-year costs $500. That reserved pricing works out to be $.03 per hour, according to an AWS pricing chart.

More information and a pricing chart for AWS' EC2 service can be found online.

The new pricing is currently only available in the U.S., but AWS expects to offer it to European customers soon, Kinton said. AWS began offering its EC2 service to Europe in December.

Apple plans iPhone 3.0 preview next week

Apple announced Thursday that it will preview a new version of its iPhone software on Tuesday, March 17.

"Get an advance preview of what we're building," read an e-mailed invitation to reporters early Thursday. "Join us at an invitation-only event to learn about the new SDK and get a sneak peek at the iPhone OS 3.0 software."

[ Special report: IT's guide to the iPhone. ]

The event, which will be held on Apple's Cupertino, Calif. campus, is slated to kick off at 10 a.m. PT.

Although there have been rumors that Apple will launch a new iPhone this summer, perhaps at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), little has leaked about an operating system upgrade or the SDK (software developers kit) necessary to support new features it might have. This year's WWDC has not yet been officially scheduled, but it has been held during the first half of June the past two years.

Recent reports pegged WWDC as running from June 6-12, with the keynote -- where CEO Steve Jobs has traditionally trotted out major new products -- likely on June 8.

Apple last updated the iPhone software in November 2008 when it pushed the operating system to Version 2.2 as it patched a dozen security vulnerabilities and added several new features, including Google Street Views to the Smartphone's mapping application.

Prior to that, July 2008's iPhone 2.0 was the last major upgrade. That edition, which coincided with the launch of the new iPhone 3G, added access to the online App Store, let users install third-party applications, and provided synchronization to either corporate servers or Apple's revamped online service, MobileMe.

Computerworld is an InfoWorld affiliate

Friday, March 13, 2009

IT News HeadLines (InfoWorld) 13/03/2009

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